Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Jost Amman]

2 minutes ago, GoldenFox said:

let the people play the game the way they want to, not the way you think its the correct one

 

dont like people doing nerd poling? change servers, host your own server and go full anti nerd poling there, or play single player.

Who are you talking to??

I'm not the one against nerd-poling, it was The Fun Pimps idea... and they can't just change server lol

2 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Not as effective since increased time and resources are two factors to consider. Not saying I agree with it, but your argument is mildly flawed.

^this^

[Damocles]

Make the POI contain "key code" notes along it "dungeon" path.

The Loot room then has key-code locked containers. Or a key code locked vault door to it.

 

Now the player can decide to get to the loot room quickly, but must break open the locks.

Or get instant access with the picked up notes. (entering the code can be an automatic action)

 

This mechanic should be quite easy to implement, and solves the problem of direct access to the "final" loot.

[khzmusik]

19 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

 

As for the nerd-poling thing I'm just discussing it for the sake of it, I'm not in favor nor against removing it.

It depends on how it all relates, as you said, to solving the other problem.

Well, that was really my only point. It's a solution to a problem that is, in reality, unrelated to nerd-poling.

 

TFP have already talked about other ways to solve this problem that have nothing to do with nerd-poling. Their solutions are, again IMHO, not only better at solving the problem - they also open up a whole world of other possibilities.

 

(As an aside... I know we're not supposed to mention the M-word here. But you can already modify the game to eliminate nerd-poling by requiring players to have their feet on the ground when placing blocks. Just do a search in the relevant forum section. I've actually played with those modifications - and found them to be nothing but frustrating and pointless. So when I say TFP solutions are better, I'm speaking from my own experience.)

[GoldenFox]

10 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Who are you talking to??

I'm not the one against nerd-poling, it was The Fun Pimps idea... and they can't just change server lol

^this^

 

lol not to you, i know you are good with that, im talking to anyone who want to force a big game change on everyone when there is no reason to.

 

if they feel so annoyed because alot of players feel more comfortable building frames they just can hop into another server, or host their own and make their rules, or play single player instead.

 

there is no need to change the thing because is not realistic, or because people obtain loot faster who cares? its the way people play the game. also mad mole said that hes all about saving time and resources, and if people feel like rushing and looting by placing a lot of frames, its just a way of playing the game.

 

 

in my opinion making a zombie hold the key, or hiding the key somewhere makes looting more tedious, and when you're short on food, water, or hitpoints, becomes an annoyance, turns looting and or exploring into a job rather than making it quick and easy

[STyK_]

4 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

You see, I'd agree on the walls/doors with a "huge amount of points" thing, but the problem is it's a shoehorned solution IMO.

If you need to have "special walls" or "special doors" to solve this problem, then that's probably not the best solution.

 

As for the nerd-poling thing I'm just discussing it for the sake of it, I'm not in favor nor against removing it.

It depends on how it all relates, as you said, to solving the other problem.

 

We could also say that skipping dungeon POIs to immediately get the loot is fine since what's fun for the player it's always ok... and be done with it. *shrugs*

 

5 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

You see, I'd agree on the walls/doors with a "huge amount of points" thing, but the problem is it's a shoehorned solution IMO.

If you need to have "special walls" or "special doors" to solve this problem, then that's probably not the best solution.

 

As for the nerd-poling thing I'm just discussing it for the sake of it, I'm not in favor nor against removing it.

It depends on how it all relates, as you said, to solving the other problem.

 

We could also say that skipping dungeon POIs to immediately get the loot is fine since what's fun for the player it's always ok... and be done with it. *shrugs*

I play a lot of survival games and often I come across situations where you have what that the developers vision for the game is and then the players get ahold of it and twist it and its comes out as something else.

Forgive me for bringing up another game. 'Atlas' the devs made it so you could go to a special server and do a raid against monsters and get special stuff from there. You can tell the devs wanted this so be something you build up to with your clan, get geared out, use tactics to kill the monsters on the beach with your boats, cooperate. Instead it was just a giant meme, everyone just ran naked and weaponless, why waste the gear was the idea when you can just spoof it.
That's how I see nerd poling being used, its a mechanic that's been twisted to use outside the developers vison.

[Jost Amman]

10 minutes ago, khzmusik said:

TFP have already talked about other ways to solve this problem that have nothing to do with nerd-poling. Their solutions are, again IMHO, not only better at solving the problem - they also open up a whole world of other possibilities.

