[Version 1.0 (Alpha 22) Dev Diary]

27 minutes ago, Cr0wst0rm said:

Why is everyone so concerned about antialiasing nowadays? What purpose does it serve, other than blurring sharp pixel edges? If you want a better picture, get a better monitor with higher resolution. No kind of antialiasing algorithm will solve your issues...

By nowadays, you must mean since the early 90s?
Blurring sharp pixel edges is the purpose. Why does it need another?
Neither a bigger monitor nor higher resolution will solve the problem that antialiasing solves. 
Antialiasing algorithms solve issues.

[Oh hey, it's the new minibike model!]

How many magazines do I need to find to make the TP mod?

[A22 really add "new Stuff" instead of focus fixing existing "problems", especially like Lights and Farming?]

For something so crucial, I feel bad giving zero craps. Of course I would appreciate these things getting attention, but I just see this as miniscule in comparison to the big picture.

[So the z took one step towards me then turned around and attacked a tree]

Always...

On 11/2/2023 at 9:05 AM, Roland said:

blah bah... A17 .... blah blah A17 blah blah.

[Dying sucks]

1 hour ago, Krougal said:

Do you really think it would be better to be in an endless loop of dying? Because in the end, that is what you are proposing.

 

 
I thought they remedied that by making it so that zombies won't attack you anymore on a bloodmoon unless you engage. Was that removed at some point? I have no idea.

[Remake the Nude zombies.]

14 hours ago, Maharin said:

 

Sadly, you see it enough and you begin to enjoy it.   Just sayin'...

 

Kinda like if you repeat something enough it becomes a fact to some people.

The old Big Mama was way hotter

[Remake the Nude zombies.]

11 hours ago, Maharin said:

 

Sadly, you see it enough and you begin to enjoy it.   Just sayin'...

 

Kinda like if you repeat something enough it becomes a fact to some people.

The old Big Mama was way hotter

[Too many zombies in walls and ceilings]

2 hours ago, Krougal said:

Me, when I run right into the arms of a bloater in Dying Light (the original DL, not the @%$#ty sequel)

Me as well, but also into the suiciders in Dead Island (the original that you can get for $3 on sale, not the overpriced sequel that got sucked into a year long Epic store exclusivity contract)

[Too many zombies in walls and ceilings]

If there was another zombie similar to the mutated zombie, except that it explodes acid everywhere upon impact or getting too close, I would be truly scared in tight POIs as opposed to these jump-scare tactics. Just the possibility of turning a corner and seeing one of these in my face would elevate the senses.

[Will crafting balance come in alpha 22 or is crafting dead?]

7 minutes ago, lord_ahriman said:

You guys are missing the point entirely. I'm not saying it's wrong taking time to craft stacks, I'm saying it needs balance. As I said before, one stack of gas takes 9 minutes 23 seconds; 2,5k oil shale will result in the same 5k gas and it takes 9 minutes 23 seconds as well. That's the point. Why gunpowder stack needs 27 minutes to be crafted and 1k gunpowder 15 minutes? You see, same principle, stack or conventional way, but different methodology.

 
They'll just end up making the 1k gunpowder take 27 minutes.

[Too many zombies in walls and ceilings]

I can tolerate gimmicks in games if it makes sense within the context.

If they returned the feature of zombies being stronger in the dark and weaker in the light as seen in the very early alphas, there would at least be a logical explanation for zombies finding their way into closets and such.

[Return glass jars to the game by reworking the mechanics of their extraction]

58 minutes ago, Vaeliorin said:

And what, pray tell, did they fix?  I'm on day 29 (basically) and I've got over 700 water in a box, and the materials to craft another 9 dew collectors that I just haven't bothered to yet.

 

Water has gone from a non-issue, to an annoying non-issue (harvesting 27 dew collectors is a pain in the ass.)

 
With 700 water in a box, you should be harvesting zero dew collectors.
The fixes are that we don't have thousands of empty jars to deal with in inventory and that it matches every other consumable in a container where we don't get the container.
 
My problem with the change is that it doesn't make sense that I can no longer carry a unit of water from a water source for boiling and that the dew collector is silly, lazy design, and detrimental to the survival feels. It is silly in several ways:
- it magically attracts screamers

- it would be the absolute last resort in a survival situation, would barely work in the desert and probably not at all in the cold
- dew would not need to be filtered

- its existence in the game further raises the question why rain cannot be collected in the first place

I'd rather have a distiller that I fill with buckets and requires fuel to justify the screamer attraction. That still could also be used as a more creative way to obtain better drinks (coffee, alcoholic beverages, teas)

[Will crafting balance come in alpha 22 or is crafting dead?]

I don't like that crafting has taken a back seat, but really simply because repair exists, it will always end up taking the back seat in the long run anyway. There really is no point in putting so much thought into trying to make the crafting of weapons and tools better. You can put so much effort in coming up with the perfectly balanced way to make sure the crafting matches with looting, buying, and/or receiving with quest rewards, but to what end? Just to feel that fleeting moment of awe a few times per game? I just think that if crafting in general is getting dull, either focus should be placed on improving crafting for things other than tools and weapons, or perhaps crafting provides some features that looting, buying, and/or reward receiving cannot provide... such as enhanced stats on those weapons and tools. 
 
