PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Gareee]

The brass doorknob idea is great. There should be more stuff in POIs to scavenge and get brass from, like pipes, lamps and such.
I wonder if they'll ever add some rare and unique weapons and gear that gets randomized stats wise like RWG does. I'm not talking about white, purple colored weapons/gear, but a more unique approach to loot that you could get from quests and horde nights/bandit encounters. Would make scavenging more fun and worthwile.

I added brass doorknob drops to a16, and it was pretty easy. After day 80 or so, I was still able to keep up ammo supplies for horde nights.

Without it, ammo defenses couldn't keep up with horde numbers... You'd spend the entire week scrounging for ammo supplies, and could no longer explore at all. You can even add it to doors that only have brass knobs on them, since they are unique.

The other big balance problem with a16 was that after day 100 end game irradiated did SO much damage, that it no longer made sense at all to do a horde night in your base.. between ammo shortages and rebuilding, it made more sense to sit out a horde night in an abandoned poi instead of your base.. making base building almost a waste of time.

Early game was great, but there were diminishing returns and less reason to play as game days increased, at least for SP. I think MP had more longevity, because multiple people could build a larger base, and repair and restock it exponentionally.

I also hope loot drops are better than normal on horde nights, making them more valuable to participate in, rather than just avoid. There needs to be a reason or reward to let your base take so much damage and to burn through so much ammo.

 

[HeavensDoor405]

A17 Ex will be out Aug 10 for the streamers and Aug 13 for the normal peeps!!!
Are We There Yet?

Did I miss this announcement somewhere, or did you just make it up? lol

 

[Henrique]

Did I miss this announcement somewhere, or did you just make it up? lol

Just guessing

 

[Aldranon]

So there are magical gun mods that increase damage? I suppose melee will have some simmlar mods as well?

The basic club item can have the Spiked mod. Also I heard of the Flaming mod (during Primes last stream) that can set zombies on fire as well as act like a torch.

 

[crazywildfire]

Yep, level was what I meant. Still seems a little odd to have a cap set so low when you could effectively get a balanced higher cap with an increasingly crippling algorithm. I'm pretty sure that's going to be a setting that'll be changed by most people.

The way it is now you don't get enough points to max everything put unless you go change it to be able to. I'm pretty sure people already have changed it that play vanilla.

 

[Amanitasec]

The way it is now you don't get enough points to max everything put unless you go change it to be able to. I'm pretty sure people already have changed it that play vanilla.

Is it enough just to change the progression xml file from max_level="200" to lets say 300? Or I also need to increase value of exp_to_level="11250" to higher value?

 

[crazywildfire]

There is a level cap, which means once you hit it, Xp does nothing for you anymore. Only choice then are those challenge quests you can pick up if they still exist in A17. Ark Survival evolved has a level cap and you unlock recipies with skill points bascally, but they don't really have pve base destruction, so you can get by with low end walls and such for single player so you have enough to get the stuff you need. Not the case in 7dtd, where even a concrete base can get ripped apart pretty fast at higher gamestages. I'm worried that I won't be able to make a defensable base in A17 because of the skill point costs, while still being able to max out at least one weapon type. Plus there are other skills you'd need too. This is just a worry of mine for now, and it'll mostly effect people who play the game solo like I do. Will have to see when A17-e comes out to make a final judgement on it, but from whats been revealed so far it has me worried a bit.

Don't get it wrong I know I don't word things in the best way sometimes but I completely understand what yours and others concerns are. I have no clue other then what the rest of us know so far. I don't think in my opinion they will do this. The game has always been about SP first and multiplayer second. I know this change might seem like it favors multiplayer more and it probably will. I'm sure they will still need some tweaking done after they release it before it is said and done. But based on my understanding and I could be far off and maybe I'm understanding what I want to understand and not what it is lol. But I think if you spend in perks normally to do this or that then the only thing you are going to really truly have to pick is combat style. So you should be able to still unlock workbench, cement mixer and such but when it comes to fighting style you will only be able to pick 1 1/2 type of fight style. Now I could be wrong but you probably are not going to be limited to just 1 1/2 combat style you could put points in a few different things but you just will not get the extra advantage of that combat style if you do so because doing that you will not be able to max out that style. So if I spent my points normal on everything besides combat then when it is done I should have enough or right at enough points to pick and max out one fighting style and 1/2 of another. Again could be wrong but this is the way I'm understanding and hopefully using the right words to describe it lol.

 

[Gnomaana]

Yeah not a fan of the making it smaller at first, the amount of space we have in A16 is no where near enough. I hate leaving loot behind because I am sure I read in A16 a poi spawned loot container will not respawn if it has anything in, so I have to manually loot or drop everything out of every container. Has this been fixed in A17? Or did I read wrong and containers that weren't placed by the player will always redo their loot every 30 days whether its empty or not?

Loot containers will respawn in A16. The old loot will be there but, if the PoI has respawned since you were there last, as soon as you take the old loot out of the container it spawns the new loot when you close it. I know it works like this because the first time it happened to me I thought it was a bug.

