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Alpha 19 Dev Diary


madmole

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4 hours ago, SnowDog1942 said:

How bout ya plan ahead and start a T5 when you have a enough time?

Can it collect data on Zombie Reach on client PC's? :)

Nope. What if I don't want to just because ? Choices. One thing is creating the 7 day urge and another very different  is dampering a long and rewarding experience due to design limits or content. Tfp always put FUN first so I'm not concerned in the slightest.

 

4 hours ago, faatal said:

Console games (and mobile games) can and do make use of 3rd party analytics services. Tracking game settings, options and things you do during play like looted x, died from y, reached level 15 in z hours, tells me nothing about an individual. Basically all we are looking at is graphs and charts of counts, percentages and choices for a week or month of collection.

 

Collecting the data takes a small amount of CPU time and memory and only gets sent every x amount of minutes. Trivial compared to all the other things the game has to do.

Yes. But not in PC. This move WILL generate a bunch of bad reviews. You guys should explain first and foremost in capital colored letters IN the head of the a19 patch what exactly is that the telemetry does  and even then, expect a bit of backlash. If you ignore this, expect BIG backlash and devil memes. 

Also, as counterproductive as it might sound, giving the option to turn it off will also help. But better to do both. Your choice with all my Itoldyousos.

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

Nope. What if I don't want to just because ? Choices. One thing is creating the 7 day urge and another very different  is dampering a long and rewarding experience due to design limits or content. Tfp always put FUN first so I'm not concerned in the slightest.

 


What if I dont want to eat because ? Choices.  Then I deal with the consequences and die.  What if I want to jump off a skycraper because ? Choices . Then I deal with the consequences and die.  Just like you will deal with the consequences of starting a T5 right before horde night.  
 

Im also not worried because I believe TFP wouldnt do something like delay a horde night because you dont know how to plan your questing.  

 

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You mean me personally or are you trying to make a point about the size of your *skill*? Devs said that they aim for balance and coherence and making the game appealing for noobs. Will you punish an experienced fps player who is playing 7dtd for the first time and achieved t5 at day 7 but is doing a t5 at day 7 and doesn't know the rules even if they are in the very name of the game ? It happens. 

 

Is death the correct punishment here? Probably not. Not only that, the POI of the quest will get bugged and destroyed as a nice bonus. 

 

Nice! Do you get the point? And, most importantly, are you naked while reading this? 

 

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Considering quests, a bit of suggestion and a bit of an enhancement:

1. Have the possibility to choose among a wider variety of tier quests. If i have access to T2, there should be T1 and T2 available. Having access to T4, there should be at least 1 of each below tier and the current. This would require either expanding the list as you gain access to higher tiers or allow choosing a tier you want and generating some quests for each tier.

2. Bringing in tags for POIs, add some variables for each of those that can be questable. Why? Example: If a POI has "containSatchel" tag, it can be quested for a retrieve satchel quest (after which it will be removed). This could enhance not repeating the same quest in the same POI. In the similar manner, "containsZombies" tab would mean a quest can be performed to clear the POI. This one could randomly be added again to a POI, allowing to clear it again after some time or something. Add more tags and possible scenarios.

 

This could solve both problems of "repeating the same fetch quest over and over" (clearing quests are less unrealistic than fetch in the same location), as well as "only having quest tiers i don't want to do".

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1 hour ago, Khulkhuum said:

Considering quests, a bit of suggestion and a bit of an enhancement:

1. Have the possibility to choose among a wider variety of tier quests. If i have access to T2, there should be T1 and T2 available. Having access to T4, there should be at least 1 of each below tier and the current. This would require either expanding the list as you gain access to higher tiers or allow choosing a tier you want and generating some quests for each tier.

2. Bringing in tags for POIs, add some variables for each of those that can be questable. Why? Example: If a POI has "containSatchel" tag, it can be quested for a retrieve satchel quest (after which it will be removed). This could enhance not repeating the same quest in the same POI. In the similar manner, "containsZombies" tab would mean a quest can be performed to clear the POI. This one could randomly be added again to a POI, allowing to clear it again after some time or something. Add more tags and possible scenarios.

