Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[CyberHellKen]

21 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

I used the "most likely" card. It is my escape clause.

Hmm, fine, you win this round.

[gunner1912]

On 5/9/2023 at 1:22 PM, faatal said:

Yes. Wasteland is death. You should only be going there if you are well prepared.

wasteland has never felt more difficult just more annoying due to debris and smoke to the point that i dont even want to go because of visual is there a loot multiplier or anything that makes it worth going? 

[beerfly]

37 minutes ago, gunner1912 said:

wasteland has never felt more difficult just more annoying due to debris and smoke to the point that i dont even want to go because of visual is there a loot multiplier or anything that makes it worth going? 

Yes, Wasteland gives best loot chance, after that, lowering the chance are in the order Snowbiome, Desert, Forest.

 

And some more info here:

https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Looting

Edited May 12, 2023 by beerfly (see edit history)

[Fanatical_Meat]

Been away for some time, is there a consensus or at least a consensus estimate as to whenA21 happens?

[Doomofman]

Sometime between next weekend and infinity basically

[Cazmyr]

Just saw the tweet about the Thick 44 (RIP) tribute, player craftable flag going into A21. Thank you, Fun Pimps, for putting this into the game and once again showing that you are a class act and appreciate your relationship with your community and what they bring to the table. 

 

 

[Jost Amman]

2 hours ago, gunner1912 said:

wasteland has never felt more difficult just more annoying due to debris and smoke to the point that i dont even want to go because of visual is there a loot multiplier or anything that makes it worth going? 

I never understood people saying this... what would be "difficult" for you, then?

Having your ass blasted as soon as you enter the area?

I sincerely don't understand what difficulty is for some people. 

[Riamus]

31 minutes ago, Jost Amman said:

I never understood people saying this... what would be "difficult" for you, then?

Having your ass blasted as soon as you enter the area?

I sincerely don't understand what difficulty is for some people. 

Well, harder zombies would be more difficult.  Debris that makes it annoying to drive is technically more difficult but it's more of an annoyance than what I'd consider actual difficulty because driving is really just a way to get around and not the actual gameplay, imo.  As far as smoke, I don't ever have problems with visibility except with fog in the snow biome and even then, it isn't enough to bother me.  The only time fog (or blood moon fog) bothers me is when I want to shoot something at a great distance.  For me, my only real issue with the wasteland is the wind sound that is so loud and so fake sounding.  But I just start to tune that out after a while.  I wish we had more sound settings.  Certain things make is virtually impossible to hear what someone is saying (like the auger or sometimes the 4x4).

[Laz Man]

I'm sure faatal has some ideas to make the wasteland harder.  For example make all zombies there demos....😅

[RipClaw]

5 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

I'm sure faatal has some ideas to make the wasteland harder.  For example make all zombies there demos....😅

I think then a lot of players would have fun blowing up all the demolishers.

 

[Syphon583]

15 hours ago, Roland said:

It is a virus that infects the zombies but the infection we get in the game isn’t zombie infection. It’s just regular bacterial infection that gets cured by antibiotics. Most likely our character is immune to the zombie virus. If we die we just get eaten. We don’t turn.

The fact that this keeps having to be explained just proves how important it is that this game receives some story telling and lore. Without any context, most (if not all) players who play this game think, "I've just been bitten/scratched by a zombie and I have an infection debuff. I must be infected with the same virus that turned these people into zombies." It's common sense and a completely logical conclusion to come to.

 

Now, of course the game is still in EA and I know TFP have said a "story" is coming. I just hope that when that comes, a little detail a given to explaining how you are possibly immune to the zombie virus and that getting injured by them doesn't mean you are going to turn when that counter reaches 100%. Otherwise players will continue to ask the same questions.

13 hours ago, Adun0608 said:

Due to several pre-release live streams, players have high expectations for the game, and the longer the game is delayed, the higher the players' expectations and demands for the game quality. This also makes it more likely for players to be disappointed.

I always love posts like this. Like, what is the expected outcome? We know the alpha is going to be released soon, but TFP aren't going to rush things just because it might disappoint a few players. There will be a group of players who will be disappointed either way. Releasing a week or two sooner than you would like isn't going to change that.

