PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Lonestarcanuck]

This is getting closer. I was thinking that R3 unlocks an industrial forge which is required for steel and has faster crafting and more slots, way faster smelting and larger smelting reservoir, required electricity and did not make smell

I think the Forge and firepit are both in need of a major overhaul - especially the forge.

-- a tiered system BOUND to the person with the skill/perk should be required otherwise people will make and give.

-- adding more slots or higher capacity is a great idea

-- adding faster and better quality (peerless?) using electric or gas would be cool. think about forging (one of my Son Forges) and using coal, Coke, Gas all have different speeds and heat signatures, also Electric smelting is (I think) only common for aluminum.

-- while at it - it would be nice to have skill restrictions, so I can't be a level 1 and someone gives me a jeep and I and I can use. it. even WOW has level restrictions on Mounts. some sort of gate that allows a crafter with that perk to use but only players of XX level can consume/use.

 

[Gamida]

Faatal isn’t playing 17.2...

Bastard, you just had to rub it in didn't you...

 

[Sirillion]

I think the Forge and firepit are both in need of a major overhaul - especially the forge.
-- a tiered system BOUND to the person with the skill/perk should be required otherwise people will make and give.

-- adding more slots or higher capacity is a great idea

-- adding faster and better quality (peerless?) using electric or gas would be cool. think about forging (one of my Son Forges) and using coal, Coke, Gas all have different speeds and heat signatures, also Electric smelting is (I think) only common for aluminum.

-- while at it - it would be nice to have skill restrictions, so I can't be a level 1 and someone gives me a jeep and I and I can use. it. even WOW has level restrictions on Mounts. some sort of gate that allows a crafter with that perk to use but only players of XX level can consume/use.

I can only speak for myself but I would really not want this game to be artificially gated behind magical gates for trivial things just for the sake of the feel of progression.

We need to keep in mind that this is a post apocalyptic game that takes place after events and that our playing character has had a life prior to this event or born during. Driving a car is not hard, it is not hard to learn and it is not hard to keep doing when you've learnt how to. Making a car, now that is hard, using, not so much.

Gating stuff just for the sake of gating is not the way to go imho, and if you get a good gun you will find out how to use it quick enough, same with bats, shovels, pick axes. It shouldn't be so that: "No can do, I know how to dig with my iron shovel but I have to wait 4 more levels to dig with my steel one that looks and feels exactly like it, its just made of a different material."

Soulbound stuff, like from MMO's, has no place in this game either ... imho.

 

[Can'tadian]

I liked the idea of the new parts being used for repair instead of the repair kit.
Even if you don't want to make the repair kit become a tool for the workbench it would still be interesting to make it cost lots of parts for field repairs and fewer parts for workbench repairs. It would make finding a random workbench at a POI great for pausing and doing some quick repairs on the cheap. Right now, when I find a working workbench its meh because I usually am not ready to setup a big crafting project right then when I'm scavenging but to do some good repairs it would be a nice find.

And the functionality of something being cheaper to craft depending on whether you use a particular workstation or not is already in the game so should be intuitive for new players. They can still repair their gun anytime with 8 gun parts but at a workbench they can repair it for 4 gun parts. They're never blocked from repairing and having to figure out what to do to be able to repair.

+1 I agree that this is the best of both worlds.

using gun parts as the repair item is still simple enough and ads an even greater value to finding guns! keeps the hunt for supplies alive!

and for new players that find a gun right off the hop, it's probably quicker to find another gun to repair it then to get to the point where you can craft the materials for it

and then the workbench repair is rewarding to the experienced players because it's an additional way to upgrade they're base setup!

- - - Updated - - -

But what about immersion in the game? Books, steroids as well as dropping a backpack are situational solutions to a problem.
The ability to drop a backpack will not make a player’s life very easier if you worry about it. Maybe you just do not want to do it, because you think that no one will use it?

If this is the case, then you need to think about removing from the game, Blanderbass) nobody really uses this type of weapon)

Dude you have been humored long enough. Let it go

If you feel this strongly about something, then take that inspiration, learn coding, and mod it in yourself.

 

[Can'tadian]

if the debate includes here, I'm for only using parts for guns, They are complicated machines, but armour and tools can be quite makeshift

 

[Drisky]

Hi guys,

how is RWG coming along do you think it will be coming out within A17.x or looking more like A18. The last update on it i could find is the river banks which looked amazing and im curios now it has been a couple more weeks if you have any updates for us. I'm not having much fun in the current state of RWG so im eagerly waiting.

Keep up the good work!

 

[meganoth]

Hi guys,how is RWG coming along do you think it will be coming out within A17.x or looking more like A18. The last update on it i could find is the river banks which looked amazing and im curios now it has been a couple more weeks if you have any updates for us. I'm not having much fun in the current state of RWG so im eagerly waiting.

Keep up the good work!

Last info is that some improvements will be in A17.3, but the real deal comes with A18

 

[Pegasus]

I think maybe something has been lost in translation.
The answer is no.

