PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

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The new level gates are the level it takes you to get enough attribute points to buy what you want - It just doesn't explicitly tell you what level you need to be - so people are tricked into thinking they aren't level gated even though they still are. I like it either way as long as the attribute points are expensive enough to balance it out and not make it too easy I'm happy.
I just realize I'm level gated either way.. but hey if it makes people happy to think they are not level gated.. then shhhh don't tell them they need to hit level X to have Y attribute points to buy the skill they are looking to get.
I will still vote for no level gates at all. Make attributes level through usage like the skills did in A16. Those that specialize can advance through the attribute they use, while it still slows down progression to late game stages because you have to "level" that attribute up by use. No magic "spend 10" points to make it out at once.

 
Not everyone sees it that way Royal. Many people actually enjoy playing through the primitive stages and very much enjoy a slow pace in their progression...In a game that is largely survival oriented doing epic constructions are necessarily endgame activities once you've progressed to the point of being able to do them easily.
This was the opinion of myself and those I game with. The biggest complaint we had, literally every single time, was that you reached end game too quickly and then it got boring. Thank goodness they slowed things down in terms of unlocking stuff. Having said that, you can still find all the tools you are being denied through scavenging. I have a steel shovel and fire axe in my base right now and I'm barely mid 20s.

 
My biggest complaint is I can't level if I want to take time to work on a good base. If you get too far behind in the weeks, you get spanked by the Zeds. Hope there is going to be some kind of comprise.
If you level up slow then your zombies increase in type slow also.....

 
????

No. With these major changes, we will be playtesting over the weekend.
Faatal

what if we add the machine to prepare ammunition what looks like a press, this adds more realism and fun

RL550B.jpg

 
The new level gates are the level it takes you to get enough attribute points to buy what you want - It just doesn't explicitly tell you what level you need to be - so people are tricked into thinking they aren't level gated even though they still are. I like it either way as long as the attribute points are expensive enough to balance it out and not make it too easy I'm happy.
I just realize I'm level gated either way.. but hey if it makes people happy to think they are not level gated.. then shhhh don't tell them they need to hit level X to have Y attribute points to buy the skill they are looking to get.
No, you aren't level gated. You are point gated. So instead of waiting til Lvl 30 you can spend those points any time you get them. I understand what you are saying but "level gate" is a not a good description for the system MM described. Sure the is a minimum level for everything still but it is pretty low as long as you are willing to not spend points on other stuff.

 
I will still vote for no level gates at all. Make attributes level through usage like the skills did in A16. Those that specialize can advance through the attribute they use, while it still slows down progression to late game stages because you have to "level" that attribute up by use. No magic "spend 10" points to make it out at once.
It is a shame to see macros go unused...

 
You are point gated.
It takes levels to get points.

non-real example

Say Steel requires attribute level 10.

To get from attribute 1 to 10 you need a total of 30 points.

You get 1 point per level

One can say, steel is point gated at 10 or level gated at 30.

levels = points = buy stuff.

Now people will see the 10 instead of the 30.. and everyone will clap because there is no level gates.

I want to emphasize.. I'm fine with this.. I'm not arguing against it. As long as its still challenging and I don't have to craft 1000 axes or stand on a cactus to level stuff up.. im good. The perks themselves are interesting so its all good.

 
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The current forge is both too powerful and too useful. Another idea may be tiered forges, limiting the creation of higher level materials while giving the players primitive tools reasonably early. Maybe a separate smelter to split up the recipes a bit?
Workstationmania is the wrong way IMHO. The game already has upgrade-paths for the forge with the tools you need to insert. Crucible and tool-and-die set are already available to gate recipes. And if you can't build the anvil in the forge it is also available to gate recipes.

My biggest complaint is I can't level if I want to take time to work on a good base. If you get too far behind in the weeks, you get spanked by the Zeds. Hope there is going to be some kind of comprise.
In the options set "24 hour cycle" to 90 or even 120 minutes and you will have more time to build your base and the harder zombies will arrive later.

 
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I've been pretty critical of a lot of the changes in A17, but I'm also not above heaping the praise when its more than deserved. I didn't think they'd look at progression and perks. I assumed that since they did so much work on it, that was it. This was the new way.

Im very happy to eat crow on this. This is the best news I have heard this Alpha. Even more kudos for using the new schematic system to remove some stuff from perks and adding it to something we can find on our own.

Im very excited and for the first time since week one I am hopeful and looking forward to trying the next Experimental update. Good job MM and team for listening to the players and not taking the easy road and having player just accept things the way they are. You have reaffirmed my faith in "In Pimps We Trust" again.

It may never be as hard as I would like it to be and that is fine, there's modding for that, but getting the base games issues in order is a wonderful foundation to begin with.

 
It is a shame to see macros go unused...
Yep. I admit I used macros every time I started a new map in 16, before Igot sick of it and did giveselfskillxp MiningTools 9999999 etc every time. Then I got sick of that and the AI and quit for 6 months or so lol

 
Fatal should we be playing a lower rez right now for higher FPS? Until it gets resolved?
I'm running a Ryzen 7 1700 and 1060 6gb and 16gb RAM. 2666
It is not simply something to get resolved. It is about trade offs.

High end graphics need x amount of calculations to render each pixel. The higher the resolution the more pixels. We can reduce the calculations, but then it looks worse. I can now run at 4k on my RTX 2070 and get a good FPS with reflections off, but I'm not going to because it looks worse. I would rather play at 1440p with High reflections.

