PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Jax, Its like you are trying to be offended. I mean obviously there was some built up frustration there and I struck a chord for you to come unglued and quit (again lol). Lighten up, read everything very carefully before unloading a bunch of bs my way.

If you guys want me around, keep it civil, stay on topic, and quit talking about mods in this thread, unless its the mods in the game, like armor and weapon mods, not third party user mods. I have enough to do and getting into debates isn't helping us further the game. I'm here to try to talk about A18 and get a continued perspective on balance and why a lot of you disliked 17. We're working hard on that and if we come short in A18, lets talk about it again, THEN. Until then I think we've covered it all and we're executing a plan I think will bring back old players and make current players even happier.

 

[meganoth]

I can guarantee you that modders are held to just as high a standard, if not more.

I fear MM's got a point there. Remember the behemoth you activated in Ravenhearst? With the jerky animations that thing was good enough for the mod but everyone could see why TFP did not activate it. 100% TFPs code, so not your fault, but your standards were definitely lower.

Now, MM: The water is obviously not up to the necessary standards. Can you then ship 1.0 with the current implementation ? :cocksure:

 

[Odetta]

Jax, Its like you are trying to be offended. I mean obviously there was some built up frustration there and I struck a chord for you to come unglued and quit (again lol). Lighten up, read everything very carefully before unloading a bunch of bs my way.
If you guys want me around, keep it civil, stay on topic, and quit talking about mods in this thread, unless its the mods in the game, like armor and weapon mods, not third party user mods. I have enough to do and getting into debates isn't helping us further the game. I'm here to try to talk about A18 and get a continued perspective on balance and why a lot of you disliked 17. We're working hard on that and if we come short in A18, lets talk about it again, THEN. Until then I think we've covered it all and we're executing a plan I think will bring back old players and make current players even happier.

What is the one A18 feature your most excited for?

Did you guys increase run speed in 17.3? I swear I'm faster.

 

[KhaineGB]

Jax, Its like you are trying to be offended. I mean obviously there was some built up frustration there and I struck a chord for you to come unglued and quit (again lol). Lighten up, read everything very carefully before unloading a bunch of bs my way.
If you guys want me around, keep it civil, stay on topic, and quit talking about mods in this thread, unless its the mods in the game, like armor and weapon mods, not third party user mods. I have enough to do and getting into debates isn't helping us further the game. I'm here to try to talk about A18 and get a continued perspective on balance and why a lot of you disliked 17. We're working hard on that and if we come short in A18, lets talk about it again, THEN. Until then I think we've covered it all and we're executing a plan I think will bring back old players and make current players even happier.

Speaking of mod-mods... as in mods applied to stuff in game...

What's going on with the vehicle ones? I did try to play around with the item_modifiers XML but it seems like they're not being correctly applied to the vehicle entity? That about right?

Just asking cos I've got folks asking me and you brought it up... so...

- - - Updated - - -

I fear MM's got a point there. Remember the behemoth you activated in Ravenhearst? With the jerky animations that thing was good enough for the mod but everyone could see why TFP did not activate it. 100% TFPs code, so not your fault, but your standards were definitely lower.
Now, MM: The water is obviously not up to the necessary standards. Can you then ship 1.0 with the current implementation ? :cocksure:

The only reason the behemoth has jerky animations is because we had to extract it, animate it and put it back in.

The actual behemoth, activated via XML and NOT extracted, can just use normal zombie walk types.... but then it has no colliders and thus you can't kill it.

That'd be an easy-ish fix for TFP too. The model just needs colliders so it can register weapon damage and it's good to go.

 

[The Gronk]

Can we go to a 16384 map in RWG or is that in A18?

Go into the advanced world generator and you can make a 16k map to play on. I think the option is disabled for simple generation because the generation time is quite long.

 

[TSBX]

Will red paint make a gun do more damage still?

 

[JaxTeller718]

I fear MM's got a point there. Remember the behemoth you activated in Ravenhearst? With the jerky animations that thing was good enough for the mod but everyone could see why TFP did not activate it. 100% TFPs code, so not your fault, but your standards were definitely lower.
Now, MM: The water is obviously not up to the necessary standards. Can you then ship 1.0 with the current implementation ? :cocksure:

No I dont remember the Behemoth Because my mod isn't Darkness Falls.

 

[madmole]

What is the one A18 feature your most excited for?
Did you guys increase run speed in 17.3? I swear I'm faster.

No maybe it was broke with that root motion thing. As I said 17 is way faster than 16 player movement speed.

EDIT: I'm excited to see if all the changes bring back that desire of I need this, I need that, that hook of you wanting stuff, fearing stuff and general addiction level. BTW 18 is not shipping with the dream gun system, but some quality damage is coming back.

 

[FA_Q2]

I'm sorry if it came across as a personal assault on him, but his remark that most negative reviews are coming from mostly 300+ hour guys who don't like change rubbed me the wrong way. That seems like a unfounded generalization, but if you think I'm taking it out of context, I can't or don't want to change your opinion.

I get your point and agree in principal.

I think that the overall problem though is that those negative reviews are mostly about removed and/or changed aspects of the game. I get the complaints as well for some of those aspects but I also think that they are massively blown out of proportion. I was actually somewhat disappointed in a17 at first but only because I realized that after the year wait and all the hype I really was expecting a different game. In the end, that was not the case - we got the same game with some changes. After shifting my perspective somewhat to something reasonable rather than to a new AAA title that I am not repurchasing I really began to like 17 a lot. For those that did not like the changes, they were not nearly as drastic as so many want to make it. ALL of the main complaints save one are being directly addressed - namely the fact that the incentive for looting was nearly removed and the really strong incentive to XP farm. Almost all of the complaints that people have aside from LBD tie into those mechanics - gun parts, combining, item levels, zed XP etc. I do not believe for one hot second that LBD was nearly enough of a game changer to take this game from fantastic to ♥♥♥♥ty. So the question for the dev team has to be wtf...

