Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[BFT2020]

6 hours ago, Roland said:

They're working on a pop-up message that will remind you periodically to remove any empty cups or mugs you might have on your desk near your monitor because they don't want empty containers in the game or near the game.

@%$#, I had to clean my iPad after spitting milk on it

[Adam the Waster]

13 hours ago, beerfly said:

Offtopic, what you Pimps are working on the next 21.x release, what are the biggest @%$#s or stoppers, just curious, I won`t tell anyone ? 

They are playing star field and bear fu-  I mean

 

Borders gate

Edited October 1, 2023 by Adam the Waster (see edit history)

[beerfly]

20 minutes ago, Adam the Waster said:

They are playing star field and bear fu-  I mean

 

Borders gate

While most of us are having more than a pretty good time in this current state of the game, we are curious about next one, I know, a bit of hint would be good though. 

[Laz Man]

On 9/28/2023 at 12:37 PM, Jost Amman said:

As I said some time ago... they're all playing Stafield right now. 

 

Imagine starfield spaceships landing at those helipads at the trader....jking...😅

[Adam the Waster]

1 hour ago, Laz Man said:

 

Imagine starfield spaceships landing at those helipads at the trader....jking...😅

They wouldn't like my ship.... especially trader jen.... Bob may like it cuz it's just like him

[Adam the Waster]

New poi are district areas..

[Adam the Waster]

And new pallets and recycled cardboard...... yeeeeeeaaah 

Just now, Adam the Waster said:

And new pallets and recycled cardboard...... yeeeeeeaaah 

Looks like we are getting a metal one too! 

[FramFramson]

What's meant by "Districts"? POIs clustered together as a sort of a multi-POI neighbourhood?

[Adam the Waster]

15 minutes ago, FramFramson said:

What's meant by "Districts"? POIs clustered together as a sort of a multi-POI neighbourhood?

I'm just putting on what the post said many pois and districts added. Or something I'll let u know If I'm wrong 

[Laz Man]

8 hours ago, Adam the Waster said:

New poi are district areas..

 

These screenshots were recently posted on the 7D2D facebook page.  Here was the text that went along with it.

"Just one of many new locations coming to A22 and console. Here is a look at a new commercial business strip. Great work by Earl"

 

This was a concept I had created a long while ago and finally had time to come back around and finish it.  I believe it is a T2 questable.

[Old Crow]

1 hour ago, Laz Man said:

 

I believe it is a T2 questable.

 

You're a T2 questable!

[MichaelL.]

3 hours ago, Old Crow said:

 

You're a T2 questable!

 

[BFT2020]

Just want to reiterated the love of the new models and the work that the POI designers did in A21+.  Especially the work that went into re-doing the existing POIs to get them up to the new standard prior to final release.

[meilodasreh]

I hope the new cardcoard pallets replace the old models with actual neatly stacked cardboard boxes.

These really scream "hi there, we're obviously lootable boxes, wouldn't you like to take a look what useful stuff might be inside us?"

...just that they're completely non-interactive non-containers despite their looks. To me that has always been one of the most irritating things in the game.

 

And while I'm at it, will one of these other annoying/irritating things be addressed some day?

 

-throwables (grenades, molotovs) are too much likely to being deflected by hot air, instead of going through seemingly wide open gaps.

 can't count how often I hurt myself more than the zombies I aimed for.

 Maybe a trajectory outline would be possible? Some other games do this and I find it very helpful.

 

-coordinated S.W.A.T. zombie ambushes

 that behaviour would fit to bandits, but not to zombies. I'd like to see the whole "zone-trigger them all at once" thingy reworked.

 

-weird zombie insta-hit duck animation

 Makes me wonder if it was coded like "if zombie spots player then reduce player health 10%, then start duck/attack animation"

 

-minibike engine sound

 ...I mean...really!

 

-and of course bring back JA...woodle. He's a great guy.

 hehe...thought I was starting that other ja...thing again didn't you?

 

Anyway, said things are my top list of what chews away my fun.

Well also weather system, but I know that's a thing that's being looked into already.

Edited October 2, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[zztong]

1 hour ago, meilodasreh said:

These really scream "hi there, we're obviously lootable boxes, wouldn't you like to take a look what useful stuff might be inside us?"

...just that they're completely non-interactive non-containers despite their looks. To me that has always been one of the most irritating things in the game.

