A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[meilodasreh]

23 hours ago, Matt115 said:

 

Maybe someone keep him somewhere and he wrote this post because he need help. anyone was studing cryptography? 🤪

 That would be me.

 

let's see... *analyzing*...

 

Yep, 

he just ordered 12tons of unstretched cocaine to be delivered in a 40ft container, concealed from DEA by housing it into banana crates and coffee beans roast grade 3,

shipment havana-amsterdam within the next two months.

 

...oh hi there NSA keyword search algorhythm 😬

[Matt115]

7 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

 That would be me.

 

let's see... *analyzing*...

 

Yep, 

he just ordered 12tons of unstretched cocaine to be delivered in a 40ft container, concealed from DEA by housing it into banana crates and coffee beans roast grade 3,

shipment havana-amsterdam within the next two months.

 

...oh hi there NSA keyword search algorhythm 😬

good at least this sound have more sense that orginal messege 😂

[dcsobral]

28 minutes ago, Zeal said:

I have been watching Glock9's newest video on Lockdown. And he actually raised a good question in it. From 4:09 to 4:45. Mostly speaking about how there should be some fishes in the water, mostly to create the fish tacos. Or even zombie fishes, alligators or anything that could be a possible threat. So i hope for a fish type to be implemented in the next few alphas. Maybe a crocodile.

Water is SO HARD. Even games that have a heavy focus on water such as Raft, Subnautica, Stranded Deep, etc have some severe limitations that work for their concept but would fail completely on a fully-destructible game like 7d2d. Add to the challenges the potential for griefing that water presents which must be taken into account in a game that supports PvP like 7d2d does.

 

So I personally don't expect anything but mild water improvements going forward. I think water + crafting + fully destructible is enough of a challenge to make a whole game around it.

[meilodasreh]

11 minutes ago, dcsobral said:

Water is SO HARD. Even games that have a heavy focus on water such as Raft, Subnautica, Stranded Deep, etc have some severe limitations that work for their concept but would fail completely on a fully-destructible game like 7d2d. Add to the challenges the potential for griefing that water presents which must be taken into account in a game that supports PvP like 7d2d does.

 

So I personally don't expect anything but mild water improvements going forward. I think water + crafting + fully destructible is enough of a challenge to make a whole game around it.

Although I also don't have any great expectations for the announced "water overhaul" (you explained the limitations),

I still also hope for that "go fishing" thing which was asked for many times thoughout a whole bunch of alphas now.

It just fits too well into that survival aspect of the game, that you would be able to craft a simple fishing rod to have some food supply.

Not necessary though, you have enough options to get along now, but just for the total of the concept, I second his thoughts.

 

Great opportunity to create some kind of mini-game, which contributed to make many "AAA" titles like Fallout, GTA,.. so popular.

Lockpicking in Fallout is simple but feels great beacuse it's fast achievement/succes with using some skill. Watching a counter going to zero in 7d2d is just a missed chance in my opinion.

GTA has all that small cool stuff like playing billards, bowling,...all small simple game-in-the-game stuff which adds to the fun.

Going fishing could be one of those if it's done correctly...and there is much more stuff, especially in a fully destructible world, what can be used the like.

Edited August 9, 2021 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[khzmusik]

1 hour ago, wolfarus said:

Also, any plans or possibility for dyes to be stack-able?

 

That is trivial to mod in, so even if TFP don't put it in vanilla, you can still do it. This is not the thread to talk about mods, but if you ask in the mod requests section, I and others can tell you how.

[Roland]

1 hour ago, khzmusik said:

 

That is trivial to mod in, so even if TFP don't put it in vanilla, you can still do it. This is not the thread to talk about mods, but if you ask in the mod requests section, I and others can tell you how.

 

Or just wait until I move this to the diary discussion thread and then tell them how to do it.

[khzmusik]

4 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

Or just wait until I move this to the diary discussion thread and then tell them how to do it.

 

Or, just send them an unsolicited PM telling them how to do it, because I'm both impatient and a know-it-all. I'll let you guess which one I did.

[khzmusik]

I know this isn't the place to talk about mods, but one thing I really want to mention is just how easy it is to mod this game. TFP clearly designed the game with modding in mind, and I don't think they get enough credit for that. And, each alpha the game just gets easier and easier to mod - the whole addition of XPath really went above and beyond, and I have high hopes that modding will get even easier as time goes on.

