Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[SnowDog1942]

Nevermind

[Laz Man]

Yeah, I told Joel exactly this a couple of months ago, no response though.

 

I'm sure that now that they are reworking zombie skins, they will notice that.

 

Good point. I think there is merit to make them stand out in the dark amongst other zeds but do agree it is currently alittle over the top for my tastes. 😅

[SnowDog1942]

I like rough play

 

So do I, where ya from?

[Adam the Waster]

Good point. I think there is merit to make them stand out in the dark amongst other zeds but do agree it is currently alittle over the top for my tastes.

 

then you would hate my version

 

 

basically they would have the glow but there skin Shows there skeleton. much like a XRAY

 

so same looks but you can see skeleton lol

[madmole]

The issue with your new player focus, and you know this is coming from a fan of 18, is that your game is quickly becoming so simple that every other game is doing way more than you are.

 

At one point you were the leader in things like degradation, LBD, crafting, mining etc. A well rounded game experience that rewarded players for investing time.

 

Even though Im enjoying 18 I am not going to sugar coat the fact that you have competition that is up and coming, and also from already established games that are beginning or are already doing the things we USED to enjoy that you no longer do.

 

I understand the desire to lure in new players on a consistent basis, but what happens then. Youre not going to acquire new players forever. Your game is 5 years old. A major portion of the gaming community already owns your game. Unless you plan to Alpha update for the next 10 years and pick up players being born this decade i think focusing solely on new players is going to be a major mistake long term. Those little boys you are grooming into men? That process takes 20 in game hours tops. We always come back to the same old question. Then what?

 

Some of us didnt embrace your changes, we were forced to adapt to them, thats a key difference. Sure people are over LBD because they had no choice in it. Now they have no choice in Degradation on repair. Looting DOES become boring after a while. Im restarting my game so much because by day 20 its over for me, so i guess you DID accomplish your goal of making the first 20 hours action packed and exciting. But it still kind of falls apart after that. Horde night is the only reason to continue. You have taken away all my other reasons to continue on. Im not going to play JUST because I want a tier 6. I have no need for it when I can handle enemies with what i have now perked out.

 

Telling people to mod things is facetious. You are primarily against those types of discussions and I feel like its the new go to when people start discussing something they would like changed. Modders will handle it. ItIt effectively shuts down a conversation but at the same time its a sensitive topic here when used to demonstrate how popular or loved something is. It cant be both ways.

 

New players are fickle, and half of them will shelf your game after 50 hours because its what todays gamers do. Flavors of the month. You guys are better than that.

For every old player who liked x, there are 10 new ones that like y. We're growing as designers and don't like clunky systems. If someone else is following in our old footsteps, I can assure you they will come to the same conclusion as we are now 2 years from now and realize those systems are mindless clicking and offer nothing rewarding. Its all psychological. I'd rather have a game simple to learn but grows in challenge as you progress instead of just grow into a god and stomp on everything.

 

I don't know how you could be done on day 20 unless you have 5 hour days or played the broken MP where you get all purples (fixed in the next patch). I'm having a blast replaying the game again.

 

We're pretty much done with major changes as the game is what we want it to be now, so its just adding and improving content, optimizing further and adding more usability features.

[Laz Man]

Some of the quest rewards definitely need tweaking.

 

Complete Tier 6 and get 3 options

 

1. Steel Purple Sledgehammer

2. 28 shotgun shells

3. Orange Military Gloves

 

Gee wonder which one I picked...... lol

 

The orange mil gloves? Guess it depends what you already have. Not the shells though, especially since you can get that amount easily from random loot containers.

[Alpacko]

Am I the only one who hase unusual amount of crashes? like every hour or so now

 

I'll have several a day sometimes. Filed a bug report so hopefully it's being addressed. Restarting steam might help a bit.

 

and i thought its just my system overheating since it also happened in destiny2(way less, tho)

 

also filed a bug report, but the logfiles describe a path for crash logs that doesnt exist

[Adam the Waster]

The orange mil gloves? Guess it depends what you already have. Not the shells though, especially since you can get that amount easily from random loot containers.

 

every round counts!

[Laz Man]

Ah yes, MP is completely wrecked.

 

Seems like MP needs it's own default game settings based on number of player slots? Hopefully that is in the cards at some point. Maybe someone in the community can help get that started...😎👍

[Brian9824]

 

I don't know how you could be done on day 20 unless you have 5 hour days or played the broken MP where you get all purples (fixed in the next patch). I'm having a blast replaying the game again.

 

How was it broken out of curiosity? I do play primarily MP so that could definitely explain all the purple goodness

[Trankitas]

Good point. I think there is merit to make them stand out in the dark amongst other zeds but do agree it is currently alittle over the top for my tastes.

