Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[ieuri]

One idea would be to add a fertilizer item and then you upgrade ground with it, and craft plots with it. Then you wouldn't waste nitrate repairing traps, but honestly I just want to keep it as is, we're in content lock and fiddling with this ♥♥♥♥ will just set us back. modders can easily restore the old way if they are married to it for now, I don't want to break content lock because a few angry guys who haven't even tried it aren't happy.

 

Madmole, ^ this is a perfectly acceptable response. I love the new boxes for something like my rooftop gardens, but I LOVED farming prior to 17 also. I like to have gardens where i do 3x15 plots of every plant type and I actually enjoyed the process of tilling, planting, fertilizing (to get better harvest).

 

The hoe was useful to me even after that because I was one of those who would til the ground around my base to prevent grass from growing.

 

Basically if you are willing to relook at the feature in the future that is all I can ask. In this case I do truly feel that a feature was lost and not improved upon. Thank you for all you guys do.

[unlike them]

My most grieved cut out feature is the glorious procedural caves we had in A11(?) I'm hoping TFP will release some underground DLC with them some time after gold.

[sillls]

As a member of this rare mutation I must confess that messing with gingers is akin to playing with fire. We have the reputation for good reason.

 

Anyone who knows Scotland's history was surely amused by "The Wall" in Game of Thrones, we know where ol' George got the idea. After the Romans conquered England, and most of Europe, they sent their 9th Legion north. They made the mistake of going beyond Hadrians Wall...

 

The 9th Legion was never seen again.

 

It was an actual wall from sea to sea, just like in GoT, just much much shorter, but was still a real thing. I was extra amused that so many of the wildlings in the show were actual gingers, it's like Martin wasn't even trying to hide where he got the inspiration from. They even filmed up there quite a bit.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29099[/ATTACH]

 

Also Braveheart, though that was a later attempt.

 

Avoiding such disaster is easy though, if a ginger draws a line: don't cross it. Simple, other than that we make good company. And ginger women, well, just ask Genosis, he knows.

 

And for the love of geography most of us are Scottish, I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm Irish all the time.

 

Shoot! I would cross it just to piss her off! lol

[Aldranon]

As a member of this rare mutation I must confess that messing with gingers is akin to playing with fire. We have the reputation for good reason.

 

Anyone who knows Scotland's history was surely amused by "The Wall" in Game of Thrones, we know where ol' George got the idea. After the Romans conquered England, and most of Europe, they sent their 9th Legion north. They made the mistake of going beyond Hadrians Wall...

 

The 9th Legion was never seen again.

 

It was an actual wall from sea to sea, just like in GoT, just much much shorter, but was still a real thing. I was extra amused that so many of the wildlings in the show were actual gingers, it's like Martin wasn't even trying to hide where he got the inspiration from. They even filmed up there quite a bit.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29099[/ATTACH]

 

Also Braveheart, though that was a later attempt.

 

Avoiding such disaster is easy though, if a ginger draws a line: don't cross it. Simple, other than that we make good company. And ginger women, well, just ask Genosis, he knows.

 

And for the love of geography most of us are Scottish, I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm Irish all the time.

 

I wonder if the far northern Scotts (Caledonia?) were the first insurgency the Romans had to deal with. They "Dealt" with them by hiding behind a wall! Its surprising really because they wanted the gold that was there at that time.

 

So, that leads into what Factions for 7D2D could be like. If the player attacks a faction too much they will start to harass the players lands and interests. Maybe some peace treaty is possible if enough Dukes pass hands.

[Guest Rassilon]

My most grieved cut out feature is the glorious procedural caves we had in A11(?) I'm hoping TFP will release some underground DLC with them some time after gold.

 

that would be indeed cool.

MM talked just lately about that and made pretty clear TFP is not wasting Ressources into that. He thinks Manmade POIs for Underground Mines etc are better.

It remained unclear whatever more Underground POIs are planned/comming.

