Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[IzPrebuilt]

11 hours ago, RipClaw said:

I do all of that but that doesn't mean I do everything to the same extent or enjoy everything equally. I doubt that there are players for whom this is the case.

In most cases, it's somewhere between "I'm doing this activity because it's necessary" and "I'm doing this activity because I love it". Hardly anyone will really hate an activity.

 

 

*Raises hand*, I kinda hate farming. That doesn't take away or add anything from what you said I just wanted to say it lmao

[Crater Creator]

7 hours ago, meganoth said:

they will surely not add a dozen or more perks because those don't grow on trees.

 

 

At least not until the learn-by-forestry system is ready, in Alpha 22.

 

5 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

The Reign of King Roland has ended.

The new reign of King Crater has started ... Long live the King!

(this message has been sponsored by the Royal Treasury and the Ministry of Truth)

 

I didn't want it to distract from the dev diary but... yes. I'm excited to take on the expanded role. 

[Riamus]

4 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

At least not until the learn-by-forestry system is ready, in Alpha 22.

Lol. I know someone who would do just fine with that considering they planted a forest surrounding my base while I was offline. When I joined (inside my base), I couldn't see much of anything from all the branches inside.  Heh.

[Demonoid74]

"looks out the window"

 

Are we there yet?

[Gronal]

So the past couple days I've been playing a perception only insane playthrough... and actually, I'm surprised how well spears are holding up so far.
It certainly wouldn't be viable with nightmare speed. Zombie speed is unchanged. Rushing the perk books, level 4+ javelin master and level 7+ perception makes it actually quite strong imo.

I actually think spears could become *over*powered in a21 funnily enough... we shall have to see. I can't wait.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Gronal (see edit history)

[Games'n'Grumble]

Hi @faatal! How were your holidays? Tell us about what you are working on now? Maybe you could show some new screenshot?
And I have a big request for you - could you please add to StatCompareMax parameters that are applied to vehicles through passive effects (LightIntensity, VehicleVelocityMaxPer and others)? 

[Spidey2832]

I'll still check it out as I have every alpha hit or miss since 7 or so and I don't expect folks to agree here with me, but massive miss on this alpha.  MASSIVE.  Returning water flowing and increased car damage were the only positives I got out of it.  Baffling, terrible choices.  Not only are we not advancing in most areas we are going backwards to less diverse systems, limiting user choices, and causing additional grind.  

 

Also here for the annual bandit rug pull!

Edited January 8, 2023 by Spidey2832 (see edit history)

[YoSoyFreeman]

Hello! I'm totally new here but i just wanted to say that I'm REALLY exited about the new levelling system.  It seems like it fixes all the problems currently present in the game. The water physics change is awesome, the new models are too. Hoping to see the new human models arrive, the current ones feel... Really dated. I don't like the new dew collector mechanic but is way better than nothing, right now there is no reason to not have always the buff of being full of water.

 

I just HOPE there was a limit to how many times an item can be repaired, or that they deal less damage when partially broken. Right know there is no fear or thinking when using weapons and tools and repair kits are fair to easy.

 

 

Glad to see the game is finally taking the survival path.

Edited January 8, 2023 by YoSoyFreeman (see edit history)

[Menace312]

17 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

 

At least not until the learn-by-forestry system is ready, in Alpha 22.

 

 

I didn't want it to distract from the dev diary but... yes. I'm excited to take on the expanded role. 

 

You're not around for a bit, and then things switch up on you... What is this madness?

[Fanatical_Meat]

3 hours ago, Spidey2832 said:

I'll still check it out as I have every alpha hit or miss since 7 or so and I don't expect folks to agree here with me, but massive miss on this alpha.  MASSIVE.  Returning water flowing and increased car damage were the only positives I got out of it.  Baffling, terrible choices.  Not only are we not advancing in most areas we are going backwards to less diverse systems, limiting user choices, and causing additional grind.  

 

Also here for the annual bandit rug pull!

How about we try it out before crapping on it.

[unholyjoe]

7 minutes ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

How about we try it out before crapping on it.

we must have had a leak with a21... dag nabit!

