PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[faatal]

Really? I find the Stealth to be quite well balanced. Its not great (at all) at early levels, but once I hit level 50ish, had 7 agility, lvl 4 in archery/knives/stealth/light armor perks and most of the appropriate books, I was able to completely (except one occasion where I completely missed a cop zombie hiding in one obscure corner) able to stealth my way through the huge Shotgun Messiah building, and 1-shot kill everything except the radiated bikers/cops/fatties on the very top floor. This was using mostly leather/military gear, all with advanced mufflers in them, and without yet having the military stealth boots.
Once you have found most of the Night Stalker books, most of the smaller POI looting is even easier at night than it is during the day. Sure, you're probably dead if you screw it up, but 1-shots and stealth are even better at night. Admittedly I up the gamma to 60 instead of 40, so maybe that's a little cheaty, but hey I justify it by the fact that if you are genuinely a 'Night Stalker' you would have better night vision than most people anyway.

Sounds about right. People are not going to be ninjas in the beginning. The main use of stealth in the beginning for me is ranged kills. Sneaking up with a knife is asking to die unless you have several points in it.

 

[Tetrameth]

Playing always nightmare speed on nomad right now.
Really puts the stealth system to the test. And I've never used the rock distractions so much before.

You're seen: you're dead. It's pretty exhilarating. I started in the snow biome trying to sneak around lumberjacks and pumas. Dear lord.

I thought rock distractions were broken ?

 

[Kahrkura]

MM,

Is any consideration being given to sharing XP from trap kills with party members, either without any perk requirements or with those that have the relevant trap-XP perk?

My group and I just completed our day-14 Bloodmoon from inside our base's basement. By the time the horde was culled I had gotten three levels worth of XP (default settings/no mods) while my party members got a tiny fraction of that on account of me being the one that crafted/placed all the (very efficacious) traps. The rest of the group contributed in acquiring the materials for them so it's unfortunate that they don't get to share in the XP. Unless there's some sort of issue relating to balance, my group and I would love it if XP from trap-kills was shared amongst party members.

 

[Tetrameth]

I just started a stealth game last night, so I will see.
Sleepers respawn in 5 days. Most likely you missed them. I've cleared an area plenty of times and missed zombies around obstacles or in walls or ceilings or they walked in from another area.

Yeah, I noticed that if the zeds that are dragged outside a POI wander aimlessly around outside for a bit, they end up popping back inside the POI after a short time.

I ran a few POI's trying to draw them out for a stroll among the flowers outside, whilst I stealthed back inside to find some food, but sadly it did not work, glitching as I previously described.

 

[Ouch Quit It]

What they really ought to do is remove horizontal support from that block so that it falls and breaks

Or this

 

[Socrastein]

I thought rock distractions were broken ?

I think they are *somewhat* broken because it seems you have to throw the rock very close to get any reaction, and then even when you throw it about 6 feet from them it seems there's a chance it still won't cause a reaction.

But still, you toss a few and you can definitely get them to go running in the direction you need.

I think of it like tossing stones at someone's window - you don't expect them to wake up and come to the window because your first pebble connected - you toss a few until they hear it and come to investigate. Tossing rocks at dirt isn't very loud, so I am not TOO bothered by needing to try a few times. Just makes it more tense.

But if it could be improved so you didn't have to throw so close to them that would be cool, even if it was still <100% chance of a reaction.

 

[Tetrameth]

I think they are *somewhat* broken because it seems you have to throw the rock very close to get any reaction, and then even when you throw it about 6 feet from them it seems there's a chance it still won't cause a reaction.
But still, you toss a few and you can definitely get them to go running in the direction you need.

I think of it like tossing stones at someone's window - you don't expect them to wake up and come to the window because your first pebble connected - you toss a few until they hear it and come to investigate. Tossing rocks at dirt isn't very loud, so I am not TOO bothered by needing to try a few times. Just makes it more tense.

But if it could be improved so you didn't have to throw so close to them that would be cool, even if it was still <100% chance of a reaction.

Yeah, I really enjoyed the use of rocks many alphas ago, when playing on insane mode. There seemed to be a really nice balance where you could often distract them, but occasionally something would happen where it would actually have them drift over to your location instead.

Made for some very tense moments

 

[Damocles]

I have not seem that before. Looks like a seam where the near terrain meets the distant terrain. What does it look like at the height where it appears? Like on a slope is it fine, then appears as the slope gets higher? Is it all around you, like it happens in X and Y directions?

Happens at the edge of the local and distance terrain transition.

Here several ramps with different slopes:



Its mostly visible in the snow biome. The normals seem to be different at those transitions, leading to a different phong shading or similar.