 

Agree, plus: radiation doesn't make things glow like that

[Guppycur]

For every old player who liked x, there are 10 new ones that like y. We're growing as designers and don't like clunky systems. If someone else is following in our old footsteps, I can assure you they will come to the same conclusion as we are now 2 years from now and realize those systems are mindless clicking and offer nothing rewarding. Its all psychological. I'd rather have a game simple to learn but grows in challenge as you progress instead of just grow into a god and stomp on everything.

 

I don't know how you could be done on day 20 unless you have 5 hour days or played the broken MP where you get all purples (fixed in the next patch). I'm having a blast replaying the game again.

 

We're pretty much done with major changes as the game is what we want it to be now, so its just adding and improving content, optimizing further and adding more usability features.

 

But how do you know that you wouldn't be getting 20 new ones that liked the older systems?

 

The flaw in your argument is you're assuming you're getting new customers because of the lamed systems, and not because the game has risen in popularity as a result of the old systems. I just made that argument cut both ways.

 

In short, it's much more likely that you are gaining a larger audience because of advertisement, how long the game has been around, and word-of-mouth, then because you streamlined the systems. How would a new player know you streamlined the systems, to *want* to purchase?

 

I'm not even saying you're wrong, I'm saying that you are making assumptions that are just as bad as the ones we make. :-)

[Hazitru]

I went in like Rambo and a tier 3 still took a day. Actually it only took a good chunk of the day but because we cant leave and come back I didnt have enough time to do another. Yea maybe it doesn't actually take a whole day but failing when you leave a poi makes it 1 per day.

 

I like tier 3 + plus but maybe they should be timed for example “you have 2 in game days to finish or you’ll fail” instead of a “can’t leave the area you’ll fail” like tier 1 & 2.

 

I feel like more people would like them more because tier 4 and 5 cause.

1. you to have to sacrifice important loot.

2. Waste your night time, having to stay crouched quietly in a large zombie infested poi.

 

If your on multiplayer it’s completely cool but for a solo tier 5, you are not clearing and looting that place in one game day maybe not even 2 if you play 60 min days like myself.

[Adam the Waster]

Agree, plus: radiation doesn't make things glow like that

 

i can if you believe.

 

lol

[FileMachete]

Do darts do block damage? Will save me testing time if someone can answer this for me.

 

Can't say for A18.

 

In A17, no they didn't. Dart Traps could fire through the _bottom_ of Trigger Plates and not damage them, dart would then deal damage to zeds. But darts firing into the Top or Face of a Trigger Plate are stopped; no damage to the trigger plate though.

Could have two DTs facing each other and no damage. DTs could fire through the blade area of Blade Traps and not damage the Blade Trap. Never tried firing a dart trap through the middle body of a blade trap. I'd guess that the darts would be stopped but not damage the blade trap.

Can also shoot darts through the electrified 'wire' between electric fencing posts without damage, but the posts themselves I think stopped the darts.

 

Interesting bit on the electric posts: if the electrified wire (the initial wire supplying power doesn't matter) runs directly up or down from the post then you can bump into the post and not get shocked.

[Adam the Waster]

@madmole/any fun pimp staff

 

 

 

are you guys going to update navezgane?

 

i ask this cuz a area in the wasteland were the Radioactive area is. it looks like a lay out of a city with cars , street lamps etc?

[madmole]

damn, your counter argument is valid and contains a lot of good points. Well said, as well lol. The whole resorting to directing players to modding is weak in my opinion, so I agree with you whole heartedly on that point. No need for me to comment on the rest of your points as they are valid and speak for themselves.

 

EDIT: although I would slightely disagree with, no point in playing after day 20. End game content has not been added yet. Bandits, story line etc. This should be taken in to account when judging IMO. Sometimes its good to look beyond the horizon to try and see that which is to come.

 

Referring to mods is not weak. We can't jump out of our chair and change a design every time someone suggests something. Its a matter of personal preference 99% of the time and our preference is to make a great game that isn't too tedious at unrewarding basic actions. So what if you or even 5000 guys on reddit all+1000000 some idea. We have to finish the game and move forward not keep going backwards to try yet another random idea. At the end of the day you spawn naked, find loot, build a fort, eat, craft, buy, sell etc. We're not revisiting topics again when we are very happy with them.

