PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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@Roland I guess it´s magic that you aren´t able to get water from a lake. Would fit with other "quirky" features like the invisible magic barrier for sleepers, where you can fully blast with your M60 plus using grenades 5m away from them and they don´t react, but if you approach them from the opposite direction they can hear you sneaking from 20m away. Yeah, all the things that could have been solved feeling way less artifical and more natural really do make the game unique, i gotta give you that.

 
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pApA^LeGBa said:
@Roland I guess it´s magic that you aren´t able to get water from a lake. Would fit with other "quirky" features like the invisible magic barrier for sleepers, where you can fully blast with your M60 plus using grenades 5m away from them and they don´t react, but if you approach them from the opposite direction they can hear you sneaking from 20m away. Yeah, all the things that could have been solved feeling way less artifical and more natural really do make the game unique, i gotta give you that.
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Unfortunately, a limitation of the sleeper system and managing multiple entities in a seamless open world multiplayer environment with no loading screens.  Not a simple task mind you.

Perhaps there is a better way out there, but would need to be evaluated for the next game.

 
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Roland said:
Now see? I'm already somewhat out of the loop. I don't know whether "Next alpha" means A21 or A22. I suspect A22 but I could be wrong. The team is working on all sorts of things some of which will make A21 and some of which will come in A22 and as far as I know the new outfit system was coming in A22 with bandits. The tweet isn't super clear with no numbers mentioned. To the players the next alpha is still A21 but to many of the developers the next alpha is A22 because they are already testing A21...

Maybe @Crater Creator will update the first page with this announcement so we know!
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I can confirm "the next Alpha" here is referring to Alpha 22. :)

 
armidil0 said:
Thanks for the reply. 🙂

I'm glad you can still hit the doors. I like to help the zombies break them if they're taking too long with it. I wonder if a dog or crawler/jumping zombie can hit you back through it since they're at waist level too. And when bandits get added I hope they can also hit and shoot through it. Holes should go both ways. 😅
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Also, yes. They go both ways. Zds can hit you through the holes because the new 3d assets (in this case doors, hatches) were designed to be hollow in those specific spots either upon taking damage or by design ( i.e. in some POIs with "already broken" doors).

There's a bunch of little things coming this alpha that will make us blush. Dew Collector, ew. Parking tickets (TBA). And Snowdog's favourite.... ah, yes: Spears through doors.

 
meganoth said:
I don't think gear (aka weapons or armor) is a problem at all. A miner/builder type single player can make money too and with money can simply buy weapons and armor at the trader and make ammo himself.  His only problems are workstations and food/seed magazines.
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It remains to be seen whether this strategy will still work in A21 after the trader rebalance.

It is already known that the secret stash was removed with the goal of strengthening crafting. And according to the developers, what you can buy from the trader should only be a little better than what you can craft. Whether they attempted to achieve this through balancing or whether the game queries your current crafting skills when it creates the trader inventory is unknown.
 

 
I am beginning to realize what's the hold up for a21. Character creator system and the first version of the clothing/armor system have just been somehow confirmed for this alpha on the official twitter page. That is a huge amount of work, and I instantly became excited for the upcoming release. Now let's see how much of the clothing system they can squeeze in before release. 

For those who got distracted by the coolness of the animation shown, know that the hat, the gloves and the boots are a match for the farmer outfit designed by madmole. The underpants are of unknown origin, but taking a guess... Padded leg armor? Edit: Leather leg armour?, Zd-lover outfit? Idk, that dubious fabric can be just about anything.

 
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Laz Man said:
Unfortunately, a limitation of the sleeper system and managing multiple entities in a seamless open world multiplayer environment with no loading screens.  Not a simple task mind you.

Perhaps there is a better way out there, but would need to be evaluated for the next game.
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Like many software performance issues it will be solved by moar hardware...

 
RipClaw said:
It remains to be seen whether this strategy will still work in A21 after the trader rebalance.

It is already known that the secret stash was removed with the goal of strengthening crafting. And according to the developers, what you can buy from the trader should only be a little better than what you can craft. Whether they attempted to achieve this through balancing or whether the game queries your current crafting skills when it creates the trader inventory is unknown.
 
