PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[beerfly]

Sometimes a beer or two is involved when compiling said list...lol

I always push the people to their limits. 

Btw, pretty impressive base, if something happens with importing your from A18 to A19, you can always build a better version of it. 

 

[madmole]

@faatal Loving the more robust hit boxes and detection which was lacking in A18. The only thing missing is a small bloody decal on the zombie knowing you've visually hit mainly from guns. Could this make its way to A19?

Nope, that will require a whole new system. Pain animations and sounds aren't enough? I always know I hit a zombie or not.

 

[xfejiou5]

I keep bugging @faatal about it, he denies me over and over, like my wife.

Hehe. I dunno... I don't understand how more people aren't running into this issue.

There was some fixes for melee mentioned in release notes.

None related to the issue I'm having, though I would love to be corrected so that I don't have to skip another alpha!

 

[madmole]

Spoiler below about traders, from the patch notes.

Spoiler

It states in the release notes that the trader-to-trader quests will continue until the player "has unlocked all 5 traders". Does this mean that in A19, the number of traders in RWG has been reduced by half? Hmm...

5 isn't enough?

 

[Caelen Tigris]

...

From what I have seen the default view does not give numbers on the HUD. But give it a week or so and I am sure some modder will get it added.

Sad... I was really hoping to not use mods. Well, Devs, if you see this, I would like some numbers down there. I'm also curious why the bars were removed in the first place. Where can I find that information? I didn't play at all for the past couple years so I missed a lot ^^; I'm happy to say the game has come a long way since then, and I'm really enjoying it now.

Another question, will these bars be visible while driving? The toolbelt is hidden while driving right now, so I really hope the bars stay visible. Especially with vehicles actually causing extra food consumption.

 

[Laz Man]

Hehe. I dunno... I don't understand how more people aren't running into this issue.

None related to the issue I'm having, though I would love to be corrected so that I don't have to skip another alpha!

Did u watch any of the streams?  Melee looked good to me.  Maybe the new feed back animations will also help make it feel better for u.

 

[madmole]

Which means it will go away on its own below 5% and require medicine above 5%. That isn't inconsistent with what MM said.

It has been changed just a day or two ago. Infection does NOT go away on its own. It was too easy and antibiotic supplies were overflowing.

For A20 I want a game opition: Debuffs clear on death true/false. I had infection, a broken leg and fatigue yesterday and I was all excited to deal with it and was hobbling back to my base and got bull dozed by a wandering night horde, died, and then all my problems were gone including hunger. F that, I want to use every supply, food and med I have and barely survive to tell a story. I understand the need for death to restore you though, noobs etc, but this would be a hardcore option for people who've mastered the game and like a real challenge, and it would sort of simulate wellness.

Backpacks don't have a chance to disappear from game design. They have a chance to disappear from the elusive "my packpack is gone" bug, which is the addition logging the change notes are referring to (improved logging to show id, player id, removal reason and entity unload). We need to reword that change.

Not true, there is a 100% chance with the option Delete all on death.

 

[Laz Man]

I always push the people to their limits. 

Btw, pretty impressive base, if something happens with importing your from A18 to A19, you can always build a better version of it. 

I'll probably turn it into a remnant army base quest POI for people to download.  Might as well as turn all those hours spent into something that can be reused and enjoy.

Not planning on actually using it as a base as that would ruin the fun of a new start for me.  

 

[Jarod_Silverstar]

It has been changed just a day or two ago. Infection does NOT go away on its own. It was too easy and antibiotic supplies were overflowing.

For A20 I want a game opition: Debuffs clear on death true/false. I had infection, a broken leg and fatigue yesterday and I was all excited to deal with it and was hobbling back to my base and got bull dozed by a wandering night horde, died, and then all my problems were gone including hunger. F that, I want to use every supply, food and med I have and barely survive to tell a story. I understand the need for death to restore you though, noobs etc, but this would be a hardcore option for people who've mastered the game and like a real challenge, and it would sort of simulate wellness.