 

Mods are to help players fulfill their personal fantasy about x y or z feature, or provide a challenge to guys who have mastered the game, etc. We have to make the game appeal to a broad audience and be easy or at least manageable to learn. I don't see any value in a lot of ideas, and think they would be horrible for business to be 100% honest, so I'm going to say hey make a mod then. Even if its a great idea, same answer, make a mod because we're done with that and moving forwawrd.Your vision, Joe blows vision, Frank's vision are not TFP's vision. Maybe snowdog wants necrophelia in the game, but we can't do that. Some people want fishing and a 2020 ram truck in the game, but we'll have to settle for no fishing and a 4x4. Everyone has their own tastes we make the base game, modders can mod. Its a win win. No need to feel salty because your mod idea isn't going in the base game. If its that great, we'll probably put it in a future version. Every mod I ever made for Oblivion got implemented into Skyrim.

 

Some people will take this as dumbing it down or whatever, but most people love 18 so I think we're doing a good job.

[madmole]

Out of curiosity, how difficult is it to find new team members?

 

Depends on the job you are filling.

[Brian9824]

Referring to mods is not weak. We can't jump out of our chair and change a design every time someone suggests something. Its a matter of personal preference 99% of the time and our preference is to make a great game that isn't too tedious at unrewarding basic actions. So what if you or even 5000 guys on reddit all+1000000 some idea. We have to finish the game and move forward not keep going backwards to try yet another random idea. At the end of the day you spawn naked, find loot, build a fort, eat, craft, buy, sell etc. We're not revisiting topics again when we are very happy with them.

 

Mods are to help players fulfill their personal fantasy about x y or z feature, or provide a challenge to guys who have mastered the game, etc. We have to make the game appeal to a broad audience and be easy or at least manageable to learn. I don't see any value in a lot of ideas, and think they would be horrible for business to be 100% honest, so I'm going to say hey make a mod then. Even if its a great idea, same answer, make a mod because we're done with that and moving forwawrd.Your vision, Joe blows vision, Frank's vision are not TFP's vision. Maybe snowdog wants necrophelia in the game, but we can't do that. Some people want fishing and a 2020 ram truck in the game, but we'll have to settle for no fishing and a 4x4. Everyone has their own tastes we make the base game, modders can mod. Its a win win. No need to feel salty because your mod idea isn't going in the base game. If its that great, we'll probably put it in a future version. Every mod I ever made for Oblivion got implemented into Skyrim.

 

Some people will take this as dumbing it down or whatever, but most people love 18 so I think we're doing a good job.

 

Yeah hands down A18 is great. The fact that so many of us have so many ideas for the game just shows how excited we are.

[Adam the Waster]

Referring to mods is not weak. We can't jump out of our chair and change a design every time someone suggests something. Its a matter of personal preference 99% of the time and our preference is to make a great game that isn't too tedious at unrewarding basic actions. So what if you or even 5000 guys on reddit all+1000000 some idea. We have to finish the game and move forward not keep going backwards to try yet another random idea. At the end of the day you spawn naked, find loot, build a fort, eat, craft, buy, sell etc. We're not revisiting topics again when we are very happy with them.

 

Mods are to help players fulfill their personal fantasy about x y or z feature, or provide a challenge to guys who have mastered the game, etc. We have to make the game appeal to a broad audience and be easy or at least manageable to learn. I don't see any value in a lot of ideas, and think they would be horrible for business to be 100% honest, so I'm going to say hey make a mod then. Even if its a great idea, same answer, make a mod because we're done with that and moving forwawrd.Your vision, Joe blows vision, Frank's vision are not TFP's vision. Maybe snowdog wants necrophelia in the game, but we can't do that. Some people want fishing and a 2020 ram truck in the game, but we'll have to settle for no fishing and a 4x4. Everyone has their own tastes we make the base game, modders can mod. Its a win win. No need to feel salty because your mod idea isn't going in the base game. If its that great, we'll probably put it in a future version. Every mod I ever made for Oblivion got implemented into Skyrim.

 

Some people will take this as dumbing it down or whatever, but most people love 18 so I think we're doing a good job.

 

in that case i better get to work!!!!

 

 

however idk Jack Squat about modding!

[GrapeDrink]

Do darts do block damage? Will save me testing time if someone can answer this for me. 😎👍

 

Nope, I have them facing down onto a pressure plate and they didnt do any damage. I was a bit worried as they say they do block damage but vov

[Adam the Waster]

Maybe snowdog wants necrophelia

 

 

 

ill nearly burst out laughing. Thx Joel! that made my day!!

[Roland]

in that case i better get to work!!!!

 

 

however idk Jack Squat about modding!

 

Its worth learning!

 

 

But only after you have all A's.

 

[Adam the Waster]

Its worth learning!

 

 

But only after you have all A's.

 

lol dose B's count?

 

 

my only concern about modeling is "breaking/screwing" up something up on my pc

[GrapeDrink]

lol dose B's count?

 

B's are not A's, so I'd say not