PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Space4Ace]

I thought we were about to get the 18th sequel...

I'm sure you mean the 17th sequel, since the first one isn't a sequel, but the original.

I know, school has started and you must be tired already! :smile-new:

 

[Roland]

After reading this discussion my preference comes down on the side of spreading the loot out around the POI rather than tracking what players do in order to change the final loot reward that is still in one special location. Let people beeline to the roof with their nerdpole and get whatever's up there but it will only be part of the reward.

Also make it be that the "boss" zombies can spawn randomly anywhere in the poi. Then you will encounter the tough guys at some point if you continue to explore and you only get everything if you explore everywhere.

 

[Roland]

I'm sure you mean the 17th sequel, since the first one isn't a sequel, but the original.
I know, school has started and you must be tired already! :smile-new:

Alpha 1 was the first sequel to the unreleased pre-release version. =P

 

[Space4Ace]

Alpha 1 was the first sequel to the unreleased pre-release version. =P

Nice comeback! You win... This time! :smile-new:

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

can you please demo this feature? : "Game tracks the arc of your melee swing and will register glancing blows rather than outright misses."

 

[Space4Ace]

Why only 2 smileys on top of the page? Is that good or bad? Wait! Why am I asking??? :sour:

 

[madmole]

You mean I'm misusing the forum? I quote your answer so that you understand what my question is about (English is not my native language). It is not right?

You already know the answer, why do you keep on about it?

 

[madmole]

The POI designers have already done a great job of providing balanced and immersive endings where needed. Not every POI should be epic, but most have some sort of reward at the end.
It doesn't make sense for a player to make a beeline for a rooftop or to a specific cellar corner while bypassing the rest of the structure, expecting a great reward.

Why not give POI designers a simple tool to meter the loot reward based on the effort put in to obtain it.

Doesn't force anyone to play a certain way, but rewards those who choose to actually play the game.

This idea is harder to implement, you would need to count the total volumes in a POI, then trigger each one and at the end calculate their game stage by the percentage of volumes they went through to nerf their loot.

Or you could just put in auto turrets and sams on roofs/loot rooms to blow up anyone who doesn't disable the power somewhere else in the level. To me this one is more fun and solves it with less work.

 

[agrastiOs]

Madmole,

How many MF's are in currently? I know there's probably more MF's now and they don't really represent how much until A18e, but it's still nice to hear these numbers.

 

[Trankitas]

This idea is harder to implement, you would need to count the total volumes in a POI, then trigger each one and at the end calculate their game stage by the percentage of volumes they went through to nerf their loot.
Or you could just put in auto turrets and sams on roofs/loot rooms to blow up anyone who doesn't disable the power somewhere else in the level. To me this one is more fun and solves it with less work.

So now every POI will have a ♥♥♥♥ton of turrets. Great.

 

[madmole]

So now every POI will have a ♥♥♥♥ton of turrets. Great.

I'll add 10 more if you keep it up!

No just the tier 4's and 5's. We want to do some infiltration quests for sneaky types where you cannot be seen or you fail the quest, so you have to sneak through the whole thing, maybe disable power to turrets, shoot out some lights with a silenced weapon, etc.

 

[Dreyseth]

After reading this discussion my preference comes down on the side of spreading the loot out around the POI rather than tracking what players do in order to change the final loot reward that is still in one special location. Let people beeline to the roof with their nerdpole and get whatever's up there but it will only be part of the reward.
Also make it be that the "boss" zombies can spawn randomly anywhere in the poi. Then you will encounter the tough guys at some point if you continue to explore and you only get everything if you explore everywhere.

Seems reasonable to me

 

[Trankitas]

I'll add 10 more if you keep it up!
No just the tier 4's and 5's. We want to do some infiltration quests for sneaky types where you cannot be seen or you fail the quest, so you have to sneak through the whole thing, maybe disable power to turrets, shoot out some lights with a silenced weapon, etc.

If you add 10 more I'll post 10 more crying about it.

Well, that sounds better. Anyways, you have time to think about it, meanwhile we'll be with 100g of caffeine on our bloodstream, without sleeping, playing A18.

Kraken must be released.

- - - Updated - - -

After reading this discussion my preference comes down on the side of spreading the loot out around the POI rather than tracking what players do in order to change the final loot reward that is still in one special location. Let people beeline to the roof with their nerdpole and get whatever's up there but it will only be part of the reward.
Also make it be that the "boss" zombies can spawn randomly anywhere in the poi. Then you will encounter the tough guys at some point if you continue to explore and you only get everything if you explore everywhere.

+1 to Trolland's post.

