Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Adam the Waster]

 

54 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

@madmole Some questions if some quality of life changes are being worked on:

 

- Option to change toggling/holding ADS? (I know they are both implemented, but the response for the holding ADS is super slow compared to any other shooter)

 

- Buyable/Craftable in-game lights for the players to use (some were removed since A16 for some reason, and i keep getting teased by the construction lights in PoIs)?

 

- New honk sounds for the motorcycle and truck?

 

- Actually shifting sounds for the vehicles instead of the boring loop one? (You have the gear shift sound when you start moving after being still, then it goes into a monotone loop)

 

- Make burst fire actual burst fire? Right now it's just better to spam tap shoot with burst fire weapons, i thought burst fire was supposed to be a really fast burst but with a lower fire rate per burst.

 

I swear you asked this!

 

 

 

but from personal experience, its best to ask questions one at a time. but thats what i experienced (from my first ever post)   

but i would like to see new lights! Maybe a Light Menu section like how there is metal furniture menu! 

[FileMachete]

3 hours ago, faatal said:

b169 did not load block entities up front, so less VRAM use, but added lot of loading lag, so that change was reverted in b173. One of our artists lowered texture sizes on many textures last Friday, so texture memory use will be somewhat less in the next release.

It is probably a memory issue on that GPU. How much VRAM does it have? Wiki says 2 GB or 4 GB. If yours is 2 GB, then that not much and you would need to put all texture quality settings to the lower choices.

Just an fyi Faatal. While I haven't upgraded my GPU yet (still an old 1GB 6850) I did take the plunge into a19exp today.

 

Running in 1280x720, Vsync off, Dynamic Off, Vid Options at 'Lowest', so 1/8th texture size.

Constant micro stutters, not just when opening a Menu or loot/storage. Just moving around, within the same small area, and >150m from the next closest building, roughly 200m from Traders.

Console 'le' says just me.

 

Bumped Textures to 1/4, everything else the same and it got _better_. Not by much, but the frame jump when turning your pov is noticibly better with larger textures.

[pregnable]

What are you guys planning on doing with charismatic nature?

 

It is probably really good for 1 person to take if you are running with a large group, but almost no one is going to use it heh.  I tried to talk someone into doing a 2 man where we both get it to be funny and they did not seem interested. 

 

If it worked on turrets or we had pets it would be kinda fun. 

 

I would be tempted to remove better barter and make the 5th rank of charismatic nature 15% or 20% trader prices. 

 

Obviously a lot of ways you could go with it.  Was curious if you had plans on changing it at all. 

[Phoenixshade35]

@madmole an idea for trader quests, not having to do with rewards, is it possible to have it so the trader has a quest from each tier? like once you have tier 2 unlocked you get 2 and one, but once you unlock tier 5 could we have a quest from each tier?  I go to my trader and its 3 level 5 quests, a 4 then a 1, why not have it 1,2,3,4,5 for more variety?

[Reaver]

5 hours ago, Gazz said:

There are tons of automatic rifles in 7.62. Just don't fixate on American ones.

No, I can not. Also, this is the dev log, not the bug forum.

Dragunov is the sniper?

[unholyjoe]

10 hours ago, madmole said:

Maybe because I grew up farming, you don't walk on the damn crops.

Try standing on the side and punch it.

nahh... not letting this slide by... and its is only for fun...

 

i was raised on beef cattle and dairy farms and never did we ever have to punch our crops to harvest... sorry i couldnt let that one get by..

[cammel]

8 minutes ago, unholyjoe said:

 

i was raised on beef cattle and dairy farms and never did we ever have to punch our crops to harvest... sorry i couldnt let that one get by..

So you were not a cowpuncher, like in the old west?😁

[Lemmers]

2 hours ago, FileMachete said:

While I haven't upgraded my GPU yet (still an old 1GB 6850) I did take the plunge into a19exp today.

I find it impressive a ten year old video card can even play this game.

[Jugginator]

1 hour ago, unholyjoe said:

nahh... not letting this slide by... and its is only for fun...

 

i was raised on beef cattle and dairy farms and never did we ever have to punch our crops to harvest... sorry i couldnt let that one get by..

