Alpha 19 Developer Stream Series #1

[Roland]

Hello Survivalists!

 

We are proud to present a new series of streams featuring the developers and staff of 7 Days to Die. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night you can join a conversation with various members of the team and ask questions about their roles and vision for the game. This series will go until the Streamer Preview Weekend which is coming up soon.

 

The first broadcast in this series will be this Friday night June 12 at 9pm CST and will feature Lathan (Prime) one of our Senior Developers and Rick (The Fun Pimp) one of the Founders and Designers. They will talk all things Alpha 19 and are especially keen on answering all of your most dire questions.

 

Here is the link to the channel: https://www.twitch.tv/fubar_prime

 

Rick has said he will take a look at this thread as well so if you can't be there for the stream but have questions please post them to this thread and they may be brought up during the show. The stream will also be posted to the official 7 Days to Die YouTube so that if you miss it and want the information you can watch it later.

 

Alpha 19 is coming out really soon and we hope these interview sessions on live stream with the various people who make 7 Days to Die possible will get you pumped for the release.

[Roland]

I'll get the ball rolling with a nice softball pitch...

 

How do you guys come up with all your level designed POI's and how difficult would it be to have the "treasure trove" be randomly placed or distributed so we don't always know right where it is?

[beHypE]

Amazing !

 

Here's one : what are your longterm plans regarding zombie spawning, especially for towns/cities that feel empty and too easy to go to; but also regarding the sleepers that make up for 100% of the zombies in POIs, and feel gimmicky not getting woken up by gunshots but being woken up by the slightest footstep after a random "checkpoint" ?

 

Bonus one, do you guy hire senior back-end developers with a strong Java background, on remote work in a different country than the United States ? 😁

[PoloPoPo]

Where do you see 7D2D in a year? Where in 3 years?

[Laz Man]

For Rick:

Any new POI/Sleeper mechanics/ideas coming to A19 or future release that you can share?

 

For Lathan:

Any new quests mechanics/ideas coming to A19 or future release that you can share (aside from the new trader to trader quest already mentioned)?

 

For example, will there be quests to destroy a target, rescue an npc, restore power, fortify a location, reclaim the world, kill the dukes men, etc.?

[SnowDog1942]

15 minutes ago, PoloPoPo said:

Where do you see 7D2D in a year? Where in 3 years?

 

Simple,

1 year, A20

3 years A22

 

 -- totally joking in light-hearted way.

 

 

My question for Rick.  If he was able to sleep with The girl from Resident Evil... or the Girl from Underworld -- which would he choose and why?

 

 

 

[Gamida]

I have wanted to know now for a few years why the concrete mixer required an engine in construction but never ever required gas to operate?

[danielspoa]

Roland can I respectfully make a question.. or two?

- is there any feature from previous alphas (10+) you considered bringing back?
- which new feature got you the most hyped for A19?

[Damocles]

How do you coordinate development remotely, and how many developers/artist/designers are in an actual office (with frontdesk, coffe corner and cleaning service) vs remote work.

 

How does a company meeting work out if you have many working remotely.

 

How do you make sure people dont work in their underwear at home.

[DerValiser]

Is any rewrite of the code bases which become obsolote in the last years planned? For instance the audio manager, pathfinding, artificial intelligence, networking code?

 

[Annihilatorza]

Q1: Will we have big cities in A19 again. I am thinking multiple skyscrapers. a full down town area with an industrial zone and suburbs, having sidewalks and painted streets would be nice as well.

 

Q2: Has the broken terrain in random gen been fixed?

 

Q3: Would you use community built POI if they meet your standards?

 

[XCOUNTRY]

After the original zombie models are updated, are there plans to add additional zombie models?

[wolfbain5]

can you go into further detail on the ...

 

Random World Gen Improvements

• Random biomes!

I mean are we getting more than 4 biomes? randomly genned splats? customizable mapping?

[Adam the Waster]

Are there plans to give special zombies some TLC. both in ability and look.  

[Vedui]

It's been wonderful to see a bunch of screen shots, new HD zombies, new HD items and better graphics teased up for Alpha 19.

 

Question: What is your vision (for A19 and beyond) as far as graphics, such as HD zombies, items, maybe textures? What have you done so far that you consider "enough" for a full release, and what are you still targeting for next version(s) leading up to going Gold. Understand some might be more feasible than others, but hearing of your vision would be really interesting!

 

Looking forward to a great stream!

 

/Vedui42

[Aldranon]

18 hours ago, Roland said:

I'll get the ball rolling with a nice softball pitch...

 

How do you guys come up with all your level designed POI's and how difficult would it be to have the "treasure trove" be randomly placed or distributed so we don't always know right where it is?

That would be a massive improvement. 

Inline with that, boosting the value of a T5 loot room, would no longer be OP as long as there were at least 5 possible locations with the loot room "double stuffed" with zombies.

[JayzenFreeze]

When will you do in depth optimizations for performance? 

A.16 my bro plaid medium settings 30-50FPS now on any setting its around 16FPS at best, unplayable. 

[Lexus]

Q - Will being able to crouch or crawl through one block ever make its way back into the game?  Even if it is at a slow speed it might make it worth it as a possible escape from zombies. 

[Laz Man]

Looking back at all of the years in development, what were some lessons learned along the way? 

 

I would assume there were at least some setbacks/unexpected outcomes not shared with the public that the team had to overcome.

[TPrice321]

Rick, what was it like when you first started developing the game?  How big was the team? How long did it take to create something that you can look back on and call it a Playable version of 7days?

 

Did you consider finding a big publisher to fund things or was self funding and Kickstarter always the plan?   

 

Lathan, when did you join the team? How did you get connected to this crazy bunch? 

[Aldranon]

What are your general plans for your next game?  Will there be a sequel, a prequel, or something entirely different?

[Marinxar]

Hi Guys, thanks for doing this. Looking forward to the stream.

 

Question :

 

Could you give us some more details on the actual programming process ? More specifically, how much of what you are doing, is unique code that you need to write and how much of Unity are you reshaping as you continue to implement more and more features in to 7 Days ?

[Frisky Minx]

Hey,

 

Q1 I still don't get the "Random Biomes". Could you please elaborate?

 

Q2 What happend to the Idea of choosing a Profession at Gamestart? Something that your Character has been before the Crisis. Blacksmith, Doctor, Mechanic or even an "Escort with a special Imune System" lol. Something that gives you a Headstart in a specific Direction of Perks.

 

Q3 Where do you draw the most Inspiritaion regarding Zombies from? For example: the black haired Scout seems to be leaning toward the "Ring Girl".

[FileMachete]

Will it ever be possible to have Subway or Sewer tunnels that run many (street) blocks?

 

Their narrowness would seem to allow coexisting with SI, but I don't know if there are issues with a 'poi' that big (trouble to random gen?)?

 

Thank you both for taking the time to do these sessions. Looking forward to them!

[Tahaan]

I have a question that needs me to first provide the background.  I have a plan to build the Hoover Dam and then hold the horde night at the base of the damwall.  When the entire horde is in the canyon my plan is to blow the wall, but for this plan to work I need to be able to set off the exposives while in my gyrocopter, and I need water mechanics to work!  

Is there any chance of my dream of flushing the zeds away by blowing the dam wall ever going to realise!