A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[Jost Amman]

30 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:

Agreed. At this rate a new thread should be created that specifically holds criticisms against moderators and the dev team. The thread would be nicknamed "trash".

I disagree. Criticism should be always allowed, even and especially if you don't agree.

As long as the discussion remains healthy it should never be "trashed"; redirected if OT? Yes, but never trashed.

[The Gronk]

My bad, I forgot that public relations aren't an integral part of product development.

[Xtrakicking]

4 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Not to mention I've seen plenty of smaller creators (not going to mention names) all hinting at, "A20 is probably not that far off." Well, they're just setting themselves up for disappointment. *Shrug*

I wouldn't expect A20 at least till late summer.

[MechanicalLens]

1 minute ago, Xtrakicking said:

I wouldn't expect A20 at least till late summer.

 

October - November is my guess.

[Adam the Waster]

1 hour ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

October - November is my guess.

2022 December 7th 

[Games'n'Grumble]

19 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

The amount of people spreading the false rumor online that Alpha 20 will be releasing within the next month or two is insane. Could any member of TFP staff confirm this is not true? Concrete evidence is needed if I'm going to clear this up with anybody so a direct quote would be nice.

If I understand correctly, Richard said something about it at 1:31:30 on video. Yes, this is all "not official", but you yourself asked where such rumors come from

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Games'n'Grumble (see edit history)

[Blake_]

1 hour ago, Games'n'Grumble said:

If I understand correctly, Richard said something about it at 1:31:30 on video. Yes, this is all "not official", but you yourself asked where such rumors come from

Spoiler

 

 

He is being WAY overly optimistic, he is a glass half full kind of guy. The forecast since a17 is 10 months from stable to stable give it or take (June 2021 rings the 10 month bell) . Experimental might come sooner but expect June Stable IF they don't go nuts (we benefit when they do ). Still a few months from now though. Hold the Kraken train.

 

March Experimental is just not gonna happen unless they severely cut corners, and that would be bad for us and bad for them because of bugs. In the meantime Alpha 19 is a blast to play either way.

[meganoth]

On 2/1/2021 at 6:07 AM, archergod said:

From experience on A19

Are there going to be any adjustment in tools. I feel like Impact driver is kinda worthless. It take too much stamina for automatic tool and animation (though is good) but appears to be taking more time to do job. 

 

Similarly I used a Ak47 Quality 6 and M60 Q1, the aiming and hit ratio of M60 is way better than AK47. 

 

Sometime, I hate animation when I aim on Zombie Body (chest) when in bunch of 3-4  and fire a bullet and can see bullet been missed and hitting at my AIM pointer on ground [through zombie body] and zombie get no hit. I mean either the bullet goes in different angle, but if projectile is through body why it doesn't hit.. Aim in this game is just random number. Often hitting a distance zombie (at 12-15block away) is more accurate then hitting one in 3-4 m/block distance.

 

AK 47 is tier 1 of automatic weapons, M60 is tier 3. So this is to be expected

 

Shooting follows RPG rules (this IS an RPG game). Look at the crosshairs when firing. If the target fills only 50% of the circle your crosshairs form your chance to hit is only 50%. Hit or miss is then determined by pure chance.

 

The size of your crosshairs is determined by accuracy. Which can be increased by mods, weapon quality and perks I think.

 

On 2/1/2021 at 8:21 AM, n2n1 said:

Why do these screenshots appear on the forum after the "social networks"? The developers do not consider the forum to be the main platform anymore?

 

Has been done this way for a looong time. Since the pictures drop here shortly after forum viewers are considered to be well informed.

 

[MechanicalLens]

So after 3 playthroughs I've been getting a little bit used to the regular old 7D2D formula I do believe. To shake things up, I've made a few adjustments for my next playthrough.  I'll be calling it "Nyctophobia". Settings include 90 minute days, Warrior difficulty, Nightmare speed at night / Walk during the day, no air drops, no loot respawn, default everything else. Standard stipulations include a ban on curing infection with honey and very minimal interaction with traders. As for the "nyctophobia part"? 12 hour day cycle and 12 hour night cycle. I'll also be upping zombie dog spawn rates as well as replacing some forest night spawns with feral cops, feral wights, and feral soldiers. I'll also ban myself from raising the gamma above 10. Should be interesting.

