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%
  • Total voters
    3
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I haven't turned my computer off for months now.
Besides, who cares how people play the game? Why are you so obsessed with trying to force people to play a certain way?

-A
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I'm obsessed with making a great game, with great game mechanics.

 
This!
Raise of hands those of you that know how to make gas without checking the internet first?
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Aww, that's easy.

Kill a dinosaur. Bury it in mud. Wait 65 million years. Voila - hydrocarbons! :-)

On Titan, it'd be even easier too.

 
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I still haven't received my T-shirt :miserable: When will this happen? )
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Did you order one? Did you order it from us and not that knock off version that should be illegal and removed? Did you track your package? Why would you bring it up here instead of amazon support desk?

 
No it might not even be on? Isn't that a game server setting?
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it is a setting, and wasn't working right last i played (about a year). you'd get your first purge then never another one.

the basic (4 when i played, not counting payfors) building sets aside from style were defensive choices, and provided more insulation in the harsher climes.

the purge strengths were determined by the zone you were in, so living in the mid-green areas was tougher than the desert, and the snow more brutal.

 
Okay, I can appreciate that it's driven by gameplay needs, in the case of making a visual language for bandit armor. But I completely agree with Haidrgna. If you have a system for swapping parts and textures of a character, but you only use it on a small, less often encountered subset of the game's enemies, that would be a big waste of the tech!
Use your imagination here. If you have the tech to turn off a bandit's scrap iron chest plate and turn on his bandolier, you have the tech to turn off a farmer zombie's cowboy hat and turn on his trucker cap. Or turn off his prospector beard and turn on his lumberjack beard. Or turn off his fully intact left leg and turn on his gory left leg with exposed bones.

By simply mixing and matching these variants into many possible combinations, you get more variety, more bang for your buck than you could ever achieve by spending the same amount of art time creating whole zombie models that look the same each time. I'd compare it to the variety of randomly assembled worlds compared to the hand-made Navezgane. And again, since zombies are the 'bread and butter' that players see every day, if this variety is worth it for anything, it's worth it for zombies in my opinion.

I should point out you guys have been making some great strides in best utilizing the assets you have, though. Not long ago you changed the makeup of hordes, to avoid multiple instances of the same zombie type where possible. And in 17.3, you made RWG avoid putting copies of the same building next to each other where possible. Changes like these are HUGE for me, because they're smarter ways of utilizing the existing content.
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We don't even have the tech and reingineering every zombie asset again (already on version 3.5, would be a huge amount of work for something average consumers could care less about. We could possibly add some more zombies that maybe have the tech, but we're not redoing all the standard ones another time.

 
That's what I am waiting for more than anything, because atm there are still cheap, painless ways to escape the BM horde, like vehicles and skyscrapers (running too, but as you said that will be fixed with A18's root motion) and skip the whole tower defense part without any risk or cost (fuel cost is negligible).
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Electromagnetic storm can shut down vehicles. Vultures will definitely take out bicycle dudes.

 
If vehicles were done right (i.e. we didn't all have tens of thousands of gallons of gas sitting around because we can make it in a beaker, if we couldn't just forge whatever part we needed, etc) then the balance would be fine.
Plentiful vehicles also allows for travel for EVERYONE so world resources actually dry up much more quickly. It's all just a balancing act that I don't believe TFP is done with yet.
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Yeah I'm aware, I just need to spend a few days focusing on it. A19 should be it for sure, maybe during 18 testing I can sneak it in.

 
Did you order one? Did you order it from us and not that knock off version that should be illegal and removed? Did you track your package? Why would you bring it up here instead of amazon support desk?
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Forgive me if I write the wrong way. I will create a separate topic for this discussion.

 
Nope.
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No infection? Really? Is there a reason for that? I have to admit, it was annoying, but it definitely gave you a thrill of having to find those antibiotics.

Personally, I think if whether to have it or not, I'd say yes, have it, but perhaps no sooner than day 5. Especially with traders, and if you find the wrong one, he can sell you a pill for your first born child.

Bargaining or intimidation perks, anyone?

 
It doesn't make sense for zombies, they don't need to wear armor, or seeing armored Arlene would be jarring.
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What about the Duke dressing his ZombieHorde (see what I did there with my name?) army? Or you've killed a bunch of bandits with armor and now there are a few zombies with armor because of that?

