PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Jugginator]

Almost at day 10 of 10 min 24-hr cycles horde night spree! I don't think I'll last much longer through, I am down to scrapping engines/anything iron and I don't have enough but for like 20 more spikes. Have like 30 painkillers, 3 fortbites, plenty of coffee and beer, so I think after all my guns are tick-ticking and I've fired my last arrow, it's pure melee the horde time. Def excuse the graphics, I upped the horde count to whatever is after 16 (I forget) and between that and all the traps my fps tanked to about 29-32, and with it at this I'm back to 50~, so I'll take ugly and smooth lol.

Damn these hordes are getting intense! Had like 6 demos come through, and the first one I snapped to head shot him but my cursor went right to his explosive... oof haha.

Btw, how exactly is the sensitivity calculated? Because I've got my DPI on 800 exactly, and I know for a fact that 1.0 in 7Days is not at 800, more like 1600. The numbers in the settings seem so off. Kinda throws my other shooter games aiming off, because 7 days seems to be taking my sens ^2 lol

 

[Adam the Waster]

We already buffed the crap out of crafting and nerfed loot. No more adjustments will be made without a lot more feedback or testing time ourselves.
You wont be standing still when bandits are raining bullets on you. Sprinting in heavy armor costs stamina so its nice to play like quake, running and jumping costs a lot of stamina so you will want that perk to move quickly from cover point to cover point or to just close the distance and get to the guy hiding behind cover and spray lead into him.

i'll luring a horde to kill and turn them!

also will there be zombie bandits?

 

[madmole]

I just want to share my despair at day 18...
I left my base in the early morning to go to loot. I come back in the evening and discover two little bitches hitting the walls inside my base. I cut off their uggly little heads without warning and there ... I discover that they entered exactly through my storage boxes. Only one was destroyed, but obviously it is the most important: the one where I store all the basic elements to craft (mechanical parts, electric ones, springs, steel bars, etc ...) and, of course, my 60 000 tokens ...

The only weird thing was that I had gone very far, so the wandering zombies should have despawn. Or, they appeared when I entered into the chunk (my forges were running at full throttle).

I feel like I was raided on my solo game... Suddendly I'm no longer in a hurry to see bandits in game

Whatever it is, if it's a new feature, it's awesome and ... awful.

Which is why I build on a 4 meter tower or stick my boxes on the ceiling if its a ground level base.

 

[Laz Man]

Just died on day 25 permadeath insane/always nightmare, got caught out on a random blood moon couldn't get into battle area quick enough. What a ride. A18 has come a long way:
* Early game survival feels so good, no stack of food and medical supplies, no huge farm.

* Whoever thought of random blood moon is a genius. 7 days bit too long for me, I find Frequency every day but range of 4 is a nice sweet spot, blood moon is always a constant threat now, can easily get caught out during quests/mining.

* Loot and general balance feels good now. Character didn't feel strong till day20. Transition into mid game questing hard earning money and upgrading my base feels good, I'm not constantly wanting to kill for xp.

* I got a random screamer on day 1 and 3, I hope this isn't a bug. Totally unexpected when I was looting poi, I totally stopped and gtfo. Please don't remove random screamer spawns!

* Never gotten dysentery since a18exp and food poisoning is easy to deal with, no idea what ppl are complaining about.

* Slowly coming round to the attribute trees, not 100% on board I prefer the old open skills, we were able to mix and match freely, but I'm having fun.

* Real glad trader sells vehicles now.

* Stun baton is awesome.

* Outer Worlds is walking by and I don't even care. Bring on A19.

Minor points:

- The red dots on compass during quests kinda give the game away, hope we can have option to disable somehow.

- Iron hatch is really hard to tell which way it opens.

** (puts on mining helmet and heavy armor, runs behind row of blade traps)

So when's lbd making a come back?

Awesome review. Even better from a LBD supporter. Says alot about A18.

Edit: I agree 1000% about the iron hatch. @MM can u add a hinge to the graphic just like the wooden one? This would help a ton regarding placement.

 

[0ldman]

@madmole You can use all soil types from the CM only that they almost all look like forest soil. If they are smashed, they disintegrate accordingly. for example: Snow looks like forest floor. If you destroy that you get snowballs.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Those zeds looked pissed off st your shotgun turret. Your insane btw for doing s horde night with FPS that low lol...I would literally pull my hair out if I had to do that.

they just want to hug it!

