PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[Burrfly]

I'm looking forward to alpha 20 a lot - probably the most out of all updates

I love the new POI's and the RWG looks amazing from the few screenshots we've seen. The feral sense option is really nice, vehicle paint (finally!!!), the new shapes, gamestage balance, that's all amazing

But I am personally sad about 1 thing, which is no hate, but I just wanted to say it: the simplifying of the build path...

For me that's just a loss of variation, creativity (and sometimes even strategy) for a base. It's also sad that wet concrete is being removed, as that gave players a tiny little challenge to think about: if it will be dry in time if necessary. The rebar frames allowed you to pick it up and actually also made it look cooler like progress was being made if you saw some frames not being filled with concrete yet, like in real life, like a new building that is being made - in the beginning you mostly see frames and bars.

7 Days to Die is my favourite game, but personally, simplifying doesn't feel well to do for this game. Same goes with the player armor which will be heavily simplified in alpha 21. Simplifying means less variation, more repeating, and thus: playthroughs feeling a little bit less unique.

 

[POCKET951]

 I answered this somewhere else but it bears repeating. There are only wood frames (particle board) left in the game as far as frames that can be placed and picked up. They upgrade to wood for 10 wood which upgrades to cobblestone for 10 cobblestone which upgrades to Concrete for 10 Concrete Mix which upgrades to Steel for 10 Steel.

There are no frames in the game that go directly to steel or concrete or cobblestone. You can craft those blocks and place them using the shape menu or you upgrade to them paying the cost of each resource as you go through the path. If you want to plan using particle board then you place it where you want and then pick it up to replace it with your concrete block but there is no rebar any longer just as cobblestone frames and junk metal frames are no longer.

wood frames(particle board) -> Wood -> Cobblestone -> Concrete -> Steel

That is the whole path and with a nail gun it would be 3 clicks and cost you 10 wood, 10 cobblestone rocks, and 10 concrete mix. There is no need to differentiate what you have in your inventory because you never have to choose this or that mat. It just follows the path.

so in Alpha 19 going from particle board to Steel yielded a total of  1056 Experience

can you give us a rough idea how much exp we will get for doing the same process in alpha 20?

 

[Jugom]

In A20 will the nail gun get a radial menu so we can select what material to upgrade with? (Similarly to how we change ammo types in weapons.)

I came to ask this too.
there's a massive time difference between upgrading rebar to concrete and upgrading particle box >> wood>>stone>> concrete. not only in upgrade clicks, but also farming raws.  so I really hope they add something that that radial upgrade menu.

 

[Kosmic Kerman]

 I answered this somewhere else but it bears repeating. There are only wood frames (particle board) left in the game as far as frames that can be placed and picked up. They upgrade to wood for 10 wood which upgrades to cobblestone for 10 cobblestone which upgrades to Concrete for 10 Concrete Mix which upgrades to Steel for 10 Steel.

There are no frames in the game that go directly to steel or concrete or cobblestone. You can craft those blocks and place them using the shape menu or you upgrade to them paying the cost of each resource as you go through the path. If you want to plan using particle board then you place it where you want and then pick it up to replace it with your concrete block but there is no rebar any longer just as cobblestone frames and junk metal frames are no longer.

wood frames(particle board) -> Wood -> Cobblestone -> Concrete -> Steel

That is the whole path and with a nail gun it would be 3 clicks and cost you 10 wood, 10 cobblestone rocks, and 10 concrete mix. There is no need to differentiate what you have in your inventory because you never have to choose this or that mat. It just follows the path.

Thanks for clarifying this Roland. I am going to miss rebar. I always viewed building in rebar as part of the progression system. I always found early bases tedious with the wood->cobblestone->concrete upgrade pipeline. I greatly appreciated the ability to build in rebar (especially since rebar as a metal material block could hold more weight).  You could lay out an entire base and not have to worry too much about SI. Depending on the weight characteristics of the new frames we may have to upgrade as we go since the A19 wood frames have SI limitations that rebar does not. I also appreciated rebar frames because breaking misplaced blocks is one of my least favorite activities in 7dtd. I will reserve judgment, however, to see how tedious it is to layout a base with the new frames and replace with full blocks in A20. It's a shame that it was deemed not possible (or desirable) to have both starter building frames (particle board) and advanced building frames (rebar).

