Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Morloc]

Fight to the death, problem solved. Whats this sissy running away business?

 

Normally I'd agree, but....the big green biker guys! ...a couple of those means jelly-death.

 

 

-Morloc

[SG1-09]

Shape selector will be one of the best features ever in 7D2d.

 

I was wondering if there will be new blocks, for examples :

 

1/2 arch, 1/2 stairs block ,1/2 block corner inside, 90° turned stair block. Or non existent blocks (wood pillar 50, wood pyramid, concrete\metal ramp incline filler, ...etc). I don't know if this has been said before.

[Jost Amman]

We've talked about them being trainers like in Skyrim/Oblivion. THey already have backstories and unused specialization, so if we did it, they would train in their area, like Joel is Armor, Hugh is weapons, bob is vehicles, Jen is intellect. Maybe factions might have trainers instead.

THIS!! Yes, that would be great!

Also gives the player more motivation to travel around the map and find all traders/trainers!

[JCrook1028]

Not trying to hype here at all. My son is a big Rust, Ark, Day Z fan. He's played 7 days in the past but usually cheated stuff in and never took it too serious and doesn't have a ton of hours in it. I gave him access to A18 and he played a good 8 hour stretch and loves it! He liked doing quests and loved random stats and all the loot, and specializing. He built a big fort even though I told him not to and that its better to wait until you get better tools. He did 5 quests in a day, I was impressed, but the dig quests are easy, only 300 meters away at tier 1. I think the improved animations made combat feel better to him, he plays fortnite a lot, so having better firearm mechanics and animations is important to him.

 

Anyhow I thought it was great he liked it a lot and I could tell he was totally immersed because he kept wanting to show me his base and gear he found. He didn't really get into A17. Drove the new vehicles (cheated them in) but didn't really get sucked into it. So this is awesome.

 

You can't always put your finger on what is wrong or off on something. But playing it a LOT myself revealed what it needed bit by bit. Its been a mountain of work for me personally but I know it will pay off. I'm super proud of A18 and I can't wait to get it out.

 

I'm so glad you're finally playing enough of it to see the issues and work on them. Now it's time for you to play with electricity. Let the Hype Train start boarding! We're chomping at the bit for A18.

[SG1-09]

Normally I'd agree, but....the big green biker guys! ...a couple of those means jelly-death.

 

 

-Morloc

 

 

Feral or radiated Bikers are the most brutal, indeed.

[toores]

I play default with 16 alive on horde night and only air drops once a week but markers on for air drops.

 

Why don't you guys add a lootable item "scanner" you can find that scans for air drop beacons. And delete the air drop marker option. Same outcome, but adds to the gameplay.

[AngryGamer]

I always wanted an industrial forge with more slots for smelting etc and a fast rate. Mods have sort of filled that void, but we're still confined to two smelt slots. We'll see.

 

Would love to see special industrial machinery like that, limited to POIs. More reason to explore and control certain areas.

[Viktoriusiii]

level gates were a bad way to slow progression

 

I... w... Is this what heaven sounds like? All my fighting... all my arguing... and I get supported by a dev... finally <3

I can rest easy now

 

And empty POIs because the world has used up all the alive zombie slots.

 

actually... that would be awesome! Not every house needs to be a cesspool of zombies.

Just the chance of an "easy" house is not a bad thing. You are super happy if you find one. Maybe (if you can) lower the reward... but I never liked having to fight 20 zombies in a 3 room flat. We aren't in Southamerica or Africa...

[Survager]

Fight to the death, problem solved. Whats this sissy running away business?

 

Insane + Always RUN + so much radiated zombies... sometimes it’s difficult to control the borders of the quest

[Thecolours]

Any secret stuff that will be in A18 that we dont know about yet? Or is everything that is coming pretty much known at this point.

[sillls]

We've talked about them being trainers like in Skyrim/Oblivion. THey already have backstories and unused specialization, so if we did it, they would train in their area, like Joel is Armor, Hugh is weapons, bob is vehicles, Jen is intellect. Maybe factions might have trainers instead.

 

Sounds great.

[Dreyseth]

There is an evil dead inspired cabin now. It might be trivial to find a book that summons a horde when you open it lol.

 

I have experienced that cabin and was definitely convinced that it was an homage rather than just some uncanny coincidence. Actually got me all worked up and really nervous to go down into the cellar, lol!

Congrats to the designer of that one and really the whole team creating all of these great POIs and getting them to evoke such a sense of backstory and purpose. It's so amazing that the 7Days toolset can be used to represent such a variety of easily recognizable real-world content. Really awesome stuff.

[sillls]

Any secret stuff that will be in A18 that we dont know about yet? Or is everything that is coming pretty much known at this point.

 

 

Do you really think that they are going to tell you that?

[Survager]

Any secret stuff that will be in A18 that we dont know about yet? Or is everything that is coming pretty much known at this point.

You need to act more subtly and accurately to find out something =)

[Demonoid74]

Even giving the different Traders all a different special recipe you can ONLY get from them...via quest or lots of $$$...or attaining a certain faction rank with them...would give plenty of reason to scout all of them out in every game world...especially if they are particularly usefully or desirable recipes...

