PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[ZombieSurvivor]

Did Minecraft get rid of their indestructible bottom of the world blocks? They used to have them.

Hmmm I've never heard of that but then again I'm not a fan of minecraft and have rarely ever played it. I thought lava was used as a boundary......but now that i think of it. I believe you could dump water on lava and break the block so would make sense to have bedrock. If that is the case, my previous idea can also be applied to minecraft as well...shhhh no one tell microsoft, I'm not trying to give them any ideas that might help there game lol.

 

[meganoth]

New experminetal b6 is out. Nice bug fixes and changes. Notably shotguns were buffed.

"Eating glass is more efficient, generating a death penalty of 25%". Not that I mind the change, but I doubt it will have a lasting effect since there are lots of other easy ways to kill yourself, for example standing in a spike trap.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Hmmm I've never heard of that but then again I'm not a fan of minecraft and have rarely ever played it. I thought lava was used as a boundary......but now that i think of it. I believe you could dump water on lava and break the block so would make sense to have bedrock. If that is the case, my previous idea can also be applied to minecraft as well...shhhh no one tell microsoft, I'm not trying to give them any ideas that might help there game lol.

Minecraft is for a totally difference audience (ages 4-10), so even if they developed a better system for bedrock, it wouldn't affect 7D2D sales. Then again, the amount of kids that play COD and Battlefield is notorious, so, idk.

 

[THARN]

So there I was day 7-- lookin good... healthy... somewhat wealthy.... wise...? no..

I started back to camp to prep for the oncoming attack... excitedly I just started running... no bicycle yet due to harsh conditions/desert town...

so im running by a fortified camper.... didn't look around,... run over 3 mines...dead...

aww... man... dead is dead... time to start a new game. the zombies couldn't kill me but my lack of perception certainly did.

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

Minecraft is for a totally difference audience (ages 4-10), so even if they developed a better system for bedrock, it wouldn't affect 7D2D sales. Then again, the amount of kids that play COD and Battlefield is notorious, so, idk.

Lol I know, I'm just hating on microsoft in a joking manner. I would never give a single idea to microsoft that could help improve a game of theres.

EDIT: Hey now! lol i gotta defend Battlefield and DICE, its not fair to say battlefield is designed for kids. I do not know the statistics but I can assure you its not a kids game. It leans more towards teens and adults who prefer more realism in a FPS.

kids are more so attracted to call of duty since that is more arcade style that requires little skill which is appealing to children, that is not the case with Battlefield. Also minecraft was not created with the idea of it being aimed at any one age group, it just happens to be more appealing to kids but was never created with that intention in mind.

 

[Jugginator]

I survived day 35 horde. My Special K base took some serious damage. I used 30 grenades, 3 molotovs, 1000 762 and about 100 9mm, and 315 junk turret ammo. Still repairing, both drawbridges were severely damaged and one of my best chests almost got wrecked, had to have been acid spit coming through the windows, so I'll be sealing that place up like fort knox before the next horde. I got rank 3 of engineering so its trap time. I finally got my own chem station, the air drop dropped 2 beakers so I can save time traveling to the trader to use his chem station. I'm glad I made my base 2 thick, they can chew on it all night if I run out of bullets and I might be ok. I'm glad I'm done with spikes, time for real traps that give you XP.

SUcks about the chest, but that sounds fun! You should post a pic of the upgrades, I'm curious to see how it's coming along.

But jokes aside, I'm sure we'll all be fine with replacing ol' blundy with a new shotgun.

"Eating glass is more efficient, generating a death penalty of 25%." << Stop eating glass guys.

 

[MechanicalLens]

Lol I know, I'm just hating on microsoft in a joking manner. I would never give a single idea to microsoft that could help improve a game of theres.
EDIT: Hey now! lol i gotta defend Battlefield and DICE, its not fair to say battlefield is designed for kids. I do not know the statistics but I can assure you its not a kids game. It leans more towards teens and adults who prefer more realism in a FPS. kids are more so attracted to call of duty since that is more arcade style which is appealing to children. Also minecraft was not created with the idea of it being aimed at any one age group, it just happens to be more appealing to kids but was never created with that intention in mind.

That was exactly my point. Just because a game is rated 18+ doesn't mean kids don't play them.

Yeah, I know, but some things naturally fall into place. Minecraft, Flappy Bird (darn you!), Terraria, Plasticine/modeling clay, etc.

 

[skullpoker]

Maybe you need to post a proper bug report with all the requirements and a seed name so we can try to repro it instead of being snarky?

You might be right. It has happened any time I tried to build a 4k map, with different names. I'll look into reporting since I like to help you guys get better.

UPDATINGTON: This time I have been moving my mouse around, so rather than freezing up the PC at

GENERATING DETAIL HEIGHT DATA
15%

it has now got to

GENERATING DETAIL HEIGHT DATA
83%

and been stuck there for 10+ minutes.

