[Looks like the vehicle issues are still around, but definitely not as often!!]

And twice more. This is becoming constant, and it is worse in so-called stable than it was in test. I think y'all rushed this one out for Xmas.

[Harvesting animals]

No, it isn't. It actually stops harvesting, because I can stand there and swing over and over and it isn't doing any damage, but if I go back to a power attack it will finish.

It's a bonafide bug.

[Harvesting animals]

So I alternate between power attacks & regular to harvest in as few swings as possible.

For most things this works just fine. For animal corpses however it's like it stops registering the hits.

So I will start with a power attack or two and then probably the 3rd swing a normal would suffice, but I can swing a few times and it acts like there's nothing there. Generally moving and stabbing again or going back to power attack will work. It's annoying AF, and wastes time, stamina and my knife durability.

This is not new to A20 either.

 

So it's just a visual bug 😛

 

[Traders should be open all night]

Ok, so I don't know why this is such a point of contention, if people want to sit and cower in the trader all night they should be able to.

 

Other than Roland's point of possibly getting stuck and unable to suicide (or potentially get your gear back as well) I don't see any cons to allowing it by default, especially since the crafting stations are all broken (which I feel was a good change).

 

I mean what if I need to AFK but I don't want to log out? Granted except for hosting a game for your friends and needing an extended AFK is about the only really pressing case for why you wouldn't just logout, but it's there.

 

Depending on your settings you are losing 15 minutes minimum of productivity sitting in the trader all night. Even on night 1 I am not sitting in a POI with my thumb up my ass, I am generally mining in the basement and if it has been a really good first day already smelting & crafting. By night 4 I am doing construction on my base. After 1st horde I am cautiously going out more and more at night, by the time I am doing t3 & 4 quests I am likely staying out all hours, t5 for sure since they take so @%$#ing long to do. In fact it becomes a real inconvenience having to wait for the trader to open so I can sell @%$# and get a new quest, forget about hanging out there, I want to conduct my business and be on my way.

 

If some people want to sit in the trader all night like @%$# let them. Even on horde night. Seriously. Even on a MP server I can't see what the fuss is. If you want to hide and miss out on tons of XP and loot then that's your business.

[pipe baton ?]

Really? And here I found it uncomfortable to use, the animation throws me off and I feel like it has a shorter reach (it probably doesn't) but then I found one on my first return when the muscle memory for the game is gone and you get pwned like a noob, it was a t6 to boot right out of a trash pile next to spawn. I may have to give it another try.

[Looks like the vehicle issues are still around, but definitely not as often!!]

Ok, this is now worse than ever for me (because the last time this even happened to me was when the minibike was the ONLY vehicle we had)

I did a fresh mapgen for A20 stable and the bicycle has already gone on me three times and I only got it like 10 minutes ago.

First I got off to loot some bird nests and it decided to teleport only a short distance away, but underground (had to use godmode to get it) Second time I had to get off in wasteland because of stupid cliff-racers following me because I entered wasteland (I really need to mod the biome vulture spawns out, @%$#ing annoying is all they are) and the bike teleported about 50m away (because it was back in the grassland). Continuing on my quest to unlock t2 ran into some zeds. Got off bicycle, somehow got 1 shotted by a plain old "Yo" (that's another issue, cause I know I was full health) and on my return the bike is nowhere to be found, so just gave myself another from CM because who the @%$# has time for this bull@%$# on day 6. 

[the combat music]

I coulda swore it still played, I used to enjoy that but the new A20 outside combat music got very annoying very quickly and it seems to be constant so I turned it off.

[Alpha 20 Seed Thread!]

So SnowiestDrowners is similar but not 100% anymore of course, giving it a try while waiting to see further seed analysis from @JoeDaFrogman but I have no clue if the POI placement is the same and it is too soon to tell (guess I should have done a creative flythrough). I'd love to know more of your methodology since it seems like you've got a much better understanding of it than most.

 

[Early game difficulty]

I'm not sure they are working as intended, but it seems to be hit or miss.

Sometimes a dog in a POI will stand there like you said, other times they are on you.

Now the room boundary is a different thing altogether, like the little shed for instance that you can beat down the door and the dog inside just stands there if you don't go in. That is working as intended, or at least it is a side effect of an intentional game mechanic.

