Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[geomaticist]

A20. How many of you think it is a little bit lame to have paid once, years ago, for this game. And to then be looking for massive new content and updates but yet to not pay for the game again. Am I alone in thinking we should be willing to pay the $20 ish bucks for playing A20, or A21 or something. Don't get me wrong I realize we already paid. But man, for how many years are we supposed to get new stuff (content) and not pay some money to support that. If there is some way to donate - don't flame me as I don't actually know. And I am just wondering how others think about this. I would be happy to shell out $20 per major new update. Well if is once per year or something like that.  

 

Just something I have been thinking about. And discussing with friends and family. About this, and other, excellent games.

 

Meanwhile ... like the rest we wait. I will try to not to burn through every new thing in A20 too fast. 

[Weazelsun]

45 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

Are you, by any chance, related to @Matt115? 

 

lol no, just that ive started playing around with the prefab editor. I'm hoping that there are enough decoration blocks for those of us who want to make new prefabs. 

[Roland]

16 minutes ago, geomaticist said:

A20. How many of you think it is a little bit lame to have paid once, years ago, for this game. And to then be looking for massive new content and updates but yet to not pay for the game again. Am I alone in thinking we should be willing to pay the $20 ish bucks for playing A20, or A21 or something. Don't get me wrong I realize we already paid. But man, for how many years are we supposed to get new stuff (content) and not pay some money to support that. If there is some way to donate - don't flame me as I don't actually know. And I am just wondering how others think about this. I would be happy to shell out $20 per major new update. Well if is once per year or something like that.  

 

Just something I have been thinking about. And discussing with friends and family. About this, and other, excellent games.

 

Meanwhile ... like the rest we wait. I will try to not to burn through every new thing in A20 too fast. 

 

Hey! Thanks for the sentiment. The best way you can continue to support the game is to purchase additional copies to share with friends and family and introduce the game to them by playing co-op PVE together. 

 

One thing you should understand is that the game is under active development which is a bit different than it being a finished game with additional content being delivered. Nothing that has been in any of the updates is considered "additional content" It is simply the fundamental content that will be in the final base version of the game. Much of the content has gone through a few iterations and versions and overhauls which is a natural part of the development of any game.

18 minutes ago, Weazelsun said:

 

lol no, just that ive started playing around with the prefab editor. I'm hoping that there are enough decoration blocks for those of us who want to make new prefabs. 

 

"enough" is subjective and usually never satisfied.

 

"Way way more than we've ever had ever in this game after years of prefabbers already playing around making prefabs anyway" is objectively true.

[Blake_]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

 

Hey! Thanks for the sentiment. The best way you can continue to support the game is to purchase additional copies to share with friends and family and introduce the game to them by playing co-op PVE together. 

 

One thing you should understand is that the game is under active development which is a bit different than it being a finished game with additional content being delivered. Nothing that has been in any of the updates is considered "additional content" It is simply the fundamental content that will be in the final base version of the game. Much of the content has gone through a few iterations and versions and overhauls which is a natural part of the development of any game.

 

"enough" is subjective and usually never satisfied.

 

"Way way more than we've ever had ever in this game after years of prefabbers already playing around making prefabs anyway" is objectively true.

To be honest, early access doesn't exclude from paid dlc content. I recall quite a bunch of games that do that, be that a soundtrack, an "invite us to a beer" or even full-fledged in- game content dlcs. For example, see games like Bloody Spell, which has a variety of Dlcs (crappy ones for sure, but dlcs nonetheless) and it's Early Access.

 

What I mean is, I'm proud of TFP's overall integrity as a team and as human beings and all that, but I would throw money on a whim if a dlc comes out in the future. Of course that we expect an after Gold "Shivering Isles", but I would be partial to a laughable " 3 bucks* invite us to a beer"

 

7dtd is a steal right now on Steam. It's like breaking a locked 10k hp army chest with a level 1 stone axe in one hit and getting 3 purple ranged weapons and a drone.

