PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Hello all, just finished an epic 9 hour a18 session with a friend. We are both having a blast. He is new player this alpha. QUESTION? How does the tracking perk work? Anyone have success? Thanks in advance. In FP we trust!

Crouch and look at your compass for an animal icon. If you don't see one, travel a bit, and repeat the process.

 

[pvmrenny]

If he agrees with you that he's wrong when you say he's wrong then you are both wrong, so LOGICALLY he cannot be wrong simply because you say he is... there must be another reason.
(Did I change your mind?)

*******************************

Oh, and it's you're, not your..... so You're wrong.

BLASPHIMY!!!! Lol...well played sir

 

[madmole]

Never have trouble seeing the snake in front of me.

Someone is on a roll today lol.

 

[Gareee]

Okay, so are we finally past the "wow and wonderment look at a18 and how pretty it is" stage to talk about some glaring issues?
...it's boring.

I'm enjoying it, but some play mechanics are really changed. Because of all the loot drops and plentiful ammo, stealth is out the window. I go in guns blazing and clear out a poi in minutes. I know I'll find a crap load of ammo, so thats no issue. Why bother with stealth when you have every gun under the sun and hundreds of bullets and your trust junk turret by your side? I don;t even stop at night.... they simply don;t have a chance.

While we can craft, crafting is such later game now I use it very infrequently. I've already found a ton of ammo, so I don;t need to make that. I've looted tons of clothing and armor, so I don't need to make that.

The only crafting up to day 35 so far is vehicles, base blocks, and eggs and bacon... any other food crafting just gives me food poisoning anyway.

I could turn down loot abundance, but thats how you get all the best stuff now.

I'm enjoying the game, but I think the loot balance went a bit overboard, nerfing the need to craft almost anything.

The loot reward for all those schematics is kind of nerfed because you've already fund 5 or 6 of everything by day 30, and you KNOW you can't craft better than what you can find. All my tools were loot, so there was no need to craft any of them.

Something I thought of.. could mods also have random stats on them as well? That would make finding duplicates more rewarding, because you might have better stat improvements on mods. (brighter or dimmer helmet light, better or worst chance of catching fire with burning shaft, that sort of thing.)

Crafting is what I used to do overnight for the coming day. Now I just mine or organize storage.

Looting is attractive and big with the casual gamers, but I think a better balance needs to be struck between what we can find, and what we need to craft. If you hand us everything in loot, then we don't even need crafting in the game, which removes a LOT of playability and diversity to the gameplay.

 

[Trankitas]

Madmole, I've got to say, you got me so hooked to new A18. Drug dealer much?

Yesterday I manage to play a couple of hours with a friend and it was really great! I love the recipes/perks being great again.

#ReleaseTheOptimizedKraken

 

[Aldranon]

Uh-oh! That look says: "Let me get my shotgun... you just Stay. Right. There.

 

[Brian9824]

I'm enjoying it, but some play mechanics are really changed. Because of all the loot drops and plentiful ammo, stealth is out the window. I go in guns blazing and clear out a poi in minutes. I know I'll find a crap load of ammo, so thats no issue. Why bother with stealth when you have every gun under the sun and hundreds of bullets and your trust junk turret by your side? I don;t even stop at night.... they simply don;t have a chance.
While we can craft, crafting is such later game now I use it very infrequently. I've already found a ton of ammo, so I don;t need to make that. I've looted tons of clothing and armor, so I don't need to make that.

The only crafting up to day 35 so far is vehicles, base blocks, and eggs and bacon... any other food crafting just gives me food poisoning anyway.

I could turn down loot abundance, but thats how you get all the best stuff now.

I'm enjoying the game, but I think the loot balance went a bit overboard, nerfing the need to craft almost anything.

The loot reward for all those schematics is kind of nerfed because you've already fund 5 or 6 of everything by day 30, and you KNOW you can't craft better than what you can find. All my tools were loot, so there was no need to craft any of them.

Something I thought of.. could mods also have random stats on them as well? That would make finding duplicates more rewarding, because you might have better stat improvements on mods. (brighter or dimmer helmet light, better or worst chance of catching fire with burning shaft, that sort of thing.)

Crafting is what I used to do overnight for the coming day. Now I just mine or organize storage.

Looting is attractive and big with the casual gamers, but I think a better balance needs to be struck between what we can find, and what we need to craft. If you hand us everything in loot, then we don't even need crafting in the game, which removes a LOT of playability and diversity to the gameplay.

Should check out this suggestion I did for exactly that reason - https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?128416-Tie-in-repairs-of-items-to-crafting-skills

Way to tie in crafting into looting, and to prevent the issue that once you find a piece of good gear you have it forevor.

 

[madmole]

I doubt the players will switch to higher tier food.
After all, they need a garden and have to find the recipes for the food or spend skill points on Living of the Land and Master Chef.

It is more likely for me that the players will simply buy all the canned food they can get from the vending machines.

Na, dukes are precious food is the last thing I'll buy unless I'm desperate. I just find the schematics and start gardens with rotten flesh I get. The t1 dig quests drop a food schematic every time so early game I do these then I start a garden with seeds I find and eventually I have stews and fish tacos and stuff. I save my dukes for vehicles, books mods and schematics, and sometimes I buy concrete mix, cement and a pink weapon or tool.

 

[wolfbain5]

its pretty

needs a bit of tweaking <no snowdog, not twerking>

wilderness and towns feel like ghost towns

day 1 cleared out working stiffs poi rather easily with a spear and a bow. found a junk turret in the parking lot.

at night I find the occasional feral zed, but still able to dig and build at night WITHOUT much fear. granted, I am not at a high gs yet, but still, too empty

 

[madmole]

Which makes me think, for each level, there should be 1 point for combat perks and 1 point for non-combat perks.

