PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Jay_ombie]

As far as I know you no longer die, nor do zombies.

We used to have that ... and people complained.  

Personally, I'd take killing my stupid self from falling (yes, more than once ... I'm not the most coordinated person in the world) if it meant that zombies would die again from fall damage.

But, I'm sure other people don't feel that way.

Zombies dont take fall damage ?, thats a little poo poo as the most elaborate and constructive genius type bases with the now fabulous Junk Turret would surely benefit from this ?????

 

[Xtrakicking]

Sorry I mis-typed I meant, cant please everyone... not anyone. Some people are just never happy is my point.

Sorry! That was my mistake. I meant everyone. I tried editing it, but it was too late

But the creator has to do what they feel is right for their project. 

Yeah, but I would argue not at the cost of ruining the world they've already constructed. This is the worst case scenario, obviously, but it can still happen. I'm kind of stressed with what exactly the new special zombies will be like for this reason, to be honest. Let's just hope it's good.

And yes, not everyone will be happy, but that doesn't mean that what they add should be out of place. 

 

[Phoenixshade35]

What im waiting for is to be able to string multiple generators to the same grid instead of wiring everything seperate.  Or i would love a poi with a massive generator that could be repaired and used, could be an interesting mechanic.  either way im still having fun

 

[Dethar]

Zombies dont take fall damage ?, thats a little poo poo as the most elaborate and constructive genius type bases with the now fabulous Junk Turret would surely benefit from this ?????

They do take damage. They have to fall at least 25 blocks and take 33% health damage. My numbers might not be exact, but somewhere around there. There are couple Youtubers that have videos on this.

 

[madmole]

Well waiting for stable lol. Day 12 , winter biome, heading to trader and ran into Dire wolf. Started running ...... right into cougar. What happened next is not fit for the internet lol. 1st time ived died in ages, not sure if early A18 or A17. 

Thanks to no more stun locked aggressive animals Well and we buffed their HP a bit.

I feel like im getting scolded here for thinking of a solution to someones problem?

A certain amount in an area is fine, land claim sized should be big enough to make it fine, even with 4 corners overlapping and players trying their best to create lag its probably not going to be a big deal. Tie the vanity items to the player who placed it, if their land claim goes then their vanity item goes. I wasnt forgetting multiplayer, i had that in mind specifically, land claim zones should be big enough so that clusters wont be a problem, and thats really stretching to create a problem here.

'at this point' i never said they are adding them now and this is how they have to add them, its 'if they want to add them then this could be a solution', its not a problem so long as they NEVER intend to add them. fine, idc, but if they do, and it is a problem, then heres a solution! not sure why anyone feels the need to say the problem doesnt exist, its utterly pointless to say, its a possible problem to overcome at some potential point in the future, if not having a solution is why they dont bother then coming up with one might be a good idea.

At no point should a survivor have coffee pot manufacturer on his resume. Even a skilled carpenter can only go so far with crooked planks, a hand saw, etc. Just because it is a crafting game, doesn't mean players should be able to craft everything, especially things which serve no purpose in tower defense. I do think it would be cool if you could collect these items but because of all the restraints there has to be it should be a mod and not something we add. Even if you were only allowed 1 per chunk or claim it feels like a half finished feature. Why limit me? It is an endless rabbit hole of bugs, feature requests and problems that gains nothing a mod cannot do better  if we open that can of worms.

 

 

[madmole]

Can I just say that Zombies can do whatever TFP want. Check out many zombie films and many of them mix it up, so why can't TFP?

I watched a film last week where the zombies talked to each other. Does that mean they aren't zombies? No. It just means that the film creator wanted to do something different. 

Alpha 16 zombies just ran in circles and the game was so easy it became boring. Shooting down on zombies that where easily manipulated wasn't fun. I like the new challenge and I've had the game for 6 years and don't miss any of the old alphas. The game today is far superior to any previous alphas in my opinion. Buy hey, that's just my opinion.

Yeah we took away their ability to just fart around and survive so they are mad. Or we fixed their favorite exploit. They game needs to be a constant struggle, with the player getting a few wins here and there, but struggle is what makes it feel worth while when you do survive.

@madmole Can confirm that player-crafted items have random stats.

There you go, spam crafting is back. Now before people complain about the tool stamina craft 3 or 4 and make sure you have a light one!

 

[Space4Ace]

Hi Madmole,

I heard about Rick being sick; hope he's doing alright.

If it's Shingles like someone mentionned, I feel for him because I had it around one eye a few years ago, and it was bad enough that it could have affected my eyesight permanently; but it was dealt with in time and I'm fine now. It was scary and painful for sure.

Hope to see you and Rick play with Lathan one evening... That would be fun!

I wish Rick the best and hope he gets better soon.

 

[madmole]

Good, I was worried for a moment there you'd actually made a 15k tri coffee pot. It reminded me Final Fantasy XIV's flowerpots that were more detailed than the characters.

It is actually 1295 tris. At the time this was almost as much as a zombie so it stuck out in my head as super high polygon lol. But a block has 2 to 12 triangles depending on it's usage so that gives you an idea how reckless it would be to allow players to have access to them.

