PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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Maybe a mixer should cost 15k.
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A step in the right direction but still doesn't solve the crux of the matter which is overavailability of tools and reources.

If I remember correctly there was talk of tiered forges and workbenches, I may be wrong on that and it was idle diary chatter. A lime kiln would go a huge way to limit production of cement early game.

The piles of cement left outside of POI's. I'm not sure what it's like in Texas but around here if you leave a bag of cement outside for a week all you have at the end is a particularly crumbly brick. Fair enough in a basement it would last longer but outside in the air? Probably not.

You were surprised when the slowing down of XP got a warm welcome from the players. This is a similar situation, mechanics don't get in the way of the game they _are_ the game.

 
What are you talking about the game is 5x slower than it used to be.
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I can't speak to late-game progression because I'm not one of those concrete mega-tower-defense guys. Early game progression is most definitely not 5x slower. I have had 3-4 different firearms and at least green armor if not blue (mostly for the mod slots) by day 4 in every game I've started this alpha. Food has stopped being an issue by day 3 in every SP game although MP it continues to be ...probably wouldn't if the other guys put in a bit of effort towards food gathering. I'll never know. They aren't going to start any time soon.

I tend to go for smaller PoI's especially early game, avoiding major fight scenes until later when the toolbar is better equipped for them. I don't build much if at all early game. I don't even build that much mid-game usually because the way the game has evolved building seems to be discouraged. Better to use disposable PoI's for blood moons. To put it another way if anything I level and progress slower than I would if I did more combat and/or building.

I suggest making weapons about 80% less likely to be in loot. I've opened end-room loot to find 3-4 weapons so many times I am surprised if I don't get that. I've gone straight from stone spear and wood club to pistol, double-barrel shotgun and AK all from a single building. That's not 5x slower, that's instant next-game-chapter.

 
A step in the right direction but still doesn't solve the crux of the matter which is overavailability of tools and reources.
If I remember correctly there was talk of tiered forges and workbenches, I may be wrong on that and it was idle diary chatter. A lime kiln would go a huge way to limit production of cement early game.

The piles of cement left outside of POI's. I'm not sure what it's like in Texas but around here if you leave a bag of cement outside for a week all you have at the end is a particularly crumbly brick. Fair enough in a basement it would last longer but outside in the air? Probably not.

You were surprised when the slowing down of XP got a warm welcome from the players. This is a similar situation, mechanics don't get in the way of the game they _are_ the game.
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Additionally I would suggest making rebar frames and wet concrete blocks findable recipes. You can still use concrete without those recipes but need to pay the "cobblestone tax" then.

 
I can't speak to late-game progression because I'm not one of those concrete mega-tower-defense guys. Early game progression is most definitely not 5x slower. I have had 3-4 different firearms and at least green armor if not blue (mostly for the mod slots) by day 4 in every game I've started this alpha. Food has stopped being an issue by day 3 in every SP game although MP it continues to be ...probably wouldn't if the other guys put in a bit of effort towards food gathering. I'll never know. They aren't going to start any time soon.
I tend to go for smaller PoI's especially early game, avoiding major fight scenes until later when the toolbar is better equipped for them. I don't build much if at all early game. I don't even build that much mid-game usually because the way the game has evolved building seems to be discouraged. Better to use disposable PoI's for blood moons. To put it another way if anything I level and progress slower than I would if I did more combat and/or building.

I suggest making weapons about 80% less likely to be in loot. I've opened end-room loot to find 3-4 weapons so many times I am surprised if I don't get that. I've gone straight from stone spear and wood club to pistol, double-barrel shotgun and AK all from a single building. That's not 5x slower, that's instant next-game-chapter.
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i agree 100% about this early game is basically SUPER BOOST.

i just think that the amount of Reinforced chest in just basic POIs is CRAZY! just stick with the crates for places like homes , dinners , survivor camps ETC. but for POIS like Military camps , places like Builder bro Joes and others would have reinforced chest .while Super hard POIS like Hospitals , Silos , and other Tier 6 POI's should have Harden chest

 
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A step in the right direction but still doesn't solve the crux of the matter which is overavailability of tools and reources.
If I remember correctly there was talk of tiered forges and workbenches, I may be wrong on that and it was idle diary chatter. A lime kiln would go a huge way to limit production of cement early game.

