PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary
- Thread starter madmole
- Start date
- Status
Blake_
Captain Obvious
Guys, any plans of making a more organic Quest activation system?
I mean, for example,
1-get rid of the problematic exclamation marks and activate the quest when accepted on the trader/npc (with a warning if someone/something is inside) and ...
2- ... make a trigger volume that encompasses all the POI INTERIOR (not some gardens or exterior path/roads), so when the player enters from any direction (even from the ceiling with a plane) the trigger volume will activate and spawn entities, but the asset respawn would have occured on the trader with said warning for possible player-placed items/buildings or players inside.
That way, no more double clearing the POIS and also no false activations when passing by. You enter inside = you activate, period.
I don't know what are the size limitations of a trigger volume, or if they can be molded into a POI complete interior, but I suspect the thing about my suggestion is that you must do a customized trigger volume for each questable POI.
Last edited by a moderator:
Gareee
Tester
Oh, I know...I was just giving you crap.
After a horde night a month ago where our fps dropped down into the teens (no idea why) we decided to take a break till a19, hoping whatever caused it will be fixed.
I haven't beeen around here much as a result, when suddenly I started actually getting thread notifications, so I popped back in.
Btw, if you've never played days gone on the PS4, try it. The motorcycle mechanics are amazing, and it might give you some ideas with your vehicle mods since it had upgrades.
Forewarned though, the world will really spoil you.
Moldy Bread
New member
Hey Madmole.
Will we ever see the return of the scary, dangerous big cities we had in the previous versions? You know, the ones with the green atmosphere and bombed out buildings?
I feel like each map should have a super dangerous hub city that's filled with (even from day 1) hordes of very strong zombies of all shapes and sizes.
The reward for all this danger and horror is the best gear which can only be found in the city with the bestlegendary gear only available at the end of the biggest, baddest city dungeons filled with all sorts of horrors and boss zombies.
It could also be that the main city has a few guaranteed POIs, such as the skyscrapers and etc.
It gives the players something to work too. A deadly, nightmare end zone that will test everything you have learned.
Anyone else feel the same? Because cities just feel to easy atm.
Will we ever see the return of the scary, dangerous big cities we had in the previous versions? You know, the ones with the green atmosphere and bombed out buildings?
I feel like each map should have a super dangerous hub city that's filled with (even from day 1) hordes of very strong zombies of all shapes and sizes.
The reward for all this danger and horror is the best gear which can only be found in the city with the bestlegendary gear only available at the end of the biggest, baddest city dungeons filled with all sorts of horrors and boss zombies.
It could also be that the main city has a few guaranteed POIs, such as the skyscrapers and etc.
It gives the players something to work too. A deadly, nightmare end zone that will test everything you have learned.
Anyone else feel the same? Because cities just feel to easy atm.
beerfly
Colony Rounder
So many possibilities, where you can just open a door from the 43 blocks high tower and slide down to a horde meeting near you garden, or garage. Probably if ziplines have some health as a block that can be destroyed by puke of the cops or crows, arrows, bullets, wind, or random damage on them, would be a dynamic that would be cool to have.
Using them for escape would be absolute lame, no doubt though.
I know your point is far away from an escape route, we are many.
Last edited by a moderator:
Crater Creator
Community Moderator
And then you added gyrocopters. ?
I don’t mean to be snarky, and ziplines were never my favorite would-be feature, but the logic seems inconsistent.
Survager
Tester
Hi MM. I wanted to ask if you plan to add different screen effects for sweets with buffs that will be in Alpha 19 to the game? For example, a red screen of rage when a character deals increased damage, etc.
Now the effects of the screen are only when intoxicated and when the character is in low health, and the remaining effects are expressed only as an icon in the lower left corner of the screen. To be honest with these icons in the heat of battle is very inconvenient.
Maybe similar effects, like beer or poor health, could be added to different buffs from sweets, or will this only interfere with the players?
Now the effects of the screen are only when intoxicated and when the character is in low health, and the remaining effects are expressed only as an icon in the lower left corner of the screen. To be honest with these icons in the heat of battle is very inconvenient.
Maybe similar effects, like beer or poor health, could be added to different buffs from sweets, or will this only interfere with the players?
AdmiralFuzzybutts
New member
I'm glad to see you're interested in the idea! To elaborate a bit, I envisioned it as a vehicle rather than an article of clothing, though it could really be either. It might be better as clothing in the end since it would require you to pick either armor or mobility. In any case, I think a mod to add pockets would be a welcome addition to it, as well as maybe a "double density" sort of mod, where you can craft a second set of gliding wings to it, to slow your descent further, thus allowing you to glide further than would be otherwise possible, at the cost of even more feathers, adhesive, wood, and leather, and mobility due to added weight. Additionally, you could add armor plating to it via the few armor mods already available in-game. My main goal is to see feathers become more useful than the one niche they have for arrow fletching, or putting together a warm coat that is pretty easy to find when scavenging anyways.
Last edited by a moderator:
Viktoriusiii
New member
Well... I was replying to this:
Which seemed like a weird excuse. But I honestly don'T give a damn about ziplines xD It would be fun twice... but after that not really all that usefull.
In Ark where there is actual verticality they are awesome, but 7d2d is 99% horizontal anyways.
Laz Man
Fun Pimps Staff
The prefabs were redone for a different reason though so not really inconsistent logic. Very low ROI for 1 block crouch imo. Zombie AI is already a PITA, imagine the complaints about AI pathing with 1 block navigation...
