PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Tazio]

Nope, sorry I can't find one and I'm starving. How do I craft a hoe?

The same way you craft an iron pick. Or is mining too difficult for you too?

 

[Guppycur]

Nope, sorry I can't find one and I'm starving. How do I craft a hoe?

If farming is your only method of getting food then you're playing the game wrong. What you doing is removing different options of playstyle, you're not solving a problem.

 

[sillls]

You mean fix what is already there?

Were you planning to add more sounds to animals like the wolf so you could hear them as the charge you?

 

[andrough]

I don't think you understand the significance of what the hoe represents. It represents progress. It represents the ability to complete many tasks in fulfillment of a goal. It means that you can't hit a farm, grab the corn, and be farming on day 1. Dumbing down farming to "craft a block" means farming isn't a challenge. Do you want this to be a game that challengers players? Right now I it seems the answer is no.
Answer this: who are you designing this game for? Are you looking to make a quick buck from a casual player who is going to put in 20 hours before they go back to Fortnite? Or are you gearing the game for a 1000 hour player who buys copies for their friends and recommends it to everyone they meet?

Are there any games which you have played for 1000s of hours and still play full vanilla? They're not selling us the base game- it's also a framework on which to build what we want and this is a framework which isn't available from any other games I know.

 

[Zarzthor]

"Everyone" doesn't include your players obviously

You're not "everyone" and neither is your opinion.

 

[sillls]

You still need nitrate, clay and rotten flesh to make a farm plot. So find a mine, get a pickaxe etc. Maybe one less clutter item is needed but its still fairly deep and involved to get it going, and finding seeds is fun. I took pride in creating my farm one plot at a time as I found seeds as I didn't want to waste perks on seed crafting.

Ok, so were do you find seed? Do I find them in loot or in the wild?

 

[andrough]

Ok, so were do you find seed? Do I find them in loot or in the wild?

This is turning into "how is babby plant formed" :bi_polo:

 

[Trekkan]

Why? Even with zero farming I acquire a giant stockpile of food. Do you just want to be unsuccessful at farming? You want to waste time and see your crops fail, then laugh your way to the fridge and feast on whatever you want in your food box?

Sounds like farming should be more useful and the looted food less plentiful. Or, just get rid of farming... (no, I don't want you to). But to me, its a part of the game. Keeping my fellow survivors fed, so we can stay healthy, fight more and loot more.

But, if you have plenty of food without farming... there isn't much point to the entire mechanic.

 

[Aurelius]

Sounds like farming should be more useful and the looted food less plentiful. Or, just get rid of farming... (no, I don't want you to). But to me, its a part of the game. Keeping my fellow survivors fed, so we can stay healthy, fight more and loot more.
But, if you have plenty of food without farming... there isn't much point to the entire mechanic.

Just need to add food spoilage...

-A

 

[Survager]

When have biome zombies ever been a threat (outside of the wasteland)?

On difficulty Insain + Always run, I suppose =)

 

[madmole]

So, grindier. Not harder. Biiiig difference.
What was the value add in removing a boiled in a can water recipe? Low on XML space? Some fps issue? Visual bug?

...seems you've put more effort in removing it than leaving it in.

Food is has *never* been an issue in this game. And what tsbx said is true... If you want a nice ocd box to plant it, you build it. It is a crafting game.

No its not grindy. Its amazing because you aren't skipping over huge amounts of content. You can smell the roses of every incremental growth in the gear you acquire instead of skipping over two armors and going straight to steel you find various pieces and with random stats its like oh cool this piece is a little better than my last. I must have upgraded my armor a dozen times or more, and my guns of choice many times instead of going brown, yellow, blue or pink and being done. Now there is always a better item if you keep looting and the pacing is way better.

You appreciate everything a lot more now. A perk is a meaningful choice because it only happens once an hour, instead of 12 levels an hour like before. But you can specialize early and have so many options to make your player build without buying perks that its just so much better.

The cans? Just clunk. Whats wrong with boiling slow in a jar vs boiling slow in a can? You can cook charred meat on a campfire so you should be able to cook basic water as well, and cans were just a sharp stick. It takes 4x longer to boil without and feels good to me, but whatever I'm only having more fun than I've ever had at this game, what the hell do I know vs some random fan

 

[Gnomaana]

If this starts a ♥♥♥♥ storm I'm going to ban everyone or close the forums down.
You can no longer boil water in a can. You can simply boil water from a jar of murky water now without a cooking pot, but it takes 4x as long as with a cooking pot.

Why? More sharp sticks. Only veterans knew about the canned water trick and it was only useful on a really bad day where you couldn't find a cooking pot. So we removed cans of water and you can just boil jars of water now. One way to do things is best.

That is the exact opposite of true. The more ways to do things the better. It is only better from a programming standpoint in that it is easier to maintain but from a gameplay standpoint? Nope. Not even close.

 

[The Gronk]

Nope, try explaining it to someone with one breath.

If I can explain a farming mechanic in a single breath it has been under engineered, over simplified or dumbed down too much.

 

[Gnomaana]

Why? Even with zero farming I acquire a giant stockpile of food. Do you just want to be unsuccessful at farming? You want to waste time and see your crops fail, then laugh your way to the fridge and feast on whatever you want in your food box?

Sounds like a major food balance issue. If food is never scarce and not hard to get or farm then why have it in the game? It is just an annoying mouse click from time to time at that point.

 

[madmole]

Don't kid yourself, he's got several hundred thousand downloads. 10 million? No. But his fan base is nothing to sneeze at.

That's great, but what the hell does vanilla have to do with what he's doing?

 

[madmole]

lol. I like the idea of not having to depend on a pot to boil water, thanks.

Even the former Captain Obvious understands. Some people don't like change.

 

[madmole]

Getting the perks to be a decent farmer, digging out the farm, expanding it, and harvesting hundreds of plants takes a little more than 5 seconds every 3 days.
Ok, so what I'm understanding is that basically you just craft pre-tilled soil in your inventory and then place it and it becomes auto-flattened tilled soil that you then plant seeds in like normal? That sounds at least a bit better than I thought. I was seeing wooden boxes on legs that would take one plant each, like in the non voxel games. Glad I was mistaken. Will we still be able to fertilize these new blocks?

They are crafted from clay, rotten flesh and a fair bit of nitrate.

 

[andrough]

That is the exact opposite of true. The more ways to do things the better. It is only better from a programming standpoint in that it is easier to maintain but from a gameplay standpoint? Nope. Not even close.

To me this means more freedom early game. Day 1 was ALWAYS "go find cooking pot". Now I have the freedom to put off seeking out kitchens and cabinets in favor of doing something else.

 

[CannedSmeef]

What is happening, like seriously. The farming system itself hasn't changed, it's just the method of getting fertile blocks. An arguably much less annoying method.

 

[madmole]

whats up with all the hate. I play on insane difficultyImho

The amount of zombies outside the pois matters little to none. Not once have i felt that they add anything to the game. Most of the time i just run past them during the day and if i feel ballsy during the night, otherwise its stealthing past them which is just tidious. So maybe in this case less is more?

I dont understand how farming change is such a big deal. Farming in 7dtd have never been that developed. (No need for water, unless modded). You still need fertilizer and seeds, its just tilling thats gone, and well i guess its a problem for those who love repetitive actions...

Since when did water cans impact survival. It literally takes only half a day to find a pot if you are unlucky, which isnt enough to make you thirsty, and there is a high chance youll have a couple bottles of water by then. So boiling without pot takes 4x times seems fair to me

Exactly.