Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Aldranon]

4 hours ago, meganoth said:

Headshots, in general yes. I was mainly refering to 'Oh @%$*#!' situations where a sure hit can often be more important than a headshot (because of the push-back). And if you are moving and shooting at the same time hitting a twitchy steve zombie (EDIT: in the head I mean) is also exceptionally difficult.

 

2 shotguns: Not to compensate. I had the second shotgun with me for emergencies, but I used it very seldom. In a way the second shotty is like the AK I still run around with as agi player (until I have an MP5), but the AK gets used less often (because the pistol can compensate easier if you make silly mistakes like having an empty magazine). But as long as you have ammo in your shotgun, you simply remove anything in your way with a lot less circumstances than with a pistol

 

If you don't mind ammo consumption, then yes, the pistol can kill faster than the same tier shotgun. But if ammo consumption doesn't matter neither pistol nor shotgun matter at all in the presence of an AK

 

I agree with everything you said.

If some zombies heads didnt move around so fast when you aimed at them (Almost automagically) then I would agree with big head shot bonus and body shot nerfs.

 

You also hit on ammo consumption which I believe is the primary concern mid-game and beyond.  I build most characters with only that in mind.  

[Gazz]

5 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Actually I would like for wood frames to have EVERY shape. Rebar ones too. Right now shapes are missing in concrete forcing players to upgrade and dry . While that might be a progression thing ,  as of right now, it's very inconsistent and arbitrarily made.

We would like that, too.

 

[madmole]

3 hours ago, Khalagar said:

Aw yiss yiss yiss yiss and yiss. Assuming you aren't pulling my leg, in which case, shame on you for getting my hopes up and then dashing them thoroughly

 

 

So most Tier 1 and Tier 2 are not great late game because their damage can't compare to the other Tier 3s. Currently, Junk Turrets are one of the best weapons in the game IMO when you have two decked out in mods, are they being changed to not already be on par with the new Tier 3s? Or is the logic that they are fine, because it takes 2 to equal an m60. (Dun nerf muh turrets pl0x)

 

Or rather, are Junk Sledge and Junk Turret still going to be pretty viable for late game? Or are they going to be fairly outclassed like if you were trying to use a Tier 1 weapon like a  Stone Sledge late game instead of a Tier 3 like the Steel Sledge

I thought junk turrets were way too OP, did you buy the perks for them?
The drone isn't going to do much damage it is just a follower with cargo and it heals you and stuns zombies. It might even get pushed to A20.

3 hours ago, Xtrakicking said:

I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound good. If it's going to be a POS, why make it hard to find for ages then? Do players seriously need to buy all the gun perks for their guns to do any meaningful damage at all? Just as I thought we were getting out of the BB gun era... 

Because its blue. It isn't a POS, but compared to what we had in 18... it is. Sorry bro you can't find a brown ak and feel OP AF anymore, there is a good progression. Guns are plenty deadly but perks make a huge difference like always.

3 hours ago, Operator_Death said:

@madmole I was in now way serious.. I only use paint on storage containers. I was mocking the people who ignore everything you say is coming and focus on little thing. My bad. 

Oh I see. That said as much of "more of everything" sounds great to users, we can only pack so much content into memory.

1 hour ago, Gromit said:

Speaking of the AK47, are you planning on pulling the camera back a bit for the sight view in A19?

 

Right now it zooms right into the sight and it feels really odd. Kinda like the image below if you'll excuse my 4-5 minute PS attempt.

 

Sorry but game play overrides realism. You need to see stuff in the iron sight. F.e. the hunting rifle is how you want the AK, and sorry the hunting rifle is wrecked, it needs the eye ball half way up the barrel so you aren't shooting through a pin hole.

[Phoenixshade35]

When it comes to the paint I actually was hoping for some more paint styles, cause right now I don't see the type of things i wanna paint my place with, though painting is nice when your building a nice place to live and craft without zombies ruining it, but that could just be me lol.

 

And I am more than hyped for how difficult the game is going to be now, i want it like yesterday lol

[Operator_Death]

6 minutes ago, madmole said:

I thought junk turrets were way too OP, did you buy the perks for them?
The drone isn't going to do much damage it is just a follower with cargo and it heals you and stuns zombies. It might even get pushed to A20.

Because its blue. It isn't a POS, but compared to what we had in 18... it is. Sorry bro you can't find a brown ak and feel OP AF anymore, there is a good progression. Guns are plenty deadly but perks make a huge difference like always.