[sillls]

Its cheap when you can't hear an agro sound and they were nowhere in sight. Like the noise from fighting the zeds alerted them and they came from nowhere.

 

Anyhow I'm still dying on nomad, so you hardcore guys should like it. The first 3 days are pretty tough, after that you start getting gear and have a better chance, and getting more gear gets easier once you have SOME gear.

 

Well... I'm sure nobody's surprised that your dying after watching you play.

I bet some still call you Bow dropper.

And that last video where you forgot to fill out the floor and fell through and landed on your own blade traps.

Typical Madmole.

Frankly I'm surprised that you didn't die right there.

[CannedSmeef]

Observe the release estimate above, roland sends us hope

[andrough]

Speaking about rock; got any favourite bands?

 

I've been rocking out listening to compositions by one of the earliest rock stars, one that inspired a lot of really talented guitarists: Paganini.

[sillls]

Cool! I'm really looking forward to playing a18.. still playing the witcher 3 though.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

Lol you betya!

 

Speaking about rock; got any favourite bands?

 

Yeah, the Rolling stones! lol

[ZombieHorde]

It might be needed for guys who play a certain way, for me or any looter/shooter type? Nope. I kill everything I see and have 500 meat in my box, next to stacks of meat stew. I only farm for stews and some aloe and coffee. I can buy food at vending machines if I was desperate.

 

I just don't understand. Food has never been an issue except on day 1 if you know how to play the game. So farming is optional role playing thing to me. Its a convenience feature, not mandatory. I like it, I do it, but I don't need to.

 

But I think that's a large part of the issue and many people have said it now: the game has gone from balancing survival, with non-7 day zombies being only a smallish part of the game and all of the other game mechanics being equally as important to survive. Now it seems to be survival is only 5% of the game and zombies and looting the majority of the rest.

 

When I first started maybe A12, I forget now, the game was a nice blend of survival and resource management and legitimate concern that your character wasn't going to starve to death, all leading up to day 7 when you would have wanted to balance things well or you wouldn't survive.

 

I loved the mini-games and different ways of doing things. Even though combining guns to get a better gun didn't make sense, it was a mechanic that got us doing something different in the game than the rest of it.

 

Largely that's my opinion about farming. Using the hoe was a different mechanic that made it that little bit more interesting. It wasn't crafting, which we do enough of already.

 

Many people, including myself, would have welcomed things like food spoilage and battery management into the game because it's all about balancing and survival and organising yourself well or suffer the consequences.

[Mechanimal]

I wonder if the far northern Scotts (Caledonia?) were the first insurgency the Romans had to deal with. They "Dealt" with them by hiding behind a wall! Its surprising really because they wanted the gold that was there at that time.

 

So, that leads into what Factions for 7D2D could be like. If the player attacks a faction too much they will start to harass the players lands and interests. Maybe some peace treaty is possible if enough Dukes pass hands.

 

Interesting, nice segway. But they weren't hiding, it was their land, and the romans wanted it. The wall was a warning. Furthermore the Caledonians/Picts/Scotts weren't the ones invading or attacking, just defending their own territory when foreigners made the mistake of trying to conquer them.

 

So a better analogy would be a faction that controlled a territory, and as long as you were in good favor with them you could go there, but getting on their bad side would be akin to crossing that wall. So there'd be an area on the map where, if you were on their ♥♥♥♥list, would be near certain death to go into. That's a fun idea.

[Goldman_dk]

Not to change focus, but been wondering .

When looting the different villas, the area around the builds are open and a z is easy to spot. Why not have hedges? player high hedges around houses, hedges that a player can walk trough without effort, (unless there are a fench on the other side), but cant see trough? this would reduce line of and perhaps improve fps?.

[Ti2xGr]

Madmole - Is there a reason why we can't have the new Planters and be able to do a similar process on the ground, just adding the hoeing process for ground only both? Is it because of a system performance issue? I've been reading the "controversy" on farming and see that as a compromise and just curious as to why it seems it must be one or the other. I'm sure others have the same question. Thx

[Thecolours]

No it was a code name for eye candy.

