PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Odetta]

You know that gasoline is a distillation and prone to solidifying when left for a long period of time?
Ever had to clean those little pinholes in a motorbike carb after it's been sitting a while? That's why.

I'm also weirded out by finding fresh gasoline _anywhere_ <obligatory smiley to denote non-hostility>

I vote to rename gasoline to Guzzoline :fat: . Gas is crazy though, I remember as a kid pouring some gas in a large Styrofoam cup and accidentally creating Napalm. Good times.

 

[ZombieHorde]

The goal the only thing that drains stamina is sprinting and power attacks, lmb mining and attack shouldn't use enough stamina to get into a no stamina situation unless you have a disease or some kind of stamina drain buff.
Stamina management outside of combat or endless sprinting just isn't fun, its frustrating.

That is good feedback. Perhaps we can make special sounds for the ferals so you can take off running before its too late, or lay some traps and get ready.

Thanks for listening, MM. Hey, got a 7 days inspired story for ya and the forum which I think will be entertaining and leave your head spinning.

You start the game, you magically spawn in - or so it seems. Without a memory, you don't know what's going on.

Anyway, you play the game a bit and die by a nightly horde attack. Next thing you know when you 'spawn' again, you actually spawn looking down at a recently dead body, blood still oozing out of the cavity where his brains should be. And then you see a bit of brains on your fingers - which were just in your mouth and you taste a very slimy, slightly coppery texture in your mouth.

All of a sudden you remember your name, where you've been in the world, where you've left your minibike - only they aren't really your memories because you also remember dying. And then you look at the face of the person just below you with teeth marks around what's left of his skull, you realize you have seen those eyes before. Looking back at you when you peer in to a mirror.

You look down at your own body and see it's off-coloured skin and a few bite marks that first infected you God knows how long ago....

Things are become clearer. You feel sick and almost throw up, which gets a Zombie suddenly sniffing around you, deciding he likes the smell of you.

And now you've got 5 seconds to remember how to run for your life and fight before the rest of the pack realize you're turning back human.

 

[Reddevil]

Thanks for listening, MM. Hey, got a 7 days inspired story for ya and the forum which I think will be entertaining and leave your head spinning.
You start the game, you magically spawn in - or so it seems. Without a memory, you don't know what's going on.

Anyway, you play the game a bit and die by a nightly horde attack. Next thing you know when you 'spawn' again, you actually spawn looking down at a recently dead body, blood still oozing out of the cavity where his brains should be. And then you see a bit of brains on your fingers - which were just in your mouth and you taste a very slimy, slightly coppery texture in your mouth.

All of a sudden you remember your name, where you've been in the world, where you've left your minibike - only they aren't really your memories because you also remember dying. And then you look at the face of the person just below you with teeth marks around what's left of his skull, you realize you have seen those eyes before. Looking back at you when you peer in to a mirror.

You look down at your own body and see it's off-coloured skin and a few bite marks that first infected you God knows how long ago....

Things are become clearer. You feel sick and almost throw up, which gets a Zombie suddenly sniffing around you, deciding he likes the smell of you.

And now you've got 5 seconds to remember how to run for your life and fight before the rest of the pack realize you're turning back human.

Okay R

 

[The Gronk]

I vote to rename gasoline to Guzzoline :fat: . Gas is crazy though, I remember as a kid pouring some gas in a large Styrofoam cup and accidentally creating Napalm. Good times.

How about explodium?

 

[Odetta]

How about explodium?

Explodium + Unobtainium = Vibranium

Just need an electric forge that has a power output of 1.21 Jiggawatts.

 

[madmole]

You know that gasoline is a distillation and prone to solidifying when left for a long period of time?
Ever had to clean those little pinholes in a motorbike carb after it's been sitting a while? That's why.

I'm also weirded out by finding fresh gasoline _anywhere_ <obligatory smiley to denote non-hostility>

Sooooo now we wan't gasoline spoilage? Come on its a game.

 

[madmole]

I vote to rename gasoline to Guzzoline :fat: . Gas is crazy though, I remember as a kid pouring some gas in a large Styrofoam cup and accidentally creating Napalm. Good times.

