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%
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    3
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Small request on the 'Party' system. Is there any way to make our Party persistent from one session to the next? Maybe if you choose persistent profile in the menu, and when you use the Party feature, it would 'stick' until you manually leave Party? I play with mostly one other person and we often forget to Party-up each time. It's a small thing but would be nice for QoL.

Also, and I can't stress enough, please give us an auto-walk / cruise control feature. Please! Like, really please?

As an aside to the above, but more importantly, I need to say I was feeling a bit negative on A17...mostly (and I sheepishly admit) because I read others opinions on it before trying it myself. Now, after getting back in and shaking off the things I remember from previous alphas, A17 is pretty GD solid. So, apologies to MM and the team. Loving 7D again, so thank you all :)

 
Small request on the 'Party' system. Is there any way to make our Party persistent from one session to the next? Maybe if you choose persistent profile in the menu, and when you use the Party feature, it would 'stick' until you manually leave Party? I play with mostly one other person and we often forget to Party-up each time. It's a small thing but would be nice for QoL.
Also, and I can't stress enough, please give us an auto-walk / cruise control feature. Please! Like, really please?

As an aside to the above, but more importantly, I need to say I was feeling a bit negative on A17...mostly (and I sheepishly admit) because I read others opinions on it before trying it myself. Now, after getting back in and shaking off the things I remember from previous alphas, A17 is pretty GD solid. So, apologies to MM and the team. Loving 7D again, so thank you all :)
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I would definitely like a feature similar to this; I play/record/stream with my wife, and it's very easy to forget to party back up after yet another session or someone loses connection to the server for a moment and remember to party back up to share exp yet again.

Either a persistent party system, an auto join checkbox on the player list, or a faded party list on the side with a quick "Add" button for online allies to party up. Whichever makes the most sense/least obtrusive to the existing systems.

 
Mining is not minimal for some (i know 10% was the value said, but i'm sure that was just a number thrown out there), especially if playing with low group size of people and/or solo. I love mining and usually have more than one mining setup (of course due to the biome specific resources) but I'm okay with that. Only thing I liked & disliked at the same time with A17 was the zombies sought me out when using the auger, ALOT. I definitely felt more penalized using the auger than the pickaxe. But I understand the concept of risk/reward. However, if i'm at bedrock and am mining it felt unnatural to be attacked so much while using auger -- but thats a balancing issue and opens more cans of worms (namely, people having untouchable/undetectable bases at bedrock type thing).

I'm worried with the new repair techniques that the gun/tool parts are going to take up more inventory space as a whole. If you carry these parts to help repair what you take with you to survive/mine/fight/explore - where's the loot going to go (so-to-speak)? So instead of just carrying just the metal you need (forged iron/steel) and repair kits while you go out to explore (2 to 3 inventory slots), now you've got to carry (possibly, based on what i've read): Forged iron/steel, tool parts (multiple types possibly for the different tools you have - if TFP goes that route), then specific gun parts - which with limited ammo, especially at the start (yes i know you're not going to have/need repair kits/weapons of that caliber on day 1 but once you get to the point of needing repair kits it's still pretty early in the game), usually means multiple guns. So it seems on paper, would have to carry more to be efficient with exploring (4+ inventory slots).

On the side of durability loss on items, the old system 1-600 had a great method to it, when you repaired the item the durability would go down, and would only return to it's former 600 glory if you went to a workbench to build the durability back up. Not to say the current 1-6 tiers cant do the same. I would like to see a durability loss take effect (especially if field repairing it), to the point of having to make a new item(s) or implement a way to bring the durability back up to full, or something along those lines.

Painting/textures did feel like it was lacking A17. I know someone mentioned there was more versus a16, but it seems like it's missing some. Can't be sure as to which. The colors of paint could vary a bit - light/normal/dark of each color. Or allow a menu to come up and choose the RGB or the hue/saturation type thing?

As far as textures go, Empyrion does pretty close to what i'm about to describe. I personally always equate "textures" to the feel of material. For example(s): -1- if i wanted cherrywood flooring, I would put the "texture" of wood on a block and "paint" it a deep red.

-2- If I want my storage box to "look" like a medicine chest, I would "paint" the storage chest.

