PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[AtomicUs5000]

Can vultures carry dogs in this version? Or was that for a future build?

Is that for real? I can't picture it. Maybe snakes I could see.

I second more aggressive bears in general. Here I go again about horde nights, but just because it would be too OP any other time, it would be cool if on horde nights the dogs and bears could outrun the player. Perhaps dogs even outrun bikes and tackle the player off. Bears outrun the others and can even knock over the jeep. It wouldn't be too far-fetched since bears can run up to 40 MPH without blood moon zombie power.

Also would love more zombie types and more distinct characteristics among them... to the point where you have to think about all of them carefully with base design and traps.

 

[junrall]

MM:

My only request for Alpha 18 or beyond... in-game voice chat needs to be tied into zombie awareness!

The zombies should be able to hear you talking to your comrades via the in-game voice chat... the louder you talk the more the zombies will be able to zero in on you!

 

[Tete1805]

So, that skin ain't that thick after all.

Old madmole did put mines in the wasteland, but the new one just commissions the silent thread slicer in the dark!

 

[meganoth]

MM:My only request for Alpha 18 or beyond... in-game voice chat needs to be tied into zombie awareness!

The zombies should be able to hear you talking to your comrades via the in-game voice chat... the louder you talk the more the zombies will be able to zero in on you!

Nice idea, but would probably drive a lot of groups to use external voice chat like teamspeak.

 

[Xenophobed44]

Nice idea, but would probably drive a lot of groups to use external voice chat like teamspeak.

Personally my group of friends would screech into the mic as loud as possible to summon screamers for XP and gear farming

 

[RestInPieces]

Personally my group of friends would screech into the mic as loud as possible to summon screamers for XP and gear farming

Sounds about right - most people would do that.

*dramatic voice*

Is it this the zombie killing game you want MM? Or zombies being obstacles that you have to kill to survive, like you had also said in the past?

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Is there any thought around animal traps? I like that in The Forrest (game) I can make traps to catch rabbits. I also liked that I can raise/hatch chickens in Minecraft. with both of those breadable species in the game it would be nice to have a system that supports:

a. Trapping (Live trap and dead/death traps)

b. raising/breading - with chance of Feral/zombie animal (bonus)

c. some sort of interaction that is required in order to keep them alive like feeding/water

d. Risk - if a wolf is XX blocks they will try and attack/kill them or destroy the cage/trap.

 

[Ghostsniper343]

Breeding animals isn’t gonna happen. Breeding animals means new entities taking up space and causes performance issues. Just like in Minecraft when you breed a bunch of animals.

tfp dont want MP servers to suffer because some dude is breeding hundreds of chickens for his new KFC restaurant.

As far as taming goes, we were supposed to be able to tame wolves. I donآ’t know if this idea got scrapped or not.

 

[Roland]

If surviving were truly difficult, time passage would be a great driver for level/experience gain. But since it isn't, people would just hunker down in a POI and wait to accrue skill points and then complain about how boring the game is

The difference is that if they hunker down and do nothing while waiting for the level up to hit they aren't getting it any faster than others who are going out and accumulating gear, materials, dukes, and building up defenses. Right now we have people who figure out the fastest way to progress and they stick to that. With time based progression no player action can affect the speed at which that progression happens. That means players can do what they truly want to do in the game and not worry if it puts them ahead or behind the curve.

Hunkering down and doing nothing becomes the least effective way to play.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

The difference is that if they hunker down and do nothing while waiting for the level up to hit they aren't getting it any faster than others who are going out and accumulating gear, materials, dukes, and building up defenses. Right now we have people who figure out the fastest way to progress and they stick to that. With time based progression no player action can affect the speed at which that progression happens. That means players can do what they truly want to do in the game and not worry if it puts them ahead or behind the curve.
Hunkering down and doing nothing becomes the least effective way to play.

Look... I like that idea. Kinda (I like xp for doing stuff that is not endless like looting more).

But this is like a kick in the nuts

Because I have always been told that active defences (dart trap and gunturrets) dont give xp because you dont have to do anything, although you need to place them and keep up with the ammunition. And now this complete 180°...

does that mean that active traps (not blade/spikes or fences) will now finally give xp (if this time based system isnt implemented)? Because then it would finally be fun and rewarding again to erect defenses because now with zombieloot gone there is no incentive for those active costly defenses AT ALL!!