The piles of cement left outside of POI's. I'm not sure what it's like in Texas but around here if you leave a bag of cement outside for a week all you have at the end is a particularly crumbly brick. Fair enough in a basement it would last longer but outside in the air? Probably not.

You were surprised when the slowing down of XP got a warm welcome from the players. This is a similar situation, mechanics don't get in the way of the game they _are_ the game.
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Its a game so spoiling concrete would be lame. We don't want to force everyone into being a miner and not everyone wants to mine so bags of concrete can be looted, so that looters can get materials they need for a decent small base as well.

 
Its a game so spoiling concrete would be lame. We don't want to force everyone into being a miner and not everyone wants to mine so bags of concrete can be looted, so that looters can get materials they need for a decent small base as well.
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maybe in some areas it would make sense like bunkers , Construction sites and factories. not Charlie's house down the street.

 
Its a game so spoiling concrete would be lame. We don't want to force everyone into being a miner and not everyone wants to mine so bags of concrete can be looted, so that looters can get materials they need for a decent small base as well.
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I don't see the problem with concrete. The balance is ok and fun. Allows for big buildings and proof and error stuff. The change of the concrete piles was more than enough and its availability is good, with some effort but abundant. Fast in late game as it should be. Why do we keep talking about this? My gawd.

 
Hey MadMole et FunPimps,
Slow it down! Seriously but not the development. I mean the in-game progress/progression.

Currently this game feels like it is more 7Days to rush. My little bro and I started a new Navezgane(?) at 18.2 and truly enjoying ourselves, however, progression is too fast. We went from tier 1 quests to tier 5 all withing two horde nights. No mods to XP gains other than nerdy glasses.

We never got to enjoy having to scavenge non-quests POIs (which we love having to "adventure") we are now only repeating the Tier 5 Hospital and two factories which are getting long in the tooth. We've barely explored the map and had to rush build an AI breaking pit to already defeat the demolition Zeds.

Here's my take - The 1st horde night should be somewhat survivable in a plain house with re-enforced wood doors/structures/wood spikes. You know, like your 7D2D vid. Later make Zeds more "super human" perhaps forcing upgraded structures but have the game ease you in and appreciate upgrades in gear/talents.

Hope this helps, keep it up! We're loving every new iterations.
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Turn down XP gain, limit yourselves to one quest per in-game week as a reward (and as a challenge), find a balance between base building and looting, make it so that you have to do 15 quests of a particular tier until you advance to the next (every so often the trader will offer the lower tier quest you need), problemo sorta solved. :)

 
Turn down XP gain, limit yourselves to one quest per in-game week as a reward (and as a challenge), find a balance between base building and looting, make it so that you have to do 15 quests of a particular tier until you advance to the next (every so often the trader will offer the lower tier quest you need), problemo sorta solved. :)
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Edit: Or just try to "immerse yourselves" as much as possible. Be terrified of every encounter, slowly creep your way through POI's, crudely defend your base of choice with wooden spikes and with limited ammo. Sure, it won't be genuine, unless you can get yourself in the right mindset. :) Trust me, I tried this approach, and for the first time in years, I felt genuine fear as I was cowering away in a tiny bathroom in a house I had taken over while a zombie wandered around in the dead of night; every so often I would open the door and peak around the corner, only to see her stumbling around, illuminated by a flickering light in the kitchen.