Why not up it with a third option to add some random debuff or two after death? That would be assuming you didn't already have something....

 

[madmole]

I hope that in A19 the lowest-tier and very forgettable foods have a 0% chance of dysentery (formerly food poisoning), to make them somewhat more attractive very early game. You know, like cornbread, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, boiled eggs. Unless you're incredibly new to the game, no one really makes these foods to my knowledge.

Edit: They also shouldn't be unlocked behind any schematics/Master Chef, since they give you so little in return in terms of benefits. (I'm looking at you, cornbread. Why do you have to be the odd one out?) By making them, the player is sacrificing precious early game ingredients, like potatoes, corn, and eggs, to cook these less-than-stellar foods, which I think is fair.

They can provide endless sustenance without effort so no they need to be locked behind something. They are also a key ingredient to some other power foods.

I've just spent my final moments in Alpha 18, resting on a large hill next to a lit campfire, my bedroll, and my junk turret and bicycle, filling my character up with various foods and drinks, watching the sunset and then... logging off for the final time. Fun Pimps, I once again feel the need to thank you for this incredible game. I have by far the most hours in this game compared to others - I have just reached 2,800 hours - and it has honestly changed my life. Alpha 19 couldn't come fast enough! Like the zombies, I hunger for more.

Awesome, I'm glad it has become your main hobby. So few games can do that these days, for me at least.

 

[Laz Man]

Good morning @madmole,

Any particular streamers you'll be watching today?

 

[madmole]

6 hours ago, Laz Man said:

Sometimes a beer or two is involved when compiling said list...lol

Yeah, had a good run with A18.  I don't play as much as others but I was able to play a perception/intelligence build in SP to around day 70 and an m60 build on a rented server with a small group of friends to like day 200+.  Only regret that I have is I didn't get to test out my airbase against a horde.  All is not loss though as I plan to port over my base into an A19 RWG world once it drops next week.

Pretty cool! Your only aesthetics were some barracks chairs though Next time I want to at least see a "break room" with some useless clutter like plants, painted walls, chairs/sofas and a decorative vaulted ceiling with some beams

 

[Damocles]

@faatal Loving the more robust hit boxes and detection which was lacking in A18. The only thing missing is a small bloody decal on the zombie knowing you've visually hit mainly from guns. Could this make its way to A19?

A hit-position blood-decal would be a rewarding feedback.

Its likely tricky to get the precise position on the model itsef.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Question @madmole

how are the other zombie models doing? like the nurse, Business man, stripper etc!

ALSO CAN'T WAIT FOR A19! 

Spoiler

 

[Blake_]

It has been changed just a day or two ago. Infection does NOT go away on its own. It was too easy and antibiotic supplies were overflowing.

For A20 I want a game opition: Debuffs clear on death true/false. I had infection, a broken leg and fatigue yesterday and I was all excited to deal with it and was hobbling back to my base and got bull dozed by a wandering night horde, died, and then all my problems were gone including hunger. F that, I want to use every supply, food and med I have and barely survive to tell a story. I understand the need for death to restore you though, noobs etc, but this would be a hardcore option for people who've mastered the game and like a real challenge, and it would sort of simulate wellness.

I agree. That option is awesome and, while not for everyone, I would be selecting it so hard everytime that I would punch a hole in the space time continuum.

For some kittens the lose of experience is enough though. Speaking of which, didn't we lose 25% of XP on death ? or was it 10% ? The screen info confuses me dearly.

 

[Laz Man]

Pretty cool! Your only aesthetics were some barracks chairs though Next time I want to at least see a "break room" with some useless clutter like plants, painted walls, chairs/sofas and a decorative vaulted ceiling with some beams

Yeah, that was the plan.  Just ran out of time.  Was even going to create a staging area with lockers and munitions crates. 

I have a quest POI in the works too which i bet will knock your socks off.  More to come in a week or so.

