PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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MM: Just because you interpret anything besides blind praise as "hate" or uninformed judgement doesn't mean it's not valid. Especially considering that the whole game is unfinished and always has been. If we had stuck to that philosophy we'd be fighting fire golems today and not have the bellows, which contributed to having the workstation tools. Or chickens for that matter. Or the blood moon on horde nights, and that's just off the top of my head. (For those not in the know, those were all community suggestions that made it into vanilla.)

Additionally, once things ARE done, it turns into a case of, "No, sorry, it's finished. We're not going to change it because we already put time and effort into it. Programmer time isn't free you know!"

Variety is what keeps games like this alive. Look at any game with an active modding community, and most of the top mods are either large mechanical changes (more gameplay content) or More X, X Extended, X+ ( smaller variations or additions to vanilla content).

 
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Unless you have hundreds of variations, its waste of time and game resources. Any game I've played even with lots of variations was all similar within 40 hours of play.

 
Unless you have hundreds of variations, its waste of time and game resources. Any game I've played even with lots of variations was all similar within 40 hours of play.
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It's not hard to add variation without wasting resources. Again, we can use games such as Left 4 Dead as examples.

 
MM: Just because you interpret anything besides blind praise as "hate" or uninformed judgement doesn't mean it's not valid. Especially considering that the whole game is unfinished and always has been. If we had stuck to that philosophy we'd be fighting fire golems today and not have the bellows, which contributed to having the workstation tools. Or chickens for that matter. Or the blood moon on horde nights, and that's just off the top of my head. (For those not in the know, those were all community suggestions that made it into vanilla.)
Additionally, once things ARE done, it turns into a case of, "No, sorry, it's finished. We're not going to change it because we already put time and effort into it. Programmer time isn't free you know!"

Variety is what keeps games like this alive. Look at any game with an active modding community, and most of the top mods are either large mechanical changes (more gameplay content) or More X, X Extended, X+ ( smaller variations or additions to vanilla content).
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It doesn't matter what is valid. What matters is we sell and get to hopefully profit enough make a sequel and stay in business. TFP has grown a lot but we still don't have the man power to solve every immersion problem you guys have because you already played for 10000 hours. New buyers don't care if zombies get repetitive after playing it, they want to have fun. Some people get hung up on the details, others could care less. We'll add as many zombies as we can but right now getting the old low res ones is the priority.

If we listened to every squeaky wheel we'd never get anywhere. We did that and look what it got us? People are like 7 years in alpha. So with all due respect we have to make decisions that fit the vision for the game and stay on schedule so we can't address every single concern. In order to do ALL the things we do, some things have to be sacrificed. This is a very ambitious game, so where it lacks in immersion we hope to pacify with great game play and a unique experience. As we make sequels we hope to address some of these things but you can't make your first game in a series perfect. That is what iterating on sequels is for.

 
It's not hard to add variation without wasting resources. Again, we can use games such as Left 4 Dead as examples.
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Lol ok. I recall reading an article about how their systems were ground breaking. Valve has more money and resources than any other dev. Remember people we have to pick our battles. Its not that it wouldn't be cool, its that we can do that and delete a main quest. I think most people want some kind of main quest.

 
I liked the first episode of TWD, season 1. It went slowly(?) downhill from there.

I liked the first season of Fear the walking dead for the most part, then, not so much.

Edit: Oh right, my point!

The point is all good stories have and end point. If they continue past that point, it becomes somewhat soap opera-ish. Just people blandly talking.

 
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Lol ok. I recall reading an article about how their systems were ground breaking. Valve has more money and resources than any other dev. Remember people we have to pick our battles. Its not that it wouldn't be cool, its that we can do that and delete a main quest. I think most people want some kind of main quest.
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No one is saying better looking zombies will take away "the main quest". Heck, the new zombies are already a step towards a more immersive experience, at least in my opinion, so clearly you don't need "ground breaking systems" to achieve that goal.

 
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I respect your opinion but there just isn't any reason to do polls, we are confident with our designs as you guys don't have enough information to think, and don't know the full picture and each version is always missing critical ingredients to the recipe so while you might hate or dislike a current thing, it often is just an interim step towards the bigger picture which we are sure will be better received. It would be like casting a vote without knowing anything about the candidates. For all you know we are focus testing the engineer zombies for a build, and that will be used for bandit raids later and zeds will have dumb ai. The plan is that special infected might not even be zombies, but heavily radiated humans so radiated zombies do not want to eat them. Noone knows for sure but they are violent psychopaths that have some form of intelligence yet.

