PC Alpha 19 Dev Diary

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Ok not sure if this problem has been reported before, but I still am running 19 B180.. I've tried validating, I've tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling thru steam and it still shows up as running 19 B180, it even shows up as alpha 19 stable under my steam library. Someone please let me know wtf to do...


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a19 stable IS a19b180





you will not see different until we do a19.1b#





 :)

QA Tester-unholyjoe

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MisFitT said:
Ok not sure if this problem has been reported before, but I still am running 19 B180.. I've tried validating, I've tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling thru steam and it still shows up as running 19 B180, it even shows up as alpha 19 stable under my steam library. Someone please let me know wtf to do...
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That is normal as 19 B180 is the stable build since all they did was pushed that exact build out to everyone.

 
Danidas said:
It is odd that only strength, agility, and fortitude have armor options with in their perk trees. As that hurts those that want to specialize in a attribute. For example what type of defense does perception get beyond shooting zombies before they get to you? As all other attributes share that defense tactic.  On another note what defense does intellect get out side their trap infested base?

It would be cool if perception and intellect got a minor defense upgrade in some form. For example a mod for the robo sledge or junk drone that makes them act as a tank via attaching a hunk of meat to them to attract zombie aggro. Along with the option to make armor plating for them to take more of a beating while making them slower or lowering their dps. As for perception that one is a lot harder to think of something other then applying the animal tracking effect to zombies and later bandits.
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I think you're looking at it too narrowly. It's not like Skyrim where armor skills increase armor value- everyone gets the same defense value. Instead, the armor skills do 3 things:

1.) Enable armor crafting

2.) Reduce the mobility/stamina penalty somewhat

3.) Increase armor durability

Being able to make your own is nice, but not critical- you can loot/buy decent quality armor at any gamestage. Reducing the mobility/stamina penalties is handy, but in practice I only notice a real difference in heavy armor. Armor mods and books (I think one of the Urban Combat series) can help with this too, so it's not an effect you can't get anywhere else. Armor durability is a unique effect, as far as I know, but it's trivial unless you're doing a no-repair challenge run or something.

So in the end, I don't think INT or PER is hurt by the lack of an armor skill, because they can wear and use armor just as well as anyone else. They're truly missing out on very little. The Fortitude skill to reduce incoming damage by a % is very strong, but it's also part of Fortitude's identity so I'm okay with it being unique. 

 
Jay_ombie said:
Have you lot monitored your Output usage for your CPU & GPU ?

I am trying to suss out the bottleneck, as I am seeing the game using up to 60% only of my CPU and GPU resources majority of the time (I say majority as I yet to figure out those few moments when my GPU will max out)

Maximum power usage in Windows. Tried different Nvidia drivers.

i7 with a GTX 1080ti.

I tried Vsync on / off

Graphical options on/off

Options on HIGH, max LOD but to be honest changing the Graphical options up/down seems to have no affect.

I could easily have more frames so its frustrating to see this going on.
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Most games are not going to be using 100% of your CPU in general gameplay, because 100% in Windows means every core is maxed out. Games don't use every core most of the time, because a lot of code can't be run in parallel.

 
Blake_ said:
One thing I noticed in a19 is that Zds have 2 behaviours that are not cool and are lacking in terms of gameplay.

1- They can stand just below you doing nothing `(idle animation) for more than a while. Could be excusable due to them being dumb, but it looks cheap and not thrilling.

2- Sometimes they focus on a wall and they start to hit it. You can stand right behind them just after that happens for minutes and they will not notice. You can even hit them and they would only notice you when their coded behaviour regarding % for noticing player (on hit) overrides the rest. That is a bug due to Zds not "updating" as they should. Now, it happened to me in multiplayer, so I cannot confirm that they were not chasing another player. My guess is that they were not. I'm yet to start a solo for testing AI.

Not tested in b180.

Pathing in general is extremely cheap. I can feel it in my potato. I would risk it fixing that bug regarding arrowslits without limiting their placement.

innocent question: Is the drone code gonna be useful for "follower quests " and/or bandits in the future or is it just a standalone thing? I'm asking you because your sidekick doesn't show up on the forums, just on the one stream.
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1 - AI may just be stuck not generating a path for an unknown reason. Just like ladder blocks did not make proper paths to adjacent ladders or climb in a controlled manner, which I fixed recently.

