Jump to content

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!


madmole

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!  

3 members have voted

  1. 1. Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

    • A18 Stable is Out!
      2
    • :)
      1


Recommended Posts

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.

 

It wasn't a personal conversation. It was a conversation about the xp gain announcements in the lower corner of the screen. As part of that conversation Jax was making the point that it was all or nothing when modding that aspect out. I quoted him in my answer that I would vote for modding all of it out.

 

That was it. I wasn't stating that the devs should remove all harvesting announcements etc. There is no problem on your part and no personal conversations happening and when (not if) the thread goes off the rails I'll fix it. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I play a lot of the game called Squad. That game give no positive indication if you killed someone. You rely on other things like going up to his face and seeing the non-moving corpse and communications from squad mates. A visual indicator that your target is dead is just meh arcadish. Right up there with the red enemy HP bar shown during a17 development. The Exp pop-ups in A17 really takes away immersion from the game in favor of whack-a-mole arcades. Why all this arcade push from TFP since A17 is not understood.

 

Don't go towards wack-a-mole mode. Embrace the challenge of uncertainty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it can be modded out with SDX but you know...

 

Well be careful there. Modding is already other dimension speak. We start adding SDX talk in there now we run the risk of some Inception type stuff popping off.

 

Ill ask a vanilla question. Are there plans to expand upon quest types in the future? Not tiers but more categories besides Clear/Fetch etc. I know followers arent going to be a thing but I think it would be a bit hilarious to have a quest to escort someone, just so people who hated them in other games can hate them here too lol.

 

How about a retrieve the airdrop quest where initiating the quest calls a random airdrop you have to retrieve?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd love more objectives and more requirements, and I'd especially love if the two were mutually exclusive. I don't like that requirements er, require an objective in order to work.

 

you see I disagree with my fellow Texan...

 

I like a multi-tier system of you need this in order to make this or move on to next step.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

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

 

:-p

 

I have never seen Roland play, does he play/stream on a particular server?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have never seen Roland play, does he play/stream on a particular server?

 

I play single player and co-op with my brother and mom on her private server. I have tried making videos but try as I might I can't talk and play at the same time. I always sink into a silent zone of concentration and if I try to talk while playing I become stupid. So I have done some videos where I play and then go back and watch and make comments after the fact but that takes a long time. Playing for an audience is not really my calling...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

I don't have time to answer every question. Our general response to new option requests is that unless it adds replay value or makes the game more accessible we usually don't consider it. Furthermore, having a sea of options can be overwhelming to new players. "Disable XP indicator" hmmm what does this do? Should I disable it? This is a clear example of a great mod, not an option for the default game IMO.

 

I don't recall being impolite. Some people these days tend to take no as an insult, or are looking to be insulted or to over dramatize something. How am I acting tough?

 

At the end of the day we can't be distracted by every little requests because every time we do another major feature isn't finished or is delayed and there are more people who want the game finished than want the xp popout removed. So we have to a, do what keeps us in business, and b, do what most customers expect us to do, which is finish the game. I went to the lockpick design and reworked it to something we could do, and now its done. I think a lot more people want lockpicking than xp popout to go away.

 

Anyhow, I totally get the request, but its not fitting into a18 is all. Maybe down the road. I did manage to convince the team lockpicking was an essential part of the stealth player and I came up with a low scope design, and its done. So trust me good ideas we resonate with can happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know followers arent going to be a thing but I think it would be a bit hilarious to have a quest to escort someone, just so people who hated them in other games can hate them here too lol.

 

We all know this would become a "shoot the follower for the lulz" quest. :)

 

On topic - I just looked at quests.xml. There is quite a lot of promise there, though you would have to work within the confines of the current objective types.

 

It would be nice if you could define your own objective type, but given how much they seem to be connected to the core game mechanics, I'm going to predict this is unlikely to happen.

 

I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have something better. I can confirm lockpicking safes.

 

I have 2 questions regarding the lockpicks.

1 - It says here that lockpicking safes is confirmed. Do they work on doors too? It would be nice to have them work on doors too if it's meant to help with stealth play.