 

[crazywildfire]

Is it enough just to change the progression xml file from max_level="200" to lets say 300? Or I also need to increase value of exp_to_level="11250" to higher value?

To be honest I can't say I haven't played in awhile been working 6 days a week for awhile now and don't get on computer lately as much. I know a thread is somewhere around here that explains where to go and what to change to max everything out.

 

[Flat0ut]

[in the end of August]: A17-E Estimated Release: September 2018

Are you 100% sure it wont be delayed to september? Cuz i wanna enjoy the game before i go to university again ((

 

[crazywildfire]

[in the end of August]: A17-E Estimated Release: September 2018
Are you 100% sure it wont be delayed to september? Cuz i wanna enjoy the game before i go to university again ((

I would say a good chance it could be in August but at the same time nothing is set and stone so it could go to September.

 

[Gnomaana]

So when Microsoft Release Windows 10 April Update, and releasing bug fixes they are not developing the next Build to release ? From last 15 yrs I am releasing mobile apps, desktop software, website release their bug fix while a separate branch add a new module is all hoax. Damn I was in sleep for 10 yrs and doing all those programming in my sleep and I didn't know it. Thanks for waking me up.
Also, A16.4 was released when A17 was already in few month of development, so does this mean all fixes of A16.4 will be gone from a17? or A16.4 contain a17 broken/in development features in them.

Pre-Gold vs Post-Gold development is different. Post-Gold development SUCKS because you have to be so careful to not break backwards compatibility most of the time. In Pre-Gold game development, it would be stupid to waste resources fixing bugs in a version of the game you are done with from a development stand point. The type of dev you are talking about all have one thing in common. They are all "finished" products. Of course you bug fix your mobile app even when you are working on the new one. BUT THAT ISN'T ALPHA. When you were working on your mobile app(before public release) did you have two teams working on two different versions of it? Of course you didn't. Early Access is us getting to see the dev process. There are only so many ways a company can change that dev process without making it so expensive that EA becomes too expensive to be viable. If you are really a dev, you should understand the differences between alpha and post-gold development. If you don't, you have wasted a LOT of your company's resources over the years.

 

[meganoth]

The only problem with this is for people like me that like to put hundreds of hours into a single playthrough and wont start another game until the next alpha is released. So for people like me i'll never be able to use a lot of the perks as i'll reach the level cap in my playthrough and then be stuck only using pistols etc, which kinda sucks.

You are not really stuck. If you don't buy any perks at all for a weapon type your damage is still 2/3rds of a maxed out character in A16. Ok, that means your ammo consumption is higher, but hitting the head instead of the torso is still much more important than having any perks.

We also don't know if the old skill-point generating quests are still there. And finally you can really wait until you reached max-level to decide if you need to mod in more levels or not, such a change will take effect even if you already played hundreds of hours. So you are never ever really stuck

Is it enough just to change the progression xml file from max_level="200" to lets say 300? Or I also need to increase value of exp_to_level="11250" to higher value?

I'm pretty sure you only need to change max_level. If you incerease exp_to_level you should level slower (not faster) but it should not change the maximum amount of skill points you get.

 

[archergod]

I think FunPimps is waiting for 2000 pages in this thread before they release

 

[Ouch Quit It]

Woop woop...boring alert!!

 

[Gnomaana]

In A16, a purple shotgun inflicts more damage than a tan shotgun.
In A17, a purple shotgun inflicts the same damage as a tan shotgun.

It is different and so it is noted on the first page. You are correct that quality tier does ultimately determine damage via mod slots but it doesn’t directly determine damage amount as it has in the past few alpha versions. Sorry for the confusion.

There was zero reason to be confused. Your note on the first page was very clear and easy to understand.

 

[wolfbain5]

I doubt people will love that. Player A pauses game and goes for a number 2..... Player B enters and starts horde night.

ok, fix. if a game is paused, character doesnt load until it is unpaused. basically cannot join a game that isn't actively running

 

[meganoth]

ok, fix. if a game is paused, character doesnt load until it is unpaused. basically cannot join a game that isn't actively running

Yea, to enable the ultimate griever recipe: Log in to any empty public server and block that server until the admin has time to kick you.

 

[wolfbain5]

Am I missing something here?
What's to stop you maxing out your perks with xp gained from quests?

level cap means no more increase in points to buy perks with. there will be less points given than there are perks to buy. devs said it is intentional

- - - Updated - - -

If they don't change the vanilla quests, then the "challenges" you find in the world are repeatable and give about 2 skill points if my memory is correct.
So worse case, you can just farm those.

quests will now give exp not skill points according to Roland

 

[Xeen]

In alpha 16 the exploding crossbow bolt is the be all end all ammo and if you use nothing but that to destroy 7th day hordes you never have a ammo shortage of any kind but that is really boring.

By late game I always have tens of thousands of 7.62 rounds stockpiled.

I hope they put some serious thought into ammunition for A17.