 

This could solve both problems of "repeating the same fetch quest over and over" (clearing quests are less unrealistic than fetch in the same location), as well as "only having quest tiers i don't want to do".

Also, Just updating/swapping the POI on quest acceptance and not on the exclamation mark should solve the problem of double clearing. A sleeper spawn gets destroyed in the meantime? Spawn it in another location or in any place spawnable towards you, even as an event . Same with satchel, spawn it at a random non-blocked location or, if everything is destroyed just spawn it like buried or someplace near. 

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2 hours ago, Blake_ said:

You mean me personally or are you trying to make a point about the size of your *skill*? Devs said that they aim for balance and coherence and making the game appealing for noobs. Will you punish an experienced fps player who is playing 7dtd for the first time and achieved t5 at day 7 but is doing a t5 at day 7 and doesn't know the rules even if they are in the very name of the game ? It happens. 

 

Is death the correct punishment here? Probably not. Not only that, the POI of the quest will get bugged and destroyed as a nice bonus. 

 

Nice! Do you get the point? And, most importantly, are you naked while reading this? 

 


If you are on a T5 quest that means you have already survived a bunch of horde nights and you know how it works so noob is not an excuse.  Also it doesnt take much skill to say hey, its horde night tonight, lets not start a T5 right now.
 

Even if u have random horde nights set, you still have enough warning and you get back to your base.  That would be a FUN scenario actually,  oh crap its horde night lets get the hell back to our base quick!  Who says anything about punishment?  Im taking about fun. 

 

Okay I see we may have some common ground, a bugged quest wouldnt be good,  does that happen?  and yes I am naked :) - thanks for asking,  you must be interested, eh?  DaVega may get jealous!

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On potential data collection. I'm more than willing to help out The Fun Pimps. No, they can't have my cell# or bank accts, but otherwise... :classic_wink:

 

It's the 3rd party company gaining access to my pc bit that's concerning to me.

 

Trusting TFPs is one thing. Asking me to trust some un-named entity is a whole different thing.

 

Bare minimum for me to Opt-In would be that I can review the entirety of what's being sent from my pc.

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20 hours ago, madmole said:

Yes, but maybe not until A20.

The other option was electricity but the framework isn't set up to craft queues so we'll go with gasoline which a lot of cement mixers are gas powered IRL. A lot of job sites don't have electricity yet when they need to pour concrete.

Actually what works with gasoline is the generator that provides electricity to the concrete mixer.

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24 minutes ago, SnowDog1942 said:


If you are on a T5 quest that means you have already survived a bunch of horde nights and you know how it works so noob is not an excuse.  Also it doesnt take much skill to say hey, its horde night tonight, lets not start a T5 right now.
 

Even if u have random horde nights set, you still have enough warning and you get back to your base.  That would be a FUN scenario actually,  oh crap its horde night lets get the hell back to our base quick!  Who says anything about punishment?  Im taking about fun. 

 

Okay I see we may have some common ground, a bugged quest wouldnt be good,  does that happen?  and yes I am naked :) - thanks for asking,  you must be interested, eh?  DaVega may get jealous!

Yeah, bugged quests can happen at horde night. T5 by day 7 is also doable with more than 60 Min days. Default 60min results in Tier 4 at best going full throtle. But t4 can  also result in that problem indeed. Some T4 are also big enough for you to expend a while in there. 

 

I never had these troublesome hurdles, but then again, thousands of hours can teach you the gameplay even before there were quests.  

 

It was alpha 16 when they first implemented your favourite POI. It took less time to clear then. 

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8 hours ago, faatal said:

Most zombies move at similar speed in water as players. Ferals are faster than non ferals. The spider zombie is very fast in water.

Convert the spider to a waterstrider when in water. That would by terrfying🥶

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11 hours ago, faatal said:

Zombie swim animations are in, synced up with the motion and some bugs fixed. Looking pretty good.7dtdZedSwim.thumb.jpg.d7553cbc2509f15b18a71e74b88247fd.jpg

Holy crap. I legit got intimidated by that picture. First time I experience such a thing in many alphas. Lol.