Oh I see. That said as much of "more of everything" sounds great to users, we can only pack so much content into memory.

I love the direction you guys are going. The game has improved so much over the alphas. I hope the junk drone makes it to A19 but if it doesn't then that means you feel it isn't ready for release yet. I just can't wait to see some of your videos. I do think its funny how you will say we added XYZ123457 and people only care because you skipped 6. @madmole keep up the great work. Thank you for your hard work. 

 

1 minute ago, Phoenixshade35 said:

When it comes to the paint I actually was hoping for some more paint styles, cause right now I don't see the type of things i wanna paint my place with, though painting is nice when your building a nice place to live and craft without zombies ruining it, but that could just be me lol.

 

And I am more than hyped for how difficult the game is going to be now, i want it like yesterday lol

I was being sarcastic about paint. I like my base to look like a bunker personally. But I do want a paint for all the diffrent types of storage containers. 

[Phoenixshade35]

2 minutes ago, Operator_Death said:

I love the direction you guys are going. The game has improved so much over the alphas. I hope the junk drone makes it to A19 but if it doesn't then that means you feel it isn't ready for release yet. I just can't wait to see some of your videos. I do think its funny how you will say we added XYZ123457 and people only care because you skipped 6. @madmole keep up the great work. Thank you for your hard work. 

 

I was being sarcastic about paint. I like my base to look like a bunker personally. But I do want a paint for all the diffrent types of storage containers. 

for me i was building a house on the roof of my horde base i began painting the floor, had the walls done for each room to give it a nice feel, kinda like home, was a nice relaxing time doing it away from all the killing lol, i do think we are missing a few containers worth of paint jobs though

[Operator_Death]

1 minute ago, Phoenixshade35 said:

for me i was building a house on the roof of my horde base i began painting the floor, had the walls done for each room to give it a nice feel, kinda like home, was a nice relaxing time doing it away from all the killing lol, i do think we are missing a few containers worth of paint jobs though

Like cloths, tools, mods and junk/misc

[Phoenixshade35]

1 minute ago, Operator_Death said:

Like cloths, tools, mods and junk/misc

yup, those would make sorting easier, for now im ok with the signs, though i do wish i could paint the signs and change the color of the font lol

[Khalagar]

25 minutes ago, madmole said:

I thought junk turrets were way too OP, did you buy the perks for them?
The drone isn't going to do much damage it is just a follower with cargo and it heals you and stuns zombies. It might even get pushed to A20.

 

Well, I play on Warrior / Survivalist (what ever the second hardest is), so on that they were "Just right" with all the perks and mods for late game, although double Junk Turrets do tear up PoI pretty well. Which I like! So the plan is for Junk Turrets to be the T3 weapon equivalent for the Junk line then? The Drone being a support and cargo box is great because I'm always over encumbered, and it sounds like a great compliment to the Builder / Crafter style I like to play, where when I go into a PoI I'm going in with a wrench and axe and taking the whole thing apart for materials.

 

I mostly just want the Junk Sledge  / Turrets / Drone to all viable if that's what you focus your offense points on as your play style, since they seem like a pretty unique trio that all compliment each other. 

 

Can you verify that the "two junk turrets" perk affects all 3? So you could have 6 Junk devices out at once? A mobile one man army base sounds pretty sweet for the kind of play style I do where I play a really hard game with fast zombies that are bullet sponges

[madmole]

13 minutes ago, Khalagar said:

 

Well, I play on Warrior / Survivalist (what ever the second hardest is), so on that they were "Just right" with all the perks and mods for late game, although double Junk Turrets do tear up PoI pretty well. Which I like! So the plan is for Junk Turrets to be the T3 weapon equivalent for the Junk line then? The Drone being a support and cargo box is great because I'm always over encumbered, and it sounds like a great compliment to the Builder / Crafter style I like to play, where when I go into a PoI I'm going in with a wrench and axe and taking the whole thing apart for materials.

 

I mostly just want the Junk Sledge  / Turrets / Drone to all viable if that's what you focus your offense points on as your play style, since they seem like a pretty unique trio that all compliment each other. 

 

Can you verify that the "two junk turrets" perk affects all 3? So you could have 6 Junk devices out at once? A mobile one man army base sounds pretty sweet for the kind of play style I do where I play a really hard game with fast zombies that are bullet sponges

No it will be 2 robotics total. So one drone and one junk turret etc. 6 would be grossly OP.

