PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[ZehMatt]

Procedural Zds are desired. Just not doable timewise in this game, so devs said that probably on a sequel. They tried with UMA but the performance in Unity sux . That doesn't mean that it won't be more Zds. Just that it is unlikely to be a procedural system for Zd variety.
Screamers are cool. Nice feature. In alpha 16 they were a little intense for underground bases. In 17.4 they don't spawn while you are down there down enough. You don't like them. Cool opinion, we respect that. You can manage the heatmap by separating your workstations. Or mod them out.

Lore for the Zds will come 100% as well as friendly npcs, bandits and a campaign . Just wait until Avatar 2 releases. 9 months per alpha at this point, but very well worth it. To make my point, how many hours of 7dtd have you been playing? I guess not just 3. Do you feel like that a game on which we invested so many hours is average? do you think Oblivion is average? It is a matter of perspective. This game lacks endgame. Alpha game. Be patient.

I have about 360 hours on my account I know its not exactly the number to brag with but its also a fair amount of time spent in a virtual world. Having procedural zombies planned sounds great but what about the other points? When one talks about immersion than it should start off with having a believable world where the world on its own explains the mechanics, I'm not talking about crafting because we get a lot of hand holding here rather about everything else that I mentioned.

Some examples that would make the game more believable without changing the core design:

Given that the game is fully voxel based why not make zombies literally crawl out of the ground instead of randomly spawning them behind cover, this alone would make it more believable that the undead are actual undead people crawling out of the ground where they were once buried.

Now the blood moon could be a trigger to have a lot of zombies crawl out of their graves at the same time and immediately seek for fresh blood. One could add more books that explains the mechanics and their events and consequences and perhaps give the player knowledge to raise the skill for certain things, adding extra info about what the blood moon is in those books also adds background story. Theres also the missing information of why the blood moon is or why there are regions with high radiation, is this biblical or rather scientific? Having some sort of explanation here would also make the game more interesting to how it all came to this point.

I have no problem with the game in general, I know its in alpha stage but there are so many things where I think they are maybe overlooked aspects, when you look at the core idea behind the game then its absolutely brilliant but it lacks the background details in this case.

 

[Xtrakicking]

SNIP FOR SPACE

Not sure about you, but where I live we don't bury people in random places all around the terrain.

 

[EggsAisle]

Hi there, long-time lurker, first-time poster. I thought I'd make up a list of the weapons and the perk domains they fall under. I'm basing this off of the A18 perk overhaul video and following this thread for the past month or so. Please let me know if you have comments/suggestions/corrections, it's entirely probably (err, possible) that I've overlooked something extremely obvious and dumb. Here we go!

A18 Perks and Associated Weapons

Organized by type, in ascending order of quality (Tier 1 -> Tier 2 -> Tier 3)

* = new to A18

? = best guess/uncertain (confirmation or correction welcome!)

Perception

Javelin Master: *stone spear, *iron spear, *steel spear

Dead Eye: hunting rifle, *?unknown, ?marksman rifle

Demolitions Expert: molotov, pipe bomb, *frag grenade, rocket launcher

NOTES: I don't remember anything about more rifles being added. I'm assuming hunting rifle is tier 1 and marksman is tier 3 for now. Also unsure of the explosive hierarchy.

Strength

Boomstick: blunderbuss, *double-barrel shotgun, pump-action shotgun (buffed)

Pummel Pete: wooden club, reinforced iron club, *baseball bat

Skull Crusher: *stone sledgehammer, iron sledgehammer, steel sledgehammer

NOTES: none

Fortitude

The Brawler: ?unarmed, *brass knuckles, *steel knuckles

Machine Gunner: ak-47, *new assault rifle, *m-60

NOTES: Not sure if there's a tier 1 knuckle weapon or just barehanded. I think a new assault rifle has been mentioned as tier 2, but the model may not be ready when A18 launches. Will try to update if info becomes available.

Agility

Archery: Primitive Bow/Crossbow, *new bow/*new crossbow, compound bow/*new crossbow #2

Gunslinger: pistol, .44 magnum, SMG

Deep Cuts: bone knife, hunting knife, machete

NOTES: A18 is getting a new bow and 2 new crossbows, this is my best understanding of the hierarchy, assuming they're all governed by the Archery perk. SMG is now separate from the other automatic firearms.

