PC v1.x Developer Diary

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@faatal grats on the improvements- performance wise i've seen so far 1.0- alot of them are making a nice impact for multiplayer.

Right now the biggest issue i am seeing is the server browser.. its a complete rekt, maybe worse than it ever has been.

A. players can not find the server most of time 

B. connecting direct ip doesn't always work for them

C. most players that are able to connect for the first time have had to connect by steam friend list to join game from player profile

D. this whole alpha i have had many players that could only join server from steam friend list "join game"

please do something about this because its prob one of the most important fixs the pimps could do right now imo

thanks and again grats on the improvement that have been made.
I don't work on the server browser. I think we use Epic Online Services for the list and I recall it has limits on filters and the data it returns. When our console devs continue work on cross play, the functionality may change.

I love that POI but haven't tried infestation yet.  I completed it as tier 5 using my trusty Q6 steel spear that I made.  No guns at all.  Fun stuff.

True, but there should still be options for RWG.  They don't need the story or story progression in a random map, or it should at last be optional.  How many times do you want to run the same story over and over again?  At some point, for me only a couple games, it will be too repetitive and you'll want to just play the game without a story again.
The story should work on random maps unless we find a technical reason to only do Nav.

 
The walking sideways thing has always been a problem when you give them a full block. The lateral movement can be a problem when you just use rectangular poles. That said these bases are inherently cheesy so not sure the Dev thread is the place to post this. Cheesy bases not working as well after updates should not be entirely unexpected. One, Devs aren’t going to tune the AI so it doesn’t break prior cheese bases. Two, sometimes the AI will be tuned to counter some types of cheese.
I've personally never noticed it, and others have said it's new as well.  That's why I posed the question.  Thanks for your condescending reply though.  Please be sure to upload a video of you completing the Dishong tower challenge without utilizing cheese.  I wait with baited breath.

It could be related to the changes that allow zombies to push other zombies up.  It may also let them push others to the side.
Definitely a possibility.  Thanks for the input.

Turn your scaffolding ladder blocks by 90 degrees and you'll be able to hit them when they have moved sideways.
I've found that usually prevents headshots on taller zombies, such as wights.

Yes, same issue at my base.  I have 4 blocks of side centered pole as a tightrope for them to get to me, nothing else to stand on outside, and they still stand side by side.  I used this in A21 and had no such issues.  I'll find a way around it.
Please let me know if you actually do find away to avoid this.  Thanks for the input.

 
I've found that usually prevents headshots on taller zombies, such as wights.
Yes, but some of it can be overcome by crouching.  Not ideal, but it's one approach.  I'm mainly melee (only blades/fists/archery on current game) so I always go for headshots.

 
The story should work on random maps unless we find a technical reason to only do Nav.
What I meant was that I would only want to go through the story once or twice (maybe again in a year or something).  After that, it's the same story over and over and gets old very quickly for me.  I have a feeling most people would feel the same.  Think of a movie or book that you love.  Would you watch in a dozen times in a row?  Probably not.  But you'll play this game even more times in a row than that.  It isn't that the story in the game or in any movie or book isn't good.  But once you know the story, you need a break between repeating it.  It is fine if it's in random maps, but it really needs to be optional so people don't have to mod the game just to not have to repeat the same story over and over ad nauseum.  And part of that option should be that RWG doesn't need to have trader biome progression since that is really for the story and a random non-story map doesn't need that and many people like special maps - all snow, all wasteland, different biome layouts, traders mixed up more so you don't have them all in groups, etc.

 
@faatal i heard in the code that sometimes a sleeper volume will spawn 1 less zombie. Example, a range of 3 - 3, sometimes only 2 will spawn instead of 3?
If this is true, is there a way to force the spawn count? (if this is not true then I guess this is a bug? As it happened a lot in A21)

 
It could be related to the changes that allow zombies to push other zombies up.  It may also let them push others to the side.
Going back to A21 there is an episode by Neebs Gaming Cul De Sacked,
that if combined with the new expandable horizontal movment. Would make
a horde attack over a larger 2d surface width and height. Similar to World War

Z the movie.

Presently they still kind of work in a line, and sometimes hop on
each others shoulders. If invisible colliders were added to the back of zombie
models, these would lay horizontally to the ground, be full pass through for
all except the foot collider be it biped, crawler, or dog, and at different
body sections on the zombies. It could change them into a zombie body ladder.
It would be only active while zombie is still alive, functional, I don't know
the nomenclature. Because if it was still active when dead, it would create a
bunch of invisible gates, ruining tracking and directional movement.

So that instead of a jump they would progressively climb to different levels
attacking a greater and higher surface area, and create a swarm, using their already
available climbing mechanic, and swarm block damage bonus.

The reason; if it's possible to use random body segments is for variable height
attack vs just a shoulder jump which would look a little odd. Basically it
would form a body Zombie body Pyramid of Destruction.

The other visual effect could be, more of a writhing swarm. Meaning kill one on bottom
affect those above also. Have a zombie turn and those above fall to the ground. Picture
a pile of maggots or locusts.

 
And then they appear to start to wander when somebody enters the zombie volume, not before. Or at least that was my observation when playing around with wander volumes. They didn't start to wander when the volume spawned the zombies, so if you have a small volume such as you might find in a tight house, a zombie this is on the ground may stand up and start to wander when you were close because the volume was small -- basically ending up with an Attack volume that way.

