Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[MechanicalLens]

 

I loved how gold everything looked in the plains. It was warm, everything was bathed in yellow. The hills kinda rolled, giving sight breaks. It just felt so inviting compared to most of the biomes. It had plenty of corn and yucca everywhere to eat and you never needed to worry about temperature there. There was also coal EVERWHERE. It was perfect place to spawn as a new character.

 

It also helped balance out the biomes a lot. There was Plains, Maple Forest and Pine Forest as biomes that weren't environmentally hostile. Then there was Wasteland, Burned, Snow, and Desert as biomes that were environmentally hostile.

 

Now in the early game people mostly all huddle up in the one Forest biome until they get on their feet. It really just makes me sad.

 

It was also hot, had tiny ninja cacti everywhere, and had a noticeable lack of trees. Unpopular opinion here, but I was never crazy about the plains biome in its form back in A16 and before. Now expanses of relatively flat terrain is something I wouldn't be against.

 

Just asking, what difference does one forest biome and two very similar ones make? Just curious on your take on it.

[MechanicalLens]

Junk drone revealed!

https://twitter.com/7DaystoDie/statu...096267264?s=20

 

 

Now this looks awesome!

 

Will zombies or vultures target the junk drone?

[BadPlayer]

 

What uh, do you think he's kidding about? Just curious.

 

To me the most important aspect of what he's asking is that the localization be pushed from servers. Is that a thing now?

 

Thanks Guppy

 

I am hoping this becomes a thing.

[Survager]

Junk drone revealed!

https://twitter.com/7DaystoDie/statu...096267264?s=20

 

MM, I have several questions for this drone:

1. How much will it be noisy in flight? Just if he buzzes like a thousand bees, it will be a real torment!

2. Will this drone increase player visibility?

3. Can we hear the approaching zombies behind his buzzing? =)

 

[TSBX]

 

Now this looks awesome!

 

Will zombies or vultures target the junk drone?

 

What does your heart tell you?

[Haidrgna]

 

It was also hot, had tiny ninja cacti everywhere, and had a noticeable lack of trees. Unpopular opinion here, but I was never crazy about the plains biome in its form back in A16 and before. Now expanses of relatively flat terrain is something I wouldn't be against.

 

Just asking, what difference does one forest biome and two very similar ones make? Just curious on your take on it.

 

The Plains biome was probably one of the weakest biomes, but as far as I am concerned it is not about any specific biomes, it is about the fact that we had: 13 biomes we could use and add to any given world, modified to our liking, now we have 5 and any others just look like a purple alien landscape no matter what you do. We had a lot of different terrain textures to choose from to build the biomes from.

 

In A17 we even got the ability to add completely new biomes, build from scratch up and would work flawlessly in the RWG mixer. Now any such biome hopelessly crashes the mixer because it only accepts the hardcoded biome names of the original ones, of which only 5 are actually looking the part.

 

It is all about variety, we had 2 different forest and the plains, they were all mashed together. We had different wastelands and a radiated wasteland, only one remains. It is all about variety and the ability for anyone to add in even more variety. The current biomes are but a shell of the variety we had and all we seem to get is that they may have plans to maybe add sub-biomes. Sub-biomes as they exist now are just sub-par to the ability to add in new biomes.

[MechanicalLens]

 

What does your heart tell you?

 

What heart?

[wolfbain5]

not that thing snowdog mistakes it for.

[PO_Man_3849]

Will the drone be strictly a follower or will there be a way to remotely pilot it? Would be cool to use to scout ahead or get an aerial view

[Laz Man]

 

What does your heart tell you?

 

If it's like the junk turret then the answer is no they wont...?

[custom_hero]

Junk drone revealed!

https://twitter.com/7DaystoDie/statu...096267264?s=20

 

 

hi guys, glad to see you

will there be a flying motorcycle? made of junk. like Opressor mk2 in GTAO

I would also like an orbital station that shoots junk

[Bloodyvixen]

This is response to the flying Drone that is now being shared as a feature. I'd like to say first, that I appreciate the hard work that went into it. It's really neat how it appears to the sum of other bits and bobs re-purposed by some survivor with a lot of genius. That aside is just seems a little strange in this game, and I'm not sure of the fit. If I read correctly it seems like it has different modifications that can affect storage size, and so forth? I wonder if this signals the potential to see modifications finally come to existing things such as vehicles. Really, being able to differentiate vehicles in a server is a long needed change. Being able to color them differently, and have different modifications would be really nice. Hell, even being able to apply paint to these new drones to help differentiate them when in a group would also be neat. I'm going to wait and see how this is implemented and how it acts in game before making too much judgement. I would like to suggest that unlike Junk Turrets this should not be something you can find in the wild. This is something you should have to spec into, in order to create.

[Laz Man]

This is response to the flying Drone that is now being shared as a feature. I'd like to say first, that I appreciate the hard work that went into it. It's really neat how it appears to the sum of other bits and bobs re-purposed by some survivor with a lot of genius. That aside is just seems a little strange in this game, and I'm not sure of the fit. If I read correctly it seems like it has different modifications that can affect storage size, and so forth? I wonder if this signals the potential to see modifications finally come to existing things such as vehicles. Really, being able to differentiate vehicles in a server is a long needed change. Being able to color them differently, and have different modifications would be really nice. Hell, even being able to apply paint to these new drones to help differentiate them when in a group would also be neat. I'm going to wait and see how this is implemented and how it acts in game before making too much judgement. I would like to suggest that unlike Junk Turrets this should not be something you can find in the wild. This is something you should have to spec into, in order to create.

 

Vehicle mods are pushed to A20 I think. Should be on 1st page of this thread.

