[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

So I'm priming my hype engine on some good apocalypse books,  I bought "I am legend" (Its more a Vincent Price "Last man on earth" meets Will Smith's "I am legend movie, with a lot of angst added.

 

That didn't do it as I had hoped.  Last time I read the "Slow Burn" series and that was wonderful!  (I highly recommend this series for 7D2D dead is dead max difficulty players) 

Any recommendations from other book readers?

 

Maybe less than one week left so only 3 book series at most, if I'm allowed to be picky. 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

 

Computer games have always pushed the limits of software and hardware.

 

I would go so far as to say that computer games have played a large part in computer hardware development.

There isn't a perfect gaming computer software for humans yet and maybe never will be, because you have to take into account the human mind's limitations.  Perhaps some advanced quantum computer will make up its own language and make great games fast.

But not yet...

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

4 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm upset by that video.

-It was too short.

-Did the hero win or the supervillain?

-I didn't get a chance to eat one popcorn piece.  (please refer to item #1.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

10 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

Well in my opinon -  after you get steel weapons there is nothing to do.  I think this game need bosses like valheim. In the forest you have one "target" find your son so you know what to do exactly. In valheim you need to kill boss X to get Y to be able to find better stuff to do.

 

Yes currently, late game needs work.

I believe an intelligent bandit AI could be an extreme threat, even late game (A21 apparently).

I recommend that most bandit AI does not try to outflank the player and maybe have levels of bandit AI where most (level 1 Bandit AI) would ether: Shoot, Scoot or hide.

Higher levels could including flanking and even a sniper or covering fire to keep the players head down while they flank.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

The game is good.  Lot of stuff to do and different ways to do them.

There is always new content (Mods and/or new alphas).

There is room for growth built/planed in for a late game.  No dead ends at mid-game like many survival games today.  

 

 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

11 hours ago, mstdv inc said:

I would love to be able to create a 2048x2048 map entirely consisting of a city.

 

That has merit!

 

You could pack in the area with the big POIs.  Sort of a New York city test.

 

Or... Change that to 1kx1K (or smaller), then use a map loader that uses free CPU cycles to load adjacent maps.  (By using the Windows Interrupt Request Priorities (IRQ) to activate the map loader when the player is not surrounded by zombies, for example.)

A potential global map right there. 

 

You could extend that by making the users PC a Client and its only jobs are to paint the screen, collision detection and keyboard/mouse movement.  Player location is sent to the Map server (Edit every 5-10 seconds)

Then make a map server that can be the players PC, BUT could be a beefy server that  manages the small 1K map area (or 9 if the map blocks are small enough) per player. 

Other services can record the looting and damages done to the map and zombies and then would send to the map server anything that updates the maps state.

 

So to make sure everyone gets updated map information but not ALL the new, changed  map information:

1) Players current map is always updated as soon as possible (this would insure multiple people would see the same event that are in the same map in near RT)

2) To keep the map server "intelligent"  make a database with the map matrix current location being the primary key and the 8 other map locations as the data.

so on a 500 by 500 maps the primary key is the X Y coordinates.  key range 001001-500500.

 

OK that's enough, too much coffee I guess!   

 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

3 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

If faatal was THAT hot, he would probably do a different job... 

Also, you have a very twisted mind you know? 

 

Well, there were eight men in that scene and I'm sure she sometimes thinks men ARE annoying bugs. 

 

Edit: The scene is also the perfect analogy of a programmer 'fighting' computer bugs!  They use their minds to defeat them!

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

Here we see faatal fighting the bugs that keep us away from A20!  (symbolized by the briefcase)

 

 

I don't judge.

[STILL can't release A20 or even give an ETA?]

2 hours ago, Blake_ said:

OMG. Why do TFP do this to us? And on top of that they are ENJOYING their holidays while evil-laughing at our pre a20 suffering ! unbelievable. But we know better. We know they work for us because we spent a whole 7 bucks on sale on THIS game. It was in the fine print.

 

The money I gave them was spent on bitcoin when it was $2.  So I gave them VAST amounts of money, one might say!   (I guess that "one" would be me?)

 

[STILL can't release A20 or even give an ETA?]

Whelp.  Neebs Gaming agreed that 7D2D is a "God Tier" survival game.  Best of the best.

 

I agree too.

 

For A20 they are thinking of doing a 2v2 or a full team playthrough.  Both would have pros and cons for a first play though with all the changes.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

I don't think there are any more currently active MF (Those drunk MF bugs were all beaten to death in some guys basement!).

 

Unfortunately, the lower priority bugs saw the "snuff video" and are in hiding.

 

The basement bug killer is said to now be hosting a "Go home Kraken!" party, with guarantees that all bugs be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. 

 

*That is all*

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

4 hours ago, faatal said:

There are currently 10 high MFs.

 

Looks like Zack fixed the tracker last week.

