Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Broneigh]

So, I can craft augers now (got through skill, not schematic) How how do I make higher tier versions? what do I have to put points into?

[Freshmint]

I've read the opposite a 1000 times, can you be more specific?

 

I wrote this in another thread in the general discussion:

 

I much prefer the new animations. I can clearly see The Pimps new animator working his magic and its exactly the path they needed to take outside their original coding methods. But there was a good merit to some of the older ones that worked well and have seemed to be removed.

 

Variable speed animations were introduced to A17 largely relating to mods considering it was a major addition at the time. As a side extra, melee weapons had a slow down effect added when they hit a target which would simulate a hit even though the animation itself would still complete its full cycle(I believe it was a band-aid effect considering the resources they had to use). The new animations themselves are much better other than how they end their arc.

 

Most of the animations now have pre determined ending points and no occlusion in hitting a target(the sledge and the baseball bat is a good example if this). If there was a semi-full arc swing through that would overshoot yet stop when they hit a target would seem more realistic and satisfying. Power swings could be more full batting style that would slowdown through multiple targets and would be more relevant rather than just a damage increase. The more targets you hit the more stamina it reduces and even could be perked to swing through multiple zombies at once(given the right weapon). In general the hit detection being understood(for me anyway) is probably the main concern and considering you can now glance blow makes it a little odder.

 

A18's stone axe hitting random spots on each attack is a nice touch and all the new reload animations, bandage animations, and countless others are right on point. I cant stress enough how these are finally starting to look more complete with the current dev crew after seeing on multiple occasions through many alphas how its been changed, and changed again.

[Wulf]

There used to be away to force shader models. I haven't done it in a long time. On Nvidia, I think you could use Nvidia Inspector to force the driver to report a lower shader model to the API. Could goof around with that. Unity also has this in the way of DX feature levels..but you have to do it differently now than before due to the launcher changes. The game will automatically supply the force DX11 max feature level command at startup even if you put in your own command on the steam client or launcher. You can either try to use the boot config file in the data directory to possibly override it or make your own shortcut and add the command lines there. I'm not able to goof with that right now to even know if it works. Game uses shader model 5.0, iirc, so you could try to force shader model 4.x - which I believe works with most DX11 shaders and it might have a faster pathway on certain cards or something. Long time since I really did any of that stuff though.

 

I hadn't thought of that yet. Right now i don't see a way of forcing it on my AMD card. However, there's probably an external tool can adjust this.

[wolffblood]

what're people's thoughts on the new xp changes? I can see them being good for solo players (since you have to do everything), but my friend and I are seeing major differences now with a18. I enjoy hunting/looter and my friend builder/gatherer. I agree that my "profession" had way too much xp gains prior a18, but now, he is easily out-leveling me. It doesn't take long to chop some trees, make wooden frames, and upgrade those to make rooms, like 10mins for about 100 at his rate with a stone axe. That xp rate is crazy high, can only imagine later. But for me to loot a house now, there are either minimal zombies or so many you can't really kill them safely (due to my earlier issue on melee and the fact it takes so many arrows to kill anything now). With the half xp for zombies and the 2-3x longer it takes to kill them, the rate is so slowed. I feel like I'm going to be forced to spam building frames and upgrading those just to keep up with perks to stay viable. Granted, we just have played a few hours, maybe it changes a bit later on? But whereas I used to be able to get 2-3 lvls a day from killing zombies and him about 1-2 lvls a day from building, he is now more 2 lvls/day compared to me struggling to even get 1 lvl/day now. Anyone else seeming to have this issue? Maybe it's just me, but even my friend noticed that and he even said he's never been even 1 lvl ahead of me, let alone almost double my lvl when he doesn't kill anything ever.

[Callum123456789]

I got a sweet setup so far its day 8 im lvl 22 and have a steady supply of 7.62 mm ammo crafting (;

[Broneigh]

I can see your concern with you also need to consider this. Once he built something he doesn't need to build again (unless destroyed) so eventually he'll build all that NEEDS to be built, and either will do other things or start building for the sake of exp. it's all a scaling balance, he gets a boost but it will plateau, yours is (harder) but will get easier and faster later.

[toaster]

All of you at the Fun Pimps should be very proud of this update to the game got that feeling of glee with Alpha 18 like I had the first time I played this game in Alpha 10 . Thanks

[madmole]

@madmole

 

My feedback on the Alpha 18 exp. after approx. 5-6 hours playing time:

 

- The beginning of the game is a lot of fun again - you get ahead, can mess with a few zombies and manage to collect a sufficient amount of resources. The feeling of having to improve your equipment is permanent, but not so strong that you feel completely useless.

 

- The close combat is fantastic - you get a good feeling when you've killed a few zombies. Only the hitbox when using the knife is already very small - here it can get frustrating if you don't hit anything even when trying the 3rd or 4th time. But the suddenly running zombies? The absolute madness! I can't even count how many "Oh ♥♥♥♥, ♥♥♥♥, ♥♥♥♥ I have to go" moments I already had. One of the best innovations!

