PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

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I'm still waiting to see those decals that get put on the roads and stuff get updated. Like the old newspaper and the blood splatters. They look rough these days. 

 
@faatal another feral sense question. I have read that it extends in a 30 block radius. is that along the x and z axis only or also along the y? so basically I am 6 stories up a skyscraper, are zeds on the ground gonna feral sense me since they are technically less than 30 blocks away?

 
khzmusik said:
I'm glad that grass is looking better, but I'm a bit disappointed that a plant overhaul is not coming until A21. At this point the plants are the worst-looking thing in the game. It's especially bad with plants like cotton, where it's really obvious that it's just two flat textures in an X shape.

Ironically, plants like aloe or saguaro (cactus) have looked pretty good for a long time.
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Patience is a virtue.  Judging from everything shared so far on Twitter, the artists have improved environment art quite a bit already and don't mind grass/plants are a lower priority.

Ill take updated gore models, and more deco over updated grass/plants first any day...😅

 
mikeyscott said:
Can someone give me some information all went out for 20 is going to be released
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Hopefully in 3-4 months at least. Maybe by then my new kitten will age beyond the clawing / scratching phase and I'll be able to properly get back into gaming again without her attacking the headphones or the mouse every 5 minutes. :)

 
wolfbain5 said:
@faatal another feral sense question. I have read that it extends in a 30 block radius. is that along the x and z axis only or also along the y? so basically I am 6 stories up a skyscraper, are zeds on the ground gonna feral sense me since they are technically less than 30 blocks away?
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We were told that the feral sense extends in every direction, but not in sleeper volumes. What that means is that you won't enter Dishong tower and instantly wake up 3 floors/stories of Zds. Feral sense would activate only when inside the sleeper volume in that case.

So for landscape Zds that don't spawn in sleeper volumes the feral sense would be in all directions all the time when turned on.

faatal said:
Well now it looks a bit better and is tied into draw distance to add more planes when set to the higher distances. Our artists definitely what to make better art for all plants, but that is more like A21.

A big part of it was separating the collision mesh from the visual mesh as this change describes:

"Optimized grass collider generation (Always 2 centered, fixed size and axis aligned planes)."

More complicated grass meshes do not need a more complicated collision mesh and their collision meshes should not stray into adjacent blocks like they did.

It does that too for the mesh. On the higher grass distances, you don't have 2 planes in a + pattern. It is 3 is an overlapping triangle.

And this: "Increased grass mesh variations to 192 (image, scale, rotation, cross/ring)."
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I have a question about crops.

Are crops being improved to 3d models in a20?

 
Give us a defoliation "bomb" that we can craft in the chemistry bench...that clears an area of grass and bushes! 
Yes yes...I know its a minor thing...but would give more use to the chemistry bench and help us lazy people

clear all the grass around our areas...instead of running around and punching grass for hours and having tens of thousands

of plant fibers! 

I really feel like we eventually should get a lot more recipes for chemistry...seems sort of lacking now!

 
faatal said:
No. We have a while to go yet, but lots of cool work is getting done.

I started working on some grass mesh improvements last week, since I have the time and I noticed the code. Hard to unsee code I don't like.
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Thanks for your reply :)
Take your time, guys, it sounds like amazing work so far. I love this game. I'm the most excited for the RWG with the downtown districts and like the actual sidewalks and stuff.

 
73.6 %, I'd say. That's the percentage of statistics on the internet that are just made up so it seems probable.

 
wolfbain5 said:
@faatal another feral sense question. I have read that it extends in a 30 block radius. is that along the x and z axis only or also along the y? so basically I am 6 stories up a skyscraper, are zeds on the ground gonna feral sense me since they are technically less than 30 blocks away?
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It is in 3d. They can see in the direction their head is and hear all around. Feral Sense just makes the falloff with distance lower, so they see and hear farther.

Blake_ said:
We were told that the feral sense extends in every direction, but not in sleeper volumes. What that means is that you won't enter Dishong tower and instantly wake up 3 floors/stories of Zds. Feral sense would activate only when inside the sleeper volume in that case.

So for landscape Zds that don't spawn in sleeper volumes the feral sense would be in all directions all the time when turned on.

I have a question about crops.

