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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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After seeing the stream, I have a slight issue with the spear. It's extremely weird how it's held right below the spearhead even throughout the attack animation, and it makes the range very hard to gauge because it looks like it hits with an invisible hitbox that extends further than the tip. It'd be nice if it could be corrected so the character holds it lower than that.

 

Hadn't thought about the hold type, but I agree on both counts. It hits very far away.

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Oh you mean those used mainly in late history of melee weapons. Yes, those were held by left hand in front, since they were used differently. Mostly for deffense, where you held it to the ground with your stronger hand or for a single charge where you added movement with your running speed and body weight. They were not used for fighting though, after this one action, the pikemen were equipped with swords to fight.

 

I meant long thrusting (not throwing) spears used by greek, chinesse or later Roman Legions (from third rank backwards, so they could thrust spears over their allies, gladiuses were not able to reach there). It is true that Roman legionares used them mostly in one hand. At least for that long as long their shield didn't get destroyed or dropped.

 

I guess this is the closest of what i meant :)

 

You're not fighting a man, you're fighting something dumber than a rabbit. A rabbit at least has a decent sense of self preservation.

 

If your pattern is anything more complicated than step-thrust-step-thrust-run step-thrust-step-thrust-run then either your tactics failed long before your current move or you're just showing off. Admittedly, with me that would be the latter, but that's beside the point. :-)

 

With that repetitive action it's more like digging than martial arts and most people will naturally revert to their dominant hand at the rear in the manner of an ambush hunt.

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You're not fighting a man, you're fighting something dumber than a rabbit. A rabbit at least has a decent sense of self preservation.

 

If your pattern is anything more complicated than step-thrust-step-thrust-run step-thrust-step-thrust-run then either your tactics failed long before your current move or you're just showing off. Admittedly, with me that would be the latter, but that's beside the point. :-)

 

With that repetitive action it's more like digging than martial arts and most people will naturally revert to their dominant hand at the rear in the manner of an ambush hunt.

 

Yes, you are fighting something very dumb. But facing something very dumb, you do not need as short spear as we have. Because the dumb zombie doesn't have swordman skills to get close to you.

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Yes, you are fighting something very dumb. But facing something very dumb, you do not need as short spear as we have. Because the dumb zombie doesn't have swordman skills to get close to you.

 

If it's too long it'll become more of a hindrance than a help while indoors.

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It would??

 

You and The Gronk act like the problem with them going for weaker shapes is obvious, but I don't know to what you're referring.

 

So this screenshot shows things working as intended. This is what you wanted. This is what you hired an AI programmer to give you.

26AA75687242B9D2B8799E44C3EAFE0F5A85D6D6

 

And this screenshot shows things working as intended. This is what you wanted. This is what you hired an AI programmer to give you.

772BE0847283551B3C0B9B6C66B72FFE057558D0

 

But this would be a weird exploit that looks dumb?!

4522AA41D0565584E9071FA5E761E49E086EC62A

 

To reiterate, I get the argument that it would be a lot of work (though less work now that you can make a change to all blocks of a certain shape using xpath syntax). I don't get the argument that the game would be worse for having the feature.

So mod it it, we removed it for reasons I'm not interested in debating further.

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That's certainly true. However, that's an adjustment following failure. I can see how it would feel more proactive, more like an accomplishment if you got off your ass and did a really hard quest to 'deplete the local zombie population' for a while.

 

The same accomplishment feeling can occur in our upcoming repair/defend the settlement quests.

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It would be cool if you can. But I thought tracking the owner for an arbitrarily large number of landmine blocks was a problem.

 

Blocks are impossible, but model entities are. WE'll have to convert them from block models to model entities.

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Some people want to sit in a base, mine and craft everything they need and never leave the safety of their fort.

 

You mean in a game where you start off with nothing and have to scrounge, scrap, scavenge, and craft everything you have... some people see reaching a point of self-sustainability and surviving safely as a goal?

 

Heavens to Betsy... Why would anyone ever think that surviving is the goal in a survival game?

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I didnt attack him, you seem to have missed he quoted the thing I already quoted in my question. So I wasnt "Johhny newcome", I was already replying to the same damn thing lol. Thats like if you replied to me with a quote, then someone else replied to you with the same quote to shut you up. That's not discussion.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

 

Sigh.. really. Says the SP guy who plays 21 days then restarts. Go try scrapping cars etc for brass on a server with several die hards who loot all the time. You really dont get it.

 

I must have missed part of the dialogue and assumed he was answering you with a quote of mine.

 

You are choosing to not use the system if there is not enough brass. If you do quests for traders and then your poi is virgin and full of brass. As I mentioned there are books now that unlock finding more brass in loot, allow door knob harvesting, sink harvesting for brass and lead, etc.

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So tell me, how do you clear big POIs? I mean those that make you spend hundreds of ammo for almost no loot at the end? I am curious. Insane diff and radiated zombies. They tank a lot damage.

 

Stealth is an option, but if you buy up all the bullet supplies at traders, mine and get the books, you should be swimming in ammo if you are willing to put in the work.

 

EDIT: the level designers are reducing spawn numbers too.

