PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Blake_]

Not to “tarnish” your argument about the need for scaling brass drops for busy servers, but in reality the xml files are like a slightly more complicated settings menu. The admin of a popular server should probably adjust the settings of the game for his server by increasing percentage of brass and amount of brass. I don’t think it would be difficult to add a scrap brass drop to destroyed stone so that it can be harvested in the wasteland. Just look at the xml code for stone which drops a single iron ore and copy that property to destroyed stone and find the name for scrap brass to replace iron ore. And voila.
These are basic edits that can be learned quickly and are just a small step above changing settings in an options menu. More complicated than toggling through percentages in the game menu but not as complicated as full on modding. You might even say that the xmls have been provided to us as the most glorious options menu ever seen. Pages and pages of options.

Thx for the tip. Yes I am able to code that and when the boredom hits they are cool and fine even for a vanilla purist like me.

Wasteland destroyed stone dropping a little brass like the bits of iron from ordinary rock? Man that makes sense. Rubble with metal debris in the most difficult biome. Nice. Also, Let's make it a suggestion for vanilla!

 

[Crater Creator]

Even if it were possible, Im generally against it. You cannot specialize in spikes so its not something that needs to grant XP. Explosives, turrets, etc can be specialized in, and are specific components to specific archtypes so its needed. Spikes are just generic entry level stuff and don't matter IMO. They require no specialized knowledge and do not need to give players XP.

Okay, thanks for sharing your thought process on it. In other words, spikes are the run-of-the-mill 'Stone Age' traps that every player character can make, and unlike more advanced traps, nobody masters spikes.

But following that logic, why should you get XP for kills with a wooden club or wooden bow? These, too, are unspecialized Stone Age weapons. The game instructs every player to make them, and players don't master these, they master the more advanced weapons. Among primitive survivalists, hunting with weapons and hunting with traps are both valid strategies (not quite the same thing, but there are no zombie survivalists to consult ).

To be clear, I'm not trying to prove a point that spikes must earn XP. Rather, I’m trying to tease out if the underlying vision for what makes something worthy of earning XP is self-consistent.

 

[DUST2DEATH]

If the player could interact with loot containers etc. while F7 was enabled then that would solve all problems. People who wanted to play without on screen aids could just press F7 and play and be able to fully function in the game until they were sick of it and then press F7 again to have it all back. Think about it for the future. The world looks awesome with F7 enabled but you can't do everything unfortunately.

Its really painful to keep reading about these hardcore fantasy versions of 7 days. If you can't imagine us doing it, lets not talk about it. I can assure you we will never publish a hudless version of the game. This belongs in mod requests. I might as well start talking about religion and politics in here, that is how alien most of these ideas feel to me.

CD Project Red: Hold my beer.

Cyberpunk 2077 will have a 'hardcore mode' with no UI

 

[vicflo]

fishing is very appealing. its something i look for in just about every survival type game. even fish traps would be cool. something you can craft. set in place and randomly catch fish. just dont know how that would work as a block in a voxel game though.

 

[Odetta]

Congrats! Thats a ton of weight for 2 months. Yes fat is literally cancerous, and raises estrogen (which lowers testosterone), raises blood pressure, lowers self image, etc. I feel fat at 15% body fat, but I used to be around 22% and felt nasty. I'm trying to reach around 11% or even 10% this time.
I don't like losing muscle, so I cut weight really slow. If you have a lot of weight to lose and aren't starving yourself then you might as well go as fast as you can and get it done. I lost 35 pounds on my first run at keto over 3 months, going from 233 to 198. I was 208 and 11% last summer, I want to get to there again in about 2 months. I'm 210 and 15% right now, so I need to gain about 5 pounds of muscle and lose 10 pounds of fat yet. I was 16% and 212 a few weeks ago when we did the video chat, so I'm looking a lot better already. Dream physique is 10% and 220 pounds but I don't know if I can pull that off lol. I'll try though.

Thank you:02.47-tranquillity: I've been sticking to a plan and seeing great results. I also do intermittent fasting and do my cardio in a fasted state so I can drop the fat quickly. Your A19 goal should be to get to and maintain that 10% body fat.

Anyway back on the A18 topic, will all the biomes be overhauled for the A18 release or are you guys doing it one at a time a la carte style?

