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Alpha 20 Dev Diary


madmole

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25 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

Lazman is just an npc in this story, a ridiculously sensual-voiced well adjusted builder npc. On the bigger picture he can't compete with Block Cowboy . Block Cowboy comes and inserts new shapes on a whim and goes on riding into the sunset. I would gladly steal his identity to feel if just a bit more heroic in my every day routine. 

 

Let's just hope that he is a mature person and he never makes "Rick" Picks into blocks.

 

Its actually "Xtreme" block cowboy.  Movie should be coming soon in a theater near you! 😅

XtremeBlockCowboy.png

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3 hours ago, 4sheetzngeegles said:

Regarding grouping POI's, to regulate spawn rates and volume. The question

I have is, using this in conjunction with the group stamping city layout
will it be possible to regulate "how many" of a particular poi will appear
in a random gen?

 

The second question is regarding the shadowed lighting when entering an
enclosure. Is it based on distance from a portal, or are certain block
positions given a designated value to regulate light level.

 

Example: doorway/window/hole light gamma 100%, distance +2 paces gamma 60%
OR is it radius to perimeter gradually reducing to 0%.

I was talking about biome spawns using POI tags in the area to determine what entities to spawn. That does not have anything to do with POIs spawning.

 

There are no portals. Block lighting is a top down spread to your neighbors algorithm. I've not spent much time dealing with it. Old code.

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13 hours ago, meganoth said:

I'm talking about people wanting that feature. If TFP looks for interesting options for people they don't count people largely indifferent to that feature, they look for a mass of people who would need it. You claim to speak for "new players who play the game a lot", I just don't see any trace of them here in the forum at least to call that a **basic** neccessity

You misrepresented all the facts you could

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

"Now you literally tell me "no, man, this game is not a sandbox, well, more precisely, a sandbox, well, not quite, well, you know, I just don't want to agree with you on anything.""

So? You can not see?

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

And there is the freedom to set your own goals and objectives. There is the creativity available. But no game is a perfect simulation and allows EVERYTHING you just invented as a goal, there are always limitations. In a space sim sandbox you often can play as trader, pirat and headhunter, but you usually can't play as a cashier in a bank, it is still called a sandbox.

Furthermore the only wall between you and your ability to play without traders is not even installing of any mods, it is just to not use traders. But tell me what profession is that you are playing here, a non-trader? What role are you missing in this sandbox?

Are you talking about RPG elements, how does that relate to the topic of conversation?

I play without them. But I would rather play with balanced traders than without

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

Thanks for searching. These seem to be the only posts where I mention sandbox to you. In both those posts there wasn't a single mention of modding and one was a speculative piece about treasure hunter, the other I mentioned sandbox to say that there a a few goals in the game you can choose. And we argued a lot already so I have a bit of a difficulty to match those two posts with your assertion that I made a link between modding/limiting yourself and this being a sandbox game.

Once again, I was not only talking about you specifically, but I found messages even from you

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

Please refrain from adding insults.

 

A child grows up to be an adult, but when someone says "child" he doesn't refer to adults. Same goes for "new users" and "veterans"

Yes. I'm talking about children becoming adults, not being born and dying in two days.

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

I just said it would be a somewhat bad example for your case because it didn't start as something planned and developed by TFP, it was never an item on any priority list inside TFP. And the drone is a much clearer case to argue about because it was clearly high on the priority list of TFP.

 

"but the game also needs content" So the drone is not content? How about we wait first whether it proves to be a popular item or not.

Players will see the drone, will say wow and forgot, the drone will not force them to start a new game and spend additional hundreds of hours in game, but additional options will force them. Considering that the drone is much more labor intensive to develop, they could devote at least a small part of what they spend on drone and the like to improve the basic functions of the game. That said, these few efforts will bear more fruit than big efforts for the sake of the drone.

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

The drone isn't much farther ahead to current tech than the robotic turrets and traps that all have a friend-foe detection, some even a detection between living and dead person.

