PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[SxR]

Some feedback about the difficulty. As someone who's played this game for quite a while I don't want the pre-A17 difficulty (or lack thereof) to return however I DO feel that some things should be toned down a bit as it feels ridiculously difficult early game from what I've played so far.
Things I think need balancing:

-Bleed rates: Right now it feels like 90% of the time you get hit by anything you start to bleed. Not only is this unrealistic it detracts from the game as a whole since most of your time is spent bandaging unless you're really good at not getting hit, which even the best players will get hit sometimes.

-Traps: From what I'm noticing the spike traps (wood spikes specifically) don't seem to be slowing down zombies at all, not sure if this is working as intended or not because the description does state that they're supposed to slow them. If it is slowing them it's so minimal as to not even make any difference, either this needs to be fixed if not working correctly or imo it should be tweaked if it is working correctly.

-Early game weapon damage: Don't get me wrong with this one, I don't think that things should return to A16 levels where 200 quality (or as it is now quality 2) bow could one-shot some zombies but I do feel that weapons in general should be buffed at least a little bit. I'm not sure how it is with perks and gun attachments because I haven't had too much time to play yet and haven't gotten that far, but I do feel the weapons need higher base damage without perks or attachments.

All of these things are just from my experience so far and as I've said I haven't played too much yet so take them with a grain of salt, they're just some things to take into consideration.

EVERYTHING when it comes to melee devices sucks right now. Level 300, all perks, level 6 pickaxe and I hit for 3 stone with it. Wooden walls take forever to take down.

Block damage scaling is borked this iteration.

 

[faatal]

Faatal, you mentioned arrows hitting targets made noise, does that mean they can be used as distractions?

No, since the noise is coming from you. Distractions would make sense, but design might not like that method of dealing with zombies.

 

[meganoth]

- Zombies and Vultures seem to teleport a few centimeters multiple times when walking, like it's stuttering. The animation is there but they are not really moving their spot smoothly. Doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it affects every creature. I think it's maybe on the server..

The teleporting seems to be the new sign of network lag (in A16 it was distant hits from zombies)

 

[faatal]

You do know even on a smaller bridge a center pillar system is not unheard of. That would fix it for sure.

Does not have to do with supports, but how it looked in Navazgane at all the locations where bridges are at. That is what I was told, so I didn't see it.

 

[argeos]

No, since the noise is coming from you. Distractions would make sense, but design might not like that method of dealing with zombies.

You can hit/break a distant window....won't the zombies be attracted to the glass shattering noise?

 

[JCrook1028]

Any thought to making Vulture meat healthy instead of putrid? It's the only animal in the desert biome and you can't harvest it for meat.

There are recipes using rotten flesh already in A17..........

 

[madmole]

Does the "Boom! Headshot!" perk work for bows?

It should work for all ranged weapons.

 

[Moldy Bread]

Gonna be honest, don't like the new quality system. I much prefer the system of A16, having to build up your gun and your items to good levels and the ability to combine items to repair them and make them better. It felt like a steady progression and was very satisfying to build up a gun from grey to pink. This new system feels like it's just dumbed down and waaaaay to generous. I started next to a Shotgun Messiah, I have four pistols, three AKs, three SMGs, three shotguns and a sniper rifle... Also about fifty compound bows. I did have a lots of ammo but the ammo vanishing bug (where modifying and/or reloading causes ammo to vanish) saw to that.

Also, not sure if this was intentional, if so then... Why? But randomly generating a map causes up to half or a quarter of the map to be completely empty. No streets, no dirt roads, no POIs, nothing. Also, they do the dirt roads now form long streets? I also agree with the majority, tone down the bleeding, vultures and dogs.

 

[wolfbain5]

not liking the fact that it takes me with tools about 10 shots to take out a brick wall when the weakest zed on horde night breaks it in 4 and the fatman can 1 shot it. and on first horde night. does not bode well further on when they hit even harder.

 

[Laura Bodewig]

Is there a way to switch to map editor mode with α17?

More specifically, Z, J, BackSpace, G, L, K, X, ← ↓ → ↑, Ctr C, Ctr V, Shift G, Shift MouseClick, E .... etc

I am looking for ways to activate all the operations of these keyboards.

 

[Kalyori]

I've probably played 6-7 hours now with a few friends. I'm enjoying the game a lot -- it's challenging, the new skill system is very good.

I feel somewhat stuck that I can't yet build a forge. I need intellect level 4 which requires level 20 and I'm only at level 10 or 11 now -- I have killed around 100 zombies and my party members around 120 all together. I kind of feel that in order to progress I need to grind zombies for a while to get xp.

I wanted to grow a farm since I have found that food is more scarce, however until I can make a forge I can't make an iron hoe to make the fertile ground.

Suggestion:

If it's not intentional (to prevent farming early on), perhaps a stone hoe could be added to the game to allow for early farming? I learned the skill to make seeds early on, and I've found a few, but I can't do anything with them right now.

 

[SxR]

It should work for all ranged weapons.

Molzie m' Mang, Block damage with all tools is horrible.. :< halp?

