Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[wolfbain5 201]

can I have an official response to how far away from a volume you can be before triggering spawns? not just them showing up, but also them being calculated in?

[faatal 1,499]

3 hours ago, wolfbain5 said:

can I have an official response to how far away from a volume you can be before triggering spawns? not just them showing up, but also them being calculated in?

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

[wolfbain5 201]

8 minutes ago, faatal said:

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

thanks. uhm, calculated in, bad wording, but didnt have a better way to phrase. as you drive by buildings, you get near volumes, I didnt know if the game calculates them as you approach to get them ready to render or not. basically hold in memory before you get close enough to render.

[wolfbain5 201]

Another question for @faatal with the drop quests, I can share them with party, and no matter who kills the zed. bear, animal, female, any. they count for anyone on the quest, except dogs. Is this intentional, or something not hooked in like the vultures? are the quest kills meant to be individual the way dogs are, or party kills as all others are?

 

edit: another correction

snake is counted as zombie kill instead of an animal kill

Edited Saturday at 09:16 AM by wolfbain5 (see edit history)

[NinjaMoa 0]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:22 PM, faatal said:

It is 8m in XZ for them to start spawning. Don't know what you mean by calculated in.

What is done for the Y aspect then?

 

The main problem I have found with this is dropping / climbing into another room and having them appear as i do so.

[madmole 3,614]

On 2/16/2021 at 11:09 PM, Zombiepoptard said:

Most of the time spent in the game is at end gaming. I would have liked if there was one pipe gun that shot all the bullets that you picked up just so you could have a gun when you start out. Since it's a little late for that can we have junk ammo like what's used in the turrets for our pipe weapons? are the pipe weapons going to be crafted?

Pipe weapons are easy early game craft so you can start specializing right away. They will share ammo with existing weapons of their class which will drop in scaled quantities.

On 2/17/2021 at 3:29 PM, Blake_ said:

How is the improved shape menu coming along ? Sounds like the most annoying, OCD and time consuming task on the face of the Earth. Gazz is on it for sure lol.

It's looking really sweet. Allan and Alloc have done most of the work there AFAIK and Rick designed it based on our numerous discussions, but others have contributed for sure. It is going to change building in a big way and make this the best building system of all time IMO.

On 2/17/2021 at 5:28 PM, roughgalaxy said:

Question. Is there any plan to allow us to tie XP to difficulty? I know we can manually up the xp when we up the difficulty, but it would be nice to have a more dynamic option. (Risk vs Reward scaling)

We are planning a biome difficulty that scales so if you want more xp faster, you can go to the harder biomes.

[madmole 3,614]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:10 PM, Shineblossom said:

 I would dare to completely disagree. While there are people using those, most of people i know only equip helmet when going to serious fight (or play on PvP server). I am already sad that we won't be able to customize our bodies (did i get it correctly?) and so i won't be able to have flat chested latina with thicc thigs.
I understand why are you remodeling faces, but saying that everyone uses closed helmes and you won't see those faces sounds really generalizing.

Also, i know that i am asking this for multiple alphas already, but i would love a truck for A21, when you finish with A20.
(and by truck i mean actually truck, like the military ones in army base, that will be slow but sturdy with huge space, not pickup, which Americans like to call "trucks")

I love games with heavy character customization, but unfortunately we can't add 2 years of scope for this. We can always go there in future products.

No more vehicles are planned, but I'm sure a modders will do it.

On 2/28/2021 at 4:58 PM, luki12163 said:

Are there any mods (for vehicles) that are already ready or in development? I would really love to know what mods are planned and how will they work?

 

Also is there any news about drone and if it's coming to A20?

 

 

Vehicle mods should be about wrapped up. We'll reveal them later unless Faatal already spilled the beans.

Drone is getting closer I'm confident it will make it this time.

On 3/1/2021 at 6:45 AM, Weazelsun said:

@madmole @faatal Will the animals particularly the bear and mountain lion animation become more smoother? Right now they're a bit janky when attacking and jumping.

Yes at some point.

On 3/1/2021 at 11:26 AM, faatal said:

These are the planned vehicle mods:

 

Fuel Saver - Works

Off Road Headlights - Works

Super Charger -  Works

Expanded Seat - TODO

Reserve Fuel Tank - Working on today

 

None of them are fully done, since they still need icons, schematics and put in loot lists.

 

Drone should be in a20.

So much for holding back info

[Blake_ 368]

4 minutes ago, madmole said:

I love games with heavy character customization, but unfortunately we can't add 2 years of scope for this. We can always go there in future products.

No more vehicles are planned, but I'm sure a modders will do it.