[Khalagar]

Rest in peace, my hopes and dreams of a robot army serving my whims.  That will put quite the constraint on the drone as it will have to compete against the turrets, and  . . .I don't see the Sledge getting used at all once you get the turret =(

[Phoenixshade35]

1 minute ago, Khalagar said:

Rest in peace, my hopes and dreams of a robot army serving my whims.  That will put quite the constraint on the drone as it will have to compete against the turrets, and  . . .I don't see the Sledge getting used at all once you get the turret =(

hey, one day im hoping for like a junk terminator we can build to come with us, look at all the @%$*#! we can craft, its not too farfetched for humanoid robots to be a thing lol

[Guppys Fur]

6 hours ago, madmole said:

I might be a minority, but I feel like 2% of the users paint. Paint cannot stream and also has a finite limit so we're kind of limited there. I don't think its meh the world builders have used it to create the entire game and it looks great. It might be meh if you think your base needs to look all perfect and brand new or something. It is unlikely we will add anything like that due to the fact that we wouldn't use those materials ourselves so it would be waste of atlas space for a 2% er feature.

 

 

Mr. Mole i think you drasticially underestimate your Community here. I play and host Multiplayer since 2016 and ever since the Pain System came, 70% of the Playerbases were painted. Partly so skillfull that i spend time to just look at it, what the builder created.

 

I hope you guys keep an eye on that with the new telemetrics

7 hours ago, madmole said:

No new shapes nor paint afaik, but lots of textures have been upgraded.

 

Mr. Mole, i love the new Helper System.

But has it had a pass after A18?

 

Its bugging me as heck, that you have certain shapes only in certain Materials.

Given, some just dont make sense if you go for realism, but its a real struggle to keep in head wich Material-Helper has that specific Shape youre lookin for right now.

I would wish that all Materials have all Shapes so the difference between the helpers really would only be the material you choose ( wood, brick, iron etc)

 

Edit

>> Just read Gazz Hint some posts above, seems my Prayers get answered

[MechanicalLens]

deleted

[Jost Amman]

3 hours ago, madmole said:

Oh I see. That said as much of "more of everything" sounds great to users, we can only pack so much content into memory.

Since EA is also about feedback I feel like giving you some on this: IMO you should remove a few of the less used paint textures you have now and replace them with the much needed "Armor&Clothing Storage", "Mods", "Parts" and "Crafting Materials" textures that we can paint on storage crates.

 

If the problem is you already used all of the current brush textures to paint the POIs in the game, well, I can understand that, so in that case there's no chance to replace some of them unless you do a second pass of ALL POIs after the change! I hope that's not the problem.

 

That being said, I really appreciate all the great work you guys have been doing for A19!

[TSBX]

If the UIAtlas is already loaded in memory, couldn't those icons be used for crate paint? That would add dozens of icons with little to no overhead unless I'm dead wrong. (Possible )

 

[Xtrakicking]

7 hours ago, madmole said:

Because its blue. It isn't a POS, but compared to what we had in 18... it is. Sorry bro you can't find a brown ak and feel OP AF anymore, there is a good progression. Guns

You wanna know why it was looking good for guns in A18? Because, for the first time in 18 alphas, finding a brown gun didn't automatically mean to scrap it or toss it. It also meant that gun safes/wall safes were finally worth looting early game, instead of completely ignoring them till later. Why bother opening them if they're gonna have brown crap that's only useful if scrapped?

 

That was the major conflict with the quality of items. The only good brown is a scrapped brown. That wasn't the case in A18, since quality mainly determined duration and mod slots. It was your best iteration yet. Now it just seems like you wanna backtrack. Well, I don't see the reward in looting big places in the hopes to find guns if they're gonna be absolutely useless. It just worries me that you're going back to that.

8 hours ago, Laz Man said:

It was a figure of speech.  I'm sure they are still decent but not as strong as in A18 since they squeezed in the new rifle perhaps.

We'll have to see then. It's just frustrating when things seem to finally start working out, and then see them take a step backwards again. I'm not saying this is the case necessarily, but it does sound like it to me.

[EffiJeffy]

7 hours ago, madmole said:

No it will be 2 robotics total. So one drone and one junk turret etc. 6 would be grossly OP.

How is your world progressing? How did you deal with the horde? Can we get some new screenshots?

[MechanicalLens]

deleted

[hiemfire]

6 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

(In this case, what about the M60?)

Isn't that "gated" behind getting up enough forged steel?

[Nastastu]

Was anything added for finding/farming feathers or are they still only from nests and vultures?