 

[A Nice Cup of Tea]

 I answered this somewhere else but it bears repeating. There are only wood frames (particle board) left in the game as far as frames that can be placed and picked up. They upgrade to wood for 10 wood which upgrades to cobblestone for 10 cobblestone which upgrades to Concrete for 10 Concrete Mix which upgrades to Steel for 10 Steel.

Given the new unified system, does that mean that all the different types of block can now start as particle board? Previously things like bars, walkways, and stairs had to be made directly in wood rather than starting as frames, and therefore couldn't be placed experimentally and picked up again.

Or do some shapes still skip the particle-board stage?

Also, do the particle board versions of block have the same SI as wood, so we can build out of them and upgrade to wood without the heavier wood blocks collapsing if we do our upgrades in the wrong order?

 

[Matt115]

Well my opinion about what we saw in new stream : 

1. <JOKE> What the hell ? Lespank  - I didn't know TFP hired @SnowDog1942. This sound like shop with BDSM toys. Or zombie kids are still consider ( you know : some parents  spank their kids so maybe zombie parents spank zombie kids too XXD) 

Okay but now more serious: 

What is good :

new props - posters, instructions on walls,  gym stuff, posters of missing people, new brands of shops, new pictures on wall, new machines , menu, spiral staircase , new cars etc

Pois- this destroyed church and shops are rly good, this one Poi with "last stand" ( 2 bodies shoes, clothes sandbags wooden door a lot of spike) is just amazing and could be perfect for lore, book store and primal is just perfect XD honestly rly cool idea and good implementation

+-  

props - new chair looks too "bright" like if it was ported from source engine, benches in church looks like new -  add few destroyed benches would be good change in this POI but rest of this poi is good, in next shop it could be added some dvd and toys props on metal shefs because it's looks too empty

POI - well some of them especially  first one looks too much like buildings from Painkiller - if you want to understand what i mean watch screens of maps :  Prison, docks , asylum, Lab , military base ( honestly military truck from 7dtd looks so similiar to painkiller military truck). This is not nothing bad but it looks so similiar with style.

What is bad : 

Well there any new corpse models. I think 5-6 more should be added because in some POI you can find this same corpse. honestly - there is a lot of types of toilet but i think most people don't look to much on them. So more corpes allowed to create more immersive POI

AND LAST THING! WHY THEY DIDN'T SHOW US NEWSSTANDS 

 

[dcsobral]

Here's something I found particularly informative in the stream: alpha 20 frames work mostly like alpha 19 frames but they are no longer see-through. If you want a solid cube, you place a solid cube. You can still pick it up, you can still upgrade it, the only difference is that you can't see through it. I saw old-style cube and ramp frames among the shapes, so I'm assuming when you upgrade them they retain their shape so you could, say, make an "invisible" steel wall of cube frames allowing you to see and shoot through them. Here's the clip where I deduced most of this from: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugzfc6T7ATIcLFIJbzZ4AaABCQ

(original twitch clip is gone: https://clips.twitch.tv/SnappyLongJalapenoMoreCowbell-ZIPgTUocppDhiBhd )

 

[Laz Man]

I'm looking forward to alpha 20 a lot - probably the most out of all updates

I love the new POI's and the RWG looks amazing from the few screenshots we've seen. The feral sense option is really nice, vehicle paint (finally!!!), the new shapes, gamestage balance, that's all amazing

But I am personally sad about 1 thing, which is no hate, but I just wanted to say it: the simplifying of the build path...

For me that's just a loss of variation, creativity (and sometimes even strategy) for a base. It's also sad that wet concrete is being removed, as that gave players a tiny little challenge to think about: if it will be dry in time if necessary. The rebar frames allowed you to pick it up and actually also made it look cooler like progress was being made if you saw some frames not being filled with concrete yet, like in real life, like a new building that is being made - in the beginning you mostly see frames and bars.

7 Days to Die is my favourite game, but personally, simplifying doesn't feel well to do for this game. Same goes with the player armor which will be heavily simplified in alpha 21. Simplifying means less variation, more repeating, and thus: playthroughs feeling a little bit less unique.

I appreciate you sharing your initial thoughts on the change.  Hopefully this change will be something that players get use to quickly.

Keep in mind with all of the new shapes added, builders will have a more options in their builds and thus more opportunities for creativity. 

As a side note, a player house made of frame shapes looks very immersive, akin to how real houses look like before all of the exterior materials are layered on top.

At the end of the day, hopefully it is a net positive change.