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18 hours ago, meganoth said:

It is not about there being no T3s or T4s near the trader, I get them offered at the right stages. But once you have unlocked T5s, those T3 and T4 are not offered anymore. Even though they clearly are inside reasonable distance to the trader since they were offered before (and haven't moved 🙂).

 

It may simple be that there are so many T1 and T2 that by randomly picking them T3s and T4s are seldomly seen !?

 

I guess that isn't an easy fix. A20 we will allow players to back track to do the easier ones.

17 hours ago, mr.devolver said:

So this is why console gets no updates, people on consoles probably can't be spied on that easily!

 

On a serious note though, I wonder how much impact will this telemetry have on game performance which as we all know has been giving more headaches to many players with each new Alpha version. If for nothing else, I think for this one reason people should be able to opt-out of it.

Except we do have gamesparks on consoles its PC that never got it until now, and we've got a lot more information. Performance is fine so far for me, it seems identical to A18.

10 hours ago, AaronG85 said:

Looking awesome, Just a small question @faatal are the icons going to get updated to reflect the new looking weapons and tools?

Of course.

9 hours ago, Damocles said:

You may think about increasing the underwater fog density later. Currently its as clear as in the tropical sea, and too easy to see those zombies then.

The visibility should be as low as only around 10 meters / 30 feet.

LOL I don't know what dream state you live in, but around here visibility is 6" or less. I've only been to a few lakes that have sand bottoms that have decent visibility and that is maybe 4 to 6 feet at max is what I consider a nice clear lake.

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6 hours ago, Blake_ said:

You mean me personally or are you trying to make a point about the size of your *skill*? Devs said that they aim for balance and coherence and making the game appealing for noobs. Will you punish an experienced fps player who is playing 7dtd for the first time and achieved t5 at day 7 but is doing a t5 at day 7 and doesn't know the rules even if they are in the very name of the game ? It happens. 

 

Is death the correct punishment here? Probably not. Not only that, the POI of the quest will get bugged and destroyed as a nice bonus. 

 

Nice! Do you get the point? And, most importantly, are you naked while reading this? 

 

There is no way a noob can reach tier 5 by day 7 lol. I level twice as fast as most the team and was level 14 on day 7 and I exclusively quested and I'm on tier 2 quests. If they do, good for them, they can learn by doing that you should be somewhere safe on day 7 at sundown.

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8 minutes ago, madmole said:

Except we do have gamesparks on consoles its PC that never got it until now, and we've got a lot more information. Performance is fine so far for me, it seems identical to A18.

Lol, see console players? You've been complaining about lack of updates and yet you were one feature ahead of us PC players the whole time!

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2 hours ago, xiiMaRcLeoN said:

Scary, swimming zombies when all swim like this after you slowly of course because you slow down like you are in some kind of gelee or something.
I remember the swimming perk which let you swim faster, we need it please.

Its part of iron gut which I bought because its pretty awesome now. Longer lasting buffs, less food poisoning and faster swimming made me buy it for the first time. I threw up at least 3 or 4 times the first week. Is food poisoning 4% in Alpha 18?

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Quote

LOL I don't know what dream state you live in, but around here visibility is 6" or less. I've only been to a few lakes that have sand bottoms that have decent visibility and that is maybe 4 to 6 feet at max is what I consider a nice clear lake.

Real life doesn't make good gameplay :p

Awesome to see zombies swim though :)

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5 minutes ago, madmole said:

Its part of iron gut which I bought because its pretty awesome now. Longer lasting buffs, less food poisoning and faster swimming made me buy it for the first time. I threw up at least 3 or 4 times the first week. Is food poisoning 4% in Alpha 18?

This just made my day and now im even more excited for the A19 release, thank you.

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33 minutes ago, madmole said:

There is no way a noob can reach tier 5 by day 7 lol. I level twice as fast as most the team and was level 14 on day 7 and I exclusively quested and I'm on tier 2 quests. If they do, good for them, they can learn by doing that you should be somewhere safe on day 7 at sundown.