2 - C4 was meant to be used to quietly open safes and doors I think. Is C4 still coming? If so, what would you use it for, now that you can open safes more quietly with lockpicks. Would you use lockpicks on safes and C4 on doors maybe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have time to answer every question. Our general response to new option requests is that unless it adds replay value or makes the game more accessible we usually don't consider it. Furthermore, having a sea of options can be overwhelming to new players. "Disable XP indicator" hmmm what does this do? Should I disable it? This is a clear example of a great mod, not an option for the default game IMO.

 

I don't recall being impolite. Some people these days tend to take no as an insult, or are looking to be insulted or to over dramatize something. How am I acting tough?

 

At the end of the day we can't be distracted by every little requests because every time we do another major feature isn't finished or is delayed and there are more people who want the game finished than want the xp popout removed. So we have to a, do what keeps us in business, and b, do what most customers expect us to do, which is finish the game. I went to the lockpick design and reworked it to something we could do, and now its done. I think a lot more people want lockpicking than xp popout to go away.

 

Anyhow, I totally get the request, but its not fitting into a18 is all. Maybe down the road. I did manage to convince the team lockpicking was an essential part of the stealth player and I came up with a low scope design, and its done. So trust me good ideas we resonate with can happen.

 

With all due respect, I have been in the xml and I have been in the dll. Making it so modders can unhook the xp pop up from the rest of the popups just isnt an all day project. I just feel we are going to go in circles here so I guess Ill consider our request denied.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With all due respect, I have been in the xml and I have been in the dll. Making it so modders can unhook the xp pop up from the rest of the popups just isnt an all day project. I just feel we are going to go in circles here so I guess Ill consider our request denied.

 

He's confused the request for allowing it to be separated from other UI elements to be moddable, with it being a request for a vanilla option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyhow, I totally get the request, but its not fitting into a18 is all. Maybe down the road. I did manage to convince the team lockpicking was an essential part of the stealth player and I came up with a low scope design, and its done. So trust me good ideas we resonate with can happen.

 

I thank you for taking it into consideration. And don't worry about me, I've managed to remove it from the game for myself so that will tie me over until you guys find time to handle it. I lose EAC by doing it but hey-ho, I never play on servers anyways :)

 

And kudos on the lockpicking ... and I am sorry in advance for saying this ... but that got me thinking :p Oh, you must really hate me by now :D

 

It would be kinda awesome if the end safe for the bigger POI dungeons could have a code to open them, much like you can put on the doors in addition to the usual busting them open and the upcoming lockpicking skill. Could be great if you haven't really specced into lockpicking(here I am guessing it will be gated in a perk) or missing lockpicks or don't really have the tools to bash through it.

 

The thing is though, in order to use the code you will need to find it inside the POI somewhere where it could be hidden either in a desk or on a dead body or maybe showing on a computer screen or whiteboard or something like that...pinned on a fridge maybe? That could give incentive to really explore the POI's that you guys have been working so hard on instead of just rushing through to the end reward. And this you would be able to do on level 1, day 1 with no tools and no perks/skills. You would just need to use your head and explore the POI which will in turn make the experience more dangerous in the beginning :)

 

And yeah I know you lot are busy and probably will just scoff of this idea right now, but hey ... at least now it is out there :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thank you for taking it into consideration. And don't worry about me, I've managed to remove it from the game for myself so that will tie me over until you guys find time to handle it. I lose EAC by doing it but hey-ho, I never play on servers anyways :)

 

And kudos on the lockpicking ... and I am sorry in advance for saying this ... but that got me thinking :p Oh, you must really hate me by now :D

 

It would be kinda awesome if the end safe for the bigger POI dungeons could have a code to open them, much like you can put on the doors in addition to the usual busting them open and the upcoming lockpicking skill. Could be great if you haven't really specced into lockpicking(here I am guessing it will be gated in a perk) or missing lockpicks or don't really have the tools to bash through it.

