PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17
- Thread starter Roland
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Just because location says Ireland doesn't mean they are Irish. I know of a member of the forum who is working in China but is from Germany. One of the most popular content creators (there should be a better title, they don't create content) is living in Ireland but is from Germany.
In other worlds, location doesn't mean place of origin.
Genosis
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I think many people would prefer a more iterative approach; a major feature is developed, tested, released as a new version. Move onto the next feature. Have a bug fix build for a minor version, release a new feature for the next build, etc. Some changes require longer phases, such as the Unity migration, and that's OK too. There are likely more factors than we realize that may explain their current approach, but that is their business.
This next update will be jarring, a lot is packed in all at once. Also, being an alpha stage game, sweeping changes are expected and I feel not many factor that in. The reasonable among us will realize that you can't have 12+ months of work any faster than the time it takes.
I will hope, along with most others, that updates are more frequent in the future, without sacrificing the overall quality of the game as the end result.
The Gronk
Colon Pounder
I'm as pedantic as the next code-monkey but even I can see that it was obvious he meant the unity version. It's called extrapolating data from the available information.
For example; it's pretty obvious you meant "person" when you said "guy" but you could have also meant an effigy of Guy Fawkes traditionally burned annually by the British, the Americanism "that guy!", a badly dressed person, to evade somebody, or a rope used to secure a structure or craft.
Of course by "craft" I mean a vehicle of some kind.
By "kind" I mean "type".
By "type" I mean "version of"
By "version" I mean...
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Guppycur
Well-known member
As cool as that would be for the modder, I see zero net gain in the idea from tfp's point of view.
In fact, I see a huge backlash as tfp decides WHICH modders get access.
...no, I think a better solution would be to enlist specific modders, ones who could help tfp design their future of modding (workshop support), but who wouldn't spend the access getting a head start on their own mods.
Luckily, gazz and alloc were pulled from the modding community, and the devs themselves were all game modders at some point (madmole is skyrim-mod famous), so I'm not at all concerned.
And I will add my two cents to it.
I had a computer break down a couple years ago, so was a few months without a computer. That would affect my being able to get online and play a game. Had surgery over a year ago, it was nine months before I could play games and almost a year before I could play 7 days, that is a year of not being counted as a player, but I was miserable during that time I couldn't play. Watching others play was what helped me survive it. For some it would have made it worse, for me, it helped.
I don't know how many games my son has, a Lot, but he plays them, gets to the end then sets it aside for a while, then replays it. He was playing Skyrim until some game was released this morning.
Royal Deluxe
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7D2D between A16 and A17
I would pay money see you try to drive it
It is on the floor beside me unless I am leaving the house. Then it is with me, it's like a watch, feels strange without it on my shoulder although now I have the strap lengthened to carry it differently, safer anyhow, a thief tries to grab it, he will be pulling me along with my purse.See purses and bag win you the zombie apocalypse preparedness badge. Congrats!
But do you carry it round the house or just outside? When i leave the house my backpack goes with me -> more stuff in there.
between me and wife....she is the light traveler
If there was a zombie apocalypse, I'd be adding a long kitchen knife, long handled screwdriver, grab more medical supplies to carry with me, we have a couple bags of jerky and we keep it on hand for snacking, along with a bag of fried fruit and containers of nuts for snacking. It's not planned for such a event, we just enjoy eating dried fruit, nuts are healthy for you, jerky for snacking, trying to cut out candy, jerky is better for us. We have in the trunk medical kit, blankets and flashlights; house has six guns, three handguns and we have ammo for them. Our son keeps a loaded gun in his room and he collect swords, several are sharpened. Also several daggers, I could add one of those to my purse.
We are somewhat prepared, need to do more, but not that worried that we are stocked, but have basics.
There will be lots who will have more, many who will have less, we're not over confident, just going we have some stuff to get by on, but need more.
i'm not a developer but also i understand that a similar approach would slow down terribly the release of the final product
every thing you add have the potential of breaking other aspect of the game, therefore every time they should have to rewrite or correct the same things over and over
Royal Deluxe
New member
Its a joke, like someone build you free a Swimming pool in the basement and you encumber that you cant use the finished 1/8 of it before its finished.
Really, go out, take a breath fresh air.
And when you come back give one of the 6000+ Games on market a try
If you come to the conclusion that there is no decend game next to 7D2D this statement here is only more important
Really, go out, take a breath fresh air.
And when you come back give one of the 6000+ Games on market a try
If you come to the conclusion that there is no decend game next to 7D2D this statement here is only more important
Genosis
New member
I appreciate the analogy, and it is apt for the most part. A17 is the sum of its parts in a way. Some systems are intertwined with others, one thing changed cascades to others. I have been a programmer most of my life, I get it. The tools and features developed on top of an updated framework are dependent on one another, and much of what we are getting in this update exemplifies that.
My point was a mere hope that future updates would be more iterative. Now the monstrosity has been assembled into a well oiled machine (an exaggeration obviously! Software can only reach for perfection), perhaps a tire change, swapping the audio system, adding a new trim, is all possible without keeping it into the shop for another year while it is torn down to the nuts and bolts.
That said, I appreciate the work done thus far and I look forward to whatever they have next. Whenever that may be
Yep, I fully agree with this post.
I do realize that there's a lot of features still missing that TFP want to add, maybe that's why they are using this kind of strategy to put a lot of content in per update.
But it is also the reason why some people are getting frustrated. I just checked the recent Steam reviews, and most of the negative stuff are related to development, bugginess and/or gameplay performance/smoothness.
It's true that it's been almost a year since 16.4 was released. It's more than enough time to play multiple different map seeds and characters through and to get to know the latest game content. In other words, it's enough time to get bored of the game when there's nothing new and exciting for a long time, for me atleast.
I don't blame TFP for their development strategies or schedules, after all it's a video game. I have other things in life during the "downtime". It just makes me think that there's room for improvement by tuning the "amount of content vs. time spent between releases" parameter. :smile-new: Right now it feels like TFP is a racing team with an awesome car but they are falling behind in the competition due to other issues. But of course fans want to see them succeed!
EDIT: And no, I didnt mean this to be a rant, think of it as a "my thoughts currently". I rarely play any video games nowadays but 7DTD is an exception - it always seems to bring me back. :smile-new:
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Genosis
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I concur; I have obsessed about the game since I heard about it earlier this year, sitting at a (measly for some) 1100 hours of play time. The moment I saw Joel/MadMole's A17 video, I put the game down and currently going between Two Point Hospital (loved Theme hospital back in the day) and finally starting The Witcher 3 this week. That should keep me plenty busy until the next alpha drops, and will renew my interest all bright eyed and bushy tailed (well, as much as a few cups of coffee will get me) for the new content.
That aside, I am not criticizing TFP's processes; this is their baby, who else has the right to dictate how they are raising it? Faster, more incremental updates would be great, if it can be done without greatly impacting the end result/excessive delays. And if it takes another year for Beta/A18, so be it. I am sure the next alpha will be plenty for me to chew on in the mean time.
Then use that approach when you start your development studio. But how are you going to handle features that tie into each other? I'll tell you. You will waste time completely finishing a feature and debugging it and then when you add the next feature and find out it won't interface with your previous feature the way you need it to you will rewrite part of that feature. So, you will have wasted all that time polishing a feature that ends up having to be changed anyway. But, if you want to develop that way then by all means do so.
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