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I think they said "trader only a little better than what you can find" (?). And that sounds a lot more like the usual way. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to look at your gamestage to balance the trader with looting?

EDIT: I see that the first page says "Trader inventories rebalanced with the new crafting progression" which might give this impression of crafting influencing trader stock. But this has lots of possible meanings. For example with crafting having a smoother progression and a lot more opportunities to craft weapons I would assume the trader would have a lot less weapons available but a lot more weapon parts. I am not sure, but I think in A20 the trader usually has absolutely no weapon parts. That can't work anymore. And that is the rebalance they are probably speaking of.

 
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Laz Man said:
Unfortunately, a limitation of the sleeper system and managing multiple entities in a seamless open world multiplayer environment with no loading screens.  Not a simple task mind you.

Perhaps there is a better way out there, but would need to be evaluated for the next game.
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Well it´s not too late to change the dark magic that makes jars dissappear after drinking and somehow makes them non existent at all in an empty state. That´s way easier to solve. 

 
meganoth said:
I think they said "trader only a little better than what you can find" (?). And that sounds a lot more like the usual way. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to look at your gamestage to balance the trader with looting?
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Is probably easier. Then I assume that they have balanced it so that with a certain play style what you find, what you can make and what you can buy are close to each other. It's not possible to balance that for all playstyles and I don't think anyone expects that.

meganoth said:
EDIT: I see that the first page says "Trader inventories rebalanced with the new crafting progression" which might give this impression of crafting influencing trader stock. But this has lots of possible meanings. For example with crafting having a smoother progression and a lot more opportunities to craft weapons I would assume the trader would have a lot less weapons available but a lot more weapon parts. I am not sure, but I think in A20 the trader usually has absolutely no weapon parts. That can't work anymore. And that is the rebalance they are probably speaking of.
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Doesn't really bother me if the trader has parts rather than weapons and tools. I mostly buy weapons and armor only to get the parts.  I prefer to craft my equipment rather than buy it.

 
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pApA^LeGBa said:
Well it´s not too late to change the dark magic that makes jars dissappear after drinking and somehow makes them non existent at all in an empty state. That´s way easier to solve. 
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There is no dark magic that makes jars dissappear. There simply are no jars in the game at all. Containers for liquid are implied as being there but not simulated just like your digestive system and your bladder, the car keys or whatever else is used for locking, the scaffolding, a flintstone, the hammer and chisel and screwdrivers, wooden spoons for cooking, ...

 
meganoth said:
There is no dark magic that makes jars dissappear. There simply are no jars in the game at all. Containers for liquid are implied as being there but not simulated just like your digestive system and your bladder, the car keys or whatever else is used for locking, the scaffolding, a flintstone, the hammer and chisel and screwdrivers, wooden spoons for cooking, ...
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So the red tea is just flaoting around in our inventory not inside any container? That´s what it is supposed to be?  And before you gotta ask, yes i personally think pots and bowls for eating should be a thing aswell. But you gotta draw a line somewhere and that´s the case with food, i know that most people don´t want it to go all the way here.

There are things where it is neccessary to "hide" them so the gameplay doesn´t become to complicated, like bladder, all the different tools actually needed instead of just a hammer and there is things where it isn´t necessary to hide them, especially in a survival game, like containers for liquids and not beeing able to utliize water sources. 

Rather make the process more complicated and/or timeconsuming to convert it into drinkable water. Would be reasonable after the apocalypse, there could be really bad stuff contaminating the water that´s not just solved with boiling it. That would not only be more reasaonable but also add to the lore/story. And you would still need the extra crafting station with parts that could be rare that aren´t that unreasonable to be not craftable like it is with the filter.

@Roland I don´t need to play it to know that there would have been better solutions that are way more relatable than dissapearing jars.

 
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pApA^LeGBa said:
@Roland I don´t need to play it to know that there would have been better solutions that are way more relatable than dissapearing jars.
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That wasn't my point. I'm sure you are fully aware of what you like and dislike.

My point was that TFP isn't going to go back on their design before the community tests it. Welcome to early access. We've been here 9 years already...

 
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