PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Senkan]

Are screamers spawning without heat?

Day time day 1. I was outside scavenging a POI and a screamer spawned. I had no fire active. There was a game placed oil barrel on fire near by.

Night time day 1. Secured an area with a door and was looting on a higher floor (staying in a partial demo'd building). I hear something banging on my door. Come down and 2 screamers are bashing it. I had 1 torch in my hand.

Don't mind this all that much. Nice little horde to fight night 1 but is this the norm?

Edit: Morning day 2 0430. I leave my structure and waiting for me at the bottom is another Screamer.

Edit 2: Evening Day 2 2130. Get back to base and close door and ....another screamer. WTF.

 

[Laz Man]

Playing always nightmare speed on nomad right now.
Really puts the stealth system to the test. And I've never used the rock distractions so much before.

You're seen: you're dead. It's pretty exhilarating. I started in the snow biome trying to sneak around lumberjacks and pumas. Dear lord.

Only real men mode...lol

 

[Laz Man]

The point of putting insulation in to not get cold/hot is to prevent from using food/stamina faster. That only matters at low levels when food/water is a problem, ironically this is the point of the game which you don't have much in the way of mod slots and so you cannot spare it for insulation/heat.
Custom Fittings increases your ability to survive and also decreases stamina use (and thus food use). Armor increases your ability to survive. Pockets decrease your encumbrance, which decreases the amount of stamina you use early game without a vehicle. Once you have a vehicle hot/cold really doesn't matter at all because you're going to a POI (which you'll be considered inside for and thus not be hot/cold) or because you'll be going to dig for a very short amount of time for a buried treasure quest. Wood is so easily obtained you're almost never outside for it and mining is underground and you're not cold/hot. But you can also avoid the encumbrance issue by using centralized storage chests to efficiently store and haul loot from an entire block at once rather than make multiple inefficient trips. So player planning > encumbrance.

So 100% I stand by my comment. The insulation/cooling mesh mods are convenience only. The real issue is the armor that has 4 slots that are actually impactful, which is what I actually stated. Example: Custom Fittings, Bandolier, Armor, Pocket. Taking well insulated is a complete waste. My first play through after A18 dropped was in the snow biome, well insulated was not needed. You dress appropriately for the biome and you'll never get freezing outside of very rare occassions, only cold. As mentioned you spend most of your time inside. Nobody should ever starve in this game with the trader/vending machines in existence and the cold biome also spawns mountain lions semi-often...which is additional meat. The desert? LOL. Yucca everywhere. You shouldn't have water or dysentery problems. If you have boiled water, you have superior hydration drinks without dysentery chance. Desert is a complete non-issue. At least snow has SOME impact.

Pack Mule is also a waste. You're going to get pockets and pockets invalidate pack mule. If pack mule had some other bonus, sure. But any perk that can be invalidated by recipes/schematics/gear you find is basically a complete waste if that's all it offers.

One mans waste is another's treasure. Time is money friend.

 

[Kahrkura]

The solo permadeath game I'm currently playing on Insane/Nightmare is going well so far. Gonna go up against my first Bloodmoon soon. I'm certain my INT build will suffice. By day 8 I'll have all of these uncultured undead reciting Shakespeare.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Yesterday I read a treasure map which revealed a treasure chest right in the middle of the wasteland over 3k meters away. I had just read the book that allows me to walk over landmines, so I figured it wouldn’t be so bad.

Holy hell, was I wrong. The circumstances weighed heavily against me. The treasure was on one of those giant peaks of debris. That in itself was difficult enough. The moment I found the chest, I was relieved, but at that exact same moment a wandering horde showed up. This wasn’t the typical few zombies that show up on the trader quests the moment you open the chest. This was a treasure map chest, so I knew as soon as I heard them, I was in trouble.

They were 8. Nothing I wouldn’t normally handle, but the dogs in the area joined them. My shotgun took care of the dogs rather quickly, but not before they got a couple of bites in. Then, because I was just injured by the dogs, a few vultures joined in on the fun.

I made it out alive somehow... with the treasure. The treasure was crap this time, but I did get tons of feathers. However, none of that mattered at all. I was just thankful to have survived. Playing dead is dead is where moments like these come alive.

