PC A20 Developer Diary Discussions

bachgaman said:
Why is everyone arguing about usefulness of sledgehammers if I wrote about the usefulness of perks? And not only for sledgehammers, not only for weapons... 

Dear fans of using sledgehammers to kill single zombies, please do not aggro on my post, I am in favor for strengthening your favorite style of play, not for removing it

Javelin Master

50% damage for 5 level perk for bad weapon, srsly?

The Infiltrator

There are not many locked chests in the game, lockpicks are cheap, in the late game the drill replaces lockpicks, there are no bonuses other than the chance of being hacked, but could be given a bonus

Treasure Hunter

At least it gives a bonus to quantity of items, but by the time we get it, we will not receive tasks for treasures, it is absolutely not worth an improvement even by level one

Hunter Heavy Armor

We can find and buy level 6 armor, 25% penalty reduce too little

Pack Mule

High levels useless because on this time you already have enough pockets and bags not to improve this skill at all, i never take it

Well Insulated

Many clothes and there are no real penalties for cold and heat in game

Pummel Pete

Skull Crusher

You can tell your stories as much as you like about how you can withstand BM with one baton on the easiest level of difficulty, but these perks are too boring and too weak to swing in a normal game. There are always more profitable perks, and the moment you can max out these perks you will not need to use these weapons

The Brawler

Same

Pain Tolerance

Not entirely useless, but overall, is someone improving this? In my opinion, the game lacks a mechanic of damage reduction in its pure form and damage reduction in a percentage form. Another boring perk. No matter how you improve your sustain, you will never be a meat tank with a big club that can withstand a crowd of zombies.

Healing Factor

Not sure but 40 health points per day? Come on, you can just abuse death or eat 2 cans of canned food. At a high level of perk it also has no value, in battle it will not help and having the opportunity to take the fifth level of the ability you will already acquire first-aid kits. Maybe need a bonus to maximum health or a buff on all incoming healing at high levels

Iron Gut

At first glance, not bad. But why do we need to hold our breath at all? Does anyone have a problem with dysentery? Plus a 1-5% bonus is ridiculous. Even if this is a direct decrease in the chance of poisoning, then even at the last level of improvement you will not be able to eat rot or drink dirty water (why?) So all we get is 25% reduction in hunger and 50% of the duration of effects. Despite the fact that it is in the same branch as farming. Not tempting at all

Rule 1: Cardio

Good perk at the first level of improving, but why are there levels two and three? By this time, you will already have a transport, by level three for sure. The second and third skill levels require strengthening

Archery

Same as Javelin Master, very boring and weak perk for super bad weapons

Deep Cuts

Is someone really fighting with a bone knife instead of a club? or with a hunting knife instead of a grenade launcher?

Light Armor

Same as heavy, yes bonuses are better but in absolute terms they are same

Parkour 

What is it for? For those people who cannot jump over the cliffs in fifth level tasks?

Hidden Strike

From The Shadows

All stealth should be removed from the game for obvious reasons

In quests, you cannot use stealth due to trigger traps

In bloody moon, zombies always see you

Outside of quests and a blood moon, you hardly have any problems with zombies at all

Electrocutioner

Same as Javelin Master
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While I kinda agree about spears and stun batons, and some of the others, the game is actually balanced for nomad difficulty.  While I would enjoy more melee options when I play on insane, the game is not balanced around the modes I play.  If they find a way though, I am not going to stop them, lel. 

Pack mule and well insulated will probably be viable after the armor changes.  Only 4 slots will exist, and they might add more mods. 

The armor perks are actually really good late game.  When you put fittings into your armor and you invest in the perks, the negatives actually go positive.  The light armor one is both a nice speed buff and a really good stamina buff.  Takes forever to get though. 

Parkour is amazing, although I usually do not get it.  Great for playing on maxed difficulties, doing pois and fighting the horde outside at night. 

Deep cuts is actually stronger on the harder modes, because I believe the bleed damage is not reduced.  It can be good on insane, but kinda slow, and the sledge is probably best. 

Rule 1 cardio is really good if you are someone that plays the game maxed out without a base.  I usually max it pretty early on.  It is one of the options to give you permanent running ability. 

Iron gut is okay... the main reason for it is to extend your coffee, and other buffs though. 

Not all of the perks have to be good though, and they have a pretty good system. 

Throwing spears could definitely be better though, and they could probably just make stealth function partially, when crouched, at maxed level, or for just a few seconds... but it might make it too good, or too annoying, because you would have to constantly crouch for max damage. 

Smoke bombs or a blinding condition?  Some weapons have a chance to blind for full or partial stealth damage, based on your stealth skill?

I do not know, but the game is not finished yet and there are lots of options... and even if nothing is changed, it is probably good enough. 