 

[Hek Harris]

Which is why I build on a 4 meter tower or stick my boxes on the ceiling if its a ground level base.

Just for information, this is the first time, after hundreds of bases, that I didn't build a foundation of 3 blocks ... I said to myself "Hell no, this time, I'm going to do something simple!"

I should not think.

Speaking of screamers who arrive regularly, I really think it should be our daily life. It's a permanent pressure and it compensates for the lack of zombies that some complain about.

 

[Gareee]

Horde night 63 went fine, minimal repairs to horde base. Finished up that game with a perfect gyro landing on the shamway tower to see what loot was up there.

BTW, when did shamway go from food production to concrete production? Shouldn't that be a Rock-Mor or something? After going through it completely by myself, while I love the t 5 pois, the tier 3 and 4 are more attractive single player.

I know madmole said no more t5 pois, but I wouldn't mind seeing one more for variety's sake, and then more lower tier, expecially wilderness.. wilderness pois almost seem missing.

On to a new game! BTW, I'm not going with any specific build types.. I'm just investing in points based on what progress I want (like needing vehicles) and investing based on what loot I can aquire... if I find an early good slede, I'll invest perks in that until I find somthing else I'd like to tinker with.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Just for information, this is the first time, after hundreds of bases, that I didn't build a foundation of 3 blocks ... I said to myself "Hell no, this time, I'm going to do something simple!"I should not think.

Speaking of screamers who arrive regularly, I really think it should be our daily life. It's a permanent pressure and it compensates for the lack of zombies that some complain about.

yeah i started a new game and i made a base on a bridge in Navezgane and i uses torches for light and i get 3 screamer a day!

 

[madmole]

Our new mp game is only on day 12, so most of my feedback of course has been on the entire a18 experience. Both my longer games are from thje ealier builds.
Aew you still playing leap frog ahead of us on versions, or are you playing on the public experiemental releases? If you are ahead of us, that could be why we are seeing different experiences.

(BTW, I've get to see any minibike parts in loot. I have seen parts from all the other vehicles.)

I'll do my 63 horde night from last week or so's start, and start up a new sp game after that.

(And I was really looking forward to exploring that world geared up.!)

BTW, is it by design that the 4x4 is a lot slower than the motorcycle? It feels like a huge motorbike.

Ok so talking about anything prior to the latest version is a waste of time, make sure you are using a new character on the latest build before offering feedback on balance or designs.

Loot is even, random is random.

The 4x4 is a little slower but uses a lot of gas.

 

[dregonazure]

Awesome review. Even better from a LBD supporter. Says alot about A18.
Edit: I agree 1000% about the iron hatch. @MM can u add a hinge to the graphic just like the wooden one? This would help a ton regarding placement.

placing the iron hatch is the worst, instead of updating it's graphic though they could just say have it be set open when you go to place it instead of closed so you could see how it opens

 

[madmole]

a18.1 dead is dead. no voice this time, didnt mean to have a madmole moment, you'll know it when you see it. so, run and gun it is.

LOL glad I can inspire new exciting play styles lol. Fall into your own trap is my favorite build.

 

[madmole]

I really wish rank 5 of the penetrator perk unlocked crafting of 7.62 AP ammo. The whole perception build centers around using the sniper rifle in conjunction with the penetrator perk to pierce multiple zombies. But, that is all dependent on RNG and finding the book to unlock AP ammo crafting. And who the hell knows when I'll find that. I'm on day 20 with 5/5 lucky looter and loot bonus goggles and no luck so far.

That is a fair point but so far no book and perk overlap duties. We'd have to replace that book with something else and make an AP ammo schematic.

 

[madmole]

Regarding this POI - it has the heavy duty vault doors. These cannot be unlocked with a lock pick. Will max skill in lock picking allow these to be picked (descriptions suggest not) or is it the intention they be breached with timed charges?
(Yes you can bang on them with a pick ax for an hour, but meh.)

No doors can be lockpicked yet. We are considering it.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

MM

This is re: B155

Day 16sp Nomad Gamma 19 Snow/Burnt Biome

Lv 22 Gs40 kills604 Deaths2 by ninja dogs.

Average tier used 2, and one 3 iron spear.

I slowed the pace a lot 3 days passed by

removing my torches for now.