 

How did you know my code name?

[Aldranon]

Interesting, nice segway. But they weren't hiding, it was their land, and the romans wanted it. The wall was a warning. Furthermore the Caledonians/Picts/Scotts weren't the ones invading or attacking, just defending their own territory when foreigners made the mistake of trying to conquer them.

 

So a better analogy would be a faction that controlled a territory, and as long as you were in good favor with them you could go there, but getting on their bad side would be akin to crossing that wall. So there'd be an area on the map where, if you were on their ♥♥♥♥list, would be near certain death to go into. That's a fun idea.

 

It would be immersive if NPC's had depth of character like you describe. Empyrion has a simple, but workable faction system that is still interesting.

 

Yes, it was the Romans who were hiding behind the wall, I typed "They" which is nebulous.

[Prisma501]

Madmole - Is there a reason why we can't have the new Planters and be able to do a similar process on the ground, just adding the hoeing process for ground only both? Is it because of a system performance issue? I've been reading the "controversy" on farming and see that as a compromise and just curious as to why it seems it must be one or the other. I'm sure others have the same question. Thx

 

Both MM and Gazz allready answered that. They dont want 2 systems for the same outcome. Both out of gamedesign vision and maintaining multiple systems is just to costly and prone to result in bugs.

 

Cheers

[Mechanimal]

It would be immersive if NPC's had depth of character like you describe. Empyrion has a simple, but workable faction system that is still interesting.

 

Yes, it was the Romans who were hiding behind the wall, I typed "They" which is nebulous.

 

It is neat to think about what kinds of things they can do with the factions and bandits, etc. It is more A19/A20 stuff, but we've been touching on it in here, and they do seem to be amidst thinking about it, so I imagine the input might be useful.

 

Yeah they won't all have to act the same, one could be far more territory driven than another, for example, so it was smart to segway my bit of ginger history into that. Plus it referenced GoT, which also had a lot to do with territory disputes, alliances, etc. So it feels like good inspiration. Wonder if that would work something along the lines of how biomes work now, imagine that might help with placing the factions in RWG generation, etc.

[falloutcloud]

Both MM and Gazz allready answered that. They dont want 2 systems for the same outcome. Both out of gamedesign vision and maintaining multiple systems is just to costly and prone to result in bugs.

 

Cheers

 

MM did mention crafting farming blocks that would go in the ground as a possibility. I do favor this idea because you can still get your farmland look and you have planters for greenhouses and rooftop gardens. I do agree that removing the hoe is a great idea as this is a gated item and I have never used a hoe in gardening but I have used a shovel. I can imagine finding bags of "Miracle Grow" that would be the equivalent of those farming blocks.

[Jarod_Silverstar]

MadMole -- Thinking about the farming blocks here. I can understand it for most of your crops, but not sure it makes sense with trees. We have perks that increase the harvest of crop plants but they don't do anything for trees, right? Why would we need to plant trees in special boxes to improve the harvest if it gets us no gain?

 

Also, circling back to my question about being able to plant smaller trees. Right now, we have only 3 tree types to plant that within a week game time they are full sized. Fine for harvesting wood, but I like the looks of some of the smaller trees and would like to be able to plant some of them in and around my bases without having to use the cheat menus.

[Prisma501]

MadMole -- Thinking about the farming blocks here. I can understand it for most of your crops, but not sure it makes sense with trees. We have perks that increase the harvest of crop plants but they don't do anything for trees, right? Why would we need to plant trees in special boxes to improve the harvest if it gets us no gain?

 

Also, circling back to my question about being able to plant smaller trees. Right now, we have only 3 tree types to plant that within a week game time they are full sized. Fine for harvesting wood, but I like the looks of some of the smaller trees and would like to be able to plant some of them in and around my bases without having to use the cheat menus.

