PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

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I've been reading every single post in here for weeks now. Morning poo, lunch break at work, after work relaxing on couch, and in bed at night. The diehard "immersion" rants, unyielding needs to specialize in all things, backpack confusion, map tears.... I like my salt blocks cut from the non-GMO Mines of Presumption and this thread is working those mines hard, much to my daily enjoyment.
Personally I'm stoked for A17 and the changes mentioned.

Having a handful of AKs or shotguns all modded to fill different roles sounds awesome. This is my recon AK with scope and suppressor, and this is my "where did all these dogs come from?!" AK with extended mag and quick reload. YES.

The class specialization is wonderful - better replay value for SP, better complimentary team play in MP, and overall better variety in gameplay due to having real weaknesses you must learn to work around.

Twice as big as Nave is still big, and a smaller RWG map with big servers will incentivize players to both hide and protect their base in clever ways. No more hiding way out in the boonies like the Alaskan bush family.

Anyway, very excited, love the direction TFP are moving in, and look forward to whenever it is ready.

And Roland: I wish I could by you some whiskey. I don't envy your position here and what you have to deal with. Respect.
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You brought up a great point about having purpose modded weapons.

-The Assassin: pack with sound reducing mods (hmm. can clothing/armor be silenced?)

-The Zombinator: Damage, damage, damage. If it explodes, burns or in some way kills... its in there.

-The Controler: Slows, knockbacks and stuns. You want the loot, not to be covered in rotting flesh.

 
We're dealing with a small company with a small staff. TFP isnt Blizzard where they have numerous employees where they can set an exact time frame. It's done when it's done.

 
You know..... I added the release date because Madmole said "July" and then I changed it to August when it was apparent that July wasn't going to happen so that people who were considering starting a new game could know they could go for it and have some time in their world.

But, I can see that those of us who are patient don't really need a release date anyway and the rest who aren't patient are going to whine and moan and complain and see promises and contracts and feel entitlements and....it is just so exhausting.

So, I'm calling it. Madmole made a mistake when he said "July". He thought it could be done by then but it turns out that the graphics upgrade for the Unity update had some issues that have caused delays. So I really have no idea if it is going to be August or September or later at this point and in listening to the devs they really are supremely unconcerned. They are working relentlessly on getting it done but they really don't feel any pressure to get it done by a certain date. They just live by the mantra: It's done when it's done. From their perspective you guys all have A8 - A16 you can play with while you're waiting not to mention mods or even other games.

So that's what I'm going to emulate. No more estimated dates, no more hp bars. It's done when it's done.

You can't handle that? Then go play another game and take a break from the forums. Nothing you or anyone could post is going to change a single thing about their schedule.

 
You can tell what people have had real trouble in their lives and overcame it.

Even the ones who state their annoyance but basically say: "OK, I don't enjoy this, but... OK".

Salute to you!

 
That's not accurate. There was a major overhaul of several internal systems and tools. Graphics are a completely different... department.
Graphics are always on the wishlist so if anyone figures out a way to make a voxel game look better at little to no performance cost... yes, please.

A lot of brain sweat has gone into POI design and a myriad of small improvements, such as the (theoretical) ability to rotate every block (even cubes and ramps) in 45° steps or have air blocks in the list or randomly replaced blocks so you could have a door that is only sometimes present in a POI.
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Yes the Poi's look amazing Gazz. Well done to you and TFP . I love the way the game looks. But im obsessed with the Gameplay, Graphics not even a thing.

 
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You know..... I added the release date because Madmole said "July" and then I changed it to August when it was apparent that July wasn't going to happen so that people who were considering starting a new game could know they could go for it and have some time in their world.
But, I can see that those of us who are patient don't really need a release date anyway and the rest who aren't patient are going to whine and moan and complain and see promises and contracts and feel entitlements and....it is just so exhausting.

So, I'm calling it. Madmole made a mistake when he said "July". He thought it could be done by then but it turns out that the graphics upgrade for the Unity update had some issues that have caused delays. So I really have no idea if it is going to be August or September or later at this point and in listening to the devs they really are supremely unconcerned. They are working relentlessly on getting it done but they really don't feel any pressure to get it done by a certain date. They just live by the mantra: It's done when it's done. From their perspective you guys all have A8 - A16 you can play with while you're waiting not to mention mods or even other games.

So that's what I'm going to emulate. No more estimated dates, no more hp bars. It's done when it's done.

You can't handle that? Then go play another game and take a break from the forums. Nothing you or anyone could post is going to change a single thing about their schedule.
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True that Roland. I come hear to reap info from you and other devs not to hear people go on about whens the release date. Madmole has made it clear that "It's done when it's done". I've been on the crazy journey of A15 going on to A16 so I know it'll be september if were lucky. That being said... Roland, what are you developing right now?

 
That's not accurate. There was a major overhaul of several internal systems and tools. Graphics are a completely different... department.
Graphics are always on the wishlist so if anyone figures out a way to make a voxel game look better at little to no performance cost... yes, please.

