PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Die = get your weather resistances lowered. In frost biome. Your stats go even lower because of the cold. So now, you lose hp regen, you lose damage, you lose your ability to keep distance from zombies

No worse than a fresh spawn, are you crying about things when you spawn? No you are all excited to start your game. Change your attitude about debuff, its a minor hiccup in the journey and 99% of the time you are stronger than when you spawned so I don't see the issue other than people want to complain. Dang I'm as strong as I was 2 hours ago that sucks. Really? Its not like we flatline you from 10 to -10.

 

[Utakubeta]

I also think spoilage would be pretty lame, but I agree that there could be some value to having food-related challenges in the mid-to-late game.
Instead of food generically increasing heat for zombies, what about it creating a different sort of heat that attracts bears? So the more food items you have in a chunk, ESPECIALLY raw meat, the more often a bear comes wandering in to check it out. Just like the screamer mechanic.

The challenge goes from ‘don’t starve’ to ‘don’t get eaten!’ and instead of feeling like food is a non-issue after a certain point it becomes a different kind of issue, one of abundance = danger.

In fact if you had hundreds of meat and food items you could expect 2-3 bears to come sniffing around and more frequent dog pack spawns.

This way when you get to the point you’ve got tons of food and forges/cement mixers/chem stations working you have zombies AND animals frequently checking out your base.

But this wouldn’t prevent you from questing, exploring, etc. It would just mean there’s a good chance when you come home there will be a bear or two near your base.

I really like that idea, bears and wolves!

 

[Spiked_Coffee]

@Madmole
In A17 my primary melee weapon is the fireaxe. I'd imagine that in A18 it's governed by the Miner'69er perk. No problem with that, it only makes sense. My question is this. Will the Deep Wounds perk still apply to it... so that it remains a viable bladed weapon option?

Also... but much less important to me...will the Huntsman perk still apply to it as well?

One last question. Could a shortcut key be added to pull up the crafting menu? "B" pulls up the character screen. "M" pulls up the map. "I" pulls up level, gamestage etc. "O" pulls up quests IIRC. I haven't been able to find one that pulls up the crafting menu. It would be a nice QOL feature. Unless of course there is already one and I'm just missing it.

Thanks for being so active on the forums. I'm looking forward to A18.

It doesn't look like currently Deep Cuts works with Axe. 17:13 into the video

 

[madmole]

I think that's a great way to handle it - the more access modders have, the more mods they'll make, and games like Minecraft / Skyrim etc show how powerful and inventive modding communities can become when they have a great deal of access to the game. I'm not a fan of food spoilage myself, but if I can mod it in / out, I can see lots of mods making use of it.

I'd be down to try it myself, I just don't want to force it down every customers throat. I'm a hardcore player who likes a challenge, but I'm also a smart businessman and put my personal desires on the back burner for the betterment of the product. Mods can bring those desires to life and people can cherry pick them. Its a win win.

 

[madmole]

On a snarky note: Have you ever died and popped back to life in your bed miles away? Maybe that is what would happen. Lol
Non snarky note: Death has to have SOME downside or there is no point. With no penalty at all to death the fastest strategy for some buildings would be to place a bedroll near and just kamikaze the building over and over until you clear it.

I died and woke up in an ambulance gurney. We'll probably buff the options on death so people can cater the game to how they like it. Hardcore dead is dead to dying levels you up, enables god mode and teleports you to the finish credits lol. Just kidding but yeah we'd like some death options at some point.

 

[madmole]

Please dont make me micro manage torches

Campfires burn out and nobody calls bs.

 

[madmole]

I dont like electricity lights, the torches are better. I guess thats a whole other issue. Elecricity is great, but the lighting sucks currently.

I believe its been improved to be superior, but I need to get into it and find out myself for sure. If it isn't it will be.

 

[Socrastein]

I really like that idea, bears and wolves!

How could I forget the wolves?! Of course! Get a smelly enough meat-packed base and eventually the dire wolves come snooping around.

 

[Roland]

I asked for an item degradation method the other day so modders can do spoilage and we could make torches degrade and do a variety of things with it.

Awesome. As long as there is a pathway to spoilage available for modding I'm happy. I don't want others to be forced into playing an actual survival game.

I do think that one "balancing" change could be (if possible) to simply make the % chance for food to make you sick increase each day. So it doesn't disappear or change into "rotten food". All that happens is its food poisoning stat changes each day to a higher percentage.

 

[madmole]

Indeed - death means nothing without actually having a downside. The current downside is IMHO extremely lenient. Frankly, it doesn't make me fear death in the least - it's more like a minor annoyance. Yet for whatever reasons there are people who just wouldn't like to be penalized at all.
DP severity has to become an option.

Agreed - and a game in which building plays such a huge role should not take away aesthetic options in favor of some small immersion gain.

If we did implement it we'd probably be somewhat lenient with it, like it would last serveral days then auto degrade. I'm not saying we are, or have plans to but I'd like the function there for either mods, options or to try it out. Give players a better reason to get out of the stone age.

 

[madmole]

@Madmole
In A17 my primary melee weapon is the fireaxe. I'd imagine that in A18 it's governed by the Miner'69er perk. No problem with that, it only makes sense. My question is this. Will the Deep Wounds perk still apply to it... so that it remains a viable bladed weapon option?

