PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Jost Amman]

A controversial statement.There are people who do not know about the existence of bags, and there are people who know about them, but never use them.I belong to the second group.It has always been easier for me to pump the mule at the beginning of the game and forget about the penalty for overloading.Even when playing with 25% experience, I did the same.Triple pockets are not available from the very beginning of the game and while I was trying to collect them all, I would have pumped the power for 5 and a mule many times already.Here the conversation is more about who prefers what style of play.Even if in some kind of survival I ignore the branch of power, I prefer to use steroids and use bags only if they are accidentally I find it.Bags are not convenient for me.

The point I was refuting was not about "play style". @Uncle Al was saying that there are currently no skills/perks that become totally redundant late game.

I was arguing that Pack Mule becomes totally redundant IF (and only IF) you choose to use all triple pocket mods in your gear. There's no implication about what's better, more efficient or smarter. It's just a simple statement about the effect of using full pocket mods vs. using the perk, which IMO proves that PM can become totally redundant (again) late game.

Pack mule still has some value as it allows you to use additional armour mods instead of having to use up a slot in each piece of gear with a pocket mod.

When you're late game, and have all Q6 armor, there's plenty of space for mods.

You may have a point only with Heavy Armor, but with lighter armor you don't need as many mods to compensate noise/stamina.

Well insulated allows you to wear a college jacket for a speed buff instead of a duster/puffer jacket in inhospitable climates.

That's your choice IF you choose speed, but that doesn't refute my point that Well Insulated can get totally redundant IF you choose the best clothing.

On top of that, you can also find enough space to put insulation mods in your gear.

But again, this is just an exercise in game logic... and it's frankly pointless.

We need to wait and see how they'll balance out the perk system vs. all the changes they're introducing into A21.

 

[mstdv inc]

The point I was refuting was not about "play style". @Uncle Al was saying that there are currently no skills/perks that become totally redundant late game.

I was arguing that Pack Mule becomes totally redundant IF (and only IF) you choose to use all triple pocket mods in your gear. There's no implication about what's better, more efficient or smarter. It's just a simple statement about the effect of using full pocket mods vs. using the perk, which IMO proves that PM can become totally redundant (again) late game.

It turns out I had difficulties with translation.I understood you.

 

[Javabean867]

 12 club magazines

     10 knife magazines

    10 bow magazines

OR

B) 12 club magazines

     9 knife magazines

     9 bow magazines

Probably C) 11 club, 10, 9.  From what @Roland has stated in his play throughs the difference is barely noticeable.  So you'll probably chalk it up to rng.  I believe they are looking into making it a little more noticeable though.

 

[Roland]

searching every mailbox you see

You ain't kidding and I largely ignored those from A6-A20. Now, when I see a house I run to it intending to hit the mailbox first thing with a smile of anticipation on my face. That smile changes to a scowl if it turns out to be one of those sucky houses without a mailbox...

Oh, A21 mailboxes! How beautiful your profiles are as I look down a yet to be explored street and see you there in a line, your little red flags bidding me to come and read your contents!

 

[Roland]

It would be nice to get an official comment on how the weighting works, if somebody in the know has the time.

These sorts of details are best left to discovering when it is released to experimental as it is still in a state of flux. The weighting feels different now than it did when I first described it and it will probably change again before you get it. The general idea is that you won't be stuck unable to find what you've perked into and thus feeling like it was a waste of points to perk into what you did. It also means you don't have to wait to spend points until you've amassed a bunch of magazines to see which you have the most of and then do that. But as for the exact formula, you will have to wait until you taste the secret sauce before you get its recipe.

 

[Laran Mithras]

With the upcoming water changes, making water more scarce and murky water so valuable...

Will there be any changes to the recipe for paint? Or will paint become the new ultra-luxury no one would want to afford?

 

[Melange]

With the upcoming water changes, making water more scarce and murky water so valuable...

Will there be any changes to the recipe for paint? Or will paint become the new ultra-luxury no one would want to afford?

Good question. As it is now, we can remove the dyes from scavenged clothing and then scrap it to get 15 paint per unit of dye. I hope that doesn't change. But using the precious murky water to make paint does seem like its going to be a difficult choice. I could see the paint recipe needing a bottle of oil instead of water...I seem to gather a lot of oil and rarely use it.

