Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[meganoth]

2 hours ago, DuHast_Play said:

Internet connection is good. A friend connects to my world in the game and everything works. slightly improved FPS to 15 by removing reflections. I won't be able to improve the situation without a new PC... so far, this is the only way to survive)

 

LazMan was not saying your internet connection was a problem. He was suggesting that IF you have a good internet connection you could use an NVIDIA service where you play the game on their servers in the cloud. The service is called "Geforce Now"

 

[Dimasic-Colbasic]

22 hours ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

О том, что питомцев не будет, говорили много раз. Слишком много проблем с путями, и я считаю, что это удар по производительности.

Дроны - это “домашние животные”

Возможно, в следующих играх Fun Pimps будут разрешены домашние животные

I am specifically interested in this game. Since I really like to build, destroy, and I really admire the zombie theme. So I would like to see this wonderful pet system in my favorite game

[Morloc]

20 hours ago, meganoth said:

The solution is a new skin resulting in a dog that hovers around you and says stuff like "Woof. I detect something ...." with a female voice.

 

LOL! It's been a long while since I laughed.

After I took that arrow to the knee, I never thought to never hear laughter again, then I saw this boy, and he promised me The Grail.

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

[meganoth]

6 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

LOL! It's been a long while since I laughed.

After I took that arrow to the knee, I never thought to never hear laughter again, then I saw this boy, and he promised me The Grail.

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

 

I hope your imagination also supplied the slow height level oszillation a relaxing hover should have. No hovering dog would be complete without it.

 

[Raindear Games]

32 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

LOL! It's been a long while since I laughed.

After I took that arrow to the knee, I never thought to never hear laughter again, then I saw this boy, and he promised me The Grail.

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

"Is it here?"..."You have searched too hard. Take your ease."

The other day I watched "The Cheap Detective" on utub and realized again that even at my age, seeing Nicol Williamson around 1980ish made my heart skip beats, pound, and the edges of the room still get fuzzy. "The rest is secret." BTW, recreating Guinevere's cookies (or cakes, biscuits, as you would have it) is well worth the effort! (cake flour suffices, rose petals, kerrygold, and some things you can't get in Kansas.)

[Morloc]

38 minutes ago, Raindear Games said:

even at my age, seeing Nicol Williamson around 1980ish made my heart skip beats, pound, and the edges of the room still get fuzzy. "The rest is secret." BTW, recreating Guinevere's cookies (or cakes, biscuits, as you would have it) is well worth the effort! (cake flour suffices, rose petals, kerrygold, and some things you can't get in Kansas.)

 

1980's Helen Mirren is more my cup of poison. 🤔

As for the bread, read up on Cockle Bread before you try any. Too late!

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

[Raindear Games]

36 minutes ago, Morloc said:

 

1980's Helen Mirren is more my cup of poison. 🤔

As for the bread, read up on Cockle Bread before you try any. Too late!

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

Omg! Now, using that same technique to make "hot cross buns" would take real talent! (and exercise). Skill level increase by doing, that's for sure! And I always thought Lucille Ball stomping around in grapes was the epitome of culinary workouts....I was wrong. I think Cockle Bread wins that competition, by far.

Thank you for reminding me that I hadn't seen or thought of everything yet.

Hang on a minute...I'm having a bit of a think.

Cooking skill increases gives you better recipes in 7 Days to Die with different effects, yeah? What if...it also...incrementally and to scale...ticked up the stats (food, hydration, etc), the higher the skill level? Homemade better than looted, and all that? The same 'item', but...with +'s and -'s to what might be found in a chest or stove somewhere?

And if Cockle Bread ever made it into the game, then it would take not only Master Chef points but also Agility to truly bring up?

Also, what might be looted at a Pass n Gas is lower quality (using the same scale, and just like in real life) than something found in snazzier places, like the restaurant up in Dishong Tower?

(Now Roland, I know you're thinking "let them eat cake", but it could be fun, if it didn't take too much coding in some future Alpha?)

"Anal nathrach, orth bhais bethad, do chel denmha"

Edited February 9, 2023 by Raindear Games (see edit history)

[Gamida]

I noticed some joking about Klingon being worked on for 7 Days To Die.

 

Here is a pic of some text from an official localization file from 7 Days To Die.

It is from A15 but it was also in A16 and A17. It wasn't in later alphas.

 

 

I never saw any way to actually use it in game so was most likely an easter egg or joke but it was for a while in the official game.

 

 

 

 

 

[meilodasreh]

14 minutes ago, Gamida said:

was most likely an easter egg or joke

I can imagine that this may have originated from some sort of kickstarter goal/level, like:

"pledge amountX $ and choose a language that 7D2D will be localized..."

And then some star trek nerd saw his chance 😀

you know, same thing with that big momma who spent 5k$ and got her own zombie likeness...

[Gamida]

15 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

I can imagine that this may have originated from some sort of kickstarter goal/level, like:

"pledge amountX $ and choose a language that 7D2D will be localized..."

And then some star trek nerd saw his chance 😀

you know, same thing with that big momma who spent 5k$ and got her own zombie likeness...

 

Not sure how it got in there but am pretty sure if someone paid for it in kickstarter they would have kept it in.