Just for your info... IIRC anti nerd-poling was also mentioned by Richard in one of the streams.

It was one of the options they were considering though, to be honest, I don't know if it was at the top of their list or at the bottom.

14 minutes ago, Damocles said:

Make the POI contain "key code" notes along it "dungeon" path.

The Loot room then has key-code locked containers. Or a key code locked vault door to it.

 

Now the player can decide to get to the loot room quickly, but must break open the locks.

Or get instant access with the picked up notes. (entering the code can be an automatic action)

 

This mechanic should be quite easy to implement, and solves the problem of direct access to the "final" loot.

I like this idea better.

 

Protecting loot with a heavily reinforced chest/safe is much easier and natural than building special rooms with heavily reinforced walls in places where they make no sense.

[khzmusik]

5 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Just for your info... IIRC anti nerd-poling was also mentioned by Richard in one of the streams.

It was one of the options they were considering though, to be honest, I don't know if it was at the top of their list or at the bottom.

I remember, but his solutions had nothing to do with anti-nerd-poling. He specifically mentioned one-way doors and randomly-spawning keys. (EDIT: Or maybe it was Nathan that mentioned them. I'm ancient and my memory is shot.)

 

Those are the exact solutions that I think are better than anti-nerd-poling. And, for the record, I didn't think of them, though I wish I had.

[Damocles]

The key codes could then also be randomly placed along the dungeon path (but easily enough to be found when there).

This also removes the ability to just quickly grab them, when knowing the layout by heart.

 

Its enough to have one or two final containers to be locked. The ones with the really good "goodies", to have an incentive finding the code.

[Jost Amman]

3 minutes ago, khzmusik said:

I remember, but his solutions had nothing to do with anti-nerd-poling. He specifically mentioned one-way doors and randomly-spawning keys.

 

Those are the exact solutions that I think are better than anti-nerd-poling. And, for the record, I didn't think of them, though I wish I had.

I think Damocles key-code idea is even better then... 🙂

[khzmusik]

1 minute ago, Jost Amman said:

I think Damocles key-code idea is even better then... 🙂

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what TFP were talking about with keys/key cards.

 

(I just went to past streams to find where this discussion occurred... but I'd have to pretty much watch all of them to find the specific answer to this. I'm not that dedicated, sorry about that.)

[Damocles]

The advantage of a "key code" instead of a key-card or actual key is that its not necessary to spawn any inventory object, or such thing.

It would be basically just a memories piece of information, specific for that POI.

[Damocles]

Just now, MechanicalLens said:

 

Again, what if they were to be destroyed? This is assuming of course they would be lootable or physical objects.

If they get destroyed they get destroyed. That would be a normal event in the game. Whats the issue with that?

The player needs to prevent loot getting blown up in any case.

[STyK_]

15 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Again, what if they were to be destroyed? This is assuming of course they would be lootable or physical objects.

make it a zombie drop? Kill the Zed, drops the yellow bag, put the code/key in the bag. I've never tried, can you destroy them?

 

Edit: Actually there is usually a cop in these poi's make the cop drop it, security would have the code/key

[FileMachete]

Looked at from a different angle nerd poling isn't the problem really is it?

 

It's that the majority of the really good loot is at one location. Often at the top of a building.

 

Simply spread the loot around in the high tier pois.

 

And, just guessing here, but code wise I'd assume that randomizing between a given set of containers would be a heck of a lot easier than spawning in multiple full 3d models in random rooms.

[khzmusik]

2 minutes ago, Damocles said:

If they get destroyed they get destroyed. That would be a normal event in the game. Whats the issue with that?

The player needs to prevent loot getting blown up in any case.

Personally I agree with this. I mean, right now, if you get killed when trying to finish a quest, you fail that quest. How would this be any different in terms of gameplay?

 

[irongamer]

44 minutes ago, Damocles said:

Make the POI contain "key code" notes along it "dungeon" path.

The Loot room then has key-code locked containers. Or a key code locked vault door to it.

 

Now the player can decide to get to the loot room quickly, but must break open the locks.

Or get instant access with the picked up notes. (entering the code can be an automatic action)

 

This mechanic should be quite easy to implement, and solves the problem of direct access to the "final" loot.

