Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[faatal]

this build must be pretty bug free considering there is only 5 posts in the A18 exp bug thread

 

release the KRAKEN

 

giggle giggle

 

Probably because streamers are not going to make bug reports. They see a bug and talk about it. People in their chat talk about it. That is all 99% of them are doing.

[dhlmaster]

Terrain textures did increase to 2K from 1K for A18. so more RAMs will be consumed.

 

And they look so much better!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Texture streaming is interfering with video overlays and memory for streamers. Two of them mentioned they turned it off for that reason.

 

Not your guys fault, they are doing too many processes at once, imho.

 

Having a 2nd rig with a good capture card helps a lot if they're serious about streaming.

[Laz Man]

Probably because streamers are not going to make bug reports. They see a bug and talk about it. People in their chat talk about it. That is all 99% of them are doing.

 

You hit the nail on the head here. I doubt they even have the time to post bugs with the limited time of the event. Viewers wont post bug reports because they dont have the A18 to reproduce the bugs. 😅

[Mechanimal]

A issue with low FPS the testers were able to reproduce last night, is people turning off texture streaming (why???) and after a while texture memory gets tight and bad things happen. Changing texture quality, then causes it to happen much sooner than just playing. At this point the game needs texture streaming. Turning it off was really for debugging, so I plan on removing that option tonight and making it a gfx console command, so it could still be turned off for debugging.

 

Hmm, I mean, maybe explain what happens with some mouseover text in settings the menu instead of removing it? Having it on/default in A17 caused too many textures to revert to low quality, but turning it off made everything look great. Made a huge difference for me. I found it worthwhile, but I have a dual quadcore with 32G of RAM and a Titan card, so maybe I can get away with it better than most. Just some feedback, do what you will, I'll just need to figure out how to enter the command, if I even need to. Should find out tomorrow, so pumped:)

[Grandpa Minion]

Probably because streamers are not going to make bug reports. They see a bug and talk about it. People in their chat talk about it. That is all 99% of them are doing.

 

@faatal do you know if the lcb dead bug has been fixed a18? In a17 if a lcb expires/decayd it well still have protection and sound when another player hits the expired lcb covered area.

[faatal]

he did d14 BM horde with even "better" results.

3 zombies and 2 dogs managed to get close, EVERY other zombie was stuck in an AI loop like ducks in target practice...

we only saw a zombie try to attack a block once in the entire horde.

 

 

I really hope u are right, and that i`m just overreacting. curious to see what d21 BM will bring to the mix.

(cheering for the zombies to have at least a fighting chance)

 

I saw several AI doing destroy area as they are supposed to. His game stage must be low, because that was a weak BM that didn't even last through the night. He also used a combination of good tactics to confuse the AI. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. Will we keep improving the AI? Yep.

[Gareee]

. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. We will keep improving the AI? Yep.

 

Hehee...

[faatal]

Madmole is working today, he is in the Bearded Guys stream right now.

 

 

And earlier this week he said maybe for release today to us pubs, if all goes well.

 

It is why I am asking.

 

Chris

 

Many of us are doing some work today. We have a variety of ugly bugs to fix. Hopefully they all get resolved by tomorrow.

[Sam_Neill]

I saw several AI doing destroy area as they are supposed to. His game stage must be low, because that was a weak BM that didn't even last through the night. He also used a combination of good tactics to confuse the AI. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. We will keep improving the AI? Yep.

 

I thought the AI would switch do demolition after not getting to the player on the same path again and again?

And yes, his gamestage was low, 24 i believe and he had no demolishers or even vomiting vultures, next hordes the basic setup will not work anymore.

 

PS:Maybe hide the more advanced half blocks and the other blocks which try to avoid real battle behind some perk ^^

At later gamestage they will not really help anymore

[Blake_]

I saw several AI doing destroy area as they are supposed to. His game stage must be low, because that was a weak BM that didn't even last through the night. He also used a combination of good tactics to confuse the AI. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. Will we keep improving the AI? Yep.

 

 

Make'em build ladders and use weapons! lol.

