PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

This is all gut reaction from someone who has not played alpha 18 yet. With that being said.
3-4 seconds is an eternity in this game and can mean death. You yourself have stated this is going to be a big deal.

I say this is un needed. I get hit all the time with melee in alpha 17. I take a good amount of damage already and use my fair share of healing bandages.

High level pois are already pointless because of the ammo we have to use. Rage mode will only make it worse.

Again this is rage mode in a17. I'm sure balance will be done for rage mode in a18.

Just putting my thoughts out there.

I was wrecking everything with no healing other than primitive bandages and never getting hit. It needed something to spice it up. As I said its rare to see one jog, no sprinting. Its more like oh this guys moving a little faster than his buddies, enough to cause a bit of discomfort. A18 has better armor, less bleeding, so getting hit is more probable but less critical.

 

[madmole]

View attachment 28804 Videos.

Getting my new pc going, once the dust settles there I'll get to some.

 

[madmole]

I find it unfair that player has a compass, and watch from the very beginning. Gamers can spawn in and find out lots of valuable information for nothing. Maybe you could add clocks and compass as equipable/consumable items so that players have to scavenge for a bit before they can magically learn time and direction they're facing?

What advantage does having a compass give anyone? Going North gains you nothing if you don't know what is there.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

The main difficulty is in adapting to it. My point was that compared to previous alphas where there was always slight adaptation required, this alpha is going to require more from players. Confined spaces are tougher with the speed boost, not gonna lie. I take more hits than ever before. As Madmole mentioned you sometimes have to just turn and run and avoid until their speed timer runs out.

As Guppy said, kiting hordes is not so easy and requires more situational awareness. I’d say the same is true with smaller numbers when inside confined quarters.

What’s funny is that it can happen from any damage. So a zombie brushes against a cactus and it starts running. Lol.

Sounds good to me. I like it when you need to be aware of your surroundings for quick escapes. I also like it when you have to keep moving. I see all the time in videos and streams, people seem to either stand still or might back pedal a little while in melee... and it drives me nuts.

This is far better than playing a game of stamina maintenance like we saw in early A17. I would rather run out of stamina because I am running around like a maniac dodging and swinging for my life, and not because of a single power swing at the wrong moment.

 

[madmole]

How about new guns?Only m-60?or something else?i think m60 will make horde nights even easier in my opinion it should require to lay down to shoot properly

Maybe you ought to hit the weights lol. An m60 weighs 23 pounds I could shoot one with one arm no problem.

 

[madmole]

*Any chance to see a Death Penalty option in A18? *prays*
OOooooooh Death Penalty....right....yes this...

Hey Madmole...are boats ever going to be a thing?? asking for a friend...

What dates WONT A18 be coming out?

Why do you want boats when water is 2% of the map?

 

[madmole]

Okay so a few of us have been playing with this mod or variants of this mod for a while...
...the net result is two fold.

First, the little speed increase when they're coming towards you adds a little challenge when trying for timing, but nothing you can't handle on 1v1.

Where it really shines is in wandering hordes.

You know how currently you can pick one off at a time after they conga line, and wandering hordes are ZERO challenge, no matter the count?

Well now, when you knock one down and move on to another, you have to be wary of the 1, 2, or even 3 that are gonna charge you from the middle of the pack.

It's epic gameplay, and like Tin said, get the mods to get a sneak peak preview.

Yes the angry ones push the slow ones out of their way its pretty cool.

 

[madmole]

Madmole, a consultation, already fixed the adherence of the C4 to the weapons boxes? I would like to see better adherence of the C4 to things, in the video of Prime we saw how it did not adhere very well, and a query but the size of the grenades are also going to be modified? I think they have to be smaller

C4 is a wip, grenade size is debateable. I'd hate to reanimate it just because it might be 15% too big for realists. The upside is you can kind of see where its going easier.

 

[madmole]

Screw a date; you guys don't follow them anyway... Pack the release full of goodies.

No, its good to get builds out. Leaving it in the oven too long and it might burn.

 

[Guppycur]

What advantage does having a compass give anyone? Going North gains you nothing if you don't know what is there.

Uh, finding your way back is really easy with a compass, not so much easy without one.

 

[madmole]

BuT wHy Do YoU cArE hOw I pLaY???

No but seriously... if someone spent so much time (especially with the new Zs) in building up a great base, isn't that "interacting" with the horde enough?

Like... if I farm wood 24/7 until hordenight for spikes... why punish that playstyle if that is how they like to play?

I for one wouldn't do it, and I love that all electric defenses now give xp. That is enough in my eyes...

just wondering why this is so much a thorn in your eye that you explicitially "reduce player choice" to force them to interact with it?

