PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!
- Thread starter madmole
- Start date
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The Gronk
Colon Pounder
This may be a timing issue, I found no sleepers in my bunker.
My theory is this.
Day 1, set up base in the bunker entrance complete with sleeping bag.
Day 2, go scavenging away from your base. By the time you get back the chunk containing the bunker must respawn but the sleeping bag stops the zombies from spawning.
Day 3, open an empty bunker.
madmole
New member
Don't underestimate them. Keep investing in your defenses a bit each week or your fort will crumble like a sand castle.Day 21 Horde Crushed *flex*. Ended around 1am and the undead didn't stand a chance. My upgraded base defenses worked flawlessly. Took no damage except for a small opps moment at the end ... lol ... The composition of this horde was still pretty tame, I suspect the next one will be more challenging. I recently unlocked shotgun turrets so things will get really interesting.
Video is uploading ~40 minutes.
Onarr
New member
Madmole, there was a topic not long ago about zombie biting that got me thinking.
Right now, melee has some dangers attached to it - infection, stun and bleed, rage mechanic and of course chance of getting whacked. But unless you play with always run or on insane difficulty (which I dont, because bullet sponges are really not my thing) unless I step on the landmine I never die. In full heavy armor I can be pretty careless and still get away with it 99% of time.
Getting swarmed should be much more dangerous. I remember one of those rare times that I actually died, while exploring the lvl IV PoI with the secret base under it. I was creeping through the library, when I managed to wake one of the cops guarding the place. He destroyed a block right under me resulting in me falling down into his swings. He pressed me against corner and I panicked, tried to run away, but there was no escape. He smashed me into the ground.
That is how I imagine zombie being dangerous. If they swarm you, its you either fight them off, or die. No chance to run away. It is the same, when you fall into the trap in some of the PoIs, this intensive life or death situation, that in the end makes you careful. The game should severely punish you, if you are not careful and well prepared.
SKIP HERE FOR THE IMPORTANT PART
What I propose is new mechanic for the zombies - knockdown. It would work like this.
1.Zombie has a chance to trigger a knockdown with each hit. Being hit from behind would be almost guaranteed to knock you down.
2. Play death animation (or getting run over by your own vehicle animation), keeping the camera inside the player character.
3. Zombies use eating animation to attack (you can see those animation if you die)
4. Pinned down debuff would decrease resistance to being knocked down to 0. Any damage will prolong the effect, effectively keeping you on the ground untill you dispatched all the zombies
5. (Optional) probably a bit harder to implement, but being knocked down would limit your options to some smaller arms like knife, pistol or a club. Sledgehammer, spear and rifles would be unusable, increasing the value of sidearms.
6. Once all zombies are dead, the debuff would not be refreshed and player will stand back up.
Larger zombies and animals would have higher chance to knockdown. Especially bear hits would be guaranteed to.
I think that all the things are in place (animations, rezistances, status effects etc.) so it should not be very hard to implement. Of course I dont know your code so I might be wrong.
Right now, melee has some dangers attached to it - infection, stun and bleed, rage mechanic and of course chance of getting whacked. But unless you play with always run or on insane difficulty (which I dont, because bullet sponges are really not my thing) unless I step on the landmine I never die. In full heavy armor I can be pretty careless and still get away with it 99% of time.
Getting swarmed should be much more dangerous. I remember one of those rare times that I actually died, while exploring the lvl IV PoI with the secret base under it. I was creeping through the library, when I managed to wake one of the cops guarding the place. He destroyed a block right under me resulting in me falling down into his swings. He pressed me against corner and I panicked, tried to run away, but there was no escape. He smashed me into the ground.
That is how I imagine zombie being dangerous. If they swarm you, its you either fight them off, or die. No chance to run away. It is the same, when you fall into the trap in some of the PoIs, this intensive life or death situation, that in the end makes you careful. The game should severely punish you, if you are not careful and well prepared.
SKIP HERE FOR THE IMPORTANT PART
What I propose is new mechanic for the zombies - knockdown. It would work like this.
1.Zombie has a chance to trigger a knockdown with each hit. Being hit from behind would be almost guaranteed to knock you down.
2. Play death animation (or getting run over by your own vehicle animation), keeping the camera inside the player character.
3. Zombies use eating animation to attack (you can see those animation if you die)
4. Pinned down debuff would decrease resistance to being knocked down to 0. Any damage will prolong the effect, effectively keeping you on the ground untill you dispatched all the zombies
5. (Optional) probably a bit harder to implement, but being knocked down would limit your options to some smaller arms like knife, pistol or a club. Sledgehammer, spear and rifles would be unusable, increasing the value of sidearms.
6. Once all zombies are dead, the debuff would not be refreshed and player will stand back up.
Larger zombies and animals would have higher chance to knockdown. Especially bear hits would be guaranteed to.
I think that all the things are in place (animations, rezistances, status effects etc.) so it should not be very hard to implement. Of course I dont know your code so I might be wrong.
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madmole
New member
They didn't stand a chance. Do the electric fences degrade? Seemed to last forever? I haven't tried one yet but you made the int build look fun.Day 21 Horde Video Up. Let me know what you think @MM et al
https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?131780-LazMan-vs-Day-21-Horde
madmole
New member
I improved the player lights quite a bit for A18. The problem with dim lights is players will place 500 of them to get it looking good and crash their framerate. Its a catch 22. Small lights perform better but cost more performance. More lights = more shadows and then shadows can cost a lot. I could make the lantern have a softer appearance but I wanted it to be functional for nice light to see what you are doing in caves more than a "pretty base light".
Love your entry to your base!
Hey madmole, got any ideas for books? I have some: What about one for alchemy, maybe fighting techniques, or how to make oil powered lights which would not attract screamers, maybe even learn how to steal from zombies or the trader, or how to use acid against doors, or how to make a crowbar so not only perception guys will have a way to get into safes and doors, maybe have the table saw for more house stuff, because right now its for nothing, really, maybe a book about how to make decoys for zombies( or against vultures), or a book about a a workbench, which would be mainly for rerolling stats for bonus parts, what do you think?
Thecolours
New member
Electric fences degrade and eventually break.
madmole
New member
I don't think players would appreciate being incapacitated in any way, it can feel cheap. We have talked about improving stun to be not so binary. There are a lot of ways to cause problems to the players, the acid spit could severely blind you for several seconds causing disorientation, stepping through certain zones could slow you down, etc. Bandits are coming, a complete game changer, so I don't know how much more we need to do to zombies, but I know what you mean, there should be circumstances where the player can get tackled or ragdolled perhaps, but we need to work out when and how those happen very carefully.
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