 

If you give cardboard boxes loot then there will be no filler for certain POIs, like warehouses. If there's no filler then to avoid giving out too much loot you have to make the POI empty. For POI design, there still needs to be "filler" that doesn't contain loot. Those cardboard boxes are the filler.

 

I tried making non-loot variants of the store crates. They were not well received. Folks didn't like that they couldn't tell which crates had loot.

 

You could make a "useless loot" table and have the cardboard boxes give out whatever is on that list, but right now everything you get in loot has a function.

 

What would you put in a "useless loot" table? 1 Iron, 1 Plastic, 1 Cloth, 1 Lead, 1 Brass, 1 Paper, 1 Stone, 1 Grass, 1 Wood? I tried putting cobwebs in a similar loot table. That caused problems reported by overhauls that nobody looted the cobwebs so the game continued to carry around the all the inventory data.

 

I'm open to suggestions, but right now I think it's a good thing that boxes aren't lootable.

[NekoPawtato]

8 hours ago, zztong said:

What would you put in a "useless loot" table? 1 Iron, 1 Plastic, 1 Cloth, 1 Lead, 1 Brass, 1 Paper, 1 Stone, 1 Grass, 1 Wood? I tried putting cobwebs in a similar loot table. That caused problems reported by overhauls that nobody looted the cobwebs so the game continued to carry around the all the inventory data.

 

I'm open to suggestions, but right now I think it's a good thing that boxes aren't lootable.

Maybe the loot can be whatever materials you would get from it if you tried to break it? Those boxes are really good source of polymers which is needed for dew collectors early on. I'd hate to have to decide whether to break the container for polymer or loot it for items (assuming the container "poofs" when looted like trash)

Edited October 3, 2023 by NekoPawtato (see edit history)

[Laz Man]

13 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

Just want to reiterated the love of the new models and the work that the POI designers did in A21+.  Especially the work that went into re-doing the existing POIs to get them up to the new standard prior to final release.

 

Thanks, we do our best not to throw away any old POIs.  Most of them had really cool ideas but were limited in shapes when they were originally made.

 

Plus we know the fans have alot of fond memories of many of them.  For example, The Ostrich Hotel had a memorable Atrium design that persisted into its remake.

 

Another legacy POI that is currently being worked on is the football stadium.  I am currently tinkering around with a couple of concepts for its remake and hope it makes it into A22.

 

[beerfly]

5 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

Plus we know the fans have alot of fond memories of many of them.  

This ^

 

Best part is that you guys are making not only new POIs, but new very good and future best memories among all of us.

We can`t be thankful enough, but just wanna say keep kicking butts. It is awesome !  

[Blake_]

On 9/27/2023 at 8:23 PM, Roland said:

They're hoping we will count A22 development from the day they start the A22 dev diary so they can come in under a year...

Lol, They are already on build 70+ of a22 and still no new thead, that truly is dedication to not being called untrustworthy or something hurtful and mean like "ugly kitchen cupboard devs" (lol) . If I cheat on you with another moderator but then I hide him in a closet while  immediately spouting nasty things here, would you start counting from the moment I cheated on you or from the instant you can read me? I call hackz.

 

On a side note, the time they take is never important, it's the dedication and passion of this team that really gets things done, and also in the right way. This game could use three more years to 1.0 to make it the best thing possible for the listed features. Aside from dlcs that is. It's a given that every alpha is greater than the previous one at this point. Why the rush? 

[RipClaw]

On 10/1/2023 at 8:46 AM, Roland said:

They're working on a pop-up message that will remind you periodically to remove any empty cups or mugs you might have on your desk near your monitor because they don't want empty containers in the game or near the game.

Great, because you wrote that I need to change my background image to one of empty bottles and cans just to show the game who the boss is.

 

 

[meilodasreh]

13 hours ago, zztong said:

If you give cardboard boxes loot then there will be no filler for certain POIs, like warehouses. If there's no filler then to avoid giving out too much loot you have to make the POI empty. For POI design, there still needs to be "filler" that doesn't contain loot. Those cardboard boxes are the filler.

[...]

I'm open to suggestions, but right now I think it's a good thing that boxes aren't lootable.

Doesn't interfere with what I was pointing at, and there are lots of possible solutions.

The thing that @%$#s me is: nobody would accurately tape and stack empty boxes like that. That would only have been done with stuff you would store.

Just check some of the boxes in your attic for what's inside...mostly old toys, clothes, whatever more or less useless stuff out of plastic, cloth, metal...

