Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[wolfbain5]

I have often heard that trigger plates cause lags. Have you had any trouble with that?

 

I play solo, had 36 pressure plates out, no lag but only half were ever active at a time. solo 32 alive

[ZombieHorde]

Some good points there. I didn’t mean all builds should be alike. I meant that all builds should have some way of killing for horde night, but in a different style. One build has big guns, another traps, etc.. I’m probably just worried for no reason only because of how things can be interpreted on these forums.

 

If the build is TFP approved, that’s good enough for me until I play it.

 

 

Loc

 

A subway WOULD be cool - and even cooler if it was more than just a prefab.

 

For example, please the Duke and you can ride the subway to get around the map.

 

The trains station is a way for people to get out of the zombie effected area and therefore to safety. One of your roles as game hero can be to save NPC's.

 

Become a diplomat for the Duke and get to travel out of Navezgane (with the possibility of 'winning' as you are now safe).

 

The train station is the only way to the Duke's castle. But before you think of battling him, make sure you're at least on par with Thor's abilities or you'll suffer insta-death - in real life. Somehow his minions come out of the computer screen and get you. So be prepared!

 

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41. I predict streamer weekend on the 20th.

 

*Prepping the beard sauce again*

[dhlmaster]

Sounds like a bug. Gamestage isn’t supposed to be connected to the global day count. It is supposed to be based on your own personal days survived and your level.

 

This happens when you are in an area where higher gamestage players have been recently. They run through an area, zombies spawn, the sleeper volumes retain memory of what zombies were there for a certain amount of time. If a low gamestage character comes through afterward, they get the high gamestage zombies. Sleeper volumes retaining memory for awhile was a feature of a17 because people complained that in a16 you could duck out of a POI and walk back in, and there would be completely different zombies.

[ZombieHorde]

Auto turrets could do the same thing, but yeah not a bad idea, a trap wired chest. THe chest survives obviously, but the guys who try to get in get rekt. The only issue is your chopping the boxes next to it and hit by accident? rare but imagine dying from that lol.

 

Not the silliest way I would have died.

 

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Quality 6 can be like a quality 3 sometimes lol. Rare but I've seen it. OMG LOOK AT THIS PINK SHINY... ♥♥♥♥ YOU GAME!!!

 

I don't understand the ethos behind this. Why would a qual 6 be worse than qual 3? Do you mean that it's damage is worse so you have to fix it?

[dhlmaster]

I don't understand the ethos behind this. Why would a qual 6 be worse than qual 3? Do you mean that it's damage is worse so you have to fix it?

 

The stats may be worse, but the number of mod slots is higher, so I'm guessing that if you fully modded the T6 weapon it should turn out to be just as good or maybe better. Just guessing, based on what has been said.

[andrough]

3. There are other zombies that don't seem to have radiated versions, will those be introduced at some point? I'd love to see a radiated burning zombie that bursts into a molotov-like fire bomb if he dies to a headshot, and can spit fire from a distance (only with clean line of sight to avoid burning his kin), and is immune to fire himself. A fireman zombie? The snow biome could use another zombie, like a frozen hiker. I love special zeds, they'e great. I can't wait to hear what you guys come up with.

 

I think that fire zombie would be a blast to fight. I agree- bring on the special zeds and more elemental stuff.

 

Example:

 

 

 

 

 

Ugh, with the ambient effects, the whole world would be one of those Far Cry missions.

[sillls]

Will we be able to upgrade Iron Bars to Steel Bars in A18?

 

Ask Roland about that, you can tell from his avatar that he just loves bars.

[meganoth]

I have often heard that trigger plates cause lags. Have you had any trouble with that?

 

The same was said about solar panels, but TFP could never reproduce that effect. Possible explanations:

 

1) This happens if someone builds 5 things in a specific order while hitting the shift button 43 times and have two graphic cards in a crossfire/SLI setting with ambient occlusion turned off. Everyone else just has unfounded fear of solar panels and trigger plates.