Getting rid of someone paid kickstarter pledge like that seems like it would be a bad move on their part.

As for the big momma who spents $5k to get her own zombie likeness...I don't know of that one either but I

do know of Tom Clark who spent $6k to get his likeness in the game. 

 

[meilodasreh]

maybe the zombies all speak Klingon...I mean, they gnarl and grumble and stuff...they may all be just angry Klingons with bad textures...you know, because of the technical limitations of the engine. 🙃

[Laz Man]

4 hours ago, meganoth said:

 

LazMan was not saying your internet connection was a problem. He was suggesting that IF you have a good internet connection you could use an NVIDIA service where you play the game on their servers in the cloud. The service is called "Geforce Now"

 

 

Yes, and it's free if you don't mind waiting in a queue and being limited to 1 hour play sessions.  If you are willing to pay, you can remove those limitations.

[Morloc]

6 hours ago, Gamida said:

Tom Clark who spent $6k to get his likeness in the game.

 

Pfff....I'm not sure that'd get you all the Stellaris DLC these days.

 

😋

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

 

[DuHast_Play]

16 hours ago, meganoth said:

 

Лазман не говорил, что у вас проблемы с интернет-соединением. Он предложил, если у вас хорошее подключение к Интернету, вы могли бы использовать сервис NVIDIA, где вы играете в игру на их серверах в облаке. Сервис называется «Geforce Now».

 

Now I understand what it's about. We usually play and stream for 12 hours. So an hour of playing on the server will not be enough)

[faatal]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:21 AM, Burrfly said:

if cementMixer == enabled then

    animation.Rotate:Play()

else

    animation.Rotate:Stop()

 

(I know it's not that simple)

It is not as I looked at it last week and the mixer is a single mesh, so you can't rotate the drum. I was thinking at least it should have a particle effect, but the code for that type of object did not support it and ten seconds later I was distracted by something else and several other things since then.

On 1/30/2023 at 11:44 AM, Trankitas said:

@faatal How many MF's are left? I was going to start a new A20 server but I feel like A21 is close to release. 

That does not really matter yet, as several systems have changes in the works and bugs are being found daily in them, then back around to fixing.

On 1/30/2023 at 4:19 PM, DocRussel said:

For A20, the first dev stream was Sep 11 and the game was released Dec 6, so nearly 3 months.

 

@faatal Do you expect similar timing for A21?

Should be closer together.

On 2/1/2023 at 11:33 PM, Aldranon said:

Will there be any tweaks to pathing or are there options to change the type of pathing?

IE: Non blood moon pathing remains the same, but blood moon pathing is "Charge in and start hitting something."  

 

I ask because I'm sure that Bandit pathing with be distinctly different from zombie pathing.  So, introducing various pathing's just makes sense.

Also, a special pathing that deals with a known OP player!  Also let Bandits call for backup! (For said OP players.  Not exactly pathing but a behavior)

 

That would be stupendously great!

Not in A21.

[faatal]

On 2/5/2023 at 3:21 AM, Strengthinside said:

Hey, can we expect improved Vulkan support in A21?

The only changes are us using never versions of Unity in which they sometimes fix issues. We recently updated to 2021.3.16, but may end up on .18 or .19 for A21.

On 2/5/2023 at 12:18 PM, Roland said:

From what I’ve seen everyone on the team is optimistic and excited to get these changes in the hands of the players. Nobody is feeling bad. All I feel is amazed that such an unorthodox and unexpected set of changes has resulted in a game that is so much more fun than it was.

 

We should feel lucky this team is willing to take risks and experiment with their designs instead of being limited by execs that care more about delivery dates and sticking to existing and known and safe mechanics. I think A21 will blow everyone away. It’s definitely a risk though and could result in failure but that will make the success that much more sweet. 

Yes, from the few hours here and there I have played a new game to get the feel of it, that feel was great. The UI for it is a bit confusing at first, but I adapted.

[faatal]

On 2/6/2023 at 9:46 AM, WhiteLion said:

@faatal in my opinion the biggest disadvantage is the multiplayer sync problem. As soon as I play with 3 or people on a privat server and some more zombies are spawned in the attacking movements of the zeds get out of sync. The zed beat animation is before or after the hit will occur  - with a noticeable delay / a-sync. We do not have any potato as clients nor the server is a potato. - Will there be fixes for this in A21 or in future?

Last year a few of our consultant programmers analyzed our net traffic and greatly reduced the amount of data sent. Then one of them reworked delays and frequency of entity updates, so I expect it to feel better.

[faatal]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:00 AM, Quagmire1428 said:

@faatal So with this extended period of developement, is A21 a larger update than usual, or is it moreover that is has been a trickier one? i'm in no rush for it as i know it will happen when it happens, just wondering.   . . . anyway, hope your sanity is holding up with all this 🤣 and things are good for you!

It is a large amount of changes, in line with any other big alpha. We have more programmers than ever working on it, and there are a lot of system level updates going on or planning to happen, which are not necessarily flashy features to players, but help the game run better. Much of that will be needed to get all the PC features running on the new gen of consoles, as they may be better than the last, but are still limited in some ways compared to a mid tier gaming PC.

