Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[faatal]

Dismember heads 30 percent chance on death? This makes no sense unless im missing something. Decapitation should CAUSE death... not just play a new animation when they would have died amyway due to normal damage.

 

There are 3 types of dismemberment. For heads you have your chance to take off the head of a perfectly healthy zombie causing instant death. A powerful ability to have. Gained through perks/mods/items/whatever. Then you have cosmetic dismemberment when you either kill a zombie by reducing his health to 0 or hit one that is already dead. In A18, 30%+ of zombies you kill with a head shot will dismember their head indicating they are dead. No different that seeing blood when they die or hearing a death sound effect. Cosmetic.

[SxR]

I wouldn't read much into it. It took me a bit to figure you probably meant Learn By Doing with that acronym.

 

Little Black Dress, shh ;b

[Jackelmyer]

 

AI in A17.2 have an intelligence value that determines how important they treat block health and how often they will get mad on long paths and just destroy blocks. It is a random range and different zombies have different ranges, so some are quite dumb and will not follow partial paths for very long.

 

That... Sounds very zombie like. Haven't seen this behavior yet. Gonna keep an eye out!

[sillls]

Hey, I just finished writing the next entry of My Journal. It's a series of short story's that I'm writing for the game.

 

 

Feel free to check it out here: https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?111926-My-journal-part-4

 

 

EDIT: Link fixed. Sorry about that.

[archergod]

Of all things in this game, I really want to see TFP stand of they value each bullet in game, or they want us to fire without worrying of bullet stockpile. Bullets are not available in vast varity, but their killing power, and how player aim, and how Zombie Dodge bullet when we "Scope" zoom to them and still don't get head shot make it that want us to fire lot of bullets but still value them. You guys need to decide on way, either give us bullet super cheap or keep it natural. How can a bullet miss because zombie know we are aim him. Sometime they even miss body shots.

 

Also, make their stockpile little bigger, 250 shotgun cannot kill more than 50-80 zombie. if use in quick session. And I know a bad aim is bad aim, but I play enough of shooter game to know how to aim decently. I got very good records in those shooting game.

[sillls]

Hopefully we will see for friendly NPC's like scavengers that can turn into followers (AKA pack mules) in Alpha-18.

 

Hopefully.

[Gazz]

Yes, explosives should become useful again.

A bug ruined their AOE effect and given their crafting requirement/cost, something like a pipe bomb can not be weaker than a molotov.

 

Their ragdoll part (which is less of a "balancing" feature =) should now be much "cheaper". I do remember a hitch when large numbers of zombies would be flying around in A16. I expect that to be gone.

 

So yeah, some cleanup left to do. The critical parts should make it into an A17.3 for sure, along with some (not all *) stealth fixes.

 

 

* Only critical bugs are ported back into the "old" branch. Gotta keep moving forward, not backwards.

[Fren]

Great to hear that the work for A18 started and that this update would be there rather quick

 

Any plans or words on Bandits/NPC's/Quests for A18 as well?

[KingSlayerGM]

So everyone talked about lockpicking, but what about ziplines??

[Menace312]

So everyone talked about lockpicking, but what about ziplines??

 

Thanks... I was think that also...

[calebelt]

In A17 there were new buildings in which the survivors lived. All players are waiting for the appearance in these buildings friendly NPC. The planned in A18 the emergence of NPC?

Without NPCs, the game becomes boring. New weapons and new items are meaningless without quests or diplomatic relations with the NPC.

It is enough to add bandits and survivors and the game will be much more fun.

Survivors can give quests: protect their base from the Horde, find resources, upgrade walls, bring / make weapons, etc. NPC even can simply stand on place in their bases, on walls, in rooms.

Bandits can simply stand in buildings with a good loot (bank for example or skyscraper) and shoot at the player. Also, survivors can give quests to clean up buildings from bandits.

[DaVegaNL]

MM already said at multiple occasions that there will be no friendly followers or friendly NPC's besides traders.

[KingSlayerGM]

MM already said at multiple occasions that there will be no friendly followers or friendly NPC's besides traders.

 

He also talked about friendly pets, are those to be considered gone too?

[danielspoa]

Explosive XP - don't know, I'd have to look at the code.

 

hello, to clarify because I asked the same: rocket launcher was giving exp only from the enemy directly hit by the projectile.

 

- if you hit the ground below him and the enemy die from the explosion = no exp

 

- if you hit the enemy with the rocket and multiple zombies die = exp from the one directly hit by the rocket

 

the explosion itself wasn't giving proper exp. I assume the same for other explosive tools as I only tested the rocket launcher.