 

- Finally, the inner conflict is back again, whether you go for looting or prefer to collect resources. Looting is a lot of fun and the amount of loot is well balanced. Especially the joy to find a bookshelf is awesome.

 

- I can't complain about the performance. I would have hoped for an increase of the FPS, but the very annoying micro-stuttering is finally gone. On average I get about 70-100 FPS at high to ultra settings. (i7 6700k @4,2Ghz - 16GB RAM - 2070 Super - 1440p 144hz monitor - game is installed on an SSD) My colleague runs it in FullHD with about 60-70FPS at medium to high settings. (i7 720 @2,6Ghz - 12GB RAM - 1070 GTX - SSD)

 

Which I don't like so much:

- The animals generally have a lot of HP. I used 5 arrows and about 7 hits with the spear to kill a wild boar. A Lama (?) needed 2 arrows in the head and 3 in the body to die.

 

- I would like to start with an extended tutorial (can be turned off in the menu). A friend has tested the game after 2 years break again and didn't get along at all. "Where's the construction menu?" "How do I make forged iron?" "How do I change my type of ammunition?"

In the end it's all very banal things for us regular players, but when I look at the Steam ratings there are some who hang up the game after a few hours. I could well imagine that this is partly because the players don't really get into the game. Of course you can't explain the whole game, that would also reduce the fun of discovering. However, I think that a tutorial up to the Forge would make it much easier for beginners to understand the basic mechanics. Also a small guide for modding the weapons etc. would be nice.

 

To summarize: Since Alpha 15 I haven't had as much fun with 7DTD as in the first few hours with Alpha 18. Thanks for the great work and the hundreds of hours of fun to come. For me it's like I'm directly involved in the development of a skyrim or fall out. An outstanding game just needs its time in development and that completely without lootboxes, in-game purchases or similar new-fangled nonsense. Polish the game, remove the nasty bugs (which I'm fortunate to be spared) and you've got one of the best, if not the best version of 7DTD I've ever played.

Now I'll keep playing and watch the first Horde Nights. After that I'll be happy to give you an updated feedback. Until then: Keep it up TFP!

 

A request at the end: Please allow us to connect generators in series :-)

 

Thank you. Its been my goal to make 7 days great again and I knew we did, but reading it affirms it so I thank you for taking the time to post, and everyone else.

[madmole]

Even at 100% I wasn't able to find antibiotics (day 4 dusk now). And tree stumps with honey I found only 6, even on my hunting run. That slows infection a bit, but isn't enough to cure because I'm nearing 45%

But on the other hand I found 5 books of the same series (Nightstalker) including the 'no encumbrance at night'

 

I tend to avoid melee combat unless I have at least one honey on hand, so I can nip it in the bud. I'm on day 9 and already have 6 honey, at least 4 or 8 herbals and 4 antibiotics. I do tier 1 and 2 dig quests though and those seem to dole out meds as a reward, and I loot a lot.

[rdunham3]

Observations from last night:

 

Tried killing two boars using primitive bow and spear. First one took over a dozen spear stabs after the initial arrow and kept coming, and coming...eventually killed me despite all the face-stabs. Second boar took almost a dozen spear stabs all to the face before being decapitated by the spear. I don't think this is working as intended.

 

Dysentery and food poisoning happening to me at a ridiculously frequent rate. Maybe 10% and 30% respectively over 3 hours of game play. Doesn't feel like charred meat should have that high a chance. Stats on the item don't say it. RNG is RNG but this is silly. Gone through a couple weeks' worth of food as a result. The little piles of food in kitchens are all that's keeping me going.

 

Frame rate didn't change much but the nasty lag upon turning was less noticeable last night compared to Monday. I did update Geforce driver before playing yesterday but not sure if that's it or that we started up a game on prefab01 rather than continue Monday's. Not helpful, I know.

 

The 3 or 4 groups of 3 or 4 zombies during the night is much nicer than a17's very large wandering horde. Seems slightly easier to not aggro them if you stop doing anything the moment you first hear their wandering movement sounds.

 

Prefab01's desert hills with plateaus and gullies was freakin' awesome to see. Perfectly nailed that terrain. Kudos.

 

Buried treasure too predictable in location. As others have noted it's nearly always within a block or two of the center of the area, pays very well and was our main source of food Monday. Will work for food, heh. It is a nice alternative to the clear-a-POI quest types.

[Blake_]

I've read the opposite a 1000 times, can you be more specific?

 

Melee is better BUT. I personally think that several animations should be more wide across and less perpendicular to the player.

 

A wide blow across the screen is always more fulfilling that a mere bat getting smaller until it hits.

 

Just IMO. Gotta make things exaggerated because we are playing first person.

