PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Crater Creator]

About the Dead is Dead option
Roland, I do like the option of resetting the avatar if the player dies (while set to Dead is Dead.)

However, I don't understand why any bases, forts or other structures built by that player have to rot.

Why not make it so the player loses there land claim instead? That way anyone can claim these structures, even the former builder. It's all up for grabs.

But with no land claim all the closed doors would be locked as well as any stores made there. Any traps including turrets would open fire on anyone or anything that gets in range.

I think Madmole suggested something like that a few years back but I can't remember when.

Just an idea and it seems to better fit with the game.

In my opinion, that wouldn't be in the spirit of 'Dead is Dead'.

I think of Dead is Dead to mean your previous character is dead. So if you play further on that world, you're doing it role playing as a new character. This new character shouldn't have the benefit of knowing there's a base at such-and-such coordinates, with a door here and a secret entrance there and the guns are here and the food is there and yadda yadda yadda.

But that's exactly how it would play out. Especially if anyone can grab your stuff, the second you respawn you're going to want to rush to get back to your base and recover as much as you can. It'd be similar to vanilla rules now, where you want to rush back to your backpack as fast as you can before it despawns.

Accordingly, the only way Dead is Dead would make sense to me is if there is no base. Either the world is reset, or even better you play a different seed, so you can't even apply prior knowledge you learned as your first character about the natural terrain and where buildings are.

 

[Crater Creator]

I just tested it on bloodmoon every night for 3 days straight (just to be extra sure), and was cozy every night, with no damage to the terrain on the surface. Bunker was at bedrock.
Edit: Oh! and I used the nave map, so didn't give myself the extra terrain depth.

I'd appreciate if a developer could confirm if this is intended or not. It seems like a waste to spend all that time on AI if it's only going to change how parts of the underground play. Sounds like a bug to me.

 

[FA_Q2]

No. Unfortunately the current entity controllers are too expensive for these sorts of plans to ever appear in the base game, at least as it stands. Since the number of controllers the game can handle is pretty low, and controllers for survivors would detract from the pool available for zombies and bandits, I don't expect we'll ever see this, or, if ever we do, into some far distant post-Gold DLC.

I would not even mind if they were a placed object as the current trader is - place the building they are in and then they spawn sometime later and serve some purpose.

Doe not really fit well with the game atm though and I do not see that happening either.

 

[Haidrgna]

In my opinion, that wouldn't be in the spirit of 'Dead is Dead'.
I think of Dead is Dead to mean your previous character is dead. So if you play further on that world, you're doing it role playing as a new character. This new character shouldn't have the benefit of knowing there's a base at such-and-such coordinates, with a door here and a secret entrance there and the guns are here and the food is there and yadda yadda yadda.

But that's exactly how it would play out. Especially if anyone can grab your stuff, the second you respawn you're going to want to rush to get back to your base and recover as much as you can. It'd be similar to vanilla rules now, where you want to rush back to your backpack as fast as you can before it despawns.

Accordingly, the only way Dead is Dead would make sense to me is if there is no base. Either the world is reset, or even better you play a different seed, so you can't even apply prior knowledge you learned as your first character about the natural terrain and where buildings are.

As I see it there are some different kind of modes that could exist, Dead is Dead being one of them.

Normal:

You die, respawn on your bed or near you bed and play on (current mode)

Hard Mode:

In this mode you can only 'almost die' so many times before your character is reset to level 1, essentially being Dead is Dead light or for servers. 'Near death's' could be earned or at least recovered to a certain maximum, set at start of the game. This is the more arcade version but a good midway to the more hardcore Dead is Dead and Realism modes (see next).

Dead is Dead:

You die, your character data is removed and reset to level 1. You continue playing on that savegame, but are spawed somewhere far away from your base and place you died.

Realism:

You die, game over, no option to respawn, no reset, you just only can exit the game. Your savegame will stay, but cannot be loaded anymore (more like a trophy to show how far you got). This mode will not work in mp games but would be the true Dead is Dead or Hardcore experience where you just have 1 life and have to begin again from scratch in a new world.

 

[RipClaw]

In my opinion, that wouldn't be in the spirit of 'Dead is Dead'.
I think of Dead is Dead to mean your previous character is dead. So if you play further on that world, you're doing it role playing as a new character. This new character shouldn't have the benefit of knowing there's a base at such-and-such coordinates, with a door here and a secret entrance there and the guns are here and the food is there and yadda yadda yadda.

