PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Adam the Waster]

Deers can be killed with the base bow. If you hit the head its dead. It even rhymes .

Even if not, especially in cities the deer often does not vanish over the next hill but runs around in circles for a while and then getting calm again. With a little patience and stealthed movement you can get in range for another round of shots.

i guess in my game Deers went Brain dead so i could beat them with my steel club!

hey FREE FOOD!

On a similar topic,
Every tree, except fortitude, has some "face-ware" that gives +1 to given tree. Can we please have fortitude goggles?

You only get 3 free perks if you max out STR tree. I don't go STR, so i get only one...

it could be a Face mask! like the nurses lol

Spoiler

Plus it would look cool for player!

 

[madmole]

I agree this needs to be tweaked.  Although it does get pitch black if you're in a mine.

The navizgane and random gen maps are terrible, the pregen maps are decent, here's pregen1 with the traders marked

View attachment 11357

What is so terrible about Navezgane?

 

[Aldranon]

And another thing, there should be some kind of medical pouch that I can craft or loot. Like a small medical inventory tab.

There is lots of medical stuff to carry arround if you don't want to get crippled in the other end of the map. Too much mandatory crap to lug around.

If you're at the other end of the map you would have some motorized vehicle.

Once you get anything better than a bicycle, the game changes a lot.

 

[madmole]

> The Navezgane map isn't random. It is handcrafted. What makes it terrible for you?

[SIZE=15.68px]I know it isn't random, but as the other guy mentioned Naveszgane isn't a fun map because it's fairly empty.   One of each major POI really isn't enough and random/pregen maps have a far greater density of POI typically with 8-10 towns whereas Navesgane only has 4 or 5 towns IIRC.   This makes it feel empty and boring.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=15.68px]As I mentioned in my bug report random maps aren't generating properly (at least for me) and are therefore pretty much unplayable.[/SIZE]





The issue that I've run into with my current game is that I'm on day 16, but I've already explored both crack a books, all gun stores and all the church_01's yet I only have about 1/4 of the books.  I'm at that stage where I have a farm up, steel unlocked, iron/steel tools and some t3/t4 guns so my main progression is going to be through making/finding mods.  I'm not ready for t5 pois so I'm flying around looking for more book stores or places to get the schematics I'd like to have because the GS is only 50 so raiding poi for higher tier weapons/armor isn't an option.   My progression has stalled and it's even worse on navezgane because there aren't as many pois with interesting loot, it's only a 6k map with lower city density.   If the map were 4x larger with at least 4x as many more interesting pois it would be problem solved, but I'm already on an 8k map.

I don't feel like cheesing my GS by screamer baiting or building a massive concrete base, so here I am reporting bugs and whining on the forums that the maps are too small.

> Also...change your brightness setting to 15% and it gets plenty dark at night.

Then this should be the default.

Sounds like you are rushing things like crazy. Day 16 and you have top tier guns? You don't need any schematics to enjoy the game. Most people barely have iron gear by day 16. Are you playing longer days or something? Complaining about progression 16 hours in is the last thing I'd expect to hear with this build, I constantly get new stuff. I don't even have that many schematics unlocked but I don't care, they come when they come. I buy the ones that will complete the sets I really want like the club books because I'm a club guy this game, otherwise I get 1-2 book cases a day just going through normal POIs. I don't care about book stores.

Just my opinion but you might enjoy  the game more if you slowed down and smelled the chrysanthemum's. It isn't a race to the best of everything and end game for me at all. I do a bit of everything, building, mining, looting, I even waste time cleaning up my corner of the apocalypse like fixing roads, chopping up trash near my area, etc.

 

[Forgotten Memes]

What is so terrible about Navezgane?

As I and PoloPoPo said the issue with Navezgane is that it feels very empty.

Pregen1 has 15 cities (which is still too few) and navezgane only has 5.  Just look at the difference between these maps.  You can easily clear every single poi on navezgane in a few days.  Then what?

 

[MechanicalLens]

Sounds like you are rushing things like crazy. Day 16 and you have top tier guns? You don't need any schematics to enjoy the game. Most people barely have iron gear by day 16. Are you playing longer days or something? Complaining about progression 16 hours in is the last thing I'd expect to hear with this build, I constantly get new stuff. I don't even have that many schematics unlocked but I don't care, they come when they come. I buy the ones that will complete the sets I really want like the club books because I'm a club guy this game, otherwise I get 1-2 book cases a day just going through normal POIs. I don't care about book stores.

Just my opinion but you might enjoy  the game more if you slowed down and smelled the chrysanthemum's. It isn't a race to the best of everything and end game for me at all. I do a bit of everything, building, mining, looting, I even waste time cleaning up my corner of the apocalypse like fixing roads, chopping up trash near my area, etc.

