PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[Lemmers]

Can any of the devs comment on what ever happened to the "spawn next to each other when starting a game" thing that was mentioned during the A19 pre-release streams? I can't remember if it was Lathan or Mad Mole who talked about it, but basically the point was that you guys wanted to make it easier for new players to play with a friend and just start a game and not have to do the 3KM death sprint to find each other.

Can I also ask, can you guys look into quality of life improvements for the Party system? Every time somebody crashes (potato PC) they need invites again, as well as sharing quests. I think it'd be great if they remembered party affiliation and we could pick an "Autoshare Quests With Party" option.

 

[rivle]

Can we pls get an option to change running speed for ferals and rads separately for day and night? The option “running speed for Zombies at night” counts only for normal Zombies but not for ferals and rads. If you set ferals speed to walk, they will walk at day and night.

Right now we cant even change this in xml files.

 

[Blake_]

@faatal the day lenght is cool and all, yet we are missing fractions on the top of the spectrum. Meaning for less than default we get 10min, 20min, 30, 40 AND 50 minute days, yet above default we just get 90 and 120 mins. 

So we can't get a huge day and a huge night with that option alone and have to tweak the other two options (daylight lenght and horde frequency), BUT horde frequency doesn't make the day longer and daylight lenght can only make it smaller and the night has a lenght limit too. Also horde frequency forces you to change the 7 day frequency if you try to compensate the plain day lenght option and in the end you just get more days and not the desired 2 hour night (exaggerated example, but I think the point is mostly clear).

Any chance we get 180, 240 and 480 min day options ?

 I gather 240mins will be quite popular for "leasure" plays, and by leasure I mean more day time at the cost of brutal nights and infinite hordes.

 

[SnowDog1942]

I have several months of work left for A20 exp, so it is not soon.

I get several months of work done in a week.  
 

Just sayin’

 

[Callum123456789]

I'm curious about the bandits weapon selection when they are added: wil they all use every weapon available or will they have set weapon groups etc. Group a uses tier 1 guns ak, pistol, hunting knife, and all tier 1 weapons and group b for example could use higher tier like tac rifles pump shotguns and sledgehammers

@faatal the day lenght is cool and all, yet we are missing fractions on the top of the spectrum. Meaning for less than default we get 10min, 20min, 30, 40 AND 50 minute days, yet above default we just get 90 and 120 mins. 

So we can't get a huge day and a huge night with that option alone and have to tweak the other two options (daylight lenght and horde frequency), BUT horde frequency doesn't make the day longer and daylight lenght can only make it smaller and the night has a lenght limit too. Also horde frequency forces you to change the 7 day frequency if you try to compensate the plain day lenght option and in the end you just get more days and not the desired 2 hour night (exaggerated example, but I think the point is mostly clear).

Any chance we get 180, 240 and 480 min day options ?

 I gather 240mins will be quite popular for "leasure" plays, and by leasure I mean more day time at the cost of brutal nights and infinite hordes.

You can change that with using dm mode and setting the day pass to like 1 or 2 but I see what your saying maybe it could be added as a quality of life feature so you dont have to do that continuously every time you relog the game 

 

[MechanicalLens]

I'm curious about the bandits weapon selection when they are added: wil they all use every weapon available or will they have set weapon groups etc. Group a uses tier 1 guns ak, pistol, hunting knife, and all tier 1 weapons and group b for example could use higher tier like tac rifles pump shotguns and sledgehammers

It'll probably be the same as it is now. There haven't even been any mentions of perks changing in Alpha 20.

 

[Callum123456789]

Also from what I've seen about a20 it all looks really good @TFP

 

[wolfbain5]

@madmole since art is your forte, I will ask you this. I am colorblind, I have an incredibly hard time differentiating between desert stone, and desert sand. would you be willing to adjust the desert stone texture so that it can be told apart easier? cave ins from mistaking sand and sandstone are annoying as all hell.

I am sure that people who don't have my problem are still having a hard time telling the 2 apart as well. I have heard a few complain while on servers.

 

[00Prescott]

Not sure if this was asked already, but is there any chance to import height map and town/river mask when generating a new map in A20?

 

[faatal]

@faatal the day lenght is cool and all, yet we are missing fractions on the top of the spectrum. Meaning for less than default we get 10min, 20min, 30, 40 AND 50 minute days, yet above default we just get 90 and 120 mins. 

So we can't get a huge day and a huge night with that option alone and have to tweak the other two options (daylight lenght and horde frequency), BUT horde frequency doesn't make the day longer and daylight lenght can only make it smaller and the night has a lenght limit too. Also horde frequency forces you to change the 7 day frequency if you try to compensate the plain day lenght option and in the end you just get more days and not the desired 2 hour night (exaggerated example, but I think the point is mostly clear).

Any chance we get 180, 240 and 480 min day options ?

