PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

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Anyone else notice glitches in the loot stage calculation in multi player?

My wife is level 36 and I am 40. She has Lucky Looter 3 and looter glasses +5. 

It looks like there is some bleed over occasionally where I get a loot stage bonus from her.  At one Forest Biome Tier1 (2?)  POI she and I both had a lootstage of 66. So far it has only led to an increase in my lootstage and perhaps an increase in hers ( I will have to keep closer attention) 

I can look deeper into it and get video and logs and witness testimony if need be, but just checking to see if its already a known issue or working as intended. 

 
In today's episode of "Where has my gyrocopter been teleported to when I start the game?"


Madmole explained a couple years back that vehicle tracking is separate from player tracking.  Depending on various variables it can take a few seconds and up to a minutes for it to 'catch up'.  This can be a big deal if you backup/copy game files outside of the game without exiting.  (Especially after just traveling with one.)  If you didn't travel far, you can try as Guppycur noted above and use LE in console.  If you traveled a 'great' distance you can try going back to where you last were with the vehicle.  (or last couple of places...)

 
Madmole explained a couple years back that vehicle tracking is separate from player tracking.  Depending on various variables it can take a few seconds and up to a minutes for it to 'catch up'.  This can be a big deal if you backup/copy game files outside of the game without exiting.  (Especially after just traveling with one.)  If you didn't travel far, you can try as Guppycur noted above and use LE in console.  If you traveled a 'great' distance you can try going back to where you last were with the vehicle.  (or last couple of places...)


I was able to retrieve it no problem, is was inside the POI. It's just a recurring issue with A20 with I think every vehicle at this stage? It was the first time it teleported to somewhere indoors 

 
I was able to retrieve it no problem, is was inside the POI. It's just a recurring issue with A20 with I think every vehicle at this stage? It was the first time it teleported to somewhere indoors 
FWIW, I haven't experienced any such issue while playing SP. There's evidently a lot of people with this issue, though. I've also seen people report vehicles _drifting_ by themselves and vehicles being dragged away by moving zombies or animals. The one issue I do have with vehicles is when they allegedly dip into the terrain and have to be pushed back, which stops them and makes them lose momentum.

The one issue I do have (with non-player entities like vehicles) often is turrets falling through blocks. The only thing I haven't seen them fall through is terrain.

I've a friend whose drone keeps getting duplicated. He suspects it might be due to a mod that increases the motorcycle speed. And I saw someone else report that every time they pick up & deploy the drone it loses durability. That one is extra weird.

And, of course, we must not forget the chicken and rabbit sliders.

Overall, it hasn't been a good alpha for entities.

 
In one of my saves, my bike was stalking me. The first time it happened, I got off my bike next to my drop box across the street from the trader, saw some zombies nearby and went to kill them. I was almost a block away and when I turned around my bike was right behind me. It was kinda creepy. LOL Another time I was killing a zombie and saw my bike just sort of slide past me. After that I just made a habit of picking it up. Already got zombies, don't need possessed bicycles. :D  

 
I would not mind seeing living off the land rank 3 changed to where you get a seed 100% of the time, but reduced food harvest, so that it works about to about the same thing. 

The main reason is that the RNG makes it so that I have to remember the number of farms I have, and craft that amount of seeds extra every time, which can also get confusing when crafting constant farms, or switching plants. 

I find that when I am playing in multiplayer, my partner is rushing me while I am wasting a bunch of time crafting seeds and counting my farms. 

Not a huge deal, but if i get 100% seeds back, then I can think about it less and play more. 

If it says the same though, you should probably remove the clay requirement for making mushroom seeds.  Made sense before, but now it is just kinda annoying.  Gotta keep an extra inventory slot filled with clay when farming them. 

 
This seems to be a problem. SI issue.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2710516593

I do not know how to post screenshots, so I hope this works.  You can copy paste this I believe.

I created this structure that is one wood block on the bottom.  It is 16 wood blocks wide on the top.  The few missing blocks in the center would cause the structure to fail.

I went as far out on the top as I could.  That's 11 blocks out I believe.  There was nothing stopping me from going higher.  In case the screenshot doesn't work This

structure is one wood block at the bottom.  22 wood blocks high. 16 wood blocks wide. extends out at the top 11 wood blocks.  Yes it all sits on one wood block at the bottom.

 
Hi everyone. I had a rough go with COVID during the holidays, so I couldn't find the energy/inspiration to play A20 stable until a few days ago, when I got back full strength.

Just wanted to congratulate TFP @madmole, @faatal @Kinyajuu and the QA Team (sorry, but I don't know every TFP account) for the great new alpha version you've come up with! The game is fun, the graphics (at least for me) are very pretty even on my average system, and performance (SP) is great.

Please keep ironing out the few remaining bugs/glitches, and I'm sure we players will play A20.x with great fun for months!

That, IMO, will also give you more time and less pressure from the community to push out A21 (lol).

 
Here are the 3 screenshots I uploaded earlier.

The first 2 are showing the popping in and out of different PIO's.

The 3rd shows a part of a PIO that stays in the same place.

