PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • <img alt=":)" data-src="" src="___base_url___/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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i am here in arkansas and a little while ago was waiting for my day 28 BM and the game blasted the thunder... but as usual, we are or were at the time in a severe storm warning and the same damn time the thunder cracked in RL... it also cracked in game... the timing was perfect.
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Talk about a game being immersive lol.

 
Love to hear lighting is getting an overhaul I love the scare in these games and would love to make a build showing the zombie coming for you but you can’t see so well cuz of lights... zombies in light running then out of light hitting the traps then in light again oh no your defenders didn’t work in these and then zombies hit your last defense before you... and you can’t see them till they are in your face the only light behind you and your shadow and the structure bars before you casting more shadow onto the zombies! Creeepyyyy O_O ... sorry I’m a little of a weirdo LOL 😂 dude when I make this build with new lighting I’m inviting my friends for hoarde night and going to just laugh my ass off at them lol 😂

 
Nothing wrong with them. They match every other UI, I really can't see why they would need changed. This is the kind of stuff people are hating on us about, we need to add content, not redo old stuff that works just fine. The icons are blurry at some resolutions so I think its good to redo them.
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Looks about the same to me, a semi transparent grey square. The hd icons will help ours for sure. I just don't see any value in redoing the UI again dude. Its shippable to me this is apples vs oranges. I'd rather redo it in the next game where it might actually matter to someone. Nobody cares about the UI, they just want the game finished. We didn't promise 5 UI iterations in kickstarter lol. Could it be better? Probably, but I'd give it a B+ and we're not redoing anything unless its a C or D.
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It's great someone changed its mind :)

Just wait, A19 :)
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Its not new, its more of a reskin. Looks nice though.
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I've always wondered this. If someone dies at the trader for whatever reason (bleeding, a zombie got inside, etc.), would their "death backpack" actually spawn, or would it be deleted because it would be in the trader bounds?

 
I just got electricity set up and was immediately underwhelmed at my lights, I think they have cookie shadow casters on them leaving an ugly black wall. I'll be improving them tomorrow and every thing else I get my hands on that doesn't feel right. Electric lights are a downgrade from torches and even candles, so I'm fixing it. Nothing beats playing the game and seeing all these little issues first hand. I'm dedicated to giving you guys an awesome mid and late game, early game is awesome for sure already.
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Oh this makes me very happy. Will the spotlights get some love too? :)

Or even better, can brightness and falloff be xml settings? (and conesize for the spotlights)

 
Nope I wouldn't consider something that would not benefit performance. You can set your texture to 1/4 and see what kind of gains you might get. It will be minimal unless you have complete potato of a rig which you don't. All the performance loss is from the Unity character controller and the A* pathing over a voxel world. You can drop 1,000 static mesh zombies in a unity scene if you have the time and it will run fine IMO. Turn on 50 unity character controllers (their physics, collision, ragdoll components, skeletons, mechanim controler etc) and pathing and and watch your FPS tank.
I think we've done some optimizing on this front since 17, but it kind of is what it is and without getting unity source and rewritting a stripped down controller we probably won't be seeing a ton of gains.
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I can only assume your team did a lot more researching than I did on the matter and has already found all that I could find in a couple of minutes but just in case :

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/physics/kinematic-character-controller-99131

 
There are schematics that unlock crafting that some perks can do, but the perk typically has something else it does that the schematic won't. So if you think perk books are just a free perk point you are wrong. They aren't even anything to do with perks, they are their own thing that augment your character in over 100 ways.
The old perk books gave you a rank in a perk, they were horrible and were deleted as they were just filler content until we could do this new book system.
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Ahhhh! Right! Schematics was what I was thinking of.

Yeah no I see how that would work better than a simple +1.

Totally on board with that.

For me, though A16s HNs were quite a bit more fun, it was certainly possible to make impregnegatable bases, and maybe that was the problem.
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You built bases, only to leave it when they came inside? I mean... I guess I do that too when I get overrun... :D still a weird way to speak of your base ^^

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Impregnegate

 
Here's a good question for Madmole and the gang:
What stats are randomized for A18 and are there additional stats planned for future builds?
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Some. Many. It's complicated. =P

More can and should be randomised but it's issue of finding the time to carefully consider the type and scale of each such bonus.

This can also be added in an 18.x patch if time runs out. It's just additional polishing.

 
I supposed there is some game play application there. We can always add some pre-colored lights but it would be more elegant letting you have a color picker.
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Underground alarm system was my first thing that I build back, when you guys released electricity. Adding color picker for lights would be one of the best additions in electricity, maybe a couple of more siren sounds too...

Or was it called speaker, anyway, keep up the great job.

 
The first page says "No Blood Moon escape prevention in A18".What does this even mean?
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It probably means TFP are trying everything possible to ensure that players cannot cheese the blood moon by escaping it. (On a vehicle, etc.)

 
Anyone else excited that Madmole is experiencing electricity which sounds like that area of the game is going to get some much needed lovin'?
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I am, as an electrician I am hoping it will get a book series to allow for more advanced electrical builds. Like for instance a hidden wiring system, where you get to create/use smaller model outlets and place them on the walls. As long as the walls are connected the "wire" is there and all you should only need to connect the power source to an inlet to power the circuit.

 
The first page says "No Blood Moon escape prevention in A18".What does this even mean?
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That means in A18 nothing stops you from avoiding the horde by driving around in a vehicle. There were several ideas to make it harder to avoid the horde. For example, the zombies will run into your vehicle and cause damage if you don't dodge them.

 
I am, as an electrician I am hoping it will get a book series to allow for more advanced electrical builds. Like for instance a hidden wiring system, where you get to create/use smaller model outlets and place them on the walls. As long as the walls are connected the "wire" is there and all you should only need to connect the power source to an inlet to power the circuit.
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I'm OCD about wiring. I tend to make my electrical room on the top floor in this way i can wire everything up without showing a single wire. Its hard work and takes tons of resources but in the end, no wires showing, light switches in every single room and I'll have a security room that controls every single alarm system, outside spot lights etc.

 
I am, as an electrician I am hoping it will get a book series to allow for more advanced electrical builds. Like for instance a hidden wiring system, where you get to create/use smaller model outlets and place them on the walls. As long as the walls are connected the "wire" is there and all you should only need to connect the power source to an inlet to power the circuit.
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What I think if possible technically is they should make wire don't render if a full block is next to it, this way they have less item to render and wire don't get visible. and when connected to points, they should always connect to bottom part of item or looks like it is going down to wall before it spread so it stick to wall.

Maybe render on negative of their block so they render on other block instead like doors render over the blocks.

 
I'm OCD about wiring. I tend to make my electrical room on the top floor in this way i can wire everything up without showing a single wire. Its hard work and takes tons of resources but in the end, no wires showing, light switches in every single room and I'll have a security room that controls every single alarm system, outside spot lights etc.
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In Ark, I used to build double walls - basically a passage around the outside of the base to hide the electrics behind, until the S+ mod introduced the idea of being able to hide and show the wiring as a toggle. I think that was great.

Still I think Terraria did it the best way - you can only see the wires, if you're holding the wire tool.

 
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