PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Onarr]

That streamlining discussion again ? Come on, i'm the first to voice my criticism regarding various points (bladed weapons & stun batton being terrible, shotguns being terrible, etc...), but A18 is a masterpiece regardless. Asphalt got removed, it was probably an "oversight" or at least something that wasn't deemed important. That doesn't mean TFP just ♥♥♥♥s all over builders. I'm sure they will figure out a way to bring it back, but let's be fair, besides that dude who needs it, noone voiced the concern by now.


No it isn't fine. It serves absolutely no purpose when you know how to melee or unless you refuse to melee. Either there's 1 or 2 targets on you and it's an easy melee kill, or there are more targets and it's a terrible weapon choice because of its mag size and effective range. Even for the odd dog or wolf encounter it's subpar because it is totally unforgiving if you ever miss your bullets. It's just worse than an AK in every way unless we look at raw damage per bullet.

I agree that it is very weak, but early game I always used it as oh♥♥♥♥zombieinmyfacegoawaynow solution. Its quite fun when you unload both barrels and see him fly

- - - Updated - - -

For me it's just weird that MM took over a "design" role but all that he's done is cater to his particular gamestyle (Run and gun and loot) and any fan resistance to the deficit of other roles and playstyles has been met with.
A.) Handwaving away by MM which can largely be spelled out with two words, "Business" and "Streamlining". This is very similar to taking credit to a past administration's successes as your own. Business decisions and lack of streamlining were part of the formula that brought up this game for 17 alphas and made it successful. Going away from this trend will bring in more sales, probably, but the sales will be directed at the generic game players typically only seen on consoles and casual "Make more Chocolate" games and future gameplay WILL suffer for it. You're diluting your playerbase and alienating the people who have been here with you for 6 years.

B.) The sycophants that agree with ANYTHING that MM puts out or says. Guys, come on, we all love this game, and MM can be a positive infulence for sure, but when he says that the sky is green and you agree emphatically but everybody else looks out the window and says, "Yeah still blue here...", that's a "you" problem, not an "everybody else" problem.

Forming an army about a wrong opinion says more about the army than the contrast of ideas. Get your ♥♥♥♥ together, forums.

From what I heard, he started this whole project to create a game HE would love to play. I think that is his vision and I can respect that. I also do it like this for my projects. But I do agree that it would be nice if he listened to feedback and actually thought about it in depth. I feel that he takes it on very surface level. Usually the player feels something is off, he tries to identify it and report it.

However most players are not good at identifiing the key underlying issues so they will tell you: T2 bow should be craftable without parts. But real issue here is that it is hard to get into stealth gameplay because of rarity of weapons to go with that playstyle. Here lies the question: Is understanding player needs in Designers job description? I would think so. I like that MM takes time to react for many posts here. That is good. But I would like it if he thought a bit about what the poster tries to actually say. Otherwise there is failure to get idea across, and it creates devide between him and some of his playerbase.

And yeah, I really dislike fanatic fanboys that downplay any valid criticism. Game can be pretty awesome but still has its problems, especially in early access

 

[Laz Man]

The only thing I hate about this game right now from the bottom of my heart is that quests don't have a warning for the player leaving the quest area and just pop failed.
It's a common mistake for players to do Fetch and Clear Multiplayer quests and forget the Fetch part and screw your 3 hours clearing it without fair warning.

NEGATIVE REVIEW INCOMING :strawberry:

It does have a warning, top right hand side of your screen lol.

- - - Updated - - -

If you create the possibility to include soil types in the painting menu ( brush ) the problem would be solved.

Now theres a solution. Good thinking!

 

[TSBX]

You can't paint terrain blocks, and painting solid blocks next to terrain leads to the little trenches we all hate.

 

[SMiThaYe]

We're peaking sooner than anticipated for concurrent players, currently sitting at 35,166 and climbing.

All bets are off that we'll smash 36K easily. Taking note from Roland, now is the time for everyone to start up 7 Days To Die :encouragement:

 

[JaxTeller718]

That streamlining discussion again ? Come on, i'm the first to voice my criticism regarding various points (bladed weapons & stun batton being terrible, shotguns being terrible, etc...), but A18 is a masterpiece regardless. Asphalt got removed, it was probably an "oversight" or at least something that wasn't deemed important. That doesn't mean TFP just ♥♥♥♥s all over builders. I'm sure they will figure out a way to bring it back, but let's be fair, besides that dude who needs it, noone voiced the concern by now.