 

[unholyjoe]

recipe is still as it was/is. (currently)!

i prefer the choice to be in your face... "do you want to paint or do you want or need to drink that one and only jar of water?"

but anything can change at any point.

as for the question of choice... i prefer to survive and that painted wall will not fill my belly.

 

[Uncle Al]

These sorts of details are best left to discovering when it is released to experimental as it is still in a state of flux. The weighting feels different now than it did when I first described it and it will probably change again before you get it. The general idea is that you won't be stuck unable to find what you've perked into and thus feeling like it was a waste of points to perk into what you did. It also means you don't have to wait to spend points until you've amassed a bunch of magazines to see which you have the most of and then do that. But as for the exact formula, you will have to wait until you taste the secret sauce before you get its recipe.

I see what you're saying, and to clarify: I wasn't looking for the exact formula, just the concept.

Basically 'does a perked character loot slightly fewer magazines, on average, of the things they're not perked into, or do they loot the same average haul of their unperked subjects while also picking up a few extra magazines of the things they are perked into?'

The repeated concern that some folks keep throwing out is that the new system will negatively impact co-op games if there are stay home characters on the team, and/or the team uses dedicated looters. If the weighting is a straight bonus that's not a concern. If it's a shift in weighting but doesn't add any more magazines for the same quantity of looting, it potentially is.

As you rightly say, if the weighting impact isn't drastic, then even the 'reduce the things you don't have perks for' approach isn't the co-op play apocalypse that some Steam posters assume, but those concerns can't be dismissed out of hand. If the perk weighting is a straight up bonus, they can.

 

[danielspoa]

talking about water, is there a possibility to show us a bit of it? for an example if there's an animation of it flowing to a neighbor block, or an interaction like dropping water / getting it into a bucket

thanks 

 

[Roland]

I see what you're saying, and to clarify: I wasn't looking for the exact formula, just the concept.

Basically 'does a perked character loot slightly fewer magazines, on average, of the things they're not perked into, or do they loot the same average haul of their unperked subjects while also picking up a few extra magazines of the things they are perked into?'

The repeated concern that some folks keep throwing out is that the new system will negatively impact co-op games if there are stay home characters on the team, and/or the team uses dedicated looters. If the weighting is a straight bonus that's not a concern. If it's a shift in weighting but doesn't add any more magazines for the same quantity of looting, it potentially is.

As you rightly say, if the weighting impact isn't drastic, then even the 'reduce the things you don't have perks for' approach isn't the co-op play apocalypse that some Steam posters assume, but those concerns can't be dismissed out of hand. If the perk weighting is a straight up bonus, they can.

It's imperceptible to me. In my last run by day 13 I had found and read more spear magazines than I had archery magazines even though I was perked into bows. Was it annoying that I could craft a better spear than bow? A bit but the key is that I was still progressing in bows and never could point to a period of time where I just could not find ANY archery magazines. I definitely didn't feel like I was getting less of everything else. 

 

[RipClaw]

It's imperceptible to me. In my last run by day 13 I had found and read more spear magazines than I had archery magazines even though I was perked into bows. Was it annoying that I could craft a better spear than bow? A bit but the key is that I was still progressing in bows and never could point to a period of time where I just could not find ANY archery magazines. I definitely didn't feel like I was getting less of everything else. 

How many magazines do you find per day, roughly?

 

[unholyjoe]

How many magazines do you find per day, roughly?

that of course depends on how much exploring and looting a player does. everyone has their own style and speed.

i have had days where is have read more than 20 mags and there has been days when maybe less than a doz.

my normal play style is nomad where i dont waste time with building and such just looting and moving about.. but i have been messing with some base type testings so i am not looting as much that way.

but bottom line i would say you get out of it what you put into it. (if you dont @%$# off RNG)

 

[Roland]

How many magazines do you find per day, roughly?

If you are exploring a lot of POI's then as Dr Pepper Smurf said 20 - 30 easily. In my current world there is a city with two Crack-a-books right across the street from each other. That day was epic. But then if you are mixing in mining, and building in with scavenging and then prep day for blood moon and repair day after blood moon and then you will be finding and reading fewer.