 

[Ralathar44]

One mans waste is another's treasure. Time is money friend. ��

Fittings will save your more stamina (and thus more food) than insulation via it's lowered sprint cost while also making you more mobile in combat and thus safer. Thirst is not a concern in the desert with yucca. Pack Mule is the only one that can really have potential argument for it, but vehicles can be acquired so early game now, even if you don't get grease monkey, that it's hard to justify and even if you justify it early game you'll forgettin potion it out mid to late game.

Any perk that you can use a forgetting potion mid to late game on and does not have any real impact on you needs love. This means Pack Mule, Master Chef, Yeah Science, Grease Monkey, etc all need some relevant bonuses. Faster cook/craft time really doesn't cut it. Advanced Engineering is a wonderful example of how to combine both unlocks and bonuses to keep it relevant.

TBH with well insulated it's value is just too low for the points. I think they need to combine well insulated with iron gut. They are both thematically similar and the value of iron gut is also kind of low IMO. I've never taken or iron gut or well insulated in A18 and it's been more than managable but both combined would at least be appealing. Similarly I find baseline farming more than enough and found recipes enough, but I can at least see the appeal in taking 1 rank of Master Chef and Living off the Land. Further ranks are a waste and complete overkill though. Exception to that rule is living off the land in multiplayer, mainly for convenience of the person in charge of farming for the group so they don't have to punch 50 plants regularly to keep their guys fed and can punch 10 every harvest instead.

 

[pregnable]

I do not really see the issue with finding good loot early. Seems fine. You can always sell extras to buy ammo and stuff from the trader.

If you do not want people to have T5-6 loot by day 14, or whatever, just make it so T5 and T6 loot can not spawn before day 14, or tie it to the hours for people who change there days.

Balance it however you want vs crafting. Problem solved.

 

[madmole]

Night time is risky again? First good news i heard since A18e was allowed to the masses for testing. Keep it up, MM.

I'm playing with nightmare run speed ferals and blood moon zeds, joggers during the day and sprint at night on Nomad. Its not too bad now that I have a an ak but a feral can mess you up fast with no armor. So far the loot feels good on the new settings I've found a brown ak, a yellow junk turret, an orange pistol and orange hammer. I've mainly been doing dig quests because I got infected so much and needed some meds. Now that I have a healthy stock of herbal antibiotics and food from the dig quests I'm on day 6 and ready to try a clear quest. My trader has everything working but he's in the desert.

I crafted scrap armor for body legs and gloves, and bought a t1 mining hat, and wear some athletic shoes which are amazing if you strip off your armor and have one rank of cardio I can probably sprint 2 minutes or so without resting and cover a lot of ground. Once I get a vehicle I'll save them for if I die and have to get my gear back on foot (until I get my 2nd vehicle).

Of course a 4x4 and gyro are for sale, but no way can I generate that kind of coin. I did score a steel armor schematic but had to sell everything I had to pull it off.

 

[madmole]

You should check it out . this is a streamer but I had the same effect in game today. You can barely see the flame if you peek in the eye.

Yeah its broke, we'll fix it.

 

[madmole]

Instead of carrying spikes, it should have been barbwire.

I'll have to try that.

 

[madmole]

Dunno, are you sure you need to lock out a mod? Maybe the mod limit only applies to the number of mods the player can add, but a tool with extra mods remains functional.

If it lowered in quality it would have to lock out a mod. ON top of that you'd have to figure out its damage at a lower tier. A lot of headaches IMO for something we don't even need if we get proper loot balance. Everyone thought we needed food spoilage too but with food poisoning and loot balance I don't think its needed now.

 

[Wulf]

Yesterday I read a treasure map which revealed a treasure chest right in the middle of the wasteland over 3k kilometers away. I had just read the book that allows me to walk over landmines, so I figured it wouldn’t be so bad.
Holy hell, was I wrong. The circumstances weighed heavily against me. The treasure was on one of those giant peaks of debris. That in itself was difficult enough. The moment I found the chest, I was relieved, but at that exact same moment a wandering horde showed up. This wasn’t the typical few zombies that show up on the trader quests the moment you open the chest. This was a treasure map chest, so I knew as soon as I heard them, I was in trouble.

