PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[JCrook1028]

A treasure with 7000 HP giving you 6000 dukes. Seems an excellent deal to me even with a stone axe. Try finding a 2500 HP safe with a content that gives 2000 dukes in the first days

No Thx. I just don't do treasures unless I have lockpicks. But I always have lockpicks so......... problem solved.

 

[Onarr]

Yeah I lost my backpack due to a glitch, and actually enjoyed rebuilding all my lost gear.

We had a meeting about adding a generic skill tree, and came to the conclusion that we'd piss off more people than we would please removing the meaningful choices there are now, or we could polish combat to a AA quality bar with that time spent and make everyone happier. We're going to wait for stable data though to make the decision.

The Perks like they are now are quite good. But I wish it would be two choices - what weapons will I use and what playstyle will I pick. That would be really nice.

 

[beHypE]

I've spent the last 3 work days looking at VRAM usage and changing entities and block entities to load on demand and block entities can unload now. VRAM use is down 1 to 3 GB depending on your settings, so I'm hoping this will help in general.

If you run out of VRAM and terrain textures end up in system RAM, then terrain can render very slow. The higher your texture filter settings, the slower it gets reading textures from system RAM.

Amazing. I actually checked my settings after posting yesterday and I made a small mistake, I actually have shadows off (all the rest is on max). Shadows are a huge ressource hog aswell, even on "near" with shadow reflections off; as soon as there is a light source close and in sight, I lose 15-20 fps and while playable, the game is way less smooth. Do you have any plans working on some optimizations regarding shadows ?

The good news is the game looks WAY better without shadows than it used to, thanks to linear lighting, so I don't mind just disabling them as much as I did in A18 (the game looked terribly washed out with shadows off back then).

 

[Matt 1977]

After doing 2 runs to day 21. Ive unlocked weapon perk to craft level 5 pistol and struggled to get the parts. 2nd run i just got the 12 and looted a level 5 pistol. I think you have crafting back to front. Level 1 and 2 weapons should be lootable nothing higher. Then increase parts to make a weapon, and be able to craft level 6.

Which players would have to continue looting to get the best weapons, via crafting though. 

 

[beHypE]

After doing 2 runs to day 21. Ive unlocked weapon perk to craft level 5 pistol and struggled to get the parts. 2nd run i just got the 12 and looted a level 5 pistol. I think you have crafting back to front. Level 1 and 2 weapons should be lootable nothing higher. Then increase parts to make a weapon, and be able to craft level 6.

Which players would have to continue looting to get the best weapons, via crafting though. 

It's just RNG really. Day 13 I have enough parts to make Q5 steel knuckles and found the recipe aswell, all I need now is forged steel. Meanwhile we have only found a level 1 pistol and no other meaningful amount of parts, as a 3-man party with everyone having GS 30+.

 

[Matt 1977]

It's just RNG really. Day 13 I have enough parts to make Q5 steel knuckles and found the recipe aswell, all I need now is forged steel. Meanwhile we have only found a level 1 pistol and no other meaningful amount of parts, as a 3-man party with everyone having GS 30+.

Yea i agree its all RnG. Idk throwing ideas out into the ether. 2 hrs away from 3k ingame. I thought i was already there lol

The lower teir pipe pistols etc will change it all again.

 

[Tmodloader]

The Perks like they are now are quite good. But I wish it would be two choices - what weapons will I use and what playstyle will I pick. That would be really nice.

The problem with this is it actually lowers playstyle diversity to me. If a certain weapon felt op or you were just comfortable with a certain type of weapon it would lower the chance drastically of you using other weapons for combat. It's nice in MP to have different styles of combat based on our noncombat roles as well. I do see your point but I believe the current system is better. With TFP giving their game such a good level cap, you can eventually get everything I believe too. 

For instance I keep hearing people talking about how good sledges are but as a non-strength player I don't see that at all yet. If I choose strength in one of my next playthroughs it will get me out of my comfort zone a bit to try out sledges. My motivation is significantly the non-combat portions of the other trees, and I like that they get me out of my comfort zone for combat.

 

[Jost Amman]

All doable but then Pack Mule is the new must-have perk because you'd _need_ it in addition to all the pocket mods.

If it also unlocks all the mods it's only more OP.

Well, it's exactly like the weapons perks... so, what's the difference here?