You got a dev to hear your request, consider it, and answer you. You tried again. He answered again. You tried again. He said the debate is over and its time to move on because it won't happen. You're just being a poor sport at this point, man.

Maybe if you roll a die you can get a different answer. Here......borrow mine....

I dunno, Roland. They said weapon parts were dead a long time ago ... and suddenly we have weapon parts back. (And I am IN NO WAY endorsing this drop the backpack lunacy, just to be clear.)

But that's okay, I love storage boxes, and can make lots and lots of storage boxes for weapon parts again.

I just wanna see the new stuff, I'm sold already, release the Kraken! Now y'all are just teasing us.

BTW, I want that die ... a nice big one that I can throw at people.

 

[Grue]

hey faatal what about that bug, when you crouch in 1 block ground, you can see thought terrain? its game breaking for pvp. is it fixed for a17.3?

I looked at that like a week ago and could not reproduce. Tester verified and could not either, so previous changes may have fixed.
Kinyajuu just fixed this one today:

Fixed: SDTD-7848 Easy camera clipping exploit in A17 with e.g. ramps

Really? I do that so often in 17.2, that I thought it was intentional to help you crawl under things.

Go the large firehouse POI, there are two tanks in the back yard connected by pipes, crouch and walk under the pipes to reproduce.

 

[Sirillion]

I dunno, Roland. They said weapon parts were dead a long time ago ... and suddenly we have weapon parts back.
But that's okay, I love storage boxes, and can make lots and lots of storage boxes for weapon parts again.

I just wanna see the new stuff, I'm sold already, release the Kraken! Now y'all are just teasing us.

I am not sure that we will get weapon parts like we knew it. I think he means one “scrap” item called weaponnameParts that will be used for repairing.

Although I do hope they bring weapon parts back and then combine it with the mod system. That way you have the standard parts that a gun needs to work and you exchange those with modded versions (springs, triggers, magazines, barrels, stocks, grips) and then you have the extra parts that you put on as modifications (scopes, silencers, sights)

 

[Pegasus]

I always say that those little things count. It would be quite impressive.

I will be incredibly sad and angry if they continue to take away paint textures to save memory, and then add in ten billion new textures just because someone doesn't like the fact that a brown level item looks the same as a blue level item. It's a gun. It looks like a gun. It should look like a gun. I don't care if it looks like every other gun. It shoots things and hopefully kills them dead. Good enough.

I'm already upset over the removal of most of the paint textures and the uglification of the ones that remain.

Yes, I know, it's a zombie game, blah blah freaking blah. I know the devs think we should all be freaking Rambo and do nothing but shoot and loot all damned day and night. Not everyone plays the same way, not everyone enjoys the same things. I like to have a place look nice, and I can barely manage that now with the paints as they exist, and having them even more negatively impacted over something this utterly stupid would be complete bull. Give us our paints back please, or at least make it modifiable.

 

[Pegasus]

I am not sure that we will get weapon parts like we knew it. I think he means one “scrap” item called weaponnameParts that will be used for repairing.
Although I do hope they bring weapon parts back and then combine it with the mod system. That way you have the standard parts that a gun needs to work and you exchange those with modded versions (springs, triggers, magazines, barrels, stocks, grips) and then you have the extra parts that you put on as modifications (scopes, silencers, sights)

Nope ... he said AK will break down to AK parts, shotgun will break down to shotgun parts, etc ... and that you use those parts to make new AKs or Shotguns. I don't think it's going to be as clunky as what we used to have which was a million different pistol parts ... I'm at least open to seeing how it works. As long as the "AK Parts" stack, I think it'll be kind of neat. And it's a compromise between what was (A16) and what is now (A17) ... to make what sounds like a pretty interesting what will be (A18 and beyond).

But, it also sounds like this is still in progress, so things may (of course) change. We will see what we wind up with.

But I am very much against having to find tool parts ... I don't mind the parts, but I think we should be able to craft them ... perhaps that would be a good use of the Hammer and Forge perks ... levels there to be able to create tool parts in the forge.

 

[n2n1]

I just tried a generator wired to 4 spots lights and 5 light bulbs. Didn't see any performance issues. The profiler didn't show any spikes.

If the wires go in series then you need more connections, if there are branches from the line - then micro-freezes appear faster.

I had connected to a solar panel: 1battery-Bank and 6-8 lamps inconsistently, but not from one place. Friezes were visible.

In principle, i expected this result and thought that it is already known to developers (i've seen similar performance drops in other players).

If I can reproduce it in A17 again I'll show the diagram.

 

[khzmusik]

Well, I like the idea of having more recipes for it, but gasoline would not work very well as gasoline is not “fatty” and as such would clean of any oil and make the gun likely to fail faster I think. What could work is tallow which has been used for gun cleaning or other forms of lubrication or cleaning through the times.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow

Adding three tiers of weapon cleaning kits could work well.

1 - Simple Weapons Cleaning Kit

Made with: Cloth, scrap metal and tallow.