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I just hope that you guys optimize the game at some point and I can finally have my 500+ wandering zombie hordes. Last time I played I multiplied zombie spawns in different bioms by 5 to 20 and set wandering horde size to 250 and also had only zombie dog or only zombie bear wandering hordes, scariest probably was to see hundreds of radiated cops running around and btw - because I had so many zombies they easily got into traders place - just jumped over the fence, it was insane experience as nowhere is safe.

It all completely changes the game - even basic tasks require so much extra work, i.e., 200-300 zombies around house means that if I tried to enter it and even one zombie saw me they all would just attack entrance, so I had to dance around them, maneuver and get them into huge group, lead them away from my entrance and only after that I could enter my home. So if I wanted to be home before this madness starts running I had to leave several in-game hours just in case that there are too many zombies near my home. Also mining and gathering resources above ground was very funny as mostly I managed to hit a boulder 5-6 times before I was surrounded, changed the way I played the game completely and watching hundreds of zombies burn from molotovs is a spectacular view, now I hope to play and see 500+ zombies on my screen without slideshow :)

 

Maybe in 2030 a high end pc can do it. Unity is just too slow.

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Im glad to hear that the goal is to increase difficulty in biomes.

How ever I don't see why enemies has to scale based on player level (Game stage).

If you go to the gym and work out you don't expect you coffee cup to increase in weight just because you become stronger right?

The enemies don't get stronger, we slowly expose you to nastier different enemies to keep the player challenged and engaged. Like plants vs zombies. WIthout it, you could sit safely in your easy biome and never be scared or challenged at all, never die, and then the fun is lost. The fear, challenge and progress is what motivates players to continue. Start removing those and the game gets boring quickly.
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The enemies don't get stronger, we slowly expose you to nastier different enemies to keep the player challenged and engaged. Like plants vs zombies. WIthout it, you could sit safely in your easy biome and never be scared or challenged at all, never die, and then the fun is lost. The fear, challenge and progress is what motivates players to continue. Start removing those and the game gets boring quickly.

 

Totally agree but a more natural method would be to increase gamestage based on days played... so if u are playing really good or playing bad u can get ahead of the curve or fall behind based on whatever difficulty you selected. I personally dont like when a game attempts to adjust its difficulty based on the player. Id rather the player select an appropriate difficulty.

 

Instead of thinking to myself, i have to slow down leveling because the next blood moon is gonna be too hard ...id say to myself I really need to level so I have the skills or tools to deal with the next horde. Slowing the leveling on purpose feels gamey.

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Quote Originally Posted by Shineblossom View Post

So tell me, how do you clear big POIs? I mean those that make you spend hundreds of ammo for almost no loot at the end? I am curious. Insane diff and radiated zombies. They tank a lot damage.

Just wondering. What does it matter if some poi's don't give you enough loot, to warrant your ammo usage? Shouldn't that be part of the game as well? Some pois might not have decent loot and basically waste some of your stock?

Stealth is an option, but if you buy up all the bullet supplies at traders, mine and get the books, you should be swimming in ammo if you are willing to put in the work.

 

EDIT: the level designers are reducing spawn numbers too.

Cool, but I hope some will still be packed full, while other poi's are not.

The issue, at least for me, was that you could enter the same poi ->in different areas<-, and they all were filled to the brim with zeds, with the same amount of zeds, which ended up becoming monotonous, because you always knew what you were getting.

Hopefully you all get it set that sometimes you can enter the same poi in different areas, while one of them is filled, the other might be empty, or another might only have a few zeds populating them.

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Try playing on those servers that support 40 concurrent players and host up to 2k individual players during their lifespan. By day 1000 you can't find any car, by day 2000 all the buildings have been looted at least once and brass is very hard to find.

 

We support 8 players, and then people complain about not enough loot with 2000 players.

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I have been doing t5 quests repeatedly. Big towers, tough zeds. It's not worth it, not even close. I do a poi for an ok reward but I ended the tower with -500 ammo.

 

The current a17 thinking is big pois are not even close to worth it. They are ammo sinks.

 

Just keep this in mind for a18 please. Sounds like you are, so that's good.

 

Yes expect at least a 20% reduction in zeds in POIs and loot rewritten from scratch. There is a lot of new micro loot too so hopefully its worth it.

 

I want to add previous quests page to traders so you can go back and do easier ones if you don't have time/ammo for T5, scroll back to T3 or so and be able to do those. Rick said shut up and take my money so we can count on this for 19.

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They will attack a random block. Once it gets damaged that's the focus for the entire horde. Dont they get a damage bonus if enough zeds get together too? Or was that a planned feature? I forget.

 

Yes they get a damage bonus the more zeds are in an area so thin the groups as best you can. One guy can chew on concrete all night but several will plow through it fast.

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Madmole or Roland, how are the translations on the A18? in the A16 and A17 were almost zero, we can enjoy a18 with translation into Spanish? I saw a story that in the United States add 60 million people who speak Spanish and is the second most spoken language in the world, surpassed only by Chinese Mandarin

 

We're planning to update localization after 18 is stable and add 4 new languages as well.

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After seeing the stream, I have a slight issue with the spear. It's extremely weird how it's held right below the spearhead even throughout the attack animation, and it makes the range very hard to gauge because it looks like it hits with an invisible hitbox that extends further than the tip. It'd be nice if it could be corrected so the character holds it lower than that.

 

Its standard industry practice to position something in first person to feel big and meaty, realism fails and makes firearms look weak and underwhelming.

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