PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[lord_ahriman]

Madmole, iron is the most "time consuming ore", so if you do replace the "bundle book" I think the bonus could be "get a little bit of iron from each stone" like it was before: 2 iron from each 500 hp underground stone, so at lvl 5 ML you will get 4 iron.

 

[DaVegaNL]

Has anyone been experiencing any input lag in the inventory/crafting menus? It’s been most apparent in the chem lab. I can’t split a stack of wood in my inventory and have to hold left click to drag the wood into the chem lab’s output to split it. I also have to hold left click for .2-.5 seconds before the drag animation starts. I’ve also noticed this input lag to a lesser extent when moving items between my toolbar and inventory.

Yeah I'm experiencing the same thing. Really annoying to switch between tools on the hotbar.

 

[rdunham3]

...so I'm guessing I'm very much in the minority here in that I find once the game starts throwing irradiated etc. at me in droves in an attempt to be challenging that it feels so cheesy and gamey that I lose interest?

I get the purpose of BM's, and for that matter random POI's developing a case of special-zombie monoculture, I do. I just would rather see the game-stage difficulty scale in quantity more than simply throwing glowy tanky excessive-block-damage types at me in bulk because it's so gamey. As it is there's no way to make the game-stage calculations ratchet up zombie count instead of going all special and/or glowy, is there?

I mean, now you can tell when more POI's than not have more utility workers than not, then all of a sudden it's fat woman zombies everywhere, and the tourist tier, and... any day of the week. Then a BM where you seem to be in a particular zombie type's convention center ffs.

Minor gripe, probably, so don't take this too negatively. Would like it so it was less typed at each tier.

 

[Laz Man]

Well whatya know, dayum. So, I go back, start mining some shale, and looky looky...
View attachment 30025

Opened up a hole in the shale to reveal not one but two other nodes. Both Iron and nitrate. This may turn into my new fav mine...

Why does that pic look like something from a surgical video lol...

 

[rdunham3]

Yeah I'm experiencing the same thing. Really annoying to switch between tools on the hotbar.

Noticed quite a bit of delay between breaking open a crate and being able to actually open it. Like the game doesn't recognize the block has become clickable for a second or so...?

 

[beerfly]

Noticed quite a bit of delay between breaking open a crate and being able to actually open it. Like the game doesn't recognize the block has become clickable for a second or so...?

UI is thinking slowly. Fixable or already fixed.

- - - Updated - - -

Why does that pic look like something from a surgical video lol...

Lol. Somescopy.

 

[Mechanimal]

I'm in the middle of a few projects, as is typical, like finishing up my perimeter wall/catwalk, and so on. But here are some pics of my base so far.

Those familiar with Nav will notice where this is. NW corner of Diersvill, the farm is in the background. Put my BM tower right across the steet... was wondering how my base kept getting messed up on horde nights... well, every bullet that didn't hit a zombo hit the front of my house: I'm an idiot. I am now taking cautionary measures and putting up a bulletproof glass shield in just the right spot, cause I ain't movin now...



Especially love making good use of the existing structure, or in this case the lack of it. It works out great for visibility in this POI. If I am up on that rooftop I can pick off anything from any side. Funny thing is my actual work spaces are quite small, I mostly turned this burnt down house into a garden. Call it my Phoenix House, preserved most of it overall.







I did not expect to actually stay in this POI for long at first, the spot I roomed off is not very big, but I enjoy the challenge of compacting a ton of stuff into a tight space, effectively, so it has been a ton of fun. Otherwise this lot is rather large, so I spend most time/resource on the overall perimeter. I also have an "open door" policy most of the time, where I make my front door very accessible for zombos to waltz right in whenever they want. I only use my junk turret at base, all my others are on my BM tower, so if I get visitors it's on me. This one works out because I can quickly/easily get above the door and pop them from above and behind before they get around the corner and reach my turret/door.

 

[quyxkh]

Any love for a "copy shape" radial option to match "copy rotation"?

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Any love for a "copy shape" radial option to match "copy rotation"?

It exists, but only for the exact same block and material.

For example, you can copy the shape of a frame for a frame, but you cannot copy the shape of a wooden block for a frame.

 

[mr.natural]

MM,
Will the M60 eventually have some sort of sight/scope mods available or will iron sights be the only option for that weapon for balance purposes? Asking on behalf of my Fortitude build buddies.

The red dot mod fits

 

[Star69]

...so I'm guessing I'm very much in the minority here in that I find once the game starts throwing irradiated etc. at me in droves in an attempt to be challenging that it feels so cheesy and gamey that I lose interest?
I get the purpose of BM's, and for that matter random POI's developing a case of special-zombie monoculture, I do. I just would rather see the game-stage difficulty scale in quantity more than simply throwing glowy tanky excessive-block-damage types at me in bulk because it's so gamey. As it is there's no way to make the game-stage calculations ratchet up zombie count instead of going all special and/or glowy, is there?

