PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%
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    Votes: 1 33.3%

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Maybe how you worded it sounded bad? Sometimes things sound bad at first but you warm up to them once your objections are calmed. Sometimes you just have to try stuff with a proof of concept too, but usually we can settle on a nice design on paper.
@MM,

Sometimes even a dead horse comes to life? Isn’t it))) You wanted to say that?

 
And why do I have a 60 to 70 out in the wilderness were I can't see any Z's to a 40 to 50 when I'm coming up to a POI, and then down to 10ish when I'm breaking open a metal door? It makes no sense.
Your stealth level has nothing to do with animals or zombies near or far from you or anywhere at all. It is a combination of light that is on you and sounds you made recently modified by perks and the speed you are moving.

 
You don't need all those mods. I usually find the fall from great heights book and keep 5k on me. A broken leg is no big deal once you have a vehicle either. If you get the book that does "never slowed in combat" you don't need fittings. There is an athletic jacket that boosts run speed as well to remove a lot of movement penalty.
At the end of the day I'm sure people will get purples just fine, we didn't remove them, we just made a higher GS so it feels like it did a few days ago, later in the game. Ultimately we want everyone having purples, just not too many too soon.
Those books are indeed some good points I didn't think about, but it should be noted they are also complete RNG in and of themselves. I'll make do either way. It just feels like a large cliff progression falls off towards end game. Everything is relatively steady up until that point and then getting that last slot takes as long as the entire rest of the progression or more as your leveling slows to a crawl too.

None of it is actually a huge deal, but it definitely does make that progression aspect much weaker since T6, as to where I am right now, is still really rare and with random stats you will prolly need like 5-10 finds for each piece of gear to max out. While, in a vacuum, this allows for long term progression what I think you'll discover is that 99% of people just will never reach that point as the progression slows down so much I think the "hook" will lose it's bite.

I also draw an experiential line between mods slots and stats. Mods slots feel like a core part of gear progression wheras stats feels more like the min maxing carrot. But that's just how it read to me. It should be noted that this is basically how all loot progression games work too regardless of MMORPG or Diablo style game or etc. You get your slots/sockets/skills/attatchment/enchantment/etc max limit relatively early in the process and then the rest of the loot game is chasing after better stats, unique weapon abilities, and etc.

For example I'd much rather chase after a special shotgun mod that adds fire chance to shotgun blasts or a shotgun with better stats than I would chasing after another mod slot. One feels like chasing after baseline functionality, the other feels like chasing after better loot or cool ♥♥♥♥.

Mod slots could be another aspect of the RNG however to deliver on both and there is precedent on this in ARPGs. A Q1 could have 0-1 mod slot, Q2 could have 0-2, A Q3 could have 1-3, Q4 could have 2-4, Q5 could have 3-4, and Q6 would always have 4. Because stats would still vary too finding a Q5 with both 4 mod slots and good stats would be relatively difficult. But you could choose to have slightly lower stats to take advantage of the mod slots or slightly lower mod slots to take advantage of the stats. Depending on the exact stats and mod availability each could be useful in turn.

 
@devs

Major issue some players are having (not me). trying to get the players effected to write up reports. been troubleshooting this for like 2 hours now. Is this issue known before i keep delving deeper in to this?

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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.
Dang I don't think I have the patience for that, I like mashing zombies too much. Post a video of your base in your group game if its similar to the low res screenshots you posted a while back I think people would like it.

 
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.
I love reading stories, A18 seems to be good for it.

 
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.
I'll be looking at adding value to every perk that has a schematic unlock. We didn't have everything there is now until later but I intend to utilize all the recipe scaling and workstation mods fully.

 
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.
Faatal: I think he's talking about UFPS procedural sway.

 
I have some questions about something that I am not sure if it is a bug or not.

So I found the book that lets me craft mining helmets. I was looking at the recipe and it says I will only craft a level one helmet. I don't know if you guys intended the mining and fire helmets to track with the players light armor crafting skill or not, but currently, they don't. Seems kinda pointless to bother with crafting it if you can only craft a level one helmet.