In both cases you can walk trough the wrong parts.


That's an imposter (distant POI) mesh needing an update.

There will be a batch run to update all of them for the next release.

(I did a manual update on some city tile for the server I play on)

 
Hello @faatal!  I am interested in your opinion about the possibility or impossibility of drawing up a common navigation path for zombies? At least in POIs. Of course, this method of orientation is used on pre-modeled and indestructible terrain, but after all, the tile system and POI in a sense are small pre-modeled locations. And where the paths are broken (destroyed or built up), the "classic" method of path finding can already be included.
However, it is possible that I am talking some nonsense 😅

 
I'm enjoying A20 quite a bit, but one thing is really bugging me (even more than distant meshes not removing placed items as they get removed).

Stealth.

Virtually all the new POIs have danger close spawns.  Some are so bad they don't spawn till you are in the room and then do it right in front of you.

All are willing to spawn even though you have already made sure the area was clear (which is bulldung IMHO).

This makes it so one has to cheese to use stealth.  By cheese, I mean doing things like where the player is supposed to drop into a room, instead build a set of stairs down far enough you can descend in stealthily triggering the spawn without them spawning right next to you and instant waking.  It is weak sauce that break immersion but not as weak sauce as dropping into a room with a closed door and nothing in the room then getting jacked by 2 zombies that spawned in as you were falling into the room.  This is with full points in stealth and all stealth gear.

It is annoying to use a cheese built stairway, go down 2 blocks and WATCH zombies magically appear.  7 Days To Magic?

Stealth has no value on horde night and the only way to use it effectively outside horde night is to use cheese tactics (build stairs, break walls).  Honestly feel it could be removed as a skill and just everyone the same basic level since it wasting points on it is not worthwhile.

 
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I'm enjoying A20 quite a bit, but one thing is really bugging me (even more than distant meshes not removing placed items as they get removed).

Stealth.

Virtually all the new POIs have danger close spawns.  Some are so bad they don't spawn till you are in the room and then do it right in front of you.

All are willing to spawn even though you have already made sure the area was clear (which is bulldung IMHO).

This makes it so one has to cheese to use stealth.  By cheese, I mean doing things like where the player is supposed to drop into a room, instead build a set of stairs down far enough you can descend in stealthily triggering the spawn without them spawning right next to you and instant waking.  It is weak sauce that break immersion but not as weak sauce as dropping into a room with a closed door and nothing in the room then getting jacked by 2 zombies that spawned in as you were falling into the room.  This is with full points in stealth and all stealth gear.

It is annoying to use a cheese built stairway, go down 2 blocks and WATCH zombies magically appear.  7 Days To Magic?

Stealth has no value on horde night and the only way to use it effectively outside horde night is to use cheese tactics (build stairs, break walls).  Honestly feel it could be removed as a skill and just everyone the same basic level since it wasting points on it is not worthwhile.


Sneaking is probably going to get even worse with the clothing/character overhaul they have/had planned for A21 before they address how the changes/additions in A20 affected it.

 
It is annoying to use a cheese built stairway, go down 2 blocks and WATCH zombies magically appear.  7 Days To Magic?
I think that part could be addressed by the POI designer (at least partially).

But if you could decide a change, how would you handle "surprise spawns"? Any ideas?

 
This shouldn't work  but  it does .   

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But if you could decide a change, how would you handle "surprise spawns"? Any ideas?
"Surprise spawns" right nearby the player only inside closets or above the ceiling, therefore those spawns don't magically appear in front of the player's eyes but are rather hidden and one would not know whether the zombies have been waiting there forever or just spawned.

Sneaking is probably going to get even worse with the clothing/character overhaul they have/had planned for A21 before they address how the changes/additions in A20 affected it.
In A19 it was possible to clear an entire room with a sneaky approach. You could have killed a zombie with a bow / crossbow and another zombie standing right next to it would not wake up. Now the first bow / crossbow kill always wakes up the remaining zombies of that same group.

 
"Surprise spawns" right nearby the player only inside closets or above the ceiling, therefore those spawns don't magically appear in front of the player's eyes but are rather hidden and one would not know whether the zombies have been waiting there forever or just spawned.
Ok, that would cover small number spawns in rooms.

But what about those areas in POIs where the designer wants you to be, basically, ambushed?

Those are often bigger areas (like a warehouse or a big room) where you can't really hide the spawns from view.

 
Ok, that would cover small number spawns in rooms.

But what about those areas in POIs where the designer wants you to be, basically, ambushed?

Those are often bigger areas (like a warehouse or a big room) where you can't really hide the spawns from view.
If it's the desire by the designers to have "ambush rooms" then those rooms need to be designed in a way where zombie spawns are hidden. That can be done by cleverly-placed objects or a wall/ceiling that breaks. If zombies are popping out of thin air, it kinda breaks the immersion.

Honestly, I've never experienced anything like this prior to A20. I'm not sure what changed, but stealth definitely feels broken. They should either find a way to fix it or remove stealth as a mechanic. These are two separate issues, though. Zombie surprise spawns should be fixed.

 
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