Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[madmole]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

[Keyller76]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

Can we play with you ?

[bitmapman]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

I'm glad to hear the pacing seems to have been slowed down a bit. I feel like it should take some time to advance to the next technological era. The upgrade to iron/steel feels more significant and important when you've had to work at it for a while.

[beHypE]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

At this point it almost gets frustrating to read you haha

[Quantum Blue]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

(While I am replying to MM, if Gazz, faatal, Roland or UnholyJoe would like to answer as well, that would be great.)

 

I assume you play 'naturally' (surviving, not building a castle or bedrock day one, not necessarily hunting down every zombie, etc.).

 

How do you handle wandering hordes? Do you 'clear' them? Do you go after them whenever you notice?

 

Are you basing near a town? (r u basing at all?) (I believe MM said he based near a trader once.)

 

With all the looting (not derogatory by any means) do you find yourself at your base much?

 

Are you exploring at night?

 

Basically a small sense of what your 'style' is for A18 - especially if it's different than previous Alphas.

 

Thank you

[TSRViper]

Official 7 Days Coffee mugs! I'm so stoked about these!

 

Ordered 3 of them!

 

A family that slays together...

[Demonoid74]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

Oh look at me , I get to play the game before you all! Aren't we all hoity toity fancy pantsy!

 

lol just messin' around , keep up the good work and get this version nice , cleaned up and polished before release...so we do not have to listen to a few people bitch endlessly about some minor issue or other...

[Blake_]

So I go to all the work putting in the crucible in loot, at traders, etc and I find the one thing that was there the whole time, the crucible schematic. So happy, and it will be nice in future games finding one various ways, etc. Now I can make steel!!! Day 54 level 50.

 

Crucible is supposed to be a hell yeah find. Isn't it being in loot a little bit too much?.

The schematic does already do the job as it is found in loot, does it not? Those three ways to find it certainly makes things easy.

 

OCD pre a18 balancing here :greedy_dollars:

 

Edit: Actually , 4 ways to find crucible from what you just said: 1-loot 2-schematic in loot 3-trader 4-schematic in trader.

[ecv]

Hi Hotpoon. Just to explain to you my knowledge about how pathing AI works, as it can answer example 2. Imagine a grid across the distance between you and the zombies, and each grid square has a difficulty level attached to it. So a hill might be difficulty 5, a jumpable stone block might be 7, a tall block they can't jump over could be a 10. The pathfinding is done by calculating the least amount of resistance between you and them. If you have a wall between you and the zombies and you place something else between you (even if they can't see it), they can choose a different path to get to you.

Pathfinding is already relatively CPU intensive, as it has to calculate this several times a second. Now add that 7 days is a 3d world, so it has to calculate height patterns into the grid. Basically, to include sight and non-sight differences would make it even more intensive to calculate.

 

Example 1 is more likely that they follow your scent. The reason the zombies chose the door to bang on first in your second example, even though it might be just as strong as the walls, is because it favours your 'scent' (known as breadcrumbs in pathfinding).

 

So both behaviours are intended for the purpose that anything more will eat up more CPU usage.

 

Shouldn't it reduce CPU load to remove all possible paths from the calculation beforehand? It's the same as occlusion really. If the zombie can't see it, don't compute it.

 

If these calculations would be done per grid and vantage point, and not per zombie, it would only be done when a block significant to the calculation breaks or gets placed.

It is a bit odd that a zombie will climb up stairs to find a hole in the roof instead of attacking the door in front of it on ground level.

 

If grid based isnt on the menu, perhaps you can take out paths that are too far outside the direct line to the player. If the zombie has to deviate more than say 10 degrees, it's out of the calculation.

 

Unless you've left a trail by using that hole yourself. I'd love zombies reacting to a trail the player leaves. That's coming with a18, right?

 

The golden rule of dynamic pathing is always culling as much as possible beforehand, it's usually cheaper to calculate what's not needed and then calculate the load than to explore all possibilities.

In my experience at least.

[Roland]

(While I am replying to MM, if Gazz, faatal, Roland or UnholyJoe would like to answer as well, that would be great.)

 

I assume you play 'naturally' (surviving, not building a castle or bedrock day one, not necessarily hunting down every zombie, etc.).

 

I play naturally by which I mean my activities are governed by daily objectives I give myself like "I need wood" or "I need food and water" or "I need cobblestone" or "I want to scavenge" or "I want to do a job or trade with the trader". My activities are not governed primarily by "I want to level up". Leveling up and gaining xp happen as I play and they are hardly ever the reason for doing things. Now, thanks to the xp bar I sometimes notice that I'm close and I do admit at those times I annoyingly start thinking in terms of doing some things to "top off the bar".

 

"How do you handle wandering hordes? Do you 'clear' them? Do you go after them whenever you notice?"

