PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[SnowDog1942]

"Path of Exile" is probably the mother of all perk systems. That perk system is a WORK OF ART for lack of better words.

Lol...u mean that tree that looks incredibly cool at first until you realize 90 percent of it is stuff like +10 to strength.

Grim Dawns Masteries and Devotion system are sooooo much more dynamic and meaningful than that horrid PoE tree filled with...filler.

 

[konrax]

Lol...u mean that tree that looks incredibly cool at first until you realize 90 percent of it is stuff like +10 to strength.
Grim Dawns Masteries and Devotion system are sooooo much more dynamic and meaningful than that horrid PoE tree filled with...filler.

Maybe this was the case 7 years ago when the game first came out.

 

[Scyris]

Double barrel is pretty cool. Knives are getting worked on to be very fast but do less damage so they don't feel like poor man's clubs. You'll run in slash them up fast and get them bleeding then be able to watch them bleed out or go for power attacks to kill. Sneak damage with knives will be increased too.

Still would use clubs over knives, would rather stop a zed in 1-2 hits then have to stab at it 5-8 times with a knife to do the same thing. I don't think anyone uses bladed weapons in a17 as they are just vastly inferior to blunts as a whole. When you have a feral in your face you kinda need stopping power, bleeding it to death slowly is not going to get you anywhere.... except dead. You also need to consider most of the zombies in this game are tweakers high on something, which makes it even more annoying to need more hits to kill them as some of them its hard to hit them in the head as they move it so damned much lol.

 

[Tin]

Yes, those are not abilities you should buy with perks, FOV most be a option to everyone, seeing farther away means higher resources consumption so only people with good PC's could buy it and play with that perk. I mean, the whole desing behind those "perks" is wrong IMO. It is your opinion and there is no problem in sharing it, but I ASSURE you that those perks won't happend.

You are right, there is nothing wrong with me giving suggestion, or you having your opinions, no matter how wrong your reasoning is

So why did you fell the need, of being a pissy little donkey with your initial response, if people giving suggestions are Fine? Just felt like being an Asshat to people you don't know?

..and FoV doesn't NEED to be a setting.

If view distance = higher resource consumption, then so does increasing the FoV in the settings.

In other words = More crap going on in the screen = more resource consumption, no matter how you want to slice it.

You just inadvertently won MM's argument for him (to a degree), on why the FoV is set to where it is atm from awhile back.

Even with that, I would think they set the FoV even lower then what they needed to, to give themselves more head room to play with. I would also think they set the maximum view distance much the same way.

And you are right, they may not use any of my suggestions, or others as well. In fact they don't use rando suggestions 99.9% of the time.. go figure!

 

[Sakurambo]

Still would use clubs over knives, would rather stop a zed in 1-2 hits then have to stab at it 5-8 times with a knife to do the same thing. I don't think anyone uses bladed weapons in a17 as they are just vastly inferior to blunts as a whole. When you have a feral in your face you kinda need stopping power, bleeding it to death slowly is not going to get you anywhere.... except dead. You also need to consider most of the zombies in this game are tweakers high on something, which makes it even more annoying to need more hits to kill them as some of them its hard to hit them in the head as they move it so damned much lol.

fireaxe is my first choice of melee weapon since a17 drop

good stopping power and damage, and don't drain the stamina like the sledge

 

[Roland]

In fact they don't use rando suggestions 99.9% of the time.. go figure!

Yayy! Maths!!!

Figuring......figuring......figuring.....

They DO take suggestions 0.1% of the time!

 

[Trankitas]

You are right, there is nothing wrong with me giving suggestion, or you having your opinions, no matter how wrong your reasoning is So why did you fell the need, of being a pissy little donkey with your initial response, if people giving suggestions are Fine? Just felt like being an Asshat to people you don't know?

..and FoV doesn't NEED to be a setting.

If view distance = higher resource consumption, then so does increasing the FoV in the settings.

In other words = More crap going on in the screen = more resource consumption, no matter how you want to slice it.

You just inadvertently won MM's argument for him (to a degree), on why the FoV is set to where it is atm from awhile back.

Even with that, I would think they set the FoV even lower then what they needed to, to give themselves more head room to play with. I would also think they set the maximum view distance much the same way.

And you are right, they may not use any of my suggestions, or others as well. In fact they don't use rando suggestions 99.9% of the time.. go figure!

Well, my first comment was a joke, i didn't know you couldn't take it...

And you are extremely wrong in my opinion, FOV needs to be a setting, because a lot of people NEED it to play without getting dizzy.

Yes, view distance = higher resource consumption, and FOV (in some cases) does too, but that's on you, you have the power to tweek your settings depending on how good is your PC, you shouldn't be obligated to play on higher FOV because you want to play a Perception character.