 

So, I just wanted to say thanks to TFP. They don't get enough thank-yous for that, and they should.

[Roland]

28 minutes ago, khzmusik said:

 

Or, just send them an unsolicited PM telling them how to do it, because I'm both impatient and a know-it-all. I'll let you guess which one I did.

 

A REAL know-it-all would jump at the chance to flaunt their knowledge publically rather than waste it in a private message. You probably get invited back to dinner parties. Pretty lightweight know-it-all....

[khzmusik]

2 hours ago, Roland said:

 

A REAL know-it-all would jump at the chance to flaunt their knowledge publically rather than waste it in a private message. You probably get invited back to dinner parties. Pretty lightweight know-it-all....

 

Oh, absolutely. If there's one thing people want at dinner parties, it's some dude who goes on at length about XPath and modding video games. Calm down, ladies, there's enough for everyone!

Edited August 10, 2021 by khzmusik (see edit history)

[Burrfly]

3 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

We haven't heard about traders in a while. Is the plan still in the works for the inventory stock / quest rewards to get rebalanced in A20, or has this been pushed to A21? With all the patience in the world, just checking in.

Do you mean that current trader rewards are too strong? Because that's what I definitely feel, oof. We get 20 pipe bombs from clearing out 6 zombies!!! 😮 I think that's way too much. 4/5 pipe bombs would've been way more balanced. But the XP and money rewards are balanced I think

[Gazz]

14 hours ago, dcsobral said:

Alpha 20 has the potential to completely break worlds and prefabs, given the new shape system and the rewritten world generation with its "tiles", but I'm cautiously optimistic about it based on all the progress that has been done since alpha 17 in this regard.

I don't THINK it will be a big issue because the names of existing blocks should not change.

If materials get deprecated those are obviously missing from user prefabs, though.

[MechanicalLens]

48 minutes ago, Burrfly said:

Do you mean that current trader rewards are too strong? Because that's what I definitely feel, oof. We get 20 pipe bombs from clearing out 6 zombies!!! 😮 I think that's way too much. 4/5 pipe bombs would've been way more balanced. But the XP and money rewards are balanced I think

 

At least you can split the ammo and medical reward stacks and throw away the remainders. You can't exactly do the same to an auger or a pump shotgun you are given for a T2 quest, such as a buried supplies.

[Outlaw_187]

1 hour ago, Burrfly said:

Do you mean that current trader rewards are too strong? Because that's what I definitely feel, oof. We get 20 pipe bombs from clearing out 6 zombies!!! 😮 I think that's way too much. 4/5 pipe bombs would've been way more balanced. But the XP and money rewards are balanced I think

Good points. Also the traders shouldn't have unlimited money to buy all our unlimited loot.

They should have a set amount in my opinion. Just sayin.....feels like an exploit. 

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, Outlaw_187 said:

Good points. Also the traders shouldn't have unlimited money to buy all our unlimited loot.

They should have a set amount in my opinion. Just sayin.....feels like an exploit. 

If you are able to collect unlimited amounts of loot and haul it in your rather limited inventory then, by jove, you deserve that unlimited money 😁

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Matt115]

16 hours ago, Adam the Waster said:

yes but ill make it cave man style

this one spawns only in POIs, blood moons, and burnt forest sense it would be more of a special zombie
this one can spawn anywhere sense its not specials

im asking @faatal if thats how it would Work. (I love both models of the burnt zombie and would love to see the bottom one when im walking in the woods) 

better question is :if he fall to water would he put out?

[jorbascrumps]

14 hours ago, wolfarus said:

It was mentioned in an earlier post, but i did not see a reply, so i thought i'd ask as well: Is there any plans (or is it even a program-able possibility) to add in some sort of filter system for poi's that have been looted? Say for example: Poi's that have yet to have their main loot box opened (be it a reinforced chest or a gun safe) show up as normal on the map, but once the player has opened up the main loot box, the poi gets a red-x thru it, or maybe gets a tint change on the map, so it shows up as much darker then un-looted poi's?

 

This is already possible by placing your own marker on the map.

[MechanicalLens]

4 minutes ago, jorbascrumps said:

 

This is already possible by placing your own marker on the map.

 

Or one can just place 1m signs on POI's that they've already looted and label them as such. Far less clunky and it doesn't make the map & compass unusable.

[crazywildfire]

1 hour ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Or one can just place 1m signs on POI's that they've already looted and label them as such. Far less clunky and it doesn't make the map & compass unusable.

