Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[BFT2020]

8 hours ago, The Gronk said:

You can program damn near anything you want in shader code, that wasn't my point.

 

Have you ever tried hash-cracking or crypto-mining _while_ rendering a high-def scene?  It's the short road to a kernel panic or BSOD.

 

We actually had someone in the General Support forum complaining about FPS drop while crypto mining.  Our advice to him was stop trying to do both while playing the game.

[nielm269]

3 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

 

We actually had someone in the General Support forum complaining about FPS drop while crypto mining.  Our advice to him was stop trying to do both while playing the game.

They will stop doing both when the thrashing kills the GPU. (Really if anyone doesn't know mining and anything with high graphics demand at the same time will destroy a GPU).

[Jay_ombie]

22 hours ago, savemulder said:

Just like sharing saved map points , the person with the quest has to first share the quest (I think on quest tab) and then your friend has to ACCEPT the quest and click the compass to follow it. When you share a map point your friend has to open up the map and click a flag icon to SAVE permanently

 

We can share Quests now thanks, I also tried a simple random location which again worked but why doesn't it appear in the Shared Waypoints box on the map menu ?

 

 

't' was the test shared location yet its not seen in the lower shared section ...

[Beelzebubs Ghost]

Anyone else getting Null Reference errors?

 

Played the game fine then reopened with Missing Paint ID XML entry: 255 for block 'concreteShapes:cube'

 

I use some mods but this hasn't occured and I didnt change anything but add one mod, which I have since deleted and still getting this error.

 

It's spamming the console and I cannot move without it popping up. Any ideas?

Edited January 24, 2022 by Beelzebubs Ghost (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

1 minute ago, Beelzebubs Ghost said:

Anyone else getting Null Reference errors?

 

Played the gane fine then reopened with Missing Paint ID XML entry: 255 for block 'concreteShapes:cube'

 

I use some mods but this hasn't occured and I didnt change anything but add one mod, which I have since deleted and still getting this error.

 

It's spamming the console and I cannot move without it popping up. Any ideas?

Even if you removed the mod, you should still try to verify the game cache from Steam.

[BFT2020]

4 minutes ago, Beelzebubs Ghost said:

Anyone else getting Null Reference errors?

 

Played the game fine then reopened with Missing Paint ID XML entry: 255 for block 'concreteShapes:cube'

 

I use some mods but this hasn't occured and I didnt change anything but add one mod, which I have since deleted and still getting this error.

 

It's spamming the console and I cannot move without it popping up. Any ideas?

 

If you added a mod, it added resources to the game.  Simply removing it from an existing world typically won't fix it as the world is trying to reference back to it.  You would have to create a new world in most cases.

[Beelzebubs Ghost]

6 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

 

If you added a mod, it added resources to the game.  Simply removing it from an existing world typically won't fix it as the world is trying to reference back to it.  You would have to create a new world in most cases.

 

The mod hasn't added anything. Just better cement which uses existing items but in the normal mixer.

 

I already verified but I'm still getting the same error continuously.. I can't play because it won't stop spamming.

 

You guys have any more advice?

[Jost Amman]

2 minutes ago, Beelzebubs Ghost said:

You guys have any more advice?

Uninstall, then completely clear the 7D2D folder, and only then reinstall from scratch.

I know, it's a lot of work, but it'll solve your problem.

[savemulder]

1 hour ago, Jay_ombie said:

 

We can share Quests now thanks, I also tried a simple random location which again worked but why doesn't it appear in the Shared Waypoints box on the map menu ?

 

 

't' was the test shared location yet its not seen in the lower shared section ...

You won't see it in the shared section but your friends will and they have to click each waypoint and then the flag to save it on their end 

[Pr00ch]

On 12/14/2021 at 12:28 AM, JaxTeller718 said:

Perks are a whole other topic. I'm forced to sink points into what i feel is a useless endeavor to get stations. I don't care for or want perks for batons/electric/turrets but i must sink them there for access to vehicles and benches. Why? its an attempt at a janky class system. And lets not talk about why anyone would want to take clubs or blunt weapons when bleed on knives is always a better bet. Even pipe batons are better than a club.
 

 

Absolutely spot on, the level gates are probably the single worst thing about the leveling system right now, along with the seemingly multiplayer-centered balance. It's obviously just a duct tape fix, but mod out level gates, set the points per level to 3, and the game becomes exponentially better. It is just baffling that in a survival game of all things, you are railroaded to "specialize" instead of diversifying your survival techniques, i.e. doing a little bit of gardening, a little bit of looting, a little bit of construction, and this, and that. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Pr00ch (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

7 hours ago, Pr00ch said:

Absolutely spot on, the level gates are probably the single worst thing about the leveling system right now, along with the seemingly multiplayer-centered balance. It's obviously just a duct tape fix, but mod out level gates, set the points per level to 3, and the game becomes exponentially better. It is just baffling that in a survival game of all things, you are railroaded to "specialize" instead of diversifying your survival techniques, i.e. doing a little bit of gardening, a little bit of looting, a little bit of construction, and this, and that. 

