PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Callum123456789]

You know those loot rooms in the back of the small crack a book? Every time I go in there to bust the crates somehow a zombie follows me in, so I put one facing the doorway and they watch my back while I crack safes and bust open crates. Its awesome, just a small foreshadow of how cool an npc follower could be (Hoping)

npc's possibly confirmed?

 

[Damocles]

Someone said ziplines? I want my ziplines!

 

[Blake_]

Whoa whoa whoa... You want to add the OPTION to lose experience on death? Fine. You want to add the OPTION to not have the Near Death Buff. Fine.
But could you please give us the option? I really like the Death Buff, and am kinda Meh about losing experience on death.

This forum has been there, done that conversation. The devs vision is: you survive and have fun while playing. A lot of people play for 1,2 hours a day. A Death penalty that literally blocks cool perk stuff for 30 mins is not fun but demeaning and prone to soon be followed by yet another death.

Current a18 system: You died? ok. You lose experience and you can regain it, but you will never lose a level nor perks.

That way sucks, as every death should, but it gives players the means to be themselves and don't screw up in a cycle.

I like the a17 death penalty icon though. It's very cool.

 

[Callum123456789]

The new death penalty messes with it. It might be just a visual thing when you die and see your xp bar go all red but it may also have an effect. Daily leveling stopped. Also the way the opening quest has been changed messed up the initial earning of skillpoints. I looked at it briefly but with builds changing daily and Madmole wanting feedback about vanilla A18 I haven't done anything to make changes and probably won't until experimental is done.

@ROLAND what's your view on the new death debuff? I think it's a step in the right direction for sure

 

[Jacoviz]

You know those loot rooms in the back of the small crack a book? Every time I go in there to bust the crates somehow a zombie follows me in, so I put one facing the doorway and they watch my back while I crack safes and bust open crates. Its awesome, just a small foreshadow of how cool an npc follower could be (Hoping)

Really happy to read this! This game is getting better and better with any update, if you keep knocking this way you will get out the best game in the f**king world man! Anyway, are you going to rec some other looting like your last video? Is really cool to see you looting the POI.

 

[Gareee]

LOL. I don't know. Depend if we do a small

@MadMole:

I'm guessing the events spawning would be easier to complete quicker than bandits. If I had to choose, I'd prefer to see the events groundwork done first. (I know its a "whoever has whatever on their plate" thing.)

Events groundwork though would give us outdoor and possibly night specific spawns, and that would give us significant gameplay difference keeping us content until the next longer exp drop.

If events are documented well enough, modders would probably have a field day with it as well.

As far as events, are you hoping to have poi specific triggers, or even quest specific triggers? (Like, say, a simple fetch quest in a military poi that triggers a platoon of military zombies in the yard so you see them when you come out, and have to fight your way out.)

Events could be a huge game changer, like stealth and sleepers were.

 

[Perlin_Worm]

Losing xp on death is the only real tangible penalty to motivate not to die. That and freaking out your stuff was dropped. Temporary debuffs are just an annoyance

 

[Zaroff]

but i like 7dtd graphics and i love the games physics but the water isnt as good as on land. but i have my small problems (very small)
1: zombies that look the same and walk the same way. (its just a pet peeve)

2: cooking with water jars like with soup (its just a bit odd that if you cook boiled meat and your glass jar just disrepair lol)

3: water physics ( just needs some fixes nothing to crazy)

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also your a late bloomer? i got the game like 4 weeks ago XD

I think they will get the water polished up here soon. currently there isn't much water on many worlds as i often find myself getting my water from a swimming pool, Yummy! I don't mind the zombie walking its slightly different but i can see how others would say its the same. the game is about surviving and killing off Zs to maintain your char's life. I think its fine. I love the direction this game is going I can't wait to see what is beyond A18 but not before I play it first of course

 

[Callum123456789]

Losing xp on death is the only real tangible penalty to motivate not to die. That and freaking out your stuff was dropped. Temporary debuffs are just an annoyance

I really agree with the losing xp part really encourages you to die less but people playing pvp will probs complain but im sure they can configure that through the xml files

 

[Gareee]

To any of the developers: Are there any surprises included we don't know about you'll be springing on use this weekend?

 

[Damocles]

For the "outdoor zombie spawn event system", or however the mechanic is called, I would be happy if the game keeps track of the groups to spawn in a meta way. Such that when revisiting an area, the same group of zombies would spawn, if not killed.

It would feel much less artificially spawned, if those groups have some degree of persistence.

A record in memory is way cheaper than actual instances of NPCs.

Those "virtual" groups can then also slowly traverse the map in a random direction (re-spawning at those positions when close by).

Sending those records (group-type, position, direction, state) in list over the network would also be quite compact.

In the end, it would make the world more believable than pure random spawns. ("I saw a horde on the south side of the map, lets see if its still there, or moved on")

... better than "ok, the game decided to spawn in a horde randomly here, lets avoid it, it will vanish when I come back"

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Yep, realism fails in most design debates.

@Madmole

By the way, I put a lot more thought in to one of our conversations we had.

I said I would get back to you if I ever come up with a good counter arguement. Well after hours of sitting here looking at your response, realism trumps fun, for hours and giving it a lot of thought. I have finally come up with one. Although I would not consider it a counter arguement instead, more of a description of that which is to come. This understanding will result in your original assertion, which still holds strong and hole proof, no longer being relevant. This opens the imagination up to think of all the untapped possibilities.

I don't want to state it publically because.. ...possibility of profit, truth be told...

If you ever end up having 5 minutes free one day hit me up, I'm interested in hearing what you think of my rebuttal.

The scenario and discription I finally came up with I think will impress you, that is unless you have a counter arguement that pokes holes in it again lol. If thats the case then I would only need 2 minutes of your time lol.

