PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Lonestarcanuck]

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.

When A18 drops you need to get some well known streamers to showcase the game - that is from my 3 boys who rambled off a list of streamers that I never heard of but apparently are well known in the gaming world.

 

[Roland]

But it wouldn't work because cities don't have their own biomes, so Tin does.

In my mind cities should always be wasteland biome so I win...in my mind.

 

[lumpoycustards]

Thats another thing, gyro copters. like i cant make a decent garage for it.Can we get like a 3x3 "vault" door for those things?

Imagine if we also had a remote control to turn on the landing lights and open the door

 

[madmole]

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

LOL.

 

[Roland]

When A18 drops you need to get some well known streamers to showcase the game - that is from my 3 boys who rambled off a list of streamers that I never heard of but apparently are well known in the gaming world.

or perhaps a few days beforehand....

 

[madmole]

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...

Its more lenient now. They don't beeline towards the only player on the server any more.

 

[madmole]

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

I play default with 16 alive on horde night and only air drops once a week but markers on for air drops.

 

[madmole]

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.

Yes I think 17 was a nice list of bullet point features but lacked in depth looting and balance and ability to really be who you want to be, level gates were a bad way to slow progression, actually slower leveling with no level gates does it much better. I don't have any spare points sitting around too often now and that feeling of can't wait to get this/that is strong again. Desire to loot is never ending now. I'm probably 28 hours into my new game now and only have two tier 3 items, the rest is tier 2 and most are yellow quality on average.

I did find a badass AK that does 70 base damage with 3 mods installed.

 

[madmole]

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

Of course! I can't wait to get one. I found the accessories in loot last night at a gearz poi, was amazing.

 

[Callum123456789]

question will we se more water in rwg worlds alpha 17 was lacking water

 

[madmole]

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!

We are at content lock tomorrow.

 

[madmole]

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

When I clear the damn city block, go in, then 10 guys are busting in from outside after I stirred the hornets nest.

 

[MajorMunchy]

We are at content lock tomorrow.

im stupid, what's content lock? q.q

 

[madmole]

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 - - -

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.

I think the magic sauce for everyone is different, but I think the builder blocks and less grindy start and random stats on loot, and probably more immersive FPS anims were what he liked. He likes specializing too and doing quests.

 

[madmole]

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.

I think its best to have some separation between weapons and tools, so preparation is a thing. I forgot my wrench because I put all my tools away during horde night and when I didn't have it there was a consequence. But yes maybe a cordless impact wrench would be awesome for salvaging.

 

[madmole]

Hey MM, any chance of an electric forge in future alphas?
Maybe make it a requirement for steel forging?

I always wanted an industrial forge with more slots for smelting etc and a fast rate. Mods have sort of filled that void, but we're still confined to two smelt slots. We'll see.

 

[madmole]

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.

And empty POIs because the world has used up all the alive zombie slots.

 

[madmole]

Necronomicon confirmed! The Book of the Dead A18!

There is an evil dead inspired cabin now. It might be trivial to find a book that summons a horde when you open it lol.

 

[madmole]

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.

No plans for electric turret mods, but the junk turrets, yes.

 

[madmole]

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.

Yes as I explained I clear the whole block and still get some jerks outside. If I'm trying to stealth through a POI their incessant pounding ruins the stealth play. They should F off after a bit if I'm crouched hidden for a while, or I cleared the surrounding area before I go in. Sound occlusion should help.