 

Dogs outside seem to work just fine though.

[Returning old hand looking for advice I thought I'd never ask for]

I was in the same boat, I played alpha 19 quite a bit but it's been months and it's always a lot to relearn coming back to this game, especially for a new alpha.

Right now I am greatly enjoying: 

 Which is not a load of work to build (especially since it starts with the single tower that by itself is viable for quite a few horde nights). It works well for SP but there are plenty of fighting positions for MP. Not to mention it looks really cool.

[Why can't picks unlock doors?]

Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it. For the most part though, as stated they are dungeon crawls, most of the locked doors are either just shortcuts or minor rooms like small bathrooms/bedrooms that don't have much in the way of loot, and they are low health doors. There is little need to go through most high HP doors, especially since they added the doors that operate off a switch, which is a really nice touch.

[Early game difficulty]

Another possibly overlooked strategy for early game, frequent suicide before level 6 because there is no penalty.

No food/water, no recipes and starving/dehydrated? Eat some glass.

Sprained leg and don't want to sit around on your ass for 20 minutes because you've got places to go and zeds to kill? Eat some glass.

Infected and no antibiotics/honey? Eat some glass.

You get the point. Cheesy? Very. Immersion-breaking? For sure. A hassle as well. Having trouble with early game supplies though this will help you get on your feet and you've got enough problems to deal with the first few days.

Of course now this will be nerfed.

 

So of course having I've had lots of animals the first few days on my A20 has gone stable restart. Day1 we found one. Remember if you see a doghouse in the yard, chances are a dog will spawn right in your face if you get close. Day 2 a wolf showed up at our door, fortunately the POI I was squatting in provided defensive options and he was a welcome load of meat.

 

Day 3 besides a wandering horde beating down my door at about 3AM, there was also a bear. Thankfully I chose a house with an attic and based in the attic. Still after the bear was done I had 2 health, infection, broken bones, laceration, concussion...so I ate some glass. Don't get me wrong though, I am thankful for all the meat delivered right to my door. Unfortunately it is now day4 which means dog horde and as I am level 7 it is no longer advisable to eat glass, so hopefully I don't run into them out in the open.

 

[How do I deal with cold in the snow when I get wet?]

Poncho used to keep you dry, I don't know if this is the case anymore (probably not since they revamped the clothing/armor)

Carry a torch/melee with burning shaft mod in your hand, that will give you a little heat.

If that still isn't enough there's always the insulation mods for armor, which while I'd prefer more useful mods, I also prefer not freezing to death.

And then there is the  perk, which I really consider a waste but then if I started spending more time freezing I might reconsider.

[Sneaking and its problems (and how to fix it)]

1 hour ago, Scyris said:

 

The problem is its the same on any difficulty, Difficulty does not stop auto-aggro volumes from rushing you second you walk in, it doesn't stop zombies from being behind things constantly. Its just getting stupid now. Especially the zombies in closets, hidden walls and even dropping down from the cieling, they make NO SENSE, like what the was a zombie doing in those places anyway? its completly immersion breaking and quite frankly just unfun. Office_04 in A20 exp is a prime example of a unfun poi. literally every single sleeper volume auto-aggros second you walk in, including zombies dropping from, the cieling/walls in almost every room. Whats worse is in the loot room one of the sleepers spawns right beside the place close enough to be hugging them, this sleeper doesn't spawn till you actually walk into the room, so its a 100% cheapshot as its right beside you when it spanws.

 

Like stealthing does save ammo when you can actually get a sneak attack which in A20 is kinda rare due to most sleeper volumes just knowing your there second you walk in and charging you. Stealth clearing is also much slower than just going in guns blazing, your trading speed for saftey. I've pretty much stopped investing in the sneak perks in A20 as they are of very little use anymore.

Well I can see some of the places, I mean someone crawled inside somewhere to hide and died and turned, but yeah...dropped ceiling tiles wouldn't hold anyone's weight.

 

The unfun is 100% it though, which is why I'm no longer specing agility

I mean I used to enjoy the bow, but I feel like it sucks worse every alpha. Still no composite bow either. I enjoyed the cheaper 9mm ammo, but then endgame brass is what's expensive not GP, so the 7.62 is more bang for the buck and really good luck finding an SMG. Right now I sell t6 pipe machine guns all day long, have a few t3 ak & a tar, but not a single SMG.  Really, other than flurry of blows, parkour and blades I feel it's not a worthwhile skill tree right now. 

