PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Obviously, you've spent too much time in Florida or indoors for the winter. Plus, that is a myth how to catch a cold.

It's a fact that exposure to cold weather increases your chance to get sick, and it makes for some interesting game mechanics, remedies and social interactions in a survival game. I envision players randomly coughing or sneezing and creating an AOE effect that may infect nearby players, wake zombies up, etc.

 

[madmole]

But the cone form as a design element comes back or ? This form was always very popular when it came to creating a look similar to the the trader outpost in the green biome in Navezgane.

I see no problem crafting that shape as a decorative block.

 

[madmole]

I thought I did too. Then I looted an old apartment building.
It is amazing how empty and basic the old prefabs feel now. They are boring to go through.

This. We are trying to add some less dungeon like POIs and abandoned houses to mix it up. It's nice for when you only have 1-2 game hours left before you need to be on the road and can get a bit more loot before heading home.

 

[madmole]

Yep. All temperature sways do is lower the body's immune system to allow things like a cold to really take hold. A cold is a virus and doesn't just appear.
What you could do is make us more susceptible to getting ZOMBIE infected in the cold climates, and that could be done via buffs with the current system... if cold then infection chance is +10 or something. =)

I'm talking about a common cold. Infection should be a serious thing, the current system is trash and needs a design, what we had in 16 got broken in 17.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

No all the fallout haters would rage if we add one more thing Bethesda does good

Or Minecraft ..

*flies away*

 

[madmole]

Something I have been 'researching' - how I feel about LBD. (I believe it's possible to just get used to something, and not feeling 'good' about changes...)
To that end, I have been playing Enderal. Enderal is a total rewrite for Skyrim. If A16 and earlier are Skyrim, then A17+ are Enderal. Enderal has no LBD, all skills (perks) MUST be purchased by buying books. (Meaning all experience is pooled, and you decide how you want to 'spend').

I think they both have positives and negatives, and play just fine. It's just managing expectations.

Like the expectation for the next release.

And, I won't ask for anything, just letting you know - I'M DYING HERE WAITING!

(And I would never resort to hyperbole or rhetoric...)

; - )

Yes, the Johnny Newcomes are not having any issues with the perk system. It will improve though the rebalance should play much better.

 

[madmole]

@madmole
Will the other craftable objects like the white picket fence and wood fence have more of a 3D model?

See images: https://imgur.com/a/Z5slyNg

The white picket fence justs looks so flat. While the wood farm fence actually has a 3D model or it is.

We might have to beat it down to do that or use sparingly.

 

[madmole]

I know you want people to pick a play style and allow people to specialize in it. However, my concern with the books is you'll be able to be a kack of all trades, again. Would you consider only allowing the player to use a certain amount of books to unlock, so we would have to be strategic with which ones we unlock?

IMO they mostly just augment a little further. The bonus perk is pretty good, but will take some work to find all volumes in a set. Adding restrictions is just a poor mechanic that isn't needed as long as they are designed ok. Most of them are do "do 5% more damage to x", etc. Its small but might stack well with your main attribute or play style. If its not your thing, then its not going to do much for you and you won't even notice it because your not using it.

You can decide not to read them, but making a limited number you can read would be tough to understand to players, they will just read everything they run into and then not be able to read what they really want later when they discover it, or with your proposal they would be frozen with fear and never read anything until they have had time to study every perk and know what it may or may not do. Too much hassle for everyone.

 

[madmole]

Yes, exactly; give biomes REAL pros/cons so that players choices mean more. Cold biome, you get sick more easily but zombies run slower. Make 5 to 10 pros/cons for each biome and call it a day. Right now the only differences in biomes are the mining resources, right? And I'm probably wrong about that. <shrug>
- - - Updated - - -

It is, but it seems almost EVERYONE, in almost EVERY house, hid in rafters or in closets. It kinda breaks the spell. =)

5 to 10? I can tell you are still a Johnny Newcome to game design lol. I'd say 2-3 things would be plenty. Overdesign means confused players, harder to implement and more bugs, none of us benefit from that.

We're generally thinking everyone spawns in the pine forest and it is normal difficulty. Snow will be colder and have slower moving harder to kill zeds, and cold will make you shiver which burns through calories faster, so take lots of food and cold weather gear. Desert will make you hot so all the sweating will require a ton of water to drink, so bring a lot of water. Wasteland will be radiated, so bring hazmat and rad pills. Burnt smoke will lower stamina, so maybe bring coffee or stimulants. All non pine forest biomes would have increased game stage, so harder zombies and better loot. Radiated zone would be highest game stage modification.

 

[Blake_]

Someone hid in a closet while infected or bled out and awoke as a zombie? Its a cool mechanic.

I once found a "Nurse" and a "Bloated Walker" together breaking out of a closet. Lore and random explanation notes not needed there. Nuff said.

 

[madmole]

I once found a "Nurse" and a "Bloated Walker" together breaking out of a closet. Lore and random explanation notes not needed there. Nuff said.

She's got the jack, jack, jack... she gave me the jack, nu nuh nuh...