Intelligence

Electrocutioner: *stun baton 1, *?stun baton 2, *?stun baton 3

Turrets Syndrome: *junk turret 1, *?junk turret 2, *?junk turret 3

NOTES: Unsure if stun batons and junk turrets have tiers, assuming they do for now.

And that's it! This is something of a rough draft, please let me know about any oversights, corrections, etc. and I'll edit the list. Thanks!

 

[Roland]

They don’t have screamers because they need something to bring more zombies to your vicinity and they just can’t think of a way to do it without a special zombie. They have screamers because they like special zombies and the idea of a screamer is cool and they purposely want that kind of a zombie in the game by design.

Look, I get that there are some of you who abhor anything other than plain normal zombies but you better get used to the idea that you’ll need to mod your game for that because the developers love special zombies and boss zombies and intend to keep them in the game. In fact I’ve seen discussion about at least three additional special/boss types that aren’t in the game yet.

You are barking up the wrong game if you are looking for non-specials. This one has little girls who scream, cops and vultures who vomit acid, spider zombies who leap super far, Ferals that run during the day, all zombies that can pound through concrete, demolishers that explode, a giant mutant pig, ___________, ____________, and _______________.

Now we just need a mutant partridge in a burnt pear tree and we’ll be complete.

In any case, if you hate special zombies mod them out because they are here to stay.

 

[wolfbain5]

They don’t have screamers because they need something to bring more zombies to your vicinity and they just can’t think of a way to do it without a special zombie. They have screamers because they like special zombies and the idea of a screamer is cool and they purposely want that kind of a zombie in the game by design.
Look, I get that there are some of you who abhor anything other than plain normal zombies but you better get used to the idea that you’ll need to mod your game for that because the developers love special zombies and boss zombies and intend to keep them in the game. In fact I’ve seen discussion about at least three additional special/boss types that aren’t in the game yet.

You are barking up the wrong game if you are looking for non-specials. This one has little girls who scream, cops and vultures who vomit acid, spider zombies who leap super far, Ferals that run during the day, all zombies that can pound through concrete, demolishers that explode, a giant mutant pig, ___________, ____________, and _______________.

Now we just need a mutant partridge in a burnt pear tree and we’ll be complete.

In any case, if you hate special zombies mod them out because they are here to stay.

so basically romero meets resident evil

 

[Slingblade2040]

speaking of special zombies...any chance of a cross mutation of the special zombies? like a spider zombie that explodes like the cop? or a feral wight with the fire zombies abilities to set you on fire? or maybe a scream cop? maybe exploding vultures?

 

[Roland]

speaking of special zombies...any chance of a cross mutation of the special zombies? like a spider zombie that explodes like the cop? or a feral wight with the fire zombies abilities to set you on fire? or maybe a scream cop? maybe exploding vultures?

Now see THIS is more in line with what gets the developers excited about new enemies rather than trying to "help" them figure out ways to remove already existing specials.

 

[Haidrgna]

speaking of special zombies...any chance of a cross mutation of the special zombies? like a spider zombie that explodes like the cop? or a feral wight with the fire zombies abilities to set you on fire? or maybe a scream cop? maybe exploding vultures?

Exploding frog zombies are super fun, modded them myself and I definitely recommend the Fun Pimps to add them to the game.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

They don’t have screamers because they need something to bring more zombies to your vicinity and they just can’t think of a way to do it without a special zombie. They have screamers because they like special zombies and the idea of a screamer is cool and they purposely want that kind of a zombie in the game by design.
Look, I get that there are some of you who abhor anything other than plain normal zombies but you better get used to the idea that you’ll need to mod your game for that because the developers love special zombies and boss zombies and intend to keep them in the game. In fact I’ve seen discussion about at least three additional special/boss types that aren’t in the game yet.

You are barking up the wrong game if you are looking for non-specials. This one has little girls who scream, cops and vultures who vomit acid, spider zombies who leap super far, Ferals that run during the day, all zombies that can pound through concrete, demolishers that explode, a giant mutant pig, ___________, ____________, and _______________.

