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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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certainly tape is one of the cornerstone basic mats but I have never ran into a lack of bones at any point and I solve my cloth problem for my entire play through by day 2 - one military base will supply you with cloth for the entire game. Mech parts are insanely common as well.

 

It makes a difference whether you are a single player or a group. You have to keep in mind that these players have to share the resources.

 

Since zombies are no longer a source of bones, you have to be very methodical to get enough bones / glue / tape for a larger group. This includes utilizing the respawn and visiting POIs once a week that are known to contain a larger number of animals. For example the Doggos and "Carl's Corns and Bob's Boars".

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If I wanted to get better and mining to buy the next perk, I had to go do some mining.

Now I can max out my mining skills without ever digging a hole.

.

 

Im A16 I could level up mining without ever digging a hole or using any mining tool...just sayin. Level up, put points in mining and miner 69er... wasnt that hard.

 

In A16, the miner 69er skill was the source of 99.9 percent of mining improvement if the improvement and u got that point to spend by doing whatever

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New gun scrapping/crafting system for A18

Guns can be scrapped into parts, like an Ak47 can be scrapped into Ak 47 Parts.

 

An Ak might yield 5 AK47 parts, but a new AK would take 10 parts to craft so you can't 1 to 1 upgrade easily.

 

Joel, will the quality of the weapon affect the number of parts that we get in the scrap?

 

Will it be possible with 4 qualities to get more details than with 2 qualities?

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I agree, it is not about hate by any stretch.

 

If anything the people you see bitching on the forum here all want the same thing. We want the game to be as good as possible, which is why we get up in arms when it takes a (in some opinions) a wrong turn.

 

No, it's not hate, it is just campaigning for the game you want by crying louder than everyone else. What's a wrong turn to one player is often the best change to another. There is no "We", there is mostly just personal tastes.

 

 

There is no reason to build walls because they would simply shred any wall you put in front of them, so now we build mazes instead of walls, or just kite them.

Instead of an epic siege to test your base design.... we have Monkeys vs Bloons.

While that maybe entertaining in the short run, it gets old. Fast.

 

Case in point. I feel exactly the opposite: A17 is the first alpha I'm interested in building elaborate horde bases, exactly because one needs to think about base design instead of simply putting big walls around. How anyone can say horde base building got dumped down is beyond me. Maybe it is because in A16 you didn't use the obvious exploits because they were TOO exploity and in A17 you are using them and feel betrayed by the game.

 

Combine that with the new XP grind system and the game has lost much of its appeal.

Horde night is just a conga line of XP being delivered to my front door like pizza

No fun, no challenge, just a mindless shooting gallery.

 

Exactly. That describes A16 to the tee, even more so as the zombies brought xp AND loot.

 

Seriously, I never really noticed or cared about what "level" my character was in A16 and I LOVED it that way.

My progress was based on actually playing the game... exploring... finding the books I needed... finding the resources I needed...

trying to get something built before the end of the week.

It was not perfect, but it was a highly enjoyable sandbox experience.

 

Seriously I'm in a co-op game and I'm about 25 levels below one of my co-op players and I don't care. They remind me sometimes and jokingly say they need to order me to mining labor to keep up with them.

 

I'm actually playing the game...exploring... finding mods and resources.... The only thing where I agree with you is that there isn't enough to find, but that deficiency was a known limitation of A17 because of limited developer time.

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Wow.... 3 hours without activity. Seems like it's time for 2 truths and a lie. One of the following statements is false but the others are true. See if you can guess...

 

 

1) The forge is losing its tool slots for the anvil, crucible, and die set.

2) "Forge Ahead" will be back but in a slightly different way.

3) Sharp sticks are making a return but not like they were before.

 

1 be a lie!

Me hopes...

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No! and hell No! its a zombie survival game not Skyrim meets 7 Days to Die game.

 

Probably why it's a mod and not vanilla. Couple that with the medieval mod or fantasy mod and you have a whole NEW game.

 

Post was intended to celebrate the awesomeness of 7days modability, no need to bunch your underwear that tightly.

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What I like about the Fallout 4 perk system: many perks can be acquired from the beginning/ relatively fast, by putting specific points into the SPECIAL system. But this is balanced out by then not meeting the requirements for other perks wich are then effectively locked for quite some time.

 

So the user must actually decide on a gameplay role at the beginning, and can then specialize or branch out to get more variety in the perks.

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I feel like there's too much emphasis on progression in the game right now. It should be a survival game first and a stat-boosting simulator second. If there are ways the player can make themselves stronger, increasing their survival chance, that's fine. However, if the ultimate goal of the game is to become as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time, and players choose to decrease their survival chance in order to become stronger faster, then that's an issue.

Can you truly be role-playing as a survivor if survival isn't your main goal?

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...just saying... Damn.

 

This is what a17 modding can do. (See? On topic.)

 

Yes, this is why I was so excited for A17 the framework is super powerful. A18 is going to have a lot of content because of this framework.

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Can we get rid of those retarded magazines? Maybe shift back toward learn by doing a little more to make it less about the XP grind?

I hope you are referring to the tattered paper perk magazines 17 had and not the new awesome book collector sets I've been working on.

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Hmmm....having said that, not that it will happen, but for this one: The forge is losing its tool slots for the anvil, crucible, and die set, I'd like to see you have to upgrade those (and your experience in the field) to depend on the item quality.

