Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Galifrey1965]

1 minute ago, beerfly said:

It is all we are allowed to say when asked that question, not mocking you.

But as devs and others are already playing and streaming with 172 and 173 it was a question to the OP as he is usually quite helpful

[Tmodloader]

On 7/22/2020 at 12:07 PM, madmole said:

Fallout wasn't a survival game when it shipped and my guess is they saw the success of us and Rust, Day Z, etc, and decided to toss survival in. Then that didn't work so they thought the magic secret sauce must be MP so they made Fallout 76.

New Vegas survival worked extremely well actually, then somehow they made it terrible in "4." That was before Rust and such (New Vegas).

 

On 7/22/2020 at 12:07 PM, madmole said:

The difference is they were trying to make the game something it wasn't, to appeal to a wider fan base. We are making the game what it is, and to appeal to us internally.

This though is great sounding philosophy, looking forward to the end product.

[jorbascrumps]

43 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Toilets give short iron pipes, so do cars, sinks, ovens, trash compactors I think, fridges maybe.

I'm usually swimming in so many pipes (heh) that I end up scrapping them once I have a forge and upgrade from the blunderbuss.

[beerfly]

2 minutes ago, Galifrey1965 said:

But as devs and others are already playing and streaming with 172 and 173 it was a question to the OP as he is usually quite helpful

True, but another thing is that if a fix is done, it is possible to cause another bug(s), so it takes time. 

Worry not, it will be out , but dates are impossible in such a complicated game. 

 

 

[RhinoW]

6 hours ago, Matt 1977 said:

I embrace the game as is, bugs etc and all. This is my game through and through. I sit back in wonder of how far the game has come. I dont sit here with a sense of entitlement demanding the game to be changed to how "I" want it. Just play the game or make your own.

I have written 2 documents with 6000+ words each, drawn a bunch of concept art (some that i havent posted) of possible zombies, reported bugs, written a controversial review, discussed feedback and keep track of this game totally because I am entitled and think the game is @%$*#! and i don't want it to improve right?

 

I want to see this game KILL triple AAA games and become the standard for the "zombie survival" genre, because until now, all of them have been the same boring bull@%$*#!. Unfortunately, what this game does well, sometimes doesn't cover up the fact that polish, decent combat mechanics, animations, sound design and particles are lacking. And me, just like the developers and most here, want to see this thing finished and kick every other game's @%$*#!. 

 

Sure if you compare it to previous alphas it has gotten better in a lot of these aspects (especially particles and animations), and that's improvement. But you can't say the game is perfect as is and call feedback entitled demands. You have a lot of whiners on the forums, but those rarely get their voice recognized (fortunately) and remain in their basement.

 

We are all here, taking time, most of us writing well thought stuff down, because we want this train to keep going forward and not fail like many other early access projects. They've gotten the money already, but I think it's in everyone's hearts not see this game's potential go to waste.

 

Also, it's better to criticize something than blindly say amen to everything. It's good to think on your own and make your own judgement, I'm a learning game developer myself, and this kind of @%$*#! is healthy for both people (we're both sharing points of view and learning, also making the brain work by making counter-arguments).

[Ralathar44]

15 hours ago, madmole said:

I could care less if it is balanced between attributes. If you ask me, that is actually a detrimental design philosophy. Making it fun and viable is my goal. It isn't a competition between perks and weapons, it is what makes you tick? What combination of stuff suits you? If you want it all you can have it all, but just not now. The perk tree as a whole produces a variety of cool builds that play different and provide different satisfying results. I'm still doing agility and am now doing 6x sneak damage at night with my bow, which is quite awesome. I actually inverted my play style, I used to quest all day with my strength build, and build at night, now this character does one little job at night and then enjoys building an entire day, because I do more damage at night and I can move around unseen.

I partially agree and partially disagree.  If everything is fun and viable then I think it's acceptable.  However if you have one attribute that's way better or worse than the others I do think it drains away some of the fun once you've played other things and realize how far behind something is or how far ahead something else is.  That being said in current state of the game I don't have a problem with the balance of any overall attribute.  Some are stronger/weaker but not by enough to matter much unless you crank up the difficulty alot.

