PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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Yeah and do it somewhere else, so we can focus on A19 discussion. Mods are cancer when we're trying to sift through bugs and get our product stable.


People completely disregard rules now days. I blame you for how bad its been. Since you opened up beta testing, they have been coming out of woodwork. Most obviously were not eligible with rules posted. Also Roland's fault for slacking.


I just like to call you a slacker, but you would be moving post all day.

I had 2 dig quest under 300 first day, then next was 1700. Was great, found new town without aimless wandering.


:)

 
Doesn't texture streaming mess up some of the textures for some people? Boxes, cars, etc.
Maybe....but do they know that it is the texture streaming that is doing it? Have they sent a bug report for it or are they assuming and just switching it off?

What is worse than a few texture bugs is your video RAM filling up until your game crashes and this will happen if you turn off the only way the game has for offloading textures no longer in immediate use. There is a huge misconception about texture streaming and what toggling it actually does and I'll admit I don't fully understand it myself but it would be great if @faatal could clear things up and officially advocate that people should keep their texture streaming enabled.

 
Maybe....but do they know that it is the texture streaming that is doing it? Have they sent a bug report for it or are they assuming and just switching it off?

What is worse than a few texture bugs is your video RAM filling up until your game crashes and this will happen if you turn off the only way the game has for offloading textures no longer in immediate use. There is a huge misconception about texture streaming and what toggling it actually does and I'll admit I don't fully understand it myself but it would be great if @faatal could clear things up and officially advocate that people should keep their texture streaming enabled.
I cannot speak for alpha 19 (for I have left texture streaming off entirely), but in the previous two alphas if I had it on, boxes, cars, the old farm plot texture, etc. were all incredibly blurry. The moment I disabled texture streaming the textures were back to high resolution, and I never had that issue pop up ever again. It's not just me, a few content creators had this "issue" too in previous alphas, unless that's one intended catch 22 of enabling this option.

When you have certain textures become low res, and permanently low res, for weeks when a particular option is activated, but they are returned back to their high res state the moment you disable that option and you never have that issue pop up again, then that's no coincidence.

 
After years of playing this game I have to say I'm loving the new look and setup. Was wondering if we can get an official name change for the zombie posted to be "The Karen". 

EWOdHjWUMAARgi7.jpg

 
Nonetheless, you have a solid point. It's all about weighing pros and cons here.

After years of playing this game I have to say I'm loving the new look and setup. Was wondering if we can get an official name change for the zombie posted to be "The Karen". 
You mean Lois Griffin, right? ;)

 
Posts like these get me in the mood to play a game where I avoid the trader for the first week just to prove that the game is completely playable without the trader. I like the trader but so what if the trader is 2 or even 3 km away? Why try and run the whole way at one go? Play nomad for 3-4 days staying in a different place each night until you eventually get to the trader.
Indeed. The trader is an afterthought to me. I get there when I feel like it. No time is "lost" if you are doing productive activities with your time.

Trader quests feel artificial. I'd rather be limited to 1 a day. Make far ones have better rewards, so I have to weigh my options.

Being able to conveniently buy/sell stuff seems like a nerf safety net to survival just like using preexisting POIs feels too easy. I'd like to see an option where zombies do 3x damage to blocks not placed by players, so you would be encouraged to build, yet larger sturdy POIs in the beginning would be ok.

 
Yep, just had a friend DM me about his RWG world issue that he was playing 4 hours on. He had duplicated POIs (i.e., two POIs merged into the same POI), some cave POIs that collapsed on him, lots of missing blocks with phantom block replacements, then told me it was made from the new Nitrogen update for 19. It's nifty and an awesome tool, but not perfect. Same as RWG, but at least it works functionally *shrug*
People also complain here all again and again that traders are missing: thats not an RWG bug, but simply people loading in old A18 worlds, that dont have the new POI definitions. "Merging POIs" is certainly a bug of having either old modded prefabs or trying the old prefablists.

And the phantom blocks are simply distant models (imposters) that dont get removed when getting close. Thats a bug in the game. Not the world files.

Your friend should try a clean A19 install, and using the default settings with the A19 vanilla prefablist, and then try spotting any of those bugs mentioned.

 
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The current build is unstable meaning that performance is going to vary widely across the community. As they get feedback and dial in some things the number of people who have improved performance will increase until there are just a few edge cases at which point they will call A19 "stable". Then all the edge cases will post their outrage....

In any case, the best way to fix this is to post your video settings and your output log in the bug forum.

Oh!....one more thing. If your texture streaming option is turned to off then turn it back on.
The texture streaming is on.

I tried even in the lowest settings and 720 resolution and the fps is always bellow 30.

The only setting that make a big impact is the ultra setting that make the game around 0-5.

The rest only make a difference of around +-5 fps

Maybe the next builds will run better. Is there any date planed for a new unstable build or stable?

