PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[beerfly]

hahaha... BUCKET!!!! somebody get me a BUCKET!!!

How far away are you from your base, just make one with some forged iron.

 

[Darkfoxx117]

From what he said in his post i gathered this:

Only while actively digging will the blocks have a % chance to spawn a zed behind that block which makes your tunnel wall.

I for one am happy with it if it adds more threats underground, i build many bases above and below ground and have separate zombie fighting stages just a little bit away from each base. I've had to learn and adapt as this game is ever changing (until gold).

I relish the challenge.

 

[xiiMaRcLeoN]

Can't wait for the update need to start playing it more actively tho. Didn't have that much time sadly.

 

[TARCH26]

I would like to fish in the game, for example as in minecraft.

 

[KanedaSyndrome]

With the new vehicle physics are we also looking at performance optimization? Currently with the minibike, when you ride it the whole world becomes really choppy. And this is on a high end SSD/i7 4GHz/32GB RAM/GTX TI 1080 rig.

 

[ZombieToad]

From what he said in his post i gathered this:
Only while actively digging will the blocks have a % chance to spawn a zed behind that block which makes your tunnel wall.

I for one am happy with it if it adds more threats underground, i build many bases above and below ground and have separate zombie fighting stages just a little bit away from each base. I've had to learn and adapt as this game is ever changing (until gold).

I relish the challenge.

Sure but then what happens if you are just finished digging and place a block?

The Z will spawn and then break your block then you kill it.

And for what purpose? That wont affect underground bases then, just be a lot of time spend on a stupid mechanic of which the only real purpose is to slow down your underground construction.

Is that really worth all that effort? Dig, dig, spawn, kill, fill, dig. Really?

It just seems like a massive amount of development time would be wasted to create a minor hindrance, if indeed what you said is the case.

 

[Darkfoxx117]

@kinyajuu You could always spawn a coffin along with the underground spawns and say the infection was absorbed deep into the ground and infected those long dead and buried.

 

[Jackelmyer]

*Appears out of nowhere with a towel around his waist, holding a rubber duckie*
Oh crap, not again. One of these days you guys are gonna catch me on the toilet.

Anyway,

Prime and I were thinking about having a special terrain block that would go active when a block beside it is destroyed. So when you're digging you might dig beside a zed spawn and wake it up, kinda like a sleeper.

The other idea we discussed was allowing them to spawn in terrain blocks closest to the player near the player height if lower than terrain height - 3, if the player is at terrain height - 2 or higher, spawn above ground. This would probably be best for blood moon hordes. This way if the player is underground they'll spawn underground nearby right at the edge where terrain meets air, inset by one block (basically destroy the two blocks they spawn in, then they can dig their way out). If above ground well, they'll just spawn normal. Then on horde nights, if you go underground, you'll just be having to fight zombies coming out of the ground from around you, losing the ability to attack from further away unless you have a huge underground area hollowed out.

So if we were to do it, I think this would technically work, maybe even include the first idea above as the "biome spawn" just to add a bit of anxiety to digging around a lot.

Another approach you can take is a path finding spawn point from a player. Allow spawning in Air and on any Door/Hatch where the door/hatch/frame (wood or rebar) is immediately destroyed upon spawn. Initially a horizontal pathfinder to find something like a 30 block distance from the player, something akin to wandering horde spawn rules. Underground, that's likely out of sight of the player.

If at all possible, follow the block height of a players feet and seek out a position that is a Air, Door, or Frame type block. For giggles, destroy any block within a height of two (zombie height) and spawn in zombies one at a time ideally. So zombie #1 can spawn in, clear the two blocks by spawn, AI moves the zombie out of the spawn position, and then the rest of the zombies spawn in. Walla. Hatch/Doors/Terrain/etc problems resolved.

While pathfinding for horizontal spawn points, store a list of positions that have 4 blocks height containing the Air/Hatch/Door/Frame type blocks. If no horizontal path is found, the only thing left is a player has a vertical shaft. So go up for the 30 block distance.

Just another approach that leaves more player created blocks destroyed as opposed to world/terrain blocks.

mm... probably would be spawn on Air/Hatch/Door/Frame/Ladders. That ought to cover most if not all the junk people can put in the way.

 

[Darkfoxx117]

Sure but then what happens if you are just finished digging and place a block?
The Z will spawn and then break your block then you kill it.

And for what purpose? That wont affect underground bases then, just be a lot of time spend on a stupid mechanic of which the only real purpose is to slow down your underground construction.

Is that really worth all that effort? Dig, dig, spawn, kill, fill, dig. Really?

It just seems like a massive amount of development time to create a minor hindrance, if indeed what you said is the case.