 

This has also been answered allready (thanks unholyjoe) (doesnt anybody actually read in here? ). Trees can still be planted /in plain ground/.

 

Cheers

[sillls]

Is there any chance that TFP's will fix that cosmetic bug with ground voxels not meshing with player placed ones and POI's?

[fallenbox]

considering i especially asked you what you meant: Yes you do have to really point out all the features who are no more in the game...

Jeez... Dude!

 

For the Campfire its an often talked about bug. AFAIK there are Problems with the entire Buff System wich is high on their List. Not sure if it made into A18.

 

You made that sound like an important Gamebreaker when its just a tiny Detail.

 

well if you ask me so let's start (my english is meh)

- now you can find clay in the ground which if i'm right you needed to go on specifics spot to get it, so 1 less reason to go around and do something.

- less zombie in general, this has been discussed a lot and actually it is one of the major drawback for me to play again, biome now feels empty my first 4 hours in A17 untill i completely dropped the game were basically: play like minecraft chopping wood around and wait for something to happen. BORING

- Wellness system was cool, i can't remember if it is like the old now, but gathering food was really satisfying, knowing that even if full you could benefit from it was a good reason to explore around.

- XP system learn by doing have been loved and missed by a lot of people for a reason, it was original and functional, it had problems that could have been tweaked instead of totally reworking and making it a ♥♥♥♥ty reiteration of fallout system

-Zombie loot was a good reason to actually fight them, most of the things were junk but still, you could get some usefull stuff,devs said that it has been removed for some reasons that i can't remember, something on the line " getting rewarded for killing zombies have not to be the main reason the fight them, you have to survive instead!" so now the main reason is not loot but XP i mean WTF ( performance is not an excuse since a lot of players had and still having heavy performance issues on A17 )

- Map size and biomes have been reduced for performance ( false: see upside )

- New POIS are cool but the sleepers are boring AF, cities are empty but houses are full of people who have got infected by this virus that turn them on human eating and narcoleptic monsters, it would have been cool if there was both zombies wandering around and sleepers maybe by balancing the numbers.

-Mutaded bees

-Items quality system reworked to make it the worst i ever seen, not even spitting a word about it, such a shame ( i'm happy they are fixing it in A18 even tho i think that randomazing only the damage is a bit meh, it would be cool to have also others stats that way, leading to a more immersive way to approach the game.

-Books removed ( returning in A18, hyped about it )

-Some traps removed, can't remember which one, i think it was the wood giant spikes or something similar

-Smell system

-i've read that farming system is gonna be touched some how, i don't have that much hope honestly

and probably something more i can't remember for now

What they could have done was simply adding some features for A17 like veichle weapons and items, without removing cool features A16 offered, sometimes they looks like a mad barber who make some one bald because of some asymmetrical cuts.

A18 btw seems like a good return to the glory of the game even if not at 100%. I do hope they'll keep that way.

I have to say also that the mentality madmole showed is a shame for a developer " we want the wasteland to be like this".

Yeah then you know what complete the game and play it by yourself. Players are the main focus of a game life, without players games means nothing so i would think it twice about making something like i personally prefer but disappointhing customers of my commercial product.

Edit: - Zombies AI because they were too dumb, so let's make them all exceptional masons knowing exactly the weak points of a house.

-Caves if i remember correct

[PurgatoryWolf]

Is there any chance that TFP's will fix that cosmetic bug with ground voxels not meshing with player placed ones and POI's?

 

I actually think he addressed this before and said that it would? But I can't quote the post on it right now, i just swear I remember reading it or seeing it.

[Jarod_Silverstar]

This has also been answered allready (thanks unholyjoe) (doesnt anybody actually read in here? ). Trees can still be planted /in plain ground/.

 

Cheers

 

When you are having to read 1000+ posts to catch up, you miss things. Thanks for the update.

[ozzysfang]

I actually think he addressed this before and said that it would? But I can't quote the post on it right now, i just swear I remember reading it or seeing it.

 

I think Gazz said something about this