Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[mr.devolver]

@madmole, you should turn your bases into prefabs for everyone to play with. 😀

[madmole]

10 hours ago, Odetta said:

Maybe T5s and T6s could be the only way at a chance for a legendary in the future.  Right now they don't seem worth it.  

 

So what's your verdict on the A19 INT build? 

It was fine. I don't particularly like buying my way through the apocalypse. By that I mean, buying perks to unlock everything, barter to get better deals, traps and turrets to do my work for me. Its designed for people who are not great at FPS or enjoy building, crafting or support roles. I like shooting, looting, and even working around not being able to make concrete. I like using what I can find kind of play style. I enjoy making a small crude farm from seeds I found and schematics I unlocked so I won't buy the perks. It gives me more things to do and to me it feels great not spending perk points on those things.

1 hour ago, Adam the Waster said:

also @madmole why did you stop playing as a INT character? was it just cuz you were bored or testing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggestion for Rotten Corpse zombie!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

rotten corpse/ zombie Yo new model!

 

I think this zombie could look like a very generic zombie where you can't tell who they were

 

they would look raw to the bone and look farley skinny!, with Rotten flesh with black and green parts, this face looks like a skeleton but still has eyes in the sockets and has no hair! its teeth look normal but has alot of yellow and black parts in the teeth, the chest is very rotten so you can't tell if it was a man or woman, it has no shirt but it has almost loin cloth like pants due to them being so rotten they are just draped on the body and is a very generic Grey color, the legs are also very rotten!

 

kinda like this but with the stuff i kinda listed

 

 

it would be nice to have a zombie model that would look very generic and super rotten to go with some of the zombies we have! 

 

if you read this. thanks

 

 

 

 

There were some bugs where zombies weren't hitting back when taking pain animation (stun lock) and I looted some pretty great gear week 1 and 2 and I just didn't feel any challenge. We rebalanced loot so top tier stuff stopped spawning early game and primitive weapons play a bigger role now early game making looting more rewarding and stretching out the early game a bit. Its just no fun when you get a steel battle axe on day 2 every iron axe I find is pretty much garbage after that. I'd rather go through half a dozen crappier axes before I feel the power of a T3 item. All it takes is something a little better than what you have currently to feel rewarded and it was just skipping over entire tiers so I was super excited to just start over and have a more challenging game.

 

1 hour ago, mr.devolver said:

@madmole, you should turn your bases into prefabs for everyone to play with. 😀

People should build their own, where is the fun in copy paste?

I just google small castles and get some loose ideas and run with it. Keep a tab open to look at it here and there. You can even google minecraft castles and use those for inspiration, but add curved geometry if you want.

[Ti2xGr]

20 minutes ago, madmole said:

There were some bugs where zombies weren't hitting back when taking pain animation (stun lock) and I looted some pretty great gear week 1 and 2 and I just didn't feel any challenge. We rebalanced loot so top tier stuff stopped spawning early game and primitive weapons play a bigger role now early game making looting more rewarding and stretching out the early game a bit. Its just no fun when you get a steel battle axe on day 2 every iron axe I find is pretty much garbage after that. I'd rather go through half a dozen crappier axes before I feel the power of a T3 item. All it takes is something a little better than what you have currently to feel rewarded and it was just skipping over entire tiers so I was super excited to just start over and have a more challenging game.

This is the type of concept I love. Thank you for doing this. That will go a long way toward a great progression system. 

[MechanicalLens]

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[Trankitas]

What the hell? 👀

[Aldranon]

Premature release date stress.  

Negative stress and games, should never be associated with each other... Unless your a dev. 

[Jost Amman]

13 hours ago, madmole said:

Here are some screens of my base on my last character. He was an INT build that is why there was so much base building

https://twitter.com/joelhuenink/status/1262974390251032576?s=20

How do you have time for T5s? I have to spend a large amount of time making ammo, unless you use a lot of traps for horde night?

Damn! Looking at your storage/crafting room made me think that there's still no decal/paint for Armor&Clothing containers... 🤐

BTW: congrats for the great looking castle!

[Trankitas]

6 minutes ago, Aldranon said:

Premature release date stress.  

Negative stress and games, should never be associated with each other... Unless your a dev. 

Lol, pretty accurate description of whatever just happened.

[madmole]

3 hours ago, wclem1974 said:

 

snip  

I will take the blame for sharing my enthusiasm with the fans. Some TFP members agreed a shorter cycle was a great idea in principal so I said that on the forums, but nobody wanted to do the graphics overhaul in a side branch or to deal with merging 3-4 months later so we just did the work and now we are here. Things change so what we intend one month is not the intent the next. Game development isn't flipping burgers, nobody can predict how long something will take.

I can predict that 19 will take much less time than 18 did, and 18 took less than 17 so things are getting better. We should be in experimental in June and stable before the summer sale if all goes well but if not, relax, its just a game and there are bigger things to worry about right now with this virus, the economy, etc.

We were also reminded how short builds break save games and everyone was having a lot of fun with 18, and larger builds have that "whole new game" feel so there are benefits to it taking some time.

[MechanicalLens]

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[Gazz]

11 hours ago, Annihilatorza said:

This makes me so happy, when A18 came out I was playing with some mates and one of them found a level 5 M60 Day One in the first hour.

