PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Tete1805]

So, for you, it's more a way of preventing gamey techniques on PvP?

 

[hotpoon]

Yeah, that's what it was. I actually liked wellness. What were the reasons for removing it? To keep people from just sitting around spam eating food to raise wellness?
Wellness was easily the biggest motivator for me to try and not die in A16 when I played. I wanted that max health. Lol.

Agreed and also the single biggest motivator for cooking quality food like stews. Now I couldn't care less. I'll just eat boiled eggs. There is no motivation to make anything more complex.

It was extremely gamey (sitting naked in a snow biome to get hungry faster) and it punished you in the mid range but practically not at all at the very high or low end.That was... not good.

Maybe that's why I never achieved max wellness...because I just played the game instead of trying to game the game. I wouldn't have even thought of something so grindy. I'm beginning to resent PvP players for how many fun things have been removed from this game.

 

[Guppycur]

If you keep removing the gameyness from the game, there won't be much of a game left...

 

[Drithyl]

It was extremely gamey (sitting naked in a snow biome to get hungry faster) and it punished you in the mid range but practically not at all at the very high or low end.That was... not good.

You would think that sitting naked in the snow would lower your wellness. It's an easy fix. Also disease debuffs and such would play nicely with wellness too.

 

[Benedictum]

One change I would love to see in A18 (or even A17) would be the ability to reload while looking down sights.

I haven't tested this out with all weapons, but I know at least while using the pistol, if you're looking down the sights (aka zooming in) and you hit the reload key, nothing happens, you need to unzoom, reload, then rezoom.

 

[lazdeuce]

One change I would love to see in A18 (or even A17) would be the ability to reload while looking down sights.I haven't tested this out with all weapons, but I know at least while using the pistol, if you're looking down the sights (aka zooming in) and you hit the reload key, nothing happens, you need to unzoom, reload, then rezoom.

You reload while zoomed in. You have to give it time to actually reload. It just plays the animation again when you zoom out which is in the known bugs.

 

[madmole]

LOL. I have faith that you *can* fix a lot of things considering the game you have created here.
That is somewhat disconnected from actually doing so - IOW seeing it as an issue in the first place. I would have though it would have been addressed when the bonus resource bug was fixed. That it was not makes me wonder if it is seen as something that even needs to be fixed. Its minor of course but bothersome for some reason.

There is a ticket for it, so it will get fixed.

 

[Damocles]

Is there a ticket for ziplines too?

 

[madmole]

Which Conan game? Exiles or Unconquered?

Exiles. Its kind of fun at first but I feel like you lose purpose once you get a sword and some food and a little shack. The upgrades seem weird like there are way too many building sets. Its not like Ark and 7 Days where you feel a more strong purpose to do things and get set up. I need to play it some more. The third person anims are nice, but it feels like Skyrim if you took away the quests, or Ark without dinos that want to kill you at ever turn. I think its important to place some urgency on the player. My first impressions are rarely good though, I often semi dislike a game the first 3-4 hours then get hooked. This one feels the opposite though, I was having a lot of fun the first 3-4 hours now I don't have much purpose to keep going.

 

[madmole]

Yeah MM! Can't wait to watch that!
I must say I am very excited for A18 skills and perks system. I am a LBD guy, and I don't like current A17's system, but I have a good feeling about what's coming based on what you told us. Im ready to give it a chance! I am super glad that level gates are going away and that you can play the game as different classes.

Looking forward to your videos

Yes I think its going to be enough for most the guys who used to like A16 to be back on board.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Sup Joel, been a long long time since I last spoke with you. I just wanted to tell you I love the direction your taking the game in. As I have said before, this is my favorite game of all time. I've been playing since around Alpha 8. Keep up the good work. P.S. I was checking out some Sat Images, I love the way your house you had built turned out, its dope. take care buddy

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Hey Joel spotted the 7D2D T-shirt at an event that "Neebs Gaming" was attending.

Shirt being worn by Adahop from "Neebs Gaming" Adahop is the guy that edits their videos for their youtube channel.

Here is "Neebs Gaming" at the event.

 

[Ezed]

Exiles. Its kind of fun at first but I feel like you lose purpose once you get a sword and some food and a little shack. The upgrades seem weird like there are way too many building sets. Its not like Ark and 7 Days where you feel a more strong purpose to do things and get set up. I need to play it some more. The third person anims are nice, but it feels like Skyrim if you took away the quests, or Ark without dinos that want to kill you at ever turn. I think its important to place some urgency on the player. My first impressions are rarely good though, I often semi dislike a game the first 3-4 hours then get hooked. This one feels the opposite though, I was having a lot of fun the first 3-4 hours now I don't have much purpose to keep going.