In conclusion: FOV and view distance are settings, not perks.

I have to disagree on this too "In fact they don't use rando suggestions 99.9% of the time..".

Actually they do, a lot. They listen to us, when we make sense with our suggestions.

- - - Updated - - -

Suggestion to perception character perks:

"I'm legally blind": You can see all textures in 4k.

 

[Trekkan]

I have no objection to what you have planned, but since you asked, I’m happy to help brainstorm! Building on your concept of knowing just where to hit things...
On the Money

+25% chance to do double block damage to safes.*SNIP*

You're hired!

 

[Weazelsun]

Still would use clubs over knives, would rather stop a zed in 1-2 hits then have to stab at it 5-8 times with a knife to do the same thing. I don't think anyone uses bladed weapons in a17 as they are just vastly inferior to blunts as a whole. When you have a feral in your face you kinda need stopping power, bleeding it to death slowly is not going to get you anywhere.... except dead. You also need to consider most of the zombies in this game are tweakers high on something, which makes it even more annoying to need more hits to kill them as some of them its hard to hit them in the head as they move it so damned much lol.

I think where the knife will shine in A18 is the higher chance of decapitation and comparably low stamina usage in power attacks. I have to agree though, usually I'll go with the sledge or steel fireaxe just due to the fact if I don't kill the zombie in 1 -3 hits, my face is a nom to death.

Edit: and a no duh captain obvious moment, I should have read madmole's response to you. lol

 

[Tin]

Well, my first comment was a joke, i didn't know you couldn't take it...
And you are extremely wrong in my opinion, FOV needs to be a setting, because a lot of people NEED it to play without getting dizzy.

Yes, view distance = higher resource consumption, and FOV (in some cases) does too, but that's on you, you have the power to tweek your settings depending on how good is your PC, you shouldn't be obligated to play on higher FOV because you want to play a Perception character.

In conclusion: FOV and view distance are settings, not perks.

I have to disagree on this too "In fact they don't use rando suggestions 99.9% of the time..".

Actually they do, a lot. They listen to us, when we make sense with our suggestions.

Well, I can say it just wasn't me who took your "Joke" the wrong way, but whatever, it was a joke and I'll take it as such then. I'm cool with that.

Just a suggestion though, you might want to add something to it like: layful: <jk> or <joking> etc,. Makes it easier to decipher, and less likely for it to be taken the wrong way from your original intent.

I don't know, I think the 99.9% response was a pretty close estimate.

This game is how old in development? and people have been giving them a lot of suggestions throughout the years..

There are other ways for people to limit how fast motion sickness comes on from playing video games, other than adjusting the FoV.

Play in a brighter room when playing, instead of a darker one.

Turning down your mouse sensitivity, so when your turn the camera, it isn't as jarring.

Open a window/ turn a fan on, so you can feel the wind against your face while playing.

Sit farther away from the monitor while playing.

and many more..

Most console games have their FoV set at 60, because most people tend to sit further back from the display.

Most PC games have their FoV adjusted between 80-100, because people are sitting so close to the display.

So one of the easiest things they can do is just sit farther back from the display.

Even with setting their FoV wider, it just dampens the amount of time before they start to feel dizzy, it doesn't stop it from happening.

The point is, other means are available, to help lessen the effect and extend the time from when it gets unbearable.

FoV adjustment is only 1 of them.

(Not a slight, but genuinely trying to help) If you want to know where I got some of this info: https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/simulator-sickness.html

There are others links I can provide if you want them, that may help you, or those you know, who may suffer from getting motion sickness while playing Video games if you want. I only tend to site places that are accredited, or at least have people who are accredited in their sources.

(If you do want more links/info, just PM me so we don't take up any more space in the Dev diaries.)

 

[Weazelsun]

@madmole seeing as there will be books that add to gathering more resources such as one of the books apparently giving the benefit of gather doorknobs from doors. Will there be more of a resource sink to conteract more resources added to the game?

I mean surely we don't want players to be able to become gods with all the brass for ammo, eh? (JUST KIDDING!) I must get a brass bath.

 

[madmole]

A billion??? A tad exagerated to say the least.
IMHO, This is not Skyrim nor Fallout no matter how much you want it to be, and you dont have the manpower to make it like that either... I for one wouldnt have touched this game if it was. Those are something my teenage son and his friends play. Lucrative targets, I know. But they say that vanilla is unplayable so they play heavily modded.

I play 7d2d and have loved doing so until A17 dropped, now i dont like it at all. I'm hanging around til A18 drops, playing modded. If you keep referring to, and try to "copy" those games you keep mentioning, 7d2d will just turn in to a bad copy. You said yoursekf before A17 droppes that it was the best Alpha yet. Now tou say the same about A18 and that worries me...

All my personal opinion so feel free to disagree anyone.

