PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Ladarian]

 Traders still can provide higher tier stuff than you can find but you can't afford it 

Honestly I doubt this will ever be the case until finding that day 1 wrench  / salvage is nerfed (if it hasn't been already) or traders have a limited amount of coins to spend (to each player) during each restocking phase.

Here's to hoping though!  In pimps we trust!

 

[unholyjoe]

@madmole Release the Kracken? 

he did and it fell victim to the zeds... too bad, they are kicking butt and not taking names now. 

 

[Freshmint]

Will any of the legacy decals be updated in A19? I believe this has been addressed already and they are "low priority" ticketed items, but it seems they take the least amount of time to fix, eg road decals and cotton bushes. High priority items take the most time and have already had several changes and updates. The polish btw the pimps have been doing is remarkable and A18 has been better than ever.

 

[bloodmoth13]

No I've been pushing for it for a long time. Its AMAZING. Traders still can provide higher tier stuff than you can find but you can't afford it since you aren't swimming in guns to sell. I'm loving it! I used the blunderbuss for the first time in years and its great. I mined nitrate and coal all night to make 35 rounds so I could clear a POI and save up 1600 for that rare crucible schematic that spawned on day 1 at the trader.

Have you added any more blunderbuss tier weapons? I was thinking of a musket for rifles and a flintlock for pistols but i struggle to think of anything for machine guns. I always wanted to have an excuse to use the blunderbuss but currently it just gets outclassed far too soon.

On the note of antique weapons, would we ever get manuals for antique guns to give them special perks for late game? something like being able to combine 3 blunderbusses into one weapon slot where you can cycle through them (or muskets or pistols) or maybe blessed/silver ammunition that one shots zombies for antique weapons or something.

They dont need to be broken, or even really viable, but it could be fun to have a pirate build running around with flintlocks or blunderbusses (blunderbi?)

 

[Aldranon]

Honestly I doubt this will ever be the case until finding that day 1 wrench  / salvage is nerfed (if it hasn't been already) or traders have a limited amount of coins to spend (to each player) during each restocking phase.

Here's to hoping though!  In pimps we trust!

Limiting the amount of Dukes the trader has, is a good idea, expressly for the min/maxers in the group.

I would think A19 loot is still game-stage based and the trader has a loot bonus of some level.  

Hoards will be used as a sink for your excess ammo and gear still.

So finding rapid ways to level as well as reducing the "Expense" of surviving will be the thing for me.

I actually like game-staged loot as you cant end the game early.

What MIGHT be better is location based loot, right now tier 5 POI's are a waste of time as you can get the same loot easier in other POI's.

Tier 5 POI's SHOULD have a huge bonus to games-stage loot and enemies..

***Edit: What would be great, would be to add Screamers to the Level 5 POI's!!!

Can you imagine, you carefully cleared out your escape route, when you fail to kill a screamer fast enough and now there are high level zombies|: above, below and behind you!  OMG that would make T5 POI's THE THING! 

 

[meganoth]

Limiting the amount of Dukes the trader has, is a good idea, expressly for the min/maxers in the group.

I would think A19 loot is still game-stage based and the trader has a loot bonus of some level.  

Hoards will be used as a sink for your excess ammo and gear still.

So finding rapid ways to level as well as reducing the "Expense" of surviving will be the thing for me.

I actually like game-staged loot as you cant end the game early.

What MIGHT be better is location based loot, right now tier 5 POI's are a waste of time as you can get the same loot easier in other POI's.

Tier 5 POI's SHOULD have a huge bonus to games-stage loot and enemies..

***Edit: What would be great, would be to add Screamers to the Level 5 POI's!!!

Can you imagine, you carefully cleared out your escape route, when you fail to kill a screamer fast enough and now there are high level zombies|: above, below and behind you!  OMG that would make T5 POI's THE THING! 

Tier 5 POIs already have a huge loot bonus. They are the only guaranteed source for quality 6 items (through quests).

 

[Phoenixshade35]

im hoping with some of the new pois it will become more interesting, and more fun, those teir 5 pois are awesome to be sure, but some of the lower tier pois i have more fun with.