I believe it was @Riamus who observed it worked better with larger zombie volumes. That was my conclusion after testing as well. I thought a Wander volume worked best when there could be generous zombie volume borders between the zombies and the player to start.
I did not want worse performance, so they operate under similar rules to sleepers and it was a quick feature, so I did not spend much time on it.

The zombies would need space to wander and they don't break blocks in that mode, so they can't make space.

 
What I meant was that I would only want to go through the story once or twice (maybe again in a year or something).  After that, it's the same story over and over and gets old very quickly for me.  I have a feeling most people would feel the same.  Think of a movie or book that you love.  Would you watch in a dozen times in a row?  Probably not.  But you'll play this game even more times in a row than that.  It isn't that the story in the game or in any movie or book isn't good.  But once you know the story, you need a break between repeating it.  It is fine if it's in random maps, but it really needs to be optional so people don't have to mod the game just to not have to repeat the same story over and over ad nauseum.  And part of that option should be that RWG doesn't need to have trader biome progression since that is really for the story and a random non-story map doesn't need that and many people like special maps - all snow, all wasteland, different biome layouts, traders mixed up more so you don't have them all in groups, etc.
Regardless of story, we may be moving toward biomes being even more distinct from each other, but the design is not yet done. It will continue to change.

@faatalI was going through the wiki and I saw these cut weapon mods..

Was there suppose to be more elemental effects?
That is old stuff I have never seen. Probably predates me working on the game.

@faatal i heard in the code that sometimes a sleeper volume will spawn 1 less zombie. Example, a range of 3 - 3, sometimes only 2 will spawn instead of 3?
If this is true, is there a way to force the spawn count? (if this is not true then I guess this is a bug? As it happened a lot in A21)
There was a bug where the count could be 0, which was fixed in V1.

 
The zombies would need space to wander and they don't break blocks in that mode, so they can't make space.
That is understandable, but wandering is an option the POI designer can choose, not something required.  If the sleeper volume is in a closet, for example, then they wouldn't be set to wander.  But if they are in a living room, as another example, maybe they would be.  But right now, unless the living room is pretty large or you expand the volume to go beyond the living room, setting them to wander will be no different from setting them to attack because by the time you activate the wander mode, you're so close they will attack.

 
That is understandable, but wandering is an option the POI designer can choose, not something required.  If the sleeper volume is in a closet, for example, then they wouldn't be set to wander.  But if they are in a living room, as another example, maybe they would be.  But right now, unless the living room is pretty large or you expand the volume to go beyond the living room, setting them to wander will be no different from setting them to attack because by the time you activate the wander mode, you're so close they will attack.


As long as wandering sleepers are not more perceptive than sleepers the only reason they may detect you earlier than a fixed sleeper is that they wandered nearer to you. That is rather random and since they are wandering very slowly I can't imagine this making a huge difference. Or do I misunderstand something here?

 
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Speaking of wandering sleepers. I had the other day one wandering away from the premises. 
I did manage to snipe it before it went too far. but now I wonder if there's anything preventing them from going away. It would suck to fail a clear quest because one Z felt adventurous. 
Maybe same as a player failing the quest for going too far a Z counts as dead if it strolls away?

 
Can the wanderer volume zombies be added to a spawn group called wanderers,
and then duplicated in the entities.xml as say wandererSteve or wandererMoe.
Then their sight angle could be more acute or shorter and their hearing less.

This way any zombie can be a wanderer, but still partially allow for the other

mechanics to work without much rework.

 
Speaking of wandering sleepers. I had the other day one wandering away from the premises. 
I did manage to snipe it before it went too far. but now I wonder if there's anything preventing them from going away. It would suck to fail a clear quest because one Z felt adventurous. 
Maybe same as a player failing the quest for going too far a Z counts as dead if it strolls away?
From what I think faatal said in an earlier reply to someone (which I can't find again now), they use their spawn point as the center of a radius to wander within. So they shouldn't be able to go too far from the sounds of things.

 
As long as wandering sleepers are not more perceptive than sleepers the only reason they may detect you earlier than a fixed sleeper is that they wandered nearer to you. That is rather random and since they are wandering very slowly I can't imagine this making a huge difference. Or do I misunderstand something here?


I don't know. I don't get explore the variables and states of zombies when I play, so unless it is one of my own POIs I don't know which zombies are wanderers and which ones have awoken. I think there have been a number of changes that affected stealth, perhaps some still to be tweaked coming out of Experimental, so I'm not really sure of every factor involved right now.

Does the zombie's facing influence their perception? I've assumed it does, else stealth with a knife is at an even bigger disadvantage than I have understood. A wandering sleeper seems like it might turn and sort of "sweep" its vision, perhaps perceiving more... maybe ... you tell me.

While using stealth, some differences I think I see:

* Zombies stand up and become active more, typically during the day. I can't tell if they're detecting me or they're wandering and just waking up because I entered a volume. When they're in close proximity, I think I'm being detected more, but I'm not entirely sure and my play so far is only at lower character levels.

* Zombies are losing track of me much more frequently. I suspect there's a bug here, actually. I can get successive bonus damage from stealth within a short amount of time (without the Assassin armor's set bonus) and that used to take many seconds.

* I'm wondering if Feral zombies have become more perceptive. I can't really tell.

I did not want worse performance, so they operate under similar rules to sleepers and it was a quick feature, so I did not spend much time on it.

The zombies would need space to wander and they don't break blocks in that mode, so they can't make space.


That makes sense to me. Like any new tool, I'm sure POI developers will need some time to figure out the best usage.

 
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