Now that You have played Alpha 19, What do you like or dislike?

[Kanaan Brood]

Tell us what you like about Alpha 19. Tell us what you dislike about alpha 19.

Loving the new HD models. The new POI's are awesome. Loving the new lighting too.

 

Not so crazy about the fatigue that you can only cure with vitamins. Maybe give us the option to sleep in our bedrolls to cure it as well.

 

[Heraclys]

I want to thank the funpimps for implementing better controller support. I can search with my PS4 controller now. However, I can't seem to find the option to change it to going forward (gas) with the left trigger and hit the brake with my left trigger.

I just want to change this for vehicle mode and not walking mode.

[KeiraR]

12 minutes ago, Kanaan Brood said:

Not so crazy about the fatigue that you can only cure with vitamins.

I was on a roof, forgot to close a hatch and a feral came up. I got infected, bleeding and fatigue from one zombie. It was amazing!

[Viktoriusiii]

not so crazy about the saturation and the new light reflection off small things like bags, trash and the like (especially outdoors)

I like that progression was slowed and the blunderbuss was buffed!


Overall there are quite a few QoL improvements that I like.
But it seems that doghordes can spawn on day 2. Closing and reopening the save gets rid of them tho (they don't get saved lol)
At least I can fight one evil with another evil


I really dislike that there are so many cities around. I like to use a remote poi for my first base... now I had to build it from scratch... which is kinda nice, but I still want to be further away from cities!

[KeiraR]

I'm in the game now and I noticed something really nice but I have no idea if this was in A18 yet or not, I don't think so.
The orientation of the block you are placing rotates with the way you are facing.
Right click to rotate? (Edit: Left obviously but this shows you how often I rotated a block when I wanted to place one ) Not going to use that a lot any more.
AWESOME!

Edited June 30, 2020 by KeiraR
Stupidity (see edit history)

[meganoth]

Do you mean the thing that the block rotates so it still is oriented the same when you are facing a different side? Yes, that was in A18 already.

 

[Darthjake]

I want my wooden bow!

 

Seriously though, I'm the agi / per guy for the group.  I've got LL 3 and one of the guys gave me the goggles, I've found 4 level 6 stone spears, a lvl 6 primitive bow, and 2 purple stone sledges.

 

Also have found qual 2 hunting rifle, fire axe and pistol, as well as a qual 3 ak.  Next I'll be putting points into lockpick as well.  Already have been buying the candy

 

We've got a 3 man group 2 of us with spears and the 3rd with a sledge with that we cleared the red mesa base which is were we found the yellow AK, among other stuff.

[Boidster]

4 hours ago, KeiraR said:

I got infected, bleeding and fatigue from one zombie. It was amazing!

Dear Penthouse, I never thought this would happen to me...

[Viktoriusiii]

I just hope this isnt a bug and actually intended so they don't "fix" this great feature (like ressources in A17):
I absolutely love that you can crawl in 1 block high spaces. Have only tried it with dirt yet, but it feels so great and claustrophobic... make the char even slower when in this position and it is awesome!

[Ti2xGr]

So much to love: 

 

New animations for zombies falling, lurching, stumbling. 

So much smoother and better frame rates in general

Lighting is spectacular. Love the dark spaces, the way torches fill up a room with ambient light, flickering, reflecting, just...good.

Trees look better.

Shelves with stuff to loot.

Much slower progression with tools/toys - Makes earning or finding the next item more satisfactory.

New POI's and modified POI's filled with more subtle details across the board.

Textures so much improved. 

Improved quest lines.

Much improved RWG. I think it could still use more, but it is coming along.

Weather effects are looking great.

 

I'm sure there will be more to brag about, but that is what I've discovered so far.

 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Ti2xGr (see edit history)

[JCrook1028]

7 hours ago, Viktoriusiii said:

not so crazy about the saturation and the new light reflection off small things like bags, trash and the like (especially outdoors)

I like that progression was slowed and the blunderbuss was buffed!


Overall there are quite a few QoL improvements that I like.
But it seems that doghordes can spawn on day 2. Closing and reopening the save gets rid of them tho (they don't get saved lol)
At least I can fight one evil with another evil


I really dislike that there are so many cities around. I like to use a remote poi for my first base... now I had to build it from scratch... which is kinda nice, but I still want to be further away from cities!

Was it the dog horde with the zombie bear? The one that starts at gamestage 5, just like it has since A17? GS 5/55/105/etc...