IMO yes it is worth it as currently there is nothing slowing you down while constructing underground it's all too easy.

I read it as actively digging so once you have gone past those blocks connected to the one you're digging through the chance disappears so they'll only ever spawn in your immediate vicinity.

Do you know how long it would take to implement such a mechanic? You seem to know as you state 'a massive amount of development time'.... despite you previously saying you have no game dev knowledge?

 

[KanedaSyndrome]

Tbh, zombies spawning underground in artificial air pockets or in the player's own sealed tunnels is too immersion breaking for me. I wouldn't like it one bit.

Instead you should increase the challenge when people are on the surface. Create more incentive for having a surface base.

Let zombies gather around your living area and just linger.

 

[Darkfoxx117]

Tbh, zombies spawning underground in artificial air pockets or in the player's own sealed tunnels is too immersion breaking for me. I wouldn't like it one bit.
Instead you should increase the challenge when people are on the surface. Create more incentive for having a surface base.

Let zombies gather around your living area and just linger.

Increased difficulty on the surface is why (i thought) people made underground bases?

But living on the surface is a piece of cake if you have a base and a fight pit about 30 metres away, nobody is forcing people to fight a horde in their mansion base just take it outside

 

[KanedaSyndrome]

I changed the maple forest to more of a fall look.

Are we getting seasons? And can we have a toggle in RWG for less biome diversity? Makes no sense that you have desert, snow, desert all across a few hundred meters. Would love for it to just pick something and sticking with it, more immersive.

Also, the temperatures are switching too obviously on a sinus curve and too frequently.

 

[Roland]

I didnt say he said that, you are linking my quote to him, not me.
Also I corrected my post to reflect his post which was zombies spawning underground, including in tunnels built by the player.

New point --->If 'air pockets' are what I understand to be places without blocks (if not then correct me) then it stands to reason that the player could dig down diagonally, return closer to the surface, and descend again only to find a zonbie at the bottom of the tunnel.

Is that correct?

If not then I accept I have misunderstood something and you can enlighten me.

If it is then that is an absolutely bad idea, and is little more than a planned magic spawn which would turn a previous bug into a current feature.

Immersion breaking and just downright annoying. I dont mind being killed by zombies for a lack of skill, but to be done in in a one way tunnel of which only you are in, near the surface seeing nothing could get inside, only to be met with a magically spawned zombie when you go back down? No thanks.

Btw I literally just woke up and im using my mobile, expect some errors and corrections.

Edit: I dont see much difference between zombies digging down to you or spawning at or around your level and digging their way through to you.

The second choice is even worse than the ability to dig down since these just spawn in destroying enough blocks to start swinging giving you little time to do much. In fact if that happens theres literally nothing you could do until either it digs to you or you dig to it and kill it.

And thats what I mean by immersion breaking.

I dont mind a challenge but thats just taking the piss. And like I said I just hope if this concept ever does make it that it is an option able to be turned off by the player.

Just consider all your players and not just the majority, for id wager that if things were reversed there would be some features that would upset the majority.

Everyone has their own playstyle and its unfair to take that away from them.

I agree with ZombieToad to a point. I think just randomly spawning zombies near your underground base and breaking into one of your tunnels right behind you as you came near would be bad and practically like zombies spawning right behind you on the surface.

However I think that for an event like Blood Moon where it would simulate zombies clawing their way out of the earth around you because they were agitated by the blood moon it would be pretty awesome and scary and that is what I want in this game. I want to be sitting in my bunker on blood moon and then start hearing zombies all around me starting to wake up and breaking into tunnels and moving towards me. If we know things like that will happen on the blood moon then we can prepare for it.

I also like the idea that if you are actively digging there will be blocks that will trigger a spawn nearby.

So random environmental zombies that spawn just because? I agree with ZT. But if you are actively digging or for an event like blood moon that would cause zombies to claw their way out of the earth around you then yes yes yes!!!

 

[Darkfoxx117]

AS i read it kinya said that only while actively digging so there wouldn't be zombies spawning once you had finished digging and placed a block?

Edit: yep that's what i thought and agree with i'm not for random spawning just while actively digging.

 

[Tin]

Making no place safe whatsoever will be the end of this game for me.
If being killed and having your base demolished in every single thinkable circumstance is where this game is headed, ill be out early.

Zombies digging to bedrock? Thats absurdity just a little too far. Or spawning there with literally no way in? Come on.

Punching (yes with hands of rotten flesh and bone) through steel reinforced set concrete is already ridiculous.

If digging digging zombies are a thing then I will say one thing, in order to at lesst save some of the community id seriously hope its an option that would be part if a hardcore no escape mode and able to be turned off.