 

Or just fix it to where it resets when the timer goes down no matter how close you get then you don't got to worry about having 100+ signs or trying to go to each sign at each poi or counting on others doing it and can actually play instead of micromanaging it if you can even do that because that counts on everyone doing it on the map.

 

I personally don't want a bunch of X map. It becomes to much clutter and then it is pointless having places marked because it blends in with everything.  I can't think of anything besides making it to where it just resets no matter what. It set as a timer that counts down from whatever loot respawn is set at. The timer don't start over if someone gets near it or opens it. If items are left in it then it does like it does now and just I guess pauses until item is empty out.

[KhaineGB]

On 8/9/2021 at 3:04 PM, Roland said:

You are good to continue with your mod.  However the future of UMA continuing to be supported in this game is the questionable part of this more than teens or children being depicted as killable zombies. The developers plan to not use it so whether they will keep the code that allows modders to use it or cut all that code from the game is the 64 million dollar question. 

I honestly wish they wouldn't just drop it and UPDATE IT instead... because I was messing around with the base UMA kit in unity and it actually looks really, really good now.

[jorbascrumps]

32 minutes ago, crazywildfire said:

 

Or just fix it to where it resets when the timer goes down no matter how close you get then you don't got to worry about having 100+ signs or trying to go to each sign at each poi or counting on others doing it and can actually play instead of micromanaging it if you can even do that because that counts on everyone doing it on the map.

 

I personally don't want a bunch of X map. It becomes to much clutter and then it is pointless having places marked because it blends in with everything.  I can't think of anything besides making it to where it just resets no matter what. It set as a timer that counts down from whatever loot respawn is set at. The timer don't start over if someone gets near it or opens it. If items are left in it then it does like it does now and just I guess pauses until item is empty out.

 

You can't automatically reset POIs in case someone has their base setup there.

 

The argument may then become don't reset if there's a base inside but then what does that mean? Is there a bedroll present? What if I have a horde base or outpost without a bedroll? There's too many edge cases and subjectivity around the matter imo. The current implementation, while not perfect, is the best option.

 

It also plays into the survival/ role play aspect to have to manually track progress. Leave some kind of marker outside so you know what's been looted. I use wood frames in the doorway - inexpensive and easy to identify on approach.

[doughphunghus]

21 minutes ago, KhaineGB said:

I honestly wish they wouldn't just drop it and UPDATE IT instead... because I was messing around with the base UMA kit in unity and it actually looks really, really good now.

I agree. There’s several great UMA “zed packs” (all server side safe ones too!) and I personally feel Without this ability to easily mod in different looking zeds using pure XML, the game takes quite a hit for long term enjoyment/replay. I’m all for the vanilla game having nice zed/entity models (and I will forever continue to grump about not having enough vanilla entity variability) but to require the same level of (non UMA type) effort to add new zeds from modders modding in their spare time is really going to hurt the fans of the game IMHO. Leave the UMA in! 
 

I thought I did see some post about TFP making their own UMA (whatever that means).  If it acts/works the same, then great!

[unholyjoe]

i identify the looted pois with a painted bullseye at front and back door... no blocks to waste and can be seen from greater distance then a wood frame so you dont need to get close to poi to mess with timer.

[BFT2020]

31 minutes ago, unholyjoe said:

i identify the looted pois with a painted bullseye at front and back door... no blocks to waste and can be seen from greater distance then a wood frame so you dont need to get close to poi to mess with timer.

Never tried that, but then again my looting strategy is probably significantly different.

 

Early game I loot houses nearby to build up my items I need to survive or loot buildings as part of quest.  After I am established and move into a more loot for resources to continue to expand phase, I start to loot every building going in a right to left or left to right pattern.  At the end of my looting, I put a X on my map that states Start Here.  Then I remove it when I restart looting to place it at the new location (I also been putting Xs for safes I find early game to come back to).  Sometimes I may need something specific (for example car parts) so I may loot specific locations to find it (like car lots) but then I just make a note (or I check prior to clearing out the location again to see if already looted that location).

 

My gameplay also puts an emphasis on using what I find, but I don't go out looking for specific POIs to raid (exception - food POIs in early game).

 

I never felt the need to mark places I already looted.

[Fanatical_Meat]

Christ just leave a wood frame outside a looted POI.

Seems like a trivial issue for the amount of discussion