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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update question: are we gonna see A17e B30? or is it straight to A18?

doesnt really matter to me as long as the next update has the RWG fix in it.

 
We are thinning the sleepers some more and adding more what we call abandoned houses, which is what you spawn by. Go for a garage if you can't find an abandoned house. You only need one room, not a full house.
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Okay, I'm glad to get a better idea of your intentions on this. While in theory you only need one room, in the experience of many, no part of a POI is safe until all parts of a POI are safe. And it's not because of paranoia or ignoring stealth.

From what I've gathered, this is because as soon as you walk away, the game doesn't remember which sleepers were where: only how many are left. So when you return, the remaining sleepers are re-rolled and by random chance show up in your already cleared room. I believe a lot of users have misinterpreted this, to believe that sleepers repopulate almost instantly.

Can we expect to see more done with water in A18? examples:
-- Buckets that STACK when empty
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I've modded buckets to do this, and the problem is the whole stack is filled when you draw from a water source, even if filled buckets are set to not stack. It might take a code change to make this possible.

On a related note, I'd really like to see it fixed so that naturally occurring water blocks can actually be depleted. I've spent time making a very dry rwgmixer I think would be interesting to play. But when even a single block of water can be drawn from infinitely, the size of a body of water is irrelevant.

It never had an identity crisis, we let one guy squat on AI/VEHICLES/BUFFS/AUDIO for way too long with no progress. Buffs were an integral part to doing the skill system we always wanted to. All we could manipulate then was health and stamina, now we can manipulate anything. What we wanted was A17. Its not balanced yet, but its getting there. We got Faatal and the AI and vehicles rock now, and we had robert redo the buff system, and a new guy for audio. We hired a guy to do the perk system and it was supposed to have been done in June and then he quit in September and I got handed the mess and redesigned it and implemented it in 2 months. So I did a 6 month system in 2 months, so no wonder there was some backlash and balance issues.
It was also designed during content lock so that was really limiting in what I could do with it. We didn't want to break saves any more so the big rebalance is coming for A18 and I feel like it will live up to our expectations a lot better. More specialization, new weapons to fit attributes, better balance, incentives to loot and more clearly defined player archtypes should be a lot better.
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Move over, LBD squabbling. It's this kind of insight on development that I really appreciate you sharing with us.

 
MM, will we have more homemade weapons? for example firearms? weapons like Taser Baton is an orgasm, we want more homemade weapons please

 
Sorry if this has been asked already.

In A18, will sleeper zombies have footstep sounds and moaning noises BEFORE attacking/being attacked? Or only after they have attacked/been attacked as it is currently? Or maybe it's a bug? Or is it intended that they are silent ninja's?

The only noises they make currently are the snorting noises before they wake up (which is literally audio directly in your ear and no directional), when they are attacking blocks, and when they fall down from the ceiling etc.

Example: Having a feral wight attacking from behind without any audio queue's is not fun :(

 
I mean, Borderlands have a trading system and its a 4 player coop max. Diablo, Titan Quest, Sacred, Torchlight, etc. Non of those are MMO, all of them have trading system, so i don't know what you mean.
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But aren't you playing 7DTD and not those games? They miss the genre doesn't mean Fun Pimp should do that too. I don't mind having trading in game at all, just that I don't feel it is needed, you can simply drop and pick and exchange item with player, and then you have Vending machines for it. what else do you really like for trading ?

 
It never had an identity crisis, we let one guy squat on AI/VEHICLES/BUFFS/AUDIO for way too long with no progress. Buffs were an integral part to doing the skill system we always wanted to. All we could manipulate then was health and stamina, now we can manipulate anything. What we wanted was A17. Its not balanced yet, but its getting there. We got Faatal and the AI and vehicles rock now, and we had robert redo the buff system, and a new guy for audio. We hired a guy to do the perk system and it was supposed to have been done in June and then he quit in September and I got handed the mess and redesigned it and implemented it in 2 months. So I did a 6 month system in 2 months, so no wonder there was some backlash and balance issues.
It was also designed during content lock so that was really limiting in what I could do with it. We didn't want to break saves any more so the big rebalance is coming for A18 and I feel like it will live up to our expectations a lot better. More specialization, new weapons to fit attributes, better balance, incentives to loot and more clearly defined player archtypes should be a lot better.
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Just wanna say, I know you don't have to give out info like that, but hearing the reasons why this or that happened is very helpful. Definitely helps understand the process. :)

 
PFFFFTTT its not really enough penalty IMO. Its on the list to revisit.
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Really?

Heavy armor feels like moving in molasses. The movement penalty makes it mostly pointless. Have not had a chance to wear with all pieces equipped with advanced fittings yet though - hoping that helps a bit in my next play through.

