PC A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[Leviwulf]

Any intentions to fix the electrocutioner perk in A20? It's been broken since A19 in that when you level it up the stun duration just.. doesn't increase.

 

[MechanicalLens]

If you give the drone first aid items it will use them to heal you.

Sounds a bit too OP if you ask me.

 

[hiemfire]

You admit this mockingly but you should know that this really is how the devs intend for players to play. YOU want to be able to play a pure int build without using anything that belongs to another attribute and have it be viable according to your criteria of viability. But that isn't necessarily the goal of the developers for the intelligence attribute-- that it be played as a pure build without crossing into anything else. And if they have zero intention of making intelligence be a build that you can play pure, why would they ever take the time to try playing it pure?

It might help better sell how they intend it to be used if the UI for the Attributes and Perks was not tabbed in the same manner as a MMORPG's class specialization system.

 

[Jost Amman]

If this has to be a discussion among players a mod could as well lock it

So...here it seems like you are griping that the players have to answer questions because the devs aren't answering.

You read too much into it, I was just saying that the Dev Diary should have devs poking in more frequently, but in weeks we haven't seen anyone from the dev team answering, giving any news snippets, or even just reacting to posts (excluding faatal).

I wish more devs could be involved in that thread, even just to let us know they're sometimes reading (or have been personally forwarded) the questions.

or you could simply refrain from answering questions directed to the devs and wait for them to answer.

So, I answered that concern to let you know that you don't have to answer questions at all. You can just let the devs do it.

As I said, you made a wrong assumption, and because of that you created the problem.

At least now I know why you replied like that... I know you're not a rude or dismissive person, so sorry for misinterpreting on my part.

But in the end, my point stands: lately the devs have been lacking a more frequent contact with the community. Peace.

 

[Laz Man]

Kinyajuu was browsing the dev diary just last week so its not just faatal visiting.  Hopefully the dev streams continue sooner than later so the hype train can start reving its engine once again.

 

[meganoth]

I remember previous alphas where in the later months of alpha development news from the devs became very scarce. For probably two reasons:

The small features were finished first and reported at the start of alpha development, but the larger features needed a long time to finish creating large spells of crickets chirping. And I assume they simply forgot to check in more frequently because there was just nothing to talk about. What can madmole say if he has no new feature he wants to reveal and most questions are for exactly the stuff he wants to keep for a big revelation show with marching band and trumpets aka a dev stream.

Also remember that he is designing on a totally new secret project so his mind is fully occupied with something he can't even tell us the color of the pen he is using to write down the expose . Well, we can guess the pen has 105 keys

Fataal could be posting about bugs he corrected but I assume most or all of his time is used for feature programming instead of bug fixing at the moment.

 

[meganoth]

Sounds a bit too OP if you ask me.

Which seems appropriate for a tier3 "weapon"

@Jost Amman Any member of TFP staff, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in any of this, but I'm pretty confident this is what you guys laid out.

The robotic drone will not be an offensive unit. There will be no weapon or stun attachment; it won't interact with the zombies at all. You will not be able to have more than 1 drone active per player. There will be 3 mod types for the drone. The first is the teddy bear that increases stamina regeneration by x amount. The second is a mod that passively increases health regeneration by x amount, but by no means will it be overpowered. It won't be a replacement for a player healing themselves. There will also be pack mule slots, although my guess is the inventory space in the drone, even at max item quality, will be minimal as to not offset balance. Don't expect more than a full row (or 9 slots) of inventory space.

Not a staff member. But I doubt 9 slots would be enough for an item you supposedly get in the late game when you should have access to the huge inventory of a 4x4 or a motorbike at least.

 

[MechanicalLens]

• Wandering Sleepers?  How do you have a Wandering sleeper? Is it sleepwalking? 
  

You hear faint footsteps behind you. You get goosebumps. You hear and feel someone or something breathing down the back of your neck. You swing around with your club and... nothing's there. Must have been the wind, right? Suddenly, you realize your pistol is gone from its holster. You turn to your right and you see the grotesque remains of a person, somehow remaining bipedal, aiming right down the iron sights of your stolen firearm.

They are learning.  

