PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[faatal]

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

Yeah, I saw in high second post something about weapon movement. UFPS might be doing it in a fixed update.

 

[Jay_ombie]

Just had my second Blood Moon at a random POI (could not make it back to base), I died and made it back to the same POI.

All the blood moon zombies are gone and no more are spawning yet its only past 12.

Has it always been like this as I only ask as I have not ever died at a random POI in a blood moon night before.

 

[agrastiOs]

BTW, people talking about the biomes being too big... I think they're fine. Not even Day 7 came in and I had seen all the biomes in my first A18 playthrough. And I relatively explored very, very little because things to do in A18 overwhelmed me, I mostly managed to see all the biomes just by respawning from deaths before putting a bedroll and getting some airdrops.

And that argument with that people have to see most of the content in their playthrough: I disagree with that. Many games have content which you might not even see in your first 5 playthroughs. A game should have enough content to have you see lots of it each playthrough and also have variety by experiencing other content each other playthrough, which is a win-win.

 

[faatal]

Did a bit of testing on Insane/Nightmare run.
10 block gap, straight flat tarmac road, I fired a shot and ran the other way:

Faster than player (fastest to slowest),

biker rad - is pure evil, he caught me @89 stamina

biker - caught me @75 stamina

dog - caught @65 stamina

direwolf - caught @50

cheerleader rad - caught @50

business man feral - caught @40

cheeleader - caught @30

stripper feral - caught @30

darlene feral - caught @30, faster than darlene rad?

old timer feral - @10

About same speed as player, I could run down my stamina to zero:

arlene - she's slightly slower

arlene feral - caught up right behind but didn't trigger attack

arlene rad

business man

burnt

darlene

darlene rad - caught up right behind but didn't trigger attack

nurse

nurse feral

snow - he's slightly slower

snow feral

stripper

wight rad

Slower than player:

farmer

football player

utility worker

military rad

old timer

bear, wolf, mtn lion - gave up chase in seconds

I could out run everything even radiated biker on uneven hilly ground, any uphill or downhill slowed them down and I could get away.

Personally I'd like them a tad faster so the faster ones really give me the sh**s, I think zombie speeds really change the game, stepping out becomes strategic instead of a free for all looting/questing session, anyway hope that helps.

Thanks for the info. I think I will leave it as is for now. As the speed increases, there is more potential for path overruns, circling and such.

 

[AtomicUs5000]

You can only punch empty handed, what is the difference then with the knuckles in that slot?

The difference isn't much.

Like I said in my original post, this is during the first couple days when sometimes you don't have anything to put there.

It's not a big deal, obviously... I just find the concept of not being able to punch if your tool bar is full to be an odd mechanic. It was even more odd when we didn't have knuckles. Now that we have them, it masks this oddity, but it still exists for a moment.

 

[Tetrameth]

Anyway it does not make sense. I agree to a formula like:t1=10-12dmg , t2=13-15dmg etc etcFind me 1 game that a better quality item is worse than the same item in lower quality...name only 1

It is misleading and confusing.

Torchlight, Diablo 2

 

[faatal]

Good videos. I definitely think there is some inconsistent weirdness going on. My melee is 90% reliable, but it does feel like there is 10% of the time I'm missing due to unexplained stuff outside of my own dumb misses even after getting used to it. Prolly higher if the zombie gets "too close". Reworking the melee system was almost guaranteed to come with it's quirks that need to be fixed. I'm sure it'll get tightened up as A18 continues to receive additional polish though.

Yep. Changes make bugs. Bugs take time to fix.

 

[Bubo]

Yes, Bob Ross! (Thanks for the reminders, will look and see if his show is on Youtube). I heard his family didn't sell any of his paintings, because they loved him and that's what he wanted. Just a really good guy.

Sometimes they run his old shows (check your local listings). Great aid to drift off to sleep, or paint. :wink-new:

Tfp implemented new software that made the zs look close to the same looks of the player in real life :-D

LOL

There should be zero fog now, I killed the chance for it.

Thank you.

 

[JaxTeller718]

Heads up Mr Mad Mole, but i just noticed a pretty big streamer playing 7 days. Forsen. LOL. Big with the teens. 10k plus viewers. I believe it is his first time streaming it.

 

[Tetrameth]

That's the downside of going from 1-600 to 1-6.

Yea, we never needed to actually know there was 600 points (the joys of rounding off)

- - - Updated - - -

Confirmed: Bandits ride zombie horses! If you join their faction, you learn how to tame zombie creatures.
I'm so ready for A20.

Zombie horse racing, yay !

 

[madmole]

Kick all mods out during repairs and then the player decides what mods they want.
- - - Updated - - -

Same.