Hmmm. Punching corn, apples, pears, peppers and oranges would knock them on the ground then one can harvest them 🤷‍♂️

[FileMachete]

@faatal , just to clear I'm not "complaining" about a19 performance (thankful I can still play w this card), just providing some data in case it's useful. To flesh out my earlier post;

 

In a18.4 I didn't have any micro stutters. Sure FPS would drop due to various bits, but even when fps went to the teens there weren't obvious hicups, it was just low frame rates. In a19b173 with fps showing 20s to low 30s, in and around a small building (Lathams Hardware rustic) with nothing else close by the stutters are fairly constant. Using "stutter" rather than 'freeze' as they don't last even half a second. It's more like a couple farmes aren't processed/displayed, so there are jumps in swing animations, or pov jumps when turning. I mini tested the turning bit by scanning in 360 to see if there was just something it needed to load (which it might still be but can't keep it in VRAM), but that didn't change anything.

 

1 hour ago, Lemmers said:

I find it impressive a ten year old video card can even play this game.

Indeed. And I really hope Murphy's on a cafe break.. because, built this system ~9 years ago. I've replaced the power supply, cpu fan and one of the case fans, everything else is original, even the GPU & it's fans. That's with playing five games for more than a thousand hours each. Definately got my moneys worth out of this system, heh.

[Biscoitoso]

Hospital, T5 - Fetch and Clear
Apartament Brick, T5 - Clear

Serious, what the heck with the Nailguns?

[BobbyLee298]

For thoses who want to know the guns in the game and the caliber they shoot IRL (not including shotguns)

 

Pistols

1 - Pistol = beretta m9 - 9mm Luger

2 - Revolver = Smith & Wesson Model 629 - 44 Mag and some other calibers

3 - Desert vulture = Desert eagle - 50AE but also has a 44 Mag Model

 

SMG

1 - SMG = MP5SD - 9mm Luger or what others say 9x19 parabellum/ 10mm auto and many more

 

Carbines

1 - AK47 = AK47 - 7.62x39mm

2 - M4/M4A1 (all the same thing really) - 556x45 NATO or 223 Remington

3 - M60 = M60 - 7.62x51 NATO

 

Rifles 

1 - Hunting Rifle = Remington 700 - SOO MANY CALIBERS, this can fire 308 which is just a stronger 7.62x51 NATO round

 

2 - Marksman Rifle = R11 RSASS - 308/7.62x51 NATO

 

3 - 3rd Tier Rifle (forget the name) = Dragunov svd - 7.62x54R

 

Ammo types in game (no shotguns)

9mm

44 mag

7.62

 

 

 

Calibers needed to be in game if guns worked with their respected ammo

 

9mm Luger

44 Magnum

50 AE (Not necessary)

 

10mm Auto (Not necessary)

 

223 Remington (Not necessary)

556x45 Nato

7.62x39mm

7.62x51 Nato

308 Winchester (Not necessary)

7.62x54R

 

Which brings us to 6 different calibers that would be needed in order to make the game MORE realistic, but the game doesnt state if 7.62 ammo is 7.62x51 or 7.62x54R so tactically the game isnt all that wrong

 

 

So ya alot of guns use 7.62 and its kinda smart where TFP ended up doing their ammo types but it does leave much to be desired. 

 

 

As TFP has stated adding more calibers will clutter inventory 

 

(Not including shot shells)

We currently have 3 calibers with 2 variants of each Hollow Points, and Armor piercing

Total of 9 different ammo

 

We only need 6 different calibers to be "realistic" but i would doubt TFP would bring HP and AP ammo if they went the realistic route as that would create allot of ammo variants

 

 

What would you rather want (vote)

 

Knuckle-Rub for the original

3 different calibers with HP and AP

Total of 9 bullets

 

Sympathy  for the realistic Calibers

6 different calibers WITHOUT HP and AP

Total of 6 bullets

[AlabasterW]

Where on earth am I supposed to get mechanical parts without using a wrench? The traders have none, nothing seems to scrap down into them, haven't looted any in over a week... they're pretty important, and I need them!

[STyK_]

29 minutes ago, BobbyLee298 said:

2 - M4/M4A1 (all the same thing really) - 556x45 NATO or 223 Remington

 

Knuckle-Rub for the original

3 different calibers with HP and AP

Total of 9 bullets

 

Sympathy  for the realistic Calibers

6 different calibers WITHOUT HP and AP

Total of 6 bullets

Sorry I cut up the quote to save space. We verified with Gazz's help that the M4 tactical in game is a variant that uses 7.62mmx39 , they exist just not in the U.S. military.