I would understand that no primitive boat is added (IF swimming animations were good enough), yet... no water threats ? No plans for that sexy Zombie shark?  Water is completely empty and right now it's little more than a waste of space. You guys are making animals for a20, what's one more that adds awesome jumpscares at the cheap cost of a couple of weeks of dev time tops ?

[madmole 3,614]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:47 AM, beerfly said:

I guess that there will be limitation on mods on a single vehicle. Lets say 3 or so, where we could choose a build for our vehicles such as offroad, long roam, team work and so on ? 

The idea is more mods than there are slots so there is some choice.

On 3/1/2021 at 4:09 PM, Hasoup said:

Any plans for upgrades or higher tier workbenches/forges/chem sations/campfires etc? Late game is kind of jarring having 20 or so forges being on and managed at the same time.

 

It'd nice to have access to something with more slots at least for work stations, maybe having something like an industrial tier for them wold be nice and be more aesthetically fitting as well.

Seems to me that is just a balance thing, and 20 is OCD if you as me, I have 2-3 max and build some large bases. They could simply smelt much faster so we don't need late game ones. We've talked about an industrial forge, but with some simplifications coming I don't see a need for it.

[wwiiogre 6]

With the coming scaling of biomes, can we get a toggle in the game system setup for starting locations. I personally do not mind starting in snow or burnt or desert biome when starting a game. Each has its own difficulties, but are nice to start in as a change. Currently on RWG I almost always start in forest biome. That is getting old. Granted I have 3500 hours playing the game but seriously. Do we always have to start in forest. At least let us toggle this choice, allowing starts in the other biomes, outside of wasteland would be ok for me and if its a choice it will not affect the new players.

 

Great work, game is looking better and better. 

 

Chris

 

[Guppys Fur 179]

22 minutes ago, madmole said:

. We've talked about an industrial forge, but with some simplifications coming I don't see a need for it.

 

Dear Mr. Mole, i hope you guys reconsider here.

 

I was really looking forward to this, as im sure many others too.

 

Just imagine the level of satisfaction, having this icon of progression in your lategame. Positivly forcing you to re-design your craft room to create place for that Beauty

[Survager 160]

53 minutes ago, madmole said:

Seems to me that is just a balance thing, and 20 is OCD if you as me, I have 2-3 max and build some large bases. They could simply smelt much faster so we don't need late game ones. We've talked about an industrial forge, but with some simplifications coming I don't see a need for it.

 

I think I will give the request of a lot of players: Joel, please stop simplifying the survival game!!!

[madmole 3,614]

1 hour ago, Blake_ said:

I would understand that no primitive boat is added (IF swimming animations were good enough), yet... no water threats ? No plans for that sexy Zombie shark?  Water is completely empty and right now it's little more than a waste of space. You guys are making animals for a20, what's one more that adds awesome jumpscares at the cheap cost of a couple of weeks of dev time tops ?

Eventually you'll drown when swimming and you run out of stamina. Hopefully we can put some creepy water logged zombies in there that pop up and scare the @%$# out of you or something, zombie catfish.

38 minutes ago, wwiiogre said:

With the coming scaling of biomes, can we get a toggle in the game system setup for starting locations. I personally do not mind starting in snow or burnt or desert biome when starting a game. Each has its own difficulties, but are nice to start in as a change. Currently on RWG I almost always start in forest biome. That is getting old. Granted I have 3500 hours playing the game but seriously. Do we always have to start in forest. At least let us toggle this choice, allowing starts in the other biomes, outside of wasteland would be ok for me and if its a choice it will not affect the new players.

 

Great work, game is looking better and better. 

 

Chris

 

No because that just isn't how the game will work. You'll spawn with a trader nearby to get started and a better tutorial integration. If you want to skip all that leave the easy forest, but you'll pretty much insta die in the harder biomes without gear IMO. Cold will be harsh and radiation even harsher. Desert will be somewhat harder but survivable for a little bit without some gear. So the standard way to play will be to gear up in the forest then attempt harder biomes.

36 minutes ago, Guppys Fur said:

 

Dear Mr. Mole, i hope you guys reconsider here.

 

I was really looking forward to this, as im sure many others too.

 

Just imagine the level of satisfaction, having this icon of progression in your lategame. Positivly forcing you to re-design your craft room to create place for that Beauty

We might change the forge to a normal workstation instead type of work flow and that will change everything, so it's too early to comment on an industrial forge.

6 minutes ago, Survager said:

 

I think I will give the request of a lot of players: Joel, please stop simplifying the survival game!!!

Simple is great, stop being married or emotionally attached to old designs. A lot of stuff was prototyped as a work around because we didn't have programmers to do exactly what we wanted so streamlining is a normal part of the alpha experience. I wouldn't expect major changes to everything, but as we go gold stuff gets redesigned in a better way that is easier to understand and more streamlined. It's not going to change what the game is or how it feels, just less clicks or a smoother experience.

