A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[Roland]

20 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

I'm sure something could be done to "tie conversations together"

yep. Quote whom you are responding to. Not only does it tie things together nicely but people can click on the quote to go to the original post.

[MechanicalLens]

2 minutes ago, Roland said:

yep. Quote whom you are responding to. Not only does it tie things together nicely but people can click on the quote to go to the original post.

Or there's that. 

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Ranzera said:

Hmm, I got that backwards. All the responses were moved here. Splitting discussions is confusing.

Its not that difficult. If people respond to you quoting your content it will show in your notifications and then you can go straight to their response if you want to respond to them. As to your first concern that you edited away, nobody was protecting the devs. Your original criticism is there for Madmole to view and respond to if he wishes. What was split off was all the discussion by others. Sorry, but it has nothing to do with a conspiracy to keep the devs' egos intact and everything to do with the the 3-4 legitimate questions that were getting overwhelmed by you starting the next #gate.

 

There is nothing wrong with voicing displeasure and having a robust debate over the simplification of the clothing/armor for A20 but that place is here in the discussion forum. You brought up your point and Madmole will answer it and that will be the end of it. Pages and pages and pages of salty ranting just isn't going to happen there any longer. And you are mistaken about Madmole never reading this thread. He knows about it and he does read it and if he feels like he wants to get involved in the spectacle he will respond.

 

The A20 Developer Discussion thread is for asking questions, giving feedback directly to the developers, and getting information from them. It is not for 15-page long raging debates. Hope that clears things up. It may not be ideal for the sake of conversation but it is ideal for keeping the Diary thread focused.

[Tahaan]

15 hours ago, Yoghira said:

Hi,

may i ask your audio guy in your developer team if you plan to insert spatialized audio / sound to Alpha 20 or a later version?

 

Ok it is only a thing when you play with headphones but it should be an option to activate. It will create much better immersion because

you know exactly where to look if you hear a noise. Above / under , left or right, behind or in front of you - you can say where they are (zombies, animals), ... with closed eyes.

 

I installed Unity just to play with that and it is very easy. I tried:

Unity´s spatializer,

Resonance Audio,

Oculus Spatializer Plugin

Steam Audio Spatializer.

You don´t need soundreflections or ambisonics or things like that, just the spatializer.

And then to make it "perfekt" bind the footsteps to the foots, the "Grrrrrrrr" to the head, the "swooshes and "swings" to the arm or hand

and the "gibs" or hits to the collision coordinates - done. 😀

 

 

And a second thing i recognized is that u use "Linear Rolloff" instead of "Logarithmic Rolloff" in most of

your "3D Sound Settings" for the creature sounds.

That cause the unnatural sense of distance to the sound source.

Please use "Logarithmic Rolloff" wether you go spatialized or not.

 

How do you as community and as developer think about these?

 

Regards

Yoghira

There is more amiss with the sound system than just linear fall-off.  It seems that only the horizontal element of distance is considered.  Vertical distance doesn't matter - so sounds 200m above you while in a mine at bedrock is just as loud as sound right next to you at the surface.

 

But yes.  +100 to this from me.

[Adam the Waster]

On 10/31/2020 at 11:05 AM, Danidas said:

For future versions of the game would you consider the possibility of re-adding cosmetic mods. Like the current hat mods for helmets to make them look like a cowboy hat, baseball hat, etc but for all 4 gear slots. In order to allow us to swap out the look of our gear to further diversify our characters appearance beyond the dye system. As one of the main complaints about the new gear perk system is that everyone will end up looking identical when doing a specific role.

 

i have a feeling thats what its "Kinda" like!


I remember in the stream, Madmole said that we can wear whatever piece we want, You want to wear a farmers hat with you're nomad gear? You can! but it will come with more perks if you wear the set!
 

Spoiler

im drawing up some ideas for some :S

 

[AlexBLR]

Any normal player stats?

Does player be stronger while hard working instead of "press button to carry 50 TONNs while you can not pass 100 meters without coffee break"? I mean player actions should train basic stats, book can help this be more effective but nothing more.

 

Really, 100 level you can do a lot but still running like flying brick.

 

 

 

[seagas]

On 10/29/2020 at 10:08 PM, MechanicalLens said:

I haven't been doing too many quests this alpha. Have any people received quests for the non-remnant versions of the new stores, other than the T4 shotgun messiah? (Ex. Crack-A-Books, Pop-N-Pills, etc.?) I'm just curious if TFP allowed these POI's to be potential quest locations.

I just got a tier 2 one for the new Working Stiffs store.

 

[Roland]

54 minutes ago, AlexBLR said:

Really, 100 level you can do a lot but still running like flying brick.

