PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Thecolours]

I love the idea of quets that will have you go out and rebuild/defend a settlement. I always thought helping a small group of friendly npc's survive the first horde night would be a great way to teach new players.

 

[Soup]

Some people want to sit in a base, mine and craft everything they need and never leave the safety of their fort.

You mean in a game where you start off with nothing and have to scrounge, scrap, scavenge, and craft everything you have... some people see reaching a point of self-sustainability and surviving safely as a goal?

Heavens to Betsy... Why would anyone ever think that surviving is the goal in a survival game?

 

[madmole]

I didnt attack him, you seem to have missed he quoted the thing I already quoted in my question. So I wasnt "Johhny newcome", I was already replying to the same damn thing lol. Thats like if you replied to me with a quote, then someone else replied to you with the same quote to shut you up. That's not discussion.
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Sigh.. really. Says the SP guy who plays 21 days then restarts. Go try scrapping cars etc for brass on a server with several die hards who loot all the time. You really dont get it.

I must have missed part of the dialogue and assumed he was answering you with a quote of mine.

You are choosing to not use the system if there is not enough brass. If you do quests for traders and then your poi is virgin and full of brass. As I mentioned there are books now that unlock finding more brass in loot, allow door knob harvesting, sink harvesting for brass and lead, etc.

 

[madmole]

So tell me, how do you clear big POIs? I mean those that make you spend hundreds of ammo for almost no loot at the end? I am curious. Insane diff and radiated zombies. They tank a lot damage.

Stealth is an option, but if you buy up all the bullet supplies at traders, mine and get the books, you should be swimming in ammo if you are willing to put in the work.

EDIT: the level designers are reducing spawn numbers too.

 

[madmole]

I just hope that you guys optimize the game at some point and I can finally have my 500+ wandering zombie hordes. Last time I played I multiplied zombie spawns in different bioms by 5 to 20 and set wandering horde size to 250 and also had only zombie dog or only zombie bear wandering hordes, scariest probably was to see hundreds of radiated cops running around and btw - because I had so many zombies they easily got into traders place - just jumped over the fence, it was insane experience as nowhere is safe. It all completely changes the game - even basic tasks require so much extra work, i.e., 200-300 zombies around house means that if I tried to enter it and even one zombie saw me they all would just attack entrance, so I had to dance around them, maneuver and get them into huge group, lead them away from my entrance and only after that I could enter my home. So if I wanted to be home before this madness starts running I had to leave several in-game hours just in case that there are too many zombies near my home. Also mining and gathering resources above ground was very funny as mostly I managed to hit a boulder 5-6 times before I was surrounded, changed the way I played the game completely and watching hundreds of zombies burn from molotovs is a spectacular view, now I hope to play and see 500+ zombies on my screen without slideshow

Maybe in 2030 a high end pc can do it. Unity is just too slow.

 

[madmole]

Im glad to hear that the goal is to increase difficulty in biomes. How ever I don't see why enemies has to scale based on player level (Game stage).

If you go to the gym and work out you don't expect you coffee cup to increase in weight just because you become stronger right?

The enemies don't get stronger, we slowly expose you to nastier different enemies to keep the player challenged and engaged. Like plants vs zombies. WIthout it, you could sit safely in your easy biome and never be scared or challenged at all, never die, and then the fun is lost. The fear, challenge and progress is what motivates players to continue. Start removing those and the game gets boring quickly.

 

[SnowDog1942]

The enemies don't get stronger, we slowly expose you to nastier different enemies to keep the player challenged and engaged. Like plants vs zombies. WIthout it, you could sit safely in your easy biome and never be scared or challenged at all, never die, and then the fun is lost. The fear, challenge and progress is what motivates players to continue. Start removing those and the game gets boring quickly.

Totally agree but a more natural method would be to increase gamestage based on days played... so if u are playing really good or playing bad u can get ahead of the curve or fall behind based on whatever difficulty you selected. I personally dont like when a game attempts to adjust its difficulty based on the player. Id rather the player select an appropriate difficulty.

