PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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Some thoughts regarding the last zombie not spawning or missing...

It is common to see a red dot running around at the end that you can't find, but this isn't a bug. The zombie is there, but likely fell and is somewhere within the building or outside of it and vultures are notorious for flying around under ledges so they are hard to find.

The trick is to be careful not to shoot zombies off ledges without killing them or try to hit them when they land on the ground before they can run off.  And for vultures, try to kill them quickly and give them a route to you until you kill them so they won't fly away.  This can probably be improved, but isn't a bug.

However, I have seen at least one instance of a zombie spawn failing.  It was in the 6 floor apartment building.  The final spawn showed as a yellow dot and I went to this floor.  Right about where that yellow dot was, the floor had been shot through with a shotgun, so I know I had been there and hadn't missed the room.  This leads me to believe one of few things happened (only one example, so poor data points) - 1) that the zombie group did spawn originally, but at least one wasn't killed and when the spawn reset, the game failed to add a trigger point to respawn when you were there.  2) A different zombie group was reset and the game incorrectly marked the wrong location and if I were to walk through all of the zombie spawn locations, I might find the right one and get the respawn (untested). 3) The zombies at that location never spawned even the first time through, though that is unlikely considering the hole in the floor suggesting fighting happened there.

A couple notes on that game...  This was vanilla and MP not on a dedicated server. I went to the exact spot where the dot was, not just on the compass but showing right in front of my character.  It was definitely on that floor where I was standing.  In all my games, this was the only time I can remember where I couldn't find the last zombie when there was a yellow dot indicating the location.

This issue is certainly rare and hard to reproduce.  The issue with quests that is far more common is when a start arrow disappears when you get close to it in MP. Others who had the quest shared to them can see it, but of course not activate it, but the original quest holder can't see it or click on it.  I have heard you can exit the game and reload and it will work, but that is not something that is worth doing most of the time. Easier just to cancel and go get a new quest.  But I would like to see that bug fixed as it is also annoying.

 
For me, the biggest trigger for buggy quests is when you and one of your friends are holding a quest for the same building, that seems to get missing quest starters or unable to activate the quest. Another is if you grab quests from multiple traders that are very close to each other and you are holding two quests for the same building. Other than that I haven't run into missing zombie so I've been lucky there.

 
The final spawn showed as a yellow dot and I went to this floor.  Right about where that yellow dot was, the floor had been shot through with a shotgun, so I know I had been there and hadn't missed the room.
I wonder if the sleeper block was placed on that missing floor block, and the game wouldn't allow it to spawn as it deemed it in the air?

 
I used KillAll because I suspected that the zombie had spawned but was inside some blocks.

I used god mode to check under the map.

I am sure I did not miss a room.
Another thing that can happen is that a Z can fall off the larger pois, attempt to repath, timeout, and then take a while to respawn at their original location needing to be triggered all over again. 

Also, vultures can similarly get lost if they lost sight of you for long enough.

Either wait for it or set the time forward an hour before you go looking for them in god mode. 

 
Okay, I saw, and read about water rework, but now, important question - fishing WHEN? Please FunPimps, gimme FISH!
Fishing could actually be fun with a single good enough animation  and the player getting deadly zombie fish out of the water most of the time (that only give say 1 rotten meat when killed) but sometimes we could pull out things like a can of dog food, a duke,  a piece of wood, one stone, iron, a gold nugget, etc. That would be a very engaging minigame that I would definitely try out !. And also, the player would be in big trouble if he/she is approached by a crowd of bandits, Zds or predators while fishing .... love the idea.

Edit: Given that the full world is radiated, I wouldn't expect viable food from the water, but all of the above could be tons of fun. @Roland , do you know if there have been any talks about this for a21 or any other point in the future?

 
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Does the Craters, Cracks feature in random generating worlds have POI's that spawn with them and or paths within their surroundings?


I recently added some Cracks (Canyons) stamps to my modlet. They're not associated with POIs in any way. I'm not sure what terrain features ultimately allow for POI placement, but POIs did place near them and paths/roads did take advantage of favorable terrain. That is, I did not see paths going over cliffs, but when there was a viable path through rough terrain a path did use it.

 
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i think allowing poi placement on mountains and craters would be good however im not sure if that is allowed as of right now due to the mountains being very rough. the only way i can think of this being possible is some change in the rwg code that allows some sort of smoothening when there is a possible location to place a poi however wilderness poi path generation is another story.

 
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Okay, I saw, and read about water rework, but now, important question - fishing WHEN? Please FunPimps, gimme FISH!
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Does the Craters, Cracks feature in random generating worlds have POI's that spawn with them and or paths within their surroundings?
The only one who can really answer is @Crater Creator I think.

 
Does the Craters, Cracks feature in random generating worlds have POI's that spawn with them and or paths within their surroundings?
i can confirm that they do spawn around them however there are no pois that spawn needing a crater nearby to spawn and also no pois spawn in craters from numerous tests i have done same goes for lakes and rivers wilderness pois will spawn around them but cities and towns countrytowns etc will not just wilderness pois.

 
Fishing could actually be fun with a single good enough animation  and the player getting deadly zombie fish out of the water most of the time (that only give say 1 rotten meat when killed) but sometimes we could pull out things like a can of dog food, a duke,  a piece of wood, one stone, iron, a gold nugget, etc. That would be a very engaging minigame that I would definitely try out !. And also, the player would be in big trouble if he/she is approached by a crowd of bandits, Zds or predators while fishing .... love the idea.

Edit: Given that the full world is radiated, I wouldn't expect viable food from the water, but all of the above could be tons of fun. @Roland , do you know if there have been any talks about this for a21 or any other point in the future?


Anytime such things like fishing gets brought up, Madmole says that there needs to be some things saved for 7 Days to Die 2. So its possible some of these features might come in the future but not for this game.

 
There is mention of alpha 20.7 on twitter, so I guess A21 is even farther away?


Well, they also showed player animations from A22 so I guess that is even closer? ;)

Think of A20.7 as a little slice of A21 that was able to get pushed out sooner than the rest.  Its not a sign of delay. Its a sign of progress!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 
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