You cant live underground without having to surface anyway, and you cant grow crops there, you need to leave to loot and those killing zombied need to surface to fight. Why cant those restrictions be enough.

Just like its been said by those of limited diplomatic ability, if you dont like underground bases then dont make them.

I have a sneaking suspicion that its these people that play multiplayer and get so annoyed that they cant find underground bases that they think noone should have safe refuge below ground.

I 'liked' to build underground, still would if it provided a challenge, but then I had half the game ripped away from me when they took that mechanic out and rightly so at the time. They took it out when Nav was the only "play field" we had and it was way smaller than it is now.

We have more than enough room in both Nav and RWG to accommodate this again. 'If' for whatever reason your fort gets compromised you have many times the play area to relocate for your oopsies! of not fortifying it right the first, second, third, forth times etc,.

This was never about ppl not liking underground forts or not, or those that mainly built underground (at least for me). It was about applying a challenge for ALL aspects of play that the game provides and that includes the ability to make an underground facility.

You can live underground pretty much indefinitely.

You can build underground farms, you can make an indefinite water source. Glad you haven't found out how to do so since it's something you can strive to do now. I won't say how because that's half the fun of finding it out but just know you can!

Have TFP put in an option to disable them, sure, fine with me! I still want the mechanic in the game either way. So the flip side is why can't I, who want underground threats, have them? why should I take the back seat? why should I need to mod all this in? Why do you all (in general) keep glossing over that more options and settings will come? or how about: It's easier to take it out then put it in?

The same with modding. Its easier to mod stuff out than add it in.. especially a new mechanic.

I don't speak for anyone but myself and this isn't a rant at you. I just want to let you know my side of the discussion.

 

[KanedaSyndrome]

Increased difficulty on the surface is why (i thought) people made underground bases?
But living on the surface is a piece of cake if you have a base and a fight pit about 30 metres away, nobody is forcing people to fight a horde in their mansion base just take it outside

Well, I think people should be allowed to be safe underground, so they can actually leave their base for weeklong expeditions without coming home to a base wrecked by screamers. That's my main reason for building underground, so I can leave the base for more than 10 minutes to go do the fun stuff, raiding cities.

 

[Doombringer101]

Well, I think people should be allowed to be safe underground, so they can actually leave their base for weeklong expeditions without coming home to a base wrecked by screamers. That's my main reason for building underground, so I can leave the base for more than 10 minutes to go do the fun stuff, raiding cities.

Zombies won't even appear near your base if you are not in the chunk making it active.

 

[Andre7714]

Unrealistic tunnels... Well, the player doesn't have to haul all the earth away when s/he mines out a tunnel. Do you want the earth to fill in behind the player, too? Or do you only want the game to be more realistic when it makes things easier?

Well , I had an idea and I wanted to share it , if devs start to talk about it an hour later , I think I can live with one complaining, I know that it is also unrealistic to have enough concrete blocks in your inventory to build a five story house , but in the game you can.So if I choose one word wrong , please forgive me , at least I gave another idea on how to implement digging zombies without all the Swiss cheese tunnels

 

[Jackelmyer]

Increased difficulty on the surface is why (i thought) people made underground bases?
But living on the surface is a piece of cake if you have a base and a fight pit about 30 metres away, nobody is forcing people to fight a horde in their mansion base just take it outside

I don't think the issue is the blood moon and your fighting base. It's the wandering hordes that will wreck you out of no where. Lot's of angels that they've made zombies come after you with.

Though I do agree that there needs to be more incentive to stay above ground where frankly, the game mechanics are simply easier to build.

You could always simply make blood moon rain. And then fill up all underground areas with water during the bloodmoon. Pretty sure people will want to get out of their underground bases during a bloodmoon pretty quick that way...

Jeepers... Is that really the answer? Just flood underground during blood moon? Is everyone happy at that point?

 

[spacepiggio]

I liked it when you did not have to have a mine for ore, you just looked for it in the sides of the Cliffs on the Surface. I played the game on the surface for a long time until you had to dig to get what you needed. The only reason I go to Bed Rock is that is where the Loot is supposed to be for trading, Gold, etc. I still dig to Bed Rock to mine & Forge but once I get what I need & it is back to the Surface.

I mean after all it is a Z Game & there are no Z's at Bed Rock

What I want to know is, is the new Cave System still in the works? I think a lot of players concerns about Bed Rock Abuse would be dealt with when it is implemented.

What really is annoying is whos business is to tell a player where they can build a base at. How one plays the game should be no concern of anyone else's as how they play the game. As long as they are not bothering anyone else's gameplay it should not concern anyone else,

It's my Game, I do what I want, I have been playing too much South Park today.