PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[beerfly]

Things like noise, torches, cooking attract hoards. If you need to cook or use a forge at night and don't want hoards. You might want to do that away from your base.

I burped while upgrading a block of my shed and it was so sinchronized with the hit and sound of upgrade with stone axe, that a lumberjack came angry and destroyed me , I though he heard me via the mic. Fantastic .

 

[madmole]

I think there is one notable exception to this. Goldenrod tea. You need the perk to make it and you need the tea to address the food poisoning you will get from eating raw vegetables and canned food. Yes, there are other options for food poisoning but goldenrod is the only reliable cure for this.

You get 5 perk points for completing the starter quest. Use them wisely.

 

[madmole]

I'm not a fan of the hour-long death debuff. Nothing in the game should hinder to for a full hour, as that just makes me want to leave the game running and go play something else for that hour. There's no incentive to go out looting, as you're now more likely to die than you were before you... died. Sure it feels good getting your stuff back, but you can just wait an hour and get it back when you've recovered. I do like the debuff, but I just think the cap on it needs lowered. Granted, we're playing a server with the hardest settings, so death is much more recurring. Zombies kill you in 2 hits and a full 2 mags of AK rounds (rank 2 AK woot) didn't take down a running military zombie lol. So we're getting used to dying, but no real progression can be made bc of that debuff. It incentivises afk players while further penalizing those that try to go out looting.

Just my ten cents on the debuff. I'm sure many will disagree, and that's ok. Just starting a conversation that may have already been covered. With 2725 pages in this thread... I'm not delving that deep to find any mention of the debuff lol.

Its like in real life if you get hurt or sick you can't do the things you were planning to do. I still do them though, but have to go a little slower or sometimes change your plans like work on your base that day. THe debuff isn't any worse than day 1 when you spawned and you were out doing stuff then, so I don't see why you feel so debilitated. Your always stronger than a newly spawned character because your tier 1 perks never go away. So with this mentality do you go afk when you are level 1 and use cheats to level up? Its not worse than being level 1, so I don't understand comments like these. Ok you lost some of your SUPER POWERS but not all of them.

 

[madmole]

Does the peak player count usually hit during experimental or stable?

Stable.

 

[madmole]

madmole,
"Turn the zombies up to 64 max alive."

Does that only work during horde nights or does that affect the number of wandering zombies during non-horde days/nights?

Horde nights.

 

[madmole]

MM..question on perks....I am level 14 and have 3 points in each of the 5 attributes. For example....why can i only put 1 point into Pack mule under STR......i want to open more slots...Do I have to wait until level 20 or something to open 4 more slots under pack mule.. I dont want any of the other subperks under STR....VERY CONFUSING>>>
Can you post an explanation on how these work..Do levels affect opening perks ..ontop of the Attributes...Confused???

Ouch

Perks have attribute requirements and attributes have level requirements. You can see the requirements by clicking on the LOCK icon in your backpack. We're working on improving the messaging there so its clear when you click the buy button why you can't buy it.

 

[th3rookie]

I've played a couple of hours yesterday and honestly, The Fun Pimp, THANK YOU! Didn't play enough for a full review but it feels like a new game, me and my brother are having fun, we do play more as a team now. Not sure about the stamina/food relation but, it doesn't break the fun.

I've got a major question! The most anoying thing in A16 was inside a house with windows, you could ear the wind like I was outside, breaking a little immersion. I can understand if the windows are broken or holes in the walls, but is there something on the way to drop the wind sound when inside a somewhat airtight house ?

Thanks again for this huge and welcome A17 update!

 

[jdzane]

ummmm, anyone else stuck on the bicycle? I'm using an xbox one controller, and none of the buttons get me off the darn thing. Plus, my stamina only goes down to 97 and stays there no matter how fast I pedal. Is this a bug?

- - - Updated - - -

ummmm, anyone else stuck on the bicycle? I'm using an xbox one controller, and none of the buttons get me off the darn thing. Plus, my stamina only goes down to 97 and stays there no matter how fast I pedal. Is this a bug?

nvm, yep it's a bug, headed to the bug thread now. Pressing <E> on the keyboard got me off, so it's a controller issue.

 

[madmole]

Anyone have melee tips? I can’t seem to find a fluid strategy of attack that doesn’t get me pummeled.

SPrint and time a power attack with charging bull with a two handed weapon typically knocks anything down with iron or better.

Get as many melee perks as you can like strength, mod your weapon, use a fire axe it has superior range and is awesome on power attack. Its bleed debuff is good and can cut heads off (insta kill) with higher perks.

I still come in hit, back up, come in hit again repeat until dead. It only takes two shots once you get a few perks and I'm starting to one shot some at level 40. Get the skull crusher perk if you are good at head shots.

 

[madmole]

So after all the tantrums about ‘release the game already’, now the toys get thrown out of the cot because it’s not optimised?
Wow...TFP have more patience for this than I ever could!