If you really want this as a role play then the character also shouldn't know anything about the world itself. A whole new world would have to be created to make sure that he can't use that knowledge.

 

[n2n1]

Yeah! So all we need to do is make a list of every bug, and then program the game to account for these bugs so that nothing unnatural/accidental/senseless happens as a result.
Gee, why does that sound familiar...

Usually it happens that correct interfering errors is difficult/is no time/is uninteresting, so there is a workaround - to do something, as a result of which these problems are leveled or will not be noticeable in the overall gameplay.

Therefore, extra lives, i see how this is an option.

Earn additional life will be interesting, and most importantly - will be a real motivation to procure XP, and grind will not be - it will be dangerous if these points are given only for killing zombies.

 

[crazywildfire]

If you really want this as a role play then the character also shouldn't know anything about the world itself. A whole new world would have to be created to make sure that he can't use that knowledge.

Think he was referring MP servers. Kinda hard to delete the world because one person dies.

My thing is on a straight pvp vs pvp these ideas work great. I don't know to many servers where everyone is against everyone. Pretty funny someone said this isn't Gvp it is pvp .... if you are solo then sure but if you belong to a group then the stuff you build shouldn't go away because you die.

Now we all know what should happen and what really happens. If you die only those who are dedicated with how they play or ones that are into RP servers will follow forgetting everything mind set. Everyone else would just run right back. So make it to where if you die you spawn back on the other side of the map and not so close. I mean all your skills and levels and items are gone. You really goin to make it back to your things in time? Or if you do what the odds of surviving if they have all the guns and such? So if someone dies just have the spawn settings far away from land claim block. Then when you die that block goes away so you no longer own that spot. Also if you no longer own the location someone else can claim it so it wouldn't be so easy to get back into the base u less you have a hidden storage.

 

[kebab39]

Hello Madmole, is it possible to extend the sound distance in game? Some custom game mods could involve gunshot echo going over 1km, but currently there seems to be hardcoded limit for sounds within 98 meters, which reduces some gameplay options - you can get shot by stock sniper rifle and no longer hear it, which did not happen in a16.4 and earlier. Thank you.

 

[Tin]

I'd appreciate if a developer could confirm if this is intended or not. It seems like a waste to spend all that time on AI if it's only going to change how parts of the underground play. Sounds like a bug to me.

Either way, its a "it is what it is" for now thing

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

I'd appreciate if a developer could confirm if this is intended or not. It seems like a waste to spend all that time on AI if it's only going to change how parts of the underground play. Sounds like a bug to me.

I can say with 100% confidence that in A17.0-A17.3 that this is intentional and is not a bug.

I don't feel like searching through hundreds of posts but I believe it was Faatal who was talking about the exact range at which zombies can detect you. after having read his post, I jumped in game dug deep enough that I past the detection range.

It worked. as far as A17.4 no clue if it has been changed as I have not really played this version all that much.

Note: In A17.0 the detection range was so far that it was almost impossible to find any land that you could dig deeper than the detection range.

A17.1 or maybe A17.2 the detection range was reduced (I forget what the reason was for this) and you could then find a huge hill or mountain and dig down from that and you could get past the detection range.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

I can say i also tested the player hearing range as well. no one could hear anything when I ran these tests in A17.0-A17.3

P.S. I know I'm a nut case but I gut the hell out this game in order to find out exactly how it all works and for bug/glitch hunting I do...yeah I actually get joy out of looking for bugs/glitches don't laugh. lol

When you love something you want to find out everything about that which one loves. I love this game so I dissect it, learning how every mechanic/feature/bugs/glitches work whether they be intentional or unintentional. Man I really do sound like a nut hahahaha

 

[RipClaw]

I can say with 100% confidence that in A17.0-A17.3 that this is intentional and is not a bug.I don't feel like searching through hundreds of posts but I believe it was Faatal who was talking about the exact range at which zombies can detect you. after having read his post, I jumped in game dug deep enough that I past the detection range.

Interesting. That they can' t hear one down there during the rest of the time was known to me but I thought during the horde night they could also find you on the bedrock. Wasn't the statement that they could find you anywhere during horde night ?

 

[sillls]

In my opinion, that wouldn't be in the spirit of 'Dead is Dead'.
I think of Dead is Dead to mean your previous character is dead. So if you play further on that world, you're doing it role playing as a new character. This new character shouldn't have the benefit of knowing there's a base at such-and-such coordinates, with a door here and a secret entrance there and the guns are here and the food is there and yadda yadda yadda.