 

In the beginning when it takes several hits to down a zombie I only interact with them when they come right at me-- usually when I'm exploring a POI. I don't clear them, I usually lead them away and kill a few. When they are passing by but not right at me I usually let them go and don't kill a single one. Later, when I can kill them in a single hit or two I am more aggressive and will clear a horde but I usually don't take time to go after a horde that isn't pointed right at me if I'm in the middle of something else I want to do.

 

Are you basing near a town? (r u basing at all?) (I believe MM said he based near a trader once.)

 

I usually upgrade a POI for the first two horde nights. My current favorite POI is a remnant of a building (usually in a town) that exists in A17. It is a three story corner of a building with the first floor filled with destroyed stone, the second floor has an enclosed room (and a desk outside) and the third floor also has an enclosed room. It is easy to reinforce and surround with spikes and to defend. Usually during the second week I start my own base usually near the trader and start transferring my stuff to it. Then I spend the second horde night in the POI not caring if it gets destroyed and not planning to replace spikes etc.

 

With all the looting (not derogatory by any means) do you find yourself at your base much?

 

I don't stay at my base much at all. Ever since A16 I lost my fear of going out at night. In A16 the stealth was OP and the zombies completely broken at night so it was simplicity to do whatever you wanted. In A17 you were so much faster than anything else there was no fear. Just run away and you were safe. In A18 it is tougher but now I'm a habitual night crawler so I still go out and chop trees dig clay and mine rocks so I can spend my days scavenging. I spend bloodmoon at my base to defend it but otherwise I'm out. Once I find operational workstations in the area I mark them and use them instead of making my own so I'm making my rounds to those as well and I love doing quests so I'm often traveling to those locations.

 

Are you exploring at night?

 

I do everything at night except try and clear POIs at least in the beginning. I might try doing it once I can one-shot zeds with the sneaking bonus but if there is still one thing I'm a bit too scared to do it is to do close quarter fighting in the dark with sprinting zombies. But out in the open world they are the easiest things in the world to avoid and kill when necessary. Once I start building my base I usually do most of the laying of blocks and such at night because once my walls are high enough it is completely safe to do so. I haven't sat still in a dark base waiting for morning since A15.

 

Basically a small sense of what your 'style' is for A18 - especially if it's different than previous Alphas.

 

I never looked at xp and leveling as the main point of the game. When those elements were added I treated them as icing on the cake so my general style of play has never changed from when there wasn't any levels or xp to even think about. I tried as an experiment back in A15 where I played the game focused on spam crafting and running from trader to trader selling oil barrels and such but it wasn't for me.

[Roland]

Crucible is supposed to be a hell yeah find. Isn't it being in loot a little bit too much?.

The schematic does already do the job as it is found in loot, does it not? Those three ways to find it certainly makes things easy.

 

OCD pre a18 balancing here :greedy_dollars:

 

Edit: Actually , 4 ways to find crucible from what you just said: 1-loot 2-schematic in loot 3-trader 4-schematic in trader.

 

5 ways: F1 cm lightbulb profit....

 

 

/what?

 

[ecv]

I'm just asking for an OPTION that would have more of a concrete presence of rules where it would be hard to put in CM and do these things like changing the time for convenience sake. One reason why I don't like fast traveling in MMOs is that it breaks emersion but if that's an option I'd be an idiot not to use it. I'm not telling you to remove console command as your beer analogy implies.

 

If I were to forget my bag of cocaine at your place after a fun evening, would you blame me for you snorting it all in one go and nearly die? Because if it's there, you have to take it?

 

Really, don't dismiss the advice to get some help to learn self control. You can end up in a very bad place if you always have to use all options just because they are available. And I can tell you: that's not normal, that's some strange impulse you've got there. No offense meant, just concern

[sillls]

Not bad for an old fat guy. Getting them wheels back one day at a time.

 

 

ROFL

[ecv]

I've been sayin that from the beginning, in an apocalyptic viral Z survival game the only end game possible is a cure for the virus, every last Z is dead & civil society is re-established...

Sounds like too much work for me, I just want to kill Z's, mine & build shhittt…

I have been against bosses also, tougher Z's but no Freakin bosses...

The Pimps have broken the mold on game design...

I see no reason to Gorilla Glue the mold back together...

 

There was a hint to find survivors & their outpost in the original story line that has been deleted & changed with no mention of finding a cure in 7 days or die...

I still stick to it though...

I still play the game Naked & Afraid in my classic Tidy Whitie's...

 

It would be a great easter egg if you get a "well done, you've won the game" after you've killed #insert current world population here, subtract kids and elders,since they apparently can't be zombies and all died# zombies on the same playthrough

[Blake_]

four ways: F1 cm lightbulb profit....

