Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[DuHast_Play]

8 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

Congrats!! You know how to use ChatGPT! 

Now, the next step is to start using your own brain! 

I hope The Fun Pimps (if you know who I'm talking about...) will consider at some point to develop more "water gameplay".

• Submerged POIs
• New gear that can help you when you're inside water (fins, a breather, O2 tanks)
• A raft to better traverse bigger bodies of water
• Zombies that are slower than you while inside water (if you know how to swim) so that we can go back to using moats

The possibilities are many in my opinion. 

about zombies in the water, I don't think they should swim at all. I do not think that they have enough coordination of movement and buoyancy for this. they should rather just go under, because they don't need to breathe per se. it would be great if a flooded town appeared, on 1-1.5 floors. so that there are ordinary, private houses on 1 and 2 floors, and buildings up to 4-5 floors. and perhaps between some houses there would be bridges, so that it could be seen that there were once survivors

[bdubyah]

31 minutes ago, Crypted said:

What's the point of having puzzles for us to solve in order to get information about 7DTD (a game that everyone on this forum likes) when people are going to solve them. I know there are a good bit of people that don't like it and yeah (maybe some do) but still some videos have been made basically saying stop this and another one is, a waste of time. Then we get pig latin which is easy to understand but still ( eansmay eythay ightmay owshay omesay neaksay eakspay ofay tuffsay eythay idn'tday itequay inishfay orfay wentyonetay.)  Which means they might show some sneak peak of stuff they didn't quite finish of twenty one. I just want to know why these puzzles are happening in order to get information about 7 Days to Die (a game we like/love and enjoy) I just don't see the point in it. Anyway, this is just my opinion on it so other people might feel differently about it. 

It's called having fun. Try it sometime. Also Roland's way of trying to sate all the nonstop "GIVE US NEWS!!!1!11!!" people that come in here, while giving people something to do until the devs actually show the thing. It's on the devs to show off new things/give new info, not Roland. But that doesn't mean he can't give us some hints. They are gonna show the stuff whether people solve his puzzles or not(Sad, I know. Sorry, Roland!) so it isn't something you have to take part in if you so choose. You can just wait patiently for the dev streams and not have fun with the others. 😛

[Crypted]

Just now, bdubyah said:

It's called having fun. Try it sometime. Also Roland's way of trying to sate all the nonstop "GIVE US NEWS!!!1!11!!" people that come in here, while giving people something to do until the devs actually show the thing. It's on the devs to show off new things/give new info, not Roland. But that doesn't mean he can't give us some hints. They are gonna show the stuff whether people solve his puzzles or not(Sad, I know. Sorry, Roland!) so it isn't something you have to take part in if you so choose. You can just wait patiently for the dev streams and not have fun with the others. 😛

I do have fun, if you would read my post fully you would see that I stated it's just my opinion and that other people might feel differently about it. I agree with the giving us news part of what your saying. 

[Philipp]

Since I'm just a silent reader, I'd also like to share an idea and ask what you think of it.  Imagine there are areas where there is some kind of "gas" or "fog" where it is not possible to breathe.  This requires a breathing mask with a tank on the back that has a certain capacity.  For example, if a zombie hits the player, there is a 25% chance that the hose will be damaged and need replacing before the player dies within 30 seconds.  The equipment cannot be crafted, only found.  The zombies in the area do double the damage per hit.  I'm not a programmer and I don't know how difficult it is, but my naive thinking says: define the area for the zone, let zombies do more damage in this area.  The item with mask and oxygen tank or filter, whatever, is of course also needed.  And that's all.  Tadaaa

[Philipp]

13 hours ago, faatal said:

Well....there is that raft prototype I did last year. Works, but with a few bugs. That may become a feature at some point.

 

I got a general question about these "did a Prototype, Stopped working on it stuff" 

 

How does it comes like that? Is it like, you get the job to program a raft, because someone thinks it's a great idea, and then, when testing, someone decides it's not as fun as its supposed to be as Feature, so it's cancelled? Because, at some point, someone has to had the idea, that the game needs a raft, am I right? I just try to understand how it works since im not working in a gamecompany, neither am I a Programmer. 

Just need clarification, because every stuff thats gonna be programmed an then canceled is lost time in game development or not? Hope you get my point since my english is not flawless at all. 

