PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Gamida]

Going to play devils advocate here. I would like to see another horde night like you had last time with the damage the demolishers do set to what you think they should be *(Just saw faatals post below where he says it is gone from 200 to 5000)*. You did say they didn't do enough damage. With damage increased and if you get a similar amount of them as you did before I dont think there would have been much left to the area of the base you were fighting in. I would guess you would have lost a lot of your work area and the crates that were in it. I really do want to see what we will be up against when we reach the gamestage to get that many of them.

 

[faatal]

"How are these guys getting through my back door!"
...lube confirmed.

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My only wish is that demolishers destroyed blocks with their explosions and not entities. Reverse it. People care more about their ♥♥♥♥ than their health. It'd be more awesome.

So which part did you consider the bow drop moment? The gyro loss? (That was funny)

Per Joel's request, demo explosion block damage has been increased from 200 to 5000.

The detonation time delay has been reduced from 5 to 2 seconds, which is still long enough to do a melee hit and run away without dying.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Per Joel's request, demo explosion block damage has been increased from 200 to 5000.The detonation time delay has been reduced from 5 to 2 seconds, which is still long enough to do a melee hit and run away without dying.

Perfect! What else can trigger him?

 

[Gareee]

Looks very good. I think their games are geared for an amazing short (30 hours?) experience, but after you beat it I doubt there is any replay ability right away.

They actually have a lot to content...I think the first game took us over 120 to complete, but they also generate random quests after that, I think.

Thing is unlike 7 days, it's a prebuild world that gets repetitive after that long.

But they do have some amazingly fun gameplay mechanics that would fit into 7days, which is why I mentioned it.

Btw, loved the 84 video! It's already been mentioned and increasing block damage on the demolisher is a better way to go, I think. He just didn't have the destruction capability to make him a bigger threat.

A concern at this point is the sheer amount of ammo needed...and it looks like the only viable option at that point is the bigger guns that do heavy damage.

I would like to see more block damage from grenades though (easy to change in the xml) and I like you are considering the trajectory arc as a learned skill.

Looking forward to your next horde night, and seeing if you have improved base defenses, and enough ammo.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Per Joel's request, demo explosion block damage has been increased from 200 to 5000.The detonation time delay has been reduced from 5 to 2 seconds, which is still long enough to do a melee hit and run away without dying.

Do you know if traps also trigger the demolisher's explosives, if hit in the "sweet spot"? (Dart traps, turrets, electric fences, blade traps, etc.)

 

[MechanicalLens]

Perfect! What else can trigger him?

It would be interesting if special screamer zombie types were added for later gamestage horde nights that summoned yet another special type of zombie(s) if not dealt with. Or at least, imo. Thoughts?

 

[wolfbain5]

Perfect! What else can trigger him?

Joel or the demolisher?

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Joel or the demolisher?

We already know what triggers Joel:

LBD, release date requests, mocking the quest markers, and complaints about water... and milk

 

[Laz Man]

We already know what triggers Joel:LBD, release date requests, mocking the quest markers, and complaints about water... and milk

There is also BowGate, GyroDartGate, 1BlockIngressGate, and also ChildZedGate....

 

[madmole]

Does it not make sense to be depleting durability of building tools as you use them? I'm ok with it as is, but just curious.

It still has durability and needs repaired, it just has no quality. Similar to a torch.

 

[madmole]

So what's the point of the Demolisher if you're now going to make him just a different skin of the Cop? Having one be a block threat and the other an entity threat seems better to me.

He doesn't have a ranged attack and is a tank to kill without the detonator, and he does 5x the block damage a cop does with melee, and has a mini nuclear explosion, so quite a bit of difference. He's faster too. We're still trying stuff out. Maybe he'll just be a suicide bomber that blows when he gets close and no melee at all.

 

[madmole]

My biggest issue with the game is the non-horde zombies are boring and not a concern (have over 4k hours in the game).
How about a glass cannon type of zombie that can be thrown into the mix. Noisy, faster moving, half-human that goes down quick but god help you if he connects.

Kinda like ferals but higher damage but lower HP, make exploring the wilderness more tense.

That could be interesting.

 

[Guppycur]

Per Joel's request, demo explosion block damage has been increased from 200 to 5000.The detonation time delay has been reduced from 5 to 2 seconds, which is still long enough to do a melee hit and run away without dying.

...and PVP players don't think y'all add stuff for them...

