PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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A quick feedback for stun baton.

Im on day 10 now and I found my first stun baton in my current game. I tested it and I like it, its now a really nice melee weapon. But at that point in game most people already invested some points in other melee weapons (club, sledge, knife).

Yeah stun baton is nice but why should someone at this stage switch to it and invest points in stun baton? In this game I already have 3 points on pummel pete and have my baseball bat (usually sledge) and collecting parts for the steel one.

You can’t craft early game a stun baton because you need parts for it. Maybe this point needs a rethink.

 
This may be an issue people are talking about already, but... 

I've noticed that when I'm inside our base (A repurposed prefab), I can stand still and watch the textures toggle quality in and out every 2ish or so seconds.  Blurry/Clear/Blurry/Clear and it does it over and over.  Outside, no issues that I've seen (I haven't tested that a lot though).

I'm running an i-9 9900K, 1080ti, 32gig ram, game is installed on a Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe drive.

No idea if that helps or not, let me know if you need/want any other information.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
MechanicalLens said:
@madmole I believe something that has been going on as of late is removing/buffing numbers of items in loot that players would otherwise scrap or toss away. (Raw brass, candy tins, hub caps, tree seeds, etc. etc.) I would like to add raw lead to that list. Typically one finds between 1-10 lead in loot per group, which is hardly worth keeping around. Might I suggest a small buff of groups of lead found in loot, raising it to around 30-60+? Your thoughts?
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The more loot of a scrappable nature you remove the quicker you get better items. Now to the average player and possible Mad Mole this is probably a good thing but i can point you to several seminars on game loot and its importance that states, with data, why sometimes you NEED junk loot. Giving the player something great every roll, or something useful every single time, shortens looting time, removes the arc of progress and eliminates the endorphins you receive when you DO find valuable loot. In essence if everything you loot is awesome then how do you reward the work put in if the reward is given every time.

A lot of peoples complaints that they are seeing too much food or too much ammo is a direct result of filling every container with useful stuff and removing things like filters, hubcaps and raw ores.
 

 
 I officially regret telling friends and online friends that I would be hosting a dedicated server once A19 Stable was out, now have people hounding me for when the server will be up. Realized that if I multiply that feeling by 100x that I might understand what it's like be a member of the Fun Pimps Staff. I sincerely apologize for any hounding I might've done in the past in asking when stuff will be released. 

 
Adam the Waster said:
@madmole

i got a few questions for the bow!

1: Will damage be scaled for the wooden bow and compound bow, cuz the compound bow feels... Weak same with the compound crossbow 

2: will bows get a update in any shape or form? like able to put a Sight on it for example 

3: will bolts be removed. (you don't need to answers that if not) 
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I've only fiddled with it in creative so I don't know how it plays economically or at high GS levels, but have you tried loading up with explosive or at least flaming arrows? Being able to rapid fire bombs with the compound bow feels really strong, but I as I said I don't know how they fair against mutants and irradiated Z's.

Also getting two fairly distinct weapons under one perk is also pretty nice, the compound crossbow is a stealth powerhouse even without perks in bows or hidden strike.

 
madmole said:
I am playing an agility character now so if it feels weak we can always boost it. It's main advantage is superior sneak damage to everything else so it isn't meant to really keep up damage wise with pistols. Cheap ammo, best stealth and sneak damage means it is going to have to be worse damage wise than firearms. We are adding core visuals for mods to all weapons that don't have them yet.
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It is already disadvantaged in that it has horrendous reload time and is single shot. The sneak damage bonus is a great idea that means it will always have a niche, and being effectively silent is a nice boost so there is a stealth option before you get a silencer, but it still feels far weaker than it should. You could stand to reduce the stealth multiplier and up the base damage a bit.

Cheap ammo doesnt really count for much when your swimming in bullets before you even assemble your first gun, in my last game i had about 10 stacks of 7.6 ammo before i even found a gun to use it (default loot).

I just played a game before the last patch reset everything as an agility build (loving the desert vulture) and built a level 5 compound bow as soon as i could, it was nice for stealthing through a PoI but outside of that it felt worthless, and being a high risk weapon in most scenarios the reward feels like it should be much higher.

It doesnt feel like the difficulty of using those weapons is rewarded, and they could be a lot of fun outside of pure stealth builds.

 
Vintorez said:
I've only fiddled with it in creative so I don't know how it plays economically or at high GS levels, but have you tried loading up with explosive or at least flaming arrows? Being able to rapid fire bombs with the compound bow feels really strong, but I as I said I don't know how they fair against mutants and irradiated Z's.
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I played around with explosive arrows & bolts a bit ago in a18.4. Didn't really compare recipe costs vs. grenades/etc. but seemed cheap enough.

No idea bout a19 but in 18.4 each shot raised the heat map by a full 5 points. So might need to be careful using them, unless you want screamers.

Also I found I preferred the crossbow over the compound bow for explosive work. Instant fire after reload vs. the bows draw timer (nice when you're switching weapons) & with 4/5 in run & gun (zero bow spec) reload times were pretty quick & very similar.