[Acid scarcity in alpha 20]

12 minutes ago, katarynna said:

This is not a bug. In the wasteland at night, there is no delay on respawns. If you kill one, another spawns immediately.

 

This is intended behavior to make the wastelands feel dangerous and deadly, bringing back the old hub city feel.

No @%$#??? Well maybe this update isn't ALL bad after all!

MWGA! I need to start hanging out in the wastelands again.

[How I feel and hope changes are made.]

27 minutes ago, lordderryth said:

The rest are from A20 mod section @ Alpha 20 Mods – 7 Days to Die Mods

Check this minimalistic UI out.  A20 SpazUI – 7 Days to Die Mods

Thanks! Yeah, that UI looks good, although we'll see if it's big enough (I'm not getting any younger and they keep making the print smaller!) but with that for comparison I could fix hotrods mod if I needed to. 

[How I feel and hope changes are made.]

14 minutes ago, lordderryth said:

I love this response.  It's quite balanced and I agree with you.  My UI is exactly like that.  Only the hunger and thirst shows up with hp and stam.  I do like the XP information.  Is that a mod? My friend told me about the Lore it was nuclear.  I do believe what you say when mililtary nuked the zombies which caused all this other mayhem.  However, I would prefer a non-nuclear attack in most areas that buildings look clean rather than broken down.  

I agree faster XP is bad.  Which is why I use Slower Progression Mod.  Believe me when I tell you.  Even with the extra inventory, I still find myself encumbered.  I love that mod because it has slots for encumbered.  A lot of inventory mods don't have that and to me it's almost like cheating.  There must be encumbrance.  

 

That's  h0tr0d's UI mod, the first image has the link to the forum page, but like I said it isn't fully working. Someone else said the XP doesn't work for them ,but mine does. I tried to fix the food/water bars myself but I forget if UI modlets need a new game or can be added/removed at will. You ever gonna tell me where to get the mod you are using?

 

9 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:

Just a thought continuing on alpha progress, dev vision, and zombie behavior...

 

I sometimes wish they would have continued with the whole zombies run in the dark thing going back to Alpha 1. I'm not even certain it would be that great, but I kinda want to experience this now in A20. I know it looked jarring when zombies would move from dark to light or vice versa, but I bet now that they have people working on animations and models, they could pull it off nicely.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about that lol. If you like your zeds running at night yeah. I generally do play with default speed (other than ferals walk because @%$# ferals) because once again, unfortunately it is too easy at night otherwise, but then I play on lower difficulty too because I hate bullet sponges. Have to look into this headshot only mod, if I can get 1 shot 1 kill then I am fine with harder difficulty. This is all SP of course. MP I'm happy to play on "big boy gamer" settings with a good group.

[Acid scarcity in alpha 20]

Getting acid has always been slow.

Day 35. Level 50. Bike from t1 reward, bought motorcycle, so only used 3 wheels for gyro.

I have 7 acid and 1 wheel left. I probably looted 2 or 3 wheels total.

I did not go out of my way for acid, I totally forgot about finding it in medical stuff and haven't smashed them.

Have done quite a few cars and military trucks. I still have nearly 700 mech and 900 electrical comps for comparison. Early game I tear apart everything.

I need to stop bringing a lot of materials home (like the 10 stacks of cloth I will never use). 

Even not looting like a magpie, the book and looting the medical devices would bring me even more acid.

So I'd have enough for all vehicles plus some limited crafting with it. Not great, but it's bearable. So it could probably use a little bump, at least on the high gamestage loot tables.

 

PS, forgot chem station, 5 ouch! When did they make that change? I got mine from a quest reward or I bought it. So I'd still be in a good position but forget about making consumables with acid.

[Did the trader jobs/quests increase in distance for A20?]

Shorter travel distances is why I went with the smallest map for a change.

1km is really not far at all, especially once you get motorized transport but in this game it feels far for some reason.

4 km is like "Do I really want to be bothered?"

I still miss the old Minecraft style unlimited generated on the fly maps, but then the game had a much different style then, and I understand that it was canned for performance reasons.

