A few A20 Stories

[7daystodierocks]

12 hours ago, meganoth said:

So what does ancient history from 4 years ago have to do with the current game of A19?

 

Lets make a test, we both generate a world in vanilla, say 8k size and we both use your username "7daysttodierocks" as world seed so we look at the same world. Lets try to find vertical roads there. Probably we will still find a few but lets see how long they are, how common they are and how out of place they look on a scale of 1 to 10. Lets do this and we have actual data to argue on.

 

Are you in?

 

The same should be done in A20 since this will definitely change with all the work done to RWG. As a last step we also should compare it to the same world with default settings of nitrogen.

 

i was just saying mega how far the RWG has come since A16 as i dont really see vertical roads much anymore

[Roland]

Another Story from this evening:

 

So far in this world I was 0-2 on buried supplies quests which, in the past, I never failed. I was set on passing the quest this time. I headed over to Trader Joel and selected a buried supplies quest and set out armed with FIRM RESOLVE. (plus a stone shovel). This time, I was going to learn from my mistakes. I harvested a couple of trees on my way and crafted about 30 frames particle board blocks. When I got to the destination I was dismayed to see that it was on the border between the forest and snow biomes which meant lumberjacks in the vicinity. And they came. For a good 10 minutes I ran around the area killing zombies as they spawned and wandered in attracted to the noise of killing from wherever they spawned in. Finally, the flow trickled to a stop and I felt like I would have a window of time to dig before more might start spawning again.

 

But I had learned my lesson and built a two block high wood wall around that magical glowing floating exclamation point. Placing and upgrading the particle board to solid wood planks required another tree as sacrifice but I finally got it done and only attracted one additional looky-loo who ironically lost her eyes with her head to my club. She was scratching up my wall!! Feeling safe I jumped down into my shield, activated the quest and started digging. Worked like a charm. I heard them pounding on the wall at some point and went topside to kill them and make repairs and then returned to my task until I finally found the chest and relieved it of its contents. Bam! the trap zombies spawned in but by this time I was tired of bashing Warrior level heads with a brown level club so I just waited until they came up to the wall and then heroically ran away using a shot of steroids because it was about 19:00 and I was encumbered by about 7 slots of overfill.

 

I made it back in time to complete the quest, sell off some crap, and accept a clear quest for the next day. I had not yet established a safe base so there I was standing outside the trader compound as the clock struck 22.  Hmmm....I should test sneaking at night with feral sense activated to see whether stealth is still relevant with feral sense. So off I snuck towards the nearby town with the plan to get to the first roof I could find. (Because sitting on a roof worked out so well for me last time...)

 

As I crouch walk/ran along I noticed a zombie up ahead. Perfect. He was way far away so I thought I would bring him nearer to me rather than trying to sneak closer to him. I threw a rock a short distance away from me off to the right and tensed to see if the zombie would go to the rock and stop or if he would go to the rock and then continue to me. He stopped at the rock! He was about 15 blocks away so crouching still I readied an arrow and hit him in the head for extra stealth damage. It knocked him off his feet and I immediately backed away and to the left and stayed still. He jumped up and ran over to where I fired from and stopped! This time he was only about 6 blocks away.

 

Awesome! I thought. As long as I employ good stealth practices, I should still be able to sneak around even with feral sense activated. Fun!! I killed him off and then continued on to my goal. I saw another zombie in the distance and readied myself to be death from the shadows when I heard the unmistakable growl of a nearby wolf. Wolves are never fooled by crouching doofuses in the night. I died again.

 

What was interesting was that I stood up and got a few whacks on the wolf before it killed me but that other zombie way off heard the fight and ran over to eat his share. So there was a distinct difference in detection between stealth and non stealth and the good news is that as long as you don't run into wildlife, you should still be able to sneak around at night even with feral sense selected.  But make any noise and they will come running from all over.

 

Cheers!

Edited July 13, 2021 by Roland (see edit history)

[mr.devolver]

8 hours ago, Roland said:

But I know that type of thinking is unpopular among those who want a faster development cycle.

Interesting. Are you one of those who don't want a faster development cycle, by any chance? I mean, no one's putting anyone under pressure here, so we might as well reveal our true feelings, I dare say despite the opposite being usually more popular course of action.

[Burrfly]

Hey Roland,

Amazing stories

I'm sooooo excited for alpha 20. But I am of course willing to wait until it's ready for experimental. Last tuesday (a week ago) you said that you will update the alpha 20 dev diary's first post that week. So I got super excited for some news. When were you planning to do this?

[Roland]

I tried updating the art gallery but was getting an error. 

[Kam R.]

Good work with the A20 promotion here ;]

Looking forward to playing it next year or so.