Guess what he then never used another gun for the entire game, every POI was so easy for him.

A problem was identified and fixed. 😃

(I didn't do much designing on that one. A19 is a greatly simplified version of what you may see in A20 - but it's what could be done quickly)

 

11 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

I heard rumors (avoiding all spoilers is impossible) that you had posted this on the forums, and you know what, I completely agree with this change. My main (still minor) criticism with A18 is the brief stepping stone progression that is from early game to mid game. Currently we don't have a reason to use the wooden club, or the primitive bow, or the blunderbuss, and if so not for very long... scrap iron armor and to some degree leather armor seem like an afterthought, something you'd find in loot that you would have already outclassed with better armor by the second or third day... By the first horde night most people have a developed roster of level 2 and level 3 gear, which may include the odd less common item such as a steel pickaxe, steel sledgehammer, M60, etc.

Pretty much this.

But what if you find a QL 6 stone axe at the same time you find a QL 1 iron pick?

Which is better?

 

4 hours ago, Adam the Waster said:

also @madmole why did you stop playing as a INT character? was it just cuz you were bored or testing?

It's called Dumbing Down.

Everyone who reads these forums knows that TFP does that all the time.

[MechanicalLens]

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[Gazz]

But you won't find it on day 1.

Give us SOME credit, okay? =P

 

The loot distribution is quite OCD on the tier and QL spread...

 

[Blake_]

19 minutes ago, madmole said:

I will take the blame for sharing my enthusiasm with the fans. Some TFP members agreed a shorter cycle was a great idea in principal so I said that on the forums, but nobody wanted to do the graphics overhaul in a side branch or to deal with merging 3-4 months later so we just did the work and now we are here. Things change so what we intend one month is not the intent the next. Game development isn't flipping burgers, nobody can predict how long something will take.

I can predict that 19 will take much less time than 18 did, and 18 took less than 17 so things are getting better. We should be in experimental in June and stable before the summer sale if all goes well but if not, relax, its just a game and there are bigger things to worry about right now with this virus, the economy, etc.

We were also reminded how short builds break save games and everyone was having a lot of fun with 18, and larger builds have that "whole new game" feel so there are benefits to it taking some time.

Nice speech. Are you guys already at content lock?

[Adam the Waster]

8 minutes ago, Gazz said:

 

It's called Dumbing Down.

Everyone who reads these forums knows that TFP does that all the time.

thats not true, you guys update and makes things better. some times it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

 

[MechanicalLens]

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[Gazz]

@Adam the Waster

 

I'm joking, man.

There is a big difference between complexity and depth but that's a whole 'nuther topic.

[Adam the Waster]

1 minute ago, Gazz said:

@Adam the Waster

 

I'm joking, man.

There is a big difference between complexity and depth but that's a whole 'nuther topic.

@Gazz

 

you should know im not the sharpest tool in Working stiff!

 

[MechanicalLens]

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[JCrook1028]

13 hours ago, madmole said:

I'm getting about 30-50 fps most of the time so its fine for me.

With your beast pf a rig? That's really bad news for those of us with normal machines.

[madmole]

54 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Damn! Looking at your storage/crafting room made me think that there's still no decal/paint for Armor&Clothing containers... 🤐

BTW: congrats for the great looking castle!

Thanks yeah it would be nice.

[rdunham3]

14 hours ago, madmole said:

A non trader play through would be a LOT harder IMO since most of the good stuff I got came from them, but I think they max out at yellow or green now so you won't be getting anything too fantastic there. (1 tier less than a18 for now anyway).

 

Personally I love the change. It slows mid game down a bit, but late game will be what takes a long while. I think we have a proper carrot on the stick now, at least with loot. It might take another alpha to get quest rewards and trader loot set up nice as well.

 

I don't know about the goggles, I think so.

 

Yeah I play solo and T5's are just too tedious for me personally. T3's and 4's are fine though. I just can't justify travel time plus 2 hours of real time to get through a POI, I have to prepare for the horde and 2 game days down the toilet is not a wise choice of time spent IMO, I could have done 3 -4 tier 4's in that time and been at home mining or improving my base each night.

I found a18's traders rarely had anything I wanted to buy. Early game, food was my most common purchase. Mid-game I was mostly selling stuff to them and hoarding the profits. Late game...never did see solar panel bits and had everything else I wanted already. Long story short it was perfect IMO.

I'm encouraged by the loot balance change you describe. Way too fast in a18, and a18 was an improvement over previous a's.

Goggles do appear in a18. If you have good starlight conditions they're pretty good, but getting just the right amount of light can be tricky. I've used them on blood moons.

T5's and T5-grade non-quest POI's are too tedious for me, too, and they're all cheese-able. Might I recommend not storing the end loot on/near an exterior? Even Dishong can be cheesed by a non-stealth character.

[Gazz]

22 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Alright, fine. 😛 But if I find a level 5 baseball bat or a level 4 AK on day 1 once A19 hits, I'll be right back here. 😛

Deal.

[Adam the Waster]

 

2 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Deal.

ill do the same and if i see that or anything super strong! this is what will happen

 

 

 

[MechanicalLens]

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