PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[DEADication]

Hey....just cos you lot seem to have a particular aversion to the letter 'u' (colour, neighbour, armour etc).

Didn't realise the Kiwi's had gone all Yank on us?

pffft!and aussies

But you guys have all those sheep to practice with....

 

[Roland]

I love all of you so much it hurts. I can't believe you think those things about me.

Forum members are friends... not food!

 

[archergod]

Hey, I make this random world, but I notice that even though I am playing save random world game, it is taking like 10-15 minute to load the game, it got stuck in "Initializaing world" message for 10 minutes.. Navegame load like in 1-2 minute, and I am getting 27-30 FPS in game play. It used to be 1-2 minute load time, except on RW ... is it bug or it is expected? (Not to mention it take 1 hr to build world for first time), but since then starting game is pain.. and couple of time it don't respond to mouse and I have to again start. so it take like half hour out of my playing 1 hr time .

 

[FileMachete]

I love all of you so much it hurts. I can't believe you think those things about me.
Forum members are friends... not food!

sure, sure, big guy, we know & we love you too really! we do! I swear! Don't eat me!!

-- these are just err... something I've been meaning to post?

 

[LilMissNorti]

Didn't realise the Kiwi's had gone all Yank on us?


But you guys have all those sheep to practice with....

*takes a minute to realise that NukenDad is in NZ...and that DEADication was not assuming I was for some strange reason despite it being written right there in the 'location'*

*clearly I need more coffee and to possibly do some _actual_ work before we knock off for Chrissy...the heat must be getting to me up here*

 

[DEADication]

...the heat must be getting to me up here*

At least you get some consistency, with us it's "Beautiful one day, miserable the next".

 

[stasis78]

Auger still doesn’t one shot stone. Is this a bug?

 

[scrabbleqatgirl]

Getting null reference when using sledge hammer on other players and houses full of bears and wolves instead of zombies. Anyone else getting this?

 

[LilMissNorti]

At least you get some consistency, with us it's "Beautiful one day, miserable the next".

Tomorrow is predicted to be 40C (that's 104 in Freedom Units) with 60%+ humidity. I'll take miserable, overcast and rainy plzkthx!!

 

[stasis78]

Like I've spent most of today reading through last night's pages of everyone's quibbles on what is the definition of "random"

“Randomness is the lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randomness

So some people think this is 7 days every alpha. Others say there is method to madness. Me. I think to the day I don’t need to reset my map

 

[DEADication]

Tomorrow is predicted to be 40C (that's 104 in Freedom Units) with 60%+ humidity. I'll take miserable, overcast and rainy plzkthx!!

Lol, The changes can be dramatic, I remember one year when the in-laws dropped down from NQ for Christmas, it was 17 degrees Christmas eve, and boy did they female dog about the cold... then the desert came to visit and it was 43 plus for the next three days... they were stunned.

 

[khzmusik]

thanks for posting this, it's one of the important messages that get lost in this loooooong thread
I didn't see it before.

I know, the signal-to-noise ratio in this thread is pretty low at the moment.

I wish Roland was still updating that "developer's diary for developers" thread, but c'est la vie, I'm sure he has plenty else that eats up his time.

 

[LilMissNorti]

Reading the bug reports thread - can we just put it out there in the bug form template that if "start a new game" and "wipe old saves" aren't 'YES' then the bug report is invalid?

I mean, yay people are reading, but only so far as to the template, and not the whole "we don't want compatibility issues with previous versions" etc. Half these bug reports look like they might be resolved by y'know following the damn instructions.

*resists urge to respond to all bug reports that haven't started a new game or wiped old saves with troll-level sarcasm*

 

[Maynard69]

Reading the bug reports thread - can we just put it out there in the bug form template that if "start a new game" and "wipe old saves" aren't 'YES' then the bug report is invalid?
I mean, yay people are reading, but only so far as to the template, and not the whole "we don't want compatibility issues with previous versions" etc. Half these bug reports look like they might be resolved by y'know following the damn instructions.

*resists urge to respond to all bug reports that haven't started a new game or wiped old saves with troll-level sarcasm*

I stopped looking at that thread the temptation too great.

 

[meganoth]

Hey, I make this random world, but I notice that even though I am playing save random world game, it is taking like 10-15 minute to load the game, it got stuck in "Initializaing world" message for 10 minutes.. Navegame load like in 1-2 minute, and I am getting 27-30 FPS in game play. It used to be 1-2 minute load time, except on RW ... is it bug or it is expected? (Not to mention it take 1 hr to build world for first time), but since then starting game is pain.. and couple of time it don't respond to mouse and I have to again start. so it take like half hour out of my playing 1 hr time .

Did you set size to 16k? Did you check the logfile?