 

So, suggestions:

-make a model that these non-interactable deco/filler boxes look obviously opened, e.g. open lids, a little squashed, dented, scratched, whatever...these then can only be harvested for a little paper. When you look at them you should immediately think "nothing left there but the empty shell"

 

-keep current "neatly stacked boxes" and make them lootable containers, with a limited loot table like <15 scrap polymer, <10 clothes, <10 scrap iron and stuff. Nothing "overpowered", but still useful at least at the beginning. Like a bigger/better version of the regular trash piles on the ground.

 

-these "neatly stacked boxes" should only be found in household attics, cellars and alike...see it as normal "household garbage storage" that's of no actual use for people but still considered too worthy to throw away...I bet everybody has these exact boxes somewhere right?

 

-a slightly different model of the "neatly stacked" ones (maybe boxes added with brand labels) could also be used in warehouse poi storage rooms. These should of course contain more better loot.

 

-or - as I initially suggested - just replace these "neatly stacked boxes" with the new compressed cardboard pallets, these also make good deco/fillers without creating the impression of a lootable container, just for harvesting a bit of paper and wood

 

-or the most simple solution for my point:

just get totally rid of the "neatly stacked boxes" model, and use other models that don't scream "hey I'm surely lootable" to deco-fill otherwise empty storage shelves

There are already lots in the game, just use one of the many shapes like round pieces of air ducts, diagonal plates/security gates...just anything that looks like somebody shoved some random piece of sheet wood in the shelve. Just to give one example out of countless, there are so many cool shapes already.

And of course the possibilities for new ones that could be modelled are endless.

 

-or adjust the loot table (slighty decrease amount) for the current "good" storage boxes, and replace all "neatly stacked boxes" with these actual loot boxes.

then also everything that looks lootable is indeed lootable, raised amount of containers compensated by slightly less content, so no balancing change, no overpowering, none of that.

 

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[VoltraLux]

6 hours ago, Laz Man said:

 

Thanks, we do our best not to throw away any old POIs.  Most of them had really cool ideas but were limited in shapes when they were originally made.

 

Plus we know the fans have alot of fond memories of many of them.  For example, The Ostrich Hotel had a memorable Atrium design that persisted into its remake.

 

Another legacy POI that is currently being worked on is the football stadium.  I am currently tinkering around with a couple of concepts for its remake and hope it makes it into A22.

 

 

What's the deal with the art deco version of the Ostrich?

[Grimael]

Having a visible throw arc would be lame and out of place in this game with its nitty gritty kinda realistic style. This isn't teletubies unleashed, however, one can presume since your character survived this long that they have certain basic skills down. Including hand eye coordination. To that end, it would make sense if you character could atleast tell when they are going to hit something right infront of them with a moli. Maybe make a short range dot onscreen when you have a throwable out that indicates the area space needed, you know, a dot thingy that overlays on objects within a short range, with the range being...say...molitov splash area for example. If you are in that area and have a throwable out, you will see a dot on the block which you will be hitting, since the block may be partially transparent like bars, it would be apt to have it pulsate slowly (slow blinking) at the same time so that when just the edge of the dot is touching and it's hard to tell, you can still tell immediately that you will be hitting that block before you do something stupid. Then you can adjust your aim. Or just the pulsating and no dot. Keeping things hard there like now, while still keeping the self immolation to a minimum. That sounds fine. Just some pulsating of relevant blocks in a certain range would work fine really.

[meilodasreh]

wait...did you really just say that a trajectory outline is teletubby stuff and too unrealistic for this game, and then sketch an idea with visible dots and blocks that start to blink as a solution?

Excuses my dear sir, I just can't follow you. 🤔

Edited October 3, 2023 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[zztong]

6 hours ago, meilodasreh said:

make a model that these non-interactable deco/filler boxes look obviously opened, e.g. open lids, a little squashed, dented, scratched, whatever...these then can only be harvested for a little paper. When you look at them you should immediately think "nothing left there but the empty shell"

 

-keep current "neatly stacked boxes" and make them lootable containers, with a limited loot table like <15 scrap polymer, <10 clothes, <10 scrap iron and stuff. Nothing "overpowered", but still useful at least at the beginning. Like a bigger/better version of the regular trash piles on the ground.

 

It might look a little weird for a warehouse to be full of open boxes, but I'd be cool with this if they were to do it. My hope is the block name for the current blocks would be used for the "open" boxes so that we don't have to visit each POI and replace all the blocks. Then you could have new block names for the closed ones.