PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Damocles]

I think its been stated 1000 times why we aren't getting pets or pet NPCs.

Would be new to me, please restate why we will not get them.

 

[Guppycur]

I think its been stated 1000 times why we aren't getting pets or pet NPCs.

I think it stems from the mythconception that we'd have tamable wolves or something. <shrug>

Hey, y'all still plan on having a launch party in dallas? (was re-reading ks goals)

 

[Endy Gainer]

The whole point was originally about solving the problem of the last zombie in a clear quest. Adding a perk that gives you omniscience of your suroundings at any time is quite a lot more and solves other "problems" and creates different situations.
The people who would need the first from time to time and the people who would actually buy the perk are not necessarily the same people. Just as an example, I would probably use a potion if I'm stuck in a level5 quest but I am relatively sure I would never buy such a perk, not normally, not to finish a level5 quest (because I couldn't turn it off again)

Er, no. The last zombie in a quest was simply an example the perk could help with. It's far from its only application. It's also hardly omniscience, since it only affects entities in ways that they're already tracked currently and merely pulls together information the player would normally notice and makes it a background process, much like humans actually do when they train themselves to react to particular stimuli. I believe this is just pulling Perception more in line with the concept I believe is being espoused (specialization and roles).

And, of course, no one has to take it; if it makes sense from a directional and realism standpoint and your only objection is... actually, I don't know what your objection is beyond, "I personally would not use it." Which... if we're being honest, is not a good reason to shoot anything down. Is there any other general concern that isn't an isolated circumstance?

 

[Tin]

Why not just make the zombies remain active in trying to find the player? I mean if you are clearing out zeds, they obviously know their food is there. So, it only stands to reason that the zeds would remain active (noisy) grunting, groaning or whatnot, while the quest remains active and whether they see the player or not. Making them stay noisy, would negate the need of the blips.

 

[RestInPieces]

Pets are a ♥♥♥♥load of work for too little benefit. Should be asking them to polish current animations/models instead.

 

[meganoth]

Er, no. The last zombie in a quest was simply an example the perk could help with. It's far from its only application. It's also hardly omniscience, since it only affects entities in ways that they're already tracked currently and merely pulls together information the player would normally notice and makes it a background process, much like humans actually do when they train themselves to react to particular stimuli. I believe this is just pulling Perception more in line with the concept I believe is being espoused (specialization and roles).
And, of course, no one has to take it; if it makes sense from a directional and realism standpoint and your only objection is... actually, I don't know what your objection is beyond, "I personally would not use it." Which... if we're being honest, is not a good reason to shoot anything down. Is there any other general concern that isn't an isolated circumstance?

Checking back I see it was really you starting the topic, but you were arguing for less info on clear quests(!), nothing more. But lets not get into "he said, she said..." any further, generally you and Roland want less information, but you propose to give others who still want the pointers in clear quests only(!) a solution they might not really want.

I don't think it is difficult to see that "permanent radar" is quite different from a situational radar in clear quests whose most important use case is to find the last zombie in a big POI.

 

[Trankitas]

Pets are a ♥♥♥♥load of work for too little benefit. Should be asking them to polish current animations/models instead.

+1

They will, I trust in that new hired guy, the one who did Doom's animations. I hope they enhance zombie mocap animations too...

 

[madmole]

There could also be player-placed defensive posts (as they did in Fallout 4) that the NPCs can man, and use long range attacks.

Those are called auto turrets. Hey I would love recruiting survivors as much as anyone, but until we get MUCH better performance allowing players to have pets/npcs is off the table.

 

[RestInPieces]

+1
They will, I trust in that new hired guy, the one who did Doom's animations. I hope they enhance zombie mocap animations too...

I really hope they add some extra attack/tripping/hugging/bite etc animations to zombies sometime in the future, triggering depending on limbs and randomly, so that combat and zombies feel more "organic/natural" and less "fixed"/predictable.

