PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Blake_]

I like the short 60 minute days, but I might try a blood moon every 14 days or something to get more time. Maybe put it back to 7 later game, or random after I get my base done.

I'll be honest with you. In alpha 16.4 we could play 60min days no problem. Since a17 it just feels too rushed. I played 120 minutes and it was a little over the sweetspot. It's feeling like if you add up to the quests and complexity of the game npc interactions, 60 minutes is just not doable anymore.

The current 60 minute time reminds me of the clunky perk system in a17. You suffer and yet you feel like you are never good enough; in this case you feel like you are never "capable of staying put because of your achievements", which is not fun if you worked for it for tens or hundreds of hours.

Edit: Meaning, you may be late game. But being able to pick your fights sounds like a benefit, or at least having breathing room to prepare very comfortably because of the extra time . It's not like you won't have threats anymore. You are always in constant threat in this game.

 

[SnowDog1942]

Who wins Johnny Walker or Cory Anderson?

Man.. that's a good fight..is that announced or theoretical?

I really like Johnny Walker.. he is hilarious.. but he may be a bit new still.. needs higher level experience.

I WANT walker to win -- hell im saying Walker is going to win!!

 

[Laz Man]

Sure can, I learnt that the hard way. Had a coal mine in a previous game that also contained nitrate: A full gunpowder mine! I was SO pumped, I mined the F out of it...
View attachment 30041

so... there used to be a hill there and now it's a hole. No idea how I survived, but I was learnt good and now reinforce as I go. The wood logs are cheap, work well, and look great, even feel like legit supports in a mine. It really is fast, efficient, and cheap to install the catwalks as you go too, so why not.

Haha yikes, looks like more supports were needed lol...

 

[Laz Man]

8 players, 8 zombies each. We can't exactly scale the numbers any higher so the zombies have to get more challenging. It wouldn't be a problem for solo players with great computers but we can't really design the game around them. Hopefully we can improve radiated zombies or make special blood moon zombies and get rid of the glowing guys, it was just a quick thing to prototype amped up dudes.

I approve of that! The glowies are alittle over the top look wise so any improvement to make them fit in is welcomed.

- - - Updated - - -

Playing single player or on a server?

I think I've seen this too in SP. It's like right after opening a sealed crate is not lootable right away (1 or 2 second delay)

 

[Jedo]

Noticed quite a bit of delay between breaking open a crate and being able to actually open it. Like the game doesn't recognize the block has become clickable for a second or so...?

Happens to me too sometimes. I play SP.

Not many games will get you to drop 1300$ on a new pc just to play em../..I have no problems playing anything on this comp--Never had issues with 7 days either.

I think Steam and 7 days has some kind of .dll issue atm...

damn windows was updating in the backround last week- hd was going 100% and I couldn't figure out what was going on -no indication windows was updating not even in the security/update section. so I turned comp off.....spent some time digging in fixing and tweaking.

so now Im running on a sleek- no app laden computer runs great and I even found a little nugget from Micro soft... telemetry protocol that runs in the backround constantly sending them your info.. I shut that down too--

anyway- my new system should be here by end week just in time for vacation... tfp should get some kick backs on these sales.

I built my PC for 7dtd a couple years ago. It's still going strong. Also, when I first build, I look through Windows and eliminate as much of the bloat as I can find. Inevitably, an update will add some new bloat. *sigh* I have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft.

 

[Mechanimal]

Haha yikes, looks like more supports were needed lol...

Evidently, yes. I was just setting stairs/catwalks as I dug, no supports. Now I put beams in as I open things up, and I sometimes even branch off of those with side supports to help hold the ceiling together. Haven't had a cave in since, except one little one in the desert, but that's sand, sand is a jerk. Opening up and expanding my desert mine could be tricky. It has 3 valuable nodes too, so it will be big, and I will find out how much support mines need to be when in sand and not dirt. Probably going to require a lot more than I have been doing. Gonna find out soon...

ALSO, and this is actually very important/helpful, If you look at most of my pics I not only ADD supports but I also LEAVE pillars of existing dirt/ore as natural pillars as well. Lots of them in fact. Then if/when I need the material they are made out of I build a support right alongside it before mining it out. Point is you can, and should, leave natural support pillars as you open up new pockets/rooms. Important to mention that part.

 

[Trankitas]

Bubo, I cleaned my PM's, sorry about that :fat:

 

[MechanicalLens]

Your name always reminds me of the Sclerotic Ring, which we monkeys don't have, but tons of other animals do. Like, actual eye bones. Pretty sure most birds, and thus dinosaurs, have them, even thought they are often not in fossil reconstructions. Is one my my fav parts of a fossil reconstruct I have, a dino that ran around North America with T-Rex and Trikes:
View attachment 30042

You can see them if you look closely, he's next to a bot I worked on where I did make "eye bones" of sorts, custom shaped ones for each prototype.

The most well known example is probably from the Dunkleosteus:

View attachment 30043

But far more animals have these than people realize, and actual mechanical lens, of sorts. I was, and am still, surprised this neat fact is not more common knowledge.

There, hope that helps you tell us apart Mad Mole I make mechanical animals, and he has bones in his eyes, in a good way.

That is all incredibly fascinating! Thanks for the info!

 

[JaxTeller718]

I haven't seen the forums purring this loud in... forever!

You build it brother we will come

That one is for you Snow!

