Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[ArmorCroc]

If the death animations and death sounds and the fact that they aren't moving any more isn't enough, then I'd say we failed at creating a satisfying death sequence of the zombie for players to experience. So removing the XP wouldn't do anything, as I think its clearly obvious when a zombie dies. I mean if you stop looking at the XP popout, its actually 100% clear if a zombie is dead or not dead IMO. So your asking us to do work that would benefit noone.

 

Giving the option to hide that part of the HUD is a tiny thing to implement and would most definitely lessen my awareness of the wellbeing of my enemies. And as some seem to suggest at least me and Sirillion would benefit out of this. Are we nobodies to you? Is it then that only new customers are what you care for and as such only their money because once they pay they are ready for the bin..?

 

I have so far refused to see you, madmole, with the eyes a lot of people seem to share online - I quote "just a bully on the official forums" - but seeing you brush off question after question as if you are asked for too much and doing it in a seemingly taunting way I cannot help but wonder what's your side of the story?

Are your current customers too needy for you? Have you just given up on pleasing anybody or do you perhaps see it that this is your game and now your money and your decision on what needs to be done in order for the game to succeed?

Are you having struggle with your personal life? Are you in need of a vacation?

 

I get it, you act tough - "Daaayumm, madmole's the boss" - but does it do anybody good that the development team is seen this ignorant and full of themselves? Go ahead, "roast me" and tell me how silly I am for pointing this out - my message should be delivered if you've personally read this far.

 

Some of your customers are asking you if the exp pop-up could be removed through an option or at least a tweak in a configuration file. Are we not at least entitled to have our request looked into? I hope to be able to more easily immerse into the game and if your moley eyes can accurately see the zombies die before your periferal vision picks up a white text on the else dark display then I think that's good for you. Or bad. I don't know...

Might be that I'm younger or whatnot, but my periferal vision is automatically honed on seeing that text. I can not not see it even if I'm focusing actively on the zombies. You don't need to look anywhere near the bottom right corner to see the text light up but you cannot kill the zombies without seeing the screen at all!

 

I've also hoped for a more immersive option for how the HUD is displayed. Sure the numbers and bars for health & hunger and such kind of fade away being constantly displayed, but I'd be thrilled to have more options on how much/little I read from the HUD and how much I could as an example make out of these states of wellbeing by sound.

A distinct sound played to signal thirst and hunger could be effective and as long as they aren't too frequent they are sure not to annoy.

After all, "Slow Metabolism" makes the rates at which hunger/thirst become urgent very bearable, so if you're given a sound cue every now and then with an increasing intensity the bars would basically be obsolete - and for those who insist on reading bars in a "Progress Quest"-kind of fashion, then sure why not give the option to keep those as well. Maybe a sound option to adjust the hunger/thirst cue volume as well?

 

This is my first post on the forums although I have so far owned the game for a while and much before played it on Xbox. I seldom care to join the communities of any games, but 7 Days To Die has definitely left a trace in me that will not fade in any years soon. I love this game and have earlier bought another copy of the game just to support the development - I honestly hope you could take into account your fans more, madmole, although I completely understand that you'd stick with an original vision of what the game is to become once it's finished. Just be more polite and at the very least pretend that you care for your customers.

I do not want to see this game become another zombie lost forever in "Alpha" because of a stuck up, self-important and moronic attitude that repels customers.

 

Peace and safe travels!

-Ace.

[ManicIdiot]

To be fair, we've already paid for the game, at this point TFP is under no obligation to do anything we suggest. In the end, it's their game. They make the choices based on what they think will get people to buy the game. In this case, we've already bought the game, so they're not really working for us, but rather the people who haven't bought the game.

 

My hope is that their vision is somewhat similar to mine therefore I won't have to jump back to a previous alpha to play a game close to the game I paid for. But fact of the matter is, I paid for it at a15 and that means I bought a15. At any time, I can go back and play a15 and they've held up their end of the bargain. Future changes are up to me to play or reject at my leisure.

