PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Mechanimal]

That's one of my favorite things about the hordes; there is indeed a little bit of randomness to them. (Code wise, it isn't exactly random; it's all specifically calculated, but we generally don't know what's going on behind the curtains.)
My advice: AP ammo. It helps an absolute ton. But yeah, like I said, your turrets might "accidentally" hit the demolisher in its sweet spot, so again I cannot say enough, deactivate them when a demolisher is nearby unless you're totally/almost totally dependent on them.

Do you get XP for trap kills right off the bat, or do you have to put points into the skill? (I think it's Advanced Engineering?)

Lol Awesome.

I'm probably going to stick with this world until stable comes out. I don't want to start a new world until I am really itching to, or if the game forces me to; I think that's one of the keys to replay-ability on my end.

I use 9mm HP ammo in my handgun pretty exclusively, and then reg 7.62 in my AK at first and then nothing but AP once I have enough to spare, even then I still burn my normal 7.62 from looting pretty often. On horde night it's stacks and stacks of AP for my AK and M60.

But beware with the HP ammo, the red tip stuff. I will never forget climbing a ladder into one of those lookout towers in a mil base, seeing 2 soldiers, and as I unloaded on them all I heard was "ding... ding... ding..." and they didn't seem to be taking any damage. As I ♥♥♥♥ myself descending the ladder in a WTF daze I switched to my AK went back up and did them proper. That's how I discovered that those rounds do jack squat against armor, but sure raise firepower otherwise. My handgun now is at 71 damage, my AK at 77. In a previous game I had a handgun with 84 total damage, but only with those HP rounds. I however never, ever, make them in 7.62. Not worth it, they're powerful enough and piercing armor is more important, especially when I keep HP in my handgun.

Now that I think about it I have not crafted a single normal round of 9mm or 7.62 in A18, at all. I only crank AP 7.62 stacks and less, but enough, of the HP in 9mm. I also save my regular 9mm for my turrets to chew through. Same with shotties, save all that for my turrets. Right now I have one on each corner of my tower, each with a full 450 rounds in it ready to go when needed. My thus far single 9mm turret holds a full 900 rounds of 9mm, that's my cover fire for reloading/repairing. Glad to say I have finished each horde so far with plenty left in them, again I only use them as backup anyway.

TFP question: Will we ever be able to load anything but regular ammo into the turrets? Maybe that can be a future upgrade ability if you expand on turret stuff(please do). I think we can still put slugs in the shotty turrets though, could in A16.

 

[Laz Man]

Ah, so all that is essentially an elaborate backup system. I too thought we'd see some Z up in the halls o' blending, but no they never got close to making it that far in.
I only have 2 blades so far, well also one under my drawbridge at my base, but on my BM tower only 2. They do make it to them, not often though, just the ones I or my turrets miss. Of course this increases with each BM, so we'll see how it holds up for later hordes.

I am going with a BM tower design I have used many times and evolved over many games. I've got it into a nice predictable state, ala Tower Defense style. The key isn't keeping them out, but giving them a clear way in, and meeting them there with all your firepower. Sure some still try to mow spikes and make another way in, but at this point in my design I can safely ignore those, for the most part. I can just flip a switch here or there and turn on perimeter turrets who take care of them if I'm busy. Getting some XP for trap kills now is so nice, even though it's lesser, it's so much better than nothing. I still only use them if A: I get overwhelmed or B: Get distracted(reload, repair, need to check other areas, etc.),

The tricky bit I found with turrets and such is placing the switches and other electric components in a safe spot where you can both reach them and keep them from getting spit on/destroyed. My first shotty turret was above my head, it was taken out early by a spitter aiming for me from below, now they're kept off to the side, little things like that I've tweaked over time.

One thing about your video though, in hindsight... where were the vultures? I don't remember you dealing with any, and if so not many, no where near as many as I tend to get, even in lighter hordes.

I casually play tons of TD games like most peeps play solitaire, this is the first FPS that has filled that niche/desire, which is neat. Last major one I played was They Are Billions... omg could you imagine that. Is pretty similar in ways, obviously horde size in that game is a bit bigger. Plus all the units, buildings, etc. I hope at some point they expand upon and add more to the Tower Defense aspect of 7DTD. Seen some neat ideas in here so far.