[Mechanimal]

I saw several AI doing destroy area as they are supposed to. His game stage must be low, because that was a weak BM that didn't even last through the night. He also used a combination of good tactics to confuse the AI. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. We will keep improving the AI? Yep.

 

It was great seeing you, Gazz, Roland, and Joel showing up in a number of streams over the weekend. I've been gaming for decades and have never encountered such genuinely dedicated and interactive devs before, it's a rare treat, and the game is most certainly getting more and more polished as a result. Especially here in the forums, I have never ever followed a game forum to this extent, like literally a daily activity for months on end, you guys make it so worthwhile.

 

Also appreciate the way you handle whiners and impatient peeps who think their owed the world from spending $20 on a game, sheesh. Reminds me of a coffeehouse I used to work at in college where we'd tell entitled uppity people to just gtfo and go somewhere else instead of apologize and placate them. We were even encouraged to do so by the management and owners, it helped a ton to nurture a much better customer base. The place was known for it's golden crowd of regulars and overall vibe. So keep it blunt and stay classy my friends.

[Gazz]

Rare browns might be better than crappy blues.

A perfect QL1 has the same damage as the worst QL4 weapon.

 

I can only recommend paying attention to stats. =P

[Syrex]

@Madmole: how is gamestage configured?

 

I understand leveling is slower in A18 but trying to figure out if I'm shooting the group in the foot jacking the xp down to 25%. Thought process, generally speaking,: If vanilla XP settings (100%), 1 kill = 1 gamestage point, does 1 kill at 25% = 1 gamestage point as well or would it be 4 kills = 1 gamestage point?

 

I'm pretty sure gamestage is a combination of level plus consecutive days alive multiplied by difficulty modifier

 

i get that there is multiple things that increases the gamestage, i'm primarily asking about xp and kills that factors into the mix. We want to continue to lessen the leveling experience (hence our compromised 25% xp rather than vanillas 100%). But want to know if we're shooting ourselves in the foot in the long-run lessening the XP gain.

 

I know that if you jack the XP up to 200% you definitely are shooting yourself in the foot (less resources obtained for the increased level you achieve), I want to know if there is a reverse effect that i cant foresee that would harm us going the 25% route.

 

If 200% = less resources in amount of time it takes to achieve high level, logic would dictate that 25% = more resources but less leveling (including gamestage)...... right?

[faatal]

Hi faatal, is it possible to have the sledge do a horizontal swing with a follow through as the power attack? Or would that be overpowered because of the new glancing blow system? This would make it an interesting option for horde nights.

 

Every streamer I've watched has made similar comments about the sledge power swing.

 

Robert did the glancing blows. Sure it is possible, but it might not play any better.

[faatal]

Because generally ram is faster than disk. and disk io eventually = the go slows.

 

Maybe time to up the recommended VRAM from 2GB to something higher.

 

Yes.

 

No, we need to support all our players. Texture use needs to be handled better.

[sinkler]

I saw several AI doing destroy area as they are supposed to. His game stage must be low, because that was a weak BM that didn't even last through the night. He also used a combination of good tactics to confuse the AI. Yesterday I found an even better stair exploit than what is normally used by people. Will we keep improving the AI? Yep.

 

ha ha yah , thats what MM said as well.

 

there will always be some exploits with weird edge cases, i get that.

and i guess at some point one can argue if its a "smart" tactic or a cheese.

if the first 2-3 hordes can be demolished with minimal investment and no traps just by cheesing, idc tbh.

ill consider it same as "nerdpoling" early game. some will do it and some wont.

 

but if these can be extrapolated to an end-game cheese, im sure u`ll agree it needs addressing.

 

Edit: time will tell , in few days we will know how far u can get away with it.

[Mechanimal]

Yes.

 

No, we need to support all our players. Texture use needs to be handled better.

 

Ohhh... is there maybe a way we could up the RAM ourselves, but leave it at 2GB default for the masses? I had to up the RAM for Minecraft from 2GB to 8GB for some of the modpacks I installed, it made a huge difference, barely if at all ran otherwise. Again just a suggestion, I know texture streaming offers benefits, especially on lower spec machines, but for those who have monster rigs we'd sure love to make good use of them, if/when we can.

