A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[pApA^LeGBa]

Just a quick question for the armor, no time right now to read all the pages or watch the video. Will i still be able to choose between light and heavy armor?

 

I absolutly hate heavy armor.

[TWORDY]

I've asked a simple question some of my friends, and the question was about what the game actually needs. The answer was optimization that leads to higher framerate and smoother experience etc. I hope that with the adjustments made to POIs rendering, refreshed foliage will ultimately have significant impact on improvement of the performance.  

 

I really like the idea of armor sets. It seems to me that there is something else to collect except for the weapons/tool parts. Outfit parts could be collected as a reward at traders too. Any content shipped with any update is greatly appreciated. 

 

Since there is already a lot of content in the game, and some more obviously planned, I would really appreciate some more slots in the inventory/backpack or some slider in options enabling more slots. I dont really get why there is 3 types of brass in the game to be scrapped... having just brass and scraped brass would be more than enough in my humble opinion. Also devs could keep on expanding slots by adding 3-4 variants (with specific stats and bonuses) of the backap into a game, so players could look for or craft them. 

[Star69]

There are optimizations happening with every alpha. In fact, I'd say that the optimizations from A18 to A19 were the best so far. I was really able to crank up my video settings for A19, playing on a 5 year old gaming laptop at 1080p {Nvidia gtx 980m}, all things maxed except shadows and water while maintaining a steady 60fps. The developers have said that they aren't done yet.

[EggsAisle]

3 hours ago, Vundecat said:

The original armor sets (padded/leather/military & scrap/iron/steel) will still be in the game right?  Are clothing options going to be in as well?   We're going to have to choose between wearing clothes and wearing armor?  There's still a few questions I have about all that.  I do like parts of the clothing system, though it could be scaled back a bit. 

 

[...]

 

There's only really one endgame option for each weapon category, very few sidegrades, if any.  We only have one endgame sniper rile, why not a .44 lever-action?  A tier 3 pistol that uses 9mm?  There's plenty of options for high tier weapons that'd make for more choice in your build rather than just direct upgrades.  

They're sort of combining armor and clothing, since there will be only 4 slots (head, chest, arm, legs.) There will probably be some sets that don't provide armor, but other buffs instead. I'm personally on the fence about it- I like that we'll have different outfits for different purposes, which among other things helps extend the loot hunt, but some of the effects are basically outright magic and at first glance feel really out of place for me. I'll see how it plays, maybe I'll change my mind.

 

As for weapons, there's already a tier 3 9mm pistol in the form of the SMG. More weapons is fun, but the current arsenal is pretty well fleshed-out and it sounds like dev time/energy is badly needed elsewhere. 

[Roland]

18 minutes ago, Promethean Winchester said:

still night time technically

Exactly. (But I'm not arguing against a warning growl!)

Edited November 10, 2020 by Roland (see edit history)

[Vundecat]

14 hours ago, EggsAisle said:

They're sort of combining armor and clothing, since there will be only 4 slots (head, chest, arm, legs.) There will probably be some sets that don't provide armor, but other buffs instead. I'm personally on the fence about it- I like that we'll have different outfits for different purposes, which among other things helps extend the loot hunt, but some of the effects are basically outright magic and at first glance feel really out of place for me. I'll see how it plays, maybe I'll change my mind.

 

As for weapons, there's already a tier 3 9mm pistol in the form of the SMG. More weapons is fun, but the current arsenal is pretty well fleshed-out and it sounds like dev time/energy is badly needed elsewhere. 

Well, I'd argue that an SMG is objectively not a pistol, it might use 9mm but there's a difference between a submachine gun and a pistol; they're different types of weapons.  But I digress, I do agree that there are probably a lot of higher-priority hings than adding extra weapons to the game, but I believe my point still stands; the tier system is nice, but with only one weapon more-or-less at the tier 3 for each category, weapons feel more like "best in slot" upgrades rather than meaningful choices. 

 

I like the idea about the armor sets but I am also kind on the fence about it too.  Will the sets be giving heat/cold res to compensate for no longer wearing clothes?  Carrying around clothes in my inventory for traveling and switching to armor when entering a PoI sounds like a downgrade from the current gameplay.  If regular clothes go away entirely, does that mean every piece of armor/clothing will be from one of these sets?  Seems kind of like a huge reduction in options?

