PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Trankitas]

A simple brass solution is just make doors with brass knobs drop two doorknobs when broken. We've been modding that in since a15, but it makes immersion sense, encourages exploration for the doors, and resolves the brass shortage issue.

Doesn't make a looot of sense tho, brass is not being used to make doorknobs anymore, way too expensive.

Edit: At the time events happened in the game lore, I think there was more brass doorknobs than there is now. So I don't really know...

Madmole give us a video please, im starving.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

snip

Man, I love this idea of having different hordes with different specialized zombies and different ways to counter them!

I really hope you can make it

 

[The Gaffer]

I'm kind of sad that TFP seem to focus only on the survival aspect of this game. Let's nerf this, let's make this harder to get, let's make it more punishing to die, or else the players will get bored. Let's reduce stack sizes, otherwise it's too easy..
What happened to the sandbox part of this game? That was in the Kickstarter too, but nobody seems to mention it anymore..

Survival for me is boring. What I like is building awesome structures and contraptions, crafting, killing bosses, doing quests, pvp.. worrying about food is not for me sadly

I have to agree with you on this, i cannot believe the amount of posts going on about food. I want more excitement in the game, something to motivate me to want to keep coming back like the old days of playing

 

[canadianbluebeer]

Yes pls^^
Heck you just start messing with turning on and off abilities..

example:

First week: zombies are all stupid. Can't jump, can't climb ladders. can't dig (Ability set "0").

Second week: 75% are still stupid. but 25% of them are different, they can climb ladders now (Ability set "1").

3rd week: 50% are stupid. 25% can climb ladders. 25% can climb and jump (Ability set "2").

4th week: 25% are stupid. 25%% can climb ladders. 25% can climb and jump. 25% can climb, jump, dig (Ability set "3").

Survived the first month? Then start adding the specials to the mix.

turn on the screamers starting the 5th week.

6th week: Add in the spiders types.

That I like. By then you should be ABLE to be prepared for them.

Whether you actually are or not though.. only the shadow knows!

 

[RipClaw]

My dream game is we can feed new AI every few hordes and make players have to find ways to adapt to the changing hordes. To me that would be a blast.

But then the change of the hordes has to take place in such a way that the player can adjust to it. If the base is destroyed every few weeks because the AI behaves completely different than the previous one, this will only cause frustration.

If there's some damage here and there, I can analyze it, revise the base, and adjust. If the whole base is just a pile of rubble I can't analyze anything anymore.

What will hopefully never come is an AI that behaves completely randomly because you can't plan for it. Some say they like surprises but a horde where no zombie behaves like the other would be a pretty nasty surprise.

 

[Gazz]

Regarding Stack Sizes:i agree completly with Mad Mole, that sizes needs to be balanced and Survival Stuff need to have a harsh limit to demand planning and thinking ahead.

My wish would be increased Stack Sizes for Chests/Containers that you have in the Base.

I know im a horder, but i got sooo many crates each Playthrough because Slots run out when i gather a lot from 1 Item.

Lets say: You can story 10k Stone per Slot in a chest, but only 1k Stone per Slot in your Inventory ( just for ratio )

With the resource bundles it's 30k stone per slot.

I cannot make stacks smeltable, though, because that would almost always blow the lid off of a forge and take 3 days to smelt that one item.

 

[TSBX]

Or... Have 6 Blunderbuss's on your toolbelt and after you fire the first one, hit the number of the next one. A Six-Shooter if you will.

It automatically starts to reload after you fire it, meaning you can't switch to any weapon, even another 'buss.

 

[TSBX]

Madmole, in your staff's opinion, what is the biggest contributing factor to how difficult a zombie or group of zombies is?

 

[RipClaw]

With the resource bundles it's 30k stone per slot.

Sounds great. Will it also be possible to use it on raw iron ? That would be awesome to carry 6000 raw iron in one slot instead of 1200.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

In general, I’m all for anything that will make the game harder but keep it fun. I’m sure a lot of people agree. Unfortunately, this must be difficult to do and consider new players. There was a time, although brief, where I was thinking this game was too hard. After a week or so playing, the thought became the opposite... too easy.

Why is this? This doesn’t happen with most games I’ve played. Sure the game gets easier in a sense because you have learned all of the mechanics, but the game will still get progressively difficult. But with 7D2D, it was an instant turn around. I also find this odd because of how gamestage is affecting difficulty in some aspects.

So what is it then? I’m thinking it’s a combination of a lot of things... and food is definitely one of them. I agree that at some point, a well-developed character should eventually not have to worry about it anymore. However, there seems to be missing stages where a player can work to get to that point.

 

[Dark_Corvid]

Yes pls^^
Heck you just start messing with turning on and off abilities..

example:

First week: zombies are all stupid. Can't jump, can't climb ladders. can't dig (Ability set "0").