Now that we have seen your base and BM tower, you need to record some BMs for us. They are super fun to watch. I'm planning to record my day 21 BM but not there yet. My son has had a cold for the past couple of days and havent been able to play. My withdrawl symptoms are real.....lol.....damn you MM!

 

[Mechanimal]

I use 9mm HP ammo in my handgun pretty exclusively, and then reg 7.62 in my AK at first and then nothing but AP once I have enough to spare, even then I still burn my normal 7.62 from looting pretty often. On horde night it's stacks and stacks of AP for my AK and M60.
But beware with the HP ammo, the red tip stuff. I will never forget climbing a ladder into one of those lookout towers in a mil base, seeing 2 soldiers, and as I unloaded on them all I heard was "ding... ding... ding..." and they didn't seem to be taking any damage. As I ♥♥♥♥ myself descending the ladder in a WTF daze I switched to my AK went back up and did them proper. That's how I discovered that those rounds do jack squat against armor, but sure raise firepower otherwise. My handgun now is at 71 damage, my AK at 77. In a previous game I had a handgun with 84 total damage, but only with those HP rounds. I however never, ever, make them in 7.62. Not worth it, they're powerful enough and piercing armor is more important, especially when I keep HP in my handgun.

Now that I think about it I have not crafted a single normal round of 9mm or 7.62 in A18, at all. I only crank AP 7.62 stacks and less, but enough, of the HP in 9mm. I also save my regular 9mm for my turrets to chew through. Same with shotties, save all that for my turrets. Right now I have one on each corner of my tower, each with a full 450 rounds in it ready to go when needed. My thus far single 9mm turret holds a full 900 rounds of 9mm, that's my cover fire for reloading/repairing. Glad to say I have finished each horde so far with plenty left in them, again I only use them as backup anyway.

TFP question: Will we ever be able to load anything but regular ammo into the turrets? Maybe that can be a future upgrade ability if you expand on turret stuff(please do). I think we can still put slugs in the shotty turrets though, could in A16.

Well you get full XP from junk turret kills right away. Less with the other turrets, and blade traps, etc. You can increase that with perks, yeah, up to 50% max I think. Again it's better than zero, like before.

I really love the junk turrets. I now have 2 Tier 6 each loaded with mods, and a safe(storage) full of others. They do seem overly abundant in loot, I will admit that, so as much as I love them I wouldn't mind their loot spawning getting a nerf, make them feel more special, they kind of are. Love that I can have a turret watching my door long before i get into an electricity setup now.

 

[Laz Man]

Oh yeah ? So why did you register "7 more days to die?"

Oooo, didnt know about this. Good sleuth work there hek lol....

 

[Mechanimal]

Now that we have seen your base and BM tower, you need to record some BMs for us. They are super fun to watch. I'm planning to record my day 21 BM but not there yet. My son has had a cold for the past couple of days and havent been able to play. My withdrawl symptoms are real.....lol.....damn you MM!

Hmm, I have never recorded before, nor streamed etc. My son may know how to do it, not sure my rig is set up for it. Could be fun though, but I would want to edit it somehow, I always prefer well edited videos, but I know it's a lot of extra work. Actually for this I'd prob just record and post since it'd mainly be for you guys, I've no interest in starting a channel or anything, but I do love sharing with this awesome and unique community. So I'll look into it.

 

[Kage848]

What settings are you using? 60 minute days? Since the player investment is higher the rewards need to scale as well. Hopefully TFPs can address this eventually. Seems like a no brainers. The question is how to do the scaling.

Or let us choose whatever tier quest we like. That would be a good standin until they get the balance right.

 

[madmole]

If it takes 20 seconds like the lock picking it will be annoying as hell. What might make it feel good is make it last only 5 seconds while playing a animation of the player unjamming the gun somehow.
I've seen other games where refiring the gun clears the jam so the net outcome is just a delay in firing the gun which is generally not overly punishing.

I was talking about vehicles, if we did gun jamming it might be a different mechanic.

 

[madmole]

Probably? I mean it does the exact same as the ranks before which is just meh for a legendary if you ask me.
Now a deep blackish purple mixed with a cool name and extra static stat boosting "enchantments" (which is like a beefed up extra random system ) would have it all: both Diablo new color joyful feeling and the gameplay feeling of endless variety.

THat is what I said "extra effect".

 

[madmole]

Confirmed: little safes are loot only for A19...

