PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Guppycur]

Watching people argue with each other when they are on the same side greatly amuses me.

 

[Odetta]

People will come together once I make my Spongebob Overhaul mod...

 

[Brandox471]

I don't know about some of this extra stuff. I have never played a mod in 7dtd and yet have hours into the game. I also have always played in SP as my schedule doesn't work well with others. However that being said I find this game to have this best, and I mean the best, replay-ability of any game I have ever played and I have been playing games on my pc since my first one, a Tandy 1000. Yes, that gives away a little of how long I have been around <shrug> lol.

My wife absolutely loves watching me play but will probably never play the game herself as she gets lost stepping onto an elevator that has 2 doors. She finds my tales that I relate regarding incidents walking into some of the POIs to be really funny. She jumped out of her seat the first time I walked into a POI after A17.2 and had zombies falling out of the ceiling at me, scared her to death.

Point is that this game in it's Vanilla version is actually simply amazing and I just wanted the devs to know that. Looking forward to gold only so I don't have to keep rebuilding as new versions are released but love the new releases as well. Catch 22 there I guess

 

[Roland]

People will come together once I make my Spongebob Overhaul mod...

Oooo driving boulders and eating crabby patties to restore stamina will be great. Finally, melee will be improved with Sandy Cheeks Karate moves. Blood moons predicted using the magic conch shell and truly demonic boss creatures like the hash slinging slasher to attack us.....at night.

 

[Gazz]

Yeh, maybe players that look up to that modders are sensitive to the "look at me!" attitude of some of that modders lately? Dunno...

Without at least some of that attitude you won't become a modder who ever releases anything.

A bit of an exhibitionist streak, bragging rights, a bit of a nerdy Umm, Actually...

Do some people feel more special than others? Probably. That's not a new thing.

Great! But then why call it dlc? Why not just update?

Calling content that you can download downloadable content sounds legit to me.

Many DLC are also rolled out along with updates to the base game, just to make the DLC work. Sometimes that means free stuff and fixes. Sometimes it means that loot boxes are crammed into the game's progression.

There is no point in getting hung up on words when this industry is all over the place with what the words mean.

Does 7DTD "have loot boxes"? Absolutely. It only depends on what meaning you attach to the term.

* Mod code is rarely handed off when a modder leaves a project. In some cases, yes, it is handed off. But anyone playing Wow can probably count on one or two hands the mods that have lasted the length of the game, Recount and DBMz for example. But if you look at the total count of mods for WoW, the vast majority are out of date and non-functional.

Development studios also move on and sometimes don't update their games to new technology that comes up post release.

Will this one run on Win666? Who knows?

Changing a few items to have higher stack values and posting a modlet for it does not make someone a modder. I’m sorry but there is a big difference between script kiddies and overhauls and expansions.

If you release a mod then yes, that makes you a modder.

I'm not aware of a line count or number of bytes changed that is somehow a bar for something being a mod.

If you want to propose such a system of rules and terminology I suggest you do that in the modding section.

To you yes.To me, actually yes. And I'm largely a script kiddie.

To the average Joe, you and I both have magical powers that cannot be comprehended.

Basically this. LOL

 

[Death2gnomes]

Watching people argue with each other when they are on the same side greatly amuses me.

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I have popcorn.

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Everyone has to start somewhere, being a Script Kiddie is as good of place as any. Try not to bite the hand that feeds you, you'll get farther.

 

[Odetta]

Oooo driving boulders and eating crabby patties to restore stamina will be great. Finally, melee will be improved with Sandy Cheeks Karate moves. Blood moons predicted using the magic conch shell and truly demonic boss creatures like the hash slinging slasher to attack us.....at night.

Your knowledge of Spongebob is awe inspiring and has caused your stock to go way up.

 

[Death2gnomes]

Oooo driving boulders and eating crabby patties to restore stamina will be great. Finally, melee will be improved with Sandy Cheeks Karate moves. Blood moons predicted using the magic conch shell and truly demonic boss creatures like the hash slinging slasher to attack us.....at night.

This coming from a guy that probably buys Spongebob episodes in bulk on VHS.

Underwater wrestling in jello ftw!

 

[CarbonadiuM]

Hi Madmole,

I was wondering if you had plans to look at some of the below issues (I think they are)for A18?

- Secure chests get a LCB durability bonus while storage chests do not, should be reversed

-Silencers not really silent, still makes noise 100 when firing, and players can hear just as far only the sound is different

-Sneaking in industrial areas, mainly metal stairwells cause you to jump repeatedly at times waking everything up, yet you can destroy blocks and the Z's will be none the wiser

-RMG needs industrial area diversity, as it is now, all too many water works and small radio station buildings. Traders spawn infrequently and bunched when they do in odd places, dirt road cabin areas.

-Crossbow and blunderbuss not practical to use because of auto reload, need to be able to cancel the action/switch weapon so you can swap them out after use (reload later when out of combat)

Thanks!

 

[Brandox471]

Just a quick question wondering if there is a fix to work around this or something I am doing wrong. I have had it happen a few times but my game will crash for whatever reason and when I return and try to load the game it won't let me. States that the save is a null value and shows me trying to load a game that is on A0.0

Annoying because the only work around I can achieve so far is to start over.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

As webskorpion says, it's extra content, that actually change the game, but maybe in a radical way. In the old days, we would call this an expansion pack, but now it's more known for just being something you fetch over the net. DLC just stands for DownLoadable Content and might cost money or might not. Depends on the developer..

