PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Red Eagle LXIX]

Ah its refreshing to see someone doesn't know what LBD is. That confirms my squeaky wheel suspicion thank you very much.

I wouldn't read much into it. It took me a bit to figure you probably meant Learn By Doing with that acronym.

 

[mr.devolver]

Yes. Absolutely. 100%.

This should be a server option for those server admins who don't want to let the traders in their worlds killed by random people.

 

[SlicksGirl]

What we would really love to see is more food....

apple or cherry trees

fishing

trapping

chicken/rabbit farming

and more dye colors. I'm personally a fan of purple and am saddened the purple tank was removed

LOVE the new decor items. being able to craft some of them would be much welcomes.

also, what happened to the glass? its so transparent we cant even see it. rice paper windows would be nice.. i'd love to make some windows out of wood and paper.

 

[Genosis]

and more dye colors. I'm personally a fan of purple and am saddened the purple tank was removed

I wrote a simple modlet that offers more color options

https://www.nexusmods.com/7daystodie/mods/231

I didn't spend a lot of time tweaking color variations based on item exceptions, but it adds a good half dozen colors, including purple, to the loot tables along with my hacked together icons for them. Quick and dirty, but adds some variety to the colors. The folks on the server I run requested some extras along the way, so I kept updating it.

I also 2nd having more options, hopefully more paints, block options, etc will come in as polish when the core features are done

 

[stasis78]

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.

Try to keep up Joel, I'm a couple hundred or so ahead of you already

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?111581-Farm-Life-v2

I updated my summary numbers, latest count:

Recipes:	505
Blocks:		64
Trees:		14
Crops:		44
Pens:		6
Items:		564
Food:		232
Water:		6
Alchohol:	20
Icons:		406

 

[stasis78]

I wouldn't read much into it. It took me a bit to figure you probably meant Learn By Doing with that acronym.

Pretty sure he meant Lazy Bastard Disorder :troll:

 

[RCADICT]

Will we see tier 4 and tier 5 schematics as there is currently not much need to spec science above tier 3?

 

[Red Eagle LXIX]

Pretty sure he meant Lazy Bastard Disorder :troll:

Maybe he meant Liquid Bandit Dissolver for an acid based weapon.

Or new Laser Beam Device traps?

 

[stasis78]

Maybe he meant Liquid Bandit Dissolver for an acid based weapon. Or new Laser Beam Device traps?

We all know when it comes to TFP that it’s Long Before Done

 

[Red Eagle LXIX]

We all know when it comes to TFP that it’s Long Before Done

Maybe but we know that all these possibilities have Likely Been Done.

 

[madmole]

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.

Hopefully soon, we're seeing some incredible gains with occlusion culling, its just a matter of solving the artifacts.

 

[madmole]

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

We are planning awesome mod support in a post gold patch. Nobody likes modding and then seeing your work get destroyed because of framework changes.

 

[Cirion]

We are planning awesome mod support in a post gold patch. Nobody likes modding and then seeing your work get destroyed because of framework changes.

Good deal. I think improving the mod framework even further will allow people to be really creative and hopefully make it an awesome experience no matter what your tastes are.

Are there plans to make a steam workshop mod framework? I think someone asked earlier in the thread, not sure if I saw a response to this Q. This would really improve exposure of modders' work to other people and hopefully encourage even more modders to do stuff.

 

[madmole]

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..

Its no different than shipping a game outside of EA, we've shipped lots of games. Anyhow we might release it to a beta build, might not, nobody has a crystal ball. Depends how solid it plays internally.

 

[madmole]

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).

I crack the sidewalk when I flex my calves.

 

[madmole]

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.

We might move top tier guns to schematics. So with your shotgun messiah perk you can craft a double barrel, but the top tier weapon (the pump shotgun) would require a schematic. Then your out looking for these and they always have some value.

 

[madmole]

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.

Yes, acid will be silent. Lockpicking is off the table for now, but maybe safe cracking can be added. That implies you can't unlock a door, but gets most the game play people want. But lets see how the acid works out, it could be pretty cool.

 

[madmole]

@Madmole We can expect a water overhaul in A18?

You can expect whats on the first post. Nothing more, nothing less. I'll add to it as we go and feel good about the system being shippable.

 

[Fuffel]

Moin.

Question: What will be the name of the game in future? 7 Days to Die is no longer possible now that you can have Hordes after three or something days ...

 

[Snowydeath]

You can expect whats on the first post. Nothing more, nothing less. I'll add to it as we go and feel good about the system being shippable.

I look forward to the game being polished and ready for Gold, then I look forward to whatever you guys decide to do next!