 
Quite the opposite, actually. I've been playing a "wandering" style, no bases or farming, mining only surface rocks for ore (which I use in traders' forges). Most of my perks are in stealth, strength (for Pack Mule), and int (for bikes/minibikes). My only combat perks are one point each into ranged and melee headshot damage.
Maybe it's just the "wandering" style that doesn't give you much XP. Perhaps mining or farming gives you the same XP as zed killing, but that's mainly how I played in A16 and how I started playing A17, and I'm trying to be different.
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I think the issue with killing vs mining XP comes down to efficiency. Mining is a FAR better and faster way to level than killing in my experience.

You CAN level faster by killing but the most efficient way to do so is run around popping a few shots off at buildings and mopping up what comes out. This is NOT an organic way of playing. Typically, you are going to be doing your killing around a bevy of other activities like looting which is going to bring your XP gains in line. This is the EXACT opposite of mining. There, your XP gain is maximized by maximizing the rate at which you gain resources - the actual organic way of playing. This means that a miner is always maximizing the amount of XP they are gaining from the activity just as a matter of course in doing that activity. The same is not true of fighting. Killing zeds is typically not done in the most efficient way possible as that is a part of a larger activity.

Want to level really fast - go to bedrock, point a direction, toggle the w key and M1, take a nap, profit.

 
After playing 2 weeks with a dozen players who did'nt really know the game, I can tell you that they all loved it.

Among all their comments, three things seem important to me:

- We played without loot respawn. Many wondered why zombies reappear in POIs. Is it something that could be optional? There is a real sense of accomplishment when an entire area is cleaned up. There is really no point in zombies coming back ... except when a quest leads us into a POI where precisely we have to stop an invasion start.

- The features of the tools are not easy to understand (I am so used to this system that I never really questioned it): now I think that the wrench should only be used to disassemble stuff, not to improve blocks. The hammer and the nailer are ok for wood and metal, but for blocks of stone, brick or cement, wouldn't it be more obvious to have a trowel?

- Random hordes aren't gamestage related. At some level, they no longer pose any threat and are just XP deliveries ...

Thank you !

 
What would you have me do?
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It would be nice to have additional mods just for tools. At the moment you can count the mods available exclusively for tools on one hand.

e.g. an additional tank for the chainsaw and the auger to expand the tank capacity.

A mod and reduce the volume and heat of the auger and chainsaw.

A mod to increase the speed of the nail gun.

A mod to increase the repair amount of the hammer, wrench and nailgun.

Some of these mods might also be suitable as legendary items.

It would also be nice to have lootcontainers that are specially designed for tools like a tool belt or a toolbox. For weapons in A17 these bags have been added and the ammunition piles but nothing equivalent for tools.

I'm only asking for a few small things to show the builders that they weren't completely forgotten because of all the new weapons.

 
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PFFFFTTT its not really enough penalty IMO. Its on the list to revisit.
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if that penalty reduction is added to the armor (heavy/light) perks, increasing the initial non perk penalties shouldnt be a problem for balance. dont forget armor set bonus... lol.

 
Rail Gun

Rail gun will probably become the T3 sniper weapon, MR10, T2.
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Rail Gun? you speak well of a projectile weapon accelerated by an electromagnetic force? could be fun to use batteries and Dart to shoot a target without any noise with a portable weapon :smile-new:

 
Taser Baton model and texture!
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Not gonna lie that looks badass. But how would a taser kill a zombie? There electric shock would have to be strong enough to fry the brain I guess. Well it is handmade so I guess I can get on board with that lol. Should require a battery. Maby require the taser in mainland and hold a battery in right? Or just have a battery in the taser?

 
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As an ex Field Artillery Soldier, I support more cannons
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This ... as much as this may have been a joke, I think that would be flippin' awesome.

How about a rudimentary artillery cannon? Like the answer for a turret as the blunderbuss would be to a shotgun? Load it up with stone/cast iron cannon balls, some gunpowder you scrounged up, aim, and light with a torch on horde nights? Unwieldly, but devastating.

This would make base defense more entertaining, get some melee-centric folk manning the cannons in a ranged-only style horde base, or if ammo runs dry, or if the zombies cluster up and use one of the few explosive shells you crafted.

You could have a few ammo choices such as a round shot which you could give more range, shells for shorter range explosive, or get some animal fat/oil and shoot some fireballs.

Just a thought, but just imagine it for a second, and how that would change early-mid tier base defense until the very long path to making/buying automated turrets.

 
Give me a boot to the loon graphic please and thanks :)
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That would be epic. Also the idea of no exp from zombies sounds interesting, for a mod. And i would even try that mod. Just not for vanilla.

 
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