Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[JCrook1028]

Yea I agree. A few more would be nice. Just so long as they don't go full Ravenhearst and have 30. (ok that may be a tad high but it must be 20ish at least)

[JaxTeller718]

Yeah I'm a fan of workstations, but at the same time others on the team aren't. At the end of the day its just a gate. I'd like to see an oven or industrial forge yet. One problem is you need a castle to fit too many workstations in, like in Ark.

 

give us a station that runs on electricity and the modders will take it from there and get these guys off your backs

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Yea I agree. A few more would be nice. Just so long as they don't go full Ravenhearst and have 30. (ok that may be a tad high but it must be 20ish at least)

 

9. Learn to count. You'll fare better in life. No more or less than any other survival game. Keyword here is Survival.

[Grue]

Mostly old stuff that was given with a perk, is now a book or schematic to unlock it so you don't have to buy the perk. We're trying not to force anyone to have to have any one particular attribute.

 

Good, that was a major complaint about A17.x

 

Too bad. I would have liked a new quiet weapon like a stronger crossbow.

 

I wish the Crossbow was as good as the one in H1Z1, that crossbow was awesome.

[AtomicUs5000]

if you have it so that not more than one biome can touch another biome, you could use a lot of biomes as a way to transition with little notice. Example... Desert Mesas -> Desert Plains -> Plains -> Forest -> Burnt Forest -> Deep Forest -> Snow Forest -> Snow Plains -> Snow Mountains

 

Wasteland is ugly... but I would probably just place them randomly in small pockets on the outer edge of some random cities. Maybe even directly in the center of large cities to show something trashed this once inhabited region.

 

Something like this is what I would hope for:

 

 

Just one example. Kinda similar to the bands style we saw momentarily I think in 17.1. However, it doesn't need to be. The snow mountains could easily be centered on the map with desert edges. Likewise desert could be the center with snow maintains on the edges. Quite a few arrangements are possible. All that matters is that the rules are followed that a biome can only be adjacent to specific biomes (or sub-biomes, whatever you want to call them) for nice transitions.

 

Again, for the wasteland, I would probably determine their locations after determining city placement. The ground is rubble, so half a city could be in tact, perhaps the most damaged at the edge followed by the wasteland. Or in the center of a large city. Or not at all for most cities.

[quyxkh]

Have you ever tried Eco Survival? There is something around 40 different crafting stations. The game is geared for multiplayer where each person takes on a few roles, possibility only one on a large server. It is interesting, but trying to manage all of that for a single player hurts your head. There might be room for a couple more in 7D2D, if they served some good purpose, but trust me... beyond that it gets really hard to deal with.

 

One thing I think might be interesting from Eco is the diet-balance rules and the effect of a bad diet: if you don't take care of yourself you don't do as well, you don't learn as fast or get as much done. Foods supply X calories in some mix of protein fat carbs vitamins; recipes and cooking alter the available calories and nutrient mix, you can do just fine with basic campfire cooking but advanced recipes give you lots more options for fine-tuning your diet balance, and more concentrated calories so you can pack food for a long expedition in not much space. I doubt that'll come to 7dtd, but if it did I'd be happy to play it.

[AtomicUs5000]

One thing I think might be interesting from Eco is the diet-balance rules and the effect of a bad diet: if you don't take care of yourself you don't do as well, you don't learn as fast or get as much done. Foods supply X calories in some mix of protein fat carbs vitamins; recipes and cooking alter the available calories and nutrient mix, you can do just fine with basic campfire cooking but advanced recipes give you lots more options for fine-tuning your diet balance, and more concentrated calories so you can pack food for a long expedition in not much space. I doubt that'll come to 7dtd, but if it did I'd be happy to play it.

 

I don't think vanilla would go that far either. In Eco, there is only one threat, so managing food on a simulation level is not unreasonable. 7D2D is supposed to threaten your life almost all the time, making things like that a nuisance... at least for the vanilla game. I don't know the current mods well, but I wouldn't doubt someone has done or is working on something similar. However, from some of madmole's comments, I gather that he is working on giving food some caloric values, which is pretty cool. It might provide some depth without going too crazy with it. Scum is a good example of a game that invested so much into that aspect that they forgot the rest of the game.