 

[Doomofman]

43 minutes ago, unholyjoe said:

we must have had a leak with a21... dag nabit!

 

 

Leaking water physics confirmed.... 

[Aldranon]

Will the curbside newspaper stands have the critical documents we need to advance?

I'm actually hoping they don't and just have paper (maybe also a toilet pistol because I do like them!)

 

I'll be tempted just to do that for 2-3 days and then destroy them, so I don't look in them again.

I'll probably let my role-play self, win most of the time and not do that, but it will be tempting...

[Jost Amman]

1 hour ago, Aldranon said:

Will the curbside newspaper stands have the critical documents we need to advance?

I'm actually hoping they don't and just have paper (maybe also a toilet pistol because I do like them!)

 

I'll be tempted just to do that for 2-3 days and then destroy them, so I don't look in them again.

I'll probably let my role-play self, win most of the time and not do that, but it will be tempting...

I know it's just a small detail... but I'd rather have them add a new type of item named "ruined book/magazine" that you can scrap to paper. Lots of people complain about finding tons of paper in the bookshelves of a Crack a Book store, and don't understand the paper represents ruined books and magazines.

 

That would add a bit of "realism" IMO and ease players into understanding why so much scrap.

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Jost Amman (see edit history)

[Crater Creator]

7 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

I know it's just a small detail... but I'd rather have them add a new type of item named "ruined book/magazine" that you can scrap to paper. Lots of people complain about finding tons of paper in the bookshelves of a Crack a Book store, and don't understand the paper represents ruined books and magazines.

 

That would add a bit of "realism" IMO and ease players into understanding why so much scrap.

 

 

We had generic books many alphas ago, that scrapped for like 20 paper. They’ve steadily removed intermediate items like that from the game, so I can't see them reversing direction now. The fishing weights might be the last thing we have that isn't directly usable, a raw material, or multipurpose.

 

Part of me misses the authenticity of finding, say, a trophy on a football player zombie. On the other hand, one could see it as a quality of life improvement, to remove unnecessary crafting steps. Really, it's the same argument for or against sharpened sticks that people have been having for a long time.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Crater Creator
clarifying remarks are about the current game (see edit history)

[zztong]

4 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

Part of me misses the authenticity of finding, say, a trophy on a football player zombie.

 

I miss them too. If we lose the fishing weights, I guess that whole "carry them or scrap them for fewer resources but easier carry" decision is gone then.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Crater Creator
quote was edited (see edit history)

[Rabbitslovecactus]

Hyped for A21, love all the new features and I am looking forward to trying it and seeing how it all works. Keep up the great work Pimps!

[faatal]

On 1/7/2023 at 3:38 AM, Roland said:

Three big attempts but.....three big misses. Sorry Poptard, your guesses are completely off tonight. 

 

I do agree and I think most would agree that having more perks in each attribute would be a welcome additon. I've got nothing against that suggestion. Here's to hoping the devs will agree when I or more likely Crater Creator (who is our new Super Moderator) relays your feedback to the dev team. Or maybe @faatal who frequents the forums quite regularly will see your analysis and consider it along with the team.

 

I can't believe you forgot about poor @faatal 

Yes, I am reading this stuff.

I actually generated an 8K RWG (in 1:45!) yesterday and played a few hours. Feels pretty good to me. After 2 days, I'm close to making my first dew collector, but need a bit more coin to buy the filter. My biggest complaint was that combat hits feel bland, probably by comparison to some of the games I played over the holidays.

On 1/7/2023 at 7:29 AM, meganoth said:

I think Joel is not involved much in 7D2D anymore because he was working as designer for the game and the design part is practically finished. They have made a list of necessary features the game still needs and programmers and graphics designers are mostly working on those. If testing and feedback shows there are adjustments to be done they will surely do that, but most of the game is largely fixed by now. 

 

I.e. we can assume that perks that don't work will get changed (Sexrex is a good example here), but they will surely not add a dozen or more perks because those don't grow on trees. They would need major development that is just not in the cards for a small team that still needs to add bandits and a story. And as can be seen the team has its hand full with that alone.

Joel is actually what is motivating the vehicle damage changes. He just had me tweak more values on Friday.

