PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

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You have any idea how much longer it would take to do the kind of update they are doing with A17 but constantly having to keep a runnable code base to release? They tore the game practically down to "bedrock" and built it back up. I like experimental branches also but those only work when the changes you are making are incremental. This was not that type of update.
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"but some don´t understand that ..."

The massiveness of this overhaul is completely p*ssed on. They cant release a game with game breaking issues or bugs with high impact.

Its as easy as that.

Cheers

 
Devs had bad communication since day one - still, there's people who defend them (about this particular issue).

A lot of other companies also take months between alphas and don't receive half the hate tfp do.

It's been a year and info were given sparcely and badly.

I'm not saying anything new.

That's the thing: there's nothing new. It's always been a problem. And it's to say the least strange that they didn't do anything to fix the communication between devs and community.

Let's take Factorio dev team. They also release stuff with timespaces of months. But they do give updates in a way that they don't get hate.

TBH, I really enjoy 7d2d and it saddens me that they do not have some good social media managing.

 
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You have any idea how much longer it would take to do the kind of update they are doing with A17 but constantly having to keep a runnable code base to release? They tore the game practically down to "bedrock" and built it back up. I like experimental branches also but those only work when the changes you are making are incremental. This was not that type of update.
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I understand that this update is much bigger and different compared to the other ones.

But maybe they have split them in more parts if possible, maybe there is not enough manpower to build such a big update within a reasonable time?

Iam trying to understand why TFP did such steps .. but i cant find a reason to change such update cycle ....

 
So, not to beat the dead horse (err, z-dog) further or anything, but I really want to know if the z-dog-horde has been fixed for a17?

Case in point: last night I was running towards my nearest consolidate-the-loot chest, so basically in a straight line, and 10-15 blocks directly ahead of me (inclusive...large group) a pack of z-dogs spawn. Out in the open, extremely close, poof they're suddenly there. 7+ but I didn't stop to count heads. (later counted corpses, found 6 and could hear at least one roaming around but didn't seek it out)

No other horde type has ever appeared that close to me. No other (normally walking) horde type always proceeds at a dead run, pun intended, as soon as they spawn. Combine that with all "wandering" hordes' tendency to target the player's exact location for their "wander" direction and the dog hordes are the absolute worst feature the average player will ever encounter. Not fun, not fair, nothing. They're the 7DtD version of a DM intentionally killing off the player party in a D&D session.

 
It would be wise for all the members of this forum to inform us about an approximate date of the release of alpha 17. Like many members here, it's been 2 months that we are waiting and I'm afraid to come all the days to try to find out more !!!

Thank you for thinking about us and inform us about a real release date and / or if not to tell us it's for End of October, Beginning of January or even next January! But a date !!!

 
And for info I stopped playing 7 day to die because I did not want to invest me a new version go to delete my progress! But now it's been two months since I stopped playing because of that! If I had known I would not have waited. pfff

 
Devs had bad communication since day one - still, there's people who defend them (about this particular issue).A lot of other companies also take months between alphas and don't receive half the hate tfp do.

It's been a year and info were given sparcely and badly.

I'm not saying anything new.

That's the thing: there's nothing new. It's always been a problem. And it's to say the least strange that they didn't do anything to fix the communication between devs and community.

Let's take Factorio dev team. They also release stuff with timespaces of months. But they do give updates in a way that they don't get hate.

TBH, I really enjoy 7d2d and it saddens me that they do not have some good social media managing.
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I don't know what you mean by they aren't saying anything new. faatal has been talking constantly of his work on AI and vehicles, and even the front page of this forum has tons of info of what has been changed or added and where to find it, more-so beforehand than any game I've played. Usually that info comes out a day or so before the update or on release date. It has constantly been updated since it was first made. If you take all of that, it's close to 1 thing added/changed a week. However, due to all the programming changes in the background, it's not changes that can be released without all the rest along with it.

 
And for info I stopped playing 7 day to die because I did not want to invest me a new version go to delete my progress! But now it's been two months since I stopped playing because of that! If I had known I would not have waited. pfff
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same here, just stopped working on my stupid big anti-horde base because i wanted to start a new game with the a17, and here i still waiting for that

 
MadMole recording a video per week would only slow down development by 2 days over a year
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Next thing is, people will complain since they have seen everything already a gazillion times in the countless weekly videos, given that the most minor stuff needs to be presented in order to push out a weekly video.

I understand that people want A17, but I don't think a weekly video show would satisfy anyone ... granted, this collides with the streamer screamer show, which will do about the same, so yeah, maybe some more videos won't hurt since they don't keep the new surprises for us average Joes anyway, but weekly? You sure you want that??

 
This literally has to change, every other successful game updates once a week not once a year. I don't wanna hear about its a small team or they had to redo the whole game blah blah blah, dead frontier has literally 1 developer and they update literally everyday, the forest has a team of 4 and they can make a whole game and update it 3 times in the span of 1 alpha in 7 days. SO many great zombie games coming out, it legit worries me for this game. Tired of this Macho attitude here, ITS DONE WHEN ITS DONE... GIVE ME A BREAK. Let me say that to a customer waiting on a food order and watch me lose my job. Better yet let me write down 3 emojis to have them figure out when their food will be done... They said this would be a short alpha and that was a lie. Stop trying to save face by being confusing about the progress and open up and be more honest about whats going on to your playerbase. So many other survival games coming out, you would think you guys would be hurrying to not lose your players to other games. Prolly a new beard skin causing all the bugs knowing yall.

 
Let's say MadMole takes 4 hours to plan, record, edit and publish a video. This is just a rough estimate, IMO it could be done in less time.
Now, I am not sure about this estimate, but unless somebody objects, let's consider it fairly accurate. Let's say TFP have 20 people working full time on the game. Which means each of them works 40 hours per week, which amounts to 40 x 20 = 800 man hours per week.

Now let's say MadMole decides to shoot a video each week until the new alpha is released. So he subtracts the 4 hours from the total amount of hours worked by TFP in a week. That brings the total to 796 hours. Which is 99.5% of the time they would have worked without shooting the video.

"shooting a video slows down development" is just an excuse, because it is slowed down by 0.5%. For those wondering what 0.5% over a year is: it is less than 2 days! You could have a video per week for a year, just by waiting a couple of extra days at the end.

To sum up:

MadMole recording a video per week would only slow down development by 2 days over a year

Obviously time is not the only concern for TFP when planning a video.
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I get where you're coming from here, KS, but that math doesn't track. It WOULD, if all the FP development staff worked on the entire game as a whole, but they don't. They're specialised. Say there are 2 artists/texturists/whatever...for the art/texture part of the game, that's 80 man-hours per week. If MM takes 4 of those hours out each week to plan a video, that becomes 5% of the dedicated time for the art/textures.

Still not a huge percentage, but it's 10 times what you suggest. You can't blanket-math the development because different portions take different amounts of time. And generalisation is the very thing that people get mad at the Pimps for doing, which is why they don't.

No hate intended here, man. I'd like to see more video content, myself. :-)

 
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