PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Its way more fun than 17 was. I was quite upset at how 17 went, and I was a bit rude to Joel and Roland and others. !7 was a big adjustment and one I just could not sink my teeth into after years of Alphas I had loved. Im noticing the rage on zombies is a pleasant addition to difficulty. So even though there is (sadly) less zombies overall each encounter can be deadly. Mind you this is early game. I've had 2 plays so far. My first was to day 14 and we had one horde night. It was a day 7. My wife died early on (around 2350) and respawned in our basement. Unfortunately she did not get back outside fast enough and i killed the last zombie before they could sense her.
For some reason our horde night ended right there. It was majorly disappointing. As was our second. I may need to crank difficulty though. Of course, I am not the target 7 days player as you probably suspect because I love things much harder so I wont hold the vanilla game at fault for this.

My only two complaints are crafting and loot. I know MM wants to move away from things being craft dependant so i kind of expected this. But crafting is just.... not required except for MAYBE food and even then you want canned food. I miss crafting mats and tools. Now i just find them right away. Which is my other bone of contention. Loot seems (to me again not the average player mind you) a bit high. Sure you get low quality stuff but the stats can be very good and "so far" i have not had a need for mods. Again early game. The scavenging game is strong. Pois are amazing i feel. The overall tone of the alpha is spot on.

Overall though I am enjoying it. I will continue to enjoy vanilla for quite a bit more time before most likely doing my thing and making loot rarer etc. But I LOVE the long game. I can easily go to day 600 and still not get bored but that is 100 percent NOT what MM and TFP are targeting. So i slow down XP a bit, I lower loot a bit. But that by no means is meant to infer that this Alpha is not good. It is, Im just a VERY picky player.

I must say the books and schematics are my most favorite part. I find myself ALWAYS looking for them, even if just to complete them. Its a fun thing to collect and the bonuses are quite nice. Im so happy they added them in. JUST buying perks got boring in 17. This adds spice.

In summary, I am a Pimps Believer again. And I am also a modder. And as a modder Im extremely excited for the tools they have given us. As a player I look forward to seeing these new systems expanded and added to.

Glad you like it. Its pretty nicely balanced but obviously balance is something we can continue until post gold probably. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it 1000x better than 17? Yep.

 

[AlabasterW]

Wait, does Flurry of Blows actually improve ALL melee speed, including tools and heavy weapons? The description just mentions stuff like clubs and knives. If so that's a must-buy perk.

 

[GrapeDrink]

The problem is that's tricky. What happens when a level 1 guy joins a server on Day 500?
Although it might make more sense to scale loot to a degree based on your gamestage.

Perhaps lower the base drop of ammo/weapons and apply a multiplier based on your gamestage?

Yea, that would probably be the better option overall

 

[Brian9824]

Glad you like it. Its pretty nicely balanced but obviously balance is something we can continue until post gold probably. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it 1000x better than 17? Yep.

This by far. It might have some issues, but it just FEELS better. A large part of it was removing the level gate really changed how it plays. I'm struggling every level to decide how to build my character and deciding which perks will provide me the most benefit.

 

[Trankitas]

Glad you like it. You should have said "me and my group" though, to counter weight guppy's army of fictional arm chair designers that hate 18

Lol, I don't want to challenge an Army at all, thank you! (fictional or not)

 

[Trekkan]

Once the hordes get big your ammo will diminish and all you will be doing is crafting ammo, so I use melee to clear pois out and only waste bullets in emergencies.
Crafting is not as prevalent but that is a good thing IMO. We could smash loot quality down forcing you to craft blues at best, and make it so you aren't getting even a glimpse of a pink until level 60+. Then all those tools and weapons are crafted into better weapons and tools.

I'd like to see crafting of all tiers of weapons, but with some variables based on perks and general RNG so things are different and not guarantees. Make it so mods are only drops (and random stats on those), so there is still a large need to loot (among the other loot reasons). This way, crafting still has a place in this game and its not all loot.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Early game, yes. Late game every second of every day is scavenging brass and earning money for more brass and mining for ammo resources, base repairs, etc.

@madmole So a realistic, regular schedule late-game would be the following?