 
Diragor said:
The last weekend I started a new world with a friend and used the Nitrogen World Generator and created a only Wasteland Map with a small Snow and Desert Biome. And damn was it horrifying to play. I LOVE IT!!! The wasteland feels like real survival and finally the world isn't epty there. You always need to expect the worst. Walk into a mine or a dog follows you or the damn bears :D

We had so much fun and Now I got a question for the RWG.

Will it be a bit more complex like the nitrogen generator? Like create bigger cities and towns. Cause Vanilla RWG always feels too empty. Also I wish there would be an only Wasteland option cause the forests are too boring for players with 1000+ hours :D
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With the new biome adapted loot modifiers, there will be a reward to going to the wasteland (or any other biome than forest) early so experienced do have a reason to go other than self-made challenge.

 
Khalagar said:
Yessss

I really hope there's some more features to bring back that "new to the game" horror. I still vividly remember the first time I played the game and was holed up in a PoI absolutely TERRIFIED at the sounds of the zombies outside the walls trying to find me as I cooked my meat and light was shining through the windows because I didn't cover them up well enough etc. They of course ripped through the walls while I was crapping my pants and trying to hide on the stairs and break the stairs so they couldn't chase me up. Literally spent every night in that crappy half ripped down PoI crouch walking and hiding in absolute terror

Now days I just go do quests at night  even with running zombies since they just don't seem to aggro or group up in enough numbers to be a major threat even early game. They just don't seem to have anywhere near the aggro radius they used to even when I've got forges and campfires going in what should be open sight

Honestly, I would really like if there was just a feature to make the zombie senses SUPER sharp at night. It would be great if nights were absolutely horrifying and dangerous to go out in.

Gimme dem roaming hordes that spawn in massively increased frequency at night and can sense noise / heatmap / cooking meat from hundreds of blocks away. Mini horde night every night!
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yes, yes to all of this, though i still don't like to go out at night...

faatal said:
Stealth still works. Feral sense is basically zombie hearing and seeing x2.5, which is mod-able in xml and may be tweaked before release.
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yeah something where i don't have to go play Geek squad to have fun! keep it up!

 

 
Gazz said:
We should just rename all difficulties yo something like
- Harder
- Stronger
- Meaner

so all of them sound like an increase =P
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Nah, you should just reverse them. 

Make the easiest mode have the harder sounding name and the hardest mode have the weakest name. 

Have it go from "Hold my beer"(easy) to "weakling mic dirty pee diapers"(insane).

 
Adam the Waster said:
yes, yes to all of this, though i still don't like to go out at night...
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I step aside here also. Still afraid of going out at night, but when I do it's "meh...what exactly was I afraid of...it's all the same as during days but only with dark background".

Well not actually, because there's a lot more direwolves and serious animal stuff spawning around, but considering zombies...well they're just faster XP-points because they run into my sledge instead of walking towards it.

I don't even know if I'm fair here because I have towards 700h ingame now (which does make me not being a total noob anymore around here in the forum), and I forgot how terribly frightening my first touch (nights) with the game felt.

But does this really have a point?

Should I increase difficulty? Maybe.

Should I reconsider my mind trying to include/compare first-time players with the same knowledge I gained with my "hundreds of hours" of experience? Definitely.

What does this lead to?

Everything you're good at becomes somehow easy for you.

I pull my hat to the devs that they try to consider every playstyle and every level of experience the player has, and try (doing good as far as I can see) to adapt for everyone.

Khalagar and Adam have a point...the game seems to have become too easy over time.

But is it the game getting "lame", or is it us becoming better at what we do?

We know all the - also not-so-obvious - game mechanics, so we as experienced players have that advantage that "noobs" can't even see.

Nights should be terrifying again, I would love...but what would it mean for beginners?

I recently had a short discussion with Promethean Winchester here (which I now understand better than initially), he also has a point.

So to conclude this:

I have great confidence in what efforts were taken considering difficulty chosen by the devs.

Make A20 great again. (A19.5 would be apprechiated too if being released by...let's say now 😁)

 
It might be cool if the sneak attack weapons had a chance to cause a blinding condition, on headshot, based on your "from the shadows" skill. 

Then the blinding condition could cause you to do full or partial sneak attack damage. 

Would make the sneak skill more valuable during horde night, or situations where stealth does not work. 

Might be too strong, or not worth screwing with though. 

 
pregnable said:
It might be cool if the sneak attack weapons had a chance to cause a blinding condition, on headshot, based on your "from the shadows" skill. 

Then the blinding condition could cause you to do full or partial sneak attack damage. 

Would make the sneak skill more valuable during horde night, or situations where stealth does not work. 

Might be too strong, or not worth screwing with though. 
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I think this is a cool idea. Imagine blinded Zeds going aggro at random environment after you hit them and they perform revenge at whatever they get in touch to...maybe a wall, a tree, or even a fellow Zed, which might lead into a "Zombie-hits-Zombie-aggro-brawl-bubble" if you do it right. 👍

 
Gazz said:
We should just rename all difficulties yo something like
- Harder
- Stronger
- Meaner

so all of them sound like an increase =P
Click to expand...


