PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

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    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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Isn't the possibility of a death loop one of the reasons for abandoning that system?
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Not very many people liked it, felt like being kicked while you were down. It can be hard enough to get your gear back after death, but traveling there with gimped stamina, and weakened abilities makes it even worse, so we opted for loss of XP, which is can be nasty later game. I'd rather it be more than it is.

 
I'm aware of the benefits of those...but they (especially the shoes) are fairly rare. They should be rare given their buffs. The bicycles by comparison (at least in my experiences so far) are even harder to come by. You need the perk or find/buy two schematics. Then find or craft two wheels, the frame and the handlebars. That's a lot of bother for something just a tick better than buffed shoes and jacket.
Think of it this way...if I was to go into 10 garages on my street, I'd very likely find at least 5 bicycles...but zero magic shoes :)
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What is likely doesn't make for good game play.

 
Not very many people liked it, felt like being kicked while you were down. It can be hard enough to get your gear back after death, but traveling there with gimped stamina, and weakened abilities makes it even worse, so we opted for loss of XP, which is can be nasty later game. I'd rather it be more than it is.
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Are there any other ideas being thrown around to add to it? I mean within TFP.

 
It almost feels like weapon choice will definitely impact starter difficulty. If that is intended, that might be good explanation somewhere....maybe one of those loading splash screens? Or maybe depending on the difficulty you select will give a different starter tutorial...just spitballing.
Beginners: clubs, bows

Intermediate: sledges, spears

Advanced: knives, hand to hand

Could be a nice usability improvement down the line for newbies.
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We're planning load screen tips, but the design isn't that knives are harder than clubs, I feel its very subjective.

 
The problem is that by level 20 you dont need to off yourself as its much easier to go off and get something to cure it rather than spend time doing other early game things.
Not sure where the right balance is to make it feel impactful though. We're running a server with 10-15 people and growing, and its got people who know what they are doing, and people who are just grabbing it off the Halloween sale to play for the first time. Some people just eat glass to cure their broken legs and infections, some people go about fixing them the intended way, some people die 10 times because they dont know what they're doing yet, so how do you punish the ones who do know what they are doing and just taking advantage of it, while giving the newer guys a non ♥♥♥♥ty experience?

Hopefully if we get some "dead is dead" settings we'll have a place for those who feel things are too easy to get around. Eating glass will cure your infection...but you'll also be dead...so chose wisely :D
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Dead is dead would most benefit servers so it is enforced. SP can just delete their save with honor.

 
I think the agility guy is doing just fine both during gameplay and during horde nights. Parkour especially can be used in a lot of creative ways, 9mm is cheap, easy and reliable, and looting with a decent bow/crossbow with added Sneak Shot % just deletes zombies right where they sleep.

I haven't tried all of them thorougly enough to give a good overall feeback, but on paper Perception seems to be the best for horde nights. Lining them up or exploding a handful of zeds at a time is insanely powerful. Strength on the other hand feels complicated to use well, shotguns have an insane drawback in this game where you can't just take all zombies head on but need some layers / height difference to be safe. The other option is melee but you lack the tankiness and survivability of the Fortitude guy.

 
Even a bicycle is a huge game changer. Pay the price 5K or less, or buy the perk and craft one. We can't drop full vehicles in loot. I mean if we did, we'd have to make it so rare, that why bother?
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Super duper rare drops make for awesome gameplay moment for whoever is the lucky one. Sure why waste a lot of time doing it, but in loot its super simple to add a few good items to certain loot containers. Makes for more replay ability and the reason I have super rarely full working vehicles spawning in the world. Might get lucky on day one, or never see it, but if you do its super fun and changes that game completely.

 
Not sure its all girder beams and hard hat guys.
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Sounds like Joe Bro Builders to me then. Good to know it still spawns in RWG. (: I'll never loot it again through, after a traumatic event I experienced there back in A17. Lol

 
Hi guys.

Since the B5 update we have been having problems with crafting. Random items will not craft if you try to craft to the maximum number available depending on resources you are carrying. If you drop the number by 1 it will craft no worries. Different items for different players. This is happening across 2 different servers. One modded and one Vanilla. Has anybody else experienced this???

 
Just my 2 cents here, but Shotguns are in desperate need of a higher tier variant. This is after two games perking into them, let me explain:

1. Double Barrel should be Tier One, Pump Tier 2, And another variant for Tier 3 (maybe something with a drum or auto)

2. 5 ranks of shotgun messiah but still feel weak because you'll be using the double barrel for way too long. Then when you get a pump it still feels underwhelming compared to other guns.

3. Think about this. AK is same tier as the double barrel and is found far more often along with its ammo. It is significantly more viable then the double barrel and arguably the pump shotgun.