I swore I typed in safe in the menu and only saw the big ones, but I'll check later, it would be great for dukes.

 

[Mechanimal]

Now that we have seen your base and BM tower, you need to record some BMs for us. They are super fun to watch. I'm planning to record my day 21 BM but not there yet. My son has had a cold for the past couple of days and havent been able to play. My withdrawl symptoms are real.....lol.....damn you MM!

You guys could always just pop into my game and check it out. Just started it back up, on Day 40 in Nav. The game is open to public, think if you look under peer-to-peer list it would listed just as "A18-Nav1" Not on a server is just my rig, but can handle a bit. Sun should be up soon, I can ride out to ya and bring a bike to ride back...

 

[madmole]

I hope zombie AI gets a work in next alpha. For base defense on horde night I still just build a platform zombies run on until they get close then have a two block wide distance they jump to try to swing and hit me behind some iron bars. I could just sit there all night and do nothing and there is practically zero danger. They won't attack the structure that supports me even if it's wood I'm not sure what the fix is but I"d like to see more danger on horde night. I know a lot of people complained about engineer zombies'from A16-A17 changes but this seems to easy. To be fair I play with very high difficulty settings and rulesets but these are my thoughts.

Try 16 alive or more.

 

[madmole]

One thing I got to ask.
A long time ago you guys had a poll about how long we are willing to wait for RWG map generation, and it was overwhelming victory something like we dont care how long it takes. I kind of assume this is because nobody wanted to sacrifice their map sizes since the options in that poll included map sizes and much shorter time limits as the options.

When RWG gets more love or is finished or whatever will we have the option to generate large maps again like we used to have? 20k ish

Is this the hope or goal? Or are these small maps only here to stay.

Our small maps are bigger than 99% of other games. You can do 16k now with some creativity.

 

[Mechanimal]

I swore I typed in safe in the menu and only saw the big ones, but I'll check later, it would be great for dukes.

Think there are 3 total to choose from. The big ones/gun safe, and then 2 versions of the little one, both a desk version that sits at the bottom in middle of block, and then the wall safe, which are my fav to use. They're face takes up the block they inhabit, but then they're body/mesh is superimposed within whatever block is behind it, which is weird but makes for some fun placements.

 

[madmole]

MM mentioned there was a few bugs found with melee and glancing blows. Anyone know what was fixed?

It is. New patch coming today hopefully.

 

[madmole]

Ya, I understood that already, thanks for the answer. In the back of my head I kinda hoped they had a trick up their sleeve that they couldn't implement yet, or some additional factor that might make it possible before going gold. I will probably continue to hope that a little. haha

We might, but we need to get all bugs out of 4 and 8k first.

 

[JCrook1028]

Higher stats, an extra mod slot and an extra effect is underwhelming?

When that "extra" mod slot is still 1 less than we had in A17? Yes, it's underwhelming.

When the "higher" stats are only a possibility and not assured? Yes, it's underwhelming.

 

[madmole]

Seems, Safes are no longer craftable in next release..lol

Guys I'm a player too. I'm looking forward to crafting one for my dukes and mods, god forbid a demolisher blow up in my crafting room. Those wooden boxes aren't going to hold up.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Guys I'm a player too. I'm looking forward to crafting one for my dukes and mods, god forbid a demolisher blow up in my crafting room. Those wooden boxes aren't going to hold up.

I, for one, am super glad that you're keeping them in the game as craftables. They're awesome.

 

[madmole]

A quick overview after playing A18 for a while:1) At last, balancing feels on the right track and the perk system works how it should have worked in A17.0.

2) Books are something to look forward to - keep capitalizing on the game's exploration & rng - hope for random events and more diversity between playthroughs in the future.

3) Survival is still on the weak side. Wish for more diverse survival threats with a degree of urgency - hope the weather and disease system improves that in the future. Also feel the death penalty and GS formula have to be revisited at some point.

4) Rage has breathed some life into combat - here's to hoping for more polish and unpredictability.

It is a quite enjoyable version overall, thanks!

Thanks. 3 takes some time, there are lots of changes and making too many at once has risks. I will continue to play and balance with you guys until the end. No more going to the mad mole scientist shop for a year to cook up a whole new game, but rather add to this and fine tune it.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

I, for one, am super glad that you're keeping them in the game as craftables. They're awesome.

Agreed! Been using them things since A16.