jdizzy2010
Refugee
That tweet by Joel bothers me a bit. He knows we are all waiting for it and that is kind of messed up saying just how good it is and now we are burning with anticipation only to wait who knows how much longer lol. Very sad....
PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17
- Thread starter Roland
- Start date
- Status
Gazz
Fun Pimps Staff
"Clay" is just another snowstorm in a jar but I'll tell you anyway. Having one less surface texture saves memory and helps the poor Unity texture blender which can only handle 3 adjacent textures.
Since there was no actual gameplay benefit to clay patches, either, out it goes.
We still like our players even if they are salty.
agrastiOs
Refugee
It is true that the game's been going to the streamlining direction lately. Removing Sticks, just Meat, no zombie corpses... While it does feel like they're removing a big chunk of what they were working on for years, this is natural for game development and some changes do make the game smoother. Also, the game as of currently is incredibly punishing for new players. The learning curve is enormous.
There needs to be a balance between survival/realism and gameplay. I'd like if they improved the balance and added some more survival features after A17 in the future. They should add some tools for new players to help them learn the game and be less frustrated, like a tutorial or something. Not spoon-feeding and handholding.
There needs to be a balance between survival/realism and gameplay. I'd like if they improved the balance and added some more survival features after A17 in the future. They should add some tools for new players to help them learn the game and be less frustrated, like a tutorial or something. Not spoon-feeding and handholding.
KingSlayerGM
Refugee
Well done faatal, Im very pleased about this good news. I think that the community would have been pretty disappointed if this wasn't added.
Again, well done
BTW how many passengers can we expect to be able to carry? Will they eventually be able to shoot while seated? (like pubg, fortnite..)
Last edited by a moderator:
The Gronk
Colon Pounder
A release date poll you say? Sounds like a good idea, what could possibly go wrong?Like a democracy (and this forum): Very little gets done and people argue a lot.
A17E sounds ready for release. We should take a poll!
Gazz
Fun Pimps Staff
Hmm. I'll have to bring that up in the next design meeting. It certainly sounds more apocalyptic.I woudn't be surprised if you removed the driving altogether and had everyone get out and push
First we need a poll on whether or not there should be a poll on taking another poll on the release date. Gotta make sure everyone feel sufficiently... heard.
I wonder what would happen if you took some of this "clay" form one biome and placed it in another. Up till now, things like soil were depended on the biome that they came from. But now that this has been turned into "clay".
What would happen if you were taking "clay" to the desert biome for the growing of crops?
Crater Creator
Community Moderator
There is, though: the fact that the plains and maple forest biomes were removed precisely for the sake of reducing terrain texture blending, which is apparently a big problem. Now Gazz confirms (while I was rushing to catch up and point this out) that was the impetus for changing clay.
Good, because that was my chief concern: the inventory clutter of getting dirt fragments and lumps of clay with every block you dig. We don't need more inventory clutter, bigger backpack or not.
Now that you mention it, let's talk about how every one of those boulders gives you a small quantity of iron, potassium nitrate, and lead.
I would much prefer to have separate iron-rich, lead-rich, and KNO3-rich boulders, each with a slightly different tint, so that my backpack doesn't automatically accumulate bits of materials that I have no interest in at the time.I would've suggested sandwiching a thin layer of clay between the dirt layer and the stone layer... but that's predicated on the assumption that dirt and clay are separately useful materials. It's a fair point that dirt fragments weren't all that useful, especially now if fertilizer is gone. Is there any variation in yield based on where a crop is planted now, or is the terrain underneath just a boolean [will grow] or [won't grow]?
I find the real life process of extracting clay from soil interesting. There's potential there to make an interesting recipe, not unlike the murky water to clean water process. Rammed earth (i.e. unprocessed clay soil) could even be a separate, quicker to make building material, when you want quantity over durability.
Crater Creator
Community Moderator
And in the spirit of streamlining, it all comes down to that point. You've distilled down the root cause of most of the debates that we have here - the big ones that everyone has an opinion on, that burn for page after page. Each person ranks the losses differently in their minds, focusing on the merits of keeping the particular things that they like.
But this "passion for consolidation" is a bigger idea - a game-defining tenet, even. Some would say it's an unavoidable eventuality when experimenting and trying different things in the alpha phase. Others would say it's an instinct worth resisting: that consolidation must be rigorously justified case by case instead of making it the default posture. Which side is correct? Well, if there were consensus on that, we wouldn't have much to talk about.
Crater Creator
Community Moderator
:whoo: Okay, I am officially looking forward to the new vehicles now! To my mind passengers are the feature (among what's been announced) that make the vehicles a real game changer. I applaud you for prioritizing this.
With that said, this change is firmly in second place. I've lost track of how many people have complained about "GPS hordes" that always go straight to the player's position, and how many times myself and others have explained why this is the sensible, performant way to simulate a world where zombies roam everywhere, and all it would take is an offset to remove the perception that they're always coming for you. A lot of people will be very happy about this change.
- Status