I've been saying for ages that they should have different attribute skill trees for SP and MP.

This would solve once and for all the balancing problem we have now. Also, would solve the "Charismatic Nature" hole issue for SP.

[GoldsharkROU]

Steam downloaded two updates to the game recently, one today. About 500kb, are these small official patches or what?

 

[unholyjoe]

27 minutes ago, GoldsharkROU said:

Steam downloaded two updates to the game recently, one today. About 500kb, are these small official patches or what?

 

yeah i am getting a series of small updates to many of my games... appears Steam is updating something as usual because we have not put out anything yet.

[BFT2020]

Those are typically shader cache updates being pushed for many games.  It is to improve Vulcan and OpenGL game performance

 

 

[Neminsis]

13 hours ago, Pr00ch said:

 

Absolutely spot on, the level gates are probably the single worst thing about the leveling system right now, along with the seemingly multiplayer-centered balance. It's obviously just a duct tape fix, but mod out level gates, set the points per level to 3, and the game becomes exponentially better. It is just baffling that in a survival game of all things, you are railroaded to "specialize" instead of diversifying your survival techniques, i.e. doing a little bit of gardening, a little bit of looting, a little bit of construction, and this, and that. 

The only time you're encouraged to specialize is in multiplayer and that's generally because others want to specialize in combat perks and doesn't have anything to do with anything intrinsic to the leveling system.

In single player if after your first 4 points you aren't spreading them around, you're just doing it wrong. You aren't locked into any tree nor do you have to specialize too far into any particular tree in order to survive. You can evenly distribute your points across every tree and manage just fine.  It only becomes an issue on max difficulty settings where you kind of have to spec higher into your particular weapon and even then, the first few points into other trees are cheap.

[beHypE]

Is anyone finding any schematics for vehicles or already made parts ? We have been looting bookstores, post offices, mailboxes and every car shop to no avail, with 100+ lootstage in a big city in the snow biome. Not a single vehicle related item, aside from acid/wheels and batteries. We're still running our bicycles, and would be on foot if it wasn't for the reward you get when you end the tier 1 quests. It's getting to a point where I'll start investing points into Intelligence just to unlock Motorcycle recipes, it's pretty obnoxious to be fair. That's 7-8 wasted levels just to be able to craft 3 vehicles, not to mention it really takes away from the pleasure of finding the schematics, but at this rate we'll be decked out with T6 stuff in every slot before we can ride anything decent. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by beHypE (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

4 hours ago, beHypE said:

Is anyone finding any schematics for vehicles or already made parts ? We have been looting bookstores, post offices, mailboxes and every car shop to no avail, with 100+ lootstage in a big city in the snow biome. Not a single vehicle related item, aside from acid/wheels and batteries. We're still running our bicycles, and would be on foot if it wasn't for the reward you get when you end the tier 1 quests. It's getting to a point where I'll start investing points into Intelligence just to unlock Motorcycle recipes, it's pretty obnoxious to be fair. That's 7-8 wasted levels just to be able to craft 3 vehicles, not to mention it really takes away from the pleasure of finding the schematics, but at this rate we'll be decked out with T6 stuff in every slot before we can ride anything decent. 

Not sure about vehicles schematics, but I found that vehicle mod for off-road lights. (I'm on week 3 - 120 mins/day)

[bdubyah]

That off-road light schem is everywhere...

 

I see it so much more than almost anything else it seems. Lol.

[Star69]

I find a decent number of bicycle chassis and motorcycle chassis schematics, occasionally bicycle handlebars. I haven’t seen any schematics or parts for the truck or gyro in the wild but that might be gamestage related.

[Quantum Blue]

8 hours ago, beHypE said:

Is anyone finding any schematics for vehicles or already made parts ?

 

(In my previous run-through in which I seem to have a later stage than Start69) I very much agree with Star69 about bicycle, mb, and mc schematic frequency.  I don't remember mini-bike schematics but I have seen a couple couple 4x4 chassis schematics as well.  (in loot and once at a trader?) I hadn't used them as I had a 4x4 before finding.  I haven't seen any non-bike schematics yet in this run through - 1st A20.1B5), but I am only day 30, lvl 38, lootstage 50ish.  (but I will keep an 'eye' open.)

 

I am also seem to be experiencing a slight uptick in beakers and acid.  I know they were slightly increased - but with RNG...  I 'usually' might have 3 acids and no beakers by day 30, but I got a beaker about a week ago, and currently have 6 acids.  It doesn't seem like that is game breaking.  And I just haven't had/need or time to build a chemistry station in this run-through yet.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Quantum Blue (see edit history)

[Pr00ch]

7 hours ago, Neminsis said:

The only time you're encouraged to specialize is in multiplayer and that's generally because others want to specialize in combat perks and doesn't have anything to do with anything intrinsic to the leveling system.

In single player if after your first 4 points you aren't spreading them around, you're just doing it wrong. You aren't locked into any tree nor do you have to specialize too far into any particular tree in order to survive. You can evenly distribute your points across every tree and manage just fine.  It only becomes an issue on max difficulty settings where you kind of have to spec higher into your particular weapon and even then, the first few points into other trees are cheap.

