PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • <img alt=":)" data-src="" src="___base_url___/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • Total voters
    3
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iv been wandering that too
Ha, ever put a level 1(out of 600) motor in a minibike in A16? Omg it was ridiculously, gloriously, slow as balls. One could easily outwalk the thing. Funny but ridiculous, one of those gems of alpha dev you know you have to play with before it gets fixed. Especially when you put a level 550 in one and broke the server. Had to be fixed, I get it. Now I think it's normalized to maintain better control over speed amongst vehicles. Travelling in packs with other people on their own weird engine # of minibike in A16 was a pain. Now we can all travel smoothly, riding around as a biker gang is fun, and do-able, now.

 
About the logic-gates.. I'm Not exactly asking for this, but I would love to have it, so .. throwing this out here, in case some dev has too much free time at some point, to try and convince our dear madmole :) I gave the gates some thought, but I'll save some screen space with a

It doesn't seem impossible even on top of the current system, while allowing the current system to stay intact. It's mostly hinging on two new "features":

- you'd have to stop the current pass-through-triggering at the logic gates

- you'd need a two-input electrical block (overwriting the oldest connection when connecting a third inbound connection)

If those wouldn't be breaking the entire system at some core level, you might be able to implement the basic gates pretty easily, and keep the current "simplified" implementation in place.

Currently we're missing AND and NOT, there's sort of an OR in the pass-through-trigger; but an OR should be rather trivial to implement, so I'm proposing it as well.

AND and OR would of course be rather simple, just taking the current "pass-throughed" signal and working from there. No more illogical than the pass-through itself. Output should be again pass-throughable through other things, for "backwards compability". Power wouldn't be a concern, one or two of the lines coming in would be on while any power goes outwards.

For NOT, there would be a power concern, it should generate an "on"-signal from no input, so, lights on even without a generator. That wouldn't do of course, and making a third type of electrical block (with a separate power-in) would be complicated. So I propose implementing an XOR instead. That would be essentially the same as a "NOT with external power", except the inputs would be "equal" and thus I'd assume easier to implement alongside to the AND and OR..

Some other thoughts for completeness' sake:

- Only two inputs? Anyone who can use the gates, knows to combine them for the number they want.

- The gate-blocks would probably be crafted like the current Timer-relay, with just names differentiating them (AND-gate, or AND-relay)

You'd place it like a relay, and then connect two wires for inputs, any number for outputs of course

- "Clicking to clear" with the wire tool could clear both inputs or just one; easier to understand if both, maybe easier to use if just one

- They wouldn't operate at all without two input wires (not sure if it should cut the pass-through in this state on or, probably should)

- Maybe have a "LED-light" pop up when it's active (even if not currently powered, off/red/green combo as in the current switch)

And no, I don't have any idea how laggy this would be on top of the current electric grid; or how often you'd have to update the gate status, or anything else about the implementation side of things.

Doesn't FEEL impossible, but I know I can be proven wrong here, probably with a single sentence.. :)
 
Ha, ever put a level 1(out of 600) motor in a minibike in A16? Omg it was ridiculously, gloriously, slow as balls. One could easily outwalk the thing. Funny but ridiculous, one of those gems of alpha dev you know you have to play with before it gets fixed. Especially when you put a level 550 in one and broke the server. Had to be fixed, I get it. Now I think it's normalized to maintain better control over speed amongst vehicles. Travelling in packs with other people on their own weird engine # of minibike in A16 was a pain. Now we can all travel smoothly, riding around as a biker gang is fun, and do-able, now.
in a16 we had to limit engines to 250 or less on my server. Any faster, and your position/trajectory became very unstable. Like more than once I suddenly rode a bike through a solid wall into a POI and got swarmed by sleepers.

 
I don't know any 7D2D player who doesn't use electricity, and I know a lot of players. Obviously 90% of players will be casual players, please, don't tell me that you care more about casual players who play your game and move on than players who dump thousands of hours of their life in 7D2D.

Also the fact that it took several years for you to finally play and reach high enough level to balance electricity is not good for the future of this game - you need at least someone on your team who knows the end game inside out otherwise we need to mod game heavily to enjoy it.

And lastly, from my experience players spend more than 80% of their playtime at 150+ level. So, please, add difficulty levels above insane with something crazy :)
I have 5000 hours in the game, play an average of 3-4 hours per night. I have never, ever used electricity. My base defense works perfectly without it. Maybe A18 will change my mind, maybe not. Now I have been in a friends base on horde nights where he used it, meh....too much work plus why do that work when my base design works? I do think the graphics of zombies frying in the electric fence are cool though. Still have never used it. Shrugs....to each his own. Oh and I also know plenty of players who don’t use it either.