Nah, the variety there is too strong. We'd have to dumb it down--er, I mean streamline it so that the commoners could understand it. ;)  Think:

- In No Way Is This Hard

- Not So Hard

- Getting To Be Hard

- Hard

- Harder Still

- Absolutely Hard

Snowdog, don't you dare take this out of context.  :heh:

 
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We should just get rid of all the difficulties and bring back the toggle options for % damage done to zombies and % damage received from zombies and add a toggle for % chance for zombie rage. Then you can play a game where you can one shot the zeds but they can one shot you too...

 
So, what are you guys most excited for in A20?  For me its the new shape menu and building updates.  Can't wait to see what POIs TFPs build as well as what the community can make. 😀

4) Shape Menu and Building Update

  • Shapes are shown as shaded drawings of blocks
  • Blocks from the shape menu are placed as particle board blocks that function the same as frame blocks
  • Simplified upgrade path: Frame/Particle Board -> Wood -> Stone -> Concrete -> Steel
  • Blocks destroy to air. They do not downgrade.
 
meilodasreh said:
I step aside here also. Still afraid of going out at night, but when I do it's "meh...what exactly was I afraid of...it's all the same as during days but only with dark background".

Well not actually, because there's a lot more direwolves and serious animal stuff spawning around, but considering zombies...well they're just faster XP-points because they run into my sledge instead of walking towards it.

I don't even know if I'm fair here because I have towards 700h ingame now (which does make me not being a total noob anymore around here in the forum), and I forgot how terribly frightening my first touch (nights) with the game felt.

But does this really have a point?

Should I increase difficulty? Maybe.

Should I reconsider my mind trying to include/compare first-time players with the same knowledge I gained with my "hundreds of hours" of experience? Definitely.

What does this lead to?

Everything you're good at becomes somehow easy for you.

I pull my hat to the devs that they try to consider every playstyle and every level of experience the player has, and try (doing good as far as I can see) to adapt for everyone.

Khalagar and Adam have a point...the game seems to have become too easy over time.

But is it the game getting "lame", or is it us becoming better at what we do?

We know all the - also not-so-obvious - game mechanics, so we as experienced players have that advantage that "noobs" can't even see.

Nights should be terrifying again, I would love...but what would it mean for beginners?

I recently had a short discussion with Promethean Winchester here (which I now understand better than initially), he also has a point.

So to conclude this:

I have great confidence in what efforts were taken considering difficulty chosen by the devs.

Make A20 great again. (A19.5 would be apprechiated too if being released by...let's say now 😁)
Click to expand...
agree, i may do out if i say i died, but i still stay in my home. Now if im armed to the teeth and armored to the ball. then i got np going out.

But i would love night time to be more deadly even for endgame players.

 
Laz Man said:
So, what are you guys most excited for in A20?  For me its the new shape menu and building updates.  Can't wait to see what POIs TFPs build as well as what the community can make. 😀
Click to expand...
For me:

1st: new quest types (digging improved and the totally new "restore power").

I just love serving Jen all the time. Still hoping for some kind of easteregg, that after being 100times "employee of the month" she shows me all of her goods...if you know what i mean 😜

More variety in questing will be fine for my playstyle.

2nd: changes/improvements in loot progression/gamestage.

I just don't like it nowerdays that you more or less exactly know that when you have a maxed out stoneaxe, you will start finding the first iron axes, and you know they will be definitely crap quality and totally useless in comparison to your stone stuff at first...and so on. It's too predictable.

Really hoping for a different solution, but I can see this whole system is one of the most crucial and complex things with big impact on how the game as a whole is balanced.

Big one though, I hope they figure it out.

 
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MechanicalLens said:
So I've looked through the XML's for gamestage groups in A19 and it seems that feral soldiers never spawn during horde nights... It begins with regular soldiers and then jumps right to radiated after a while. Will this be looked at for A20, as an "inconsistency" of sorts.
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To be honest, I never stopped during horde night to figure out who is a normal zombie and who is a feral.  I would have never noticed this if you hadn’t done some digging and posted about it. 😁

 
MechanicalLens said:
So I've looked through the XML's for gamestage groups in A19 and it seems that feral soldiers never spawn during horde nights... It begins with regular soldiers and then jumps right to radiated after a while. Will this be looked at for A20, as an "inconsistency" of sorts.
Click to expand...
True that. Nevertheless, the spawns are all handcrafted  to be "random but gamestage-limited" choosing deterministic entity sets, so while they certainly work, once ALL the entities and special entities are in the game, they will most certainly be modified by hand again with new sets of "cool pools" of entities. 

That soldier situation seems to be an oversight. It should probably be reported as a bug (wink, wink).

 
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