PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[MechanicalLens]

My three favorite 7DtD things: bicycles, distant terrain and the new a18 books. Fantastic!

Bicycles were also in A17.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Sand are rocks too!

its rock dust and i hate it!

and i hate sand!!

 

[Aldranon]

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.

I agree that there needs to be some type of "sink" for weapons and armor. Currently, once you get all the top level T6 weapons and armor... the looting game basically stops.

I haven't gotten close to that, but I can see it coming.

To counter degradation of weapons you need to use a part of that weapon type. The (looting) game will still be slower but maybe the steady increase of ammo needed (mining) will counter all that?

 

[Martial-Law]

You know, A18 got me addicted again. Like I was back at the start. 7 days CrAcK habit.

...and for me, i think its because of the intricate level development, loot chance of bps/books and the pois. Man, i was in some spooky hidden cult mortuary thing the other day. It bent my noodle a bit!

GOOD CRACK TFPS!!

God damn hooked again!!!

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

Quick question - what is the backstory on 7DTD and location?

I like to believe it is Texas and some folks say Arizona. is there a back story location?

 

[Adam the Waster]

Quick question - what is the backstory on 7DTD and location?
I like to believe it is Texas and some folks say Arizona. is there a back story location?

its in Navezgane Arizona! (not real place i think)

and my guess of the back story is that a nuclear war broke out., people survived and tried to rebuilded and the outbreak happened. How?? IDK

the reason people say its arizona is 1. the wiki and 2 the signs around the Road about places like phoenix!

 

[Dosu Kinuta]

Which is why the random event system will be awesome.

Can you give us an insight about this? I saw lots of people mentioning it and it sounds interesting but I don't know what it is. Or you don't wanna spoil any surprise? :smile-new:

 

[AtomicUs5000]

Which is why the random event system will be awesome.

I'm looking forward to this more than any upcoming feature. Hopefully it will be opened up for modding out of the box.

 

[madmole]

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.

Probably wandering hordes, outdoor spawns are not GS. There is some kind of fog bug, but fog does cull anything behind it it it is thick enough.

 

[Star69]

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.)

Don’t beat on the door, beat on the concrete blocks next to the door.....way fewer hit points to bash through. I never ever break steel vault doors.

 

[Kalen]

Nobody would ever see them then IMO.

I've been testing early game (days 1-30) and in the 3 games I've played so far, other than primitive, I haven't had to craft any tool or weapon. I've always found better than what I could craft at the time. Obviously a small sample size, but I was hoping that Q5 and Q6 would be a little rarer.

 

[madmole]

And again we see the issue is multi-player. We've had steel since before Day 14 and are crafting Tier 3 blue firearms/bows currently. Now, we're also doing 120-minute days, but we're all right around level 30-40. So back to crafting top-end Tier 3 ranged weapons, when I can't even find more than a single brown steel pickaxe.
REALLY wish you'd look in on a couple of multiplayer groups and see what they're looking like right now, if playing one one for a few weeks isn't an option.

What are you saying? That you can't find any steel brown tools to break into parts to make into better quality steel tools? What game stage are you? I think part of the problem is 120 minute days you have too much time on your hands and no risk of a horde every 7 hours of real time. I spend a large amount of time fixing my base, grinding mats to fix my base, fighting off wandering hordes, preparing for the next horde (mining bullets and crafting spikes) which is less than 7 hours real time away. So I don't have a ton of time to loot and be bored that I don't have pink tools because I'm playing the game as intended. I get a lot of XP upgrading my base so maybe my GS gets raised more, and I find stuff I'm happy to get sooner? I raised 4 levels killing my horde.

Maybe if you fought more hordes you wouldn't have this problem which seems to be "too much time on my hands to steel parts and I'm not happy I can't craft the best stuff right now". I find a fair amount of crappy steel stuff later game, at which time you can craft your steel whatever. Day 14 120 minutes is day 28 in my time, so yeah you should barely sniff one t3 thing if you are lucky, not be crafting every guy a full set of sweet stuff. Its not A16, you should relish your scrap and iron crap a bit and embrace a 100 to 200 hour game before making any further comments on balance IMO.

