PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[wolfbain5]

Ok getting a little worried played to level 35 died first death no bag for my stuff. not on map restarted another map new world. just died again level 32 first death no bag ….aggravating lol . Anyone else having your bag not showing after death ?

what is your drop on death set to?

 

[Aldranon]

1. it's called players getting ahead or using their brain. They are supposed to outsmart something dead.2. demolishers actually balance this out

#2: Not if you can build grenades. insta-killing Demolishers (if they don't move around much) is a thing.

 

[toaster]

I feel like a fool ….forgot I changed it to drop nothing after the first time it happen in the first exp. build . Didn't even look at my tool belt bar just out of habit died open map look for bag , sorry move alone nothing to see here. :crazy:

 

[Sevendaggerssix]

1.6 gig update Funpimps? Really? Way to destroy someone's Available gaming time. Way to be inconsiderate to your a customer base where time is limited. Still waiting for a switch to turn off zombie digging and switch daylight and night time zombie behavior. You know 7 days to die not 7 nights to die.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

1.6 gig update Funpimps? Really? Way to destroy someone's Available gaming time. Way to be inconsiderate to your a customer base where time is limited. Still waiting for a switch to turn off zombie digging and switch daylight and night time zombie behavior. You know 7 days to die not 7 nights to die.

Spoiler

 

[madmole]

Madmole, what if the signature weapon of each attribute build, (Junk Turret, M60,..etc) could only be unlocked and used by getting to tier 10 of their respected attribute?
You could still loot the items, scrap them for parts, sell them for dukes, but you couldn't use it unless you 'mastered' it. I know theres pitfalls behind this idea, but I think it would reward people more who specialize. As it is now, I can go full intellect build and still use an purple M60 fully modded. Yeah, it might not do the most damage possible, because I'm not fully spec'd into it, but the damage will still be really good.

Everyone would hate it.

 

[AlabasterW]

Yeah I don't think locking 50% of the guns behind a massive time/level gate is a good idea. The current "you can use anything but not very well without perks" system is perfectly fine. I mean, they're still guns; it doesn't take a genius to know how to fire one type of gun but not another.

 

[madmole]

Primitive Bow.... have you tried A18 yet? nevermind I see what you mean now...
Edit: Adding in verious types of the same weapon seems a bit redundant and pointless......maybe I'm not seeing the benifit.

The idea is to allow people to get started specializing right away allowing them to craft a primitive gun on day 1. We'd need primitive versions of everything to pull it off, and then push out finding real guns at all until level 10 or so. We have it working with melee weapons for the most part, but I'm not sure it really needs to happen with firearms. We'd need pipe rifles, pipe machineguns, pipe pistols and some kind of potato gun for the int guy to pull it off. It could be cool though. Probably get rid of blunderbuss ammo and just use regular ammo for all primitive fire arms.

It might happen when we get bandits in the game too or make sense when they come.

 

[madmole]

Well, I'll never see that pumpkin grow. I really wanted the cash to buy a tier 6 m60 from the trader and grabbed a clear quest... It turned out to be the shotgun messiah factory.
I figured I'd go though it first to refresh my memory, and like some of madmole's earlier a18 games, I wasn't respecting the zombies.

I died with my motorcycle there, had too much loot anyway, so took my new 4x4 over.

I died a second time by feral female lab scientists, again my own disrespect fault, and that was my 5th death, the limit I set for that game. So I'm trying a sp nomad 16 on as madmole's current playthrough.

I kind of want to see the updated progression with encouraged crafting anyway.

Shame, because I had a great base, all the gear I really wanted, and found a place to settle between 3 traders.

That was day 70, a new horde night as well.

When we do dead is dead, I wanted a dead is dead light, where you could earn or buy lives. So you could die permanently but it would be a little more forgiving allowing you to buy a life from the trader or trade 10 levels for another life or something. Death would still be horrible, but if you were invested in the game you could keep going for a massive cost.

 

[madmole]

Thanks. I want this game to succeed and work hard to that end, but we are a team and at the end of the day we sink or swim as a team. GO TEAM!

We are swimming very well IMO. GO TEAM!!! 18 has been a smashing success and its not even out of experimental yet. 17 was a framework build and we're pretty much done with framework so we should have more frequent and less buggy and more polished builds from here on out.

 

[madmole]

* Biome feral night born zombies will be old and die at dawn
Boo! It was quite exhilarating to know there might be a feral in the area at dawn.

Perhaps, let them remain after a few days?

The intent was to make nights potentially dangerous, not cause cheap deaths to noobs.