Pro tip: Never leave your doors open. :p

Double Edit: Quoted myself. Classic. *Facepalm*

 
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Its a game so spoiling concrete would be lame. We don't want to force everyone into being a miner and not everyone wants to mine so bags of concrete can be looted, so that looters can get materials they need for a decent small base as well.
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Okay, maybe this is already too many, sorry if so. One more and I'm done hammering. It's not my call. Making concrete this easy to get in endless quantities spoils everything else. It makes wood and stone and iron negligible. "Lame". Just f'ing slow it down.

In my fantasy, if you're not pouring points into research and your luck's bad at the traders, iron and brick are the best you can reasonably expect in any quantity the first couple months, you might have to be clever with them to survive, you might have to work around their limits. In my fantasy there's real gameplay value in them. If you want to skip that step, get lucky or drop a stack of perk points into power and steel. When midgame starts heating up there should be a distinct possibility you have to race to get your concrete and steel up and running because if you don't the demos that have been giving you fits will reduce your base to rubble. As it stands now I have solid concrete before the first rad shows up on horde night, basically no matter what I do, usually reinforced.

Make it very slowly handcraftable, make the mixers require power, the people who don't want to go that route will have to be sparing in their use of concrete sure but zombie apocalypse, duh It's not supposed to be easy. No matter what it is, your choices should be sacrifice for it, Get Real Lucky, or do without.

 
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One thing that bothers me and, to my knowledge, many others is that everything but destroyed buildings now seems to be dungeon crawlers. Is there going to be some rebalancing in this? I had a weird idea today: having a normal version of a building, particularly houses, that would spawn by default, but then get replaced by a dungeon crawler on quest reset.

 
Okay, maybe this is already too many, sorry if so. One more and I'm done hammering: making concrete this easy to get in endless quantities spoils everything else. It makes wood and stone and iron negligible. "Lame". Just f'ing slow it down.
In my fantasy, if you're not pouring points into research and your luck's bad at the traders, iron and brick are the best you can reasonably expect in any quantity the first couple months, you might have to be clever with them to survive, you might have to work around their limits. In my fantasy there's real gameplay value in them. If you want to skip that step, get lucky or drop a stack of perk points into power and steel. When midgame starts heating up there should be a distinct possibility you have to race to get your concrete and steel up and running because if you don't the demos that have been giving you fits will reduce your base to rubble. As it stands now I have solid concrete before the first rad shows up on horde night, basically no matter what I do, usually reinforced.

Make it very slowly handcraftable, make the mixers require power, the people who don't want to go that route will have to be sparing in their use of concrete sure but zombie apocalypse, duh It's not supposed to be easy. No matter what it is, your choices should be sacrifice for it, Get Real Lucky, or do without.
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Not everyone shares your vision. Hence why you labeled it as "your fantasy"; nothing wrong with that, you do you. What your suggesting might work well in a mod, but I can see this pushing away a lot of players, especially new ones.

 
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Not everyone shares your vision. Hence why you labeled it as "your fantasy"; nothing wrong with that, you do you. What your suggesting might work well in a mod, but I can see this pushing away a lot of players, especially new ones.
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I HEARD THAT! lol

 
Fast travel for NPC's would solve a lot of problems.

I've been thinking about the issue of walking followers who may get stuck while following the player.

What if the follower could fast travel to the player if the player got too far away?

The player and a follower goes into a mine.

The follower gets stuck.

The player leaves and the follower pops up next to them.

Stuck now more!

This would also work if the player gets killed and spawns. We could say that zombies overpowered the player but the follower rescued them and dragged them away to a safe place.

Nice right? :)

 
I know ‘gating’ has become a bad term but I think preventing power tools in random loot and buying them at traders until you reach a certain level would slow down that fast progression Gronk was talking about. Make early level players use axe & pickaxe longer. Once you have power tools(auger & chainsaw) materials become quite abundant. I would even say making cement mixers and workbenches a little more expensive so you must work harder to buy them early game or you need to find functional ones at traders or poi’s.

 
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