 

[Matt115]

I appreciate you sharing your initial thoughts on the change.  Hopefully this change will be something that players get use to quickly.

Keep in mind with all of the new shapes added, builders will have a more options in their builds and thus more opportunities for creativity. 

As a side note, a player house made of frame shapes looks very immersive, akin to how real houses look like before all of the exterior materials are layered on top.

Well do you know something about changes in exp ? Because well  upgrading was so good exp grinder. Well simplifying we be good for quick base builiding but if we will get less exp from doing this it will be so sad

 

[Jugom]

@Roland what can you say about the horizontal support of the particle block tho?  will it only allow us to build as if wood frames? 

 

[Roland]

@Roland what can you say about the horizontal support of the particle block tho?  will it only allow us to build as if wood frames? 

I'm not going to say anything else regarding this as that is something I believe @faatal may want to talk about either here or in his stream. He worked on some things in this area of the game.

 

[Blake_]

I loved the selfless approach to child labor from the last stream. That, and All the POIs shown.

 

[doughphunghus]

I don't want to say it was aliens but it was ALIENS

Beldar. Approves.

 

[dcsobral]

What I do wish was coming to alpha 20, but there's no sign that's the case, is the slot locking for the inventory stash buttons. And vehicles, now that I think about it.

 

[Ianua]

Ok. I'm sure someone asked this here or in another thread, but since we are getting closer to A20, here it is. Is FOV going to be adjustable to 100 or so?  I'm another one of those motion sick gamers, I play only with family and none of us uses the "I can see thru the wall or world" aspect of the FOV.  I'll still play 7D2D but play time will be increments of 15mins if I have to go outside and walk around.

 

[Roland]

Ok. I'm sure someone asked this here or in another thread, but since we are getting closer to A20, here it is. Is FOV going to be adjustable to 100 or so?  I'm another one of those motion sick gamers, I play only with family and none of us uses the "I can see thru the wall or world" aspect of the FOV.  I'll still play 7D2D but play time will be increments of 15mins if I have to go outside and walk around.

There have been no changes to FOV and none are planned for A20 as far as I have heard.

Taking periodic walks outside after 15 minutes of play does sound annoying but also incredibly more healthy than what I do...

 

[jeromeN7]

At least if the FOV console command allowed people to change it past 85, that would be amazing. Given the choice I'd prefer to play at 100 degrees FOV.

I can't stress it enough. It's so important to move your monitor further away from your point of view as you lower your FOV. The other option is to get a smaller monitor.

 

[MechanicalLens]

The following is just a joke. If you can't see it as such, calm your farm.


Dev stream highlights:

- TFP have removed zombies from the game. The primary audience will now be E for Everyone.

- TFP have removed all POI's from the game. Their goal is to have 7D2D running on Windows XP and Windows Vista computers, and they are now the primary targeted demographic.

- Jumping has been removed. This was a very confusing mechanic that might frustrate new players.

- Sprinting has been removed, same reasons as above. - The ability for the player to move around has been removed, same reasons as above.

- The default mode is God Mode, which cannot be turned off. This will ensure that players will never die, which was a major complaint from all demographics.

- The skill system has been reworked; it was too complicated before. The only skill left is called "Skill" and it does nothing.

- Guns have been removed.

- RWG and Navezgane have been removed. The replacement is a world called "Gray" which is just a giant concrete slab. This will simplify gameplay even further to minimize chance of bad reviews.

- If you ever back out of the game, your local law enforcement will be notified and a patty wagon will be on its way. As of A20 it will be considered a federal crime to quit 7D2D.

 

[MajorMunchy]

Now ive just caught up, i see that there are the pipe variant of weapons. do the stun batons STILL only have T1 and T2? i never saw a T3 or atleast an explanation as to why? i figured the drone would be T3 but that no longer shoots zombies sooooo what do INT people have now...? is there some sort of gun being added? Always wondered why TFP didnt just add a stun gun lol

 

[Darklegend222]

Now ive just caught up, i see that there are the pipe variant of weapons. do the stun batons STILL only have T1 and T2? i never saw a T3 or atleast an explanation as to why? i figured the drone would be T3 but that no longer shoots zombies sooooo what do INT people have now...? is there some sort of gun being added? Always wondered why TFP didnt just add a stun gun lol

INT still has everything it had before, if not a bit more with a mention of extra traps in the latest dev stream, plus you get a drone, even if it doesn't shoot (i think you need a mod for that, but I'm not sure so take my words with caution.)