PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[JCrook1028]

Exactly. And a decision that is easy is never a hard one. Do I take the 1000 gold or the apple? Well, the decision is easy. Do I take this stack of 200 iron ore to my forge and make forged iron out of it or do lose one fourth of it to make scrap iron that I have lots and lots from looting already? Well, the decision is easy as well.
Now that non-decision is gone. You will still put the iron you mine into your forge because you need lots of forged iron. And lots of darts for your dart traps.

The second question I want to ask: How often have you smelted scrap iron out of your forge because you needed scrap iron for crafting? That probably small percentage of your whole iron throughput is the amount of smelting you could possibly safe by this change now. In my case at least that amount is rather insignificant and I loose a lot more potential smelting time by having the forge run out of wood or material to smelt.

Actually I used to smelt out tons of scrap iron as it used to be needed for upgrades to my starter wooden base. Now that wood goes straight to cobble (another simplification) that step is gone. Also use ton of scrap iron for barb wire fencing. Never made a dart trap so idk how much iron they use for darts. Just for info have not once used a spear/junk turret or stun baton either. All 3 are imo just silliness. Maybe if you could not throw a spear at a target closer than 5 meters I would use one. Maybe if the junk turret and stun baton needed power I would use them. As it is tho I'll leave those for someone else to play with cause I never will.

 

[wolfbain5]

Actually I used to smelt out tons of scrap iron as it used to be needed for upgrades to my starter wooden base. Now that wood goes straight to cobble (another simplification) that step is gone. Also use ton of scrap iron for barb wire fencing. Never made a dart trap so idk how much iron they use for darts. Just for info have not once used a spear/junk turret or stun baton either. All 3 are imo just silliness. Maybe if you could not throw a spear at a target closer than 5 meters I would use one. Maybe if the junk turret and stun baton needed power I would use them. As it is tho I'll leave those for someone else to play with cause I never will.

stun baton I can see not using batteries, remember the flashlights that you only needed to shake to get to work, kinetic energy charged them as the magnets were moved back and forth generating a charge? I see the stun batons as an extension of that. slamming someones head like a baseball bat generates a lot of kinetic energy

 

[AtomicUs5000]

stub baton I can see not using batteries, remember the flashlights that you only needed to shake to get to work, kinetic energy charged them as the magnets were moved back and forth generating a charge? I see the stun batons as an extension of that. slamming someones head like a baseball bat generates a lot of kinetic energy

That's exactly how I figured they work too. In fact, I wish that you could also charge them up by running with it in your hand.

If I do INT, I usually couple it with agility, light armor. Making use of the junk turrets is all about tight movement and running around for me.

 

[n2n1]

Is it true that the first name of the game was "Block Defender"?

 

[SickPuppy]

I don't suppose any of you people complaining about 7dtd becoming a looter/shooter are the same people asking for more zombies. If so, the irony would be staggering.

I'm a looter/shooter by heart but I've been doing a lot more building than ever before just because they don't stop coming on blood moons (24 blood horde). Might be the arthritis kicking in but I got tired of running and gunning out in the open for horde night. Mining tons of resources for ammo is also not my idea of fun. So I've switched back to building melee bases and using traps.

There's different options to deal with different situations so I don't understand why some are saying 7dtd is only catering or heading in one play style.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

There is nothing I can do but you can mod it easily. We need to ensure enough zombies for the POIs, decent FPS etc. We're planning a random encounter system to keep things interesting and with more optimizations we can get more zombies alive. We have no way to know where a city is, so we can't add more zombies to cities than is in the wild, we need some kind of procedural mask.

MM

For this, other than basic mod insert. Is it possible to use the procedure you have in place? The screamer scout,

Instead add the method of her calling a scout horde, to a few of the basic zombies. In entities, if you copy and

paste the generic zombies rename them by alpha or numeric, and add a line associating their growl with, her

heat bloom howl, then add them to the biome spawner. They would look the same unless you DM, F3. But

would sporadically produce mildly larger groups. best part is you would never know which one is the Snitch.