It literally falls right through a styrofoam cup lol.

 

[Odetta]

It literally falls right through a styrofoam cup lol.

Yup. left it on the ground and it ate the entire cup almost. Looked like marshmallow fluff.

 

[Damocles]

Larger FOV causes slower FPS because a lot more geometry is in the view, and most games limit it for that reason, and screenshots and large FOV settings looks bad. A17 has probably twice the geometry A16 had because we wanted to update the fidelity of our POI visuals and improve the game play.

Those game you mean lock it because they are developed for consoles primarily, wich has a different requirement for the FOV as of a different player/(TV)screen position compared to a typical PC setup.

You lock it, because you want the game to run faster.

 

[Dimpy]

Do weapon modifications ever change what perks boost the weapon? For example, adding extra weight to your greaves(normally a fortitude weapon) gives you a bonus if you've have invested in the heavy weapons perk, but adding blades gives you a bonus if you have the bladed weapon perk. Another one is adding a scope and a single-shot trigger group to an Ak reduces the automatic weapon bonuses but increases the marksman's rifle bonuses.

 

[Scyris]

Oh yeah, knives... I forgot you can use those as weapons, lol. I just want that SWEET MEAT

I hope they rebalance then as even the iron reinforced club is bettter than a lv 70+ steel tier machete damage wise. You could argue the bleed but it takes to many skill points to make it viable since it really has to be stacked 3 times to do much of anything.

 

[The Gronk]

Sooooo now we wan't gasoline spoilage? Come on its a game.

I never said that at all.

My point was that given the degradation of the vehicles and buildings in the game world it seems that enough time has passed to render any gasoline unusable.

Gasoline takes six months to two years to degrade, depending on conditions. Even with the sped up game time it would take so long to degrade as to render the mechanic pointless.

 

[Weazelsun]

Sooooo now we wan't gasoline spoilage? Come on its a game.

Yes spoilage for everything! :fat: :smile-new: :cocksure: :tickled_pink: I propose the tickled pink should denote if we're joking.

Also, TIL, I didn't know that about gas tanks. This sedan is what I'm talking about, in reference to not being able to harvest gas from it. https://7daystodie.gamepedia.com/FileestroyedSedan.png

Adding on, I don't know whether or not this a bug or simply a feature. But, essentially zombie killing xp does not level up with the player. So, if you killed a regular zombie it would still give 500 xp, whether your a level 1 or level 200 zombie masher. While looting xp, does level with the player to the point that simply searching a bird nest could net 600 xp or so.

- - - Updated - - -

I hope they rebalance then as even the iron reinforced club is bettter than a lv 70+ steel tier machete damage wise. You could argue the bleed but it takes to many skill points to make it viable since it really has to be stacked 3 times to do much of anything.

Heck, a steel fireaxe does more damage than a machete and counts as a bladed weapon too!

 

[hotpoon]

Well, a16 ran more or less the same with similar settings for me, though I must say it ran a little bit better (_5fps+) on low settings and hard areas and, if not, definitely a lot less jumpy and smoother. What you should understand is that this is difficult to optimize due to the fact that they improve the visuals and the content the better the gains resulting in the same performance. We got postprocessing in a17 (light bouncing from every object, volumetric godrays and whistles and stuff) so at ultra everything looks damn good and in lowest in looks decent and my eyes do not bleed despite the zombie bushes , at least for me. Also FOV isn't really that important if you see everything texture-streamed (a17) but I understand they cutted it because of the performance impact even on high rigs.
That was 17.0. 17.3 is quite a bit better and more stable (17.0 was jumpy and felt heavy on the movement, partly due to stamina and the lag of the debuffs plus the lack of tweaking on the graphical balance).

As madmole once said, It's all about the gains. 8 Ram with GTX780 will be medium settings when they optimize the memory comsumption, now is kinda lowest because of the Ram eating. That's what I take from what they said. And then They will bring bandits and we will cry again because of a further drop on performance. That will happen though the only real difference (We hope) is that Dishong tower and Hospital situations will get to the stable 40 FPS and not the jumpy 5-10 FPS of a16 (again, for me and my potatoe).