Private Message: https://7daystodie.com/forums/member.php?160813-ZombieSurvivor

Discord: ..ZombieSurvivor..#1423

 

[Zaroff]

The issue was that you could in the past, craft 1000 stone axes and then buy perks that would open up making concrete.
It was incorrectly labeled "level by doing", and although the REAL issue (being able to buy perks to make concrete because you spammed stone axes) was never really addressed, they found it easier to scrap "lbd" entirely.

...which is why a lot of us poke fun that they'd rather remove a system than fix it.

The irony is that now it's "kill 1000 zombies and unlock concrete". .

/History lesson

oh Christ this argument is back...... FFS.......

A18 is almost upon us!! MM said LBD is deader than the Zombies in the game yet it keeps coming up....

 

[madmole]

You are royalty now. MM said so. :cocksure:

Gazz is at least a freeman or serf now, maybe will be a knight soon if he keeps up the good work

 

[madmole]

So, there are 2 different shotgun shells?
What about the slugs?

Still in but crafted with polymer not paper. Breachers can blow through wood and drywall walls, so they are amazing for a quick escape in tight quarters, or just killing something in the other room lol.

 

[madmole]

Pokket for Trader Jen! Pokket for Trader Jen! Pokket for Trader Jen!!!

Being able to speak to the public is one thing, voice acting is a completely different animal to tame. Caitlyn Glass did a bunch of VO we just need to book another session with her, she is amazing.

 

[meganoth]

Dr. Faustus dies to a zombie attack and eventually stands before the doors of heaven and the gate keeper Petrus

Petrus: "Welcome to Heaven. Please enter"

Dr. Faustus: "Ah wait, I'd like to renegotiate on that death penalty. I feel I a bit dumb now, really not a fan of it"

Petrus: "Oh, you think you can negotiate? Just for my amusement. What would you like instead?"

Dr. Faustus: "Oh, I thought about half a day of feeling weak. Like I've had a bad dream and slept only a few hours"

Petrus: "But half a day, that is nothing. After that you have an eternity here in heaven, that is hardly a penalty"

Dr. Faustus: "Eternity? Not yet, you have to send me back to Earth of course"

Petrus: "Wait, WHAT??"

 

[Morloc]

Being able to speak to the public is one thing, voice acting is a completely different animal to tame. Caitlyn Glass did a bunch of VO we just need to book another session with her, she is amazing.

Ummm....

3 thumbs up!

-Morloc

 

[madmole]

One problem I have seen on this thread is that 99.99% of posters have already purchased the game and played it though multiple alphas, with 16 and 17 bringing about huge game changes. Players who have played a certain alpha for hundreds of hours will obviously feel attached to certain mechanics present in that alpha, such as learn by doing. Well, LBD stinks, and I am glad it's gone. For instance, in A16, I set up a rotation of forges with large excesses of clay in each, along with just enough iron to craft anvils. I would rotate between each forge just as the anvil finished crafting so that I could get the exp while simultaneously smelting the anvils back into the forges. I used this trick to gain huge amounts of total levels and skill points that I spent on perks, or whatever. My character was getting stronger in a very unrealistic and stupid way. In short, I am glad that this exploitable feature has been banished forever, and that madmole/TFP realize that the game should not cater to older players just because they liked certain old features. (Plus they already have your money?)
Speaking of which, I have always enjoyed playing the new updates just to see what was new. I paid for the game once, but I feel as though I have gotten multiple different games worth of playtime. Every single new alpha, I play to the endgame and test out all of the new features. On occasion, I do 2-3 playthroughs a few weeks/months apart. Part of the reason why I only did a few playthroughs per alpha is because back in those older alphas, there really was no diversity in the progression, besides A17 which allowed you to choose a different subset of guns to spend your points on. I have always been a min-maxer, so I can't stomach playing in a totally inefficient way just to play. With talk of A18 having multiple balanced paths to progress your character, I am excited to see what kind of mileage I can get out of it.

Finally, with all of the dissenting opinions I have seen on this thread, I feel like I should send out my vote of confidence for the vision and direction of the game. Specifically, killing zombies for experience and progression. 7DTD is a world filled with zombies, and they control most of the map and loot. As a survivor, you can either crawl around and shamefully pick up the little scraps of loot when no zombies are looking (lame), or you can go in there and beat the hell out of every zombie you see and TAKE everything you want from the apocalypse, getting revenge on the zeds that ruined your peaceful life. As long as I can support the core mechanics and vision of the game, every other minor little problem I have can be ignored. For example, crafting recipes that might not be 100% realistic, or unpolished areas of the game which will almost definitely be polished at some point. And the game has been improving by more and more with each passing alpha. From everything I have seen so far, Alpha 18 is the greatest version of the game. Now the only question is, 10/4 or 10/7?

10 out of 10! lol. Thanks for the vote of confidence. You sir will not be disappointed with A18 and should get 500 hours out of it as each build lasts about 100 some hours IMO and there are 5 distinct builds.

Streamers will get it 10/4 and public on 10/6 or 7 as long as nothing nasty crops up on the weekend.

 

[Guppycur]

10 out of 10! lol. Thanks for the vote of confidence. You sir will not be disappointed with A18 and should get 500 hours out of it as each build lasts about 100 some hours IMO and there are 5 distinct builds.
Streamers will get it 10/4 and public on 10/6 or 7 as long as nothing nasty crops up on the weekend.

Ya know, you patting THEM on the back only encourages more discussion from the other side which just prolongs the argument.

...hell, lbd is back in discussion, because you once again incorrectly validated the idea that lbd was the problem. The problem was lbd allowed XP to be spent outside of the action (crafting stone axes to buy a concrete perk). The problem was NEVER lbd, it was the perk system.