PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Demonoid74]

Just have zombies drop sharpened sticks , rocks and turds for loot...which do not do anything at all anymore , but there they are , for the people that miss them...kill 2 birds with one stone

 

[Laz Man]

My issue is 30 zombies from outside come in every time I do a POI. This is a result of me playing solo and the random horde comes for me or near a player (its just me) and they hear me killing stuff and come investigate. At a minimum 5+ guys seem to come from outside and afar when I'm doing a POI. If that didn't happen, I'd love to see lots more zombies outside in cities but when your doing a Tier 3+ and get sandwiched its not cool.

I havent played in a while but when A17 dropped the wandering hordes at night would come running inside to the exact spot they heard the noise. This was literally instant death for me because I was in a basement of some dungeon poi. It forced me to set running zombies to only horde night as a crutch until I get gud lol...

 

[Callum123456789]

joel do you play 7dtd on default? I play it on insane full hardness and I also play 7dtd like horde every night and also 26 hours in and no game breaking bugs in a18 that sounds promising sounds like a18 is coming along pretty well

 

[Roland]

I'm aware that it's possible to manage this stuff without the info being present on the HUD, I just don't think the extremely minor gain in decluttering the HUD is worth the loss of information availability and the extra steps of pressing a button and clicking a tab before you can check hunger/thirst/temperature. It's alright, I'll live, this mod is working just fine. Thanks for the help, though!

Thanks for the feedback as well

 

[Mechanimal]

Not trying to hype here at all. My son is a big Rust, Ark, Day Z fan. He's played 7 days in the past but usually cheated stuff in and never took it too serious and doesn't have a ton of hours in it. I gave him access to A18 and he played a good 8 hour stretch and loves it! He liked doing quests and loved random stats and all the loot, and specializing. He built a big fort even though I told him not to and that its better to wait until you get better tools. He did 5 quests in a day, I was impressed, but the dig quests are easy, only 300 meters away at tier 1. I think the improved animations made combat feel better to him, he plays fortnite a lot, so having better firearm mechanics and animations is important to him.
Anyhow I thought it was great he liked it a lot and I could tell he was totally immersed because he kept wanting to show me his base and gear he found. He didn't really get into A17. Drove the new vehicles (cheated them in) but didn't really get sucked into it. So this is awesome.

You can't always put your finger on what is wrong or off on something. But playing it a LOT myself revealed what it needed bit by bit. Its been a mountain of work for me personally but I know it will pay off. I'm super proud of A18 and I can't wait to get it out.

This. I used to play games with my son all the time, he's the one who got me into Minecraft when he was 8, we had so much fun. Then he got into Roblox, eh, it had it's pros and cons, but some of those got him into shooters, and naturally he moved on into a ton of those. He got me into R6 Siege, which is the first FPS game I have gotten into since I burnt out on most of those in the 90's, Doom, Quake, Halflife, etc. But we kind of split as he got into CS:GO, COD, PUBG, etc. But he got really good, he single-handedly took out Dr. Disrespect and his squad in a PUBG game when he was 11(he's about to turn 13 and still won't shut up about it, ha). He often tops the list in his matches. He won't touch Fortnite, too cartoony he says, he's all into the more serious stuff(though recently got back into the new MC a bit, me too.

Anyway, I did finally get him to play 7DTD with me when A17 dropped, we did have fun, he dug it, but only a few sessions, then he went back. I talk to him all the time about this game, and how awesome it is to follow the dev here on the forums, he really digs what I tell him, but still plays the others. He was impressed by the mods in A17, and is curious about all the new weapons in A18. But your story gives me hope that he'll be more into A18 than he was A17, I really miss playing with him, so this was super great to hear, and gives me hope I can get him into A18. Thank you MM.

 

[Callum123456789]

Not trying to hype here at all. My son is a big Rust, Ark, Day Z fan. He's played 7 days in the past but usually cheated stuff in and never took it too serious and doesn't have a ton of hours in it. I gave him access to A18 and he played a good 8 hour stretch and loves it! He liked doing quests and loved random stats and all the loot, and specializing. He built a big fort even though I told him not to and that its better to wait until you get better tools. He did 5 quests in a day, I was impressed, but the dig quests are easy, only 300 meters away at tier 1. I think the improved animations made combat feel better to him, he plays fortnite a lot, so having better firearm mechanics and animations is important to him.
Anyhow I thought it was great he liked it a lot and I could tell he was totally immersed because he kept wanting to show me his base and gear he found. He didn't really get into A17. Drove the new vehicles (cheated them in) but didn't really get sucked into it. So this is awesome.

