PC v1.x Developer Diary

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Riamus said:
I think if they want to make it so you can unlock doors, they need to redo lockpicking.  Right now, you can go through 10-20 lockpicks on one container of you have bad luck.  I'm not about to waste time and lockpicks on a door the way it is now.  It is far easier and generally faster to break down the door.  And since noise doesn't matter for waking up zombies, there is no real value in lockpicking a door right now.
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I have on my grump face on today so...I have no idea how "true" this is but I *feel* (in my observations, I know nothing about the internals of the game) that its almost as if the RNG for lockpicking "changes/updates" slowly.  Meaning: if you have bad "luck" its because the RNG has chosen a low % of success at that moment... and it stays that way for (example) a minute or so.  So if you keep trying, you keep most likely failing.  Once I break about 3 picks, I go do something else (loot a room for a few minutes) and come back and it always seems to open in a few tries. A "total 0 evidence but it feels like it" thing.

But also: I agree: having it break over and over (and over, always at that last "15% or so" that you get once you get near the end) is quite annoying.  I wish it felt better, maybe progressed differently or had "something" else I had to do to know it helped improve unlock success ( I don't know  maybe "a set of tiered lockpick sets" so you just expect the lowest tier to break a lot. i mean: the timed charge/super pickaxe is "the top tier", why not have a middle tier that takes more resources to craft... or "buy/loot only"?). Additionally: sometimes with low lockpicking skill it just opens the first time and "yay!"... but also... it kinda feels wrong. I only want it to unlock on the first try when I'm super skilled or have super tools.

 
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Viset4 said:
Hello, I just wanted to ask about the decision to divide the armor into 4 pieces instead of 5. My question is, why would it offer more flexibility to have the pants separated from the upper pieces in the new models? Thank you.
 
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There are a number of considerations that went into the character outfit change and not the least of these is having outfits that look fantastic when worn. Too many pieces and it all loses its cohesiveness. Boots and gloves and hats can be switched and mixed without looking too bad but a different pant on a clashing chest just makes it look bad—- like now. There is no more layering of clothing under armor pieces making everyone look puffy like the little brother on the Christmas Story. 
 

Balance is also a factor. 16 collective mod slots is probably still a bit OP plus each piece has a built in bonus so 5 pieces instead of 4 would just be too much power. 
 

People fear that everyone will look the same but for those who only ever equip the very very best, people already look the same in A21 even with all the variety. Do you stay in a skirt for the sake of variety or do you switch to BDU pants as soon as you find them?  Do you cover it all with a poncho as soon as you can craft one? So does everyone. 
 

Finally, this is all tied to bandits and NPCs who will be wearing the same outfits so simpler is better than more complex in balancing out these outfits. 

 
SylenThunder said:
More likely because it would allow you to bypass land claim blocks.
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I mean, true, but I think it would be a benefit overall. Lots of fun, too. Could add an element of tension as someone could be stealing your car or sneaking into your base if you aren't vigilant. I don't really play multiplayer, so it'd be cool to hear what mp players think of it, but I think its a great idea. Maybe make it require high intelligence and maxed lockpicking. Could add a multiplayer setting for whether lockpicking bypasses land claim blocks. I think it's a pretty neat idea 😀

 
SylenThunder said:
More likely because it would allow you to bypass land claim blocks.
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Only if designed that way, right? LCB already can regulate block damage, making your base invulnerable to other players. How hard could it be to have LCB also disallow lockpicking in MP? I really don't know...



 
schwanz9000 said:
Correct. My bad. I mix those up all the time AND it's been a long time since I've played/worked on A21.

Guess I'll take the Strength out of the cigar now that we have the dedicated Strength mod. IDK. We'll see. 😛
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Hi, dumb question;

Will they be like, an actual item or accessory? Feels a bit weird if they're just like, random magical stat cubes you can find in loot that aren't actually equipment/gear, at least to me. Or is the picture/title of the strength mod that we've seen just a placeholder? Just curious since I don't know much about them. Thank you!

 
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faatal said:
No plans to add back zombie looting. I find it tedious.

Block ambient occlusion has returned, so interiors are darker separate from ambient light. We still change the ambient light for indoor/outdoor, but subtle.
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RE: zombie looting, my understanding is that looting would require the bodies be around longer, which degrades performance immensely.

RE: interior/exterior lighting. Is there any way to make this easily moddable? Perhaps not through XML, but at least through defining some variables in C# that modders could easily change through a simple Harmony patch or something?

I ask because, frankly, the way A21 handles interior lighting is exactly backwards from how our eyes actually work.