I mean, now you can tell when more POI's than not have more utility workers than not, then all of a sudden it's fat woman zombies everywhere, and the tourist tier, and... any day of the week. Then a BM where you seem to be in a particular zombie type's convention center ffs.

Minor gripe, probably, so don't take this too negatively. Would like it so it was less typed at each tier.

Not sure you’re in the minority or not but with A17, when hordes went to mostly radiateds, we started a new game. In A17, when that happened, it also coincided with having gotten everything to be gotten in the game so they went hand-in-hand. Our group has not gotten far enough for the day-to-day game to become boring... we’ve barely scratched the surface of the game. As radiated zombies start dominating BM hordes, we’ll have to see what the group thinks and whether mostly radiated BM hordes is enough by itself to warrant a restart.

 

[SnowDog1942]

I feel it would be an injustice to most players to shaft

What if the player doesn’t mind being shafted, in fact what if they enjoy it, a lot, mmmmmm

 

[Mechanimal]

I only really use the one small corner, the only thing in the middle is I converted the burnt out bathroom into my power management room, complete with bullet proof glass protection. Is a perfect location to run power out everywhere, plus I don't need to be near/at it often.



Everything else is packed into two small rooms in one corner of the lot. I really love the wall safes for extra storage, they are a great size for the way I like to organize things. I can sit in one spot, I always always buy the red stools when traders have them for this purpose. I can just spin around and reach everything, it's great.





And the one wall is covered in those trestle/ladder thingies, which are AMAZING, screw ladders, use those. You can move around sideways, they make you spiderman, try it!. Next time you see the bakery go upstairs, get across the beams to the wall covered in them, jump on and just move around in all directions, it was an amazing discovery for me. Anyway, I can easily/quickly scale up and out one of two ways from inside. Up to the left puts me on catwalk over the door, up to the right takes me to the roof. So useful.



And then right underneath is room #2. Ammo production/organization on one wall, concrete production on the other. Then I can look through the floor and see my mine entrances and whether my shrooms are ready for pickin or not. Overall this POI flip is working out great, minimally changed it, still built all the rooms I actually use myself as additions.

 

[Damocles]

I wonder if there can be anything done on the front of vegetation on slopes.

In A18 the placement of terrain decoration is way more restrictive on hills and other sloped surfaces, making the world look more barren than in A17 in mountainous regions. (The no spawn slope angle sets in earlier)

The vegetation density is in general lower.

 

[Mechanimal]

You can see one reason I built my BM tower so close to my base... see my LCB? Is right in middle of front entrance walkway in the ground, and I had to set the perimeter to maximum, and it still just barely covers half my BM tower, just so I can pick up my turrets.



I do hope there is some solution to only having one LCB, eventually, again. I get why they shouldn't be unlimited, but it sure would be nice to be able to pick up my turrets in my tower AND my stuff in base without issue. That or make some of the items pickupable without it, like player made/owned turrets, and the tablesaw so I can just take it with me if I need it for that ONE block shape not in the multi-shape menu. Etc. Maybe if we get 2, or can earn/unlock limited additional LCBs, something.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@Faatal

Glad you and family are okay.

Point taken and understood regarding new priorities.

Spoiler

The example i gave was a personal adjustment I made in

a prior alpha, to create a desperate atmosphere, But I

wanted that playthrough to be a Romero, Omegaman environment.

I simply had to clear an area before I could cleanly get

into a poi for food.

I didn't mean that a hoarde should kill everyone every time.

The continuity i expressed was to stay within the basic gamestage

or be able to have the game do an ai adjustment automatically for that

particular BM progress. Sort of a gradual intensity increase depending

on how well hand eye coordination is working at that time.

If a player is in gamestage 7, and they happen to be in the

playzone so to speak. "playzone" for me as example "need for

speed most wanted 2012" is when im so engrossed in the activity that

hand eye coord is 5 by 5. Then ai intensify, if not then stay with

default.

Sometimes the actual progress in the game gets you there,

then you have to abruptly stop. Wait a bit for the activity to

restart. Then start over and try to reach the same point of play.

Can you think of any other life examples that would be similar.

If so how did that turn out?

I truly realize that the way i look at the game is a tiny minority,

maybe even a singularity. But I play the game, like reading a well

written book, paperback not ebook, or watching a movie that is story

driven with native action to keep you on your toes.

The base question, was would it be difficult codewise to be achieved.

I asked you because you understand the class code beyond my scope and

hoped you might say if you do this, then this to give me an idea how

to do it for myself. I personally don't want the core progression that

you all are doing to change. The main attraction is the open availability

to Mod anything everything.

 

[Roland]

For those who want to poop and wipe butts I guess.

If that's my audience then I'll make sure to add TP to the game as well.

