PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[The Gronk]

That's not what I'm seeing. I've eaten food and my health remains at 56/100.In fact, I just took painkillers and the buff says 2m, but my health remains at 56????

Or are painkillers not 'medicine' in this case?

Ah, so it's resistance. So if the temp is 120F and my desired temperature is 80F and I have a hat that gives heat resistance of 10, then I need to find some more clothing that gives me heat resistance of 30?

Again, this doesn't seem right because everything I'm seeing as a positive heat and cooling resistance. If I put on a jacket, I'd expect it to add to my discomfort in the heat?

It's better to wear a robe in the desert than to be naked, the robe provides protection from the sun.

It's better to wear a robe in the snow than to be naked, the robe provides protection from the heat loss.

Does the robe provide protection against hot biomes? Yes. Does the robe provide protection against cold biomes? Yes.

That's the logic behind the temperature system. The detrimental affects are caused by different factors that aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[faatal]

I would also like the animals to be tweaked. Far too many of them. Within the first week you have a meal (well, meals) fit for a king and all his servants.

A sample size of one (your experience) does not mean much. In my current game (also sample size one) I did not see a single animal from around day 4 to 8. I had zero food and was staving. Finally after wandering in the forest for a while I saw a deer and managed to kill it after having to chase it with my gimped stamina.

Randomness makes a huge difference in how people experience the game.

 

[ZombieHorde]

Read the ingame journal on those topics?

Yep. It has nothing that explains the HUD (Heads Up Display) like stamina and and health.

It's got a section on First Aid, and sure enough painkillers aren't listed. So now my question about painkillers is, when do they work? I've definitely taken them and they've added health before.

And there's nothing on food, either.

EDIT: There's information under the Survival tab. Okay, NOW I see that there's a red, grey and black bar. From my current situation I can't see a grey bar on the game (although in some lights the black looks grey, so I thought it was just red and grey before).

The search function isn't working in the journal. Again, another bug but not game stopping.

Thanks for pointing me towards the right information, Roland.

 

[beHypE]

No can do, I hear a wide variety of stories about this, Faatal couldn't find an animal to save his life, and stooped to buying the animal tracker perk, where I have hundreds of meat stacked up, and then there is multiplayer to consider.

I definitely think there's too many of them as of 17.4. We always play as a group of 3 and meat NEVER has been the limiting factor in recipes.

I wouldn't mind the abundance in numbers as much if the animals were at least way harder to kill with crude weaponry (run faster, see you from farther away). It's just way too easy from day 1 on to be stacked on meat because animals are way too easy to hunt.

 

[ZombieHorde]

As a web designer by trade, I'm always making sure that my arrogance of what I think works best doesn't get in the way of user friendliness. Nobody wants to (or should need to) to read help files. Nobody had to read help files to figure out what to do in previous alphas because the whole system was logical. Now it's not, and that is why the same questions keep popping up.

Thanks for this, Hotpoon. Yes, I agree. At least nobody should need to read the help files on something as basic as health and food in the game. Or if help is needed, then there should be a graphical demonstration of it, maybe at the start of the game.

And yeah, even though I've worked out (for the most part) the GUI's (workbenches and things), it's still not straightforward and was a biatch to learn because it wasn't intuitive.

Having said that, I can't really think of how TFP's could do it that much different and easier.

Well, here's one suggestion: with the perks bar that I was having trouble with, instead of having to hover the mouse on the lock item of each tier, it would be good to have a ? symbol there for more information, so you are aware that the area does something. Currently it's not obvious you can hover the mouse there for more info.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

A sample size of one (your experience) does not mean much. In my current game (also sample size one) I did not see a single animal from around day 4 to 8. I had zero food and was staving. Finally after wandering in the forest for a while I saw a deer and managed to kill it after having to chase it with my gimped stamina.
Randomness makes a huge difference in how people experience the game.

Yea... but it is very possible, and I'd say very likely, that your experience is the 1%.

While on multiplayer, animals are rare, in singleplayer I currently have 650 meat... 100 grilled meat and 100 meat stew and I don't hunt anything anymore for 40 days (on day 80) .

Just because animals are super common, doesnt mean it isn't possible to not find one for a few days.

But I think they should be 1/10 for singleplayer and about doubled for multiplayer (so don't make it dependant upon spawnlimits)

 

[meganoth]

Ah, yes, there it is. Although that then makes the 'error' (why I can't skill to that yet) incorrect. The lock says that I need Intellect 5 and Level 25. Well I unlocked level 6 of Intelligence before, however I'm only on level 18.
Madmole's been pretty good with the forum lately. I wonder if he'll take note of this for the fix? Not a MF bug, though. Just one to fix whenever.

There is no bug there. You can raise intellect independant of level. But you need both values to be above specific values to buy Advanced Engineering.

Since you are only level 18, you can't buy AE even though your intelligence is good enough.

 

[unholyjoe]

Yep. It has nothing that explains the HUD (Heads Up Display) like stamina and and health.
It's got a section on First Aid, and sure enough painkillers aren't listed. So now my question about painkillers is, when do they work? I've definitely taken them and they've added health before.

And there's nothing on food, either.

EDIT: There's information under the Survival tab. Okay, NOW I see that there's a red, grey and black bar. From my current situation I can't see a grey bar on the game (although in some lights the black looks grey, so I thought it was just red and grey before).

The search function isn't working in the journal. Again, another bug but not game stopping.

