Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Trankitas]

I'm not sure one will work on a stair case but the more I think about it a foot bridge is better so it would work great for that.

 

Hey Muscular Mole (that's what MM stands for, right?) how many MF's are right now? Will any of those ship with experimental and be fixed on stable?

[XCOUNTRY]

Maybe instead of the saw as a placeable item in the world it’s an item in your backpack like the anvil et al in the forge or pot in campfire that unlocks the radial menu for complex blocks.

[ZombieSurvivor]

Oh, I figured you were planning more on a motion sensor. Walk up to your mini drawbridge and open sesame.

 

Thats exactly what I was picturing in my head when MM said he was planning on making one.

[Odetta]

I play old normal (Nomad), which is new +1 difficulty level. I'm thinking of putting on my big boy pants and trying 16 alive on my next character, or later game once I get my traps going (starting on a new more efficient dart trap design)

 

Go 64, to celebrate A18's release.

 

Also when you do add bandits how about a book series called Cannibals for Dumb♥♥♥♥s. Allows you to harvest bandits and make soylent green. Could apply to other players as well. I mean it's the apocalypse after all..

[madmole]

After much preparation, the Twin Towers of Turmoil are finally complete. (Went into DM mode to grab the image.)

 

 

You need a walkway to the other tower to kite zombies where you might have more good spikes left.

[theFlu]

I didn’t. I still thrust 90% and throw 10% because that just feels right to me. I don’t care that spamming the throw/retrieval might be more efficient. It seems like casting a magic spell.

 

It never even occurred to me to use the spear that way until I saw it on Prime’s stream and my reaction was a most definite....WTF.

 

I tried it and hated it. I love the spear but I use the throw as a finishing move after softening them up with some jabs (which have a nice reach btw). But I’m weird in the sense that it doesn’t bother me that a more efficient way is a way I don’t like to play and I don’t feel compelled to choose efficiency over fun. There are those who will hate it and still play it that way because efficiency is king in their world.

 

Tldr if you don’t like it don’t do it. I don’t and the game plays great and spears are still one of my favorite additions.

 

Pretty much the feeling I had about it, I love and hate the look of it. You made me think about why I love it thou..

 

The Power attack is charged.

 

For every melee weapon this far, it has been an expensive copy of the "weak" attack, without any real benefits, unless your opponent is already down and essentially out. With the added benefit of waking up zombies when tring to sneak upon them.

 

For now, I've ended up using it only for vulture baseball and cheer-flips. That also makes about 80% of the (A17) melee perks useless, they only apply to an attack I don't use...

 

Having a charged power attack looks nice though. If applied to other weapons as well, it could give the "default" Power attack a role. Charge for power. That would open plenty of mechanics to beef up the power attack while limiting it's spammability. Just a slow charge for max effect would do, but you could also slow down the player a bit to make it more risky, slower sta regen while channeling etc.. Then the perks could of course still augment it, but it would have a Place untalented as well, plus a distinct, hopefully "oomphier" feel to it's game play.

[ZombieSurvivor]

After much preparation, the Twin Towers of Turmoil are finally complete. (Went into DM mode to grab the image.)

 

 

 

 

My cage design that wraps around towers would fit perfect with you base design.

[Adam the Waster]

Go 64, to celebrate A18's release.

 

Also when you do add bandits how about a book series called Cannibals for Dumb♥♥♥♥s. Allows you to harvest bandits and make soylent green. Could apply to other players as well. I mean it's the apocalypse after all..

 

finally some good ♥♥♥♥ing food

 

but could use some salt

[madmole]

I know you said you wanted no balance discussion regarding spears before release, so I won't go into that; but mechanically balanced or not it also felt very gimmicky to me when I witnessed it and something I definitely won't do because it feels cheesy. One potential solution is to not be able to retrieve the spear unless the zombie's dead. Keeps the mechanic available but only as a finisher.