 

Jokes aside, the feral sense setting sounds like it might make the world feel more zombiefied again. Since A16 towns and cities have been incredibly boring to traverse.

[Ripflex]

I love the story... 

 

As for feral sense, it makes my stealth build pointless.

 

But I play at warrior with Jog a run settings, no horde night no air drops in Solo.  Just feel alone and wandering like most B rated zombie horror where the protagonist starts off alone and somber...

 

Until I meet trader Jen, and then there's hope in the zombie infested world ....

 

[Roland]

9 hours ago, Ripflex said:

As for feral sense, it makes my stealth build pointless.

 

If you read my last story you'll see that it doesn't make it pointless. It makes it more important. You can stealth still but the risk of failing that stealth check is greater because their senses are more acute.

[unholyjoe]

14 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

If you read my last story you'll see that it doesn't make it pointless. It makes it more important. You can stealth still but the risk of failing that stealth check is greater because their senses are more acute.

the doubting Thomas' will be singing a different tune when they get a taste of what feral sense can do... you just dont turn it on and go (you could), but there is a couple little existing tweaks that will compliment FS.   i do not play  test without it now.

[Man with a hat]

On 7/12/2021 at 1:56 PM, mr.devolver said:

One would think that by now, we all should be reading stories about A21, but I know that one would be probably unpopular in the community for that kind of thinking.

🎶

So true, this is a forum for fanboys only. I'll crawl back under my rock and ignore this forum for another few years and see if it's done then.

[Roland]

17 hours ago, Man with a hat said:

So true, this is a forum for fanboys only. I'll crawl back under my rock and ignore this forum for another few years and see if it's done then.

Thanks for the info. I’ll add your scheduled return to my calendar. There we go….. check!

[Maharin]

3 hours ago, Roland said:

Thanks for the info. I’ll add your scheduled return to my calendar. There we go….. check!

 

Schedule mine for 15 minutes.  Maybe 20.  I'll be playing a game on my phone while I'm sitting there and might lose track of time.

[Ripflex]

On 7/14/2021 at 1:05 PM, Roland said:

 

If you read my last story you'll see that it doesn't make it pointless. It makes it more important. You can stealth still but the risk of failing that stealth check is greater because their senses are more acute.

 

So, with feral sense the instant spawning in front of you zeds do not automatically "see" you and you don't need to fart around waiting for the 20 seconds to lose your "scent"  provided you maxed out your stealth ?  If that's the case, I might try it with it on.

 

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Ripflex said:

 

So, with feral sense the instant spawning in front of you zeds do not automatically "see" you and you don't need to fart around waiting for the 20 seconds to lose your "scent"  provided you maxed out your stealth ?  If that's the case, I might try it with it on.

 

 

Sort of. During the night and if you are in shadow then yes, they won't see you right away. But during the day they often sense you and aggro before you even know they are there and without shadows it is impossible to sneak up on them as they notice you long before you can get close.

[Outlaw_187]

On 7/12/2021 at 1:07 PM, Boidster said:

..............Cougars during day, no. Cougars at night after a couple of drinks, yes.

 

I miss the meat-based feral sense. I bet some skilled modder will tie Feral Sense to meat in inventory. I'd install that.

Love the cougars reference, I laughed so hard. Very witty sir!!

 

Agreed about the meat based sense. I so wish they'd put this back in the game. 

Made me think twice about harvesting meat at times....."do I really need this meat right now? I'm pretty far from home & have crap weapons for defense."

Edited July 17, 2021 by Outlaw_187 (see edit history)

[roy35150]

Sounds Awesome.

 

Ive always felt the zeds inA17 were much more active which gave a lot more challenge to the game?

 

Roll on A20...

[wolfbain5]

ok, now that you are sharing these stories, I do have a question for you on feral sense and stealth. I mean they still gonna notice you from 30 away even with max stealth perks and mods? armor mods, not game mods

Edited July 28, 2021 by wolfbain5 (see edit history)

[Roland]

7 hours ago, wolfbain5 said:

ok, now that you are sharing these stories, I do have a question for you on feral sense and stealth. I mean they still gonna notice you from 30 away even with max stealth perks and mods? armor mods, not game mods

 

In daylight and you out in the open sunlight they are going to see/sense you. I tried sneaking past (unperked) and they always saw me from far off during the day. I didn't try sticking to shadows cast by trees etc. with all perks and modified armor to see if that could help during the day. At night stealth works perfectly well. Inside POI's sleepers are the same with feral sense on as with it off. I did not test fully perked up to see if I could hide from them undetected until their breadcrumb timer ran out so I'm not certain about the extent of stealth-- just that the principles of stealth gameplay do seem to work on ferals for sure at night but that errors on the player's part will bring zombies running to where the player made a noise from a much larger radius than the default game.

