Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[JaxTeller718]

I rage quit and started a new character on the same map. Not sure why the 2nd one went just as bad lol, although I did spawn in the forest instead of the desert. So I died 3 times on day 1, then quit, restarted a new character and died 3x by day 3. I've got an AK and pistol now, doing fine, but getting attacked by wolves is just nasty early game. I want to remove all nasty things from biome spawing in a future alpha, and then do random encounters, which are leveled. Of course nasty biomes would have a raised game stage on these encounters but we could spare new players any hostile animals the first 5 levels or so and slowly add in nasty stuff, and increase the challenge as you level.

 

Removing biome spawning seems to be completely against what everyone seems to want. Chief complaint is how empty the world is with all the encounters being sleeper based. An event only system is just going to be boring.

 

At the risk of drawing your ire Im going to bounce some advice off you that you have given to countless other players. Get Good. We have been dealing with these animals for a few alphas now, and as a strict melee build who uses NO guns I have never had any extreme difficulty in handling them. Remember your game is also stealth based and strategy is important.

 

What everyone loves about it is the fact you arent locked into one build. You can melee, have a bow as backup and a gun for emergencies. If I am reading correctly either you're playing JUST to be a run and gunner or you have crippled variety. Its as if you must make a decision day one what character you will roll. If thats the case lets just add professions at the character select screen. It will save people the trouble of believing they have any type of choice in how they handle in game events.

 

The funny thing is I fully believe if you were not the developer of this game I think you would be in here raging at devs for spawning near a wolf or not getting a gun on day 3. And then some dev can tell you to adapt or get good. At least the old Mad Mole would have told that complainer that.

[Aldranon]

I might go for strength or intelligence with perception. A nice melee to clear POIs and save some bullets. Cause when it comes to zeds I like Perception to build that long distance relationship

 

I (like everyone who's thinking about their own DAY 1) am not positive what will be good for my own play-style. An INT build is calling to me however, because the fighting is asymmetrical. Something new.

 

Could I clear an early game POI by filling it with cheap spikes as I go, for example? Does INT even get exp for spikes? Turrets only?

If MM's Day 98 is "Finished Dart Traps", then they appear to completely suck. UNLESS the INT guy gets a huge buff in traps. There are buffs, I just haven't added them all up yet.

 

Or do I go with what I know and max strength? Yes I'll take damaged, but can I mitigate that with 3 belt slots full of healing items and the heavy armor AND can I even build healing items?

[Gareee]

I rage quit and started a new character on the same map. Not sure why the 2nd one went just as bad lol, although I did spawn in the forest instead of the desert. So I died 3 times on day 1, then quit, restarted a new character and died 3x by day 3. I've got an AK and pistol now, doing fine, but getting attacked by wolves is just nasty early game. I want to remove all nasty things from biome spawing in a future alpha, and then do random encounters, which are leveled. Of course nasty biomes would have a raised game stage on these encounters but we could spare new players any hostile animals the first 5 levels or so and slowly add in nasty stuff, and increase the challenge as you level.

 

That reminds me of our playthrough where I spawned next to wasteland, and my trader quest was right through it, a full day's walk.

 

That turned into three days, and I kept getting killed repeatedly by wasteland nastiness.

 

I'd hope a new change would be to have spawns reasonably close to their starting quest trader to avoid startup game crap like that.

[Zombie_Jam]

Ha, just realized, I bet you watched the most recent Rogan podcast with Neil D, he did a good job of breaking down how asking why can cause problems. So I shoulda known better, though again I'm agnostic, so I can't actually rule out many things I wish I could. Like, who's running this simulation, if that happens to be the case. The fun part about this forum is that we can actually talk to those who run this one and occasionally get a response:D

 

What's neat about Simulation Theory is that, if hypothetically that is the case, then the voxels of our reality are actually really simple to identify: the atom. That one subatomic construct happens to make up everything, and that in itself has only 3 ingredients. Thinking of the elements as different things is actually really distorting of this fact, they are all the same thing that merely act differently, mainly with each other, depending on the number of protons/neutrons(and resulting electron count). But knock out or add a few of those in any atom and you can turn any element into any other, like lead into gold, etc. Totally possible, just far from practical, for now;)

 

I didn't know about the Rogan and Tyson interview, although saying that Rogan is an Anerican phenomenon. I'm aware of him but not really into his content.