 

That said, if it works, I say leave it as it is. These are just details.

[madmole]

What is that block you use to craft wood furniture now? The wood helper block? Furniture something? I've typed everything I can think of into my crafting menu and I cannot find it...

 

furniture should be a valid keyword.

[madmole]

Odd; it's not showing up. Do you need to craft it in the workbench or tablesaw or something?

 

Found it in the CM menu. Wooden Furniture. Not showing up in the default crafting menu. Huh.

 

EDIT: Found it in the default crafting menu. Odd that the icon for it is a park bench. *Shrugs*

 

The icon is whatever you used last. Default might start as a park bench. Mine is a storage box currently.

[DaVegaNL]

Ha, enjoy the short ones while you can.

 

Snowdog! Wanna have this one?

[madmole]

Just ordered two msi rtx 2060 z cards for $800.

 

7 Days to die a18 costs a LOT!

 

We have some optimizations coming soon, but you can't go wrong buying better video cards if you are into gaming, they will serve you well.

[Mechanimal]

From the release notes: "Faulty and poor quality items have one mod slot, fair and good quality items have two mod slots, great quality items have three mod slots, and fine quality items have four mod slots."

 

OH, thank you. I totally missed that detail from the release notes. I just got even more confused with a level 4 piece of armor with only 2 slots. But now I get it. Learnt.

[Syrex]

k, a funny haha moment (I can say after the fact, gotta go change skivvies).. My character is in a mine, I'm following this iron vein (did i mention I love the ore/ore finding in A18, well i do) anyways... I'm waiting for cobblestone to finish making in my inventory and I have my junk turret setup to watch my back so I figured I'd alt-tab out to read recent posts. Hear a thud, immediately followed by my turret go off, then a growl.... Ok, I may need a new mouse.. I jumped in chair, mouse went flying... LOL

[wolffblood]

I can see your concern with you also need to consider this. Once he built something he doesn't need to build again (unless destroyed) so eventually he'll build all that NEEDS to be built, and either will do other things or start building for the sake of exp. it's all a scaling balance, he gets a boost but it will plateau, yours is (harder) but will get easier and faster later.

 

I guess my friend would be an extreme case cause he actually builds full blown towns. Because of this, he never feels like it will ever end (one map he had was past some 100 days and he wasn't even halfway done with the town he wanted and that's all he did). It was pretty cool. Thing is I feel like i need to build for sake of xp since game lvl seems to be increasing faster than my lvl and being able to have the perks to keep up with the zombies increasing in strength . I may just go only into spears to max out the benefits on it to be able to kill better since bows is kind of meh now (need sooooo many arrows) and I'm having issues with other forms of melee, heh. Just have to see, but it's not very cool when the killer won't be able to kill as easy as the builder, lol.

[AtomicUs5000]

I’ve noticed that hitting things with certain things doesn’t give you stuff. Like a club on grass, a spear on crops. Is there some general rule that determines what can be used? Does it have to be a tool or fists?

[Adam the Waster]

Yeah We need more mutated animals.. Look at that bear from the film Annihilation. !!! - we need things like that.

 

i was thinking more like the bear from metro but that could work too lol

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

We have some optimizations coming soon, but you can't go wrong buying better video cards if you are into gaming, they will serve you well.

 

YEAH

 

so i don't have to play on potato mode!

[madmole]

here ya go... and I am not upset, the game looks smooth and great. I come from old school when anything over 30 FPS was awesome.

 

Also, I had not changed my settings grafix wise. They were at Medium and I was getting 60 FPS. I went to Ultra last night and continued to get 60 FPS and OMG the game looks awesome.

 

Running:

 

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Processor

GeForce RTX 2070 - 8GB

32 GB DDR4-2666

1 TB WD Blue SSD

Resolution: 1920x1080 16:9

 

And I get a solid 60FPS never up or down... is there some setting I am missing to set max FPS?

 

Vsync limits frames to your monitor refresh rate so turn that off to get more than 60fps, but beware of ugly screen tearing. I'd leave it on, 60fps is butter.

[madmole]

Definitely worth the effort. Doing buried supplies quests gave me a beaker and a T3 baseball bat, as well as several high-end food recipes. Do those buried supplies, people!

 

I've been saying it repeatedly They are rare once you get to T5 and so beneficial early game I do them and have the rest of the game to clear zombies or fetch.

[madmole]

So something I have noticed with Random Gen. You almost never get skyscrapers but get like 30+ gun factories. Is there any way to guarantee that you at least get one of each type of large POI?

 

A19 should have better selections of POIS.

[SnowDog1942]

Snowdog! Wanna have this one?

 

What, I like short women...... and men

[Slingblade2040]

if like me you don't like the horde nights ending so early just log out and back in for a 2nd or 3rd round of horde night. but please don't complain if you burn through resources for doing this. this is mainly for getting levels faster, atleast that's how I view it.