PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[Blake_]

@faatal I've got a few pre-stream questions.

1- Is the game in content lock already or might we see some last minute art squeezed in within the dev streams' timeframe?

2- A while ago, there were some words from madmole about road decals. Do you know if they have been improved for a20?

(I know it's kind of insignificant, but it's a very sentimental milestone as they have been in the game since alpha 1 and everything else has changed).

3- It has been said here that water can be in the sewers.

Have there been any changes to the way the player walks on top of small shallow waters?

(The brutal slowness of walking on a finger-sized pond might spoil the fun if sewers are even slightly watery and "populated" )

4- Have you tried the feral sense option yourself in a gameplay? If so, how good is it?

That's all . Thank you for your time.

 

[Victor19]

any possibility of having first-person vision in vehicles?

 

[faatal]

My dream regarding driving would be a mounted machine gun as so many have requested and/or being able to drive with a first person view plus have passengers all being able to shoot out the windows as in see your hand holding the pistol or smg shooting at stuff.

First person view would probably come first.

@faatal I've got a few pre-stream questions.

1- Is the game in content lock already or might we see some last minute art squeezed in within the dev streams' timeframe?

2- A while ago, there were some words from madmole about road decals. Do you know if they have been improved for a20?

(I know it's kind of insignificant, but it's a very sentimental milestone as they have been in the game since alpha 1 and everything else has changed).

3- It has been said here that water can be in the sewers.

Have there been any changes to the way the player walks on top of small shallow waters?

(The brutal slowness of walking on a finger-sized pond might spoil the fun if sewers are even slightly watery and "populated" )

4- Have you tried the feral sense option yourself in a gameplay? If so, how good is it?

That's all . Thank you for your time.

1 Not locked at all

2 Same decals

3 Same speed, but yes it could use some improving

4 Just for testing. I have not started playing real games

 

[Fanatical_Meat]

First person view would probably come first.

You will get bonus points from me if while driving in first person view you can see the car get damaged/windshield crack or blood splatters on the window as you hit stuff or take damage to the car.

Maybe the cars sound changes and it rattles when it is very damaged.

 

[samljer]

There are no plans for it, but it could happen someday.

RE: shooting from the vehicle.

Make it so the player who can shoot must be the passenger in the jeep. or the player in the upcoming A20 motorcycle side-car WINK WINK

 

[Pritch]

After 19 Alphas my only criticism is with combat and zombie pathing.

Hand-to-hand combat is unbearable especially at low levels:  zombies don't flinch properly (if at all), hit box at point blank doesn't make sense, and animations make game play non-intuitive.    Zombies should always respond to receiving a hit.  Sometimes this is a knock back, knockdown, or decapitation; sometimes this is a flinch.  A flinch should be a random interruption duration between a split second (where zombies will attack before you can swing again) and a slightly longer duration (allowing you a second swing before it recovers).  Flinches need animations.  Flinches are not as effective as knock backs but represent minimal effect from receiving blows.  This feedback mechanism should be happening with each hit--melee or ranged.

Zombie pathing around obstacles is not the problem.  The pathing problem is related to the compass' orientation between the user and the zombie.  If you aim N, S, E, or W the zombie will run straight at you (good).  However, if you aim NE, NW, SE, or SW the zombie will zig-zag block to block rather than run directly at you (bad).  This is highly unrealistic and makes ranged combat unbearable.  A zombie is dumb and should be running straight at you and not zig-zag just because you are shooting in a NE, NW, SE, or SW direction. 

Other changes are looking great.  Keep up the good work TFP.

Pritch

For reference, here is an example of the zombie zig-zag pathing issue causing @Fubar_Prime to miss every shot

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1138408947?t=00h58m59s

 

[Blake_]

First person view would probably come first.

1 Not locked at all

Sorry, by "the game" I meant a20. I think you meant it too so ok. Thanks.