 

We could have some great chats, but I'm afraid it would overtake this forum 😂

[Gareee]

I think two but maybe we need to up it, and maybe up the ammo it holds no way would the small magazine keep up for long unless we do some alternate ammo or something more powerful.

 

That might be a good new book set.... Turrets for Dummies. Books could increase ammo storage, increase # deployed, increase number deployed, add rad remover, and set completion could add bonus turret damage, bonus xp, or add an additional bonus deployable turret.

 

Book sets just write themselves!

[Gareee]

Its actually opposite, early game you are swimming in brass because your collecting it long before you can use it so it stockpiles up, and then once you get bullet crafting it still kind of increases because your getting better tools, harvesting and looting more, then eventually the hordes get so big your supply runs out and your scrounging for it.

 

Maybe a later game perk that either uses less brass for crafting ammo then, or gives brass back as smeltable spent cartridges when using ammo?

 

(The later might be more immersive, but would add another game item needing an inv art asset.)

[Gareee]

MM, I read a lot of posts about the indestructible landscape and I have 3 questions (I want to tell my viewers the right information).

 

Garden boxes, ore blocks, the presence of these blocks fits very well in a world with an indestructible landscape. MM, do you smoothly prepare the game so that players can’t change the landscape?

 

MM, you said that indestructible terrain would be optional at some point. Is it planned after gold?

 

MM, is there any chance that on gold, 7 Days To Die will have only an indestructible landscape, and it will not be possible to choose the old (current at the moment) option?

 

He already answered all those questions.. he said he was just spitballing ideas out loud, and that it MIGHT be an option after gold to see how many players actually use it vs vanilla.

[Aurelius]

Maybe a later game perk that either uses less brass for crafting ammo then, or gives brass back as smeltable spent cartridges when using ammo?

 

(The later might be more immersive, but would add another game item needing an inv art asset.)

 

Like a brass catcher mod to attach to your weapon?

 

-A

[MechanicalLens]

Like a brass catcher mod to attach to your weapon?

 

-A

 

I believe that madmole has already declined the implementation of this feature.

[Ladarian]

Get Good.

 

I think he might be meaning new players like it's their fist steps into a new game they've never played before getting destroyed by a wolf and raging quitting to never play again.

 

Either way i do agree with what you're saying.

 

I remember the days when this game was developed to be the hardest game you've ever played. Somewhere that changed and it's become a little softer to open up to a wider variety of players while sacrificing their 'hardcore' audience.

 

In the meantime we're still hiding behind the same iron bars on horde night that we've been hiding behind for what seems like ages and ages. Luckily we can mod or potentially have a working difficulty menu option with future alphas.

 

Im 2000+ hours in, with at least 12 copies bought for family and friends - im not going anywhere regardless of development time and or changes.

 

Well, that and hello borderlands 3.

 

In pimps we trust.

[beerfly]

Like a brass catcher mod to attach to your weapon?

 

-A

 

Like a magnet, special gift from the Pimps for the flat earthers

 

Brass gate opens and closes sometimes I know, but it just can`t be infinite or close to that. Will break the game.

[Dreyseth]

Downgrade meshes are great, downgrade blocks are just a hack we should fix. Its so lame to chop through a 2000 hit point block only for another 1000 hit point block to spawn in its place. On health bar one block, and show new meshes as its beat up would be much better.

 

That would be appreciated

[Aurelius]

I believe that madmole has already declined the implementation of this feature.

 

I believe you are right (I'm not 100% certain) but MM has a tendency to revisit idea's after playing and running into some of the issues which prompted the suggestions in the first place. I've learned we just have to keep bringing it back up until he sounds exasperated to hear about it again.