 

I'm confident the devs will implement something that works well, we just have to wait for more details!

[Annihilatorza]

11 hours ago, Promethean Winchester said:

You guys should add a warning growl for wolf and direwolf attacks. The direwolf at least, its attacks are too powerful to warrant complete and utter silence until it's upon you. Dogs growl when they start running at you, and they're micky mouse to kill, barely a threat. It was day 4, early morning, still night time technically, and I had armor on 4 different slots, I was harvesting cobblestone and cement blocks at a construction site, while crouched, so my noise was super quiet. I still couldn't hear the direwolf who attacked me while I was digging the blocks. I got out my level 1 AK immediately, turned toward it and shot it 4 times in the head, but by then it had attacked me the 3 times required to kill me... Which is kind of absurd when you're wearing 4 pieces of armor. But keep that, hell, double the direwolf's damage, as long as you add a growl so I can kill it or reach a safe spot before it has a chance to harm me at all. I'm a death is death player and for the most part the game's pretty balanced, look out for landmines, hope for the landmine immunity book, if you step on one and die, it's because of your own lack of focus. But that's where the direwolf seems like it needs the change of an audio queue, you simply cannot prepare for it until it's already attacking you, unless you saw it first, which is hard to do at night even with the glowing eyes, when you're busy doing stuff and interacting with blocks. A precious whole single second after it growls to at least do something would turn an impossible situation into a possible one. If I heard it growl I would have jumped over the nearby obstacles to gain some distance and switched to my AK, and I could have handled it. When I died, my bullets didn't even stop it from attacking me. I was auto-firing it in the face but it still bit me two more times in rapid succession. The direwolf should be OP, I get it, but at least give it a growl. Dogs have always had warning growls because they're damn dogs, and damn dangerous, at least they were before bleed wounds became less common. You always knew the players deserved that warning growl to even the score because in the history of 7 days dogs were a prominent threat. I've never seen a more equal candidate for such a warning growl than the direwolf, because it's the new alpha predator in the game. Give it a growl please =( If you tell me there already is a warning growl for the direwolf, then you guys definitely need to double the volume of it because like I said, shoveling cobblestone while crouched. Nothing should have been louder than the incoming direwolf.

Please use some spacing, no one is going to read that wall of text. 

2nd you were doing something, it does not matter if your were crouched or not you will still make some noise.

Direwolfs are not new they have been around for years, 

 

I dont see TFP changing an section of the game due you dying once to a wolf, it happens to all of us dying is a part of the game you will die and you will die a lot.

They are pushing to get the game done and I highly doubt that this will be changed.

 

I have been killed more times by that damn boar than any other animal in the game including dogs lol  

[Laynie]

18 hours ago, Promethean Winchester said:

You guys should add a warning growl for wolf and direwolf attacks. The direwolf at least, its attacks are too powerful to warrant complete and utter silence until it's upon you. Dogs growl when they start running at you, and they're micky mouse to kill, barely a threat. It was day 4, early morning, still night time technically, and I had armor on 4 different slots, I was harvesting cobblestone and cement blocks at a construction site, while crouched, so my noise was super quiet. I still couldn't hear the direwolf who attacked me while I was digging the blocks. I got out my level 1 AK immediately, turned toward it and shot it 4 times in the head, but by then it had attacked me the 3 times required to kill me... Which is kind of absurd when you're wearing 4 pieces of armor. But keep that, hell, double the direwolf's damage, as long as you add a growl so I can kill it or reach a safe spot before it has a chance to harm me at all. I'm a death is death player and for the most part the game's pretty balanced, look out for landmines, hope for the landmine immunity book, if you step on one and die, it's because of your own lack of focus. But that's where the direwolf seems like it needs the change of an audio queue, you simply cannot prepare for it until it's already attacking you, unless you saw it first, which is hard to do at night even with the glowing eyes, when you're busy doing stuff and interacting with blocks. A precious whole single second after it growls to at least do something would turn an impossible situation into a possible one. If I heard it growl I would have jumped over the nearby obstacles to gain some distance and switched to my AK, and I could have handled it. When I died, my bullets didn't even stop it from attacking me. I was auto-firing it in the face but it still bit me two more times in rapid succession. The direwolf should be OP, I get it, but at least give it a growl. Dogs have always had warning growls because they're damn dogs, and damn dangerous, at least they were before bleed wounds became less common. You always knew the players deserved that warning growl to even the score because in the history of 7 days dogs were a prominent threat. I've never seen a more equal candidate for such a warning growl than the direwolf, because it's the new alpha predator in the game. Give it a growl please =( If you tell me there already is a warning growl for the direwolf, then you guys definitely need to double the volume of it because like I said, shoveling cobblestone while crouched. Nothing should have been louder than the incoming direwolf.