Design fail. If inventory is full, just chuck all their mods out on the ground, to roll down a mountain and get lost? Plus wow, really? How inconvenient having to reinstall mods. Here's the solution: We don't do a damn thing aside from nerf trader loot and get purples dropping as intended and it will be awesome.

 

[faatal]

How many hour days yall prefer playing on A18 ? I did notice the increase in difficulty from A17. I’m on 60 min, nomad difficulty currently and I love it, I feel like 120 is too easy lol you’ll have a fully functional base made of steel with shotgun turrets and blade traps by day 14 lol 90 min is perfect for the casual player. I’m a day 1 player of 7dtd so I’m a veteran who wants a challenge. What’s y’all thoughts ?

I'm playing 90 minute days on adventurer and thinking of going 120, but my settings are not exactly normal.

24 hour cycle - 90 mins

BM freq - 1 day

Zombie night/feral/BM speed - Run

AI block damage - 50%

Loot abundance - 50%

Loot respawn - 15 days

BM count - 4 enemies

Mark air drop - on

Been fun so far, after a bad start in the desert. Took forever to find water, but moved to a small walled in base in the forest on day 2. Still looking for a forest town to relocate to.

Interesting having to get back to base before the sun goes, because they are coming for you.

I'd like to add options for BM freq 2 and BM count 6.

 

[madmole]

Ok that's good, The way it seemed like with some past statements made me think you were against it entirely. I do think the log trap should be added back in with the changes I suggested because a low damage trap with good health is definitely missing and, seeing as zombies legs don't seem to be made out of paper any more It shouldn't have a problem with blowing every zombies legs off like in A16.

The spikes we have now work. I was thinking bear traps could be cool too. They would require steel and mech parts and be pretty expensive to craft and need reset, but they would wreck most zombie legs and turn them to crawlers.

 

[madmole]

Confirmed: Bandits ride zombie horses! If you join their faction, you learn how to tame zombie creatures.
I'm so ready for A20.

Na bandits roll up in tanks.

 

[madmole]

Anyway to remove shift from stopping ADS? I really just would like HOLD to ADS and having shift not effect the ADS. Since when you're running and you have run and gun, parkour and deadeye at max. It's very hard to jump run and and shoot since you can't when you're ADSing...

Run and gun is kind of meant to shoot from the hip.

 

[madmole]

Madmole, the A18 attributes are a definite improvement over A17 and I'm enjoying the game much more than I ever had on A17.
Though I also feel the attributes are missing just a little something extra. I feel the negative feedback received from A17 might of inclined you to over correct the ship. Now instead of feeling like a need to max out all the attributes, I only feel the need to go only after one attribute. I have always loved attribute trees from games were I was conflicted on how to best spend my points with every level. Not because I absolutely needed them, but because they contributed in some way to my play style no matter how minor. Now it is just a little to linear.

I would suggest that each attribute add a none combat related skill that improved quality of life and or survivability in this zombie infested world. This way players would not feel like it was required, but they received something beneficial with each point spent.

Though just want to say, outstanding job with A18. My wife and I have not been able to stop playing since you released it. TFB have really done a great job with this game.

I think its this way already. I always grab a few ranks and perks from every tree, but one I specialize in and max out.

 

[madmole]

Not all player do "min-max" and this are too much limited cases.
Many players, me too, find a purple good item soon(personally day 27, day cycle 20 min, warrior, an hhunting rifle), and stick to this weapon.

No more reason to search anymore, personally i stopped searching too much in messiah store/crate.

For A18 i see a lot of good new things and changes, but a lack of balancing for crafting and nothing to loot for "endgame" and item like parts become useless.

I think an upgrade system for high level weapons/tool will add another layer to the game and more reason to looting/crafting.

You weren't curious in the slightest to see if your purple item was actually a piece of crap? I thought I had a good ak47 that did 60 damage, later I found out there are much better ones. Didn't you want all purple items? Finding one purple isn't the end IMO, you want the best mods for it, and a better purple, and of course purple armor, tools, etc.

 

[Locusta]

The spikes we have now work. I was thinking bear traps could be cool too. They would require steel and mech parts and be pretty expensive to craft and need reset, but they would wreck most zombie legs and turn them to crawlers.

Glad to hear you come back to what I was saying a few months ago. They could be really useful against the demo zombies!

Loc

 

[Damocles]

Na bandits roll up in tanks.

Ok faatal, you can already prepare and read up on the physics of tracked vehicles, and pathfinding for oversized objects.

 

[madmole]

Have you guys considered adding a few more monstrous-looking types of zombies? They'd be nice to be found as mini-bosses in certain high tier quests, or some really big POIs or as part of the final round of a blood moon. You know, zombies that are less humanoid looking already, that scare the hell out of you just from the sight of them.
Mutated zombie bears, mutated muscleheads, mutated... you get the idea.

Hopefully we can make a few special wasteland zombies that are mutated and scary.