[MechanicalLens]

deleted

[madmole]

9 hours ago, Khalagar said:

Rest in peace, my hopes and dreams of a robot army serving my whims.  That will put quite the constraint on the drone as it will have to compete against the turrets, and  . . .I don't see the Sledge getting used at all once you get the turret =(

That is because you are blind or not thinking creatively Sledge doesn't use ammo. Put one in front of your horde door it helps a lot IMO. Knocks guys down so you can shoot them, and keeps them from actually smashing your door in. A turret needs constant reloading on horde night and getting it positioned while your base is getting pummeled and buzzards/puke is incoming makes the sledge seem pretty good to me. But bear in mind it is a tier 1 weapon, generally speaking tier 1s get discarded late game.

[Xtrakicking]

24 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

They can contain ammo, mods, silver and gold and diamonds, gear parts, possible upgraded armor (compared to your own), and even if you get garbage (which can still happen in A18 anyway, even at a high gamestage), at least with traders, you have infinite POI resets. This is not to mention that unlike A16, we don't just have a few coveted safes sprinkled around the place anymore; basically every POI rewards the player with a stash at the end.

We'll see, I guess. It still sounds terrible to me, because I'm just picturing myself looting all those POIs with stashes you talk about and finding nothing but brown crap that I'll have to either sell, scrap or toss. Ammo would have to be stored, cause it's worth nothing if your guns are useless anyways, same as mods that you won't be able to use, since apparentely you won't find any higher quality items till later anyways.

 

I know that I won't know until I try it, but right now It almost sounds like looting POIs is little more than a bother early game. Better to farm zombie kills and xp to get your level up, and then be forced to waste your points in perks to then loot POIs, since it's the only way you're gonna get anything decent.

[madmole]

8 hours ago, Guppys Fur said:

 

Mr. Mole i think you drasticially underestimate your Community here. I play and host Multiplayer since 2016 and ever since the Pain System came, 70% of the Playerbases were painted. Partly so skillfull that i spend time to just look at it, what the builder created.

 

I hope you guys keep an eye on that with the new telemetrics

 

Mr. Mole, i love the new Helper System.

But has it had a pass after A18?

 

Its bugging me as heck, that you have certain shapes only in certain Materials.

Given, some just dont make sense if you go for realism, but its a real struggle to keep in head wich Material-Helper has that specific Shape youre lookin for right now.

I would wish that all Materials have all Shapes so the difference between the helpers really would only be the material you choose ( wood, brick, iron etc)

 

Edit

>> Just read Gazz Hint some posts above, seems my Prayers get answered

You drastically over estimate the number of players who paint. Its a late game luxury for those who've mastered the survival aspects few ever do. The community is .0001% of the player base. You guys are hardcore and know every system in and out, the player base is water washing over the rocks, you guys are grains of sand stuck in the rocks, watching all the water pass by.

I get what you are saying, but there are so many 10-30 hour guys who never paint, its not something we should keep investing into because the lack of more important features is preventing them from discovering paint in the first place.

Yes we will unify the shapes menus, but would like to automate it instead of doing everything by hand so its more flexible and easy to maintain as we add more shapes. Hopefully copy shape will even work with any block of any material. Not right now though. We can go back to crafting all the blocks if you think its that bad

 

3 hours ago, Xtrakicking said:

You wanna know why it was looking good for guns in A18? Because, for the first time in 18 alphas, finding a brown gun didn't automatically mean to scrap it or toss it. It also meant that gun safes/wall safes were finally worth looting early game, instead of completely ignoring them till later. Why bother opening them if they're gonna have brown crap that's only useful if scrapped?

 

That was the major conflict with the quality of items. The only good brown is a scrapped brown. That wasn't the case in A18, since quality mainly determined duration and mod slots. It was your best iteration yet. Now it just seems like you wanna backtrack. Well, I don't see the reward in looting big places in the hopes to find guns if they're gonna be absolutely useless. It just worries me that you're going back to that.

We'll have to see then. It's just frustrating when things seem to finally start working out, and then see them take a step backwards again. I'm not saying this is the case necessarily, but it does sound like it to me.

No it isn't like that at all. Brown guns are amazing compared to primitive ones, and parts are useful for crafting once you outgrow them. I crafted a blue pump shotgun last night made from 5 double barrels I looted. But that first brown double barrel was amazing compared to my trusty blunderbuss, because it had two shots. Browns are lethal enough IMO. You guys will need superior firepower for what is coming for A20, special infected 2.0. Its not like we nerfed every gun, its just the ak was filling the role of T1-T2 before, now that the assault rifle is in it doesn't need to.