I have huge sympathy for you dying to the dire wolf! I have died to it myself and laughed while my castle nerd boy husband died to it too. I highly doubt they will add a growl to it if there isn't one already, because of the fact that they are trying to get the game done. I think with the dire wolf, we will all have to just keep dying and laughing about it later when we remember the screams of our jump scare.

For me zombie dogs are worse somehow. We were playing a dead is dead nomad game for our channel and I got wiped out by a pack of dogs on day 2, growls and all. lmfao 😅😂

[jorbascrumps]

1 hour ago, Laynie said:

I highly doubt they will add a growl to it if there isn't one already

I'm not so sure. The lack of a growl may be a bug or, if intentionally left out, added later for balance and consistency.

[Hapidedurva]

FAATAL 

Do you know about this bug? It was introduced to me in A19, but as i see it is a 3 years old bug and very annoying.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/1/2217311444330282852/?ctp=4

 

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Hapidedurva said:

FAATAL 

Do you know about this bug? It was introduced to me in A19, but as i see it is a 3 years old bug and very annoying.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/1/2217311444330282852/?ctp=4

 

This is definitely a known issue and has been for a few months now. Bugs should be reported in the Bug Pool. I saw it quite a bit in A19 and never before that. However, ever since I updated my video card driver, I have not seen them since. If you've been seeing them for 3 years then it may very well be your graphics card. But the only way to know for sure is for you to post the issue in the Bug Pool and attach an output log and system specs.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Roland (see edit history)

[katarynna]

1 hour ago, Hapidedurva said:

FAATAL 

Do you know about this bug? It was introduced to me in A19, but as i see it is a 3 years old bug and very annoying.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/1/2217311444330282852/?ctp=4

 

There is also an extensive post regarding this issue in the general support forum.

 

 

 

There are some work-arounds in the thread as well as some speculation as to the causes. Seems to be exacerbated by maps that are larger than your computer can comfortably handle or too dense with too many t5 pois, as is possible with nitrogen maps.

[Rabbitslovecactus]

Please bring back Levelling up by doing.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Roland (see edit history)

[Trankitas]

6 minutes ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:

Please bring back Levelling up by doing.

Don't do that to yourself...

[MechanicalLens]

7 hours ago, Laynie said:

I have huge sympathy for you dying to the dire wolf! I have died to it myself and laughed while my castle nerd boy husband died to it too. I highly doubt they will add a growl to it if there isn't one already, because of the fact that they are trying to get the game done. I think with the dire wolf, we will all have to just keep dying and laughing about it later when we remember the screams of our jump scare.

For me zombie dogs are worse somehow. We were playing a dead is dead nomad game for our channel and I got wiped out by a pack of dogs on day 2, growls and all. lmfao 😅😂

The worst part is if it's early game and all of your weapons happened to be on you when you died, and the dire wolf is spawn camping your death backpack. 😂

[TSBX]

30 minutes ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:

Please bring back Levelling up by doing.

I understand where you're coming from, and while I loved that system as well, TFP made it clear that that particular feature is no longer a part of their roadmap for this game at gold. Look for a section of the forums that start with the 'M' word if you're really interested in seeing it again.

[Roland]

36 minutes ago, TSBX said:

I understand where you're coming from, and while I loved that system as well, TFP made it clear that that particular feature is no longer a part of their roadmap for this game at gold. Look for a section of the forums that start with the 'M' word if you're really interested in seeing it again.