We could give them a check for a million dollars and they would review bomb it because the IRS takes 37%.

 

[Damocles]

The levelingsystem looks interesting.

But I cant really see the playerlevel requirements for the perks such as grease monkey.

Eg, what the unlock intellect attribute level must be.

It just opens up at some level.

---

edit: ok you wrote the lock icon will show it.

That should be displayed better

some popup like "must have intellect 4, playerlevel 6" or such.

 

[madmole]

-gampbler- there is a thin xp bar right above the toolbelt. Basically a fine med blue line growing from L to R.
-- Just had first horde night. Adventurer setting (90 min days, default 8 z's for horde night). Built a 5 x 5 w 50 colums in corners and horizontal poles across sides. Upgraded Flag to Cobb so all at 1500 HPs/block. Two rows of wood spikes all around. Even mirrored the poles at eye height so there was a double layer.

Horde hit and first 3 z's busted out a 3 wide path thru outer spikes, and one in inner. Only got a few shots off. Went to T1 Iron Axe, got a couple Ks. Lost a couple more spikes. Had to repair, there's 5+ z's in a 2-3 wide space, just whaling away. Tried taking a couple Axe swings, back to Claw Hammer repairing, "oh oh.." lost a pole. End is nigh. Didn't last 3 minutes.

## My take: default difficulty in single player, -once-the-horde-hits- is way too hard. *** I've only had the first horde night; that's what I'm specifically addressing. {had 4 deaths in first week. 2 to dogs. I'm ok w those}

-- Point is that yes, Horde Night should be tough. Scary & quite possibly deadly. But if it's simply not survivable unless you're uber-l33t then it should be looked at, imo.

Old base designs might not work. Two rows of spikes isn't enough. Make a guard tower with a walk way to your main base so you only have to spike the small tower. Leave no path to you and have coffee on your belt to make a run for it if they get to you.

 

[HerrKingsley]

all chores are done, all mail are sent, kids are put to bed! 1h of game time for dad!

Here we go.. status report will be delivered tomorrow!

Happy Apocalypse guys and girls!

 

[SnowDog1942]

Is there a way to make the old vehicle steering controls the default. The mouse steering is just not nearly as good

 

[madmole]

So in order to get lvl 2 pack mule you need 4 points in STR .. which you can only get at lvl 20...correct??

No if you buy 2 strength (3) you can buy the first two tiers of pack mule. 4 Strength requires level 20.

 

[madmole]

Well.. To be fair; my FPS dropped by 40%. Two friends of mine just tested A17e, and found they had average FPS values of 11 and 15. So.. It's a valid complaint imho.
I doubt there will be some magic switch in the code which brings back that 40% after reaching stable.. ;-)

Not sure when but tests have shown 10 to 30% increases. I think older hardware is suffering more because of all the overdraw when inside a POI because they are more detailed you are drawing layer after layer. We are adding a culling system.

 

[jhast07]

One thing I noticed about playing for a couple hours is that the penalty for dying once or twice is so ridiculously high. After dying twice between the death penalty and the penalties from having roughly 60 food/drink my health pool was a whopping 25. stamina was at 40. I could swing my axe once before my stamina was basically empty. Just seems a bit excessive to punish players that much. Also in multiplayer there's massive amounts of stuttering. my fps sits at 60-80 and feels like i'm watching a slide show at times. I'm the host for the game too...so I'm not sure what the issue is causing that.

 

[BeatKitano]

Just passing by to say this: the game changed DRASTICALLY.

And while I've not yet reached the first horde night (I fear it's going to be such a pain with zeds digging up and down now)... I'm loving it.

It's a slow progression but it's challenging. I still miss a bit the zombie loot (ok the few bags dropped were goodies but it feels too little).

Good job, I was worried with the whole melee thing and loot disappearing (but you compensated with xp killing zeds) but the game feels right (although A LOT tougher and that may deter new players from trying)

 

[madmole]

My first 5 after starter quests are....1 point in STR, AG, Rule #1 Cardio, Fully Hydrated, Slow Metabolism....makes the most sense with limited stamina and food. I am a big bow user, but my 6th point goes into Pack mule.

I never used the slow metab stuff. Harvest more meat seems like a better choice if your on the go like me. This build changed me. I used to be the home body guy who built a big base, now I'm doing quests and traveling the country and clearing pois. I have loot caches all over the map now loaded with loot waiting for a vehicle to one day take it all to a trader and sell it.

 

[madmole]

No I actually dont know anyone who doesn't know how to cook, at least an egg or corn Except kids. But I might be cultural. Where I'm from every one learns how too cook in school. Its Basic knowledge here!

Well then role play you have some amnesia and forgot how to cook. You do wake up naked with a can of chili. What is up with that? In Ark you cant even make a campfire without a perk so don't feel bad.