 

I really hope an idea similar to this is implemented.  It encourages exploration, encountering zeds, and offers a nice alternative to wrecking a straight path to the goodies.  As for the concerns over note destruction, I really don't care either way.  If they are destroyed, move on, or work the longer process of opening the hardened safe.  If notes are indestructible you could level a building to find them, but the cost and time to do so may not be shorter than trying to crack the safe or find the notes.

 

Excellent idea Damocles.

[khzmusik]

13 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Nevertheless, here are the reasons why, in my opinion, keycards are the obvious choice out of the two:

1. It's a simpler system and therefore more user-friendly to new players

2. If keycodes would be physical objects, then a singular keycard would save on inventory space

3. A similar system is already in place, and that is the supplies from the satchels. A similar system for keycards could be developed off of that

 

(And no, having both is not an option, since TFP are going for consistency here.)

The difference is you would then likely have a chest or two which would be impossible to break into. (Unless of course they had ridiculous amounts of health; 40k plus.)

Maybe we're talking about the same thing?

 

My idea (which is just a slight tweak of something TFP said) is to have different "colors" of key cards, a la Doom, and those key cards are destructible (once they open up one door/chest/whatever of that color, they're gone).

 

The situation where you would have a chest that is impossible to break into - would only happen if you don't have that specific "color" of card.

 

When would this happen? If you lost that card (e.g. due to being killed) or if you got that colored key but voluntarily used it somewhere else.

 

In those situations, yes, you would have a chest (or POI area...) that's impossible to access. But where's the problem? It seems entirely consistent, gameplay-wise.

 

It's also newbie-friendly, since colored key cards have been around for, what, forty years now? If you're such a newbie that you can't grasp the concept of colored keys, you probably can't even do WASD movement.

[irongamer]

1 minute ago, MechanicalLens said:

I agree, it is an excellent idea, but thinking realistically here, which system do you think TFP are going to select? Thinking of new players here.

1. You going on a wild goose chase to find some random numbers to unlock the code to an otherwise almost indestructible door/loot container

 

2. A physical, lootable object that always spawns in the same location in every POI and that has arrows pointing to it on the compass and on your screen?

Most definitely the latter. 😛

I don't really care what the Fun Pimps select.  The idea is excellent for any player.  What the Fun Pimps select is their business and does nothing to lower the quailty of the idea itself.  Also "New Player".... are you suggesting that ALL new players do not like searching / exploring content?

[irongamer]

4 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Of course not. I'm just looking at current trends and applying them here.

If the trend they are looking for is to feel like generic mmo X then I suppose arrows pointing at everything is the way to go.

[GoldenFox]

in my opinion instead of having developers wasting time into coding a feature to fix something that isnt broken, id rather see them using that time to release updates to the game's engine, more weapons, items, etc

[irongamer]

11 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Again, I'm not arguing for or against it, that's not the point here; I'm just making an observation.  I edited my comment above detailing three such examples.

Yeah, the radius hints are great.  Could work the same for notes, key cards, fobs, etc, giving you a hint of which room(s) contain the needed pieces to open the safe.

[irongamer]

Just now, MechanicalLens said:

And so it seems that we have reached a bridge in this discussion. To keep things consistent, a singular keycard or a series of keycodes would need to be easy enough to find and, if current trends continue, they would probably have arrows pointing towards them. At that point, does it matter which one TFP could pick? I argue... not really.

Yeah, the main strength of the original idea was the promotion of exploring a POI more fully, prompting more zed encounters, and the additional satisfaction of finding something.

[GoldenFox]

i mean, sure i understand that there is a bunch of people that want a zombies apocalypse to be 100% realistic, with food spoilage, no nerd poling, etc. but there are mods for that.

 

i agree 100% with you saying that nerd poling is a problem if you want it to be a problem, i cant see that being an issue, its not a race, you are not affected if other players want to get fast loot let em be with it, it's up to each individual after all should they choose to make their own game more difficult or realistic by not allowing themselves to place frames.

[Jost Amman]

12 minutes ago, irongamer said:

Yeah, the main strength of the original idea was the promotion of exploring a POI more fully, prompting more zed encounters, and the additional satisfaction of finding something.

Unless you're a min/maxer lol

(not me)

[courgi]

Perhaps this was answered already, but in the previous stream I noticed infection rate going down, not up and infection started at 3%. Are %’s random? Will infections stack? Will infection rates begin to increase instead of decrease if severe enough?