Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Guppycur]

Not really. The fact that multiple people can take on those POIs. I’m not saying your point isn’t valid. I’m sure it is... in MP.

 

You say you’ve played SP, but you are also playing enough MP to make these observations. There hasn’t been enough time for you to make conclusions about the ammo loot in SP.

 

That would be a false assumption. =) With regards to the last patch, true, but that didn't change any of the observations I'm making.

[Dartan]

Checking the forums every 5 minutes for the update. Starting to get a lil salty.

 

Good to know I'm not the only one doing that lol

[Guppycur]

Are you fighting irradiated zombies and ferals? I wonder if you will feel the same way once you hit a higher gamestage. If you do, fair enough but I can't imagine too many people are at a high gamestage so hard to judge if ammo is too plentiful or too scarce yet I think.

 

If we've thousands of rounds and concrete before we see glowies, are glowies even going to be an issue? Sure, the first day is tough, but that can be attributed to a18 learning curve (i.e. bows/arrows are useless, and clubs hit distance is well within zombie reach distance), but you find items pretty quickly to bring you to mid-game well before you face mid-game threats. I think that's the overall point. I've zero interest in playing a threatless mid-game for real time hours and hours just to get to late game to even find out the answer to your question, but I suspect the answer is "I'll feel the same way".

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Bottom line are that all of these are balance issues and of course due to the streamlining to cater to newbies. A18 is a solid, solid alpha in terms of performance (for me, sorry guys!), quality (looks and sounds great) and mod-ability (for the most part, but I know it's going to come full circle). It's 10x better than a17 and is what a17 should have been.

[MajorMunchy]

1 above default, so 3. Yeh I really really suck at meleeing multiple running zeds so I usually end up on a roof somewhere. =) Loving the book drops, but they seem to be plentiful too... there's a lot of points I don't need to spend sitting on shelves, which I agree with to an extent, but not this much.

 

Agreed, i love the book abundance, but holy they are not rare drops. the only rarity is the fact tat i keep getting dups of them and not the ones i need XD

[Wulf]

That has been my experience as well. It was like that in A17 for me too, and I QUICKLY burned out on it because of it. This particular part of the game is even worse than A17 was, imo. There's just so much loot without any risk. The game is virtually over in just a few game-days. There is almost always a net-gain in ammo after shooting and looting your way through a POI. No sense in stealth..it takes more time..and it's not necessary when you can just blast through it quickly. The towns are empty, so there's little threat at all in the town - you can strip all the cars, loot everything laying around town in a couple game days and maybe encounter a dozen zombies over the course of those two days. There's very little risk, but an overabundance of reward. There's so much ammo now that the game is essentially a zombie shooter more than anything else. There's much less things you need to actually craft and the things you actually need once you're established - are junk items like glue, brass, etc which you can just get in abundance outside in any trash pile.

 

For me anyway, Food poisoning is just a non-issue due to all the magic vending machines. Just sell all the loot, and buy the clean food. Hunting, Farming, etc is really just a role-play thing - you don't NEED to do any of those things.

 

This!

[MajorMunchy]

If we've thousands of rounds and concrete before we see glowies, are glowies even going to be an issue? Sure, the first day is tough, but that can be attributed to a18 learning curve (i.e. bows/arrows are useless, and clubs hit distance is well within zombie reach distance), but you find items pretty quickly to bring you to mid-game well before you face mid-game threats. I think that's the overall point. I've zero interest in playing a threatless mid-game for real time hours and hours just to get to late game to even find out the answer to your question, but I suspect the answer is "I'll feel the same way".

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Bottom line are that all of these are balance issues and of course due to the streamlining to cater to newbies. A18 is a solid, solid alpha in terms of performance (for me, sorry guys!), quality (looks and sounds great) and mod-ability (for the most part, but I know it's going to come full circle). It's 10x better than a17 and is what a17 should have been.

 

fav mod = 50% more in tank for auger/chainsaw. got a lvl 1 chain saw with a 345 tank day 3 and shop had that mod for 350.

