PC A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[MechanicalLens]

That is great idea for new perk :  be like hobbit . You don't need shoes in snow biom or desert and you have highter armor ( tought feet)  but when you wear shoes you lose speed and wellness 

One thing's for certain, Snowdog won't participate in that. It would mean he would develop fat hairy feet and for some reason I honestly believe he would become less of a lady's man as a result.

 

[Matt115]

One thing's for certain, Snowdog won't participate in that. It would mean he would develop fat hairy feet and for some reason I honestly believe he would become less of a lady's man as a result.

Well strange things sometimes happenes right ? Job is a  job  

 

[Mike06]

Alpha 20/21 Roadmap Feedback

1) Unity Update =  +10, great

2) Random Generation Update = +5, good and larger map size is great

3) Vehicle Mods = +1 , nice to have

4) Shape Menu and Building Update = 0, shading is nice gimmick, yet again dumb-ing down the game yet again is not so nice, but in this instance not too bad. 

5) Dynamic Imposters = +1 nice

6) Micro Splat Improvements = ?

7) Feral Sense Game Option = +1

8.) Biome Difficulty = +10, Related to gamestaging below. It is more interesting to have the game scale up naturally and let the player by his action choose the level of difficulty by accessing different difficulty areas based on risk/reward ratio.  As it already somewhat is: but it should be more so: Desert few & weak zombies, no water, low food, low loot. Snow = slow zombies , a lot of water (from snow) low food, low loot. Different level of urban areas in biomes scale up the diffculty, single POi->settlment->town->city  -> metropolis. I really would love to see radiated biome for which you would need NBC suit and gas mask. 
 

9) Pipe Weapons for Primitive Tier = +1 (although a bit ripping off Rust, but before they surpasses 7d2d, they stole a lot from 7d2d) 

10) Trader to Trader progression = -10000 still the NPC vendors in survival game is -10000. Survival game for millennials : earn the money to buy stuff from shop. Challenging and scary !
 

12) Loot Progression and Gamestaging Improvements = ? the "Game stage" thing TFP copies from other crap games is -100 as it sucks big time. It is really boring that the game difficulty and enemies automatically scale up when player progresses. That negates ALL the character advancements. The game play is treading water. The advancement is more interesting when difficulty scales up by player choices. Like harder areas areas: large cities, radiated zones, larger buildings that are not survivable for low level and poorly equipped characters. That gives the player real sense on accomplishment and advancement to develop and improve the character to be able to access those areas. Not artificially level lock them and allow characters to try going there at anytime only to themselves learn to avoid them until better equipped.  

14) New POI's and Environment Art = +1, nice

15) AI and Sleeper Improvements Most likely not shipping in A20. = +1? great or bad depending on what it is 

16) Dynamic Music and Ambient Audio Improvements = +1, nice

17) Animation Improvements = +1, nice
 

18) Digging Quest Improvements = 0 IMHO NPC quests are booooooooooooooring, but I guess some ppl seem to like  them and others can just ignore them. Unlike the NPC vendors them ruin the survival aspect and balance if you ignore them.  

19) Restore Power Quest = +1 , meh! NPC

20) New Zombies/ Entities = +1, nice

 

 

[uncle.heavy]

10) Trader to Trader progression = -10000 still the NPC vendors in survival game is -10000. Survival game for millennials : earn the money to buy stuff from shop. Challenging and scary !
 

While I am completely with you on not missing traders for one second should they pack up and be gone forever, I do hope for the potential they have and being surprised by the outcome.

As far as I have read about them, progression is sure to come. What has not been stated in clarity is whether traders will continue to represent such a vital point of "survival".

Their stashes at any given point in time could be reduced to just a few items - my favourite thought - getting rid of the hard decision of "well, I could go looting all day, facing hard enemies, expending some of my most precious ammunition in the course, maybe die --- or I could simply unearth one or two crates buried somewhere, go shopping for every single necessity except food and call it a day. Maybe ask for delivery by drone."