 I gather 240mins will be quite popular for "leasure" plays, and by leasure I mean more day time at the cost of brutal nights and infinite hordes.

I think many of the settings could use more choices, so I could see more being added, but possibly after a20.

 

[MechanicalLens]

I think many of the settings could use more choices, so I could see more being added, but possibly after a20.

I don't use air drops but some extra choices for those wouldn't go amiss. After all these alphas the four standard choices are "None", "Every Day, "Every 3 Days", and "Every 7 Days". Would be nice if there was a range option added similar to Blood Moon Range.

One step at a time though.  Still got quite a while before A20 hits EXP.

 

[00Prescott]

I never got a clear answer on this one, can we have the option of uploading our own height maps and town locations?  Maybe even some variety to the town shapes?  Thanks!

 

[Requiemfang]

Hey all been a while since I was around here. Game looks like it's getting better and more beautiful. Question I have is with all the zeds getting these new high detail models will the player character models be getting the same treatment in the future?

 

[faatal]

I'm curious about the bandits weapon selection when they are added: wil they all use every weapon available or will they have set weapon groups etc. Group a uses tier 1 guns ak, pistol, hunting knife, and all tier 1 weapons and group b for example could use higher tier like tac rifles pump shotguns and sledgehammers

How their weapons will work has not be determined.

 

[MonkCrimson]

I have several months of work left for A20 exp, so it is not soon.

Our lives are not long enough for games anymore , back at the old days you knew nothing and boom a game comes out .

Now you get informed every single day that the thing that you will enjoy at the future . . . . . . you maybe dead until then

 

[Crater Creator]

Any one smell BBQ again?

Yes! I like how dry - how parched he looks.  Dude is a walking beef brisket.  Now, let's look at that dog again.

You see what I was saying earlier?  The burnt human is very matte.  Its skin has no specular map, or if there is one, it's set to be very diffuse.  And it looks great that way.  Wouldn't change a thing, except as mentioned the orange eyes may make it confusing whether it's feral or not.  But the dog has much tighter specular highlights.  Are we looking at black fur, black skin, burnt skin, or what?  It doesn't look like any of those.  It's like the artist did the Hollywood trope, where movie monsters are supposed to glisten, and called it a day.  It's not bad, but the burnt human demonstrates how it could be much better.

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The new burnt zombie model also affects my gameplay expectations as a player.  Since it no longer looks like a fire elemental, I'd no longer expect it to set the player on fire.  It doesn't look like it's burning - it looks like it's already been burned.  So I'd expect it to be impervious to fire, since there's nothing left to burn.  But getting lit by one of these would feel weird: akin to getting hit by a drowning victim zombie and then struggling to breathe.

 

[Gamida]

I don't think the dog is too bad. I mean the only glistening spots are where either the skin looks fresher and around the mouth where if it had be eating people/squishy zombies then you would expect some shiny stuff to accumulate. The black parts look matte like the guy above.

 

[Jost Amman]

akin to getting hit by a drowning victim zombie and then struggling to breathe

Excellent idea!  :eyebrows:

 

[XCOUNTRY]

To me it looks like the burnt dog had just pounced on someone and the poor guy grabbed the dog by the left front leg to escape (almost looks like a hand print) and it's flesh just slipped off like a sock and the dog got its meal. With that in mind I don't think the model looks off, kind of reminds me of the movie "We Were Soldiers" where the one guy got napalmed and his legs became a goopy mess.

 

[Blake_]

Yes! I like how dry - how parched he looks.  Dude is a walking beef brisket.  Now, let's look at that dog again.

Spoiler

You see what I was saying earlier?  The burnt human is very matte.  Its skin has no specular map, or if there is one, it's set to be very diffuse.  And it looks great that way.  Wouldn't change a thing, except as mentioned the orange eyes may make it confusing whether it's feral or not.  But the dog has much tighter specular highlights.  Are we looking at black fur, black skin, burnt skin, or what?  It doesn't look like any of those.  It's like the artist did the Hollywood trope, where movie monsters are supposed to glisten, and called it a day.  It's not bad, but the burnt human demonstrates how it could be much better.

----------

The new burnt zombie model also affects my gameplay expectations as a player.  Since it no longer looks like a fire elemental, I'd no longer expect it to set the player on fire.  It doesn't look like it's burning - it looks like it's already been burned.  So I'd expect it to be impervious to fire, since there's nothing left to burn.  But getting lit by one of these would feel weird: akin to getting hit by a drowning victim zombie and then struggling to breathe.

They may still add particles to the finished entity or do a special infected that really is on fire, who knows. 

Also, I believe your texture comment to be quite brave and sexy, but we really shouldn't judge yet because they are literally under a different light, so when we experience the entities in game we will see for certain the "feel" that they give off.

May I ask if you have tasted those charred entities, dear sir @Roland ? Are you allowed to tell us about how those two entities"feel" texture-wise while playing  ? (Idk if the puppy is in and working yet though).