There is: Every other level

 

[Johnny rebo]

Changing the loot setting doesn't change gamestage progression at all, but it naturally influences difficulty.
Lengthening the days will lead to slower gamestage increase and also make the game easier.

Thanks!

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Now I want to rename Food Poisoning to Vomit lottery.

I grant TFP exclusive rights to use "Vomit Lottery" as long as they add a Canning Perk

 

[madmole]

My feedback would be that Living off the Land, Master Chef, and Iron Gut were all in the same perk tree.
I would also put Animal Tracker and The Huntsman in a tree together as well or combine them into one perk.

That would be OP IMO. Maybe your last suggestion wouldn't be bad, but its fine as is. I never buy the huntsman because I play solo so I'm swimming in meat, that perk is for unlucky players and mp server players.

 

[madmole]

If you think the death penalty isn’t harsh enough, you haven’t played a long enough game yet. Very few of us could have possibly gotten that far yet.

It stings a bit at level 80 I will have to say, but we had 20% or so then I think. Still sucks because it takes 3 hours or a horde to level at that point.

 

[faatal]

Can the AF be a slider / option in GPU options ?
I hate to think that this game gets its graphical finesse castrated, it took a long time to get looking this good in the first place.

Unless you mean it be part of the texture selector ?

AF is a setting on each texture. I think most in the game are set to 16. If a player is trying to run 1/8 or 1/4 texture quality, then they probably don't need AF 16. Especially on those terrain texture arrays.

 

[madmole]

I have a question about food...
1. Crafted high qualify food (Stew, etc) has a change of food poisoning. why? I know food spoils but I just made it.

2. if food I make can spoil, when will I be able to can food since that does not spoil?

PS: if I made food at home and it spoiled right away no one would eat!

Its not spoiled, its contaminated.

 

[RipClaw]

Is getting dukes no effort? Buying the meal for a day seems to be (rough estimate) 300-500 dukes, double that if you are mining all night. If thats worth it to you, fine. I just find seeds in loot, I don't need to do anything special to find them. Put those seed into a farming box and get free food. Barf it up, there's more free food to counter that. Or take a vitamin before.
Where is the path of most resistance here, I don't see it? Farming is effortless but slow to ramp up. You can speed it up somewhat (through buying missing recipes or seeds at the trader), but essentially it is automatic if you don't throw away rotten meat and sulfur.

You get about 600 dukes for a buried supply quest. This is usually done less than 10 minutes and does not require much effort. This quest gives you food and as a reward XP, Dukes and items that you can sell for more dukes. With the dukes you can buy food that doesn't give you food poisoning. Accordingly, the player learns that it is not necessary to create a garden at all.

For other quests you get more dukes, more XP and better items. Many players do quests all the time anyway and sell everything that they don't need. So it's no extra effort to get enough dukes to afford the food for the day.

Some of the users in the forum have already written here that they do exactly what I suspected they would do. They simply buy the food from the vending machines because it is the most convenient for them.

I've read postings before that players don't have a garden anymore because they find more than enough food. Even in A17 where canned food gave you food poisoning. Since canned food no longer gives you food poisoning, they have no reason for farming at all.

I will certainly create a garden because I like it but for survival it is not necessary and there is no incentive to do it. Therefore I assume that many will no longer have a garden even if they had one in the past.

The penalty of the vending machine is dukes lost that could be used for buying things or making brass for ammo. Your choice.

There are now more than enough sources for brass in the game. Wrench every air conditioner, every car and every heater you find and you'll never have a lack of brass. If you're lucky and find the right book you can even get brass if you destroy a door or wrench kitchen sinks.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Now I want to rename Food Poisoning to Vomit lottery.

Iron Gut -> Up Chuck Luck

 

[Blake_]

Na, dukes are precious food is the last thing I'll buy unless I'm desperate. I just find the schematics and start gardens with rotten flesh I get. The t1 dig quests drop a food schematic every time so early game I do these then I start a garden with seeds I find and eventually I have stews and fish tacos and stuff. I save my dukes for vehicles, books mods and schematics, and sometimes I buy concrete mix, cement and a pink weapon or tool.

There's an ancient bug that happens from time to time in which you read the schematic/book from the backpack and you don't learn the recipe. It also happens with food, drink and medicines. You consume the item from the backpack but you don't get the benefits.

I just bought the recipe for Grandpa's learning elixir and used it from the backpack (1700 dukes with my 3 barter) and bam! consumed it and didn't learn the recipe. Sucks because I did 3 quests in order to save for it.

Sounds like a fixable thing related to the ancient item consumption mechanic and it is very noticable and game breaking at times.

 

[madmole]

Im led to think that TFP may not be interested in farming BUT what if farmed foods offered no chance at poisoning. It would make sense since you are planting fresh vegetation and preparing the ground etc. Meat makes sense but veggies kind of do not.
It could put a greater emphasis on farming. And give people a renewable alternative to canned food?

Not needed. Vitamins, iron gut or just have enough food around to deal with it. Everything on earth is contaminated, the soil, the rain, the meat, except pre war cans. Its a great system people just need to forget the past and use the mechanics provided. Stop knee jerking (not really speaking to you Jax) about it and just play the game. In fallout you get rads with everything you eat and have to reduce it with medicine periodically and every point of rads you have blackens your health bar. This is much more forgiving IMO.

Farming works great, just take your vitamins or have some canned food ready in case you barf when you are on the road.