PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • <img alt=":)" data-src="" src="___base_url___/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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I don't want to sound negative, but I like Book system that is one new, one new type of zombie, couple of new weapon and RWG seems the only thing for A18 as of now. Do you have any list which are game changing or impact game like books. It seems so little for naming A18. But seems more of A17.xx something .. Not that I am complaining, just been curious what you guys plan to work for a18.

 
I don't want to sound negative, but I like Book system that is one new, one new type of zombie, couple of new weapon and RWG seems the only thing for A18 as of now. Do you have any list which are game changing or impact game like books. It seems so little for naming A18. But seems more of A17.xx something .. Not that I am complaining, just been curious what you guys plan to work for a18.
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They already said that they wanted shorter update cycles after a17 and that a18 would be polish, bug fixing and some new content. I'm fine with that pacing. You won't have game changing content forever.

 
If only time could have been a bit too short for Ewoks and Jar Jar...
EDIT: lol...reread that and realized I took it wrong. You were telling US to focus on the Heroes Journey section if OUR time is short. I thought you were quoting from the book that storytellers should focus on the heroe's journey if time is short...
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George Lucas used the book for Luke's journey. It can be used for the players storyline and it would probably be pretty good.

 
By that same logic you also don't have a say. One could easily say as an outlier of those stats, you are the anomaly who should not be taken into consideration.
Statistics work both ways, especially the interpretations.

Not saying you're wrong or right; no clue...
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When did I say all of my opinions and requests are for me?

You're absolutely right. As a norm, I'm abnormal. However my wishful selfish requests are largely limited to deco blocks.

My other requests are usually a request for options, which are applicable to a much broader audience than myself.

 
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With the new mod framework, are you guys planning to make it so you can readily pick and choose which mods to use when you load a server? This will be really useful especially when it comes to picking between overhaul style mods to run.

 
When did I say all of my opinions and requests are for me?
You're absolutely right. As a norm, I'm abnormal. However my wishful selfish requests are largely limited to deco blocks.

My other requests are usually a request for options, which are applicable to a much broader audience than myself.
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Making requests on behalf of what you think the public wants?

And there are people in this thread saying modders have a high opinion of themselves? Always make requests for you, not for some perceived greater good or on behalf of what you think the public wants.

I agree though more deco blocks. I disagree no more options. The 200 percent XP setting has already wrecked any balance Im trying to maintain with my mod.

- - - Updated - - -

With the new mod framework, are you guys planning to make it so you can readily pick and choose which mods to use when you load a server? This will be really useful especially when it comes to picking between overhaul style mods to run.
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That's on the overhaul modder to allow these options. Like my Night Terrors. I will never allow people to turn them off. If they wish to do so they better learn how to mod. They are part of the experience.

As for installing your server with them most server rental companies offer these options, and for people who use dedi builds the launcher is the best way to pick and choose which mods you would like to install to your pc. Unless you mean something different?

 
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With been Mod so integral part of marketing and development. I really feel there should be Mod Controller within Game like ModLauncher tool, which show mod repo and then install it, or uninstall it.

 
When did I say all of my opinions and requests are for me?
You're absolutely right. As a norm, I'm abnormal. However my wishful selfish requests are largely limited to deco blocks.

My other requests are usually a request for options, which are applicable to a much broader audience than myself.
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Ironically, the pimps have given us unlimited deco blocks, via modding ability.

...at no point will everyone be satisfied with vanilla. Ever.

 
Ironically, the pimps have given us unlimited deco blocks, via modding ability.
...at no point will everyone be satisfied with vanilla. Ever.
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I would be, if tfp added npcs like bandits and companions. But i dont have to be because all the extra features i want are added in by modders. I loved all the vanilla fallout and elder scrolls games but the mods really made it for me and so many other gamers. 7 days is a game like that, so highly moddable.

 
I disagree no more options. The 200 percent XP setting has already wrecked any balance Im trying to maintain with my mod.
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Aren't you then making the same mistake as Jackelmyer?

Really, I think all you can do is in your mod description state what values it's balanced for and if people choose to use it with values other than that, then the imbalance is on them.

More player options is always a good thing, though I would say, it should come more towards the end of development, since time spent making more options now, may well be (partially or totally) wasted if further mechanics changes invalidate those options.

