PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

MM, is the "behemoth" a missprint? Maybe you meant the destroyer? Or should we really wait at Behemoth's 18 Alpha?

Hmm yes someone mentioned the behemoth recently so it was stuck in my head, no destroyers.

 

[madmole]

Please tell me that the stack size of ammo has not been reduced to 100 bullets per slot. There goes my inventory space.

Tons of stack sizes relative to survival and combat have been nerfed (prepped food, bandages, ammo). You can hold 200 9mm though.

Edit: Once you find the book to bulk craft you can hold 5 boxes (500) of ammo in one slot, so think of it as a huge upgrade to storage space as a whole.

 

[madmole]

I hope it is a jokie or a missprint. I hate the idea of a 3m zombie that destroys my base with a few blows. Why should I build a horde base if it is only a pile of rubble after the horde? Then I can use POIs as temporary base as well and only place a few spikes around them. This is just as effective.

Good luck with that strategy lol.

Edit: At least after GS 100 or so I wouldn't try it.

 

[ZombieHorde]

Yeah lets drop 2 grand on an Attorney that has no jurisdiction in Nigeria.

But I'm sure you any attorney would LOVE to sink their teeth into Amazon, for again selling stuff they have no right to sell - and they know it.

Amazon is such a crooked company! I'd LOVE to see them taken down a few places, multiple times, if possible.

 

[madmole]

I did like LBD too. I am also looking forward to the updated exp system in a18. I do agree though that the level/exp system is more flavor. Though in a17 your crafting is gated in INT.
The game to me is all about looting, building, and then tower defense. Right now I sometimes forget to add my points and might have gained 5-8 levels before I start adding perks.

You won't in A18, leveling is much slower and designed to be peaked out at about level 80. You can keep going, but I've got 80 hours in this game at level 60. I still want to play and still need some things, but you should spend perk points wisely, its not trivial to level once you hit level 40+. With more total zeds on later blood moons it should help. I had nerd goggles and 2 grandpa's elixers and seemed to have leveled twice last night which was welcome.

 

[jdifran]

Thanks! Yeah they never got even close to me before, I just had Gazz turn up how many guys total spawn so before I'd mow em down and be collecting loot by midnight or one, I wanted zeds all night plus I turned up block damage on ferals so this was my first test with those settings and it was epic! I haven't had an intense game like this since A11. I can't wait for you guys to get your hands on, this is glorious.

I always figured the waves should keep coming from nightfall to dawn, and that them ending before dawn was a bug. But I guess you'd really have to tone down the individual waves if they endlessly spawned from 10 pm to 4 am.

Is there a fixed number of waves (or individual zombies), or a number based on gamestage?

 

[madmole]

I lol for 5m at the "Oh ♥♥♥♥!" part

I just played and an amazing video was made. I mean somehow the pacing just kept amping up, I think its because they do spread out like A16 and were all over the place of my fairly large compound, but once the spikes were down on my front ramp suddenly everyone moved to that location and it got intense. A few climbing over here and there and continued slow damage while I reloaded, a few spiders and vultures and cop puke slowing me down was all it took for them to breach my wall and create an oh ♥♥♥♥ moment

I'm stoked to repair my base and make some changes for the next horde.

 

[madmole]

This is fantastic news! Previously, if we wanted a longer horde, we would have to log off once the initial horde was over and thus summon in a second horde, but it was slightly immersion breaking. Glad to know that the max zombies per horde night has been raised.

Its more of a mid game thing, we don't want noobs on day 7 overrun. Got to give the new player a few victories then start creeping things up. Pacing has never felt this good before.

 

[madmole]

Thanks for that. It looked like a lot of fun.Crazy as it sounds, but ammo / brass scarcity has always led me to play with arrows and clubs. I've never used either of those automatic weapons, but I doubt that horde could have been beaten with anything less than automatics.

It was interesting to see your play style changed as the ammo supply shank... you went from belly shots on automatic to head shots on semi auto/burst. Those weapons are awesome for cutting through the Zeds with only 2-3 shots, even radiated wights.

2 questions... why do you have that perilous drop for your own character over the spinning blade trap (I could seem myself falling through it), and was your ammo supply aquired through legit play, or through the console?

Specialization is quite powerful now, and with random stats you can get some pretty nice damage weapons, but I was cutting through radiated because my m60 was loaded with armor piercing rounds with the rad remover mod, and my first 500 rounds were HP rounds.

The description of the video says it was all legit game play, that is my long term real game, no cheats. Its not hard to acquire ammo if you have mines and the new brass perk books help.

I've never used blade traps so I put them there. I rarely fall off, I noticed that one wall didn't have iron bars on it and I still didn't fall off, but I moved to another area in case I did. The only safe way into the base after lock down is through the overhead garage door, otherwise I spike up my normal doors and ramp.

 

[madmole]

I also just noticed in the video that cops can now puke through bars. Interesting, interesting... *Re-planning my base design for A18 slightly*

Yes, if you can shoot through, their acid should come through.

 

[MechanicalLens]

I just played and an amazing video was made. I mean somehow the pacing just kept amping up, I think its because they do spread out like A16 and were all over the place of my fairly large compound, but once the spikes were down on my front ramp suddenly everyone moved to that location and it got intense. A few climbing over here and there and continued slow damage while I reloaded, a few spiders and vultures and cop puke slowing me down was all it took for them to breach my wall and create an oh ♥♥♥♥ moment
I'm stoked to repair my base and make some changes for the next horde.