 

[ZombieHorde]

Actually a great idea for an intro tutorial. Because it will set the tone, after all, we are in a survival game. Stopping the bleeding in time will not work though if you need to craft the bandage first. It needs to be in the inventory or better in the toolbelt already.
And if anyone wants to bring the argument that it is better to simplify something than making a tutorial for it: I've heard of other developers doing focus tests with new players and the impression I got was: You can make the game as simple (and intuitive) as you want there will be always players that still get fundamental things wrong (in most cases probably because they played games before that did it different).

Well I was thinking that the bleeding wouldn't be too bad. I mean, it's not like it's an artery that was hit. IRL it would take maybe a whole day to bleed out - so game time it would take ~40 minutes (for the day to pass), giving you plenty of time to sort out that bandage.

 

[Tin]

I'll add 10 more if you keep it up!
No just the tier 4's and 5's. We want to do some infiltration quests for sneaky types where you cannot be seen or you fail the quest, so you have to sneak through the whole thing, maybe disable power to turrets, shoot out some lights with a silenced weapon, etc.

So now every poi will have a lot of turrets? Great!

 

[Tin]

Also make it be that the "boss" zombies can spawn randomly anywhere in the poi. Then you will encounter the tough guys at some point if you continue to explore and you only get everything if you explore everywhere.

I already have a working system for the rando boss zombies appearing in poi's

Would be easy to peel what you need to try it out, since it's all done in modlet form.

edit: it's in Gup's discord, not on the forms atm.

 

[Blake_]

I'll add 10 more if you keep it up!
No just the tier 4's and 5's. We want to do some infiltration quests for sneaky types where you cannot be seen or you fail the quest, so you have to sneak through the whole thing, maybe disable power to turrets, shoot out some lights with a silenced weapon, etc.

Yeah, the problem with that sneaking quest is that it sounds awesome on paper,

but in reality a simple enemy spotting you at the end of a 2 hour successful sneaking would suck big time. In fallout at least you got to quicksave and reload.

I say when they are in you could give us a few chances to screw up, like 2 or 3 sightings with the consecuent money penalty on the quest reward.

Like: Yeah Rekt, I would do that quest perfectly if you give me 50.000 dukes no problem lol.

 

[ZombieHorde]

That's... actually a very good solution. Pass through certain gates, or perhaps even summing the cleared sleeper volumes could be used to calculate your loot bonus value on those specific containers in the loot room. If the cleared sleeper volume approach is used, might further reduce "cheesing" when it comes to running your butt off through a POI to check off the checkpoints.
Either way +1 to this notion, if it's feasible in the existing system.

I do like your solution out of all those I've heard.

However, the game is already rewarding with action, looting, leveling up, tasks, etc, but there's nothing that really satisfies a cerebral workout. What I'm imagining is: to turn off the turrets or whatever the trap is, you need to access a computer terminal where it asks you a quiz based on things around the building or maybe found in loot. Maybe even the questions can extend beyond the building, so for example "town to the North of here", which sends you on a trip to get that name.

So you get to the computer terminal and it asks you to login. You see the login name is Madmole so you have to find Madmole's desk or Madmole himself (corpse or zombie) to get his password off him.

Then the app to turn off the trap asks for another password, but this one you can get a hint for, and that hint is maybe 'the love of my life', in which you might have to find a photo or note in a locker/desk/corpse/zombie. Make it interesting by adding a bit of sleuthing and find multiple notes, and you have to sus out the right one.

Note 1: "Remember anniversary present for Mrs Madmole"

Note 2: "Madmole, Ms Wantsmadmole called 20 times to say she's looking forward to dinner tonight - receptionist"

Note 3: "Tonight's workout - ma glutes. Loves me ma glutes."

So based on certain factors you can find around the area, you find an expensive anniversary present = most likely it's his wife.

Find a ring (therefore it's off his finger) so it's Ms Wantsmadmole.

Find a Mr. Muscle magazine that Madmole has doodled love hearts in, then it's his glutes.

Maybe for 5th tier buildings it asks another few questions, but you get the idea.

Tier 3 buildings could have a computer terminal as well, but this one only requires you to find Madmole's access card, which is used to log in to his computer.

 

[Morloc]

If there are turrets in the POIs, then why don't they shoot the zombies?

Perhaps in some...they could!

-Morloc

 

[Survager]

You already know the answer, why do you keep on about it?

You said that the book’s icon will not change after reading the book, but I didn’t ask about that.

I asked if the description of the subject would change.

If I correctly understood your answer, then the studied book or scheme will not differ from the unstudied? Right?

Then another question: is it planned to add something like that in Alpha 18, or later? (I’m sure I don’t know the answer to this question).