PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

"I can assure you that it will release befare the half of 2019" ... lol

That was when it was just a perk overhaul and some books, not 20 new weapons, occlusion culling, etc etc. I will assure you I won't promise anything ever again, lol.

 

[Mechanimal]

Well, I was curious and there were the options right there in front of me. I like the new pacing.

I do a few games pure vanilla in Nav just after release of an alpha, then I might try some RWG or a few mods after that. But if time is an issue, varies wildly depending on whether I am unemployed or super busy on a project, I may crank the XP slider to 150% or even 200% just so I can have a fuller experience within the limited time I have available, otherwise I leave at at default all the time. I'm just glad the slider is there if/when I want/need it, but I keep it as-is for the most part, and am really looking forward to the new experience it provides at the default rate.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Where is the "Alcohol Tolerance" book so I don't get blurred vision after one beer?

 

[madmole]

@MM - I went back on Twitter and watched all of your videos since 17.3 and did not see anything about ore/nodes.

Did you check TFP's twitter and mine?

 

[madmole]

So can I use lockpick to break into another players locked doors even on a Infinite protection server?

They only work on safes.

 

[madmole]

May I encourage you to increase the percentage by 5-10%?
Yes playing on higher difficulties is not "supported", but on higher difficulties, 5% of that 100 DMG maxed out sniper/Magnum is still only 5 damage more. (200% crit sneak its still only 10-15 extra dmg)

A sneak attack only works once it is not a continuous damage multiplier. One shot only. So while You might be able to gain 200% through perks and crit and whatever (I don't know exactly what the perks do), 5% is useless. You do not feel 5% if zombies have 600+ health.

I can't tell if its balanced yet obviously. But just from experience I think 5% is so little that its useless.

Also 200% knifedamage... when the machete already deals about double damage is weird... but allright

Its not useless, and its not OP. Scrap it then if you feel like its useless. All the damage bonuses are 5% on all the books, because frankly with random stats, perks and installed mods, damage is pretty sick now on the deep end of a game. We can always increase it, but its not meant to be better than a perk, its just a little something that people will take and like. Theres a whole other book series that adds 5% damage to killing specifics, so if you get all those then this your doing 10% more damage. Stack it with a sneak knife book perked backstab, and its 410% damage.

Its kind of hard to back stab with a sword, so this other perk is restricted to daggers.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

They only work on safes.

WAIT WHAT???

Why? Doors are the one thing I needed the lockpicks for!

Destroying the doors is so god damn loud!

PLEASE rethink this! I beg you. If I'm at the safe, having a lockpick is a luxury, but I could also just attack it.

Pretty Please? With a ROCK on top?

 

[madmole]

Are you bringing back more light choices (without CM) to use in A18? Just having the simple light and Spotlight sucks (no offense).

Yes I added 3 more, the caged simple light, the fluorescent one and the door light one.

 

[madmole]

Madmole,I have an offer from my subscriber.

It may be worth adding a book that will allow you to pass in 1 block?

I remember that you talked about the design of the POI, and that it does not take into account the possibility of passing in 1 block.

But in Alpha 17 we have a perk that allows you to jump 2+ blocks in height, I doubt that the POI design takes this into account.

Maybe you’ll think about returning to the game the opportunity to go in one block? It may be a high level of perk or a very rare book, but players miss it, and there is no logical explanation why this should not be done.

Thank you for your hard work. Waiting for 18 Alpha as a child of Christmas =)

P.S.

MM, I noticed that if I do not highlight your name with color and size, you basically ignore my questions =) OK, now your name will be constantly highlighted =)

NO, I ignore the ones I don't know the answer to, so you can just assume I wrote "sorry I don't know" and we both won't be wasting forum space.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Its not useless, and its not OP. Scrap it then if you feel like its useless. All the damage bonuses are 5% on all the books, because frankly with random stats, perks and installed mods, damage is pretty sick now on the deep end of a game. We can always increase it, but its not meant to be better than a perk, its just a little something that people will take and like. Theres a whole other book series that adds 5% damage to killing specifics, so if you get all those then this your doing 10% more damage. Stack it with a sneak knife book perked backstab, and its 410% damage.
Its kind of hard to back stab with a sword, so this other perk is restricted to daggers.

Well but that makes no sense balance wise. Yes its nice for autists like me that need everything to be equal But you can only get the sneak multiplier once. I can shoot my shotgun multiple times so 5% is worth more.

Also yeah. I wasn't saying that it should work on machetes, but that you might wanna up that, since just sneakattacking with a machete seems to be as efficient as a 200% damage with a knife.