 

[Snowydeath]

Its never too late to start learning. Don't be a would have, could have, should have guy. Change your future by changing today's must do list. Being lazy doesn't have anything to do with it. Find your why, and make it a must do, not should do and then commit to x hours a week. You'll be amazed at what you can do if you put time into it.

Appreciate the motivation, got any pointers on where to start? It's been something I've put off for far too long now, and I'll be getting into it more now that my schedule is more normalized.

 

[Damocles]

Those are called auto turrets. Hey I would love recruiting survivors as much as anyone, but until we get MUCH better performance allowing players to have pets/npcs is off the table.

Ok fair enough, lets hope the performance allows ai actors apart from enemies.

 

[Tin]

I really hope they add some extra attack/tripping/hugging/bite etc animations to zombies sometime in the future, triggering depending on limbs and randomly, so that combat and zombies feel more "organic/natural" and less "fixed"/predictable.

Zombies already have a bite animation, it just doesn't really activate till their arms are gone.

 

[Trankitas]

I really hope they add some extra attack/tripping/hugging/bite etc animations to zombies sometime in the future, triggering depending on limbs and randomly, so that combat and zombies feel more "organic/natural" and less "fixed"/predictable.

Agreed, Dying Light combat feels really fluid, I think they did a good job with animations.

 

[argeos]

Would be new to me, please restate why we will not get them.

They will not follow easily in a voxel world.

They will get stuck a bit everywhere; besides some players may simply close a door just to check what the pet will do.

In many games with followers, they are magically teleporting near the player whenever the above is happening.

Also +1 pet or more per player means more ressources used for animation and so on.

 

[Ricowan]

I do not see why food has to be so important at the beginning of the game and something you can forget a few days later.

I take it you only play single player?? On servers that have active populations, food is VERY scarce. To the point where some servers have to mod in commands to let players spawn a deer near them just so they have an opportunity to get some meat. None of these suggestions for controlling "food hoarding" make any sense outside of single player. And at that point, it's only a problem if you let it be a problem.

 

[Trankitas]

They will not follow easily in a voxel world.
They will get stuck a bit everywhere; besides some players may simply close a door just to check what the pet will do.

In many games with followers, they are magically teleporting near the player whenever the above is happening.

Also +1 pet or more per player means more ressources used for animation and so on.

They need to do massive optimizations to get to that point, I don't see followers coming any time soon.

 

[Damocles]

They will not follow easily in a voxel world.
They will get stuck a bit everywhere; besides some players may simply close a door just to check what the pet will do.

In many games with followers, they are magically teleporting near the player whenever the above is happening.

Also +1 pet or more per player means more ressources used for animation and so on.

Hm, whenever I have programmed an Ai character, I have accounted for most of those fringe cases in the first place. In the end its more of a performance than a logic problem.

 

[meganoth]

None of these suggestions for controlling "food hoarding" make any sense outside of single player.

... and co-op multiplayer on private servers.

 

[madmole]

Out of curiosity, would it be a simple thing to track zombies by number remaining rather than showing them as blips on our radar during Clear quests? It makes no sense that we'd know how many there were, sure, but it makes little sense that we'd detect them exactly by mere proximity either, and having only a number builds tension since you no longer have a clue as to their location. If this would require more than a simple edit, then it's something I'll request for the future.

Its done that way as a quality of life feature, it can be really hard to find a few stray zombies in some of the larger POIs.

 

[Aerial]

I take it you only play single player?? On servers that have active populations, food is VERY scarce. To the point where some servers have to mod in commands to let players spawn a deer near them just so they have an opportunity to get some meat. None of these suggestions for controlling "food hoarding" make any sense outside of single player. And at that point, it's only a problem if you let it be a problem.

Given the current state of farming I'm surprised food is a significant issue even on large population servers, but since I've only played in small groups I don't have any personal experience with it. Could you please elaborate on what drives food scarcity on they server(s) you're talking about? How many people play on the server? Is the loot respawn timer at 30 days (I think that's vanilla)? Do people farm?