PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

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    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
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Hey guys could you re-texture iron and steel fire axes to make them look different? Maybe making iron one metal-grey or something...

 
Thats cheating.
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Okay, you're right, I didn't think of that, or consider it cheating.

I actually just make backups of saved games out of old habits in case there are file errors due to a crash. This can still be done manually, but it's just more cumbersome.

 
20% chance (maybe less) for double resources from an ore block might also work as a 7-book bonus perk. Spitballing here...

 
20% chance (maybe less) for double resources from an ore block might also work as a 7-book bonus perk. Spitballing here...
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Really good thinking there Boidster :) Makes the perk quite desirable without requiring what seem to be a couple difficult bug fixes first, +1

 
A18. A few people have misread what you typed as stating that it won't be fixed in A18. I think Madmole did the same.
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I can see why folks would read it that way, sorry for the ambiguity, everyone!

 
@madmole,
I was reading yer Twitter feed and saw the "One Shot" bonus book perk dealio:

"20% chance to one-shot any ore"

On the surface it sounded neat, but then I dug a bit deeper and I think maybe there's a problem with it. Occasionally for me, possibly often for others, it's desired to carve out a tunnel or pit of a specific dimension. When mining speed is a known quantity, it's pretty easy to time your blows (and how many of them) to destroy just one more block.

If my block-destruction-rate changes speed suddenly 1/5 of the time, that would probably have the effect of slowing certain mining work because the player has to be wary of one-shotting blocks he/she didn't intend to destroy. No more holding down the mouse button for 3 shots to destroy a block - could be 1, 2, or 3 shots who knows? So now the player has to one-click and see what happens, then one-click again, and possibly a 3rd time if the first two didn't one-shot the block.

Or the alternative, hold the mouse for the three swings and just hope that you don't hit the 20% each time and destroy 3 blocks in a row when you only wanted the first one.

I dunno...my instinct is that consistent mining speed (possibly quite fast, if you have read all the books) is more important than a chance for Great Success which might mar your project. $.02
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Well, you could always not read the book. :)

 
Save Games

Thats cheating.
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That....would remove any risk, thrill, and/or uncertainty. The ability to go back in time at will would remove any and all consequences from anything. I can't think of a feature more anti-survival than a player controlled undo...
The game should make a backup save periodically but it must not controllable by the player through an autosave button or triggered by something as simple as logging off and back on. If you experience a game ruining bug then there should be a backup to revert to but it should be something that happens periodically in the background and overwrites old backups and shouldn't be something the player can set at the start of every blood moon or before tackling a tough POI or doing a quest. I've failed quests and it is disappointing but you move on and apply for a new one. You don't load the save you made right before the point where you failed and do it again so you never ever ever have to recover from a failure.
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A. When I first started 'playing 7D2D three years and 4500 hours ago, I lost a 'few' games a few hours in. One was after 100 hours in. What's the saying? foof me once shame on you? Foof me 2x, 3x, 4x ,5x, 6x, 7x, 8x - shame on me? So I learned to make backups so I didn't lose games before I was ready to start a new one. (And I have never complained about starting a new game for each update.)

This IS an Alpha. Experimental sometimes. And I can't have backups?

B. Whenever I have said 'playing' I have ALWAYS put it in quotes. Why? Because I take playtesting seriously. SERIOUSLY. Go look at my bug reports - or ask UnholyJoe.

Due Diligence / REPEATABILITY. When I submit a bug report it is only after I have restored to some point before the problem and trying to duplicate it. I usually have a save about every hour so sometimes I have to go back and 'play' for about 45 minutes to get to just before the glitch/bug. I then might reload that save MANY times trying to reduplicate that glitch and or test alternative things to try and narrow down any possibility of what could be causing it.

You wonder I got to 4500 hours? (it's even more than that.) Having to 'replay' the same hour in time a dozen times for a single glitch/bug for a couple dozen bug/glitches...

===========

Having said all that - and just keeping to game playing (again - this is an alpha - it is not gold yet) - what IS cheating? To whom?