4. Shotguns need a new ammo type to separate and compete with other ammo types (hollow point and AP rounds). At later gamestage there is no good counter to armored and radiated (bullet spongy) that can compete with other ammo/gun types DPS. Maybe a dragons breath ammo that lights multiple targets on fire.

5. I think an increase in pellet count along with increased spread could benefit this weapon because as of right now you never use it to take out multiple foes at once, it's just way too weak for that. Even with duckbill it seems like a waste because if you don't hit a zombie directly center mass or the head it will not kill them, even perked all the way to rank 5 and on regular zombies. This negates the whole point of the weapon in the first place. If you have to be as accurate as other guns then what's the point?

6. They need to not do overkill damage on dead animals. 9/10 times you kill an animal with a shotgun and go to harvest it you'll notice that a huge chunk of the carcass health is already gone. Making you harvest far less product from it. This applies to zombie dogs and vultures too.

7. I love shotguns

 
Hi guys. Since the B5 update we have been having problems with crafting. Random items will not craft if you try to craft to the maximum number available depending on resources you are carrying. If you drop the number by 1 it will craft no worries. Different items for different players. This is happening across 2 different servers. One modded and one Vanilla. Has anybody else experienced this???
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A lot of people are experiencing this issue. It's been reported to the bug tracker.

 
So in terms of balance I learned how to make ♥♥♥♥ tons of dukes with ease. All you need to do is scrap a stack of raw iron and turn it into junk turret ammo and sell it. Junk turret ammo should probably have a sell price of 0 as it stands I can get 2000 dukes a ammo stack plus a little extra if you have the sell perks. As useful as this is it is broken as ♥♥♥♥.

 
People were suicide farming 100s of blood bags, so there was a buff that was added on death, that TFP didn't approve of, death should clear all buffs for consistency. Without that inconsistency they could farm all the blood bags they want for a one time maximum loss of 50% xp.
Furthermore, the large first aid kit violated one of 18's key principal designs which is all good crafts require a loot only trinket. As it was they were 100% farmable which also goes against everything we've done making odd loot only trinkets to craft anything decent.

More blood kits are in loot now, so it should be fine, just no endless best medical item in the game.
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Why not make the blood draw kits a one time use-able item, non-craftable. Gives a bundle of 5 blood bags on use and has a chance to infect or cause other nasty stuff (who knows what it was used for). I find the blood bags from loot more odd, even though it is an abstraction, in any apocalypse would you inject yourself with old blood you do not even know is the right blood type, sounds like suicide to me.

 
Just my 2 cents here, but Shotguns are in desperate need of a higher tier variant. This is after two games perking into them, let me explain:
1. Double Barrel should be Tier One, Pump Tier 2, And another variant for Tier 3 (maybe something with a drum or auto)

2. 5 ranks of shotgun messiah but still feel weak because you'll be using the double barrel for way too long. Then when you get a pump it still feels underwhelming compared to other guns.

3. Think about this. AK is same tier as the double barrel and is found far more often along with its ammo. It is significantly more viable then the double barrel and arguably the pump shotgun.

4. Shotguns need a new ammo type to separate and compete with other ammo types (hollow point and AP rounds). At later gamestage there is no good counter to armored and radiated (bullet spongy) that can compete with other ammo/gun types DPS. Maybe a dragons breath ammo that lights multiple targets on fire.

5. I think an increase in pellet count along with increased spread could benefit this weapon because as of right now you never use it to take out multiple foes at once, it's just way too weak for that. Even with duckbill it seems like a waste because if you don't hit a zombie directly center mass or the head it will not kill them, even perked all the way to rank 5 and on regular zombies. This negates the whole point of the weapon in the first place. If you have to be as accurate as other guns then what's the point?

6. They need to not do overkill damage on dead animals. 9/10 times you kill an animal with a shotgun and go to harvest it you'll notice that a huge chunk of the carcass health is already gone. Making you harvest far less product from it. This applies to zombie dogs and vultures too.

7. I love shotguns
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Funnily enough i just mentionned the STR build some posts above, but you nail every point. Double Barrel is in fact very underwhelming. With the AK the skill ceiling is very high cause you could theoretically land at least a headshot a second if you know your flicks, but the shotguns don't provide such power. It also fits every situation : short distance, medium to long distance, one zombie, group of zombie...

And like I pointed out earlier, you don't have much to sustain damage yet you need to be in close quarters all the time.

 
Madmole, I had a cool idea for the Cops.

What if their spit had a corrosive damage over time effect to anything metal(Armor, Guns, Bars)?

Players could no longer hid behind metal bars for the entire horde night and it would force them to Bob and weave the spit when their metal bars broke down.

 
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