I was able to restart the computer, generate the map, freeze on loading in, restart again, and get into the game on prior attempts. This time I can probably just Alt+F4 and go back in to get it working. If not, I'll post a bug report for you lovely people. I appreciate that you lot took my swimming skill and other suggestions into consideration, so I'll help you out.

Also, game not responding to ALT+F4 atm since it's partially locked.

 

[Grandpa Minion]

hello, anyone know which update it was that removed being able to see player's names over their head? If so is this a temp thing or well names be brought?

 

[Gazz]

Gazz only says it's OP because he's just looking at the raw numbers and not thinking abstractly about it. Ya each shell is more powerful then a single 7.62 but you have to take into account some of these things:
(stuff about DPS and range)

A shotgun does not have the DPS of a machine gun.

The ammo is super cheap and even if you only hit a feral soldier in the chest, a single shot knocks it on it's arse.

Basic shells are not good against armor but you can even fix that with the Penetrator perk.

Shotguns do AOE crowd control like no other weapon. This can be improved with the sawed off or duckbill mod.

(the scale of the effects could still be improved)

Even if shotguns are your "main weapon", nothing stops you from picking up a rifle or MG and use up all that 7.62mm ammo that is piling up.

 

[Blake_]

Did Minecraft get rid of their indestructible bottom of the world blocks? They used to have them.

Yeah But! You can destroy bedrock in Minecraft. That said, while I hate invincible stuff in 7 days to die alone, I do believe bedrock is the one thing I do not wish to part ways from.

My hopes are for a disposable trader system with solid failsafes from exploits:

For example:

.Traders won't sell stuff if player made blocks are at X distance

.You won't fail a quest because every trader in the world can have any quest reported like the current paper challenges .

Another trader can spawn in the area eventually if killed.

Same thing for the rest of npcs. Duke? Noah? You can kill them instantly but just as Mr Vegas, you ought to have an arsenal and huge level and let's be honest: contrary to Fallout, you can't save each step.

I believe in TFP to stay true to the destroyable everything. Bedrock? I don't mind and I think is kind of necessary.

Edit: I am about to hit the 3000 hour mark Lol.

 

[archergod]

Na, people need to pay attention. Warning pop up boxes are annoying and in a game like this where there is no pause in menus it can get you killed. We could make stuff with mods unscrappable, that sounds like the best solution. Who would want to scrap a mod, let alone a gun with a mod in it.

Or you can simply unload the mod in inventory and scrap the gun, like you guys do with Bullets, you unload bullets and then scrap gun. right? If not that is more sensible solution to me.

 

[Gazz]

I believe in TFP to stay true to the destroyable everything. Bedrock? I don't mind and I think is kind of necessary.

There is no "kind of" about it. Falling off the Earth should not be a game feature.

Only flat Earthers think that this is a sound concept and that should tell you something.

 

[minisith]

Or you can simply unload the mod in inventory and scrap the gun, like you guys do with Bullets, you unload bullets and then scrap gun. right? If not that is more sensible solution to me.

No I found out scraping auto ejects the bullets now. I do not know when that became a thing but now I scrap then cancel the scrapping since it is faster then going to the modify menu on guns.

 

[SickPuppy]

So there I was day 7-- lookin good... healthy... somewhat wealthy.... wise...? no..I started back to camp to prep for the oncoming attack... excitedly I just started running... no bicycle yet due to harsh conditions/desert town...

so im running by a fortified camper.... didn't look around,... run over 3 mines...dead...

aww... man... dead is dead... time to start a new game. the zombies couldn't kill me but my lack of perception certainly did.

Yer those mines are nasty. I did a quick test with full steel armor and they still one hit kill me. The Infiltrator perk really helps on permadeath runs or get lucky with Urban combat book 5 and you won't trigger mines.

 

[SickPuppy]

A shotgun does not have the DPS of a machine gun.
The ammo is super cheap and even if you only hit a feral soldier in the chest, a single shot knocks it on it's arse.

Basic shells are not good against armor but you can even fix that with the Penetrator perk.

Shotguns do AOE crowd control like no other weapon. This can be improved with the sawed off or duckbill mod.

(the scale of the effects could still be improved)

Is that for default settings and do you mean 100% knock down or high %?

I've been trying to make them work on Insane/nightmare but they don't knock things over as much as I'd thought even with 4 levels in the perk. I just gave up and drank some fergitin elixir. Pump does ok but definitely not op feels, or are you secretly holding off that aa12 for xmas??

 

[beHypE]

A shotgun does not have the DPS of a machine gun.
The ammo is super cheap and even if you only hit a feral soldier in the chest, a single shot knocks it on it's arse.

Basic shells are not good against armor but you can even fix that with the Penetrator perk.

