PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Ouch Quit It]

Awesome, I feel like most people who didn't like 17, we will make happy. Even if we didn't address an issue there is enough cool things going on you can set that aside and enjoy the future of the game. Kind of like some disgruntled Morrowind players might complain, but as a whole liked Oblivion a lot too, then some disgruntled Oblivion players complained about Skyrim, but you know, as a whole, even though they removed your favorite thing about the game, was still a better game.
Like a18 won't have LBD, but has hundreds of books and schematics which are learn to do stuff by doing (finding them), we won't have stocks, barrels, recievers, but we do have specific gun parts, and random stats, so the gun guys should be pacified and every gun is different now stat wise. So much looting now, anyone who didn't like buying all the perks from a menu will be happy, there are looting ways to do most things now. People who got poor performance should see much better performance. We've addressed stamina and early game feeling too grindy. Level gates are gone, but as a result we slowed leveling, but the game feels way better that way.

Coughs * Airport POI * Coughs

 

[Star69]

Can you explain the issue better?

Sorry for the lack of clarity, I’ll try to refine my idea. The floating quotation mark showing the quest start is a place holder. Replace the quotation mark with a 5 meter area. If a player steps in that area, a text pops up on screen saying something like: “such & such quest hit E to start”. Invited friends would just see “such & such quest” when standing in the area. Five meter area is big enough for 8 people to stand....8 is the current max number in the party. I’d also not allow the quest to start until all party members are in the 5 meter area.

Using an invisible-to-player 5 meter area allows the quest activation to not be like a cheesy glowing object to start the quest. You can already find the building easy enough since it’s marked on the map. Players would just need to walk around the building to find the activation area instead of walking to find the quotation mark. Just my 2 cents but I was wondering what ideas you guys have discussed to get rid of the floating quotation mark?

 

[RestInPieces]

food spoilage would require a timer. which like a durability bar would make each thing stack separately. then you wouldnt have space for each bit of food would be its own stack of one. This would make for very poor gameplay.
so, no spoilage for now.

You probably haven't played any games with spoilage - there are various ways to handle it, like simply using the average of the combined stacks.

 

[wolfbain5]

You probably haven't played any games with spoilage - there are various ways to handle it, like simply using the average of the combined stacks.

I have played many with it. but the way things are programmed in THIS game. it is my understanding that it won't work here. coding wise. and I always hated the use the average method it doesnt really do anything. the oldest food takes the average of the stack, make a new one, stacks timer gets gets pushed back, eat the oldest, time gets pushed back, basically becoming a useless feature.

and, on servers that are always on but you aren't... becomes a headache

 

[RestInPieces]

I have played many with it. but the way things are programmed in THIS game. it is my understanding that it won't work here. coding wise.

Oh? Please explain how it won't work here "coding-wise", because what you are saying doesn't make much sense.

and I always hated the use the average method it doesnt really do anything. the oldest food takes the average of the stack, make a new one, stacks timer gets gets pushed back, eat the oldest, time gets pushed back, basically becoming a useless feature.and, on servers that are always on but you aren't... becomes a headache

Except this being only one of the ways to deal with spoilage with stacking food, how is it a "useless feature"? It still achieves the same thing, which one would implement spoilage for, and it works fine in other popular games. Whether you hate it, or hate spoilage altogether, is irrelevant.

PS @MM: Apologies for continuing to talk about spoilage, just replying to quoted posts.

 

[Mechanimal]

Sorry for the lack of clarity, I’ll try to refine my idea. The floating quotation mark showing the quest start is a place holder. Replace the quotation mark with a 5 meter area. If a player steps in that area, a text pops up on screen saying something like: “such & such quest hit E to start”. Invited friends would just see “such & such quest” when standing in the area. Five meter area is big enough for 8 people to stand....8 is the current max number in the party. I’d also not allow the quest to start until all party members are in the 5 meter area.
Using an invisible-to-player 5 meter area allows the quest activation to not be like a cheesy glowing object to start the quest. You can already find the building easy enough since it’s marked on the map. Players would just need to walk around the building to find the activation area instead of walking to find the quotation mark. Just my 2 cents but I was wondering what ideas you guys have discussed to get rid of the floating quotation mark?

I too am no fan of the bouncing holographic exclamation point, thought it was just a temporary placeholder, but no. Sure I get used to it, but it still sticks out way too much, like it does not belong.