 

[Exxodous]

I also only play single player, and whilst there are some aspects of this game that appear to be weighted slightly towards the multiplayer genre as far as balance, I think you must have been super unlucky to be struggling as much as you stated here.
With only one point in Boom! Headshot, and one point in Hidden Strike, stone arrows were comfortably able to keep me safe, at distance, as long as I opened with a crouch shot, especially when hunting at night. An iron reinforced club as backup to land a single finishing blow if anything made it past my onslaughts and I don't believe I had taken a single point of damage before Day 7 horde. After that I'll admit I got cocky and reckless, but thats my fault not the games.

I had looted enough POI's to have more than one full stack of Steel arrows looted which I saved for the horde, found 3 anvils in working stiffs boxes, along with a working forge at my trader, I had crafted 500 iron arrowheads, and kept them back to only be used from days 8-14.

Admittedly I play 90 min days, so reaching level 25 by day 7 was a breeze, even though I wasn't deliberately power-levelling by any means. Going outside and shooting things from a safe distance with stone arrows, whilst predominantly sneaking is a powerful, safe and easy strategy for the early days of the game.

Learn to love the burnt forest biome, the zombies keep themselves nicely lit as easy target practice at night, and also super easy to see them long before they can see you. Shoot them once from distance and they will come running to roughly where you were when you fired, and they just stop. As long as you've to maybe 7 or 8 blocks away, you have an easy headshot.

Even more so for the dungeon POIs where it becomes quite obvious where the 'jump-scares' are going to be coming from and sneaking is able to pull one zambie at a time with no drama (except ferals, but that requires a bit more care - and a change of underwear occasionally - but they are also few and far between in early days). It is possible to sneak shoot the slatted doors that often hide the zeds from the far side of the room, which breaks the door and doesn't wake the zombie. Easy headshot, which knocks them down, second headshot when they get up and its dead. Maybe need a third/fourth headshot for big Moe/Bertha, but they move so slowly this is still easy.

Once you've got your iron arrowheads (fired from a dyed Compound bow - not even remotely difficult to find in loot), and a couple of points in Perception, almost all of the zombies (warrior level) are one-shot dead if you land a crouch headshot, including screamers, which saves a lot of night-time aggro once your forges are all burning away. Get used to the arrow drop and this is easy too. You'll never run into stamina issues after the first few days, and there are plenty of boars/rabbits/chickens/deer around to keep up with your food needs. Eggs are a little rare, but if you're going hardcore bow mode then you never stop looting birds nests anyway (currently sitting on a chest full of just over 1000 feathers).

If you wanna stick with the bow as it sounds like you do, make the most of it by dabbling a little in stealth too, and you may find you'll never touch a gun again (except maybe on horde nights). Its hella fun, and super safe!!

^This, sounds like you just explained my playstyle!

 

[Exxodous]

I wish they had kept both versions of the ones that were converted to Dungeons in the game. The more variation the better - and yes... too many dungeons... they get old quick.

Can't believe I'm going to agree with Snowdog here lol as my opinion generally differs but a more varied mix of POI styles would be good IMO.

 

[archergod]

Did you set size to 16k? Did you check the logfile?

no on log file and yes it is 16K..but does that mean it take even more time to load large maps?

 

[Gazz]

Auger still doesn’t one shot stone. Is this a bug?

No.

The Super Digger item does that, though.

 

[Bandholtz]

Ok, about the latest balance changes... I usually make do with stone arrows until I can make iron arrowheads in a forge.
Right now, that's gated by needing an anvil in hammer and forge 2, which is gated by intelligence 5.

So for a sp game, you have to mine and dig for almost 2 days for the resources needed for the anvil, you don't get enough xp from that to level up much, and can't kill zombies other than occasional strays.

I'm on day 5 and it's been a struggle just to find enough food and water to survive, and there is no way I'll have iron arrows on horde night... I'd need 8 more points to spend, and if I grind zombie killing and don't put points in anything but that progress, (and if I can stumble upon animals for food) I'm probably looking at day 13 or 14 before getting an anvil in a found forge.

And by then I'll be able to make a forge and iron tools, so found forges are pretty much worthless now unless you make iron for repairing found tools.

I get Gazz wanted it harder for forge use, but quintupling the resources needed for it and ALSO gating it behind so many points really kills a sp playthrough. Day 14 horde night without at least iron arrows is just going to suck.

If this follows by our last playthrough, we couldn't have a forge till day 28 or so with two players.

Maybe just increase the resources needed and not gate the anvil? If you invest no points in anything at all now, you can have a found forge working by day 7 or 8... but you won't be able to cook food, carry anything, fight, or literally do much else progress wise.

Imho this was a bad knee jerk reaction to Jax's post about the stone age. Our mp with two people will see irradiated in day 14 hordes, and we are supposed to fight them with stone arrows?

If this is the last build before the holidays, we'll just have to cheat the current balance and spawn in a forge, because this is just rediculous.

I want it hard, but fair and winnable, and with this imbalance it's pretty much neither.

What settings are you playing at? (difficulty not graphical=))