Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Zipcore]

🤠

 

With the new repair system for vehicles do we see changes to the repair system in general or is this vehicles only?

 

For a long time I have a huge issue with the current system and it is one of the bigger reasons why players lose itnerest in this game after a while.

But I may have a solution for you which is very easy to implement and has huge potential without the need to 600 quality levels again.

 

- The Issue -

 

There is no replacement for the quality loss on repair system:

- Players don't need to keep looted weapons anymore (only for selling a bit)

- Players don't craft tools/weapons anymore

- Late game is affected most by this

 

- Solution -

 

Add a simple repair counter to items.

Add a simple property to set the repair effectiveness multiplier by the repair counter.

Maybe even a mode you can set per item which allows linear or exponential effectiveness loss but thats just an extra I guess.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Zipcore (see edit history)

[Gronal]

1 hour ago, Zipcore said:

There is no replacement for the quality loss on repair system:

- Players don't need to keep looted weapons anymore (only for selling a bit)

- Players don't craft tools/weapons anymore

- Late game is affected most by this

I think the learn by reading update will change this a bit. Higher quality items will be rarer, and getting the crafting skill to make level 5 steel tier equipment will take much longer. With the fact you won't be able to go straight from lvl 5 stone to lvl 5 steel tools will make it so much more incremental crafting is done. Theoretically.
This wouldn't affect keeping weapons as such, but it would affect keeping weapon *parts* as opposed to selling them, as you'll need to craft more.
We will have to see what loot is like, but I think crafting tools and weapons will be more important in a21.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Gronal (see edit history)

[Zipcore]

11 minutes ago, Gronal said:

I think the learn by reading update will change this a bit. Higher quality items will be rarer, and getting the crafting skill to make level 5 steel tier equipment will take much longer. With the fact you won't be able to go straight from lvl 5 stone to lvl 5 steel tools will make it so much more incremental crafting is done. Theoretically.
This wouldn't affect keeping weapons as such, but it would affect keeping weapon *parts* as opposed to selling them, as you'll need to craft more.
We will have to see what loot is like, but I think crafting tools and weapons will be more important in a21.

 

One thing is to have slower loot progression another is maintaining your gear once you reached the late game. Those are two totally different things. The new system will probably be good to have a better progression in early and mid game. I'm talking about the late game where players stick to the very same equipment over a very long time.

Beside of that my suggestion is simple and can solve a lot of issues with OP tools/weapons. Additionally this would open a lot of doors for modders.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Zipcore (see edit history)

[Gamida]

2 hours ago, Doomofman said:

There is no A21

 

21=

 

Blackjack=

 

 

Cake is a lie

 

 

 

Spooky right.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Gamida (see edit history)

[meilodasreh]

1 hour ago, Zipcore said:

Beside of that my suggestion is simple and can solve a lot of issues with OP tools/weapons.

There are some changes considering the system to craft tools/weapons, which Temreki (GN&S) recently brought up in one of his vids.

I don't know where he got it from, probably by his interview with the huenink brothers.

I don't remember everything, but one thing was about you will be able to scrap weapons for weapon parts instead of scrap iron.

Primarily for crafting a better one (with more parts), but this could also be used to reintroduce a repair system (need weapon parts to repair your worn one).

I hope this will be a thing, as it feels so naturally logic.

[Morloc]

1 hour ago, Gamida said:

 

21=

 

Blackjack=

 

 

Cake is a lie

 

 

 

Spooky right.

 

 

 

 

 

Gamida, did you get into the Sherry?

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

[Roland]

11 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

I don't remember everything, but one thing was about you will be able to scrap weapons for weapon parts instead of scrap iron.

 

Isn't this already a thing?

[RipClaw]

12 minutes ago, Roland said:

Isn't this already a thing?

Yes. This is true for all weapons that require parts for crafting.

[meilodasreh]

Yes sorry, of course you both are right.

I totally misunderstood that part in Temreki's "what's new in A21" vid where he scrapped his weapons to incrementally improve his future ones (or better said he planned to do so)

I fell for it cause I'm in a DF playthrough.

Weapons get scrapped for iron there, and as i saw them getting scrapped to parts in the vid I obviously didn't get the context of what he said correctly.

