PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

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    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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agree 100%
the game has lost all that has made it unique and kept players around for endless hours

i got 2400 hours i remember before A17 thinking WOOO HOO i am going to break 3K hours

i really hope A18 brings me back but from what i am seeing probably not

i may never make to that 3K the way things are going
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I think 18 will do it. If not then it will take some mods in a few years to win you over probably, because 18 is the direction we're going with. Its rekindled the game for the devs.

 
@madmole
Hey remember the last time the community was complaining big and you were defending the game? yeah, that was when A17 happened... "a17 skil system is the best ever and you are going to love it" yeah, right...

Do you know the real reason people are complaining about farming? because you are changing the soul of this game. It used to be a complex survival game and now its turning into a dumb shooter. You keep simplifying, and cutting things. Will this increase the player base? maybe, but be careful not to be too similar to the other 1000 zombie games..

Reducing zombie spawns in the wild is very bad. The day that sleepers were added was the worst day ever for the development of this game. Damn, those mf sleepers! You removed cities spawns and you are constantly decreasing zombies outside. Nobody wants that. NOBODY. You should increase zombies outside. Yeah, keep writing excuses like "it is a bad design", "you get sandwiched", "you dont see em anyway", "sleepers are more fun".. this is all bs that you tell yourself. The real reason, the only reason, is performance gains.. I don't know, we were told that a18 had much higher fps than a17, but apparently not, great..
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Totally agree, wondering how they would expect the game to be more fun by taking features off, really excited to play A18 tho.

 
I think 18 will do it. If not then it will take some mods in a few years to win you over probably, because 18 is the direction we're going with. Its rekindled the game for the devs.
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i see how much fun you are having and it is giving me hope

you are pretty entertaining to watch

 
Indeed. My daughter just started her last year of college, gets almost all A's and considers half the courses, teachers and students to be horrible. The other half is meh.
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Probably gets it from her genius father then. :-)

 
I really like the sound of the new farming boxes. It was always a pain to find or make a hoe, i seem to have the worst luck and never find one so use to have to spend points and make one. Then find a spot to farm just so annoying. I think the new boxes are a great addition and make it a little bit more easier. Keep up the awesome work Guys :02.47-tranquillity:
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Your welcome. Everyone will forget all about it once Conventional Ralston is cracked.

 
I'd like to put in my two cents here on this whole debacle about making the game "dumbed down" and how it's removing the soul. I've done quite a bit of reading on game design and I've seen a lot of different developers talk about their craft. One thing they all have in common is wanting to achieve elegance. Simply put, elegance is a feature that is not only effective, but it's also simple in design.
Making things more simple is not a bad thing, and if done correctly it can actually improve a feature. Let's look at the farming system for instance. Back in earlier alphas, you needed to find/craft a hoe (you probably won't find one for a while and you need metal production to make one, which has its own steps), till dirt, loot around for some fertilizer/buy one from a trader/gather a ton of ingredients to make it yourself, upgrade it by right clicking it while having said fertilizer, and then you could finally plant your food for a nice farm. That's a lot of steps for something that is as essential as food production in a survival game.

Currently in A17 the farming system is find/craft a hoe (you probably won't find one for a while and you need metal production to make one, which has its own steps), till dirt, plant the seed, and buy a couple of perks. Already this is much simpler, we just got the same result but cut out an arduous process in favor of something more intuitive. It's more immediately understood when someone tells you "oh if you want to grow food just put some points in this perk"

Now in A18 the farming system is craft a plot, place it, plant it, and buy a couple of perks. This is much more elegant than where we started, now if you wanna start a farm you just type "farm plot" and it tells you exactly what you need. No guide to metal smelting, no guide to fertilizer production, just a box and some perks.
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Elegance and simplicity aren't the goal. The goal is to engage the player to make meaningful choices. When simplicity removes those meaningful choices, it makes the game worse.

-A

 
I know food isn't an issue (actually it might, maybe they changed food drop rates), I'm just saying farming is going to be an earlier thing now. Which I like, actually.
I really don't get why subverting a complex process for a simpler more instant one is a problem. It's like when they changed farming in A17 to no longer need fertilizer, just a perk. It's more elegant.
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See we removed some complexity (hoe) and added complexity (need fertilizer). Its just a list of stuff you need instead of gated by perks to craft a hoe and all the nonsense of hoeing on a hill and your crops looked like ♥♥♥♥.