[Xtrakicking 388]

47 minutes ago, madmole said:

Simple is great, stop being married or emotionally attached to old designs. A lot of stuff was prototyped as a work around because we didn't have programmers to do exactly what we wanted so streamlining is a normal part of the alpha experience. I wouldn't expect major changes to everything, but as we go gold stuff gets redesigned in a better way that is easier to understand and more streamlined. It's not going to change what the game is or how it feels, just less clicks or a smoother experience.

 

The burnt forest, pine forest and the plains required no extra clicks.

Edited 13 hours ago by Xtrakicking (see edit history)

[hiemfire 191]

@madmole Is how apparel crafting is going to change with the new system something you're willing to touch on right now?

[pregnable 78]

5 hours ago, madmole said:

Simple is great, stop being married or emotionally attached to old designs. A lot of stuff was prototyped as a work around because we didn't have programmers to do exactly what we wanted so streamlining is a normal part of the alpha experience. I wouldn't expect major changes to everything, but as we go gold stuff gets redesigned in a better way that is easier to understand and more streamlined. It's not going to change what the game is or how it feels, just less clicks or a smoother experience.

 

True.  The simplifications you have made to 7 days have been great.  Really like the repair kits.  Not that hard to make, but could lead to disaster if you forget to bring one. 

 

I am interested in your next unreal game. 

 

I would love to see a 3rd person game that borrowed heavily from what diablo 2 did right, with their skill system and loot system. 

 

I would also probably copy the combat and spell mechanics from Dragons Dogma with that game.  Dragons Dogma had some great combat, and is one of the few games that really nailed playing as a mage. 

 

 

A Diablo 2/Dragons Dogma hybrid game with survival and building elements, based on dota mechanics, where building requires gold, which you primarily find dungeon crawling and fighting in the open world. 

 

How close am I?

[irontusk341 0]

Will there be more Tiers added and Rare items themselves like finding, ("Farmer Jack's long Double Barrel" with increased Range, and damage but slower reload?) or (Boiled bob's metal baseball bat, with bonus damage headshot damage.) or (Stevensons Oil dipped Crowbar, with added fire damage, bonus headshot damage and bonus damage to locked doors, and chests but degrades faster)? I was thinking about the Tiers, and thinking instead of tier 1-6 we would have a quality tier like, 

 

Tiers

0. Fragile (Gray)

1. Defective (Brown)

2. Poor Quality (Orange)

3. Rusty (Yellow)

4. Normal (Green)

5. Well built (Blue)

6. High Quality (Pink)

7. Immaculate (Red)

8. Flawless (Gold)

9. Nearly indestructible (Purple)

Just now, pregnable said:

 

True.  The simplifications you have made to 7 days have been great.  Really like the repair kits.  Not that hard to make, but could lead to disaster if you forget to bring one. 

 

I am interested in your next unreal game. 

 

I would love to see a 3rd person game that borrowed heavily from what diablo 2 did right, with their skill system and loot system. 

 

I would also probably copy the combat and spell mechanics from Dragons Dogma with that game.  Dragons Dogma had some great combat, and is one of the few games that really nailed playing as a mage. 

 

 

A Diablo 2/Dragons Dogma hybrid game with survival and building elements, based on dota mechanics, where building requires gold, which you primarily find dungeon crawling and fighting in the open world. 

 

How close am I?

Sounds like Diablo 3D,

[pregnable 78]

10 minutes ago, irontusk341 said:

Sounds like Diablo 3D,

 

 

Watch that and tell me if you can see my vision, heh. 

[faatal 1,499]

On 3/6/2021 at 8:58 PM, NinjaMoa said:

What is done for the Y aspect then?

 

The main problem I have found with this is dropping / climbing into another room and having them appear as i do so.

Y is about 1m, but it varies depending if up or down. Y is low because I don't want AI spawning in rooms above or below you and dropping your FPS. We may possibly do some type of entity caching before we go gold.

[Jost Amman 330]

6 hours ago, pregnable said:

Watch that and tell me if you can see my vision, heh. 

I played that game... for some time. Then I got bored and uninstalled it.

Great graphics and animations mind you, but absolutely repetitive after a while.

[AtomicUs5000 237]

6 hours ago, faatal said:

Y is about 1m, but it varies depending if up or down. Y is low because I don't want AI spawning in rooms above or below you and dropping your FPS. We may possibly do some type of entity caching before we go gold.

 
What if there was some intermediate object like a simple version of the instance that should spawn there without any AI or animation... and it gets replaced at the moment the real entity would normally pop into existence?