I had a worse machine when I was playing prior alphas of the game and they ran better with everything maxed out, than A17 with everything on low. I find the only thing that helped performance on A17 was turning off reflections. All the other settings did absolutely nothing.

Larger FOV causes slower FPS because a lot more geometry is in the view, and most games limit it for that reason, and screenshots and large FOV settings looks bad. A17 has probably twice the geometry A16 had because we wanted to update the fidelity of our POI visuals and improve the game play.

I also noticed no difference in FPS between the locked 65 (or whatever it is), and the 100 that I set in the console.

No because everyone will turn it up to get an advantage in MP, and then complain it runs bad. Once performance is out of the red zone we can talk about it.

I really don't think it's fair of you guys to punish people like me because of multiplayer, and again it doesn't run any worse with wider FOV. As @Space4Ace says: This thread shows how you can improve performance a lot.

Also what about people who use ultra wide screens? Are they going to want to play this game with 65 FOV? That would be absurd.

 

[ecv]

The thing is, it's not all that obvious. For me, a17 runs much smoother than a16 did, apart from hordenights, which are unplayable in groups (from five players upwards) now, with framerates going from 60 fps down to two. But the everyday game has greatly improved for me. Software development is a female dog

 

[RipClaw]

We've already decided to make them loot containers as exploding barrels are important to game play and loot gives us control over how much fuel is in them.

Is it still possible to convert gas cans into barrels ? I always used this to save inventory space when I was hunting for engines.

 

[n2n1]

Very often developers of games have resorted to such things as limiting the FOV. Very often...

Many famous AAA games suffer from this.

What do players?

they themselves change the angle of view with the help of internal settings or code changes.

And never, i say again - NEVER! do not get any further problems with it!

except, in rare cases, incorrect display of hand-models at excessive viewing angle (which, too, can often be corrected settings).

What makes developers still do it?

I see several explanations:

1. lack of performance at the moment of the game's release.

2. console players who sit far away from the TV and their viewing angle corresponds to small.

3. preventing peeking "side vision" behind the textures and corners in MP.

Who knows more objectiveye reason?

 

[n2n1]

Sooooo now we wan't gasoline spoilage? Come on its a game.

I am also against the spoilage in the game.

I believe that not all features, will play on gameplay so, as in our imagination, on practice this will be simply enrage.

The game has a flow of time that is not constant, it has its own rhythm and it is divided into discrete pieces. The spoilage will not be matched for it.

...just my two kopecks

 

[RestInPieces]

Sooooo now we wan't gasoline spoilage? Come on its a game.

You can just balance gasoline by sinks being greater than its supply. Nothing wrong if the player can't afford to drive all the time. Spoilage is just not necessary for gas. But I don't think you can do the same with food, so there will always be a exponential surplus, which will just make food sources redundant.

I am also against the spoilage in the game.

I believe that not all features, will play on gameplay so, as in our imagination, on practice this will be simply enrage.

The game has a flow of time that is not constant, it has its own rhythm and it is divided into discrete pieces. The spoilage will not be matched for it.

...just my two kopecks

Well, if you haven't already played multiple games which successfully implement spoilage, you can only rely on your imagination, which in this particular case, tells you that such a thing would enrage you - typical reaction of a lot of people to the lack of any resource or a balance attempt. God forbid. The flow of time in the game or however you imagine it, is irrelevant.

 

[n2n1]

Well, if you haven't already played multiple games which successfully implement spoilage, you can only rely on your imagination, which in this particular case, tells you that such a thing would enrage you - typical reaction of a lot of people to the lack of any resource or a balance attempt. God forbid. The flow of time in the game or however you imagine it, is irrelevant.

Yeah, i haven't played any other games that use spoilage. But i saw an example of its implementation in "Starvation" mod. On the basis of these observations i made conclusions. There, it seemed, that it just prevents people, but does not add any challenge. Everyone just tried to avoid it, rather than to engage in the management of products, as it was conceived.

Maybe we can do something better....but... i honestly doubt it. First, i'm afraid that this is again, as usual, will go in the direction of what either of insanity