-3- If I wanted my walls to looked like chipped paint, I would apply the "chipped texture" to the block and "paint" the color I wanted over it. Not sure if this could be a thing in 7d2d as well since I'm unsure of the work it would take to implement this style versus coming up with alot more "predefined" paint/textures.

For the perks/books, I'm hoping they are a little more in depth with their descriptions or at least a little more clear. Example: Letting players know this "effect" works with tools. But like a previous post stated, fireaxe is a tool and a weapon.. will this "effect" work with fireaxe since it "can" be used as tool or is it just x/y/z tools.

 
Joel, have a small question: are new electricity awaited in Alpha 18?- remote control of doors, hatches and bridges

- remote start generator

- degradation of a generator, bank of batteries or solar panels with time or from bad weather

- random stop of the generator (if it has a small margin of safety)

- remote explosion of dynamite

- parallel connection of generators to increase power

- switch of the direction of current movement between two, three or more directions

- fuel sensors in the generator

- dependence of the power level of solar cells on the weather

- tasks related to the repair of generators or battery banks

- the effect of weather on the electrical network (lightning can disable the generator or solar panel, a strong wind can break the wires outside ...)

- may be something else... )))

Thank you)
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Yeah!! Builders like me want to know more about the future of electricity!!

 
Well... It's not the same anymore...I have to agree with mr.natural here.

Mining, crafting, building and character progression, are what attracted me to the game initially.

Only the character prograssion has improved in this regard. The rest have suffered in my opinion (the game has been dumbed down some).

It's not easy to explain, since it's a "feeling" really.

When you sit down and start a new game. The way the early game makes you feel now, is way different than before.

Perhaps I just need to give it time... A18 may help me to see TFP's new vision.
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IMHO this feeling is just the normal way with any game you get to know. I remember how I felt when I played the game for the first time, sitting in a hut in my first night and a single zombie "knocking" at the door. I needed 2 hours to dispatch him. I never will experience that again because in the same situation I would dispatch this single zombie much faster and with A LOT LESS fear and indecision.

Maybe mining and building is somehow different now. But maybe it is you that is different. You already built a bungalow, a tower, a subway street..., there are just a lot of ideas you already tried out and it isn't the same to do it again. In four words: "Been there, done that"

 
Lets use the Freakin Work Bench to Clean & Repair Weapons & Tools
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If a field repair costs more than one in the workbench it's ok for me but only repairing in the workbench would cause a lot of problems.

I have to repair my weapons at least once per bloodmoon horde. During the horde I don't have the time or the possibility to go to the workbench and repair the weapons.

 
Eliminating The Repair Kits Makes Sense
Lets use the Freakin Work Bench to Clean & Repair Weapons & Tools,

it's a WORKBENCH, that's what they are for,

Let Tools Handles Break & Weapons misfire after so many rounds fired, very simple fix...

We don't need them when we have all these Work Stations...

The Mod's we add to Weapons could Break also & need replaced or fixed...
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I don't see why everything has to always be so black and white. This is why people get angry about the changes. If repair needs simplification, then just make them non-craftable. Keeping them in game as a repair-all, no-hassle, high-end loot that is a prize sought after solves the problem of wanting reasons to loot and leaves simple repair through some other system available to a multitude of possibilities across every stage of gameplay.

 
I'm also one that would like to see the paint textures fixed up. I've seen someone post on this at least one other time and MM misunderstood them to be talking about game textures instead of the paint brush textures. I'd like to see the book cases and refrigerator textures back in the paint brush menu. Also a few other textures like a wheel texture, or the control panel textures. While there are several brick textures, one of them is labeled 'deleted' and is non usable. There used to be a mirror texture, and I'm sure there were more that I'm not recalling.
I'd like to see a wide variety of more textures to help with decorating bases or player made POIs. I don't know what limits are imposed on how many textures can be added, but if possible I'd really like to see a lot more. Especially 'clean' versions of textures that are done up to look like they are faded, peeling, burnt, chipped, scratched, etc.

Also, the single click (as mentioned) is a bit of a chore. Being able to hold the button and paint is badly missed. I would also suggest no longer using the left button to wipe the paint - just add a "wipe" texture that can be selected to clean up paint because more often than not wiping isn't required with a mispaint - just repaint the block. Then the left mouse button could instead be used as a 'Select Area' feature in which you click once to start a selection and then click/drag an area that will be filled by the current paint selected. One could paint out long lines or specific areas much more easily.