Looking for Masochism and can't seem to find it....

Edited November 11, 2020 by Roland (see edit history)

[Kalen]

1 hour ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:

Please bring back Levelling up by doing.

Bring it back?   I still level by doing in my game.... I don't learn by doing anymore.... but I still level 

[Danidas]

Level by doing only makes sense if doing not only takes time and resources but also cannot be easily repeated safely. In other words you have to attack/interact with enemies, break things, move between areas, and all around cannot simply hide in a hole some where and spam do something. Basically the game will have to have a whole array of systems to ensure that you cannot just run/swim into a corner for a few hours to get better at doing them or gather a ton of resources to sit around all night crafting then destroying something.

 

If what your doing is meaning less on its own beyond watching a number go up then why in gods name are you doing it as you might as well be playing Cookie Clicker or some other mindless game.

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Danidas (see edit history)

[TSBX]

39 minutes ago, Roland said:

Looking for Masochism and can't seem to find it....

I don't see masochism in your posting title or role either, but we all know it's part of the job. Those who read between the lines will find my meaning.

Edited November 11, 2020 by TSBX (see edit history)

[LilMissNorti]

Apologies if in the wrong section...it's been a while since I've looked at the forums and I cannot seem to find where to look at the current build 'fixes' or known errors.

 

However, I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced a potential oversight that we experienced last night. We are playing a locally hosted multiplayer game and just experienced our first horde night. As a result we've ended up with a number of injuries, one being a broken arm. Now whilst it is healing with a split, we are unable to repair, or upgrade our base in preparation for the next horde night without losing health, but are able to mine quite happily. 

 

We believe that the 'detrimental' affect is linked to the power attack function as power attack mining also causes us to lose health. However with repairing and upgrading, this isn't a 'power attack' of sorts so wondering if this was an oversight on TFP's part or intended as an additional punishment for allowing yourself to get injured?

 

Again, apologies if not the right area...just not 100% sure where else to post.

[Hinch]

After my first horde night in A19 I had a broken arm and didnt pay attention and repaired my base until it killed me 😆 

I was like wth killed me?

 

[Astronomical]

1 hour ago, SnowDog1942 said:

What he h3ll man, im a paying customer and your taking vacation!  The nerve..

 

Hope you had fun!

Well his trip was to Michigan so I'm not sure that qualifies as a vacation.. Oh!! Somebody call the burn unit!

 

Jk Michigan is actually a beautiful state and besides.. Faatal's the hardest working guy in the pimp game.

[Tmodloader]

On 11/5/2020 at 8:31 AM, xyth said:

  On 10/31/2020 at 7:06 PM, FranticDan said:

Since there will be more loot containers that will be locked and require lockpicking to get into them, will there be or have you thought about adding a lockpicking minigame with progressively harder locks to pick depending on the loot container?

MM replied:  No, lockpicking is shippable as is. Sure a minigame might be better but we're a small team and we can do more quest types or redo features that are shippable already.

 

SphereII and I coded and released a lockpicking minigame mod which your welcome to use as a starting point.   Its tied into the perk and inventory system, and resembles the one in Skyrim.  I'd love to see it added to the base game.

Lockpicking is not shippable, you can't even write a message in text while lockpicking. Also there needs to be some incentive to actually pick a lock instead of breaking in, such as a chance for items to break. Also locked doors can't be picked. Lockpicking is without a doubt one of the worst and least shippable parts of the game currently in A19. If the game was released right now it would be extremely glaring and a useless part of the game.

 

I like much of the game and I can say without a doubt lockpicking is a terrible mechanic the way it is. Felt like it was just thrown in to have it there for early access and would be touched up later so claims that it is shippable are disappointing to aay the least.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Tmodloader (see edit history)

[spud42]

Lockpicking isnt terrible but it doesnt seem to work properly. i remember MM saying the countdown starts at the point the last lockpick broke. i woud guess that over 90% of the time if the lockpick breaks at low 2's or high 1's the next lockpick always starts over 3.5.  

The most frustrating part is when you go through 6 or 7 lockpicks most breaking almost immediatly you start .

so yeah i seem to only lockpick the high HP containers. if its only 2500 HP then i whack it with the pickaxe.