PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[beerfly]

I always try to practice amateur idiocy. Hope I never go pro.

Glad that I reminded you to stay in the right way

 

[toores]

This is definitely going to shake alot of people's worlds. It was interesting to watch kage848 in his stream have to come to a full stop to gather himself when he realized he couldn't rush to building a forge right way.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, the pimps are challenging us to approach the game differently to see if the experience is more fun and rewarding.

Instead of resisting all the changes, I encourage everyone to side table their worries for now and give it a try. I am certain TFPs will be watching and will tweak accordingly. At the very least, easy modding is also available for those who must absolutely play things a certain way (in regards to skills/abilities)

I guess I'm just trying to think through my arguments by writing them down and seeing the responses.

I'm actually not worried about not liking the game anymore or anything like that. I'm confident, in most aspects, it's going to be miles better.

In general, only a few things make me really wonder.

For example, I'm not a huge fan of taking gameplay out of the game and reducing it to perks (like fertilizer). But knowing TFP, they probably make up for it by adding content and expanding on the systems they've built.

And the perk tree - I think it makes perfect sense to simplify the system to a point where a new player takes one glance at it and understands how it works.

You do anything -> it tells how much XP you get -> the blue line fills up and you pick a perk. Simple!

The negative side of it seems to be the reduction of the RNG element - the RNG element is one of the most interesting things about this game. Perk system, on the other hand, makes the progression mostly based on your level not what you find and how you play. And there will be a path of least resistance so you mostly pick the same perks in the same order to go where you want to get.

But I get that the system is new and many improvements might come.

 

[faatal]

I would say Yes do listen to them. We as old school 7dtd:ers get easely bored. But for new players having a too difficult entry level will make people stop playing and give bad reviews, which leads to less money for TFP to develop cool stuff for us old timers.

That depends. It can go either way. Some people complaining about it being too hard can drive others to try it to prove they can beat it.

We also have 2 easier difficulty levels and zombies running at night could be turned off.

 

[wildaxeman1]

Hm, sir, finding and getting a bullet casing out from a body is not like getting a stick out of it. I know what you mean and brass being ballanced could fix the problem with lack of .. of it.

bullet casing does not go in to body, unless you stick it in purposely. it would be logical find some casings around the place, you was shooting. in fact, from mag44 you can get all the casings. so, if arrows can be reused, then bullet casings should too. at least some of them.

 

[faatal]

We can just hope they release it at 00:00 CST, there is no reason to delay it.I don't understand company's that release them at random times.

It will not be random. It depends on who is fixing what bugs and then getting enough testing time in.

The weapon item changing into another weapon bug is a current problem we would like fixed for tomorrow.

 

[toores]

Hey Faatal,

When you compare items, isn't it easier to read stats when you show selected item stats and in the parentheses show the "hover over" item stats (not the +/- difference) and just color the other stats whether they are better or worse?

 

[faatal]

What happened to the stun effect with zombies? They just get right back up as if they tripped or something.
Then that long arm reach they have is a bit crazy. I could understand that if you only had your fist but the club should give you twice the range but instead it feels like you don't even have the full reach of your arm while they can hit you much further away. I watched streamers constantly miss zombies while they took damage.

Some of us did not like the fact that they looked dead just laying there. I don't care either way.

Their reach is about the same as yours depending on what weapon you are using. People just have to learn the timing. I can hit a zombie and pull back before being hit all day long.

 

[TulparHAN]

Hello there

♥ When is the Alpha 17 update available?

I and my friends are looking forward with excitement.

 

[Mhyth]

When I think "Release to public opt-in Monday Nov 19" I think Monday 00:00 GMT.And If there where any big bugs/errors etc or further testing needed I feel like It would be a bit to late to "Call" it off now.

I'd like to add that I can see people getting frustrated.

I want to know when I and my friends can play, so we maybe can adjust or day around it, a slight bit, also the fact that its been 1 year + since we had such a good reason to wanting to play

Just two posts down from the one you quoted.

Rick has called for an 11:30 am meeting (CST) so they can assess what else they need to fix (They’ve been fixing stuff all weekend as they’ve noticed things). Then they’ll create a release candidate, test it to make sure it doesn’t crash. They’re shooting for a late afternoon release.

It's very safe to predict A17E is not going to be released prior to the 11:30am CST meeting. I think it would also be very safe to expect that meeting will generate a potential short list of must fix issues prior to creating the release candidate - even if there are no 'must fix' items 4 or 5 pm CST is likely the very earliest the release candidate will be ready. Therefore very safe to assume 6pm to midnight CST is when A17E will be available - barring any major setbacks. A 6 hour window should be reasonable to plan around.