 

[madmole]

"Returning" briefly for one message and one message only, being this one. Madmole, are you planning on releasing any A19 videos this time around, similar to what you did during the development of A18? (I'll be avoiding them for a long while of course to avoid spoilers, but I'm curious nonetheless.)

Possibly. I'm just testing the crap out of it right now and wanted to get super familiar with it before trying any videos. I'm already on my 2nd build so its going good.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

Possibly. I'm just testing the crap out of it right now and wanted to get super familiar with it before trying any videos. I'm already on my 2nd build so its going good.

That is awesome to hear, its always good when you say you are already doubling down on playthroughs, and if its going good i take it that it feels smoother than a18 did?

 

[madmole]

Yes!!! On my last run I was basically messed up right off the bat with steel gear before I even hit the iron phase. Me and my friend both had full iron armor sets with even some partial steel and military armor, level 2-3 steel picks and shovels etc by day 4 or 5 max. I never even found the schematic to make steel tools until like day 30, and I was level 50+ when I found a crucible. But who needs a crucible when you can just find better gear than you can craft

I know it gets talked about to death, but I feel like the crafting vs questing ratio was off in A18 because of the way schematics work. I get *why* they had to exist, but I don't think they worked great for build diversity. They just instantly made it "wasted points" to spend points learning to make motorcycles, workbenches etc instead of just finding them. Worst case scenario, you'd just spec into the perks, craft the item, then buy an elixir and respec and get your "wasted points" back and put them into something else

I'm hopeful for crafting in A19, the loot ages thing sounds like a solid approach to making sure each game stage is distinctive and unique. Why ever use a primitive bow, when you can just find a hunting rifle day one instead?

Also, do Nightvision goggles even still exist? I haven't seen one drop since like A16 even with hundreds of hours in A17 and A18

I've been crafting way more with this new build. My play through has been great. I found a blunderbuss, then crafted a T3 one a few days later. I got a brown double barrel as a quest reward but still use the blunderbuss. I made the ammo recipe 2gp so its cheaper since its not THAT great and you aren't swimming with gunpowder early game. I just bought blacksmith so I could get repair kits, but I've actually found some in loot for the first time in ages so that is nice. I've also been finding some nice parts in loot now too which is great because usually you just can't get enough parts to craft the tier you can craft. I'm on day 5 and I have a green iron chest piece, the rest is brown, with a purple cloth hood. So loot is slowed way down and I know I won't be sniffing any tier 3 guns in loot for quite a while. I'm interested to see how horde night goes.

A non trader play through would be a LOT harder IMO since most of the good stuff I got came from them, but I think they max out at yellow or green now so you won't be getting anything too fantastic there. (1 tier less than a18 for now anyway).

Personally I love the change. It slows mid game down a bit, but late game will be what takes a long while. I think we have a proper carrot on the stick now, at least with loot. It might take another alpha to get quest rewards and trader loot set up nice as well.

I don't know about the goggles, I think so.

That is awesome to hear, its always good when you say you are already doubling down on playthroughs, and if its going good i take it that it feels smoother than a18 did?

Its playing better than 18, but I don't think the performance is quite as good, but we can always improve that during exp. Some people say it runs better than A18 did, so it depends on the rig. I'm not using the dynamic res but I don't need to. I'm getting about 30-50 fps most of the time so its fine for me.

im hoping with some of the new pois it will become more interesting, and more fun, those teir 5 pois are awesome to be sure, but some of the lower tier pois i have more fun with.

Yeah I play solo and T5's are just too tedious for me personally. T3's and 4's are fine though. I just can't justify travel time plus 2 hours of real time to get through a POI, I have to prepare for the horde and 2 game days down the toilet is not a wise choice of time spent IMO, I could have done 3 -4 tier 4's in that time and been at home mining or improving my base each night.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

For my rig, ive noticed that when I am in any biome outside the forest biome, when playing with high settings mind you, that my frames drop down to 30-40 on the regular, in the forest i keep around 50, so ive been playing with half texture quailty to remain at 60, im quite curious how this build will affect my rig

 

[Marinxar]

I've been crafting way more with this new build. My play through has been great. I found a blunderbuss, then crafted a T3 one a few days later. I got a brown double barrel as a quest reward but still use the blunderbuss. I made the ammo recipe 2gp so its cheaper since its not THAT great and you aren't swimming with gunpowder early game. I just bought blacksmith so I could get repair kits, but I've actually found some in loot for the first time in ages so that is nice. I've also been finding some nice parts in loot now too which is great because usually you just can't get enough parts to craft the tier you can craft. I'm on day 5 and I have a green iron chest piece, the rest is brown, with a purple cloth hood. So loot is slowed way down and I know I won't be sniffing any tier 3 guns in loot for quite a while. I'm interested to see how horde night goes.