That being said "feel" does matter too, which is why we all discussed sniper rifles before.  Even if perception as a whole is totally fine, and I disagree personally on people insisting spear is bad, Snipers definitely feel lacking compared to other weapons.  They can do the job, but after you play other weapons they definitely don't feel as fun because you're aware of just how far behind they are.  I still enjoy them, but it's a factor to be sure.  Also, perception is heavily carried balance wise by the explosives line since explosives are completely OP even without the skill line.

[beerfly]

5 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

Also, it's better to criticize something than blindly say amen.

Change the word "criticize" with "feedback". 

[RhinoW]

7 minutes ago, beerfly said:

Change the word "criticize" with "feedback". 

Criticizing is not something inherently detrimental, i know what i said. You can criticize something while saying positive things as well. I guess the values taught during the Renaissance and by Greeks long before that have gotten lost with the "Either with me or against me" mentality (not directing this at you btw). 

[beerfly]

4 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

Criticizing is not something inherently detrimental, i know what i said. You can criticize something while saying positive things as well. I guess the values taught during the Renaissance and by Greeks long before that have gotten lost with the "Either with me or against me" mentality (not directing this at you btw). 

No worries

 

[MechanicalLens]

12 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

Criticizing is not something inherently detrimental, i know what i said. You can criticize something while saying positive things as well. I guess the values taught during the Renaissance and by Greeks long before that have gotten lost with the "Either with me or against me" mentality (not directing this at you btw). 

What was that saying? Humans never learn?

 

(As a species, I mean.)

[Jost Amman]

11 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

Criticizing is not something inherently detrimental, i know what i said. You can criticize something while saying positive things as well. I guess the values taught during the Renaissance and by Greeks long before that have gotten lost with the "Either with me or against me" mentality (not directing this at you btw). 

The Greeks were great at philosophy but it's the Romans who built the roads... 😁

[beerfly]

Aye, the guy has his point and lesson. Don`t mock him. 

 

Hey Gazz, push that button. *Pushing your elbow to do it and running away*

[Jost Amman]

So about balancing...

 

For most people game balancing means making things have the same overall value/power.

For me is quite the opposite... for me it's making things work (fit) in the game environment, but not necessarily making them comparable.

 

That's why I think there should be a balanced way of playing the game that is however unbalanced in the premises.

[MechanicalLens]

3 minutes ago, beerfly said:

Aye, the guy has his point and lesson. Don`t mock him. 

 

Hey Gazz, push that button. *Pushing your elbow to do it and running away*

The trick is you gotta make it look like an accident.

 

 

[LewZephyr]

9 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

What was that saying? Humans never learn?

 

(As a species, I mean.)

War, war never changes......

[Phoenixshade35]

2 hours ago, meganoth said:

Sure, the question is do they give it guaranteed by scrapping them with a stone axe. No wrench and it must be 100%, always at least one pipe out of it, otherwise it would be RNG-based

 

i have noticed that breaking a toilet with the stone ax has always yielded 1 short iron pipe, wrenching it has given me up to 3 without scavenger

[madmole]

15 hours ago, Laz Man said:

Hey MM, whats the latest on the stable build.  Any particular MF's that are being a pain in the rear?

Not sure, I'm working on A20 and just testing 19.

[Jost Amman]

1 minute ago, madmole said:

Not sure, I'm working on A20 and just testing 19.

LOL! Best teaser in the history of videogames! 🤣

[MechanicalLens]

1 minute ago, madmole said:

Not sure, I'm working on A20 and just testing 19.

Just curious, when does the production of the next alpha begin after (or before?) the release of the former one? Asking out of curiosity here and not impatience.

[madmole]

14 hours ago, Doctor3D said:

Shouldn't abrasions, stuns, bleeding, etc be more common? I'm on day 101 and one of us just now got our first abrasion...

Yes, we keep turning it up, but it hasn't reached the point where everyone is complaining about it, so I know it isn't high enough.

[MechanicalLens]

Just now, madmole said:

Yes, we keep turning it up, but it hasn't reached the point where everyone is complaining about it, so I know it isn't high enough.

Is bleeding considered a critical, or is it in its own isolated category?

[beerfly]

19 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

What was that saying? Humans never learn?

 

(As a species, I mean.)

What us humans need to learn is adapt, but that happens by learning. Well said. 

[MechanicalLens]

2 minutes ago, beerfly said:

What us humans need to learn is adapt, but that happens by learning. Well said. 

