PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

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Some feedback, I think dysentery should be removed and it be replaced with another food poisoning mechanic, maybe even just straight up lowering health on raw food consumption. The items that cure dysentery in this state of game, well the cure just feels like it's a useless benefit currently. 

And I also have a question, is random world gen faster if the game runs on SSD?

dcsobral said:
So, stealth seems broken. All padded armor, moving around crouched at night with all the books and a point in From The Shadows but I can't through a single room in a tier 2 POI without disturbing zombies. Even wrenching inconvenient lights beforehand. I'll take it for granted that this will be looked into but meanwhile...

Can we get rid of the need for a person to be crouched to get the sneak attack bonus? Crouching helps avoid detection, but if the zombie has not detected you then you shouldn't be penalized for not being crouched. It's not like there's any bonus to hitting an aware zombie while crouched. Reward the act of sneaking, not the mechanic of crouching.
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I haven't had this issue. For me they jump out at you but if you hide far enough away they still don't see you. I will test more.

 
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Khalagar said:
Dog weaker, boar aggro on sight, it all balances out.  Madmole has been stealth buffing the bear as well, and that thing is a holy terror, I got absolutely shredded by one while wearing almost full steel armor with an autoshotgun. I *did* die one of my only deaths to a stupid dire wolf too
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The bear will probably be my character's death, that or something in the wastelands!  But doing fine so far with my fifth dead-is-dead character at day 49. 

A20 is a tougher game and I'm hyped on it again!

Every morning before I leave the fort I walk around my walls looking for bears, wolves or any other thing that's a potential threat.  I got a full row of meat in a chest (and over a full row of meat stew) because of my morning routine!  :)

 
More feedback on A20 so far, there's something wrong with the traders. It seems like the game world is more fun without them currently. Just exploring the wilderness. The quests give too much reward I'd say.

Aldranon said:
The bear will probably be my character's death, that or something in the wastelands!  But doing fine so far with my fifth dead-is-dead character at day 49. 

A20 is a tougher game and I'm hyped on it again!

Every morning before I leave the fort I walk around my walls looking for bears, wolves or any other thing that's a potential threat.  I got a full row of meat in a chest (and over a full row of meat stew) because of my morning routine!  :)
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You playing Permadeath too? That seems the most fun way to go solo. I'm running everything nightmare speed with daytime running and 300% ai damage to make it extra fun.

 
Roland said:
Depends on when you started playing most likely.  To me, the game is still firmly on the RPG end of the spectrum compared to when I first started. 
 

To someone who started in the last few alphas, some of the changes may seem like a trend towards FPS, but to me it is just a small fluctuation and one that will probably continue until the devs settle on the exact mixture they want for this hybrid genre busting game. 
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I would say the game has progressed towards more action rather than survival focus. Which is not entirely bad, it does make it more accessible. Progression still is super fast though, hundreds of rounds of ammo day 1-2 along with pipe weapons.

Still with the view it's a Tower Defense game, I really do hope next alpha actually focuses on that and gives us a bunch more trap types to use. We've essentially had the same traps now for years with no new additions, even some that were eagerly anticipated back in A16-A17 like fire turret, piston crusher and what have you.  Adding a few more trap types at the very least would be greatly in line with being a tower defense game ambition :) Just look at Night Of The Dead which has a huge number of traps, and while the overall game is nowhere near as good as 7DTD, that aspect is a huge draw as people love making traps :)

 
Tmodloader said:
More feedback on A20 so far, there's something wrong with the traders. It seems like the game world is more fun without them currently. Just exploring the wilderness. The quests give too much reward I'd say.

You playing Permadeath too? That seems the most fun way to go solo. I'm running everything nightmare speed with daytime running and 300% ai damage to make it extra fun.
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Permadeath is the only way to really get that survival feeling IMO.  Your settings are respectable for sure, but for me, with "dead-is-dead", I feel the danger more.

