PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

How about a "no guns at all" build? Just to see if the game allows you to get along with no guns at all.
In earlier alphas this was still possible. Close combat and traditional weapons like the bow and the crossbow were equal and with a clever base design you could compensate the lack of DPS.

I think it would be doable with a fortitude brawler on fortbites IMO. I would keep horde size to 8 probably to feel it out. Maybe specialize into physician to maximize health gains from meds. You might need something for stamina and some sex rex for sure.

 

[Alpacko]

Try--> resourceRepairKit
From items.xml;

<item name="resourceRepairKit">

Btw, handy search tip; try adding the final quote and greater-than, so use " Kit"> "

It won't match the instances later on in an item as they'll end with a slash greater-than. (value="resourceRepairKit"/&gt

that worked, thx.

-------------------------

so after using a blood draw kit, my anemia is stuck on 0,0% and wont heal. kinda annoying

 

[Ayrton]

It is not a bug. It is how the texture budget is setup, so people don't run out of VRAM and their FPS start tanking. Using Unity, we have no control if a texture is in VRAM or not, so we are using conservative settings to try to keep them in VRAM. We are still tweaking settings and making changes. Low res icons and trying compressed splat maps are in the works to further reduce VRAM use, meaning more space for textures. Streaming max level reduction is probably high right now and could be brought down.
These values are going to change from build to build. That is what experimental is for. Sorting it out, so it works on as much hardware as it can.

@Faatal

I had no problems in the previous experimental ultra game at 60 fps

W10

Ram 16

i5 6th generation

GTX 1060 3 GB

in this alpha tube very ugly graphics any help?

View attachment 29857

 

[AtomicUs5000]

In my 66 hour playthrough, I never saw snow, desert, wasteland, lumberjacks, coyotes, snakes or mountain lions.
That's why I said it needs smaller ones. New players might not see half the biomes, like I didn't.

I agree that is a problem. No doubt. When a player doesn't see content, the thousands of person-hours invested in that work is wasted.

However, there could be solutions other than shrink the biomes to a patchwork of nonsense. I could come up with several ideas, but here is one off the top of my head...

First, ensure that each biome gets a trader. Then, I would create high-tier, multi-stage quests that involve each of those traders.

Here is a second idea off the top of my head (it landed there after the first one was released)...

Legendary items must be assembled with parts that are biome-exclusive.

Third idea (I think a line is forming, wait your turn ideas, geesh)...

Air drops to be no longer some mystery. Locate and repair a radio tower in each biome. After they are complete, the air drops come.

 

[madmole]

I rarely die either, but it was a good opportunity to tr out the change. on my sp game, I have over 2400 kills and 4 deaths. And one was when I got off my still moving vehicle, and it killed me.
@Madmole:

BTW, took two days to just drive and explore with the motorcycle, and finally found wasteland and snow. I love the seed city layout but hate the giant biome placement. I started lower se on the map, and the only desert is the ne corner... two days drive away. (and I still wouldn't have found it until I finally looked at the biome image file. (and thats 67 days in.)

I'm not sure many new players will even experience all the biomes with the size and placement of them.

(Gas IS an issue for the 4x4, so I really do need to mine some oil shale.)

(I missed your reply if there was one....was the 4x4 exhaust smoke removed, or is it broken?)

I usually find every biome pretty fast, once I get a vehicle I spend my nights wrenching cars for fuel and exploring the map, marking POIS to raid and traders I discover. I'll typically get all that done by day 30-40, then hit all those POIs the rest of the game.

I don't recall any of them having exhaust so it must be broken for quite some time.

 

[madmole]

@MM, I’m not sure if it’s already been offered on the forum, I’ll just offer it again.
I think it makes sense to add a mark on the map and compass for the spear in order to know exactly where to look, just as it has already been done for a transport or garbage turret, and even animals! )

We even manage to lose transport and garbage turrets. And losing a spear is much easier.

In addition, the spear can be equipped with mods no worse than other weapons, and losing it will be very disappointing.

We're not adding it to the map, but might do a screen overlay for it when you are close, and add that to the fetch quests too the ones in floorboards are confusing if its in the floor of this level or in the ceiling of the level below you.

 

[madmole]

Why was the decision made that the double barrel shotgun should always be sawn-off? Would it not have been more logical to have it have a full barrel too so it can share the sawn-off modification with the pump shotgun? This way the 2 shot shotgun can have a bit more range and a sawn-off mod would have its use in close quarters. I am also curious if a tier 3 shotty is planned, I find the blunderbuss as tier 1 a bit odd (despite it being a shotty). It has to much problems fitting in, since it needs to much precious ingredients to build to be viable early game and cannot be looted either. The sawn off double barrel is crap for a tier 2 weapon atm.

It was made some years ago before mods were on the roadmap or the framework to saw barrels off even existed. Unity didn't have texture streaming so we couldn't add it. We slapped it in there for now, but could redo it to support long barrel.