 
Just simplify it even more to craftable "electricity boxes" that can power everything in a 20m radius. :)
#farmingistheway
Let's just make a perk that will power all devices that will be next to the player within a radius of 50 blocks =)

 
madmole do you think the wasteland and burnt forest will ever get like a small updates of any kind
cuz those area's no one likes to go too

i ask because no one like going their so maybe one day people will go

"yo bill lets build in the wasteland or burnt forest

- - - Updated - - -

get the rat traps
We hope to increase GS and add radiation to it, so its a high level reward and high level danger. I don't think anyone would be able to build there without a lot of rad medicine or rad suit. Not sure how deep we will go with it.

 
It's electricity 101, find a motor, any motor, and turn it backwards= generate electricity, then send to battery bank. Done. Sure you may(ok, will) need some electrical management in there somewhere, but again such components should be abundant in a post-apocalyptic setting based on the modern world. Building robots? Harder but still do-able, but I don't push tooo hard for that, even though I'd love to see it. Asking for basic electricity generating techniques is however very trivial by comparison.
I just want late-game electricity to be worthwhile once achieved, if we are stuck with gas generators forever then saying it's lame is being generous. Please at least make solar banks acquirable or better yet introduce windmills or some other form of, likely similar, electricity generation. Heck you could even install a workout bike and let players convert player/food energy into electrical energy in a pinch. I just think such things would need to be balanced right, not omitted altogether. FFS we can turn coal, gas, nuclear explosions, wind, tide, and even falling ♥♥♥♥ing water into electricity. Relying on gas, in a world that no longer extracts it, is a dead end regardless(yeah yeah, we can mine oil shale, which is silly, refining usable gas is leagues more complex than that. But ok, and I will do this as the game intended, fine). Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Carry on.
How is it lame? I refilled my generator twice and I probably didn't need to I was just being cautious. Are you powering tunnels from Diersville to Gravestown or something? The thing barely uses any gas at all.

 
Has there been any server optimisations for horde night? AVG server FPS is usually around 35, but can drop to 5 on a horde night. Also, will the maps still be loaded into RAM?
There has to be since there are loads of general optimizations.

 
We hope to increase GS and add radiation to it, so its a high level reward and high level danger. I don't think anyone would be able to build there without a lot of rad medicine or rad suit. Not sure how deep we will go with it.
By high reward, I'm guessing there will be unique, daunting POI's in the wasteland? If so, I'm on board. :D

#BringBackHazmatGear

(Disclaimer: I am aware that some pieces of the hazmat gear are still in the game. I am also aware that currently, they're basically useless. :p )

 
Sounds like another way to do solar panels, so probably not. I'd rip those out too, get off yer ass and get gas IMHO. Battery banks are clunk as well.
Solar panels:

- may lose strength during operation

- power may depend on the weather

- vultures can react to the brilliance of solar panels and attack them (when there are more than 2-3 batteries, this can attract vultures, just like forges attract scouts)

- may lose strength during rain or snow

But why invent and develop something, why think about balance, if you can just remove everything and this will solve the problem. Do I understand your strategy correctly? =)

 
Ok. I mean I get it, and will do this, I just do not think it makes much sense to restrict energy generation to gas alone, in fact it is incredibly ridiculous because there are so so many ways to convert almost anything into electricity using a common post-apocalyptic ingredient: electric motors. They'll be everywhere, and every single one is also a generator. So...
Anyway, I hear you, and will play that way for now(cries on the inside). So, have you already removed solar panels and solar banks? Might as well at this point, as much as I don't think you should. Forcing us to rely solely on gas is ugh... I'm gonna tell Greta!
No they exist, but I never bothered with them since I can get 10k gas and forget about it for life.

I'm just not a fan of complexity. For gaming purposes we have two methods, one that requires fuel and the other solar energy, and batteries for backup power. Do we need more? To me it just adds fluff. It's like two recipes for something, it turns the game into a convenience factor instead of actually doing specific things for a specific goal.

It would be like having a 33" machete and making a 34" machete. They both do the same thing, stab and chop meat, yet it clutters the recipe and loot list.

Seems like its more of a "survivor fantasy" than something that adds serious value? You have to be careful when adding content, there is bare bones, just right, and sensory overload.

LIke I played some Conan and there was all these different schools of crafting but none of them made any sense as to which one is better or why should I bother? I picked one and killed some stuff. Skyrim at least shows a tree with a cost, so its pretty obvious which one is best, the one at the top of the tree that has the highest requirement.

 
Heck you could even install a workout bike and let players convert player/food energy into electrical energy in a pinch.
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I ain't gonna cycle for electricity without Mary Ann and Ginger as perks...

 
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