PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

You should mention lockpicking in the OP madmole.Also, will the spikes still be bloody when crafted in A18?

BTW, thank you for communicating so much and the work on the game. I'm playing A17.4 with a friend, and it was great fun already, and fixed some issues of A17; A18 looks great, can't wait for it.

I just did.

Spikes will be bloody.

YW.

 

[SnowDog1942]

Mountain lions, random weapon stats. Both good stuff, should add to 1st post if confirmed

 

[SnowDog1942]

@Roland. Has that new feature been revealed yet, the shrimp thing or whatever

 

[Survager]

...A new trap. Bandits. Elevators. New quest types. All of that is 100X more exciting than fish traps. I don't mean to sound grouchy but I know I do.

JOEL, you say "Elevators" ) Tell me more about what you had in mind, please)

 

[Scyris]

Thanks, no smoke blowing here, but 18 is the best build ever. I say that not from bullet points of added features, but from hands on experience as a gamer. I really think 18 delivers what we had hoped 17 would. Looting, quality has damage, books, random stats, perks are reorganized into more class specific roles and playstyles and there are no "must haves". Zombies do less block damage and takes a group to shred walls. Balance, balance and more balance. Lots of choices. The junk perk books are gone. New terrain textures. Mining has a nice tell where the ore is. What you see is what you get, spot ore on the surface, dig down and get after it. Optimizations and bug fixes, its really shaping up to make things right.

But does it screw single player people like a17 currently does as it forces us to get specific stats if we wanna do much of anything, namely int and str. I mainly play single player, and every game is pretty much the same up to a certan level like 30 or 40, because I just lack the skill points to afford to branch out. I understand about the wanting people to build certan characters aspects but the game has some required things you need to get: Workbench, chem station, motherload, pack mule, sex t-rex, miner 69'er are all IMO pretty much stuff you need asap. After these, to a certan level maybe 5 str 7 int or so, I usually get fortitude up a bit for farming and the hp regen. Agility i've never touched, as I find the stat mostly useless in a17. I haven't seen how effective the stealth perks are and only one I *really* care about is the one that muffles sounds.

 

[Scyris]

Not what he meant.As far as i understood ( and i agree) you can stealth all the way you want, the slightest drop from hight ( 1/2 Blocks or more) will alert all Zombies nearby, hence Woodframe ramps to avoid all "mini-falling" wich would sendt you all 50 Zombies of a Tier 5 Dungeon up your butt.

Yeah I've had that happen, inside a poi walk over a 1/2 block, wakes up entire room and the next 2 over.

 

[Scyris]

i've never played this game in single player, im only playing it in a vanilla server so... x-D dont missunderstand me, the game is awesome right now, but i miss those wooden bastards!

Reason they were removed was people making kill corridors of them with them on the walls an cielings. Though there might be a setting they could do to only allow basic rotations which pretty much means it has to be flat on the ground. I prefer the log spikes myself as while they use way more materials each to upgrade in the end, they last for more than 3 hits each.

 

[Star69]

I don't have any intention for that. If you choose to be "unarmed" guy who am I to say you are wrong? If you are more of an engineer build, whats wrong with spikes? If I'm desperate I do it, and sometimes take spikes to POIs to prevent ferals flooding into the room I just jumped down into and have no idea what I might face.

It's pretty cool to hear how other players handle the same situation. You take wood spikes, I take a stack of flagstone blocks. Plop one in a doorway and I have time to prepare if I'm interrupted. Also, if I run into a wolf, dog pack or bear, I can quickly put up a small flagstone structure to safely work at killing them. I might try the wood spike idea though, I can see some possibilities there.

 

[The Gronk]

That is what I do, so I can repair them. Let them walk on the spikes to break the spikes at 1 meter high that are in their face lol.

If that's intentional any chance of making them tesselate better in three dimensions? A simple mesh that looks like it attaches to adjacent spikes, no collider needed.

It does look a bit odd to have spikes floating above each other and it's not obvious to a n00b that it's even possible.

 

[DUST2DEATH]

Not likely, we're a small team not Rockstar and vehicles are just a sub feature, not the central feature. We're planning mods. Maybe we can do some tinting at some point.

May I suggest while you consider tinting, that you also consider a clean way for us to sideload textures (like skyrim/fallout) so we could just add some new skins too?

Pretty please?

And the same for blocks?

 

[TSBX]

No different than 1 piece of wood and can't hit someone with it. Increments of 100%? How is that not OP. It maxes out at one perk with that math. The only way its going back to the way it was is if we kill harvest bonus on crops and animals and you get what you get. Its not like its hard to see a quantity. I could do a meatball recipe maybe, you get 1hp per meatball.

What?? +100% of one meat would be two meats. How is that OP? You would still have your granular increases from the perk (1 meat, 2 meat, 3 meat, etc) it would just be in different %'s which would still basically be in line with what we have now, but would still make sense for the golden goose 20 hr people that are the sudden focus.

Not trying to be critical, just trying to make sense of things. Maybe Roland can chime in being a math whiz.

(I don't understand the wood comment BTW.)

 

[DUST2DEATH]

It's been said animal farms would take up too many computer resources.

define "too many".

Potatoes dont count

I say its time to cut the dead weight. Min specs need to double atleast. In 2019 this is starting to be silly.