 

 

/what?

 

 

LOL. Good one.

[Roland]

Anyone who wants it can just PM me their server info and I'll log on and say, "Well done Survivor. You've won the game."

 

Then you can shoot me in the face, quit your game momentarily to go stare at the credits, and then log back in to continue playing the "after game" bonus material.

 

You're Welcome.

 

 

#Trollandisendgame

[Blake_]

Anyone who wants it can just PM me their server info and I'll log on and say, "Well done Survivor. You've won the game."

 

Then you can shoot me in the face, quit your game momentarily to go stare at the credits, and then log back in to continue playing the "after game" bonus material.

 

You're Welcome.

 

 

#Trollandisendgame

 

I feel you. All I want is a server option that says: WASD keys not allowed. Only teleportation to move.

[madmole]

(While I am replying to MM, if Gazz, faatal, Roland or UnholyJoe would like to answer as well, that would be great.)

 

I assume you play 'naturally' (surviving, not building a castle or bedrock day one, not necessarily hunting down every zombie, etc.).

 

How do you handle wandering hordes? Do you 'clear' them? Do you go after them whenever you notice?

 

Are you basing near a town? (r u basing at all?) (I believe MM said he based near a trader once.)

 

With all the looting (not derogatory by any means) do you find yourself at your base much?

 

Are you exploring at night?

 

Basically a small sense of what your 'style' is for A18 - especially if it's different than previous Alphas.

 

Thank you

Yes I have a decent base:

 

I loot almost every day. If a wandering horde comes my way they get my fist. I chose a fortitude build. I kill every animal I see, and usually harvest all the guts off the road so I can craft a lot of glue, which is used for repair kits to sell everything in pristine condition, except tier 1 stuff I scrap and sell the parts.

 

I usually perform quests for the trader, but sometimes explore and just clear random POIs that might have what I feel like I need at the moment.

 

I don't mine until after the first week. I do some buried treasure quests for the trader which gets me enough clay combined with a bit of stone mining to get a flagstone base going which I upgrade at least the bottom two layers to cobblestone. Not to mention money, at t1 food and food recipes, and a super food item (grandpa's or mega crush) which is extremely handy early game. Then I do t2 digs which have various great loot from any category, hoping to get armor or a good weapon.

 

After the first week of mostly looting and a basic 9x9 tower base, I usually have acquired iron tools and I might start grabbing a few mining perks, or I will grab them right away to help dig faster on week one. So once I have good tools I'll head back to previously marked mining locations and start digging, a new one every night so I have lead, nitrate and coal to get my bullet factory going. This is assuming I've located a workbench.

 

I build near a trader, typically trader Joel in the pine forest. I figured out that there is a trader in every biome, you just have to take every side road you see on the map and you will find them eventually.

 

After several successful hordes I decided to add on a nice back yard and a future mansion. I think I took about 3 days off to do this. THe mansion is just a blueprint nothing cool but a block out. No roof even. Its not needed its just fluff.

 

I think I started a roof garden by week 3. By then I had a few seeds found and got it going. But yeah my usual day is do a quest or loot, usual night is mine, but I do gas runs at night sometimes, where I just drive down the road and harvest every car I see. Whatever I'm running low on.

 

The best thing about this build is looting, and perks now take a nice runner up because you can build any particular character pretty strong with just one attribute then cherry pick the other stuff you want. But finding schematics and books is pure joy, and with like 300 or more to find its awesome. Some might be meh to you, but a treasure to the next guy, depends on your build at the time. Some really augment your specialty nicely.

 

I put some decorative plants in my back yard little oasis I'm working on, so I know when to go to the rooftop and harvest the main farm, and it looks nice.

 

Last night and today I started exploring. I found a trader Bobs in the desert and it was a LOT of fun. I took the 4x4 gas hog but it was great because its faster than the minibike and massive storage. Its nice just looting random POIs, but I tend to do quests. But when ammo is low I'll do smaller POIS until I get my stockpile back up then I'll do a t4 quest usually, the T5's take to long for me and are too big, a day and a half sometimes isn't worth it, where most T4's I can get done in a day no problem.

[madmole]

Ordered 3 of them!

 

A family that slays together...

 

Nice! Thanks!

[madmole]

Oh look at me , I get to play the game before you all! Aren't we all hoity toity fancy pantsy!

 

lol just messin' around , keep up the good work and get this version nice , cleaned up and polished before release...so we do not have to listen to a few people bitch endlessly about some minor issue or other...

 

Oh no matter how long we take nothing will stop that.

[madmole]

Crucible is supposed to be a hell yeah find. Isn't it being in loot a little bit too much?.

The schematic does already do the job as it is found in loot, does it not? Those three ways to find it certainly makes things easy.