[Trankitas]

To be fair, we've already paid for the game, at this point TFP is under no obligation to do anything we suggest. In the end, it's their game. They make the choices based on what they think will get people to buy the game. In this case, we've already bought the game, so they're not really working for us, but rather the people who haven't bought the game.

 

My hope is that their vision is somewhat similar to mine therefore I won't have to jump back to a previous alpha to play a game close to the game I paid for. But fact of the matter is, I paid for it at a15 and that means I bought a15. At any time, I can go back and play a15 and they've held up their end of the bargain. Future changes are up to me to play or reject at my leisure.

 

And this, ladies and gentleman, is how a reasonable guy thinks.

[ArmorCroc]

To be fair, we've already paid for the game, at this point TFP is under no obligation to do anything we suggest. In the end, it's their game. They make the choices based on what they think will get people to buy the game. In this case, we've already bought the game, so they're not really working for us, but rather the people who haven't bought the game.

 

My hope is that their vision is somewhat similar to mine therefore I won't have to jump back to a previous alpha to play a game close to the game I paid for. But fact of the matter is, I paid for it at a15 and that means I bought a15. At any time, I can go back and play a15 and they've held up their end of the bargain. Future changes are up to me to play or reject at my leisure.

 

I agree there, in a sense. I have all along liked the game, it sure isn't that - and I do like the way the game is headed and have enjoyed a lot even the updates I've read much bad about.

Though I don't know if it's debatable as to are you buying a pre-order type of game in the sense it'd be finished already. I sure hope alpha-stage games never stay unfinished, unpolished, broken and bad and I believe the idea should be that by supporting the developers monetarily encourages there to be a finished product somewhere down the line. I am aware this seldom happens and that many times it is stalled and then finally pushed out with a phew... But don't you ever buy pre-order games in hopes for more?

[Cirion]

I asked this question a couple of days ago and madmole gave the impression that procedurally generated caves were unlikely, at least in the near term, since TFP is currently focusing on "putting out fires" in RWG.

 

I don't mind if it doesn't make it in for a while, I just hope that they'll eventually get around to it. Procedurally generated caves is one of my most anticipated features for RWG so I will be upset if it never comes back.

 

Don't get me wrong, all the other improvements for RWG seem really cool though. So if caves come back on top of all the additions... RWG will be super epic.

[ManicIdiot]

I am aware this seldom happens and that many times it is stalled and then finally pushed out with a phew... But don't you ever buy pre-order games in hopes for more?

 

Absolutely, but I'm also aware of the business side of any product. Once the money has changed hands, the incentive goes down for the people making the product to care about what you think about the product. In some cases, they care out of principle to customer or principle to the vision, but to many it's just about money. I can't speak for TFP, but if their priority was a specific type of game, they're more than welcome to invest their time and resources into it, but at the end of the day, we're gonna get what we're gonna get despite what we want (or think we want) based on what will sell. TFP doesn't want to make a bad game anymore than they want to make an unprofitable game.

 

Either way, I'm happy with my a15 purchase and will continue to criticize choices that I think are bad and praise choices that I think are good. If the game turns into something else that I don't like, I can still play the game I did like. But if you pay upfront for something that is unfinished, you run the risk of owning something you didn't want.

[Death2gnomes]

...

 

... Removing that entire lower right corner abomination of distracting images sounds like the best solution. Who really needs it? Throw it all out and enjoy the benefits of ambiguous zombie deaths AND less screen clutter. Somehow we all survived without it for 12 Alphas worth of gathering and harvesting.

 

I never thought YOU would have something worth repeating, and yet here it is.

 

[Jay_ombie]

I'm definitely with Jax and Sir about the xp pop up; it's annoying and takes away ANY element of surprise, and from the few thousand posts madmole has made, quite a few of them talked about the importance of that that surprise.

 

There is no value add to having the xp notification non-moddable. At least expose the damn thing to the UI xmls so that we don't need sdx to remove its blatant ugliness; give us SOME horror element.