 

[Adam the Waster]

New plant changes (not finished):
View attachment 20888

wow a new G R A S S M O D E L

 

[jeromeN7]

That grass looks good! With the way grass generates so sparsely it makes sense for it to clumped up like that.

 

[Rabbitslovecactus]

@faatal First person view sounds great for vehicles. But I've got to say, the physics and controls of driving the vehicles is a priority IMO. Right now they feel robotic and stiff, especially the Gyro. Would be nice for the gyro to operate like a helicopter, or similar to the gyro of the Road Warrior movie. Lift off right from where you are, no need to drive forward to lift off. Either way, keep up the great work!! Best game ever!

 

[khzmusik]

To anyone at TFP:

With the new dynamic imposter feature, will worlds with custom POIs be server-side only?

Specifically: You install custom POIs on a server, and generate a world with them. Will clients need to install those custom POIs in order to connect to that world?

Right now, the answer is yes. But I think that's only because they need the imposter information, and the rest is baked into the world. Am I wrong? (that's entirely possible, I'm not a MP guy.)

 

[Khalagar]

Has there been any more word on spawning together when starting a new world with a friend? I know Madmole mentioned it during the A19 streams, where they wanted to just make it faster and easier for a group of friends to spawn in and get started without the dreaded 12 hour death run to find each other, and desynced trader quests etc.

The friend system remembering your friend would also be quite nice, so you don't have to add them back every time you load in

 

[DanLW]

First person view would probably come first.

1 Not locked at all

Yikes.  I'd guess we are a minimum of three months out for a public experimental release.  The internal bug squashing phase always seems to take a month or two.  Add a month or so due to not even being feature locked... 2021 experimental if we are lucky.

What are the odds the water rework will slip from A21 to A22?  Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I'm looking forward to having some fun with waterworks if water can be used to "flush" zombies!

 

[Blake_]

Yikes.  I'd guess we are a minimum of three months out for a public experimental release.  The internal bug squashing phase always seems to take a month or two.  Add a month or so due to not even being feature locked... 2021 experimental if we are lucky.

What are the odds the water rework will slip from A21 to A22?  Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I'm looking forward to having some fun with waterworks if water can be used to "flush" zombies!

As far as I know, water rework is going to be a21 (not confirmed, but everything goes before bandits and there are only 4 major systems left : clothing, quests/campaign, npcs and water). It's a big fish to tackle. You sea, one could say it's the new wave of alphas. An ocean of code, the shark of the bug world, a cascade of hardships, etc.

 

[Roland]

What are the odds the water rework will slip from A21 to A22?

I read this wrong the first time. The plan is for A21. If it slips to A22 it won't be until A21 development starts and other priorities cause it to slip.

 

[Zombiepoptard]

Will there be new interior wall textures for houses?

 

[Survager]

Will the new Screamer have a scream animation?

 

[Jost Amman]

Will the new Screamer have a scream animation?

Yes, something like this:


Spoiler

 

[faatal]

@faatal First person view sounds great for vehicles. But I've got to say, the physics and controls of driving the vehicles is a priority IMO. Right now they feel robotic and stiff, especially the Gyro. Would be nice for the gyro to operate like a helicopter, or similar to the gyro of the Road Warrior movie. Lift off right from where you are, no need to drive forward to lift off. Either way, keep up the great work!! Best game ever!

Vehicle driving changes are not planned and feel fine to me. The gyrocopter is technically an airplane and they do not fly like a helicopter. Someday I would like to add a helicopter that will fly like a helicopter. It will hover and be easier to fly than the gryo, which I never intended to be easy to fly, since it is the starter crappy flying vehicle.

 

[Blake_]

Vehicle driving changes are not planned and feel fine to me. The gyrocopter is technically an airplane and they do not fly like a helicopter. Someday I would like to add a helicopter that will fly like a helicopter. It will hover and be easier to fly than the gryo, which I never intended to be easy to fly, since it is the starter crappy flying vehicle.

Flying hovercraps confirmed!