[Rhink]

What are the chances of solar panels ever showing up? Or potentially the ones we find on top of buildings being able to be hooked up and functional?

[meganoth]

10 minutes ago, Rhink said:

What are the chances of solar panels ever showing up? Or potentially the ones we find on top of buildings being able to be hooked up and functional?

The chance is very good if you go all in with the "better barter" perk and look into the secret stash of the trader. AFAIK this is also the only way to get working solar panels.

 

[Rhink]

2 minutes ago, meganoth said:

The chance is very good if you go all in with the "better barter" perk and look into the secret stash of the trader. AFAIK this is also the only way to get working solar panels.

 

Might you happen to know what gamestage is minimum for the solar panels?

[MechanicalLens]

2 minutes ago, Rhink said:

Might you happen to know what gamestage is minimum for the solar panels?

 

Doesn't matter; they are exclusively found at the trader deep into the "Better Barter" perk. Levels 4 and 5 I believe.

[Rhink]

Just now, MechanicalLens said:

 

Doesn't matter; they are exclusively found at the trader deep into the "Better Barter" perk. Levels 4 and 5 I believe.

Thank you very much. You are a God.

[Guppycur]

11 hours ago, Khalagar said:

Can any of the devs comment on what ever happened to the "spawn next to each other when starting a game" thing that was mentioned ...

That's doable now.  Create the world, go into the world's folder (gamefolder/data/worlds), set the spawnpoints in spawnpoints.xml, enjoy friendship.  I'm guessing eventually we will get some generation settings so that this will be in the UI.

 

...and no roland,that's not modding. 😃

[Roland]

On 2/1/2021 at 6:35 AM, Adam the Waster said:

thats cuz i find them first and post them. or someone else does. Madmole ill wait for my paycheck (dukes only)

Daddy needed a New Bicycle!

 

Madmole quickly noticed that if he posted screenshots here first he would also still have to post them on twitter but if he posted them on twitter first they would get posted here usually even before he had a chance to do so. It seems pretty natural that he would shift to the method that required less effort. He very much appreciates the fans who repost the images and does not favor twitter over the forums. It just emerged as a simpler method for him.

[Mikee]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:04 AM, Jost Amman said:

I can answer this: no, because the map file is huge and always growing... too much for a cloud save.

Cloud save

I tought the map is generated at the creation. It have borders, since i can set the parameters. File size isnt "huge"

Thats why its weird (to me) to not have a cloud save.   Compared to something else, it could be a thing easily, since its not and endless map.

Since its alpha, i understand that they dont want to spend dev time to this.

I rather think they aware of some bugs and causing some players save corrupted. Just by logic.   but your "file would be too huge" idea is still can be true somehow.

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Mikee
yes (see edit history)

[MechanicalLens]

3 hours ago, Blake_ said:

@faatal the day lenght is cool and all, yet we are missing fractions on the top of the spectrum. Meaning for less than default we get 10min, 20min, 30, 40 AND 50 minute days, yet above default we just get 90 and 120 mins. 

 

So we can't get a huge day and a huge night with that option alone and have to tweak the other two options (daylight lenght and horde frequency), BUT horde frequency doesn't make the day longer and daylight lenght can only make it smaller and the night has a lenght limit too. Also horde frequency forces you to change the 7 day frequency if you try to compensate the plain day lenght option and in the end you just get more days and not the desired 2 hour night (exaggerated example, but I think the point is mostly clear).

 

Any chance we get 180, 240 and 480 min day options ?

 

 I gather 240mins will be quite popular for "leasure" plays, and by leasure I mean more day time at the cost of brutal nights and infinite hordes.

 

 

 

Not sure what the day length is, but if you go into DM mode and press Esc, you'll see a day speed slider on the right hand side. The default is 4 I believe; switch it to 1 and enjoy the long days and nights.