 

 

 

 

I don't really understand this. I mean, I have stakes in this given I won't have my childs on the upcoming week-end so i'd be more than happy to play it this week-end, but even if it wasn't the case, how's a monday release a good thing ? For a lot of us it just adds to the frustration, a long wait followed by a release at the beginning of a work week ? I understand it's easier for you to fix gamebreaking stuff when your team is available for the upcoming 5 days, but still...

 

 

 

I hope it will. As many have stated before, nothing feels more lackluster right now regarding zombies than the empty streets in the cities (immersion wise AND gameplay wise). There's really no reason at all not going to a big city on day 1 and building your base in the center of it. It kinda bugs me how you've been such a fierce advocate of slow progression yet never truly acknowledged how setting up in loot-land on the very first day is the best strat and the very opposite of "slow progression". It should be a bloody struggle to get even close to all that loot; in my opinion, the first 7 days of a playthrough should require cautious scavenging of isolated POIs in the outskirts, and only once you get stronger, you can decide to go for it and see how you fare.

 

And no, just because we have sleepers guarding every POI doesn't mean there's "more zombies" than previously. It only means you get annoyed once you select the POI you want to loot. Back in the days it was a struggle to simply make a proper trip around the city to see what's available to you. It wasn't perfect by any means but it felt a lot better and more rewarding than a running through a dead hub of independent POIs.

 

It might look cheesy, but this is your TIER 3 QUALITY 6 MODDED spear we are talking about. Restricting pull out to after its dead would be frustrating. We all know zombies are made out of play doh and are very "squishy" watching the walking dead, they are practically softer than a rotten tomato so in that use case, I don't see it as unrealistic to be able to snatch your spear right back out of their chest. In the end what we did is fun.

 

Most commercial games release on Monday night or Tuesday Morning at 12 am. You have the rest of your life to play this game, do you lack self control and stay up all night that first day of release or something? We can't cater to everyone, the next guy will be angry we released on x date because of y. We do what is best for us. Nothing is worse than a Friday evening release with something complete broken and can't fix it until Monday, test it, release on Tuesday IMO.

 

I'm going to disagree. The old way was a little more "zombie movie lore correct" but bad for performance and game play. Clear the city and have free reign with all the loot in every house? Bad for game play. Ideally we get a few more guys wandering the streets in addition to sleepers. I have to kill 500 zombies now to clear a town, the old way was 20. How was that any good? You guys literally are clinging to probably "first time memories" when you were a noob and those 20 guys felt like 200 and you were scared. Now you are a veteran and nothing short of 200 actual zombies outside will bring back that "feeling". I emplore you to load up alpha 12 or so, and tell me how great it really IS, not how great it WAS. Memories and feelings are deceptive.

 

Pois were shells of boring repetiveness, once you cleared the 20 zeds in the streets the entire town was yours, for 4 days until they respawned. Zero danger inside a house unless you missed someone outdoors who wandered in.

[madmole]

Got it. Does different crafting menus help with that? Like dividing it between carpentry table, forge, workbench, etc.

 

Yes but search from any menu is laggy the more you add because it has to find everything and display it, and what workstation its crafted at. New block helpers help a ton.

[madmole]

I agree. I love realism in my games. But only to a point. The way I see it realism is great but not at the expense of fun gameplay. If it makes the game less fun, cut it out. I mean honestly if you broke your leg, or even sprained it, in a survival situation alone your dead.

 

Well said. When it gets in the way of fun it loses its importance in the design discussion.

[sillls]

Here is an easy way to sort posts by which of the FP staff posted them. The work has already been done for you...

 

You might want to proof read Clair's intro, just saying.

[madmole]

Hey Joel, I was talking to some friends and we were wandering why can't we get wheels from cars when wrenched. It wouldn't be alot, just a small percentage of posibilty to drop.

 

Because you need about 2 to 4 wheels at most in any given play through. After that its like damn, what am I going to do with this stupid wheel?

[madmole]

Hello Madmole,

Maybe this question was already asked. I am curious if a proper swimming animation is already added in A18?

