PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Gareee]

We ran into an issue last night, and I wanted to know if anyone else had seen it?

For some reason, connecting to the server resets our texture resolution from high to a lower setting for both local players. (this was not the case earlier in the day.) Noticeable are the wood chest boxes, and if you look at video settings, texture resolution is grayed out.

If however I join my sp game, its fine.

I'll be posting a bug report about it, but wanted to know if servers could dictate graphic settings in some way, or affect them?

I'm also seeing another oddball sporadic graphic setting issue, but its unrelated... when I launch the game, I can confirm the lowered resolution setting is in place to increase performance, but when I join a sp or mp game, the resolution changes to window's 4k setting. I can manually turn it back down after game connection in sp or mp, buts an annoying bug. (a clean renstall didn't cure the issue.)

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(edit added comment by QA Tester-unholyjoe)

 


this is known issue and under investigation.

 


thanks

 

[Red Eagle LXIX]

I think its comical that TFP tried to eliminate base exploits and just made it 100x worse lol

I disagree. I think the new AI meets the goal of making the easy, little to no work or planning bases unsafe. Now it takes a much greater investment in the resources of time and planning to create a safe base. To me that meets the goals while still not making the zombies truly alive and thinking. I've actually enjoyed trying to come up with a design that uses little to no in game resources beyond planning and accomplishes the goal of safety. I found the AI was much more up to the task of making that difficult. Yes building a base that uses in game resources (turrets, spikes, etc) is trivial, but always was; further, such bases have a continued and ongoing non-survivable model due to resource exhaustion from a role playing perspective. Thus from a role-playing perspective the eventual survival goal should be to find those bases with the least amount of resource expenditure that can survive if one needed to hole up for a blood moon due to injury/tired/whatever. The AI has certainly made that harder to accomplish requiring more up front time and planning resource expenditure.

 

[khzmusik]

Faatal, is it possible to make a percentage of zombies not all take the same ai path on horde night?

Or even just in general... If some of the zombie varieties could use the the new A* pathing, and others use some other algorithm, that would add a ton of variety I think.

The other algorithms don't even have to be anything computationally complex. The old pathing algorithm would work, or even just a straight-line-to-target path. Or different A* heuristics could be used (e.g. Manhattan vs. Euclidian) for different types.

This would probably make the game a bit more realistic, since you wouldn't just see a line of zombies following the same path to the same weak block. It would also mitigate many of the base building exploits that others have come up with.

Of course, that's assuming it's cheap (both computationally and in terms of man-hours) to swap out algorithms, which is a big assumption.

EDIT: Of course, the best thing of all would be if the algorithm could be modified in the XML. A man can dream, can't he?

 

[Gareee]

We ran into an issue last night, and I wanted to know if anyone else had seen it?
For some reason, connecting to the server resets our texture resolution from high to a lower setting for both local players. (this was not the case earlier in the day.) Noticeable are the wood chest boxes, and if you look at video settings, texture resolution is grayed out.

If however I join my sp game, its fine.

I'll be posting a bug report about it, but wanted to know if servers could dictate graphic settings in some way, or affect them?

I'm also seeing another oddball sporadic graphic setting issue, but its unrelated... when I launch the game, I can confirm the lowered resolution setting is in place to increase performance, but when I join a sp or mp game, the resolution changes to window's 4k setting. I can manually turn it back down after game connection in sp or mp, buts an annoying bug. (a clean renstall didn't cure the issue.)

***************************************

 


(edit added comment by QA Tester-unholyjoe)

 


this is known issue and under investigation.

 


thanks

Joe, is there a workaround for this? Maybe the server config is picking up a command it shouldn't have I can edit out, or is the issue resolution unknown yet?

 

[Gazz]

yes precisely, regardless what the gamma is set or capped to in game.. if a person wants, he/she can change gamma via nvidia, amd, windows, monitor settings or 3rd party programs.

That's why requests for an ingame gamma cap need to be taken with a grain of salt.

A player with the "technical skills" to operate monitor settings would have a major advantage over players who do not possess those.