[dan]

This is the first alpha release that I didn't mind waiting a little while to get. I was sitting in a bar when a guy pulled a knife and stabbed it through my left hand, after beating him and 3 of his friends senseless I had to go to the hospital and get it stitched up. It was unusable for a while, but it's okay now so I will be ready to play tomorrow.

 

At least that's the story I'm gonna tell people when they see the scar, not the truth that I fell face first while walking across my bedroom floor while holding a plate, the plate broke and sliced my hand up.

 

I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm ready for some Z smashing.

[Syrex]

A issue with low FPS the testers were able to reproduce last night, is people turning off texture streaming (why???)........

 

I was turning it off in A17 because with it on the textures were poor (dirt, rocks to be more precise were fuzzy and garbled looking, but there was other noticeable oopses), soon as i turned it off they were more crisp

[CannedSmeef]

Many of us are doing some work today. We have a variety of ugly bugs to fix. Hopefully they all get resolved by tomorrow.

 

This kind of implies that the public release would get delayed if the game was just that bug ridden, but honestly I think it's kind of too late for more delays. Once the streamer event actually starts people are going to expect their alpha the following monday, and I really don't think it would be a good idea to delay like that, especially when this alpha has been delayed for months on end (it was originally promised to arrive in the spring earlier this year). I think it would be damaging to the TFP reputation if a last minute delay occurred at this point, the hype train is just too big to stop now.

 

Also people who don't like the idea of streamers getting it early would be especially upset, because by that point the defense of it only being a few days of wait and it being a bug testing thing would fall through. Delaying would pop the hype balloon that's been building over the last few days and word would spread fast that the streamers got to play well before anybody else. I think it's now or never at this point, there would be too much outrage.

[faatal]

Texture streaming is interfering with video overlays and memory for streamers. Two of them mentioned they turned it off for that reason.

 

Not your guys fault, they are doing too many processes at once, imho.

 

Which is why it would still be a console command, but the average player should not just turn it off.

 

This is another reason I want to get A19 onto Unity 2019.3 (when it is out of beta), to get fixes and improvements to their more recent features like the texture streaming, Vulkan support, garbage collection, etc.

[faatal]

@faatal do you know if the lcb dead bug has been fixed a18? In a17 if a lcb expires/decayd it well still have protection and sound when another player hits the expired lcb covered area.

 

Don't know. If it was, it should be in the release notes. Only thing I remember doing with it was making vehicles work with it correctly.

[faatal]

I thought the AI would switch do demolition after not getting to the player on the same path again and again?

And yes, his gamestage was low, 24 i believe and he had no demolishers or even vomiting vultures, next hordes the basic setup will not work anymore.

 

It is based on a few different conditions and is somewhat random. When I get to it, it will have more conditions.

[Syrex]

This kind of implies that the public release would get delayed if the game was just that bug ridden, but honestly I think it's kind of too late for more delays. Once the streamer event actually starts people are going to expect their alpha the following monday.......... I think it's now or never at this point, there would be too much outrage.

 

Depends on the bugs, if they're game breaking or exploitive in nature, than i think people would rather have them sorted out than to release a bugged version that they'll have to wipe anyways.. Anything that would cause people to wipe and start over would eventually make the masses more angry than a short delay. We've waited this long whats another "x"-day to that. There are some people that are deciding to wait for some iterations of A18 to drop before they start.. So the spectrum of what people want ranges from black to white and all the greyness intbetween

[faatal]

Ohhh... is there maybe a way we could up the RAM ourselves, but leave it at 2GB default for the masses? I had to up the RAM for Minecraft from 2GB to 8GB for some of the modpacks I installed, it made a huge difference, barely if at all ran otherwise. Again just a suggestion, I know texture streaming offers benefits, especially on lower spec machines, but for those who have monster rigs we'd sure love to make good use of them, if/when we can.

 

We don't have our own max RAM setting to change. Just texture quality, which reduces their size. Unity and the drivers do what they do. We have fairly basic control over Unity's texture streaming. We can tell it the memory budget, but we already have it maxed at 4GB.