I would rather the devs be spending their time on bandit AI instead of figuring out how to prevent players from exploiting 1 block navigation to get to every honey pot loot room in a straight line and an augers lol...
Edit: As a prefab creator, I would have to build every wall out of steel if I didnt want players to super cheese my creation like a hot knife through butter...?
Edit2: dont forget the work needed to create and debug animations for crawling through 1 block gaps for all entities...
Last edited by a moderator:
Ranzera
New member
There's stuff from that old system that are valuable and sorely missed. It's not merely nostalgia. The roads system from A16 inspired exploration. The current one ignores giant swaths of the map and feels so cookie cutter that it doesn't feel like there's any point in seeing what else is out there. Let's not forget the removal of biomes (one of which was on the kickstarter promises, which means that promise will go unfulfilled) that removed a ton of diversity. Removing the plains in my opinion was one of your biggest mistakes in terms of game aesthetic.
Was it perfect? No. POIs placed on cylindrical platforms were pretty fugly. Load times based on real time terrain generation were a drag. Wilderness POIs were a bit too sparse. Cars embedded into the ground were hilariously bad. Generation errors that led to sudden 30 block changes in elevation were a straight pain.
Looking at those together, you'll see a pattern. The positive things that are gone are things that set the tone of the game and promoted diversity. The negative things that are gone are mostly bug fixes.
It isn't nostalgia goggles that makes us wish we had the plains biome. Don't conflate the bugs with the things we love. They aren't a package. And for the record, the wasteland is at least 10x as useless as the plains ever was, yet that fugly abomination is still here to be avoided by 70% of players.
Guppycur
Well-known member
We're already gonna get Zed's that can navigate 1 block, or so I believe I read. Yes they were redone for a different reason but that doesn't negate the fact they were redone; hell at the least, expose that internal XML (because that's what it is, an internal XML that controls crouch height and a few other things).
The pois are /already/ being made with materials that are tougher than their texture implies, btw.
...still doesn't stop the beeline straight to the loot rooms for those that memorize where they're at. Join a server, you'll see holes direct to the loot while front doors and those *retarded* lit up paths are untouched.
But this isn't about that. One block crouch, zip lines, hang gliders... None of these would negatively imbalance the game NEARLY as much as intentional "features" like static loot rooms and game staged risks and frikkin helicopters.
So yeh, working on bandits is great, but the arguments against these other fun ideas is weak sauce.
Ranzera
New member
Until you brow beat the optimal strategy of the game into huddling around 1-2 traders, 8km felt microscopic. We used to have 314 km^2 to play in and that felt pretty roomy. Now the game engine practically ♥♥♥♥s itself on 144 km^2, which you pretty much have to use Nitrogen just to get that much. 64 km^2 feels like enough to an extreme minority of older players and the new players you're now courting.
As for Nitrogen... It's better than the current RWG for sure, runs circles around it really. However, it's not good enough to be integrated into the game in my opinion, so please don't do that. Taking even a cursory look under the hood reveals it to be an extremely simplistic map generator and its speed benefits are based solely on that fact. It manages to work successfully in spite of this thanks to how much mod-ability it offers, but out of the box it's pretty uninspiring.
Terrain and biome generation are little more than overlaying images on top of a base image. I think we can both see how limited that approach is. I don't know how its country roads system works, though I can say it works better than RWG in terms of inspiring exploration. However, city roads are an abysmal mess. I really enjoy the weathered roads it offers, you might want to borrow some ideas from that in particular.
I think that Nitrogen brings some fresh ideas that could be incorporated into RWG. RWG needs a lot of love and I'd rather see the effort get spent on improving RWG than trying to make Nitrogen the defacto map generator as others are suggesting.
Last edited by a moderator:
Laz Man
Fun Pimps Staff
The static loot rooms and the game staged risks add more to the game then it detracts considering what we had before. You probably will disagree with me on that point but thats perfectly fine. At the end of the day it sounds like the devs will take a hybrid approach anyways (e.g. better loot / challenges in radiated areas) which should be the best of both worlds.
To be clear, I would also enjoy added features such as zip lines, gliders, 1 block navigation. However, I do understand and respect why they aren't added as any given system can add additional development overhead (e.g. maintain, testing, balancing) especially if they don't add much to the game.
Guppycur
Well-known member
Don't add much to the game? More ways to play are good, and I don't buy into "precious dev time"... Tfp has shown time and again that deadlines are fluid (and I like it).
Zip lines for instance, would require decent planning, and imagine the base block being broken mid flight... Hilarity would ensue.
But you're right, I definitely disagree with the implementation of loot rooms. Before, good loot was random. Now you know exactly where to look. Every. Single. Time.
No need to even bother when you're on a server with others... It's already gone.
And don't get me started on one block crouch. Having essentially a real prone position could make for MUCH more fun prefabs. Having a real crawl? Slow, terrorizing, crawl? It'd be awesome.
Zip lines for instance, would require decent planning, and imagine the base block being broken mid flight... Hilarity would ensue.
But you're right, I definitely disagree with the implementation of loot rooms. Before, good loot was random. Now you know exactly where to look. Every. Single. Time.
No need to even bother when you're on a server with others... It's already gone.
And don't get me started on one block crouch. Having essentially a real prone position could make for MUCH more fun prefabs. Having a real crawl? Slow, terrorizing, crawl? It'd be awesome.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Status