PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Laz Man]

Wow....I just noticed a change to the game. Not sure when it was implemented but I think it is smart and it is a change I debated in favor of doing back in A16 but the decision went against me. Now it seems someone with decision making power agrees for A18. I think this change will result in fewer gameplay complaints that would then in turn result in TFP feeling pressure to dial back some of their tougher gameplay changes. So Snowdog should be happy
Someone asked for a code name for an as yet unannounced change for A18 so here ya go:

Codename: Conventional Ralston

Hmm let's see. Dogs now make an incoming sound? So no more stealth surprise attack?

...Horde mode readded?

...sometype of settings option added?

...get jars back after drinking jarred drink?

...gore blocks return?

...I know you said for A16, but perhaps some variation/subset of LBD readded? *runs and hides*

 

[Ouch Quit It]

Wow....I just noticed a change to the game. Not sure when it was implemented but I think it is smart and it is a change I debated in favor of doing back in A16 but the decision went against me. Now it seems someone with decision making power agrees for A18. I think this change will result in fewer gameplay complaints that would then in turn result in TFP feeling pressure to dial back some of their tougher gameplay changes. So Snowdog should be happy
Someone asked for a code name for an as yet unannounced change for A18 so here ya go:

Codename: Conventional Ralston

Propane tanks=flame traps

 

[meganoth]

It's a high bar to hit though. Around Europe there's the phrase "a British sense of humour". I'm not entirely sure that's a compliment.

It's a compliment. British politicians have such a great talent for satire. :cocksure:

Speaking of jumping on a car to avoid dogs...
Why do snakes and dogs (and zombies) cause a car to explode when they attack them? Quite silly imo. And why would they even attack it in the first place? I understand if you are on top of it they might attack it, but often if you are simply near it they will. One of these entities couldn't even flatten a tire let alone make it explode.

Zombies, zombie dogs, zombie snakes all have teeth that can cut through steel, so opening up the fuel tank is easy for them. The teeth also produce sparks whenever they scratch on metal. ----> BOOOM.

Anyway, all those ultra-realistic action movies provide conclusive evidence that cars do explode if you so much as stare at them.

 

[n2n1]

Today i had a dream that in A18 was reworked RWG and now i can customize it for yourself....

Is this true?

 

[madmole]

When A17 was coming out the forums had the progress bar of completion. Can that be brought back for A18 to give us a better idea of progress?

Its done we're just fixing bugs. What good is a progress bar stuck at 99% going to do?

 

[madmole]

MM, is it possible to say that 17 Alpha has only 10% of the content from the release version?What is the approximate percentage of content that Alpha 18 has in your estimation?

17 had a huge amount of content, but it was new tech. New perks, new vehicles, new framework for both, new dungeons, etc. 18 built on that so its deceptively bigger but still probably bigger than 17 20+ new weapons, 300 schematics/books, 70+ new POIis is a lot. All new terrain textures, new mining boulders yeah its big.

Edit: Barely started my morning coffee, I'd say that 18 is about 80-85% there. Bandits, quests, and more polish and we're done.

 

[Roland]

Anyway, all those ultra-realistic action movies provide conclusive evidence that cars do explode if you so much as stare at them.

Just as long as you don’t look during the explosion.

 

[MajorMunchy]

17 had a huge amount of content, but it was new tech. New perks, new vehicles, new framework for both, new dungeons, etc. 18 built on that so its deceptively bigger but still probably bigger than 17 20+ new weapons, 300 schematics/books, 70+ new POIis is a lot. All new terrain textures, new mining boulders yeah its big.
Edit: Barely started my morning coffee, I'd say that 18 is about 80-85% there. Bandits, quests, and more polish and we're done.

Done with a18 with bandits etc or done with the game o.o i think you may awake some lurkers with that comment LOL

 

[n2n1]

Minecrap awaits you.

Mr. MM believe that the "burnt zombie" in 7dtd not a cartoon?

 

[madmole]

I agree.
A competitive voxel game is similar to the guy in a wheelchair keeping up with the pack in a marathon! No, he's not up with the front runners, but guess where the TV crews would be, guess how many people would cheer that guy on?

It would be a shame to drop everything TFP learned about voxels and just do what every one else does. BUT, we all must make our own choices in life and live with the results...

If I could do it all over again I'd have thrown out the diggable terrain. Alpha 1 could have had static Unity terrain, a simple water plane, ran 30% better, used way less ram, console wouldn't have been so beat down, allowed faster vehicles, looked as good as 18's terrain does now, (Minus the Justin talent) and we wouldn't have wasted energy on mining, cave systems, multiple versions of trees, etc. Mining could have been mining POIs with respawning nuggets like rust/skyrim/subnautica with a nice model. We'd anger 10% and gain 200% new players that don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about deformable terrain and buggy water.

At some point we might release a static terrain option for 7 days just to see the performance gains. IMO most people would run it for the performance gains and better pvp, none of this wimpy underground base business, fight like a man like in TWD. You don't see those guys living in caves/mines.

What may have made us great has also slowed us down and kept us indy looking/performing. I think mining is ok but its not part of the secret sauce, we'd still have mining it just wouldn't be ugly 3d mining. At this point we'd kind of solved it mostly but it could have saved us a lot of time and headaches, allowing us to focus on cool stuff like we are able to now.