Thanks.

 

Nope.

[AtomicUs5000]

After much preparation, the Twin Towers of Turmoil are finally complete. (Went into DM mode to grab the image.)

 

 

Ehh, you know SI. :/ I get to each tower through an underground tunnel.

 

nope, a 15 block trussing would reach, but you would have to figure a way to make it look gneiss

 

What I would do is put a drawbridge on each side that starts extended from the base by one block. I think this would leave a gap of three blocks between them to jump across when both opened. Since they would have to start extended off the base by one block, I would just make sure that the blocks holding the drawbridge are attached to the base horizontally and vertically (needs extra blocks placed below). With SI, doing something like this:

 

X~~~~~~

XX

XX

X

 

Holds a lot better than doing something like this ....

 

X~~~~~~

X

X

X

[madmole]

Did you do covers or play any original music? Are there any recordings I could find?

 

No we just did cover songs. Rick and my older Brother Nick later on recorded a few original tracks, nothing I'm aware of that could be found or anything.

[madmole]

@MadMole Yeah, as Gazz observed, I was talking about the game design process, not playing.

 

I can't imagine trying to remember All the perks and build possibilities without some digital planning aid to help balance them. Even when I was modding I had lists and ideas written down in advance.

 

Sometimes that planning work takes longer than the actual work itself!

 

Oh yeah I always do paper design first, then we discuss and poke holes in it, refine it the best we can, then we start writing tasks and iterate if needed, then balance.

[Adam the Waster]

Because you need about 2 to 4 wheels at most in any given play through. After that its like damn, what am I going to do with this stupid wheel?

 

make a wall of wheels and burn them lol

 

 

or role them at zombies

[ZombieSurvivor]

make a wall of wheels and burn them lol

 

 

or role them at zombies

 

Someone has been watching to much "Black Hawk Down".

[Adam the Waster]

Someone has been watching to much "Black Hawk Down".

 

never saw it lol

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

make a wall of wheels and burn them lol

 

 

or role them at zombies

 

or make a semi Truck or a Bus

[falloutcloud]

They can't see you through the trees. They can hear you though. Whatever turned them into zombies made their hands much tougher than normal, gave some of them super-human abilities, and made their hearing a lot more sensitive than normal.

 

They've been eating those bath salts

[Adam the Waster]

They've been eating those bath salts

 

that explains the fearls

 

radioactive Bath salts with a mix of coke and meth

[Jarod_Silverstar]

You might want to proof read Clair's intro, just saying.

 

Not my site so not much I can do about it. Seems like it has not been updated in a while anyway. Probably lucky it is still online all things considered.

[madmole]

@Fataal: PLEASE tell me that the vehicle run/speed toggle was finally fixed. (It worked in a16 I think.)

 

If not, use a controller, set to night, and try to outrun vultures and zombies at night on a bicycle for 10 minutes.

 

The thumb cramps are REAL, and hearing your controller stick grinding isn't a sound I like to hear.

 

Hell, I'd be happy to wait for a18 longer if it was added to mf bugs, because its not something we can fix with a mod, and as it is it sucks the joy out of driving vehicles.

 

We've never supported a run toggle afaik.

[madmole]

@MadMole: That spinning ai thing is what finally killed that alpha for me. We used to be terrified to be out at night, but when they all stopped chasing you to run in circles, nights became a joke.

 

I know a18 has wandering night zombies nerfed (you said going out at night was no longer a big deal) The looting desire will be strong, and I really hope the a19 event spawns with running night zombies put that night fear back in.

 

We can't see so far that we need big numbers, but there is a primal night fear 7 days needs to take advantage of.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

OK, I LOL'd

I am thinking of adding a bit tougher guys spawning at night to bring back that fear.

 

PS:

I'm really not that hairy of a guy, but shoulders and back started spawning hair in my 40's for no apparent reason and that b & w pick makes it look worse than it really is.