Day #1: Mine lead from dawn to dawn the next day

Day #2: Mine nitrate from dawn to dawn the next day

Day #3: Mine coal from dawn to dawn the next day

Day #4: Wrench cars all day/mine iron and/or stone all day if needed

Day #5: Wrench cars all day/scavenge for brass

Day #6: Wrench cars all day/scavenge for brass

Day #7: Final base preparations (expansions, upgrades, etc.) and fighting the horde

 

[JaxTeller718]

Dude Guppy, you need to move on to a new game then, don't you feel like your wasting time/essence into raging about a game? Sure you can fanboy post and have rage posts, but to "Us". "We" feel that "We" want youto move on.
"The community" as spoken for "us"

At this point, seems like your just trolling or need a new hobby...

Telling Guppy to move on or find a new hobby is the ame as silencing an opinion, which is never ok. Back and forth discussion is fine, Guppy has been around longer than even me. Should his opinion hold more weight than anyone else? Maybe not but what that does offer i feel is the right to at least discuss at the table withpout being told to "love it or leave it"

Guppy, and myself. love it. That is why we are still here. I came close many times during 17 to just moving on, dropping my mods and putting my time and investment elsewhere. But i didn't. He didn't. He made mods people enjoyed, he kept in the discussion and he has done a LOT for this community, probably more than anyone will know.

Hes opened lines of communication at times, and his discord has programmers, devs, testers and modders. All talking. To just dismiss that because he wrote his honest opinion isn't exactly fair. Im pretty sure MM or Roland will let him know when he has crossed a line. Just as they have when I have.

 

[madmole]

Because they end at midnight, maybe 1am? We're on top of a bakery, we usually find them hitting random stuff on the bottom but they're easy to pick off from the roof as we see them spawn not too far away... pop, pop, pop, a few make it under. <shrug>

Dude we have to give new players a chance. They should start to last all night by day 35 to 42 from my experience, but like I said we give the player some intentional success, then ramp things up and repeat but by day 100 it gets quite nasty and time management starts to kick your ass trying to get enough bullets to survive the next horde.

 

[captaine]

Ya it seems to be raining AKs all around. Not just in my game but other videos I've seen. I have far more AKs and their parts then any other weapon. Might be a bug.

Same here, Day 22, trying a mostly strength build, I've only come across 2 double barrel shotguns, but I've found and sold at least a dozen AKs

 

[MajorMunchy]

Wait, does Flurry of Blows actually improve ALL melee speed, including tools and heavy weapons? The description just mentions stuff like clubs and knives. If so that's a must-buy perk.

Idk if its a bug or not but someone claimed it did, so in my opinion (i have not tried it yet but will now if it does what it is claimed), will try it for mining. if it does increase speed that would be a MUST for most builds

 

[madmole]

They didn’t end that quickly in Joel’s videos though. What’s different?

He's GS 1 because he died 80 times.

 

[Guppycur]

Guppy, why do you even complain about balance (difficulty, ammo, loot etc)? Obviously a sandbox game cannot be balanced for everyone, especially in early access. You can mod, there are new mods every day, let's be happy we have this opportunity. When I whine, I whine about things we cannot change in XML.

Because I like to mod as little as possible. I've never been a big fan of "you can mod it", because once a system is deprecated, you can't necessarily mod it anymore.

 

[Doctor3D]

This right here is reasonable and very likely for an experienced player. This indicates to me though, that there isn't too much ammo spawning... because you are making it.

Nah, that's not why. I just like crafting stuff and throwing it in boxes just in case I need it to keep busy at night at a base when I'm established. I haven't crafted much ammo yet. But, it seems like the primary things I will be crafting are going to be ammo and medical. In past alphas, i'd be doing a lot more different types of crafting, upgrading, combining, etc..But, we don't have to do near as much of that stuff anymore, unfortunately. I've been looting day and night on A18. Like I said, for me anyway, once i'm inside a POI - I can't distinguish any difference in danger between daytime or nighttime..Most all zeds I encounter in a POI are feral or special infected anyway - day or night. Might as well just loot. But after awhile, I'll probably start staying in the base more and more and at that point i'll probably take all the brass i've stacked and end up crafting ammo and medical supplies to keep busy while waiting for horde nights and stuff. Who knows..still too early for me to tell how it will all play out in the end. It's the beginning i'm concerned about.

 

[madmole]

I'm sure he'll take offense, but he's not very good? There's a finite count of zombies, and if you just let them in while you run around going into your chests, instead of having your "horde backpack" prepped, like he does, you're pretty much fighting the same zombies for a longer time... but if you're prepared, they're pretty easy to get to the limit quickly.
I'd really love to see a return of "non-stop until 4am" zombies, because it would not change a newbies game (maxAlive is maxAlive), but it would certainly give people with some experience in the game something to do for the other 2/3rd's of the night.