Thanks ✌🏼

 

[Jugom]

15 hours ago, MichaelL. said:

 

Got another water-related question:  Will we be able to spawn sleepers under/in the new water system?  

 

14 hours ago, Laz Man said:

Yes

 

Does that mean avoiding the BM horde by building in the middle of a big enough body of water is finally over?

[Uncle Al]

1 hour ago, Philipp said:

Since I'm just a silent reader, I'd also like to share an idea and ask what you think of it.  Imagine there are areas where there is some kind of "gas" or "fog" where it is not possible to breathe.  This requires a breathing mask with a tank on the back that has a certain capacity.  For example, if a zombie hits the player, there is a 25% chance that the hose will be damaged and need replacing before the player dies within 30 seconds.  The equipment cannot be crafted, only found.  The zombies in the area do double the damage per hit.  I'm not a programmer and I don't know how difficult it is, but my naive thinking says: define the area for the zone, let zombies do more damage in this area.  The item with mask and oxygen tank or filter, whatever, is of course also needed.  And that's all.  Tadaaa

 

There's certainly merit in the idea of time pressuring the player in certain areas (the tank capacity in this example) but I think existing systems could do that perfectly well without adding new elements such as toxic gas.

 

Radiation is the obvious one, and we may well see something of that nature when the clothing overhaul comes in. I'm rather hoping the weather/environment update brings in similar concepts: That the extreme biomes are unsurvivable indefinitely, in the open, without very high end and hard to source outfits. Something like a 'core temperature' value that means you have to get indoors and warm up, or under shade in the desert, regularly while in those areas. It would make the higher tier biomes feel very different to the forest, and should be able to be balanced so it adds excitement to gameplay rather than just being a chore.

[DuHast_Play]

44 minutes ago, Uncle Al said:

 

There's certainly merit in the idea of time pressuring the player in certain areas (the tank capacity in this example) but I think existing systems could do that perfectly well without adding new elements such as toxic gas.

 

Radiation is the obvious one, and we may well see something of that nature when the clothing overhaul comes in. I'm rather hoping the weather/environment update brings in similar concepts: That the extreme biomes are unsurvivable indefinitely, in the open, without very high end and hard to source outfits. Something like a 'core temperature' value that means you have to get indoors and warm up, or under shade in the desert, regularly while in those areas. It would make the higher tier biomes feel very different to the forest, and should be able to be balanced so it adds excitement to gameplay rather than just being a chore.

I already wrote earlier that it would be great to make the anti-radiation suit functional. make areas with a high radiation background in the wasteland and desert, radiation rains, because of which one would have to look for shelter, perhaps even a couple of contaminated reservoirs ... But the most important thing is that I do not ask you to do this, but simply say that it would be great to see it in Game)

[hiemfire]

17 hours ago, Roland said:

eansmay eythay ightmay owshay omesay neaksay eakspay ofay tuffsay eythay idn'tday itequay inishfay orfay wentyonetay...

 

16 hours ago, Roland said:

ineononenay

 

When in the hell did I start being able to read piglatin. I couldn't wrap my head around it when I ran into it in school decades back.

[Laz Man]

6 hours ago, DuHast_Play said:

about zombies in the water, I don't think they should swim at all. I do not think that they have enough coordination of movement and buoyancy for this. they should rather just go under, because they don't need to breathe per se. it would be great if a flooded town appeared, on 1-1.5 floors. so that there are ordinary, private houses on 1 and 2 floors, and buildings up to 4-5 floors. and perhaps between some houses there would be bridges, so that it could be seen that there were once survivors

 

I think we had that before and players would exploit it by swimming above them in water.  If anything, allowing them to swim would allow us to create more water exploration encounters like the one you described.

[meganoth]

4 hours ago, Philipp said:

 

I got a general question about these "did a Prototype, Stopped working on it stuff" 

 

How does it comes like that? Is it like, you get the job to program a raft, because someone thinks it's a great idea, and then, when testing, someone decides it's not as fun as its supposed to be as Feature, so it's cancelled? Because, at some point, someone has to had the idea, that the game needs a raft, am I right? I just try to understand how it works since im not working in a gamecompany, neither am I a Programmer. 