Really, between repair and the other ways of obtaining what you need, why bother even being able to craft weapons and tools at all? It would be more interesting to learn how craft tons of different mods that cannot be obtained any other way... mods that relate to the type of character you want to build and to the type of combat you enjoy... mods that can alter how you use those weapons and tools. Make those mods craftable using a combination of rare items that you must find in the wild and in specific biomes, rare items you find in specific POIs, rare items you can buy, and rare items you can receive as rewards. This not only keeps crafting alive and relevant, it keeps exploration, trade, questing relevant long into late game.

[Deer need to be worked on. I'm getting too much meat]

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I think you need a little more than a story about how you killed one deer quickly with a bike to prove that there is a serious problem.

[a21.1 b6 cloth cost increase]

A21.1 b16 Changelog

Changed

• Increased the amount of cloth needed for various recipes 
• Adjusted the weights on various items that scrap to cloth to adjust for the increased crafting costs

[Arequest to make trader quest on a sliding scale]

It’s probably a good idea to have settings, if not for solo players, then for servers.

 

Quests in general are still kinda new, relative to the age of the game itself. They like to be absolutely certain that a feature will benefit from settings. I imagine that they would want the feature to be at least close to its intended final design before complicating it.

 

I think there’s a really good chance settings will come eventually. Otherwise, I would keep an eye on the mods. If there isn’t one already to slow things down, I suspect there will be very soon.

[Traders and quests need to be nerfed]

2 hours ago, George Gordon said:

If you guys don't like it don't play it.

If you don’t like to hear it, don’t read it.

 

This is a forum hosted by TFP for the purpose of discussion. If they didn’t want feedback, it wouldn’t be here. We’re in Alpha 21 and a lot of us have been professionally complaining and arguing for a long time. Censorship cannot stop us now.

 

Btw… if bandits are too easy, I will complain. Just a heads up so you can avoid that topic ahead of time. You are welcome to join in if you happen to agree, have related comments, or have ideas that would make it better… ‘cause that’s how we roll here.

[removing traders from the world]

11 minutes ago, Dark Wun said:

I was going to ask bout stuff like this next, is there any other major consequence to not having a trader? I can't really think of any.

 
Solar banks and solar cells, I think. Other than that, you might fall victim to early game antibiotics shortage.

[Is ignoring game content the only option?]

I like the coins only reward as the best idea so far.
 

If the loot within a quest's POI was influenced by some variable that a quest is active, that could be used to increase the chance of providing better loot rewards (but within the quest) while also reducing the benefits of double-dipping.

 

 

[A21 Thoughts... not enough of a game]

A nomadic no main base playthrough I like to do sometimes.
Dead is Dead at your most comfortable difficulty is a good way to play for a challenge and keeps you on your toes.

Hordes nightly with maximum night time and very short days and then see how many days you can last is entertaining.
No Trader was always fun for me, but it is starting to remove a little too much content these days.

[A21 Thoughts... not enough of a game]

32 minutes ago, pgriffith said:

The new POI's are awesome, but there are so many I've never entered (mostly the smaller ones) as there is no reason to do so unless a quest directs me to one.

 
Yeah, I think this is something really important and probably overlooked as a side effect of the quests and the rewards you get from them. Their goal was to provide more to do and the opposite is happening instead.

[Do I want to make some cornbread so I don't starve or make some glue for my pipe gun]

TFP could easily simplify this. Why bother with any of this when you could just eat glue?

[SURVEY: When do you craft your own gear? (Excludes stone)]

I chose the last one because that just how it has gone for me, for the most part. I would love to craft more though if it had some kind of significance. Not finding things would be significant, but hasn't really happened to where I'm concerned enough to craft. I just store parts for after quality 5 as my last resort.

[Old blood moon sound]

I guess the zombies screaming in the distance was fine, but the accompanying instrumental effects I actually never liked.

[Do you build realistically, or do you cheese game mechanics?]

13 hours ago, Khissi said:

 I prefer to build bases that work against the zombies and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't but this is not to say that another person might be not be able to make that base that failed me work very well just by manipulating the blocks in a particular way.

 
So do I.
I mentioned before that I don't like these kinds of things in the game. I do consider it cheese and it's been debated for as long as I can remember. For me, if it is something you can do the first week and it remains effective through to day 300+, there is a problem.

TFP, in general, seems to have the desire to wipe out as much of it as possible. I can understand because they put years of effort in creating this game mechanic with all of the systems and assets involved, they don't want someone to come along and defeat it all in a matter of minutes. The goal is to present a challenge and if what was made doesn't do that, it is basically a failure. Sometimes there appears to be a back and forth of players finding the so-called cheese and the developers attempting to close that gap. People argue that it is a waste of time. If people want to do it, let them. There will always be some way to cheese, etc. I understand this point of view as well.

 

TFP also seems to have this mentality that being able to create an AFK base is a bad thing. I mostly disagree and I think having this mentality only heats up the debate.

 
In my opinion, if the tower defense aspect was given more depth and more focus was put on base defense progression, less people would look for ways to "cheese" to begin with. Give people more reasons to think about how to build and with what to build with. Make it so certain materials and shapes are effective for certain zombies, but then other materials and shapes are effective against others. Do the opposite and make it so more zombie types are resilient against specific types of damage or can easily hang on to odd shapes. Perhaps some cannot be electrocuted, some cannot be burned. Make more traps that can be enhanced as you progress. Introduce some logic operations to relays. There should be several paths to achieve an excellent base using a plethora of possible combinations of voxel mechanics, using the provided tools as intended, and using your own creativity and ingenuity. This is where the most fun is to be had. In the end, if you no longer have to actively engage with the zombies, you have not "cheesed" the system... you progressed and ultimately figured out the solution to the challenging problem.