PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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I used the blunderbuss for the first time in years and its great
Edit: nothing to see here!  Move along, move along now... just some poor homeless guy saying the world's gonna end... (  :doh: )

So is there any chance that we could have multiple Blunderbusses on the toolbar and rapidly switch between them, without an automatic reload?

 
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No I've been pushing for it for a long time. Its AMAZING. Traders still can provide higher tier stuff than you can find but you can't afford it since you aren't swimming in guns to sell. I'm loving it! I used the blunderbuss for the first time in years and its great. I mined nitrate and coal all night to make 35 rounds so I could clear a POI and save up 1600 for that rare crucible schematic that spawned on day 1 at the trader.
7 Days to Patience.

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Glad to hear about the "age tier" loot system...was cool when I would find some purple OP item in the first few days...but yeah...I could deal without that!

 
I've been thinking about this. Because the game can't remember slots for multiple spears as well and that is way more annoying when you throw them. Could you make two alt versions of the blunderbuss (and also the spears) That way we can make three spears and throw all three and they all would come back to the correct slot on the toolbelt. The game would read them as three separate items.

 
I'm a new player, just started here in a18 and host a dedicated server for myself and my friends. 

We are having a blast designing our base, learning about what works and what doesn't and trying new things each time. We play in a pretty vanilla setup with just a few tweaks in the xml files. After doing a little reading here I wanted to offer some feedback from a new player:

I'm happy to hear about phasing the loot. I feel like we've very quickly achieved the high tier loot (day 42 horde we had two level 5 m60s) and there's just not a lot more to look forward to in that regard. 

More in detail: I have to imagine balancing this part of the game is really hard, especially when you consider that progression is also tougher to balance when more players are added. We have a group of five, so that means a lot of specialization, as well as a lot of people out looting and that will naturally speed progression up. I think what I'd want is for weapon mods to also have tiers, but in order to "level up" your tier of mod creation you need to read multiple schematics. 

For instance, storage pockets already has this, but instead of having different schematics for one, two, and three pocket mods just have one and allow characters to use multiples. The first schematic opens up crafting one pocket, the third opens up two pockets, and the seventh opens up three pockets. This lets us be excited for finding these schematics multiple times.

Regarding cooking, it looks like you are adding new recipes that use canned goods. I like that a lot. I'm also a big fan of the idea that certain foods will give timed bonuses. Beyond that, your system is fine, and the balance is pretty good as is.

I like the sound of the other stuff you've mentioned. 

As a new to the game player just a few weeks ago I think you've done a really great job keeping new players in mind. I do think that you need to expand inward on progression, as the rate at which we progress is really solid, but the speed at which we hit the top is too fast and makes the game a little too easy beyond the first fifteen or so hours (but that first fifteen is gold).

 
No I've been pushing for it for a long time. Its AMAZING. Traders still can provide higher tier stuff than you can find but you can't afford it since you aren't swimming in guns to sell. I'm loving it! I used the blunderbuss for the first time in years and its great. I mined nitrate and coal all night to make 35 rounds so I could clear a POI and save up 1600 for that rare crucible schematic that spawned on day 1 at the trader.
Does that mean the blunderbuss gets to stay?  heh

Not that I really care, but the last build or 2 I used it a lot, and it is pretty fun.  Great for cheap ammo that can 1 shot, and the range is not really that bad.  It was really fun with run n gun and faster reload. 

Either way I am probably moving on to throwing spears though... at least for my first build when it hits experimental. 

 
I've been thinking about this. Because the game can't remember slots for multiple spears as well and that is way more annoying when you throw them. Could you make two alt versions of the blunderbuss (and also the spears) That way we can make three spears and throw all three and they all would come back to the correct slot on the toolbelt. The game would read them as three separate items.
Right that needs code to work, we don't have any code bandwidth, but we want to do this as a usability improvement, hopefully a20.

I'm a new player, just started here in a18 and host a dedicated server for myself and my friends. 

