PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Pico]

The dungeons/basements look really good.

Very glad to have arrow recovery. It'll now be a priority to recover arrows before the corpse vanishes.

Note the fine blue line above the toolbelt - I believe it indicates overall level of health (but I could be wrong, only noticed it at the end of the vid).

I'd like to suggest for videos that Joel enlist a player like Pocket to do the gameplay, and he can then be free to narrate. He'd get to say a lot more, and we'd get to see the game being played properly, so it's a win-win. He gets to talk more on the technical aspects, and at the same time we get to see gameplay, rather than so much dithering in a menu screen.

That indeed was a pig on the roof, but it seemed to vanaish. Another bug perhaps?

 

[Andrivullar]

I'll tell you this, in theory, sure it works for single player. In server setting, yeah right. Bones and fat just became rares. But hundreds of hours of play time I surely have no idea what im talking about. [As in, i religiously skinned zed corpses, and still balked at the fact it took forever to get a good stockpile of glue.]

 

[Pico]

Oooh, just had a good realisation regarding the vanishing corpses. This will ASSIST on horde night. It used to be I'd get my base encircled by corpses, so any further kills were 'lost' in regard to looting (being a corpse on top of a corpse, the top corpse being lost), but now if an empty corpse vanishes it'll free up space for another to be killed and recovered on the same spot. So in the morning it's a quick run around to get all the backpacks, and less time spent hacking at bodies. Me likie!

 

[merlinfire]

TFP might be saying "Tough ♥♥♥♥" about objections to their vanilla game but then at the same time they make the game so over the top moddable that pretty much anyone can get exactly what they want. The longevity of this game will be via modding. That is what the developers really want. A thriving community of people using the architecture of their game to be creative and do amazing things. This is a bad thing?

He's right you know. TFP hasn't meaningfully listened to the playerbase about major issues in a long damn time. We're never consulted about major changes. Makes it hard to believe the folks making the design decisions play the game like the rest of us. Take a poll of the top 10 concerns or feature requests. Take the top 50. I guarantee you that "make zombies not drop loot" wouldn't even be in the top 100.

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And how many of us did you ask again?

I feel highly confident that the answer to that question is "nobody". Though if the question were phrased properly, there's no dearth of "Yes men" ready to affirm any decision.

 

[DUST2DEATH]

Luckily, as a business, they can choose to consult or not, whomever they feel.

you're either going to like it, mod it, or move on.

The entitlement here. geez.

 

[Janna3921]

Just finished watching it. It is obvious, as Joel said, he is rusty in the game. Which a lot of viewers won't understand is that who wants to take their work home with them. So I can understand to some extent his being a bit off. At the same time, it might have been a good idea to have practiced for three or more hours before he played.

in what I liked, the arrows, being able to retrieve them, that is a big plus

the graphics are really nice and my computer can handle it, so I won't have a problem.

the new houses all look really nice

the shovel can be used as a spear

what I DO NOT like

zombie respawning again when you lead the zombies outside to fight with more room, go back in and they have respawned, Not FAIR!

Hate the water and food are connected to stamina, that is wrong, just wrong. especially at the start you won't have a lot of food and the last thing you need is to have your stamina that severely affected.

No loot, that is the biggest complaint I have read from players from videos that I watch, Kage848, GameEdged, Games4Kickz and some others, in MP there is very little loot left and getting it from zombies is their main source. Now no loot from zombies, no bones, or rotten flesh, that is really going to hurt them. Most of the loot in the zombies was crap anyhow, so taking that away is insult to injury.

It won't matter with the more dangerous ones, they never had any loot anyhow, but at least they had bones and rotten flesh.

I'm looking forward to the A17, I'm not pitching a fit on how long, I'd rather you take two weeks, three or even another month or two to get it right. And what we are seeing isn't the finished, polished version, so I am trusting that there will be changes that fixes the problems many here have pointed out.

 

[Roland]

Let me see if I understand this. It is okay to run from zombies, as it is a survival game and the goal should be to live, not go and hunt zombies to kill them for their loot.

Yes. That is correct for people who feel that way. Not everyone feels that way.

Isn't that what those who have underground bases do? They have a place to go and be safe, to not place themselves in danger and be killed as they go out to fight on horde night, or any nighttime when the zombies are running?

That’s what people with topside bases and fortified POI’s do too. Running to your base wherever it is is always a viable option to standing and fighting zombies out in the open.

You can go out in the daytime and look for loot, food, water and other items needed and if you run into zombies fight and defend yourself, but to place your life in danger just to fight, kill and get loot isn't what you should do if you want to survive.

That is part of the rationale behind the change but it’s also for performance reasons and for solving the duping.

I have watched only half of the video, the motion of his movement has me feeling as if I was having another vertigo attack and I can't stand those. I felt like I was getting sick from all that twisting around. So, I have been watching for 15 minutes, quit, watch for a bit and then stop and will be heading back in a minute.

Me too. I’m surprised MM hasn’t asked for a button for instant 180’s....lol

[/QUOTE]

 

[sijb777]

Wow. People like to jump to conclusions.
1. Zombie loot isn't going away. Using their dead body as a loot container is. Also if they aren't going to drop loot, they don't drop a backpack. That's the change, not what you guys keep talking about.

So is the amount of loot you can get from zeds comparable to before the backpack? I really like the new system as it gets rid of heaps of duplication glitches, but it just looks like there is no loot now.

 

[faatal]

Any chance for boats in A18 or any future update.
Maybe have blocks that can be crafted which have a floating property

A18 should allow for floating vehicles once I finish the buoyancy code. A raft model was already made, so that should be the first boat.