 

Thanks

On 2/8/2023 at 4:50 PM, Riamus said:

You need to understand that players jump all over the place and with maxed parkour, the jumps are really crazy.  Making a pet that walks do that isn't something they want to do and, without it, the pet would have to constantly reset it's position to follow you.  Not to mention a dog climbing a ladder is kind of dumb even if they added super jumping to a dog.  Yes, some dogs have been taught to climb a vertical ladder, but that also is dumb, imo.

 

*Maybe* you could convince them to add alternate flying "pets" as that would just be a different skin and it's different mods, but unlikely any walking pets.

 

Of course, they could add Q*Bert considering it is used to jumping up and down voxels. 😁

Flying dogs with no collision will work perfectly.

[faatal]

On 2/9/2023 at 8:42 PM, Morloc said:

 

Pfff....I'm not sure that'd get you all the Stellaris DLC these days.

 

😋

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

 

The constant stream of DLC makes me not want to buy the game. Maybe someday if they package everything together for 20 bucks, they can have my money.

On the other hand, I find I never play the extra gameplay type DLCs in most gold editions of games I buy, as I am sick of the game by the time I finish...if I even make it to the end.

[Aldranon]

1 hour ago, faatal said:

The constant stream of DLC makes me not want to buy the game. Maybe someday if they package everything together for 20 bucks, they can have my money.

On the other hand, I find I never play the extra gameplay type DLCs in most gold editions of games I buy, as I am sick of the game by the time I finish...if I even make it to the end.

 

Paradox Gaming is similar to TFP as they both are small-ish game producers that don't take themselves too seriously.

The difference is the player base for "war games" is much smaller than RPG's.

So, in order to keep their financial heads above water they charge for some game modifications (not all of them).

 

Note: Paradox is probably more wasteful of its money too, but the people working their might have more fun (company trips to Malta, renting castles and larping)

[Jost Amman]

7 minutes ago, Aldranon said:

Paradox Gaming is similar to TFP as they both are small-ish game producers that don't take themselves too seriously.

Spoiler

 

 

[Doomofman]

Sounds like we're still quite a ways out from experimental. Though a shorter gap between the dev streams and the experimental dropping seems good to me

Edited February 11, 2023 by Doomofman (see edit history)

[Blake_]

5 hours ago, faatal said:

The constant stream of DLC makes me not want to buy the game. Maybe someday if they package everything together for 20 bucks, they can have my money.

On the other hand, I find I never play the extra gameplay type DLCs in most gold editions of games I buy, as I am sick of the game by the time I finish...if I even make it to the end.

I do agree that many 4x games bombard the player with dlcs and even though they can have beefy content if put together, most of the time they do not add much in the form of a brand new experience. 

 

That said, I do not feel that way for most rpgs, as exploring new places and doing new things sometimes extend the fun way beyond the title's lifespan.

 

To put a direct example:

 

It's not the same to add a new faction in Stellaris than to add a new faction in Skyrim. 

It's not the same to add 30 new quests in X4: Foundations than to add 30 new quests in 7dtd, (even with a minimum of quality being : "kill that animal and bring me 2 pelts").

I also think 7dtd is waay inside that YES_DLC spectrum, as its replayability is so intense that, if maybe we do not experience the DLC in one 200-hour gameplay session, then we will have the interest to play it for the next one.

 

I'm talking gameplay dlcs here, not "skin" or " cosmetic fluff" ones of course.

 

Also there's the quality that makes 7dtd a multiplayer jewel. The moment you change (real life) companions/partners/friends after a long and satisfying 200 hour game,  you feel like starting again, even in the hypothetical case of a future solid end game.

 

Would you restart a session with your daughter or wife  if after weeks of living in a virtual world you found out that your favourite rpg game has 30 new random quests and a couple of new factions but requires a new map? I would. And I would probably play close to the same amount of hours for that one too.

[Larry_Flynt]

What i do wonder:
-Bandits are postponed, okay

But why there are no POIs with automatic structures like turrets left as challenge? Would be easy to implement as new turret entities (which should have unlimited ammo).
Would be something in between of "no bandits" and "bandits with pathing" and should be easy to implement. Could be an option for more more T5 POIs.

As far as i know only mines have been incorporated in POI Structures so far (and the trap doors).

Maybe design them as more sophisticated ones for military high level  compounds too.

 

Edit: Could be expanded to all traps, e.g. POIs with working dart traps, trigger plates etc.
Would be another level of puzzle to solve and would be an incentive to try and scrap the parts intact as ressources instead of destroying them. They should not be buildable by players.

Maybe these traps could also defend trader areas instead of an invincible area, but thats another step.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Larry_Flynt (see edit history)

[Dimasic-Colbasic]

Dear developers, I like your game. This game is one of my favorite games in the world. But this masterpiece lacks pets (dogs, wolves). I beg you to please add pets. I am ready to pay you as much as you say. So, in my opinion, the game will really become much more enjoyable and interesting for most players. And please tell me, are you planning to add an animation of the finishing blow and crushing the zombie's head with a boot? I think it would look pretty cool and brutal.