[bachgaman]

On 7/10/2021 at 5:54 AM, Roland said:

Worse...you now fail the quest if you leave the area

It was in A19, good tester

[wolfbain5]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

 

In daylight and you out in the open sunlight they are going to see/sense you. I tried sneaking past (unperked) and they always saw me from far off during the day. I didn't try sticking to shadows cast by trees etc. with all perks and modified armor to see if that could help during the day. At night stealth works perfectly well. Inside POI's sleepers are the same with feral sense on as with it off. I did not test fully perked up to see if I could hide from them undetected until their breadcrumb timer ran out so I'm not certain about the extent of stealth-- just that the principles of stealth gameplay do seem to work on ferals for sure at night but that errors on the player's part will bring zombies running to where the player made a noise from a much larger radius than the default game.

this... sounds fun

[Roland]

7 hours ago, bachgaman said:

It was in A19, good tester

Are you sure? In A19 the chest spawns as soon as you accept the quest from the trader. The perimeter guide appears while you approach but still a ways away. Plus I never failed a buried supplies quest ever for stepping outside a boundary in the past. 
 

In A20, only a rally marker spawns after talking to the trader. When you arrive and activate the marker then the chest spawns as well as the perimeter guide and a proximity warning. Finally,  I’ve inadvertently failed the quest twice already for stepping outside the defined perimeter. One was while fighting zombies that showed up and the other was from wandering around to get a rock to repair my shovel and not thinking about it. 

[Survager]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

Are you sure? In A19 the chest spawns as soon as you accept the quest from the trader. The perimeter guide appears while you approach but still a ways away. Plus I never failed a buried supplies quest ever for stepping outside a boundary in the past. 
 

In A20, only a rally marker spawns after talking to the trader. When you arrive and activate the marker then the chest spawns as well as the perimeter guide and a proximity warning. Finally,  I’ve inadvertently failed the quest twice already for stepping outside the defined perimeter. One was while fighting zombies that showed up and the other was from wandering around to get a rock to repair my shovel and not thinking about it. 

 

That is why I insist that the game has a noticeable notification that the player has left the quest and must return there within some time, for example, five or ten seconds) Why are the developers against this? )

[Scyris]

I started back in Alpha 9 or 10. and I remember the gpsing zombies, mind you in a17 they are much smarter than in a10-16. As in those alphas if you were on the second floor of even a wooden poi they'd never get to you as they'd run around right below you. Then a17 hits, and they do that again but now they learned proper pathing and WILL make a path to you eventually if you let them. I also vaguely remember that when gpsing zombies were a thing, you were fine until ONE seen you, after that, everything spawned around would beeline it for you, until you killed them all, which back then would clear the area for a few game days.

 

As to if i'll use the option, I'll probably leave it at default which is off, as I found the gpsing zombies in a17 to be a real pain in the arse if you wanted to do anything at night as they'd seemingly come non stop all night once you got it started, just was a steady trickle all night.

On 7/28/2021 at 3:10 PM, Survager said:

 

That is why I insist that the game has a noticeable notification that the player has left the quest and must return there within some time, for example, five or ten seconds) Why are the developers against this? )

 

I'd like this as well, some kinda of audio or visual warning your leaving the quest area. Maybe allow you to go outside of its area for 15 sseconds before it fails, instead of it just failing instantly like it does now.

On 7/17/2021 at 10:46 AM, Outlaw_187 said:

Love the cougars reference, I laughed so hard. Very witty sir!!

 

Agreed about the meat based sense. I so wish they'd put this back in the game. 

Made me think twice about harvesting meat at times....."do I really need this meat right now? I'm pretty far from home & have crap weapons for defense."

 I never had this problem as I generally killed any zombie I seen, So when I had the meat there was nothing for it to attract as it was cleared mostly, or at least far enough that new ones wouldn't start following. I was never a fan of the smell system though, the basic zombie only relied on Sight or sound to get alerted to things. If they could smell you, it'd be MUCH harder to hide from them I'd feel.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Scyris (see edit history)

[Roland]

On 7/30/2021 at 10:16 PM, Scyris said:

 

As to if i'll use the option, I'll probably leave it at default which is off, as I found the gpsing zombies in a17 to be a real pain in the arse if you wanted to do anything at night as they'd seemingly come non stop all night once you got it started, just was a steady trickle all night.

 You can set it to day only so that night time is more peaceful if you are hiding out in your base. 

[Roland]

I flew around a bit in godmode in my randomly generated world. Higashi, Dishong, and Crack-a-book skyscrapers were all present. There were two Crack-a-book skyscrapers in two different cities so the big buildings are spawning but there are also dupes within a map.