PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[HungryZombie]

random, did TFP tell us why barbed wire wall or whatever is only in the admin menu and it non craft able now??? i miss ittttttt

Yes they did.

 

[SnowDog1942]

TUBE is nothing, he's using google translator and writing "tuve" ("had" in spanish) wrong. So google translator doesn't translate it.

Wow, interesting. Thanks for that!

 

[jorbascrumps]

I really wish I had recorded the previous horde defense, I was in my bunker with everything out of ammo, my iron bars broken, and my last block between me and the zombies at 10% hp. Full brown pants mode. I nommed a fort bites, meleed, and dipped out a couple times to heal. Killed the last 50 or so zombies melee only protecting that block by tanking controlled amounts of hits.
But I do have my Day 34 defense. After the brown alert of the last horde night I went into full on farm/prep mode for the next one an I think I overprepared lol.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

[lord_ahriman]

Explosives of all sorts are ludicrously powerful for their cost in A16 so far. With gunpowder being so easy to get and the only limited on higher explosives being duct tape you can pretty much just LOL through a horde if you depend mainly on explosives. My pure agility build was killing day 40+ hordes just by spamming explosive arrows for the most part, and I was actually stockpiling more than I was using.

Yeah, explosives are fun in A18 like in A16 (A17 was not working properly 'til 17.4 I believe). I know I didn''t find the book for exploding bolts, but exploding arrows I'm not sure. I'll definitely check it tonight. The only let down is: we don't have a reliable source for paper (for mid/late game hordes) so I will not "spam" shotgun turrets like I did in A16 (my last base had 20 turrets). That would make hordes even easier by using it as perimeter defense alongside electric fences. I think I'll build hybrid towers: dart traps and electric fences, each side with its electric system so I can avoid the entire defense going down due to demolishers explosion. Horde nights are fun again.

 

[meganoth]

Nobody will spend a point anymore in better crafting because its a dead end in early midgame and technically its really just wasted points.Maybe it helps very early on but you will regret every point wasted in crafting at some point.

Very unlikely, because crafting items (with quality) is just a side benefit of the respective perk. For example if you use shotguns as your main weapon it would be really really braindead not to specc into shotgun messiah perk.

 

[Callum123456789]

im having a good time on day 29 didn't want my selected perks so I worked my ass off for grandpas learning elixir reset my perks and going into mining and perception and well its pretty good lol I have like 4k bullets and obliterating zombies right now it helps that you mark all sources like coal and nitrate since that's the main thing you need to get this build well as usual thank you fun pimps for making your game always fun I truly appreciate it thank you

-callum

 

[Roland]

No its not.
EDIT: If you repair the gun its worth more than 12, but still not as much as the parts.

Wow. The value difference surprises me because there is no actual “polishing of parts”. It’s a simple button click to scrap and a few seconds later your item is significantly more valuable AND stackable....

At least I can save more repair kits now. I was using them to polish up guns before selling them but there is no question now what the right choice should be. Always scrap guns.

 

[meganoth]

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.

Please don't make the fetch quests trivial. There is nothing wrong when you add a searching minigame and it actually needs you to be searching, sometimes longer sometimes shorter.

 

[Zaroff]

We're removing crafting of purples.

seriously?

the fact that you need "parts" to craft items and gear and the sheer amount of other matts. you can't spam craft purples and you can spec into everything to unlock every purple item. I think its good where its at right now. if you want to change it up I am open to that. hopefully you don't just remove it.

 

[Kosmic Kerman]

Wow. The value difference surprises me because there is no actual “polishing of parts”. It’s a simple button click to scrap and a few seconds later your item is significantly more valuable AND stackable....
At least I can save more repair kits now. I was using them to polish up guns before selling them but there is no question now what the right choice should be. Always scrap guns.

I think this is only true for low quality items. The higher quality weapons/tools/armor will sell more than the parts.

 

[Callum123456789]

I think this is only true for low quality items. The higher quality weapons/tools/armor will sell more than the parts.

mostly correct yes

 

[SnowDog1942]

Wow. The value difference surprises me because there is no actual “polishing of parts”. It’s a simple button click to scrap and a few seconds later your item is significantly more valuable AND stackable....
At least I can save more repair kits now. I was using them to polish up guns before selling them but there is no question now what the right choice should be. Always scrap guns.

And yesterday I was making a funny defending how it is working currently. Little did I know, the funny was on me.

 

[Ralathar44]

Yeah, explosives are fun in A18 like in A16 (A17 was not working properly 'til 17.4 I believe). I know I didn''t find the book for exploding bolts, but exploding arrows I'm not sure. I'll definitely check it tonight. The only let down is: we don't have a reliable source for paper (for mid/late game hordes) so I will not "spam" shotgun turrets like I did in A16 (my last base had 20 turrets). That would make hordes even easier by using it as perimeter defense alongside electric fences. I think I'll build hybrid towers: dart traps and electric fences, each side with its electric system so I can avoid the entire defense going down due to demolishers explosion. Horde nights are fun again.

Paper is very consistent in loot and as trash on the floor. Also anytime you see a rolled cylinder that doesn't look metal you should try harvesting it. It'll either be wood, or it'll be a textured paper or carpet roll that can be harvested for paper. There are multiple places that have giant pillar sized rolls of material that can be harvested for significant amounts of paper. Like each block can be 100+ paper.