[Fanatical_Meat]

53 minutes ago, Syphon583 said:

The fact that this keeps having to be explained just proves how important it is that this game receives some story telling and lore. Without any context, most (if not all) players who play this game think, "I've just been bitten/scratched by a zombie and I have an infection debuff. I must be infected with the same virus that turned these people into zombies." It's common sense and a completely logical conclusion to come to.

 

Now, of course the game is still in EA and I know TFP have said a "story" is coming. I just hope that when that comes, a little detail a given to explaining how you are possibly immune to the zombie virus and that getting injured by them doesn't mean you are going to turn when that counter reaches 100%. Otherwise players will continue to ask the same questions.

I always love posts like this. Like, what is the expected outcome? We know the alpha is going to be released soon, but TFP aren't going to rush things just because it might disappoint a few players. There will be a group of players who will be disappointed either way. Releasing a week or two sooner than you would like isn't going to change that.

I’ve noticed this too, people have crazy expectations and frankly unrealistic expectations. The Pimps are good at what they do. This does not mean they have the skills/knowledge/financing to make a game AI breakthrough that nobody before them has done.

bandit AI is the one I tend to hear the most unrealistic expectations about.

[Mumpfy]

I think we can all agree that we have no issues if they delay gold +10 years from now to have a bandits AI feature. go for it pimps not in a hurry here. nodoby will complain. If there is something that we can say about your fan base is that we are patient and polite about timming.

[Fanatical_Meat]

7 minutes ago, Mumpfy said:

I think we can all agree that we have no issues if they delay gold +10 years from now to have a bandits AI feature. go for it pimps not in a hurry here. nodoby will complain. If there is something that we can say about your fan base is that we are patient and polite about timming.

I used to think that way, I no longer agree. Time to finish up 7D2D and ideally do it before the game engine is a dinosaur. Next get working on new game or 2nd version of 7D2D with a more modern game engine that is capable of better things like more entities or better visuals or better AI or more players or all of them and even more.

Edit: I know one or two games are in development, I simply mean use the saved manpower toward a new project instead of chasing and likely never attaining perfection with 7D2D. 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Fanatical_Meat (see edit history)

[hiemfire]

2 hours ago, Riamus said:

For me, my only real issue with the wasteland is the wind sound that is so loud and so fake sounding.

Iirc this is part of the "ambient" sounds track. You can turn that down in the audio sliders, at least you could in A19, but if you have air drops on I recommend not turning that slider to 0 because the audio indicator for the plane, its engine noise, is also part of the "ambient" track so you wouldn't hear it as it flew by.

[Riamus]

2 hours ago, hiemfire said:

Iirc this is part of the "ambient" sounds track. You can turn that down in the audio sliders, at least you could in A19, but if you have air drops on I recommend not turning that slider to 0 because the audio indicator for the plane, its engine noise, is also part of the "ambient" track so you wouldn't hear it as it flew by.

Yeah, I like the rest of the ambient sounds. It is only that one.  The biggest issue as I said is hearing someone talking with certain sounds and you can't really adjust that.  The voice sound option appears to adjust microphone input volume/gain for voice going out rather than controlling voice volume coming in.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[Mister Forgash]

15 minutes ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

Time to finish up 7D2D and ideally do it before the game engine is a dinosaur. Next get working on new game or 2nd version of 7D2D with a more modern game engine that is capable of better things like more entities or better visuals or better AI or more players or all of them and even more.

 

I'm largely in agreement with this- there's a few more things I'd really love to see, but if the feature/s just isn't projected to have the impact desired compared to the time that would be needed to be put in- That's where mods come in and it seems the Pimps have done a fantastic job in keeping their game accessible for those that feel savvy enough to experiment. 

 

I think it's a safe bet there will be tweaks, new ideas, or a phat megapatch or two of content post gold, and as much as I look forward to what the finished product of what 7D2D might be, I'm even more curious to see what the result will be with the lessons learned, the staff already in place, and the start up funds already available when TFP is ready to give us a taste of their next product.

