PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[SnowDog1942]

You can also play RDR2 until the full release of a17 hits, that way you skip on experimental and all of its probable bugs

You can prob beat RDR2 in one weekend. Classic hype train over several years for a 60 dollar game with 20 hours of gameplay and another 20 hours of stupid cut scenes and zero replayability.

 

[Drithyl]

You can prob beat RDR2 in one weekend. Classic hype train over several years for a 60 dollar game with 20 hours of gameplay and another 20 hours of stupid cut scenes and zero replayability.

I wouldn't know, I haven't played either.

 

[faatal]

2.Is faatal willing to make a18 bandit AI or is it too soon to ask?.

Don't know. Too soon.

 

[rdunham3]

Roland, I was still thinking to myself that I'd be enjoying a17e even with the issues you described right up until the part about RWG being broken sank in. Days 1-10 are generally my favorite, but I don't know how many Navezgane restarts I could handle. Maybe only a few dozen more...

My current RWG 16.4 map on the other hand has been quite exciting. Two quadruped-type hordes a day for three days in a row, followed by finding two very very cool towns that were also in a great mix of biomes. The a16 RWG town-generation code continues to impress. (The biome code is a bit wonky but in a fun way!)

 

[Xandyr78]

Roland, I was still thinking to myself that I'd be enjoying a17e even with the issues you described right up until the part about RWG being broken sank in. Days 1-10 are generally my favorite, but I don't know how many Navezgane restarts I could handle. Maybe only a few dozen more...
My current RWG 16.4 map on the other hand has been quite exciting. Two quadruped-type hordes a day for three days in a row, followed by finding two very very cool towns that were also in a great mix of biomes. The a16 RWG town-generation code continues to impress. (The biome code is a bit wonky but in a fun way!)

...would you be willing to share the seed? I'd love a good seed to run my single-player game on. If you're using it on a server and don't want to post it publicly, would you PM it to me?

Thanks, either way!

 

[Erik Louden]

@TFP:

I know there wil lbe a fix eventually but in the meantime will there be a way to change the timer for dead zombie poofness in the .xmls?

Popins/outs is a big pet peeve and immersion killer that i would prefer not sully the A17e experience.

 

[FlipFron]

Hey guys I know someone already asked that question but I couldn't find the answer.

Will you add some more features to the electricity system?

How about you add camera into the game so the player could make something like security room?

I know that there is "sensor" in the game but It's not the same as camera working all the time so that you can see the real image on TV screen you place. That would be something cool. :first:

 

[faatal]

"real developers on real development teams always follow a planned schedule" Are you for real? This is coding, you can't follow a schedule in work like that. Finding a problem is like finding a jigsaw puzzle piece for one spot in a thousand pieces inside the box.

You know how those real developers at the big companies generally hit their deadlines? Put their employees on a death march for months, then as time runs out, features get cut, then when time ends, ship it anyway, because they will just fix the big bugs later with patches. If it is a total train wreck and they just can't ship it, then they keep the death march going for another quarter.

It does not always go like that, but there is usually some version of that going on.

 

[Jackelmyer]

You know how those real developers at the big companies generally hit their deadlines? Put their employees on a death march for months, then as time runs out, features get cut, then when time ends, ship it anyway, because they will just fix the big bugs later with patches. If it is a total train wreck and they just can't ship it, then they keep the death march going for another quarter.
It does not always go like that, but there is usually some version of that going on.

Developer from a real big company everyone knows the name of.

All true. Or, they shelve a five or ten million dollar effort and shrug it off. Someone loses their job... Maybe. And they do it all over again.

Deadlines are leadership dreams. Failed deadlines are a breakdown of expectation communication.

But no deadline has ever been hit, at full scope, on budget. Anyone who has... Is building little utility apps. And those.. frankly... Don't count. And I build plenty of those too.

 

[Aldranon]

Developer from a real big company everyone knows the name of.
All true. Or, they shelve a five or ten million dollar effort and shrug it off. Someone loses their job... Maybe. And they do it all over again.