Coming from me, that's exactly what I've been doing, as per the usual. Perhaps I bit off more than I should have tried to chew with my current base though. Tens of thousands of cobblestone later and now thousands of concrete mix later, I'm level 52 on day 19 (on 90 minute days, 75% XP gain); without the mass amounts upgrading I've been doing I would have been level 30-35 by now probably. I hadn't looted in about a week's time recently, so I went from finding T3-T4 double barrel shotguns in loot to T2-T3 pump shotguns. Some of us rush to progress as fast as possible, others (like myself) found ourselves in a bit of an XP trap.  Gotta upgrade fast.

 

[Adam the Waster]

As I and PoloPoPo said the issue with Navezgane is that it feels very empty.

Pregen1 has 15 cities (which is still too few) and navezgane only has 5.  Just look at the difference between these maps.  You can easily clear every single poi on navezgane in a few days.  Then what?

View attachment 11407

personally i love Navezgane! its my main map i play! while yes i think nave could uses some more areas like a few new towns and citys but at the same time it feels nice.

now im planning on making a post on the area that was blocked off by the rad zone that would be perfect for a new city! that can now be accessed! 

and the reason why there are only 4 traders is because they are the Only traders! unlike in random gen where you could have 2 Trader bobs, Nave has 1 of each cuz it makes sense. its kinda odd to see 2 of the same people ya know? unless they are going to add new traders for bandits (which i don't think will happen).

 

[Laz Man]

7d2d has a new peak player count.  Congrats TFPs!

37,635all-time peak

 

[madmole]

And those people have been cheesing the gamma forever.

In previous alphas night looked like night.  You knew it was dangerous because you couldnt see anything.  Now it's almost as bright as day.   In A19 I often forget it's night because I can see so well.  The exact optimal point is certainly a question of preference, and TFP should be seeking a middle ground so players can adjust up and down to their preference, but night should be noticeably and significantly darker than day time. 

A reasonable amount of ambient light from the moon so you can get around outside is fine with me, but hiding in a basement/attic with no light source should be near pitch black.  This is not currently the case.

Yes it is, if you are away from any windows it is absolutely pitch black, at least on my monitor. I mined my torch off the wall by accident and couldn't see anything until the sun came up, then the ambience brightened up a bit.

 

[Jay_ombie]

Loving the RANDOM maps... I seen no duplication's of POI's for the first time within the same city...

I wish the Zombies had random animations, still not sure why you hold back on this, would vary there attack patterns way more. Also they all have this jiggly animation when they are fully stood up. Be good to randomise that also so we cant simply wack them while they do that animation to finish the kill.

Can we have the option to hide the XP in the bottom right corner.. ? - be nice to have the unknown factor 'is a zombie dead or not' ........

 

[madmole]

On a similar topic,
Every tree, except fortitude, has some "face-ware" that gives +1 to given tree. Can we please have fortitude goggles?

You only get 3 free perks if you max out STR tree. I don't go STR, so i get only one...

Somehow that slipped under the radar...

 

[Vintorez]

I vote for a mouth slot item like the cigar, maybe a "Particularly nice strain of Wheat" to give the farmer look to match the perks. Could be looted more commonly from farm POIs and rarely from harvesting crops.

This would also have wheat be officially added to the game.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Somehow that slipped under the radar...

i though it would be addressed but i guess not lol well i got a few suggestions!
 

1: Facemask: it could look like the one found on the Zombie nurse! gives plus 1 to fortitude and maybe a less chance of infection? *add corona Virus joke here*

2: Gasmask: in the Dev section in creative mode. next to cloths there is a gasmask icon, you can't wear it but that would be cool if you can and gives plus 1 to fortitude!

 

[beerfly]

7d2d has a new peak player count.  Congrats TFPs!

37,635all-time peak

Crap, I have a bet for 50k.. 

*thinking emigration*

This number is gonna grow so much more I can`t wait to see it. 

 

[The Gronk]

Somehow that slipped under the radar...

Perhaps an N95 mask to increase fortitude, something to mark this most "special" of years. 

 

[Vintorez]

I really like how bows and knives have built in sneak attack bonus, but it sort of makes Hidden Strike a bit redundant unless you're really wanting to hybrid stealth with other weapons, which in turn is difficult with hidden strike still being 5 perks.

Some ideas to retool it, either by changing the base effect or by adding them at certain tiers;

Grants a chance to inflict sneak attack damage even when spotted.

Increases damage based on visibility

Increased damage when hitting enemies from behind

Stealth kills increase all damage for a few seconds

Enemies have a higher chance to drop loot when stealth killed

 

[Forgotten Memes]

Sounds like you are rushing things like crazy. Day 16 and you have top tier guns?