[Fanatical_Meat]

24 minutes ago, Mister Forgash said:

 

I'm largely in agreement with this- there's a few more things I'd really love to see, but if the feature/s just isn't projected to have the impact desired compared to the time that would be needed to be put in- That's where mods come in and it seems the Pimps have done a fantastic job in keeping their game accessible for those that feel savvy enough to experiment. 

 

I think it's a safe bet there will be tweaks, new ideas, or a phat megapatch or two of content post gold, and as much as I look forward to what the finished product of what 7D2D might be, I'm even more curious to see what the result will be with the lessons learned, the staff already in place, and the start up funds already available when TFP is ready to give us a taste of their next product.

Well said.

Even in its current state it is a finished $20 game in my opinion. I believe the average selling price as of a few years ago was $18.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Fanatical_Meat (see edit history)

[RipClaw]

1 hour ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

Time to finish up 7D2D and ideally do it before the game engine is a dinosaur.

You realize that the engine is updated with every major release ? A21 is based on Unity 2021 LTS as far as I know. And A22 will probably then be based on Unity 2022 LTS.
 

[Fanatical_Meat]

1 hour ago, RipClaw said:

You realize that the engine is updated with every major release ? A21 is based on Unity 2021 LTS as far as I know. And A22 will probably then be based on Unity 2022 LTS.
 

Sure do and it still cannot have a bunch of zombies on the screen at the same time.

[MichaelL.]

7 hours ago, Laz Man said:

I'm sure faatal has some ideas to make the wasteland harder.  For example make all zombies there demos....😅

 

LOL!  I made a little mod that would scatter "shock rocks" and boulders in the wasteland.  The small stones would electrocute whatever walked into them, then self destruct after a few seconds -  unless you picked them up in time (also spawned them under water in the other biomes).  The boulders could be harvested for a handful of shock rocks.  These could be placed down again to slow zombies, or if you got enough (and skilled up in electocutioner) you could craft them into reusable barriers that would last longer  and could be repaired with fresh stones - great for placing in doorways.   (never did put it out - did it mostly for practice)

[khzmusik]

8 hours ago, RipClaw said:

You realize that the engine is updated with every major release ? A21 is based on Unity 2021 LTS as far as I know. And A22 will probably then be based on Unity 2022 LTS.
 

 

The engine is updated, but they don't (and can't) update to the newest features of the game engine. For instance, 7D2D will almost certainly never update its Unity render pipeline, because it would mean a huge chunk of the code would have to be rewritten.

 

So even if the engine itself isn't a "dinosaur," the game could be limited to only "dinosaur" features. Changing this would mean adding months - maybe years - to the development time, so it's not a bad notion that TFP try to finish the game before that "dinosaur" implementation becomes outdated.

 

Of course, I think TFP is aware of this and that's why they're trying to push for gold soon.

[RipClaw]

8 hours ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

Sure do and it still cannot have a bunch of zombies on the screen at the same time.

This is because a newer engine or different engine does not automatically solve all problems.

 

Games with a lot of enemies always have a static map. In 7 Days to Die, however, we have a completely destructible world. This means that an enemy must constantly recalculate its path.

 

In A21, the more distant enemies will recalculate their path less frequently. This should improve performance.
 

[Fanatical_Meat]

7 hours ago, RipClaw said:

This is because a newer engine or different engine does not automatically solve all problems.

 

Games with a lot of enemies always have a static map. In 7 Days to Die, however, we have a completely destructible world. This means that an enemy must constantly recalculate its path.

 

In A21, the more distant enemies will recalculate their path less frequently. This should improve performance.
 

Of course and obviously a newer game engine is more capable than an older game engine, that’s the whole point of newer ones otherwise there would be only one kind.

Point being what was posted above, lessons learned from 7D2D can be applied to a new game with a new game engine.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Fanatical_Meat (see edit history)

[Morloc]

On 5/12/2023 at 1:20 AM, CyberHellKen said:

Hmm, fine, you win this round.

 

Don't give him too many points (it's on the Official Wiki). 💩

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