Alpha 19 Dev Diary

[Darinth]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

The shortcuts are there for exiting after you have arrived at the end of a dungeon, not for going up. Not sure if you are ironic here or need a hard hit with the clue bat 😉

 

I'm not certain I'll agree with that. Yes they provide an easy way down, but it's specifically been stated that the like the 'multiple ways through' and I feel like a bunch of these were put in place for people to notice and be able to shortcut the POIs when they know them. Break a few things, place down 2-3 blocks sometimes (or none with a bit of agility) and you can easily bypass 80% of both shamway and shotgun messiah. It takes a little bit more breaking, but the pathway going up the apartment still is pretty short if you're not worried about a clear.

[Sam_Neill]

@Blake_
I noticed the error messages like this one...
 

Quote

2020-08-09T14:47:21 438.531 INF VisitMap (06%): 51200 / 804609 chunks done (estimated time left 2149.27 seconds)
2020-08-09T14:47:22 439.284 WRN No chunk for position -1776, 23, -6205, can not add childs to pos -1777, 23, -6205! Block cntCollapsedSolarbank
2020-08-09T14:47:23 440.327 INF VisitMap (06%): 51400 / 804609 chunks done (estimated time left 2166.97 seconds)
2020-08-09T14:47:24 441.719 INF VisitMap (06%): 51600 / 804609 chunks done (estimated time left 2178.34 seconds)
2020-08-09T14:47:24 441.777 INF VisitMap (06%): 51800 / 804609 chunks done (estimated time left 2170.08 seconds)
2020-08-09T14:47:25 443.077 WRN No chunk for position -1248, 19, -6090, can not add childs to pos -1249, 19, -6090! Block hayBaleSquare
2020-08-09T14:47:26 443.233 INF VisitMap (06%): 52000 / 804609 chunks done (estimated time left 2182.23 seconds)

 ... do happen if you run the command visitmap (to load all chunks of the map) too, even the player is not really there, maybe this information can help @faatal too?

Did you do a testing with a new map running visitmap command before and making a comparison ? I guess it will not help for all performance problems, but maybe it helps a bit 🙂

If you have an 8k map you would type in "visitmap -4096 -4096 4096 4096" and then wait until finished and would then start the map.

[hiemfire]

19 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

For navezgane it should be fixed.  There was a bug in A18 that limited T5 quests to the one you mentioned (plus the hospital).

That would explain why I never got quests for Higashi and Dishong.

[meganoth]

 

19 minutes ago, Darinth said:

I'm not certain I'll agree with that. Yes they provide an easy way down, but it's specifically been stated that the like the 'multiple ways through' and I feel like a bunch of these were put in place for people to notice and be able to shortcut the POIs when they know them. Break a few things, place down 2-3 blocks sometimes (or none with a bit of agility) and you can easily bypass 80% of both shamway and shotgun messiah. It takes a little bit more breaking, but the pathway going up the apartment still is pretty short if you're not worried about a clear.

 

I know of a statement they want multiple ways to solve problems and I know the new malls were designed to be more open without the one true path because of feedback. But I don't think they like very much that the dungeons can be trivially avoided.

 

 

 

[Blake_]

4 minutes ago, Sam_Neill said:

@Blake_
I noticed the error messages like this one...
 

 ... do happen if you run the command visitmap (to load all chunks of the map) too, even the player is not really there, maybe this information can help @faatal too?

Did you do a testing with a new map running visitmap command before and making a comparison ?

I reinstall full appdata wipe every single build. There's always shamway up the road  with these builds. I cannot use visitmap and expect my computer not to go boom, so all I do is make a thorough walkthrough of 5-10 hours walking through every biome for a while and visiting every city, mostly without god mode. I use god mode to quicky detect performance issues when I am not sure in normal mode.

 

Visitmap is awesome for a full log. It shows every single problem but only LOADING related. Not much else. I'm currently testing loading and unloading, and sleepers, and some falling off the world stuff and some Zd cannot walk on top of X stuff that doesn't appear using Visitmap command. They all seem to cause fps bumbs to some degree and in certain cases, usually combined.

 

Performance issues are very tricky in this stage of development, any little thing that we can find we should report. I'm sure that with enough feedback , @faatal can even fix humanity before morning coffee.

 

[pregnable]

Hmmm, still not sure how I feel about having to find some of the schematics. 

 

I am on like day 30 and around level 51, but I still can not make a robotic turret.  I have two tier 1 turrets, and I could have bought a tier 4 once. 

 

I was hoping to be able to craft a tier 5 and test it out.  I have even been investing in barter and going back and forth to my traders seeing if they will sell the recipe. 