Took me a while to get into it too but then, it took off. Have more hours in it than in 7D now, but 7D is catching up again. The more advanced building materials provide insulation...something you'll need in the North.

Love that auto-walk feature in Conan...

 

[Scyris]

Any previews of biomes.png in a18 we can look at? because the biome distribution in a17.3 is frigging terrible, its way to damned random, and makes no sense. Anyway you can show us a 8192 size generated maps biome layout? Just need the biomes.png file to see. So I have some hope a18 will be better in that aspect, as currently 17.3 is terrible for rwg in terms of biome placement, I do like that it is faster though. Options on the new game screen to generate a map to control chance of each biome would be nice, some sliders maybe that are linked since they can't get over 100%.

 

[dankaroni]

Hello, unarmed melee/spiked knuckle addict here. Can we add a jump attack/ kick animation? I think it will go well with parkour. Also, I know we have a dundee sized machette, but I would like the option to use a sword instead of a "knoife" as well.

Anyway, big fan and keep up the good work!

 

[Death2gnomes]

It was extremely gamey (sitting naked in a snow biome to get hungry faster) and it punished you in the mid range but practically not at all at the very high or low end.That was... not good.

That "problem" was only half fixed, when you sit in the snow you still get hungry just as fast. You can then watch your fullness(food) drop from having max fullness(120-150) to 50ish in 180-200 seconds or less REAL time. IMO, Hot and Cold buffs are too harsh and even more so on food/drink. Whoever set the extreme debuff temps never saw snow or spent any time in the desert, guessing is not allowed.

 

[Kalex]

Exiles. Its kind of fun at first but I feel like you lose purpose once you get a sword and some food and a little shack. The upgrades seem weird like there are way too many building sets. Its not like Ark and 7 Days where you feel a more strong purpose to do things and get set up. I need to play it some more. The third person anims are nice, but it feels like Skyrim if you took away the quests, or Ark without dinos that want to kill you at ever turn. I think its important to place some urgency on the player. My first impressions are rarely good though, I often semi dislike a game the first 3-4 hours then get hooked. This one feels the opposite though, I was having a lot of fun the first 3-4 hours now I don't have much purpose to keep going.

Yeah, we play Exiles as well. One of the big problems we have with it is that if you do a peer-to-peer game you are tethered distance-wise to whomever is hosting the game. I love building, but I much prefer the building system in 7 Days.

 

[alchemi2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that just the Wellness system we just got rid of, tied to limited levels and with a cap on loss? I don't think it's a good idea to go right back to something like that after it was overhauled in A17.

You are wrong or misunderstood. I was not suggesting the return of gamey Wellness.

Just +1 HP per level (min 100) Nothing else increases max hit points just leveling. Dying permanently removes some of that gain.

This would then mean fortitude could contain the buff perks for healing etc, but a stealth character would NOT have invest in to that attribute unless they so wished.

At present every character type has to invest in max heath as the game progress regardless of style, everything does more damage and gets faster/harder as GS advances with level. A vulture swoop can inflict a bleed and nearly kill a character so every character type needs those extra hit points and what ever Attribute it's linked too is a must have.

 

[alchemi2]

It was extremely gamey (sitting naked in a snow biome to get hungry faster) and it punished you in the mid range but practically not at all at the very high or low end.That was... not good.

Hence I did't suggest a return to wellness, just linking Hit Points to leveling, this way it can't be gamed, play to level 100 have 200 hps unless of course you died twice then you only have 180 hps and would need to be level 120 to reach the magic number of full heath.

 

[The Gronk]

It was extremely gamey (sitting naked in a snow biome to get hungry faster) and it punished you in the mid range but practically not at all at the very high or low end.That was... not good.

If anything I find the current system to be far more "gamey" than the previous one.

We've gone from "I need <particular statistic> so I must do <related activity>" to "I need <any statistic> so I must do <any activity>"

Balancing aside, the latter is far more abstract. The new system can still be gamed, indeed, it cries out to be gamed. I needed some mining perks early on in 17.3 so I went farming zombie heads, I didn't even use a pickaxe to kill them but I still managed to raise a skill completely unrelated to the activity I was doing. If that's not gaming a system then the definition of gaming a system is wrong. I haven't even bothered putting xp into wellness despite several close calls with death and starvation.