My suggestion would be to make an existing object, or maybe something new, activate the quest, same as the exclamation does now. One great one would be the mailboxes out in front of most POIs, then just add one to POIs without them... I mean everyone, every building, does get mail, so it makes plenty of sense. Then if nothing else just make it stand out to the quest holder a bit more when active to help identify it, like a gentle throbbing glow or something, just enough, no holograms, this ain't the Matrix.

I think using the mailboxes is worth serious consideration the more I think about it, plus they're already there for the most part.

PS: please no food spoilage, just my opinion, but it is still the biggest reason I hated Ark, and Atlas, and other survival games that just annoyed me far more than challenged me. We have plenty to deal with, though I wouldn't mind the meat count going back to normal numbers again, like 1 meat is 1 meat, not 5 meat is 1 meat, who the F did that and why. Stop it, I can think of no good reason whatsoever for that serving any purpose other than confusion. Deer would be 4 or 5 meat, not 20 or 25 to make 4 or 5. Rabbits like 1 or 2, fine. Some fancy meals could require 2 meat, but most all others should be 1 to 1 ratio, I will never understand why that devolved.

 

[Eliphas the Inheritor]

Diamond tools and armor, can be obtained in no time, it spawns 10-14 from bedrock IIRC. I've been to the ender, I enchanted all my stuff, made a farm, electricity, pistons, railroad to bedrock, I know a lot about the game, but its not a 1000 hour game to me and never will be. I know you are a fanboy, I enjoyed it for a bit, but to me it has zero replay value because it lacks story, npcs and the graphics leave everything to be desired.

That fanboy got rekt. xD

 

[FA_Q2]

We have plenty to deal with, though I wouldn't mind the meat count going back to normal numbers again, like 1 meat is 1 meat, not 5 meat is 1 meat, who the F did that and why. Stop it, I can think of no good reason whatsoever for that serving any purpose other than confusion. Deer would be 4 or 5 meat, not 20 or 25 to make 4 or 5. Rabbits like 1 or 2, fine. Some fancy meals could require 2 meat, but most all others should be 1 to 1 ratio, I will never understand why that devolved.

Most likely scaling. Huntsman does not work well with 1 meat as a 20% increase cannot be done. With 5 meat per serving it becomes much simpler to balance and play with boosts like Huntsman.

I don't understand the hate for the larger numbers.

 

[Mechanimal]

Most likely scaling. Huntsman does not work well with 1 meat as a 20% increase cannot be done. With 5 meat per serving it becomes much simpler to balance and play with boosts like Huntsman.
I don't understand the hate for the larger numbers.

Ah, is a good point, for scaling with those bonuses, however, if a deer gave 5 meat then a 20% boost would simply yield 6 meat, so I think it is still possible. But before they changed it 1 meat was 1 meat, now I need 5 pieces to make 1 and aside from how irritating that is, especially since the icons in no way represent the difference, it also leaves me with awkward piles of useless meat. It is annoying to have 50 meat and think that sounds awesome until you cook it down to 10. Anyway, although that point is valid, I still think going back to simpler, more direct, amounts makes more sense. Is not a game breaker, just a QOL thing, feels like the system went back to an older less graceful method in A17. I'm gonna play the F out of A18 regardless, but it will still feel more like a step backward than forward if they leave it as is.

Edit* I do think it was worth experimenting with in A17, but I hated it, my son thought it was "really dumb", and in an MP game I played with some noobs a few weeks ago each and every one of them thought it was stupid. I told all of them this is Alpha, where these systems are played with and tweaked, and that I highly doubted it would stay this way. I could be wrong, maybe it will stick, if so my opinion as a designer is that the change is more of a devolution than a refinement. Was a solid B before, now I'd give it a D, maybe a C-, and hope for a refinement of some kind at some point. It's like they forgot about KISS in this situation, usually they go that way, for the better.

 

[Doombringer101]

Ah, is a good point, for scaling with those bonuses, however, if a deer gave 5 meat then a 20% boost would simply yield 6 meat, so I think it is still possible. But before they changed it 1 meat was 1 meat, now I need 5 pieces to make 1 and aside from how irritating that is, especially since the icons in no way represent the difference, it also leaves me with awkward piles of useless meat. It is annoying to have 50 meat and think that sounds awesome until you cook it down to 10. Anyway, although that point is valid, I still think going back to simpler, more direct, amounts makes more sense. Is not a game breaker, just a QOL thing, feels like the system went back to an older less graceful method in A17. I'm gonna play the F out of A18 regardless, but it will still feel more like a step backward than forward if they leave it as is.