[Matt115]

2 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

To be honest, early access doesn't exclude from paid dlc content. I recall quite a bunch of games that do that, be that a soundtrack, an "invite us to a beer" or even full-fledged in- game content dlcs. For example, see games like Bloody Spell, which has a variety of Dlcs (crappy ones for sure, but dlcs nonetheless) and it's Early Access.

 

What I mean is, I'm proud of TFP's overall integrity as a team and as human beings and all that, but I would throw money on a whim if a dlc comes out in the future. Of course that we expect an after Gold "Shivering Isles", but I would be partial to a laughable " 3 bucks* invite us to a beer"

 

7dtd is a steal right now on Steam. It's like breaking a locked 10k hp army chest with a level 1 stone axe in one hit and getting 3 purple ranged weapons and a drone.

Well i hope for standalone dlc-  maybe medival or ww1 expansion

[KhaineGB]

I know madmole said in the past, I think it was when they were prepping A17, one thing they considered was extra pre-made maps.

Which might be a hard sell cos of RWG, but I'd personally consider it myself.

[SnowDog1942]

3 hours ago, geomaticist said:

A20. How many of you think it is a little bit lame to have paid once, years ago, for this game. And to then be looking for massive new content and updates but yet to not pay for the game again. Am I alone in thinking we should be willing to pay the $20 ish bucks for playing A20, or A21 or something. Don't get me wrong I realize we already paid. But man, for how many years are we supposed to get new stuff (content) and not pay some money to support that. If there is some way to donate - don't flame me as I don't actually know. And I am just wondering how others think about this. I would be happy to shell out $20 per major new update. Well if is once per year or something like that.  

 

Just something I have been thinking about. And discussing with friends and family. About this, and other, excellent games.

 

Meanwhile ... like the rest we wait. I will try to not to burn through every new thing in A20 too fast. 

It is lame indeed.  Great idea with the supplemental payment.    Please private message me and I will give you information on who to send the payment to! 
 

[bobross]

Just wanted to chip in on the subject of Twitch Integration from a slightly unusual viewpoint. I am not a streamer, I have no intentions of being a streamer, and - in general - I don't quite "get" why people like to stream. What I am, is an IT professional who gets a huge kick out of running servers for my friends and playing with them on said servers. Several of my friends are streamers.

 

Hands down some of the absolute best fun we have had in this game is when we're on with a streamer friend and her viewers start trying to harass us to death with all the various spawn options. It's hilariously fun for everyone playing, not just the streamer and their audience. It's definitely well worth the amount of effort that went into it, and I'm glad more is coming. When we switched to another game for a stream, it was actually kind of boring.

[geomaticist]

I love the idea of buying a copy for others to play. I am actually going to do that. Good way to support. 

 

DLC ... one downside of that ... is it divides the game community. Those who have it and those who don't. No easy answers.

 

 

[bdubyah]

I know it's been brought up before, but listening to JaWoodle moan about it for the millionth time made me think about it again. Has there been any change on balancing the tiers and quality levels of items at all? Just using this bit as an example:

and how it makes anything less than probably a q4 of one tier no better than the tier below it. Seems silly that a fully modded q4 iron shovel is the same or even worse than a t6 stone shovel. I know there is some rng involved and all, but that seems excessive. I was thinking a good way to smooth this out a bit would be adjusting the ModPowerBonus so that each tier gets a little more of a bonus. Doesn't have to be drastic, but would be one way to make each tier more of an improvement, since the stam increase from stone->iron->steel saps some of the joy of getting a higher tier tool. It also seem to hit shovels and picks harder than axes, at least in the stone->iron jump. There is almost always a good increase going from the stone axe to the iron fireaxe.