[Bloodyvixen]

 

Vehicle mods are pushed to A20 I think. Should be on 1st page of this thread.

 

They have pushed it as far as I am aware. I had still held out hope that perhaps in 19 we could get a few tidbits. Especially considering that a brand new weapon thing (a flying drone companion) already gets a few mods? Is it too much to ask to get something as simple as being able to paint your vehicles so that on servers they look different? Is it that hard to code in? Considering they can code in a drone that can follow/heal you?

[Roland]

Junk Drones are the tier 3 version of junk sledges and junk turrets. They will be rare and there will be a schematic and parts you’ll have to find in order to craft them. This begs the question as to whether the promised nerf to loot will be in for a19. Awesome gear at high quality is still too easily found too early. Everything we find should be brown or orange and mostly tier one, uncommonly tier two, and rarely tier three. Anything higher quality than orange should be very rare.

[Bloodyvixen]

Junk Drones are the tier 3 version of junk sledges and junk turrets. They will be rare and there will be a schematic and parts you’ll have to find in order to craft them. This begs the question as to whether the promised nerf to loot will be in for a19. Awesome gear at high quality is still too easily found too early.

 

I do agree that the high quality gear at times is too easily found, at earlier stages. Although that doesn't bother me as much as the strange stats that come along with finding high quality items, even at later days and higher game stages. When and if they nerf the loot, it would be useful to see the stats balanced out. It is one of the more irritating things right now to me, in 18. I found about mid-game level 6 leather leg armor. Time to time in later game I've found level 6 military leg armor, and without fail the leather armor beats the military armor in stats. It's only recent as in the last day or so that I finally found one with decent enough stats to warrant the switch. Top tier leather armor shouldn't outclass top tier military armor stat wise. Same goes for iron gear shouldn't when found at level 6 have stats higher than the average found in steel armor and that has been a thing too. If they nuke the loot, they should consider balancing the max stats of different stages of armor if possible so when you do find the higher level stuff it isn't a let down.

[Roland]

If only we could get a peek at Gazz’s spreadsheet.

[harry992]

Please!!! ADD A DYNAMIC CLIMATE IN ALL BIOMES!

SUNNY, RAINY, STORMY, FOG, SNOW, SEASONS OF THE YEAR..

[Roland]

But tone down the thunder because I think it’s making Harry a bit deaf...

[MechanicalLens]

 

I do agree that the high quality gear at times is too easily found, at earlier stages. Although that doesn't bother me as much as the strange stats that come along with finding high quality items, even at later days and higher game stages. When and if they nerf the loot, it would be useful to see the stats balanced out. It is one of the more irritating things right now to me, in 18. I found about mid-game level 6 leather leg armor. Time to time in later game I've found level 6 military leg armor, and without fail the leather armor beats the military armor in stats. It's only recent as in the last day or so that I finally found one with decent enough stats to warrant the switch. Top tier leather armor shouldn't outclass top tier military armor stat wise. Same goes for iron gear shouldn't when found at level 6 have stats higher than the average found in steel armor and that has been a thing too. If they nuke the loot, they should consider balancing the max stats of different stages of armor if possible so when you do find the higher level stuff it isn't a let down.

 

Not to mention that Padded Armor, as far as I know, is typically identical to leather armor, base stats wise.

[DaVegaNL]

 

In before snowdog ♥♥♥♥♥ mod.

 

Made me chuckle ^-^

[grandmaster503]

So on bloodmoon nights is it still a thing that zombies can spawn inside your base behind your defenses, essentially making said defenses pointless?

[Scyris]

So Junk drone, that thing sounds cool, I got a few questions though if a dev is willing to spill the beans.

 

1: Is it lootable/buyable off trader?

 

2: Can you use it as a non-intel build? or do you need the skill to even control it? I am going to guess it'll be like junk turrets, can be used by anyone just int build can use it better.

 

3: Do you need it give it ammo like a junk turret? Does it require Gas to fly? What *does* it use for ammo if anything?

 

4: Since it follows you I am supposing you devs are going to allow it to teleport to the player to catch up to you if you go on a vehicle? Since it has storage it'd be a pain to have to keep emptying it to pick it up each time you hop in a vehicle. Most games with companions do this. Then again its fly speed could be as fast as any vehicle or a bit faster so it can just keep up.

 

5: How good is the heal? Oh who cares, as long as its decently reliable, could be 1 hp every 2-4s and that'd be pretty good imo.

 

6: Is it going to be OP as crap just like junk turrets still are even for a non-int build? So many people use it to cheese the game pretty hard.

 

7: I hope its AI is going to be decent so it doesn't get stuck on things on the cieling all the time.

 

Now a non-drone question... Will we get a book line for sledgehammers? If we do, I'd like it to focus on the useage of using the sledgehammer to break into things or destroy blocks better.

[Scyris]

 

Not to mention that Padded Armor, as far as I know, is typically identical to leather armor, base stats wise.

 

Leather armor can have up to 9-10 armor rating I think, Padded caps out at 7. Honestly though if your on nomad or below difficulty all you probably need for defense is padded armor, as they hit like flies on those difficulties. More is better of course, but you can make due with padded for a while even on warrior difficulty. The zombies deal 50% more damage on warrior difficulty compared to nomad.

[Scyris]

Please!!! ADD A DYNAMIC CLIMATE IN ALL BIOMES!

SUNNY, RAINY, STORMY, FOG, SNOW, SEASONS OF THE YEAR..

 

I'd like to see the day 5 fog bug thats reared its ugly head again fixed. Day 5 hits its always foggy, and the fog will not go away until you completly exit the game and reload it. It was fixed for a while in a17 but its back again for revenge.