I disagree its crap, I can one shot about anyone with 2 taps to the face with my crappy q2 one.

 

[Gareee]

I agree that is a problem. No doubt. When a player doesn't see content, the thousands of person-hours invested in that work is wasted.However, there could be solutions other than shrink the biomes to a patchwork of nonsense.

They don't have to be a patchwork of nonsense. Just cutting the size of them in half and making sure there is at least some of each in each quarter of the world resolves the issue. Its a simple texture file and I did it in 10 minutes of basic brushwork in photoshop.

I know they are planning more changes for a19 and rwg is still a major rework in progress, but I'd hate to see new players running into the same issue as I did.

 

[Wulf]

@ Faatal / madmole.

I made a quick 1.5 min video highlighting the severe fps difference between the snow biome and the forest biome. Please have a look so you'll know what i've been talking about. FPS is shown both by the ingame F8 counter as well as steams own internal counter which is shown at the topleft. (due to video compression, that one is more easy to make out)

If anyone wants to quickly repeat the proces and see if you have a similar drop in performance, that would be interesting. Just go to the border of a snow biome (preferable with forest), and look at the terrain from a higher spot or simply fly up with godmode. Notice the difference in fps when looking at either the forest side, or the snow side.

p.s. the console error in the beginning only shows up due to me recording, i think. I've never seen it before.

 

[Jugginator]

I think it would be doable with a fortitude brawler on fortbites IMO. I would keep horde size to 8 probably to feel it out. Maybe specialize into physician to maximize health gains from meds. You might need something for stamina and some sex rex for sure.

Oh that sounds interesting, and I just started a new build with latest experimental. I'll do it. Do bows/arrows count? I'm on Nomad difficulty and 30 min 24 hour cycles, so we'll see.

 

[madmole]

3 words. Let's Play Series

I can't wear headphones for a hundred hours, my ears hot flash and I feel miserable for about 2-3 hours afterwards unless I don't record any vo, but that isn't very fun to watch. I need some ac headphones lol.

 

[madmole]

Madmole, some food for thought. I think we get too much xp from "advanced" building: rebar frames + concrete will get you 2, 3 lvls super fast. Last night I decided to build a modified raised platform and test it tonight (day 28 horde). Xp gain was massive: 3 lvls, building a 13 x 13 platform (cage on top) and 16 pillars reinforced with plates. Ok, I spent 15k concrete on it, but 3 lvls is simply too much. I checked my gamestage before and it raised almost 20 points (111 now).
Btw, there is a good chance I can test who is right: you said upon death if you not engage a zombie horde night is over; Faatal said it's a 30 seconds "safe zone" and then if a zombies sees you, horde is back. My workshop is underground (bedrock) so if I die I"ll not engage any zombie, but "technically" they couldn't see me either unless gps is on after 30 seconds.

Try building something at level 60 and tell me how op it is.

 

[Odetta]

It was made some years ago before mods were on the roadmap or the framework to saw barrels off even existed. Unity didn't have texture streaming so we couldn't add it. We slapped it in there for now, but could redo it to support long barrel.
I disagree its crap, I can one shot about anyone with 2 taps to the face with my crappy q2 one.

Spoiler

 

[Jugginator]

I can't wear headphones for a hundred hours, my ears hot flash and I feel miserable for about 2-3 hours afterwards unless I don't record any vo, but that isn't very fun to watch. I need some ac headphones lol.

I hear you, I've found Turtle beach headsets to be the most comfortable. Could always get a stand mic.

 

[madmole]

@TFP staff Not sure who work on model collision box to address to, but a QOL request, could we have a slightly smaller collision box on barbwire fence? it impossible to repair anything underneath it right now.

Do you mean the place able one with wood legs?

 

[Jugginator]

Spoiler

Yes. Spas please, with a drum lol

 

[AtomicUs5000]

They don't have to be a patchwork of nonsense. Just cutting the size of them in half and making sure there is at least some of each in each quarter of the world resolves the issue. Its a simple texture file and I did it in 10 minutes of basic brushwork in photoshop.
I know they are planning more changes for a19 and rwg is still a major rework in progress, but I'd hate to see new players running into the same issue as I did.

How large was the map? If you remove the unplayable area at the borders of a 4k map, you end up with approximately 3490 x 3490. I ask because if you split the 4k map into quarters, then each of those in half, you will be passing through a biome every 870 meters, approximately. To me, it's just not enough space.

 

[madmole]

i think like a zombie body builder could would as a "mini behemoth"

The biker looks like he didn't skip arm day.

 

[Odetta]

Yes. Spas please, with a drum lol

Telling by your avatar I new you would like it lol

 

[Ayrton]

@TFP staff

as no one answers me I upload it here I had no problems in the previous experimental game in ultra at 60 fps

W10

Ram 16

i5 6th generation

GTX 1060 3 GB

in this alpha tube very ugly graphics any help?