Thanks for pointing me towards the right information, Roland.

all i am wanting to point out here is that... the "search" (which DOES work in a18) is only for discovered journal/tips, it wont or cant show a journal and its contents if you did not discover it... unfortunate but its designed that way because many times while fighting the tip used to show up at the wrong moment so now its there to read later when you are safe to do so.

will there be an in game help system? .... i dont know... ask joel or rick or chris.

 

[faatal]

Yea... but it is very possible, and I'd say very likely, that your experience is the 1%. While on multiplayer, animals are rare, in singleplayer I currently have 650 meat... 100 grilled meat and 100 meat stew and I don't hunt anything anymore for 40 days (on day 80) .

Just because animals are super common, doesnt mean it isn't possible to not find one for a few days.

But I think they should be 1/10 for singleplayer and about doubled for multiplayer (so don't make it dependant upon spawnlimits)

Yes, mine could be the 1%, but it can happen. What we really need is comprehensive analytics hooked up to the game, so we can track everyone's experiences and not be guessing.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Canned food dates are a guess. That is their safe, please throw this away and buy more date. I've eaten many cans of food 4-5 years past the date and was fine.

a resent article said that modern canned food that is not damaged will last forever.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Yes, mine could be the 1%, but it can happen. What we really need is comprehensive analytics hooked up to the game, so we can track everyone's experiences and not be guessing.

This is something I wanted ever since A14 I think since I hate to argue with uncertainties, because there is always that one guy who thinks hes smart by telling me my data is incomplete xD So go ahead

But until then guesses and rational conclusions based on limited evidence is the only way to try and balance it.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

I'm not sure if this works for A17 or if it actually works at all. It could be just a coincidence. When I was an admin for a few years back in A16 I used to use the command "killall", if I remember correctly, from time to time. For whatever reason this seems to help fix the issue of animals not spawning in enough. I believe I did this a few times in single player in A17 and seemed to work.

Try it out maybe it can help. Honestly have no clue if this actually helped or not so do not quate me.

 

[Callum123456789]

@TFP team you guys have made the best game in my personal opinion its the only game I have 1000 hours on and I have only had 7dtd fo like 9 months on pc and cannot wait for alpha 18

and keep on destroying them MF'ERS

 

[madmole]

*fist bump* respect brother! Thank you for your service. I doubt you older cats get thanked enough once years pass since your service.
EDIT: You guys had some awful MRE's back in the day. They have come a long way since then, and i guess they have gotten even better since I got out in 2010.

They weren't horrible, but there was a turkey stew or something that if you heated it up on your little bunsen burner thing it was pretty good.

 

[madmole]

Ah, yes, there it is. Although that then makes the 'error' (why I can't skill to that yet) incorrect. The lock says that I need Intellect 5 and Level 25. Well I unlocked level 6 of Intelligence before, however I'm only on level 18.
Madmole's been pretty good with the forum lately. I wonder if he'll take note of this for the fix? Not a MF bug, though. Just one to fix whenever.

There are no level requirements now for anything, so the unlocking is absolutely straight forward, you need INT ___

 

[madmole]

That's not what I'm seeing. I've eaten food and my health remains at 56/100.In fact, I just took painkillers and the buff says 2m, but my health remains at 56????

Or are painkillers not 'medicine' in this case?

Ah, so it's resistance. So if the temp is 120F and my desired temperature is 80F and I have a hat that gives heat resistance of 10, then I need to find some more clothing that gives me heat resistance of 30?

Again, this doesn't seem right because everything I'm seeing as a positive heat and cooling resistance. If I put on a jacket, I'd expect it to add to my discomfort in the heat?

You need to heal your max health separately from your red health. If its blackened out you need to use the plain bandages to restore the black part, THEN heal with food or medicine.

 

[unholyjoe]

I'm not sure if this works for A17 or if it actually works at all. It could be just a coincidence. When I was an admin for a few years back in A16 I used to use the command "killall", if I remember correctly, from time to time. For whatever reason this seems to help fix the issue of animals not spawning in enough. I believe I did this a few times in single player in A17 and seemed to work.
Try it out maybe it can help. Honestly have no clue if this actually helped or not so do not quate me.

killall does not kill non aggressive animals on non-modified 7dtd as i show in video

(sorry about the black square... i forgot my webcam was off... but video is on a17.4b8)

 

[Star69]

On the abundance of animals or lack of......there is a server config item for setting animal spawn numbers. If you’re on a popular server and there isn’t enough animals, have the admin raise animal spawn. I tweak ours depending on player numbers so never have an issue though I haven’t found the sweet spot of not too many, not too few.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

They weren't horrible, but there was a turkey stew or something that if you heated it up on your little bunsen burner thing it was pretty good.

My favorite one was the Chili Macaroni. throw the contents of the MRE in to that heating pouch add water and it cooked. MMMmmm Chili Macaroni was good. You guys had to use burners to warm the food up, damn. Technology sure has come a long way. All you need now is water and it cooks itself lol.

 

[madmole]

As a web designer by trade, I'm always making sure that my arrogance of what I think works best doesn't get in the way of user friendliness. Nobody wants to (or should need to) to read help files. Nobody had to read help files to figure out what to do in previous alphas because the whole system was logical. Now it's not, and that is why the same questions keep popping up.

Rick and I agree that the ISS is too complicated. That other guy did it, not to say he was bad, he's a great designer but could make a turd sound fun in a meeting. Unfortunately now is not the time to gut ISS. A19 we'll probably do a straight forward simple health and stamina system. A lot of guys try to get tricky and think its cool but at the end of the day complicated designs always fail. If people can't understand it, its just not good for the game.