Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Roland]

7 hours ago, Philipp said:

Since the player needs to find books / comics to level up the crafting skill and it takes some time to find all books of one item, it is not most likely that I will find, for example, a steel sledgehammer before I can even craft one myself? This would take away the feelings of happiness for the next slegehammer Upgrades since I already have a good one. Feels trivial in this case then. 

If you stay in the forest biome and don’t take trader and quest related perks and don’t spam quests you should be able to craft much of your gear. You’ll still get lucky finds that exceed what you can craft but it’s a much better balance compared to A20. 
 

If you perk up in trader and quest skills and go to tougher biomes and rush to tier 4+ quests then the rewards you get and loot you find may often exceed what you can craft. 
 

it’s your choice. 

14 minutes ago, Phoenixshade35 said:

I've been checking since midnight for the latest experimental to show up on steam lol, i cannot wait to jump in and see how i do with the new system

It’s never released before noon so you can take a nap for about 4 hours before checking. 

[spacepiggio]

2 hours ago, Laran Mithras said:

I didn't watch any of the streamers; I have my own playstyle - like everyone else has theirs.

Didn't want to have the A21 experience spoiled - I want to discover it all on my own.

So anxious to try out all the new changes. I'm 6.2K hours in and foresee doubling it.

7DTD just doesn't get old.

I usually don't either but I took a peek, just wanted to look at the water mechanics & all they talked about was how much content that..."No Man's Sky" had,

never liked the game...drop the XP Kraken...chaos

[Robbing Zombie]

Speaking of servers, did something change about creating a dedicated server, or is it still just create the random gen map, insert the name, do the other stuff and go go?

 

[jdzane]

8 minutes ago, Roland said:

It’s never released before noon so you can take a nap for about 4 hours before checking. 

Noon central time?

[unholyjoe]

Just now, jdzane said:

Noon central time?

yep as tfp is in central america time zone.

 

[gpcstargate]

SOUNDs GOOD to Me .... Have a Great Day all.

[Teezer]

17 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

 

Unfortunately, like any game developer out there, the schedule is typically based on where they are located at.  Since they have to do some work today prior to mass release of the experimental, it is going to be based on where they are located at (US Central Time).  If it was based in Europe, you would probably be getting it in your afternoon while the US would be getting it in the morning.

Yeah makes sense, but like if it's released at early-mid afternoon, it allows EU ppl couple of hours of testing
That's something some American studios forget to think about sometimes, and they release their game/update at arround 5-6-7 p.m (CST for exemple) and miss most of the European market

Edited June 12, 2023 by Teezer (see edit history)

[Barra]

Its almost out ...unbelievable, TFP took their (looooooooooong) time, but now Im hyped again.

 

 

[Phoenixshade35]

17 minutes ago, Roland said:

It’s never released before noon so you can take a nap for about 4 hours before checking. 

but i don't wanna....i wanna bap zombies now......*proceeds to suck thumb*

 

i could never remember and am always impatient to play the new versions, its always been an amazing game

[jdifran]

16 minutes ago, Roland said:

If you stay in the forest biome and don’t take trader and quest related perks and don’t spam quests you should be able to craft much of your gear. You’ll still get lucky finds that exceed what you can craft but it’s a much better balance compared to A20. 
 

If you perk up in trader and quest skills and go to tougher biomes and rush to tier 4+ quests then the rewards you get and loot you find may often exceed what you can craft. 

 

On both Wayward Eko's and Guns, Nerds, and Steel's multiplayer streams, they were getting quality 3 and 4 end-game loot (comp xbows, steel clubs, etc.) as quest rewards before day 7.  Granted, they were playing efficiently, but that needs serious balancing.

[Doomofman]

24 minutes ago, Roland said:

It’s never released before noon so you can take a nap for about 4 hours before checking. 

 

But noon Central is less than 2 hours away

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Doomofman (see edit history)

[Neminsis]

2 hours ago, meganoth said:

Should the game be balanced for them?

The same could be said about any non standard, not perfectly min/maxed, disorganized or haphazard playstyle because we know that all 7 days players are letter perfect gaming pros or will be if only they stick with it long enough? This isn't Elden Ring and most of the people that play it are casual, so yes it would be a good idea to accommodate the broadest number of players as possible so long as it doesn't affect other players negatively or are exploitable to bypass progression. You want everyone to have the best experience possible, right?

 

3 hours ago, meganoth said:

Tools really are a bad example because it **really** doesn't matter who learns to craft them.

 Interesting that you'd take that position on tools. The reason why tools are unique is because you need to be able to craft them as soon as possible because every minute you have to wait is experience lost when you rely on that tool to get your experience. That isn't true for any other crafting task.
 

 

3 hours ago, meganoth said:

Xp and xp sharing has nothing to do with the topic of magazines and crafting progression.