[khzmusik]

Don’t make visual changes priority over core game coding!!

 

Animation, please, if you have a spider zombie that jumps, don’t make it a non-animation, he jumps like hes stuck in an 80s Atari game

 

Love how this person tells TFP to put core game coding over visual changes - and the very next sentence is a complaint about something visual that doesn't affect core game play.

[Aldranon]

Horde mode only zombie.

 

 

Wait, there will be a horde mode? That has a lot of potential if there are several other modes!

How many modes will there be?

 

Can there be a Story Line mode, one where the answers to all question become known? People could modify the story line and make a completely new one, it could be infinite!

 

Edit:

I also always wanted a number of zombies that remain in each area. Kill all in that area and no zombies will appear for a week! Make the weekly increase be between one and 10% for example. Makes killing zombies have a point.

[JCrook1028]

9. Learn to count. You'll fare better in life. No more or less than any other survival game. Keyword here is Survival.

 

 

 

Ok since you decided to make it personal. I went in and loaded up the creative menu and counted them. 27 various stations and that is not including the radio or the dvd player and not including the farm animals which in function are also work stations. SO I guess I should have stuck with my original number of 30, it's closer to reality then the reduced 20 I went with.

[faatal]

Love how this person tells TFP to put core game coding over visual changes - and the very next sentence is a complaint about something visual that doesn't affect core game play.

 

Exactly. We fix what makes sense to us. I noticed weeks ago, that spider zombie jumps were basically just going upwards in A18. I looked at it today and it was from changes to the character controller a while ago and effected all the AI jumping, so I fixed it and improved jumps while I was at it:

 

Fixed AI jumping was trying to land right away.

Improved zombie jump accuracy and added distance variation.

 

Now the spider and the rest of the zombies jump better. Sure the spider zombie jump anim is stiff looking, but whatever. It works. Maybe we will polish it later or not.

[betam4x]

Wait, there will be a horde mode? That has a lot of potential if there are several other modes!

How many modes will there be?

 

Can there be a Story Line mode, one where the answers to all question become known? People could modify the story line and make a completely new one, it could be infinite!

 

Edit:

I also always wanted a number of zombies that remain in each area. Kill all in that area and no zombies will appear for a week! Make the weekly increase be between one and 10% for example. Makes killing zombies have a point.

 

The older alphas had a bit of a horde mode to them. Night time was VERY interesting.

[betam4x]

They've GOT to move to Vulkan. It will simplify development and help performance due to increased control over the render pipeline. When I can run Wine -> DirectX -> Vulkan faster than the native linux/os-x client, something is wrong. Also depending on the distro, settings, and version of 7DTD I've been able to outperform Windows builds...with 3 indirect layers of software translation. Go figure.

 

Also don't tell me that Linux is a minority platform. It runs more than 4k Windows games flawlessly (and another 12k with only minor hiccups) today along with thousands of software packages thanks to wine. The gaming thing is thanks to Wine. KDE easily replaced Windows and runs 7DTD easily along with the 40 other games I've tried (haven't found one that doesn't work yet, I've found 4 that require tweaks, sonic requires a java install for instance). I even my creative cloud apps for 2019 running. Unity3d also has a Linux version of it's hub and editor now.

[Mideval]

I remember in A16 I do not know if it was because of Vanilla or the mod that I played but the subject of the biomes seemed a very intelligent design.

Each Biome had large quantities of a fundamental resource, in the snow you found nitrate, in the prairies you found lead, in the forest you found iron, in the burnt forest you found coal and in addition to the fertilizer, in the desert you found oil.

In any case, you needed a biome to supply a need.

The variety of biomes made it more difficult to find the biome you were looking for at that time and enriched the search.

For me, the importance of the biome variety was never a visual question.

It was a strategic question of resource management, and it would not have to be only of mineral resources.

[Guest Rassilon]

I remember in A16 I do not know if it was because of Vanilla or the mod that I played but the subject of the biomes seemed a very intelligent design.