Ahh, the good ol times when every night was horde night and the zombies would make giant holes in the ground trying to get to you.

Still possible with options! Set hordes to every night and increase block damage.

Okay complete noob here. How you do that ?

Also question about fall height in this game. Can I die from falling from a certain height or do I just keep breaking legs ?

I’ve never died by falling and we need that sense of danger when navigating high up on a POI and not just simply limb inconvenience as a consequence. 

You can definitely die. He has modded boots on.

I point all the people that don't like smart zombies to the 2007 film Ahh Zombies/Wasting Away. Not only because one guy ends up being a head and a hand in a bowling ball bag, but also because it too has zombies that are smart!

View attachment 13079

At the end of the day it is whatever we want it to be to make the game fun and challenging. Fiction is fiction and the possibilities are endless.

 

[jdifran]

Inside vs outside is a very vague concept in a voxel world made out of all kinds of odd shapes. Not easy to determine and not fast.

Is it expensive to check if all of the voxels directly above the target voxel are empty?  Seems like that would be a reasonable "am I outside" check.

 

[madmole]

Here's the thing. I'm not saying creators can't do whatever they want, I'm saying that they must have an understanding of their own product and genre, and build elements upon it that belong to the world they've constructed, otherwise it will collapse on itself. The consequences of adding elements to your creation that feel out of place, or feel like they belong to an entirely different world/genre, is that the consumers will be confused as to what exactly it is they're playing/watching/reading, and the experience will probably be overall less enjoyable. Let's take Twilight, as an example. Can you make it so the vampires in your novel sparkle in the sun? Of course you can. Will some people like that? Of course some will. Was it then positively received? Nope. Not at all. Because some of the decisions they took for their story just didn't work.

Tl;dr: Being able to do whatever you want doesn't mean everything you do will work.

That being said, this is just a general opinion. When it comes to zombies being able to dig, I've got no problem with that. It doesn't feel out of place, and it fixes issues like players hiding away from hordes inside a 2x1 hole in the ground.

Did some vampire purists dislike it? Yes. Did it stop the film from being a huge success? No. Would it have made more money had they stuck to traditional vampires burning up in the sun fanged vampires? No, I don't think it would have.

They wanted to portray a story where the vampires could pass off as teenagers, going to school (during the day) and to do that they had to throw out the traditional burn in the sun stuff. This allowed them to make a teen love story with drama, and create an interesting new vampire that the audience WANTED to learn about. Oh hmmm this guy is a daywalker, interesting... I wonder what else he can do. Sometimes you have to change the lore to make things interesting. Elder scrolls doesn't have a pure medieval fantasy theme, but it is close enough I'll take it. I don't care for morrowind or anything about it, the mushroom houses and bugs are stupid to me. But go to cyrodiil or Skyrim and it seems perfect to me.

Just like special infected zombies might be smarter, to help us create an interesting story for players to talk about, how they overcame special infected X and how they deal with SI Y and Z. We can rationalize the radiation kept the infection from rotting their brains as much since they might be more mutated obviously they got radiated.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

These quotes need to be permanently added to an FAQ. 

Regarding Gameplay Changes:

Yeah we took away their ability to just fart around and survive so they are mad. Or we fixed their favorite exploit. They game needs to be a constant struggle, with the player getting a few wins here and there, but struggle is what makes it feel worth while when you do survive.

Regarding Zombies/Enemies Behavior and Design: 

At the end of the day it is whatever we want it to be to make the game fun and challenging. Fiction is fiction and the possibilities are endless.

 

[beerfly]

Some people just really, really, really love stone!
Don't know who, though.

Don`t look at me like that.

*putting some gathered stones from current hiking trip on the ground and running away*

 

[Laz Man]

Sorry! That was my mistake. I meant everyone. I tried editing it, but it was too late

Yeah, but I would argue not at the cost of ruining the world they've already constructed. This is the worst case scenario, obviously, but it can still happen. I'm kind of stressed with what exactly the new special zombies will be like for this reason, to be honest. Let's just hope it's good.

And yes, not everyone will be happy, but that doesn't mean that what they add should be out of place. 

Lots of subjectivity there.  How much innovation/creativity is too little or too much?  Ultimately it is a business and sales figures for the game and number of concurrent players are some of the indicators they are using to determine if they are heading in the right direction.

 

[fragtzack]

My wife watching Twilight hundreds of times inspired in me disgust and despised for that story. 

Shame on you for dredging up memories!

 

[Toban]

Did some vampire purists dislike it? Yes. Did it stop the film from being a huge success? No. Would it have made more money had they stuck to traditional vampires burning up in the sun fanged vampires? No, I don't think it would have.

They wanted to portray a story where the vampires could pass off as teenagers, going to school (during the day) and to do that they had to throw out the traditional burn in the sun stuff. This allowed them to make a teen love story with drama, and create an interesting new vampire that the audience WANTED to learn about. Oh hmmm this guy is a daywalker, interesting... I wonder what else he can do. Sometimes you have to change the lore to make things interesting. Elder scrolls doesn't have a pure medieval fantasy theme, but it is close enough I'll take it. I don't care for morrowind or anything about it, the mushroom houses and bugs are stupid to me. But go to cyrodiil or Skyrim and it seems perfect to me.