I always bash literally everything to make sure I know what I can potentially harvest from it . It's why I started pickaxing the fully stone and fully metal sinks as well as any faucet I see. Free iron pipes from the sinks and free iron/brass from faucets after you scap them. Showerheads too to scrap into iron. The toliet factory as part of the 3 building dungeon crawl is one of my favorite POIs because I always get a good amount of brass/iron from it along with cement/cobblestones from another building scooping the bags with a shovel.

 

[madmole]

Any plan to increase the t5 quest POIs? Right now there are only 4 of them and it is easy and fast to obtain a t5 quest..

They are kind of a novelty IMO I don't do them because they take too long and cause player fatigue. I'd rather we don't add any more.

 

[madmole]

@Madmole:
If world generation is staying how it is, PLEASE consider adding this feature request in a18 or a19:

Either a game option to choose medium or large biomes, or a new biome.raw file with biomes half the current sizes.

I played with the biome.raw file, and its very easy to do, a half hour's work at best.

I know you like large biomes, but here is my justification for this:

In my 70 day playthrough, I never saw wasteland, snow, OR desert until day 66, where I spent two full days map exploring. At that point I finally DID see both wasteland and snow.

I was seeking desert though, because I needed to craft gas. I finally looked at the generated biome.png to see where desert was on the map. I had started far SE, and desert was far NW.

This means I never saw a snake, coyote, OR mountain lion either. It doesn't matter whats in those other biomes if new players never even see them. If you want to hook new players they need a taste of that biome diversity. I spent probably 80% of my time in ugly burning lands with only vultures as wildlife (and as a result, no huntable food other than an occasional spawned wolf pack) , 19% in forest so I could hunt for food, and the other 1% or 70 play hours as I travelled hunting down biomes on the map in game.

I can easily do this myself editing that biome.raw file now, but the option for more diversity to balance the play environment really needs to be back in vanilla. Flipping or rotating it to change it up is fine, but the biomes just need to be smaller so players actually see them or can locate them.

Going forward (if this is how they are going to generate biomes from now on) I'd like to either see game options for small, medium or large biomes, or provide a few different biome.raw files, and randomly choose one of them to flip or rotate for map generation.

None of this is really difficult to do, so once someone has critical a18 fixes off their plate this would be a good easy way to add biome balance to the game.

Please bring this up to the team to consider.

As I've said, this version is all about getting pretty terrain stabilized, and we'll expose options for players after we get roads and towns sorted out.

There is no way you could travel two days straight and not see everything unless you were encumbered, wearing heavy armor, had low stamina or moving in circles. Climb a mountain or nerd pole up 200 frames and look, you can see multiple biomes usually and go to the new biomes, or simply use your map once you hit a border you have 1 piece of a 4 piece puzzle its pretty easy to figure out where the rest is.

EDIT: You can play a 4k map too, then you see it all easily.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

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 have the same problem and since I travel a lot and wanted a good in-ear headset. so I got a couple of sets of these and they rock.

USB Type C Earphones, Lewoer in-Ear Noise Cancelling Earbuds Stereo Bass Gym Sports Headset with Microphone

highly rated and $20. I have two sets for travel and gaming rig.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VVJWGHP/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07VVJWGHP&pd_rd_w=iuVyN&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=ZXzzn&pf_rd_r=EDKVVHWG0C639W7EDYGV&pd_rd_r=910c1829-b780-47eb-bcd9-8f8460c0c840&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFKNkcyNjgyMEcxTEMmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0NjU2NDYzOFlHN0E0WDFJVUoyJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAwOTQ1NDMyUVlNMzdCWVQxNlNGJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

[Ralathar44]

They are kind of a novelty IMO I don't do them because they take too long and cause player fatigue. I'd rather we don't add any more.

This is definitely something I've noticed. Some folks have asked for the ability to do lower tier quests to avoid longer crawls, but rapid firing lower tier quests would allow you to quickly and easily spawn quick treasure rooms and potentially break the risk vs reward curve since many of the rewards (especially those from looting the POI) scale off of gamestage. Nothing wrong with someone wanting to do quick and easy T1 quests but if they provide disproportionate rewards they WILL be abused of course.

Seems like a problem that will require a bit of a more granular solution and that takes development time and iteration unfortunately .

 

[CypherTodd]

@madmole Please remove the ability to craft top tier anything. I will admit I was kinda upset when I learned we could not craft it (got have the best guy). But during my play I found it SOOOO rewarding when i found one, and it pushed me to the trader (which I had rarely if ever used). It was a good thing. I know there were probably a lot of people bitching, there always will be. Me personally think letting us craft top tier is a bad thing. thanks you for an amazing game it is the best game I have ever played!

 

[Thegamingprodigy51]

I love alpha 18 it’s obviously the greatest update so far. There’s a couple of suggestions I have but I’ll start with since there is tons of ammo found in the world now, maybe you shouldn’t be able to craft normal or good ammo only find good ammo threw loot. Crafting ammo should be called “home made ammo” and cause more durability loss to the weapon as the steel casing ammo did previously but still uses brass as materials. I feel like that will balance it out since you can find so much ammo now. Secondly junk Turret lol it needs to be nerfed more I think if your not perked into it the shot speed should be really slow with minimal damage and ammo Capacity of 15. Because right now it’s a beast and a over powered to the point people think they don’t even have to perk into it, just drop it down and let it take care of the zombies for you. It’s already godly with out spending points into it. Then make Perking into it increases shot speed damage and capacity. I’m done for now I gotta finish setting up my horde base

 

[MajorMunchy]

Yes they did.

well derr im wondering why