Thanks for your time

 
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Maybe....but do they know that it is the texture streaming that is doing it? Have they sent a bug report for it or are they assuming and just switching it off?

What is worse than a few texture bugs is your video RAM filling up until your game crashes and this will happen if you turn off the only way the game has for offloading textures no longer in immediate use. There is a huge misconception about texture streaming and what toggling it actually does and I'll admit I don't fully understand it myself but it would be great if @faatal could clear things up and officially advocate that people should keep their texture streaming enabled.
Turning texture streaming off is becoming a worse and worse option over time. Artists keep adding content and it needs streaming or the amount of people running out of VRAM will continue to increase. Running out of VRAM means some arbitrary amount of textures are being read slowly from system RAM and if it is something important, like terrain textures, your FPS will tank.

Due to this, I removed the texture streaming option today. It will be permanently on. It can still be disabled using the console command for debugging purposes.

 
Hey mm, hows your current playthrough?  Doing a specific build?
Hey Laz, thanks for asking. I'm on day 12, another shotgun build. I have my 7x7 tower with r concrete up 4 layers and iron bars are almost finished. This is just my horde base, I will do some sort of crafting base that is stylish once I get a little further along. I'm trying to decide between a medieval tavern or a modern house, what do you guys want to see?

I got a bicycle before day 7, which I bought. Now I have a minibike I crafted a day or so ago, from a chassis I bought and handle bars I crafted from a schematic. Acid has been SUPER rare, I crafted one wheel from the one acid and got lucky and bought a wheel from one of my traders. Now I found a motorcycle chassis and bought the handlebars, so I'm just needing acid for tires and I can upgrade to that.

I'm up to tier 3 quests now, I like the slowed progression. I found a green AK in loot and the stone age is just dropping purple and will phase out soon. I have a Q2 double barrel, but almost enough parts and the schematic for a pump (perks will no longer unlock t2 guns soon) so hopefully I can put together a blue pump shotgun before horde night, but I need one more double barrel to scrap to pull it off.

I've got green tools but can craft blue. I might not bother but its good coin selling the green so we'll see. I just got a green steel shovel for a quest reward so the T3's are pretty nice.

I've got a crazy mix of armor light and heavy but I am perking into heavy but the light chest I found was so good I'm wearing it, less encumbrance and same stats as the best chest armor so far. I have some nice purple scrap boots. I like the new loot, its interesting getting purple T1s that are better than some of your T2 gear, or close but have 4 mod slots... so choices!

I am also enjoying the specialized loot, my horde base is by trader bob and his vehicle parts selection have been crazy good. I found schematics for everything except cement mixer, but there is a working one right across from bob at a barn. I already made over 4k concrete mix all from loot! I've even been buying the cooking perks this time around. I have about 10 crops already. So its going pretty good, I don't think I died once yet either, playing 24 alive on warrior. The shotgun is so awesome once you get STR up there, limbs come flying off all the time and its just so gratifying :)

 
You guys remember when everyone kept saying the candies were pointless and blah blah and Madmole kept saying they are extremely strong and so useful he guarantees nearly everyone would use them?

People who don't auto buy all candies every time you see a vending machine, why are you lying or playing life on hard mode?

Madmole 100% right, the candies vary from "I could see this being useful to someone" to "auto buy on sight" and are so cheap they are nearly OP. Several are "Never leave home without them" tier in my book

Posts like these get me in the mood to play a game where I avoid the trader for the first week just to prove that the game is completely playable without the trader


Well yeah, of course you can play without the trader. You can play without ever using melee, or play without ever using a gun, or play without ever mining, or literally even play without ever fighting a zombie, or play without X . . .

The point more is that traders are such an integral part of the game that they basically *are* the end game. Playing without doing quests at all or trading would be a pretty handicapped way to play. Of course it's possible as a challenge run, but eventually even a fully nomad play style would clear the entire map, and crafting builder play styles can't even craft or build end game without materials from traders or high end PoI they need traders to reset for more chances at needed loot they can't craft

Where in the description does it say "must have junk parts in inventory" to use a blunderbuss, bow, or any other weapon you find? Obviously shotgun  and stealth builds have an advantage because you can get those weapons right away, but that could change in the future, until then embrace it and adapt. Use what you can find. I have robotic parts and I'm not to day 14 yet. I've scrapped a few brown batons too.


Just saying, it's not really fair balance wise that every other build actually, y'know, gets a weapon that scales off their perks early game. Perception can build their spear, Strength gets both of it's weapons while also having like most of the best perks in the game at all game stages, Agility gets it's bow and knife etc.  Investing in int early game just wastes your points because the only thing int attribute it self does is buff weapons you don't get until mid game.

Not to say the rest of int doesn't have good stuff in it, just the attribute itself doesn't give any benefit for all those points invested.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still using the other weapons obvsly since I have no choice, just silly that as an int build I have wasted like 60~% of my points for zero return on investment (yet).