Just need clarification, because every stuff thats gonna be programmed an then canceled is lost time in game development or not? Hope you get my point since my english is not flawless at all. 

Thanks ✌🏼

 

 

I'm pretty sure that Fataal, as head developer, can just follow his creative impulse and try things out. But I would guess that everyone on the TFP team can do that from time to time(?)

 

And as head developer he can shelf that idea again until a raft seems like just the item that is missing from the game or other conditions like better water physics have been implemented.

 

Think of game developers as artists not just production workers, at least if they are on small teams or the person is high in the hierarchy. 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by meganoth (see edit history)

[spud42]

3 hours ago, Philipp said:

 

I got a general question about these "did a Prototype, Stopped working on it stuff" 

 

How does it comes like that? Is it like, you get the job to program a raft, because someone thinks it's a great idea, and then, when testing, someone decides it's not as fun as its supposed to be as Feature, so it's cancelled? Because, at some point, someone has to had the idea, that the game needs a raft, am I right? I just try to understand how it works since im not working in a gamecompany, neither am I a Programmer. 

Just need clarification, because every stuff thats gonna be programmed an then canceled is lost time in game development or not? Hope you get my point since my english is not flawless at all. 

Thanks ✌🏼

 

If i remember correctly the raft was put on hold until they got around to fixing the water. how can you raft when the water surface had holes in it? you would also leave a track in the water surface behind you as the water blocks were destroyed. 

i remember building a castle in water quite a few alphas ago. every zombie thay came into the water and was killed destroyed the water blocks on the bottom of the lake when they despawned leaving unsightly holes ... plus i think i remember a gurgling water sound too..  we have been asking for water to be fixed fo 4 or 5 alphas at least.

 

[Gronal]

4 hours ago, Jugom said:

 

 

Does that mean avoiding the BM horde by building in the middle of a big enough body of water is finally over?

I would assume not. Placing sleepers underwater in a POI is a bit different to the game spawning them in on horde night. 
Maybe though.

[Trankitas]

I have an actual question for TFP for a change.

Will the "danger meter" stay with those skull icons 💀  💀  💀  💀  💀? Looks kinda bad if I'm completely honest (not that my opinion matters btw)

[Doomofman]

I agree. The danger meter, while a cool idea, doesn't look great. Especially the gigantic pop-up. I hope that gets improved at some point

Edited April 19, 2023 by Doomofman (see edit history)

[DocRussel]

There is a lot of feedback for the danger meter, both positive and negative.  Perhaps the best tactic is to have it as a menu option to toggle on and off.

[Fanatical_Meat]

I still don’t see a value or even a purpose for having a raft.

there simply aren’t maps large enough or bodies of water large enough to justify needing a raft.

[Fish36]

6 hours ago, Philipp said:

 

I got a general question about these "did a Prototype, Stopped working on it stuff" 

 

How does it comes like that? Is it like, you get the job to program a raft, because someone thinks it's a great idea, and then, when testing, someone decides it's not as fun as its supposed to be as Feature, so it's cancelled? Because, at some point, someone has to had the idea, that the game needs a raft, am I right? I just try to understand how it works since im not working in a gamecompany, neither am I a Programmer. 

Just need clarification, because every stuff thats gonna be programmed an then canceled is lost time in game development or not? Hope you get my point since my english is not flawless at all. 

Thanks ✌🏼

 

Have you ever worked at a large company? I am not a dev but do project work, my team all the time gets asked for stuff, get a week or 2 into development then leadership is like "yeah, nevermind, we don't need that anymore." It is absolutely lost effort but I'd imagine stuff like that happens all the time. 

[Crypted]

6 hours ago, Philipp said:

Since I'm just a silent reader, I'd also like to share an idea and ask what you think of it.  Imagine there are areas where there is some kind of "gas" or "fog" where it is not possible to breathe.  This requires a breathing mask with a tank on the back that has a certain capacity.  For example, if a zombie hits the player, there is a 25% chance that the hose will be damaged and need replacing before the player dies within 30 seconds.  The equipment cannot be crafted, only found.  The zombies in the area do double the damage per hit.  I'm not a programmer and I don't know how difficult it is, but my naive thinking says: define the area for the zone, let zombies do more damage in this area.  The item with mask and oxygen tank or filter, whatever, is of course also needed.  And that's all.  Tadaaa

I like this idea, the same can be said about radiated zones where there's POI's to explore and you can only go here if you have a hazmat suit (when the hazmat suit gets fixed of course.)