 

Best.Investment.Ever

[madmole]

Okay, so are we finally past the "wow and wonderment look at a18 and how pretty it is" stage to talk about some glaring issues?

 

...it's boring.

 

Sorry MM, I know you think you're great at this game, but the fact remains that as long as you dumb down the game to meet your skill level because you think xyz is too hard, you're ostracizing the rest of us.

 

Threats are few and far between, going into poi's is even a yawn fest, blood moons end at midnight and there is no depth.

 

Yes it's prettier, the sun is brighter, the sky is darker, the weapons are shinier, blah blah blah, but the game itself, although MUCH more polished than previous versions (lots of placeholders replaced), it ends at about day 28.

 

I predict:

 

I will be shut down quickly because I'm probably posting this prematurely, and all of the people who eagerly awaited a18 will still be fawning over it, but in a month or so others will share my sentiment

 

Lets see what you think at level 80. Turn up the difficulty if you think its too easy. "The rest of us". I'm so sick of single guys trying to add weight to their post using we or us. So you are 10-20% through the journey IMO and making rash decisions. This is a 100-200 hour game now not 28 hours. You have barely scratched the surface.

[Infected226]

Seeing legendary zombie bosses in the f6 spawner, are these in the game yet and finished? Haven't spawned one in my game cause i did not want a behemoth with no hit box running around the server again lol but gonna make a new game and do some testing but figured i would ask first.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Release the update kraken!

[Aldranon]

No, I played SP as well. Same results, sorry.

 

So the Fortitude build is easy mode as you had implied before A18 dropped.

 

 

Edit: More balance needed?

[Mechanimal]

I'm playing on pregen01.

 

Me too, and I love it so far. Does not feel like an RWG. I usually stick to Nav because it always felt so much better than RWG ever did, mainly due to geographic features like the mountians, canyons, etc... until this alpha. These pregens, and RWG in general, are distinctly improved in the right ways, mainly the landscaping. Doesn't feel generic like it used to, I am really digging it.

 

Took over that A-Frame by Trader Jens in the forest, is a great location, and is making for a really fun POI base-flip. Built my BM tower nearby in field between it and the trader, connected via tunnel. Overall it's working out great so far. The thing I like most about RWG is how you can find certain POIs in the forest biome this way, where-as many of the ones I liked were in other biomes. So I'm super glad you guys have upped the RWG quality now, really ups the overall replay value.

[MajorMunchy]

Dude Guppy, you need to move on to a new game then, don't you feel like your wasting time/essence into raging about a game? Sure you can fanboy post and have rage posts, but to "Us". "We" feel that "We" want youto move on.

 

"The community" as spoken for "us"

 

At this point, seems like your just trolling or need a new hobby...

[AtomicUs5000]

...

 

Thanks. I appreciate the time you took for all this information, but that information is useless for me as I have played this game solo for enough years.

What about the information I was looking for?

I am hoping to see settings (number of hordes, number alive, day length, difficulty, loot chance), day #, gamestage, and how much ammo you have in storage at the moment.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

That would be a false assumption. =) With regards to the last patch, true, but that didn't change any of the observations I'm making.

 

That's not the point I'm making. The point I am making is that with the amount of time you have been spending in MP this alpha, it is not humanly possible to put enough time in SP to be able to draw a valid conclusion that there is too much ammo loot.

[Blake_]

Lets see what you think at level 80. Turn up the difficulty if you think its too easy. "The rest of us". I'm so sick of single guys trying to add weight to their post using we or us. So you are 10-20% through the journey IMO and making rash decisions. This is a 100-200 hour game now not 28 hours. You have barely scratched the surface.

I can kill a horde with shiv. And I find a18 to be perfect (playing always warrior level). It is rewarding and fun and not easy. This game was a polarizing bunch of clunky systems mixed with some good mechanics. Now It's the opposite. I feel I can play it past day 28. That's huge. If you can make this game function perfectly without bandit/campaign content, steam library will have only 1 game for me when those are in.