I would love to hear more about their future role in the greater context of individual survival.

 

[MechanicalLens]

While I am completely with you on not missing traders for one second should they pack up and be gone forever, I do hope for the potential they have and being surprised by the outcome.

As far as I have read about them, progression is sure to come. What has not been stated in clarity is whether traders will continue to represent such a vital point of "survival".

Their stashes at any given point in time could be reduced to just a few items - my favourite thought - getting rid of the hard decision of "well, I could go looting all day, facing hard enemies, expending some of my most precious ammunition in the course, maybe die --- or I could simply unearth one or two crates buried somewhere, go shopping for every single necessity except food and call it a day. Maybe ask for delivery by drone."

I would love to hear more about their future role in the greater context of individual survival.

I share no doubt that traders play an intrinsic part of survival, but even with that being said they are under no condition a necessary asset. In my brief time playing Alpha 19 I barred myself off of traders completely, and not only did I survive without them, I thrived. Sure there were a few roadblocks here and there- not getting a bicycle until day 28 was one of them (we're talking 90 minute days here -but for the most part the feeling of accomplishment of emptying a town remained intact, the sense of discovery never diminished. (I've always found it more rewarding to blinding loot POI's and not knowing what I'm going to get versus being shown a shopping list and working to own those premeditated items, but that's just me.) TFP don't have to remove traders for anyone else to share this experience. Just don't utilize them if you don't want to.

 

[uncle.heavy]

Of course I can simply play as if they weren't there in the curent state of the game - and for the most part I do, and thriving as you said.

I just cannot help but wonder whether things are to stay that way or if their role is to be extended up to a point where one is seriously missing out by ignoring them, or continously reminded to pay them a visit after the starting quests, or else...

That's what I would welcome any news about.

 

[Roland]

10) Trader to Trader progression = -10000 still the NPC vendors in survival game is -10000. Survival game for millennials : earn the money to buy stuff from shop. Challenging and scary !

Using the trader is completely voluntary. Cancel the initial tutorial quest and you won't be directed to a trader AND you also won't get the four free skill points. Only a millennial-lover would want to take those initial four skill points and wreck the pure survival experience....

 

[unholyjoe]

do the starter quests and cancel it out after you get the 4 points. that way you do not need to go to trader. thats what i do


oh and i dont care what anyone calls me.. its my sp game.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Or just install a modlet that removes the starting quests but gives you the 4 initial skill points.  (Can confirm this modlet exists.) That way you don't have to go through the cookie cutter tutorial missions, which are pretty much useless for an experienced player. I take the free skill points only to get out of the stone tool age at a faster pace.

 

[Alpacko]

Will we get a bit more variety in the snow biome as far as zeds go? id like to see less lumberjacks and more of the various other zombies if only for variety. Dont get me wrong, i like the lumberjack and appreciate the threat he poses but seeing the same zombie over and over breaks immersion.

i play w/ 4x zeds and every time, i enter snow biome, there must be a walmart sale for lumberjack shirts nearby.

I'm going to be honest

i mean, there arent many folks around who start a sentence w/ "im going to be dishonest" :^)

 

[SnowDog1942]

i mean, there arent many folks around who start a sentence w/ "im going to be dishonest" :^)

I'm going to be dishonest, I Agree.

 

[unholyjoe]

I'm going to be dishonest, I Agree.

To Be Honest... "Navezgane's Pervs" are not included in the group of "Folks" and he said "most folks".



i seriously doubt if I am even in the group of "folks" its been proven i am not like others anyways.

 

[Adam the Waster]

It's long been known that the burnt biome is, to a certain extent, being merged as a part of the wasteland in A20. As a result, will clay patches now be present within the wasteland biome?