Second week: 75% are still stupid. but 25% of them are different, they can climb ladders now (Ability set "1").

3rd week: 50% are stupid. 25% can climb ladders. 25% can climb and jump (Ability set "2").

4th week: 25% are stupid. 25%% can climb ladders. 25% can climb and jump. 25% can climb, jump, dig (Ability set "3").

Survived the first month? Then start adding the specials to the mix.

turn on the screamers starting the 5th week.

6th week: Add in the spiders types.

Importantly, what Madmole addresses with his desire to bring in more special zombies is the opportunity for a player to learn how to adapt by observing new zombie types.

What you're suggesting, though a solid system, needs another system in place to provide feedback to players so they know a change has occurred. The most common way to communicate new enemy behavior to the player is through visuals. Madmole's idea includes visuals as a cue for players so they know a change has occurred that they must react to in order to successfully continue the goal of survival.

If regular zombies changed as time went on, many players would experience frustration and begin to disengage from the gameplay as they would feel that the change was not communicated fairly to them. Subverting player expectations without providing an indication that something is changing first is usually not desirable in design.

 

[madmole]

Wanted to give a shout out to the Dev team to say you're doing an amazing job. I can't get enough of this game and love the features and direction you've taken it. All of your hard work is appreciated beyond words. Can't wait for what's coming!

Thank you!

 

[madmole]

Don't tempt me with a good time.

I did it already. I came up with an idea for vulture POIs that spawn in wilderness where it could be a few corpses, crash site, junk pile, some bushes, etc. THe point is nests would be here but the vultures would be too. Then you can slowly starve to death on nests in the wild, but if you want more eggs you need to fight for them. Risk and reward.

 

[madmole]

So, I'm wondering how the specializations are going to work. At what tier in each main category do you unlock the unique weapon?
For example, I want to specialize in Int because I want the Junk turret, does it unlock at tier 3,4,5?

I'm just wondering if its only tier 1, wont we be able to unlock all the specialized weapons?

I'm thinking 4 or 5 to get rank 1.

 

[meganoth]

I have to agree with you on this, i cannot believe the amount of posts going on about food. I want more excitement in the game, something to motivate me to want to keep coming back like the old days of playing

Sorry, psychopharmaka to make you forget your past are not part of the game loop. The old days of playing without knowing every nook of the game are definitely over (for you, me and almost everyone else in this forum)

PS: We are talking about resource bundles now. Is that ok for you? Not too boring?

:cocksure:

 

[Aerial]

I did it already. I came up with an idea for vulture POIs that spawn in wilderness where it could be a few corpses, crash site, junk pile, some bushes, etc. THe point is nests would be here but the vultures would be too. Then you can slowly starve to death on nests in the wild, but if you want more eggs you need to fight for them. Risk and reward.

How about taking nests off of the ground entirely (or mostly?) and putting them on rooftops? With vultures, of course. It would have the added benefit of making it less appealing to bypass the dungeon POIs by climbing to the roof and cutting through to the loot room.

 

[madmole]

Madmole, in your staff's opinion, what is the biggest contributing factor to how difficult a zombie or group of zombies is?

I don't know my staffs opinion but to me its probably health. But in reality its a combination of factors, like movement speed, attack speed, stun and damage resistance, the animation (some zombies duck their head and are harder to hit), how much damage they do, how easy they stun or cause bleed, etc.

 

[madmole]

Sounds great. Will it also be possible to use it on raw iron ? That would be awesome to carry 6000 raw iron in one slot instead of 1200.

you can carry 5 bundles of raw iron, so whatever 1200x5 is in one slot.

 

[Arma Rex]

I did it already. I came up with an idea for vulture POIs that spawn in wilderness where it could be a few corpses, crash site, junk pile, some bushes, etc. THe point is nests would be here but the vultures would be too. Then you can slowly starve to death on nests in the wild, but if you want more eggs you need to fight for them. Risk and reward.

Ever thought of adding birds to the game at a later date? It would make sense with restocking nests and whatnot.

 

[madmole]

Importantly, what Madmole addresses with his desire to bring in more special zombies is the opportunity for a player to learn how to adapt by observing new zombie types.
What you're suggesting, though a solid system, needs another system in place to provide feedback to players so they know a change has occurred. The most common way to communicate new enemy behavior to the player is through visuals. Madmole's idea includes visuals as a cue for players so they know a change has occurred that they must react to in order to successfully continue the goal of survival.

If regular zombies changed as time went on, many players would experience frustration and begin to disengage from the gameplay as they would feel that the change was not communicated fairly to them. Subverting player expectations without providing an indication that something is changing first is usually not desirable in design.

Yes it would have to be new zombies have special abilities, like spiders, fat cops, screamers, the new demolisher, etc.