[Roland]

21 hours ago, Mikee said:

Cloud save

I tought the map is generated at the creation. It have borders, since i can set the parameters. File size isnt "huge"

Thats why its weird (to me) to not have a cloud save.   Compared to something else, it could be a thing easily, since its not and endless map.

Since its alpha, i understand that they dont want to spend dev time to this.

I rather think they aware of some bugs and causing some players save corrupted. Just by logic.   but your "file would be too huge" idea is still can be true somehow.

 

What is the comparative speed of cloud saving to HDD saving? The game saves every few seconds. If cloud saving is slower than HD saving it might cause more hitching. SSD are faster than HDD and there is a noticeable difference of less hitching. I'd be curious whether cloud saving is more or less speedy and disruptive.

[Blake_]

4 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Not sure what the day length is, but if you go into DM mode and press Esc, you'll see a day speed slider on the right hand side. The default is 4 I believe; switch it to 1 and enjoy the long days and nights.

I prefer using DM and hitting Q. Far more efficient. CM for sundays and giveselfxp for when my back itches.

[MechanicalLens]

1 minute ago, Blake_ said:

I prefer using DM and hitting Q. Far more efficient. CM for sundays and giveselfxp for when my back itches.

 

You like Q, I prefer Flight + No Collision. 😜

You do have a fair point though and one that I agree with. I only play on 90 minute days because it gives me time to enjoy the experience and take things a little slower**. Just saying, anyone who plays on 120 minute days and above are basically cheating. You're playing 14 Days To Die, especially if you're using every moment of your time efficiently as you can.

 

**Baking a baked potato, cooking up some cornbread, brewing up a coffee and watching the sunrise is time I would dare not waste on a 60 minute day cycle. 90 minute days however? Sure, sure.

[BFT2020]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

What is the comparative speed of cloud saving to HDD saving? The game saves every few seconds. If cloud saving is slower than HD saving it might cause more hitching. SSD are faster than HDD and there is a noticeable difference of less hitching. I'd be curious whether cloud saving is more or less speedy and disruptive.

I think (and I am no expert) if they were to implement a cloud save feature for the game, they would have to code it in to only do when the game is closed and shutdown.  Since the game world is constantly updating and requiring saving it every few seconds, I don't think you want to do a cloud save for each "update" of the world.  I have also been seeing issues with Steam's cloud saving services lately and a lot of times I been getting communication errors / fault outs to the Steam cloud even though I have no other issues online.  With the hard drive always being available, the only issue you might have if you let your free available space get too low and it can't save the file anymore.  Again, I am no expert and I could just simply be talking out of my butt.

[BFT2020]

5 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Not sure what the day length is, but if you go into DM mode and press Esc, you'll see a day speed slider on the right hand side. The default is 4 I believe; switch it to 1 and enjoy the long days and nights.

4 is default if you chose 90 minute days.  It is higher if you choose shorter days or lower if you chose longer days.  I hate to admit this but I have gone in DM mode in my early nights of playthroughs just so I don't have to sit there doing nothing the entire night.  So a 4 becomes an 8 (or however close I can get it with the slider) so I don't get bored watching my character hide in the shadows on the roof of a building.  Eventually once I get to mid-game, I got a whole list of chores to do at night that I can't get done, even with the setting still at 4.  I don't mind that as I am actually doing work (sorting, organizing, crafting, etc) rather than hiding in a corner.

[MechanicalLens]

10 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

4 is default if you chose 90 minute days.  It is higher if you choose shorter days or lower if you chose longer days.  I hate to admit this but I have gone in DM mode in my early nights of playthroughs just so I don't have to sit there doing nothing the entire night.  So a 4 becomes an 8 (or however close I can get it with the slider) so I don't get bored watching my character hide in the shadows on the roof of a building.  Eventually once I get to mid-game, I got a whole list of chores to do at night that I can't get done, even with the setting still at 4.  I don't mind that as I am actually doing work (sorting, organizing, crafting, etc) rather than hiding in a corner.

 

For the first new nights I just crouch in darkness and tab out of the game to watch a video or listen to some music or whatever. No point in watching paint dry.

[MechanicalLens]

@Jost Amman I was just bantering, no need to downvote that post.