But that's exactly how it would play out. Especially if anyone can grab your stuff, the second you respawn you're going to want to rush to get back to your base and recover as much as you can. It'd be similar to vanilla rules now, where you want to rush back to your backpack as fast as you can before it despawns.

Accordingly, the only way Dead is Dead would make sense to me is if there is no base. Either the world is reset, or even better you play a different seed, so you can't even apply prior knowledge you learned as your first character about the natural terrain and where buildings are.

I see what you mean. Yes you would know were everything is but you would be locked out. It would be like raiding a POI.

I just had a thought. What if the old player's base was seeded with sleepers??? What do you think about that?

That way it would be more like raiding a POI. I mean yeah you would know were your old base was but you would have to deal with the sleepers and such.

About backpacks: I think Madmole or somebody suggested that if a player died then the old avatar's body could get revived as a feral. Yeah you may know or see your backpack on map but good luck in getting your stuff back trying to kill that thing.

You might end up dying a few more times, making it impossible to get your stuff back due to more feral's. You really don't want to tangle with even one of those at level one and a simple stone ax.

The idea of a world reset every time a player dies isn't going to fly in MP. This would only work in SP as far as I know. But if players want to do Dead is Dead in SP, that would work.

EDIT: Adding to this. I just wanted to add that if this were to happen. An Avatar would (most likely) be a local, meaning that there would be from there and familiar with the area, the same thing in real life. So they would know the area around them.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Interesting. That they can' t hear one down there during the rest of the time was known to me but I thought during the horde night they could also find you on the bedrock. Wasn't the statement that they could find you anywhere during horde night ?

Yes during horde night they will find you regardless of where you are. Unless you know a bug that breaks it...which I will not say how to do here on the forums. there is a way though to stop them from detecting you during horde night but its a bug and not supposed to be like that.

 

[PurgatoryWolf]

Some requests from our servers:

1: Please move the chat box back into the corner.

2: Please make zombie loot bags last at least 15 minutes.

3. Can we get door knobs from wrenching certain house doors?

4. Could vehicles not destroy our own blocks / allies blocks?

5. We can lock turrets ammo, why not work station tools?

6. Can we please have the Bookcase Paint back?

 

[PurgatoryWolf]

when my husband plays DEAD IS DEAD on MP servers, he just leaves the server if he dies. End of story.

 

[RipClaw]

Yes during horde night they will find you regardless of where you are. Unless you know a bug that breaks it...which I will not say how to do here on the forums. there is a way though to stop them from detecting you during horde night but its a bug and not supposed to be like that.

The detection range is limited even at horde night, but to a very high value that does not allow you to hide from the horde. Cap00 tested it and it's about 150 blocks, if I remember correctly. Under no circumstances can you find a point on the map where the surface is 150 blocks above the bedrock. And building up doesn't help either, because you can't build that high. The only way to get that high is to go into debug mode and fly.

So you should surely be able to say that zombies should be able to find you anywhere. If they don't, that's a bug.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

So you should surely be able to say that zombies should be able to find you anywhere. If they don't, that's a bug.

I thought I did say that. "Yes during horde night they will find you regardless of where you are."

Eerrrr Cap00 I love the guy but he beat me at creating a youtube channel about 7D2D. I Kick myself in the butt for choosing to wait to start that type of channel. (shakes head at myself)

- - - Updated - - -

when my husband plays DEAD IS DEAD on MP servers, he just leaves the server if he dies. End of story.

Hey I do the same I thought I was the only one that plays this way

haha

 

[crazywildfire]

when my husband plays DEAD IS DEAD on MP servers, he just leaves the server if he dies. End of story.

But not everybody plays random servers like that. We have private password protected servers for a reason.

 

[leaderdog]

I'm curious, and sorry if it's posted already:

Are they adding a ray trace swing for weapons or we still going to be stuck with the gun shot one pixel is all you'll hit with a melee weapon swing?

Thus still hitting the wall, or air, or nothing despite the swing clearly should have hit something as the swing flows through the zombie.

Also load times. Just to load a single player game is an exercise in patience. I know there must be a lot going on in the background, but really, don't we only need the chunk(s) we're in and let the rest load in the background with our new fangled multicore cpus?