That was one of the greatest highlights in that video, in my opinion. The zombies didn't just mindlessly focus on one to two blocks and bust through your base in a matter of seconds. You had time to react, and more importantly, they spread out more. You were even able to somewhat manipulate their behavior by shuffling around your compound. Now if they would cease ignoring landmines and such (lol), I think you have something truly golden here.

 

[madmole]

That was an absolutely epic showdown! My heart was racing when the zombies busted through those iron bars! I was astonished they didn't bust through the vault door in a matter of a few tens of seconds like they would do in A17. If some tweaking has been done (I do know you've nerfed individual zombie block damage), that's awesome!
I was convinced that "conventional horde bases" were a thing of the past. Either you had a cheesy pathway that exploited their AI and ensured they did no damage to your base, or it was a losing fight. Despite the fact that the zombies breached your base, this video has proven me otherwise.

I also noticed that the zombies semi-followed you around, instead of mindlessly attacking one or two blocks of your base. While they were still focusing on specific weakened points of the structure, there definitely seemed to be some minor differences in AI. (Either that, or I'm imagining things / I'm mistaken.)

I've been playing the crap out of the game and tweaking things. I like the AI now, I think it still does some stuff some people have complained about, but since there are dumb and smart zombies it mixes in now and feels more organic and it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Its more of a mid game thing, we don't want noobs on day 7 overrun. Got to give the new player a few victories then start creeping things up. Pacing has never felt this good before.

Of course, of course; it would only make sense (and for a fairer overall experience) if the horde sizes increased as each 7 days passed, eventually leading to hordes that last from dusk to dawn.

 

[beerfly]

I just played and an amazing video was made. I mean somehow the pacing just kept amping up, I think its because they do spread out like A16 and were all over the place of my fairly large compound, but once the spikes were down on my front ramp suddenly everyone moved to that location and it got intense. A few climbing over here and there and continued slow damage while I reloaded, a few spiders and vultures and cop puke slowing me down was all it took for them to breach my wall and create an oh ♥♥♥♥ moment
I'm stoked to repair my base and make some changes for the next horde.

It will be remembered as one of the best moments for sure.

Btw you recently said you use electricity deeper now, you can try put motion detectors pointing only an inner side of your safe space and connect them to a speaker. Set them up for only zeds and no more oh ♥♥♥♥ moments when you look at another direction. Safety first.

 

[madmole]

The only thing that "sucked" about it was the amount of ammo used. I hope madmole has several good mines located! Lol

Maybe people might feel like its cake to get ammo, but I had so much fun last night you are going to need it IMO. I was tired of never having any ammo and impossible to find mines so I spearheaded the mining overhaul so its easy to find the ore. I still only use guns when surrounded so I can stockpile a massive supply for horde night without spending more than 3-4 nights a week from midnight to 4 am mining. I have rank 3 miner/lode and I can get 5-6k ore in that time, with my pink pick with 3 mods.

 

[ZombieHorde]

At the end of the day form follows function. The current ! works. However you have to ask yourself, does this fit the tone of the game, and I'd say no it doesn't. Most likely we'll change it to something, but its not going to make the game any more fun or not, but yeah we don't want to something jarring to look at. Its an effective placeholder, but you'll need to look at it for another alpha.

Even flags aren't the best.

For barely any extra code, I'd opt in for an NPC around the area saying "that house you're looking for is 3 houses down on the left. Look for the purple car out front". Giving the NPC more use, especially at such a low cost of code or time is the best immersion and use for them, otherwise you put them in for only a few small features, spending all that time on them, for very little use or reward from them.

Coding the purple car is optional, but again, that stands out if there are very few purple cars in the game.

Alternatively, use some sleuthing skills.

Trader: We know Madmole had the package last. He lives in a three-storey house at the edge of town, he has a pimp purple limousine, he walks to the gym every day.

Conclusion: He lives close to a gym at the edge of town. The limo would be too obvious, but had to make the pun at MM. :tongue-new:

​

 

[Capp00]

This ought to make the "horde every night" type series even more difficult. look forward to it.

 

[madmole]

I'm not excited about the video either. For me it's like I don't want to fight a horde. I want to fight a horde with a strategy, not just firepower.

My base is reinforced concrete with 2 deep spike trench by the wall, multiple oh ♥♥♥♥ rooms and choke points. I'd have turrets but I can't find any SMG parts to craft them.

But its up to you, I'm good with guns, so that is my thing, you can build more advanced bases, I never had a need. Depends if you hate grinding for ammo and personal preference. This base is not optimal since its got a bunch of fancy pretty stuff that is non functional. I might build a new multi horde tower like I used in previous alphas (a11 era) or wait til next game and see how it holds up, now that its actually needed.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

This ought to make the "horde every night" type series even more difficult. look forward to it.

Hello Capp...the man the legend, that stole my youtube channel idea grrrr lol joking, sup buddy glad to see you again.

Once A18 drops I'll be creating the new 7D2D channel so you will have a little competition my friend

 

[ZombieHorde]

Not a good idea. It needs to be a unique marker so that players can't troll other players with "fake markers".
A faction flag, or corpse of the guy who hid the gear and got rekt would be better. But enough of this talk, we have a18 to get out and this is a 19-20 topic.

Just giving you some ideas so that the game can start heading in those directions from now (and not after a few other attempts), if you like them. After all, best to have the majority of NPC abilities (for example) on the planning table before starting them as I know editing them later is much harder.