PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[faatal]

faatal,
AI pathing question: how does height differential work? Any difference between generated terrain compared to player placed blocks? I'd like to build a hilltop base and wondering if it's reasonable to expect z's to path up a ramp when it raises say 20 blocks. From the testing I've done it seems like they'll take a 13 block tall stairway if there aren't any spikes. But that elevation change was all placed blocks being supported by placed pillars; not naturally occurring terrain.

The spot I'm eyeing is the southern of the two islands in the western lake in Navsegane. On it's north side the high ground's a pretty ideal spot for a small castle, and the spine running down to the south seems custom made to build an access road.

I recall you mentioned a limit to how high/low was being checked; performance impacts which makes perfect sense. Not trying to open the xmas gift early, just wondering if a more medieval approach towards bases might work.

---

Hats off to whomever built the new Shotgun Messiah Factory, did a hell of a job. That's one very cool POI. :rockon:

The path grid heights are based on down raycasts hitting colliders, so block type does not matter so much there. The scan height is the entire world height. No limit there. There are then various block checks below/above/next to the heights that are hit, but a path is pretty much just a path through all those linked nodes. The only real difference is what it costs. Going up costs more if you have to jump. If a sideways check hits a low slope, then the cost is the same as just moving sideways.

Destroy area has small limits in how high it will check.

 

[FileMachete]

Ah, ok, that's some good info, thanks a bunch faatal!

 

[faatal]

Your previous comment was... for alpha 16. Glad you're still playing More seriously, in high difficulty, the luminescent zombies regenerate very quickly: the arrows may not be the right solution.

People can turn on debug mode (console dm) and press keypad 0 and watch the zombie health change as they are hit or regen instead of all this guessing what damage are they taking or why does it not die or takes so long.

 

[morggin]

nice !!! new B221 MP world building 13312 x 13312 on my Linux server. We shall see how fast this goes.

so far using 17.6G VIRT memory during the initial build, it's still working on

2018-12-11T20:48:44 16.224 INF WorldGenerator:Generating Socket Data

 

[SnowDog1942]

Love all the RWG fixes and optimizations!!!

 

[Gareee]

Looks like this build has controller issues with the main menu loosing focus and not pulling up the steam keyboard, but you can workaround that with kb/m

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Love all the RWG fixes!

Did you find patchnotes somewhere?

 

[SnowDog1942]

Looks like this build has controller issues with the main menu loosing focus and not pulling up the steam keyboard, but you can workaround that with kb/m
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Did you find patchnotes somewhere?

Yea, New thread

 

[jdzane]

oh dear god, what the f--k does this mean????

"Zombie movement settings Nightmare speed"

 

[FileMachete]

<snip> Did you find patchnotes somewhere?

Instead of in the Bug Reports 1st post there's a link at the bottom to patch notes.

https://7daystodie.com/alpha-17-experimental-b221-is-out/

 

[Drithyl]

"- Reduced zombie kill XP"

I thought that the XP rebalancing would involve raising the XP for the other activities (since besides punching grass, it's fairly low atm), not just lowering the zombie kill XP. This will make progression super slow. I guess we'll see how that plays out.

 

[Aldranon]

B221 is out!

Check out Nightmare zombie speed!

Iron and steel tools are better.

And much much more!

 

[Thecolours]

"- Reduced zombie kill XP"
I thought that the XP rebalancing would involve raising the XP for the other activities (since besides punching grass, it's fairly low atm), not just lowering the zombie kill XP. This will make progression super slow. I guess we'll see how that plays out.

This. I was lead to believe other areas would get a xp buff since zombie kills were getting nerfed. Also, on a percentage basis how much did zombie xp get nerfed?

 

[Mephistopheles]

From the patch notes...

Reduced zombie kill XP

Umm wtf? Literally tens of millions of your players are complaining about the XP grind and how stupid it is that if you want to learn how to do anything, you need to XP and level up, and pretty much the only way to XP/Level is to grind zombies which have no f'ing loot anymore? And now you decrease the XP and make that grind even longer? Yeah, okay. TFP always moving in the right direction.