No it isn't fine. It serves absolutely no purpose when you know how to melee or unless you refuse to melee. Either there's 1 or 2 targets on you and it's an easy melee kill, or there are more targets and it's a terrible weapon choice because of its mag size and effective range. Even for the odd dog or wolf encounter it's subpar because it is totally unforgiving if you ever miss your bullets. It's just worse than an AK in every way unless we look at raw damage per bullet.

People are only mentioning it now because the masterpiece is indeed in the first 24 hours of play. But once you settle in and have your base is where the fun USED to begin for a lot of us. And that is when you start missing all the things you used to be able to time sink in. Painting, resurfacing, expanding etc. They have done a great job adding new decos and making this game fun again. No one here is criticizing the effort that went into steering the shipwreck that was 17. But even those new decos are mostly not available for crafting and were put in JUST for poi building, not player usage or with the idea that they will all be available to make your base your living quarters. MM himself called paint and dye junk that no one would care to lose if they scrapped it.

Its an ok opinion to have, but it should not be the only opinion. All of these new dumbed down negative reviews is exactly what I expected. You cater more to the casual gamer/broader audience you are now inviting a lot of sales to people who write stupid ♥♥♥♥ like "Hurr Durr this dev sucks he banned me cause i used racist slurs" or some other fortnite level infancy.

Which is why I was amused at his anger to people leaving negative reviews. The bubble that exists around this idea that bringing in tons more cash and gamers = positive word of mouth is laughable. All it does is invite toxicity. Mature gamers love 7 days. For 17 alphas we relished it. But mature gamers are no longer good enough. So you reap what you sow. Right or wrong (and trust me its wrong in most cases to see the trash these kids post) its a fact.

 

[Onarr]

Because some people like things that you now think are useless but were around for 17 alphas. Thats why its so important. Sometimes it appears like you just dont like something and no one else should either. World building was a heavy focus at one point in this game, I know that has shifted recently but that does not mean those who loved it just stop loving it. I know streamlining is a huge focus now but its important to remember some of the things that brought all of us to your table in the first place. We already lost maple and plains, couldnt the deco fans out there keep SOMETHING they like around?
You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.

You can catch even more flies with manure, whats your point?

Sorry I could not rezist I love building in game and would love some improvements in that regard. Painting your castle is pain. I think good system would be, if you could select texture in shape menu before placing the block. That would be pretty wizard. You know, decide how you stack stones or how you craft those planks.

 

[TSBX]

Shotguns do need the ability do hit multiple entities. It's been sorely lacking for a long long time and would go a long way to making shotguns in general more viable.

 

[katarynna]

Its pretty silly, its a zombie apocalypse you don't get time to landscape. Maybe we can overcome the limitation but I was told hey you get 3 blocks whats it going to be.. um ok dirt/adaptive and gravel. Maybe asphalt would be more desirable than gravel?

While clearly he doesn't understand why the asphalt is so important to some people, It doesn't sound like he is dismissing their concerns out of hand. He asked here and another place whether asphalt would be preferred to gravel after stating he was told they get 3 blocks and he picked dirt, adaptive and gravel.

Someone who cares about the issue could at least answer him and let him know if switching gravel for asphalt would make them happy or if they hope the limitation can be overcome because both gravel and asphalt are important to them.

I personally could care less, but hope that little things like that which mean a lot to some people can be accommodated. But politely replying to his suggested compromise would be the smart and polite thing to do.

If losing gravel would also be an issue, let him know before he just swaps them out.

 

[Onarr]

Shotguns do need the ability do hit multiple entities. It's been sorely lacking for a long long time and would go a long way to making shotguns in general more viable.