 

There's no universe where madmole agrees we should definitively know when a danger has ended, and intended or unintended, that's what the xp bar does.

 

 

I going to chip in and agree with all whole heartily, XP notification begone !...

[Tin]

I going to chip in and agree with all whole heartily, XP notification begone !...

 

It really is silly they won't make it easy to get rid off. No one is saying to remove it from the default game.

... well maybe some are or were at one point.

[Roland]

Just be more polite....

 

 

 

I do not want to see this game become another zombie lost forever in "Alpha" because of a stuck up, self-important and moronic attitude that repels customers.

 

Good for the goose but not for the gander....?

 

After several paragraphs talking about engendering good will through better communication I am curious why you ended it all with the above quoted line.

 

 

At any rate, Madmole did not say they would NEVER make it possible to mod out the xp gains announcements. As I said, he among others feel that it is important that the moment of death is well communicated. I don't share this sentiment but understand it. He has said that when the time is right they will look at giving modders what they want and need and it seems that this could very well be part of it though we won't know for sure until it actually happens.

[Jackelmyer]

Roland. The way you play stresses me out. I'm getting an anxiety prescription. X-|

 

:-p

[PurgatoryWolf]

Really miss being able to combine items in the workbench to upgrade or repair them.

[ArmorCroc]

Good for the goose but not for the gander....?

 

After several paragraphs talking about engendering good will through better communication I am curious why you ended it all with the above quoted line.

 

 

At any rate, Madmole did not say they would NEVER make it possible to mod out the xp gains announcements. As I said, he among others feel that it is important that the moment of death is well communicated. I don't share this sentiment but understand it. He has said that when the time is right they will look at giving modders what they want and need and it seems that this could very well be part of it though we won't know for sure until it actually happens.

 

I see now. My emotions must've gotten the best of me... I am sorry - and will try avoiding long texts discussing multiple subjects with both direct and abstract references. I did not directly mean to refer to your, madmole's nor any of TFP's attitudes by that - but I now understand it's easy to be seen as such.

 

@"At any rate, Madmole did not say they would NEVER make it possible to mod out the xp gains announcements."

- Pardon me, but do people ever mean never when they do say so? I've personally come to realize only pre-mature death makes such a claim finally true. (Not a threat, lol)

 

@"I don't share this sentiment but understand it. He has said that when the time is right they will look at giving modders what they want and need and it seems that this could very well be part of it though we won't know for sure until it actually happens."

- I know this ain't no promise, but it delights me to see you aswell sharing this opinion. This keeps my hopes up.

 

Finally, thank you Roland for your response and please excuse my apparent rudeness.

[Guppycur]

I actually use that XP pop up as my "is it dead" indicator. Not a fan of the ambiguous deaths. Especially clearing POI's.

 

Dear sir.

 

We regret to inform you that your opinion is incorrect.

 

Thank you for your application, however we have found other candidates more suitable to listen to.

 

...tell you what, I'll mail you a usb device that connects to your junk, and when a zombie dies it'll send a little 100 amp jolt.

 

Then maybe you'll not want to know quite so much.

 

/Fighting xp popups since 1971

[Tin]

Madmole did not say they would NEVER make it possible to mod out the xp gains announcements. As I said, he among others feel that it is important that the moment of death is well communicated. I don't share this sentiment but understand it. He has said that when the time is right they will look at giving modders what they want and need and it seems that this could very well be part of it though we won't know for sure until it actually happens.

 

When he makes a post justifying why the xp pop-ups are there, and down plays the need to have an option to get rid of it..

yeah, he didn't say it wouldn't happen, but it doesn't exactly bode well that it would happen. I know they have, higher priorities to take care of and it's understandable.. still would be cool if it did happen

 

That being said, ppl posting and trash talking the dev's (a dev) isn't helping anything either.. It just makes ppl trench in more.

[ReaperXGen]

Idea 4 books!