 
Aldranon said:
Permadeath is the only way to really get that survival feeling IMO.  Your settings are respectable for sure, but for me, with "dead-is-dead", I feel the danger more.
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I'm doing the same, I totally understand what you mean, how do you deal with traders for the best survival feel? I'm trying to figure out how to have fun with them but I realized going quest to quest is quite boring so I haven't even gone to my first one on my newest run. Survival feeling is pretty great just going out and doing your own thing but I want to put int trader perks to work if possible.

 
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Tmodloader said:
I'm doing the same, I totally understand what you mean, how do you deal with traders? I'm trying to figure out how to have fun with them but I realized going quest to quest is quite boring so I haven't even gone to my first one on my newest run.
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I still use them, just like I use the best weapons I find and crank out and much ammo as I can.

I find the traders to be extremally underwhelming as I don't have any trader perks.  As far as the huge amount of dukes you get there, some of the dukes get turned into bullet casings in my forge.  I now have almost a full secure chest worth of ammo!

So, to get my latest character to die, it will have to be some type of ambush or surprise attack.   Probably in the wasteland as that is a scary place!  :)

 
Aldranon said:
I still use them, just like I use the best weapons I find and crank out and much ammo as I can.

I find the traders to be extremally underwhelming as I don't have any trader perks.  As far as the huge amount of dukes you get there, some of the dukes get turned into bullet casings in my forge.  I now have almost a full secure chest worth of ammo!

So, to get my latest character to die, it will have to be some type of ambush or surprise attack.   Probably in the wasteland as that is a scary place!  :)
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Is there any reason not to just run quests over and over all game if you use the traders? 

 
Laz Man said:
Can't say I remember a past alpha where exploration was more rewarding / immersive than it is now.  More POIs added/updated  then ever, the tile system more seamlessly connects everything in different configurations.  POis don't repeat within the same towns/cities like in the past.

It should only continue to get better. As more POIs and tiles get added.  Keep in mind different variations of each tile type can be made quickly for even more variety. (E.g. downtown_straight_02, 03, 04)
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Well.... In my opinion, while exploration is THE BEST it's ever been, there's a sizeable factor that's missing from ancient alphas: virtually endless underground exploration, with huge cave systems and stuff like that (it was pretty basic (and dangerous) back in the perlin worm days, but the feeling of the unknown underground became a wonderful memory from the time).

Well, we have sewers, and they are amazing if a bit lacking in depth. It's a start. This game will become a tech dream if it manages to pull off extreme underground exploration.

 
Tmodloader said:
Is there any reason not to just run quests over and over all game if you use the traders? 
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Of course!  Its boring to do them repeatedly, for me.  But, I'm sure some people like just that exactly.

I'm doing the tier 5 quests and I'm sure I will do each one... eventually.  But I will not do them over again during this playthrough.

 
Zombiepoptard said:
I've been playing for 8hr where the H E double hockey sticks is the special infected? I want to see at least one in every quest. 
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Have you been to the wasteland? If you mean the green dude with the bubbly top who looks like a mutated asparagus with limbs, he is ALL OVER the place in the wasteland. Spits at you like a cop and is super annoying.

 
Tmodloader said:
Is there any reason not to just run quests over and over all game if you use the traders? 
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Agreed. Traders and airdrops just feel like they don't belong in the game (hey, we outside have a fully working economy, sending you airdrops, but we don't bother to pick you up). It feels like elements taken from other games and just implemented here, but they rather take away from survival and sandbox than add to it. 

I made my peace with them, though. Playing and not using them feels wrong as well, so _I shrug my shoulders and swim with the flow ... 

 
Noctoras said:
Traders and airdrops just feel like they don't belong in the game (hey, we outside have a fully working economy, sending you airdrops, but we don't bother to pick you up).
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But that's why it's great that there is an option to disable airdrops. Personally I like airdrops every 3 days because when you hear the airplane flying over I'm instantly like 'airdrop!!!!' And I find it fun to then go there and I'm happy that airdrops don't have a very OP reward but I agree that traders give too much away, especially ammo, in their quest rewards

 
For traders, I just think the rewards are overtuned a bit, if that was less, they wouldn't feel as mandatory... maybe. The exploration survival part of this game without them is great though.

 
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