Shotguns do AOE crowd control like no other weapon. This can be improved with the sawed off or duckbill mod.

(the scale of the effects could still be improved)

Even if shotguns are your "main weapon", nothing stops you from picking up a rifle or MG and use up all that 7.62mm ammo that is piling up.

Did you actually play a game with shotguns ? Not trying to discredit your knowledge but my perception of your theory and the feel I get in practice when I play my shotgun guy are worlds apart. The base double barrel is hands down the most underwhelming gun in the game even when perked into.

My biggest gripe with the double barrel isn't even the damage in itself, but its effective range coupled with its 2 bullet mag size, making every missed shot a troublesome situation and not providing much towards dealing with multiple foes at close-combat. If we're talking about a single zombie in a hallway it's doing fine, but then again my sledgehammer does just fine in that situation aswell and I don't need to spend the ammo. For those "oh s***!" moments, it's all good if it's a single animal or whatever (and provided you don't miss), but send a pack of wolves and you're in a world of hurt, whereas a simple unmodded pistol with no perks can keep them at bay with a single mag no problem. There's just no reason risking to play with 2 bullets in your mag that provide nothing specific when you can have 15.

BTW the knockdown of a double barrel shot is definitely not 100%.

I understand you stated that the slugs fill the gap of effective range. In practice though, you probably can't craft slugs when you're still stuck with the double barrel, because it's precisely an early-mid game weapon and you either don't have the schematic for slugs yet or you can't expand all those ressources needed for making a decent amount of them. Let's just nerf the wooden bow into the ground and tell people to craft steel arrows so that it does its job, and see how the community reacts. It's effectively the same argument.

The pistol, the mag, the AK, they all effectively work at close and midrange. The sniper is subpar at close range but excels at long range. The double barrel just fails at doing its job in its own niche.

 

[Jay_ombie]

Yer those mines are nasty. I did a quick test with full steel armor and they still one hit kill me. The Infiltrator perk really helps on permadeath runs or get lucky with Urban combat book 5 and you won't trigger mines.

Same here, been wiped out by not noticing a mine a fair few times. Once was outside an army camp after trying to be clever and lead zombies over them.

Can’t say I ever used mines as a base defence. I guess they more for pvp play maybe.

 

[palikkamaa]

@Devs

Now that we have shape menu for building block, can that be expanded to basic electrical things (like relays/switches etc)?

It is really easy and fun to do electrical stuff in creative- and god mode because you dont have to worry about how many things you need, just take a whole stack. But in survival these do feel like the pre a18 building blocks. Million different things and in a tight budget either craft one by one and always be waiting or craft a stack of them and end up not using all of them, wasting resources. It was a pain in the as to run between an unfinished horde base and the main base where are all the recourses and crafting stations

 

[Kipster]

New experimental, new, fresh game and hooboy what a start i had.

Settings are default difficulty, 120min days, marked airdrops. RWG 8k generated by nitrogen.

Spawned in the forest. After the initial gathering, i started to head out towards the trader. First entity i encouter is a direwolf! RUN! Marked it on the map, for future meat.

After that all went well until i saw dead trees in the distance, oh crap, i gotta go trough wasteland, oh well, challenge is a challenge, so i'll take it! Got to the edge of wasteland and in the distance i saw that the forest biome continues, yay! Sneaking like a snake trough the wasteland, carefully scouting for landmines, zombiebears and whatnot, i spotted a dog. I'm not afraid of them, until they jump on me. Sneak attack with bow, dog runs. But then i mess up and everything started to go downhill. I accidentally scrolled one too far from my stone sledge and started drinking that one water i had in my hotbar, mistake. Dog came and bite me couple of times, while i was calmly drinking my water. Finally i was able to switch to sledge. One powerattack to the mutt's head and it exploded. Whew, i'm safe! Or that's what i thought....

I had missed that 3 vultures were circling me and that dog had nibbled my healt low enough for them to start attacking. First vulture made me bleed, killed it, then quick bandage and off to dispatch the other two. Waited for awhile so the health regen'd back to near full and continued towards the forest where i got safely. At the edge, there was a military POI. First though, landmines, be careful! I thought i was, while sprinting, until i heard faint *click*......KABOOM! FFFFuuuuuuu.....dge. 8 health left, thank god those mines has a delay now! It was so well hidden in the forest drass that i completely missed it.

300M left to the trader, now i can see it in the distance! Sprinting on and then one....more....challenge. A fricking bear, right next to the trader... Luckily, there was this one zombie, which distracted it just enough for me to get a SS and to get in the safety of the trader. Trader had only working workbench, no schematics in any of the broken ones.

Now, here i am, shivering with my primitive bow and 4 stone arrows, thinking "what would jesus do?" while bear bangs the front door of the trader...