PC A20 Developer Diary Discussions

bloodmoth13 said:
Sounds like a good start. Obviously its not a major issue but its always good to have important things feel good to do.

Are we only having 4 slots in the next alpha? will clothes and armor still be separate or are they combined?
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As of now the next alpha will be the same as now in regards to clothes and armor. 

 
Roland said:
I agree, that a non-tedious way to switch clothes is best. Have a wardrobe workstation for outfits. You open it and can create outfits by mixing and matching the four pieces you want together into an ensemble. Then you can instantly wear an ensemble or switch to a different ensemble. You can always swap clothes quickly and easily at your base using your wardrobe or (if you must) you can carry clothes with you to change tediously out in the field if you want to take advantage of a bonus.
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This is one of those cases where I'd add "class-like" limitations to outfits.

Example: you can't wear (read get the bonuses from) the Farmer outfit until you invest X points in the "Living from the land" perk. And so on with other types...

 
Roland said:
Why have a dozen different outfit choices if they are all bland enough and samey enough that it just doesn't really matter what you're wearing? Strong bonuses that influence different aspects of the game make the outfits exciting and unique. Sure...some will feel forced to have to swap outfits before they do anything because they can't bear to do something at less than the maximum possible ability and then they will complain about the constant outfit swapping. That can be mitigated by making the outfit swapping process fast and easy. I would rather see an abstracted instant change than see all the outfits be just differently skinned versions of the same basic advantages just so some people won't feel compelled to swap clothes.
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I was thinking more like having sets do interesting things.  Just swapping constantly to get optimal gains is not really interesting or fun...

Something like one of the sets giving a modifier to parkour, if you invested in it.  Like maybe it allows you to do damage when you land on a zombie, or some kinda aoe. 

Or like a fireman outfit that improves the viability of axes, like extending axe range, or making the power attack a much larger aoe.  Or maybe he puts fires out and cancels burning on zombies, when hit with an axe, but does massive damage when it happens, so that you would always want to carry a flaming steel axe.  Or maybe some unique build using the stone axe. 

A Jesus outfit where when you drink normal water in combat, it turns to wine and you get the booze effect.  Cheap constant beer for punching.

A set where your hands empty hands become viable weapons, digging, mining and harvesting tools, but you can not use any tools or weapons while the set is equipped. 

Maybe a set where when you have the parkour perk, you become able to instantly walk over objects 2 blocks high, without jumping. 

A set where you can blind enemies, which allows you to do sneak damage without sneaking, with certain weapons, like bow and knife, but the chance is based on your from the shadows perk level. 

A set where you can zipline ;-P

A set where zombie dogs no longer attack you, and are friendly, but it has to be equipped before they aggro you and you have to keep it on. 

Anyway, you get the idea.  None of that will probably make it into the game, but something more along those lines, rather than 50% more harvest, so that everyone is just constantly swapping outfits...

 
Roland said:
Why have a dozen different outfit choices if they are all bland enough and samey enough that it just doesn't really matter what you're wearing? Strong bonuses that influence different aspects of the game make the outfits exciting and unique. Sure...some will feel forced to have to swap outfits before they do anything because they can't bear to do something at less than the maximum possible ability and then they will complain about the constant outfit swapping. That can be mitigated by making the outfit swapping process fast and easy. I would rather see an abstracted instant change than see all the outfits be just differently skinned versions of the same basic advantages just so some people won't feel compelled to swap clothes.
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The best choices are the ones you have to stick to.

One idea someone presented was a cooldown, another would be that all bonuses would be needed at the same time. For example they could all be useful while scavenging (poi clearing, what you find in loot, running speed, armor)

But the example with the farmer outfit is quite the other way round. Lets say it is a bonus to harvest result just like the LotL perk has. Since you get more you need to harvest less often. And switching the outfit is clearly less time waste than one more produce per plant would save you.

If harvesting were a fun activity I would laugh as well and chant with you "Look at the idiots who destroy their fun with meaningless chores". Instead this is replacing chore with faster chore. I know what I will do.