I think its possible. I ocassionally get double headshots with duckbill mod

- - - Updated - - -

While clearly he doesn't understand why the asphalt is so important to some people, It doesn't sound like he is dismissing their concerns out of hand. He asked here and another place whether asphalt would be preferred to gravel after stating he was told they get 3 blocks and he picked dirt, adaptive and gravel.
Someone who cares about the issue could at least answer him and let him know if switching gravel for asphalt would make them happy or if they hope the limitation can be overcome because both gravel and asphalt are important to them.

I personally could care less, but hope that little things like that which mean a lot to some people can be accommodated. But politely replying to his suggested compromise would be the smart and polite thing to do.

If losing gravel would also be an issue, let him know before he just swaps them out.

Problem is, nobody can talk on this issue for everybody. That is madmoles decision, all he needs to know that there is desire for asphalt. Also time for landscaping is when you dominate the world, its endgame gameplay, at least for me.

 

[madmole]

Yeah, I remember them doing that after those changes. I've heard it in action before and it was definitely helpful. I'm not sure what happened. I may have lost focus, or maybe something else.

In one case it was raining, and as soon as it stopped, I could tell that a world spawn was triggered because suddenly there were zombies nearby. If a wolf spawns in an area you are already at, would it howl? If a wolf is going for a zombie and changes its mind and heads at you, will it still howl?

I think we covered the basic use case, beyond that, always proceed with caution in the apocalypse.

 

[wolfbain5]

double barrel shotgun early game

bad against multiple zeds, keep it anyway, perfect for those lone wolves early on

edit: also good in snow biome early on. lumberjacks are arrow sponges and slow. but 2 head shots from the shotty, and down they go.

 

[TSBX]

I mean, re: the 3 texture issue that was construction strictly to defend the splatmap debacle, what if I were to tell you it was possible to only see about a 10% decrease in quality in exchange for a much more modifiable world. It's been done, not a theory, not an idea. It's possible. They just sprung for that extra bit of "aesthetics" because that's what happens when you put an "artist in charge of design".

 

[katarynna]

I think its possible. I ocassionally get double headshots with duckbill mod
- - - Updated - - -

Problem is, nobody can talk on this issue for everybody. That is madmoles decision, all he needs to know that there is desire for asphalt. Also time for landscaping is when you dominate the world, its endgame gameplay, at least for me.

Except, well, madmole ASKED if asphalt would be more desirable than gravel for the people who were complaining about the removal of asphalt.

And no one complaining even answered.

 

[skullpoker]

Any plans to release a stable version? Not really feeling a game that locks up my PC while building a map.

 

[Guppycur]

Any plans to release a stable version? Not really feeling a game that locks up my PC while building a map.

You won't likely like this answer, but try building a smaller map.

 

[wolfbain5]

Except, well, madmole ASKED if asphalt would be more desirable than gravel for the people who were complaining about the removal of asphalt.
And no one complaining even answered.

some did answer, since madmole is stating splat limitations, they countered with add terrain to the paint brush pallet. I too find the splat somewhat annoying. there is an adobe style house with what looks like a covered picnic area and a pile of sand in the desert. except it isnt sand, it stone...and that isnt the only example. that is annoying. go dig for stone in the desert. it all looks like sand, even down at stone. a little jarring to immersion.

game breaking, no.

annoying and jarring, yes.

edit: btw the desert is my favorite biome to live in, second is burned biome, except the smoke is an fps hit

 

[Guppycur]

Bigger issue is it destroys sub biomes and custom biomes.

 

[Gazz]

Shotguns do need the ability do hit multiple entities. It's been sorely lacking for a long long time and would go a long way to making shotguns in general more viable.

Shotgun shells fire 8 pellets.

The "problem" is that our shotguns are somewhat realistic in that they don't have a 45° spread like in many video games.

(still much higher spread than would actually be realistic but not comically wide)

Try a pumpgun with a sawn off barrel mod to see a more "normal computer game" shotgun.

 

[0ldman]

Except, well, madmole ASKED if asphalt would be more desirable than gravel for the people who were complaining about the removal of asphalt.
And no one complaining even answered.

I have been talking with a suggestion

 

[Laz Man]

You can't paint terrain blocks, and painting solid blocks next to terrain leads to the little trenches we all hate.

Not yet but maybe it could be done in the future. At least it's an idea instead of complaining.