Given the inherently competitive nature of PVP, the suspicion is that players with such skills would be the ones asking for an ingame gamma cap to gain that advantage. =)

 

[Catt]

Hey guys, maybe I missed it. Was playing Single player on most current build and noticed I can't buy Hammer and Steel perk under Intellect. I have 3 Intellect and can't get the first rank of Hammer and Steel perk. Is this intended? Why does it not mention what level of intellect you need for each rank, and why does it not say what player level needed for spending another point in intellect?

 

[JamsCB]

Hey guys, maybe I missed it. Was playing Single player on most current build and noticed I can't buy Hammer and Steel perk under Intellect. I have 3 Intellect and can't get the first rank of Hammer and Steel perk. Is this intended? Why does it not mention what level of intellect you need for each rank, and why does it not say what player level needed for spending another point in intellect?

If you hover the cursor over the lock or shopping cart icon to the right side of the perk, it should tell you the requirements. There's been discussion on improving the visibility of this, so this may change and be improved to be more clear.

 

[MsMacior]

How do I backup my save? I don't know what should I copy.

 

[Catt]

If you hover the cursor over the lock or shopping cart icon to the right side of the perk, it should tell you the requirements. There's been discussion on improving the visibility of this, so this may change and be improved to be more clear.

Thanks! Got off the game for now so can't check that out. off top of your (Anyone's) head, what level of intellect (and player level to acquire it) are needed for first rank of hammer and steel?

 

[invertcroz]

Thanks! Got off the game for now so can't check that out. off top of your (Anyone's) head, what level of intellect (and player level to acquire it) are needed for first rank of hammer and steel?

For " Hammer and Forge" you have to be level 20 ( intellect rank 4 )

For "Steel" you have to be level 60 ( intellect rank 8 ) ... i may be mistaken on the intellect rank on this one

 

[Catt]

For " Hammer and Forge" you have to be level 20 ( intellect rank 4 )
For "Steel" you have to be level 60 ( intellect rank 8 ) ... i may be mistaken on the intellect rank on this one

My mistake on the name. Thanks a ton for the info!

 

[kamer1337]

That's why requests for an ingame gamma cap need to be taken with a grain of salt.A player with the "technical skills" to operate monitor settings would have a major advantage over players who do not possess those.

Given the inherently competitive nature of PVP, the suspicion is that players with such skills would be the ones asking for an ingame gamma cap to gain that advantage. =)

im requesting lower gamma setting so i can take adventage of some monitors trick? maybe you would but not me

 

[Ricowan]

The server can, if necessary, generate camera frames. The difference is that it doesn't normally have to display those frames if it's headless. The Update cycle, although based on framerate, must still be called otherwise 99% of server based games wouldn't work.

But... The server is a console app... Isn't it? I'm still confused. There's no window to render to.

 

[Royal Deluxe]

I love day 1

 

[khzmusik]

How do I backup my save? I don't know what should I copy.

Game saves are here, if you're on Windows:

C:\Users\<your Windows user>\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie\Saves

You can just copy them to wherever you like.

I don't know where they are on Linux or OS X though, sorry if you use one of those OSs.

 

[Xeen]

I ran into a weird thing with lights on helmets in my MP host game where if someone turns on their light it is off for everyone else and if they turn it off it is on for everyone else both on the helmet itself and in the environment, it seems like the code itself is reversed, has anyone else noticed this?

*Edited for clarification*

 

[Dauthiatull]

is there a list of weapon and tool mods somewhere?

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

is there a list of weapon and tool mods somewhere?

if you start a solo game and go into the creative menu and type mod in the search you will see all of them.

 

[PiercedFromWithin]

I ran into a weird thing with lights on helmets in my MP host game where if someone turns on their light it is off for everyone else and if they turn it off it is on for everyone else has anyone else noticed this?

It did that in A16. I don't remember if it was because of the light being on when somebody logged out or if it was just from being near one another? Thinking it was logging in and out that fixed it but I do remember it happening and correcting it.

 

[The Gronk]

But... The server is a console app... Isn't it? I'm still confused. There's no window to render to.

Yes, there's no window to render to which is why a headless server is faster. There's nothing to stop the server from rendering a camera frame to a texture and sending that to the client though. Separate the idea that the game camera and graphics card are locked together, you can have a camera without a window to render it to. Even in a standalone game you can switch between several cameras in the scene.