 

Questioning realism in this game is rather useless, there is a heap of unrealistic stuff in it. Accept it or play a more realistic game. The developers won't change the overall direction of the game because you don't like it. 

Yes, all those smart robotic guns spoil the experience too. Therefore, I do not use them in the game. But a flying robot that independently orients itself in space is the next level.

 

This is not about realism, but about authenticity and validity. As if ghosts and dinosaurs appeared among the opponents

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

So what? If you look around, you can find stupid people anywhere. Why should people who don't play the game enter into a discussion about features of the game? And no, max perk level does not give you the schematic of a tier3 item. 

You claim that fickle players will not see the drone, I answered how they will see it

13 hours ago, meganoth said:

True, but the drone was your example. Obviously cost of development alone is not the only metric to decide which feature gets implemented and which isn't. What others have tried to say that removing the trader is not a thing TFP can implement in 2 days and forget about it the rest of development, it is NOT an insignificant effort.

Why is removing BM is something that you can forget about it the rest of development, and removing a trader is not it?

 

In addition, for me the ideal is not removing, but the possibility of manual delicate balancing of his awards and assortment. Just like now we can setting "loot", "experience" and so on. Manual trader setting in options does not force developers to support the "no trader" version of the game (although the removing option does not force, but for some reason you decided that it was not)

 

 

9 hours ago, JCrook1028 said:

Yes - solar panels.

Do you really think this is the reason why we can't play without a trader?

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6 hours ago, Heliox said:

Hey there,

Are the "Trim" blocks part of the new block system or where can we unlock/craft them?

Thanks as always!

There is a huge selection of trim block shapes available to the player to craft and use.  They are accessible as soon as you craft your 1st "Frame" variable helper block.

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I'm seeing that back and forth between bachgaman and others about how this game is sandbox or not..

 

Consider where the genre name comes from...

An actual sandbox does not provide nearly as many settings, mechanics and assets for the children playing in it as this particular video game does.

 

Complaining about a missing setting, or that you have to use modding or your imagination to add your dream activity/ way to play to the game is like the child complaining to the worker who built the playground that they have to bring their own trowels and sand molds and use their imagination to make the sandbox into a spaceship instead of it looking like an actual spaceship.

 

It's still a sandbox :D

 

On a different note: I'm loving the Lathan reaction face memes, I think you should incorporate some as reactions/emojis on this forum :]

Edited by Kam R. (see edit history)
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@Faatal

 

My Poi question came from multiple twitch sessions/commentaries, each about
separate new changes going into A20. You, Ken, MM, and the last was the gentleman
that spoke about TFP adjusting the loot table to more logically distribute the type
of loot per poi type/Tag.

 

The Poi tags are what i was talking about, Madmole had FubarPrime to refresh
the Poi's generated in the area to show the nearly infinite random spawn layout
visually. Ken showcased the Street stamping layout, which showed a visual view
of his coded street configuration, he had produced in a prior alpha and had now
perfected. You spoke of being able to assign custom Poi Tags to regulate entity spawning.
Then the last TFP member spoke of loot redistribution. Separate processes that are
all related to randomized and controlled spawning.

 

Heirarchy: top down  Biome/Entity, city/layout, street/grouped poi according
to tag, loot/distributed to poi group/per poi tag. Result higher more difficult volume
entities surrounding specific pois naturally, no matter the randomization. That combined
with loot distribution control makes for a nice flow.

 

I only wanted to know if its Poi tag, street stamp, or the old biome association, from
prefab xml that could regulate how many of a particular Poi would repeat in a random
generation. Or none of the above.

 

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1 hour ago, bachgaman said:

 

The argument isn't about that at all, man

Oh, I'm sure there was a lot more in that discussion, but I only flew over it because I don't give a crap really.

I just picked up on that specific part and I think what I said does apply to some degree ;]

If not, ignore. The analogy still holds up in general, I'd say.

 

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14 hours ago, bachgaman said:

You misrepresented all the facts you could

So? You can not see?

 

No. You say I made contradictory claim, one of them being it is not a sandbox. So again, where did I say "It is not a sandbox". 