 

2) In one or two alphas this actually was the case but was corrected a long time ago, now people perpetrate that old wisdom like it was a law of nature.

 

3) It is difficult to reproduce because it only happens in multiplayer after some other bug produced a state that isn't normal or valid anymore. So the effect may be similar to someone suddenly getting exceptions in his log whenever he mounts his vehicle (this happened to one of my group just yesterday). Server restart or even loggin out corrects that but obviously such a bug is very hard to pinpoint or reproduce. But like we still use vehicles despite them being buggy once every 100 hours we should simply use panels and plates. The worst that could happen is TFP finally getting a hint why it happens.

[Survager]

Yeah I can try recording clearing a POI and some mining.

 

ММ, I vote for cleaning POI! =) NEW POI! )

[sillls]

A subway WOULD be cool - and even cooler if it was more than just a prefab.

 

For example, please the Duke and you can ride the subway to get around the map.

 

The trains station is a way for people to get out of the zombie effected area and therefore to safety. One of your roles as game hero can be to save NPC's.

 

Become a diplomat for the Duke and get to travel out of Navezgane (with the possibility of 'winning' as you are now safe).

 

The train station is the only way to the Duke's castle. But before you think of battling him, make sure you're at least on par with Thor's abilities or you'll suffer insta-death - in real life. Somehow his minions come out of the computer screen and get you. So be prepared!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

*Prepping the beard sauce again*

 

While I like the subway idea TFP's would need to answer a few questions like:

 

1. How will a working subway work on the map in random gen, RG.

2. Would it just connect to city's or other places like neighborhoods, parks and so on?

3. Would players fast travel or would they travel normally?

4. What to do with zombies, bandits and other threats?

5. Would the subway be destructible like the rest of the world? If so what happens if it's damaged and the route crippled?

6, Finally, is the work put into building a subway and network be worth the time?

[sillls]

7 Days to Die, Day 91 horde night, Alpha 18. Sorry no demolishers spawned but Madmole had another epic blunder!

 

#7daystodie

 

 

Did you have SI turned off?

[meganoth]

I don't understand the ethos behind this. Why would a qual 6 be worse than qual 3? Do you mean that it's damage is worse so you have to fix it?

 

There is no fix, the stats just have such a big random range. This makes the quality value nearly useless at first. You still have to check the individual attributes even if you find a gun one or two steps below, because it might still be better than your gun.

 

I see a good reason for it though: It makes it possible to have an excellent gun with one value being really devastatingly bad, or a generally bad gun with one exceptional value. Will you still use it?

 

In light of this I would hope they made less important attributes of guns (or armors) have bigger random ranges than important attributes. Because even a relatively unimportant attribute might be important if it goes to one of the extremes. Block damage on most guns, handling and recoil on shotguns are examples of this.

 

Did you have SI turned off?

 

Why do you ask? That his stilt base was still standing is quite normal. I have tried to collapse whole appartement buildings and they often were holding up on a handful of blocks. SI is very forgiving in that regard.

[falloutcloud]

Yeah I can try recording clearing a POI and some mining.

 

I would like to see a clearing of one of the new POIs too! I would also like to see more of the book collection videos.

[Lonestarcanuck]

So if armor plates are just that plates. why can't I put any kind of plate on any kind of armor? it just goes into a pocket right?

[Gareee]

I REALLY DON'T want the new pois spoiled. Leave us some surprises!

 

@MADMOLE: I know you are at content lock, but since 18 exp is hitting in october, maybe some seasonal Halloween deco ike the christmas items could be worked in? Maybe rotted jack-o-lanterns on porches that could be used as an additional light sources, or a witches hat with loot properties like the lucky goggles?

 

The Graphic guys are probably just sitting on their thumbs anyway, and there are always those seasonal Halloween themed game recommendation lists.

