PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[SxR]

Glad I could help everyone with this. Using a shovel as a spear was just something that I played around with and found out that it worked.
Who knows, TFP's may even add a real spear to the game.

Give me some rep if you all want.

Actually the shovel used to be a very good Melee weapon, it had quite useful damage stat, but then it was nerfed because it wasn't intended back in 15 I believe it was. ;d

 

[saintones]

Any chance with the new system we can specialize in a medic type class and revive our friends/family. Was just thinking about it with the new buff system.

 

[Roland]

Hey Roland. I wanted to ask.
Will shotguns have an area of effect in Alpha 17? I mean so long as they use shot and not a slug, they should spray in a cone shape that would not also knock back one zombie but the ones on either side of him and hurt all of them. Currently they don't but they used to.

The blunderbuss could have the widest area of effect yet. Which could make it a more valuable weapon in the game.

My other question is how well do you interact with the new friendly NPC's in the game? I know they give quest but: Do they help you fight or at least defend themselves?

Are there followers that can help?

Do they stand guard and defend a fort and shoot at zombies if they get too close?

Things like that.

I believe they do and I think there is a mod attachment that spreads it horizontally for the purpose of taking out three at a time that are standing next to each other.

I interact great. NPC's love me. They give me quests, buy my crap, sell me their loot, give me clues about the backstory and the two major factions in the game.

They do not help me fight.

They do not defend themselves as they are always safely behind their landclaimed Traitor Joel's Trading Post.

Nobody follows me but zombies and they don't want to help.

Nobody stands guard or defends my fort or shoots at zombies if they get too close except me and my auto turrets.

That's a lie. I haven't built any auto turrets. So just me.

Seriously, there is no additional NPC action yet other than souped up traders. Bandits will hopefully come next and then NPC followers and settlement inhabitants....someday.

 

[DarlingCows]

Are mountain lions and other animals still being considered to add in. A big cat would change a bear or dog defense or tree house cause mountain lions can jump 15 ft up a tree meaning the tree house would not be effective. Unless you build it higher up.

 

[Star69]

was it a zombie bear?
maybe give zombie bears an aggressive AI compared to normal ones if it doesn't have one already. Normal bears circles around your treehouse while you starve to death, zombie bear smashes the tree to smithereens and falcon claws your body in half before you hit the ground.

Nope, regular bear in green lands or whatever the official term is for biome with big trees and grass and stuff. I think he came after the tree since he was pretty darn close when I shot him. This was before I discovered that you crouch from up there so they do not know where you are located.

 

[The Gronk]

Can 800 pound grizzles climb trees?

Yes, surprisingly well.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Was this question answered or asked? In two scenes from a MadMole preview weapon blast set zombie sprawling backward. Was that just happenstance or has it been included?

I ask because now only an explosion seems to move zombies, all else they drop where they were standing.

 

[Erik Louden]

Yes, surprisingly well.

Oh f**k!

 

[The Gronk]

Was this question answered or asked? In two scenes from a MadMole preview weapon blast set zombie sprawling backward. Was that just happenstance or has it been included?
I ask because now only an explosion seems to move zombies, all else they drop where they were standing.

That's now standard, it's called "ragdolling".

"Zombies ragdoll when stunned 4/14/18"

 

[Scyris]

With this kind of reduction, I'm guessing the new features are very taxing to system resources. This might be what they had to do just to get it all to run smoothly. If the trade off for an all around better game is a smaller map, I'm fine with it. I think alot of people forget that 7d2d is also a console game, which could possibly be a considerable percentage of their sales. They have to cater to all and not just the PC crowd. I don't blame them. If it was my paycheck, I would do the exact same thing.
For those who are unhappy with the map size for the superlag 50 slot PC servers, I'm sure the game and features can be modded for it to run right. The eternal pessimists setting fires on forums need to take a deep breath and relax. Its all going to be fine.

See this is the crap I hate and why I dread whenever a pc game gets ported to consoles, the pc game ends up dumbed down to compensate for the console version so its less work for updates. Anytime I hear a pc only game is going to get a console version I die a little inside because I know the pc version is going to get gimped/dumbed down to make it easier to update the console version. I mean why was the right click menu in A15 removed? Oh look, that was after the console ver came out. What a coincidence there. I really want that menu back btw, I couldn't see any valid reason why it was taken out in the first place.

Yeah though I am extremly tired of devs gimping the orignal pc version of a game just because it has a console version later and they wanna keep them closer. Anyone with a console should know the experence won't be near what it would be on a pc.

7dtd was never a console game at first, the pc version should have all the features which then are dumbed down for the console version later. Insted of ruining the pc version because there is now a console version too. I noticed once they announced it was coming out for consoles is when I noticed the pc version started having some dumbing down of the game being done.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Thank you Gronk.

 

[AaronG85]

Worse thing then bears climbing trees are drop bears

 

[kareed]

Much of this doesn’t apply to the new system which you couldn’t know (and as you admitted to suspecting in a later post)
But I do get the gist of what you are saying. If crafting recipes are locked behind high level perks (however that works in the new system) then there really are parts of the game locked away from the player unless the player chooses those and if they must choose those to be able to craft those stations and high tier blocks and equipment then that leaves less choices for other things.