The fact that a wood frame uses the same amount of wood it takes to make 4 arrows must really drive you crazy then

 

[Mechanimal]

The fact that a wood frame uses the same amount of wood it takes to make 4 arrows must really drive you crazy then

No, don't even notice, ffs it's wood, we get that it huge stacks, find it all over, use it all over, it is a very different resource to both use and acquire. The meat/food stuff is very different, far more rare and precious, so having even one useless piece when you are hungry is just super ridiculous and frustrating. I never get stuck with weird useless stacks of wood, it never gets low enough. Maybe I would not notice as much if I had not played earlier versions where 1 meat was 1 meat and it was simple and straight forward as it should be. But when I noticed many noobs joining into A17 it became clear that it wasn't just me, none of them thought it made any sense either, all I could tell them was that it was temporary(hopefully a prediction and not a lie.). Especially due to the fact that the icon for 1 meat looks the same as the icon for 1 cooked meat even thought it needed 5 to make it? Even a dang icon change to represent it visually would help if nothing else. Yes I am nitpicking, we are still in alpha phase, I mainly just hope something gets done to make better sense out of it by the time it goes gold.

 

[Tin]

Most likely scaling. Huntsman does not work well with 1 meat as a 20% increase cannot be done. With 5 meat per serving it becomes much simpler to balance and play with boosts like Huntsman.
I don't understand the hate for the larger numbers.

I'll just say "So?" about the "Huntsmen" perk.

How many animals would you think only drop 1 meat? Chicken, Rabbit, and Snake, you get what you get. So you need to invest 2 more points to get 2 meat from them.

What wrong with needing to invest more in the perk to get that result?

Ah, is a good point, for scaling with those bonuses, however, if a deer gave 5 meat then a 20% boost would simply yield 6 meat, so I think it is still possible. But before they changed it 1 meat was 1 meat, now I need 5 pieces to make 1 and aside from how irritating that is, especially since the icons in no way represent the difference, it also leaves me with awkward piles of useless meat. It is annoying to have 50 meat and think that sounds awesome until you cook it down to 10. Anyway, although that point is valid, I still think going back to simpler, more direct, amounts makes more sense. Is not a game breaker, just a QOL thing, feels like the system went back to an older less graceful method in A17. I'm gonna play the F out of A18 regardless, but it will still feel more like a step backward than forward if they leave it as is.
Edit* I do think it was worth experimenting with in A17, but I hated it, my son thought it was "really dumb", and in an MP game I played with some noobs a few weeks ago each and every one of them thought it was stupid. I told all of them this is Alpha, where these systems are played with and tweaked, and that I highly doubted it would stay this way. I could be wrong, maybe it will stick, if so my opinion as a designer is that the change is more of a devolution than a refinement. Was a solid B before, now I'd give it a D, maybe a C-, and hope for a refinement of some kind at some point. It's like they forgot about KISS in this situation, usually they go that way, for the better.

And at least for me it's not 'hate', its more of 'why?!'.

- - - Updated - - -

The fact that a wood frame uses the same amount of wood it takes to make 4 arrows must really drive you crazy then

Yes! yes it does layful:

 

[Dreyseth]

Most likely scaling. Huntsman does not work well with 1 meat as a 20% increase cannot be done. With 5 meat per serving it becomes much simpler to balance and play with boosts like Huntsman.
I don't understand the hate for the larger numbers.

It would quite easily be accomplished if an additional decimal place is maintained behind the scenes. A 20% bonus would mean that every 5th meat killed would be harvested as 2 meats.

This would allow more granular boosts of any percentage amount, as well as variability in base harvest amounts if desired

 

[PO_Man_3849]

I too am no fan of the bouncing holographic exclamation point, thought it was just a temporary placeholder, but no. Sure I get used to it, but it still sticks out way too much, like it does not belong.
My suggestion would be to make an existing object, or maybe something new, activate the quest, same as the exclamation does now. One great one would be the mailboxes out in front of most POIs, then just add one to POIs without them... I mean everyone, every building, does get mail, so it makes plenty of sense. Then if nothing else just make it stand out to the quest holder a bit more when active to help identify it, like a gentle throbbing glow or something, just enough, no holograms, this ain't the Matrix.