Now we just need a mutant partridge in a burnt pear tree and we’ll be complete.

In any case, if you hate special zombies mod them out because they are here to stay.

I love special zombies, and there should be special zombies that show up when you find a loot room - or at least a chance of one.

also I am just stirring the pot on the kid/child/baby zombies - I don't care but a mutant height challenged zombie that runs crazy and bites ankles would be cool.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Now see THIS is more in line with what gets the developers excited about new enemies rather than trying to "help" them figure out ways to remove already existing specials.

We should also have zombie versions of all the animals - nothing like killing a Rabbit and having it turn zombie and attack you or run and attack later.

 

[Demonoid74]

Said it before...have zombie rabbit hordes swarm and attempt to eat all your crops lol...

 

[Gamida]

Guppy used to have zombie chickens on his server long ago...it sounds funny but the little bastards were devastating when you had a horde of them

 

[TSRViper]

Exploding frog zombies are super fun, modded them myself and I definitely recommend the Fun Pimps to add them to the game.

Are you serious Sam? Err Haidrgna

 

[TSRViper]

Idea for the child sized quick zombie: If actual children z's aren't permitted-
Take the upper half-(no legs) give em more muscular arms.(maybe a mutated head).. it's movement can be the arms either together or windmill type..

bottom torso could have a sharp bone sticking out/// charges in ands raises lower section up and tries to impale-- can also have em stick to player if the hit scores and then they raise up, pull them selves in and try and take a bite..

I like this idea, half eaten torso running around on its hands, faster than a regular zed that cripples you like the crawlers do. Anything that moves quick and is hard to spot in long grass would be awesome!

 

[JaxTeller718]

They don’t have screamers because they need something to bring more zombies to your vicinity and they just can’t think of a way to do it without a special zombie. They have screamers because they like special zombies and the idea of a screamer is cool and they purposely want that kind of a zombie in the game by design.
Look, I get that there are some of you who abhor anything other than plain normal zombies but you better get used to the idea that you’ll need to mod your game for that because the developers love special zombies and boss zombies and intend to keep them in the game. In fact I’ve seen discussion about at least three additional special/boss types that aren’t in the game yet.

You are barking up the wrong game if you are looking for non-specials. This one has little girls who scream, cops and vultures who vomit acid, spider zombies who leap super far, Ferals that run during the day, all zombies that can pound through concrete, demolishers that explode, a giant mutant pig, ___________, ____________, and _______________.

Now we just need a mutant partridge in a burnt pear tree and we’ll be complete.

In any case, if you hate special zombies mod them out because they are here to stay.

Bring on as many specials as you can. Having the abilities is fun to play with, and like you said a romero mod is simple and easy to achieve. Ive nothing more to add except i wanted to be positive for once

Also for you Romero fans out there remember even Romero zombies used tools like rocks and climbed up ladders, they even retained basic knowledge like pathing and using elevator buttons. Dawn of the Dead features a zombie who REMEMBERS where the heroes were hiding out so stop being so serious guys. Its a game!

 

[Laz Man]

I love special zombies, and there should be special zombies that show up when you find a loot room - or at least a chance of one.
also I am just stirring the pot on the kid/child/baby zombies - I don't care but a mutant height challenged zombie that runs crazy and bites ankles would be cool.

Given the current spider zombie does a great job biting madmole ankles, he might not be keen to add another one lol...

 

[MechanicalLens]

I would say instead of adding a new special type of zombie, TFP could give soem special ability to wights, imo. Currently they are just unarmored military zombies with more health, and that run at all times.

 

[Haidrgna]

Are you serious Sam? Err Haidrgna

Yeah always when posting in the Dev thread

 

[sillls]

Given the current spider zombie does a great job biting madmole ankles, he might not be keen to add another one lol...

Well in that case. Do they plan to add a new climber?

The last climber just got a transfer.

 

[Cyber Shadow]

I really think it'd be better if screamers were a random zombie that could spawn in the world (or as a sleeper?) instead of just being this annoying thing that walks towards your base every 10 minutes. And wandering screamers should be made more scary and have bigger presence in audio (like witch from Left 4 Dead).