 

I honestly want it all. 5 calibers With HP and AP, fill the whole munitions box. But thats not going to happen.

[Khalagar]

16 hours ago, madmole said:

You can't press e to activate until you see the floating text

 

Why not do it how Conan or Ark does it where you don't see the floating text at all, you just press E in the general direction of the bush and harvest it?

 

15 hours ago, madmole said:

Mining with an auger and chainsaw will suck your stamina soul out when we get around to it

 

Ugh, I dunno about this. I go back to my original point of "Stamina is not a fun mechanic to interact with, it's solely exists as a blocker that stops the player from actually playing the game and punishes you for playing the game too much"

 

You will never, not once, have a fun or enjoyable interaction with your stamina bar, most especially not while mining. Food, water, health etc all add a layer to the game that the player interacts with in some way, whether it's going off on a mission to find food, or going off to find healing items etc. Stamina does not do that, stamina adds nothing to your experience besides slapping your hand and telling the player they are getting too enthusiastic playing their game and sends them to time out, especially for tool use where you are in zero danger while mining and just have to stand there.

 

Heavily punishing stamina just means you stand there AFK for 45 seconds out every 180.. At least in a fight you can argue it adds a layer of skill and timing to attacks, but when you are safely mining away? Nope, you just have to stand there AFK for a solid 30% of your time not interacting with the game in any way

 

In Conan Exiles, tools don't even take stamina, only your actual weapons do, which IMO is the better way to do it rather than obliterate the player with crazy stamina drain. Why not just not remove stamina on tool use and balance mining yields around players having infinite stamina while mining? Even if the end result is the same, it's a whole lot less boring for the player to have full uptime on their game interaction rather than interact for 30 seconds, stand there for 14, interact for 30 seconds, stand there for 8, interact for 22 seconds, stand there for 14 etc

 

This is the only survival game I can think of where farming for mats takes so much stamina.  It's such a tedious activity most try to make it less painful and leave hard stamina consumption for combat weapons

[BobbyLee298]

17 minutes ago, STyK_ said:

Sorry I cut up the quote to save space. We verified with Gazz's help that the M4 tactical in game is a variant that uses 7.62mmx39 , they exist just not in the U.S. military.

 

I honestly want it all. 5 calibers With HP and AP, fill the whole munitions box. But thats not going to happen.

I bet, you can convert omost any gun to shot any caliber.

 

One can dream right (7D2D 2 should be a nice upgrade in the ballistics department of stuff)

[faatal]

1 hour ago, FileMachete said:

@faatal , just to clear I'm not "complaining" about a19 performance (thankful I can still play w this card), just providing some data in case it's useful. To flesh out my earlier post;

 

In a18.4 I didn't have any micro stutters. Sure FPS would drop due to various bits, but even when fps went to the teens there weren't obvious hicups, it was just low frame rates. In a19b173 with fps showing 20s to low 30s, in and around a small building (Lathams Hardware rustic) with nothing else close by the stutters are fairly constant. Using "stutter" rather than 'freeze' as they don't last even half a second. It's more like a couple farmes aren't processed/displayed, so there are jumps in swing animations, or pov jumps when turning. I mini tested the turning bit by scanning in 360 to see if there was just something it needed to load (which it might still be but can't keep it in VRAM), but that didn't change anything.

 

Indeed. And I really hope Murphy's on a cafe break.. because, built this system ~9 years ago. I've replaced the power supply, cpu fan and one of the case fans, everything else is original, even the GPU & it's fans. That's with playing five games for more than a thousand hours each. Definately got my moneys worth out of this system, heh.

A19 has a variety of rendering changes. Many textures got larger and more objects with textures were added, so there are probably more textures running out of system RAM for you. The next release will have 100+ textures that Justin shrunk down, so it might be better.

[Jost Amman]

6 minutes ago, faatal said:

A19 has a variety of rendering changes. Many textures got larger and more objects with textures were added, so there are probably more textures running out of system RAM for you. The next release will have 100+ textures that Justin shrunk down, so it might be better.