Just have to try to accurately kill all in area before the alarm is raised.

 

[SittingDuck]

There is nothing I can do but you can mod it easily. We need to ensure enough zombies for the POIs, decent FPS etc. We're planning a random encounter system to keep things interesting and with more optimizations we can get more zombies alive. We have no way to know where a city is, so we can't add more zombies to cities than is in the wild, we need some kind of procedural mask.

I would like to have more sensitiv sleepers around a POI, so if you are loud in a city with a lot of POIs close to each other you got your personal horde of Doom ^^

 

[Teefz]

People say they want more zombies, but the game isn't what it was back in the day when we had hub cities. Zombies were stupid and you could kill a couple and POIs were so short to loot it took 30 seconds to get everything and get out. Worst case scenario was maybe one might here you and beat on the wall out side. Rarely would they come in after you, or find you in a POI, and they were so basic getting out was a no brainer.
Now a quest and reward is at stake, and half a dozen zombies wandering in (or way more with the good AI we have now) would be a death sentence. In my opinion, even if we could add lots of zombies to cities, it would make the game worse. There is no pacing with a city full of zombies. You have to waste all your ammo and time clearing a block area so that you can even attempt to start on the POI, and often you would not have the ammo, meds and time left in the day to do it. I know, because priort to A18's release the thicker zed outdoor population was annoying as hell, and thats way thinner than what it was in the past.

So what sounds cool, isn't always fun. It ruins your plans and becomes a nuisance instead of something cool. I think the random encounter system will be better than just a hundred guys mulling around outside. Once in a while you might get sandwiched in, but not every time, and it won't always be kill 50 guys so I can get started on this POI.

I'm not saying it couldn't be cool, but it would be more work than simply spawning them and letting the AI take place.

But we do want more zombies. To be honest, the cities should be packed with zombies.

Currently with A18, I agree, that the zombies AI makes it more fun when scavenging, so that the ones outside the POI (usually) find their way to you, which adds to the thrill. But the cities should be have a lot more zombies spawning in or around them. Risk vs reward. Their spawn rate have been toned down too much. Which is alright for the wilderness I suppose, but the cities should have zombies wandering the streets. Currently if you have half a brain, the only real challenge is, if you have enough time to scavenge brass in different pois and mine enough coal/nitrate to overcome the massive horde on hordenights, but encountering massive hordes seems gone. On that note wandering hordes also feels more like a group than a horde.

I look forward to the random encounter system and I hope it will add to the threat.

 

[wolfbain5]

I would like to have more sensitiv sleepers around a POI, so if you are loud in a city with a lot of POIs close to each other you got your personal horde of Doom ^^

increasing their sensitivity won't do that, sleepers only spawn when a player is within a certain range of the poi. so there are no sleepers in the other poi's to be sensitive. except that one dead zombie with the make up, he is really sensitive, just not the way you are inferring, just ask Snowdog

 

[Damocles]

People say they want more zombies, but the game isn't what it was back in the day when we had hub cities. Zombies were stupid and you could kill a couple and POIs were so short to loot it took 30 seconds to get everything and get out. Worst case scenario was maybe one might here you and beat on the wall out side. Rarely would they come in after you, or find you in a POI, and they were so basic getting out was a no brainer.
Now a quest and reward is at stake, and half a dozen zombies wandering in (or way more with the good AI we have now) would be a death sentence. In my opinion, even if we could add lots of zombies to cities, it would make the game worse. There is no pacing with a city full of zombies. You have to waste all your ammo and time clearing a block area so that you can even attempt to start on the POI, and often you would not have the ammo, meds and time left in the day to do it. I know, because priort to A18's release the thicker zed outdoor population was annoying as hell, and thats way thinner than what it was in the past.

So what sounds cool, isn't always fun. It ruins your plans and becomes a nuisance instead of something cool. I think the random encounter system will be better than just a hundred guys mulling around outside. Once in a while you might get sandwiched in, but not every time, and it won't always be kill 50 guys so I can get started on this POI.