Shin

Taking some inspiration of how moments of certain games feel is my aim, not to copy everything about any one game. 7 Days has always been a survival game with RPG elements. It will never be a full on RPG with lofty dialogue choices or huge character interactions with NPCs. But it can have some awesome character progression and meaningful builds if we get it right.
As for 17 I can get excited about a new system we add even if its not that great at the time. Technology excites me. I was excited I could make a whole bunch of new perks without needing 20 programmers 2 years to do it. I had a framework that was very powerful and the sky was the limit. That was my excitement. Unfortunately the new framework broke a lot of stuff that worked ok before, like diseases, weather survival (not great but not horrid), and we didn't have a place for schematics yet. I did the perk system of 17 in under two months, with content lock and I've been working hard ever since it dropped improving it.

So now it feels fully integrated with the game instead of a replacer of stuff people used to do the old way. Its the best of both worlds IMO and 18 will be a big hit. The testers are confirming it is great again, and we still have a lot of balancing and fine tuning to do yet.

I get the skepticism, but 17 wasn't the first dud alpha we shipped. 13 was a dud and we made 14 awesome. Any time you bring in a ton of new features it takes time to work out the kinds. The new harvest system of 13 was cool tech, but the game wasn't balanced. Same with perks in 17. Amazing power there, but poor balance and distribution. 18 is 1000% better IMO.

 

[madmole]

Madmole, is that, if we find the book "Needle and Thread", then we will be able to install an additional pocket mod on clothes, even if the first cell is already occupied by another mod, for example, an insulated mod?

Clothing can only accept one mod, and that is pockets. Your confusing clothing with armor.

 

[madmole]

This new "Specialization" aspect has me very interested. Nobody is a Master of All... Some like to get in close and others like to sit back and Touch someone from afar..

More options, more choices..

And I will finally be able to snipe a zombie through a pane of broken glass and actually kill it.

Yes!

 

[madmole]

Madmole, why do we need the advantage of 20 bullets. We already have the advantage of free cells in the inventory, since we can put several boxes of bullets in one cell.

Its a discount in crafting. Nothing more, nothing less. If you craft 100 bullets at once with this new special recipe you save 20% of mats.

 

[madmole]

a17 coming to an end looking forward to a18. I have 13000+ hours in game, have been here daily running our server , the biggest issue I had with a17 was the start of it when the bug existed only a set amout of players could log in. I still feel that really hurt server owners bad because a16 we had over 5000+ players join first month alone | a17 we where expecting the same but for the first month of a17 that bug really hurt the population. Glad it was eventually fixed but i am hoping moving into a18 this problem doesnt re invent itself. That being said our server is looking forward to a18 and i know for fact alot of our players which exceed in the thousands well make a return. I also really like all the new features and work that the devs have put into the game moving into a18... thanks for your hard work!

Dang dude, 13k!

 

[madmole]

I have noticed that if you give every weapon it's own type of ammonition rather than sharing it on multiple guns a gun will never feel useless. Since 762 rounds are shared on 3 guns in the game, essentially means everyone will take the best one that shoots that ammo. Even just changing the hunting rifle to be a .44 caliber rifle already makes it feel way less useful (and no need to add new a new caliber).
Why? Well because if you play survival and you find rounds for every kind of gun but only limit yourself to use just one gun, you either need to invest a lot in making that ammo or run out. Having ammo of every gun makes them all relevant, even if they are just a backup weapon to conserve ammo.

Now that mining is fixed, bullet resources are not a huge issue. There are books that let you harvest brass from sinks and door knobs from doors, so you get a lot more brass once you find those books. I do carry a knife, a bow, a pistol with silencer and a magnum right now. I'll get an SMG eventually, but the magnum has the stopping power I need right now.

 

[madmole]

Thanks for the detailed answer. That sounds like a good and reasonable approach, I like what I read (and not only about the class system). It seems like A18 is gonna be a iteration most people will like.

I think so. The fact I'm testing so far from release is a great sign. It will be the best balanced version yet.

 

[madmole]

I think it is worth considering Roland's poll that he posted when A17 first came out - unfortunately I'm not sure how to find it, but one of the options asked if people would want to be able to eventually have all the points in the end. I recall it was overwhelmingly in favour of that.
At the very least you might consider allowing for more points in single player. Specialisation is fine if you play with buddies and people have roles, but I'd imagine those that play solo would have a tougher time.

I play solo and am smashing it. (I got rekt early game on my agility character but now he's starting to become a lethal weapon) You don't NEED all the perks. You can find schematics and ways to do things without perks now, so perks are now perks, not requirements IMO.

 

[madmole]

A17 is my favorite game. I hope A18 enhances and extends it.

Is it? FFS I got you going the other day and the suspense is killing me.