 

I predict that TFP will use their EXTRA Super Sain, Jedi powers of Epic'ness this coming week.  Streamers will showcase 26-28 Nov and I will be doing Chuck Norris impersonations starting Nov 29 in A20!

 

Love and peace (except for zombie hordes) will fill the world to overflowing.  World leaders will hug each other with tears in there eyes and Covid will leave this planet, head held low!

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

Anyone else feel that TFP are going for this weekend to release?  It would be something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

If it was when would we know?

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

 

Phrase of the day:

 

 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

12 hours ago, SenpaiThatIngnoresYou said:

It depends on how the outbreak happens. Lets consider the virus in game. if everyone was infected, and it was a slow incubation, then you would have just insane pandemonium where one day everything is nice then BLAMO zombie apocalypse. That would explain why we have the survivors, a destroyed society, but also a cure. 

 

It does not explain the bloodmoon. Why is the moon a weekly thing? don't know. Is it science or magic? don't know. 

 

Good points.

 

With the moon, I forget if its always full every 7 days.   If so it would be supernatural.

A biblical apocalypse would explain some things.  It does mention that people would "seek death but not find it".

 

My opinion on player infection is the player is immune to the virus (whatever) but not the host of (Edit Bacteria) in a zombies mouth.  So antibiotics cure the player.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

My take on why Arizona has a lot of ammo is two fold:

 

1) Arizona has a lot of guns!  I'm not sure how many guns they have and I don't think anyone does!  The gun laws are "Wild west" there.

2) There are several Army bases there, one major one if memory serves.

 

SO, with that in mind, if the zombies attack, they will most likely have martial law in most states.  The military would be out in force with lots of ammo.  The solders got infected and didn't use all the ammo.

 

The End.  (Well, the end if the player's character dies, YOU are the last hope!) 

 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

6 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

How about zombie bear armor?

 

YES!

And the ability to tame a zombie bear.

I vote the Intelligence line should do it.  Then Intelligence would be a pretty dang cool option!  (of course I have not tried the new toys for Int).  

But... would an intelligent person try to tame a zombie bear or any zombie in the first place?? 

9 hours ago, Roland said:

 

Which is also the fourth easiest option.

 

Noob!

 

Well, all options are the easiest if you allow for respawn.

 

Dead-is-dead or your not doing the Chuck Norris way.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

4 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

Ziplines? Lame. Limited range grappling hooks made out of forged iron, springs, tons of cloth and duct tape? YES.

 

Very good, minion Blake!  You shall now be promoted to Chief minion Blake.

 

Carry on!  (with more cool ideas!)

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

I'm a solo player, but as I have 8000 split personalities, I am (we are) MUCH more important than everyone else and deserve many more replies from moderators and devs!

 

Of course, I (we) have only paid for one game, this would be much more than 5000 people who just pirated the game.  Some countries pirate MUCH MUCH more than others..

 

So, my list of demands (for now):

-Vending machines that sell Coke Classic for 10 dukes (Giving you max stats for three days).

-A full sized airport with a 747 that I can fly, after fixing it completely with some duck tape (I like challenges) .

-Ziplines.  Ziplines everywhere!

   

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

3 hours ago, unholyjoe said:

bout ready to kick 63 out the door so how young are you?

 

 

Ahhh to be only 63 again.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

9 hours ago, POCKET951 said:

I think one of the big things about A20 with the new RWG  is to learn what the best locations/areas for food will be? will we find more in rural areas? or in cities?

We just don't have the knowledge to know the best way to handle food in A20 yet and we will learn when we get to play experimental

 

my guess is suburban/rural areas because that is where you will find animals for hunting as well as farms/barns

currently in A19 if you go into any kind of grocery store type POI you usually find very little food and a whole bunch of things that aren't food, which doesn't make sense

 

I thought I heard that TFP were using more location relevant loot in A20.   Or at least somebody talked about it.   Or I had a dream... 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

With food being in short supply, I think finding as many working vending machines and marking them on the map will be important.  Even for Strength builds, food will need to be watched.

 

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

9 hours ago, bachgaman said:

 

You mean zeds covered in green goo a.k.a. radiation?

I never understood from what considerations you can meet a silent and fast Dire Wolf with 750 hp on the first day of the game

 

 

Yup that's them, I have a feeling one of my characters will meet their end, in a small space filled with them!   

 

The "Kill order", Day 1-5 Pack of  zombie dogs with one or two zombie bears has been around for some time now.   This is fine for people who like to use the "Death Bonus" but is against the progressive increase in abilities, loot and difficulty the rest of the game has.   Not a fan, but it does make me cautious the first few mornings.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

3 hours ago, bachgaman said:

The animals in this game are really scarier than any zombie

 

That is a solid truth in vanilla A19.  However, when I saw the "poison bubble guys" (don't know the official name), I put them in with the predator animals. 

Surrounded by them in a tight spot... that could be my first combat death in a long time (in the vanilla game anyway).

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

Its a 7 days until the weekend before Thanksgiving!

 

It's a mysterious coincidence that means something...