[Viktoriusiii]

11 minutes ago, JCrook1028 said:

Was it the dog horde with the zombie bear? The one that starts at gamestage 5, just like it has since A17? GS 5/55/105/etc...

didnt see a bear... but he might have been slower! I instantly closed the game and restarted in cheatmode (because F*** that $%&§! )

[boban]

I'm... disappointed. I watched the streams and maybe I wasn't 'hyped', but had a positive attitude to the new alpha. Don't get me wrong... it is improvement in many ways over A18. But too many things are right now inconsistent. Some examples that break the consistency for me:

- new zombies vs old ones

- some nice new props vs old ones

- linear lighting vs horrible eye adaptation (plus something is wrong with some props in terms of lighting, maybe some uv unwrapping problem?)

- more food required vs food is not really a problem after 1-2 days

- slower progression vs... not really slower progression (might be just my luck, but by end of 2nd day I didn't feel that I was progressing any slower than in A18)

- rpg char development vs very shallow and restrictive progression (that's not new to this alpha)

- dynamic 'infinite' music vs starting to be tedious after just a few hours of gameplay

 

Plus overall going into direction of looter-shooter vs crafting/survival game. Though the great thing about the game is that modding is still one of important features for the devs and modding community can tailor the game to different tastes.

 

I think TFP might be on the verge of entering vicious cycle of updating old stuff vs adding new content. I heard lot of smart people on the streams, so I really hope they can overcome this (and many others) challenges. 

 

[Ranzera]

The Good

I didn't think I'd like Traders in towns, but this turned out to be a positive change in my opinion.

 

Melee hit detection is much better. I've been playing MP and I feel the issues with my sledge ignoring the zeds for those sweet sweet blocks behind them are basically gone.

 

The lighting changes are A+.

 

The new zed models are very good.

 

I liked the blunderbuss before. I'm really enjoying being encouraged to use it.

 

 

The Bad

I called the combat music getting old lightning fast in the dev streams. In a game with this much combat, they really need a large breadth of combat music or it will be the reason everyone turns dynamic music off.

 

My character should be rolling from POI to POI for as much food as he needs to eat. I think this is largely an issue with the disparity between canned food and cooked food. I eat more than 10 cans of food a day and still feel pressured for more.

 

On my rig I seem to get a hard stutter occasionally, I haven't been able to isolate why yet.

 

Schematics don't appear to be game stage gated and they probably should be at this point. At day 4 I had both the M60 and Auto Shotty schematics. I can't make them yet, steel and all, but that's a short term limiter with steel available at traders.

 

Lucky Looter needs a look. Being percentage based only now, means it does literally nothing before gamestage 20. Maybe give a static +2 per rank alongside the percentage?

 

 

The Ugly

RWG Biomes. Yikes.

[ADaks]

I haven't gotten to play a lot (much was helping friends fight their way into the server lmao) so most of my comments are on visual elements:

 -I find the game way too saturated! Like holy crap, sure it was a bit too drab before but now player models that were flesh tone are bright orange. A fire station is so hot red it looks almost pink. I shot a walker in the dark and blood looked like someone shot a glowing neon red glow stick. I really like the idea of increased saturation compared to the old graphics but holy moley the slider was nudged a few notches too high.

-Textures can look too...tight? On certain models. For smaller objects you get this really too-sharp look on things. Tighter textures like the weave on (I think) padded armor kind of dazzles when heavy light hits it. Maybe lower-res textures on smaller items would help? The trash bags and boxes look too tedious and busy.

-Finally, everything is shiny. So many things look like they've been hit with a light gloss clear coat. There are so many gorgeous new models but it doesn't make sense for the wooden stick handle of something or knuckle wraps to be glossy. It immediately took me back to TES: Oblivion days.

I don't even pretend to know how to fix or work on graphics so I know all this can be any manner of things fixable and not, but there they are, my main visual gripes. 

For likes? Like I said, I haven't played much but:

-Skies are so pretty! Moving clouds and all. 

-Although I bemoan the loss of "Macklemore" (Zombie Joe) I do appreciate his rebirth into who my sister has dubbed "Tom Petty" lmao. The new zombies look so gnarly. The crawler is so gross! I've only encountered a few of their new animations but they're super cool. 

-New weapon/tool models are awesome! I haven't gotten to see things like the impact driver yet but I'm stoked. I love the tools on the forge and OH the store shelves are amazing. So is adding little things like shoes and clothes piles on the floor. POIs feel a lot more (previously) lived-in.

-The icons showing up in-world as well as on your compass? *chef's kiss* 

-Trees and grass look way nicer


All in all I'm loving the update even if I gotta put on a pair of shades to raid a firehouse or daycare 

[MetalMartyr]

Melee combat on Day 1 with wood weapons isn't straight-up suicidal on Insane. Zombies flinch more, and seem to be slower on reaction/attacks.

This is great, as the original plan I had was to completely avoid combat, and spam buried supply missions until I basically had iron gear.

