PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • <img alt=":)" data-src="" src="___base_url___/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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The goal is to get to a point where we can use shader graph so artists can make shaders that are compatible with all platforms and no bugs. If its something that can be done with that, then I'd be ok with it.
I don't think harvest has changed much from 17.

No plans for zombie harvest. Its one thing to find some gore you can harvest (good find) vs endless zombie harvesting making nitrate and bones either obsolete or such a minute drop that its a chore to harvest.
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Thank you for replying so quickly :D

I get it.

About the last reply, I don't know if i'm the only one doing that again but it's my bad habit of hitting bodies from previous alphas, somehow a spring cleanup. :)

As the corpses disappear after few seconds i don't consider it an endless zombie harvesting but a kind of bonus. In retrospect, bones and nitrate can already be found in reasonable quantities. So you're totally right.

 
Thank you for replying so quickly :D
I get it.

About the last reply, I don't know if i'm the only one doing that again but it's my bad habit of hitting bodies from previous alphas, somehow a spring cleanup. :)

As the corpses disappear after few seconds i don't consider it an endless zombie harvesting but a kind of bonus. In retrospect, bones and nitrate can already be found in reasonable quantities. So you're totally right.
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People wouldn’t see it as a bonus. They would complain that the bodies disappear so quickly and demand a long enough timer so that all the bodies of killed zombies could be harvested.

 
People wouldn’t see it as a bonus. They would complain that the bodies disappear so quickly and demand a long enough timer so that all the bodies of killed zombies could be harvested.
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I would like if the corpse timer could be increased for higher end machines. I want to see lots of corpses after the BM night.

 
Thank you for replying so quickly :D
I get it.

About the last reply, I don't know if i'm the only one doing that again but it's my bad habit of hitting bodies from previous alphas, somehow a spring cleanup. :)

As the corpses disappear after few seconds i don't consider it an endless zombie harvesting but a kind of bonus. In retrospect, bones and nitrate can already be found in reasonable quantities. So you're totally right.
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As much we like to harvest stuff, I think it turned into an OCD bad game loop. What we have now is better, then OCD guys don't need to harvest all corpses now and finding bones is a bit more rewarding to get them from an animal kill.

 
I would like if the corpse timer could be increased for higher end machines. I want to see lots of corpses after the BM night.
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I believe they can on the options screen called entityclasses.xml

 
I would like if the corpse timer could be increased for higher end machines. I want to see lots of corpses after the BM night.
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A server object is a server object, so we can't discriminate, it goes away at the same time for everyone. If you play solo set it in xml to whatever you want.

 
A server object is a server object, so we can't discriminate, it goes away at the same time for everyone. If you play solo set it in xml to whatever you want.
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Maybe the default value could be increased a little bit? Or would that really hurt the performance?

Also Roland, you should really add Overhauled RWG to the OP, it's one of the main points of the upcoming Alpha and it's not even mentioned there.

(Also removed tallows and new first person animations)

 
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@Modmale

Any progress on bridges in RWG? This would be amazing if you could pull it off, no biggie though if there are more important things to do.

 
As much we like to harvest stuff, I think it turned into an OCD bad game loop. What we have now is better, then OCD guys don't need to harvest all corpses now and finding bones is a bit more rewarding to get them from an animal kill.
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I always play with the absolute best path I can think of to be the best character I can be always doubling POIS and going for the most resources and the most perks and the best defense with the best mobility etc.....

I was surprised when the no-loot zombies were shown back in early a17 ( I think I saw it for the first time in the video when MM got killed by a boar thinking it was a rock lul. ) I thought to miself: bones? what are we going to do without bones? And then I played it.

It was a humongous relief ( 1-2 days of a16 were spent on looting and repairing). Now in a17 we can spend the time just looting and eating cake while we repair (not usually as much repair if you do active defending at horde night and an ergonomic base) AND doing whatever we like not being forced to get all the zd corpses. It felt nice and cool. As will feel the new block shape system. LBD,Spam crafting and Zd corpses were, in my opinion, the BEST removals in this game hands down.

Now, I have doubts about brass with 5+ players..... and day length. Playing with 60 min days feels pushy now, imagine with a21 . When more content is in, a longer night with longer days by default would be awesome. I mean, you wouldn't want to be talking to a wasteland merchant on day 7 and be rekt while the poor merchant tells you about his kidnapped cannibal daughter right? Some tier 5 quests with full double exploring and wrenching take up to 5 days to do. Crazy, right?.

 
@Modmale
Any progress on bridges in RWG? This would be amazing if you could pull it off, no biggie though if there are more important things to do.
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I haven't seen any, and I think there would need to be some work to be shippable IMO. I'd rather we wait and get a basic stable RWG out then embellish it after all the bugs are fixed.