Max skills, tier 6 pick.. does 3 stone per hit.. :c

 

[Mechanimal]

FAATAL ! This new AI is nuts. I was up in my attic base at night and ran my forge, went in next room to look out window when I heard breaking noise, turned around to see a MFing cop standing in the other room staring at the forge. Somehow he didn't see me, ate a full clip of my sniper to the back of head, but of course that brought in the neighborhood from gunshot noise. All weaved their way through house up to me like it was no biggie. Holy damn, well, so much for working at night, I'll finally make my workbench in the morning, after I change my dang underpants. Bravo you guys, the game is so much more challenging now, that was scary af.

 

[Guppycur]

Is there a way to switch to map editor mode with α17?
More specifically, Z, J, BackSpace, G, L, K, X, ← ↓ → ↑, Ctr C, Ctr V, Shift G, Shift MouseClick, E .... etc

I am looking for ways to activate all the operations of these keyboards.

Check this thread; I'm thinking most of the cmds are the same.

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?47459-Unlocking-In-Game-Prefab-Editor-(Terrain-Tools)-dll-mod

 

[faatal]

- Yes, I dropped mine from 3440x1440 to 2560x1080 and the performance difference was huge, and it still looks great.

I was trying different resolutions today and it makes a bigger difference that I expected. I have been using 2560x1440 windowed on a 32 inch 4k monitor, but am lowering to 1080p. Video card is GTX 1060.

4k - 15 FPS

2560 x 1440 - 35 FPS

1920 x 1080 - 64 FPS

1600 x 900 - 93 FPS

1366 x 768 - 97 FPS

I had anti-aliasing off, but was also cheaper than I thought, with about 1 FPS less at any of those resolutions.

Moral of the story. Reduce your resolution and try AA.

 

[Mechanimal]

And Madmole, I am really digging the new progression/perk system. It makes much more sense now, easier to understand overall compared to the last system. There is a bit of a learning curve and adaptation from playing A16 so much, but once you learn and understand how it works it is so much better. I was also able to build my forge on Day 7, so I dunno what all the fuss is about, you gotta kill Z's, which I did a lot of while looting POIs a ton early game. Anyway, overall this, combined with the awesome new graphics, new blocks(the POIs look SO much better now), and formidable AI, this Alpha is a serious milestone of progress. Plus I've finally convinced my son to play with me, get him off of CSGO, R6, and PUBG for awhile. That right there says a ton.

 

[meganoth]

I've probably played 6-7 hours now with a few friends. I'm enjoying the game a lot -- it's challenging, the new skill system is very good.
I feel somewhat stuck that I can't yet build a forge. I need intellect level 4 which requires level 20 and I'm only at level 10 or 11 now -- I have killed around 100 zombies and my party members around 120 all together. I kind of feel that in order to progress I need to grind zombies for a while to get xp.

Scavenge, dig, ... Everything gives xp

 

[faatal]

Faatal, Madmole, Roland, etc...


I made a 20-minute video showing some awesome stuff but also some bugs.

First the good stuff:

Map size is 16384x16384

The game was played in 2560x1440 resolution

The refresh rate is 165 (as seen on the upper right side of the screen)

FPS were 55-60+ for most of the video (as seen on the upper left side of the screen)

Now for the bugs, I've time-stamped them:

Vid link:

Thanks for the video. The world zombies spawning in the distance is legacy code I have not touched, so it needs some research. The sleepers appear to be spawning fine, but POIs should not have them placed outside where you can see them. That could be a POI that is not done/polished yet.

 

[faatal]

-Traps: From what I'm noticing the spike traps (wood spikes specifically) don't seem to be slowing down zombies at all, not sure if this is working as intended or not because the description does state that they're supposed to slow them. If it is slowing them it's so minimal as to not even make any difference, either this needs to be fixed if not working correctly or imo it should be tweaked if it is working correctly.

They don't slow zombie movement much. They should be causing pain reactions, which stop them from moving while in the pain anim. I just tested wood and iron spikes and saw it doing that.

 

[XCOUNTRY]

I very much dislike the gated perks. There's a lot of different perk options to choose from. The leveling itself acts as its own gate. As it is now I have to choose between unlocking better food options to get me full faster thus getting health/stamina to max OR get the slower metabolism perk to keep my stamina up longer OR have better carrying capacity etc. These choices are HARD, and I love that this is part of the game. Once I pick a tree to climb though, I get gated and now I have points I can't put in anything I want/need for the character I'm playing.

Suggestion: Remove the gate and slow level progression, which would make each perk choice more meaningful and allow players to really specialize if they so choose.

Saw something on here earlier about vultures being too hard. I mostly like them the way they are, really makes you choose your fights. As long as you keep your health at full they won't attack at all. They actually act like vultures and wait until you get hurt. I've had three or four circling me in the desert as I walked around (they don't go away...ever). Got too comfortable fighting a small group of zeds and got hit once and all four dive-bombed me and I was dead real quick. Maybe have them attack if your health drops below 75% and not 99%?