Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[faatal]

8 hours ago, Kirill_226RUS said:

@faatal, will the saves from A20 experimental be compatible with A20 stable? And if you don't know it now, when will it become known?

It will be the same as the past experimentals. They will probably load, but not recommended. Often people will get bugs using previous versions as we adjust data throughout the experimental period.

6 hours ago, Guppycur said:

Yeh the cool special looking things on these new zombies will even further showcase the lack of zombie diversity in game.  It'd be cool if there were regular mundane zombies but when you see 50 soldiers coming at you and they all have the same vest tear and same exact guts bouncing around, it'll really highlight just how badly the game needs variants.

 

Don't get me wrong, they're cool looking AF, but I'm still right.

 

My *recommendation* would be to take a zombie, say the soldier, make ONE version and then have different children on the mesh have the variations, then on spawn roll a random number to decide which child is shown and which is hidden, so that you can have multiple variants using the same model.  One child has the guts, another a bite wound, another a clothing tear, another a sidearm, another a rank insignia, etc... all hidden, then on spawn it decides which 1, 2 or 3 of those children get shown, and voila, instant variants.

 

I know this method already works, because science tells me so. 😃 

I have pointed this out. The more distinctive they make then, the more repetitive it looks. I see 5 soldiers and they all somehow died the same? Having special characteristics be optional would be a good place to get to.

[Adam the Waster]

14 minutes ago, faatal said:

 

I have pointed this out. The more distinctive they make then, the more repetitive it looks. I see 5 soldiers and they all somehow died the same? Having special characteristics be optional would be a good place to get to.

So how come they went for it?

cuz it does look very silly

[faatal]

2 minutes ago, Adam the Waster said:

So how come they went for it?

cuz it does look very silly

It was already done like that. My opinion came after. That is how development goes. People do things. Others make comments. Sometimes things change. Round and round it goes. I often do things without input because I think it will be cool, then sometimes you have to go back and refine it from other's opinions.

[Adam the Waster]

1 minute ago, faatal said:

It was already done like that. My opinion came after. That is how development goes. People do things. Others make comments. Sometimes things change. Round and round it goes. I often do things without input because I think it will be cool, then sometimes you have to go back and refine it from other's opinions.

true and plus in the case of the solder it could be fixed easily if it changes so they don't really need to make it from starch again 

[Matt115]

1 hour ago, faatal said:

It was already done like that. My opinion came after. That is how development goes. People do things. Others make comments. Sometimes things change. Round and round it goes. I often do things without input because I think it will be cool, then sometimes you have to go back and refine it from other's opinions.

 

1 hour ago, Adam the Waster said:

true and plus in the case of the solder it could be fixed easily if it changes so they don't really need to make it from starch again 

Both @faatal and @Adam the Waster talk about more zombie variants ( i mean diffrent looks for this same type of zombie). this mean i probably died  and i'm in heaven (or in mental asylum). Honestly "dead zombies" are harder too make good that  "living zombies" - if you saw 2 this some 1 eye zombie in this same house you could start thinking about fighting with clone army. If all zombies are barefoot , in destroyed pants and thirts but with diffrent faces colours of clothes you can avoid " clone army" problem- that's why zombies from days gone looks that way. Btw how turtle rock and valve create so many variants in l4d idk- even in 1 you have unique variants - docs and patients in hospital or pilots in airport. 

Honestly i wish l4d2 became "refrence " for another types of zombie games- perfect kiling effect ( and 7dtd is rly close to it), a lot of zombie variants and "mixes" ( like this same pilot zombie but diffrent heads) and behave ( honestly i hope someday we will get random sleepers  zombies on street , sitting on bench, lying in water but not in POI but outside)

Edited September 25, 2021 by Matt115 (see edit history)

[Survager]

Question: Will the locations on the Navezgen map be updated in Alpha 20?

[Guppycur]

1 hour ago, faatal said:

It was already done like that. My opinion came after. That is how development goes. People do things. Others make comments. Sometimes things change. Round and round it goes. I often do things without input because I think it will be cool, then sometimes you have to go back and refine it from other's opinions.

Confirmed, alpha 26 will have another rework of the zombies...

[Blake_]

7 hours ago, faatal said:

I have pointed this out. The more distinctive they make then, the more repetitive it looks. I see 5 soldiers and they all somehow died the same? Having special characteristics be optional would be a good place to get to.

Honestly, what we reslly need is colour variants on non-special Zds and a bigger animation pool both for each special and for all the Zds in general. 5-10 sets of animations shows right after 7 hours in. Just more walking and attacking patterns will do it (like triple the number and randomize it). Right now in a19 the spider does quite a bit compared to the rest but even then it gets repetitive. That needn't be optional and It's a must.

 

PD: Gore, on the other hand, should be focused on 2 year-old sensitive humans, to make them strong. So always off for Roland. He is too wise.

[wicketness]

Question for Devs...

 

Is it possible to have the death animation an option?

I mean it looks fine but in some instances it can get you killed.

You die many seconds of agony lol.

you come back frozen wiping your forehead, and i had it happen many times now, a zombie is in area and he gets a free meal.

by the time i regain control i am already stunned and almost defenceless.