[DarlingCows]

One of the perk book allows me to craft AP arrows but I cannot find any AP arrow or armor piercing arrows in the craft menu. Is it a bug or is the book wrong or am I missing something?

[Gazz]

The default difficulty was lowered by one - so zombies die a bit faster than they normally have. Which also reduces overall ammo expenditure. For testing exp, all I did was bump it up one notch above the default - which is the old default. And, it could be said - well just keep raising the difficulty until you start struggling with ammo - but that's not fun - that's tedious..the only reason you would struggle with ammo is just because you're standing there shooting the same zombie in the head over and over when the difficulty is maxed.

Everything was actually balanced for "Nomad" difficulty.

 

Changing the label on the difficulty selection was done pretty close before release. =P

(it really changes nothing and if players feel better about playing above-default difficulty, win-win!)

[MechanicalLens]

Lets see what you think at level 80. Turn up the difficulty if you think its too easy. "The rest of us". I'm so sick of single guys trying to add weight to their post using we or us. So you are 10-20% through the journey IMO and making rash decisions. This is a 100-200 hour game now not 28 hours. You have barely scratched the surface.

 

Well said! It's just like back in A16, to a degree; the first several hordes were somewhat underwhelming to say the least, but post day 49+, the switch was flipped. If you didn't have a suitable base, a boatload of ammo, traps... You were ef'ed. I am normally quite passive, but to anyone who is saying that A18 is "lackluster" thus far, I would love to see the looks on their faces when A18's switch is flipped, so to speak. (That is, if they keep playing. I hope they do; it's a fantastic game. )

[Lonestarcanuck]

has the zombie swing/hit radius been increase? I seem to get hit more now when I am the same 2-ish blocks out.

[Cernwn]

...we're trying to run a business here.

 

 

Amen brother! GG on A18e to all the devs. Awaiting with bated breath the next experimental release, hopefully with fix(es) for the fps issue. Until then, running the game in a 720p window.

 

I know we have a Delete on Death option for gear now, but any chance we will see a true Dead is Dead option in the near future (where it also deletes the character profile/save, and resets any cell with LCB placed)?

[wolfbain5]

Dude Guppy, you need to move on to a new game then, don't you feel like your wasting time/essence into raging about a game? Sure you can fanboy post and have rage posts, but to "Us". "We" feel that "We" want youto move on.

 

"The community" as spoken for "us"

 

At this point, seems like your just trolling or need a new hobby...

 

pot, kettle?

[Slingblade2040]

ah so the easy experience and dukes from looting up those farm plots will be gone next update huh?

 

will we need to do a restart or will it be ok to continue our saves?

[rubens9311]

Madmole, eres el genio de los genios!!

 

Amo éste juego. Me molesta la gente que no entiende el desarollo del mismo pero sobre eso no podemos hacer nada. Van 1024 horas steam para mي y todavلi no empece en alpha 18.. Si miro todos los dيas videos sobre nuevas IA, poi's y demلs. Gracias por crear éste espectacular juego y poner tanto contenido nuevo!!

 

Mi pc:

Motherboard: Asus TUF x470 plus gaming

Procesador: AMD Ryzen 5 2400g 3.6

Ram: 2x8 g. skill sniper X a 3200mhz

GPU: Nitro Sapphire Rx 570 8gb vram

Monitor: Samsung 24' Full HD

[Bashtiks]

Its way more fun than 17 was. I was quite upset at how 17 went, and I was a bit rude to Joel and Roland and others. !7 was a big adjustment and one I just could not sink my teeth into after years of Alphas I had loved. Im noticing the rage on zombies is a pleasant addition to difficulty. So even though there is (sadly) less zombies overall each encounter can be deadly. Mind you this is early game. I've had 2 plays so far. My first was to day 14 and we had one horde night. It was a day 7. My wife died early on (around 2350) and respawned in our basement. Unfortunately she did not get back outside fast enough and i killed the last zombie before they could sense her.

 

For some reason our horde night ended right there. It was majorly disappointing. As was our second. I may need to crank difficulty though. Of course, I am not the target 7 days player as you probably suspect because I love things much harder so I wont hold the vanilla game at fault for this.