 

[Matt115]

I remember previous alphas where in the later months of alpha development news from the devs became very scarce. For probably two reasons:

The small features were finished first and reported at the start of alpha development, but the larger features needed a long time to finish creating large spells of crickets chirping. And I assume they simply forgot to check in more frequently because there was just nothing to talk about. What can madmole say if he has no new feature he wants to reveal and most questions are for exactly the stuff he wants to keep for a big revelation show with marching band and trumpets aka a dev stream.

Also remember that he is designing on a totally new secret project so his mind is fully occupied with something he can't even tell us the color of the pen he is using to write down the expose . Well, we can guess the pen has 105 keys

Fataal could be posting about bugs he corrected but I assume most or all of his time is used for feature programming instead of bug fixing at the moment.

Well maybe now they are focused to fixing bugs , optimalisation , balance etc. this can be sometimes the worst part because so stuff doesn't work and nobody know why XD

 

[Fanatical_Meat]

Regarding wandering hordes, I encounter two last night. One was really big other was a pack of dogs.

I think the reason why they appear to be gone is they can be easy to mistake for biom zombies and they see to disperse faster than before.

What I mean is in A20 I drove thru a large pack heading to our base, I lured them to go in a different direction. Drove off a for a minute or two then returned with backup. The horde had dispersed over a large area. I am sure this is a performance optimization.

Older Alphas the horde felt like it reformed and continued moving, felt like the hordes were in a tighter cluster and traveled farther than the current wandering hordes.

 

[BFT2020]

Devs need to do 1 attribute only focused playthroughs lol

I'm curious if any devs have actually done an Int build that tries to use only int weapons primarily. You basically couldn't even do it atm since you need 90% of the strength tree to even function because of the insanely high iron demands, but even if you do int + all the mining and utility strength perks, int is still in such a wonky place as always since it doesn't have a t3 weapon and requires way more investment to use than other weapon types

Simply not true.  You don't need 90% of the strength tree to even function.  I play INT focus builds and the only strength Perks I really do at the beginning are the first level tools, motherlode, sex rex, and master chef (if I haven't found some of the basic recipes by the first few days).

There are some cases where the higher levels in strength are helpful.  If you are building a massive base and need a lot of resources, then yes, going into the strength tree is very very beneficial.  However, that is not be driven by the INT tree; that is being driven by your base plan.

With my INT builds, I will at most spend one perk into the basic firearm perks on the various trees.  Eventually I will expand further in those trees, but that is when I maxed out the INT tree and purchased all the perks I wanted. 

 

[Matt115]

You hear faint footsteps behind you. You get goosebumps. You hear and feel someone or something breathing down the back of your neck. You swing around with your club and... nothing's there. Must have been the wind, right? Suddenly, you realize your pistol is gone from its holster. You turn to your right and you see the grotesque remains of a person, somehow remaining bipedal, aiming right down the iron sights of your stolen firearm.

They are learning.  

that's sound like zombies from stalker XD

 

[sillls]

you get 1 free non descriptive answer from me today... yes

(and seeings how i say that... some sneaky dev will change it just for kicks)

Well I haven't. Where is my answer? Hmm?  

When are we going to get some new friendly NPC's? 

 

[Matt115]

Well I haven't. Where is my answer? Hmm?  

When are we going to get some new friendly NPC's? 

when i get more zombie variants xd

honestly why in game focused on zombie , zombies get so little attention xd

 

[ShellHead]

Which seems appropriate for a tier3 "weapon"

So is the drone actually still being considered INT’s T3 turret as opposed to a new device? That certainly would be unique and would pair well with the physician perk but i’m not sure how it would interact with the turret perk. If you got that info directly from TFP, i’m down with it but if not i wouldn’t be certain that the drone is still a part of the turret line.

 

[ShellHead]

Simply not true.  You don't need 90% of the strength tree to even function.  I play INT focus builds and the only strength Perks I really do at the beginning are the first level tools, motherlode, sex rex, and master chef (if I haven't found some of the basic recipes by the first few days).

There are some cases where the higher levels in strength are helpful.  If you are building a massive base and need a lot of resources, then yes, going into the strength tree is very very beneficial.  However, that is not be driven by the INT tree; that is being driven by your base plan.

With my INT builds, I will at most spend one perk into the basic firearm perks on the various trees.  Eventually I will expand further in those trees, but that is when I maxed out the INT tree and purchased all the perks I wanted. 