 

[Guppycur]

5 to 10? I can tell you are still a Johnny Newcome to game design lol. I'd say 2-3 things would be plenty. Overdesign means confused players, harder to implement and more bugs, none of us benefit from that.
We're generally thinking everyone spawns in the pine forest and it is normal difficulty. Snow will be colder and have slower moving harder to kill zeds, and cold will make you shiver which burns through calories faster, so take lots of food and cold weather gear. Desert will make you hot so all the sweating will require a ton of water to drink, so bring a lot of water. Wasteland will be radiated, so bring hazmat and rad pills. Burnt smoke will lower stamina, so maybe bring coffee or stimulants. All non pine forest biomes would have increased game stage, so harder zombies and better loot. Radiated zone would be highest game stage modification.

And I can tell that you still underestimate your player base.

Your game is successful and played alot because it was difficult, required intelligence and wasn't a generic console button smasher.

 

[Guppycur]

She's got the jack, jack, jack... she gave me the jack, nu nuh nuh...

Acdc reference ftw.

 

[Blake_]

5 to 10? I can tell you are still a Johnny Newcome to game design lol. I'd say 2-3 things would be plenty. Overdesign means confused players, harder to implement and more bugs, none of us benefit from that.
We're generally thinking everyone spawns in the pine forest and it is normal difficulty. Snow will be colder and have slower moving harder to kill zeds, and cold will make you shiver which burns through calories faster, so take lots of food and cold weather gear. Desert will make you hot so all the sweating will require a ton of water to drink, so bring a lot of water. Wasteland will be radiated, so bring hazmat and rad pills. Burnt smoke will lower stamina, so maybe bring coffee or stimulants. All non pine forest biomes would have increased game stage, so harder zombies and better loot. Radiated zone would be highest game stage modification.

Speaking of which, In that explanation Burnt Forest sounds like clutter. In my humble opinion Burnt should be a dangerous Forest Sub-biome (as it is but smaller) with burning Zs and burning piles and with a desert-like sweating buff. In fact, one sub-biome per every biome with dangerous yet rewarding stuff would be very cool and add a nice variety to the world (like, a subbiome of Ice or Glaciers for the Snow Biome even colder and more dangerous than the snow with huge random modular cave POIs with wolfs and Bears and mountain lions and mass hysteria- as per kickstarter goal-).

Or a desert Sub-Biome with Snake pitts and Poisonous Chemical Barrels that emit poisonous particles when close and are destroyable and therefore cleanable.

Or a Wasteland sub-biome of Heavy radiation (-even more than the Wasteland- ) that only the most protected fools would cross and obtain the best loot of all the Wasteland with Radiated Only enemies.

Sounds like a Pimp Dream, Is it though?

She's got the jack, jack, jack... she gave me the jack, nu nuh nuh...

LOL, Inside my brain now.

 

[Len]

Love this game. I like the creativity, survival, and customization. I like to play using player created prefabs and mods. After playing a bit with آ“Flooded,آ” I would love to see the game take off exponentially with a systematized game support for adding player created prefabs, custom worlds, and mod content. That way, players could play unlimited custom worlds without the Fun Pimps having to design everything like in Navezgane.

 

[Trankitas]

No all the fallout haters would rage if we add one more thing Bethesda does good

It's your game, do whatever YOU (tfp) want. Do have in count "hating" is a fad now.

 

[Wooof]

No all the fallout haters would rage if we add one more thing Bethesda does good

Ohw Ok. How about adding more base defenses, like sand bags, tank traps with sharp edges that can impale zombies, burning barrels with spikes, anti riot barbed wire fences, concrete baarrier and a stationary gun?

 

[madmole]

And I can tell that you still underestimate your player base.
Your game is successful and played alot because it was difficult, required intelligence and wasn't a generic console button smasher.

No, I know good design and over design. 10 things to think about when entering a biome? Over design. 3 is almost always the magic number for everything. I mean, sure there can be 10 things different about a biome, but 10 things to prepare for? Overkill.

 

[madmole]

Acdc reference ftw.

I must know how to play at least 10 acdc songs on guitar lol.

 

[madmole]

Speaking of which, In that explanation Burnt Forest sounds like clutter. In my humble opinion Burnt should be a dangerous Forest Sub-biome (as it is but smaller) with burning Zs and burning piles and with a desert-like sweating buff. In fact, one sub-biome per every biome with dangerous yet rewarding stuff would be very cool and add a nice variety to the world (like, a subbiome of Ice or Glaciers for the Snow Biome even colder and more dangerous than the snow with huge random modular cave POIs with wolfs and Bears and mountain lions and mass hysteria- as per kickstarter goal-).
Or a desert Sub-Biome with Snake pitts and Poisonous Chemical Barrels that emit poisonous particles when close and are destroyable and therefore cleanable.

Or a Wasteland sub-biome of Heavy radiation (-even more than the Wasteland- ) that only the most protected fools would cross and obtain the best loot of all the Wasteland with Radiated Only enemies.

Sounds like a Pimp Dream, Is it though?

LOL, Inside my brain now.

I've been pushing for special hazards and harder biomes for years, Nav might be big enough now to pull it off, but we have to weigh that with all our other goals and people seem to dislike changes. Everyone would have to spawn in a forest, and its kind of nice spawning anywhere, but if we made it too hard we couldn't do that.