A lot of people hated alpha 17, it wasn't that bad, it was just missing proper books and schematics. Fundamentally 18 is the same, but without that one hook 17 was not liked. Obviously too many zombies use the engineer ai right now, but as we get closer to gold it will all feel better. Like with 17 I was super excited about the capabilities. To me you hand me a paint brush and a canvas I'm having a blast, where a lot of people are too short sighted to see what isn't right in front of them. I saw potential and turned it into a masterpiece that has outsold every other version of the game, just like I see the AI as nothing but pure potential right now. So that might be the shocking difference, I know where we're going with all this cool tech, you judge it as it is. Just like our first new version of rwg... just wait. We now have full random biomes, no duplicate pois in the same area, and adjustable biome percentage so you could roll a map with 90% forest if you wanted. I'm not saying that feature is available to users, I'm saying the tech exists now.

I get it though, for all you know the AI is done. The last of the old AI you liked was like 16 alphas. It was the most polished version of some rudimentary stuff with 16 iterations. You've only seen 2 iterations of faatal AI, so be patient.
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Probably one of your best responses to date MM. Thank you for the insight!

 
It doesn't matter what is valid. What matters is we sell and get to hopefully profit enough make a sequel and stay in business. TFP has grown a lot but we still don't have the man power to solve every immersion problem you guys have because you already played for 10000 hours. New buyers don't care if zombies get repetitive after playing it, they want to have fun. Some people get hung up on the details, others could care less. We'll add as many zombies as we can but right now getting the old low res ones is the priority.

If we listened to every squeaky wheel we'd never get anywhere. We did that and look what it got us? People are like 7 years in alpha. So with all due respect we have to make decisions that fit the vision for the game and stay on schedule so we can't address every single concern. In order to do ALL the things we do, some things have to be sacrificed. This is a very ambitious game, so where it lacks in immersion we hope to pacify with great game play and a unique experience. As we make sequels we hope to address some of these things but you can't make your first game in a series perfect. That is what iterating on sequels is for.
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I absolutely agree. I don't speak for everyone of course, but I care little for immersion, but more for the "fun factor", to put it simply. (Not to mention I tend to draw my attention more towards balance and implementation of certain mechanics.) **7 Days to Die may not be the prettiest game in the room, especially for graphics enthusiasts, but it has heart, and a bold team behind it. Fun Pimps, you have my full confidence and support in this game's direction, as well as any future games that you might release. Just make them good. ;)

(**Nonetheless, 7D2D can still awe me in its sheer splendor, ranging from a lovely morning sunrise to a breathtaking watermelon sunset. Madmole, unless I'm mistaken, you're at the helm of this spectacular art; kudos to you.)

 
I absolutely agree. I don't speak for everyone of course, but I care little for immersion, but more for the "fun factor", to put it simply. (Not to mention I tend to draw my attention more towards balance and implementation of certain mechanics.) **7 Days to Die may not be the prettiest game in the room, especially for graphics enthusiasts, but it has heart, and a bold team behind it. Fun Pimps, you have my full confidence and support in this game's direction, as well as any future games that you might release. Just make them good. ;)

(**Nonetheless, 7D2D can still awe me in its sheer splendor, ranging from a lovely morning sunrise to a breathtaking watermelon sunset. Madmole, unless I'm mistaken, you're at the helm of this spectacular art; kudos to you.)
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I used to be acting art director and I still give feedback, but we've brought on a lot of very very talented artists and I've passed the torch. I'm mainly doing design now and some xml, and a bit of art integration here and there just to get some hands on.

 
No one is saying better looking zombies will take away "the main quest". Heck, the new zombies are already a step towards a more immersive experience, at least in my opinion, so clearly you don't need "ground breaking systems" to achieve that goal.
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It was just an example. He is basically stating they have their hands full at the moment with other features such as expanding quests. They might not need ground breaking systems but they still need resources...

 
The plan is that special infected might not even be zombies, but heavily radiated humans so radiated zombies do not want to eat them. Noone knows for sure but they are violent psychopaths that have some form of intelligence yet.

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i have so many ideas just running through my head it Hurts! i need to Get to work on drawling!

*wispier to myself and slowly rubs can of sham* don't worry, he will listen......... i hope.

 
Mr. Mole,

Defending my Base on Bloodmoon made me realize a Gameplay flaw:

Would it possible to implement the ability to lean in a certain direction?

Sideways and Forward like many FPS Games have it?

If you have a Block in Front of you that is not a sheet, lets say on a wall, you have no means to shoot the Mean guy that hammers on your wall.

 
The game is fun and going in the right direction.

I am just waiting for the next experimental build to play the crap out of it.

np.

 
Players like Jawoodle use the creative menu to build..when you are actually 0laying gathering the resources, it's a very different experience.
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That is untrue in JaWoodle park yes but he has built many variations of the kill corridors actually in game and I never use creative menu but have built variations of the kill corridor in game, as I don't see using game physic such as the steep slope as cheese anymore than putting a block or spikes down in a doorway.

The arrow slit force field is an exploit but takes a lot of effort too do it right, and isn't really that worth it.

 
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