PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[beerfly]

:/

I guess The Duke will take care of us then

 

[Crater Creator]

Well it's not like the skill tree is a moving unit so if you have any planification going on you really don't need any spare points "in case of". At least not a dozen of them that's for sure.

I must disagree. Strategically, I think it’s very beneficial to keep points in reserve and spend them just when you know you’re going to get good use out of them. For instance, there’s no benefit to lowering the buried treasure radius before you’re even on a treasure quest. Though they do seem to be iterating on perks, so that more of them are useful all the time.

 

[Adilaris]

Agreed. I thought with the last graphics overhaul, they would have included characters. At this point the characters aren't doing the rest of the game aesthetic justice.

Aesthetic justice is a great term, haha.

 

[Crater Creator]

There are all these different archtypes now so its not about using what you find, its about finding what you want to use, so everything now drops equally. And if you don't like it, scrap it to parts and sell it or save your parts up for a good weapon. A brown weapon T2 weapon only sells for about 40 dukes if its in pristine condition, so I don't really see the issue with finding lots of guns. Its America, most people have at least 10 guns.

Just remember, using what you find is a cornerstone of survival. Too much choice and excess are luxuries which work against survival.

I mean, I know we all want choices. But RNG should still be a factor, making some choices easier and some choices harder in a given game. If the player doesn’t have to take what they can get - if they can dismiss low-hanging fruit, at least in the early game - it’s not a survival game anymore.

 

[Dreyseth]

Just remember, using what you find is a cornerstone of survival. Too much choice and excess are luxuries which work against survival.
I mean, I know we all want choices. But RNG should still be a factor, making some choices easier and some choices harder in a given game. If the player doesn’t have to take what they can get - if they can dismiss low-hanging fruit, at least in the early game - it’s not a survival game anymore.

Exactly this.

 

[DaVegaNL]

I hear this on a regular basis but thanks.

Made me lol!

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*Pours acid on his eyes*

If you can spare some of that acid, I could more accurately determine the rock type.

- - - Updated - - -

Looks cool, but seems too big, like game-changing big.

Yeah I know.. it's tough to find underwear which fits.

 

[vedrit]

Bad idea, everyone knows that there are nazi zombies on the dark side of the moon.

7DTD expansion: 7 Lunar Cycles to Die?

 

[Roland]

Just remember, using what you find is a cornerstone of survival. Too much choice and excess are luxuries which work against survival.
I mean, I know we all want choices. But RNG should still be a factor, making some choices easier and some choices harder in a given game. If the player doesn’t have to take what they can get - if they can dismiss low-hanging fruit, at least in the early game - it’s not a survival game anymore.

I think the current design for A18 supports that. Anything that isn’t a weapon type you have perked into is garbage. Anything you scrap that is not what you are looking for to match your chosen perk tree will scrap into specific parts that won’t help you. Selling that stuff to the trader gets you some coin but not very much.

So you will be getting lots of weapons but most of it won’t be relevant to what you want. You can certainly use it but only at its most basic stats which are randomly generated for every weapon.

Case in point: In my most recent restart I found the baseball bat schematic on day one so that clinched me going with a strength build specializing in clubs. The baseball bat is an awesome weapon so of course I wanted to get one crafted but the recipe is insane and only can be done using baseball bat parts.

Just like everyone has noticed, I found lots of weapons in the next couple of days but none of them could be broken down into baseball bat parts so —not useless exactly but not helpful towards getting what I really wanted.

There is a real psychological bond that you form with the weapons you’ve perked into but don’t have yet. Nothing else is good enough so it creates a type of scarcity amidst the abundance. Yes, you’re finding lots of weapons but you still feel like going out and searching for the right ones for you and there are so many that it makes the specific type you’re looking for more rare.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

I think the current design for A18 supports that. Anything that isn’t a weapon type you have perked into is garbage.

And here we see the fundamental flaw. Certain weapons should be more powerful!

If I am a bowguy, a t6 shotgun should still be a find I am happy about.

Yes you can say that this is replaced with weapons of your choosing beeing the "awesome find".

But then it looses its bond to reality.

If there was a zombie apocalypse (like the one in 7d2d with stronger and weaker z's) out there, I would be MUCH happier about a shotgun or AK than about a pistol.

I actually am having trouble explaining this... because it makes sense on first glance, but it removes something that I actually can't describe...

Hey RestInPieces would you be so glad?

Obviously... only if you see my problem...

but you've been far FAR better with words So you may be able to describe why putting every level on an equal playingfield is a bad thing for a survival game.

I mean, I know we all want choices. But RNG should still be a factor, making some choices easier and some choices harder in a given game. If the player doesn’t have to take what they can get - if they can dismiss low-hanging fruit, at least in the early game - it’s not a survival game anymore.

this describes it pretty well already... but it doesnt explain why "all weapons are garbage until you specc into it" is a bad designchoice.