They were 8. Nothing I wouldn’t normally handle, but the dogs in the area joined them. My shotgun took care of the dogs rather quickly, but not before they got a couple of bites in. Then, because I was just injured by the dogs, a few vultures joined in on the fun.

I made it out alive somehow... with the treasure. The treasure was crap this time, but I did get tons of feathers. However, none of that mattered at all. I was just thankful to have survived. Playing dead is dead is where moments like these come alive.

Dead is dead is the only way for me to play this game.

 

[madmole]

No need to make it that complicated. Just make item health/durability work like player health/stamina. Repairing a T6 will just reduce max durability, but item will always be T6 and have all it’s mods. Eventually, item durability will be too low and require replacement.

This would be much easier to do, but I would want to pay a trader to repair it or something, or once you have that skill level / perk you could repair it yourself. Guys with lower perk rank than the gun would degrade more per repair until its useless or someone with the adequate skill could repair it.

 

[Trankitas]

Animations run at the frame rate. Are you playing SP or MP? If MP and you are not the server, then it could be related to the network update rate, since there is animation state updates going on.

No, no, i'm playing SP. Is not that, wiggle your rifle (don't do it DaVega) in game and compare the fps of the rifle and the fps of the rest of the game to see what I mean.

 

[madmole]

Madmole
I think you shouldnt place the lantern on top of the pallets of items in game. Just looks stupid when the lantern floats in the air after breaking down the pallets for cement or cobblestone. Would look better placed on the floor. IMO

Coughs * Airport POI * Coughs

What we need is an xml property called sticky true or false so it cannot stick to a side voxel. Then if you mined the pallet the lantern would fall to the ground. This would solve a lot of bs for decorations and less than 1 meter blocks that float. Ideally it might have all the directions it can stick, like n,s,e,w,t,b, then a railing could stick on the ends it meets the end of the voxel but not float if you rotate it sideways and its not touching anything.

 

[Survager]

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.

That would be a good solution, thanks.

 

[madmole]

Have you tried Nightmare on all but on the EASIEST difficulty.Think that would be fun. Everyone running at you but can take them out easily if you hit your shots!

I wanted to try that soon.

No, I wanted to make it harder than my last game in every way, so lowering difficulty would make it easier in some ways. Certainly more viable though, its pretty tough the first few days to the point where its annoying avoiding zeds on roads and you can't do a POI without antibiotics or armor.

 

[Laz Man]

The solo permadeath game I'm currently playing on Insane/Nightmare is going well so far. Gonna go up against my first Bloodmoon soon. I'm certain my INT build will suffice. By day 8 I'll have all of these uncultured undead reciting Shakespeare.

Now that's the spirit. Roh roh roh...*chest thump*

 

[madmole]

Playing always nightmare speed on nomad right now.
Really puts the stealth system to the test. And I've never used the rock distractions so much before.

You're seen: you're dead. It's pretty exhilarating. I started in the snow biome trying to sneak around lumberjacks and pumas. Dear lord.

I survived quite a few one vs one or two fights but when there are 4 of them that spawn after opening a dig quest its kind of a death sentence, then chasing honey/antibiotics because you get damaged at low health a lot and barely survive most fights causes infection, and that gets old too.

I'm having fun with just nightmare ferals/bloodmoon zeds and joggers during the day.

 

[madmole]

MM,
Is any consideration being given to sharing XP from trap kills with party members, either without any perk requirements or with those that have the relevant trap-XP perk?

My group and I just completed our day-14 Bloodmoon from inside our base's basement. By the time the horde was culled I had gotten three levels worth of XP (default settings/no mods) while my party members got a tiny fraction of that on account of me being the one that crafted/placed all the (very efficacious) traps. The rest of the group contributed in acquiring the materials for them so it's unfortunate that they don't get to share in the XP. Unless there's some sort of issue relating to balance, my group and I would love it if XP from trap-kills was shared amongst party members.

I'm not against it, but team xp still needs a MEGA nerf yet afaik. Looting should use the top guys gs, not combine it as well.