Or just call it update, like Minecraft does

 

[Tin]

Don't agree with this. Add the content. Make the base game solid.
The issue I have with mods and why I always play vanilla is because of modders them self.

* Modders don't HAVE to support anything. Set it and forget it. It's not how all modders work. But it's entirely common.

* A vast majority of mods get created once by a player and might see a year of updates. Once they lose interest in the game, the mod typically dies. If that added features that make or break the game for me, the game... Is broke.

* Mod code is rarely handed off when a modder leaves a project. In some cases, yes, it is handed off. But anyone playing Wow can probably count on one or two hands the mods that have lasted the length of the game, Recount and DBMz for example. But if you look at the total count of mods for WoW, the vast majority are out of date and non-functional.

For a modder to want to rush to Gold, I get it. The game keeps changing. Every release makes something or many things go sideways. And it's a lot of work. That's on you though. You all chose to run with an Early Access game to build mods against. And kudos to ya! But to say stop adding content and go gold... Uh. No.

Solid game first. Mods... Second. That's how it should work.

Heh, It wasn't all that long ago, I updated a modlet I did, because I found a better way to set it up so it runs better.

And umm, I don't want TFP to rush to Gold.. so where does that put me?

It just might be that we aren't all the same..

 

[Trankitas]

Great! But then why call it dlc? Why not just update?

Downloadable Content and Update are not the same.

 

[angrymonkey_13]

Still way too new to this. But already I'm hooked. Spend close to 4-6 hrs a session, meaning every night ! Please don't change this great game you have tweaks and polishing aside. No PVP nonsense. Just one survivor, alone, against all his world's threats. Raiders, zombies, unscrupulous traders, I think that's great ! Really don't want to come back to my base to find it's been ransacked and destroyed because some buttmunch, or group of same didn't get enough love from their parents. Guess I've spouted enough. Let the laughter begin. Thanks ..

 

[sillls]

Oooo driving boulders and eating crabby patties to restore stamina will be great. Finally, melee will be improved with Sandy Cheeks Karate moves. Blood moons predicted using the magic conch shell and truly demonic boss creatures like the hash slinging slasher to attack us.....at night.

sounds like somebody likes it.

 

[Trankitas]

Or just call it update, like Minecraft does

Or maybe not

 

[canadianbluebeer]

If you make a modlet that just changes a few values, then yes, that's a mod, and you're a modder.

That's the FIRST step towards doing more. Change values/tables etc, see what works.

Changing/adding artwork, items, that's next.

At least it can be.

Just like playing hockey on a local team/pickup game vs being in the NHL.

Still a hockey player.



I can do small mods, but a full overhaul kind of thing? My hat's off to those who make those.

(and yes, I'll even tweak those to add/change things to what *I* want, for ME)

ymmv.

 

[madmole]

If you have the byte array of the image pixels for the texture, couldn't a copy of it be made on the fly with changes to RGBA values at those pixels that can change... if not random color offset, then static maps with predefined offsets could be fast.

Let me put it simple, there is no way for me to do it, I'm not a programmer. Now that we have streaming textures I don't see a reason for "variations" and color tinting always looks bad anyway, compared to an artist doing it right. We might as well add new zombies.

 

[madmole]

Maybe. But, now you're talking about doing this at runtime, which has even more issues.
Say, you're on a MP server. Party member A is at a POI slowly rebuilding, repainting, etc. Party member B is far away, looting.

Now B comes back to that POI that A is renovating. What imposter POI is he supposed to see?

A is still updating it constantly, possibly in dramatic ways. Is the "impostor POI generator" supposed to just continually run in the background, generating imposter POIs whenever A makes a block change? Otherwise B will see a "pop in" anyway.

And, that's not even considering the resources it is taking to make these impostors, which could be better spent on things like more zombies or something.

I'm not saying it's impossible. It just seems like a lot of work (for TFP and in terms of computer resources) for not much value.

I'd much rather TFP continued to work on other things like RWG, NPCs, new content, balance issues, or increased mod support. Even if you consider this a performance optimization (which is definitely a WIP), I'd rather they spent their time on quashing lag/stutter issues or shoring up memory leaks.

A modder already has this working. If its not too expensive we can use it. I think its cool to change the skyline with massive building projects, like the castles I made. I would love to see it at huge distances if possible, and changes to POIs would be less abrupt (missing buildings, new bases, bridges, etc)

 

[Splitknuckler]

Hi Madmole,
I was wondering if you had plans to look at some of the below issues (I think they are)for A18?

- Secure chests get a LCB durability bonus while storage chests do not, should be reversed

-Silencers not really silent, still makes noise 100 when firing, and players can hear just as far only the sound is different

-Sneaking in industrial areas, mainly metal stairwells cause you to jump repeatedly at times waking everything up, yet you can destroy blocks and the Z's will be none the wiser

-RMG needs industrial area diversity, as it is now, all too many water works and small radio station buildings. Traders spawn infrequently and bunched when they do in odd places, dirt road cabin areas.

-Crossbow and blunderbuss not practical to use because of auto reload, need to be able to cancel the action/switch weapon so you can swap them out after use (reload later when out of combat)

Thanks!

Agreed, all around.