 

That'd be true if there were no attribute gates. Otherwise you simply can not diversify without effectively locking yourself out from content.

Some perks require 7-10 points in their respective attributes, which cost 2 points each starting with 6, and 3 points for level 9 and 10. Because of this massive overhead that the gates require, by the time you'll reach the high attributes required to unlock the perks which let you access the diverse features of the game, you will already have progressed so far that it's no longer necessary. You will reach that "endgame" state, where zombies are any longer a threat, looting any more has no added utility, you have all the food you could possibly need, etc.  All that happened really is you progressed to the endgame without even being able to access a chunk of the game. i.e. a whole lot of fun. It has just been arbitrarily locked, denied. It would have been great to use those features when you actually needed them. But at this stage, there is simply no point to it anymore. All that's left is turning off the game - you effectively finished it. 

 

13 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

I've been saying for ages that they should have different attribute skill trees for SP and MP.

This would solve once and for all the balancing problem we have now. Also, would solve the "Charismatic Nature" hole issue for SP.

 

Yeah, "charismatic nature" even being a thing in singleplayer is pretty telling, especially with how long it's been this way. It's a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the leveling system, and by extension the direction taken by whoever is in charge of designing it. 

[faatal]

On 1/23/2022 at 9:03 AM, SnowDog1942 said:

@faatal

 

If you look on steam for UEBS 2, a game not out yet, one of the videos tells us that they perform AI for pathfinding for over 1 million individual on screen soldiers using the video card and would have been impossible using the CPU.  I know its comparing apples to oranges but I was wondering if this was already being done or if something like this would help in 7 days to die?

Pathing is not our bottleneck because each path is calced on a thread, so little hit on the main thread. Updating the entities, animating, colliding and rendering them is where the cost is.

[faatal]

On 1/22/2022 at 10:08 PM, Exxodous said:

Been getting this since 20.1  Can anyone tell me what is causing it?   Crashes me to desktop every time.  Sometimes I can play 2 hours then it will happen every 5 or 10 min.  Other times will start after 15 min play time.  There's also some sort of audio input error that shows up in my task bar, but I didn't get a screenshot.  When I log back in I'm about 45 seconds behind where I crashed.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

 

It is probably Unity graphics jobs. I enabled them a few weeks ago, since that is now the default for Unity projects and they are supposed to improve performance. Two testers started having random crashes and they have reports of others crashing. I disabled it today, which will be in next exp. When we get our new consultant from Unity, that will be one of his initial tasks of why Unity is doing that. We will give it another shot once we switch a21 to 2021 LTS.

[Neminsis]

5 hours ago, Pr00ch said:

 

That'd be true if there were no attribute gates. Otherwise you simply can not diversify without effectively locking yourself out from content.

Some perks require 7-10 points in their respective attributes, which cost 2 points each starting with 6, and 3 points for level 9 and 10. Because of this massive overhead that the gates require, by the time you'll reach the high attributes required to unlock the perks which let you access the diverse features of the game, you will already have progressed so far that it's no longer necessary. You will reach that "endgame" state, where zombies are any longer a threat, looting any more has no added utility, you have all the food you could possibly need, etc.  All that happened really is you progressed to the endgame without even being able to access a chunk of the game. i.e. a whole lot of fun. It has just been arbitrarily locked, denied. It would have been great to use those features when you actually needed them. But at this stage, there is simply no point to it anymore. All that's left is turning off the game - you effectively finished it. 

 

 

Yeah, "charismatic nature" even being a thing in singleplayer is pretty telling, especially with how long it's been this way. It's a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the leveling system, and by extension the direction taken by whoever is in charge of designing it. 

Zombies are no longer a threat by day 7 and I reach "all the food I could ever need" by week 3 but generally play well past day 300 and I hit max level around day 200 and have every perk complete by day 175. I don't think our definition of "end game" is the same. 

To max out an attribute takes 16 points, 13 if you use cigar, goggles, or glasses. It only takes 39 points to completely max out all the perks under that attribute. Those 52 points are as strong as that tree will ever get and it's sufficient to day 300 on maximum difficulty, so it stands to reason that you don't even need to take it that high if you're going to call it end game by day 75 where you can completely max out 2 trees, right? 

That's what you do if you want every perk, otherwise you make different choices on each playthrough and try out different build orders and combinations.  If you want everything then you actually have to earn it. The Zs do keep scaling well past day 50 btw.
 

[Jost Amman]

3 hours ago, Neminsis said:

Those 52 points are as strong as that tree will ever get and it's sufficient to day 300 on maximum difficulty, so it stands to reason that you don't even need to take it that high if you're going to call it end game by day 75 where you can completely max out 2 trees, right? 

You didn't consider game settings... I play at 120 mins/day, and I assure you, you can do a lot more stuff and get up game stage, loot stage and skills much more for the same number of days. I don't know if that's the setting Pr00ch is using, but is worth considering.