Deadlines are leadership dreams. Failed deadlines are a breakdown of expectation communication.

But no deadline has ever been hit, at full scope, on budget. Anyone who has... Is building little utility apps. And those.. frankly... Don't count. And I build plenty of those too.

That's why truly good project leads are worth the big bucks. They know their people, they are gifted programmers themselves... and are as shrewd as a back room gambler.

 

[skullpoker]

You know how those real developers at the big companies generally hit their deadlines? Put their employees on a death march for months, then as time runs out, features get cut, then when time ends, ship it anyway, because they will just fix the big bugs later with patches. If it is a total train wreck and they just can't ship it, then they keep the death march going for another quarter.
It does not always go like that, but there is usually some version of that going on.

Sounds like the Wal-mart type of ♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ters who tell you "you should be more committed to the company" when your kids get sick and you have to take them to see a doctor.

 

[Baxitus]

You know how those real developers at the big companies generally hit their deadlines? Put their employees on a death march for months, then as time runs out, features get cut, then when time ends, ship it anyway, because they will just fix the big bugs later with patches. If it is a total train wreck and they just can't ship it, then they keep the death march going for another quarter.
It does not always go like that, but there is usually some version of that going on.

Sounds like EA Shiping an unfinished Game full of Bugs and provide a huge Day-One-Patch. To meat the deadlines they reduce the level design quality with repetitive Enviroments (Dragon Age 2), let the Player deal with many bugs (SW:TOR), make games too short (SW:TFU 2) or even cut off full Levels (Kotor 2). And if a game is a flop they close old traditional game studios. (I hope this is correct english)

I think it is better for the players and for the developers to wait until the goals are reached before release.

 

[Gazz]

I think it is better for the players and for the developers to wait until the goals are reached before release.

TFP is a rare case of the developer being in control of the release schedule, not a publisher.

No developer wants to release an unfinished/buggy game after working ■■■■■■■ it for years.

 

[danielspoa]

sorry if this was answered before, but can faatal confirm zombies take "natural" blocks into account when looking for the easiest path to a character? Like, will it only evaluate the blocks I placed or also the snow blocks that were there already? (meaning I would have to properly close my base in a cave).

 

[The Gronk]

sorry if this was answered before, but can faatal confirm zombies take "natural" blocks into account when looking for the easiest path to a character? Like, will it only evaluate the blocks I placed or also the snow blocks that were there already? (meaning I would have to properly close my base in a cave).

As far as I know the pathing takes into account all blocks regardless of how they got there. They'll likely plow through the snow blocks (pun intended) as they're pretty weak compared to other blocks.

That's what I understand from the discussions on digging zombies a while ago.

 

[Prisma501]

4 days without an update of any kind in the official thread. They must be running into some serious sheet to be this far behind.

Roland will scrape any dev comments from this thread once a week. So nothing to worry about. This is just the new way.

Cheers

 

[meganoth]

TFP is a rare case of the developer being in control of the release schedule, not a publisher.
No developer wants to release an unfinished/buggy game after working ■■■■■■■ it for years.

No publisher wants to release an unfinished/buggy game. The only difference, this is much farther down on the priority list of the publisher.

 

[Cazmyr]

Let's try another one.

What is everyone's feature/change in A17 that they are looking forward to the most?

Mine is the new Attribute/ Skill system.

 

[SittingDuck]

Let's try another one.
What is everyone's feature/change in A17 that they are looking forward to the most?

Mine is the new Attribute/ Skill system.

I know....

The release.

Thats a feature, right?

1. POI dungeons

2. Non spinning Zombies

3. Flame thrower turret ( think it´s not on the list but i am shure THERE WILL BE FIRE!!!)

 

[Cazmyr]

snip

1. POI dungeons

2. Non spinning Zombies

3. Flame thrower turret ( think it´s not on the list but i am shure THERE WILL BE FIRE!!!)

Those are good ones. It will be nice to not have them spin anymore.

And a flame thrower turret would be awesome. Can you imagine the gas consumption though?