 

[GloPopJigglyJam]

I absolutely love the new awesome music they added for one. It really fleshes out the feel of the world. The new Zombies are awesome, super scary and nice that they're even more performance friendly to boot. I like the new loot progression tech system that bases the loot we find on the gamestage. I did find a pistol on day 2 so maybe some small tweaks are needed but overall a good change.

 

Really the only complaint I have is that on occasion my FPS will drop from a consistent 55-60 to around 20-25 for no reason. I totally get we're playing experimental but it is a little odd. I mean I have a GTX 1060 6gb, 16 gigs of RAM and an 8th gen i7 8750h processor so its not my setup. I'm sure it'll get optimized come the stable version, but that's about my only issue with 19 so far.

 

I tip my hat to the Pimps, well done guys on another badass alpha.   

[Ramethzer0]

Im digging it, on multiple levels.  Especially now that I bought a new computer and I can run it on ultra.  I enjoy the early game the most, and this has stretched it out quite a bit.  This makes me pretty happy.

 

Melee is back to being my hot sauce, until I get critted.  In the past, I ran around without armour until I absolutely needed it, usually by the first horde night.  Now, im scared to come outta my boarded up house without at least getting my hands on cloth armour.  I almost never used cloth.  All the basic primitive weapons have been upgraded, and modding them feels chunky and weighty.  I have even started to like the knife, which was a garbage weapon until now.  Fists feel better in gameplay as well.  I've stopped scrapping my club during the tutorial as well.  I love the modded upgrade textures, especially spikes on the basic club.   If you are gunna stay ranged, then you better get REAL cozy with the primitive bow and the blunderbuss, because they are gunna be your closest friends for a while.   I am really in love with the new zombie animations and how they interact with environments.   The lurching that zombies have had is now enhanced with animations for stumbling and even loosing balance.  And that, my friends.. was a really cool point of immersion for me.    It almost made me forgive some of the very un-immersive things that have been added over time.

 

I looted the gun range/shotgun messiah combo and came away with kinda a ridiculous number of blunderbusses, stone spears (which seemed oddly unimmersive, but not game breaking), and a metric crapton of ammunition for weapons that were not present, nor had I owned yet.  I lol'd.  It might be best to leave these places alone until you get to your next tech stage.  Was good fun though, fighting in all the clutter.  Personal bubble space runs a premium indoors now.   I am excited to explore the new POi's, with the exception of the busted up shamway POI.  It's a pretty big place, with some fortification potential, but I either missed the main loot completely, or there was none in it to begin with.   feelsbad

 

I hate spider zombies now even more than I did in A15-16.  Dogs and pigs can also @#$^ right the hell off.  Vultures being able to tear apart weak roofs is also a nightmare fuel I didn't really need.  They were already annoying as all get out.  They didn't need a buff, im my humble opinion.

 

Meat is easier to come by.  The food system is now of VITAL importance.  You run into more hunger and more often, but it's not tough to come back from it once you start doing bacon & eggs.  Speaking of which, eggs seem to be a bit incrementally harder to come by, so boiled meat has sorta moved up to the position that bacon and eggs has traditionally held.  Food numbers don't seem to stack like it used to.  Eat one thing at a time, and wait for the timer before doing it again.

 

Cheap oh @%$*#! candy eliminates fall damage, making parkour seem less about fall damage, and more about jump height.

 

Rando horde spawns seem.. off.   Not sure how I can best explain it.  Like.. the first morning I saw a group walk through my area.  I was stealthed so they just kept going.  Then all them stopped about 50 meters from my base, and then.. just stood there collectively like they were waiting for further instructions from the zerg overmind.  They didn't start moving as a group again until I closed the distance.

 

Although I have not yet tried it, I like the plausibility of being the group medic.  It seems like it could be a new style of game play.  If TFP wanna do this and make it a thing, it would be pretty baller to flesh that role out.  I could see the potential benefit of giving us medical journals for this.  Medicines also feel more streamlined, which means that if you're in a group and people are reckless or good@dead it is a no bueno.  That's a player issue though, not a game one.  I don't like the idea of needing multiple medicines on my hot bar if I am going to tank though.

 

I still have philosophical problems with the idea of zombies being able to rip through reinforced concrete and steel with their bare hands, but - this is not a new thing.  I will still try to keep getting over that.  I never built a wedge wall base, but I think that removing them kinda invalidated the idea that horde basebuilding is about physics and how to stem the tide.  I get that there needed to be a way to clap back at the serial horde cheesers, but buffing zombies now to do very unzombie things brings out all my side eye.  If you're gunna let zombies swim, please add zombie eating sharks a la this classic scene.