Like the weapons perks you could decide NOT to buy Pack Mule and still be able to find the Pockets schematics in the world.

The reason I don't like Pack Mule to give you extra slots on its own is because:

1. It's "too gamey" or unrealistic (I know, realism! ) because it just magically gives you those extra slots!
   
2. Because I've read lots of people, me included, just prefer to add Pockets over time and completely ignore the (current) PM skill and save the points.
   

If you, however, tie the perk to the pocket mods, putting even just one point in PM would be worth it and make this perk "palatable" again. 

Food for thought IMO...

 

[Fren]

Debating now whether to start a brand new world, or wait until the next patch where the animal spawns will hopefully be under control again...

I prefer waiting on a new world without easy-get-all-items-from-traders....and go back to basic survival and 'do it all yourself' in this plague infested world

 

[Syrex]

Day 98 Horde Night
Difficulty: Warrior, Day cycle: 120 minutes, Max zombies: 100, Bloodmoon count: 24
Pretty much everything else left on vanilla/default settings

2-Player DUO
Player Levels: Me: 130, friend: 71
Gamestage: Me: 272, friend: 170

My current horde base is under major construction so a friend offered for me to join them. I don't think I'll get an invite again anytime soon. To be fair, he said he copied a design he saw from a streamer.. lol


Spoiler

 

[Gazz]

That worked well.

 

[jorbascrumps]

Well, it's exactly like the weapons perks... so, what's the difference here?

Like the weapons perks you could decide NOT to buy Pack Mule and still be able to find the Pockets schematics in the world.

The reason I don't like Pack Mule to give you extra slots on its own is because:

1. It's "too gamey" or unrealistic (I know, realism! ) because it just magically gives you those extra slots!
   
2. Because I've read lots of people, me included, just prefer to add Pockets over time and completely ignore the (current) PM skill and save the points.
   

If you, however, tie the perk to the pocket mods, putting even just one point in PM would be worth it and make this perk "palatable" again. 

Food for thought IMO...

1. You are playing a game with certain abstractions. In this case, the abstraction is simulating you getting stronger in order to carry more items in your pack
   
2. This is exactly why the perk is fine as is. You've made the choice to wait to get additional pockets vs buying the perk. The perk is there for those who don't wish to wait or are having bad luck
   

Keeping pockets and perk separate create a nice progression curve on both sides, imo. Upgrade PM or wait for loot drops. Seems to me like they've hit that balance to create meaningful choice.

 

[Jost Amman]

1. You are playing a game with certain abstractions. In this case, the abstraction is simulating you getting stronger in order to carry more items in your pack
   
2. This is exactly why the perk is fine as is. You've made the choice to wait to get additional pockets vs buying the perk. The perk is there for those who don't wish to wait or are having bad luck
   

Keeping pockets and perk separate create a nice progression curve on both sides, imo. Upgrade PM or wait for loot drops. Seems to me like they've hit that balance to create meaningful choice.

You missed my point completely, sorry, please re-read my post.

Thanks

 

[jorbascrumps]

You missed my point completely, sorry, please re-read my post.

Thanks

I don't believe that I did? You're suggesting tying PM with pocket crafting and you listed reasons why you don't like PM.

 

[Lorca]

DEAR MODERATORS

I don't get to the forums that much, but when I do, I mostly just want to read up on what the devs have been working on, but the dev "diary" has become the new forum. I've been reading this forum on and off for years, and I've progressively watched the general sharing section drying up and all the action moving here to this one thread.  I don't want to have to wade through hundreds of user comments to find the odd dev comment buried in amongst it. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Can't you make this thread read only, so that only devs can post here?  That way, we can easily find what they are up to, and if someone wants to argue about something they have said, they can quote the post and make a thread in general sharing. The discussion can continue there for those that are interested. The devs can even join in there if they want. It also groups topics better.

Please consider...

 

[Lorca]

Its fine mate. These complainers are just upset that you can't power loot anymore. Im loving earning items.

Quick, someone grab his shoe-laces. I think he's about to creep right in. 
"Power looting", mate? Please... now I've heard it all. 

Tying the loot to game stage just removes the desire to visit any difficult POIs or crack any safes because I'm just going to get stone axes anyway. It's bad enough that zombie difficulty is tied to loot stage. They too should be tougher in tough POIs.  Give me a reason to go out there. 