 

[madmole]

JOEL, you say "Elevators" ) Tell me more about what you had in mind, please)

I'd like for some kind of pipe tech that is the track you can put together like a modular set of pipes. Straight section, elbow, 22.5 degree incline, 45 incline etc that you can place and power. Then you put a platform on it or maybe a cart and have either elevators or moving platform or minecart thing. A zipline you stand on?

 

[Wulf]

Is Dead is Dead mode still planned? Or is it a "maybe as a DLC after it goes gold thing" ?

 

[SnowDog1942]

Is Dead is Dead mode still planned? Or is it a "maybe as a DLC after it goes gold thing" ?

There is a nice workaround i figured out after some testing. Here it is:

If you die, start over.

 

[Odetta]

There is a nice workaround i figured out after some testing. Here it is:

If you die, start over.

Instructions not clear, got my Sham Sandwich stuck in my AK-47

- - - Updated - - -

I'd like for some kind of pipe tech that is the track you can put together like a modular set of pipes. Straight section, elbow, 22.5 degree incline, 45 incline etc that you can place and power. Then you put a platform on it or maybe a cart and have either elevators or moving platform or minecart thing. A zipline you stand on?

That would be awesome. Reminds be of the pipe system you thought up for oil and water a long time ago.

 

[madmole]

But does it screw single player people like a17 currently does as it forces us to get specific stats if we wanna do much of anything, namely int and str. I mainly play single player, and every game is pretty much the same up to a certan level like 30 or 40, because I just lack the skill points to afford to branch out. I understand about the wanting people to build certan characters aspects but the game has some required things you need to get: Workbench, chem station, motherload, pack mule, sex t-rex, miner 69'er are all IMO pretty much stuff you need asap. After these, to a certan level maybe 5 str 7 int or so, I usually get fortitude up a bit for farming and the hp regen. Agility i've never touched, as I find the stat mostly useless in a17. I haven't seen how effective the stealth perks are and only one I *really* care about is the one that muffles sounds.

I've been successfully pumping just one attribute and grab just a tiny bit from the other attributes when the RNJ doesn't cooperate.

You now spawn with 3 rows unencumbered and can craft enough pockets to completely remove all encumbrance without a single point of STR. There are schematics or books to unlock everything now so if you can be patient you don't have to buy the perk unlocks. You gain 1 HP and one Stamina each level, and stamina costs are not a problem any more you can left click all but two handed weapons endlessly at level 1. Sex Rex is mainly for less stamina use on combat but with my str build I didn't need it at all, I had plenty of stamina one shotting most zeds.

Workbench is unlocked at INT 4 or you can find them in the world, or buy them at traders or the schematic.

Farming I don't really think you need perks at that. Maybe one rank is all I'd buy, but TBH I don't farm until mid to late game, I find plenty of food. Recipes unlock foods now, so the perk is optional.

A18 is more about playing how you want to play, not using what you are given. Sometimes you do that a bit but eventually you get what you need to play your style. Agility governs bows, blades (not axes anymore), pistol, magnum and SMG, and stealth. So if your the sneaky type that should be your go to perk. It sounds to me like you would be a strength or fortitude guy. Of course you can have both if your patient. I'd recommend going heavy into the most useful one for your style, and then lightly into a second, again depending on play style and cherry pick a few others. So far I've avoided INT entirely with STR and AGL builds and its great. Knowing I can unlock something by a schematic keeps me looting instead of wasting points. Once you get to rank 3-5 of your weapon you are a badass even with a tier 2 weapon at least agains non ferals then you keep scaling with gear as you go to keep up with ferals and radiated.

But on day one its tough killing a zombie can be hard, but as you buy ranks that increase damage with your favorite melee and ranged you are smashing basic zeds pretty easily, then the ferals come and you can handle 1 or 2 maybe but then need armor and can start dealing with them and handle them, then radiated come and you need better gear, this is the mid to late game stretch where you loot for the best gear because crafting isn't worth it or going to rock against these tougher zeds.

Anyhow, we've worked really hard on decoupling the NEED for any one perk. SOme people will argue you still need it but you don't. You could play the game with no perks now, there is enough gear upgrades I think it would be viable.

 

[madmole]

It's pretty cool to hear how other players handle the same situation. You take wood spikes, I take a stack of flagstone blocks. Plop one in a doorway and I have time to prepare if I'm interrupted. Also, if I run into a wolf, dog pack or bear, I can quickly put up a small flagstone structure to safely work at killing them. I might try the wood spike idea though, I can see some possibilities there.

That is very cool. I haven't used blocks in a long time but I think its a valid tactic. That is what is neat about sandbox games is there are a lot of ways to do things.

 

[madmole]

If that's intentional any chance of making them tesselate better in three dimensions? A simple mesh that looks like it attaches to adjacent spikes, no collider needed.
It does look a bit odd to have spikes floating above each other and it's not obvious to a n00b that it's even possible.

Yeah we've had floating blocks for 6 years changing it on one block isn't going to help. I attach it to the house and my immersion is fine.

 

[madmole]

May I suggest while you consider tinting, that you also consider a clean way for us to sideload textures (like skyrim/fallout) so we could just add some new skins too?
Pretty please?

And the same for blocks?

Workshop after gold.