 

My only two complaints are crafting and loot. I know MM wants to move away from things being craft dependant so i kind of expected this. But crafting is just.... not required except for MAYBE food and even then you want canned food. I miss crafting mats and tools. Now i just find them right away. Which is my other bone of contention. Loot seems (to me again not the average player mind you) a bit high. Sure you get low quality stuff but the stats can be very good and "so far" i have not had a need for mods. Again early game. The scavenging game is strong. Pois are amazing i feel. The overall tone of the alpha is spot on.

 

Overall though I am enjoying it. I will continue to enjoy vanilla for quite a bit more time before most likely doing my thing and making loot rarer etc. But I LOVE the long game. I can easily go to day 600 and still not get bored but that is 100 percent NOT what MM and TFP are targeting. So i slow down XP a bit, I lower loot a bit. But that by no means is meant to infer that this Alpha is not good. It is, Im just a VERY picky player.

 

I must say the books and schematics are my most favorite part. I find myself ALWAYS looking for them, even if just to complete them. Its a fun thing to collect and the bonuses are quite nice. Im so happy they added them in. JUST buying perks got boring in 17. This adds spice.

 

In summary, I am a Pimps Believer again. And I am also a modder. And as a modder Im extremely excited for the tools they have given us. As a player I look forward to seeing these new systems expanded and added to.

I agree with this

 

I rly enjoyed Raven 4.3 it was a wonderfull experiance, all the crafting recepies, weapons, quests, loot, nightterrors, rad zones for endgame etc etc., it was rly a blast ^^ of corse I did rise some xp multipliers and changed some crafting recepies (cause some where a bit too overkill ) ... but overall it all was amaizing. Was hoping that a17 will look something like that.

 

As for the current situation on food .. well maybe add some temporarily buffs or perks for crafted foods and drinks so they get some more value ... or add traps for animals that need baits ..

 

At some point I like old ''Wellness system'' better .. if you die alot you loose wellness and will be forced to play with lower hp what decreases ur surviablity but you dont get any penalty for doing so .. on the other side ppl who where playing carefully and rised their wellness didnt get any noticabe bonuses for it .. In my opinion nice solution would been adding boonuses for each wellness lvl reached like: 110-130=% stamina recovery per/s, 130-150= bonus health regeneration etc etc

 

Also seperate gun parts, quality system from 0-600 & item wear system was kinda cool in my opinion - made looting more fun, each gun or tool you found even few points higher felt more rewarding, recrafting tools was necessary cause they lost they durability .. ah and gore blocks .. the view after horde night and every corpse looting was like a opening a christmas present xD

 

Ah well past is a past ..

 

Overall I like a18, all the new prefabs, quests, zombie rage, venchiles, all new shematics GF FP ^^

[Wulf]

I do find looting to be a bit too powerful now.

 

You can get more powerful more quickly by looting a lot, rather than leveling a lot.

 

Not sure how I feel about that yet.

 

This is on Solo Permadeath, Nomad (rest default)

[MajorMunchy]

pot, kettle?

 

If it is i am a little black pot

I do apoligize for my ranting even though its random. Idk wtf i did but i get 50 fps and the game is great.

I think i just needed to switch my formula from little whiner to deal with it and play or leave

 

also if you are calling the kettle black cause i used us we etc, notice the " 's

[Guppycur]

Lets see what you think at level 80. Turn up the difficulty if you think its too easy. "The rest of us". I'm so sick of single guys trying to add weight to their post using we or us. So you are 10-20% through the journey IMO and making rash decisions. This is a 100-200 hour game now not 28 hours. You have barely scratched the surface.

 

Dunno if I can sit through level (whatever I am now) to get to level 80 to see if there's any additional challenge. Hell by then I'll have even more chests of concrete and ammo.

 

..and you're a single guy who uses the same system of "us" to determine what players want...

 

Yeh yeh e3 booth, but you were as equally enthusiastic about a17 as you are 18, so I'll just wait until the shininess wears off and others of the "us" start saying the same thing.