PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

That made me think of something. This is in the category "fluff", but I think it is worth putting out there:
With the idea of waking up 'healed', but with some amnesia makes me think that, if you don't have a bedroll down then you spawn at a random trader, not the middle of nowhere. The implication being that the trader brought you to their place and took care of you while you healed.

Just a thought

Caz

That takes away some of the element of fear though. Traders aren't a charity or there would be hobos everywhere hanging out at them.

 

[Venger7Days]

You lose 25% of what it would take to level in XP. If it goes below the start mark of the blue xp bar it turns the XP bar red and it grows outwards in red. So if you get in a death loop (die 4x times), you never lose a level, but there is still penalty to dying and you have to earn back a full bar of red before you are back in the blue and working towards the next level again.

I feel like the better way to do this is give people a 25% XP gain buff when they've been alive for > 1 hour real time. Then take it away if they die. It feels like a reward for playing well rather than being ground into the dirt by a death loop which feels lame.

 

[madmole]

madmole in a18 will both thirst and hunger be restored after death?

I don't know for sure. Probably will be restored since there is a bigger penalty to worry about now.

 

[lumpoycustards]

We might not even need celcius/farenheight when we're done.

Oh don't you dare :miserable:

 

[HornBloweR]

Hey madmole,

I really liked the way where the game is going and I also liked the previous update but I would like to ask that in the future can you do something with the "heat" thing because the screamers spawn a lot more often and its a bit annoying at times.....I also noticed that a lot of other players experinced the same thing. Also, can you optimize the shadow system? Because it eats my fps like nothing else. Another thing is that the bedroll I put down suddenly disappears and it reappears if I put it down again.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Drithyl]

Agreed. 8k is way two small on any map running for 200 days plus. 8k is good for some casual play but on an active map with all players on at all times with a few dozen regulars on at any time, it's very small.
We've filled up 16k maps inside of a real time month

Without seeing the new random gen and poi distribution, it's hard to say now though.

If you play on 1h days, you can't call "casual play" running up to 200 days, since that's 200h of gameplay for *one* world. If 8k is enough for 200h worth of gameplay according to you then that is by no means small, taking the framework of the amount of time that people sink into videogames these days.

 

[madmole]

Agreed. 8k is way two small on any map running for 200 days plus. 8k is good for some casual play but on an active map with all players on at all times with a few dozen regulars on at any time, it's very small.
We've filled up 16k maps inside of a real time month

Without seeing the new random gen and poi distribution, it's hard to say now though.

With quests resetting POIs you can get by with a small map. Sure it gets repetitive looting the same places, but there is infinite resources now. That said, you can keep 16k on your wish list, hopefully we can get that working at some point.

 

[madmole]

MM, is there a way to check the special abilities you get from books in A18? I imagine it would be good to have with some more obtuse abilities especially. (Like to remember how many meters you can fall and get no damage with Adrenaline Fall)
Also, anything to guide the new player into the Journal? I introduced like 5 people to 7 Days, and not a single one of them thought to look at the Journal.

You can read the book descriptions you've read in the player perk screen.

I'm not sure without force opening it. We spam "new journal tips" a lot.

 

[madmole]

Oh don't you dare :miserable:

With the new buff system all you would need to know is how much protection you need. The temperature is irrelevant. All that matters is you need 10 more insulation to feel comfortable.

 

[madmole]

Hey madmole, I really liked the way where the game is going and I also liked the previous update but I would like to as that in the future can you do something with the "heat" thing because the screamers spawn a lot more often and its a bit anoying at times.....I also noticed that a lot of other players experinced the same thing. Also, can you optimalyze the shadow system? Because it eats my fps like nothing else. Another thing is that the bedroll I put down suddenly disappears and it reappears if I put it down again.

Thanks a lot!

What no screamers are fine. I had two forges running for days before one showed up. I killed with one shot before it saw me, and haven't seen another.

Reflections have been optimized, which also affects shadows. Hopefully A18 will run well for you. It runs better than A17 by a lot IMO.

 

[madmole]

154 MF bugs now. Interesting enough the programmers have hardly any and its levels and art who have more. Gazz has over 50, so you guys can pretty much badger Gazz to get A18 out, the rest of us are in good shape. I'll start bailing him out when I'm done with mine, I have 10 left.

 

[beerfly]

Well, finally have time to post and.. MM, thanks for sharing so much lately, awesome new stuff, all additions sounds great.

Gazz, if you read this - back to work, bud. No, no "but I.. "

Thanks guys.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

154 MF bugs now. Interesting enough the programmers have hardly any and its levels and art who have more. Gazz has over 50, so you guys can pretty much badger Gazz to get A18 out, the rest of us are in good shape. I'll start bailing him out when I'm done with mine, I have 10 left.

Programmers are the best <3

 

[Trankitas]

Come on Gazz, you don't post here as much as Madmole and you're not done yet? The laziness of some people... #Don'tBannerinoPls

 

[Viktoriusiii]

You lose 25% of what it would take to level in XP. If it goes below the start mark of the blue xp bar it turns the XP bar red and it grows outwards in red. So if you get in a death loop (die 4x times), you never lose a level, but there is still penalty to dying and you have to earn back a full bar of red before you are back in the blue and working towards the next level again.

Not quite perfect, but a WAY better design than A17.

Again: rewarding the player/taking away the reward is a "better" designchoice in general, but if you really want to hammer home, that it is a punishment, it is totally allright!