 

[madmole]

Yeh we read what you have to say, but like to argue with each other anyway. =)

Its a real pain in the ass trying to just answer questions when I have to sift through pages of debates.

 

[SunnySideEggs]

At then end, do the child zombies fit into the catagory of "Worry about"?

 

[MechanicalLens]

Its a real pain in the ass trying to just answer questions when I have to sift through pages of debates.

Perhaps you could open up a "debate forum"? (But don't call it a debate thread, for obvious reasons.) Just a suggestion, and yes, I could see how this would be a problem. But then again, those can get out of hand pretty quickly, so idk. *Shrugs*

 

[Guppycur]

He doesn't have a ranged attack and is a tank to kill without the detonator, and he does 5x the block damage a cop does with melee, and has a mini nuclear explosion, so quite a bit of difference. He's faster too. We're still trying stuff out. Maybe he'll just be a suicide bomber that blows when he gets close and no melee at all.

We used Boomer zombies in a (M word you don't like talking about)... It really is quite fun and a very big game changer. I kinda wish a17 had better staying power so we could have tried them with faatal's ai... Would be a nightmare. Love it and I think you're probably going to remove fist damage as it'll be redundant. Or switch fist damage to entity only so you really CAN'T jump down and take them out.

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Its a real pain in t inhe ass trying to just answer questions when I have to sift through pages of debates.

I can understand that...

Roland, do that thing you used to do, where there were concurrent threads, so Joel doesn't stroke out.

 

[madmole]

I know this will fall on deaf ears, but when the whining about demolishers doing too much damage and increased blood moon zombie counts commences, please dont give in and nerf everything all to hell.

The way I see it if your still playing by the time they spawn, we've already weeded out the whiners. It will take thick skin to make it to that game stage IMO.

We're going to address death with some changes. If you die on blood moon, the zombies will no longer GPS to you unless you engage them in combat. This will prevent death loop. SO if you get rekt, you can spawn in the wild or if your bed roll is in a secure room you can just crouch and it will basically not know where you are and normal stealth rules will apply, until you engage, then its on again. So if you die you can hide and not get in a death loop. If you want to keep fighting you can. It will be up to the player.

This will help reduce xp loss and aggravating death loops. Of course you can do this already by not pressing the spawn button until sunrise, but this will be a bit better IMO. You could sneak off to a mine and do something and not stare at a button. If your team mate is alive the zeds will keep gps to him.

Hopefully we get this into A18, but no promises.

Long story short this should reduce the whining IMO. Dying once on horde night is tolerable, but dying 5-10 times or whatever sucks.

 

[Zombie_Jam]

You are over reacting based upon an A16/A17 reference point for how the game plays. Before you cry an entire river of mixed joy and sadness I suggest you stop worrying until you play it. I’ve played 2 weeks into the intelligence build and it is fun. I really like stun batons and “crafting mediocre” is still great when you don’t have to wait for randomness to smile on you.
All of the major builds are interesting and unique and worth doing five playthroughs to experience them.

I say this at the risk of being accused of dictating to you what you should do and forcing you to react in a different way to Madmole’s news than you wish to....

Except I don't need to play it to know that, MadMole addressed me directly and stated that a full intelligence build allows player made items of middle of the road quality.

If I want better weapons that means I cannot play as I wish, which is basic looting, mining, and taking on zombies at my leisure with a heavy focus on crafting and farming, because I am going to need a decent enough str/def build even with basic melee weapons just to get the better defense loot.

Which means more than basic looting. Which means looting POIs. Which restates my point.

All the while spending precious levelling points on some things that I do NOT want and all for the neccessity of getting where I do want to be. Which is INT. Which is now sounding like something I don't want because of the medium level weaponry at the top of the tier. Comprende?

Of course I will try it but from what information I've seen, I don't see this as a very good setup. And may I remind you - I play single player. I'm in favour of the previous posters adjustments between SP/MP to rid us of at least some of the tedium.

 

[Aldranon]

It'd be cool if electric fences set off the timer, so that they got through with their fuse lit...

Nah.

The fact that blade traps seem the safest way to deal with Demolisher zombies makes them (yes positioned so they smack his head) something much more useful.

So you don't "waste" them on zombies you can safely shoot, only turn them on when Demo guys are near and turn them off until the next one!

This makes MP even stronger, as you REALLY want an intelligent spec'rd player. They're the trap guys, right?