Are crops being improved to 3d models in a20?
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Sleeper volumes don't even spawn zombies until you are near them, then those zombies are passive (can't see or hear) until you are at the edge of the volume, then feral sense matters.

Crops have no changes I'm aware of.

 
faatal said:
It is in 3d. They can see in the direction their head is and hear all around. Feral Sense just makes the falloff with distance lower, so they see and hear farther.

Sleeper volumes don't even spawn zombies until you are near them, then those zombies are passive (can't see or hear) until you are at the edge of the volume, then feral sense matters.
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Yes, I realized as I said it . Feral sense doesn't "activate" per se. It's just there for enemy entities as a coded property.

I have an inquiry about sleeper volumes. You say that they are passive (blind and deaf) until the player is at the edge. What about their feelings? (lol, I'll explain):

What if the player is outside the edge of the volume and sees the sleeper Zd and shoots it? Do they react? I seem to think they do based on experience, but I'm not sure.

So they don't see or hear... but do they register damage? Do they behave like normal once you hit them with a sniper rifle from afar? 

 
Blake_ said:
Yes, I realized as I said it . Feral sense doesn't "activate" per se. It's just there for enemy entities as a coded property.

I have an inquiry about sleeper volumes. You say that they are passive (blind and deaf) until the player is at the edge. What about their feelings? (lol, I'll explain):

What if the player is outside the edge of the volume and sees the sleeper Zd and shoots it? Do they react? I seem to think they do based on experience, but I'm not sure.

So they don't see or hear... but do they register damage? Do they behave like normal once you hit them with a sniper rifle from afar? 
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Damage or now also falling in A20 causes them to wake.

 
faatal said:
Damage or now also falling in A20 causes them to wake.
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Wait... falling doesn't happen without previous damage or a player proximity trigger for current sleepers. Ever. Does that mean that there are wandering sleepers already in the game?

 
Blake_ said:
Wait... falling doesn't happen without previous damage or a player proximity trigger for current sleepers. Ever. Does that mean that there are wandering sleepers already in the game?
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In A20, surprise, there are some switches that open doors where they drop and were then staying asleep.

You could also remove a block they were standing on.

 
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faatal said:
In A20, surprise, there are some switches that open doors where they drop and were then staying asleep.

You could also remove a block they were standing on.
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Thank goodness that new feature was tweaked then. Imagine a Night lady dropping asleep on top of you without waking up. Bad memories... bad memories I tell you.

 
wolfbain5 said:
i always thought the speaker alarm should attract zombies. I mean they are supposedly alerted to a thrown rock. so why does the speaker not affect them?
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I always wished you could select different alarms on the speaker. Please, let the sound designer add half a dozen options you can select from for each speaker!

Fanatical_Meat said:
yes and the thrown rock or snowball mechanics should be dumped. Haven’t done it to distract a zombie ever.

i have thrown stuff at players and that doesn’t work plus feels unsatisfying.
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I have done it a lot. It's useful when walking around at night before you have armor/guns/vehicle, and it is very useful at higher difficulties. Now, some people just stay cooped up inside their bases at night, or a POI early game, whereas other people think that's a waste of time. To each its own, but beware of how your own style affects what resources and tactics you use or not.

Morloc said:
There was a time when the night was a lot more terrifying. Lots of zombies, if you did anything, you'd lose cover and likely get killed, or have to run which was tricky to do if you wanted to hide again. Rocks were a thing then. In recent alphas, the only time I can recall REALLY wanting to be able to distract was with a mountain lion which had be trapped up on a mountain with a super-narrow road leading up. There were more critters everywhere, and they were impossible to fight for me at that point in the game. Stupid critters are immune to distraction though.

-Arch Necromancer Morloc
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Maybe that feral sense can do something about making nights dangerous again. 

faatal said:
In A20, surprise, there are some switches that open doors where they drop and were then staying asleep.

You could also remove a block they were standing on.
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Wait, what??? Nevermind the sleepers, tell me more about these door-opening switches on POIs!

 
dcsobral said:
Wait, what??? Nevermind the sleepers, tell me more about these door-opening switches on POIs!
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A few weeks ago, Lathan added a block trigger system which will be used for the restore power quest. Multiple triggers, like switches, can be on a layer and blocks, like doors, can respond to them by doing something such as opening or closing.

 
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