PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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@schwanz9000, @faatal: do you have any news about the drone? How is the next iteration of the drone AI coming along? Is the drone guy working on improving navigation, especially inside tight POI spaces? I'm asking because I read a lot of people are complaining about this on Steam. For example, every time the drone hits a wall it makes a noise, and if you're in a tight room it's very annoying to hear all that banging (some even think they're being attacked).

It would be a shame if the drone was shelved by most people just because of a few bugs/nuances.

 
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With regard to Bandits, can we lure the zeds to them so that they can do sme of the work and distract them us so that they can be head shot

 
schwanz9000 said:
YUP! One of these days, I really want to rework that so the progression is ALWAYS forward when crafting. I don't want to see a high Q2 being better than a low Q4. That's just demoralizing. What's the point of progression if it's not progressive, right!? I still want to have a little randomization, but I want the quality levels to stay within their lanes.
Looted items will stay random 100%.
 
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Probably you guys are already doing that but can you guys take a closer look at the loot tables of some objects? Cars in the wasteland for example give way too easy and often too good guns or tools away. I cant count anymore how many lvl 6 augers, m60 maschine guns or lvl 6 steel tools I found in them. My boys and me arent even using eye candys or any loot increase settings, after day 20ish. We agree on that the cars should definatly not give such good itmes so frequent.

Meanwhile there are also other loot containers that have just have... barely any loot and are barely anything worth like Army trucks, since alpha 20 the best thing I found there was canned food. I mean atleast a pistol could drop there or not? 

I already played for 400+ hours in alpha 20 so these are not assumptions from just a few games.

 
I'm sure 'actually useful POI names visible on the quest choice screen' is a feature that's in a backlog somewhere. It's occurred to me that the new crafting system makes it a lot more desirable.

As described the new crafting system makes where we loot a lot more important again, which is fantastic.  That also gives meaningful choices regarding doing quests, as some days the trader is offering a bunch of houses as quest targets and we want to loot gas stations and hardware stores or whatever.

Inevitably though I, and I'm sure others, are going to check what the trader has that matches what we're looking for (any gas station quests today?) and then go and do our own thing once any suitable quests are exhausted for the day.  Having to open every single quest dialogue to see what the target is, and then exit out of the dialogue, isn't a great user experience.

A quest list that showed "Working Stiff Tools, 1.4km South" "Higashi Tower 2.1km North" etc. would be a hell of a lot better experience.

I appreciate renaming the POIs to have user friendly names is an undertaking, but even displaying their current names directly in the quest list would be a start.

 
vergilsparda said:
Also, where are you on the amount of new shapes vs the shapes in A20? Last I saw it was like... I think 50-100 new shapes, I think, or did I pull that out of my butt?
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maxousara said:
How many  New shapes are preview for a21 approximately ??
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Closing in on 350 new shapes...so far. Most of those being the new windows and various roof/ceiling angle to angle transition shapes and trims.

 
Blake_ said:
*snip* shape requests
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Unless it is something missing like @POCKET951's post, I'm not exactly taking shape requests, however, if you wanted to start a new post somewhere that has reference photos of what you're talking about, I'd at least take a look and consider it.
No statues. We'll leave that to the art guys to decide if they want/need to add those as art props. Shapes are basic geometry...mostly.

 
Uncle Al said:
One I've been pining for is a full thickness 1 block arch - would allow opening out the 1 block circles neatly.

Oh 1 block circles with built in ladders would be lovely.  It's a pain that the moment that you need a 3x3 tube to build an enclosed ladder.  Would want a full circle and half circle with ladder so you can create spaces to get off the ladder.
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Not enough room for the ladder AND the player. I tried it early on in the shape menu design. The Cube Sewer Barrel shape that is currently in A20 is as close to 1m as I could get.

image.png

Jost Amman said:
@schwanz9000, @faatal: do you have any news about the drone? How is the next iteration of the drone AI coming along? Is the drone guy working on improving navigation, especially inside tight POI spaces? I'm asking because I read a lot of people are complaining about this on Steam. For example, every time the drone hits a wall it makes a noise, and if you're in a tight room it's very annoying to hear all that banging (some even think they're being attacked).