[MechanicalLens]

4 minutes ago, bdubyah said:

I know it's been brought up before, but listening to JaWoodle moan about it for the millionth time made me think about it again. Has there been any change on balancing the tiers and quality levels of items at all? Just using this bit as an example:

and how it makes anything less than probably a q4 of one tier no better than the tier below it. Seems silly that a fully modded q4 is the same as a t6 stone shovel. I know there is some rng involved and all, but that seems excessive. I was thinking a good way to smooth this out a bit would be adjusting the ModPowerBonus so that each tier gets a little more of a bonus. Doesn't have to be drastic, but would be one way to make each tier more of an improvement, since the stam increase from stone->iron->steel saps some of the joy of getting a higher tier tool. It also seem to hit shovels and picks harder than axes, at least in the stone->iron jump. There is almost always a good increase going from the stone axe to the iron fireaxe.

 

A few months ago I looted a quality level 6 wooden bow after the day 14 horde. I loaded it with iron arrows, just like my level 6 primitive bow, and compared the two. They both had identical damage but the projectile velocity and max range was lower on the wooden bow. I ended up considering it about even, but it could very easily have been a downgrade with -1 or -2 damage, if RNG had its way. I've also had level 6 steel tools which have significantly less block damage than even level 4 steel tools of the equivalent tool type. The latter I can see some arguments being made for it (extending progression and all that), but when an equivalent quality level weapon of the next tier is equal or lesser than the tier below it, that's a problem.

 

Also, again addressing this issue, the iron shovel is inferior to the stone shovel. If you put two of those shovels side by side, it'll take them the same amount of hits to destroy terrain blocks (provided they are near or identical quality level and number of mods applied), meaning the iron shovel's additional block damage is mute. With that being said, the stone shovel is faster swinging, uses less stamina, and only costs stone to repair and not repair kits. Some people may be against this, but I'm calling for an even greater nerf on the stone shovel, because as it stands, there's no reason to create the iron tier - just skip from a level 6 stone shovel to a steel version.

9 hours ago, KhaineGB said:

I am aware of that.

That was my own personal guess since TFP like to release around holidays.

 

I am in complete understanding that you meant no ill will, and apologies on my end for being blunt about it, but what I'm properly learned recently is even a random user or community member - in no way distinguished like modders or TFP staff - giving out their predictions can stir up some pretty nasty rumors; the butterfly effect and all that. A20 probably won't be out for a while, but I believe it's for the betterment of the dev team that no one says anything beyond that, and even then, "when it's done" does its job nicely.

[ErrorNull]

Question 1

Currently in Alpha 19, the zombies that spawn outside in the wilderness do not increase in difficulty with gamestage, unlike many other parts of the game like screamer hordes, bloodmoon horde, sleepers. Will Alpha 20 (or later versions) allow this progression? Or can the XML be made available for modders to expand on this?

 

Question 2

Similar to above, the wandering horde spawns zombies based only within gamestage range of 1 to 50, then wraps around. Will this mechanic be updated to have unlimited max gamestage like with all the other events (eg. bloodmoon horde, sleepers, screamer hordes).

 

thank for any clarification.

[Khalagar]

On the iron tool thing, there for quite a while, I had a rachet that was FAR better than any impact driver I could find. It took hilariously less stamina, and when tested side by side, it would break down a car much faster for less stamina, despite both being level 6.

 

I think it's an issue of RNG on item stats being a thing. So a super well rolled rachet was better than a terribly rolled impact. I actually don't remember if I ever found a better impact that run

 

Iron tools are pretty trash imo, and even steel ones because of the absurd stamina drain even with sex rex. I pretty much just dont' mine anymore until I can get an auger because you'll obliterate your entire food and coffee supply in 10 minutes of mining, and nothing really *needs* mining anymore. Bullets are so common that I don't even craft them, cobblestone and concrete are better gotten from bags in PoI, gas is easily gotten from just wrenching down cars etc. 