I mean seeing how many radiated Zs were on my day 50 horde (fluctuation of 2 days to give it a bit of edge)... no spikepit in this WORLD could have stopped them.

Like... it was only radiated... and they kept coming till 3 AM (with 16 bmc)

I only survived because electric fences and bladetraps slowed them down enough and thinned out the amount for me that my 300 7.62mm bullets were just about enough.

Again: I am fine with electric traps giving xp. I don't really build spikes anymore.

BUT it would be a nice thing to get xp from all our work, not just from those you deem worthy.

Also... just because I am always so negative:

A18 really looks promising. So many mistakes of 17 were eradicated and so much has been worked on. Really looking forward to it, even if I am still the biggest devils advocat and will continue that god given role

No seriously. I like so many features. It looks better and I feel you guys work really hard on this one.

Keep going

Its a technical thing, we can't track kills from regular blocks. If we make the spikes model entities the FPS will crash and burn.

 

[madmole]

Made some ground in A18 or A17?

I don't know specifically, I never played 17 on a dedi. I played a lot of A18 on the dedi and its better than the last time I played as a client, not sure when that was.

 

[madmole]

Madmole can you add dinosaurs to the game? And also add at least 60 new weapons #Don'tBanMe

Go play Ark dude. If your potato can handle it.

 

[madmole]

If Tower Defense is the core of the game then sitting inside doing nothing after crafting a bunch of traps *is* valid gameplay and should be rewarded as such.
if its not then its a shooter. You cant say its a core design feature then nullify the play style.

Who's nullifying anything? Traps kill stuff. Should players be able to thrive from wooden spikes? No. Later tech trees that require multiple difficult to acquire resources, perks and tech? Yes.

 

[madmole]

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 a13 and earlier. Thank you.

No idea.

 

[madmole]

I have a question, Madmole. How does mining feel in a18? we didn't see much of that in the streams. Barring the obvious issues that come with every new tweak, how good is it vs previous versions of the system?. In a17 lead is everywhere underground. Iron too. Nitrate and Coal though..... they feel like the old forge book. Because you may see a patch or two of gravel, but you very often dig to bedrock straight from the gravel patch and nothing.

I think you will like it. We're modeling really nice surface ore models which make it easy to find the underground ore mines. Underneath it is voxel ore (marching cubes). So even if someone mines the surface ore boulder the terrain voxel ore is visible (just harder to see). The in ground ore gives more than the fancy surface rock, so hopefully most players will dig it down and not just cob all the surface ore.

The old generic stones will probably just drop stone and a bit of iron. There will be ample deposits to find now. I'll show it once its ready, we just pulled the trigger on getting the surface ore today, the ore piles were still too hard to find. This will solve it once and for all.

 

[madmole]

Uh, finding your way back is really easy with a compass, not so much easy without one.

Back to what? What are you trying to find? The OP was talking about N S E W, not quest markers or map markers. Those are what make it easy, the actual N S E W and having a compass are useless IMO.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Its a technical thing, we can't track kills from regular blocks. If we make the spikes model entities the FPS will crash and burn.

See? Now we're getting somewhere This is something I can reason with.

Thank you for beeing honest. That explains a lot and makes me rest easy, even if I think its sad. I know sometimes technical limitation are a limiting factor.

 

[Mechanimal]

Who's nullifying anything? Traps kill stuff. Should players be able to thrive from wooden spikes? No. Later tech trees that require multiple difficult to acquire resources, perks and tech? Yes.

I do hope the turrets have been fixed, also the lights, although not as important. I did not engage in much "tower defense" gameplay in A17 because the turrets wasted tons of ammo trying to shoot through walls. I was actually really surprised you guys published with this bug intact. I know Prime has been tasked with other things, but AFAIK he also made the electrical system, just hoping he gets it in usable shape before you guys release ye ol Kraken this time.

And I totally agree that it should take far more than just spikes. I have played a TON of actual Tower Defense games, the way some peeps zone out on solitaire, etc. Although I do like the in game turrets, I would love to see more types and especially the ability to upgrade them, two staple elements of even the most basic Tower Defense systems.

 

[Locusta]

Crafting a bunch of traps is not participating in the horde event. I don't want players sitting inside doing nothing and then at 4 am go out and collect all their gifts.

Isn’t crafting traps EXACTLY what a Tower Defence game is?? It feels less and less like a TD game and more like a looter shooter with each update. Making traps should be viable as a tactic or could even be adapted into another character class! A mechanic who’s good with their hands but not so great with combat.

Loc