 

[Drithyl]

Its been suggested before. I hate it in rust and their weapons are generic af compared to ours. Maybe as an option, but it would require a fair bit of work because if it downgraded to the next color, we'd have to lock out a mod. How do you decide which mod to lock? I suppose bottom to the top so players put their least desirable mod in the bottom or something. We'd have to communicate why its like that, etc. Its quite a bit of work for something we don't need IMO. Again, its just a matter of balance.

It doesn't need to lose a mod slot. For the sake of simplicity, leave all the mod slots available even if equipment of that tier is not supposed to have them. It started out as a higher tier which means the manufacture was of good quality. That saves you the trouble and also makes the degradation a bit less painful.

Also, wasn't this system already in one of the earlier alphas, a15 or something? It even had a repair skill too, like Guppy mentioned, when items used to have a quality number like 535.

EDIT: Regarding the controversy of this system, I have seen other survival games that have degradation as a game setup option, by the way. You can make it so things in your game degrade or not. Granted if there was a repair skill that would be trickier to do in your case.

 

[Laz Man]

I'm just not as pubic about it.

All yours snow....

 

[cork]

Explosives defeat LCB protection. It has been an issue on my pve server.

Is there a specific explosive that does this? I haven't been able to reproduce the effect on a test server.

Edit: Actually it looks like an issue/misunderstanding with how online and offline protections work.

The server's Online protection is x64 and offline is Infinite. The decay mode is Slow which I'm guessing still affects the Infinite protection. I had assumed that the product of a decay multiplier and Infinite would still be Infinite, but I was wrong. Does this seem like a bug or just poor logic?

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Explosives defeat LCB protection. It has been an issue on my pve server.

do you have a pic or video as proof please? or reproduction steps...

 

[JamesKirk]

Lets not take this out of context. Tell me how many more purples she found the rest of the week, next week, and the week after that. When loot is balanced so purples are properly rare you guys will feel gratitude we let you craft blues.

In my last MP game (B143) I've found many junk turrets the first days.

In my last single game (started B149) I didn't find any in the first six days.

Random is random. But sometimes random seems to be extreme, just like a pendulum swinging from none to many!?

But: I love this alpha. I love the new Pois. And more than once I got scared because a zed appeared out of a sudden (but some of them spawned out of nowhere for sure), those encounters often leave me more dead than alive. I love the books.

I have approx. 40 fps at full hd with max settings (RX480, except motion blur and dof). Not much but playable.

But steel is now far away, my playstyle is more being independent from economy.

 

[HungryZombie]

The replacement wasn't less OP, so i suppose that kinda narrows down the reason to how they looked.

As far as I know, you can't flip the wood spikes in the game now over and lay them down so they are flat and the zombies barely damage them as they pass. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Hek Harris]

Have you tried Nightmare on all but on the EASIEST difficulty.Think that would be fun. Everyone running at you but can take them out easily if you hit your shots!

I wanted to try that soon.

Yes. It's always very cool to play with settings like that

 

[Ralathar44]

Survival is about making hard decisions. Don't use bandolier and impact bracing or take one point in either Pack Mule or Well insulated or suffer in the heat or have stamina problems while running. Four choices, take one, it's that easy.
Arguing you need that fourth mod slot and that Well insulated is too weak in the same post is a bit ironic. While I agree that they feel relatively optional because they can be replaced with armor bonuses also means they are valuable when you don't have the armor bonuses. You might never get that lvl6 armor, and even if you were, is it sensible to have a problem for a large part of the game time just to have saved a perk point shortly before you roll a new game?

I expect we will eventually have the same situation with armor that we have with most weapons: there are more mods you want than slots. Choose what is more important to you, it may very well be that one or two points in Well insulated could become as essential as the first point in Living off the land.

The point of putting insulation in to not get cold/hot is to prevent from using food/stamina faster. That only matters at low levels when food/water is a problem, ironically this is the point of the game which you don't have much in the way of mod slots and so you cannot spare it for insulation/heat.

Custom Fittings increases your ability to survive and also decreases stamina use (and thus food use). Armor increases your ability to survive. Pockets decrease your encumbrance, which decreases the amount of stamina you use early game without a vehicle. Once you have a vehicle hot/cold really doesn't matter at all because you're going to a POI (which you'll be considered inside for and thus not be hot/cold) or because you'll be going to dig for a very short amount of time for a buried treasure quest. Wood is so easily obtained you're almost never outside for it and mining is underground and you're not cold/hot. But you can also avoid the encumbrance issue by using centralized storage chests to efficiently store and haul loot from an entire block at once rather than make multiple inefficient trips. So player planning > encumbrance.

So 100% I stand by my comment. The insulation/cooling mesh mods are convenience only. The real issue is the armor that has 4 slots that are actually impactful, which is what I actually stated. Example: Custom Fittings, Bandolier, Armor, Pocket. Taking well insulated is a complete waste. My first play through after A18 dropped was in the snow biome, well insulated was not needed. You dress appropriately for the biome and you'll never get freezing outside of very rare occassions, only cold. As mentioned you spend most of your time inside. Nobody should ever starve in this game with the trader/vending machines in existence and the cold biome also spawns mountain lions semi-often...which is additional meat. The desert? LOL. Yucca everywhere. You shouldn't have water or dysentery problems. If you have boiled water, you have superior hydration drinks without dysentery chance. Desert is a complete non-issue. At least snow has SOME impact.

