PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Crater Creator]

I agreed with you that nerfing gas was not a way to solve the problem of horde night driving. And tried to prove it by showing that gas has to be reasonably cheap 6 days of the week. It cannot be expensive on horde night only.

Well, it could be. You can come up with lore for virtually any gameplay scenario. On the night of the Blood Moon, the air thickens with particulate matter that creates a red fog, turns the moon red, and interferes with the fuel/air ratio in combustion engines, severely reducing their fuel efficiency. Thus gas is effectively more expensive on horde night only.

But then, spawning zombies in front of the player's vehicle so they're constantly dodging hazards sounds more fun, so I'd sooner pursue that idea.

 

[Crater Creator]

Well to be honest. If you have enough gas and steel, you can make undestructible base just by blade and dart traps alone. Almost alone. Eletric fence in front of blade traps so bambies get stunned and don't destroy your traps and you can reduce their number, together with dart traps. The rest gets smashed on blades. Have different generator rooms for each side of your base if you make it square. On horde night, turn on the deffenses on that side, where bambies are coming from. It is a long run base. But lets be honest. Early game you would not even need such deffenses.

That’s why I’m suggesting powered traps should use more energy when they’re killing things than when they’re idling. But nerfing gas overall could accomplish the same goal.

 

[Crater Creator]

And how many players are currently swimming during the Horde Night and how many are driving around ? This question was never answered.

The fact that you ask that question demonstrates that you still think the point is to do something about how other people play the game. Think again.

 

[SnowDog1942]

The fact that you ask that question demonstrates that you still think the point is to do something about how other people play the game. Think again.

Why do people assume that others care how they play?

I want challenges driving on horde night for my own enjoyment. I don’t care about how it affects your gameplay

I want digging zombies for my enjoyment. I don’t care how it affects anyone else.

I want harder difficulty and challenges for my enjoyment and couldn’t care at all how it affects others

The list goes on and on and come to think of it’s very self centered of me to think this way but at least I admit it. People thinking I care about the way they play is also self centered of them and they dont even realize it.

I am not worried about anyone’s else’s gameplay in the slightest bit; believe me.

 

[Blake_]

Why do people assume that others care how they play?
I want challenges driving on horde night for my own enjoyment. I don’t care about how it affects your gameplay

I want digging zombies for my enjoyment. I don’t care how it affects anyone else.

I want harder difficulty and challenges for my enjoyment and couldn’t care at all how it affects others

The list goes on and on and come to think of it’s very self centered of me to think this way but at least I admit it. People thinking I care about the way they play is also self centered of them and they dont even realize it.

I am not worried about anyone’s else’s gameplay in the slightest bit; believe me.

Well, that's like saying: "I love hamburguers, and I dont care about what anyone thinks of my opinion" inside of a MC Donald's.

All of that is in line with the devs vision so..... "I love Snow and I'm a dog!!!".

 

[vicflo]

I was joking. Gas barrels are now loot instead of pickups, so you get way less gas, 20-80 per barrel.

so instead of getting a lifetime supply of gas from one oil refinery we get the equivalent of maybe 2 barrels? but it also respawns dependent on game settings though, so it would still seem like a place to go which would make sense given the type of building it is.

will barrels still be craftable for storage reasons? or would you think it would be that scarce where one wouldnt need that option anymore.

 

[Aldranon]

Except the trader doesnآ’t get his fun since he wonآ’t ever be paid for a room to rent on blood moon night if spending the night on a motorcycle carries absolutely no risk and/or has negligible fuel costs....

If the trader had gotten off his lazy ass and risked his life then he could have gotten the gas to sell! But NOOO, he wants to repress the proletariat!

Are we, the survivors of the apocalypse not repressed enough?? Revolution!!!!

 

[ParaSyt]

Yes that was a RWG map I showed.

Noice! I drove from Dallas TX to my home Tempe AZ yesterday and that looks very much like the scenery I saw on the way there. You guys are perfectionist.

My big gripe with A17 RWG is the terrible road pathing. I think I saw you mentioning that A18 had been getting better on that end, but can you tell us how? Like can we at least expect to now see any 90 degree walls going down the road? I kinda liked the A16 way the RWG roads were made.

 

[Gnomaana]

No gas? Why? Is this like "if I can't have all the gas, I don't want any at all"? Not understanding that.
I'm sure if this caused a shortage for your generators or molotovs to the point where it made using either impractical, they would just make it so that they use less gas, but vehicles use more.

Jesus. His comment was really that hard to understand? He is saying that gas is SO PLENTIFUL that it doesn't contribute to the game play in any valuable way. So everything that uses gas should just work as they do now but remove the need to put gas in them. A game mechanic that has no value is just taking up space. He didn't even imply that things that use gas should be taken out of the game.

 

[Dark_Corvid]

HD Distant terrain is in. A18 is looking sexy AF.
https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1149039412338053120/photo/1

That looks great!

 

[Crater Creator]

I fixed those.

That’s awesome! I love these kinds of improvements.