And then we die (living very short lives at that, very short lives), and several generations later, those teachings are then forgotten or the experience behind them is.

 

Although I fear what would happen if we lived "too long"...

[FileMachete]

9 hours ago, Khalagar said:

Maybe I'm being paranoid, I'm very, very, VERY prone to dying to fall damage in all games so I'm used to it =(

Just in case you didn't know (I didn't), saw someone in another thread mention that awning _sheets_ also worked to reduce fall damage like haybales.

 

7 hours ago, Gazz said:

And that's exactly why it's so difficult to make shotguns "work" in games.

Here there are really good but only borderline OP. If they had even mediocre range it would be all over.

Yep. Totally agree with you.

 

While I kinda felt like I understood the gameplay reasons for the short ranges, it still seemed harsh. Then when I actually tried rw values in-game, wow, yeah, this blows everything else out of the water. (pardon the awesome pun )

Will say though that prior to the intro of the large capacity auto shotty a wobboly argument could have been made for a bit more range, since the pumps smaller mag size left room for the AK/M60, but with the auto shotty, nope, you stay short-range Shotty McGee!

---

 

Gazz, on the showhits console command, when you use it does it show multiple green lines for each shotgun shell fired?

 

I've enabled it, disabled zed AI, tried backing up to various distances and I only ever got one single green line piercing the zed.

Edit: meant is there a green line for each pellet fired out of each shell

 

Wondering if there's an undocumented option/modifier that will show more lines, or if it needs to be in a creative gme, or maybe the low vid qual settings I have to use are preventing multiples from showing up?

 

Not a big deal of course, you've got more important stuff to do (like messing w MechanicalLens heh) but if there's something I'm doing wrong and you have an answer & a spare minute I'd really appreciate hearing it. ☺️

[madmole]

6 hours ago, LiftPizzas said:

I bought the game in Feb and played a few times until March. I wasn't married to anything. The new mechanism inserted a grind into the game, which is poor design.

 

And sorry if you hate people just because they don't agree with you.

 

  

Facts matter when they are relevant. What's relevant is that digging for that long is boring. If I want to be bored with a shovel in my hand I'll use a real one in my yard and do something that's actually worth doing.

I don't hate people for being wrong You are entitled to your opinion but generally speaking most everyone prefers the new digging mechanic which cannot be cheesed, and the worst case scenario you end up with only a few thousand clay and not 20k of clay. You enjoyed the exploit. Buy the perk and invest into miner69r if you think its too slow. I can do every dig quest the trader has in one day on day 1, so I can't see how that is too slow.

3 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

Meanwhile I have my index finger about to press the Big Red Button of Doom      You don't want to tempt me... I'll do it!

Watch it not work, because the power went out

3 hours ago, beHypE said:

Just to bounce back on the brawler, I do not think the knuckles are bad at all. They just have that weird... treshhold where they are absolutely garbage early game, because they rely on dismemberment chance a lot and you have none on level 1. Once you add some fortitude/brawling points, they start shining pretty early, even without beer.

 

That being said, if they could reduce the chance of getting any critical hit and not just infection (which is the least problematic one of them all) it would be a welcome buff. Nullifying all chance to get crit'ed would be a bit OP, but adding 10% crit resist per point in the brawling perk would be nice.

 

By the way, is the next patch fixing the bug of almost never getting a critical hit in MP ? 

 

PS : @Gazzsorry for my tone in yesterday's posts, I was having a rough day and was out of line.

 

Fortitude guys have access to perks that reduce chance to get crits, faster crit healing etc so I think it is fine.

Those of you saying you never get crits? Are you playing MP or SP?

2 hours ago, meganoth said:

Very unfair how you treat us newbies. I may have only a few hours in the game, but I'm still a human being that should be treated with respect.

 

Seriously though, I assume that means there is a block in the game (toilet?) that gives a guaranteed small iron pipe? I had thought even those had some RNG.

I think beds drop them.

2 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

Sinks give the same resources (types, quantities) whether you wrench them or smack them with a stone axe / pickaxe, including popes. Toilets give you one short iron pipes when you smash them, several when you wrench them. The rest require a wrench.

Not true, you don't get brass without the book and a wrench.

1 hour ago, Galifrey1965 said:

Thanks for your extremely helpful reply captain obvious....

He's Captain Oblivious, get your names straight. We already have a Captain Obvious here.