 

Still using my tier 5 stone axe... for some reason I can not find a 6, heh.  I also can not make steel tools yet, even though my horde base is mostly steel.  Granted, I only want a steel tool as a melee weapon. 

 

Game is really fun, and maybe the progression is right, I dont know.  Just feels like a long wait to craft a turret after I maxed the skill out ages ago, heh. 

[madmole]

1 hour ago, Blake_ said:

My apologies. 64 alive (a must for me) and Warrior diff. 120 min days (very long horde nights ). So I think you might be right. I've been playing that for so long that I don't tell apart default from customized settings. I only do default for testing. On 2 hour days it takes 1 hour to hour and a half to repair a normal 20x20x15 base on day 27 (54 hours in).

 

A big base should theoretically take about the same time to repair with 1 hour days and 64 Zds alive within the same timeframe (half way into the game). I mean 64 alive is awesome and thrilling every single time. Should check the data to see how many people actually play more than 8 alive. It would be interesting . This game is crazy fun with more entities. PERFORMANCE though.... more than 32 alive can knock -even if just a bit- on any system's door.

Yeah 32 alive was affecting my ability to play on ultra so I settle for 24. I can see with those settings and very late GS a fort taking a pounding. But I kind of feel like you put that on yourself and that all that time repairing is on you because of your extreme differences from default.

[Bashtiks]

Yes yes I also like skyrim very much, but whats with this freakin fog and clouds all the time, rly @%$*#!ty @%$*#! weather & cant see a sht all the time, pims whats up with that?  

performance gets worse with each experimental

vs a16

[Star69]

4 hours ago, Laz Man said:

I think one of the problems are some players are OCD and every single block must be repaired to mint condition in order for them to be satisfied.  If they can't reach a block because it took damage through another block, they can't sleep at night until they burrow through and repair it... 🤣

 

My brother's friend upgraded one of his base blocks to steel  by accident and he literally could not rest until he upgraded everything else around it to match......

This is exactly me. I do base repair/maintenance and if there’s one block or one iron bar with a point damage, I go crazy. My teammates are wanting me to go questing after horde night and I’m like....nope, these 20 reinforced concrete blocks have 5 points of damage each and I have to fix them right now! Ocd at its best.

[Ezed]

Heh...my OCD works differently.  It won't let me repair unless a concrete block has at least 100 points of damage, otherwise I feel like I'm wasting materials

 

 

[Callum123456789]

1 hour ago, madmole said:

Yeah 32 alive was affecting my ability to play on ultra so I settle for 24. I can see with those settings and very late GS a fort taking a pounding. But I kind of feel like you put that on yourself and that all that time repairing is on you because of your extreme differences from default.

i crank mine down to high and set it to 64 zombies that's the good stuff i like how they come in overwhelming amounts i'm glad you guys made the ability to set em to that thanks pimps!!

[STyK_]

 

2 hours ago, Blake_ said:

64 alive (a must for me)
120 min days (very long horde nights )
I mean 64 alive is awesome and thrilling every single time.
This game is crazy fun with more entities.

 

This is definitely a recipe for fun most people don't get. More would even be better as the game goes on but the game has limits. Even if it had 'sleeper zeds' designed just to throw themselves at your defenses and die instantly to make you feel overwhelmed. I'd turn up horde night frequency before I'd go to 1 hour days. I also don't see how you could do 25% loot on anything less then 2hr days, you'd have to be MM lucky.

8 minutes ago, Callum123456789 said:

i crank mine down to high and set it to 64 zombies that's the good stuff i like how they come in overwhelming amounts i'm glad you guys made the ability to set em to that thanks pimps!!

I leave it on ultra, 1080ti 8gb can handle it and I'm recording.

[AtomicUs5000]

I do 64 zombies on ultra as well without a problem.
Maybe resolution is the real FPS killer in this case.

[STyK_]

3 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:

I do 64 zombies on ultra as well without a problem.
Maybe resolution is the real FPS killer in this case.

I would like another 16gb of ram on top of what I have but thats really streaming specs, not really needed. Yeah I just play on 1920x1080.

[AtomicUs5000]

1 minute ago, STyK_ said:

I would like another 16gb of ram on top of what I have but thats really streaming specs, not really needed. Yeah I just play on 1920x1080.

Same here. I wonder if MMs res is higher to where he feels he needs to drop it to 24 for smooth play.

[Callum123456789]

5 minutes ago, STyK_ said:

 

 

This is definitely a recipe for fun most people don't get. More would even be better as the game goes on but the game has limits. Even if it had 'sleeper zeds' designed just to throw themselves at your defenses and die instantly to make you feel overwhelmed. I'd turn up horde night frequency before I'd go to 1 hour days. I also don't see how you could do 25% loot on anything less then 2hr days, you'd have to be MM lucky.