But I do agree that simple is better for the base game. Having things like more in-depth farming and degradation of gear and food spoilage or harsher SI rules are things that mods are great for as not everyone will be down for those things and as you've stated before, crafting stuff and farming crops and managing hunger and thirst and durability of gear are not things you're passionate about at all.

I see people complain about food spoilage in other games all the time. Go on game forums of games that have spoilage and you'll see them. They absolutely hate the mechanic no matter how it is implemented. But people who do like it would enjoy mods that add it to the game. So it makes complete sense to not add something that is going to just generate complaints if it is part of the base game if it can be modded onto the game for those who do want it and would be forgiving if it was slightly janky or unbalanced.

There have been enough posts in this thread from people saying "NO please!!" to gear degradation in any form that I agree that it is best as a mod. But it will be a mod I will personally will want to play. I remember gear degradation from the past and miss that particular poop/wipe party.

 

[FileMachete]

Thank you for the great explanation! I do pay for the cpu priority. Also, trying to visually understand virtual machines makes my head hurt, for some reason grasping the fact that there are computers running programs that you can’t see because they're ‘virtual’ just seems....odd. My brother works with virtual farms with hundreds of vm’s that you can’t see. Oh well, not my field so I’ll just say okay and go about my day.
However, on this cpu load thing....why would A17 & below have 1% cpu load at idle but A18 is 10-12% and is there any significance to it or do we just ignore this and say it doesn’t matter?

Short answer; if the game is playing fine then I'd just report it to Bluefang/TFPs and not let it bother you.

Bluefang has or hasn't made a change to their dashboard, that you posted the pic of. But combined with A18 it looks like high Idle load. It may be almost nothing at all as that dashboard is dividing, rounding and averaging the 'real' data before presenting it to you.

It could something as simple as a new Network driver getting installed and the driver not getting assigned to the "Server VM"; there's usually a portion of the machine dedicated to serve that boxes hardware, and used to hide the baseline/background-noise CPU/RAM/Network loads from the Client VMs.

Could be it's just A18 is a bit fatter and they haven't adjusted the dashboard yet.

Most likely, in my opinion, is that A18 + Linux = orphaned or zombie processes. Which seem to get killed on a new startup.

The only, possibly, trustworthy performance info you can get is whatever 7dtd has been instrumented to provide. Either in logs or on screen.

Figure out what those are and track them. Find someone running a non-virtualized 7dtd server and compare data.

Edit: btw, you're welcome , was working to answer your question first, then forgot to say welcome, heh.

 

[Laz Man]

I'm in the middle of a few projects, as is typical, like finishing up my perimeter wall/catwalk, and so on. But here are some pics of my base so far.
Those familiar with Nav will notice where this is. NW corner of Diersvill, the farm is in the background. Put my BM tower right across the steet... was wondering how my base kept getting messed up on horde nights... well, every bullet that didn't hit a zombo hit the front of my house: I'm an idiot. I am now taking cautionary measures and putting up a bulletproof glass shield in just the right spot, cause I ain't movin now...

View attachment 30026

Especially love making good use of the existing structure, or in this case the lack of it. It works out great for visibility in this POI. If I am up on that rooftop I can pick off anything from any side. Funny thing is my actual work spaces are quite small, I mostly turned this burnt down house into a garden. Call it my Phoenix House, preserved most of it overall.

View attachment 30027

View attachment 30028

View attachment 30029

I did not expect to actually stay in this POI for long at first, the spot I roomed off is not very big, but I enjoy the challenge of compacting a ton of stuff into a tight space, effectively, so it has been a ton of fun. Otherwise this lot is rather large, so I spend most time/resource on the overall perimeter. I also have an "open door" policy most of the time, where I make my front door very accessible for zombos to waltz right in whenever they want. I only use my junk turret at base, all my others are on my BM tower, so if I get visitors it's on me. This one works out because I can quickly/easily get above the door and pop them from above and behind before they get around the corner and reach my turret/door.

View attachment 30030

I love these types of builds, especially for longer play through. That is hilarious about the stray gun fire....almost Madmole level hilariousness....but not quite lol...

For me, I envision upgrading an existing POI as my main home ala "I am legend"/ "Omega man" with a nearby horde base like yours (but not too near lol)

 

[Blake_]

Bethesda depends on quests a lot more than we do, we have the blood moon to keep players busy which created a very successful game long before we added quests.

While I believe that 7dtd gameplay will get to be superior compared to any Bethesda game, I reserve my judgement about the quest/campaign/faction stuff. When I reserve my judgement it's generally because of disbelief. Now, if you hire traslators, lore "enrichers" and writers to fix grammar mistakes I could end up eating my words. And I am eating my words quite a bit lately with this title.

The Elder Scrolls lore does have tons of hours of work behind. Fallout ( Obsidian's core concept) does too. 7 days deserves much more lore and story than, at least, Fallout.