 

[madmole]

RolandI wish it were the return to the huge Central Hub City, with an original spawnpoint being there. But that's for future release right????

And it begins.

We might add a larger city to wastelands but no spawns there and you won't know where the wasteland is.

 

[Alpacko]

At some point we might release a static terrain option for 7 days just to see the performance gains. IMO most people would run it for the performance gains and better pvp, none of this wimpy underground base business, fight like a man like in TWD. You don't see those guys living in caves/mines.

yet.

 

[madmole]

Is the MF's counter supposed to hit a perfect 0 before it's pushed to experimental ? Just wondering if there's any priority on your bugs that let us hope that only the most glaring / gamebreaking ones need to be fixed while a dozen may make it to a 18.0 for some days (until the 18.1 patch).

Must Fix, not Might Fix or Maybe Fix. Of course when it gets down and there might be 10 stubborn ones left, we could possible punt them to KS, depending on the issue. Ideally everything gets fixed, Rick is adamant on a smooth launch, and at first I was like "lets get this out there its awesome" I really think we're doing it right now and its worth waiting for and bugs just block the spotlight of how awesome something could be.

 

[Tin]

At some point we might release a static terrain option for 7 days just to see the performance gains. IMO most people would run it for the performance gains and better pvp, none of this wimpy underground base business, fight like a man like in TWD. You don't see those guys living in caves/mines.

Probably will catch some flack for this but... Sign me up for this pls!

 

[Rassilon]

If I could do it all over again I'd have thrown out the diggable terrain. Alpha 1 could have had static Unity terrain, a simple water plane, ran 30% better, used way less ram, console wouldn't have been so beat down, allowed faster vehicles, looked as good as 18's terrain does now, (Minus the Justin talent) and we wouldn't have wasted energy on mining, cave systems, multiple versions of trees, etc. Mining could have been mining POIs with respawning nuggets like rust/skyrim/subnautica with a nice model. We'd anger 10% and gain 200% new players that don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about deformable terrain and buggy water.
At some point we might release a static terrain option for 7 days just to see the performance gains. IMO most people would run it for the performance gains and better pvp, none of this wimpy underground base business, fight like a man like in TWD. You don't see those guys living in caves/mines.

What may have made us great has also slowed us down and kept us indy looking/performing. I think mining is ok but its not part of the secret sauce, we'd still have mining it just wouldn't be ugly 3d mining. At this point we'd kind of solved it mostly but it could have saved us a lot of time and headaches, allowing us to focus on cool stuff like we are able to now.

+1

I think you once said ( as an idea, thought ) about going there for the sequel.

I would be all in for that. i dont need Voxels neccesarly. I would do miss the underground bases tho.

But as long as you have a decent building system ( you once said you liked Fallout4s for that) im on Board

 

[Guppycur]

I know the M word is taboo here but id be remiss to not mention that we have biome gamestaging in Ravenhearst. It calculates the gamestage of the player in a loaded chunk when spawning in zombies or animals that we set. If grouped it calculates the groups gamestage.
I have always wished to see this feature because it could make later gameplay more involved for players far along in gamestage. I think I have even seen you mention this may be a future addition in later alphas and I hope that it is. It can make exploring the world more dangerous as the player becomes stronger and can also introduce new enemies.

There's an unhooked up buff event (that I assume wookie hooked up) for ifBiomeEntered or something, so I assume tfp is coming around to our kind of thinking on that and just hasn't done it yet.

 

[madmole]

Hi Joel, now that you have a play around with electricity, what do you think about adding logic box (AND, OR, XOR, NAND, NXOR) in future alpha? or would that still run in the limitation with multiple input/close loop circuit? I'm not sure if that limitation is by tech or by choice.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1170562253520691200

I don't care about advanced electricity. There is enough to do what I want to do now.

People please stop giving me advice on how to perfect my fort, self discovery through trial and error is the best. I don't mind wasting resources learning, its fun to me and strategy guide BS is annoying, let me fail and I will learn from my own mistakes.

I can't just ♥♥♥♥ turrets out of thin air. The parts are elusive for smgs in A18, its a t3 gun.

 

[Guppycur]

Probably will catch some flack for this but... Sign me up for this pls!

Die in a hole!

 

[madmole]

I know the M word is taboo here but id be remiss to not mention that we have biome gamestaging in Ravenhearst. It calculates the gamestage of the player in a loaded chunk when spawning in zombies or animals that we set. If grouped it calculates the groups gamestage.
I have always wished to see this feature because it could make later gameplay more involved for players far along in gamestage. I think I have even seen you mention this may be a future addition in later alphas and I hope that it is. It can make exploring the world more dangerous as the player becomes stronger and can also introduce new enemies.

The problem is level 200 dude drives through on his motorcycle and some guy on foot behind him gets to deal with the high level enemies that spawned in his wake.

 

[Guppycur]

At some point we might release a static terrain option for 7 days just to see the performance gains. IMO most people would run it for the performance gains and better pvp, none of this wimpy underground base business, fight like a man like in TWD. You don't see those guys living in caves/mines.

And then you're really changing building and how to works too...

- - - Updated - - -

The problem is level 200 dude drives through on his motorcycle and some guy on foot behind him gets to deal with the high level enemies that spawned in his wake.

So... Same as a poi then. Got it.