 

[RestInPieces]

Look... I like that idea. Kinda (I like xp for doing stuff that is not endless like looting more).But this is like a kick in the nuts

Because I have always been told that active defences (dart trap and gunturrets) dont give xp because you dont have to do anything, although you need to place them and keep up with the ammunition. And now this complete 180°...

does that mean that active traps (not blade/spikes or fences) will now finally give xp (if this time based system isnt implemented)? Because then it would finally be fun and rewarding again to erect defenses because now with zombieloot gone there is no incentive for those active costly defenses AT ALL!!

Incentives for base building must come in the form of having to save your ass, not "here is a mechanic that gives you 1000 creative ways to funnel a stream of zombies to your base and abuse semi-afk XP farming". Trap XP is very problematic Vik... And if we had a perfect economy the ammunition/repair mats you spent might have meant something but...

Also Roland's way of getting XP is action-independent, unlike trap XP (afk != action-independent), so it essentially has nothing to do with it. You just have to stay alive.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Incentives for base building must come in the form of having to save your ass, not "here is a mechanic that gives you 1000 creative ways to funnel a stream of zombies to your base and abuse semi-afk XP farming". Trap XP is very problematic Vik... And if we had a perfect economy the ammunition/repair mats you spent might have meant something but...
Also Roland's way of getting XP is action-independent, unlike trap XP (afk != action-independent), so it essentially has nothing to do with it. You just have to stay alive.

yeah. Its even worse than my idea.

I can prophecise you that ppl will simply go online, tunnel down to bedrock, leave their pc on and go shopping or other stuff just to get some xp so they dont have to needlessly wait to finally be able to craft something they need or to finally be able to carry the minimum amount they consider worth playing.

It is literally afk grinding.

My method is at least action related. And ammunition is expensive and darttraps dont damage at all so... yeah

I know that it is not equal. I was complaining because this way of doing it would be even worse afk farming than what I suggested which was rejected because you shouldnt get anything without doing something (which was as stupid as it is now because you DO need to do things)

And yes it should be.

But traps actually harm you, since they steal your xp.

I could simply run around outside throwing molotovs and getting mad xp instead of putting up a gunturret and spending 500 ammo on 30 zombies.

 

[RestInPieces]

yeah. Its even worse than my idea.I can prophecise you that ppl will simply go online, tunnel down to bedrock, leave their pc on and go shopping or other stuff just to get some xp so they dont have to needlessly wait to finally be able to craft something they need or to finally be able to carry the minimum amount they consider worth playing.

It is literally afk grinding.

My method is at least action related. And ammunition is expensive and darttraps dont damage at all so... yeah

I know that it is not equal. I was complaining because this way of doing it would be even worse afk farming than what I suggested which was rejected because you shouldnt get anything without doing something (which was as stupid as it is now because you DO need to do things)

And yes it should be.

But traps actually harm you, since they steal your xp.

I could simply run around outside throwing molotovs and getting mad xp instead of putting up a gunturret and spending 500 ammo on 30 zombies.

(Can't discuss about traps as well right now not enough time) Your points are valid and as Aerial said

If surviving were truly difficult, time passage would be a great driver for level/experience gain. But since it isn't, people would just hunker down in a POI and wait to accrue skill points and then complain about how boring the game is

Roland's system would only have merit, as long as there weren't any ways to completely avoid threats/risk/cost. Else many people would do exactly what you and Aerial say and be annoyed to no end as a result. We were discussing about how "optional" threats inside gameplay are damaging for the game just a few pages ago. Hell, I've been saying this since I joined...

@Roland - you are no objective indicator of how the majority plays, that's for sure None's own self is. I think your concept is great though. And to what Perlin_Worm said:

Player 1: Ready for this l33t dungeon crawl?
Player 2: Are you crazy?! We score a free skill point in two hours. I’m not moving until I get it.

Good point but easily solvable - just have to make sure that:

- dying does not just "reset" your skillpoint timer

- deaths can "accumulate" so that every death is equally impactful

- it hinders your ability to get points no matter the timing of death.

 

[The Gronk]

Breeding animals isnآ’t gonna happen. Breeding animals means new entities taking up space and causes performance issues. Just like in Minecraft when you breed a bunch of animals.
tfp dont want MP servers to suffer because some dude is breeding hundreds of chickens for his new KFC restaurant.

As far as taming goes, we were supposed to be able to tame wolves. I donأ‚آ’t know if this idea got scrapped or not.

