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Alpha 20 Dev Diary


madmole

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28 minutes ago, omegarte said:

I'll do a formal bug report if necessary but I've got a dedicated server running the pregen 8k map and one of my players is getting the "no trader" message when trying to complete the starter quest.  Any quick/easy way to fix this?

Me too. Multiple worlds, locations.

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I don't know where you all are finding too much loot... I'm on day 4, loot 100%, found sod all ammo (except magnum??!) and zero guns.

 

Takes 3 face shots with a pipe shotgun to take down one regular zombie (insane difficulty), so occasionally I get enough bullets to take out one of the around 20 that's hiding in each POI. Unless it's a biker dude. If athletics still levelled by running mine would be at 100 already.

 

Just found a claw hammer so I can finally make a workbench.

 

Loving it so far. Laughed for about 20 minutes at the paper I keep finding in the toilets. Why has it got writing on it? Did the world run out of actual toilet paper and start wiping their butts with books?

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I love Insane difficulty. But It demands too much of me for my taste and I usually die after 10 hours in with that setting.  I prefer Warrior difficulty with day Jog and Nightmare everything else. Blood Moon 64 Zds and Feral Sense All.  Days of 16 hours so the night lasts until 6 AM and 2 hour days for longer hordes and longer nights. A20 also has crazy random values on some crafted clothing which is a nice touch, I love spam crafting if it's limited to crafting 10 items or so. Great change !

 

What I found out about a20 RWG:

 

-Restarting the game resets trader quests. That is not cool and an exploit.

 

@Kinyajuu-related problems:

Spoiler

-When first generated and started, the RWG map consumes double de Memory until STEAM restart. That hurts. 10k maps can go up to 19+ gb of initial memory consumption, where they should only take 7+ of initial memory . Issue happening since a19. Maybe sooner.

 

-Dirt paths (both small and wide dirt paths) have jagged borders on any graphical settings. They want smoothin'.

 

20211207121656_1.thumb.jpg.b6cf4b88ca0f9f50df6ef22f7fd86d81.jpg

 

20211207122445_1.thumb.jpg.8a5c1cadd647e6ac12d3f7523870bfe5.jpg

 

20211207121715_1.thumb.jpg.a5fb5c660492445cc77df1cfc3cf7b48.jpg

 

 

What I absolutely love:

 

Everything else .

 

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17 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

While I haven't jumped into A20 yet, you can adjust the loot rate to something less than 100% to correct too-much-loot problems.

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc

 

I was bordering forest AND snow biome and have exactly the opposite experience.

 

Sparse ammo and zero guns. What little .762 I found I used in a pipe rifle that I could eventually craft, so I think it may be RNJesus forcing me to repent for my sins 🤷🏻‍♂️

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4 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

While I haven't jumped into A20 yet, you can adjust the loot rate to something less than 100% to correct too-much-loot problems.

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc

Right, but those standard settings really seem OP to me.

My best finds in second game session (evening of day 1 and first half of day 2):

loot stage 5 (can be checked via the player/character statistics screen, I guess that's the lowest stage?)

 

-blue pipe baton (needs one power attack and one regular hit to kill every normal Z)

-rad remover mod

-machete schematics

-drone med aid mod

-rotating blade trap schematics

 

I'm rather sure it's not intended that one can find this stuff so early.

 

Or am I just incredibly lucky this time? 

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Well, about 10 hours ingame. 

 

Nomad (Strenght primarily) build on warrior difficulty. Loot abundance and xp lowered by 1 level, each.

 

I was scared, lost, hungry, helpless, infected, dehydrated many times, but died only once.

 

Had these cold chills when this feral wolf met me right after sunrise (day 4 or 5), in a close urban area. I didn`t know could be anything else, but a box of trash. A bit of a fight, some 3rd tier pipe weapons helped after a couple of quests also. 

 

This IS а great one, Pimps.

 

The fear of being out there is back in a new better way.  

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19 minutes ago, BananaCustard said:

I don't know where you all are finding too much loot... I'm on day 4, loot 100%, found sod all ammo (except magnum??!) and zero guns.

 

Takes 3 face shots with a pipe shotgun to take down one regular zombie (insane difficulty), so occasionally I get enough bullets to take out one of the around 20 that's hiding in each POI. Unless it's a biker dude. If athletics still levelled by running mine would be at 100 already.

 

Just found a claw hammer so I can finally make a workbench.

 

Loving it so far. Laughed for about 20 minutes at the paper I keep finding in the toilets. Why has it got writing on it? Did the world run out of actual toilet paper and start wiping their butts with books?

I'm playing on 100% loot (just the default) | Day 1 | In a city in the plains | Found 2 guns and 60+ ammo in a single POI | The POI seemed like a supermarket and had a basement which was easy to access

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2 hours ago, madmole said:

Traveling at night on foot with feral sense on is pretty risky. Food management feels great to me and farming is a short bandaid to a constant problem. Eventually I got a lot of food, but I never was able to eat unlimited stews, I had to make whatever I could scrounge up, buy every can in every vending machine, kill every chicken, etc for at least the first 30 days. It feels good when you are constantly worried about honey/antibiotics/food. I never did get a surplus of big med kits or casts in my 70 some day game, and I had so many times I was beat up with 4+ crits on my screen and very close calls, that to me is what makes a memorable play through.

