PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Blake_]

They DID choose a modular system for zombies and had to abandon it due to performance issues. I just have to point out that a lot of their constraints are due to the world being voxel but diehard critics are gonna hate me for pointing that out either way...

They chose an easy path sometime ago (U M A) ... and then decided to do it the easy way (individual models) but repeated the process several times until it became waaaaAaay more time consuming, when a character creator with Zd stuff could've been made from scratch with lesser fuss in about the same time as those 3 tryouts.

That was a mistake and resulted in huge costs, mainly in gameplay for us. An in-house modular character creator system would've consumed a lot less texture space with more variety as a result and way less repetition. 

Plz fix thiz or I quit breezin'

 

[night.owl]

I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times, but I have wondered since I played this game on my Xbox YEARS ago; is animal husbandry and taming animals (wolves, chickens, boars, (bears :0)) ever gonna be a feature discussed in this game? The drones are a new addition to the game that give me the vibe of a "companion" system and it almost seems to me like it's yall dipping your toes into the idea of having tamable dogs that can fight for you. I think the idea of a vulture you can tame and give a backpack for extra storage or something is super cool.

Also will there ever be an option to switch the military time to am/pm?

 

[POCKET951]

how far away are we from dev streams showing stuff off?? will they be in 2022?  Is A21 far enough along that we can start hyping it up soon?

 

[RipClaw]

I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times, but I have wondered since I played this game on my Xbox YEARS ago; is animal husbandry and taming animals (wolves, chickens, boars, (bears :0)) ever gonna be a feature discussed in this game?

I doubt it. The drone was chosen as a companion so that many problems with pathing could be avoided. An animal walking on the ground would cause a lot more problems.

There are some mods that integrate taming in some form but don't make it too complicated. In the experimental version of the Undead Legacy mod you can pick up chickens and craft a chicken coop. This then provides you with a constant supply of eggs.

 

[Doomofman]

how far away are we from dev streams showing stuff off?? will they be in 2022?  Is A21 far enough along that we can start hyping it up soon?

I think someone suggested we might start to see some movement after TwitchCon but that post has since disappeared

 

[Melange]

yall dipping your toes into the idea of having tamable dogs

We have chili dogs, no tamale dogs yet. Oh, you said tameable? My bad. No tamale dogs for you, their pathing doesn't let them fly...at least before you eat them. It's been mentioned recently. Woud be nice to have a Rin Tin Tin, but I wouldn't want to be tripping over the mutt all of the time...

 

[Riamus]

Hi,

While i'm not the type of person that would complain about others efforts and work, i still have some concerns regarding the ART for ART team of this game, simply because i care very much about this game in particular.

It is nice to see finally some effort to add some variety of different vehicles to the game. While this is not a top 100% priority, i still think that the art team has a lot more to offer than what we got in the twitter updates...

1) The vehicle surfaces look like concrete painted with shiny paint and rust mask on top. That is simply not how car paints work -> paints are designed to protect the metal sheets from rusting away.
TLR not convincing enough. Make paint shiny, then peel off, then add rust. Also, add rust to areas which would be the most affected in real life (wheel fenders, sharp corners) most vunerable areas, you get the idea.

2) Lack of detail. Even as a prop, the vehicles are lacking detail. Especially the interior missing is a big dissapointment, considering the previous vehicles always had some sort of interior. TIP: copy paste old interiors from the car we got not and place it accordingly in new cars. Should look convincing enough.

3) Manage your team. I know this is a little cheeky statement, but it feels like there is not enough motivation from artists. It is simple to throw some automated materials in Substance painter, but the real magic is to make them convincing. (Which is simply not the case here)


Best of wishes to this game, I pray for it every day.

Thank you FP

Personally, I'm with Roland on this one.  Yes, rust isn't in accurate places, though after the years the cards have been sitting, it could easily cover much of the car.  For me, that's accurate enough.  For interior, I never look closely enough.

If much rather that if they spend time on car props that they add more types of vehicles. I'd love to see one sedan (already have this), one coupe, one pickup, one SUV, one minivan.  It would add more variety and feel more real.

 

[Blake_]

@Roland do you know if at the upcoming Twitchcon we'll get an a21 stream EVERY day or is it just the one with just the Twitch integration stuff and none of the other things in depth? I'm actually curious about the speed at which the hype train should move.