Pack Mule is also a waste. You're going to get pockets and pockets invalidate pack mule. If pack mule had some other bonus, sure. But any perk that can be invalidated by recipes/schematics/gear you find is basically a complete waste if that's all it offers.

 

[Tetrameth]

Win/M shortcut keys no longer minimize the 7dtd window to show the desktop. Was this a recent change ?

Win/D will still show the desktop, but Win/M stops the mouselook movement altogether and instead enables the 7dtd cursor (in a way similar to viewing the map but without showing the map). Any method to break out of this will trigger a LMB attack.

 

[cork]

Actually it looks like an issue/misunderstanding with how online and offline protections work.
The server's Online protection is x64 and offline is Infinite. The decay mode is Slow which I'm guessing still affects the Infinite protection. I had assumed that the product of a decay multiplier and Infinite would still be Infinite, but I was wrong. Does this seem like a bug or just poor logic?

With some more testing, it doesn't seem to be the Claim Decay Mode. Even with that set to None, it doesn't seem to respect the player's offline status and uses the Online claim health always.

 

[Ralathar44]

If lucky level 60 if unlucky level 120, if on standard settings. If you turn up XP, then *.5 or something. Its always going to be random and you simply won't have all purple items, ever on some characters, and that is fine, because blues are fantastic.
The whole you need purple for that extra slot is a bs argument, insulation mods do very little. All cold and heat do is make you hungry or thirsty, so a late game character can ignore all that with his surplus of food for 500 days.

The extra slot arguement is for the bandolier, impact bracing, and helmet light. I 100% agree that insulation mods do very little. Bandolier is a massive bonus, impact bracing makes a significant difference because it prevents leg breaks and sprains which theoretically should never happen but happen to us all including you on your most recent play through being mauled by fatties, and helmet light is a huge deal now that nights are dark again....while helmet light is mostly convenience it is also safety since any scavenging trip that runs late gets very dark on you and fighting zombies in the dark is normally a pretty bad idea regardless of whether they run or not so helmet light ends up being pretty valuable in practice even though in theory it should be QOL. I don't consider the water purifier to be that great because you'll end up with huge amounts of thirst buffer just via leveling.

IIRC I read that yall will eventually have legendaries and will be able to craft Q6 then, and that feels appropriate, but being locked off from having pockets/custom fitting/armor/bandolier until you find a T6 at (by your words) day 60 - 120 is quite a big deal (60-120 hours in a single game). Again, we're not talking insulation here. Pockets/Custom Fittings/Armor/Bandolier/Helmet Light/Impact bracing are all must have mods. Insulation gets put into stuff that doesn't have it's own unique powerful mod just as a filler.

*Edit: Also I apologize for the insulation misunderstanding, that's my fault as I reread my original post and I was not clear. Your focus on insulation was mostly justified considering I very poorly expressed the difference between the insulation mods being convenience and the other mods being the actual must have mods that get gated by 4 slots. Hopefully this post is a bit more clear that I'm talking about the unique mods + the big 3 (pockets/fittings/armor) where not having 4 mod slots makes a real impact.

 

[FileMachete]

On Repair/Degradation;

There's a core game design bit that only the Pimps can decide on that really drives this; how common should top tier items be?

If by lvl 100 ~general build, a player has a few each purp shotguns/pistols/picks/etc, then something to 'use them up' could be useful.

But if by lvl 100 same player only has a couple purple items then they're very rare and valuable, and using them up will likely see folks sharpening their pitchforks.

If the Pimps lean towards the latter then a mechanic that could temporarily disable a purple item could add to the fun.

Roughly; say after 8 Repairs to an M60 it started to have a higher chance of Breaking. Talking random chance that it just breaks. Could be 5 Repairs & 3000 rounds later, could be 250 rounds.

So instead of only the current Repair, add in an Overhaul or Rebuild mechanic. Have it consume x number of M60 Parts (or whatever).

Basically a full depot level service so effectively, 'brand new'.

Could choose to be nice and have the 'Breakage' be temporarily fixable with a Repair Kit, or not.

Wouldn't have to be for everything. A Pickaxe isn't a complicated thing after all.

Though could choose to apply the Overhaul mechanic to it by having the handle randomly snap. Though likely just an annoyance.

Point would be to not simply get a really great random stat purple and be 'done'. It would still need ongoing, but not constantly annoying maitenance.

---

This is just from mulling things over, no in-game experiance yet (in faatal I trust :smile-new: ), so no real idea how this might feel.