PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Aldranon]

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.

Nah, it would be better to make all blocks 3 million HP then make the player punch attack do a flat 1 million HP to anything.

Like in real life. (MM and myself anyway).

 

[Gareee]

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.

Is there a way you can check on and implement experience from explosives? Last I recall, we got no exp at all from any explosive, like pipe bombs or rocket launchers.

Also the bank down keybind you did for controllers on the gyro was never added to the a17 code.

Also something we noticed on a17.2 compared to the previous versions, is sometimes zombies don't path to players, and instead seem to go off banging on something else instead.. did something break ai wise?

- - - Updated - - -

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.

I know I've seen them dismembered by blade traps, but I can't recall seeing an arm or leg blown off. I DO see the head explosions with the skill perks though.

 

[archergod]

...yet traders are invincible and there is such a mechanic called a "land claim block" that feeds the laziness of players...
Look, I'm not saying don't lock tools in campfires (in fact I think that would be dumb too) but let's go ahead and remove invincible traders and LCB's as well. =)

Make this game REALLY socially dynamic.

Trader should be locked, people will kill them first thing, and then setup their own vending machine to make extra profit. Do you really want that in MP ?

 

[Andi Koehn]

Reason to add lockpicks?? Beeing sneaky?? No point to sneak into a poi and have to whackamony the hell out of a freakin save and wake the whole neighbourhood

 

[Genosis]

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.

Hey Jim, check this seed out:



Edit: Ha I just realized that was prior to the 17.2 RWG change. Here is the new map:



For a seed, we used the name of our gaming channel "Not-A-Gamer Gaming" (complete with caps and hyphens) and it turned out to be a very nice biome mix, with very little wasteland (only patches). We run our friend/fan server off that seed, and it works out quite well for us.

 

[OldManBrian]

We getting working enemy turrets for singleplayer \ coop POIs?

I've seen a few POI's with them so far but they never shoot.

 

[Guppycur]

Trader should be locked, people will kill them first thing, and then setup their own vending machine to make extra profit. Do you really want that in MP ?

Yes. Absolutely. 100%.

 

[OldManBrian]

...One of the goals of the new perk system was to not have major content or character classes/ roleplays being blocked by random number generation or "can't find this book to craft a bike, etc". So we achieved that but books were always fun to find.

Having major content \ classes being blocked by randomization was one of the selling points of the game for many people. It makes multiple playthrough's exciting and completely different.

These books are a great start, but like you said they're fairly minor and even the collection perk is still minor compared to a16 where a schematic would unlock whole segments of play and allow you to assemble\repair a certain weapon \ item \ minibike \ etc.

 

[SxR]

halp a18 dary, wat do?

 

[The Gronk]

<snipped for space>

Although I share your dislike for xml in this case it's the correct tool for the job.

I would only store data for editing in json if I was sure it was only going to be modified by a computer or a programmer. If I'm opening data for editing by the general public then xml is far more forgiving of mistakes and easier to read. A single typo will render an entire json sheet unreadable whereas a typo in xml will more than likely just render that particular node unreadable.

Modders aren't programmers, if you want more people to mod your game then try to make it as easy as possible for them otherwise they'll give up and switch to something easier.

 

[Death2gnomes]

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. -> Integration with Steam Workshop. -> 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 > 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

To add: convert localization.txt to xml so it can be modded via xpath.

 

[Red Eagle LXIX]

I already said I pushed for lockpicks, but sure turn it into hate on madmole if you want. We can't be in alpha 17 years we need to go gold so anything that isn't 10 minutes of xml or not on the KS list is getting curb stomped.

Sad part of no lockpicks:

The code was already done, working, and demonstrated before (in your videos).

Heck, add a few variables to the mini-game system that was demonstrated and one could have a nice lockoicking skill tree as well.

With this confirmation lockpicking is not on the plans to return any longer, does that also mean stealth only builds are indeed off the potential playstyle list?

Unless maybe the acid will dissolve locks and still allow looting of containers, etc in a stealthy manner.

As one who was looking forward to the eventual ability to have a Stealth build, meh.

 

[ExeBT]

@Madmole We can expect a water overhaul in A18?

 

[DaVegaNL]

An acid bomb... Lol. What is that?

 

[Red Eagle LXIX]

Once again people are hating on adding content through modding like it's a bad thing. Instead of bemoaning that lock picks will have to be added by modding be glad that lock picks CAN be added by modding. It isn't that the devs are too lazy to add your own personal most wanted feature. It is that they created a framework that allows for many personal most wanted features to be added by creative individuals who also want them.
Lockpicks aren't going to be a vanilla part of 7 Days to Die. Go go Modders!!!

Lockpicks can only be added through the use of code mods requiring 3rd party functionality.

There was however very good lockpick code in the game at one point that was demonstrated as a mini-game.

This code was removed and isn't even accessible to modders (hence the need to use 3rd party tools and code mods).

Stealth builds without a way to combat locked containers in a stealthy manner are not possible.

Stealth builds as described (being able to fully avoid zombies including blood moon) are not possible without stealthy means to do things (then again the current Stealth skills don't work for Blood Moon either).

 

[Frekton]

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.

So your answer to that is to tell to us mod the entire terrain block list? Wouldn't that throw off the balance for everything that is used in recipes? There has to be a more simple solution...

 

[Shin]

Any chance of see lockpicks?

Talked about them, but in a game where you can break any block fairly easily, it just doesn't make much sense.

It does make a lot of sense if you want to be able to close the door behind you. Several reasons for that... Also, I think every single overhaul mod has them. So obviously players want them. And a skilled locksmith opens a door way quicker and quieter then bashing it down with whatever tool.

 

[SxR]

What intensive purpose is that, exactly? Also what's an LBD. You're making it hard to keep up.
EDIT: Make lockpicks loot only. We shouldn't be able to craft everything.

Little Black Dress. ;b

 

[fragtzack]

 

[madmole]

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?

I have a note to design some more of these. I'm doing the books and some new quests for gatherer/builder/scavenger types though so my plate is really full at the moment.