 

[Roland]

@Roland do you know if at the upcoming Twitchcon we'll get an a21 stream EVERY day or is it just the one with just the Twitch integration stuff and none of the other things in depth? I'm actually curious about the speed at which the hype train should move.

Sadly I'm not involved and I don't know. The promos mention showing new A21 twitch features and that is probably what we should let live in our expectations and no more. Someone already mentioned that Lathan has been showing A21 twitch stuff in his A20 build he plays on Twitch so it is possible they may not even show actual A21 footage in order to show off the new twitch features. Let's expect that and then be surprised if it is more than that.

is animal husbandry and taming animals (wolves, chickens, boars, (bears :0)) ever gonna be a feature discussed in this game?

Only as a mod. Its a definite no for the vanilla game.

The drones are a new addition to the game that give me the vibe of a "companion" system and it almost seems to me like it's yall dipping your toes into the idea of having tamable dogs that can fight for you.

They already dipped their toe into the idea of having tamable dogs but it was acid so they recoiled and went with the drone instead. Sorry, but the drone is the fallback position and not the initial foray.

I think the idea of a vulture you can tame and give a backpack for extra storage or something is super cool.

The vultures are all zombies. They aren't represented as living actual vultures. I only say this because we get a lot of feedback from people complaining that the vultures don't really behave like real vultures. We know. They're Zombie Vultures. Going along with this notion they cannot be tamed because their overriding compulsion is to eat you. Not even THIS would work...

 

[falloutcloud]

This^, they would save much more time on z's with modular way, they instead chose easy way out. But it can still be fixed, they would just need to take them apart and shape them around the parts that would be modular for more flexibility to allow for more variation... It is never too late

This sounds like it would take a lot of work and time to change. I believe they're trying to finish up their current features and get the game to gold which is probably the best business decision as they can start hyping the fans up with their next projects. Like 7 Days to Die 2: Fortnight

 

[Jost Amman]

This^, they would save much more time on z's with modular way, they instead chose easy way out. But it can still be fixed, they would just need to take them apart and shape them around the parts that would be modular for more flexibility to allow for more variation... It is never too late

I suppose switching to a new modular system for zombie models would entail a complete rework also of the animation system?

 

[Guppycur]

I suppose switching to a new modular system for zombie models would entail a complete rework also of the animation system?

Naw, you bake all of the variants into the animation then just turn the meshes on and off at spawn.

So I'd take a base zombie, give it a pink jacket.  Then I'd add a blue jacket.  I'd rig it with both on.

During spawn, I'd decide to show no jacket, the pink one, or the blue one.

...this is the method I use.

There's probably a *much* better method I'm simply not aware of. 

...but since I'm using the same mesh for the jackets, it's just the texture that gets added.

Can probably do some cool shader stuff in code on the jacket to achieve the same effect without the extra textures. 

 

[mstdv inc]

Zombies with different clothes, maybe accessories or even primitive melee weapons fit perfectly into the current game.But to all those who want a variety of zombies like in DL or L4D.Don't you think that zombies are a faceless mass there?Can you quickly remember what at least a dozen zombies from these games look like?In 7D2D, every zombie is unique, he is a personality, he is a zombie personality I don't know how for others, for me they have already become something more than a faceless mass.They have names, unique looks, and some have unique sounds and animations.Hello, Arlene, hold the bat on the head!Hey fatty, catch an arrow!Spider enough screaming and so my head hurts! Woof?Do I hear woof?It hurts Wolf.Mr. Ferral is a wolf! A damn bird that cosplays a headcrab and wants to jump on my head! I know you all.I'm glad to see you.Do I have something similar to zombies from other games?Very unlikely.

A variety of zombies will not hurt.But only within the framework of this game.Taking whole chunks of other games and trying to cram them in here is not right.

 

[Evilracc0on]

 So I come with a very sincere request, this morning my friend passed away who was our group builder and I was hoping that there was a sneaky way you could add him as a Easter egg, we played this game all time. He passed away at the age of 55 in a car accident. His IGN was Saintwulf. if need a photo or something, I can provide something. 

 

[alexd]

So, why the change in the water "rebalance"?
Is it unrealistic to have water stored in jars? 

