PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

Oh god I can't wait for legendary loot, I really feel like it will give substantial incentive to keep venturing out and looting once you reach late game.

Speaking of Legendary loot, will there be Zany or special effects on said items you think? Or just a higher stat ceiling when finding one?

Probably a special ability. Grandpa's winter overalls that are like +10 insulation compared to normies is a random idea of how it could be.

 

[Tetrameth]

[question was about loot difference with Lucky Looter] Just observe what you typically get at lvl1 and what you get at lvl 100 for a more pronounced difference.
Because it changes the loot roll (so it looks up different tables of items) you can't even compare it in a specific case. You might get totally different stuff with or without a perk point in Lucky Looter. I.e. instead of 3 med kits you might get a pickaxe and 5 shotgun ammo. But on average it is simply better and more.

Cheers for the response,

I understand that random is random, but I'm really just basically curious of the ramification of reading lucky looter 4, will I then end up reducing my variation of loot and start seeing more lead than anything?

It's difficult to word precisely, but I guess I'm asking 'metaphorically': If each of my 'potential' container items are represented by a number from 1-100, would reading lucky looter 4 mean that a larger portion of that 100 is now dedicated to finding lead, OR, do I still get that loot represented by 1-100, but the book then adds to this number bringing that representation to a metaphorical 1-110 instead.

 

[Tetrameth]

Some people have restartitis.

haha, that's great, I have never heard my condition explained in a word. I like it.

But it's only really caused by my strictly 'self imposed' dead-is-dead mode. It's a totally different game when you don't place a sleeping bag, and you delete the savegame upon death. Levels of appreciation go through the roof for some of the smallest finds when this game is mixed with a reduced loot drop chance.

 

[Guppycur]

That is guppy's baby. IF everyone can axe murder his idea we'll get that out of the game once and for all and be in a good spot balance wise.
Its probably a good design, if there is 0% chance to get good loot early game people will feel compelled to power level until the magic colors start dropping. Its just a matter of balance to where the high quality stuff is super rare early game.

Nothing but a few hundred hours further testing will solve this. We adjusted it more, but maybe it needs more. I have 2 hours into it so I have no idea how it feels yet.

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.

Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

 

[unlike them]

Can we have dyes (of the same color) stackable?

 

[Jay_ombie]

The look now with sun sets and the sky is cracking stuff.



Not noticed the moon yet but you could use the same lighting effects with a full moon phase through the clouds...

 

[LewZephyr]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

My wife would hate it, but I like that very much... its a great idea to keep the hunt going for better stuff, because your stuff is wearing out... sharpen a blade enough you will have no blade.

 

[Ezed]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

Nice ideas. Perhaps, similar to our health and stamina bars, the items maximum 'repair to' level decreases 10% or so. Not as harsh as losing a whole level (ie: purple to blue) with each repair kit used on it, while keeping with the concept.

Maybe it was like that at one point. I've definitely seen a similar solution somewhere...

 

[MrSamuelAdam]

The replacement wasn't less OP, so i suppose that kinda narrows down the reason to how they looked.

Yeah. Idk I enjoyed them.

But when you got to steel ones. They were pretty beast lol.

I keep them in my game now, but use them sparingly. Just like all traps. Since you cent get XP from them i try not to use many traps like that.

 

[Ricowan]

The replacement wasn't less OP, so i suppose that kinda narrows down the reason to how they looked.

They were OP because you could put them in a ditch upside down, zombies wouldn't see them but still get damaged by them. You can't do that with the punji stick spike trap.

 

[Kattla]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

We had a repair skill in A15, or was it A16? It was nerfed into the ground. Not entirely into the ground, but some items degrade really fast, like the auger , machine guns, Not saying degradation is a bad idea, nor are repair skills. But an auger going from T6 to T2 after 4 repairs isn't very good a solution either.

edit: If T6 is consider too OP, perhaps it is best to remove T6 from the loot-tables too, and make T5 the highest lootable for the moment, until true legendary items are implemented.

- - - Updated - - -

They were OP because you could put them in a ditch upside down, zombies wouldn't see them but still get damaged by them. You can't do that with the punji stick spike trap.