A lot of brain sweat has gone into POI design and a myriad of small improvements, such as the (theoretical) ability to rotate every block (even cubes and ramps) in 45° steps or have air blocks in the list or randomly replaced blocks so you could have a door that is only sometimes present in a POI.
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I hope they added actual showers to the deco. I love that you guys added bath tubs but showers instead of two glass boxes would be nice too.

 
That's not accurate. There was a major overhaul of several internal systems and tools. Graphics are a completely different... department.
Graphics are always on the wishlist so if anyone figures out a way to make a voxel game look better at little to no performance cost... yes, please.

A lot of brain sweat has gone into POI design and a myriad of small improvements, such as the (theoretical) ability to rotate every block (even cubes and ramps) in 45° steps or have air blocks in the list or randomly replaced blocks so you could have a door that is only sometimes present in a POI.
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Gazz you misunderstood me :)

I meant "I like that they are concentrating more on graphics this time around than previous alphas".

I did not mean "I like that they are concentrating more on graphics this time around than content or other aspects of the game".

 
Nice! As a sign of my appreciation I think I will release a nice hotfix patch for you guys as a way of saying thanks.
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Made it 130 days on Rav 3.2 or whatever it was. Had a break and soon to start a new Rav. Great Mod mate, really great!

 
I've been watching Shroud do a lets play of a16 from last December to keep me entertained...it is fun watching him play as a noob in something (he's killer in pubg) he repeats over and over how he loves this game and how addictive it is. I don't know if he still plays, but he was really pushing how fun it is ....his only real complaint was the graphics which he said didn't really bother him much since it is so fun. If you are looking for something to watch, check him out. Joel should send him a personal invite to stream a17...he is the second highest twitch streamer.
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Wow, I did not know he played this game. Incredible

 
Yes It's Done When It's Done!

It has always been that way since i have been playing A10.4!

What's with all the crying, there is no crying on this forum! :)

Trust in TFP......

 
You know..... I added the release date because Madmole said "July" and then I changed it to August when it was apparent that July wasn't going to happen so that people who were considering starting a new game could know they could go for it and have some time in their world.
But, I can see that those of us who are patient don't really need a release date anyway and the rest who aren't patient are going to whine and moan and complain and see promises and contracts and feel entitlements and....it is just so exhausting.

So, I'm calling it. Madmole made a mistake when he said "July". He thought it could be done by then but it turns out that the graphics upgrade for the Unity update had some issues that have caused delays. So I really have no idea if it is going to be August or September or later at this point and in listening to the devs they really are supremely unconcerned. They are working relentlessly on getting it done but they really don't feel any pressure to get it done by a certain date. They just live by the mantra: It's done when it's done. From their perspective you guys all have A8 - A16 you can play with while you're waiting not to mention mods or even other games.

So that's what I'm going to emulate. No more estimated dates, no more hp bars. It's done when it's done.

You can't handle that? Then go play another game and take a break from the forums. Nothing you or anyone could post is going to change a single thing about their schedule.
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And i can strangely deal with this more than being given an estimated release date :p

It's how it should be.

 
For me the wait is bad because A16 was such a huge step back in the AI department, which has a big impact on gameplay. Not even mods could change this enough, and I've played them all. I would've strived to correct this asap, and not delayed the A17 release even further for some graphics improvements, which many won't even be able to enjoy until the game is more optimized. What I love to see in Alphas is more content and better gameplay, but the bandits were delayed once again. The graphics stuff could've also easily been kicked to A18.
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Sorry. I know I said “graphics” but that was an over simplification. They saw that there would be performance gains by updating to Unity 2018 and then again most recently to 2018.2.

The performance gains is what they were primarily after with the side benefit being that the visuals would also get a bump. It has been a mostly smooth transition but (as Madmole explained) some of the shaders have caused problems which has in turn caused a delay and made the game visually unfit for a video by Madmole’s standards.

In their estimation the performance gains and enhancements of the newest version of Unity justified the change even though it carried a risk of delay as it would mean a better running A17. It was a call they made and now they are working through the result of their choice.

As for feature freeze, they have not added any new major features since the freeze. All developers have been working to finish up and debug the features already implemented. There are still features of A17 that have not been talked about. If I were to reveal one of those right now it wouldn’t mean new features were added after the freeze.

I’m not going to reveal one right now.

 
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Sorry. I know I said “graphics” but that was an over simplification. They saw that there would be performance gains by updating to Unity 2018 and then again most recently to 2018.2.
The performance gains is what they were primarily after with the side benefit being that the visuals would also get a bump. It has been a mostly smooth transition but (as Madmole explained) some of the shaders have caused problems which has in turn caused a delay and made the game visually unfit for a video by Madmole’s standards.

In their estimation the performance gains and enhancements of the newest version of Unity justified the change even though it carried a risk of delay as it would mean a better running A17. It was a call they made and now they are working through the result of their choice.

As for feature freeze, they have not added any new major features since the freeze. All developers have been working to finish up and debug the features already implemented. There are still features of A17 that have not been talked about. If I were to reveal one of those right now it wouldn’t mean new features were added after the freeze.

I’m not going to reveal one right now.
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Waiting patiently for updates...

 
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