120 min days Cheating? Lessening difficulty? Those are ok - because they are in the game? ok - what about mods? Are mods that give 5 perk points instead of 1 when leveling cheating? If not - how about a mod that makes it impossible to die? Is that cheating? Where's the line?

Now, I do think if people are going to brag (whatever) about their exploits (yadda) and NOT reveal that they use mods or tweak the difficulty (120 min days seems to be a biggie) - that does seem a little...

But, this game is in Alpha. And it almost promotes modding. And has a ton of options (yeah! I think that's awesome!).

And I do admit - I hated failing. Especially as a noob. But, for all kinds of reasons, this game HAS helped me get past that. More than anything I don't want to lose the immersion of believing that I really am trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. And I am MUCH more careful about how/when I do things then I was in the beginning.

I hated some of the overhaul mods when I was a noob. And now I love them.

So I will continue to use save games. Most of the time to post a bug report with due diligence and/or to recover from a glitch/bug. And maybe once in a great while because I want to return to my pre-dying immersion point. I still learned a lesson. And while I might post a funny/weird experience (zombie pyramids?) I have no plans to one-up anyone for any game stats or experience.

 
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Sry to pile on a bit but couple other things about this perk that I think need consideration.
1) -If- the "double-swing", or what seems to be that a swing is triggered at the animation beginning, but can not be canceled if the button is released after that... If that mechanic is 'fixed' so if a player releases their mouse button a millisec before the actual landing of the hit, then it doesn't land, then Boidsters' example may largely be mitigated (not sure how much the double-hit factors in it for him).

Second, and this is an _old_ one. The overhit bonus still exists. So, in -any- circumstance right now one-shotting an ore block is a _bad_ thing; regarding resources gained.
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Maybe Gazz can comprehend what you wrote. The double fire bug will get fixed as soon as Robert finished RWG.

 
Hmm, does this mean the next game project has been started, and art/code has been written or is it on an idea stage and not fully outlined?
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It might go gold tomorrow it might hit early access in 5 years. Right now we're not talking about it. Lets focus on A18 features I've shown.

 
Okay, you're right, I didn't think of that, or consider it cheating.I actually just make backups of saved games out of old habits in case there are file errors due to a crash. This can still be done manually, but it's just more cumbersome.
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Its never happened to me. If you guys can give us a way to reproduce this problem of a corrupted save game that would be best.

 
A. When I first started 'playing 7D2D three years and 4500 hours ago, I lost a 'few' games a few hours in. One was after 100 hours in. What's the saying? foof me once shame on you? Foof me 2x, 3x, 4x ,5x, 6x, 7x, 8x - shame on me? So I learned to make backups so I didn't lose games before I was ready to start a new one. (And I have never complained about starting a new game for each update.)
This IS an Alpha. Experimental sometimes. And I can't have backups?

B. Whenever I have said 'playing' I have ALWAYS put it in quotes. Why? Because I take playtesting seriously. SERIOUSLY. Go look at my bug reports - or ask UnholyJoe.

Due Diligence / REPEATABILITY. When I submit a bug report it is only after I have restored to some point before the problem and trying to duplicate it. I usually have a save about every hour so sometimes I have to go back and 'play' for about 45 minutes to get to just before the glitch/bug. I then might reload that save MANY times trying to reduplicate that glitch and or test alternative things to try and narrow down any possibility of what could be causing it.

You wonder I got to 4500 hours? (it's even more than that.) Having to 'replay' the same hour in time a dozen times for a single glitch/bug for a couple dozen bug/glitches...

===========

Having said all that - and just keeping to game playing (again - this is an alpha - it is not gold yet) - what IS cheating? To whom?

120 min days Cheating? Lessening difficulty? Those are ok - because they are in the game? ok - what about mods? Are mods that give 5 perk points instead of 1 when leveling cheating? If not - how about a mod that makes it impossible to die? Is that cheating? Where's the line?

Now, I do think if people are going to brag (whatever) about their exploits (yadda) and NOT reveal that they use mods or tweak the difficulty (120 min days seems to be a biggie) - that does seem a little...