 

14 hours ago, bachgaman said:

Are you talking about RPG elements, how does that relate to the topic of conversation?

 

No. You made a claim that the game isn't a sandbox. But you never explained it fully, you never made a logical chain between "Trader is unbalanced aka an option is missing" to "This is not a sandbox". So I have to fill in the blanks and guess what you might be driving at.

 

So now you can either provide a concise logical argument why 7D2D is not a sandbox without such an option or explain what you really meant or say "nevermind, that wasn't thought through, forget it".

 

A logical argument would show what a sandbox needs to be a sandbox, and would show how 7D2D does not provide that.

 

14 hours ago, bachgaman said:

I play without them. But I would rather play with balanced traders than without

Once again, I was not only talking about you specifically, but I found messages even from you

Yes. I'm talking about children becoming adults, not being born and dying in two days.

Players will see the drone, will say wow and forgot, the drone will not force them to start a new game and spend additional hundreds of hours in game, but additional options will force them. Considering that the drone is much more labor intensive to develop, they could devote at least a small part of what they spend on drone and the like to improve the basic functions of the game. That said, these few efforts will bear more fruit than big efforts for the sake of the drone.

Yes, all those smart robotic guns spoil the experience too. Therefore, I do not use them in the game. But a flying robot that independently orients itself in space is the next level.

 

This is not about realism, but about authenticity and validity. As if ghosts and dinosaurs appeared among the opponents

You claim that fickle players will not see the drone, I answered how they will see it

Why is removing BM is something that you can forget about it the rest of development, and removing a trader is not it?

 

Off the top of my head

1) The trader is endpoint not only for quests he gives out but quests that can be found in the wasteland. All of those have to be deactived **depending** on this option. According to an experienced modder this might not be possible yet in XML so further changes in c++ code would be necessary.

2) The trader in A20 is a neccessary ingredient of any town as it is the endpoint of the highway to it. No trader, no highway that ends in that town. It probably would need some changes in random world generation to use an alternative newly-created POI for this as well (which I think would be the easiest fix)

3) Whether you believe it or not, bandits and story and possibly a faction system will be in 7D2D in the future, with the traders assumed to be in the middle of some of the mechanisms of this. Only TFP knows the detials, but such an interconnectedness would probably need additional code to make the game work without trader.

 

Blood Moon is not part of anything else, it just makes lots of zombies spawn at a specific time. I don't see any other feature of the game touched by BM.

 

14 hours ago, bachgaman said:

 

In addition, for me the ideal is not removing, but the possibility of manual delicate balancing of his awards and assortment. Just like now we can setting "loot",

 

Understood. We are talking about many things, too many at the moment.

 

14 hours ago, bachgaman said:

 

 

 

"experience" and so on. Manual trader setting in options does not force developers to support the "no trader" version of the game (although the removing option does not force, but for some reason you decided that it was not)

 

 

Edited by meganoth (see edit history)
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9 hours ago, bachgaman said:

 

Players will see the drone, will say wow and forgot, the drone will not force them to start a new game and spend additional hundreds of hours in game, but additional options will force them. Considering that the drone is much more labor intensive to develop, they could devote at least a small part of what they spend on drone and the like to improve the basic functions of the game.

 

This is not about realism, but about authenticity and validity. As if ghosts and dinosaurs appeared among the opponents

You claim that fickle players will not see the drone, I answered how they will see it

Why is removing BM is something that you can forget about it the rest of development, and removing a trader is not it?

 

 

Honestly drones will be to OP to be not used- more slots in eq= more loot

4 hours ago, Khalagar said:

MFW half the posts per page are still two people fighting while posting wall of texts  so big they take me 15 seconds to scroll through

LathanUnAmused.PNG

That's why i love this forum UwU damn i wish i could read this sitting in newsstand

38 minutes ago, meganoth said:

 

 

1) The trader is endpoint not only for quests he gives out but quests that can be found in the wasteland. All of those have to be deactived **depending** on this option. According to an experienced modder this might not be possible yet in XML so further changes in c++ code would be necessary.

