PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

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I am hoping now that they have the new pathing put in they would make doors no more attractive to zombies than any other block. That way we could have nice entrances and people wouldn't put half a dozen doors away from base to attract them....not that I would try something like that.
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Under the new system, as I understand it, they are not attracted to the door because it is a door. They are attracted to the door because they see it at .25 of its HP when calculating the path of least resistance to you. So depending on the blocks around the door they could go a different way. In most cases I surround doors with Reinforced Concrete blocks at a minimum so even the Vault door at .25 of its HP will be seen easier to get through then those other blocks and they will still go to it.

 
As I guess this was discused many times and I don't want to mess this thread more than necessary, can anyone point me to some dev posts explaining why update cycles have been so long compared to other early access games? thanks in advance
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Probably somewhere in Official Dev Forum. Anything that's been said by a dev, etc since this thread was started is in there. Little over 60 pages right now, but you don't have to filter through other people's stuff.

 
I am hoping now that they have the new pathing put in they would make doors no more attractive to zombies than any other block. That way we could have nice entrances and people wouldn't put half a dozen doors away from base to attract them....not that I would try something like that.
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The door things been commented on by faatal a number of times.

Doors will still be attractive to zombies. But not by doors placed away from your base. Zombies will path around the doors if possible now if they're after you. But doors still only get half HP when zombies are trying to evaluate their path.

However zombies are much smarter per A17 prior discussions. The pathing checks the total HP of the entire path to get to you. So a door set in front of several high HP blocks may not attract the zombies.

Have a look at faatal's AI thread. It's a pretty awesome read.

 
@faatal and @Roland and @madmole

I am much more keen to find out more about the new skill system! It's very excitingly new and RPG and I have a question or two about it:

1. Is there going to be skills you level up through grinding? (E.g. Mining Skill or Scavenging 1/100 @ A16)

2. Would main attributes govern item quality crafting? E.g. Intellect to govern Engineering items, such as weapons' quality?

3. Roland said we'd be able to obtain a total of 206 skill points at max level - I only count 176 things to spend it on the screenshots - is that not the full list of skills? I only ask, because he mentioned it'd be 1 point for 1 skill. (I may be wrong!)

For the record - I DO assume the 206 skill points are not final.

Thanks!
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*cough* ... anything on that guys? Kinda got lost in the whole what is and what is not an alpha bonanza

 
Under the new system, as I understand it, they are not attracted to the door because it is a door. They are attracted to the door because they see it at .25 of its HP when calculating the path of least resistance to you. So depending on the blocks around the door they could go a different way. In most cases I surround doors with Reinforced Concrete blocks at a minimum so even the Vault door at .25 of its HP will be seen easier to get through then those other blocks and they will still go to it.
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The old system was the same. Doors had less calculated health. Which attracted the zombies. But the pathing mechanic, if I understand correctly, used to have zombies just searching for the lowest health block, and they went after it. So doors took a huge priority anywhere placed.

 
Oooo ooo. I have a question.

So... Hm. With at least cars now sitting flush against the ground on slopes, does that mean turrets can be placed on wedge blocks and angle down or up by being flush with the slope when placed?

 
Oooo ooo. I have a question.
So... Hm. With at least cars now sitting flush against the ground on slopes, does that mean turrets can be placed on wedge blocks and angle down or up by being flush with the slope when placed?
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Probably not as turrets are a block 1x1x1, not a dynamic object like a car

 
Probably not as turrets are a block 1x1x1, not a dynamic object like a car
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Got me thinking about this.

Isn't the 'problem' the ramp block, not the turret?

For example you can put half blocks as a floor, but if you put the empty half of the block facing up anything you place there will be floating half a block off the floor.

I think ramps are the same way. We only see the ramp, but it still takes up the entire block when placing things on it.

 
Got me thinking about this.
Isn't the 'problem' the ramp block, not the turret?

For example you can put half blocks as a floor, but if you put the empty half of the block facing up anything you place there will be floating half a block off the floor.

I think ramps are the same way. We only see the ramp, but it still takes up the entire block when placing things on it.
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Duh. You're right. This is why I don't talk to people within the first 2 hours of waking up... >.>

 
Well I'm glad you posted something you feel passionate about. You did post it in a public forum and so you should be prepared to get negative responses to your view. I get that all the time, myself.
I think some of the snarkiness is not aimed at you personally. I think it is aimed at the annoying philosophy of changing jargon because somebody doesn't believe the old term works any longer. I admit that I don't care for such a focus on semantics and feel a bit of resentment towards attempts to change words that are just fine the way they are. As a teacher in the US public education system I'm urged to change the words I use all the time because after awhile someone in admin feels like that word no longer fits or is good enough. Instead of "students" we have to call them "learners" but then after a few years someone thinks that "learners" might send the wrong message so then we have to call them "trainees" since that will help them acclimate to the workforce but then eventually some other admin decides that "trainee" has such a sterile feel to it that she decides the best is to call them "students". <facepalm>

I think it is a pointless exercise, myself. But all of the walking thesauruses of the world want to give every synonym its chance in the spotlight, apparently, so sure. Let's call it "EA-v17". As long as we all know that what we are talking about is this current phase of development where the devs are still replacing placeholder systems and overhauling features and cutting stuff and putting in new things, and that we will know when this phase is over because they will stop doing that stuff. You can call it whatever you want.

(But the devs of this game are calling it "Alpha" so.........seems easiest......to just.....go with that?)
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Excellently put!

 
Ew god i hope not, that always looks terrible.
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I agree. I wonder how hard it would be instead to connect it to the "exploding" effect that happens when two corpses that are too close together collide. There could be a short 'bursting' animation coupled with that same 'splorching' sound that happens, so it seems like after a short time period the corpse bloats and explodes?

 
Ew god i hope not, that always looks terrible.
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You’re playing an unfinished game. The zombies are going to pop out of existence for 17.0 for sure. So prepare yourself to deal with it. :)

 
The old system was the same. Doors had less calculated health. Which attracted the zombies. But the pathing mechanic, if I understand correctly, used to have zombies just searching for the lowest health block, and they went after it. So doors took a huge priority anywhere placed.
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No. In A16 zombies have an AI task to destroy doors. It has nothing to do with their pathing grid or HP. They’d go for a steel vault door set in a wooden shack. That’s why you can place doors away from your base and they will go and attack them when aggro. In fact if you duplicate that line in the xmls two more times then they become positively obsessed with doors and even ignore you standing nearby.

In A17 I believe that task is removed (but I haven’t checked). Doors are ONLY attractive as low hp blocks between you and the zombies. So they still go for doors if that is the best pathway to you but they don’t have a soecific task to seek out any door. So making a “door honeypot” won’t work in A17 like it did pre-A17.

 
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