[Trankitas]

Another question

Am I high? I thought that A21 would have a new UI, I think Madmole stated several times about a new UI being designed. 

UI looked exactly the same on the Dev Stream.

 

@Sirillion Made an amazing UI mod, that looks extremely better! Thoughts?

Edited April 19, 2023 by Trankitas (see edit history)

[Laz Man]

1 hour ago, Fish36 said:

Have you ever worked at a large company? I am not a dev but do project work, my team all the time gets asked for stuff, get a week or 2 into development then leadership is like "yeah, nevermind, we don't need that anymore." It is absolutely lost effort but I'd imagine stuff like that happens all the time. 

 

From a level design perspective, we create / experiment with all sorts of POIs of various themes / sizes, but need to prioritize those that need to be finished for the current alpha.

 

It's common to shelve some work for later and even some to never get finished.  World of production / development.

[Crypted]

On 4/15/2023 at 4:15 AM, Beelzebubs Ghost said:

Just as I suspected, mostly fluff that no-one needs, such as text lore on in game paper for a game that doesn't have any sense of coherent story, and no new zombies.

 

The game has gone to the dogs in my opinion, whether or not Rick Huenink was exaggerating when he said 1000 doors/variants updated (even a paltry number such as 100 new ones added) while new zombies has been neglected is just pathetic.

 

Clone army was a tiring turn off in the previous alpha - and as long as there's no inclusion of new zombies in this iteration, neither I; nor the bunch of friends I got into this game, will touch it.

 

I also share the sentiment of the 'Omg wowzers a new quest!' criticism.

 

Increased density of the same clones in any given area may be new in the sense the density wasn't the same as previous alphas, but that is little different to adding 'new' forest biomes by simply placing more grass and trees. Yeah, no.

 

Now bring on the hate, disapproval, dislikes, and la de dah. I will keep an eye out for A22 but as for A21, no thanks.

 

For those wondering why I'd post then not play, it's in hope that any dev reading this can relay the overbearing sameness up the chain and maybe they can dedicate the time to adding more zombies, even a few new ones would make all the difference.

 

 

Zombies are one of the main things in this game, so yeah, I agree with you on adding more zombies. At least four new zombies would make a big change to me anyway. I know there would still be a clone army of zombies here and there, but hey it's better and it's always nice to see new zombies anyway. I'm sure there going to add more zombies at some point before gold anyway. 

 

A list of zombies that I have:

• Miner zombie (I was thinking about the miner 69er perk and thought of this)
• Postman zombie
• Farmer (got removed) there is farm POI's
• Trackstar zombie (this zombie could run at you)
• Football player (got removed)
• Maybe a zombie with a knife in his/her head (just a thought)
• Armored zombie (when your gamestage is higher) This is a zombie that I really want to see get added in
• Another zombie dog that's different from the existing one (just a thought)
• Inmate zombie (because of prisons)
• Another cop zombie (that's different from the existing one)
• Guard zombie
• Bandit zombie (When bandits get added in because this can show that a bandit got infected and turned)
• A brute zombie that's very muscular
• Cheerleader zombie (got removed)

     These are just my ideas on new zombies, not saying that I want all of these zombies in. I'm just putting ideas out there for TFP and other people. 

     

Edited April 20, 2023 by Crypted (see edit history)

[DocRussel]

Haven't they already said they will not do a child zombie?

[Crypted]

1 hour ago, DocRussel said:

Haven't they already said they will not do a child zombie?

I don't know I just figured it would because it makes sense in a zombie apocalypse. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Crypted (see edit history)

[Mister Forgash]

Note about the child zombies:
In some places, killing zombie children is seen as too close to killing non-zombie children and because of laws 'n stuff, the short of it is, they'd be unable to sell their game in those markets. As much as there may be like... many dozens of people that want some kid zombs, If the Pimps had to pull their game from.. Germany or somewhere, It just isn't worth it from a business standpoint.