Each Biome had large quantities of a fundamental resource, in the snow you found nitrate, in the prairies you found lead, in the forest you found iron, in the burnt forest you found coal and in addition to the fertilizer, in the desert you found oil.

In any case, you needed a biome to supply a need.

The variety of biomes made it more difficult to find the biome you were looking for at that time and enriched the search.

For me, the importance of the biome variety was never a visual question.

It was a strategic question of resource management, and it would not have to be only of mineral resources.

 

+1

Nicely said and i agree that multiple Biomes support a need for thoughtful planning and longer trips to get everyhting.

[Dethar]

If mound of specific resources was on surface, it was mod. I know WotW had it because it was my favorite, but there was at least one more. Just don't remember which. Valmod maybe.

[beerfly]

Wait, there will be a horde mode? That has a lot of potential if there are several other modes!

How many modes will there be?

 

We need modes, but only if they done properly.

My ex player fellas were crazy at the idea for every night-horde night.

[The Gronk]

If mound of specific resources was on surface, it was mod. I know WotW had it because it was my favorite, but there was at least one more. Just don't remember which. Valmod maybe.

 

The surface mounds of ore were taken out of vanilla around A14 if memory serves.

[Mideval]

If mound of specific resources was on surface, it was mod. I know WotW had it because it was my favorite, but there was at least one more. Just don't remember which. Valmod maybe.

 

Maybe. I am not very fond of resources on the surface.

Fun Pimps made many efforts to create a voxel world so that we could dig and create large underground mines. They should take advantage of it more.

Although with this we return to the eternal debate that subterranean threats are missing so that the players are not 100% safe underground.

[Shineblossom]

Its possible. C4 is for blowing safes and raiding.

 

Don't want to sound rude, but exactly "blow it on demand" instead of timed charge makes it ideal for raiding. Ever played Rust against people with big bases? Or Rainbow Six Siege? You bomb one wall, run around, blow it and then jump in from other side while everyone looks way the explosion happened

[The Gronk]

<snipped for space>

 

The surface mounds were a great way to indicate to new players what was below the surface. Instead of bringing them back you could replace some of the small stones on the surface (not the boulders) with a small sample of what is likely to be found below.

 

That would provide new players with a hint of where to mine and all players a way to get small samples of a particular material.

[Guest Rassilon]

The surface mounds were a great way to indicate to new players what was below the surface. Instead of bringing them back you could replace some of the small stones on the surface (not the boulders) with a small sample of what is likely to be found below.

 

That would provide new players with a hint of where to mine and all players a way to get small samples of a particular material.

 

Dont we have exactly that with the gravel spots ?

Dig the Gravel, see what Ressource is with it and you know wich vein is beneath

[n2n1]

///

Now the spider and the rest of the zombies jump better. Sure the spider zombie jump anim is stiff looking, but whatever. It works. Maybe we will polish it later or not.

What do you mean? leave the animation like this for release? It would be a shame - such animation was not acceptable even in the 90s. It's trash...

...you probably didn't mean animation.

Really hurt the spider. After 11 Alpha he became worse and worse, and now - with tears will look at him.

It's cruel.

 

He won't be climbing walls anymore?

[The Gronk]

Dont we have exactly that with the gravel spots ?

Dig the Gravel, see what Ressource is with it and you know wich vein is beneath

 

That depends on whether gravel patches are to stay or if they're a filler (bad pun intended) while caves are worked on.

 

I'd say have both. It may take quite some time before a new player experiments with digging in different biomes, especially as the A18 biome spawner is very different from the version we have now.

[Mideval]

The surface mounds were a great way to indicate to new players what was below the surface. Instead of bringing them back you could replace some of the small stones on the surface (not the boulders) with a small sample of what is likely to be found below.

 

That would provide new players with a hint of where to mine and all players a way to get small samples of a particular material.

 

I agree:smile-new:

[meganoth]

Although with this we return to the eternal debate that subterranean threats are missing so that the players are not 100% safe underground.

 

Why should it return? We have subterranean threats.

 

The only thing that might have to return is a balancing discussion as digging with anything else than an auger seems to be dangerously un-dangerous and with the auger you get practically constant visits.