 

[madmole]

Here is the section from the patch notes:

There are 4 tech levels of items in the game. These start appearing in loot at the following Game-Stage intervals.

• Tech 0 (GS 1-11) – Primitive tools, weapons and armor including a bow and the blunderbuss.
  
• Tech 1 (GS 12) – Iron or similar melee items and armor and and the first proper firearms like a pistol or double barrel shotgun.
  
• Tech 2 (GS 50) – The best melee items, bows and armor and mid range firearms like a pump-action shotgun.
  
• Tech 3 (GS 91) – The most advanced firearms like an M60 or the Sniper Rifle.
  

So as I read it for the first 11 GS you will only find Tech 0 items, but starting at GS 12 you will have a chance to find Tech 1 gear. A chance. You will still be finding mostly Tech 0 stuff for a few more GS levels, but Tech 1 will slowly become more common. I would guess that by about 10 GS levels into the Tech Tier you will be finding mostly items of that tech.

The question for me is at what point do the lower Tech items get phased out if at all? When you get your GS to 100 or more will you still be finding Tech 0/1 items or would they have dropped completely from the loot tables?

Take a look at the patch notes under Dynamic Resolution

https://7daystodie.com/a19-official-release-notes/

That is probably the biggest change but there are also a lot of smaller things like improving the graphic images and skins to make them more resource friendly and less intensive for drawing.

I don't know for sure, I'd say level 30 ish but I could be wrong, I don't pay attention to my level and GS varies and I never/rarely look at that. At GS12, though you will still be seeing tons of primitive gear, but that stuff ramps up to high quality pretty fast.

 

[madmole]

Each time you are hit by a zombie there is a chance of getting infected. Before now, once you were infected, that was it, you were infected and needed to do something to cure it. Now, each zombie hit can give you a degree or % of total infection. So if each hit gives you a 2% infection, if you get hit twice you have 4% infection but it will heal on its own. However, I 3rd hit that brings the total infection above 5% now means that you need to treat it.

It is a nice way to add a buffer to infections early on in the game. My last game I got hit by a zombie on day 1 and was infected. It was 3 days before I found anything to treat it with and was nearly at 50% infected by then. If the airdrop had not provided several antibiotics, I probably would died from the infection in a couple more days. With this, it prevents a single unlucky hit in early game from changing your entire plan until you find something to treat it with.

There are tree stumps that give honey everywhere. Anyone who doesn't treat their infection deserves whatever happens. You just have to drop what you are doing and find a stump, but what I do is harvest every stump I see ahead of time and carry some with me. I can eat for food if I get desperate or overstocked.

So early game, melee now seems to be for the very brave or the very... erm...  Brave! That's it! 

I salute those who will grab a club and in a few days, leave me all their loot!  If you have a shovel in your backpack, I will bury you with honors!

I did a club/shotgun build and ONLY used shotgun in rare situations. That is just me though, Nomad was too easy so I turned it up to Warrior now and 24 alive. 32 alive lags for me and isn't worth it. However the chance to get a crit has been increased a lot since I did that build, so things might have changed. I got wrecked a couple times in my latest new game.

 

[Jarod_Silverstar]

There are tree stumps that give honey everywhere. Anyone who doesn't treat their infection deserves whatever happens. You just have to drop what you are doing and find a stump, but what I do is harvest every stump I see ahead of time and carry some with me. I can eat for food if I get desperate or overstocked.

Oh I was. But was having bad luck with the loot table. Probably a dozen stumps or more and no honey. I did find one on Day 3 or so, but I was already infected more than could be cured with one dose of honey. I will freely admit it added some real excitement and tension to the game for me so I am not complaining by any means.

 

[Gazz]

For A20 I want a game option: Debuffs clear on death true/false.

No technical problem in general. Just a bunch of design gotchas that need to be ironed out and some parts are currently hardcoded so... it'll take a bit. =P