 

[madmole]

Hmmmm....which half? The quote doesn’t say. Must be the second half of 2019 since that’s where we are and it isn’t released yet.
And then there is the word “befare”..... That could mean anything.

Good catch. We're on track again.

 

[madmole]

Well, I was curious and there were the options right there in front of me. I like the new pacing.

Yeah its just SO much better I just hope people give it a chance instead of knee jerking and turning it up after 1 hour.

 

[madmole]

Where is the "Alcohol Tolerance" book so I don't get blurred vision after one beer?

That needs to be removed or cleared up immensely.

 

[madmole]

WAIT WHAT???Why? Doors are the one thing I needed the lockpicks for!

Destroying the doors is so god damn loud!

PLEASE rethink this! I beg you. If I'm at the safe, having a lockpick is a luxury, but I could also just attack it.

Pretty Please? With a ROCK on top?

We want to try it out on safes for now. If its a big hit we can try it on doors, but we need to do a door overhaul first so we kill two birds with one stone. You can mod it in 3 seconds I'm sure.

 

[Mechanimal]

We want to try it out on safes for now. If its a big hit we can try it on doors, but we need to do a door overhaul first so we kill two birds with one stone. You can mod it in 3 seconds I'm sure.

Ah, good call, even though I'd love to open locked POI doors quietly, and leave them intact, I can see how it would be annoying if/when used on player made doors. So doing safes only first makes sense. I generally love the idea of the picks, just not the idea of other players using them on my doors, or even my own safes. So, is it generic as to what safe they are used on? What I mean is there any difference between picking a POI vs Player made safe?

PS: a door overhaul sounds awesome, hopefully bring in left/right variants, double doors, and maybe even some new reg door variations. Very much worth the wait.

 

[wolfbain5]

possible new defense type. make 3 castle type turrets 6 high on stilts that are spaced 1 apart for zeds to enter under. space the turrets 4 apart with catwalks connecting them. make grenades and molotovs, put barbed wire flat on the ground to slow them inside the hollowed turrets. drop molos and grenades on them. use guns only for mop ups or heavy hitters

 

[Mechanimal]

possible new defense type. make 3 castle type turrets 6 high on stilts that are spaced 1 apart for zeds to enter under. space the turrets 4 apart with catwalks connecting them. make grenades and molotovs, put barbed wire flat on the ground to slow them inside the hollowed turrets. drop molos and grenades on them. use guns only for mop ups or heavy hitters

So you want to toss molotovs downward in an enclosed space? Oh sweet summer child...

*not to mention surrounding yourself with turrets next to and/or above you, shooting down at the Z below... a few rounds to the back of your head may change your mind on that one too, gotta be careful with turret placement, they will absolutely shoot through you to hit their target, that arrangement sounds all kinds of suicidal, imho. ...lol... I just pictured you on a test run of that set up getting blasted off your catwalk by turrets, while on fire, into a flaming pit of hungry Z's and barbed wire.

If you decide to test this out post a video on youtube, please

 

[Sigil_Thane]

Hmmmm....which half? The quote doesn’t say. Must be the second half of 2019 since that’s where we are and it isn’t released yet.
And then there is the word “befare”..... That could mean anything.

It's a Typo... he meant to say Beware.

- - - Updated - - -

That was when it was just a perk overhaul and some books, not 20 new weapons, occlusion culling, etc etc. I will assure you I won't promise anything ever again, lol.

Thanks Joel! :smile-new:

 

[forger]

I strongly urge anyone to NOT do this. If you level too fast you pretty much remove content and a rewarding growth curve and being able to find loot fast enough to keep up with the GS.

In a17 we had insaneGameDifficultyBonus, which, if increased, rewarded with higher XP. I usually cranked it up immensely to have insane enemies early on, but also that allowed me to level up quicker and it had good challenge vs reward ratio - much harder to kill enemies but when killed the reward was nice because of much higher gamestage per each level.

Will this system stay in a18 or no matter what difficulty we choose now XP we get per kill/loot etc. will be same?

 

[Sigil_Thane]

So you want to toss molotovs downward in an enclosed space? Oh sweet summer child...
*not to mention surrounding yourself with turrets next to and/or above you, shooting down at the Z below... a few rounds to the back of your head may change your mind on that one too, gotta be careful with turret placement, they will absolutely shoot through you to hit their target, that arrangement sounds all kinds of suicidal, imho. ...lol... I just pictured you on a test run of that set up getting blasted off your catwalk by turrets, while on fire, into a flaming pit of hungry Z's and barbed wire.

Can't you just drag them out of your inventory and have them burst on impact? ... I could have sworn I saw a Z-Nation video where he was doing that from a Gyrocopter.