Even if said features were admin/creative mode only they would be invaluable to those of us making things.

Rotating the texture would also be a welcome addition.
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Agreed, MOAR PAINT!

That being said, I am sure there are times when a paint should be a block (book cases, coolers, mirrors, etc) and times when paint makes more sense. Also, painting should be thought of it two veins of thought:

Prefab editor: All access to paints, old textures (aged/weathered), etc. The editor should be able to tell a story effectively with a wide array of textures.

In-Game Paint: Old/weathered paint should not be available, but new/fresh paint should be. It breaks immersion to have a palette of antiquing textures when slapping on a fresh coat of recently crafted paint. Also, the paint application should be dynamic to the material it is painted on. (IE. painting your wood shack with chipped/peeling concrete blue should not be possible).

I know, I know.. from a gameplay perspective, who gives a F about paint, right? I'm infected and low on bullets for the love of god! Granted. However, many builders-at-heart will fight harder to protect their homes, not to get cracks in that new accent wall, or the curtains you finally found at the trader. (or later to obtain from a POI if they still plan on implementing decor salvaging in the future)

And, of course, the real reason. To get my wife to stop b*tching about the paint selection. The rest of the reasons is just validation.

One last point to make: to ease some of the art asset work, make textures additions super easy to do? Make a drop folder of player-added textures that can be indexed into the paint palette after a quick validation process.

Anyhoo, things to put on the drawing board perhaps after core gameplay has had it's fair shake :)

 
Well... It's not the same anymore...I have to agree with mr.natural here.

Mining, crafting, building and character progression, are what attracted me to the game initially.

Only the character prograssion has improved in this regard. The rest have suffered in my opinion (the game has been dumbed down some).

It's not easy to explain, since it's a "feeling" really.

When you sit down and start a new game. The way the early game makes you feel now, is way different than before.

Perhaps I just need to give it time... A18 may help me to see TFP's new vision.

But removing things like the repair kit... How does that make any sense? Unless you are dumbing down the game...
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As I see it, A17 had both positive and negative changes but with many flaws just carrying over from previous versions. I agree with mr.natural too but only because of the lack of consequences in/reasons to do certain fundamental things. It's discouraging to hear people, whom I introduced the game to, say things like (not their exact words, but more or less):

-Why should I really put any effort into avoiding death since it's barely consequential?

-Why should I really mine/gather to make a base and defend it? I can easily outrun anything forever at nightmare speed without any perks.

-This game is just a zombie POI grind and after a while there is not much of a reason to even do that, due to weapons and other resources growing on trees (it's perfectly natural for people to view the game as "zombie grinding" in its current state, even more so than in A16 with LBG + zombie exp, for extremely obvious reasons I could get into but I don't want this to become a huge wall of text).

-Basic needs are annoying. Why? Because they just become "regular interval clicking" beyond early game, due to the abundance of resources (with minimum loot settings to boot). Food doesn't spoil and unavoidably gets piled up. Believe it or not, that makes a lot of people view them as a click-to-use "chore", rather than an engaging gameplay mechanic. The disease system atm barely acts as a medical supplies sink, good thing it will be re-designed (max health being increased with medicine did help a lot on that front though).

Yes, TFP have been met with resistance any time they tried to do this and that, but they can't achieve a balance between inconsequential and consequential, it will either be one or the other. So either add options to accommodate both or completely stick to your vision. Also the most negative feedback is the absence of feedback. Most people who ask these questions won't give any feedback, they will just be disinterested.

TLDR: Just make sure players will always have incentives to do an activity and balance those incentives because as mentioned above, the game currently is all over the place on that regard.

 
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Hi,

I just recently started playing the game and i just want to say thanks to the dev...

The dam game is just OODLES of FUNZ and 17.2 runs great on my system..

Nearly 1000 hrs in and i plan to go at least that again or more,

Now thats just AMAZING value for a measly 20 bucks.

Also great to see u guys still updating and optomizng the game.

Good for you...