 
Wow. I can’t speak for the Pimps but I’d say your chances of getting something nice is pretty good if you were to hang a stocking from your fireplace mantle or put a wooden shoe on your porch tonight. Sure, it’s out of season but you’re overdue. ;)
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I'd probably rarely, if ever, use it, but for the sake of adding a few lines of code and having an option to have bandits on or off in an advanced menu (or at least the console) would be good. Especially if they require more computing power and you really love everything else in the game but your PC can't handle bandits.

While I'm not a fan of over complicating things, some simple on/off toggles for certain behaviour would be nice, especially as, like i said, a few lines of extra code.

 
No infection? Really? Is there a reason for that? I have to admit, it was annoying, but it definitely gave you a thrill of having to find those antibiotics.
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Not for A18, later yes

 
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A couple of questions:

Would it be possible to reconfigure how recipes work so that one recipe could have several options? For instance, right now bottled water can be made in a couple of way (murky water or glass jar + snowball) and these have to be separate recipes in the list. It's a small thing, but having only one recipe entry in the list regardless of how many ways there are to create it would be cleaner and less confusing from a UI perspective, and would benefit modding as well.

Second, I asked this a little ways back in this thread but the conversation moves so fast it might have gotten lost in the shuffle:

To keep food relevant without spoilage, I'd propose that plants only be allowed to grow within a reasonable band of temperature and that a "seasonal" temperature cycle be added to the biomes in addition to the daily cycles. The reason being that you could then create a situation where the player can grow and harvest food for 14 days but then can't grow anything for the next 35, for example, even in the temperate biomes. Then food sourcing becomes a signficant gameplay aspect but without all of the challenges spoilage introduces.

 
I'm not really sure the sandstorms add much. It takes the player out of the game for no good reason. You can stand by a cliff wal l that spawns the shelter popout and go afk until its over. Its tolerable, but I generally dislike things that take the player out of the game.
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I just started playing Conan again the other day. The sandstorms add atmosphere, and if they were removed the game would feel lesser for that reason alone. I certainly couldn't argue that they add much else to the game, though. Aside from atmosphere, I suppose they seem to serve mainly as an early game impediment and a reason to get you into the base building mechanics early. It also adds a sense of danger to early game adventures away from your base. I like that you can build a sandstorm mask around level 30 that negates the damage and makes the sandstorms merely cosmetic.

I do agree with you that I'm feeling a lack of purpose in the game (playing single player this time). I actually really like building neat things in the game, but the Purge seems to be verrrry stingy. I feel no sense of impending danger, and that meter is ticking up so slowly I'm not sure I'll ever see a purge before I get bored of the game. For that reason, everything about my base is aesthetic, rather than geared toward defense. If they would just build up that PvE threat and make it as robust as the one in 7D it would be a much better game.

For what it's worth, the game loop and sense of consistent overall purpose in your game is the best I've ever experienced in my 30+ years of gaming. Well done, sir.

 
I just started playing Conan again the other day. The sandstorms add atmosphere, and if they were removed the game would feel lesser for that reason alone. I certainly couldn't argue that they add much else to the game, though. Aside from atmosphere, I suppose they seem to serve mainly as an early game impediment and a reason to get you into the base building mechanics early. It also adds a sense of danger to early game adventures away from your base. I like that you can build a sandstorm mask around level 30 that negates the damage and makes the sandstorms merely cosmetic.
I do agree with you that I'm feeling a lack of purpose in the game (playing single player this time). I actually really like building neat things in the game, but the Purge seems to be verrrry stingy. I feel no sense of impending danger, and that meter is ticking up so slowly I'm not sure I'll ever see a purge before I get bored of the game. For that reason, everything about my base is aesthetic, rather than geared toward defense. If they would just build up that PvE threat and make it as robust as the one in 7D it would be a much better game.

For what it's worth, the game loop and sense of consistent overall purpose in your game is the best I've ever experienced in my 30+ years of gaming. Well done, sir.
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I think the "game loop" is why I have stuck with 7 days 2100 hours later. "Here is a sandbox, but something is going to come F it up in 7 days, so get ready!". I don't think there is another game that gave me more of a reason to stick around for day 7, 14, 959, etc. Trying new things, trying those things again when a new update comes out. I wonder when the game is "gold", will I eventually become bored with it to the point I put it aside for a considerable amount of time?

That being said, other sand box games don't grab me much in the same way without that "pressure" the recurring 7 days is to me. I've played hundreds of hours of Ark, perhaps more of Minecraft, but I never felt the same urgency and implied will to keep going, try new things. It's a fantastic game mechanic, and I haven't been able to tear myself away very long for over a year now.

Here is hoping the final vision of the game stands as a fitting monument to the game play at it's core.

 
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