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Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!


madmole

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!  

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  1. 1. Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

    • A18 Stable is Out!
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QUESTS:

 

CAN WE GET A QUEST THAT HAS A PLAYER DELIVER A TRADER PACKAGE TO ANOTHER TRADER?

 

This would be useful in discovering other traders, especially larger maps.

 

"Useful"? It would be absolutely trivial to find other traders. Isn't "discovery" the result of searching, not getting it presented on a silver tablet?

 

A possible solution could be that you can find hints in the world that just give a direction to a trader. So you might find a scrap of paper with "Emily, if you read this, I'm off to the trader SW of here. Meet me there". It would give no indication of distance or which trader it talks about, but finding more notes of this kind would help you in sorting the notes and triangulating the traders.

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♥♥♥♥. Did not notice that. Thanks MM.

 

 

One last thing then I promise I won't bother anymore....I found it hard to read journal entries as I was looking around for what I needed for the iron tools. Just throwing it out there it might be easier for peeps to read if everything wasn't CAPS :tickled_pink:

 

We're adding ins upper lower case for most entries.

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when I an looking at the console (F1) while logging on I always see:

 

2019-MM-DDT HH:MM:SS 193.052 INF Alt Slots does not contain female_hair_Shaggy02!

 

what the heck does that mean?

 

Sounds like a hat hair is not assigned to something. I'll try and track that down.

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Makes no sense to call it an escort mission. Making a delivery quest is simple, clean and makes sense.

 

As far as followers, I am fairly certain that the devs have directly stated this is not going to happen. This has been bandied about for a while and outright rejected because the massive pathing issues that would cause in an environment that the player can alter so completely.

 

Indeed, and that's why I mention if AI was worked on it could be called a proper escort quest and not simply another variation of a fetch quest as is in-game already. Though I do wonder, maybe instead they could somehow implement the zombie AI to an NPC and set it to be friendly. @faatal The NPC would also have to invulnerable like the current NPC trader so one doesn't automatically fail it if the zombies attack. So, what I'm thinking IF an escort quest were to somehow be implemented. It'd be like this:

 

 

1) Go to the trader for the quest.

2) Head to the quest location

3) Find the NPC that would be in some sort of safe room with no zombies around.

4) Interact with them and have them follow you out of the room and have more dialogue telling them where to go. NPC will then magically disappear to simulate that they've gone to the safety of the tracer compound.

5) Return back to the trader and turn in-quest.

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What I described was just a shorthand for the feature. If a zombie is sneaking up behind you, and you don't see it, I wasn't suggesting that you have to suddenly turn around and hit it. If it were really to be implemented, it would be "the opponent is within X range, and you are definitely targeting it."

 

Obviously it would take a lot of tweaking to figure out what "definitely targeting it" means in game. Another reason I don't really think it will ever be implemented, probably not even as a mod.

 

EDIT: And I don't like the click-LMB-and-hold idea you put forth, pretty much exactly for the reason you described. I'd rather just keep things as is.

 

Its easy to dream up ideas, a lot harder to fit them into a project and bring them to reality.

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So looking forward to a18, this has been my favorite game for years. My first experience was logging into a MP server, finding myself in a dark world with a red sky, wondering what to do. Then I died.

I respawned, wondered what happened, and died again... I went back to play civilization instead.

Tried the next day, this time starting my own mp game and everything went well.

 

Couldn't stop since then. I've met so many people in this game, around the globe some of them are good friends of mine now. Just wanted to express my sincere thanks, I love you and your magnificent beard. Erm. Work I mean.

 

There is one thing I have always dreamt about: having a sort of UV light that slows down zombies at night. That would be great for base defenses. Perhaps make them overheat easily or use some other means to make them unreliable, creating a shock moment when they cut out.

 

I love Oh Crap moments, like when zombies break through a wall and are on top of you. Love the digging for that. Testing a17 mechanics, I went through several build ideas, one of them a mazed cave where I could shoot them from above. Nearly soiled myself when the ceiling opened up and zombies poured in.

 

I'm not sure why zombies are faster at night, I'm just assuming it has to do with sunlight :) a way to slow down zombies at night in some way, unreliable or hard to maintain, like you have to refuel it every hour, so it doesn't make things to easy. In a mp game it could be a delegated task, with one player operating the thing, requiring special protection from others so he doesn't die, a small invitation to roleplay.

 

Not a fully worked out idea I know but I'd like to know what you think of the general principle

We've talked about something like that. Maybe we can do something like that down the road.
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I have been wondering about something:

 

It has been said that the goal is to NOT create death cycles. In A16 when you died the zombies in the area would de-spawn. So when you went back to your bag it was relatively clear.

