PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

It's not weird.
They removed "mix and match various different parts with different qualities to get the optimum gun" because it was unnecessary micromanagement.

They've introduced "making a top tier weapon needs a single special ingredient that you need to find/buy/craft" to make you work for them.

The two systems are completely different in scope and complexity.

Yes but the thing is the crafting isn't end game, the random stats of found/bought items are better or worse. So to get the best item you have to loot it 50 times and looting a pink isn't easy. Crafting is more of a fall back in case the random luck is bad you can at least enjoy your character archtype and progress how you choose. Finding a Q6 T3 weapon though can be pretty hard.

 

[madmole]

I have a friend who likes to amplify any numbers to make a point. A movie with 30 people dying in gun fights would be described as "Hundreds of people get shot". Madmole is the same, his "12 levels" are a synomym for "too many levels". You are reading this forum long enough, you should know his style by now.

You are correct. That is the high end of the spectrum I've seen. On average though leveling 5x a day is too much. There needs to be loot to support the perks you have, and eventually the radiated ferals are coming, so you need time to have adequate gear and a fort to deal with that. So leveling had to be slowed. Its more than that though, its everything working together. Loot, game stage, leveling, enemy progression finally feels to be working in harmony. At least up until level 25 or so.

 

[beerfly]

Yes but the thing is the crafting isn't end game, the random stats of found/bought items are better or worse. So to get the best item you have to loot it 50 times and looting a pink isn't easy. Crafting is more of a fall back in case the random luck is bad you can at least enjoy your character archtype and progress how you choose. Finding a Q6 T3 weapon though can be pretty hard.

I love how this sounds, can`t lie.

 

[madmole]

just off the top of my head:-different stats/effects for each part (barrel accuracy, magazine size, parts might force a reload because a bullet is stuck and so on)

-combining different weapon warts for different weapons

-1-600 quality meant more gradual effects

-better balance of loot (since you had to find multiple things and had to replace the bad ones) making exploration more rewarding

you can make more mods... sure. and the effects are neat. But in my short time in A17 I was never "OH YEAH NICE FINALLY A SHORT STOCK! It has lower range and nearly no benefits" and this for basicially every weaponmod. In A16 each weaponpart was exciting. And if you made them scrappable to mechanical parts like how guns are in A17, this would have INSTANTLY fixed all the "micromanage" problems.

Dude you are just arguing to argue, and have not given the new system a chance because in your mind you are married to the old klunky one. The new system supports nearly all of that without the clunky repair and assembly and inventory headaches. Every weapon has random stats except crafted ones, they are middle of the road.

1-600 was just a large number that scaled to the same thing we have now with a 1-6. They have a seed and range of stats within a range.

Each WEAPON find is now exciting, for the same reason each weapon part might have been, again without the klunk of assembly and micro maintenance and inventory clutter.

A16 parts were in no way exciting other than the potentially assembled weapon which we now have. They don't even begin to compare with the excitement a mod can give. Mods will be getting overhauled in A19. Possibly random stats on them, or legendary mods and weapons. What we have now is awesome, and its still not the full deal.

 

[MajorMunchy]

Yes but the thing is the crafting isn't end game, the random stats of found/bought items are better or worse. So to get the best item you have to loot it 50 times and looting a pink isn't easy. Crafting is more of a fall back in case the random luck is bad you can at least enjoy your character archtype and progress how you choose. Finding a Q6 T3 weapon though can be pretty hard.

I remember A16 gun crafting...will it be similar? Like lets say its 4 parts. are they interchangeable so that i can upgrade one gun on the go to increase lvl for more mods/damage? or will it be you use 4* parts being all different levels and then it takes the average level of them (say 2 3's and 2'5 so it would craft a 4)? or how is it going to work? I just remember putting a 600ish engine in my mini bike in A16 and going at the speed of god LOL

 

[madmole]

joel how does it feel starting out from alpha 1 coming very far to a18? I imagine you must be impressed as most of us are

It feels amazing. What is more impressive is how we've refined 17 into something cohesive and balanced. A17 had a lot of great framework, new AI, vehicles and weapon mods, (in theory very cool stuff) but as a whole it didn't work so good. Now with a lot of refinement, some new content it really plays great. Its like 13 to 14. 13 had so many changes it was a bit of a mess (new harvest system and grid crafting removed), but in 14 we fixed all the bugs and balanced it much better, so its like that again, but on a huge scale of traders, economy, vehicles, attributes, perks, weapons, class balance, etc.

 

[SnowDog1942]

Dude you are just arguing to argue, and have not given the new system a chance because in your mind you are married to the old klunky one. The new system supports nearly all of that without the clunky repair and assembly and inventory headaches. Every weapon has random stats except crafted ones, they are middle of the road.
1-600 was just a large number that scaled to the same thing we have now with a 1-6. They have a seed and range of stats within a range.

Each WEAPON find is now exciting, for the same reason each weapon part might have been, again without the klunk of assembly and micro maintenance and inventory clutter.

A16 parts were in no way exciting other than the potentially assembled weapon which we now have. They don't even begin to compare with the excitement a mod can give. Mods will be getting overhauled in A19. Possibly random stats on them, or legendary mods and weapons. What we have now is awesome, and its still not the full deal.

Ramdom stats on mods? I like the sound of that but how would that work for like a 8x scope?

 

[madmole]

A few random things (I would put them as separate posts, but the forum would just join them up anyway):
I REALLY want dead is dead as a server option (and some version of it for multiplayer servers). Nonetheless, if you want to reward people surviving and not dying, then you should REWARD them with a buff. Call it Morale or something. You lose it when you die. The whole "death penalty" thing is people trying to reinvent the resting penalty "problem" Blizzard solved by making it a buff. There is a reason death penalties are almost unheard of anymore, most people hate them, unlike most of us masochists here.