 

...damn mods 😃

Edited January 4, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[Gamida]

26 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

Gamida, did you get into the Sherry?

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

 

I think the Sherry was the only thing I never got into.

[Zipcore]

44 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

There are some changes considering the system to craft tools/weapons, which Temreki (GN&S) recently brought up in one of his vids.

I don't know where he got it from, probably by his interview with the huenink brothers.

I don't remember everything, but one thing was about you will be able to scrap weapons for weapon parts instead of scrap iron.

Primarily for crafting a better one (with more parts), but this could also be used to reintroduce a repair system (need weapon parts to repair your worn one).

I hope this will be a thing, as it feels so naturally logic.

 

But you still need to give players a reason to craft the parts. Without any mods the parts of weapons and tools are one of the most useless item category currently in the game.

[Doomofman]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

 

Isn't this already a thing?

I guess they mean for lower tier stuff? There's no iron tool parts or pipe machine gun parts etc

[ElDudorino]

So some alarmist on the Steam forums is freaking out over the new crafting system and he says you won't be able to get Q4/5/6 items in loot, as quest rewards, or from trader stock. I tried searching this thread but didn't see any indication of that. I had seen long ago that a dev was considering the possibility of making Q6 craftable but I never saw confirmation it would be for sure.

 

So, apologies for not catching up on the last 100+ pages, but will Quality 4/5/6 be lootable, buyable, and obtainable as quest rewards? And has Q6 crafting been confirmed or will I still have to mod that in?

[Javabean867]

29 minutes ago, ElDudorino said:

So some alarmist on the Steam forums is freaking out over the new crafting system and he says you won't be able to get Q4/5/6 items in loot, as quest rewards, or from trader stock. I tried searching this thread but didn't see any indication of that. I had seen long ago that a dev was considering the possibility of making Q6 craftable but I never saw confirmation it would be for sure.

 

So, apologies for not catching up on the last 100+ pages, but will Quality 4/5/6 be lootable, buyable, and obtainable as quest rewards? And has Q6 crafting been confirmed or will I still have to mod that in?

I don't think anyone from the fun pimps have ever said anything even remotely like that.

Yes there is a rebalance of the loot that is going to happen, so higher quality loot will be less readily found, but no one has said that it was being removed from the loot tables.

I think the goal is to be able to loot/craft/shop and the same levels of quality will be about the same.

Also i do know they are talked about switching out quality 6 at some point with legendary quality items.  But that might be a pipe dream at this point.

[faatal]

14 hours ago, wolfbain5 said:

have we broken the record for longest alpha yet?

It may seem like that, but A17 took 1.5 years and A20 was about 1.4 years.

 

Hopefully we will be less than those with A21.

[ElDudorino]

9 minutes ago, Javabean867 said:

I don't think anyone from the fun pimps have ever said anything even remotely like that.

Yes there is a rebalance of the loot that is going to happen, so higher quality loot will be less readily found, but no one has said that it was being removed from the loot tables.

I think the goal is to be able to loot/craft/shop and the same levels of quality will be about the same.

Also i do know they are talked about switching out quality 6 at some point with legendary quality items.  But that might be a pipe dream at this point.

 

Thought so, thank you!

[Jost Amman]

1 hour ago, ElDudorino said:

So some alarmist on the Steam forums is freaking out over the new crafting system and he says you won't be able to get Q4/5/6 items in loot, as quest rewards, or from trader stock. I tried searching this thread but didn't see any indication of that. I had seen long ago that a dev was considering the possibility of making Q6 craftable but I never saw confirmation it would be for sure.

 

So, apologies for not catching up on the last 100+ pages, but will Quality 4/5/6 be lootable, buyable, and obtainable as quest rewards? And has Q6 crafting been confirmed or will I still have to mod that in?

It's a lost fight on Steam... believe me. I try to keep people there informed with as much "official" information I can gather here, but even after they get it, they start again complaining about stuff that's not even been mentioned by the devs. 

[ElDudorino]

17 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

It's a lost fight on Steam... believe me. I try to keep people there informed with as much "official" information I can gather here, but even after they get it, they start again complaining about stuff that's not even been mentioned by the devs. 