 
I'm far from on this whole "The game is going to suck now!" train, but I can say that I've never liked the traders. Seems like a cheap way to get stuff, instead of looting for it. Sure,I can simply "not use traders", and I don't.
My only concern and reason for posting this, is that it seems that when a good system takes more work to implement, the answer is "Get it a from a trader" or some such thing. If I can turn off traders and the game still works, I'd consider that a design win. If not, its a fail (IMO).
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Its actually gotten better in 17.2 it is decently hard to amass a massive amount of dukes now, at least by just selling stuff. I find I am actually using the quest system more to make dukes than I used to before. even with 4 in better barter, they still don't pay much for goods.

 
As usual i'm on Jax's boat. The trend seems to be simplification of seemingly uninteresting, unfun mechanics based on a biased sense of "global opinion". No one liked the plains, let's remove them, repairing stuff is boring, let's simplify it, caves were a mess, let's disable them, etc. It was all good several alphas ago when this came with the justification "it was a placeholder anyways and we need to strip some stuff to add that REAL lategame content", but let's face it, where is that content ? What has actually been added that has significantly improved late game ?
We removed the 1-600 quality system with effectiveness bonuses in order to implement a "better system". What's better with the 1-6 level system in the end ? Being able to craft level 3 tools as soon as you end the starter quest if you just dump all your points in Intelligence ? What's the big gain here I fail to see ? Couldn't mod slots just be an addition to the old system instead of envisionning yet another revolutionnary change, that inevitably ended up being a half-baked system ?

We removed books for a supposedly amazing skill tree that actually totally shifted the game's purpose from exploring & looting towards finding the best way to level up in order to unlock everything via your inventory. Is that really better in a open world exploration game ?

We removed gunparts because "finding gun parts and assembling guns together was a chore", so now you find dozens of complete guns you have no uses for, with mod slots way before you actually find any mods.

We have a brand new RWG where snow doesn't meet desert but where every map looks the same.

The list goes on and on.

I think the common denominator here is that working, pleasant, fun mechanics are constantly being changed and stripped because the vision of another system seems wayyy better, but the implementation is always drastically underwhelming. How many times did we get hyped up about that new RWG until we realised it's broken ? How many times did the skill tree get praised before we realised it changed the whole purpose of the game ?

And most importantly, besides all the constant changes that didn't need to happen, where is the actual content that gets postponed over and over again ? Bandits, legendary loot ?

This will seem harsh but I'm losing faith because I feel the expectations of TFP and their vision of "what's coming" always ends up being way overrated compared to how it is implemented in the end.
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I don't want to get your hopes up, but I gave the leash to another designer for A17 and he wasn't here on the forums and he was a little out of touch with our game. I'm here, I'm reading all this stuff and its in the back of my mind as we're balancing and making changes. I know what you guys want, but its going to take some time to get there. A18 should be a sufficient step forward to placate most haters and A19 hopefully will be awesome.
 
Sadly the forum is again in a "doom is upon us"-mode. Repair-kits are not getting removed, independent of the reason. Let it rest.


MM dropped a hint that someone with a (probably) different vision was in charge of game design in the early alphas.
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I took a hiatus for A17 design and we hired a guy for that. He's gone and we hired some way better artists than me, so all I do now is design, balance and a bit of technical art and give feedback on art and animation. My focus now is to be the best game designer I can be. Rick and I didn't test together either in A17 (we did every other alpha) because we were so busy, A18 we are committed to doing that again and we'll strike a better balance doing that IMO.

 
Releasing a stable A17.3 and A18 within the next two months..? Gotta see it to believe it, but I don't think that will happen.
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Book and perk localization is 99% done. There's some new functionality we're waiting on but most of the content is coming online. We're progressing nicely.

 
How so? In 17.0 everyone was crying how hard the game is, what has changed?
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I don't think AI was that hard, even at first iterations, but I do think mining in A17 is way worse than A16. I'm not talking about stamina, but yield.

 
will there be a way to clear sleepers from a building forever? we completely demolished the poi's around our horde base for better line of sight, but the sleepers still spawn on the flat ground where the building was.

speaking of sleepers, i know it's just a jump scare tactic, but i often find myself wondering, how and why would a zombie carefully and precisely open that cabinet, walk in, and shut the door behind itself without getting any blood or scratches on said cabinet? this demonstrates a level of intelligence and dexterity in zombies i am not accustomed to :)

 
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