I have several hundred hours in the game spanning back to A6 or so and I play on higher difficulties.  It's not so much that I'm rushing, but its safe to say that I'm experienced and because of the difficulty settings the GS advances much faster than default.  IIRC warrior is 150%, survivalist is 175% and insane is 200%.  I typically do warrior or survivalist, so my gamestage is 50+ by or after the day 14 horde. (Level (~22) + days alive (14) -deaths (0)) * 1.5) = 54.  Once I hit gamestage 50 enough mid range gear spawns that I'm decked out rather quickly with T3 AKs and the like. 

The issue I tend to run into, and I'm sure I'm not alone, is that the real meat of the game for me is the T3&4 POIs.  T1 & 2 aren't particularly interesting past day 14 and T5 are a huge investment with little payoff, they can be fun, but  I'm not really interested in hitting them on a daily basis.   The real joy is those mid size POIs like the stores, farms, apartment buildings, red mesa and the like.  I can do 2 or 3 of them per day easily so I very quickly run into a situation where they are all clear and I'm riding around looking for more.  I'm typically looking for something specific such as schematics or weapons, so I likely pass up things like gas stations, residentials and shamways.  This leaves things feeling empty in what I consider the mid game of day 14-28.  Even on an 8k random/pregen map there are only 5 or 6 larger cities with a handfull of mid game pois.  Because of this dearth of mid/late game content there is only so much time I can spend snorting goldenrod, exploring or upgrading my base before I get bored.

> I don't care about book stores.

[SIZE=15.68px]I do, and many others do as well.   There are several must-have books such as the gas recipe, AP ammo and others that are real game changers.  My goal once I have a small base up and running is to obtain these, books for any mods I want to make and get 7/7 in any relevant book sets. [/SIZE]

If this is not how the game is intended to be played I'm interested in what you feel I'm doing wrong.

 

[Forgotten Memes]

personally i love Navezgane! its my main map i play! while yes i think nave could uses some more areas like a few new towns and citys but at the same time it feels nice.

I do enjoy the hand crafted quality of it, but spanning back to the days where there was always a massive city at 0,0 it's felt obsolete.  Random gens just have more content to enjoy.

 

[Jost Amman]

7d2d has a new peak player count.  Congrats TFPs!

37,635all-time peak

Crap, I have a bet for 50k.. 

*thinking emigration*

This number is gonna grow so much more I can`t wait to see it. 

That's flabbergasting!

It's 37K during Steam summer sale: this means that 37K people are playing 7DTD while many other great (AAA) games are on sale right now! 

 

[Kosmic Kerman]

I have several hundred hours in the game spanning back to A6 or so and I play on higher difficulties.  It's not so much that I'm rushing, but its safe to say that I'm experienced and because of the difficulty settings the GS advances much faster than default.  IIRC warrior is 150%, survivalist is 175% and insane is 200%.  I typically do warrior or survivalist, so my gamestage is 50+ by or after the day 14 horde. (Level (~22) + days alive (14) -deaths (0)) * 1.5) = 54.  Once I hit gamestage 50 enough mid range gear spawns that I'm decked out rather quickly with T3 AKs and the like. 

The issue I tend to run into, and I'm sure I'm not alone, is that the real meat of the game for me is the T3&4 POIs.  T1 & 2 aren't particularly interesting past day 14 and T5 are a huge investment with little payoff, they can be fun, but  I'm not really interested in hitting them on a daily basis.   The real joy is those mid size POIs like the stores, farms, apartment buildings, red mesa and the like.  I can do 2 or 3 of them per day easily so I very quickly run into a situation where they are all clear and I'm riding around looking for more.  I'm typically looking for something specific such as schematics or weapons, so I likely pass up things like gas stations, residentials and shamways.  This leaves things feeling empty in what I consider the mid game of day 14-28.  Even on an 8k random/pregen map there are only 5 or 6 larger cities with a handfull of mid game pois.  Because of this dearth of mid/late game content there is only so much time I can spend snorting goldenrod, exploring or upgrading my base before I get bored.

> I don't care about book stores.

[SIZE=15.68px]I do, and many others do as well.   There are several must-have books such as the gas recipe, AP ammo and others that are real game changers.  My goal once I have a small base up and running is to obtain these and get 7/7 in any relevant book sets. Since these tend to be game changers.[/SIZE]

If this is not how the game is intended to be played I'm interested in what you feel I'm doing wrong.

GS no longer increases based on difficulty. It also sounds like you are ignoring most of the POIs in the game. If you have been ignoring the residential POIs you’ve missed out on some really great ones. Several have underground areas.  I get a ton of schematics/books from bookshelves, cabinets, loot boxes, trash, etc. in the house POIs. I also purchase a bunch from the traders. Additionally, the variability in getting books/schematics adds to the replayability for me.