There wouldn't be much of a framerate impact if a trap just attracted or caught an animal that was going to spawn in an area anyway.

Linking traps to animal spawns would also force you to spread your traps far and wide instead of having a small field full of them.

 

[Roland]

Look... I like that idea. Kinda (I like xp for doing stuff that is not endless like looting more).But this is like a kick in the nuts

Because I have always been told that active defences (dart trap and gunturrets) dont give xp because you dont have to do anything, although you need to place them and keep up with the ammunition. And now this complete 180°...

does that mean that active traps (not blade/spikes or fences) will now finally give xp (if this time based system isnt implemented)? Because then it would finally be fun and rewarding again to erect defenses because now with zombieloot gone there is no incentive for those active costly defenses AT ALL!!

We’re just having a conversation. I’m not making any official declaration of future design. Just because I think time-based action independent progression is something worth exploring it has absolutely no bearing on how traps work with xp...

 

[Roland]

@Roland - you are no objective indicator of how the majority plays, that's for sure None's own self is. I think your concept is great though.

I have no illusions or delusions that I represent the norm. What I am proof of is that if you feel strongly about a gameplay preference, you don’t have to just sit still and complain. You can watch some tutorials, ask some questions, and actually do something about it.

 

[RestInPieces]

I have no illusions or delusions that I represent the norm. What I am proof of is that if you feel strongly about a gameplay preference, you don’t have to just sit still and complain. You can watch some tutorials, ask some questions, and actually do something about it.

Definitely respect that. And when it gets released I plan to do this as well.

 

[Quantum Blue]

I have no illusions or delusions that I represent the norm. What I am proof of is that if you feel strongly about a gameplay preference, you don’t have to just sit still and complain. You can watch some tutorials, ask some questions, and actually do something about it.

Kind of like the type of people you would like to be 'stuck' with during a 'real' apocalypse. I hope to give your mod a shot in the not too distant future so that I might have a better perspective before I complain further on the forum.

(And I hope to learn more about modding as I figure you are probably slightly ahead of me.)

 

[Mideval]

Any chance that the food will rot?

And what can traders be configured so that they can die?

 

[betam4x]

I just hope they do something about the sorry state of the Linux port. On Linux you can't play above medium view distance and the framerate is crap. By switching to Wine (windows translation layer) + DXVK (DirectX to Vulkan) you get very good FPS on max details (at least on my system) on 1440p, and the game is playable (albeat in the 30 fps range) at 4k.

The best thing TFP could do is to switch to Vulkan for their API and make sure they optimize the ♥♥♥♥ out of shaders. When Alpha 17 was first released, Wine/DXVK was FASTER than Windows. Now it runs roughly the same. 150+ fps at max details in every biome but the forest, where it drops to the 40s-60s.

This is on a 1080ti.

Also, any changes to gameplay that forces players to play a certain way is just going to drive people off. If I want to sit and mine and deal with the occasional zombie I should be allowed to do that just as much as you can go out on a zombie hunt. I like the way 7 days to die is set up right now. I can either tip my toes in the water or get neck deep (my gameplay style is somewhere in between. I occasionally do quests or raid houses, the rest of the time I explore and/or mine.) People who mine/build now get rewarded with XP which is good. If you level up the right perks you can level up as fast as zombie killers can. The zombie spawns in Alpha 17 are also fantastic IMHO. It makes it seem like zombies are randomly walking around and you 'stumble' across them.

EDIT: Also you know what would fix damn near everyone's complaint? A Zombie Density slider with an advanced button. Under Advanced you could choose zombie densities for each type of zombie: Regular, Special, Feral, "Base Destroyers". Also a wildlife slider would be nice as well.

In the end I think that Alpha 17 needs the mentioned books, some exploration bonus XP (You've discovered dullville for the first time, +1000 XP). Some changes to the skill tree so that players can feel a bit overpowered in some areas (but not to the extent that it hurts gameplay, just give players a bit more freedom) Some additional challenges for those who want late game hordes, the ability to DISABLE horde night, some SERIOUS optimization. After that it should go to beta, bugs should be fixed and balance tweaked, and then gold. DLC should consist of new maps, new weapon packs, new character customization options, and new zombie types. Maybe even a vehicle pack (remember "I am legend"? Would be cool to get a 'modern' car.

Oh and one other thing would be interstate highways. For an american game they arer conspicuously missing.