I leave it on ultra, 1080ti 8gb can handle it and I'm recording.

must have a pretty good pc then mines pretty high end costed like £550 which is like $770 i think? don't know my exact conversion rates

[STyK_]

11 minutes ago, Callum123456789 said:

must have a pretty good pc then mines pretty high end costed like £550 which is like $770 i think? don't know my exact conversion rates

i7-8700 3.70ghz

There are still lag spikes but I believe that has to do with optimization cause everyone is getting them, that happens even not on horde night, just exploring and loading new chunks. 

My whole package was like $3400 for the tower, that was a few years ago now its likely alot cheaper.

[PoloPoPo]

Is there a particular reason for solar cells being one of the most expensive items the trader has to offer? About 40k Dukes with 25 % discount included already for a quality 6 solar cell seems pretty much to me. Especially as they only deliver energy during daytime and therefore are useless for a lot of purposes.

 

Or are there some things solar cells are specially useful for?

[STyK_]

7 minutes ago, PoloPoPo said:

Is there a particular reason for solar cells being one of the most expensive items the trader has to offer? About 40k Dukes with 25 % discount included already for a quality 6 solar cell seems pretty much to me. Especially as they only deliver energy during daytime and therefore are useless for a lot of purposes.

 

Or are there some things solar cells are specially useful for?

I used them for internal security on my pvp base solar bank hooked up to a battery bank(i Think) just running 2-3 shotgun turrets continuously. They actually don't generate that much wattz. They generate lag on servers though, not sure if Lathan fixed that yet.

 

If it wasn't hooked up to a battery bank then it was just chained to each turret. it was a while ago.

[jorbascrumps]

11 minutes ago, PoloPoPo said:

Is there a particular reason for solar cells being one of the most expensive items the trader has to offer? About 40k Dukes with 25 % discount included already for a quality 6 solar cell seems pretty much to me. Especially as they only deliver energy during daytime and therefore are useless for a lot of purposes.

 

Or are there some things solar cells are specially useful for?

I believe they're gated pretty heavily for performance reasons.

[Jost Amman]

50 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:

I do 64 zombies on ultra as well without a problem.
Maybe resolution is the real FPS killer in this case.

Not quite, faatal mentioned once that AI pathing is the real problem... the more entities you have the more processing power you need.

That's why we can't have hundreds of zombies at the same time all "pathing" around. 

[STyK_]

7 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Not quite, faatal mentioned once that AI pathing is the real problem... the more entities you have the more processing power you need.

That's why we can't have hundreds of zombies at the same time all "pathing" around. 

Just a suggestion. Would it be possible to just turn off pathing for horde night and have hundreds of enraged zeds just charging straight at your base from all sides. I get they want the player to die but if the defense and base are destroyed the player is too. Make them target something like the landclaim block which is normally in the middle of my base. I know there are scenarios this would not work in but is it possible? @faatal

[Jost Amman]

7 minutes ago, STyK_ said:

Just a suggestion. Would it be possible to just turn off pathing for horde night and have hundreds of enraged zeds just charging straight at your base from all sides. I get they want the player to die but if the defense and base are destroyed the player is too. Make them target something like the landclaim block which is normally in the middle of my base. I know there are scenarios this would not work in but is it possible? @faatal

From a layman perspective I think they probably could do it, since earlier alphas were basically using that kind of primitive AI. But from a logic standpoint it doesn't make much sense to me... the whole point of the Blood Moon is to put to test your tower defense strategy, so with a basic/stupid AI that would be an easy win for the player.

[Demandred1957]

4 hours ago, Blake_ said:

PERFORMANCE though.... more than 32 alive can knock -even if just a bit- on any system's door.

Yeah, My last big horde was day 126 with 64 per wave.

Felt like crawling through molasses at times the lag was so bad.

And that's with a i7-7700k and two 1080Ti's in sli.

And everythings water cooled and over clocked to boot.

Think a normal pc would have just fried.

[STyK_]

1 minute ago, Jost Amman said:

From a layman perspective I think they probably could do it, since earlier alphas were basically using that kind of primitive AI. But from a logic standpoint it doesn't make much sense to me... the whole point of the Blood Moon is to put to test your tower defense strategy, so with a basic/stupid AI that would be an easy win for the player.

I think that depends on how many zeds, how many waves, think world war z numbers. I try to stop them from pathing by making a solid defense in all directions. Makes it feel more realistic to me then the zed meat grinder pit which I definitely did before you guys changed the pathing, then it became too easy, you basically just added a conveyor belt. Anyway just wanted to know if it was possible after you said that.