 

OCD pre a18 balancing here :greedy_dollars:

 

Edit: Actually , 4 ways to find crucible from what you just said: 1-loot 2-schematic in loot 3-trader 4-schematic in trader.

 

I put it in destroyed forges, along with the other forge mods. Its rare, so we'll see. It costs 5k with no perks I think, so its not cheap but worth it. After over 50 hours looking for the schematic I felt we had to make more options to get one, I don't want players to have to get INT 10 just to craft one, there needs to be other ways about it. Thats what 18 is all about, freedom to build your character without needing to be level 150 to get the basics you want. There are a lot of ways to do it now without INT.

[Blake_]

I put it in destroyed forges, along with the other forge mods. Its rare, so we'll see. It costs 5k with no perks I think, so its not cheap but worth it. After over 50 hours looking for the schematic I felt we had to make more options to get one, I don't want players to have to get INT 10 just to craft one, there needs to be other ways about it. Thats what 18 is all about, freedom to build your character without needing to be level 150 to get the basics you want. There are a lot of ways to do it now without INT.

 

Seems good to me. If the chance is low, every source counts.I also got the crucible on day 50-60 before you made those tweaks, so having choices is a very welcoming improvement .

 

Any word on the special perk bonuses for those perks that have their schematic equivalent?

[Demonoid74]

Oh no matter how long we take nothing will stop that.

 

True that...sigh…

 

Oh well , definitely looking forward to A18 and starting my first real character build with Fists and continuing my punching everything to death thru every game possible! FO1,2,Tactics,3,Vegas,76...and Skyrim , among others...

[Quantum Blue]

Roland, MadMole: Thank you so much for the responses. Very informative and helps manage the 'need' for A18.

[unholyjoe]

(While I am replying to MM, if Gazz, faatal, Roland or UnholyJoe would like to answer as well, that would be great.)

 

I assume you play 'naturally' (surviving, not building a castle or bedrock day one, not necessarily hunting down every zombie, etc.).

 

How do you handle wandering hordes? Do you 'clear' them? Do you go after them whenever you notice?

 

Are you basing near a town? (r u basing at all?) (I believe MM said he based near a trader once.)

 

With all the looting (not derogatory by any means) do you find yourself at your base much?

 

Are you exploring at night?

 

Basically a small sense of what your 'style' is for A18 - especially if it's different than previous Alphas.

 

Thank you

 

I have told others how I play but I do feel some don't believe me or take me serious but this is the truth.

 

My A18 play style... I DO play as a nomad with temporary bases, I usually find a bookstore/tool shop (the one floor types where I make wood bars around the top to shoot down at the BM) and I commadere it. What I mean by temporary bases is that I may stay in one place a few days to a week or may even stay fix it up for Blood Moon and move on to a different place and repeat.

 

I seriously do not waste my time with scavenging for resources other then food/water the 1st couple days then once I obtain a crossbow and make iron bolts, then I just hunt animals now and again for my food, sometimes after finding seeds I will make plots to grow some food and cook good meals. My main fighting style is melee with reinforce club as quick as I can get or make one and hope to find the spike mod but not much luck in past 2 games.

 

I place points in my stamina and health regen to maintain myself in fights and sickness and points to minimize my stamina drain. I only upgrade my gear when I find it or I may do a quest now and again to see if i get something worth getting. My play styles is purposely based on playing slow and enjoying the game as if I was a new player to the game... this way I hopefully relay my experiences to the team in hopes that they see what I am really testing... I don't feel the need to race to the end of a game because I been there and done that so at almost 62... I slow down now and try to bat for the new players and hope to make a game that they can play and understand but that we don't make a Disney Game for them either. (not knocking Disney, but if a person buys a zombie survival game... I don't think they wanted to play Duck Tales.) which actually was a fun game back in the day.

 

So I will reinforce my bases for Blood Moon (using resources from many pois i clear out to upgrade the brick to cobblestone) but I don't waste my time with trying to beat the clock... I just like to take my time and survive if I can. Oh, I play single player and if you read most of the complaints about how other people play... that is why... and I don't cheat on my long term games. So far the best I have done was get up to a minibike (but not in current LT test, I am still on a bicycle).

 

Do I have any tips or pointers... ole hell yeah... but I am not telling... the fun in the game is to learn those for yourself.

 

I am serious when I stated it earlier... I dare people to forget about how they used to play and enjoy the game one time just to check it out and afterwards... give hell.. and let us know what happened. Hope I answered your questions. Also... I am playing game just fine without forcing what I need points on... my next unofficial test will be to level and survive without using any perks/points.. not as hard as you think but is to prove to those who say the game can't be played without speccing into a build. Oh and after more than 10K hrs in this game... each one i try is different in some way.