But, this game is in Alpha. And it almost promotes modding. And has a ton of options (yeah! I think that's awesome!).

And I do admit - I hated failing. Especially as a noob. But, for all kinds of reasons, this game HAS helped me get past that. More than anything I don't want to lose the immersion of believing that I really am trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. And I am MUCH more careful about how/when I do things then I was in the beginning.

I hated some of the overhaul mods when I was a noob. And now I love them.

So I will continue to use save games. Most of the time to post a bug report with due diligence and/or to recover from a glitch/bug. And maybe once in a great while because I want to return to my pre-dying immersion point. I still learned a lesson. And while I might post a funny/weird experience (zombie pyramids?) I have no plans to one-up anyone for any game stats or experience.
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Loading a backup of a save game after say a horde smashed your base, or you died on a quest, that to me is cheating. Rebuilding your base and getting your gear back when dying is part of the rewarding process.

Using mods/options in the context described is not cheating, its tailoring the game to your tastes.

 
@Madmole. Hey MM i have a question and its my personal wish, We will get new model car/truck/bike for level designe in A18?

 
Kinda sad to hear that. Dismemberment was just a nice graphics feature for me.So now I need a perk to have it? Naah, prob I'll never see it again then.

Well unless i go a little insane, and start chopping up zombie corpses... Weird I say!
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You got that backwards. Dismemberment happens more often than before. A cosmetic dismemberment can happen anytime you damage a zombie and it dies. You can do this with any weapon that does a reasonable amount of damage. Even your fists.

 
(repost)
There is any sound enhancement planned for A18? You kinda hear Zombis two blocks away making footsteps sometimes
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Probably no. If it is from a bug, then it could get fixed.

 
Well, you could always not read the book. :)
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Well, the "completely hose up your mining rhythm forever ruining the game and proving once and for all that TFP hates their customers" perk...

...I mean, the "20% chance of one-shotting ore blocks" perk...

...is the bonus you get for the 7th book. So I guess that means I can pick any one of the 7 books not to read, if I want to avoid coming back here and throwing a forum tantrum. Of the ones Joel listed, the "take 50% less damage from collapsing mines" one seems the most useless, because I know how to dig mines. :biggrin-new: Git gud n00bs.

I know the listed books are prototypes/works in progress, so I'm just keeding. Srsly, tho, fix the hyphenation and subject/verb agreement in those descriptions or I shall expel my toys from the pram.

 
Maybe Gazz can comprehend what you wrote. The double fire bug will get fixed as soon as Robert finished RWG.
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yeah, #1 is definately a wee bit jumbled :)

Your second sentence relaying that the "double fire bug" will be getting some attention is welcome news.

For the "Second" part. What I was pointing out was that for a several alphas now you never want to deal exactly the damage that either ore blocks or trees have remaining. If you do then you won't get a 'bonus' amount of resources on that last hit.

And though last I recall that 'bonus' was -not- supposed to still exist, it does.

Similarly, though I've intentionally -not- tested for it recently, I sort of expect that it's still in a players best interest to use a "lower" Qual, or damage-output Steel Pickaxe when harvesting ore blocks than it is to use a max-damage pickaxe.

In other words, better to hit ore blocks as many times as possible (w the highest tier tool), so long as the last hit is at least 1 damage more than it would take to finish the block. This is to maximize the amount of resources you gain per ore block.

So the Perk for reading all 7 books in the series, as described, would actually reduce the resources gained.

And I don't think that's what you intend.

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On a slightly different subject. A few days ago I did suggest possibly adding in a Mod or Perk or ability for a Legendary Pickaxe where it would allow one-shotting of the Sand blocks mixed in with the Ore Blocks. But not the Ore blocks themselves.

This was a smallish QoL thing I noticed while doing a lot of resource mining.

I found myself switching back and forth between pickaxe & shovel a lot, and it really messed with my mining rythm.

Before posting the suggestion I modded the 'earth' damage a steel pickaxe does and gave it a go. For me it made mining while in a resource cluster much more enjoyable.

 
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