 

[Diragor]

talking about water, is there a possibility to show us a bit of it? for an example if there's an animation of it flowing to a neighbor block, or an interaction like dropping water / getting it into a bucket

thanks 

I would absolutely Love to see something water related @faatal can you show it to us

 

[RipClaw]

If you are exploring a lot of POI's then as Dr Pepper Smurf said 20 - 30 easily. In my current world there is a city with two Crack-a-books right across the street from each other. That day was epic. But then if you are mixing in mining, and building in with scavenging and then prep day for blood moon and repair day after blood moon and then you will be finding and reading fewer.

Thanks for the information. I was just curious to roughly estimate how I should best manage my time so that my progress roughly matches the progress in A20.

 

[Marshin4512]

Will more lore be revealed in the later updates? I've figured a bit but I'm not sure about it and would love to learn more especially about the duke or Noah.

I'll put my theory here:

Spoiler

My theory was that the zombie apocalypse happened since a nuclear explosion happened. How I know this? Because I saw it on a newspaper in the game. At the edge of the map there is a nuclear fallout zone which is full of radiation which kills you. Also there is a wasteland which I assume the radiation died out since it is a wasteland but safe. It is home to massive hordes of zombies and has the largest amount of zombies in a biome in the game. There are also radiated zombies, police zombies, mutated zombies, demolishers and more. Since a lot of zombies are found there that means that the cause of the zombies is unusual radiation which turned humans into zombies. But now the radiation has died out and it is safe to go there. The nuclear fallout zone which has a lot of radiation that can kill you quick (reminder: Is at the edge of the map) is the parts where the radiation has spread and is impossible to go there. Also I did some research and apparently the game is set after a 3rd world war The area which you are in which I think is Arizona is one of the only places that is not affected by the radiation and is safe. In the note the mayor of white river settlement says that you barely made it here and when you came here you were almost dead so you possibly escaped from the radiation zone into a safe area but you almost died on the way and the mayor guy saved you.

 The Duke or Noah is apparently a unplanned boss fight. Apparently he controls an army of mutated soldiers. Noah also says that you have to pay him and that the gear he took from you was not enough. If he can control zombies maybe he is the one sending zombies to you on horde night since you aren't paying him? In Trader Jen's dialogue mentions that she/he has to pay protection payment to the duke. Is this because he controls the zombies and commands them not to attack the traders if the trader pays him. Also he is the mayor of white river settlement. The currency which is duke casino token has his face on it and has the word duke. Could he have something to do with the zombie outbreak?

My theory

 

[Games'n'Grumble]

Hello, @Roland! Do you have any information about traders in A21? How will they appear? For now traders can repeat themselves on large maps, but not all 5 traders can appear on small maps. Will there be a strict rule in A21 or the next versions that there will always be only 5 different traders in the world?

 

[Falcon197]

A modest request for A21:

Can the cm or dm console command be enhanced to permit the user to freely toggle or edit light blocks?

There's currently a helpful mod that alters one or two lines of code in the BlockLight .dll to enable this.  It would be extremely helpful having it as feature going forward.  Here's the code in question:

View attachment 25780

View attachment 25781

With every alpha or hotfix release, the mod breaks as the code changes.  The ability to edit lights during gameplay is helpful for creative base building activities, with placing functional lights in custom POIs that don't require power sources.  Thus having it be a vanilla feature would be super useful.

Thanks for all you do, devs. 

Reposting the above as I think it got lost in the earlier discussion.  Can any devs speak to the feasibility of having this change made to the base game code?

 

[Roland]

Hello, @Roland! Do you have any information about traders in A21? How will they appear? For now traders can repeat themselves on large maps, but not all 5 traders can appear on small maps. Will there be a strict rule in A21 or the next versions that there will always be only 5 different traders in the world?

I don't know about that. There have been some changes to traders that I can't share. Some of it factors into other things we've already discussed. But I can't promise that there are no clone traders in A21 guaranteed because I don't know. Sorry.

Reposting the above as I think it got lost in the earlier discussion.  Can any devs speak to the feasibility of having this change made to the base game code?

@schwanz9000 Is there anything you can say about this?