 

I miss the days when it wasn't in game.

Edited September 26, 2021 by wicketness
too early many spel errs (see edit history)

[TurtleJ]

I've been reading over 49 pages since seeing the twitch stream and finally coming to the forums I think that death animation should also be an option I died 1 too many times watching my arm sweep my face unable to move til it completes

[Roland]

1 hour ago, TurtleJ said:

I've been reading over 49 pages since seeing the twitch stream and finally coming to the forums I think that death animation should also be an option I died 1 too many times watching my arm sweep my face unable to move til it completes

This issue was discussed recently by the team and the plan is to only have that arm wiping brow animation for the very first spawn of the game and not for respawning after death. I’m not sure exactly when they will get to that though. 

[Guppycur]

Thanks God.  I curse gazz out loud when that happens because I dunno, I always blamed him for it.  Dunno why.

 

...assumed it was there to allow the chunks to load before letting us move. 

 

[MechanicalLens]

4 hours ago, Roland said:

This issue was discussed recently by the team and the plan is to only have that arm wiping brow animation for the very first spawn of the game and not for respawning after death. I’m not sure exactly when they will get to that though. 

 

Look up "Undertaker rising gif" and you've hit gold.

[Blake_]

5 hours ago, Roland said:

This issue was discussed recently by the team and the plan is to only have that arm wiping brow animation for the very first spawn of the game and not for respawning after death. I’m not sure exactly when they will get to that though. 

Can we add more animations for rol-players? So when we respawn we can turn off the alarm clock. dress, shave, have breakfast, take a facemask and go on to find the backpack? OMG That will be so realistic and immersive you wouldn't believe it! 

 

Please and thank you.

[DarlingCows]

Not sure if it’s already been asked but in the new dismemberment system will the arms and legs when chopped off will fall to the ground rather than disappear?  Kinda like the head dismember showcase  

[faatal]

3 hours ago, Matt115 said:

Well i don't think a lot of player need this. And it could be quiet annoying waste of time- like take on shoes need time, eating need more time etc. this would in some sitations make game a lot of slower for non rolplayers. Well in battle royale this have a sens- use quicker bandage or waste more time using first kit. But animations in 7dtd are good enough

He seemed to be joking. Either way, not happening.

[Jost Amman]

Hi @faatal, I remember you were, among many other things, also optimizing lights/shadows... I'd like you to quickly read something that a player on Steam posted recently, which maybe will help you find out more bottlenecks/issues related to that:

Quote

Ok, so on GTX 970 I got FPS drops at night when there is a light source (like Forge) and a lot of trees around (I planted a lot around the base). The higher the shadows setting, the higher the FPS drops. With shadows on medium it's around 20-30 FPS, shadows on low 45 FPS, shadows off 90 FPS. There's something going on with shadows at night, usually around 2-3am (in-game time). I didn't notice it happening at blood moon nights somehow (but I never stand around the forge then). I got no FPS drops when zombies attack, even though a lot spawned (I play with 3 other friends, rented cheap nitrado server). I can have all the other settings on High/Ultra, but shadows cause issues at night.

Hope this helps. 

[Fanatical_Meat]

9 hours ago, faatal said:

He seemed to be joking. Either way, not happening.

Darn it!
I was hoping for a cook an egg & prepare toast mini-game followed by a mini-game to tie my shoes mini-game that ends with a stand in the mirror and allow AI to rate your style game.

[mstdv inc]

@faatal 
1. Maybe it makes sense to add gfx dt maxlod as an option in the settings?
2. Is it planned to add the weapon fov setting?This has already been implemented in mods,but I would like to see it in vanilla.
I know that some models of tools/weapons can be cut off at a large fov value,but up to a value of 65 everything is ok.
(Value 75 on screenshot)

[JCrook1028]

16 hours ago, DarlingCows said:

Not sure if it’s already been asked but in the new dismemberment system will the arms and legs when chopped off will fall to the ground rather than disappear?  Kinda like the head dismember showcase  

That was discussed in the stream. Answer - yes.

[Burrfly]

4 minutes ago, meganoth said:

 

What is a weapon FOV?

I think for a weapon FOV there is a seperate camera that only renders the first person weapon for that local player, in which you can adjust the FOV specifically only for the weapon, and not for the entire screen.

[Laz Man]

11 hours ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

Darn it!
I was hoping for a cook an egg & prepare toast mini-game followed by a mini-game to tie my shoes mini-game that ends with a stand in the mirror and allow AI to rate your style game.

Sims 5 apocalypse edition? 😅

[Fanatical_Meat]

12 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

Sims 5 apocalypse edition? 😅

 

Yes but I forgot to say “I want a mini game where I can challenge bandits to arm wrestling and they bring their entire bandit clan to a colosseum we build together”

God I have become so irritated by game addition requests.

lets finish the game then talk about add on stuff.

[wicketness]

I WANT PRETZELS!!!!!

[Adam the Waster]

I can sense the kraken coming soon with the stream, I can also sense my PC is in fear