2 - They have a timer with destroying blocks, which tends to override other things. I don't consider it a big deal, since zombies are stupid. If bandits did it, then would be more of an issue.

Arrow slits will get fixed when I get to it. Pathing is cheap, but grid generation is not, which is where the fix would live. The fix would not just be for that, since cube casting will cause extra colliders to be hit, which will change paths and possibly make more problems to deal with, beyond just being slower.

Drone AI is special case, just like vulture AI is. Bandits will probably use AI pieces like the normal AI does. A melee bandit is not much different than a wolf, but with more circling (wolves will, but only if blocked), dodging, healing and a retreat that actually gets them gone.

 
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Phoenixshade35 said:
@madmolei was curious of something, how come there was never medium armor?  with toughness you can get away with no armor alright, then we got heavy and light, but no medium, im just curious, been having a morrowind binge and felt like asking
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I think it would just clutter the loot and coming up with a third armor perk... it would just be too clunky and add uneeded complexity.

Danidas said:
It is odd that only strength, agility, and fortitude have armor options with in their perk trees. As that hurts those that want to specialize in a attribute. For example what type of defense does perception get beyond shooting zombies before they get to you? As all other attributes share that defense tactic.  On another note what defense does intellect get out side their trap infested base?

It would be cool if perception and intellect got a minor defense upgrade in some form. For example a mod for the robo sledge or junk drone that makes them act as a tank via attaching a hunk of meat to them to attract zombie aggro. Along with the option to make armor plating for them to take more of a beating while making them slower or lowering their dps. As for perception that one is a lot harder to think of something other then applying the animal tracking effect to zombies and later bandits.
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The game was never designed to be purists using a single attribute. Armor perks don't increase your AR anyway so it isn't like you can't use armor with those builds, and buying a few ranks of armor perks is cheap enough.

 
faatal said:
1 - AI may just be stuck not generating a path for an unknown reason. Just like ladder blocks did not make proper paths to adjacent ladders or climb in a controlled manner, which I fixed recently.

2 - They have a timer with destroying blocks, which tends to override other things. I don't consider it a big deal, since zombies are stupid. If bandits did it, then would be more of an issue.

Arrow slits will get fixed when I get to it. Pathing is cheap, but grid generation is not, which is where the fix would live. The fix would not just be for that, since cube casting will cause extra colliders to be hit, which will change paths and possibly make more problems to deal with, beyond just being slower.

Drone AI is special case, just like vulture AI is. Bandits will probably use AI pieces like the normal AI does. A melee bandit is not much different than a wolf, but with more circling (wolves will, but only if blocked), dodging, healing and a retreat that actually gets them gone.
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Nice info! 

1- Thx! 

On point 2: It is an ackward moment if Rick Grimes walks through a city and a Zd is punching a wall right next to him while he looks at "it" go and the entity doesn' t notice him. It shouldn't override THAT much. If anything, for the sake of smelling or detection simulation, AKA immersion.  

To defend my case, I will say that they didn't do that before and it was perfect. They do that now and it's not cool. I would argue that this is not Zd dumbness but a complete unfun experience if a Zd doesn't focus on me over a block while I'm standing right there next to him without pathblocking blocks in between.

A zombie game where a Zd might not chase you. Instant buy.

I understand that It's cheap to not check on the player, but in this case it worsens the experience.

Arrowslits: yeah, I understand the madness they represent. I will say this: Are they really worth the pain for the sake of variety? We have bars for combat and they offer much better combat view. Seems like a 7dtd 2 misc building feature to me. And then again, you can always let them in but as a normal non-shooting-through block ( would need normal frame block AI behaviour) or limited rotation block as you suggested a few weeks ago in the stream.

Bandit and drone AI: so the more you program the faster you can program. That' s my smartazz take. Thx.

 
I don't like to do this too much but I thought people would find it interesting. We had a horde of tiny zombies and a zombie that rose from the dead...again... only to die without being touched! Not to mention my mysterious death lol We are playing on our Nitrado server with NO mods whatsoever. Watch from 0:14 to about 2:05. If this post is not allowed, feel free to remove it @Roland and if that is the case, sorry I posted in advance.



 
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2 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Just throwing here some ideas for special (non fantasy) infected from TWD:

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I love the idea of zombies rising up out of dirt, or, you know those yellow body bags, I would love to see random ones of those have Zombies in them. But if the pimps did that, I wouldn't wanna know it was a thing until I get wasted! 😅🧟‍♂️

 
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