While I'd planned on using explosive bolts for tougher horde nights (gs 200+), turned out my base was too powerful for the 8 alive that my old pc can handle. So while I fired a few for luls I never needed to. But it's fun to send the zeds pinwheeling across the sky none the less. :)

 
SheeleMara said:
 I officially regret telling friends and online friends that I would be hosting a dedicated server once A19 Stable was out, now have people hounding me for when the server will be up. Realized that if I multiply that feeling by 100x that I might understand what it's like be a member of the Fun Pimps Staff. I sincerely apologize for any hounding I might've done in the past in asking when stuff will be released. 
Click to expand...
Yeah, you really only know when you're "a part of the team", so even though it's not my place to say this here, you're forgiven in my opinion. Quite a many years ago I attended a summer camp where the kitchen staff were "notoriously grumpy" and most of us, as kids, were pretty demanding for meals. Towards the end of my 3 week stay me and my cabin, being the oldest ones there, were assigned roles to assist some of the other cabin leaders with handling their young ones, to teach us some basic leadership skills. Unfortunately some of the kitchen staff had fallen ill, so I volunteered to take up one of their positions, although I somewhat regretted that decision immediately after I had raised my hand. I didn't want to become the scrooge of the kitchen like I perceived the rest of them to be. Haha. Fast forward three days later, and while I kept my smile up at work, I was constantly rolling my eyes and shaking my head at the "demanding ungrateful children", often giving facial expressions similar to Squidward from the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon; after my shifts had concluded and our cabin reunited before our trip home, the rest of my cabin thought my position must have been torture, and it was, but for unexpected reasons. Takes one to know one. ;)

 
faatal said:
Posting here is fine. Mostly I just want hardware specs and circumstances in which it is happening.

I just ran 7d7d from my HD. Flying around, visiting all the biomes and towns and still pretty smooth. No freezes. I do drop to 30 FPS for a few frames while it loads, but quite playable. I even have some of those console warnings, but they don't seem to be doing much to my FPS.

I added a "mem objpre" console command for testing to precache block entity data and never remove them.

People with big freezes can try disabling their antivirus on the game's folder to see if that is slowing down loading.
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------------------
System Information
------------------
      Time of this report: 7/20/2020, 03:25:04
             Machine name: MARK-PC
               Machine Id: {0771F2D6-BE7F-4F90-AAA3-4A0EC9EEF69B}
         Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 18363) (18362.19h1_release.190318-1202)
                 Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
      System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
             System Model: X570 AORUS ELITE
                     BIOS: F20b (type: UEFI)
                Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor             (24 CPUs), ~3.8GHz
                   Memory: 32768MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 32712MB RAM
                Page File: 11850MB used, 30588MB available
              Windows Dir: C:\Windows
          DirectX Version: DirectX 12
      DX Setup Parameters: Not found
         User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
       System DPI Setting: 192 DPI (200 percent)
          DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown
                 Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
 DirectX Database Version: Unknown
           DxDiag Version: 10.00.18362.0387 64bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
           Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
        Manufacturer: NVIDIA
           Chip type: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
            DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Type: Full Device (POST)
          Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_2182&SUBSYS_12E110DE&REV_A1
       Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER] 
 Device Problem Code: No Problem
 Driver Problem Code: Unknown
      Display Memory: 22346 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 5991 MB
       Shared Memory: 16355 MB
        Current Mode: 2560 x 1440 (32 bit) (75Hz)
         HDR Support: Not Supported
    Display Topology: Extend
 Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
     Color Primaries: Red(0.672852,0.319336), Green(0.267578,0.672852), Blue(0.151367,0.060547), White Point(0.313477,0.329102)
   Display Luminance: Min Luminance = 0.500000, Max Luminance = 270.000000, MaxFullFrameLuminance = 270.000000
        Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
       Monitor Model: Q3279WG5B
          Monitor Id: AOC3279

------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
      Drive: 😄
 Free Space: 27.6 GB
Total Space: 121.5 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: C300-CTFDDAC128MAG (Corsair SSD Boot Drive)

      Drive: 😧
 Free Space: 125.5 GB
Total Space: 228.9 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: TOSHIBA-TR200 (Toshiba SSD)

      Drive: E:
 Free Space: 155.7 GB
Total Space: 238.5 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: HDT722525DLA380

      Drive: F:
 Free Space: 145.1 GB
Total Space: 476.9 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: ST3500630NS

      Drive: G:
 Free Space: 551.0 GB
Total Space: 953.9 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1

      Drive: H:
 Free Space: 897.2 GB
Total Space: 976.8 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: GIGABYTE GP-GSM2NE3100TNTD (M.2 NVME PCIE4.0) Game drive

Pauses happen when moving around on vehicle, entering new building, entering a room, all sorts really.

My game loads and runs very fast, and ran fine before the latest patch.

I have started a new game tonight, just got my motorcycle so will see how it behaves now I am mobile.

 
I have not tested it yet this build, but you could quick fire(tap fire without really charging) the bow and it made it more on par with the pistol. 

Not sure if you are supposed to be able to do that, but it made it a lot better than the crossbow and does not need run and gun. 

 
rivle said:
A quick feedback for stun baton.

