PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[MechanicalLens]

so are some of you playing A18? I see some screen shots posted in the last couple of pages.

No, those are just screenshots taken from madmole's videos. We're just pointing out a few errors we happened by.

 

[Guppycur]

I've walked a hunk of granite before. It's a real drag....

King Kamehameha?

 

[Trankitas]

Hihihihihi you said a naughty word! I'm going to tell Roland!
Yeah taking care of a rock can be hard.. Not as hard as diamond, but still..

Question for you, my geologist comrade: is the diamond still the hardest mineral? Or there is some new alloy harder than diamond?

 

[meganoth]

In a18 you can be lvl 5 or 6 forever. Several times I have asked for a way to cut down XP gain for myself (the opposite of nerd goggles) and now I got one without even trying.

So you consider intentional dying as a valid strategy?

Gamestage may be a nice trick for you as developer to adapt the difficulty to the abilities of the PC, but it breaks down because half of the progress in this game is through items and building and gamestage doesn't measure this. Using this knowledge is as exploity as fighting the endboss in obvlivion as a lvl 1 character.

You're trying to swim against decades of gaming tropes, wherein a "level 5" character was always stronger, better, faster than a "level 4" character, and a "level 10" character could one-shot both of 'em dead.
In some respects perhaps, the XP in 7Days is almost even a little mis-named, if it's not something that is totally beneficial to the player, as it is in just about every other game ever made. In 7Days, it's a more nuanced , double-edged sword, but new players especially aren't going to have even the slightest idea of that.

A lvl5 character shoulld be stronger, it isn't a trope. All pen&paper RPGs increase the level of the enemies when the players advance. But the players should not use this meta knowledge: "Hey, we could level up now, but since we will fight the dragon and I'm sure our gamemaster will make the dragon stronger, we won't do that now.". Don't do that.

A good gamemaster will mix up enemy difficulty just so this link isn't too obvious, any computer RPG should do the same or as an alternative leave the enemies fixed so the player can grow up to the challenges.

Oblivion is the prime bad example. It is a convenient trick for the developer, but for the player it looses it's magic as soon as he knows the trick.

 

[Morloc]

mattock is a sledge hammer type. pointed and flat, not edged
I stand corrected. I was thinking war mattock. seems agricultural mattock and the pick-axe are very similar to the point they are almost synonymous.

-Morloc

 

[Guppycur]

Because character development aka investing skill points gives direction. It's the very foundation of any RPG, plus: Any skill point based system is basically a level-gate that locks away features from the player. I cannot understand why not to chase XP. Playing for x hours on a low game stage isn't fun as it isn't to kill zombie no. 1595 with wooden arrows or a wooden club.

Because it's the same game throughout but with different weapons.

Level 1, kill easy zombies with a bow. Takes 5 shots. Loot is crap.

Level 50, kill medium zombies with a modded crossbow. Takes 5 shots. Loot is medium.

Level 100, kill harder zombies with a rifle. Takes 5 shots. Loot is better.

...there is no valid *reason* to "succeed" in this game.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

@MM/TFP - what is the logic behind Master chef inside the General Strength Perks? it use to be in INT and that kinda made sense.

 

[Guppycur]

So you consider intentional dying as a valid strategy?

... especially now that there are no death penalties other than it takes longer to level up, which is the goal anyway, so yes?
[/QUOTE]

 

[MechanicalLens]

@MM/TFP - what is the logic behind Master chef inside the General Strength Perks? it use to be in INT and that kinda made sense.

It depends on the way you look at it. With LBD gone, it initially made more sense to have Master Chef under Intellect; since our characters forgot how to make bacon and eggs, they could use all the IQ points they could get. layful: Or you could put Master Chef under Fortitude, since eating healthy meals and having a balanced diet increases your body's well-being. However, eating is how you keep your strength up; mental strength would lead it back to Intellect, and physical Strength lands it under Fortitude. (Heck, you could even make the argument to have the perk under Perception, since you would need a keen eye to extract all of the... impurities... that could potentially poison you. I don't even know if that's a feasibly efficient task.)

But at the end of the day... Because balance.

 

[madmole]

Will food play any role in health (except it'll be bad if you're starving)?

Not sure. I do want to make some of the more advanced dishes provide some kind of buff or preventative medicine property.

 

[madmole]

Yeh, honestly if it wasn't for MM's vids I'da never known about the bandage spam method, and continued to wonder why my health never got higher. Glad it's being revisited.

Weird, for a know it all, I figured you would understand it lol.

 

[FA_Q2]

This is the kind of video I wanted to see - mining is what I love.
Question - While in the nitrate/lead mine you mentioned "I guess I could use nitrate for farming" what do you mean? Nitrate had nothing to do with farming in A17.x

PS: I love the new nodes and how minerals look - kudos to the Art/Graphics team on making things look so much better!

The hoe is gone and in its place you craft planter blocks in A18 that you place to plant in.

Those boxes require nitrate to craft.

 

[Guppycur]

Weird, for a know it all, I figured you would understand it lol.

Oh, I've said I suck at this game from the very beginning, and have never pretended to know it all; I leave that to the professional quake players. =)

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure. I do want to make some of the more advanced dishes provide some kind of buff or preventative medicine property.

Maybe if you had a constitution variable, and "good" food fed into that? That way eating healthy could help stave off all sorts of illnesses?