 

[Mechanimal]

My fps is stable again, no more dips after playing a while, great work!

Same, these little tweaks are so important, other voxel engines seem to drop the ball on this more than they should, i.e. Minecraft and Space Engineers. SE runs well actually, on default and even high(with good machine), as long as one does not crank all the things to ultra, especially since you can also set in-game block limits super high, even unlimited on some, on top of that. Bwahahaha, careful! They do have warnings, but gamers like to crank settings to find those limits, and oh boy are they gonna if they do. Maxing out 32 GB of mobo RAM is lol what. You'd need a high end workstation/server to handle it, and I bet one could still break even that. It broke my rig more than high detail level engineering model assemblies(think full robot where each screw has spiral threading), and that's saying a lot.

You guys are def ahead of the game in this department with your engine, it really is a big deal. Again, kudos. 

 

[Jost Amman]

I don't believe that I did? You're suggesting tying PM with pocket crafting and you listed reasons why you don't like PM.

Ok, I hate having to explain myself (sorry I'm THAT lazy!) so I'll repeat and expand the concept a bit.

Weapon Perks are ALREADY working that way.

I'm just suggesting for Pack Mule to align with the weapon perks.

So, for those who say it'll never work then explain me WHY it's already working for weapons and can't work for pockets.

I hope I made myself (more) clear.

Yeah, I was thinking that the "new" Pack Mule won't give you additional slots anymore, but will give you a fixed bonus (per level) on how "deep" the pockets you craft are.

So for example, something like this:

• At Lvl1 you get the Single Pocket for clothing mod (so you won't get this mod from the start anymore)
  
• At Lvl2 you get the Single Pocket for armor mod + the Double Pocket for clothing mod AND a +1 bonus slot for each pocket
  
• At Lvl3 you get the Double Pocket for armor mod AND a +2 bonus slot for each pocket you have
  
• At Lvl4 you learn to craft the Bandolier mod AND a +3 bonus for all your pockets
  

This way the "value" of the pockets you craft will grow alongside your Pack Mule skill and make it more useful IMO.

It's the same concept you already use for Weapon perks actually, where you get both a bonus AND the crafting recipes with the perk.

Anyway I'll stop here since I don't really care that much about this... it was just an observation. 

Personally I'll keep ignoring the current Pack Mule perk every time I play, but it's just the way I play, though you must know that I've read on Steam a lot of people mostly doing the same.

 

[Guppys Fur]

DEAR MODERATORS

I don't get to the forums that much, but when I do, I mostly just want to read up on what the devs have been working on, but the dev "diary" has become the new forum. I've been reading this forum on and off for years, and I've progressively watched the general sharing section drying up and all the action moving here to this one thread.  I don't want to have to wade through hundreds of user comments to find the odd dev comment buried in amongst it. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Can't you make this thread read only, so that only devs can post here?  That way, we can easily find what they are up to, and if someone wants to argue about something they have said, they can quote the post and make a thread in general sharing. The discussion can continue there for those that are interested. The devs can even join in there if they want. It also groups topics better.

Please consider...

Meh, i like the way it is.

Sure, there are a lot of offtopic posts and discussions that lead to nothing, but a lot of great questions come up this way Roland, Fataal, Gazz and Mr. Mole take the time to answer.

And Roland does indeed clean out the Forum from time to time if things get too messy.

 

[Jost Amman]

DEAR MODERATORS

I don't get to the forums that much, but when I do, I mostly just want to read up on what the devs have been working on, but the dev "diary" has become the new forum. I've been reading this forum on and off for years, and I've progressively watched the general sharing section drying up and all the action moving here to this one thread.  I don't want to have to wade through hundreds of user comments to find the odd dev comment buried in amongst it. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Can't you make this thread read only, so that only devs can post here?  That way, we can easily find what they are up to, and if someone wants to argue about something they have said, they can quote the post and make a thread in general sharing. The discussion can continue there for those that are interested. The devs can even join in there if they want. It also groups topics better.

Please consider...

There's a simple solution to that:

1. Click on the picture of the Dev you want to follow, it will load that dev's profile
   
2. Save the link of the dev's profile page in your preferred list
   
3. Read all the most recent posts of that devs
   

Done