It would be a shame if the drone was shelved by most people just because of a few bugs/nuances.
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There are several fixes for the Drone in A20.6 Exp.
I too would like to see a change to the drone's collision sound. 

 
schwanz9000 said:
Not enough room for the ladder AND the player. I tried it early on in the shape menu design. The Cube Sewer Barrel shape that is currently in A20 is as close to 1m as I could get.

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Thanks so much for playing around with the idea, really appreciate you trying.

I was thinking possibly having the 'rungs' as grooves cut into the wall of the pipe, so you wouldn't need as much space for the 'ladder'.  As long as it functions like a pipe with a ladder it would be useful.  Certainly a player can drop down the existing blocks, you just can't climb up them.

 
schwanz9000 said:
Those look like standard ramps, correct? If so, you want something like this? Probably wouldn't hurt to have them for wedge60 too. 

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Looks about right, I think it needs to be a half block though and not a full one because I think the block you showed would stick out like a sore thumb on top if it was a wedge 60 based roof. 

so if a wedge 60 based version of the rooftop piece you showed existed that would be nice

The pink block I referenced in my post was Cube 1/2 gable inverted quarter for reference 

Edit @schwanz9000 also YES EXACTLY LIKE THAT but(but for wedge/slope 60's as well please

 
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Small request. Could the 'dropped loot' bag for arrows and bolts be a different colour than brown, so when zombies despawn we can tell they are our ammo.
And, could the despawn timer for the dropped loot bags be longer than 60 secs, 180 would be nice so there's less panic when trying to quickly organise inventory before they despawn (I mean the sack and not the loot container bag)

 
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Jost Amman said:
For example, every time the drone hits a wall it makes a noise, and if you're in a tight room it's very annoying to hear all that banging (some even think they're being attacked).
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The drone bonking into something sounds too much like a zombie has spawned nearby and is about to confront me. Psyche! If the drone's gotta have a collision sound effect, how about something that sounds a bit more metallic in nature? And why should I even need to know that the drone has run into something? Its not like I have any control over its pathing. That eager-to-assist assistant is problematic enough as it is. My vote is to eliminate that sound effect altogether. Serves no purpose in my opinion, other than to scare the poop outta me...like standing on a fallen roof tile in a Crack a Book POI (but that tile crunch, I get it).  🤖

 
schwanz9000 said:
Unless it is something missing like @POCKET951's post, I'm not exactly taking shape requests, however, if you wanted to start a new post somewhere that has reference photos of what you're talking about, I'd at least take a look and consider it.
No statues. We'll leave that to the art guys to decide if they want/need to add those as art props. Shapes are basic geometry...mostly.
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Thank you for reading ! 

You already have a lot on your hands and I honestly intended them as "missing" awesomeness from their respective trim and fence areas. Now, you read it. You can't unread those shapes, lol. I personally like when you implement non-euclidean ones like the clock, even though some are a pain to balance.

350 new shapes is like 30% more shapes than we already have, that's a huge deal for builders, again, thank you! 

 
in A21, will there be more weapon specific mods?
- The clubs have 3 specific to them
- The bows have 2, crossbows 1
- The stun baton has 1

- Knives and machete has none
- Sledgehammers have none
- Spears have none

I can think of a mod for the spear, allows auto pickup within 2m (takes 1 second after throwing to activate to prevent instant pickup)

 
FranticDan said:
in A21, will there be more weapon specific mods?
- The clubs have 3 specific to them
- The bows have 2, crossbows 1
- The stun baton has 1

- Knives and machete has none
- Sledgehammers have none
- Spears have none

I can think of a mod for the spear, allows auto pickup within 2m (takes 1 second after throwing to activate to prevent instant pickup)
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Never thought of that. Boomerang mod for the spear, eh? I like that.

I'd like to mix and match and perhaps stack melee mods. Spikes on a sledge hammer. Barbed wire and chain mod on a club. Would use up the growing inventory in the 'Melee Mods' box. Or just sell the excess to the Trader like I usually do.  

 
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