Roland

I was able to talk with Thick (Tony) a few times when I was involved with the streaming program. He was so polite and willing to find out and follow our policies even though I was totally star struck talking to him. He was very supportive in all of his talk and said that the whole crew are very supportive of indie studios and happy to do what they can to help them succeed. Hope his family can find peace.

We are here watching the pot waiting for the boiling to begin and it is taking forever! Same as you remember..lol

Spamming quests won’t necessarily get you the magazines you really want because they might not take you to the type of POIs that match in theme.

At some times more than others. It waxes and waynes.

Used to know stuff. The picture was of literal juicy tidbits. I don't think it will go anywhere except into my own plans for my crockpot for the game this Sunday...

Fascinating.

Or they could add TenSoon...

You are certainly welcome to keep asking but not quite so frequently please.

Mostly all the same trees and leaves from A20 are still there but instead of unlocking recipes they add greater ability when taking action as a player. Wherever a perk was mostly just a recipe unlock it is now a skill increase for that action and in many cases an increased chance to find magazines and parts needed for crafting. It does do this to some extent. I am absolutely certain that people who are used to rushing all the recipes to T3 are going to feel frustration at not having the control to optimize their gear progression as quickly as they are used to being able to do it. It won't matter that they are finding magazines regularly and incrementally working their way up the tiers. I think that most people who don't care about rushing will find the pace enjoyable-- but I could be wrong, of course. In this case I'm going to say the R word and say that it is actually more realistic that the players are learning to craft from reading about it rather than by spending points or even by the A16 LBD. Repetitive practice gets you really good at doing things you already know how to do but they do not reveal new knowledge you don't already have. Skillpoints earned from doing a variety of survival actions can be thought of has general knowledge that can increase your survival skills but they wouldn't reveal the secret of how to make or craft something you've never made before. But finding old world knowledge by piecing together parts of articles from magazines absolutely could be a way to learn new knowledge. I know that people are judging the new magazine feature by what they've experienced in the past with books and schematics in this game. The magazines are nothing like those. I played Darkness Falls since I was curious about how similar the magazine feature is to that mod. It is nothing like it. It is completely counter-intuitive because it does seem as though this change would mean less crafting and more getting gear in loot but it is just not the case. I craft all the time now. I very rarely find something better than I can craft and those moments are cool because they are so rare. There are more parts and knowledge being found than actual full working weapons. When you do find a weapon it is usually something you already have so you scrap it for parts so you can craft the next higher tier. It completely returns crafting as a pillar to the game and at the same time it makes looting a lot more rewarding and fun. I think many people who don't like looting in A20 and below will suddenly find it more appealing in A21 and beyond. You might find a tier 5 pistol rarely before you can craft one if pistols aren't something you perked into. But most of the time you absolutely will be crafting stuff before you find it. Of course, that will also be affected by where you scavenge. If you head into the wasteland early on then you will have a much better chance at finding better loot than you can craft but that will be a choice you will be making. But even then the ratio of working guns to parts to magazines in loot is more towards parts and magazines.

I already offered to buy 20 copies of the game on different accounts and give them to the devs and their children and grandchildren if they would only add ziplines so the line starts behind me...

When you say "private server" are you talking about a dedicated server that is password protected to keep it private or are you talking about one person hosting the others on their own personal rig while they are playing as well? There is a huge difference in required specs to be able to host others on your own computer. It would be great for them to be able to improve things to the point that person to person multiplayer could work buttery smooth but it may end up being something not recommended for more than two players. There are four of us who play on a dedicated server and we never suffer those delays. But if even just two of us decide to play directly hosted by the other then the client almost always suffers from those types of delays. Adding more players would make it worse.

Okay. You'll have a chance to confirm whether what it seems like is what it actually is like. Not every change has to fix something that was broken. Some changes can add innovation that makes it more fun than it was. Separating the crafting recipes from the perks and giving them their own system has added a lot of fun to the game. I craft more often in A21 than I did in A20. That might feel like a fix to some but maybe not to others. Looting is a lot more fun because desirable rewards are more often found. That might be seen like a fix to some but not necessarily others. I don't think the A20 system is broken but after having played the A21 system I can't go back to A20. I tried and I missed the learn by reading mechanic for crafting too much. That doesn't make the A20 system broken from a design perspective but at least for me I find the A21 system much more entertaining. I realize that not everyone will see it the same way as me. But that is my own experience. Variety? It is more interesting with the two systems working side by side than it is just having one single system governing everything. The two systems are more fun than the single perk system and I suspect (though I can't confirm) that the two system design would be more fun than just a single magazine system for everything. There is not just one smoking gun problem that this system was used to fix. It is an evolution, a development step, a further iteration of what we had before in order to add more fun to the game. We will find out if their risk succeeds.

Laz Man chained to a desk pumping out five new POIs per month.

No. A22 for new character models, bandit models, and clothing/armor. They are all interconnected.

From what I’ve seen everyone on the team is optimistic and excited to get these changes in the hands of the players. Nobody is feeling bad. All I feel is amazed that such an unorthodox and unexpected set of changes has resulted in a game that is so much more fun than it was. We should feel lucky this team is willing to take risks and experiment with their designs instead of being limited by execs that care more about delivery dates and sticking to existing and known and safe mechanics. I think A21 will blow everyone away. It’s definitely a risk though and could result in failure but that will make the success that much more sweet.

Oh...I want.

A separate modlet than Darkness Falls? If so, I'll go looking. I'd like to see this for myself...haha As for how appropriate it is, I think it fits more now with the new Spider and Screamer models than it did back when it was created.

What mod has a working Behemoth? The Behemoth files were never completed and while its coding was still present but commented out there were some modders who added it to the game but even in those mods it could not be damaged. In the next update they removed it from the code and I've never seen it in any mod since. I wouldn't mind downloading a mod that somehow still has it just for kicks and to see if it actually does have all of its pathing issues fixed. I am skeptical that it actually exists since the model has not been in the code to be utilized by modders for years now. But I would be happy to be wrong.

@Jugginator @unholyjoe what are your impressions from testing A21? Anything you can share that is your favorite change?

You promised never to bring that up.

They're just juicy tidbits. One is extra juicy. The numbers are in flux but can you give us an idea of whether there are any new T4 and T5 Poi's or are you guys focusing on T1 - T3? Do you personally prefer narrow passages and tight corners or wide open arenas when designing levels? Do you like doing things that trick players (at least on their first playthrough)? Got anything mean planned for us? What goes into bumping a T1 to the T3 level and adding a new quest type support? I take it that it is more than adding sleepers and slapping a generator somewhere in the POI...

@Laz Man can you give us the number of new POIs broken into tiers for A21? How many old POIs got updated for A21? What's the total count for fully updated POIs now? Which one of yours are you most excited to see players explore?

I'm not super any longer but I do still remember some juicy tidbits not yet revealed.

Okay then! I've never liked to "follow the light trail" and instead been happy to break through walls and doors and go my own way and I could swear there were faux wood walls in the interior of buildings that were actually concrete or steel making me follow the designated path. But maybe that was before. I will be tapping those interior walls to see if they really are what they look like.

That's how you have to look at it. An enjoyable game that is going to remain in its current state much like many other video games on consoles that don't follow an ongoing update path and are forever locked into whatever they are.