Except you’re using off-attribute weapons and khalagar is trying to use exclusively INT weapons, the raw iron consumption from using the turrets as your primary ranged weapon is massive and requires more mining perks to sustain. The core issue here is whether or not INT needing to go off-perk to be effective is balanced/acceptable/etc and why that is or isn’t the case. 

 

[meilodasreh]

Are these drones going to function indoors?

I would guess they're trying to make it useful also indoors, but it's one of the main reasons they postponed it several times.

It's like with all pets/sidekicks/followers in any open world rpg.

They easily get stuck behind corners/walls/doors/stairs/... which is annoying when you often have to return and jump/dodge around to "help" that thing come loose.

And just making it teleport back to you whenever it got wedged somewhere again...well it just does look stupid and buggy when that happens too often, would kill the fun of it.

So getting that straight might be much harder to reach than expected, especially in that destructable 3D environment, where you often break open your own paths.

You do want to progress, and not care about "will my drone be able to follow me or will it get stuck?"

Poor guy working on that, I really hope he/she makes it happen.

 

[BFT2020]

Except you’re using off-attribute weapons and khalagar is trying to use exclusively INT weapons, the raw iron consumption from using the turrets as your primary ranged weapon is massive and requires more mining perks to sustain. The core issue here is whether or not INT needing to go off-perk to be effective is balanced/acceptable/etc and why that is or isn’t the case. 

And that is Khalagar's choice to only use exclusively INT weapons.......I don't think any other exclusive tree (Strength, Perception, Agility) builds limit themselves only to the weapons in that tree.  I don't see Strength builds not using pistols, rifles, machine guns.  I don't see Perception trees only using sniper rifles or agility builds only using pistols and bows.

There is nothing saying that you cannot play this way.  Treat any non-attribute weapon as non grata and just sell it to the traders (or better yet, refuse to pick them up).  But it is not TFP's responsibility to balance the game for this particular gameplay if you purposely define your game style in such a way that breaks the game.

 

[ShellHead]

And that is Khalagar's choice to only use exclusively INT weapons.......I don't think any other exclusive tree (Strength, Perception, Agility) builds limit themselves only to the weapons in that tree.  I don't see Strength builds not using pistols, rifles, machine guns.  I don't see Perception trees only using sniper rifles or agility builds only using pistols and bows.

There is nothing saying that you cannot play this way.  Treat any non-attribute weapon as non grata and just sell it to the traders (or better yet, refuse to pick them up).  But it is not TFP's responsibility to balance the game for this particular gameplay if you purposely define your game style in such a way that breaks the game.

While i agree that TFP has no obligation to balance around niche playstyles, i’m not sure that’s a completely fair characterization of an on-perk INT build.

Each other attribute can go exclusively with its own gear and go off-perk to cover weaknesses, the question is are the weaknesses INT can cover with off-perk weapons substantially larger and more numerous than what other attributes have to deal with, taking into account the fact INT is not a combat attribute?

PER can go exclusively rifle+spear and center their playstyle around maximizing their strengths and mitigating their weaknesses and do well in pretty much any sphere of play, As can AGI with a knife+9mm/.44 build. Can INT go baton+turrets and do the same while not being a torturous experience, harder than other attributes in terms of combat is fine because they have huge advantages in progression, but still viable (which is to say not massively wasteful of resources) and fun to play for it’s own sake not just because it’s the hardest way to play? 

 

[meganoth]

So is the drone actually still being considered INT’s T3 turret as opposed to a new device? That certainly would be unique and would pair well with the physician perk but i’m not sure how it would interact with the turret perk. If you got that info directly from TFP, i’m down with it but if not i wouldn’t be certain that the drone is still a part of the turret line.

The drone being tier3 is the last available info. Could they have changed it ? Yes, absolutely.

Is that info directly from TFP? I'm pretty sure it was but it was said months ago. In the meantime millions of chemical processes happened in the memory cells of my brain making me imagining a lot of what I seem to be remembering.

At the moment the turret line has only two members, and tier0 and tier3 is missing. The drone was explicitely created to fill the tier3 hole there (AFAIK), without any alternative in sight why would they not plug that hole with it ?

The only change I could imagine happening behind the curtains would be that shooty turret and drone switched places (tier 2 and tier3). But I don't think this is likely. Just like the flying gyro is the top of the line vehicle the flying drone will probably be the top of the line companion. Because it looks like the most advanced tech and because of balance since the INT player can't wait for the shooty turret until endgame, he needs the shooty turret much earlier