Where will we be able to store water for long term use?
As a beginner, I found it annoying to constantly rehydrate.
I don't drink that much water in real life why should I have to in a pretend world game. 
I like realism but if it gets to the point where I'm doing the same thing as in real life

then it defeats the purpose of escapism. Just saying. smh
 

 

[Syphon583]

So, why the change in the water "rebalance"?

To make survival in the game harder. The survival aspect is incredibly easy right now.

Is it unrealistic to have water stored in jars? 

No, but if you think about the multitude or other liquids, foods, chemicals that come in containers in the game, most of them already don't return an empty container. It's not only about making the game more challenging, but it's more consistent.

Where will we be able to store water for long term use?

Water is still represented as a unit of liquid in a jar. The removal of an empty jar doesn't change that. Water will still be stored the same way it always has (though there's talk that stack sizes might change). The only difference is that once you drink it, the "jar" is not returned.

As a beginner, I found it annoying to constantly rehydrate.
I don't drink that much water in real life why should I have to in a pretend world game. 
I like realism but if it gets to the point where I'm doing the same thing as in real life

then it defeats the purpose of escapism. Just saying. smh

I get a little lost here. You say that in real life, you don't drink water that much, but then you argue that this game is being too realistic by making you drink water too often? Regardless, I'm curious what you think is too much rehydration. Unless you're spending the majority of the day doing high-stamina activity like mining, you shouldn't have to drink more than 2-3 drinks a day in-game. Compare that to real life where you really should drink a lot more than that. This game is hardly realistic in that respect.

 

[alexd]

@Syphon583 

In the beginning of the game, I was drinking about 8 drinks a day probably because I was chopping wood a lot, breaking rocks, and having to explore to make a camp.
A lot to do in the beginning to prepare to survive for the first night.
(Many are now saying that drinking 8 glasses of water is not needed in real life. Which if that's what the game is trying to get me to do, I don't realistically do that but that's

probably a whole different discussion.)

I just feel that spending a lot of time getting water plus food on top of that could be a turn off for some beginners.
At this point, of course I would adopt but let's not make it too difficult for the beginner.
I also I believe taking too much time seeking water and food can or may be time consuming and can takes the focus away from the other fun tasks of the game.
Some of us only have so much time per week to spend on the game. 
I do enjoy the game. My family and I play it every Friday night  but that's about it. Not much other time so it takes time to achieve other
objectives especially if we are worrying too much about water and food.

I just wanted to throw that out there. I hope everything works out.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.
 

 

[meganoth]

@Syphon583 

In the beginning of the game, I was drinking about 8 drinks a day probably because I was chopping wood a lot, breaking rocks, and having to explore to make a camp.
A lot to do in the beginning to prepare to survive for the first night.
(Many are now saying that drinking 8 glasses of water is not needed in real life. Which if that's what the game is trying to get me to do, I don't realistically do that but that's

probably a whole different discussion.)

I just feel that spending a lot of time getting water plus food on top of that could be a turn off for some beginners.
At this point, of course I would adopt but let's not make it too difficult for the beginner.
I also I believe taking too much time seeking water and food can or may be time consuming and can takes the focus away from the other fun tasks of the game.
Some of us only have so much time per week to spend on the game. 
I do enjoy the game. My family and I play it every Friday night  but that's about it. Not much other time so it takes time to achieve other
objectives especially if we are worrying too much about water and food.

I just wanted to throw that out there. I hope everything works out.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.
 

8 per day is too much. Are you drinking only water jars?

Make tea and you will get 2,5 times as much water out of a jar. Later you can make pure mineral water that is 6 times better

 

[flukebreaker]

When you max out a skill, the probability bonus granted by perks for finding the corresponding magazine for that skill drops off.

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but has anyone pushed back on this? This seems senseless. What's the advantage to this? The books aren't taking the place of other loot, and still have value even once the skill is maxed (either selling, or sharing with co-ops), so why drop off the advantage we earned? This would also incentivize hovering at 99/100, for instance, which is a very odd incentive to give a player.

 

[Doomofman]

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but has anyone pushed back on this? This seems senseless. What's the advantage to this? The books aren't taking the place of other loot, and still have value even once the skill is maxed (either selling, or sharing with co-ops), so why drop off the advantage we earned? This would also incentivize hovering at 99/100, for instance, which is a very odd incentive to give a player.

If you only needed 1 more magazine to finish Shotguns, why would you hold off just to keep collecting more Shotgun magazines over other kinds of magazines?