A non trader play through would be a LOT harder IMO since most of the good stuff I got came from them, but I think they max out at yellow or green now so you won't be getting anything too fantastic there. (1 tier less than a18 for now anyway).

Personally I love the change. It slows mid game down a bit, but late game will be what takes a long while. I think we have a proper carrot on the stick now, at least with loot. It might take another alpha to get quest rewards and trader loot set up nice as well.

I don't know about the goggles, I think so.

This sounds great.

Big problem has always been, having everything by day 7, and by day 60 you have your base built and everything is basically finished, so you just run T5 missions until you get bored. This change in pace should be really good for the game.

That said....it certainly sounds like the game is about ready for experimental -ear-to-ear grins-

 

[Phoenixshade35]

This sounds great.

Big problem has always been, having everything by day 7, and by day 60 you have your base built and everything is basically finished, so you just run T5 missions until you get bored. This change in pace should be really good for the game.

That said....it certainly sounds like the game is about ready for experimental -ear-to-ear grins-

I agree, I cannot wait to jump in head first and find some new difficulty with the zombies, right now even with just tier 3 gear i go out and mine at night and simply bring a pistol and smg and im safe, no fear at all, i hope fear is reinstilled into me with this alpha

 

[madmole]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

This sounds great.

Big problem has always been, having everything by day 7, and by day 60 you have your base built and everything is basically finished, so you just run T5 missions until you get bored. This change in pace should be really good for the game.

That said....it certainly sounds like the game is about ready for experimental -ear-to-ear grins-

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

 

[Marinxar]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

I prefer a stealth play. So doing T5 missions gives me net+ ammo... Basically farm them for ammo for horde night. Sneak with modded pistol, kills everything except radiated zombies and ferals, with a single shot to the head. Even on Warrior. People greatly underestimate sneak dmg bonus. So only time you need to use some ammo is on the top floor, if you are unlucky that your silenced sniper rifle wakes more zombies than you can quickly kill with the sniper, and have to switch to the 'oh @%$*#!' backup gun...like m60 or dmg modded AK.

 

[Phoenixshade35]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

When I do a tier 5 I generally prefer to run the hospital compared to the factories, its nicer, easier, great loot, even wrenching loot is awesome in there, i am hoping to see more tier 5 buildings make it into random gen maps, im sick of the same ones over and over again.  Hell it would be fun if a special tier 5 would show up at the traders which respawns say a tier 3 building, but it only has wights and military zombies inside, mostly feral lol

 

[Odetta]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

Maybe T5s and T6s could be the only way at a chance for a legendary in the future.  Right now they don't seem worth it.  

So what's your verdict on the A19 INT build? 

 

[FileMachete]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

Very nice! Wouldn't expect anything less from you MM   no kidding I hope you have time to build a 'Castle Mole' as an in-game POI for Gold!

Tier 5s, similar to @Marinxar, even if not Stealth build, sneak head shots really work well once you have a can. And using a Junk Turret in the areas where you get a dozen incoming really helps to momentarily stun them for head shots.

(and I'm biting my tongue to _not_ beg for a quieter, mid-damage, rifle [aka 300 Blackout] for late game sneaky fun...  :tape: )

 

[Marinxar]

(and I'm biting my tongue to _not_ beg for a quieter, mid-damage, rifle [aka 300 Blackout] for late game sneaky fun...  :tape: )

Oh.. yes please...

 

[Laz Man]

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

Props on the castle once again.  I like the faux tapestry on the outside and the windows.  Accented paint job looks on point too?  I gotta try a castle at some point.  Looks fun.