How much long distance running are you doing at level 100? I'd think you'd be busy getting hungry by stepping on the accelerator of your vehicle.

[Adam the Waster]

1 hour ago, khzmusik said:

Playing Devil's advocate here... The one thing that those lights don't do, is go out. Flares do. If they're commonplace (like, cheaper to make or loot than torches) it would add light management mechanics, which could be cool.

 

Also things look spookier in a red flickering lights, so it would add to the fear factor.

 

...Having said all that, I'm not married to the idea, and I'm sure you guys have a lot more to work on.

 

EDIT: Sorry for the two posts, I thought the forum software would "auto-edit" my previous post.

imo i feel like the flashlight gets overshadowed!

The torch is not as bright but can be used a A emergency weapon, (helped me a hell of alot early game)

Weapon/Helmet lights have no real downside aside from making you less stealthy and taking a mod slot

The flashlight is brighter then both but not really handy, I much rather uses a Torch, Maybe make it into one of the cop lights so you can to Beat the Crap out of someone (thoses things are HEAVY)

Edited November 3, 2020 by Adam the Waster (see edit history)

[Demonoid74]

Yeah the old 6 D battery Mag Lights...I still have a few and back on the job ,had hit people with them...they work well  

[SnowDog1942]

2 hours ago, Roland said:

How about make flashlights throwable? That's probably what he was wanting to do with the flare. Toss it ahead into a dark room...

Flashlights throwable? What about fleshlights?

[Ranzera]

3 hours ago, madmole said:

 

You are always wrong bro.

Lol. Ad Hominem is always the cornerstone of a strong argument. I thought you left the job of making an ass out of oneself to Roland

[Tahaan]

6 hours ago, madmole said:

Re: I was wrong...

You are always wrong bro.

Love this.  Agree with this.
 

 

 

5 hours ago, Adam the Waster said:

The torch is not as bright but can be used a A emergency weapon, (helped me a hell of alot early game)

Plus you can throw it on a wall and pick it back up!  Love the torch early game, and the lighting from it has a nicer atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tahaan]

9 hours ago, Sidney said:

I'm curious why you believe that.  Do you guys want to be like EA?  Release games that are visually pretty, but fundamentally garbage?  If so please reconsider because almost nothing that AAA publishers @%$# out is worth the time, let alone money, to play.

 

This is just like, my opinion man, but the things that are holding you back are:

• The lack of variety as well as the hard tiering of weapons and armor.  For example the sniper rifle is strictly better than the marksman rifle, and there are only 3 rifles total.
• Bugs, especially the gamebreaking ones like vehicle duping, item loss in vehicles, vehicle loss, crippling FPS hitching during weapon fire, zombies' attacks clipping through walls, jerky zombie movement (the micro rubberbanding not the pathing that attempts to juke the player, that's cool), the game deciding that you don't have a bedroll or that your bedroll is actually someone else's, etc.
• Things that perhaps aren't bugs, but are super irritating like the almost random autosort order, inconsistent reload and draw with bows, camera position not staying the same when exiting a vehicle so you are always disoriented, inability to consistently pick up a thrown spear, respawning "near your bed" can place you on the roof of a nearby POI (like a Shamway), the cancerous amount of I-beam debris in the wasteland making the 4x4 unusable there, gaining zero exp from cooking food or from zombies dying to traps/bleeding/fire.
• Lack of special zombies.  Only the demo, and to a lesser extent the vultures, present a threat.  Everything else is a bullet sponge to one degree or another.
• Game progression, especially loot not being better in harder POIs and harder biomes.  I understand you're working on this one, so this may not be valid for long.
• Low worth/Worthless game content like stealth, gillie suits, knives, spears, batons, buried treasure perks, etc.
• Terrible FPS, especially during BMs, even with the graphics turned way down.  My PC isn't a potato, but I never saw my frames break 30 on a BM after night 14.
• Lack of features common in other FPS games such as different mouse sensitivity settings for different zoom levels, autorun, configs stored in a universal and portable .ini/.cfg file instead of the damn windows registry (really guys?), and changeable crosshairs.
• Not enough "knobs and dials" to customize the game without mods.  For example you can't turn off the death penalty, nor can you remove the noobie weather protection.  There are a LOT of settings that should be configurable when creating a new world that aren't there.

These are the things keeping you from greatness, not how pretty your models are.

 

I mostly disagree with point #1 above.  I assume you mean lack of variety in weapons, not lack of variety in this game.

 

Ignoring that I really agree with the above as a general "the game is not finished and needs a lot of polish".

