PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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Revamp the first person everything. 

the bone work 

the recoil 

the running animation

the way your gun sways when moving the camera 

revamp all of that 

having more than one main attack melee animation 

I've been wanting to make a video but I'd just be pointing out the obvious to the animation team.

Joel needs to put them on that assignment

that's one of the main reason people look at this game and say "what a load of hot garbage" then the fans have to defend and cope about how the gameplay is fine enough. 

That issue is always in your face on every video at all times giving the impression that this is a game in early alpha stages.  
What part of "we're reworking character and NPCs animations for A22" did you miss?

 
Concerning the Dew collector, could we not have it collect rain as well, it would make sense to do so, it would give a bonus to fill rate. 

It seems to rain all the times in my world currently lol.
They have given explanations for this and it comes down to resources.  The end result is relatively the same other than that you get water constantly or only when it rains.  The amount of water would be the same (even if they made it work for rain, they'd balance it to give the same amount of water as it does now if that's the amount they want you to get).  They decided that saving resources was worth more since it really doesn't give much of any real benefit.  Also, unloaded parts of the game (like your base when you aren't there) don't have rain because they aren't loaded.  Every time you left the base, you wouldn't get any water the entire time you're gone.  It would basically mean you'd have to stay at the base when it rained if you wanted water.

 
This is probs a question for a22 dev diary and beyond but are there any plans to add the new tint masks to the zombie models, or is that even possible? I think that would go a long way in breaking up zombie "sameness" that a lot of ppl talk about 

Or would that be too resource intensive or impossible? Was watching GNS go through the nursing home n there were a ton of repeat nurses (normal, it's a nursing home after all), n the thought occurred to me. But I don't know if it's been discussed already or not (and if it has feel free to redirect me) 

 
What will be taken out the game in A22?

stop simplifying everything, this started with the console release back then

changing from the old crafting system that used a grid to a simplified 5 ingredient click craft menu was a bad choice

getting rid of rebar that needed wood for you to pour concrete blocks,, why?! 

chopping wood for logs, making planks out of them.  remember?

needing a mold to cast ingots...

the abscence of water bottles and that messed up magazine skill system. what is wrong with learning by doing?

also stuff you craft is worth less than the ingredients on their own when selling at the trader,

if you dont want people to use traders just get rid of them.

this game is getting better and worse at the same time

 
In multiplayer co-op play, blood moon gamestage seems to rise exponentially faster than crafting or looting equipment levels. I have had several players state that it is making the BM hordes no fun to play because you are so tragically outclassed.

 
In multiplayer co-op play, blood moon gamestage seems to rise exponentially faster than crafting or looting equipment levels. I have had several players state that it is making the BM hordes no fun to play because you are so tragically outclassed.


Hey, they just want to make sure we're interacting with the zombies!

 
Hey, they just want to make sure we're interacting with the zombies!
We always were interacting with the zombies. It's gone from us looking forward to blood moons to dreading them to players asking if it is possible to turn the blood moons off completely. These aren't newbie players either. The least experienced still has hundreds of hours in and the most experienced has thousands of hours in and has been playing since Alpha 2.

 
We always were interacting with the zombies. It's gone from us looking forward to blood moons to dreading them to players asking if it is possible to turn the blood moons off completely. These aren't newbie players either. The least experienced still has hundreds of hours in and the most experienced has thousands of hours in and has been playing since Alpha 2.
Why?  Just because they have gotten more challenging?  Or another reason?  If it is the challenge, consider lowering the number of zombies per player by one or two and see if it feels closer to A20.  So far I'm fine with the blood moons in A21 but I haven't gotten to say 100+ yet, so I may change my mind.

 
We always were interacting with the zombies. It's gone from us looking forward to blood moons to dreading them to players asking if it is possible to turn the blood moons off completely. These aren't newbie players either. The least experienced still has hundreds of hours in and the most experienced has thousands of hours in and has been playing since Alpha 2.


You can tell them that not only is it possible but it has been for years. Top Menu option: Turn off Bloodmoon and/or extend the time between them so they happen less frequently.

The fact that some players look forward to them and others dread them and yes that some have shifted from looking forward to them to dreading them is exactly why the option exists. 7 Days to die existed for years before the bloodmoon event was added and can exist now for anyone who desires it without a bloodmoon event. I don't even know why this is a topic of discussion when the option to modify their significance in the game has been in play for ages.

 
Is your team reading all of the books they find, or giving them to specialists?  We have 2 people playing on our server, and the crafting is about the same as questing/trader.

I had to insist on us specializing though lol.  But we agreed. 
With intellect build and daring adventurer I had the trader offer a Q4 steel pic at Teir 2 quests.  Ironically this is before the capstone for T2 that gives a workbench.  So the trader rewards were way ahead of even the other trader rewards lol.

 

On a completely separate note I'm not sure I like the current Navezgane.  You start out near Joel and without a long long run you're gonna end up with the same general starting POIs every time.  You've got snow to the north, burned forest and Wasteland to the south0, and east/west are long distances before you get to other areas you'd want to settle.  POIs are fairly sparsely put outside of the city and all the cities are located in increased danger zones...with the easiest being the burned forest.  Desert is not a real option either.

This leads to some very samey repeat play throughs unless you're very comfortable with tackling increased challenge areas.  And even then you have a good long hike starting out to do so in the nearest POIs in them.  And if you decide to stay in the Pine Forest your early, mid, and even late game options for POIs are strikingly limited.  You'll see almost all of them in 1 play through.