 

New zombie models look great.  Although its crazy creepy to be stared at by them, in group play it clearly shows who has the agg.    The mixture of the new zombie meshes in combination with the old ones, feels a little off tho.   But of course, that will rectify itself over time.

 

Boarding up the windows is now less painful.  Good on TPF for adding that QoL bit!  The music of being at a trader kinda caught me off guard.  Was a nice change.

 

This list is not exhaustive, but so far I think it's started off on the right footing, so I give it high marks in my initial impressions.  Keep up the good work!

Edited June 30, 2020 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)

[ElCabong]

11 hours ago, KeiraR said:

I was on a roof, forgot to close a hatch and a feral came up. I got infected, bleeding and fatigue from one zombie. It was amazing!

I got fatigued by a pig. I was mortified. The next pig got shot in the face with a blunderbuss. That worked a lot better

[stormi295]

SO far after 15,155 hours THIS IS THE BEST RELEASE EVER!!! It's smooth no lag, GREAT lighting, vivid colors, great weather, eerie skies.  NOW you really did break the 8k map, I get 1/4th of the map lol .... yay PREGEN.  I wish you had more paint colors and give us our nice frige back. ASIDE from my petty wants you guys did a freaking awesome job and THANK YOU!!! This is inspiring people to play again and i have only heard one complaint from only one player but then he was with the ah I wont like it to begin with so I disregard it,  Dark Universe Thanks  you.  ( and thanks for changing the images on everything.

Edited July 1, 2020 by stormi295 (see edit history)

[dowz0r]

I honestly think the new loot system is terrible. I'm trying to think from the perspective of a realistic and fun approach to how looting would look like in this post-apocalyptic world. It's pretty lame finding a military style ammunition crate that only gives you some @%$*#!ty spears or low level trash because you're only on game stage 5. This is immersion breaking in my opinion. I've noticed looting is almost linear and not random at all, you know what to expect, and it almost makes looting pointless because I'd rather save important crates or chests for looting in a different game stage because I'll just get another 5 spears. Of course you can still get useful materials such as duct tape, oil, etc. But in terms of getting weapons, tools, and items with levels, it's poorly thought out and doesn't have that randomness and excitement to it anymore. 

 

I know this would be complicated, but I think there needs to be a more realistic approach, for example looting regular homes should give you loot that you would realistically find in a home, so basic stuff with a small chance for weapons. The challenge to make it through a home POI should be easy since it's a place that maybe doesn't have a high yield. But if you decide to go to a military base, then you should expect a challenge and be rewarded no matter what stage. I know this sort of system would also have its issues due to players cheesing zombies or whatever at low levels and then getting epic gear, but I still think some sort of realistic and intuition based approach should be used, and not this game stage based looting. I do not like this new loot system, and prefer the previous style despite its flaws as well, but at least it still felt random and there was that feeling of excitement and not knowing what you were going to get. There is no excitement or mystery in this new system.

 

Sorry, not a very well thought through explanation, but I genuinely do not think this game stage looting is the proper approach. I feel like there should be that tiny chance of finding maybe a higher quality weapon during the early stages, but it should be impractical to use it in the early stages of the game. 

Edited July 1, 2020 by dowz0r (see edit history)

[Gazz]

At this moment we can't have it both ways.

We would like to have certain POI "work" at a higher gamestage so that a shotgun messiah factory would maybe have +100GS and you could find the cool loot in it.

But then you'd have to survive getting there.

 

At this time it would just be a freebie where the awesome loot is defended by GS 1 enemies. So nope.

[Matt 1977]

Love the stone age loot now. No complaints about anything so far. Thanks TFPs for another fantastic update.

[pApA^LeGBa]

It´s a nice update. Slower progression was much needed and is appreciated. Tough i am going to stop playing once i saw all the new stuff. I feel like i am on console. Those on screen markers totally ruin the game.

 

And no modding is not the answer to everything. We don´t have a lot of time to do our MP and we don´t wanna spend it trying to get mods running on a dedi. We rather play something else.

Edited July 1, 2020 by pApA^LeGBa (see edit history)

[Liesel Weppen]

I somehow love the slowed down progress with weapons. I just wonder, from when on better weapons can be found? Is it after a specific day? Once you took some special skill? Reached a specific level?

I found blunderbuss and double barrel shotgun on day 2 and what i heard and have seen from others, it's the same there. But nobody found a simple 9mm pistol or a hunting rifle that early. Is this supposed to be like this?

I just wonder because obviously you can find the T2 shotgun early, but not any pistol or rifle, even not their T1 variant?

 

BTW: The skilltree is still broken. Each tree still ties one specific ranged weapon type to exactly one specific melee weapon type... 😒

Edited July 1, 2020 by Liesel Weppen (see edit history)