I don't mean to sound like an ass either, I'm just trying to grasp the issue from over here. With all the settings its hard to say what we need to do based off of player input because some of the settings allow for some extremely different games.

 

[madmole]

@MM and Crew,
Great work, I do not get as much time as I wish to play, but when I do it is awesome, and always being purposeful in my thoughts about the game when not playing.

Question though,

Learning Exp, as designed, or bug: Finished my BM horde at about 12a, then nothing ...son woke up had to log off at 330a, when I logged b ack in the horde showed back up again, and ate my lunch...

The previous horde beat my base defenses down, and I was out of Shotty ammo, and only had a 9m and spear.

In regards to loot, currently I am not finding anything I want, but stuff I can use.

Semper Fi

Never log out until 4am after the BM unless you want more action. Think of it like this, the game doesn't know who you are or what you did. You join during a BM and you will get zombies after you.

 

[Gr.o.m.]

Nobody would ever see them then IMO.

Thats not what I meant. I think tier 6 should only start dropping in the midgame and not on day 17.

But thats ony my opinion.

 

[Guppys Fur]

I didn't say no more T5's, I said personally I'd like to see more T3's, and I want it to not repeat the same POI until I've cleared every damn T3 on the whole map. I don't care if its 10 miles away, if I want a T3, I have to go there.

Mr. Mole,

I really love the new variety. Not to see 5 of the same Prefab in one City. I mostly do T3 and T4 Quests. Once in a while T5.

Especially Late game they do provide some challenge ( if you roleplay a bit and do them at one Piece )

Yes, they take a long time, but its even more motivating fighting your way all through it and rest your eyes on the Lootroom.

With my group, we go tactical: One "scouts" or lures the Zombies nearby. 2 have their Weapons ready and: Fire at will.

My point being: Its good to have the freedom of choice, especially in a Sandbox Game.

We dont need many T5. Lets face it you do them rarely and only Players late in progression do it.

My wish would be to have a unique T5 for every city of a Random World. Not more as 1 of the same per map.

We dont need 20 or 30, just enough to serve some variety.

Maybe you can add two or three more over time. If not i will still be happy.

With the Books and the hunt for the "best" Gear thanks to ranged items Stats i have enough to do.

Right now we have lots of

 

[Gr.o.m.]

Nobody would ever see them then IMO.

Thats not what I meant. I think tier 6 should only start dropping in the midgame and not on day 17.

But thats ony my opinion.

 

[madmole]

In Summary: Loot during the afternoons for canned food (to keep up you stamina meter during evening and nighttime resource gathering) and ammo, base building. Post first horde, then you can relax more. I've also turned off the Blood Moon Warning.
I've adoring this playthrough style so far. There's nothing like good old vanilla, but in this gamemode (blood moon frequency set to 4-5, blood moon range set to 4-5, and no blood moon warning), the game is in control of how well or how awful you do. You could be dealt horrible hand after horrible hand and be scrounging for time and ammo in between frequent hordes, or the game could give you a playthrough full of long breaks between blood moons, or everywhere in between. The lack of that feeling of power, where the game dictates how well you do (to a greater level) is intriguing to me, and I'm glad I'm able to finally try it "fairly" (and not just be restricted to blood moon frequency: 3).

Yeah it sounds pretty fun. No blood moon warning would be rough, but also more realistic. Once you have a vehicle it wouldn't be life ending at least. Well I play with nightmare run speed bm and ferals so it would for me if I didn't have a vehicle or mega crush.

 

[Inmyh3ad]

Is there any solution to 'slow down' an RWG world? To generate an 8k map it takes about 8-10 minutes and I have a feeling that I have different worlds then many other players. Much elevation, paths are not that polished, traders have mostly fetch or clear zombie quests at 1km+ buildings, far removed from towns etc.

EDIT: fresh generated world:

 

[madmole]

Make it happen! And if you cant, go flex those big guns of yours at whoever can and make them make it happen!

Lathan is the size of a polar bear, he laughs at guns. There is a huge list of quest improvements on the roadmap.

 

[madmole]

I have a secret how to hack boxes using lockpicks: while hacking is in progress, you need to sit quietly and not move at all ... you can also cross your fingers and toes ... it works !!! )))

Na, I just go full Orsey on my crates and spam a pickaxe at them