 

So put a rock in the slot and to hammer on a rock you can only get a blade 30% sharp.

Put some scrap metal in there and you can get it up to 60%

Put the anvil in and it's 60 - 100% (or something like that).

 

And then have a limiter based on your experience, or something like that?

 

We're not getting rid of crucibles, but we might add mods to enhance workstations as well. Some gates, some mods. Not all gates like now. You'll get a forge and be able to do most anything slowly. With mods you will make less heat, smelt faster, and unlock steel with a crucible.

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Yes, this is why I was so excited for A17 the framework is super powerful. A18 is going to have a lot of content because of this framework.

Waited patiently for these changes to pull the trigger; Thank you guys for your hard work! Can't wait to see what A18+ brings! :)

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no idea why ppl still equate those two things.

while I personally had no problem with it since it was player choice, I understand that it wasn'T for everyone.

But they removed it in a16 and it was great.

And I even liked that you could buy some stuff with xp.

It was a good balance.

"You want to effectively dig your mote but don't want to spend hours leveling it? Put your xp into it that you could spend on perks that are way more efficient. Your choice!"

 

Now its: "Kill 50 zombies to get that skill! Kill another 70 to get the next. Kill another 120 to finally get that car that you... oh you aren't lvl 50 yet. Kill another 400 zombies to get that then."

 

Bull♥♥♥♥, you get heaps of XP for all activities. It will be even better balanced in A18.

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Joel, will the quality of the weapon affect the number of parts that we get in the scrap?

 

Will it be possible with 4 qualities to get more details than with 2 qualities?

 

I don't think so, that makes it too easy, but we'll see.

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Why kill 400 zombies when you can just mine 400 rocks or chop 400 trees. I level much faster by mining rocks and chopping trees than I do killing zombies except on blood moons. Killing 400 zombies would also be level by doing.

 

Probably hasn't even tried 17.2.

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Pretty sure MM mentioned level gates are going away. So if that's correct, at least when you buy the perk you can then craft the item which'll be much better.

 

Anyway, LBD makes sense for somethings. 'Fitness' for example. Best system in any game ever was in GTA San Andreas where running and hitting the gym made your toon fit while eating burgers and driving everywhere turned you into a marshmallow. Wish that kind of system would appear in more games.

 

Yes level gates will be gone.

 

I loved San Andreas. They ruined GTA for me in GTA 4 when they removed all the RPG progression that it had.

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I feel like there's too much emphasis on progression in the game right now. It should be a survival game first and a stat-boosting simulator second. If there are ways the player can make themselves stronger, increasing their survival chance, that's fine. However, if the ultimate goal of the game is to become as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time, and players choose to decrease their survival chance in order to become stronger faster, then that's an issue.

Can you truly be role-playing as a survivor if survival isn't your main goal?

 

Role playing is a very broad term. It can be as simple as I use an axe and an Ak and I like to use light armor because the heavy stuff slows me down too much.

 

It can be as advanced as defining fears like maybe you are scared of heights, addictions so you have to have a beer every night, food tastes so maybe your character likes stew. Maybe you love animals and are a vegetarian. If you see an animal get attacked you go into a rage and attack the horde. You can have personality traits, prejudices and role playing your attributes. It can be very in depth and self imposed limits can make a stale game interesting and fun again.

 

Its a personal choice. A lot of people don't get it, but its a lot of fun once you come up with a solid concept and stop playing as you and stop trying to survive as you. Have some weird quirks like maybe the spider zombie looks like your cousin so you can't kill them. Kiting them to a land mine or spike is the best you can do.

 

Its probably not quite there yet to role play heavily in 7 days but I hope its somewhat role playable when we're done or in a future sequel or something. I tend to play as myself in games and just have fun on the first play through or two. Then I role play like a director/writer and try to make the toon behave how they would. That creates all these crazy dynamics that you will never see playing as yourself.

 

I honestly feel like a little kid playing with action figures when I can get a cool role going. Its taken some years to get good at it, as we often stop being a kid for 40 years so getting back into that creative mind set is actually a fun exercise.

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Mad thanks for the comments on PvP. Makes me even more excited for the possibilities of this game.

 

One more for you. Have there been any decisions made concerning high level late game challenges? Especially in regards to the invincibility of some bases?

 

Maybe some sort of catastrophic event like an earthquake that might weaken all structures in an area? Threat of an old nuke going off in a biome causing tons of damage and irradiating a new area? Would love to see a something like a zombie godzilla that forced everyone on a server to drop everything and start attacking/defending. I know goofy example, but something that really changed the tone of the late stage game without negating all the previous hard work, yet random enough to keep everyone guessing and sweating.

 

On top of 7 days to die, maybe add a 100 days to annihilation?

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I honestly feel like a little kid playing with action figures when I can get a cool role going. Its taken some years to get good at it, as we often stop being a kid for 40 years so getting back into that creative mind set is actually a fun exercise.

 

Preach it brother. Once you get caught up in the old man rat race it is insanely tough to get that groove back.

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Bull♥♥♥♥, you get heaps of XP for all activities. It will be even better balanced in A18.

 

XP/time is the no1 reason by far, to choose an activity when people want to get levels.

The fastest activity to get XP at early game by far, is killing zombies. So people are inclined towards doing that. Later in the game, the fastest activity becomes mining because the amount of XP depends on block damage (it shouldn't).

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