We are having a blast designing our base, learning about what works and what doesn't and trying new things each time. We play in a pretty vanilla setup with just a few tweaks in the xml files. After doing a little reading here I wanted to offer some feedback from a new player:

I'm happy to hear about phasing the loot. I feel like we've very quickly achieved the high tier loot (day 42 horde we had two level 5 m60s) and there's just not a lot more to look forward to in that regard. 

More in detail: I have to imagine balancing this part of the game is really hard, especially when you consider that progression is also tougher to balance when more players are added. We have a group of five, so that means a lot of specialization, as well as a lot of people out looting and that will naturally speed progression up. I think what I'd want is for weapon mods to also have tiers, but in order to "level up" your tier of mod creation you need to read multiple schematics. 

For instance, storage pockets already has this, but instead of having different schematics for one, two, and three pocket mods just have one and allow characters to use multiples. The first schematic opens up crafting one pocket, the third opens up two pockets, and the seventh opens up three pockets. This lets us be excited for finding these schematics multiple times.

Regarding cooking, it looks like you are adding new recipes that use canned goods. I like that a lot. I'm also a big fan of the idea that certain foods will give timed bonuses. Beyond that, your system is fine, and the balance is pretty good as is.

I like the sound of the other stuff you've mentioned. 

As a new to the game player just a few weeks ago I think you've done a really great job keeping new players in mind. I do think that you need to expand inward on progression, as the rate at which we progress is really solid, but the speed at which we hit the top is too fast and makes the game a little too easy beyond the first fifteen or so hours (but that first fifteen is gold).
Welcome and thanks. Yes we are rebalancing loot and the multi player game stage multipliers so you guys don't get demolishers on day 14 in groups, especially considering the new arsenal you will likely have on day 14 now.

 
"Returning" briefly for one message and one message only, being this one. Madmole, are you planning on releasing any A19 videos this time around, similar to what you did during the development of A18? 🙂 (I'll be avoiding them for a long while of course to avoid spoilers, but I'm curious nonetheless.)
And your plan to avoid watching his video is supposed to motivate him to record one? Lol

 
Well, I just don't think he will be like "Oh, sure I will go ahead and record a new exciting video for everyone to ignore..." :p I think it's more like "Madmole, please we want to watch some Alpha 19 gameplay" kind of thing that will probably do the trick much better. I mean, he still may not record one, but our chances would be probably slightly better that way. ;)

 
As a former fire lookout, I'm looking forward to being able to set up a base in my rightful tower once again. Keep it up, Devs! I'm curious as to how detailed /accurate you have decided to make them/if they're a randomly spawned entity in forests/above certain altitudes. If you include the Osborne Fire Finder in the center of the tower to be mined for extra Brass, oh, I'm going to be pretty impressed. I've enjoyed this game for a good 2.5k+ hours (despite the new forum account,) and have to say this Alpha is looking pretty enticing.

 
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a complete new loot overhaul with proper stone age, iron age and steel age leveled loot so I'm dying to test that out right now and looking forward to not being so OP early game or not find a purple steel pick on day 15 and ruining all looting from there forward.


Yes!!! On my last run I was basically messed up right off the bat with steel gear before I even hit the iron phase. Me and my friend both had full iron armor sets with even some partial steel and military armor, level 2-3 steel picks and shovels etc by day 4 or 5 max. I never even found the schematic to make steel tools until like day 30, and I was level 50+ when I found a crucible. But who needs a crucible when you can just find better gear than you can craft

I know it gets talked about to death, but I feel like the crafting vs questing ratio was off in A18 because of the way schematics work. I get *why* they had to exist, but I don't think they worked great for build diversity. They just instantly made it "wasted points" to spend points learning to make motorcycles, workbenches etc instead of just finding them. Worst case scenario, you'd just spec into the perks, craft the item, then buy an elixir and respec and get your "wasted points" back and put them into something else

I'm hopeful for crafting in A19, the loot ages thing sounds like a solid approach to making sure each game stage is distinctive and unique. Why ever use a primitive bow, when you can just find a hunting rifle day one instead?

Also, do Nightvision goggles even still exist? I haven't seen one drop since like A16 even with hundreds of hours in A17 and A18

 
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