PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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meganoth said:
Yeah I know. There is a very fine line and it has to do with using the console. Everyone knows he is stepping over a line when he uses the console to give himself xp or god mode or items. But a button in one of the normal menues of the game that just gives you the reward whenever you feel you have done enough?

No, as a game designer I definitely would not do that.

What I might do would be a console command that resolves quests somehow. But IF this is a bug, it needs to be fixed, not given a bandaid like this. So I would make that console command print out data to be sent to me so the bug can be found and fixed.

Also, again, I have played A20 for a year now and not had a single quest fail to me (in multiplayer). Now if you regularily have quests fail then a bug is one but not the only possible explanation
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Ive only had 1 fail.   Console command would be perfect tho. 

 
I have only had the issue where the last zombie(s) are just not there in overhaul mods. Never vanilla. Only had it happen twice, both times in copies of the same poi at different times and locations. 

I can't remember the poi, but it wasn't a t5.

 
meganoth said:
So I would make that console command print out data to be sent to me so the bug can be found and fixed.
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That sounds handy.

Another approach might be to draw the bounding boxes of any unresolved zombie volumes, which is already a feature in the Prefab Editor and similar to the feature that draws a bounding box around a Land Claim Block. Maybe it could show the number of Zs remaining? Maybe it could show the Zs themselves, which is also similar to how Sleepers can be shown in the Prefab Editor.

As you say, if it's a bug then fixing it is better than an instant-complete command. But gathering info about the bug is proving to be tough.

Another elusive bug has been Quest Markers (the exclamation point) that sometimes shows up underground, despite a POI placing it on the surface. I'm not sure what to suggest for that one.

 
I think there should be basic zombie walking motions that makes them look more like a uniform crowd  when standing or walking a together. I don't know with the limited amount of on screen zombies how this would look. After watching walking shows like the walking dead basic zombies should look more generic as to not stand out. We should see just a bunch of dirty mutant men and women. As zombies walk in a group other zombie animations should influence the zombies around them. Zombies should have a creepy walk. I don't know what that creepy walk would look like other than going by how zoms in the walking dead move. The burned zombie is the best looking for the world and when more of them are on screen looks pretty cool. All the other zombies sort of look out of place. I wouldn't mind having most of the current colorful looking zombies assigned to certain buildings or locations and most of the out door zombies to be more generic looking. 

 
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Rabbitslovecactus said:
T5 shotgun messiah 

T5 Hospital

We've redone both over and over to the point where we are now avoiding any T5 clears and only doing fetches. So much time gets invested only to get stuck at the end....
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The Shotgun Messiah is overdue for an update so there very well could be some volumes that can be improved.

The hospital has been updated in A21 so issue might already be resolved for that one.

If you run into any more situations where the orange nav beacon is pointing to a spot but no sleepers are spawning, take a screenshoot  (i.e. F11 key) and submit a bug report so we can try to root cause it faster.

 
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meganoth said:
Killall obviously does not work on unspawned zombies. Since the zombie does not get spawned it means you have not triggered the spawn, either because of a bug or you simply not going there. In big buildings it is quite possible to miss a room. And does anyone know whether you spawn sleeper zombies in god mode or when flying?

If it is a bug, it is a hard to reproduce one. I did a quest in that school a few times and never had a problem. And a bug that can't be reproduced is very difficult to fix. Just like solving a murder without evidence.

If you often have the game act in unexpected ways you should observe your FPS. Maybe you are too often below critical values (~20 FPS) and that makes the game behave erratic.

I had a similar problem in a skyscraper. I eventually found the zombie stuck on a walkway. Sadly I don't remember whether I actually walked down the walkway before finally noticing him. So I am not sure if I just did not notice him or he had not spawned until I saw him.
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I used KillAll because I suspected that the zombie had spawned but was inside some blocks.

I used god mode to check under the map.

I am sure I did not miss a room.

I agree that intermittent bugs are some of the hardest to fix.

Over a decade ago I coded a remote asset protection system in WIN32 C++ (MFC) that detected issues with railway ore cars .

It had a bug where it would occassionally pick up the radio to talk to the train driver but not say anything.

I spent 3 months trying to fix it.

I eventually fixed the bug by moving 2 lines of code...

[some of my best code is written with the DELETE key]

 
i think having some sort of poi randomiser would help alleviate the same looks of certain pois for example the working stiffs tools or any other pois there could be debris piles and other stuff to have a more destroyed variant of the that poi or less to show a newer intact version of the building or maybe loot is moved around so you have to look in all the different corners if you wish to get everything including the main loot location but not enabled to just spawn at the first room you get in.

i think this might have been talked about in one of the alpha 20 dev diaries and has been partially implemented but only with the variable helpers behind the floor panels and wall panels like it can be a backpack, purse, trash or a sports bag.

 
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meganoth said:
Yeah I know. There is a very fine line and it has to do with using the console. Everyone knows he is stepping over a line when he uses the console to give himself xp or god mode or items. But a button in one of the normal menues of the game that just gives you the reward whenever you feel you have done enough?

No, as a game designer I definitely would not do that.

What I might do would be a console command that resolves quests somehow. But IF this is a bug, it needs to be fixed, not given a bandaid like this. So I would make that console command print out data to be sent to me so the bug can be found and fixed.

Also, again, I have played A20 for a year now and not had a single quest fail to me (in multiplayer). Now if you regularily have quests fail then a bug is one but not the only possible explanation
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It's something within the last year that causes this "event" for me.  For me the following are required to trigger an event.

-Large POI ether vertically or horizontally.  (Some chunk load anomalies?)

-Moving quickly through the POI.  (Sleeper wake up anomaly?)

I spent 2 days in a tower POI-5 but finally found the one but many other zombies had respawned as well!  Also, I gave up on a newer horizontal POI 4 or 5 I dont remember.  Probably teri-5 because the immense size of the thing.

 
Callum123456789 said:
i think having some sort of poi randomiser would help alleviate the same looks of certain pois
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There is a "Parts" feature that provides a great many possibilities along this line. The feature arrived with A20. I'm curious to see what TFP's POI designers have done with it in A21.

 
All of the traders have gotten new High Definition models... except Trader Jen. I'm sure some/many might like the current... top-heavy model, but is she going to revert somewhat to the concept art?

Maybe a teaser for us? Show us HD Trader Jen!

 
Jost Amman said:
I don't think A21 will have random speeds anyway.
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I did some additional testing and it is interesting where they are at now with zombies speeds.  The shambling speed is controlled via the male zombie template and every specific entity I look at extend it from there - so every entity has the same shambling speed.  Of course, you can add that property to each entity and each one can have a different shambling speed (though all of that entity class will have the same one).  Right now, it is also not setup (based on what I can see which is limited based on my abilities) to randomize it like the agro speed can be.

It is something that can be added, but the question is the priority and the desire by TFP to do that.

 
Guppycur said:
Jesus @Roland, didn't you retire?  Go, bye, leave, get out while you can. 😃

I'm with BDub, degradation helped tremendously.  This current system of repairing anything no matter how broken means I'm not super excited when I find something I already have.
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Please dont give them any ideas.....the weapon system will get another rework..........guaranteed to be the best iteration to date..........sighs

 
Laran Mithras said:
All of the traders have gotten new High Definition models... except Trader Jen. I'm sure some/many might like the current... top-heavy model, but is she going to revert somewhat to the concept art?

Maybe a teaser for us? Show us HD Trader Jen!
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We have a new HD model of Jen trader in A19.Don't you remember what she looked like before?
 

maxresdefault.jpg

 
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