But it has everything to do with it. If you're not questing you're relying on shared exp and/or what you can get from resource gathering to be able to progress your resource gathering perks, for example, and since your rate of exp gain is intrinsically linked to how much damage that tool does...

Right now gathering exp seems to be the same as it was when you could find that iron axe or pick in the trunk of a car before you even made it to your first trader, and could level up your tool crafting the same time you leveled your resource gathering and seems to be geared towards those conditions which have obviously changed.

5 hours ago, meganoth said:

while you don't need lead or brass this early in the game.

Except that they sell at the trader, sure.

[Thaledwyn]

47 minutes ago, Roland said:

It’s never released before noon so you can take a nap for about 4 hours before checking. 

 

As long as it does not get delayed for another week everythin is OK 🙂

(because this would nullify my week of instant holidays I took after reading the release date 😉 )

[SittingDuck]

will it be a before lunch launch? I am so thirthy for a new alpha... let me fill my empty jar at your river of content....

[unholyjoe]

8 minutes ago, SittingDuck said:

will it be a before lunch launch? I am so thirthy for a new alpha... let me fill my empty jar at your river of content....

no new content for you... there are no more empty jars. but you can sip it from your hands instead.

[mprojekt]

14 minutes ago, unholyjoe said:

no new content for you... there are no more empty jars. but you can sip it from your hands instead.

I am trying to imagine boiling water in my cupped hands, over a campfire. All that my brain can envision is pain.

[SittingDuck]

18 minutes ago, unholyjoe said:

no new content for you... there are no more empty jars. but you can sip it from your hands instead.

noooooooooooo

[Riamus]

2 minutes ago, mprojekt said:

I am trying to imagine boiling water in my cupped hands, over a campfire. All that my brain can envision is pain.

You need a pot to boil water so no hands needed.  Where the jar comes from that you put the water into once boiled, that's a mystery. 

[mprojekt]

2 minutes ago, Riamus said:

You need a pot to boil water so no hands needed.  Where the jar comes from that you put the water into once boiled, that's a mystery. 

Could be worse. We could be using Genuine Dehydrated Water(tm), "Just Add Air."

 

And now I am nostalgic for the Space Quest games.

[unholyjoe]

8 minutes ago, mprojekt said:

I am trying to imagine boiling water in my cupped hands, over a campfire. All that my brain can envision is pain.

we still have the pain killers in game... and IRL

 

[Riamus]

2 minutes ago, mprojekt said:

Could be worse. We could be using Genuine Dehydrated Water(tm), "Just Add Air."

 

And now I am nostalgic for the Space Quest games.

I love those games!  I played SQ3 back near when it was released and before you had any real access to online walkthroughs and help and without an instruction manual so I had to learn all the text commands through trial and error and figure out how to get through the game on my own.  That was a challenge but it was a great thing when I completed it.  I was probably about 13 at the time. 

 

I keep thinking about grabbing the set off Steam when it has the 75% off sales on it but haven't yet.

[ssrjazz]

*continues to hit F5 on his SteamDB Watchlist page*

[mprojekt]

1 minute ago, unholyjoe said:

we still have the pain killers in game... and IRL

 

Thank goodness for that! I will eat a Health Bar as well.

I have always thought of the Health Bars as up-cycled, rebranded, US Army D-Ration "chocolate" bars from 1940.

[Eduho]

Se me esta haciendo un poco larga la tarde , a ver si lanzan ya a la bestia 🙂

 

[Mister Forgash]

6 hours ago, Neminsis said:

At the beginning of this conversation I used tool crafting as an example specifically because the looters do have a self interest in wanting better tools in order to breach pois quicker. Which puts them in direct competition with the lumberjack, the miner and the builder in that first 7 days, and since you can craft them in your inventory up until iron...why wouldn't you? Sure, eventually the mistake will become obvious, or maybe not because by that time the looter is already flush with dukes and can just get what they need from the trader.

I don't want to say your concern isn't invalid, but I don't think it'll be as bad as you're making it out to be. There are many RPGs throughout time where sub-optimal builds are still entertaining, but yes, they come with their own challenges. And people do it because of that challenge, they do it for the memes, or they do it just because it tickles them right. But I think there needs to be some kind of self-awareness when you're playing an extremist style that you are going to feel that the game wasn't balanced around it.

 

All that said, in the early game, I imagine your looters wont be too terribly far from base, maybe one unlucky farmer/miner/builder/lumberjack can take a few minutes to visit the looter's drop chest for magazines- I feel like, even if communication is very basic, even if the looter is a huge jerk that just reads every thing- they can announce when they hit a new crafting tier and put new tools in the drop chest for someone to deliver. 

 

Please let us know how it's working and how the team adapts over the next few days, or if it's an utter poostorm.