 
The 200 percent XP setting has already wrecked any balance Im trying to maintain with my mod.
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Congratulations! You have officially found out that some players have a different idea of what is fun! ;)

If you are losing sleep over it you can simply balance your mod for the 200% XP settings and put that "required setting" in the description. Then it can only be played in "normal", "grindier", and several kinds of "even grindier".

 
Congratulations! You have officially found out that some players have a different idea of what is fun! ;)
If you are losing sleep over it you can simply balance your mod for the 200% XP settings and put that "required setting" in the description. Then it can only be played in "normal", "grindier", and several kinds of "even grindier".
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...or just mod out the 200% XPmodifier setting all together.

Code: 
&lt;gameoption name="XPMultiplier" title="goXPMultiplier" value_wrap="false" value_type="int" [color="#FF8C00"]values="25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 300"[/color] display_names="" value_localization_prefix="goXPMultiplierValue" /&gt;
Just remove whatever setting that doesn't tickle your fancy I guess.

 
George Lucas used the book for Luke's journey. It can be used for the players storyline and it would probably be pretty good.
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You should probably look at the plot arcs for the "Knight's Of The Old Republic" if you want a more free-form plot. You can do "The heroes journey", "The fall from grace" and "Redemption from evil" with relatively few decisions. It's not easy but it does allow the hardcore roleplayers among us to have some very dramatic moments. :-)

 
There is no atlas for blocks any more, just a texture array. I'm sure we'll make it easy to add your own or add new textures to it at some point.
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A double edged sword; my wife constantly whines about the lack of textures to paint with, so this would alleviate her complaints.. however she will constantly task me with creating textures and importing them into our local game/server. Sigh!

This would be fantastic though, I hope you guys are able to squeeze this in relatively soon .

 
Concerning the settings: The only differences between the difficulty settings are speed at which gamestage ramps up (which directly answers the fellows complaint) and the hp of the zombies. For a casual player those are the perfect changes to make the game more accessible. If Casual Joe wants slower gamestage progression so that Ferals don’t show up as early then the difficulty settings are the way to go. Personally I think they should make the difficulty levels purely about gamestage progression and bring back the player vs zombie and zombie vs player sliders. Then there would be absolutely no reason to play on easiest if your sole concern is how early the Ferals show up.
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I would not call them perfect changes or even remotely good ones. What they are is easy. TFP is falling into the same trap that Bethesda does all the time - difficulty is not synonymous with more HP or more bad guys. Good difficulty comes from adding challenges, not making us hit M1 more times. For instance - all those zeds that spawn in the ceiling would be something that may not occur at scavenger but do at nomad.

I understand why difficulty is done the way it is - it is really easy and fast to simply add a multiplayer on an existing in game variable and call that 'difficulty.' The example I gave above may not even be possible with the way the game is coded so adding more HP provides an answer but a rather poor one IMHO. I would at least like to see what you suggest added - those are 2 terrible things to tie together for me. I, personally, think that the game stage moves to slow at warrior BUT I also do not like to play with tanky zombies - it is just not adding to the experience.

 
I disagree and will die on that hill. A17 is better than 16 in every way. The new perk system allows you to make interesting character builds before you just ground and still bought perks that had very limited role playing or team augmenting use. There was ONE way to play. Now we're adding tons of content thanks to the new system, so I don't see how that is generic. There are no zombie games with perks or attributes are there?
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Dying Light does, and in my opinion, they do it better. What they don't have is fun voxels to go with their beautiful graphics like you guys do. That is where 7DtD actual uniqueness lies, and imo, where the focus of the game should be for max after sales satisfaction.

The steam backend shows how many players fit into "hours buckets". Most players are 2 hours or less. I'm like that. I buy games and don't like them and never play them again.
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You say your publishers want you to make the first 20 to 30 hours awesome. In that case, the first step is getting people to play it for more than 2 hours, and that means focusing on the type of game breaking issues that make people quit before 2 hours. I have plenty 2 hours or or less games in my Steam library, for various reasons like:

  1. No way to adjust Field of View / turn off camera shake. (If I'd bought 7DtD in A17, I would have instantly refunded it)
  2. Poorly optimised where my fairly decent rig can't play it. (like early days of Dark & Light)
  3. Stupid controls (like badly ported console games)
  4. Annoying NPCs (like claptrap from Borderlands or that black cloud thing from BDO)
  5. Don't know what the hell to do / how to progress (bad user interface design)


The first, second, and last points are all things that 7DtD could work on.

 
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