Are the biome spawners now associated with gamestage?

I ask because i like night fighting and hunting by torch

light. As of 2 game days passed, I now get feral hordes

and Zombie cops. This is not a complaint, I actually like

it. If its unintentional I now have a modding idea, If it

is intentional thumbs up.

The only odd thing happening is I have a constant recurring

combo snow-rain storm that lowers visibility to approx 100

meters. It only happens when I return to this area. I don't

really mind I look at it like the fog of war from 7 come 11.

If outdoor occlusion could be made to use this obscuring it

would lower draw calls a lot.

Either way still hunting everything i can find.

 

[GingerBeard]

In all games people fall over each others feet to get damage or special effect boni on their weapon (not only shooter but also RPGs, strategy games...). But here you look at weapons you normally shouldn't even see before end game and ask "why bother?". Play the game with your main weapons at perk level 1 and tell me if you still have ammo left in the middle of the fourth horde night and you didn't die twice as often.


Another mod slot isn't an ever so slight buff. At the moment quality6 is labeled temporarily "legendary" because of this one additional mod slot. All the other attributes of a q6 weapon will often be equal or worse than the q5 you have by then because you might find and build a lot more q5.

Maybe i'm misunderstanding you, but your post feels like its directed at me. If it was let me clear something up. I feel the system is in a pretty good spot atm. I was just attempting to put myself in the mindset of the people who don't think crafting is worthwhile. I do believe its worth crafting, because like I mentioned in that post, if you don't you'll be running around with low tier gear for a long time. My current playthrough is twenty days in (90 minute days) and i'm still using most of the gear I crafted.

I have zero T6 gear in my current playthrough, and only found a handful in my last session that I don't remember the stats on. So maybe you're right about the stats being essentially the same as T5. The point was moreso that if the devs did want to make a change to please the other side, that it should be only a minor difference. I just chose mods as a quick example, but I also have only ever cared for a couple of specific mods for each piece of gear. For me an extra slot wouldn't be that big of a deal. An example would be for armor and tools, I only care for the pockets, helmet light, and the ones that increase block damage. This will change if mods are updated/more are added later (if that happens).

 

[Adam the Waster]

No doors can be lockpicked yet. We are considering it.

i you do plan on it i think it should POI doors only!

but its your game

 

[Brian9824]

Ok so talking about anything prior to the latest version is a waste of time, make sure you are using a new character on the latest build before offering feedback on balance or designs.
Loot is even, random is random.

The 4x4 is a little slower but uses a lot of gas.

The one potential issue I see with trader is the quest rewards. They feel really OP, especially with the consumables. Getting 15 first aid bandages for 1 quest that took me 10 minutes to do is insane. At least for the Tier 1-3 quests it almost feels if the quantity should be toned down or if possible tied into the loot percentage on the server.

Right now the trader quests and vending machines are what is keeping us alive. So much food and consumables available. If the trader rewards and vending machines both operated on server loot percentages that would be nice.

 

[Guppycur]

Mr. Mole.
Concerning this your last measures helped alot. But you may be right and it needs further adjustments.

As of Level 23 i got 3 Armor Parts of Steel (Q2,4 and 5) and also found several Guns Q4 and 5.

Q6 dropped so far once (Pistol)

I do medium amount of Loottours, i also spend a lot time building my Base and Hordebase. So a Player with Lootfocus might accomplish better Items even faster.

I would really appriciate if this Progression-curve (or how you call it) gets slowed down a bit further.

Let 'em fight for loot ^^

Or alternatively, recognize that a lot of people are saying "this is the best alpha yet", and just improve upon the system, perhaps with a degradation system for balance...

Or maybe add some zombies so that the items are harder to get.

 

[GingerBeard]

We already buffed the crap out of crafting and nerfed loot. No more adjustments will be made without a lot more feedback or testing time ourselves.
You wont be standing still when bandits are raining bullets on you. Sprinting in heavy armor costs stamina so its nice to play like quake, running and jumping costs a lot of stamina so you will want that perk to move quickly from cover point to cover point or to just close the distance and get to the guy hiding behind cover and spray lead into him.

I forgot all about bandits, they will definitely change up how I currently view some skills and play styles. I willing to bet they will make stealth much more useful too, which I would really love to see. I have so many questions I want to ask, but I wont pester ya'll until bandits are much closer to release.