Justin time... 😅

[FileMachete]

7 minutes ago, faatal said:

A19 has a variety of rendering changes. Many textures got larger and more objects with textures were added, so there are probably more textures running out of system RAM for you. The next release will have 100+ textures that Justin shrunk down, so it might be better.

Appreciate the info Faatal (and the effort). I probably wouldn't have mentioned anything except for the 'larger' 1/4 textures running a bit better than the smaller 1/8ths.

Thanks!

[Matt 1977]

@STyK_ i started Australian difficulty: Permadeath, 25% loot,xp. No air drops , no respawn loot

 

Yeap those that think the games to easy try this. Loving it. Near starved on day 3. Day 4 at the moment, level 3.

[Gazz]

The tac rifle is based on a SIG but it's an artist's impression, not an accurate representation like some games would use.

But like I said before: A lot of modern guns look so much alike you may as well choose to believe it's modeled after one of your favourites. =P

32 minutes ago, BobbyLee298 said:

I bet, you can convert omost any gun to shot any caliber.

 

One can dream right (7D2D 2 should be a nice upgrade in the ballistics department of stuff)

JA 2, v1.13, All The Guns setting.   About 150 different ammo types, pre-loadable in some 5 different magazine sizes each. All the sorting and stacking you could ever want!

[BobbyLee298]

38 minutes ago, Gazz said:

The tac rifle is based on a SIG but it's an artist's impression, not an accurate representation like some games would use.

But like I said before: A lot of modern guns look so much alike you may as well choose to believe it's modeled after one of your favourites. =P

JA 2, v1.13, All The Guns setting.   About 150 different ammo types, pre-loadable in some 5 different magazine sizes each. All the sorting and stacking you could ever want!

Well dam, you aren't kidding Gazz

You guys gotta catch up to them haha

 

looks like a nice game tho, gonna have to try it out 

[Dethar]

1 hour ago, Khalagar said:

Why not do it how Conan or Ark does it where you don't see the floating text at all, you just press E in the general direction of the bush and harvest it?

Because he already explained press E was removed when skill tree was added for extra harvest. Or someone else did and he just quoted it saying "and this". Did you play before A17, the extra harvest came from tilling ground and fertilizer. Which were removed. Modders have added it back, but also could not get it to give extra harvest. So live with it.

 

1 hour ago, Khalagar said:

This is the only survival game I can think of where farming for mats takes so much stamina.  It's such a tedious activity most try to make it less painful and leave hard stamina consumption for combat weapons

and this is the only voxel game. Conan is really about combat first, Ark is mainly about taming and 7D2D is more about survival even tho it has been toned back some in last few alpha's. I am glad its not Conan or Ark. Love Conan and Ark, but 7D2D is a way better game. Even with all the things your are always complaining about.

[FileMachete]

Out of reactions for the day @BobbyLee298 , but I'd prefer a middle ground.

 

Get rid of HP ammo, and instead put in Sub-sonic rifle rounds.

(I know gameplay wise they couldn't de-power appropriately, but they could mimic the rw combo of a suppressor plus sub-sonic being much quieter than full power ammo plus a suppressor.)(and for bonus points they could mimic that suppressed full-power shots are much harder to pinpoint the source, so zeds could wake up and not beeline to the shooter.)(and I know I'm barking at an empty train station )

 

Add 5.56 for the M4 variant. Imo 7dtd really needs at least 3 Tiers of Ammunition Power, and 5.56 slots in nicely between 9mm & 7.62.

And of course there's no need to point out that it's probably the single most common round findable in AZ other than .22LR.

 

Also, not sure who asked how many Dragunov SVDs were in AZ, but fwiw I can't recall ever seeing one on a range or for sale when I've been in AZ (more than a few times) or anywhere else other than at a major show or two.

Don't know if the choice was artistic or mag size, but it's one of the few I can think of in that category that doesn't commonly have 20-round magazines.

 

If commonality was a main criteria I would guess the M14/M1A would be on top. The military de-milled a ton of them and sold them to civillians, and I can't think of the last time I didn't see one for sale in a store.

[pregnable]

I was testing out the compound bow and I was having issues hitting zombies in the head with it, even when they were really close.  The aim was right, but I just could not hit them.  I will test it more next time I play. 

 

I was not having that problem with the basic bow though, so IDK.