PC v1.x Developer Diary

[toores]

...I would actually like to see some data TFP have on this. Do most of the players still farm?

On a sepparate topic, do zombies detect you faster and further if you have a headlight on or a torch/buring shaft mod equipped?

Cause it totally needs to be a thing . It should be impossible to sneak with active light source - we have night vision goggles for this.

 

[More Nevermore]

It defaults to DX11. DX12 is not useful in our limited testing. The mention of DX12 should not even be in the notes.

How well does Vulkan work in 1.0? Does it make sense to use it instead of DirectX 11?

Do you plan to update Unity in the future? If so, will it be Unity 2023 or Unity 6?

 

[meganoth]

It used to be a fun part of the game but now it's just not worth the trouble and investment. Unless you're going Fortitude tree anyways....

You should be more specific why you think it is useless. Me, I use farming in every game, with only ever putting 1 point in LotL (except if I go Fortitude, then more). Sure, you need a bigger field, but it is a steady supply of food even with that bit of randomness.

...I would actually like to see some data TFP have on this. Do most of the players still farm?

Not sure they still have a way of knowing. Their telemetry provider went bankrupt.

On a sepparate topic, do zombies detect you faster and further if you have a headlight on or a torch/buring shaft mod equipped?

I have the distinct impression they do. Note the stealth meter, if I remember correctly it goes up if you turn on the headlights. But you can still sneak with them at higher risk. Remember that the nvg are end-game equipment in previous alphas so not a general solution to the stealth player

 

[Viset4]

Excuse me, I have a question, with the release of 1.0 did you add modeled lood to the foods again?

 

[khzmusik]

My guess is since they got rid of clothes, there's no real way for the player to deal with hot/cold at the moment, so they've basically disabled it (by giving large resistance to the player) until the overhaul that's supposedly coming.

Are the insulated liner and cooling mesh mods still in the game? There's no real reason they shouldn't be. That would take care of the heat and cold resistance, though maybe they'd have to be buffed up a bit.

 

[khzmusik]

does anyone know from the streamer weekend if wondering hordes have been made a bigger threat? for a long time now they've been capped out at around gamestage 52 so when you surpass this level, you will only find zombie cops, big mamas and fat hawaiians as your worst threat and no ferals/rads and i just hope they get some love at some point since they were made to have a higher chance of loot drops incentivising the player to fight them but you quickly lose the feeling too when you're more powerful due to them just all being basic zombies

I don't know the answer to your question regarding 1.0, but you're actually incorrect about how wandering hordes work in A21. They aren't "capped." They wrap around at gamestage 50. So if your party is at gamestage 51, you get the same wandering horde group that you got at gamestage 1. It's the same with gamestage 101, 151, 201...

There's a comment in gamestages.xml that they will "probably need to undo that later." The comment has been there for years (I first noticed it in A18 I think).

Judging by the code, there are going to be bandit wandering hordes in the bandit update, so if it isn't fixed in 1.0 it'll probably be fixed then.

 

[Callum123456789]

I don't know the answer to your question regarding 1.0, but you're actually incorrect about how wandering hordes work in A21. They aren't "capped." They wrap around at gamestage 50. So if your party is at gamestage 51, you get the same wandering horde group that you got at gamestage 1. It's the same with gamestage 101, 151, 201...

There's a comment in gamestages.xml that they will "probably need to undo that later." The comment has been there for years (I first noticed it in A18 I think).

Judging by the code, there are going to be bandit wandering hordes in the bandit update, so if it isn't fixed in 1.0 it'll probably be fixed then.

yeah, hopefully they do since when you're getting beginner level zombies at around level 70 it gets old seeing them with their non feral/rad counterparts.

 

[spud42]

watching Jawoodle's stream and noticed the zombies are very dark and grey even full day in the pine forest. is this intended? Because it negates the random colours on zombies, they all look dark grey!

 

[seven]

watching Jawoodle's stream and noticed the zombies are very dark and grey even full day in the pine forest. is this intended? Because it negates the random colours on zombies, they all look dark grey!

I've seen quite a few complaints about this. The zombies weren't so drab in the first dev stream, but zombies weren't shown that much. The last one was all in the wasteland if I recall with the dreary lighting so hard to compare. A shame. They add variety to zombies, and then make them all look the same.

 

[Doomofman]

I don't even think it's just them looking the same that's the only issue. They almost seem so dark/drab that they don't feel like they're in the same lighting environment as the player

 

[mstdv inc]

People: We are tired of colorful zombie clones, we want them to be like in Left 4 Dead
Developers: make a gray mass of zombies, like in Left 4 Dead
People: we don't like it!  :boink:

 

[Adam the Waster]

I've seen quite a few complaints about this. The zombies weren't so drab in the first dev stream, but zombies weren't shown that much. The last one was all in the wasteland if I recall with the dreary lighting so hard to compare. A shame. They add variety to zombies, and then make them all look the same.

I think the color difference is enough.  

