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
    3
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I'm pretty sure modders can add followers very easily.
I think they could in A16. (I intended to do exactly that at one point.) But that doesn't seem to work in A17 from what I understand.

That is not a criticism, it's a seque.

One thing that I'd like to see is for TFP to write extensive documentation for modders. Not just comments in XML files, but full video tutorials, technical specs about every XML attribute, etc.

Modders are doing pretty amazing things, but I'm betting they don't know half of the modding possibilities because they're usually working by trial and error.

I realize this isn't a sexy request (especially not when asked of programmers or software architects), but I'd like to at least put it in the back of your mind for when you get close to gold.

Anyway, it's good to see that NPCs are still a topic of discussion, and I'm really hoping they don't end up getting the axe due to time constraints.

Also - I think you're right about the need for lockpicks in the game (or lack thereof), and the books sound pretty cool.

 
The books can't exactly replace that impact of finding a major recipe or differentiate each playthrough's experience much, but they will give us something to look forward to when exploring and looting (and something to complain about when not able to find them).

 
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Probably not because everyone on a server would want a companion, which would double the expense. Unity's character controllers eat CPU like crazy, so unless we write our own / license the source / pull some amazing optizations out of our butts I don't see it happening. Plus its one thing to make a bandit look good a follower might glitch bad on ladders or getting to player bases. I would say no but maybe down the road. We've hired some amazing guys so I'm starting to see the impossible become a reality which is a great sign. Why not just play MP?
I agree it would be really cool, but I don't know that our small team is up for that with this game. We are working towards it though.
All pretty good reasons. As someone who is hugely in favour of followers, building up colonies and the like, I understand it may just be a "bridge too far" given the engine constraints you have to work with.

 
Hi guys, it's been a while.

I'm loving a17 so far, harder than learn new things, is forget old mechanics =)

MM, I loved the master chef perk and the new recipes. One reason I play Project Zomboid, it's the amount of foods and recipes, I hope that will be more recipes in the future using canned food.

We'll get a functional microwave or electric stove in the future, so we don't need campfires anymore?

 
Any ETA on optimizations? My bro used to play daily with me in this game on medium settings around 50FPS now on even lowest settings his max is 15FPS standing still in the desert.

 
About stelth and diversion gameplay. I would really like to see this fixed.

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Beeing able to use decoys should be an option.
I'm finishing up the fixes. Sleepers will now awaken when near an explosion, even if taking no damage. I also fixed a bug with explosions applying reduced damage and often none at all.

 
With the mention of modders by Madmole, how about introducing real modding support in A18?

Modding support is what allows games to live and thrive long beyond the gold release. And a game that thrives beyond gold release means continued $ stream for TFP for many years after.

Most of the games coming out these days have modding support. I know TFP have done a lot for modding by putting so many configs in XML's, but would be good to take modding support to the next level. -&gt; Integration with Steam Workshop. -&gt; Normal player in game menu that allows player to select mods from Steam workshop.

Lastly, pipe dream here.. XML is the convoluted yuckity yuck..XML is soo 1990's. Switch to json please. Json &gt; XML is not just my personal opinion either. Only XML lover boys are old farts from the 1990's that refuse to come to modern standards. Probably the same guys that prefer to script in batch and perl.

https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_xml.asp

 
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When will we see a fix to random gen seed maps? I've been searching non stop for a good seed and their total garbage.

 
I was just wondering about something, and I don't know if this would be possible for the game or not, but I'll try to be as clear and concise as I can. Every item that has a certain quality to it - whether it is indicated by a color or a number - has certain stats that correspond to that quality. Given that there are 6 different quality levels, that means that there has to be 6 of every item that has a "quality" to it. So what I was wondering, if instead of having 6 different color levels/item levels, could we have the quality of the items denoted by name? For example, a Purple quality pickaxe is considered a lvl6 "Flawless" Pickaxe. If we removed colored quality variations of these items, would that allow us to still be able to indicate item level/quality just by attaching a Prefix to the item name (which would denote the quality and stats) without having 6 different versions of the same item?

 
Hopefully we can get that fixed up for a17.
I thought dismemberment was working but locked behind perks. ?

Which was a shame as I loved seeing zombies get blown apart and legs and arms flying off, then the torso still coming at you haha.

 
The plan is no bandits until Gold or some very close to gold final beta or something like that, so that gold has a nice impact.
So you guys are planning a major feature, which will probably require a lot of reiteration, to be included after release of the game?

That could backfire big time..

 
Any chance for electicity upgrades? There was a fairly long topic with full of ideas. Just to name a few:

- BB should charge the batteries faster, not limited to 5 watts/BB

- more inputs and alternate switches to make more complex networks

- sources and battery packs could work together (if you have a solar panel attached to a battery bank, their total throughput can be used from the BB)

- use electricity to cook (oven) or preserve (fridge) food

- working ACs and heaters for cold/hot (they should require a well insulated house)

- electric furnace

- elevators/electric doors

- a fully electric bike/car

- working cameras that can be hooked up to TVs

- POI lights and already placed lights can be used/repaired or attached to a player crafted network

- etc, just check the topic, it's full of ideas. For example the new coffee machine modell can be hooked up and create a stronger coffee (or better quality maybe with more buff)

 
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With the mention of modders by Madmole, how about introducing real modding support in A18?
Modding support is what allows games to live and thrive long beyond the gold release. And a game that thrives beyond gold release means continued $ stream for TFP for many years after.

Most of the games coming out these days have modding support. I know TFP have done a lot for modding by putting so many configs in XML's, but would be good to take modding support to the next level. -&gt; Integration with Steam Workshop. -&gt; Normal player in game menu that allows player to select mods from Steam workshop.

Lastly, pipe dream here.. XML is the convoluted yuckity yuck..XML is soo 1990's. Switch to json please. Json &gt; XML is not just my personal opinion either. Only XML lover boys are old farts from the 1990's that refuse to come to modern standards. Probably the same guys that prefer to script in batch and perl.

https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_xml.asp
I'd actually rather they switched to strongly typed XML. Especially as I thought there's .net components to 7 days, and if .Net is a component, the XML serialization .net does is stupid fast direct transformation to objects and even stupider easy code to write. It also handles a ton of validation to ensure the XML is properly formed.

So 90's or not, JSON's trendy nature doesn't have it hold a candle to XML and XSD's ability to share well formed structures that can also be human readable.

- - - Updated - - -

The plan is no bandits until Gold or some very close to gold final beta or something like that, so that gold has a nice impact.
Hooold the phone. Is A18 being targeted as Beta or essentially what could be an A19 as Beta?

 
Please add the ability to turn off digging zombies, either by modding or a game/server setting.
It should be an easy mod to set every terrain block to 30000 HP.

You would have to increase the resource value of boulders, though.

 
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