Can still put spike traps in a ditch, and have zombies walk over them and take damage.

 

[pregnable]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

Yeah, items used to degrade and I hated it. Plus at the time guns kept getting nerfed until we were left with something way worse than the basic bow lol. Game made no sense.

I do not really see a problem with good drops. Just balance the game accounting for people having better gear.

I mean they could tie loot drops to the number of days passed if it is really an issue.

 

[JCrook1028]

But in Alpha 18, both the horn and basket have been removed. While the horn didn't really do anything (sadly). You can't carry any additional loot other than what's on your person.

 


Huh? My bicycle has storage slots. 9 iirc.

 

[Dimpy]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

This solution is a lot better than the current method of relying on inflation in the stat economy to outdate the player's gear. There was recently a Pimp Dreams discussion on this topic: Tie in repairs of items to crafting skills

Can anyone come up with a credible reason why I should be able to infinitely repair a purple M60 at no cost if I only have one point in the Automatic weapons perk?

 

[fragtzack]

I want to do away with alphas. Instead you will get "the book update", "The vehicle update", "The bandit update", etc. We will see though. There are some big things we want to do that will take 6 months or more, so I'd hate to not give any updates when we could do smaller content updates in the mean time, THEN get you the bigger stuff. Bandits are probably 9 months out I'd guess, but I could get you guys new books in 3-6 weeks, and vehicle mods 2 months after that. Legendaries could go in too.

Hey, great idea on moving out of alpha mentality.

Kerbal Space Program game does what you propose. Awesome game that has been doing that update style for 4ish years. In fact their recent update Moar Boosters causes me to stop playing A18. but.. I am back to A18 now~

 

[pregnable]

This solution is a lot better than the current method of relying on inflation in the stat economy to outdate the player's gear. There was recently a Pimp Dreams discussion on this topic: Tie in repairs of items to crafting skills
Can anyone come up with a credible reason why I should be able to infinitely repair a purple M60 at no cost if I only have one point in the Automatic weapons perk?

Well guns do not break that fast IRL. You do not really need all that much knowledge to clean a gun.

Just tie loot to the number of hours or game days past if it is such an issue. Problem solved.

If they put in a bunch of annoying gun repair mechanics, I will just use primitive weapons and explosives instead.

 

[Odetta]

Well since I'm in charge, the solution is degradation.
Every repair makes it a little... Less. Might sound harsh, but purple repairs to blue, etc. Brown repairs to brown. To offset the harshness, reduce the degradation speed.

I think it was like that once, or similar.

That'll allow for the thrill of finding a purple, and the need to keep looking for another one.

...hell if you could make it so that lower level players degrade the items more than experienced players, you'd have a total win.

Hell, a repair skill can offset the penalty.

Na, with randoms stats, only 6 tiers, and mod slots I would not want it back in any form. What, in my opinion would be great is if they took out all and any kind of leveled loot, gamestaged and perks. Then you could truly get a good balance on loot tables and finding a pink would be crazy amazing. Legendaries would cause seizures.

Crafting would get a boost as well. Pinks could even have a chance of having a legendary affix, with actual legendaries guarenteeing 1 affix with chances to have more than one. Just some ideas.

 

[fragtzack]

The thing I miss the most from A17 is the silent zombies coming up behind, so much more challenging than an audible alert every time. Be nice to see mixed silent system depending on difficulty level.

 

[madmole]

I hate to admit it, but nightmare run speed on everything was too much. Maybe if I'd had some luck and found a gun earlier. I set it to jog at day, default sprint at night, ferals and blood moon are nightmare yet now its ok. Day 3 I finally found an orange pistol and brown AK, so I'm not completely hosed now. Got 2 pockets crafted for clothing, but I'm fighting infection constantly. Vultures in the desert keep sneaking up on me and infecting me and so I went to the pine forest stump hunting after no luck raiding a nice house. I found one, but I was at 13%, so it will help for a bit. I'm on a nerd pole right now as I type this waiting for the sun to come up, night time is too risky to run around now early game.

 

[madmole]

Can we have dyes (of the same color) stackable?

Seems reasonable but I don't know if its possible. I scrap mine to paint now, I don't use dyes except maybe to mark my lucky goggles.