 

With the new dungeon POIs (which I love) and the new AO I have experienced, more than once, some scenarios that are decidedly death cycle invoking.

 

You enter a house and fall through the floor into the basement.

Every Zombie in the place wakes up (which is understandable)

You can't get out of the basement so you die. (again, understandable)

You spawn in and go to retrieve your bag, which is in a basement of a house with all those zombies just waiting to gank you again.

 

I think this would be pretty disheartening to a new player and would feel impossible to get their bag back. It felt that way to me and I am not a new player by any means. I think if the focus is on the new player experience ( which I am totally on board with), then this should be looked at.

 

This, of course, is all just my 2 cents and has an implied IMHO. Thank you for your time and efforts,

 

Caz

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Personally I love those tough backpack recovery quests when they occur. To fix it for noobs I would say add in the option of “drop nothing” and make that default. I’m happy to switch over to “drop everything” so I can still have those situations come up in my game.

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The only issue I have with all the new 20 hour players chatter, is SO much of the game isn't even seen at 20 hours in.. electricity, higher level vehicles and the like.

 

Maybe a non repair flag could be added for found vehicles? So on day 1 you are lucky enough to hind a motorcycle or gyro that works, but when it breaks it can only be scrapped or abandoned?

 

That would give new players a great preview of whats to come, but not long enough to break progression.

 

Guppy has something similar with being able to find working vehicles, but I don't know if his can be repaired or if they just wear out and break down.

 

Rust has vehicles spawn randomly but I think that takes away the feeling of accomplishment crafting your own.

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Hey all!

 

I hate to be that guy, but I was wondering how close we are to A18. Are TFP still on track for the first half of the year or sooner? I haven’t played since A16, I wanted to give the game a whirl again but I don’t want to start and then have to restart if A18 releases soon.

 

I know release dates aren’t given anymore, but I’m just looking for the overall temperature in the room.

 

Thanks!

-Ghost

 

There is plenty of time to play an A17 game right now.

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There is so much potential to future "Quest" aspect of the game.

 

"The Bandit Boss out at (location) is causing trouble. Git out there and see that he stops breathing". (kill specific Mob at location)

 

"One of our Couriers got himself busted up pretty bad at (location). Go out there and fetch the package. Bring the Courier back too as a bonus. Put him down if he has turned".

 

"One of our Radio transmitters has stopped working. Go to (location) clear out any hostiles and place (Quest item) at Quest marker."

 

Just ideas to expand upon the current "Fetch and or Clear" we currently have.

 

Yes we are planning stuff like this.

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There are only ever about seven different missions you can do... ever. The three examples of quests you gave other than "fetch and clear" are just variations of fetch and/or clear with a different backstory. The obvious exception being the escort mission and they're problematic unless you have really good NPC AI.

 

Right idea, bad example :-)

I can think of a lot more 7 and when combined would make a lot of different variations.

 

Fetch

Exterminate

Escort

Deliver

Repair

Protect

Build

Destroy

Research

Find

Craft

Convince

Heal

Steal

Disable

Enable

Sell

Buy

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I just now had an idea for a new quest type.

 

Right now each trader spawns with all the "crafting helpers" (forge, workbench, cement mixer, chem station) but with some chance of them being destroyed.

 

So, I propose "fixer upper" quests. Let's say the trader's workbench is broken. The trader gives the player a quest to gather or loot all the items one would need in order to build the workbench, even if the player is not at a level to make one themselves.

 

The quest reward would be the fact that the workbench at the trader is functional and usable.

 

If TFP wanted to be consistent, they could have all of the "crafting helpers" be destroyed initially, and only able to be repaired using these quests.

 

I think TFP would have to implement this themselves, because I don't think it is possible to "repair" a trader's workbench through modding. But perhaps there is a way that I don't know about.

The problem is some other player on the same server would have access to the repaired workstations and not be able to do those same quests. To break them so some other guy can do the quest again doesn't make a lot of sense.

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The problem is some other player on the same server would have access to the repaired workstations and not be able to do those same quests. To break them so some other guy can do the quest again doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

Cant you just do a unique id, so the person who did the quest can use it but the person who has not cant? therefor a quest giving a "perk" of using the workstation, could do that with other things as well

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The problem is some other player on the same server would have access to the repaired workstations and not be able to do those same quests. To break them so some other guy can do the quest again doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

 

Maybe have a: "if no station broken then next quest" kind of logic. Also have that quest for mid level players so building the trader stations up doesn't become the only stations the player(s) use, but more a nice to have thing.

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