There is no scenario where an old slow GPU is going to be able to render everything at 4k and 60 FPS. You reduce quality and or resolution until you get an acceptable FPS.

 
There is no scenario where an old slow GPU is going to be able to render everything at 4k and 60 FPS. You reduce quality and or resolution until you get an acceptable FPS.
Is there any scenario where people will be able to run A17 almost as good as 16? Or is A16 performance gone forever? Mine isn't bad.. until 64 zombies on horde night comes along - then its a crawl. A16 I never noticed much slowdown during bloodmoones. Granted I haven't played B221 yet... but I didn't see any performance improvements listed.

 
It is not simply something to get resolved. It is about trade offs.
High end graphics need x amount of calculations to render each pixel. The higher the resolution the more pixels. We can reduce the calculations, but then it looks worse. I can now run at 4k on my RTX 2070 and get a good FPS with reflections off, but I'm not going to because it looks worse. I would rather play at 1440p with High reflections.

There is no scenario where an old slow GPU is going to be able to render everything at 4k and 60 FPS. You reduce quality and or resolution until you get an acceptable FPS.
Yeah, I understand that. But I have everything low/ off and I still get low FPS with my set up :(

 
It takes levels to get points.
non-real example

Say Steel requires attribute level 10.

To get from attribute 1 to 10 you need a total of 30 points.

You get 1 point per level

One can say, steel is point gated at 10 or level gated at 30.

levels = points = buy stuff.

Now people will see the 10 instead of the 30.. and everyone will clap because there is no level gates.
I know. I just think calling it "level gating" doesn't really describe it well. If points are given by leveling then everything is level gated. They already were before this new change. But before they were double level gated. You had to accumulate enough points but even that wasn't enough because they were level gated again. So the 2nd level gate, the actual true level gate, got removed. This is better and short of level by using as good as you can do.

Actually, if the actions that give you skill in a "raise by doing" system also give you experience then you will still be level gated because the number of times you have to do the action to get a certain level of the skill will also raise your level some set amount. The new system sounds better than current one. Can't wait to try it out.

 
Is there any scenario where people will be able to run A17 almost as good as 16? Or is A16 performance gone forever? Mine isn't bad.. until 64 zombies on horde night comes along - then its a crawl. A16 I never noticed much slowdown during bloodmoones. Granted I haven't played B221 yet... but I didn't see any performance improvements listed.
I don't know how 64 zombies ever ran fast based on how slow Unity's character controller is. We have discussed replacing their char controller and adding simplified grunt zombies. Maybe for A18.

 
Yeah, I understand that. But I have everything low/ off and I still get low FPS with my set up :(
My setup is similar. Ryzen 7 1800x with 16 GB RAM and had a GTX 1060 6GB until I switched to a RTX 2070 this week. Using the GTX 1060 I had good performance at 1080p. On the RTX I bumped it to 1440p. I have a 4k monitor, but FPS is just too low for that res.

Trees and grass on middle settings. Motion blur and DOF off.

What resolution are you using?

 
Please tell us what you are planning new with electricity. PS - Sorry for the bad translation. I am writing through google translator.

 
My setup is similar. Ryzen 7 1800x with 16 GB RAM and had a GTX 1060 6GB until I switched to a RTX 2070 this week. Using the GTX 1060 I had good performance at 1080p. On the RTX I bumped it to 1440p. I have a 4k monitor, but FPS is just too low for that res.
Trees and grass on middle settings. Motion blur and DOF off.

What resolution are you using?
1920x1080.

And yeah, I have everything off and low except trees on middle. Shadows off.

Maybe I'll lower the rez :/

settings: https://imgur.com/a/V126S9D

 
I don't know how 64 zombies ever ran fast based on how slow Unity's character controller is. We have discussed replacing their char controller and adding simplified grunt zombies. Maybe for A18.
Yes! I always thought simplified grunt zombies makes sense and would add a bit of performance increase. Besides, not every zombie needs to be a hungry mamma, darlene, nurse, etc lol. I can assume that would free up memory too.

 
Hi Fun Pimps. Well done at what definitely feels like a major release. Everything feels like a challenge now, and I've already jumped out of my seat a few times in shock surprise, and I haven't even made it to day 7 yet.

Nights are a bit boring, though. Every night when I've tried to do something, the Z's hear me and kill me, so now I'm doing very little until I build up a better base. In the meantime, not sure what I would suggest to fill in the time, however I feel something more needs doing at nights. Maybe when food spoilage goes in it will require more sorting out. Oh, but it's actually sorting things out that Z's will hear, too. So we really are too limited in what we can do that doesn't make noise.

Like most people, I am suffering lag every time I move the mouse. To be fair, I insist on running it at 4k with nearly everything on high/ultra. But I have compared lower specs, and whilst it limits the lag, even the lowest settings don't eliminate it, so suffering any lag at all, I choose to suffer at the cost of excellent graphics, at least.

So that said, I'm definitely looking forward to a few optimizes in the future.

BTW, my PC specs are: i7 6700k, 8gb ram, NVidia GeForceGTX 980Ti, Intel's M.2 1.2tb Modules. So no longer the best, but pretty good still.

That all said, so so so many improvements. I hope you appreciate me taking the time out of playing to write this. But I thought it deserving, so again, well done.

 
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