 

I used to be someone who *always* lived at bedrock, usually having a bedrock base within like 3 days of spawning in. Anymore there's no point so I just build above ground and just rush an Auger before I even consider doing any real mining or digging. Cheap stone tools suffice until then

[Outlaw_187]

Let me be clear....I WANT the topless stripper back....even if she only has one boot!!!

Come on Pimps....a good addition to A21!!!

 

All joking aside, can't wait till A20. We're all obviously over anxious but we support you all. We understand it needs to reach a certain level of quality assurance before release.

 

In Pimps We Trust!!

[SpaceBound]

Hello Survivors, im assuming that Halloween deadline to release Experimental Alpha 20 will not work, any update on release date? I cant wait to lay my hands on Alpha 20!!

Watching Devs Alpha 20 Playthrough i dont feel bad about any of my 600 hrs spent on this game!! 

In Pimps We Trust!!!

 

[Blake_]

12 hours ago, Matt115 said:

Well i hope for standalone dlc-  maybe medival or ww1 expansion

Sure. Though I'd prefer a Waifu DLC that allows you to dress as Snowdog!

[Aldranon]

After watching the dev streams, there is a 100% chance that I will focus over half of my skill points on strength.  Madmole was doing well in Ep.1 and I know he focused strength.

 

A20 seems to be a step up in difficulty (I don't know what difficulty level they used, however).

Dying twice in a survival game (if the first time was a computer/program/interface thing) is always a delete save file and restart for me as believability is gone after that.

 

So, strength for my first go at A20.

[Outlaw_187]

I've been contemplating my 1st go at A20 as well. My comfortable go to is usually strength, especially early game, but I'd like to switch it up some. 

 

Maybe with the addition of the pipe weapons, may make it easier to start in intellect or agility 1st?

 

Then again, It'll feel as if I'm cheating on my lover to go outside my comfort zone.....ah decisions....

[KhaineGB]

7 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

I am in complete understanding that you meant no ill will, and apologies on my end for being blunt about it, but what I'm properly learned recently is even a random user or community member - in no way distinguished like modders or TFP staff - giving out their predictions can stir up some pretty nasty rumors; the butterfly effect and all that. A20 probably won't be out for a while, but I believe it's for the betterment of the dev team that no one says anything beyond that, and even then, "when it's done" does its job nicely.

Then that's on users to calm it down. 

[mr.devolver]

8 hours ago, bdubyah said:

I know it's been brought up before, but listening to JaWoodle moan about it for the millionth time made me think about it again. Has there been any change on balancing the tiers and quality levels of items at all? Just using this bit as an example:

and how it makes anything less than probably a q4 of one tier no better than the tier below it. Seems silly that a fully modded q4 iron shovel is the same or even worse than a t6 stone shovel. I know there is some rng involved and all, but that seems excessive. I was thinking a good way to smooth this out a bit would be adjusting the ModPowerBonus so that each tier gets a little more of a bonus. Doesn't have to be drastic, but would be one way to make each tier more of an improvement, since the stam increase from stone->iron->steel saps some of the joy of getting a higher tier tool. It also seem to hit shovels and picks harder than axes, at least in the stone->iron jump. There is almost always a good increase going from the stone axe to the iron fireaxe.

 

That old rusty iron shovel you just crafted simply cannot beat that enchanted and highly polished ultra high super duper otherworldly godlike to the max quality stone shovel of level 6 that you crafted long ago, but maintained well to this day.

 

 

[Aldranon]

1 hour ago, Outlaw_187 said:

I've been contemplating my 1st go at A20 as well. My comfortable go to is usually strength, especially early game, but I'd like to switch it up some. 

 

Maybe with the addition of the pipe weapons, may make it easier to start in intellect or agility 1st?

 

Then again, It'll feel as if I'm cheating on my lover to go outside my comfort zone.....ah decisions....

 

Yup, I feel the hype train coming! 