 

He's not afraid to change his mind; which is a good character trait IMO.

 

-A

[MechanicalLens]

I believe you are right (I'm not 100% certain) but MM has a tendency to revisit idea's after playing and running into some of the issues which prompted the suggestions in the first place. I've learned we just have to keep bringing it back up until he sounds exasperated to hear about it again.

 

He's not afraid to change his mind; which is a good character trait IMO.

 

-A

 

I know, but maybe it would be in your best interests to suggest such a feature at a later date. The time now isn't entirely appropriate nor recommended, what with A18 right around the corner (hopefully); I would suggest to anyone in support of this feature to revisit it come the development of A19. Just my honest thoughts.

[Lonestarcanuck]

if I drop a Junk turret and walk way what happens to it?

 

I was thinking I could put a few around my base and they would only be active while at my base.

[Aurelius]

Like a magnet, special gift from the Pimps for the flat earthers

 

Brass gate opens and closes sometimes I know, but it just can`t be infinite or close to that. Will break the game.

 

Right - and I see no reason why it couldn't be catching only a half or a third of the spent casings.

 

-A

[MechanicalLens]

if I drop a Junk turret and walk way what happens to it?

 

I was thinking I could put a few around my base and they would only be active while at my base.

 

If you drop down a junk turret, it will only remain active if you're within close proximity of it.

[Aurelius]

I know, but maybe it would be in your best interests to suggest such a feature at a later date. The time now isn't entirely appropriate nor recommended, what with A18 right around the corner (hopefully); I would suggest to anyone in support of this feature to revisit it come the development of A19. Just my honest thoughts.

 

Just wait until food spoilage comes back up again....

 

LEEEEROY JEEEEEEENKINS!

 

-A

[beerfly]

Right - and I see no reason why it couldn't be catching only a half or a third of the spent casings.

 

-A

 

There was discussion before, you know it, someone said it will eat a lot of resources and might crack performance.

If its done , better be random chance thing, not constant % of what you shot around.

[MechanicalLens]

Just wait until food spoilage comes back up again....

 

LEEEEROY JEEEEEEENKINS!

 

-A

 

Look at what you have done. It's been reborn.

[beerfly]

Just wait until food spoilage comes back up again....

 

LEEEEROY JEEEEEEENKINS!

 

-A

 

Will be feast for both zeds and animals in the game.

[JaxTeller718]

MM, I read a lot of posts about the indestructible landscape and I have 3 questions (I want to tell my viewers the right information).

 

Garden boxes, ore blocks, the presence of these blocks fits very well in a world with an indestructible landscape. MM, do you smoothly prepare the game so that players can’t change the landscape?

 

I may have missed this but is this replacing the ability to plant in the wild? are we still able to make fertile ground and plant outside our base or do we need these boxes for farming now?

[unholyjoe]

if I drop a Junk turret and walk way what happens to it?

 

I was thinking I could put a few around my base and they would only be active while at my base.

 

you have to stay within a certain radius or it deactivates... and its only 1 turret unless you perk into where you can have 2 both still work on radius as 1. i have 1 on my horde base roof.. when i am gone it shuts down. you also pick it up to reload and you shoot it via hip shots. others can pick it up as well.

[Lonestarcanuck]

If you drop down a junk turret, it will only remain active if you're within close proximity of it.

 

yes that I know. the questions are:

 

1. what happens if I don't pick it up and go far away, does the turret stay there?

2. if it stays will it re-activate when I get close to it?

3. if I am not near it can someone pick it up or destroy it?

[Guest Rassilon]

I may have missed this but is this replacing the ability to plant in the wild? are we still able to make fertile ground and plant outside our base or do we need these boxes for farming now?

 

i dont know how often this has to be said in this threat:

Its a THOUGHT to MAYBE add this as an OPTION, AFTER Gold of 7 Days to Die.

Till we are there i think some specifics will be thought of.

 

Madmole did state that they can imagine something to Skyrims Mining ( Refreshing Ore Blocks on Surface that you might hit ) and im pretty sure they will figure out something for plants too.