 

[madmole]

Thank You.
Im waiting for next Alpha with huuuuge exctiement. I`ve already managed to convince few mates to put their hard earned money on this game and studio, but mainly to support people and families behind the project. You guys keep going no matter what while some of major league AAA titles and studios are scre*ing around while having tremendous budget and exceptional experience (pardons for my language). New textures, improved biom generation, improved animations and rendering, new content really adds to this game a lot. Stay brave and experiment as much as You can, who knows what can be seen next.

Thank You again.

Most AAA studios are horrible and don't even have designers. The top designer is the guy with the most charisma and debate skills who might even just be a guy from QA. Teams work against each other and lobby for ideas to get in and usually have to work nights and weekends to prototype an idea to show it to try and get something in the game. It takes years of meetings just to decide on anything. Like one game had a film editing guy as lead designer. He was pushing for a bunch of cut scenes that interrupted game play constantly that none of the previous versions had. It's basically a ♥♥♥♥ show at a lot of places, but people think oh they made this big named game it would be amazing to work there, then find out all the BS.

 

[Guppycur]

Most AAA studios are horrible and don't even have designers. The top designer is the guy with the most charisma and debate skills who might even just be a guy from QA. Teams work against each other and lobby for ideas to get in and usually have to work nights and weekends to prototype an idea to show it to try and get something in the game. It takes years of meetings just to decide on anything. Like one game had a film editing guy as lead designer. He was pushing for a bunch of cut scenes that interrupted game play constantly that none of the previous versions had. It's basically a ♥♥♥♥ show at a lot of places, but people think oh they made this big named game it would be amazing to work there, then find out all the BS.

I do get amazed people say "It's taking you 5 years and it only took 1 for <insert AAA game here> to come out!" when that's only because they don't see the 10 years prior to any kind of announcement...

 

[madmole]

In a18 you can be lvl 5 or 6 forever. Several times I have asked for a way to cut down XP gain for myself (the opposite of nerd goggles) and now I got one without even trying.I don't always like to play the rat race. I'm fine with not having many perks and going looting/exploring instead.

I see almost everyone chase after XP and I cannot understand why. They are shooting themselves in the foot trying to "win" the game.

There is the xp modifier too, that can go below 1x. Yes the game is amazing now that its geared to level slower. The fact is once you get 60 perks you will be pretty damn OP, so guys wanting 300 are just nuts, its way more fun to start over than to keep going. IMO level 100 will be a good end game point, which could be 150 hours, then roll a new character for a new experience and specialization.

 

[CannedSmeef]

Not sure. I do want to make some of the more advanced dishes provide some kind of buff or preventative medicine property.

I really miss the wellness system and how eating good homecooked food was rewarded by directly making you healthier. Honestly that's probably the reason why farming became fruitless in the first place, many of the dishes that awarded wellness also needed fresh crops. When wellness was removed, so did the incentive to grow your own food. There absolutely needs to be a benefit to eating prepared dishes, maybe chili dogs up your fortitude for 10 minutes or something like that. Or just bring back the wellness system in some format, it was pretty good.

 

[madmole]

You're trying to swim against decades of gaming tropes, wherein a "level 5" character was always stronger, better, faster than a "level 4" character, and a "level 10" character could one-shot both of 'em dead.
In some respects perhaps, the XP in 7Days is almost even a little mis-named, if it's not something that is totally beneficial to the player, as it is in just about every other game ever made. In 7Days, it's a more nuanced , double-edged sword, but new players especially aren't going to have even the slightest idea of that.

That is why I keep warning players, DO NOT KNEE JERK AND TURN UP THE XP RATE. You miss out on 100 upgrades you could have had or might get GS too nasty and you still have brown/orange crap and not many mods and will make it too hard for yourself. Leveling is part of the success, but the bigger part is loot and gear now.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Most AAA studios are horrible and don't even have designers. The top designer is the guy with the most charisma and debate skills who might even just be a guy from QA. Teams work against each other and lobby for ideas to get in and usually have to work nights and weekends to prototype an idea to show it to try and get something in the game. It takes years of meetings just to decide on anything. Like one game had a film editing guy as lead designer. He was pushing for a bunch of cut scenes that interrupted game play constantly that none of the previous versions had. It's basically a ♥♥♥♥ show at a lot of places, but people think oh they made this big named game it would be amazing to work there, then find out all the BS.

Exactly. A lot of people envision working as a "designer" in the AAA business as an amazing opportunity. No it usually isn't. You're their little servant, their little errand monkey whom they see as just a number that helps generates numbers, and that [you are] completely expendable. Too many stories are rising these days of journalists and/or representatives of companies commenting that they have current financial issues (while also stating that they've reached their greatest financial success ever during the course of that very year) and that they must reduce the salaries of all their employees. What they tend to not talk about is the 60% raise and the 50 million dollar check they recently gave their CEO. Smh.

This, among several others reasons, is why I almost exclusively trust and dedicate my time to (honest) indie developers, TFP being one such company.

 

[spacepiggio]

I do get amazed people say "It's taking you 5 years and it only took 1 for <insert AAA game here> to come out!" when that's only because they don't see the 10 years prior to any kind of announcement...

That's so true, what a lot of new players also don't know & some Fan Boy's forgot that we put this all 2 a Vote in the Forum a while back...

We chose 2 have fewer updates like we used to get in favor of larger 1's with more features or content...

If you look at all my accurate predictions for Releases the time line for a Release has pretty much flat lined at around a year for an XP Release...

That's why I pretty much didn't make 1 on this Release because if you look at it is close to A17 Release Time Line..

I also think there might be 1 more Update before they start coming quicker again once Content & the memory leak is addressed...

Pretty much all downhill from here & if they have not started all ready some of the Staff should be able to work on the next Project...

Pretty much Modding the thing to Death after that...