 

[Aldranon]

Hey everyone. I placed five blunderbusses on my tool belt and was able to quickly shift to each one mid animation. It works great and was tons of fun. Amazing how small changes can have big impacts. Five shots then retreat to reload them all really changes up combat in a satisfactory way. Never really used the blunderbuss after it was first added but doing five with interruptible reload animations is a ton of fun.
Now to think of five appropriate female names...

Bada bing bada Boom! Boom! Boom!

I will sooo use that early game!

 

[Thecolours]

Hey everyone. I placed five blunderbusses on my tool belt and was able to quickly shift to each one mid animation. It works great and was tons of fun. Amazing how small changes can have big impacts. Five shots then retreat to reload them all really changes up combat in a satisfactory way. Never really used the blunderbuss after it was first added but doing five with interruptible reload animations is a ton of fun.
Now to think of five appropriate female names...

How about the names of my 5 ex-wives?

 

[faatal]

Is zombie rage easily moddable? Speed up, slow down, chance of occuring, etc..

That is in code. I have a lot of stuff to finish for A18, so not planning on changing it now.

 

[Teal]

This new update is gonna be amazing! I haven't been this excited since electricity.

 

[faatal]

Thank you for the A18 play info. I can't wait to experience any/all of the new features/changes myself. (I got goosebumps just reading your post...)
And, MadMole, while I know you can tough out the forum non-positivity, remember that there are a FEW of us always lurking in the 'background' (reading every post) who feel this is one of the greatest pre-games ever, and want to experience what YOU (and maybe Faatal or SEAN (Shawn - see I read every post) think a great game would be.

A18 is looking pretty nice. I've been grinding away on reflection probes and lights for about a week now.

Occlusion causes reflection probes to be uglier, so probes are getting an upgrade and light tracking needed some work for the new probes which lead to me fixing other light bugs and then this old ugly bug today:

Fixed held torch light clipping through world (Added LightLODHeld which does height and distance casts to pull light toward player. Decreased near shadow plane).

 

[Crater Creator]

A18 is looking pretty nice. I've been grinding away on reflection probes and lights for about a week now.
Occlusion causes reflection probes to be uglier, so probes are getting an upgrade and light tracking needed some work for the new probes which lead to me fixing other light bugs and then this old ugly bug today:

Fixed held torch light clipping through world (Added LightLODHeld which does height and distance casts to pull light toward player. Decreased near shadow plane).

View attachment 28812View attachment 28813View attachment 28814

Cool, but I feel like a 'before' shot would really drive it home.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Faatal:

I have a question regarding the uma character.

In single player is there a way to flip the light/shadow fx on the player hand and held objects 180 degrees.

so as i approach a light blocking object, it builds the shadow toward me.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

I can't wait to be looking through poi bookshelves for these new books, im going to assume there are more to be added as time goes on for various things, and faatal, im liking the lighting, its looking great, this has me more hyped than before.

 

[DaVegaNL]

I was saying it could delay starting on them for up to 6 months. We're planning on all the meshes for bandits for A19, and beginning some code efforts, but they might not end up in the game until later. Depends how good they are and how long convincing AI takes to complete.

Okay thanks for the clearing up!

 

[faatal]

Cool, but I feel like a 'before' shot would really drive it home.

Before is easy. Picture a black wall.

 

[Gazz]

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.

That is only true if the game has a single core design feature. (Nice try )

 

[faatal]

Faatal:I have a question regarding the uma character.

In single player is there a way to flip the light/shadow fx on the player hand and held objects 180 degrees.

so as i approach a light blocking object, it builds the shadow toward me.

Not really. Normal shadows are just light being blocked by rendered meshes (if enabled), so the light would have to be farther than what is in your hand to make a shadow toward you.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Thank you, I asked because when im in the shadow of a mountain, or walking toward a house, near sunset, my gun is always lit.

But i understand now. I do like the looming dark in that hallway.

 

[RipClaw]

That is only true if the game has a single core design feature. (Nice try )

Okay, different argument. You can fight the bloodmoon horde completely without a base on the street if you have enough ammo and the appropriate skills. You can fight the horde like in a pure shooter. Shouldn't it also be possible to fight the horde like in a pure tower defense game?

 

[Gazz]

Okay, different argument. You can fight the bloodmoon horde completely without a base on the street if you have enough ammo and the appropriate skills. You can fight the horde like in a pure shooter. Shouldn't it also be possible to fight the horde like in a pure tower defense game?

So you are claiming that it cannot be played like that.

Based on that assumption I would say that it would be nice if it was possible, further assuming you have placed enough fortifications and traps.