Just like special infected zombies might be smarter, to help us create an interesting story for players to talk about, how they overcame special infected X and how they deal with SI Y and Z. We can rationalize the radiation kept the infection from rotting their brains as much since they might be more mutated obviously they got radiated.

I like the film Patient Zero. The zombies in that film are scary. I like the idea of having semi smart zombies, it makes you have to think more about, well... everything.

 

[Roland]

I’m kind of stressed with what exactly the new special zombies will be like for this reason, to be honest. Let's just hope it's good.

Well the new telemarketer zombie is coming along nicely. When it gets close to your base it will shout out offers to take surveys, change your billing plan, or update your insurance. There’s even a boss type that attempts to steal your identity by phishing for account numbers and directing you to fake websites. We even got voice actors with strong ethnic hard-to-understand accents for realism. 
 

The upside is that they seem to be the most satisfying kills ever experienced in the game....

 

[MajorMunchy]

Here's a good question that probably is answered:

why the hell can't we daisy chain battery banks. In a a19 b173 game, the battery banks can WIRE UP like a daisy chain, but one battery bank is maxed it wont pull power from the next one in line.. it seems like its there since we can wire it so, or am i doing something wrong? same for solar, it should all be daisy chain able, at least for the battery bank and solar panel. Solar panel @ 180 maxed out then it should pull from aux power if needed.. seems simple enough yes? when you have 30 turrets its messy making multiple things when it can be consolidated so easily

 

[Blake_]

Elder scrolls doesn't have a pure medieval fantasy theme, but it is close enough I'll take it. I don't care for morrowind or anything about it, the mushroom houses and bugs are stupid to me. But go to cyrodiil or Skyrim and it seems perfect to me.
 

Probably Off Topic :

Spoiler

Morrowind was good for the time. Having played Arena a bit, Daggerfall a bit, and all the rest to the fullest, I can say that Morrowind, objectively speaking is superior in content than Oblivion but so much less in technology that it hasn't aged well. Still, it is still superior in story and therefore sometimes in atmosphere if you LIKE to read, which we, as players should NOT.

Those who say Oblivion was better than Skyrim need a head check. Oblivion was an "emotional first", but nothing else. It was done in 6 months and therefore is full of repetitiveness and boredom. The only thing that is arguably superior in that title is the Shivering Isles DLC and the Dark Brotherhood questline. I hate it when companies call it a day without fleshing out the product to the extent of their vision. Fact that makes 7dtd the number 1 played on my steam list.

Just like special infected zombies might be smarter, to help us create an interesting story for players to talk about, how they overcame special infected X and how they deal with SI Y and Z. We can rationalize the radiation kept the infection from rotting their brains as much since they might be more mutated obviously they got radiated.

Designs are eventually good with the right mindset, and in fiction it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it with the 3 fs. Fine, Fun and Fast LOL.

Having stated all that, Rick said once that he would be very dissapointed if 7 days to die GOLD took 3 years to complete. Well, we certainly WOULDN'T, because in this case time would mean better fleshed out systems that will serve as a precedent for a faster 7dtd2 development roadmap. The only problem for a sequel is one of 3d models: quite a lot of them will have to be scrapped from title to title.

 

[Xtrakicking]

Lots of subjectivity there.  How much innovation/creativity is too little or too much?  Ultimately it is a business and sales figures for the game and number of concurrent players are some of the indicators they are using to determine if they are heading in the right direction.

I couldn't tell you. All I can tell you is that there is a point where certain additions can get out of hand.

Did some vampire purists dislike it? Yes. Did it stop the film from being a huge success? No. Would it have made more money had they stuck to traditional vampires burning up in the sun fanged vampires? No, I don't think it would have.

Just because something was successful doesn't mean it was good. Twilight is just an example of that. You can be successful AND good at the same time, why should you settle for Twilight's level of quality?

Just like special infected zombies might be smarter, to help us create an interesting story for players to talk about, how they overcame special infected X and how they deal with SI Y and Z. We can rationalize the radiation kept the infection from rotting their brains as much since they might be more mutated obviously they got radiated.

I'm just going to say that you can do whatever you want as long as you manage to settle your ideas of what you want the game to be. When the game was announced on kickstarter, it seemed like it was definitely leaning towards a classic zombie apocalypse game. Now I'm just concerned it's going to turn into a weird blend between that and Killing Floor 2.

We'll see, I guess.

 

[SnowDog1942]

Just because something was successful doesn't mean it was good. Twilight is just an example of that. You can be successful AND good at the same time, why should you settle for Twilight's level of quality?

This is just wrong.

Successful could be determined as a fact by aggregate sales and users/viewers   "Good" is a subjective individual interpretation.

Twilight is obviously "Good" to many people - and they made it successful.  Its just not good to you..... or me.

None of us individually can determine what is good and expect it to be gospel for everyone.   The most we can do is play a very tiny role in its success or failure.