 

these books are cool, but they won't last long. when you read them all, you just throw away or sell, but I suggest making them re-readable. in other words, each time you read a book, your stats grow, like it was with recipes books in A15 and bellow. for instance, I read Enforcer: Damage and get +5% to magnum damage, as dev diary says. But if I find the same book and read it again, I get +10% dmg to magnum, and so on until some limit (e.g. +50%).

[Guppycur]

Madmole, it's not about NOT knowing if a zombie is dead, it's about KNOWING they are. I don't want definitive knowledge of that... I want to be surprised, scared, unsure and in potential trouble THROUGHOUT my game experience.

 

These elements are particularly missing when fighting an xp horde, or as you call them, a wandering horde.

 

Beat one until we know it's dead, back up, repeat.

 

I've already countered PART of the problem via a mod (randomizes their get up time after a knock down) but the xp notification is pretty obvious.

 

No one (I know) is asking that you do anything more than make it a separate xui piece so that it CAN be disabled. Right now it's part of other notifications as well, so disabling it also disables notifications people want.

 

Surely this is a reasonable request.

 

Thanks.

[Roland]

When he makes a post justifying why the xp pop-ups are there, and down plays the need to have an option to get rid of it..

yeah, he didn't say it wouldn't happen, but it doesn't exactly bode well that it would happen. I know they have, higher priorities to take care of and it's understandable.. still would be cool if it did happen

 

That being said, ppl posting and trash talking the dev's (a dev) isn't helping anything either.. It just makes ppl trench in more.

 

Well, I doubt that it would be Madmole exposing this particular part of the code anyway. Probably Prime or Kinyajuu. Please feel free to pester Prime about it during his streams....

[Jackelmyer]

Dear sir.

 

We regret to inform you that your opinion is incorrect.

 

Thank you for your application, however we have found other candidates more suitable to listen to.

 

...tell you what, I'll mail you a usb device that connects to your junk, and when a zombie dies it'll send a little 100 amp jolt.

 

Then maybe you'll not want to know quite so much.

 

/Fighting xp popups since 1971

 

But... It sounds like you're asking for a pop-up... I'm confused.

[Tin]

Well, I doubt that it would be Madmole exposing this particular part of the code anyway. Probably Prime or Kinyajuu. Please feel free to pester Prime about it during his streams....

 

I wouldn't be surprised that Kinyajuu, and Prime, gets to add things, but in the end It's the 3 owners (?! I think it's 3) who get the final say. Having one of those 3 say to make it happen, and it'll probably happen.

[Cirion]

FWIW, one of the best things about games like Dead space is not knowing if a creature you come across is already dead or not, so every body you come across you instinctively whack once or twice or thrice... you know... just to be sure... and the same thing for every thing you kill...

 

In 7d2d that uncertainty just isn't there.

[Trekkan]

And this is where WE divide . Removing that entire lower right corner abomination of distracting images sounds like the best solution. Who really needs it? Throw it all out and enjoy the benefits of ambiguous zombie deaths AND less screen clutter. Somehow we all survived without it for 12 Alphas worth of gathering and harvesting.

 

No thank you. I'm all for making it an option (can't have too many options IMO) though.

[Roland]

No thank you. I'm all for making it an option (can't have too many options IMO) though.

 

Seeing as how I was talking about modding it to Jax, an option it would be.

[JaxTeller718]

Seeing as how I was talking about modding it to Jax, an option it would be.

 

I think from this point forward, and in all our future interactions we should have a pop up that lets others know that anything we discuss from this point on is in reference to moddability or additional options.

 

You know, so people can be sure, like for sure sure.

[Trekkan]

I think from this point forward, and in all our future interactions we should have a pop up that lets others know that anything we discuss from this point on is in reference to moddability or additional options.

 

You know, so people can be sure, like for sure sure.

 

As this isn't a 7d2d modding thread, but a "Dev Diary", it shouldn't be expected that everyone can keep up with all of the various and vague inferences people are making. If you're having a personal conversation within the thread, then that probably isn't the best place for it either.

 

But as this is apparently acceptable within this thread, it is what it is and I'm clearly the one with the problem here.