PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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Honestly TFPs aren't the only ones where their GUI winds up being a bit obtuse in parts.

Simple solution that is cheap dev-time wise is just to take a high rez screen shot of each gui and label/briefly-explain each bit.

Make them viewable in-game through the Journal and also point the player to where the pics are in their file system so they can view them outside of game, and at full size, so those playing game at low rez can read the info in a pic viewer.

If a gui element changes it's a simple edit.

Edit: think back when we used to buy games at a store and they came with a paper manual. Near the back was usually something like this.

 
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Hopefully we can make everything more intuitive as we polish systems.
I hesitated to comment on this issue because I know this current UI is basically temp dev gfx and the sort feature was likely slapped in quickly as a proof of concept. I look forward to seeing what the team comes up with.

Thanks for hearing me out, @madmole

 
You might have some damage resistance from a book you read or something.
I just went into my test world, a fresh character, spawned in the Q3 steel armour set. Each piece displays 12 armour/explosive resist. On the character screen this time it says 62 armour and 63 explosive resist. So definitely no buffs from anything.

 
Just a random thought, but isn't it odd that there's no way to turn meat into rotten flesh? 

 
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Zombies don't spawn until you are basically really close to a POI. Resources for them are probably all loaded at startup since you see them all the time. Textures are streamed to 1 pixel if they aren't in view.
Not what I meant. VRAM/textures don't seem to be the problem this time. The lag spike is produced when intense biome spawns mix with sleeper spawns. It happened in 18.4 to some degree, and was exacerbated in a19 when biome spawns where tunned.  It's the "entity" code which is the problem this time, not its texture. It's heavy on the system for some reason. And then I can spawn 60+ Zds with no problem in dm with no more than 15-20 framerate drop. But when I pass by a POI console spawns like  6 sleeper volumes that I certainly don't see and fps go bonkers. Makes little sense.

That's why I asked about the "block" thing. Loading a block and then switch would theoretically be cheaper. And a lot of work and tunning. But the benefits could be quite substantial.

 
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Man I forgot how meh Navesgane is compared to RWG. Started a new world after the update and decided to do Navesgane again because it's been years. There's basically only 2 decent sized towns I guess? And the trader spawns are all outside the town itself, so you have to run 200-300 meters every time to get to Jen and all your quests are 1-2.5 km away, bleh.

RWG for life, having a trader spawn actually connected to the town so you don't spend 90% of your early game holding down W while completely out of stamina and still 900+ meters from your target is just hard to beat

Stay out of the snow, it is going to be a very hard biome in the future, this is just the beginning of that.


Aw yiss. Snow biome is my preferred living location, pretty excited for it to be a bit more lively. It's already by far the hardest early game imo because Lumberjack zombies are just ridiculous for early game melee to deal with, stupid tanky lumberjacks

 
No, Faatal is looking into it. We can't go stable with lag spikes.

Stay out of the snow, it is going to be a very hard biome in the future, this is just the beginning of that. Just cancel the quest and get another one.
Not sure you can cancel your initial trader quests, maybe stop spawning players in the snow biome unless they select high difficulty?

 
Man I forgot how meh Navesgane is compared to RWG. Started a new world after the update and decided to do Navesgane again because it's been years. There's basically only 2 decent sized towns I guess? And the trader spawns are all outside the town itself, so you have to run 200-300 meters every time to get to Jen and all your quests are 1-2.5 km away, bleh.

RWG for life, having a trader spawn actually connected to the town so you don't spend 90% of your early game holding down W while completely out of stamina and still 900+ meters from your target is just hard to beat.
Yeah, I cant get over that this is how TFP would make a map, on purpose.

My only guess is they all tested using Gyro-copters or teleport. 

Well, as the map has the cheaper, sleazy(er), Pal's Marina and not the real Al's Marina... its no loss.  :)

 
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So you've played the map without cheats for a few weeks?
Not in a19 (waiting out the kerfuffles, heh). And I didn't mean my coment as disageement about how the Nav map is now compared to RWG/Nitro. I was thinking back a ways when there were plans to expand Nav map. BUt that was when the hub citys were still in I think.

Based on your forum date you've been playing 7dtd longer than I have, so was thinking/asking if Nav map currently is an evolution of the same map from hub citys time.