Now lets all hail the best attribute, strength. Srsly, playing without investing in strength early game actually *would* be playing life on hard mode. The best early game gun (Blunderbuss), best late game gun (autoshotgun), best melee (sledge and baseball bat / steel cub), two of the best skills in the game Miner 69 and Mother Lode, plus Sex Rex and Pack mule . . . 

Early game 6 Blunderbuss hotbar, come at me knaves, fear my naval broadside

 
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I noticed a big decrease in performance in this new alpha.

I used to get 40-50 fps and now barely get 30 with lower graphics options.

Any suggestion to improve performance?
Hard drive space was killing my performance, windows likes 30% free, it doesn't matter HOW big your HD is. Mine is 1 GB SSD and I had 100MB free and it ran like @%$*#! until I got 300 GB free. You could try dynamic resolution too if you already have lots of free space.

 
Hey Laz, thanks for asking. I'm on day 12, another shotgun build. I have my 7x7 tower with r concrete up 4 layers and iron bars are almost finished. This is just my horde base, I will do some sort of crafting base that is stylish once I get a little further along. I'm trying to decide between a medieval tavern or a modern house, what do you guys want to see?

I got a bicycle before day 7, which I bought. Now I have a minibike I crafted a day or so ago, from a chassis I bought and handle bars I crafted from a schematic. Acid has been SUPER rare, I crafted one wheel from the one acid and got lucky and bought a wheel from one of my traders. Now I found a motorcycle chassis and bought the handlebars, so I'm just needing acid for tires and I can upgrade to that.

I'm up to tier 3 quests now, I like the slowed progression. I found a green AK in loot and the stone age is just dropping purple and will phase out soon. I have a Q2 double barrel, but almost enough parts and the schematic for a pump (perks will no longer unlock t2 guns soon) so hopefully I can put together a blue pump shotgun before horde night, but I need one more double barrel to scrap to pull it off.

I've got green tools but can craft blue. I might not bother but its good coin selling the green so we'll see. I just got a green steel shovel for a quest reward so the T3's are pretty nice.

I've got a crazy mix of armor light and heavy but I am perking into heavy but the light chest I found was so good I'm wearing it, less encumbrance and same stats as the best chest armor so far. I have some nice purple scrap boots. I like the new loot, its interesting getting purple T1s that are better than some of your T2 gear, or close but have 4 mod slots... so choices!

I am also enjoying the specialized loot, my horde base is by trader bob and his vehicle parts selection have been crazy good. I found schematics for everything except cement mixer, but there is a working one right across from bob at a barn. I already made over 4k concrete mix all from loot! I've even been buying the cooking perks this time around. I have about 10 crops already. So its going pretty good, I don't think I died once yet either, playing 24 alive on warrior. The shotgun is so awesome once you get STR up there, limbs come flying off all the time and its just so gratifying :)
Sweet deal.  Man tough choice...medieval tavern vs...modern house.... You probably can make something really nice looking with both...I guess whichever you feel more excited about.

Yeah, the shotgun just shreds and is so fun to use.  Is it supposed to penetrate with normal ammo?  I feel like that's a bug that's going to get adjusted eventually.

My brother is eye balling that steel water tower so maybe we will do something cool with that as a base.  Not sure yet.

 
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Oh yeah, for people with performance issues, turning down the Grass nearly doubled my FPS. I tried shadows, AA, water, light shafts etc, but nothing was helping. Lowering my grass did the trick, something about the grass seems to be going nuts. I noticed it looked kind of weird before turning it down, like it was SUPER sharpened / overly anti-aliased, not sure whats up with it.

Even in buildings my FPS would tank to sub 20's fairly often, but lowering grass to medium has me hovering back around 60 fps constant again

 
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Doesn't texture streaming mess up some of the textures for some people? Boxes, cars, etc.
Texture streaming is making it playable for all of us, even the best pc (MINE) would run out of ram quickly. We're removing the ability to not stream because not streaming is just insane and there is no benefit to not streaming, period. Sure you might see blurry textures using streaming, but that is only if you are out of vram for some weird reason, like maybe you cooked your RWG map which doesn't release all assets from memory, so remember to quit as soon as your world is done and restart the game. EXIT, not just quit to main menu.

Sweet deal.  Man tough choice...medieval tavern vs...modern house.... You probably can make something really nice looking with both...I guess whichever you feel more excited about.

Yeah, the shotgun just shreds and is so fun to use.  Is it supposed to penetrate with normal ammo?  I feel like that's a bug that's going to get adjusted eventually.

My brother is eye balling that steel water tower so maybe we will do something cool with that as a base.  Not sure yet.
I think it is supposed to penetrate wood blocks. I like how it shreds wood blocks too, sometimes you can blow holes in floors like underworld, but to the zombies instead of yourself :)

 
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