Or am I just wrong in this?

 

[Haidrgna]

I think the current design for A18 supports that. Anything that isn’t a weapon type you have perked into is garbage. Anything you scrap that is not what you are looking for to match your chosen perk tree will scrap into specific parts that won’t help you. Selling that stuff to the trader gets you some coin but not very much.
So you will be getting lots of weapons but most of it won’t be relevant to what you want. You can certainly use it but only at its most basic stats which are randomly generated for every weapon.

Case in point: In my most recent restart I found the baseball bat schematic on day one so that clinched me going with a strength build specializing in clubs. The baseball bat is an awesome weapon so of course I wanted to get one crafted but the recipe is insane and only can be done using baseball bat parts.

Just like everyone has noticed, I found lots of weapons in the next couple of days but none of them could be broken down into baseball bat parts so —not useless exactly but not helpful towards getting what I really wanted.

There is a real psychological bond that you form with the weapons you’ve perked into but don’t have yet. Nothing else is good enough so it creates a type of scarcity amidst the abundance. Yes, you’re finding lots of weapons but you still feel like going out and searching for the right ones for you and there are so many that it makes the specific type you’re looking for more rare.

Baseball bat parts.. for real???

How does that even work, are they not supposed to be made from one piece of wood or aluminium?

 

[Roland]

I probably should have been more clear. All brown quality weapons you find will be garbage. If you get lucky and find a blue or purple of something you didn’t perk into of course that will be still be awesome but those are very rare finds until your gamestage makes them a bit less rare.

If you find some mods to increase the stats of a weapon that is outside your skill set it won’t be garbage either.

My point is that even though there are lots of weapons, there is such a large variety now and you will likely only be developing skills in one or two that it will still feel like weapon scarcity.

 

[Tin]

Baseballbat parts.. for real???

Yeah, I hope that it isn't like I am thinking it is. I don't want to collect baseball bat...parts!?!? in order to initially use it.

I am hoping it's more along the lines of mod attachments..

Like a Weighted 'knob' mod, to make it swing faster.

or spike attachments for the barrel, for extra damage and increased bleeding effect.

or grip tape. Stuff like that..

 

[Haidrgna]

Yeah, I hope that it isn't like I am thinking it is. I don't want to collect baseball bat...parts!?!? in order to initially use it.I am hoping it's more along the lines of mod attachments..

Like a Weighted 'knob' mod, to make it swing faster.

or spike attachments for the barrel, for extra damage and increased bleeding effect.

or grip tape. Stuff like that..

He said recipe, that does not sound like attachments or mods at all...

 

[Tin]

He said recipe, that does not sound like attachments or mods at all...

I am still holding out and hoping ray:

 

[Callum123456789]

honestly I like having many...MANY weapons in a game because it gives a chance to find so many things some may be unwanted some wanted but it drives you deeper to find that special something that you have been searching for and really gives a big feel of accomplishment

 

[Alpacko]

Any thoughts yet on adding simple enemy nest spawns in a future build?
This could add some interesting dynamics and challenge to random areas like the possibility of a dog pack that runs in a city, or a bear that has a territory in the woods.

I'm imagining an invisible helper block that acts somewhat like a spawnpoint for sleepers over an area, keeping track of NumberOfMembers and is destroyed when the member count is reduced to zero.

In the case of a bear nest in the woods, it would simulate a bear patrolling its territory. Until you kill the bear, there will always be an increased chance of a bear being somewhere in that vacinity.

In the case of a dog nest in a city, if you run away without killing the entire pack, you will still need to deal with remainders when you come back. The helper block could also replenish the pack by 1 more member every game day up to a max member count so hunting down every last one of them would be beneficial if you want to safely extract resource from that area.

Would work much the same as spawns in a POI, but out in the world, covering a larger area.

Sort of puts the possibility of "Boss Battle" confrontation outside of POIs and into parts of the map; to be conquered or otherwise avoided until you are stronger.

would make the world feel more persistent and "natural" - and less trivial, gta-random style.

 

[JaxTeller718]

He said recipe, that does not sound like attachments or mods at all...

"Hey guys we are removing gun parts because they are kind of useless and bad design"

"Hey guys we are adding baseball bat parts to make things more interesting"

 

[Callum123456789]

speaking of the troll face how did someone come up with trolland?

 

[Viktoriusiii]

speaking of the troll face how did someone come up with trolland?

I mean... when his mommy trolland and daddy trolland really really wished hard... then came the bees and the fl-...

 

[Callum123456789]

I have reached 500 hours on pc! also I have 1k hours on console so thank you so much pimps for all the great content and I must applaud you for not giving up on the game after 6 years the team has grown and put in so much hard work!