Yes, on default time it is impossible to reach T5 in 6.30-7 hours. I reached T4 a couple of times by doing around 15+ buried supplies quests of the 2 tiers day and night from various traders and 1 clear tier 1. Never got to actually do the tier 4 though. What if I do and I get stuck? My point is within my previous posts. It will not always be fun to interrupt an awesome campaign quest with nice storyline because the red night is coming and we have to brace ourselves.

 

On topic: how was your testing today? Any chance we can see a video? Or test ourselves lol. 

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2 hours ago, JamesKirk said:

Convert the spider to a waterstrider when in water. That would by terrfying🥶

or maybe they become frog zombies, they have Web hands and can leap on top of water. and they dive at you. AKA i would never be near water. (side note: why are they called spider zombies anymore? they don't climb anymore, they jump. i think maybe they could be called frog zombies Zrogs! but maybe they could keep the name spider zombie and still be able to leap! Suggestions

 

Spoiler

Thick Spit: up close they can spray a grey spit and its acts like a web!

 

Poison: if spider zombies or Snakes bite you! you get poisoned (gives you bury vision and lowers max Hp and Lowers HP!

 

higher leap: they could be base infiltrators! they could jump over and across 20 blocks!  

 

 

 

also i think it would be cool if there are zombies they spawn in water!

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9 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Yes. But not in PC. This move WILL generate a bunch of bad reviews. You guys should explain first and foremost in capital colored letters IN the head of the a19 patch what exactly is that the telemetry does  and even then, expect a bit of backlash. If you ignore this, expect BIG backlash and devil memes. 

Also, as counterproductive as it might sound, giving the option to turn it off will also help. But better to do both. Your choice with all my Itoldyousos.

Yes on PC. Why do you think all that analytics software exists? To be used. I would wager most of the major software on your PC is doing some sort of analytics if it can connect to the internet. Open Steam or any game launcher and it is logging info. Start any game and they are logging info, which is how they know hours played. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Blizzard, etc, all capturing info when you use any of their products. Most companies just don't mention it and have it buried in the fine print of some EULA. Generally anything that has a login is capturing analytics.

 

Unity even has their own analytics built right in and they make it simple to enable and send data.
https://unity3d.com/unity/features/analytics

 

For the most part they are not tracking personal info. No one should be looking at your docs, pictures or files on your computer unless that is a part of their service like you uploading stuff to them when you send an email through Google or post something on Facebook. Some of the big companies are probably abusing your data to make a buck off of marketing. Game companies tracking info on how many hours you played, what settings you chose and various game play info are not.

 

It simply helps game companies make better games. It is not fun hooking all that up, which is why it has taken this long, but to make the game better for the average player we need feedback on how the game is being played by all those people.

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I was just thinking about Unity and how they make users have an account with them. Ironically that means every time I open Unity is it probably collecting analytics on me and all games made with Unity are probably sending info to them.

 

A search finds they are: https://unity3d.com/legal/privacy-policy

"I am a game developer that uses Unity software to build my game, what should I know?
 

...We use analytics services to understand how developers use our software in order to improve our software and services. We also include certain device data collection in the runtime of the software, which is incorporated into the applications you create with the software."

"I play a game built with Unity software, what should I know?
 

Unity has collected some or all of the following information about your device: unique device identifiers (e.g., IDFV for iOS devices and Android ID for Android devices); IP address; country of install (mapped from IP address); device manufacturer and model platform type (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, etc.) and the operating system and version running on your system or device; language; CPU information such as model, the number of CPUs present, frequency, and instruction set support flags; the graphics card type and vendor name; graphics card driver name and version (e.g., “nv4disp.dll 6.10.93.71”); which graphics API is in use (e.g., “OpenGL 2.1” or “Direct3D 9.0c”); amount of system and video RAM present; current screen resolution; version of the Unity Editor used to create the game; sensor flags (e.g., device support for gyroscope, touch pressure or accelerometer); application or bundle identification (“app ID”) of the game installed; unique advertising identifiers provided for iOS and Android devices (e.g., IDFA or Android Ad ID); and a checksum of all the data that gets sent to verify that it transmitted correctly."

 

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