Find the t5 pois and closest trader, hope it isn't @%$# Rekt and base next to them. Profit!

[How I feel and hope changes are made.]

So who actually made the food & water hud mod? A search isn't coming up with anything. Other than the one I use.

 

This is perfect for me and has all the info I want without being too noisy or bothersome. Nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully it gets updated when A20 drops for real.

 

Oh, and as far as the lore, I think the nuclear was "secondary kill" where the zombie virus was "primary kill".

Military response to the zombie hordes was to nuke the large population centers, that kind of thing.

 

I have played with 200% player and while it makes early game less tedious, it's very bad for game balance late game as it removes the need to bother with steel tools. 25% for AI, I was one of the people who championed that being decoupled from the player setting so I of course use it always. They still rip through concrete too fast for my liking.

 

I honestly hate all things RPG (level grinding bleyt!) but I haven't been able to find a good balance to make it less obtrusive either. Faster XP is bad. I've messed with different amounts of skill points per level too but once again, late game it gets silly. I enjoyed the game more before the skill system but it is so entwined into everything that it feels impossible to remove it.

 

I'll have to look for some of those mods, although most of them seem like little tweaks and not major changes to zed behavior. More inventory slots...there's another thing I been thinking I need lately, so many items added, especially nonstackable @%$#. I mean when my inventory is full and my gyrocopter is full and I still have to make 2 trips there is too much @%$#. That's carrying minimal gear outside the hotbar (I probably carry too many tools and weapons though)

[How I feel and hope changes are made.]

So where might I find the Food & Water Hud? I was perfectly happy with 

 

 

but the food & water stopped displaying numbers and I haven't figured out how to fix it.

 

What breaks MY immersion is having to stop what I am doing and open a UI and then click around it to find some quick info. Especially when 2.5 minutes is an hour and the clock is ticking. Ain't nobody got time fo'dat!

 

For the most part I agree the vanilla HUD is fine, just lacking a bit of info that this mod adds. Other UI mods make too many style changes for my taste.

 

I really need to try some more mods, I too would prefer a more Romero/TWD experience over this Z-Nation bull@%$#.

[Sneaking and its problems (and how to fix it)]

Although I enjoyed my agility build in A19, I've just given up on stealth as a primary playstyle. Just not worth the hassle in this game.

I don't think A20 has made it particularly better or worse, and of course I still sneak around when I find it useful but it just isn't the main focus of my build now.

 

One thing that I think would make stealth more competetive to other builds would be if ferals (including horde night) didn't home in 100% on you but just to your general location. So they know whereabouts you are and actively seek you but if you want to sneak around, normal rules apply. These should still be compatible with the Nerf Pimps vision for the game and their hatred for the player base but let stealth builds be 100% useful.

 

[Does The Shamway Secret Recipe Still Exist in A20?]

I just got the recipe from a t4 quest reward.

[Early game difficulty]

This is all too many walls of text for me to read through but I do not even talk about nerfing wolf spawn. 

Once you get past the stage of them whipping your ass (after first horde for sure you should have yourself situated) they are the best source of meat in A20.

 

Day 36 I can count the amount of deer & pigs I've seen on 1 hand, rabbits are a hassle and give little meat, chickens slightly less hassle and give little meat. Bear...you don't want to poke the bear unless you've got an AK. Mountain lions? If you think wolves are bad, mountain lions will @%$# your @%$# up! Stay out of the snow noob!

I don't even know if Bobs Boars still a thing but I haven't seen it or even barns with pigs. That leaves wolves. Kill wolves, loot nests and buy eggs when the trader has them.  Bacon & eggs are your best early food.

 

It's been like this a lot longer than A20 though. Day 4/5 dog horde is a tradition. It sucks when they catch you flat-footed and unaware but you can outrun them and use terrain usually. Jump up on a car roof or other obstacle. Back pedal and club them to death. They seem really harsh but once you get used to it it becomes easy.

 

[Did the trader jobs/quests increase in distance for A20?]

I'd imagine it depends on the map since certain POIs are tied to certain tiers. On the small pregen from trader Jen the t4 quests are mostly 2-3 km away.  The night quests even lower tier seemed to be mostly off in the snow (far north). I imagine the t5 quests will be the same and I might just need to relocate to Joel, who is at the edge of the wasteland.