It's also obvious that survivors are just zombies that get better, it really explains everything about how death works in the game, from why you start the game with next to nothing and why (depending on settings) when you die, some of your gear is where you "died."

I'm all for nerfing gas, but it would be interesting if we got these as an option (for slower versions of vehicles for game balance reasons):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator

I'm pretty sure they have been mentioned before, it's exactly the kind of tech you would see post-apocalypse.

Please bring back permanent repair damage, it's yet another reason to keep looting. Maybe not for legendary items.

And lastly:

Thank you TFP for putting so much in the XMLs where we can mod it. There are plenty of things I have quibbles with and the ability to go in and un-quibble it is incredible. I would like it to be easier to remove Traders and not have Quests so prevalent, but I'm willing to do the extra work for my odd play preferences.

Perma degradation doesn't really seem needed yet, as you throw out a weapon semi frequently, and since they have unique stats it would be a pity to lose "old faithful" when you finally find her. With random stats and millions of permutations out there, there is no need for it IMO.

 

[madmole]

This thing with bat parts is much better, indeed. We already have wooden club if someone like wacking around with a "one part wooden weapon"

Yes with the new parts system, nobody will lose their gear and be replacing it with crude materials like nothing happened. PVP should profit from this, as not all weapons are equals, the guys yellow smg might actually be better than your pink one. Rare, but possible. I finally discarded my rare brown pistol that had great stats for a green one. I must have found 6 other pistols that weren't as good until the green one spawned.

 

[Dimpy]

Ramdom stats on mods? I like the sound of that but how would that work for like a 8x scope?

The weapon handling statistics could be varied.

 

[madmole]

gun parts are back ok that may be good not gunna lie also I think its a good move because in the a17 you can just find about 3 guns in a shotgun messiah crate like you can also find endgmae guns in about 2 hours of starting the game so maybe find gun parts and guns will probably slow your progression through guns and it will also enable you to slowly build up a high lvl gun and also can you build the gun parts just wondering?

Your rank at that gun (perk) dictates the quality you can craft. You cannot craft gun parts, you find them in loot but more often find full guns you scrap for more parts. It takes 5 parts to craft a brown, 25 to craft a blue. All scrap to 3 parts.

 

[meganoth]

Yes with the new parts system, nobody will lose their gear and be replacing it with crude materials like nothing happened. PVP should profit from this, as not all weapons are equals, the guys yellow smg might actually be better than your pink one. Rare, but possible. I finally discarded my rare brown pistol that had great stats for a green one. I must have found 6 other pistols that weren't as good until the green one spawned.

How easy is it to compare gun stats?

 

[madmole]

I remember A16 gun crafting...will it be similar? Like lets say its 4 parts. are they interchangeable so that i can upgrade one gun on the go to increase lvl for more mods/damage? or will it be you use 4* parts being all different levels and then it takes the average level of them (say 2 3's and 2'5 so it would craft a 4)? or how is it going to work? I just remember putting a 600ish engine in my mini bike in A16 and going at the speed of god LOL

No. Once a gun is crafted thats it. It is crafted from 5-25 parts, plus the other ingredients. Vehicle mods will come in A19.

 

[MajorMunchy]

Your rank at that gun (perk) dictates the quality you can craft. You cannot craft gun parts, you find them in loot but more often find full guns you scrap for more parts. It takes 5 parts to craft a brown, 25 to craft a blue. All scrap to 3 parts.

I believe that is my answer! so its like mechanical parts, just "gun parts"

 

[madmole]

Ramdom stats on mods? I like the sound of that but how would that work for like a 8x scope?

On mods that seem to support a range we can tinker with. Was just an idea, haven't even talked to the team about it, but in general we love procedural content so I can't see anyone arguing against it for stuff that has a range of stats anyway.

 

[DaVegaNL]

Show us a photo of how it should be, geologist.

Dude, you don't go about and just ask a geologist to show pics.. You have to take them at least out to dinner first!

Or the one I'm more directly involved with in my line of work on the North Sea:

 

[sillls]

Your rank at that gun (perk) dictates the quality you can craft. You cannot craft gun parts, you find them in loot but more often find full guns you scrap for more parts. It takes 5 parts to craft a brown, 25 to craft a blue. All scrap to 3 parts.

Why would it take more parts to craft the same weapon?

Some parts may be better than others but it's the same weapon.

 

[meganoth]

But in my short time in A17 I was never "OH YEAH NICE FINALLY A SHORT STOCK! It has lower range and nearly no benefits" and this for basicially every weaponmod. In A16 each weaponpart was exciting.

Silencer, magazine, rad remover, scope. Each one a reason to throw a party (in my case).

 

[beerfly]

Yes with the new parts system, nobody will lose their gear and be replacing it with crude materials like nothing happened. PVP should profit from this, as not all weapons are equals, the guys yellow smg might actually be better than your pink one. Rare, but possible. I finally discarded my rare brown pistol that had great stats for a green one. I must have found 6 other pistols that weren't as good until the green one spawned.

Awesome. You guys have to try share a few more gameplay stories, @Roland, you too.

I know you will show us some videos eventually, but just speaking how the new systems and ingame experience works, is really good hype.

And, of course , if you have free time to do that.

 

[Aurelius]

No. Once a gun is crafted thats it. It is crafted from 5-25 parts, plus the other ingredients. Vehicle mods will come in A19.

I know you're busy play testing, but maybe you could make a 5 minute video showing just how the gun/weapon parts system is currently working and explain a bit on where you see it going?

I like what you are describing, but I'd like to see an example of it in action - besides, it's been awhile since I've heard that manual typewriter keyboard of yours ;D

-A