I like the Strength/everything else in about a 70%/30% split.  Then a "Forget this" elixir, once I can get max INT for steel and a motorcycle if I don't already have one.  I play that for awhile if I have two sledge turrets, because too much fun if they are place just right!

[Khalagar]

2 hours ago, Aldranon said:

there is a 100% chance that I will focus over half of my skill points on strength

 

I don't know if there's any dev that's as actually good at the game as Madmole, and basically any min maxer at this game knows strength is OP AF including Madmole  lol. Many devs don't really play their own game that much / aren't very good at them, like last stream where they didn't even know what perk  tree spears were under, so comparing someone like Madmole to them is cheating

 

There's not really a way to play the game for long without strength imo. Food, sex rex, miner 69, motherlode etc alone justify the strength investment to at least 5 or 6, but it also has what is undeniably the best ranged and melee weapon in the game if you are going for a try hard run.  Basically any build has to go 5 strength just for sex rex and miner 69 and at least 2 points of food crafting

 

Strength has the best non combat perks, on top of the best weapons in the game. The other trees barely have 1 good perk each, if even that.

 

All Perception has is the wrench perk which is far from mandatory, lucky looter which is a noob trap, and then the rest are just optional. Agility basically only has Parkour and nothing else that's even good since stealth is so bad / doesn't even work on the most important day of the week. Int is the only one close to strength imo, with robotic sledges and the quest reward perk and better barter

[MechanicalLens]

7 minutes ago, Khalagar said:

 

I don't know if there's any dev that's as actually good at the game as Madmole, and basically any min maxer at this game knows strength is OP AF including Madmole  lol. Many devs don't really play their own game that much / aren't very good at them, like last stream where they didn't even know what perk  tree spears were under, so comparing someone like Madmole to them is cheating

 

There's not really a way to play the game for long without strength imo. Food, sex rex, miner 69, motherlode etc alone justify the strength investment to at least 5 or 6, but it also has what is undeniably the best ranged and melee weapon in the game if you are going for a try hard run.  Basically any build has to go 5 strength just for sex rex and miner 69 and at least 2 points of food crafting

 

Strength has the best non combat perks, on top of the best weapons in the game. The other trees barely have 1 good perk each, if even that.

 

All Perception has is the wrench perk which is far from mandatory, lucky looter which is a noob trap, and then the rest are just optional. Agility basically only has Parkour and nothing else that's even good since stealth is so bad / doesn't even work on the most important day of the week. Int is the only one close to strength imo, with robotic sledges and the quest reward perk and better barter

 

And this is why all of my playthroughs are mostly Strength or Other/Strength.

[meganoth]

4 hours ago, SpaceBound said:

Hello Survivors, im assuming that Halloween deadline to release Experimental Alpha 20 will not work, any update on release date? I cant wait to lay my hands on Alpha 20!!

 

I have it on good authority (a shaman in Papua New Guinea) that November 26 will be the day.

 

On the other hand MechanicalLens has found out via a friend of a friend sitting in the Vatican that it will be November 19, but he wants to keep it a secret and tries to distract with talk about "nasty rumors".

 

There is a rumor that the G7 states have intervened and demand TFP to not publish before Dezember. I have no information whether TFP will comply to this.

 

A well respected medium tried an ouija board and actually came up with November 12, but reading of a goose liver revealed the ghost to be a prankster.

 

 

[Ricowan]

On 10/29/2021 at 11:43 AM, Roland said:

The population who absolutely loathe watching other people play games will eventually die out. The rising generation accepts it wholeheartedly and their children are sure to embrace it as well.

 

I know you meant "play *video* games" here...  The thing I find ironic is that many of the people who make fun of the people who like to watch other people play video games on Twitch or YouTube, are the same people who sit on their asses in front of a TV watching football, soccer, basketball, and/or baseball for hours at a time.  I mean hell, there are actually people who watch *bowling* on TV.   

 

Everyone is different.  Celebrate that fact, don't hate on it.  (this last bit is NOT directed at Roland)