 
I'd like to put in my two cents here on this whole debacle about making the game "dumbed down" and how it's removing the soul. I've done quite a bit of reading on game design and I've seen a lot of different developers talk about their craft. One thing they all have in common is wanting to achieve elegance. Simply put, elegance is a feature that is not only effective, but it's also simple in design.
Making things more simple is not a bad thing, and if done correctly it can actually improve a feature. Let's look at the farming system for instance. Back in earlier alphas, you needed to find/craft a hoe (you probably won't find one for a while and you need metal production to make one, which has its own steps), till dirt, loot around for some fertilizer/buy one from a trader/gather a ton of ingredients to make it yourself, upgrade it by right clicking it while having said fertilizer, and then you could finally plant your food for a nice farm. That's a lot of steps for something that is as essential as food production in a survival game.

Currently in A17 the farming system is find/craft a hoe (you probably won't find one for a while and you need metal production to make one, which has its own steps), till dirt, plant the seed, and buy a couple of perks. Already this is much simpler, we just got the same result but cut out an arduous process in favor of something more intuitive. It's more immediately understood when someone tells you "oh if you want to grow food just put some points in this perk"

Now in A18 the farming system is craft a plot, place it, plant it, and buy a couple of perks. This is much more elegant than where we started, now if you wanna start a farm you just type "farm plot" and it tells you exactly what you need. No guide to metal smelting, no guide to fertilizer production, just a box and some perks.
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This guy gets it 100%. We put a lot of thought into making the most elegant designs and its kind of frustrating when people call it dumbing down the game. Its straight up intuitive now and still involved getting all the things you need to start a farm, but doesn't require smithing or perks. Perks make you better but aren't required. I had a lot of fun finding all the seed recipes and seeds to make my farm. We thought we shaved off the tedious parts that weren't very clear or easy to work with.

 
Well, personally, I love the idea of planter boxes. They look so clean and semi-modern. While it's sad to see the old traditional way of farming and the garden hoe going away, we will all move on. It's like the Doctor in Doctor Who - a new Doctor comes along, everyone despises them, and then they slowly become attached to them until they are replaced by someone else. It's a never-ending cycle. Regarding this change to farming, expect some backlash, but at the end of the day, I suspect that 95% of people will prefer this way of farming to the old one. And press "e" to pick up crops again, I hear? YES PLEASE!
Admittedly, I was initially confused over the removal of cans of water. I felt like it was removing an immersive part of the game, until I realized... I have never actually used a can of water. Ever. And I can't name anyone who has. So its removal is no biggie. :p
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Two positive posts in a row... can we have a third? Do I hear a third? Going once, going twice?

 
i see how much fun you are having and it is giving me hope
you are pretty entertaining to watch
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You cannot fake fun, least I can't. I'm glad it shows in the videos, Horde night almost wipes me out its so intense.

 
Elegance and simplicity aren't the goal. The goal is to engage the player to make meaningful choices. When simplicity removes those meaningful choices, it makes the game worse.
-A
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Farming was never a meaningful choice it was a tedious exercise in frustration hoeing the uneven terrain and trying to place fertilizer sucked, wasting a point on a hoe? Come on you can dig with your hands. How was anything meaningful, other than planting that first seed? You have the same effect now gathering seeds and materials to build the farm plot. I can't wait for everyone to take back their words on this, farming rocks now.

 
My point is the owners of TFP hate games so complicated you have to tab out to read a wiki to understand how to do something. It should be simple.
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Bananas! Thank goodness you inspired so many mods. I flat out don't think it should be simple. You're the boss applesauce...guess you got that goin' for ya'.

 
Didn't we patch that in 17? Its not gated now at all for sure.
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Ok, I just checked and I was wrong. Sorry about that. I haven't played in awhile.

Thanks for removing that cooking gate on boiling water.

 
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I love it when people out themselves for breaking ToS...
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Here's a little moderating secret: We just want people to behave themselves.

One way to do that is to make it a rule to not have an alt account but also make it still possible to create one. That way when we ban a trouble maker and they come back on as a different user they often keep a low profile and behave better because they are afraid we'll figure out it is them and then their second account will be gone. They feel like they outsmarted us BUT in actuality they are behaving better which is all we really want-- so we win too.

Then there are those who just can't help but admit that they "outsmarted" us by creating a second account. I really hope Proof89 enjoys posting better as Proof90....

 
Farming was never a meaningful choice it was a tedious exercise in frustration hoeing the uneven terrain and trying to place fertilizer sucked, wasting a point on a hoe? Come on you can dig with your hands. How was anything meaningful, other than planting that first seed? You have the same effect now gathering seeds and materials to build the farm plot. I can't wait for everyone to take back their words on this, farming rocks now.
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Hang on - don't misconstrue my comment to be about the farming discussion. It's strictly regarding the statement "more elegance = better game".

-A

 
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