Instead of thinking to myself, i have to slow down leveling because the next blood moon is gonna be too hard ...id say to myself I really need to level so I have the skills or tools to deal with the next horde. Slowing the leveling on purpose feels gamey.

 

[Tin]

Quote Originally Posted by Shineblossom View PostSo tell me, how do you clear big POIs? I mean those that make you spend hundreds of ammo for almost no loot at the end? I am curious. Insane diff and radiated zombies. They tank a lot damage.

Just wondering. What does it matter if some poi's don't give you enough loot, to warrant your ammo usage? Shouldn't that be part of the game as well? Some pois might not have decent loot and basically waste some of your stock?

Stealth is an option, but if you buy up all the bullet supplies at traders, mine and get the books, you should be swimming in ammo if you are willing to put in the work.
EDIT: the level designers are reducing spawn numbers too.

Cool, but I hope some will still be packed full, while other poi's are not.

The issue, at least for me, was that you could enter the same poi ->in different areas<-, and they all were filled to the brim with zeds, with the same amount of zeds, which ended up becoming monotonous, because you always knew what you were getting.

Hopefully you all get it set that sometimes you can enter the same poi in different areas, while one of them is filled, the other might be empty, or another might only have a few zeds populating them.

 

[madmole]

Try playing on those servers that support 40 concurrent players and host up to 2k individual players during their lifespan. By day 1000 you can't find any car, by day 2000 all the buildings have been looted at least once and brass is very hard to find.

We support 8 players, and then people complain about not enough loot with 2000 players.

 

[madmole]

Slugs use polymer now? Omfg that's great news.

Most modern shells are made from plastic so I made that change.

 

[madmole]

I have been doing t5 quests repeatedly. Big towers, tough zeds. It's not worth it, not even close. I do a poi for an ok reward but I ended the tower with -500 ammo.
The current a17 thinking is big pois are not even close to worth it. They are ammo sinks.

Just keep this in mind for a18 please. Sounds like you are, so that's good.

Yes expect at least a 20% reduction in zeds in POIs and loot rewritten from scratch. There is a lot of new micro loot too so hopefully its worth it.

I want to add previous quests page to traders so you can go back and do easier ones if you don't have time/ammo for T5, scroll back to T3 or so and be able to do those. Rick said shut up and take my money so we can count on this for 19.

 

[madmole]

They will attack a random block. Once it gets damaged that's the focus for the entire horde. Dont they get a damage bonus if enough zeds get together too? Or was that a planned feature? I forget.

Yes they get a damage bonus the more zeds are in an area so thin the groups as best you can. One guy can chew on concrete all night but several will plow through it fast.

 

[madmole]

Madmole or Roland, how are the translations on the A18? in the A16 and A17 were almost zero, we can enjoy a18 with translation into Spanish? I saw a story that in the United States add 60 million people who speak Spanish and is the second most spoken language in the world, surpassed only by Chinese Mandarin

We're planning to update localization after 18 is stable and add 4 new languages as well.

 

[madmole]

The horses will be in the A19?And in the A18 are you going to put boats?

No horses are not ever coming to 7 days and boats aren't either until we can improve water.

 

[madmole]

After seeing the stream, I have a slight issue with the spear. It's extremely weird how it's held right below the spearhead even throughout the attack animation, and it makes the range very hard to gauge because it looks like it hits with an invisible hitbox that extends further than the tip. It'd be nice if it could be corrected so the character holds it lower than that.

Its standard industry practice to position something in first person to feel big and meaty, realism fails and makes firearms look weak and underwhelming.

 

[Drithyl]

Its standard industry practice to position something in first person to feel big and meaty, realism fails and makes firearms look weak and underwhelming.

I don't understand, this has nothing to do with realism. What's wrong with seeing the spear held from further down the shaft so that the player can tell the actual reach it has?