Also... but much less important to me...will the Huntsman perk still apply to it as well?

One last question. Could a shortcut key be added to pull up the crafting menu? "B" pulls up the character screen. "M" pulls up the map. "I" pulls up level, gamestage etc. "O" pulls up quests IIRC. I haven't been able to find one that pulls up the crafting menu. It would be a nice QOL feature. Unless of course there is already one and I'm just missing it.

Thanks for being so active on the forums. I'm looking forward to A18.

No the fireaxe no longer gets any benefits from deep cuts. It ok at melee but not what it was, but it does work ok. Its badass at cutting wood though. I've currently skipped sledgehammers and clubs in my strength build and only use a fireaxe. I've already got rank 5 so its damage is max until I find a steel schematic or steel one in loot that is better than my crafted blue one. Its not bad, but again its not super OP like it used to be in 17. A fair trade since you get it with mining perks. If you want to be a cut guy use a machete or knife.

 

[madmole]

One last question. Could a shortcut key be added to pull up the crafting menu? "B" pulls up the character screen. "M" pulls up the map. "I" pulls up level, gamestage etc. "O" pulls up quests IIRC. I haven't been able to find one that pulls up the crafting menu. It would be a nice QOL feature. Unless of course there is already one and I'm just missing it.

Thanks for being so active on the forums. I'm looking forward to A18.

I use tab.

 

[madmole]

I also think spoilage would be pretty lame, but I agree that there could be some value to having food-related challenges in the mid-to-late game.
Instead of food generically increasing heat for zombies, what about it creating a different sort of heat that attracts bears? So the more food items you have in a chunk, ESPECIALLY raw meat, the more often a bear comes wandering in to check it out. Just like the screamer mechanic.

The challenge goes from ‘don’t starve’ to ‘don’t get eaten!’ and instead of feeling like food is a non-issue after a certain point it becomes a different kind of issue, one of abundance = danger.

In fact if you had hundreds of meat and food items you could expect 2-3 bears to come sniffing around and more frequent dog pack spawns.

This way when you get to the point you’ve got tons of food and forges/cement mixers/chem stations working you have zombies AND animals frequently checking out your base.

But this wouldn’t prevent you from questing, exploring, etc. It would just mean there’s a good chance when you come home there will be a bear or two near your base.

That could be interesting.

 

[Lanadon Conners]

Hey Madmole,

After drooling over the video for a day I have a question : Can you load the Deployable Junk turret and drop it on the ground floor of a POI and either let it's sound of gunfire draw Zeds to it and away from you, or have it deal with Snooping Zeds that "hear" us from outside and decide to come pay us a visit while exploring upper levels?

The "Deployable Junk Turret" has the potential of being the first "Zed Distraction" device and I find that exciting!

Then again, after the first few shots in your Demo, the Zombie didn't attack the turret, it kept chasing you.. so for some reason, it saw you above the noise of the turrets fire..

 

[madmole]

How could I forget the wolves?! Of course! Get a smelly enough meat-packed base and eventually the dire wolves come snooping around.

Mountain lions too. Cats are scavengers.

 

[madmole]

Hey Madmole,
After drooling over the video for a day I have a question : Can you load the Deployable Junk turret and drop it on the ground floor of a POI and either let it's sound of gunfire draw Zeds to it and away from you, or have it deal with Snooping Zeds that "hear" us from outside and decide to come pay us a visit while exploring upper levels?

The "Deployable Junk Turret" has the potential of being the first "Zed Distraction" device and I find that exciting!

Then again, after the first few shots in your Demo, the Zombie didn't attack the turret, it kept chasing you.. so for some reason, it saw you above the noise of the turrets fire..

Zeds don't target it, but if they get in its view cone it will target them. If the player gets too far away it shuts down. Zombies can't eat turrets, I don't think they have ever targeted any turrets we added to the game. You could put it in a doorway while you loot a room or crack a safe so it could watch your back.

 

[Socrastein]

Mountain lions too. Cats are scavengers.

That’s right, I forgot you had mentioned mountain lions too! There will be enough predatory animals to add some cool mechanics/dangers to later game food abundance. Maybe campfires could attract animals instead of screamers since that delicious smell of cooked food would travel for miles.

I think it’d be a great vanilla addition, but if at least one could mod different forms of ‘heat’, what builds it up, what it attracts/spawns, that would be enough for some sweet mods.

 

[Socrastein]

That could be interesting.

LOL at that video! Bears in jean jackets that fall out of the sky onto your base - there’s a mod that our descendants will tell tales and sing songs of for 1000 years.

 

[Lanadon Conners]

Zeds don't target it, but if they get in its view cone it will target them. If the player gets too far away it shuts down. Zombies can't eat turrets, I don't think they have ever targeted any turrets we added to the game. You could put it in a doorway while you loot a room or crack a safe so it could watch your back.

That will make safe cracking the Vault at the Bank a lot better with a Turret watching the doorway. /cheer

I didn't realize that they shut down after a certain distance and that makes sense. Imagine sneaking into a coop territory and dropping 20 of them right outside a base?

 

[SnowDog1942]

Campfires burn out and nobody calls bs.

I can put stacks of 6000 wood on a campfire