I'm not saying it couldn't be cool, but it would be more work than simply spawning them and letting the AI take place.

Having regional differences in terms of danger and reward (more zombies, more feral zombies, higher loot quality) would certainly be fun. The player could choose to avoid those areas, until he is better prepped.

That regional map could already defined at world generation time.

Somewhere along the line that centers of cities have a higher danger (and higher reward), and the outskirts are safer.

It would make the world have more structure than just a random distribution of POIs.

"lets run around the town, the center is too dangerous. Lets stick to the houses at the outskirts."

"now Im prepared to loot that POI in the citycenter"

"Huh, that area around the military base in the north is a deathtrap, dont go there"

 

[Odetta]

What would be a cool event is if the plane delivering your air drop, instead crashed and you'd have to go rescue the survivors. After that they live at the trader and offer something akin to old world knowledge. This could be anything.

You could also have it where if you don't get there in time the bandits would; killing everyone and taking the loots.

The event would be rare though.

Just my thinking that there needs to be more "World" events. Game is so big that you could do so much in this regard; Nukes, plagues, weather events, take overs, SOS rescues, random survivor colonies springing up, battles between factions/zombies, etc.

Makes the world feel dynamic and alive. Maybe the sequel?

 

[Grandpa Minion]

That is a Unity bug where the font setting gets nulled when loaded. When it decides to break it can easily get into a build. We have to clear/change the font and reassign it to get it to work again.

@faatal thanks for giving me an answer to this its been driving our server nuts not knowing why this is happening.

also, now this Unity bug has spread to Bedrolls not showing online players name.

 

[-Holo-]

Having regional differences in terms of danger and reward (more zombies, more feral zombies, higher loot quality) would certainly be fun. The player could choose to avoid those areas, until he is better prepped.
That regional map could already defined at world generation time.

Somewhere along the line that centers of cities have a higher danger (and higher reward), and the outskirts are safer.

It would make the world have more structure than just a random distribution of POIs.

"lets run around the town, the center is too dangerous. Lets stick to the houses at the outskirts."

"now Im prepared to loot that POI in the citycenter"

"Huh, that area around the military base in the north is a deathtrap, dont go there"

That sounds a lot like the good ol' hub city , I still cling to hope that it will return in some form.

 

[Onarr]

People say they want more zombies, but the game isn't what it was back in the day when we had hub cities. Zombies were stupid and you could kill a couple and POIs were so short to loot it took 30 seconds to get everything and get out. Worst case scenario was maybe one might here you and beat on the wall out side. Rarely would they come in after you, or find you in a POI, and they were so basic getting out was a no brainer.
Now a quest and reward is at stake, and half a dozen zombies wandering in (or way more with the good AI we have now) would be a death sentence. In my opinion, even if we could add lots of zombies to cities, it would make the game worse. There is no pacing with a city full of zombies. You have to waste all your ammo and time clearing a block area so that you can even attempt to start on the POI, and often you would not have the ammo, meds and time left in the day to do it. I know, because priort to A18's release the thicker zed outdoor population was annoying as hell, and thats way thinner than what it was in the past.

So what sounds cool, isn't always fun. It ruins your plans and becomes a nuisance instead of something cool. I think the random encounter system will be better than just a hundred guys mulling around outside. Once in a while you might get sandwiched in, but not every time, and it won't always be kill 50 guys so I can get started on this POI.

I'm not saying it couldn't be cool, but it would be more work than simply spawning them and letting the AI take place.

What if you moved some of the sleeper zombies outside the PoI and increased wake up radius somewhat? Not so large as that gunshot wakes up whole block, but enough that you get 3-10 zombies at start of PoI (based on difficulty). Streets would not be so empty and it still would not be a hassle. You also dont need to kill more zombies, because they are part of PoI. This would also increase value of scoped rifles and stealth. Just imagine getting to high vantage point (for example one of those water towers) and just going to town with headshots. I think it could be worth experimenting with it a little bit.