Also, will the radiated zones encompass the entire biome, or just towns, or perhaps instead random splotches across the map? Will it be possible for the player to survive in the wasteland, or will the tactic from now on always be to get in and get out as soon as possible?

i mean if you dig in the wasteland deep enough you will hit dirt then stone, kinda like the snow biome but a bit less so. 

and i think it would be cool if there were times where rads came around more often. and sometimes less. and hell why not add some radioactive areas in the normal biomes, Via Water, Barrels, zombies or god knows what (my hope is microwaves ) 

and maybe some areas would have rads in the wasteland and some not so much. 

either way i just hope we can live in the wasteland when that comes, around end game i always set my bases up there so more zombies come and try to attack. 

Plus it looks cool with the new trees and stuff

 

[hiemfire]

As a result, will clay patches now be present within the wasteland biome?

There's a clay soil layer under the rubble layer in the wasteland.

 

[MechanicalLens]

There's a clay soil layer under the rubble layer in the wasteland.

Good to know.

Regardless, I personally think it would be a poor design choice to continue to grant players the option to survive in the wasteland biome long-term. Instead loot raids should be limited to snatch and grabs; spend a couple real life hours in that harsh environment before having to return to a safer biome, even if the player wasn't sheltering in a heavily radiated zone. Perhaps a new stat could be designed around this: immunity level.

 

[hiemfire]

Good to know.

Regardless, I personally think it would be a poor design choice to continue to grant players the option to survive in the wasteland biome long-term. Instead loot raids should be limited to snatch and grabs; spend a couple real life hours in that harsh environment before having to return to a safer biome, even if the player wasn't sheltering in a heavily radiated zone. Perhaps a new stat could be designed around this: immunity level.

Hang out there at night in game and fire off a few unsuppressed shots.  

 

[MechanicalLens]

Hang out there at night in game and fire off a few unsuppressed shots.  

I get what you're saying. I just think that radiation should always be a problem in the wasteland.

 

[Jost Amman]

I get what you're saying. I just think that radiation should always be a problem in the wasteland.

I'd rather have a system in place similar to how they did it in the game Chernobyl.

TFP could randomly add "radiation packets" to the Wasteland biome where you'd need special PPE to get in and not get radiation poisoning.

 

[MechanicalLens]

I'd rather have a system in place similar to how they did it in the game Chernobyl.

TFP could randomly add "radiation packets" to the Wasteland biome where you'd need special PPE to get in and not get radiation poisoning.

That could work. I'm obviously not developing the game so whatever I say has no inherent value, but how would you respond to the idea that ALL of the wasteland biome is radiated, just to varying amounts. The larger cities and the craters that exist in between settlements contain the greatest concentration of radiation and in order for the player to enter those zones they would need a hazmat suit and/or they would need to chug some drugs that could only rarely be found in loot that protect them for a limited amount of time; whether the hazmat suit would degrade or not if for a separate discussion. On the other side of the spectrum, the small towns, roads/paths, and small towns contain much smaller pockets of lesser concentrated radiation. When entering the wasteland biome the player is given a debuff that is similar to stage 1 of infection - it has no immediate side effects but will only get worse if left untreated. Once this debuff reaches 100% (say, after 120 minutes) the player's immunity level reaches zero and they start taking damage from radiation poisoning. The player must then consume a drug or wear a hazmat suit (either of which probably won't be available at that point in the game) thus they must exit the biome. Another "debuff", a timer really of about 120 minutes, would then begin counting up representing the player's immunity level. If the player enters the wasteland unprotected before the counter reaches 100% then this timer would reset back to zero and the player would immediately start taking damage until they leave the wasteland once more. This somewhat artificial system would lock the player out of building in the wasteland until the mid- to endgame while still providing them with ample time to enter the biome, raid some joints, hold down for a night or two if required, and then escape by the next morning or afternoon assuming they had entered the biome in the morning on the first day. Having a system like this in place would also help to prevent players from entering the wasteland biome and loot there non-stop early game, assuming they could survive the tougher zombies, to exploit the higher gamestage/lootstage they would experience in this biome.

 

[Gazz]

i mean, there arent many folks around who start a sentence w/ "im going to be dishonest" :^)

It's similar to people saying "not gonna lie". That implies that they lie by default when they don't say this.