 

Oh yeah, I don't think the fellow in question will come around, but I was starting to wonder if some stuff had radically changed with a21 while I wasn't looking. I mean, to be fair, I haven't been looking for months, so anything is possible.

[Riamus]

10 hours ago, Zipcore said:

 

One thing is to have slower loot progression another is maintaining your gear once you reached the late game. Those are two totally different things. The new system will probably be good to have a better progression in early and mid game. I'm talking about the late game where players stick to the very same equipment over a very long time.

Beside of that my suggestion is simple and can solve a lot of issues with OP tools/weapons. Additionally this would open a lot of doors for modders.

Even if you had to replace tools and weapons after a period of time, they would have to severely nerf loot for it to matter in late game. By then, I have always found so many tier 5 and 6 weapons and tools that if I knew I'd have to replace them, I would just hold onto them and it wouldn't really impact me at all.

 

Besides, for late game, they need to first add something to keep people playing rather than starting a new game before worrying too much about whether or not you have to replace things in late game.  As it is now, by late game you have already done everything you want in the game... Learned everything you want to learn, perked into everything you want to perk into, built whatever bases you want.  By then, there isn't much to do other than keep doing the same limited number of tier 5 quests or finding stuff to build or whatever.  Long before you level up enough to get all the perks, you have already gotten all you care about and after that, there isn't much to do.  Adding decaying weapons and tools that can't be repaired anymore isn't going to improve the late game until there is an actual late game to do.  Even then, the impact will be minimal without removing a ton of loot, which would likely reduce the number of players significantly, which is a bad thing.

 

If they were to add a true exploration system to the game or story progression that continues far enough into late game or something like that, it would help considerably.  As it is, I doubt most people really explore the map because there isn't any real incentive to do so.  I'll go find all the traders and even complete tier 5 with all unique traders, but that is just for something to do, not because there is any real value in doing it.  It isn't like other games where if you explore, you'll find stuff you would have a hard time finding otherwise, if at all.  Here, you can stay in one city and find everything (not every POI, but every loot item).  They have the find-a-trader quests to try to get people to explore, but nothing happens after you do them to keep you there.  Even wonders POI are pretty much not worth looking at other than as a POI you have done yet because anything you get from them can be found anywhere else, so why bother trying to go to the different ones?  There just isn't much reason to keep playing a given game past a certain point right now.  A new game offers a better experience overall as you once again have something that you need to do.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[mrsquish]

Hey all, could someone point me to how this new "No Glass Jar" thing is going to work? 

 

I'm sure it's listed in here somewhere, but I'm just being lazy. 

[crazywildfire]

8 minutes ago, mrsquish said:

Hey all, could someone point me to how this new "No Glass Jar" thing is going to work? 

 

I'm sure it's listed in here somewhere, but I'm just being lazy. 

 

Empty jars will no longer be in game. You can drink from water sources pushing E to drink with a chance of getting sick. You can find glass water jars in loot and trader. But once you drink it the jar vanishes and no longer puts empty jar in inventory. At some point you can learn to make a dew collector that will give you X amount of glass water jars every X amount of time. Again once you drink it the jar vanishes.  I believe that is all we know so far. I might be missing something but that pretty much it I think. 

[RipClaw]

On 1/4/2023 at 1:41 AM, faatal said:

Feral sense is an extension of a feature. Seeing and hearing. No smelling involved.

Does the Feral Sense actually have an effect on the screamer mechanics? I had in my current game with feral sense sometimes the problem that a screamer spawned zombies although there was no line of sight because I was about 10 blocks below ground. But the screamer could have heard me.

[Kalex]

Will what biome you place them in have any affect on the rate at which dew collectors gain water? Realistically you should get more water in the forest than in the desert.

[forgetful genius]

IIRC, Roland stated it will give you 3 jars per game day.  This was regardless of your game settings for day length.

[RipClaw]

15 minutes ago, forgetful genius said:

IIRC, Roland stated it will give you 3 jars per game day.  This was regardless of your game settings for day length.

We'll have to see but so if the dew collectors work like e.g. plants then configuration in the XML files is based on real time and not game time. You will get 3 jars of water per 60 minutes of real time.