My personal feeling is that it would be awesome to play once where I’m a master crafter and can create whatever I want and then do another playthrough where I don’t craft those things myself but I use operational workstations I find in the world and trade for items I can’t craft myself. It would definitely make for two very different playthroughs.

My point is that you still have access to everything and you can still participate in all gameplay offerings. You can use a chemistry station and a workbench even if you don’t have the skill to make one yourself and that all by itself creates an emergent quest you wouldn’t get in a game where you can just craft it yourself.

Now if you can’t have fun unless you can always craft everything then yes you’re going to always want to choose to max your crafting skills every time you play and then use the rest of the points for whatever.

ok i totally see your side as well. But being in the now small precent that play SP or CO-OP with hubby to I think maybe just allowing more skill points maximums to open it up more in SP. As 2 people we often split skills making it more enjoyable. I have over 2600 hours into the game so its not like I haven't enjoyed this game throughly. because I do and its still my favourite. With that said I can honestly say I no longer play SP I find it just to much of an issue, bases all over the place. Started shutting off zombies for days at a time because nothing was getting accomplished. crappy quality stuff unless bought. Now only play when hubby does. I feel that the louder multiplayers have won in the end because with new great features and new alphas SP has been slipping farther and farther in fun. So I don't know if thats the case but some of the new features mentions tends to fallow the same paths.

 

[Aldranon]

I currently have 30 bugs/issues assigned to me, about half of which should be fixed before A17e. All the other programmers and designers are in the same boat.

How long until about half your bugs are fixed?

 

[TSRViper]

How long until about half your bugs are fixed?

Aldranon, you sly dog

 

[Sinz]

I believe that bosses are only present when you are doing a quest. A quest will hijack a POI and populate it with the zombies and, if applicable, a boss that is needed for the quest. So you shouldn't be running into bosses at every single level designed POI you come across.

@Roland.

In the event that I get a quest that hijacks a POI and spawns a boss zombie and a random player searches that POI before me, does that POI volume spawn the boss zombie for the other player or does the POI run a check on players entering it's proximity (to see if the player is the quest receiver) before it spawns the boss zombie?

Personally I'd prefer if other players could encounter and steal someone else's quest zombies.

If it's possible that another player does steal my quest zombies, what happens? Do I fail the quest? Do I get quest complete if the objective was extermination?

 

[Roland]

ok i totally see your side as well. But being in the now small precent that play SP or CO-OP with hubby to I think maybe just allowing more skill points maximums to open it up more in SP. As 2 people we often split skills making it more enjoyable. I have over 2600 hours into the game so its not like I haven't enjoyed this game throughly. because I do and its still my favourite. With that said I can honestly say I no longer play SP I find it just to much of an issue, bases all over the place. Started shutting off zombies for days at a time because nothing was getting accomplished. crappy quality stuff unless bought. Now only play when hubby does. I feel that the louder multiplayers have won in the end because with new great features and new alphas SP has been slipping farther and farther in fun. So I don't know if thats the case but some of the new features mentions tends to fallow the same paths.

Well perhaps this is a sign that the devs are finding the right balance because the MP players totally feel neglected and often accuse TFP of only loving SP players. Now we have you expressing the feeling that TFP is focused more on MP instead of SP.

What you see as a barrier to possible SP gameplay I see as a a gateway to multiple SP playthroughs each with a different feel. For you, the only proof will be once you get your hands on it. But really you have the ideal setup anyway since your spouse likes to play too.

 

[Aldranon]

For me, SP has a sharper edge to it that just doesn't happen in MP.

MP is fun, but its a different kind of fun.

I enjoy and agree to the fact that no one can be a master at everything (Comic Book super heroes not included).

#ReplayabilityIsGood

 

[Darkfoxx117]

ok i totally see your side as well. But being in the now small precent that play SP or CO-OP with hubby to I think maybe just allowing more skill points maximums to open it up more in SP. As 2 people we often split skills making it more enjoyable. I have over 2600 hours into the game so its not like I haven't enjoyed this game throughly. because I do and its still my favourite. With that said I can honestly say I no longer play SP I find it just to much of an issue, bases all over the place. Started shutting off zombies for days at a time because nothing was getting accomplished. crappy quality stuff unless bought. Now only play when hubby does. I feel that the louder multiplayers have won in the end because with new great features and new alphas SP has been slipping farther and farther in fun. So I don't know if thats the case but some of the new features mentions tends to fallow the same paths.

You could also go into the xml and tweak the amount of points you get per level if you so wish to counteract the issue you are seeing.

 

[The Batman]

Started shutting off zombies for days at a time because nothing was getting accomplished. crappy quality stuff unless bought. Now only play when hubby does. I feel that the louder multiplayers have won in the end because with new great features and new alphas SP has been slipping farther and farther in fun. So I don't know if thats the case but some of the new features mentions tends to fallow the same paths.

I don't think it's that they favour MP over SP. It's just that certain changes had more of a negative instead of positive impact on gameplay if you ask me.

- The useless horde #gate

-sleeper zombie gate (empty cities)

- #repairgate

-#tradergate

-#several other gates

Personally I think the smallermapgate is benificiary to none.

I think those and several others need fixing in order to make the game feel more balanced That said, I don't know which features specifically you mean in your statement. Which ones are they?