We just need a few more colors and maybe tinted skin tones and we will be grovlicious

That and just more specials 

People: We are tired of colorful zombie clones, we want them to be like in Left 4 Dead
Developers: make a gray mass of zombies, like in Left 4 Dead
People: we don't like it!  :boink:

I love it. They look darker, sweaty, nasty. They look... dead

 

[FramFramson]

People: We are tired of colorful zombie clones, we want them to be like in Left 4 Dead
Developers: make a gray mass of zombies, like in Left 4 Dead
People: we don't like it!  :boink:

I for one was fine with the old saturation values. not everything needs to be grimdark primer gray.

And FWIW, while I like the green haze in the wasteland, the changes to having more sky-obscuring effects is actually counterintuitive. Why would a desert be so hazy? TFP shouldn't be afraid of clear blue skies in an apocalypse - just look at the Red Forest, it's one of the most beautiful places on earth now that it's also one of the most lethal (for humans). It's human activity and pollution that really give you grimy haze.

Or as George Carlin famously said,

The planet is fine; the people are @%$#ed! Difference!

The planet isn’t going anywhere... we are!

We’re going away! Pack your @%$#, folks! We’re going away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that. Maybe a little Styrofoam.

The planet will be here, we’ll be long gone; just another failed mutation; just another closed-end biological mistake; an evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas, a surface nuisance.

But we'll see what players overall say, I suppose. TFP might tweak the colour palette, might not.

 

[bdubyah]

I love it. They look darker, sweaty, nasty. They look... dead

This. You can absolutely still see the new color variants, but they look good. Why would a dead, decaying, bloody, shambling corpse still have a nice and bright shirt on? They wouldn't. They did look a bit oddly shiny in some instances, but nothing too bad. And as Woodle said, it makes them blend in to their environments much better. I think that is a great thing.

And also, I've seen a single bacon and eggs as a quest reward a few times now. Is that intended? Even for a T1 quest that feels a bit lacking. Surely it should be at least 2 or 3?

 

[meganoth]

This. You can absolutely still see the new color variants, but they look good. Why would a dead, decaying, bloody, shambling corpse still have a nice and bright shirt on? They wouldn't. They did look a bit oddly shiny in some instances, but nothing too bad. And as Woodle said, it makes them blend in to their environments much better. I think that is a great thing.

And also, I've seen a single bacon and eggs as a quest reward a few times now. Is that intended? Even for a T1 quest that feels a bit lacking. Surely it should be at least 2 or 3?

As I said before to someone else: Have you summed up the rewards, i.e. the contents of the chest (in case of dig quests), the dukes, the xp and that bacon and eggs? If **all that** together is not worth it, then you got a point.

 

[Riamus]

Can anyone tell me if it has been confirmed that the farming is going to stay as it is?

It used to be a fun part of the game but now it's just not worth the trouble and investment. Unless you're going Fortitude tree anyways.... The thing is, it's not like weapon choice because each tree has it's alternatives. Food is something all players need.

At the moment farming is DESIGNED to be discaded by MOST of the players. 1 tree out of 5. Even if you account for everyone leveling multiple skill trees, it's still a minority in all the combinations. And even if you can max out all trees (I usually don't play so long in one save), farming is actually most relevant in early-mid game and not so much late game.

It makes little sense to make a fun gameplay mechanic and make it useless for most - especially if it's FOOD in a SURVIVAL game.

Remember that you can respec your skills with a drink for not much cost, so you can have LotL in the early-mid game when you feel you need it and then remove it when you don't feel you need it anymore.  I think many people farm considering how many people talk about it on the forum.

watching Jawoodle's stream and noticed the zombies are very dark and grey even full day in the pine forest. is this intended? Because it negates the random colours on zombies, they all look dark grey!

Yeah, I've noticed that since the dev streams.  Not all are that way, but it does seem to happen often.  I think it's an intended version of them but it feels like bad lighting rather than a bug.  But I think it would look better to be removed or adjusted since it just looks like a bug.

 

[Arez]

The color saturated zombies was a bit of a vibe killer. The way the zombies look now is more like how they looked in A16.

We don't have many different zombie models. When they were colorful it amplified that aspect. 

 

[DocRussel]

I always farm but only put one point into LOTL, playing solo I do just fine.

 

[BFT2020]

Can anyone tell me if it has been confirmed that the farming is going to stay as it is?

It used to be a fun part of the game but now it's just not worth the trouble and investment. Unless you're going Fortitude tree anyways.... The thing is, it's not like weapon choice because each tree has it's alternatives. Food is something all players need.

At the moment farming is DESIGNED to be discaded by MOST of the players. 1 tree out of 5. Even if you account for everyone leveling multiple skill trees, it's still a minority in all the combinations. And even if you can max out all trees (I usually don't play so long in one save), farming is actually most relevant in early-mid game and not so much late game.

It makes little sense to make a fun gameplay mechanic and make it useless for most - especially if it's FOOD in a SURVIVAL game.

You don’t have to go down the fortitude tree for farming.  One point in LoTL at Fortitude level 1 doubles your harvest amounts (2 for wild plants, 4 for player planted crops).  Seeds are plentiful in loot and traders so you don’t have to scrap crops into seeds, just replace any harvests you fail to get a seed back from purchases / looting.

 

[paul cornwall]

modders will soon sort zombies colours out when they get the game