2) The trader in A20 is a neccessary ingredient of any town as it is the endpoint of the highway to it. No trader, no highway that ends in that town. It probably would need some changes in random world generation to use an alternative POI for this as well.

3) Whether you believe it or not, bandits and story and possibly a faction system will be in 7D2D in the future, with the traders assumed to be in the middle of some of the mechanisms of this. Only TFP knows the detials, but such an option would need additional code to make the game work without trader.

 

 

1. i agree that it can be done by "modding" but mods are not solution- skyrim need mods to be good so F4 was so big crap. Idk people thing "modders can fix everything"- well in theory this is true but it is just bad- honestly if skyrim never get mods we would get probably TES 9 in next year xd So mods can do a lot of bad things.

3. Honestly - we don't know anything about story so-  i hope it will be done in  DS style- notes, npc will tell you something strange etc

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1 hour ago, Matt115 said:

Honestly drones will be to OP to be not used- more slots in eq= more loot

That's why i love this forum UwU damn i wish i could read this sitting in newsstand

1. i agree that it can be done by "modding" but mods are not solution- skyrim need mods to be good so F4 was so big crap. Idk people thing "modders can fix everything"- well in theory this is true but it is just bad- honestly if skyrim never get mods we would get probably TES 9 in next year xd So mods can do a lot of bad things.

 

My answer to bachgamans question has nothing to do with modding.

 

1 hour ago, Matt115 said:

3. Honestly - we don't know anything about story so-  i hope it will be done in  DS style- notes, npc will tell you something strange etc

 

Honestly - you are using the word "honestly" too often 😉

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Once they announced the end of the Dev Streams, and I have seen Twitch and YouTube streamers announce the end of their current 7 Days streams and events. I have been waiting for the streamer announcement. But alas, all revved up and ready to watch 7 Days alpha 20 streams and no streams to watch. Even after playing 4000+ hours I am still excited about this game and will watch hundreds of hours of gameplay while waiting for a chance to get my hands on the latest build. :)

 

Are we there yet?

 

Chris

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@faatal

 

1. Will there be a way to tune weather particle intensity or even frequency? Some particles like rain and snow are hard on potatoes, and a20 is going to make some suffer with all the new content.

 

2. Does the particle option in the video settings already adress this issue?

 

3. Are there plans to limit hand held torch shadow casting from multiple players on multiplayer? I'm all for realism, but they cast too many sharp and glitchy shadows when it could be much more simple and epilepsy-free.

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Added Stealth check when player enters an "Attack" trigger sleeper volume (using a one time per zombie distance vs skill check).

7 hours ago, 4sheetzngeegles said:

@Faatal

I only wanted to know if its Poi tag, street stamp, or the old biome association, from

prefab xml that could regulate how many of a particular Poi would repeat in a random
generation. Or none of the above.

I don't know. That is a Robert question.

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11 hours ago, Khalagar said:

MFW half the posts per page are still two people fighting while posting wall of texts  so big they take me 15 seconds to scroll through

LathanUnAmused.PNG

 

All part of my plan to make even the critics of my normal pruning habits come around and appreciate why I usually strive to keep the dev diary clear of everything but direct interactions with TFP staff. Everyone will be ready again for a lean and focused A21 Dev Diary by time it opens. :) 

 

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1 hour ago, faatal said:

Added Stealth check when player enters an "Attack" trigger sleeper volume (using a one time per zombie distance vs skill check).

 

Do all zombies wake up if the check fails for one of them? Or is there a negative bonus on that check?

 

I mean, these rooms are supposed to be rooms of increased danger, right?

 

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:bless_you:

Thanks to @Khalagar we have 4 new reaction emojis for the forum. 

 

Oh...I guess thanks to Prime as well....haha

 

 

These emojis are also available in the emoji interface when posting. Simply click on the emoji icon in your tool bar then select categories and select Prime. The image above was added to my post as an emoji. :)

 

Edited by Roland (see edit history)
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