Since you changed shotgun shells, have you considered incorporating that modern arrows/bolts typically use plastic fletching instead of feathers? I'd suggest it as an alternate or replacement recipe for the steel version of these ammunitions. I mean feathers work, but if you're changing shotgun shells, why not?

Also on materials, it'd be cool if hanging moss and hay bales could be destroyed or scrapped for plant fibers, respectively.

Lastly, a crucible has no moving parts and so shouldn't need mechanical parts. I found that some designs use clay with quartz sand, so I think a (large) quantity of glass would be a better substitute.

 

[Crater Creator]

Easy fix to that: zombies target valuables. Containers, workstations, vehicles..

My problem with that is it’s completely un-zombie-like for them to be attracted to inert, inanimate objects or structures when there are no tasty brains inside. It's been said before, but save that for bandits.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Jesus. His comment was really that hard to understand? He is saying that gas is SO PLENTIFUL that it doesn't contribute to the game play in any valuable way. So everything that uses gas should just work as they do now but remove the need to put gas in them. A game mechanic that has no value is just taking up space. He didn't even imply that things that use gas should be taken out of the game.

No, it wasn't. What I originally assumed was swayed by the response I quoted which wasn't as easy to understand. That ok with you, Jesus?

 

[Crater Creator]

Everything is reorganized into groups that are governed by a game stage probability template instead of hard coded %'s. So before we deemed pistols and hunting rifles as weak sauce weapons and ak's and smgs as awesome weapons, and hard coded the weak sauce ones to drop frequenty. Now all weapons have an equal chance of their tier to drop and we use loot templates, so adding a new weapon is just adding it to a list that doesn't have any % to think about.
So managing loot won't be as big of a nightmare moving forward, just put things in the right group and you are done.

Interesting! Thanks for the details.

It sounds like this would lessen the problem of swimming in way more weak sauce weapons than you need. The only downside I see is losing the 'flavor' of certain loot containers. For example, would you start finding rocket launchers in toilets instead of pistols?

Wait, this isn't a plunger... *BOOM*

 

[Haidrgna]

So you modded in a custom block shape?

Yes I did, well I imported something from unity according to what I saw how it was being processed by the game and it worked after some attempts. So seems it is already possible, though need to experiment more to fully understand it.

 

[Haidrgna]

Nah. I made this infographic back in A14, and I would've noticed if the game added shape-based block HP since then. I've probably been asking for them to add it since A15.

A13 and before, when blocks were not harmized and there was still hardness for materials different shapes had different health, it was a mess though. Think A14 was the first alpha where they added the block masters to unify the blocks and thus their HP and stats. (I looked at some xml files I have saved from these alphas).

But I agree, different shapes should have different cost, strength and support, but the amount of work to get it all done is quite some and it may not be for everyone as it complicates construction a lot more. I did it in A16 and it worked nicely, still working on the A17 variant.

 

[Shineblossom]

True and we do have to keep in mind new players when balancing. But again, I'm not calling for harder challenge. I'm calling for some challenge...like, at all.
Treading water all night is a current tactic that all the water treaders love and enjoy. Am I saying that TFP should make it so treading water is impossible? No. But I would like it if maybe dogs could swim or if once you run out of stamina you start to sink and drown-- but then make swimming take less stamina so you can a least cross rivers without drowning.

Driving around all night is a current tactic that all drivers love and enjoy. I'm saying bring some challenge to that tactic as well so that people can still do it but it isn't 100% easy button. Not so much challenge that a new player would never be able to pull it off but some challenge so that it is fun enough that maybe someone like me who likes to defend a base might want to switch things up and try a different challenge for one of these nights.

Giantic zombie lions running next to the vehicle trying to push you from the road muahahah

 

[The Gaffer]

We've talked about horde nights creating an electromagnetic storm that shuts down vehicles, or have zombies run in front of you and really damage vehicles because they are feral.

I love the idea of an electromagnetic storm stopping the vehicles from working. Just being able to drive away when things got rough took away a lot of the risk and danger of horde nights

 

[Scavengers_son]

Someone mentioned something about ambient occlusion earlier. I was just wondering, how is it now going to be with underground and unlit interiors? I think since the first alpha I played (a13, I think) underground was affected by daylight. Even if I had a long, twisting tunnel or a completely shut off air bubble in deep rock, I could see it light up during daytime so much I could actually see around without a torch of flashlight.

I'd hate to compare 7d2d to Minecraft, but in MC it was totally dark underground once you dug like 16 meters away from any sky-exposed block. I really wish we could have pitch black caves, especially if the technology is already there to enable it. Should be fun with upcoming flashlight battery duration (IIRC), and maybe even random equipment failures

 

[RipClaw]

I love the idea of an electromagnetic storm stopping the vehicles from working. Just being able to drive away when things got rough took away a lot of the risk and danger of horde nights

Then just pack your vehicles in a storage box that you can't reach during the horde. Already you have the thrill you want.

I know some players who fight to the last bullet when things go wrong and don't even think about escaping.