 

[faatal]

@Faatal.....thank you for the zombie water interaction. At some point, when you have time, can you look at animals and water? Specifically dogs, wolves and bears. When they enter water, they sink to the bottom in full run animation but go nowhere and cannot get out. You can swim down to them & either shoot them from close up or beat them with a club. So if you are chased by these guys, go in the water and you’re perfectly safe plus get free & easy meat. Thanks in advance.

They should move like the zombies currently (walk on bottom). I will test.

 

[faatal]

Thanks faatal.Any chance airdrop boxes might float in future alphas? Maybe a new water critter like a gator before the game goes gold? Water along the edge of the land might have a zombie but farther out there is nothing to have you checking your six.

Boxes - maybe.

Having animals float and maybe certain zombies would take care of having a surface threat.

 

[Andrivullar]

He's right you know. TFP hasn't meaningfully listened to the playerbase about major issues in a long damn time. We're never consulted about major changes. Makes it hard to believe the folks making the design decisions play the game like the rest of us. Take a poll of the top 10 concerns or feature requests. Take the top 50. I guarantee you that "make zombies not drop loot" wouldn't even be in the top 100.
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I feel highly confident that the answer to that question is "nobody". Though if the question were phrased properly, there's no dearth of "Yes men" ready to affirm any decision.

Its unfortunately true. I get the feeling that most people play strictly PVE, with no aspect of survival from competeing players, so the yes men will definitely follow. I will however miss the fat and bones, that was pretty much the only reason to carry a knife/machete for most of the pvpers, I mean aside from the fact to cover your trail of bodies for stealth purposes.

This is a case of "scales", I'll reserve my final judgment after I get some playtime on it, but currently, I'm abit miffed at the loot thing. And to the guy who said he won't miss the blueberry seed; boy I can't count the times my farms have been raided and I was thankful for that random corn seed or blueberry seed. -shrug- Different playstyles, and I tend to respect that, but harming one playstyle with no viable alternative for no reason is just senseless masochistic behaviour.

Seriously though, all things negative aside; I would quite like to see 7DTD be the end all to the current zed games. Definitely has the potential.

 

[Zilla]

Stop freaking out people! Go work on something in your garage or play ♥♥♥♥ing golf. I have a few concerns but i'll hold by criticism until after i've actually played the new release. Just a complete waste of time to cry on forums after watching a video. I feel like i wasted mine just typing this short message.

 

[Andrivullar]

On the niche side of things; how about the bones/fat deal. Saying animals just doesnt cut it on populated servers. You can play for 8hours and run across a handful of wildlife the entire time. Zeds are the most common way for that. And I mean; Duct tape; Need I say more? However, I will note that corn could realistically take the place of both those recipes if corpses can't be skinned anymore.

 

[Roland]

So it seems most of the objections to the changes seem to be a perception that they won’t work with PVP or 50 player servers.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm...

 

[Colin248]

Stop freaking out people! Go work on something in your garage or play ♥♥♥♥ing golf. I have a few concerns but i'll hold by criticism until after i've actually played the new release. Just a complete waste of time to cry on forums after watching a video. I feel like i wasted mine just typing this short message.

its not a waste. letting the developers hear the clear worry there is for such things is important to the health of the game. belive me, its not just the developers who want this game to continue being successfull. its the people who have stood behind it for so long.

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So it seems most of the objections to the changes seem to be a perception that they won’t work with PVP or 50 player servers.
Things that make you go hmmmmmm...

dont go making them observations, many is from the casual player. much like myself.

 

[Andrivullar]

Thank you for clarifying this, as if I didn't care at all, I wouldn't be typing all that up. +1.

 

[sijb777]

I don't handle loot balance so I cannot say what vanilla will have on release. Point was that the mechanic wasn't being removed, just the grind of searching 20 corpses when only 2 have loot.

Being able to just loot the few backpacks rather than having to look through them all will definitely be a lot better. If there was a looting system similar to animals to get bones and rotten flesh from the corpses it might help with getting those things.

 

[Anabella]

Wow. People like to jump to conclusions.
1. Zombie loot isn't going away. Using their dead body as a loot container is. Also if they aren't going to drop loot, they don't drop a backpack. That's the change, not what you guys keep talking about.

2. Water doesn't control max health. Medical items and/or time are what will refill your max health. Water only controls the regen speed of stamina and health up to it's max.

3. Bow glitch, yeah, the whole thing was changed out and redone. Something was changed recently that caused it to come back and I have a ticket for it currently.

4. Food is easily tracked on the current UI. It is your max stamina.

Now chill out a bit everyone.

Hey Kinyajuu,

Thanks for the info. Question on the zombie loot. Is the drop rate going to be the same as it was before and only 2-3 out of 10 not dropping loot? Since we didn’t see any bags in MM video I am assuming that bag feature it not working at the moment. And that is leading to the confusion along with MM’s comments about loot from them.

 

[Louie04k]

after watching latest video i have a couple things to say... first of all, reusable arrows!!! thats awesome and im very excited for that one! Now i have kept my mouth shut on afew issues regarding a17 to wait for more info and now i feel like i have seen enough to be a critic. First of all, STOP removing features! One of my favourite parts of surviving horde night was looting bodies, and chopping up the gore blocks for bone, now we cant do either (how will be get all our bone now?) also on the whole wellness and hunger thirst system im still not sold on, to me guns and tools not having a quality is more simplifying the game to make it more mainstream.

i have zero issues with change (i welcome it as it gives me something new and cool to learn) but i still see no reason to remove the listed features and feel its a step back for the game, to me, a17 seems like 2 steps forward, and one step back, you guys are doing cool things in some areas, and odd and totally unnecessary in other areas, obviously this is my opinion and some people wont agree with me, but just how i feel so far. and thank god for mods to add all this back in for me

edit: read post above, i take back about corpse loot, rest still stands