PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

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faatal said:
Could be chunks not loading/generating fast enough. Could be the Unity decides to make a semi functional collider issue, which requires a regen of collider and we don't know until the vehicle is trying to drive over it.

SP or MP?
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For me it's happened in SP on both 10k and 8k maps in A20. Happened in A19 as well.

faatal said:
Different issue. Collision mesh baking thread is new. AFAIK teleporting is fixed. What appears to be happening now is vehicles being thrown by physics due to some delayed or broken mesh colliders. I already tried to fix it and abuse it, but you think it is fixed and a tester turns around and says it happened, but then I can't repro.
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It happened to me yesterday but I'm not 100% on which build it occured on. I will comment if it happens again. The last time it happened it moved about 200 blocks or so and was buried under the top layer.  I'm assuming there was a minor height difference between where I left the bike and where it ended up.

 
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@faatal, would it be possible to allow players in the video options to preload as many chunks as they want and unload just the changed blocks from memory? 

And about that, I noticed that destroyed player-built structures can still show in the world and neither restarting the game nor restarting steam nor windows fixes the issue, so it actually stays written in the disk virtually forever.

 
MechanicalLens said:
(...) A good mainstream game should have every mechanic be easily accessible and easy to understand at the snap of a finger. It's a major problem, if you follow the subreddit - new players being puzzled with the mechanics of the forge (or "smelter") happens a lot more than you'd might think.

Regardless of what we want, the best possible system imho is for the forge, campfire, chem station, and cement mixer to be deleted and for the workbench to be the end-all-be-all, and for it to be simplified as well - no schematic, and only crafted with wood, glue, and short iron pipes. Additional pointers and hover over text would be beneficial as well.

Or at the very least, forgetting all that is above, a tutorial map that the game defaults to when creating a world.
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I couldn't disagree more. I think it's also reasonable to assume that you can't please every new player but that this is ultimately a game to discover and experiment with. Many very popular games have this same niche where the whole purpose of the game is the adventure of "figuring things out", not getting them done. This one is no different. Unlocking crafting stations is a staple of the crafting genre and you'd just erase all that and have one easy-to-craft workbench that does it all ? Why even bother at that point, make it an inventory only game while you're at it.

Just like many old timers I may have some difficulty accepting change sometimes, because the human learns to like what he's used to. But I can understand why certain mechanics and systems have to evolve, change, get revamped because they're obsolete in their current form based on all the surrounding mechanisms having changed. If we can come up with something more logical but also something more rich gameplay wise, I'm all for it. But if the point is simply to dumb down and simplify for the heck of it, you might aswell just focus forces on something else. The issue has blown out of proportion on the forums, I don't think there's any major issue with the forge as it is, even though it could be better - but it always can.

 
Anyone else having an issue with sledge turrets falling through the blocks they are sitting to the ground?  Solid concrete pillars (all the way to the ground) and the next thing I know they are inside the blocks sitting on the ground.  really sucks on horde night when that happens.

 
Hey all, 

I am setting up my A20 dedicated server and I have a bunch of questions. Where is the appropriate place in the forums for me to ask them? 

Thank you @meganoth I have posted my questions here:





 
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Hello TFP ! I really enjoy the good work you've been doing for a few years now, and I have to admit that this is the first time I'm running the experimental version on this game. The new world generation, new POIs and cities are awesome. I especially like the editor part and the new assets, blocks and entities. As I spend a lot of time on the editor, let me point out a little thing that caught my attention :

- About new quest (restore power), I use the system to close a way out for the player once the generator is powered up, which forces to find another way to continue. But i noticed if i launch another quest (day quest) in my POI, same triggered door by generator (which is inactive at this moment) will still trigger. I think this should not happen if the generator is not involved during another quest. I checked the xml file but I didn't see anything about this. 🤔

Otherwise I noticed the new sleeper feature that allows to add a zombie by name, individually. This means that we can now add, for example, a Screamer in a dark corner of the attic. 😈

Anyway, congrats team !

 
I just wanted to pop in and say a20 has been a leap forward.  I was just riding through the desert, thinking how much better the terrain felt and how all the major features of this alpha just make it feel more like a complete game.  We all have complaints and things we'd like changed, but cities and map gen, keys to unlock completed POIs, the new art, all the remnants, etc. are all big improvements.   Thanks.

 
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The version is indeed very enjoyable. The pace is on point, and time management is a thing. We're day 9 and feel like we're really just getting started, it's amazing.

One thing I also noticed was that wood spikes do a TON of a damage if you walk through them, and that lighting yourself on fire is no biggie (I think I lost 3 hp over the course of the 5-6 seconds it took me to choke the fire out). Felt kinda weird to be honest, stubbing my toe and killing myself with ~35hp left while turning myself to a living candle and being fine.

this_is_fine.jpeg


 
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Gazz said:
Only if you don't put down a forge in the area you're looting.

The argument of having to have the right material smelted falls apart as soon as you build more forges. Whether you have materials idling in the forge or idling in the chest next to it makes no practical difference.
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I honestly don't understand your reply. Of course there is a difference between having materials in the forge or in a chest: you can't craft items (like shells) if the materials are in your chest.

If you put down a forge at the place you're looting, that forge will only have the materials that are smelted into it. So if you smelt down all the brass, you still have to get all of that brass out of the forge in order to take it to your "main" forge that has the other stuff you need (like clay). Sure you could do that, but it's a PITA, which is why I've never done it, or seen anyone else do it, ever.

If anything that is an argument for smelting. Without smelting, you can a forge down, and immediately turn brass items into raw brass. There's no gameplay there. You might as well get rid of forges and just craft everything in your backpack.

...BTW, I'm beating this dead horse only because you can influence the game development, and I really really hope smelting isn't removed from the game. If that's not on the roadmap then I'll drop it.

 
khzmusik said:
If you put down a forge at the place you're looting, that forge will only have the materials that are smelted into it. So if you smelt down all the brass, you still have to get all of that brass out of the forge in order to take it to your "main" forge that has the other stuff you need (like clay). Sure you could do that, but it's a PITA, which is why I've never done it, or seen anyone else do it, ever.
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I kind of done that before, though I didn't pop a forge out on the streets.  I would setup an outpost base in a city/town that was far from my starting location and just go back to it every night when I was looting POIs in that area.  I would smelt down the scrap I found and make crafting items (bullet tips, casings, forged iron/steel, arrowheads).

Though that was typically mid to late game when I finished up the surrounding areas and had to expand outward some more for materials.

 
faatal said:
Which is probably a server data issue. Deleting data locally won't fix it if the server turns around and sends you junk data again. All A19 worlds should to be deleted off the server because it is possible an A20 game could be started using an A19 world.
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Not for nothing, but this happened to me when A20e went to a new build - meaning, I was on a world generated in A20b214 and it happened when I updated to A20b238.

At least I think it's the same issue. Existing blocks suddenly appear as cubes with weird textures (in my case it's the "black marble" texture). Changing the block in any way - say, by damaging it slightly - fixes the issue.

It doesn't happen often and usually goes away once I exit the game and restart.

 
@madmolehey man, I thought you said in the previous alpha that we were supposed to start in the forest. so far I have a start in the wasteland and one in the snow biome... Did you change your mind? also. Dire wolves during the day on day 1? is that an intended change? this was snow biome.

 
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