 

Shame the demolishers didn't show up.... when they changed the damage to blocks maybe they broke them spawning in on horde nights?

[Survager]

Madmole, you have long said in one of the videos that in the 17th alpha additional types of barrels will be available: with water and with oil.

 

We got an analog of water barrels; these are 20 liter bottles and coolers. Do similar containers appear in Alpha 18 from which oil can be obtained?

 

Maybe it could just be black barrels at the service station?

[madmole]

I have been very curious on your strategy for clearing out POI's.

 

Go in fists blazing, pull guns out if I get surrounded, don't heal unless totally necessary (below 60 hp) Its starting to become a lot of radiated guys though, so we'll see. As long as they aren't armored its not bad.

[madmole]

Go to a doggos with a low level character. Then you know why people are afraid of dogs in the early game.

 

4 or 5 dogs run towards you while everywhere else the zombies just walk. The weapons used in the early game are the iron club and the bow. Firearms, if you have them, are only used in case of emergency and not all the time since you don't want to waste the scarce ammo for the slow zombies when you need them for the horde.

In addition, the dogs run very chaotically, making aiming difficult.

 

Your current judgement comes from your endgame character with strong firearms, thousands of rounds of ammo and armor to protect you. Of course dogs are no longer a big threat to this character.

 

I start questing immediately so I have an expendable income and buy ammo and find mines ASAP so I have all the ammo I need. All you need is a choke point and feed them melee one at a time, numbers are irrelevant then. Like they say in Skyrim "Only a fool lets himself get surrounded".

 

Anyhow you guys should know

[madmole]

Hey, MadMole, re: my question about the nailgun.

 

You thought it may be a bug. The reason I suggested it was sluggish isn't wasn't just in comparing it to the previous Alpha (prior to 17), but also because the claw hammer upgrades and repairs faster than the nailgun from what I see.

 

Maybe someone else on the forum could check and confirm or demonstrate to the contrary? 🤔

 

I would expect to see an increased speed and/or upgrade and repair % with the nailgun over the claw hammer since the former is a technological upgrade to the latter.

 

Hammer takes two hits, nailgun takes 1. The nailgun anim is a little sluggish though IMO.

[madmole]

Well, he did manage to become this high level a character, so the dogs seem to have been manageable up to that point

 

If I could melee 20 old glitchy dogs back in the day, then yeah they are nothing now. THe problem is people are stupid and don't use cover, don't wear armor, don't have a bandage ready, don't run away when it might be a losing battle, don't have meds, etc.

 

Doggos at level 1, lol. I still haven't been there because what kind of loot can a dog place have? But my point stands I jump down into the horde and melee dogs no problem on the earlier horde nights so I can harvest their leather and bones.

[madmole]

To help deal the zombies attacking the pillars i would place some dart traps on the iron bar on the side of pillars pointing downward. The zombies would be headshotted by the darts.

 

Yeah I thought of that after I got started but since it wasn't land claimed I couldn't pick them up We need at least 2 bedrolls and 2 land claims in options, or allow pickup of stuff if it ISN'T land claimed.)

[madmole]

@MM, some questions:

 

1. do you have an overhead image example of A18 RWG? I'm curious how the biome placement looks now. Is it still a patchwork like A17?

 

One question at a time please. No I don't but its basically 4 corners with a biome in the middle.

[madmole]

Now, did he mean 988773324 new biome types coming, or 988773324 individual biomes per map?

 

Example:

 

 

Nope, 4 corners with a blob in the middle.

[madmole]

ММ, I vote for cleaning POI! =) NEW POI! )

 

I don't do cleaning, but I will kill everything with fists in a vid

[madmole]

Did you have SI turned off?

 

Is that even a thing? NO I have default settings with 12 alive and 7 day air drops with markers. Going to try 16 alive on the next horde. I used to play 16 or 24 for sure, but then they decimated my fort in 30 seconds, since then we reduced block damage and have raised it and tweaked it a few times.