 
Hi Faatal. Loving your work so far and really enjoy reading about the updates you are doing (regardless of whether I understand them or not).
I just wanted to comment and ask: currently the 'grid' the zombies follow to get to you (using A* pathfinding, if I'm not mistaken?) is very obvious as quite often the zombies don't hone directly in on you, but in a path heading towards the side of you and then turn. The grid doesn't seem to change, either, as I've noticed most zombies doing the same thing. Am I right that it's simply orientated North/South?

The grid has to be drawn each time the pathfinding calculation starts, right? So is there any relatively simple way to rotate the grid so it is aligned parallel to you and the zombie? This should normally reduce the amount of squares within the calculation as well, so I'd think it would be more CPU efficient to do it this way.

And if multiple zombies, instead of calculating a grid for each of them, if there is a group of zombies they can follow the same grid or the grid align somewhere between them.

Better still, if the event is happening outside and the grid does a quick scan for objects, most of the time there would be only about 10 or so. So does the grid even need to be calculated in those situations? Just make a path either directly to you or, if the zombie does happen to be the other side of an object, the direct line can be one voxel to either side and then straight to you.

Sounds pretty cheap on calculations to me, but I'm definitely no expert.

Any merit to my train of thought?
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It is A* on a grid of linked nodes, but grids don't work how you think.

There is one grid for each player (grids will merge if players are close to each other) and extra temp grids in certain AI spawning cases. Grids are aligned to the blocks of the world, each grid node is 1x1m and does block testing to determine the block type and what blocks are around it, so it can't be rotated or it would not match the blocks. Once a grid is created, it does not change until the player moves about 10m or a block inside the grid changes, which causes an edge or partial update. Paths are then created from the grid the path in going through, so a thousand zombies could all make a path without the grid changing.

AI tend to follow the same path, because certain paths are generally going to be cheapest. The main variation is dumber AI will tend to not follow longer paths and just destroy blocks. There should be more tweaks to how it works later, but probably not A18.

 
People wouldn’t see it as a bonus. They would complain that the bodies disappear so quickly and demand a long enough timer so that all the bodies of killed zombies could be harvested.
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hmmmm... Indeed this is a new kind of problems.

As much we like to harvest stuff, I think it turned into an OCD bad game loop. What we have now is better, then OCD guys don't need to harvest all corpses now and finding bones is a bit more rewarding to get them from an animal kill.
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By harvesting and catching every loot that comes to us, we want more than we have. In the end we never use everything. We store again and again like squirrels. :)

 
I haven't seen any, and I think there would need to be some work to be shippable IMO. I'd rather we wait and get a basic stable RWG out then embellish it after all the bugs are fixed.
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Good plan :fat:

 
Maybe the default value could be increased a little bit? Or would that really hurt the performance?

Also Roland, you should really add Overhauled RWG to the OP, it's one of the main points of the upcoming Alpha and it's not even mentioned there.

(Also removed tallows and new first person animations)
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Updated the OP but you should know that the OP is not the patch notes. Every little change like removal of tallow doesn't need to be mentioned. The full patch notes will be released a day or two before experimental if the pattern continues and people can read the minutia of this or that which were added or removed.

Plus things are in flux. TFP removed something that I'm hoping they return-- and they might. So, there's no mention of that thing's removal and there may never need to be.

 
Faatal:
****I have an idea spawned from the front page.

For the aggressive animals, if crouch is added to

their eai task they could take a stalking posture

which also affects their game stealth.

****Since they have a chance to run away, can a distanced

arc path be added for them, to try to get behind you.

While firing at them if slightly hurt and they dont

run away can a path be added to avoid scope before attack.

Sort of like the avoid mouse focus on some websites for

sprites.
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Animals crouching would require adding animations and code to play it, while not really changing game play, since I can still see it.

A hurt animal is trying to get away, not get behind you, and if it did, you would just turn your head/body to track it. I find scope avoidance to be pretty cheesy. A human might jump around if he saw me aiming at them, but animals? My cat would stare right down the gun barrel without a clue.

 
like removal of tallow
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OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU!!!


A 17 WAS WAY BETTER!!!

 


BRING BACK TALLOW OR WE RIOT!!!


WHY DO TFPs ONLY REMOVE FUN!!!


THIS IS WHY I HATE THIS GAME!!!

and yes. Making fun of onesself is a very important lesson that needs to be learned early :D

 
Thanks, yes there were too many difficult learn by doing "chore" activities we didn't want to force on people and difficulty balancing them. XP is a tried and true way to level going way back to D&D, the first RPG I played.
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Yeah, only recently started learning D&D in the past year (first 3.5 and lately learning 5). Getting to choose what to do with the levels is far better, even more so with multiclassing. Imagine if you could only learn to cast Fireball if you had to spend all your early sessions wasting all your magic uses casting some lame flame cantrip over and over? haha.

 
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