Mind you, this is all straight vanilla because I really believe in getting that experience before modding.

No you are on day 28, or whatever. You are barely started and expect a ♥♥♥♥ storm? Sorry but we don't want to just overrun players who are still learning and don't have 14k hours on steam. It will get nasty, just keep playing.

Should it get nastier sooner? Maybe, but I think you need to turn up the difficulty a bit or just wait, because you will be happy with the amount of zombies on the upcoming hordes. Are you playing adventurer? I played Nomad with 12 alive I think in my videos, and usually by day 42 I couldn't kill them all before dawn, and I racked a ton of kills, over 400 zombies one night.

 

[Guppycur]

I put boxes all over the map until I get a vehicle with all the things I won't need until later game, like brass, parts, resources etc.

That's a gem of an idea. I take the time to pack them home, but then again I haven't felt the need to go far from home yet.

 

[Senkan]

Whats the difference waiting until 4am to fix things up? If there is no zombies by 2am then guess what, no difference. Exit and log back in? Super lame and try getting everyone of the server to do that at the same time. Horde night only comes once a week and should be climactic, not some limp ♥♥♥♥ event that people see as just a little time waster.

Difference is at 4am the sun comes out. I'd rather be out getting resources and looting. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and adapt. Do we not have options to make things more difficult? Will turning blood moon count to 64 help? Turnup blood moon zombie speed to nightmare? Want a challenge? Turn your blood moon block damage to 300%. How can YOU make YOUR experience better?

 

[madmole]

Great news. That's on an RTX 2080, correct?

Yes but last night I was experiencing stalls of less than 10fps and had to restart my pc to fix it. We're not out of the woods yet. I did make my own build so maybe something was funky, they are testing the steam rc now.

 

[Verne]

Wait, does Flurry of Blows actually improve ALL melee speed, including tools and heavy weapons? The description just mentions stuff like clubs and knives. If so that's a must-buy perk.

Yes it does. I already (partly) reported it along bug with "Salvage operations" not giving you buff to harvesting speed.

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?127757-A18-b139-experimental-bug-reporting-thread&p=1029640&viewfull=1#post1029640

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Edit.

I based my previous post regarding perk "Flurry of blows" based on Alpha 17 experience.

Bug with harvesting speed using wrench being increased by "flurry of blows" but not "Salvage operations" exists since Alpha 17. In that alpha "Flurry of blows" also affected mining speed (well it was mining perk under strenght part).

After some testing:

"Flurry of blows" still affects speed of harvesting using wrench.

Wrench harvesting speed is not affected by "salvage operations"

Mining tools are no longer affected by "Flurry of blows" perk

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If you want to confirm this yourself create new world with enabled cheats.

Press "~", type "dm", write: "giveselfxp 100000000000000000"

LvL up agility tree to level 10

Destroy block using steel pickaxe, and harvest a car using wrench

Pick all perks under "flurry of blows" and compare time it takes to destroy a block / harvest a car with and without this perk.

You should see no difference in time it takes to destroy block using pickaxe.

You should see decrease in time it takes to harvest a car using wrench.

 

[madmole]

Darn I was wondering if that was going to change, so expensive to make, it took me days to get a few plots going. Then I dug up a plot (was trying to get dirt) and saw they could be obtained with a shovel. I figured it wasn’t intended, as the cost of creating was so high - but one POI Later I had 50 plots - the barrier now is getting enough seeds to make it work, which I thought was okay and fun, plus made me spend points in living off the land.
Sad to see this change, as I really like farming and the cost makes it challenging to get to a fun level of play, especially high cost of plots plus challenge of acquiring an ohhh The seeds/perks. I am on day 14 and have enough looted food to last me a long time, and many many more places to raid. Which makes me question the farming cost as it is more of a “fun” thing and not a required piece of gameplay. Could living off the land also drive farm plots cost less expensive as well?

I will keep my fingers crossed this is adjusted later. I know there are much bigger things in your plates a than growing potatoes Love A18 so far, so no complaints... Just feedback from someone that enjoys the farming aspect of this game.

Living off the land could easily scale down the cost of farm plot resources to make, if I understand you correctly you feel they are too expensive to craft?