It's very confusing right now because you only see the spearhead as the part that pokes, yet it pokes things that are well farther away than the spearhead itself. This has nothing to do with industry practices, it has to do with the spear having a collider that extends beyond the model, thus causing a mismatch between what the player sees that it hits, and what it actually hits.

EDIT: And seriously, who sets these "industry practices"? Because I know of many mainstream, highly successful games that would disagree with this supposed industry practice. Ark has a spear that's held from further below. Mordhau, the most recent first person medieval combat hit, has many polearms being held from well below the head. Hell, Morrowing, since you love TES games (and who doesn't) has spears held well below.

 

[madmole]

You mean in a game where you start off with nothing and have to scrounge, scrap, scavenge, and craft everything you have... some people see reaching a point of self-sustainability and surviving safely as a goal?
Heavens to Betsy... Why would anyone ever think that surviving is the goal in a survival game?

You can survive like that right now, but if you want to thrive I want you to get off your ass and leave the safety of your walls. In TWD they are constantly leaving their base and going out risking their lives to find medicine, ammo, etc.

 

[madmole]

Totally agree but a more natural method would be to increase gamestage based on days played... so if u are playing really good or playing bad u can get ahead of the curve or fall behind based on whatever difficulty you selected. I personally dont like when a game attempts to adjust its difficulty based on the player. Id rather the player select an appropriate difficulty.
Instead of thinking to myself, i have to slow down leveling because the next blood moon is gonna be too hard ...id say to myself I really need to level so I have the skills or tools to deal with the next horde. Slowing the leveling on purpose feels gamey.

We had that and it sucked. Can't you remember day 28, 35, 42, etc? Then there was the case of logging in on day 140 on an existing server the first time and being a brand new level 1 character and you get the same nasty horde as the guys who've been there every night.

Game staging allows for players to get a horde they can realistically cope with regardless of what day the server is on.

 

[madmole]

Just wondering. What does it matter if some poi's don't give you enough loot, to warrant your ammo usage? Shouldn't that be part of the game as well? Some pois might not have decent loot and basically waste some of your stock?
Cool, but I hope some will still be packed full, while other poi's are not.

The issue, at least for me, was that you could enter the same poi ->in different areas<-, and they all were filled to the brim with zeds, with the same amount of zeds, which ended up becoming monotonous, because you always knew what you were getting.

Hopefully you all get it set that sometimes you can enter the same poi in different areas, while one of them is filled, the other might be empty, or another might only have a few zeds populating them.

It will become pretty hard to play the same POI twice in one game when we're done. There is good loot, there needs to be a decent amount of zombies. The new remnants are very sparse in loot and enemies.

 

[madmole]

I don't understand, this has nothing to do with realism. What's wrong with seeing the spear held from further down the shaft so that the player can tell the actual reach it has?
It's very confusing right now because you only see the spearhead as the part that pokes, yet it pokes things that are well farther away than the spearhead itself. This has nothing to do with industry practices, it has to do with the spear having a collider that extends beyond the model, thus causing a mismatch between what the player sees that it hits, and what it actually hits.

EDIT: And seriously, who sets these "industry practices"? Because I know of many mainstream, highly successful games that would disagree with this supposed industry practice. Ark has a spear that's held from further below. Mordhau, the most recent first person medieval combat hit, has many polearms being held from well below the head. Hell, Morrowing, since you love TES games (and who doesn't) has spears held well below.

Its been this way forever. DO you think your stone axe is actually hitting them in the head? Its an illusion. Your like 10' away lol. For actual meshes to hit fist to face you would have to be so close you couldn't see anything but a zombie covering your entire screen.

We might be able to adjust it, I haven't even looked at it or used it much yet, I was just telling you general practice. I've been doing one build at a time, I did strength and agility. Fortitude is up next, then I'll do perception because its not quite done yet. As I play I take notes and give the guys feedback and polish notes.