 
I'm going to give the outfits a chance but it sounds like a terrible idea and I hope the development team has a plan B if it does not work out.  Everything else about 20 looks and sounds amazing but I'm very skeptical of the outfit idea.

The reason why is the game is all about customization and playing your way.  You build your base your way, you mod your equipment your way, you explore your way, play your way, etc etc.. and all of that is about having a unique experience to play how you want.  Locking into an outfit like this is telling me now I got to conform to a specific way of playing and swap clothes on the fly like a Kardashian if I want to maximize my engagement doing something the developers consider a different role.  Its going to take us from immersion of crafting something unique to us as players and instead be something generic.

Clothing and armor needed work but I don't think this is the way.  We shall see but I really hope they have a plan B if it does not work out.

 
meganoth said:
The best choices are the ones you have to stick to.

One idea someone presented was a cooldown, another would be that all bonuses would be needed at the same time. For example they could all be useful while scavenging (poi clearing, what you find in loot, running speed, armor)

But the example with the farmer outfit is quite the other way round. Lets say it is a bonus to harvest result just like the LotL perk has. Since you get more you need to harvest less often. And switching the outfit is clearly less time waste than one more produce per plant would save you.

If harvesting were a fun activity I would laugh as well and chant with you "Look at the idiots who destroy their fun with meaningless chores". Instead this is replacing chore with faster chore. I know what I will do.
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Yeah, and like the crafting one that is said to make crafted items have 50% better stats, or whatever.  Most people would obviously feel the need to swap it off and on when crafting, and that is just an unfun mechanic. 

It is still a long ways off so I figured it would be a good time to talk about it, so the devs can decide how they want to do it. 

They are already trying to simplify and unify things, so it seems like putting an annoying clothing swapping meta into the game is not something they intend on doing. 

I doubt MM intends to turn the game into armor swap 2021... or Barbie dream dress up adventure. 

Although, if it were like that old cartoon Jem, and you could change into hot outfits on the fly, with your magic hologram computer, by touching your earrings, I might be on board, heh. 

 
doughphunghus said:
Are there any plans for a20/21 to be able to make the “fog” color of a biome (or the world) modifiable in the xml (either in biomes.xml or weather.xml). Currently You can change the fog color/density via the console, but you can only mod the fog density in the xml.

it would be nice to be able to mod biomes to have green/yellow/orange/red/black fogs.  Right now xml moddable fog is “realistic” white/grey.
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Crazy right, who would do such a thing 😛

 
Boo to outfit slots going to 4.  I always like more slots for more customization and tweaking my character.  but I have a whole alpha to home that changes 😛

Yay to everything else.  The game is going along really well.  Every alpha has been better than the last (including 17) so cant wait for 20 :D

 
FA_Q2 said:
Boo to outfit slots going to 4.  I always like more slots for more customization and tweaking my character.  but I have a whole alpha to home that changes 😛

Yay to everything else.  The game is going along really well.  Every alpha has been better than the last (including 17) so cant wait for 20 :D
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I feel you ( in a non-Snowdog way). I know we will come to like the new system because while it looks like a unbearable cut, it really only just results in less cosmetic choices in favour of gameplay. So now armour has both temperature and effects and every piece is meaningful. Ok. And every quality level of every piece is "enchanted" with effects. Still OK.

What does that mean for us who love pink banana hats to improve our character looks? It means that cosmetic mods can still happen but it won't really matter for us in the long run. Less clutter of useless clothing means more time to do more meaninful armour/clothing/wearables, either for the base game or for a dlc.

 
I took a quick look on steam and saw one bad review someone gave because the game was still in alpha after 8 years. I would think that would be a plus. It means that for 8 years there have been updates to the game making it better each time (ok not to all but to most :) ). They also don't realize that when they say it has been in alpha for 8 years that means that the devs worked (and still are working) on it for 8 year....they never suddenly vanished or gave up on the game and went on to do something else. They stuck to it. To me that says a lot about them.

 
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Yes, I'd prefer the Devs work on the game for 8 more years :)  Maybe they could call each new alpha a DLC and sell it. Just imagine what the game would look like after some more years. But I know that never happens.

 
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