I think using the mailboxes is worth serious consideration the more I think about it, plus they're already there for the most part.

PS: please no food spoilage, just my opinion, but it is still the biggest reason I hated Ark, and Atlas, and other survival games that just annoyed me far more than challenged me. We have plenty to deal with, though I wouldn't mind the meat count going back to normal numbers again, like 1 meat is 1 meat, not 5 meat is 1 meat, who the F did that and why. Stop it, I can think of no good reason whatsoever for that serving any purpose other than confusion. Deer would be 4 or 5 meat, not 20 or 25 to make 4 or 5. Rabbits like 1 or 2, fine. Some fancy meals could require 2 meat, but most all others should be 1 to 1 ratio, I will never understand why that devolved.

I have faith that the bouncing exclamation point is a placeholder.

I'm hoping it will be replaced with an NPC, when you arrive to the quest location you converse with the NPC and it says... "are you here to take care of my zombie infestation?" (Or other scenarios) You could answer and have the option of making sure your teammates are grouped up before it starts.

Would definitely be more immersive than a cartoon exclamation point?

 

[Mechanimal]

I'll just say "So?" about the "Huntsmen" perk.How many animals would you think only drop 1 meat? Chicken, Rabbit, and Snake, you get what you get. So you need to invest 2 more points to get 2 meat from them.

What wrong with needing to invest more in the perk to get that result?

It's not hate either, its more of why?!

And at least for me it's not 'hate', its more of 'why?!'.

Yeah, my "hate" is due to the "why" because it felt fine before. And I do not think it was necessary to allow room for hunting buffs, that can/should be done using the simpler system, imho. I do eventually get used to it, but it still nags at me while playing sometimes, then the noobs being bewildered by it too is what makes me feel like bringing it up again, it never needed explaining before, and that should matter to the devs, I'd think.

 

[Mechanimal]

I have faith that the bouncing exclamation point is a placeholder.
I'm hoping it will be replaced with an NPC, when you arrive to the quest location you converse with the NPC and it says... "are you here to take care of my zombie infestation?" (Or other scenarios) You could answer and have the option of making sure your teammates are grouped up before it starts.

Would definitely be more immersive than a cartoon exclamation point?

Yes I too think it is just a placeholder, albeit an immersion wrecking one, it's temporary, and that's ok for now, sure. I didn't even think of the NPC thing, good idea, although I am not sure how that would work if other players got there before the quest holder. Maybe they will end up with a small variety of in-world object/NPC options. So most of the Tier 1 to 3 house crawls and such could just use the mailbox, others could use an NPC, maybe larger buildings would have something like those large blue MAIL bins, etc. Anything but a bouncing hologram, but yeah, I don't think it was ever meant to be permanent, iirc from A17 dev forums.

 

[PO_Man_3849]

In that scenario, if a player not associated with that quest saw the NPC and tried to interact with it, it would just say "sorry I'm not interested in you, move along", or possibly the NPC would only be visible to the players in the group that have the quest?

 

[A Nice Cup of Tea]

I too am no fan of the bouncing holographic exclamation point, thought it was just a temporary placeholder, but no.

When it was first introduced, I commented that I didn't like it and Roland gave me a sarcastic reply telling me it was just a temporary placeholder and that I shouldn't assume it will be in the finished game.

So I'm taking him at his word (he knows the devs' plans better than we do) and assuming it won't be in the finished game.

 

[Doombringer101]

I'll just say "So?" about the "Huntsmen" perk.How many animals would you think only drop 1 meat? Chicken, Rabbit, and Snake, you get what you get. So you need to invest 2 more points to get 2 meat from them.

What wrong with needing to invest more in the perk to get that result?

And at least for me it's not 'hate', its more of 'why?!'.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes! yes it does layful:

Haha I already knew it makes you crazy Tin

 

[Ti2xGr]

I have faith that the bouncing exclamation point is a placeholder.
I'm hoping it will be replaced with an NPC, when you arrive to the quest location you converse with the NPC and it says... "are you here to take care of my zombie infestation?" (Or other scenarios) You could answer and have the option of making sure your teammates are grouped up before it starts.

Would definitely be more immersive than a cartoon exclamation point?

I'd like to see a Gravestone marker with a glowing red crack that looks like a 7 on it.