[beerfly]

Insane + Always RUN + so much radiated zombies... sometimes it’s difficult to control the borders of the quest

 

There is gonna be a whole new Universe of perks, books, and stuff (not in that order) that will help us cope with these moments. And move on further.

 

You said it in your previous post, find something to bring you better experience by looting, gonna be great is it.

[Trankitas]

but I never liked having to fight 20 zombies in a 3 room flat. We aren't in Southamerica or Africa...

 

What do you mean? I live in South America and we don't live piled up in rooms. I don't know if you're xenophobic or just ignorant.

[SnowDog1942]

What do you mean? I live in South America and we don't live piled up in rooms. I don't know if you're xenophobic or just ignorant.

 

South American babes for the win.

[SG1-09]

Any plan to make Screamers creepier ?

 

In my last game i found one of them on the first floor of my base because i was irresponsible with open doors and activated forges. But it's the first time didn't hear her breath before.

 

I vote to make her climb up on the ceiling, turning head 180°. Lol

 

 

Seriously, have you ever thought about adding sleeping Screamers in POIs?

[Trankitas]

South American babes for the win.

 

We have some babes, yes. ^_^ Depends on the country.

[madmole]

Shape selector will be one of the best features ever in 7D2d.

 

I was wondering if there will be new blocks, for examples :

 

1/2 arch, 1/2 stairs block ,1/2 block corner inside, 90° turned stair block. Or non existent blocks (wood pillar 50, wood pyramid, concrete\metal ramp incline filler, ...etc). I don't know if this has been said before.

 

No new blocks will be added because they need upgrades and everything. We'll probably polish the new shape system more in A19 with some larger changes to data.

[madmole]

I'm so glad you're finally playing enough of it to see the issues and work on them. Now it's time for you to play with electricity. Let the Hype Train start boarding! We're chomping at the bit for A18.

 

Yes Rick and I both agreed that all the previous builds that were good we play tested a TON together and kind of got out of that habit for 17. The only way to really understand everything is to spend a lot of hours in the trenches as a player. It has gotten easier to spend that time lately because its finally getting really smooth and fun. I mean 7 Days has NEVER shut me down from playing Fallout or Skyrim at night (whichever one I'm into) before, but lately it has been. LIke I typically have 2 games I play at night, one new one and always a bit of a Bethesda game but lately its been pure 7 Days. I"m like I need to play some SKyrim, but this quest I could do, and yeah maybe I can squeeze in a horde night yet before bed lol... then its bed time.

[madmole]

Feral or radiated Bikers are the most brutal, indeed.

 

Yes I haven't seen those yet, so I might take off running. So far I've been holding my ground pretty well as a fortitude brawler.

[Blake_]

Content lock so A19 at the soonest.

 

NICE!.

 

Here are some things I have to say:

 

- I am impressed about the amount of content going in this alpha. Less time for more.

-About the players getting sandwitched in POIS by Zds: I agree with MM that getting bothered by those asses in the middle of a quest is not gameplay worthy except in some situations:

 

Let me put a basic example:

 

You have a 6 story building and you are on floor 4 when a wandering horde happens. Aside from the pinch of lag, the constant destroying and annoying sounds get old pretty fast as the Zds dont usually know how to get to you in that particular building (6 floor building tier 5 with one burnt floor and miners and stuff) and in many others.

 

BUT: in small houses (1 or 2 floors with attic and basement) those wandering hordes are cool and tend to generate rewarding, thrilling and dangerous situations.

 

Outside though, the number of Zds is sometimes too low.

 

In conclusion, the perfect situation for me would be a balance of the best of each situation:

 

1- Eliminate/Occlude/drastically reduce outside entity spawner when on big hardass POIs

2-Reduce the chance to have a wandering horde/ normal entity spawning when in any other POIs but not completely eliminate it as it generates fun.

 

3- Let the outside count of Zds be higher than it is now (10,20,30%) so we can, at one point, face up to 10-15 entities at a given time PLUS the ones that might appear in close POIS. Right now, with no POIS around, I rarely face 3 enemies at once.

Usually 1 or 2. And not very close together. Not exaggerating. No POIS around? no more than 3 guys. POIs around? maybe 7 with luck.

 

Wandering hordes when moving constantly are an extremely rare find when the player is outside.

I would suggest, when NPCs are in , to have a generous spawn rate of varied entities outside :

 

like 15 zds and 10 bandits tops at a given time (with no POIs around).

 

THAT and an insanely crazy slider on the rwg settings like Roland suggested would be more than enough to please and ensure that everyone is having fun.

 

 

Another topic: Any plans on making a 50.000 dukes Granpa's Life elixir with a semi-Dead is Dead mode that allows for the player to purchase extra lifes, or even buy lifes expending experience, objects or player levels? Neat sacrifice and it would be cool in the game for players that don't like PURE dead is dead. THAT is, when it gets in.

[Sigil_Thane]

Yes as I explained I clear the whole block and still get some jerks outside. If I'm trying to stealth through a POI their incessant pounding ruins the stealth play. They should F off after a bit if I'm crouched hidden for a while, or I cleared the surrounding area before I go in. Sound occlusion should help.

 

Is Sound Occlusion a known thing? It's not on the OP.

 

I can see it working both for and against a player... walking out of a building and face to face with a screamer (or other normally loud zed) for a surprise could really suck!