PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

Status
Not open for further replies.
madmole said:
That is more of a faatal pathing thing not a designer thing. If he could get it pathing right I'd be ok with it. Maybe we can work around it with a different design if I knew what the issue was. Maybe just make a barred regular door, I can't see that being a problem, it was the sliding one that was the issue.
Click to expand...
Ok, good to hear. @faatal , get to it! Kidding!! :) honestly while the sliding bit was nice, it was mostly the cool looks and ability to shoot through it that I miss. It's HPs were good but not great so it was a nice trade off between going for the shoot-thru vs. more HPs of Vault doors.

 
wolfbain5 said:
I like the idea of a barred hatch. useful on mineshafts when there are zombies circling your door and you need to shoot em to get out
Click to expand...
True fer sure. Though that wouldn't be my main useage. (I usually have Wood/Iron bars next to the hatch to shoot zeds thru if that's needed)

There's a few things I'd use them for. 2) I like to protect switches and put hatches over them, being able to see thru to see if switch is On would be nice and 3) I normally build a fall back position for larger bases, which tends to be above where zeds would be, so usually a couple hatches for murder-holes. Would be nice to also be able to shoot down thru the closed hatches.

Primary desire is for when you're using Traps like darts or turrets, out where they'll get hit, that you'd put Iron Bars in front of for protection. But as you can't wire (or repair or reload/interact) thru iron bars you wind up building things oddly to allow access. Using a Bar-Hatch there instead would be really nice. :)

 
Is there any plans on updating the AK reload animation?

With the reload speed nerf, it's comical to watch the "lazy sunday afternoon" animation play. It's doubly so if you have it on your belt next to a blunderbuss with its also comical "I'm reloading like a crack addict" animation.

 
madmole said:
I'm glad to hear people are enjoying the stealth build!

Yes the 44 is now tier 2, desert vulture is the best handgun.
Click to expand...
Yeah agility is pretty epic now, I focused on getting Parkour to level 3 right away so I could avoid broken legs. My favorite POI for a base in Navezgane is that abandoned mine in the desert near Trader Bob, I like to build a massive bridge as a shortcut across the canyon or valley or whatever it's called, and sometimes... Construction accidents happen lol, and that's why it's awesome to have parkour right away for me. But I noticed there are floating rocks above that valley, I tried mining them in flying mode and started getting Nitrate. Have you guys seen those floating rocks? Frankly they don't interfere with the game one bit, but they're there lol. And thanks for the information, I'm eager to build the desert vulture and feel like an even more badass machete wielding assassin \m/

 
Open door exploit is more important imo. When your base can be built above open doors without ever being damaged by zombies. 

 
Matt 1977 said:
Open door exploit is more important imo. When your base can be built above open doors without ever being damaged by zombies. 
Click to expand...
And the adjustment he made can probably be countered by increasing the duration of the "destroy mode" that zombies can go into when they take fall damage. The current "wedge tip" chute looks to be taking advantage of the zombie faceplant animations, though I don't think he realizes that the animations are helping his design.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have a question. It's probably obvious but I have to ask to make sure:  So if I read the rifle book that makes you lose 20% less stamina when aiming down sights, does it apply only to rifles, or to all guns? If a book doesn't specify a gun type, does it simply apply to all guns? Or is it very specific, rifle books only apply bonuses to rifles, shotgun books to shotguns, pistol books to pistols, etc?

 
Matt 1977 said:
Open door exploit is more important imo. When your base can be built above open doors without ever being damaged by zombies. 
Click to expand...
If a certain percentage, lets say 30%, of the zombies would not use the pathing, but try to use the direct way to the player and beat on anything in the way, this would reduce the effectiveness of lots of those path-exploit bases. (bases with low material investment)

The player would have to fear that those direct-walking zombies break the pillars for example.

If they are standing under the player, who is on a floating flatform, they could look for any nearby load-bearing blocks, and start beating on them.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You do realise zombies don't target "open" doors. And the topic is wedge tips , really .... 

Just watch Z nations A18 lets play, and wedge tips are the community's concern...

 
Could just be that I am playing with the settings too high but every time i go into a snow biome i lag really bad with the weather effects is there a way to turn them off and or what graphic settings controls the quality of them?

 
faatal said:
Indoor lighting decreases ambient at all times of day, not just night. Indoor vs outdoor is a vague concept and the calculated percent is not perfect. The old block ambient occlusion tried to light inside/outside, but was buggy and we disabled. The new system simply adjusts ambient, but since it is a global value, you get the transitioning that we have now.
Click to expand...
Oh right, it does happen on day also.
Any chance this constant adjusting can be disabled or lessened?

 
toores said:
Oh right, it does happen on day also.
Any chance this constant adjusting can be disabled or lessened?
Click to expand...
I liked the old system more, as it made the illumination of inside areas actually darker. But the old system obviously had bugs.

The next best solution is to adjust the total ambient brightness dynamically when going indoors.

Without this adjustment, inside areas would be as bright as outside areas. That would make the world feel boring and oldscool.

 
Kosmic Kerman said:
I feel like some more balancing is needed for the different tiers of weapons and tools. For many things it seems like Tier 2 weapons and tools get skipped over in favor of tier three. A purple stone shovel is better than brown steel shovel because it uses less stamina and still two shots dirt (Level 3 in both miner 69er and Sexy-Rex). I'm on Day 27 and am still using a purple stone axe for looting POIs. I have a yellow steel axe and a green pick axe that I use solely for cutting trees and harvesting. I have several yellow and green iron tools but I never bothered using them. This is partly because the purple stone axe is one less tool to carry around. I'm close to making an auger so even the steel pickaxe won't end seeing much use.

As to weapons, I have a yellow AK that does more damage than a yellow tactical rifle (Yes, the tactical rifle has a higher fire rate but I use the AK with a silencer for stealth kills so the higher damage AK wins out. It's also more ammo efficient. The TR is also bugged when using a 2x scope it with it. It takes longer to switch back and forth from aiming with the TR making it less desirable to use.)  I just crafted a yellow M60 so not sure if the TR will see any use unless I can get a much better damage roll than the AK.  As to the shotties, I have a purple double barrel which is much better than the brown pump shotguns I've found (+7 damage per pellet on the DB). Right now only Q1 pump shotguns are dropping for me so I don't know if the pump shotgun will end being skipped for the combat shotgun (haven't found one and can't craft it yet). 

On one hand, it's nice that the primitive age lasts longer and that the primitive tools and weapons appear to have been buffed. On the other, it seems like the tier 2 weapons and tools that I've found are not enough of an upgrade to be worth using due to stats or stamina usage. That said I need to spend some more time with the iron tools though because I ended up skipping right over them.
Click to expand...
That is a very good write-up. I understand the logic behind raising the stamina usage of better tools somewhat, but I think the new steady progression turns this into sort of a double gate. You shouldn't find iron tools in the stone age or steel tools in the iron age anyways, so why not make it a more obvious upgrade? As it is, having 6 levels for 3 tiers is already a bit of a flawed design in itself, since arguably a Tier X level 6 is better than a Tier X+1 level 1 or 2. This isn't a huge deal-breaker in itself but coupled with stamina being a huge efficiency factor, it makes the new 'steady' progression feel more like huge leaps between different tiers (i.e. skipping level 1-3 items of the newest tier). 

BTW if MP players want to ruin the progression of their friends by giving them iron/steel tools, let them do it? 

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top