 

[madmole]

Nope. Whining players won that war.

For now, once we get random encounters in it will be game staged events that can be nasty for high level characters.

 

[JaxTeller718]

1.6 gig update Funpimps? Really? Way to destroy someone's Available gaming time. Way to be inconsiderate to your a customer base where time is limited. Still waiting for a switch to turn off zombie digging and switch daylight and night time zombie behavior. You know 7 days to die not 7 nights to die.

Opt out of Experimental and wait for the Stable release and all your problems are solved. Game away uninterrupted.

 

[madmole]

Is the sell price discrepancy between whole items and item parts intended? For instance, a level 1 stun baton sells for 12 dukes, but can be scrapped for 3 parts which sell for 90 dukes.

Yes. You are trying to sell a piece of ♥♥♥♥ gun, versus taking it apart, polishing the parts and selling those. Like in the old days you couldn't sell an old wrecked mopar for 500 bucks, but you could sell a fender for 80, a radiator for 50, an engine block and heads for 200 and get way more money just selling the parts. It might take you two years but you made 3 grand instead of 100 bucks for the whole car at the junk dealer.

 

[madmole]

Shhhh.

I'd be very surprised if there are any cash exploits, I have hundreds of hours testing.

 

[madmole]

That's an oversight. Neither Madmole nor Gazz will let that stand for long.

No its not.

EDIT: If you repair the gun its worth more than 12, but still not as much as the parts.

 

[madmole]

Show me your half a mil downloads and then we can recline in our amateur developer armchair together. Promise.

I'm having a hard time getting that image out of my head now, thanks.

 

[madmole]

WIth B149, crafting went from almost useless to too good. I have a suggestion:
* Revert crafting quality to B143, with no random stats;

* Add an option to attempt to craft an item at a one higher quality;

* Make the 1-higher items have random stats, but have the "worse" range be bigger than the "better" range, significantly;

* Make 1-higher crafting prone to fatal failure, losing the materials for no gain;

* Make 1-higher "better" range exceed loot range.

That should keep the focus on looting what you need instead of crafting what you need, but allow people to spend an uncertain amount of time and resources to get something truly unique through crafting.

We're removing crafting of purples.

 

[Ralathar44]

We are swimming very well IMO. GO TEAM!!! 18 has been a smashing success and its not even out of experimental yet. 17 was a framework build and we're pretty much done with framework so we should have more frequent and less buggy and more polished builds from here on out.

Honestly A18 is my favorite alpha and I've played since A9. Yall really have crushed it. I have some minor quibbles (some of which you've heard here) but they are indeed minor. Overall I'm incredibly happy and I have faith yall are going to smooth out what rough edges there are in A18 .

- - - Updated - - -

The idea is to allow people to get started specializing right away allowing them to craft a primitive gun on day 1. We'd need primitive versions of everything to pull it off, and then push out finding real guns at all until level 10 or so. We have it working with melee weapons for the most part, but I'm not sure it really needs to happen with firearms. We'd need pipe rifles, pipe machineguns, pipe pistols and some kind of potato gun for the int guy to pull it off. It could be cool though. Probably get rid of blunderbuss ammo and just use regular ammo for all primitive fire arms.
It might happen when we get bandits in the game too or make sense when they come.

I love the idea of primitive weapons of everything, filling the gap you say, but agreed it's pretty low priority. I understand yall have limited time and resources and so prioritization is key.

 

[madmole]

Feathers need a buff (finding more of them in nests) and I don't even like using the bows.
Compared to guns and ammo it seems like an unnecessary nerf.

I love that we can go guns blazing from the start but I know some users prefer the bows.

Vulture harvesting is not really viable unless you live in or are in close proximity to a desert.

Forget about using the bow on early game hordes too, just not enough arrows, even if you harvest vultures.

Edit: you also reduced the nests out in the wild, which is... insane when coupled with reduced feathers.

Can you use a gun exclusively early game? Nope. You have to mine for ammo. Some tips:

GO to rooftops and kill vultures.

Get the huntsman to harvest more from vultures. (pretty sure about that)

Chop up the nests after you loot them for even more feathers.

Go to biomes that have vultures. Injure yourself if you want, they will seek you out then.

Get the book that gets you more feathers.

Get the archery perk that lets you retrieve more arrows.

Use every other gun you have and ammo you find to conserve feathers.

I sell stacks of feathers and don't even use a bow. Like 250 every day or two just from wrecking every vulture I see. I don't loot nests either unless I'm an archer build.