 

The thing is though, in order to use the code you will need to find it inside the POI somewhere where it could be hidden either in a desk or on a dead body or maybe showing on a computer screen or whiteboard or something like that...pinned on a fridge maybe? That could give incentive to really explore the POI's that you guys have been working so hard on instead of just rushing through to the end reward. And this you would be able to do on level 1, day 1 with no tools and no perks/skills. You would just need to use your head and explore the POI which will in turn make the experience more dangerous in the beginning :)

 

And yeah I know you lot are busy and probably will just scoff of this idea right now, but hey ... at least now it is out there :D

 

Gotta say this sounds like a great idea!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey everyone we're still fixing bugs and working on Alpha 17. But some of us (artists and world builders) are moving on to Alpha 18. That said, here are a few features I can confirm. We will update this post with more content as it comes. Alpha 17 took way too long. BUT, it was a huge framework build and now we are done changing major systems and done adding framework. From here forward its optimizations, bug fixes, polish, and new content, in that order of priority.

 

Also, Alpha 18 waits for noone or no feature. If a feature isn't ready it gets disabled. I can't give a release date but I can assure you its in the first half of 2019.

 

Confirmed features:

Book overhaul:

The truth is we ran out of time with A17 and lost all our books to the new perk system. One of the goals of the new perk system was to not have major content or character classes/ roleplays being blocked by random number generation or "can't find this book to craft a bike, etc". So we achieved that but books were always fun to find. So I've created over 100 (possibly 130 ish) new books that permanently unlock a perk. They are not super powerful but designed to augment your perk investment and make you feel a little more specialized. Each book set once you read all of them unlocks a special collector perk that IS quite POWERFUL. Here are a few examples:

 

Enforcer Books

Enforcer: Damage Do 5% more damage with magnums

Enforcer: Apparel Take 5% less damage when wearing a suit

Enforcer: Unlucky Punks Do you feel lucky? The last shot does double damage

Enforcer: Intimidation Bartering with a magnum drawn gives you a 5% better deal.

Enforcer: Ammunition Vendors have more magnum ammo for sale

Enforcer: Corrupt Cops Do 5% more damage to cops

Enforcer: Bulk ammunition Bulk craft 44 Magnum ammunition

Enforcer Collector perk Shots from magnums have a high chance to dismember

 

The Great Heist Books

 

The Great Heist: Safes Do 10% more damage to safes.

The Great Heist: Gems & Jewels Find more jewelry and precious gems in safes.

The Great Heist: C4 Can craft C4 which does massive damage to doors and safes with minimal structural damage or heat map. C4 is made from scrap iron, scrap polymers, gunpowder and acid.

The Great Heist: Claimed! Do 20% more damage to land claimed property.

The Great Heist: Adrenaline Fall Can fall up to 30 meters without taking damage when carrying 5000 or more dukes.

The Great Heist: Sprint Sneaking Use no stamina from sprint sneaking.

The Great Heist Collection Perk Adds a chance to sneak past auto turrets

 

Automatic Weapons

 

Automatic Weapons: Damage Automatic weapons do 5% more damage

Automatic Weapons: Uncontrolled Burst Fully automatic mode does 1% more damage per hit until you miss.

Automatic Weapons: Maintenance 50% less degradation

Automatic Weapons: Rifleman Increases range of controlled bursts by 20 meters

Automatic Weapons: Recoil Reduces recoil significantly

Automatic Weapons: Incendiary ammo Can craft short range explosive rounds, great for raiding buildings and doing mass damage up close.

Automatic Weapons Collection Perk Successive shots to the same target have a high chance of dismemberment

 

There are books based on every major play style and focused on every weapon. We will probably remove the existing perk books, but keep the ingredient based schematic system for crafting advanced items.

 

New Weapons:

M60 Heavy Machine Gun

Double Barrel Shotgun

C4

 

New Gear: TBA

 

New Environment Art:

Covered wagon and wheel:

Industrial Coffee Maker:

 

would love to see the M249 Machine gun added as well. have it set with a higher rate of fire than the M60 heavy Machine gun! Just a thought to consider:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...