You can't always put your finger on what is wrong or off on something. But playing it a LOT myself revealed what it needed bit by bit. Its been a mountain of work for me personally but I know it will pay off. I'm super proud of A18 and I can't wait to get it out.

this is great news joel this proves that a18 is the big deal

 

[Callum123456789]

just a side note will the 4x4 truck still have a large amount of storage? because I like going out on long adventures and massive looting runs

 

[Zaroff]

Not trying to hype here at all. My son is a big Rust, Ark, Day Z fan. He's played 7 days in the past but usually cheated stuff in and never took it too serious and doesn't have a ton of hours in it. I gave him access to A18 and he played a good 8 hour stretch and loves it! He liked doing quests and loved random stats and all the loot, and specializing. He built a big fort even though I told him not to and that its better to wait until you get better tools. He did 5 quests in a day, I was impressed, but the dig quests are easy, only 300 meters away at tier 1. I think the improved animations made combat feel better to him, he plays fortnite a lot, so having better firearm mechanics and animations is important to him.
Anyhow I thought it was great he liked it a lot and I could tell he was totally immersed because he kept wanting to show me his base and gear he found. He didn't really get into A17. Drove the new vehicles (cheated them in) but didn't really get sucked into it. So this is awesome.

You can't always put your finger on what is wrong or off on something. But playing it a LOT myself revealed what it needed bit by bit. Its been a mountain of work for me personally but I know it will pay off. I'm super proud of A18 and I can't wait to get it out.

So when is it getting out? I remember a post where you were saying testing would be starting in June and experimental would be out to us by the end of July? Can you please give us some sort of realistic time table? I'm not asking for a date but like a week of a month would be nice so we can all get hyped! Thank you either way and keep up the great work!

 

[RestInPieces]

Really? It made cities dangerous. Now they're just... Loot boxes closer together.Honestly surprised you don't feel the same.

I'd like to see the return of more wandering Z's in the biomes, and in the city POIs, plus the threat of a better targetted wandering horde... I rarely encounter those threats anymore.

its annoying as hell worrying about getting sandwiched.

My issue is 30 zombies from outside come in every time I do a POI.[...] and get sandwiched its not cool.

What part of it is annoying? The part where it breaks the enter-kill-loot-repeat monotony?

 

[archergod]

I am really interested in seeing how new Melee changes looks in video. It seems very interesting, as currently in a17, I really don't like it, due to those obvious misses which is said to be fixed in a18 now.

- - - Updated - - -

Not trying to hype here at all. My son is a big Rust, Ark, Day Z fan. He's played 7 days in the past but usually cheated stuff in and never took it too serious and doesn't have a ton of hours in it. I gave him access to A18 and he played a good 8 hour stretch and loves it! He liked doing quests and loved random stats and all the loot, and specializing. He built a big fort even though I told him not to and that its better to wait until you get better tools. He did 5 quests in a day, I was impressed, but the dig quests are easy, only 300 meters away at tier 1. I think the improved animations made combat feel better to him, he plays fortnite a lot, so having better firearm mechanics and animations is important to him.
Anyhow I thought it was great he liked it a lot and I could tell he was totally immersed because he kept wanting to show me his base and gear he found. He didn't really get into A17. Drove the new vehicles (cheated them in) but didn't really get sucked into it. So this is awesome.

You can't always put your finger on what is wrong or off on something. But playing it a LOT myself revealed what it needed bit by bit. Its been a mountain of work for me personally but I know it will pay off. I'm super proud of A18 and I can't wait to get it out.

Though you said you don't want to hype, you still did that perfectly for me.. Congrats as it is special feeling for dad if his son like his work.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

Thanks for the response madmole, im glad the wrenches are going to get some love of a next tier tool, for an idea for a legendary tool i had a thought, what if you made a large wrench, swung and held like the sledgehammer, but can also rip apart stuff like the normal wrench, you could call it the handymans disembowler lol, im horrible at names, and the hype for the game is high for me, i cant wait, everything i hear is making it sound more and more like im going to be into it way to much.