 

[JaxTeller718]

Lowered Wandering Horde Count and increased delays between Wandering Hordes.

LUL

Meanwhile one of my best tracked downloads is the Increased Wilderness Spawns DL and the Increased Wandering Horde Modlet. There seems to be a disconnect going on here. And with lower zombie XP REDUCING wandering hordes may not be the best way to go here. Hopefully you guys snuck in some xp in other areas.

 

[faatal]

Since you are on the staff and know the "problem", You should tell us what they are "adding" since they are apparently not just fixing bugs and stuff. I would love some insider info like you have.

For good or bad, the team generally keeps working everyday. Lots of things sneak in during the process of making test builds, but that is fine, since experimental releases are primarily for us to get feedback from the community and for the community to see what we are doing. It is not about a long term or complete gaming experience. That is what stable is for.

We could just dump test versions to experimental every day, but people would have to keep restarting, so we would not get to see them progress very far and some days there would be nasty bugs where they could not do certain things at all.

 

[LuckyStar]

How do we find a link to see what's in the new build and what was changed?

Can't we just have a sticky or something?

I want to see what's been fixed, changed, nerfed, or screwed up...er... "balanced".

 

[Roland]

"- Reduced zombie kill XP"
I thought that the XP rebalancing would involve raising the XP for the other activities (since besides punching grass, it's fairly low atm), not just lowering the zombie kill XP. This will make progression super slow. I guess we'll see how that plays out.

It’s not the final intended version. Raising the other ways of getting xp is going to take longer. This is still experimental so you are witnessing several fixes and balances in progress.

Don’t worry. Gazz has a spreadsheet.

 

[Gareee]

"- Reduced zombie kill XP"
I thought that the XP rebalancing would involve raising the XP for the other activities (since besides punching grass, it's fairly low atm), not just lowering the zombie kill XP. This will make progression super slow. I guess we'll see how that plays out.

Yeah, I was hoping the same, but I'll see how it feels before passing judgement.

I ran into a wolf and dog day 1. (Not sure if they were shacking up together, but they didn't give me a chance to ask. I respawned in a snow biome, the first I've really seen of it since a16.

The landscape felt less huge town, and more towns separated by natural landscapes, which feels more like a17 to me, good.

I was starting near the 1st quest trader before (which I liked) but now it looks like a trek to find one.

Framerate feels better, but it's hard to tell in the first day or so, with no player builds.

 

[RavenSyndil]

For good or bad, the team generally keeps working everyday. Lots of things sneak in during the process of making test builds, but that is fine, since experimental releases are primarily for us to get feedback from the community and for the community to see what we are doing. It is not about a long term or complete gaming experience. That is what stable is for.
We could just dump test versions to experimental every day, but people would have to keep restarting, so we would not get to see them progress very far and some days there would be nasty bugs where they could not do certain things at all.

You all (TFP) have made an AMAZING game. I really wish that if people think they could "do it better" than learn to be modders, but please quit complaining about the current game! I first found 7DtD a couple years ago and have loved every version they have brought out. I look back at screenshots I took when I first started and compare them to what I see in the game now, and it is a completely different game. TFP don't let the naysayers get you down, some of us LOVE what you have created for us and will continue to do so! Just sayin'

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How do we find a link to see what's in the new build and what was changed?
Can't we just have a sticky or something?

I want to see what's been fixed, changed, nerfed, or screwed up...er... "balanced".

when you download the 'new version' on steam it says View News or something like that. Click on that and it will take you to the patch notes.

 

[zackss]

Literally tens of millions of your players are complaining about the XP grind...

Considering that 7 Days to Die hasn't even sold one ten of millions, I think you literally just made up a number to try to bolster your personal opinion.

I personally felt like we were leveling way too quickly, especially once we get better at killing zombies. It wasn't uncommon to level multiple times in a single game day when fighting zombies.