If your eyes are adjusted to exterior (brighter) ambient light, then the interior (darker) places should look darker than normal. When crossing into those spaces, the spaces initially look nearly pitch-black, but as your eyes adjust the interior spaces look brighter than normal. (And the exterior spaces look very bright, almost washed-out.)

But in game, when standing outside, dark interior spaces look like they're brightly lit. When transitioning into those spaces, they lose their lighting and look darker. Even worse: if you find a brightly-lit spot in that space and stand in it, the entire space suddenly becomes brightly lit. I find it incredibly annoying, and I have heard others express the same opinion.

Of course, you can make your game's lighting work however you like, I'm just asking for the ability of players or modders to override it.

EDIT: For example - my guess is there's probably some variable that controls how much darker it gets when you are in a dark space vs. a bright space. Simply allowing this value to be set via XML would mean we could just enter a negative number rather than a positive one, and that would solve most of the problems.

 
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bdubyah said:
I guess I just don't understand why we need these odd new stat mods when we already had them. I thought maybe the old ones would be going away with the new outfit system, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So...why?
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My guesses: More items for the mods slots means more tough decisions which mods to install, even at quality 6. And tough decisions are a good thing in my book. Also vanishing items would result in complaints they were removing features.

Or was this a roundabout question of why the clothes slots were removed?

 
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4 hours ago, Catdaddy said:

Only if designed that way, right? LCB already can regulate block damage, making your base invulnerable to other players. How hard could it be to have LCB also disallow lockpicking in MP? I really don't know...

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What percentage of players need lock pick protection for their base?

Sounds like more work needs to be done to make it a reality than players that need that feature.

 
User said:
Hi, dumb question;

Will they be like, an actual item or accessory? Feels a bit weird if they're just like, random magical stat cubes you can find in loot that aren't actually equipment/gear, at least to me. Or is the picture/title of the strength mod that we've seen just a placeholder? Just curious since I don't know much about them. Thank you!
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They are just mods that install into headgear. Most of these replace the old glasses or goggles that no longer have an equipment slot.

 
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schwanz9000 said:
They are just mods that install into headgear. Most of these replace the old glasses or goggles that no longer have an equipment slot.
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This is unfortunate.  It is a loss of character customization.  Sure, the bonus from these items was nice, but being able to customize the look of your character is sometimes more important. 

If you are getting rid of all these customization items, not to mention all the clothing options, please at least consider an ability to change how stuff you are wearing looks.  Many games give you this option these days and it is a great way to allow customization without needing to have a ton of items.  You had a semblance of it before with being able to change hats to look like ball caps, cowboy hats, etc by using a mod.  If you give each item a customization slot that lets you choose a good variety of options that aren't necessarily items that are in the game anymore (or ever), it would at least not lead to everyone being exactly the same.  Note that I am not referring to the dye slot.  You should have both, imo.

Yes, it means you need art for these things, but you can use the old art.  And yes, it means that maybe someone is getting a bonus for the lumberjack set out whatever set and yet look like they should not be getting that bonus because of how they look, but is that really a problem?

I don't have stats on it, but I have a string feeling that character customization is one of the top requested/wanted features in any game that has a player character you can see on screen.

khzmusik said:
RE: zombie looting, my understanding is that looting would require the bodies be around longer, which degrades performance immensely.

RE: interior/exterior lighting. Is there any way to make this easily moddable? Perhaps not through XML, but at least through defining some variables in C# that modders could easily change through a simple Harmony patch or something?

I ask because, frankly, the way A21 handles interior lighting is exactly backwards from how our eyes actually work.

If your eyes are adjusted to exterior (brighter) ambient light, then the interior (darker) places should look darker than normal. When crossing into those spaces, the spaces initially look nearly pitch-black, but as your eyes adjust the interior spaces look brighter than normal. (And the exterior spaces look very bright, almost washed-out.)

But in game, when standing outside, dark interior spaces look like they're brightly lit. When transitioning into those spaces, they lose their lighting and look darker. Even worse: if you find a brightly-lit spot in that space and stand in it, the entire space suddenly becomes brightly lit. I find it incredibly annoying, and I have heard others express the same opinion.

Of course, you can make your game's lighting work however you like, I'm just asking for the ability of players or modders to override it.

EDIT: For example - my guess is there's probably some variable that controls how much darker it gets when you are in a dark space vs. a bright space. Simply allowing this value to be set via XML would mean we could just enter a negative number rather than a positive one, and that would solve most of the problems.
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Yeah, lighting is definitely backwards.  If I stand in a bright spot while I'm a dark room, it should be harder to see in the dark spaces, not easier.  If I stand in a shadow, it shouldn't make the brightly lit spaces around me harder to see.

 
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