 

[faatal]

Yeah me to. Zombies animation looks great imo. Even though the jump anim looks a little bit goofy I get a war z feeling of it.

Well, the jump anims are from me taking the old anim and slicing it into 3 parts. It could use some artist polish and it would be nice to have some variations some day.

 

[madmole]

I just got done watching one of the streams and I loved a lot of what I've seen thus far!
I do have a question for later builds since I saw something that happens in every game, and that is that sometimes, nights get very boring. Will there ever be any type of player to player gambling or little "mini games" that we players can do to kill time when waiting? I like the idea of having some down time and utilizing it in a fun way rather than sitting around watching the game hours tick by when you're in a pretty bad situation to do anything about zombies outside waiting to kill you. To wager money or even weapons to a few games of 2 player poker or blackjack, and then maybe more players if there was the ability to craft card tables, roulette tables, or any other type of old-school or even medieval pub game entertainment (think the Fable games), then that would be awesome.

I doubt it. Currently I have zero idle time at night. I scavenge and level up all day and at night I cook food, smelt, chop wood and resource rocks, make spike traps and work on my base. There is zero down time unless you like dying.

 

[madmole]

The problem now is, everybody will get iron tools at lvl 20. It's not much of a choice, it's a "must take" skill at 20.

Why? You can find iron and steel tools in loot and buy forged iron and steel to repair them at traders.

 

[owl79]

Shouldn't there be an option to opt-in to the latest experimental? I figured I'd opt in now so it downloads while I'm at work and I can play when I'm home, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

 

[faatal]

Rare loot drops from zombies is great, but I think there needs to be a better visual cue to loot dropping. My wife pointed out the brown sack does blend in a lot with many of the ground textures. Maybe like the bird nests it can be brighter, or not affected by lighting and shadows as much?
Another improvement might be an audio que that loot has dropped.. not a toon bell or whistle, but maybe the sound of something hitting the ground or floor like a thump or something?

We are already working on that. We have 2 new drop sounds that I am adding. There should be some art changes incoming.

We did watch one day 14 horde night stream.. they camped out at the navezgame diresville hospital roof. The zombies decimated the spikes by the ladders, then did navigate well to the roof access... but by midnight on day 14 horde night, there was just a tiny trickle of occasional zombies that were easily dispatched.
That seemed anticlimatic for seeing the first a17 night 14 horde night.

Indeed. Testers noticed it seemed to trickle weeks ago, but I have not had time to analyze BM spawn timing yet. Might try tomorrow.

 

[madmole]

zombies seem to get up pretty fast?? it certainly doesn't feel realistic, imo no zomebie loot? hahaha fun pimps u crack a book me up. is there a way to have random times for a zombie to spring back from the um. undeaddead? or just go with a slower time? cheers, thanks for the update.

The lay there not moving was causing confusion as to if the zombie was dead or not so when the delay was removed the game got harder and the added difficulty was appreciated.

 

[jakuba]

The lay there not moving was causing confusion as to if the zombie was dead or not so when the delay was removed the game got harder and the added difficulty was appreciated.

I am a bit worried that the zombies going down only leads too boring waiting time until it rises again before we can finish them of. This is once we get better at combat of course. But from watching Kages stream last night it seemed he was getting a little bored sometimes from waiting 2-3 sec before finishing the zombie off. I am very happy you cut the time they lay on the ground

 

[sillls]

Why? You can find iron and steel tools in loot and buy forged iron and steel to repair them at traders.

How can you repair items at the traders? I thought that most workstations that you find are destroyed. Has this changed?

 

[SunnYlein]

EVERYONE can do "show on map" in the player list with EVERY other player ... not just with friends. Can this be exhibited? Otherwise, pvp servers are dead ..

 

[Deceiver101]

Are there or will there be ego/quality modifiers to gun mods and other things? Like a legendary versus a shoddy weapon mod or will all gun mods essentially be the same?

 

[Laz Man]

Setting difficulty to Normal is as far down as I can go. I don't think any veteran will go lower than that.
I must die several times before I will let them pry my cold dead hand from that setting

Haha, I'm with you on that one......however it also depends on whether your playing "dead as dead" mode.

If the game is so hard you have to restart your game after just a couple days, then maybe it's time to lower the difficulty.