PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[ecv]

Its literally the same thing you are proposing, except instead of earning it over time without dying we are giving it to you for free up front and you re-earn it if you die. The bonus is not having any xp taken away. At the end of the day your method delivers shaky XP numbers and will lead to some min maxing style.
There are things that boost XP, like doing quests give you free xp. Drink some Grandpas learn'n elixer and get a huge boost, put on some nerd goggles. I'm old school and feel like punishment is good. I'm not a fan of participation trophies. You got rekt, deal with it. If you don't like it, don't die next time. If the feature is a bomb we'll go back to the drawing board or cut it. On paper it is appealing to us, end of discussion. Until 18 hits the streets no amount of talk will change it.

Uhh, this could also be interesting for stamina and health, only showing when in the negative, and as a up front bonus, you'll never see them if you treat yourself right.

One might even have to find out what right is for a particular playstyle

That could raise immersion I'd say

 

[Dark_Corvid]

I think it is the best system so far. Before people would suicide just to teleport or get rid of infection or broken leg or low hunger. Now, they might think twice at least, or pay for it in a tangible meaningful way, and it doesn't weaken them further, so this is the best design. The A17 system encouraged doing unsafe activities or going AFK, the A16 wellness system weakened you and took too long to restore and promoted death loop.

I understand death as a feedback system telling players their current decisions aren't working out. For example:


One death: "Hey, you made a mistake."
Two deaths (consecutive): "You might want to change your approach."

Three or more (consecutive): "Slow down and think about how you got here."


The upcoming system fits with teaching players to reevaluate their actions, examine what they've learned in the past, and prompts them to apply that knowledge going forward.

I don't see it as any different than players dying repeatedly when trying to tackle content they aren't prepared for. Importantly, (and this is an assumption) it will prevent the gamestage from progressing for players who aren't ready for a greater challenge.

 

[madmole]

give us the dam update already, been ages
Madmole was halfway through the day when he decides to peruse the forums. Snip

Ah the good ol' days when you could just punch people and throw fridges and get what you wanted.

 

[Axe13]

I think there was a discussion a while back, but I missed the conclusion.....what's the word on FOV options for A18 and beyond?

 

[andrough]

Its already random. All loot boxes are randomly open or closed versions.

I didn't pose my question clearly enough to express my idea, but your answer kind of gets at what I was aiming for which is variety in POIs. What I had in mind when I asked is if it's possible to store and load POIs such that the exterior is a sort of shell with the interior chosen randomly from several different dungeon crawl routes designed by the level creators. I understand that POIs are stored and loaded as a single piece, so maybe this belongs more in Pimp Dreams, but the thought occurred to me while we were discussing 'payouts' of POIs and fun factor.

Example: two identical POIs in one RWG town, but 1 loaded with interior A and 1 with interior B. Perhaps each one has a different route to take in clearing it out with different layouts, decor, sleeper spots and so on. Also, upon initiating a quest at a POI, it reloads and this time a different interior is randomly chosen than the one loaded before the resetting action.

I hope I made this more clear. I get this is just a pipe dream and I definitely am familiar with the pipe and the dreaming. I guess I am really just curious as to whether or not the code can support this sort of 2-part POI, either only in generation or also when resetting for quests.

give us the dam update already, been ages

I saw the first line and thought "this seems a little out of character of this guy..." I think I missed the original post, but I see now and, boy, did I enjoy that read. :laugh:

 

[Roland]

I think there was a discussion a while back, but I missed the conclusion.....what's the word on FOV options for A18 and beyond?

For A18, you’ll have to continue to change it using the console command.

 

[archergod]

friendly challenge for Kage (or others if they wish)...
forget about A17 and what you used to do....

Welcome to A18, get yourself to an appropriate level (you'll know when it is if you're not dieing a lot) and get damn good gear and weapons, buy or find some useful mods and perk where the points will help you the most. have some food/water and firstaid with you... you most likely will find food on the way.

IF you go to a t5 poi and you're only ready for t2-3, then be prepared to fail. remember... gamestage will affect the types of zombies you meet and the loot.. BUT a t5 IS NOT MEANT for low level players or newbies... (that is not meant as an insult to anyone).

so my challenge is... do this and then let us know here in forum how you made out...

also... we testers have already and currently test this... also... we dont use external mods nor do we mod any xmls, our games are default.

now if you want fun and can manage it... then a team of 5 players will make a world of difference (if all are equal).

so again... actually look at this as a dare to actually enjoy it.

but the team does want to hear how the runs went.