It's good at introducing challenge areas and getting you into them, but RWG seems like a vastly superior experience atm.

 
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I love all of the new assets brought into A21 but I question as to why every door is boarded up now? No normal House doors, am I missing something in the CM menu?

Sinks have changed as well but I guess I can deal with that.

7 Days to Die Screenshot 2023.07.12 - 19.09.08.54.png

 
With intellect build and daring adventurer I had the trader offer a Q4 steel pic at Teir 2 quests.  Ironically this is before the capstone for T2 that gives a workbench.  So the trader rewards were way ahead of even the other trader rewards lol.

 

On a completely separate note I'm not sure I like the current Navezgane.  You start out near Joel and without a long long run you're gonna end up with the same general starting POIs every time.  You've got snow to the north, burned forest and Wasteland to the south0, and east/west are long distances before you get to other areas you'd want to settle.  POIs are fairly sparsely put outside of the city and all the cities are located in increased danger zones...with the easiest being the burned forest.  Desert is not a real option either.

This leads to some very samey repeat play throughs unless you're very comfortable with tackling increased challenge areas.  And even then you have a good long hike starting out to do so in the nearest POIs in them.  And if you decide to stay in the Pine Forest your early, mid, and even late game options for POIs are strikingly limited.  You'll see almost all of them in 1 play through.

It's good at introducing challenge areas and getting you into them, but RWG seems like a vastly superior experience atm.
Navesgane is kind of an introduction area just like the pregen maps.  RWG is intended as a way to offer the variety most people end up wanting.

I love all of the new assets brought into A21 but I question as to why every door is boarded up now? No normal House doors, am I missing something in the CM menu?

Sinks have changed as well but I guess I can deal with that.

View attachment 28524
For whatever reason, probably just to have fewer doors, the unboarded doors are doors that are half destroyed.  You can find them but I have a feeling they aren't used as much because getting them exactly half destroyed is a pain and it's just weird having a door that is whole have half the durability gone.

 
Navesgane is kind of an introduction area just like the pregen maps.  RWG is intended as a way to offer the variety most people end up wanting.
Then IMO its a bad introduction area because its so easy to wander into the higher danger zones which new players will totally not be ready for lol.

 
Then IMO its a bad introduction area because its so easy to wander into the higher danger zones which new players will totally not be ready for lol.
What better way to introduce them to those biomes?  :D

The game doesn't really tell you that other biomes are more challenging.  Yes, the new danger meter gives you a little info now but that's hardly much of a warning for a new player that probably doesn't understand what it means.  One way or another, they'll learn about the challenge in other biomes by experiencing it or someone will tell them.  Either way, it works the same on Navesgane as any other map.

 
I love all of the new assets brought into A21 but I question as to why every door is boarded up now? No normal House doors, am I missing something in the CM menu?

Sinks have changed as well but I guess I can deal with that.

View attachment 28524


The way the new door models work is that it's one block with 250 HP instead of three different doors (metal boarded, wood boarded, and regular). Not sure the coding/technical stuff behind it, but if you lower its HP to 125 the door will be solid, but it won't be boarded up. There's a small grace period of HP before the door ends up with a hole through it as well, but I don't know the exact number. I also don't know how you do this in the creative menu/POI builder (probably some way of setting the door HP through a menu or something)!

 
I also don't know how you do this in the creative menu/POI builder (probably some way of setting the door HP through a menu or something)!
Actually, no... it seems the only way in the POI editor is by destroying the door with a weapon/fist until it looks normal.  Not intuitive at all or enjoyable to try and do.  Especially if you want to have the most HP remaining while still having no boards.  I really don't understand why they'd do that even if they are trying to save on blocks.  There has to be a better option.

 
Actually, no... it seems the only way in the POI editor is by destroying the door with a weapon/fist until it looks normal.  Not intuitive at all or enjoyable to try and do.  Especially if you want to have the most HP remaining while still having no boards.  I really don't understand why they'd do that even if they are trying to save on blocks.  There has to be a better option.


thank god I was messing around with dev tools earlier while trying to figure out how to smooth terrain next to a block! I kind of figured it out? The "Admin Block Replace Tool" will grab whatever block in its current state and replicate it as it was! I just tried in Apartments_04 with the first open door (it's has a massive hole in it), and using the tool replicated the block with the same damage state. It did replace the asphalt I put it on though, so the door's sitting in the ground 😂

Would be good to add that to the description key because it doesn't say that the tool replicates a block in its exact damage state, but it is a dev tool, so the devs probably already know that

 
They have at least two possible ways to achieve an accepable balance:

1) Individual magazines that are found in more places (like the cooking magazine) or have less competition in their loot boxes (medical) get general correction values for their drop probability until tests games seem balanced.

I would assume they have a loot simulator software after all this time where they can test this without human interaction, if not that is something they should write even this late in the game as it saves a lot of time.

2) An easier way would be to find out how often specific boxes are looted by an average player and how often a specific magazine drops from those and adjust the probabilities of those individual loot boxes so that every magazine is found with the same probability. So the probability of finding cooking magazines in cupboards would decrease as well as the probability of medical magazines in medicine "piles". And the probability and number of weapon mags in safes would have to increase.

Now naturally players will tend to look for specific magazines and prefer looting one type of loot box. But that a player can influence his chances is intended by the current design of 7d2d, only the 'average' case where a player does not look for specific loot boxes has to yield every magazine with about the same probability.
Yesterday, I finished a loot console command that lets us loot a container x amount of times and logs results sorted by count/name/quality.

Command: loot container [name] <count> <stage> <abundance>

 
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