 

This.

 

Everything new with A20 addresses a lot of the balancing issues and gameplay loopholes in prior alphas.  Kiting zombies was 101 materials, along with not really worrying about food or infection - but my playthrough yesterday actually felt like a hardcore survival experience.  I got infected within the first hour and had to go stump farming for honey.  Also wound up only partially clearing a couple of the new POIs due to fear of getting trapped and mobbed in tighter spaces, which is something I've never really encountered before in this game.  Scarcity of food now feels appropriate for a post-apocalyptic region.  Going out at night also feels dangerous again in a way I've not experienced since A11 / A12.

 

Only issues aside from the occasional frame stutter are some minor things I'm finding with RWG or texture inconsistencies across some of the new shapes.  Being the data guy I am, I'll keep exploring and experiment a bit before sharing.  Otherwise, really stellar job on the update, FPs!

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9 hours ago, BananaCustard said:

Husband is on about 6, but that's because I end up using him as a meat shield and running away while the Zs chew on his corpse.

🤣 that should definitely become a perk or a book. Being able to pick up other players and carry them around at least over short distances, maybe even throw/push them away

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1 hour ago, Burrfly said:

My first-look review, just like other people do now :)

 

I playtested it for a short amount of time and the towns and RWG is, as everyone is saying here, amazing. It feels so much more real and scarier and more epic.

 

However, I do feel that I have gotten too much loot in this very first stage in the game. I already got more than 60 ammo rounds after looting just one kinda basic POI, and even found 2 guns (while I wasn't even in a boosted biome, I was in just the plains). I personally like it more if I have TOO LITTLE ammo VS too much ammo. This way we have to strategically think about wether we have to use our scarce ammo or not, which makes it a lot cooler IMO. In alpha 19 my friends and I came across our first gun at around day 15 or something (which felt very epic), and now I already got 2 guns before the night in the first day, which feels OP and not special anymore because I already have a lot in a very short amount of time. 

 

The amount of ammo I got and schematics I already learned also feels too much. I hope this will get fixed by stable, because this is my single ONLY very bad feeling. The rest is AMAZING, but even those amazing things will quickly feel not special anymore if you already have multiple guns by day 1. I remember playing at day 120+ in alpha 17 and still finding new cool loot, while now I think I would have everything by day 30.

 

I hope this will be read by the fun pimps and balanced by stable, because I love this game and also see that multiple people think the same as me. Trader ammo rewards are halved but personally still feel a little too much.

 

Long story short:

In my opinion, especially ammo and guns found in loot early-game need to be lowered. For the rest it's amazing.

If I'm not mistaken ammo thins out as game stage progresses to simulate things being more picked over.

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13 minutes ago, madmole said:

If I'm not mistaken ammo thins out as game stage progresses to simulate things being more picked over.

And it's not as plentiful in early days either if you are not actively looting and questing. I find it ok. It burns hella fast when those city "dead ends" come into play, lol.

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31 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

🤣 that should definitely become a perk or a book. Being able to pick up other players and carry them around at least over short distances, maybe even throw/push them away

 

 

Idk about all that but being able to push your buddy because he just happens to be standing in front of you into a zombie/horde would be some funny trolling moments lol 😏

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@madmole Instead of the implementation of farming we saw over streamer weekend could you guys possibly change it so that the percentage chance of getting the seed on harvest is lower but the number of fruit used to craft a seed is reduced to 4? It'd still be tuneable for the rate at which you'd like the players to build up their stocks, but would end up leaving someone who's invested in Living off the Land 1 at least a seed in the farm plot for another go instead of 4 fruit, an empty planter and having to decide between crossing their fingers that they find another plant or just cooking up what they have and not bothering.

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1 hour ago, omegarte said:

I'll do a formal bug report if necessary but I've got a dedicated server running the pregen 8k map and one of my players is getting the "no trader" message when trying to complete the starter quest.  Any quick/easy way to fix this?

 

This almost always means you have A19 data interfering with your A20 game. Use the clean tool to remove all previous maps and saves.

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32 minutes ago, hiemfire said:

The same rational as every bit of food not canned spoiling at the start of the Blood Moon as was jokingly suggested by @Aldranon.

 

I did suggest that before I played.   The game would be too easy if farming was reset back to A19.

 

I don't think any changes should be made.  Farming is just an emergency kinda thing now, whereas hunting is the thing.  I hunt chickens as you can see them easier riding down roads.

I got a system and the best weapon, for me, hunting chickens.  I don't see rabbits much on the road, IDK why.  

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10 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

This almost always means you have A19 data interfering with your A20 game. Use the clean tool to remove all previous maps and saves.

 

Where's that located? (Asking for a n00b friend who doesn't pay attention...)

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc

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6 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

Where's that located? (Asking for a n00b friend who doesn't pay attention...)

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc

From Steam, when usually start the game it gives an option called "Show game launcher", from where you can go to "Clean game data", select all and hit "Clean" button.

 

 

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Also, anyone else noticed that you often need to stay more mobile in POI's, always keeping in mind of an immediate exit strategy. 

Some POI's have various types of "Dead Fall" trap rooms (Don't jump in but find another way in) (If you hear the floor giving away you have a half a second to run) 

Some POI's have kill corridors and you should run back to avoid being surrounded (not very glorious, but if you play dead-is-dead, you'll understand.

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