 
Not in a19 (waiting out the kerfuffles, heh). And I didn't mean my coment as disageement about how the Nav map is now compared to RWG/Nitro. I was thinking back a ways when there were plans to expand Nav map. BUt that was when the hub citys were still in I think.

Based on your forum date you've been playing 7dtd longer than I have, so was thinking/asking if Nav map currently is an evolution of the same map from hub citys time.
Nav has changed and expanded quite a bit over the years.

 
Not in a19 (waiting out the kerfuffles, heh). And I didn't mean my coment as disageement about how the Nav map is now compared to RWG/Nitro. I was thinking back a ways when there were plans to expand Nav map. BUt that was when the hub citys were still in I think.

Based on your forum date you've been playing 7dtd longer than I have, so was thinking/asking if Nav map currently is an evolution of the same map from hub citys time.
No hub city at 0,0 in Nav BUT the really fast biome spawns in the wasteland has made that place more danagerous again like in previous Alphas.  I can't wait to see what types of POIs/Incentives/Quests the devs will put in the harder biomes for us.  Exciting times ahead!!!

 
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For the love of god do something about the animal spawns in the snow biome...

Started a game, on my quest to the first trader which was like 1.3km away, in the first 500m or so I came across 5/6 mountain lions and a bear. I could even see them being spawned in on my path in front of me...
Yea, drove thru the snow yesterday for a short ride opening the map. Killed 2 cats and saw a bear that I just drove on past. More than forest is ok but having one every couple hundred feet is overkill. Also saw and killed a deer. This was all in the area circled. I came in the road from the right, turned at the crossroads and headed back into forest from there.

Animals area.png

 
Nav has changed and expanded quite a bit over the years.
That's what it seemed like to me, but I don't play Nav very often.

No hub city at 0,0 in Nav BUT the really fast biome spawns in the wasteland has made that place more danagerous again like in previous Alphas.  I can't wait to see what types of POIs/Incentives/Quests the devs will put in the harder biomes for us.  Exciting times ahead!!!
boo! :) I really liked the Hub Citys.. (kidding about the boo but I still have some crossed fingers somewhere hoping for the return of Hub Citys) Good point about the biome spawns. Agree. And also looking forward to the addition of a "Camp Activities Director" to the game.

And to give the Nav map it's due, I think it's a pretty good starter/newer-player map. If they aren't the impatient type at least. Oddly I also think of it as a 'harder' map, due to the town/poi density.

 
That's what it seemed like to me, but I don't play Nav very often.

boo! :) I really liked the Hub Citys.. (kidding about the boo but I still have some crossed fingers somewhere hoping for the return of Hub Citys) Good point about the biome spawns. Agree. And also looking forward to the addition of a "Camp Activities Director" to the game.

And to give the Nav map it's due, I think it's a pretty good starter/newer-player map. If they aren't the impatient type at least. Oddly I also think of it as a 'harder' map, due to the town/poi density.
I haven't looked yet but I think they opened up the previous locked radiation area in the SW of the Nav map.  Perhaps that will give those who miss the old 0,0 the right itch to scratch... :)

 
Man I forgot how meh Navesgane is compared to RWG. Started a new world after the update and decided to do Navesgane again because it's been years. There's basically only 2 decent sized towns I guess? And the trader spawns are all outside the town itself, so you have to run 200-300 meters every time to get to Jen and all your quests are 1-2.5 km away, bleh.

RWG for life, having a trader spawn actually connected to the town so you don't spend 90% of your early game holding down W while completely out of stamina and still 900+ meters from your target is just hard to beat
Yeah, I don't understand how people can suggest, even in previous alphas without many QOL improvements to RWG, that new players begin on Navezgane. Unless they want a challenge right from the start, I'm sure a new player is going to pick RWG and its benefits vs a beautifully hand crafted map (<----- not the point here) where the majority of the POI's are spread out as far as a vulture's wingspan from tip to tip and the (only 5) towns are incredibly small even by the smallest of RWG standards. If nothing is changed in regards to this that's fine I suppose, but Navezgane is definitely a map built for more experienced players imo.

 
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I haven't looked yet but I think they opened up the previous locked radiation area in the SW of the Nav map.  Perhaps that will give those who miss the old 0,0 the right itch to scratch... :)
Iirc @Adam the Waster took a look down there when A19 first went into experimental release and posted a couple screen shots (it'd be a hundred or so pages back if they posted them in this thread) and nothing had changed poi wise.

 
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