I get the sentiment and I also think it is a good thing that the devs ignore the finicky whims of the boards and the review process (even when it is me). Those reviews and the people here have one universal commonality - virtually none of us know jack ♥♥♥♥ about game design, development or, most importantly, how to make a game that sells. The problems that exist have been identified and are being worked on.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Thanks for fixing the double swing. What a relief! I find myself looking away after releasing the button out of habit, lol.

Thanks for fixing the town generation. I spent a half a day just trying to pass through one because it was so big.

Thanks for fixing the repeated POI problem. The POIs are nice and diverse now. I'm seeing POIs in random gen that would never generate before.

Thanks for fixing dismemberment. So much satisfaction.

Not sure if anything was changed to include decently sized lakes, but if so, thanks for that because I now have a pretty nice view behind my base.

 

[FA_Q2]

Spoilage will never be a legit topic to discuss until it has a three letter acronym....

Meh, spoilage is just another thing to micro manage that I don't think adds anything to the game. Spoilage would not make it so that hunger does not get 'solved' at some point. All it would accomplish IMHO, is make me do more micro managing to solve it. If you want to remove the solution to hunger than that would require ending farming - not something that I think would be a good thing either.

 

[NukemDed]

you'd think everyone would stfu and play...

balancing comments (not negative) after reaching dawn day 2

stone axe continual use level one with no stamina perks at all. not running out of stamina with constant use ie digging straight down. time taken to repair axe is enough to restore stamina to wear the next axe out. i am fully fed and watered. appearance therefore is no penalty for infinite use. (which i like )

nerdpolling back up however takes stamina and therefore time you evil sods! lol

seem to be more zds in the world, in groups of 2,3,4? mini hordes?

rwg looks much improved. havent ventured far yet but found a perfect spot for base so that may be a while.

i play loot 200% no respawn but found 2 mining helmets on day 1 with very little looting. maybe lucky... havent been in a poi yet.

when upgrading wood frames, sometimes (~10%) first hit to 25% happens twice, meaning 5 hits to upgrade. muscle memory called it out initially as so many blocks didnt upgrade as expected. watching closely you can see first hit 25% second hit 25% then 50 75 done. bug?

whatever. after only 2 hrs, i think this build is the best yet! cant wait for a18 content!!!!

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Madmole,

I know additional mod support isn't the focus right now, but is there any chance that while the system goes in place that drives the new music for A18, plans for modding are considered? I wouldn't want to mess with the music... I'm a big fan of dynamic transitions based on changes in game intensity. I love how they did it in Doom. It's a blended masterpiece of code and music.

What I am interested in is being able to tap into that single, important intensity variable to hopefully drive other events in a mod... not only for knowing when it's at its peak, but also when it's at its low.

Even if intensity was translated into a simple var 0.0 thru 1.0, it would be great.

 

[NukemDed]

another couple of things if you are after polish

i could see clearly all night digging straight down. used to be that it would get so dark you couldnt see

when a stone axe runs out and needs repair, the repair message pops up. click flickity press on the controller (keyboard and mouse is faster) to repair and keep going sees you mining again before a second message pops up and says the item needs repair. but, no it dont as i am already digging again....

neither hurt gameplay (my gameplay anyways) but not 100% perfect - ie polish

omg next is to take on a poi and see what yoos done in those...

 

[Mideval]

We should not forget that this is a game of survival. A player who buys and starts playing this game, does not expect to make it all easy. It is expected that there are challenges and problems to deal with.

The food system is a bad design. So much trouble in creating different types of food, tin cans, animals to hunt, agriculture ... and at the end of all that, even a new player understands that food ceases to be a problem the second or third day at the latest.

Right now completely eliminating the food from the game would not make a big difference to what there is now, and that's where it is seen as a bad design.

Giving food a secondary role in healing or giving buffs does not solve the bottom line.

I am saddened to see how much effort has been made in other areas to correct "bad designs" and that everything related to survival and resource management has been considered good enough.

Despite this I understand that you do not want to add rot (which would have helped in this) if this seriously affects the performance of the game. And if the lack of time makes it unfeasible to reconstruct a more coherent food system.

This is my favorite game so in spite of everything I only have good words about the game and its creators. Thanks for your time.

 

[Gazz]

Well also remember that last we heard, y'all WERE talking about a raft. Didn't we even see concept art?

Y'all are missing the Very Big issue with rafts, through.

Rafts or boats are pointless as long as there is no water gameplay or threat.

 

[Odetta]

Y'all are missing the Very Big issue with rafts, through.
Rafts or boats are pointless as long as there is no water gameplay or threat.

Water bases when you guys fix water. Threats can be disease, like water Aids. Can also do armor damage, even equipment like guns and tools too.

And swimming zombies, both on the y and x axis

 

[Roland]

Y'all are missing the Very Big issue with rafts, through.
Rafts or boats are pointless as long as there is no water gameplay or threat.

Well...while "swimming" remains as it is there is at least one point to a raft.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

We'd be better off with a submarine, since the only purpose of swimming is to get that poorly deployed air drop.

 

[Gazz]

Water bases when you guys fix water. Threats can be disease, like water Aids. Can also do armor damage, even equipment like guns and tools too.
And swimming zombies, both on the y and x axis

Yes, exactly.

Until things like that are designed and implemented there really isn't much of a point to boats.