[Thecolours]

Fatal, when do you expect 17.3 to be released?

[DaVegaNL]

He also talked about friendly pets, are those to be considered gone too?

 

Yeah I guess so.

 

I can be your friendly pet if you want!

[Copendub]

I'd like this very much as well. +1

 

I too would like to see a setting for turning off zombie digging. +1

[Gareee]

Explosive XP - don't know, I'd have to look at the code.

 

I checked and the controller B key does tilt down and was added in December in A17 before we even had an A18 branch. I do remember having to set the controls to default to get it to see the new controller mapping.

 

AI in A17.2 have an intelligence value that determines how important they treat block health and how often they will get mad on long paths and just destroy blocks. It is a random range and different zombies have different ranges, so some are quite dumb and will not follow partial paths for very long.

 

You mean default in steam, or in game? Steam can be funky with controllers. (We use DS4 controllers, BTW.) I' try it today and see if it works as expected.

 

Zombie ai intellegence difference makes sense... good to know, and thanks for the reply!

[sillls]

About stelth and diversion gameplay.

I would really like to see this fixed.

 

 

Beeing able to use decoys should be an option.

 

This brings new meaning to "Sleeps like the dead"

[sillls]

Lockpicks = faster, stealth friendly. You don't want to spend those rare points on strength to smash those pesky safes faster? Just craft lockpicks and try your luck getting them open quietly in lock-picking minigame (or whatever system you as developers deem appropriate for this game).

 

I don't get it. I found that most POI's you can get through most of the area without breaking down a door. All I have to do is to look around to find a way in. That may mean going to the back door or through a garage or climb up a laddus that vines are growing on. Or even going to another stand alone building and jumping up a few boxes to walk across a tricky catwalk just to get in but I have done it.

 

Secondly, why worry about waking zombies jumping out at you and the door when you can get them to help you. If you just knock on the door, they will open it for you.

Then they come poring out in a nice tightly packed group were they are easily dispatched.

 

 

Just watch your back for others that might come in behind you. 00

[canadianbluebeer]

I too would like to see a setting for turning off zombie digging. +1

 

So would I. It's wrong, and that AI uses it too often when it shouldn't.

 

I'd also like to see the jumping toned down. Spider zeds, fine. Having a fat zed decide to jump just as you try to

run over them on the motorcycle.. just wrong. (funny, but wrong)

[sillls]

So would I. It's wrong, and that AI uses it too often when it shouldn't.

 

I'd also like to see the jumping toned down. Spider zeds, fine. Having a fat zed decide to jump just as you try to

run over them on the motorcycle.. just wrong. (funny, but wrong)

 

lol U-Tube or it didn't happen.

[kamer1337]

what about high quality player models for A18? ( they look like 2005 game or even worse lol )

[AtomicPunk]

For 'tiers' of guns to have low end to high end how about something like this for example:

Double Barrel Shotgun

Pump

semi-auto( A VEPR, Mossberg 930, Benelli M4 )

Legendary( maybe find only ) : Full auto shotgun( AA-12 )

 

Rifle:

Hunting or bolt action( Remington 700, .240, etc )

Semi-Auto( AR-15, Ruger Ranch Rifle( .223 ) )

Full Auto( M4, AK-47, FAL, etc )

Legendary: SAW, M60, Barret .50 )...once again find only

 

Once the game gets flushed out in these later releases these could be useful motivators

for people to explore. Just exploring the world now with these new POIs is a lot of fun, but

the extra motivation to stuff like this would be AWESOME.

 

Saw the C4 addition. How about Grenades as find only? Since there are soldier zombies,

that could be nice 'loot' to pick up a grenade or two...could help ya get out of a tight spot.

[stasis78]

For 'tiers' of guns to have low end to high end how about something like this for example:

Double Barrel Shotgun

Pump

semi-auto( A VEPR, Mossberg 930, Benelli M4 )

Legendary( maybe find only ) : Full auto shotgun( AA-12 )

 

Rifle:

Hunting or bolt action( Remington 700, .240, etc )

Semi-Auto( AR-15, Ruger Ranch Rifle( .223 ) )

Full Auto( M4, AK-47, FAL, etc )

Legendary: SAW, M60, Barret .50 )...once again find only

 

Once the game gets flushed out in these later releases these could be useful motivators

for people to explore. Just exploring the world now with these new POIs is a lot of fun, but

the extra motivation to stuff like this would be AWESOME.

 

Saw the C4 addition. How about Grenades as find only? Since there are soldier zombies,

that could be nice 'loot' to pick up a grenade or two...could help ya get out of a tight spot.

 

Or you can just use Firearms mod which is way better than anything else