Trying out random BM now. Starting a fresh game to see what shakes. Still playing vanilla, but testing mods in my spare time. I can honestly say I haven't been this into vanilla for so long in a long time. The team deserves a round on me. Or a protein shake. Whichever will suit you good sir!

 

[Guppycur]

Yeah we're going to look at that.

It'd be a good place for those ugly brush/bushes that give you like 3 wood. Add some with color for uh, color.

 

[SnowDog1942]

You build it brother we will come
That one is for you Snow!

Trying out random BM now. Starting a fresh game to see what shakes. Still playing vanilla, but testing mods in my spare time. I can honestly say I haven't been this into vanilla for so long in a long time. The team deserves a round on me. Or a protein shake. Whichever will suit you good sir!

LOL!! and I agree !!

 

[Hazitru]

I was thinking lead should be put into more items for crafting. Potassium nitrate and coal are used in a lot of items. Is lead used in anything else besides bullets? Lead seems to be the most prominent ore in the game besides iron.

 

[Dadpool12a]

With the Attribute system designed around play styles. Will we see specialized traps for each play style to help with the BM instead of all of them in Intelligence?

I would like to see improved traps specifically designed around each attribute.

An example would be for the Perception build having advanced wire obstacles "triple standard concertina" to slow zombies down for those head shots.

 

[Maynard69]

With the Attribute system designed around play styles. Will we see specialized traps for each play style to help with the BM instead of all of them in Intelligence?
I would like to see improved traps specifically designed around each attribute.

An example would be for the Perception build having advanced wire obstacles "triple standard concertina" to slow zombies down for those head shots.

Ooo, thats smart. That would be really cool. Ranged/melee/trap for each attribute

 

[pregnable]

Is RWG still screwed up for ATI users?

I get errors a lot when I spawn random worlds, and the ones I do play are all burnt forest and with large wasteland bits all over it.

In one of the worlds there is a giant incline around the world, like a 0, which goes up to max height. The only forest biome I found in the one world was in that area, which is all flat and at max height, and appears to have zero POIs in it.

In the valley of the giant 0 is burnt forest and wasteland bits for about as far as I have been able to travel.

 

[Kalen]

Purples are ledendaries, so we don't want people crafting legendaries. We let the craft up to blue and enabled random stats on t2 and 3 crafting, so that is a LOT of love since 18's launch.

That makes sense if you're making Q5 the new end game item and if you're really lucky you find a Q6. I was hoping though, you'd keep Q6 craftable and add a Q7 for legendary items. Re-purposing Q6 as legendary is a little underwhelming, unless you're planning on beefing them up at a later date.

 

[OzHawkeye]

I haven't seen the forums purring this loud in... forever!

It's well deserved. It must be quite satisfying, especially after some hiccups with A17, that A18 is going along so well. This game is getting awfully addictive!

 

[madmole]

If that's my audience then I'll make sure to add TP to the game as well.
But I do agree that simple is better for the base game. Having things like more in-depth farming and degradation of gear and food spoilage or harsher SI rules are things that mods are great for as not everyone will be down for those things and as you've stated before, crafting stuff and farming crops and managing hunger and thirst and durability of gear are not things you're passionate about at all.

I see people complain about food spoilage in other games all the time. Go on game forums of games that have spoilage and you'll see them. They absolutely hate the mechanic no matter how it is implemented. But people who do like it would enjoy mods that add it to the game. So it makes complete sense to not add something that is going to just generate complaints if it is part of the base game if it can be modded onto the game for those who do want it and would be forgiving if it was slightly janky or unbalanced.

There have been enough posts in this thread from people saying "NO please!!" to gear degradation in any form that I agree that it is best as a mod. But it will be a mod I will personally will want to play. I remember gear degradation from the past and miss that particular poop/wipe party.

I'm totally passionate about those topics, I just don't agree that in depth meta games on simple basic tasks are rewarding to anyone. I'd rather present the player with real problems to solve in creative ways than hinder the experience with over complicated basics that aren't very rewarding. We can have bandits take your gear if you die in a raid. WHo cares about perma degradation when you just lost ALL your stuff, or a majority of your best things you had? You guys think too small with all your micro features. Think BIG and you will enjoy simplicity.

The problem with meta gaming basic features is that it alienates new players who are still learning, and its just tedious. You have to groom them into little boys, then teenagers, and finally men, then throw some nasty stuff at them. That is better than overburdening people with tedious stuff just to do basics.

 

[wolfbain5]

ok, getting ready for my day 28 horde, tempted to try to stream it since I never streamed. agil5/int 7 traps horde level 33

 

[Laz Man]

I'm totally passionate about those topics, I just don't agree that in depth meta games on simple basic tasks are rewarding to anyone. I'd rather present the player with real problems to solve in creative ways than hinder the experience with over complicated basics that aren't very rewarding. We can have bandits take your gear if you die in a raid. WHo cares about perma degradation when you just lost ALL your stuff, or a majority of your best things you had? You guys think too small with all your micro features. Think BIG and you will enjoy simplicity.
The problem with meta gaming basic features is that it alienates new players who are still learning, and its just tedious. You have to groom them into little boys, then teenagers, and finally men, then throw some nasty stuff at them. That is better than overburdening people with tedious stuff just to do basics.

Bandits taking all your ♥♥♥♥, A19 confirmed!!!!