Another thing is surely a bug, but I don't know what causes it and it seems random. Sometimes I will not be able to use GUI menu buttons and at the same time, all my arrows/bullets will not damage zombies anymore and they cannot damage me. I have to restart the game to fix it. I thought it might be a product of time playing but it happened really early in to a session last time I had it. The good thing is it doesn't happen a lot. Unfortunately, I have no idea what is triggering this or how to reproduce it.

 
I have some questions about something that I am not sure if it is a bug or not.
So I found the book that lets me craft mining helmets. I was looking at the recipe and it says I will only craft a level one helmet. I don't know if you guys intended the mining and fire helmets to track with the players light armor crafting skill or not, but currently, they don't. Seems kinda pointless to bother with crafting it if you can only craft a level one helmet.

Another thing is surely a bug, but I don't know what causes it and it seems random. Sometimes I will not be able to use GUI menu buttons and at the same time, all my arrows/bullets will not damage zombies anymore and they cannot damage me. I have to restart the game to fix it. I thought it might be a product of time playing but it happened really early in to a session last time I had it. The good thing is it doesn't happen a lot. Unfortunately, I have no idea what is triggering this or how to reproduce it.
Helmets are Heavy armor, no? (with the exception of military all other light armor is hoods/hats)

And ya only 1 time did I get that too. I was fighting a zombie and for some reason I couldnt melee them at all. Then I realized that they had stopped attacking and was just walking around. Even when I continued trying to attack them, no hits would land and it was like the zombie couldnt even see me. I think this was in b149. Had to restart to fix.

 
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Helmets are Heavy armor, no? (with the exception of military all other light armor is hoods/hats).
Mining helmets were always considered light armor before. They still even have the light armor movement penalty and not the heavy one.

Edit: I have had a look in the XML and the mining helmet is considered light armor and the fire helmet is considered heavy armor.

The mining helmet crafting is not tracking with the light armor skill. I don't have the heavy armor perk so I can't really tell if that is tracking with heavy armor or not.

 
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TomGirlGamer is a good streamer, not my favorite, but easy to watch... Her videos... About 7D2D. Sheesh! You guys are pervs! :)

Edit: My Fav is J.C.'s Channel. I think he's the only guy with a story line and interacts with his "NPC's". Also, his videos sometimes have that feel like the that TV painter guy had.

 
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lol TomGirlGamer is more famous than your entire company! You guys better pay the woman
The preferred payment from a pimp is the back of the hand..... question is does she really want payment..hmmm think about it.. ;)

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TomGirlGamer is a good streamer, not my favorite, but easy to watch... Her videos... About 7D2D. Sheesh! You guys are pervs! :)

Edit: My Fav is J.C.'s Channel. I think he's the only guy with a story line and interacts with his "NPC's". Also, his videos sometimes have that feel like the that TV painter guy had.
BOB ROSS!!!!! I love his show, if this streamer can put me to sleep like Bob does ill watch for sure.

Although i cannot see how putting your audience to sleep as a streamer is good for biz lol. =P

 
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I'll be looking at adding value to every perk that has a schematic unlock. We didn't have everything there is now until later but I intend to utilize all the recipe scaling and workstation mods fully.
That's what I figured :) . It feels like yall got 90% of the way to finishing A18 and then rather than pull another A17, which was kind of on fire at release, yall spent that last 10% polishing the crap out of everything best you could before release. I look forwards to what yall come up with and I really thank yall for the continued effort on the game. I will keep giving feedback but without a doubt this game is one of the best returns on purchase I've ever had in gaming.

Know that every bit of feedback I give is not a "this has to happen" or anything, it's only my perspective and given from a place of respect so that yall can pick apart what I say and then decide what problems you do/do not agree are present (or if other completely separate issues are present I'm not expressing well) and think of your own solutions...even if that solution is to change nothing :p . My feedback is only intended to keep those ideas flowing and point out what I can see (rightly or wrongly).

 
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