(So for example if you haven't died for

24h - x1.5 xp

3 days - x2 xp

7days - x2.5 xp)

In the end it is more or less the same endresult (the player needing more xp to level) but it feels more rewarding not to die, rather than feeling NOT punished.

Buuut I don't want to harper on this too much. I'm already happy for this

No more "now everything you do is 25% slower! Have fun!"

 

[AtomicUs5000]

You lose 25% of what it would take to level in XP. If it goes below the start mark of the blue xp bar it turns the XP bar red and it grows outwards in red. So if you get in a death loop (die 4x times), you never lose a level, but there is still penalty to dying and you have to earn back a full bar of red before you are back in the blue and working towards the next level again.

Love it! Keeps things interesting as the game progresses. 25% can be a huge loss late game.

Getting to a point where in a game you ignore the threats can be fun, but really so many games do that already. This is refreshing to see a game where getting too cocky in the late game can be a big mistake.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Lets see, do I take a crammed bus to Dallas, or get in my Hellcat with lots of room and drive? You act like players do not have a choice to play SP or host a small private game where resources are not obliterated by people breaking the supported players. Why intentionally be cramped and complain about it? Play SP, or play in a supported setting. You don't ride in that cramped bus and get to female dog about it when we offer a personal hellcat for everyone.

okay... THAT is stupid. Well.. obviously your right to have that opinion...

but...

"why would anyone want icecream on hot summer days when cool water is so much more refreshing and contains less sugar??"

Maybe because they like the different experience icecream gives you compared to water?

You act as if multiplayer plays like singleplayer. I can tell you: it does not! Either pvp servers that have to fend off hordes AND players or PvE servers that, while similar, still give you a sense of a living breathing world.

Before A17 I only played multiplayer, because survival really isnt that hard for me... and I either wanted to share my builds with loads of people (pve) or I wanted the thrill of PvP that was the only thing giving me a challenge.

But since I had to mod A17 I played solo for the first time... and it wasn't the same... got boring quite quick because i had the best stuff and survival wasn't that big of an issue.

So there. Multiplayer is a completely different experience. THAT is why people don't want to play singleplayer and complain about mapsize.

I am not saying they are right. They can still ask the hoster to increase mapsize... but it WOULD be nice to have a "supported" option that says: 16k (not supported-use at your own risk). This would probably make all sides happy!

 

[Trankitas]

Not quite perfect, but a WAY better design than A17.
Again: rewarding the player/taking away the reward is a "better" designchoice in general, but if you really want to hammer home, that it is a punishment, it is totally allright!

(So for example if you haven't died for

24h - x1.5 xp

3 days - x2 xp

7days - x2.5 xp)

In the end it is more or less the same endresult (the player needing more xp to level) but it feels more rewarding not to die, rather than feeling NOT punished.

Buuut I don't want to harper on this too much. I'm already happy for this

No more "now everything you do is 25% slower! Have fun!"

This idea is interesting. In Fallout 4 (survival mode) you have "Adrenaline" for killing.

Spoiler

Adrenaline is a perk that is granted when playing on survival mode. It provides a bonus to damage output and is increased by getting kills. Every five kills increases the Adrenaline rank, adding 5% bonus damage. A maximum of 50% extra damage can be built up at rank 10 of the perk.

Sleeping in a bed removes anywhere from 2 to all 10 ranks of Adrenaline, depending on the amount of time the Sole Survivor has slept

Maybe some similar system for "not dying"

 

[Guppycur]

Lets see, do I take a crammed bus to Dallas, or get in my Hellcat with lots of room and drive? You act like players do not have a choice to play SP or host a small private game where resources are not obliterated by people breaking the supported players. Why intentionally be cramped and complain about it? Play SP, or play in a supported setting. You don't ride in that cramped bus and get to female dog about it when we offer a personal hellcat for everyone.

So the supported players is 8 of the *same* player, and not 8 at a time? Ok, I'm cool with that.

 

[madmole]

okay... THAT is stupid. Well.. obviously your right to have that opinion...but...

"why would anyone want icecream on hot summer days when cool water is so much more refreshing and contains less sugar??"

Maybe because they like the different experience icecream gives you compared to water?

You act as if multiplayer plays like singleplayer. I can tell you: it does not! Either pvp servers that have to fend off hordes AND players or PvE servers that, while similar, still give you a sense of a living breathing world.

Before A17 I only played multiplayer, because survival really isnt that hard for me... and I either wanted to share my builds with loads of people (pve) or I wanted the thrill of PvP that was the only thing giving me a challenge.

But since I had to mod A17 I played solo for the first time... and it wasn't the same... got boring quite quick because i had the best stuff and survival wasn't that big of an issue.

So there. Multiplayer is a completely different experience. THAT is why people don't want to play singleplayer and complain about mapsize.

I am not saying they are right. They can still ask the hoster to increase mapsize... but it WOULD be nice to have a "supported" option that says: 16k (not supported-use at your own risk). This would probably make all sides happy!

I get your point, but you should avoid using the word stupid. As stated, we hope to support 16k maps some day. I think its "a poor choice" people subject themselves crowded servers when there are better options is all. Coconut frozen yogurt tastes like ice cream without the downfalls. A big map wouldn't solve it anyway, you can easily trod over a looted area no matter the size, and size is a double edge sword, too large and there are never any player interactions, so that is lame too IMO. To make things worse, you walk another 8 KM only to find pre looted areas. There is no guarantee of finding fresh loot no matter how big you make it, someone else could loot it before you.

The best solution is resetting of dormant chunks options for the server.