Challenge accepted, please give access to A18...lol who cares if I win or fail, I at least get early access..

 

[Odetta]

Challenge accepted, please give access to A18...lol who cares if I win or fail, I at least get early access..

This is off topic but, is this game available in China at all? With their strict guidelines I can't imagine so.

 

[RestInPieces]

[...]

[...]

Damn it, I'd love to chime in on this but will be late for work. Coercion, punishment, negative and positive reinforcement all have their place and their uses. You can design some reinforcement types differently for a more positive outlook, but there is no going around that. Even WoW, a casual mmo, contains all of them (negative r. - "get out of the fire", punishment - gold lost on death for repairs) and their ratio is heavily dependent on genre.

 

[Callum123456789]

I don't understand the arguments here.
Am I right in saying:

Tin is saying it's a better balanced death penalty because it hurts the higher level player enough to be an issue, whereas it doesn't affect the lower level player as much because they can still do what they did before, and could just hang out with others to gain their XP back more quickly

Meganoth is saying players should be careful all of the time.

...y'all aren't even having the same discussion.

there seems to be lots of disagreements and arguing at the moment don't really like it

 

[meilodasreh]

So is the Dukes base in Alpha-18?

If Duke Nukem had a base in A18 then it would be a really boring Alpha.

Cause all zombies would already have been totally obliberated.

Most likely his base would even be on top of a huge pile of dead zombies.

Wait..."dead zombies"...is there even a correct term for a dead undead?

dead dead body?

or is dead x dead = alive?

Roland, mathematics please :smile-new:

 

[Guppycur]

This is off topic but, is this game available in China at all? With their strict guidelines I can't imagine so.

They play the crap out of it, and there are a few chinese modders (blue!), but I dunno if it's legit or not.

 

[meilodasreh]

Isn't it the objective that she doesn't quite fit in?

What are u talking about?

Just look at the picture closely.

Scarlet fits in there absolutely perfect.

How could you think otherwise?

...oh my god does she fit in perfect...

*keeps staring at picture till eyes pop out*

*quickly switching to 7d2d game cause wifey enters room*

 

[Callum123456789]

If Duke Nukem had a base in A18 then it would be a really boring Alpha.Cause all zombies would already have been totally obliberated.

Most likely his base would even be on top of a huge pile of dead zombies.

Wait..."dead zombies"...is there even a correct term for a dead undead?

dead dead body?

or is dead x dead = alive?

Roland, mathematics please :smile-new:

its the crazy duke of navezgane and his army of mutated soldiers said back in the features overview like nearly 6 years ago now

 

[bdubyah]

Right now there is a hard loot list limit, which y'all are pretty close to maxing out (255 I think), so adding in special custom loot would get you even closer to that hard cap, so:
1) Do y'all have any plans to increase the hard cap like you did for blocks and items

2) Do y'all have plans to have specialty items inside of specific poi's or are you strictly handling those through trader quest rewards?

I can tell you that as a modder, PLEASE raise the cap. As a player, PLEASE include more poi-specific loot.

Thanks!

Just gonna quote this. ^^^^^^^

 

[Laz Man]

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.

Nice!!!!

 

[Guppycur]

Nice!!!!

Somehow I missed the red bar bit, yeh that is going to work out nicely.

 

[bdubyah]

in our current build, I just tried with arrow slit blocks in ALL rotations on ground and in ground to make flush... my zombies took no issues to hop on, walk across or destroy these blocks.

Nice, so maybe was fixed by other code changes.

It doesn't break the AI if they are placed on the ground. It only does it when there is a pit underneath them.

There's an example.

 

[FileMachete]

Question for the Testers; how is backpack/pocket space doing in a18?

Curious cause it sounds like there are quite a few more items that you'll pretty much always want to keep...?

Like all the new Books. Even though they appear to stack, that's only if you happen to get 2+ of the same one, right? so would guess if a POI run netted 3 books they most likely take up 3 slots.

And the different weapon 'parts', if scrapped (& are those also in loot tables?), compared to a17s Mech/Plastic Parts. Along with each weapon drop being unique.

Guessing that it's not quite as straight forward 'knowing' what to scrap/toss by reflex in a18?

 

[DaVegaNL]

I got two u can play with

Oh boy. Roland, i want to report snowdoggy for being rude!!