 

If I know anything about software development (and I do) I would bet that many of the performance issues relates to just how broad this games is in terms of features.  Sure it can be optimised but the number of concepts here is actually mind boggling.  You have distributed state management in a game with RPG and Tower of defence and FPS rolled into one.  Then you have concepts like time management, resource management, and S.I.  Those things are each worth a book and people just take them for granted.  Fully destructable world.  Check.  Zombie AI and pathing through a fully destructable world.... NOW things get serious.  Just for fun we also have 3d spacial stuff - lighting, reflections, weather.  But wait, there's more.  Because everything is moddable and controlled via XML config.  Enough?  Nope.  We have buffs and status effects and bonusses.  Lets not forget about effect types - explosions affect blocks differently to say a melee attack.  And then we still need to get to entities, vehicles, and other things that are not part of the environment.

 

There is nothing else even remotely as ambitious as this.

 

Oh and that little "distributed state management" thing I glossed over... Whoever coded that needs a medal.

[Ranzera]

42 minutes ago, Tahaan said:

Love this.  Agree with this.

Sounds like a man who's always wrong, lol.

[user2010]

Removed by the author.

Edited November 4, 2020 by user2010 (see edit history)

[Outlaw_187]

Man I hope the behemoth is reconsidered at some point.

 

I was driving back to my base after 2200 & thought how bada$$ would it be to run into one of them in the pitch dark, having one of them sprinting towards you. 

[Adam the Waster]

2 hours ago, user2010 said:

you can build a spaceship

Ummmmmm no.

[Thecolours]

Are there plans for the radiation suit to have set bonuses?  

[Adam the Waster]

1 hour ago, Thecolours said:

Are there plans for the radiation suit to have set bonuses?  

thats what Nomad will be used for

Edited November 3, 2020 by Adam the Waster (see edit history)

[SnowDog1942]

19 minutes ago, Adam the Waster said:

thats what Nomad will be used for

I can play dressup with that suit   screw the bonuses.  

Edited November 3, 2020 by SnowDog1942 (see edit history)

[user2010]

Second edition, text!

 

Reading this thread of the forum, you can see that the requirements for developers are increased regarding small details!
Look at the pixel games, the graphics are terrible (Minecraft), but there is an interesting gameplay.
No game has become popular just because of the good graphics!
We need to add new features to the game!
In the old mods for this game, a lot has already been implemented!
For instance.
-Changing seasons
Once every few days, it snows and it gets cold, then everything comes back!
- Radioactive zones where you can find unique resources and loot!
-Ability to build modern objects as well as objects from the future! The year is 2036, if I'm not mistaken!
 And when you walk on the map, there are carts, hoes, sledgehammers all around!
-Ability to build a railway, (I understand that it's hard for Unity, but I really want to! :))
- And the most difficult thing in the game is the balance!
There are many inconsistencies in the existing skills in the recipes!
It is impossible to make a pipe yourself without a machine!
And now we are making them, for the production of a forge in which you can melt metal, it is illogical!
- The use of electricity in the game has practically stopped!
 If the game had modern machines powered by electricity, then it would be in demand!
-And now on a wooden table with a vice and a file you can build a spaceship.

We apologize in advance for the Google translator!

[toores]

I'm not sure how I feel about the new 4 slot clothing/armor direction.

 

The new concepts look cool and the set bonus sounds interesting. But having less outfit slots means less mods - means less choice. It makes the whole clothing system simpler. Players are directed toward most-will-play-like-this prototypes. Less in-between characters.

At the moment you are ghathering armor/clothing parts as incremental upgrades and moving your mods between them to best suit yout character. The set bonus might make finding most outfit items boring, as you now are looking for ONE specific set. (...as there are less mod slots and some important mods are already hardcoded into a specific set)

 

To me, this is the first time it feels like something meaningful is being dumbed down. It sure will look better but I've never liked "graphics over gameplay" so to speak.

 

Feel free to convince me I'm wrong!

[Adam the Waster]

3 minutes ago, toores said:

I'm not sure how I feel about the new 4 slot clothing/armor direction. *SNIPED FOR SPACE*

For me im all for it, A Lot of clothing has gotten the Shaft, many people would rather wear their armor shoes then wear Worn boots or Goth boots, or Wear there helmets and not wear a hat (until they get mods)

Plus it would make everyone look much cooler! and Plus you can mix match armors, So if you want to wear mining gear but want to wear a Farmers hat, you can! Now i do think there could be more (like hunter, Army, EXO, Athlete, Football gear, ETC) but who knows, maybe there will be more in the next stream.  

[Eromivus]

One thing I just realized is that after the first couple of days in a new game, looting piles of clothes, dressers, hangers, clothing racks, etc. will provide the joy that book cases do, where instead of getting some garbage t-shirt i have a chance at an armor set piece.