 

[Onarr]

I will stick to my guns that the encounter system will do everything its meant to, which is sell the player into feeling like the world is teaming with zombies, without spawning guys that just sit there and eat cpu waiting for a player to stumble across them and count against maxalive. Your method (our old method) is careless and wasteful, we're doing something elegant we can control, and keep people at 60fps at all times. ONce the player leaves it despawns and we can send someone else an encounter. We can do mini blood moons in the near future, wandering traders, bandit patrols, wandering hordes, a few zombies eating a corpse, a damsel in distress, all game staged for the person we plan it for.

Sounds awesome, but will it work well with vehicles in game? Especially gyrocopter? I feel that will be huge roadblock

 

[Jay_ombie]

Sounds awesome, but will it work well with vehicles in game? Especially gyrocopter? I feel that will be huge roadblock

Those also that enjoy building within cities on an existing POI always found it annoying that you try to build and every minute or so zombies would need to be killed so you could commence building. That soon became tedious as you wanted to get on doing something else but always got harassed.

I love the thought of random herds that have groups of zombies moving through the area. One Alpha I had a memorable occasion where I had to hide in a building high up and I watched many zombies tear through and exit the other side whilst all the time I held my position hoping not to be noticed. Fun stuff.

 

[archergod]

What would be a cool event is if the plane delivering your air drop, instead crashed and you'd have to go rescue the survivors. After that they live at the trader and offer something akin to old world knowledge. This could be anything.

You could also have it where if you don't get there in time the bandits would; killing everyone and taking the loots.

The event would be rare though.

Just my thinking that there needs to be more "World" events. Game is so big that you could do so much in this regard; Nukes, plagues, weather events, take overs, SOS rescues, random survivor colonies springing up, battles between factions/zombies, etc.

Makes the world feel dynamic and alive. Maybe the sequel?

I don't like having the idea of survivor. I like plane crash and it disappear after 1 game day. But having survivor means you can unity and grow as community again.

 

[Laz Man]

Whew.....survived the day 28 horde.....was intense but super fun (Lvl 32, GS ~70). Game is starting to throw a ton of cops at me but they still couldnt breach my final line of defense. Will upload video tomorrow, im beat.

 

[beHypE]

You guys are talking about populating cities like it has to be totally black or white. I didn't imply it should go back to being 20 cops/dogs/vultures on instant respawn like in A11, making looting anything almost impossible. But there's quite some margin between having impossible to clear cities and having the abandoned village syndrom we have now.

Having 2-3 days respawn times for POIs in cities would give you both a challenge the first time you visit the neighborhood AND more than enough time to loot the POIs once the streets are cleared. Yes you'd have to work a bit more than now to be able to access the loot, but hey, that's actually balancing out the fact that 10m from there there's just another POI ready to be looted, as opposed to an isolated POI in the wild after which you have to get running again to find something else. And one might argue you could raise the gamestage of a POI depending on its surroundings, thus yielding better loot if it's flagged as a "dense area".

Decisions, risk/reward, consequences. Right now there ain't no decisions to be made, cities are the place to be from Day 1 if you want to optimize your time.

I mean, the random encounter might just solve the problem if done right, I don't know. But that's probably not coming anytime soon if you want to implement a variety of encounters. I thought modifying spawning rules around POIs would be much easier in the meantime.

 

[Inmyh3ad]

It has been said many times but i’ll say it again: great job with A18 TFP. I’m playing exp for about a month no and i’m really hooked again.

I’m a builder/miner/organiser myself so I never had the urge to loot in A17 and A16 (except the crazy hoard lootruns with the wrench and take everything you came across apart.)

Especially for the mining I play at 120 minye days because I love building mine shafts and litte ‘bases’.

It feels very balanced. I love the new mining changes. The textures are georgeous and I love that the T3 steel tools ‘push’ you to go out and loot to find those damn steel tools parts.

Thumbs up TFP, you all deserve it!