Im on day 10 now and I found my first stun baton in my current game. I tested it and I like it, its now a really nice melee weapon. But at that point in game most people already invested some points in other melee weapons (club, sledge, knife).

Yeah stun baton is nice but why should someone at this stage switch to it and invest points in stun baton? In this game I already have 3 points on pummel pete and have my baseball bat (usually sledge) and collecting parts for the steel one.

You can’t craft early game a stun baton because you need parts for it. Maybe this point needs a rethink.
Click to expand...
We are adding pipe weapons to the game, so a pipe baton could be crafted early game so INT players can specialize in melee right away.

 
bloodmoth13 said:
It is already disadvantaged in that it has horrendous reload time and is single shot. The sneak damage bonus is a great idea that means it will always have a niche, and being effectively silent is a nice boost so there is a stealth option before you get a silencer, but it still feels far weaker than it should. You could stand to reduce the stealth multiplier and up the base damage a bit.

Cheap ammo doesnt really count for much when your swimming in bullets before you even assemble your first gun, in my last game i had about 10 stacks of 7.6 ammo before i even found a gun to use it (default loot).

I just played a game before the last patch reset everything as an agility build (loving the desert vulture) and built a level 5 compound bow as soon as i could, it was nice for stealthing through a PoI but outside of that it felt worthless, and being a high risk weapon in most scenarios the reward feels like it should be much higher.

It doesnt feel like the difficulty of using those weapons is rewarded, and they could be a lot of fun outside of pure stealth builds.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Cheap ammo does matter, and we nerfed ammo some. Not to mention you can build up a nice supply of horde ammo looting and using your bow for 1 shot stealth kills, where every other build is crafting ammo, buying ammo, and basically struggling for enough ammo for hordes, at least later game, coming out of T5 POIs with a net loss of ammo, where the bowman profits. Not every build is based  or balanced purely on its combat merits, we take the entire perk line into account and all its benefits.

I only have 3 ranks of bow, and 2 of the stealth perks and I'm able to move freely at night and one shot everything. Try that with another build. Plus you can craft exploding arrows, which are mini rockets. You can knock the cupboard doors off silently with it and stealth kill the sleepers hiding in closets too. Its fine IMO.

 
Star69 said:
Eh, I got that lost backpack bug last night for the first time. Was surprised by a direwolf and my blunderbuss shot missed and he ate me :( . I respawned, the backpack sprite was there and I went to where it was and no backpack. I admin'd god mode and flew up high and way below.....no backpack. I pulled the log file and it stated it was present and hadn't despawned, gave the location.....it is definitely not there. Not sure how much help I can be with this since log says everything is fine. I died on a flat road, one building away from a trader, nothing weird happened during death. This is on a dedicated server, not single player. Stinks....I had the materials for 4 bicycles I was going to make at the trader workbench. Then I rage quit lol. Wish I could give more valuable info.

19T01:01:23 7933.890 INF GMSG: Player 'Star' died
2020-07-19T01:01:23 7933.957 INF 258872 EntityBackpack id 653, plyrId 176, items 40 casinoCoin, resourceLockPick, Start (-830.3, 61.9, -1923.8)
2020-07-19T01:01:36 7946.979 INF 259359 EntityBackpack id 653, plyrId 176, items 40 casinoCoin, resourceLockPick, OnEntityUnload (-829.8, 60.0, -1924.9), markedForUnload False, IsDead True, IsDespawned False
2020-07-19T01:01:36 7946.983 INF 259359 EntityBackpack id 653, plyrId 176, items 40 casinoCoin, resourceLockPick, OnDestroy (-829.8, 60.0, -1924.9)
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Am I reading that wrong or does that show the bag spawned, then dropped 2 blocks and was destroyed. Maybe it spawned on top of grass or something?

 
JCrook1028 said:
Am I reading that wrong or does that show the bag spawned, then dropped 2 blocks and was destroyed. Maybe it spawned on top of grass or something?
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Bags normally drop and get unloaded (destroyed), because you respawn some distance away, so those chunks unload, then they reload as you get near the chunk. The reloading is where I think the bug is.

 
MechanicalLens said:
You mean a hunting rifle? We already have one of those.

(jk. I've actually grown fond of the hunting rifle since A18.)
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How dare you!  Leave my hunting rifle alone.  The hunting rifle is the gentleman's gun.  1 shot, 1 kill....

48szt2.jpg


 
madmole said:
I only have 3 ranks of bow, and 2 of the stealth perks and I'm able to move freely at night and one shot everything. Try that with another build. Plus you can craft exploding arrows, which are mini rockets. You can knock the cupboard doors off silently with it and stealth kill the sleepers hiding in closets too. Its fine IMO.
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If anything archery might be too good thanks to exploding arrows for hordes and being 2nd best at POIs just behind Int thanks to stealth clears.  I mean just look at this exploding arrow madness!  After several blood moons I started limiting how many explosive arrows I was allowed a night because they are just that good.  Fairly cheap to craft, pretty good AOE damage, and minimal block damage delivered accurately at range.

 
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