 

[TSRViper]

Hey MM, any chance of an electric forge in future alphas?

Maybe make it a requirement for steel forging?

 

[Callum123456789]

Couldn't agree more.A17 had an enormous degree of change, and simply needed a bit more work to make those changes great.

It changed from being a game where you had to be petrified of the night to a game where the night was of little consequence to your survival. I've even survived a horde night outdoors, with an injured leg, without any real stress (admittedly, I'd dropped some Z speeds for my Dead is Dead playstyle).

Whether they wish to regain the terror of night, or keep the benefit of 24 hour combat play remains to be seen.

I like no longer having to be holed up for the duration of the night (lets face it, if you don't have to do a ton of crafting the nights in a base can get pretty dull).

I'd like to see the return of more wandering Z's in the biomes, and in the city POIs, plus the threat of a better targetted wandering horde... I rarely encounter those threats anymore.

A few more tier 5 quests would be good too, coz currently once you're fit for 5 it can get very repetitive very quickly.

that's strange I get wondering hordes maybe its because I haven't died in like 10hr im not sure

 

[Roland]

Really? It made cities dangerous. Now they're just... Loot boxes closer together.Honestly surprised you don't feel the same.

I'd like to see the return of more wandering Z's in the biomes, and in the city POIs, plus the threat of a better targetted wandering horde... I rarely encounter those threats anymore.

its annoying as hell worrying about getting sandwiched.

My issue is 30 zombies from outside come in every time I do a POI.[...] and get sandwiched its not cool.

What part of it is annoying? The part where it breaks the enter-kill-loot-repeat monotony?

For A17 we got new options that were awesome for customizing the game. It would be cool to get a 2x 3x 4x 5x multiplier option for biome spawning zombies for day and night. Then people could choose how much sandwiching they could take and/or their rig could handle.

I played A17 with 4x biome spawns and it was pretty crazy and you did really notice that all surrounding zombies home in on you as soon as you enter a POI.

 

[Dreyseth]

Why would we remove something I put my soul into? The books are awesome, and here to stay.

Necronomicon confirmed! The Book of the Dead A18!

 

[Callum123456789]

lol:smile-new:

 

[Aldranon]

Really? It made cities dangerous. Now they're just... Loot boxes closer together.
Honestly surprised you don't feel the same.

I thought MM would like that, he probably worries about lag. (Dump Unity?)

Personally, I'm hoping for up to 100 active "non-player" entities visible at one time (slider for potatoes and difficulty).

You could then have some serious late game POI's.

An example have a key POI (nuclear power plant) surrounded by 100's of radiated zombies inside and out (can only wear a full rad suit or die).

Step 2 two after clearing is to fix the radiation leaks then try to figure out how to get it going without an explosive meltdown. Then players can power anything from a standing telephone poll (or something like that).

Players could chose not to fix the power plant and radiated zombie will continue to spawn making building a lasting settlement almost impossible.

Not quite an end game, but it would change the game to more of a city builder (think Banished but first person). Would still have non-radiated zeds of course.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

I like Rolands idea, where you could select a multiplier for the amount of zombies to spawn in at a time, would definitly make it more deadly and give the hardcore players something to think about for upping difficulty when things get too easy, I do wonder about another thing....

Hey Madmole, I know you guys are working on mods for vehicles and everything, but are the turrets going to get mods as well by chance?

another random thought of mine lol.

 

[DaVegaNL]

I thought that you said that you were tamed.

I'm a free spirit in a tamed body.

 

[The Gronk]

My issue is 30 zombies from outside come in every time I do a POI. This is a result of me playing solo and the random horde comes for me or near a player (its just me) and they hear me killing stuff and come investigate. At a minimum 5+ guys seem to come from outside and afar when I'm doing a POI. If that didn't happen, I'd love to see lots more zombies outside in cities but when your doing a Tier 3+ and get sandwiched its not cool.

I quite liked that, it seemed natural. If you can be surprised by half a dozen zombies in broad daylight it's not the mechanics that need to be improved but your situational awareness. Wasn't there extra random variance in horde pathing added recently which would have negated this to a large extent?

This has also led to some very fun moments where I'd be trying to stealth through a POI and suddenly see a crowd behind me. Stealth then goes out of the window shorty before I do.