2 - Basic Weapons Cleaning Kit

Made with: Cloth, scrap metal and weapons oil.

3 - Advanced Weapons Cleaning Kit

Lootable only, Weapons stores, army camps.

Higher tiers = lower penalties.

When I say penalties to durability it is important not to confuse that with quality degradation. What I mean is that the weapon suffers a loss of max durability, as in the bar no longer go to 100%. Like what happens to health and stamina right now.

No mods are lost or dropped due to that, the mod slots stay just the same, just that the weapon will eventually need a proper cleaning/repair when given the in-the-field treatment enough times as it will “fail” with almost every shot.

This system would mean that if you are careless with the weapon a complete fail when trying to repair it at base would be likely as a repair should calculate based on the level of durability degradation and your skill/perk in doing so and RNG a likely outcome for the gun.

A UI pop up could then present you with a choice. “This weapon is severely damaged and is beyond repair for someone of your skill level. Would you like to salvage the weapon for parts?”

You could then choose to salvage what you can or keep the weapon until your skill increases and try again.

I was thinking you would need the gasoline as a solvent. (It's the closest this game has to one.) Maybe just make that an additional ingredient, it's easy enough to find, even without a wrench.

I get what you're saying about the "max durability," and I can agree with that - the cheap repair kits only being able to repair, say, up to 80% of the gun's durability.

The other stuff, with the chance to fail and the warning UI, sounds like a lot of redesign and rebalancing for TFP without a whole lot of gameplay benefit. IMHO of course, TFP can do what they like.

EDIT: It's also possible to do this without different weapon repair/cleaning kit tier levels. You could have a perk that repairs up to a higher % with each level.

Or, perhaps better, associate it with an existing perk. Perk into shotguns, and repair/cleaning kits can repair a higher percentage of max. durability.

 

[Roland]

I dunno, Roland. They said weapon parts were dead a long time ago ... and suddenly we have weapon parts back. (And I am IN NO WAY endorsing this drop the backpack lunacy, just to be clear.)
But that's okay, I love storage boxes, and can make lots and lots of storage boxes for weapon parts again.

I just wanna see the new stuff, I'm sold already, release the Kraken! Now y'all are just teasing us.

BTW, I want that die ... a nice big one that I can throw at people.

The point was not that it will never ever happen. The point is to stop pestering once the dev has said, "no". If they later change their mind, great. But if they do change their mind it won't be because Orsey wore them down with additional repetitive posts where the "Pleeeeeeeaaaaase" just gets longer and longer and longer.

Also, I'm pretty sure that AK parts, Shotgun parts, Pistol parts, etc are going to be on the same level of abstraction as electrical parts, mechanical parts, scrap plastic, etc. We aren't going back to barrels, stocks, etc. that have quality levels nor will it be a separate assembly screen. So it's more of an abstract icon that will be part of the recipe for guns. I haven't seen it yet myself so I could be wrong but "return to parts" is being used loosely I suspect.

 

[Sirillion]

Nope ... he said AK will break down to AK parts, shotgun will break down to shotgun parts, etc ... and that you use those parts to make new AKs or Shotguns. I don't think it's going to be as clunky as what we used to have which was a million different pistol parts ... I'm at least open to seeing how it works. As long as the "AK Parts" stack, I think it'll be kind of neat.

Exactly, and this leads me to believe that we will see weapon parts like we do mechanical parts and electrical parts, only named as one item per weapon. Not as we used to with each weapon consisting of four parts.

 

[Sirillion]

I get what you're saying about the "max durability," and I can agree with that - the cheap repair kits only being able to repair, say, up to 80% of the gun's durability.

The other stuff, with the chance to fail and the warning UI, sounds like a lot of redesign and rebalancing for TFP without a whole lot of gameplay benefit. IMHO of course, TFP can do what they like.

I was thinking more along the lines of having the durability bar degrade further with every repair so that it eventually you will break the weapon completely and will be forced to either go repair it at a station or use another weapon. 7-8 repairs in the field maybe?

 

[jorbascrumps]

Another proposal that the developers will consider, but will not accept)))
We now have only 6 types of quality weapons and tools. Quality does not fall during the repair. So the weapon of each quality level can have its own texture.

1 - rusty, crooked, rewound with tape and ropes

2 - rusty, crooked, rewound with adhesive tape

3 - rusty, but with remnants of paint ...

...

6 - clean, brilliant, high-quality weapons, on which the factory grease still remained.

The same applies to tools, and possibly armor. Now all items, regardless of quality, look exactly the same.

It's not very good (

It has already been stated that this will not be happening. Effort is better spent on visual effects for mods.

 

[meganoth]

superfluous post

 

[Damocles]

Hi guys,how is RWG coming along do you think it will be coming out within A17.x or looking more like A18. The last update on it i could find is the river banks which looked amazing and im curios now it has been a couple more weeks if you have any updates for us. I'm not having much fun in the current state of RWG so im eagerly waiting.

Keep up the good work!

I think they should take their time, and push the new RWG to A18