[faatal]

17 hours ago, Games'n'Grumble said:

Hi @faatal! How were your holidays? Tell us about what you are working on now? Maybe you could show some new screenshot?
And I have a big request for you - could you please add to StatCompareMax parameters that are applied to vehicles through passive effects (LightIntensity, VehicleVelocityMaxPer and others)? 

Holidays were good. I did a lot of game playing of around half a dozen games.

 

I mostly worked on bugs and tweaks this week. Not the type of stuff that makes for interesting pictures.

 

Sorry, I have no time for feature requests in the near future.

[Jost Amman]

7 hours ago, Crater Creator said:

We had generic books many alphas ago, that scrapped for like 20 paper. They’ve steadily removed intermediate items like that from the game, so I can't see them reversing direction now. The fishing weights might be the last thing we have that isn't directly usable, a raw material, or multipurpose.

I remember now... but in this case it would make sense to add them back, because with the new crafting system magazines will be again front and center of the looting routine.

[Robbing Zombie]

6 hours ago, faatal said:

I mostly worked on bugs and tweaks this week. Not the type of stuff that makes for interesting pictures.

 

 

Important work done in the shed then! Keep it up good Sir 

 

 

e. And since I'm not sure if you're faatal familiar with the legendary Fast Show, Imma put this explanatory video here, before you rip my user profile to pieces 😅
 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Robbing Zombie (see edit history)

[beerfly]

1 hour ago, Robbing Zombie said:

Important work done in the shed then! Keep it up good Sir 

 

How a Fun Pimp feels after we start another useless argument about a new feature, that we haven`t even tried.

[IrishGhost]

50 minutes ago, beerfly said:

How a Fun Pimp feels after we start another useless argument about a new feature, that we haven`t even tried.

See the great thing about this game is that even if you don't like a feature it will eventually get reworked.

New drinking system seems ass in theory but we will see how it plays out, but I don't have high hopes for it. Eating in this game already feels like a chore due to the ungodly amounts of food you have to eat/keep eating in a single day. Drinking less so. If I had to guess, finding water is going to be either really easy that makes the dew collector pointless, hard to find to where it's absolutely needed, or like how food is where it's common but you have to eat a whole stack of canned goods to sustain yourself for a single day. This reminds me that I need to mod the rates that the food/drink bar drain the next time I play.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds as if trading is tied to your level correct? That sounds awful. I like the option to buy something good if you save for it or know a good way to make money, which in my opinion is fine. The way it is now, buying good stuff is slow but a good chunk of that is because of the cap the traders give due to your level with them (or was that tied to gamestage? Either way). Make getting money hard but not too hard with a nice and balanced economy (easier said then done really). See that level 5 shotgun you've been eyeing? Yeah that will cost 5000 dukes but if you loot for five days straight and with a bit of luck, you can have it. New Vegas did this alright despite the prices for certain things being absurd. I personally don't like artificial caps to certain things. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by IrishGhost (see edit history)

[Blake_]

6 hours ago, faatal said:

Holidays were good. I did a lot of game playing of around half a dozen games.

 

I mostly worked on bugs and tweaks this week. Not the type of stuff that makes for interesting pictures.

 

Sorry, I have no time for feature requests in the near future.

Have you tried them? the vehicle changes I mean. Do they feel satisfying to you or are they a bit of a survival chore to the player?

 

I would say they sound ok, but it is a hard system to imagine vs "feeling" it as opposed to the water changes, hence the question.

[meganoth]

33 minutes ago, IrishGhost said:

See the great thing about this game is that even if you don't like a feature it will eventually get reworked.

New drinking system seems ass in theory but we will see how it plays out, but I don't have high hopes for it. Eating in this game already feels like a chore due to the ungodly amounts of food you have to eat/keep eating in a single day. Drinking less so. If I had to guess, finding water is going to be either really easy that makes the dew collector pointless, hard to find to where it's absolutely needed, or like how food is where it's common but you have to eat a whole stack of canned goods to sustain yourself for a single day. This reminds me that I need to mod the rates that the food/drink bar drain the next time I play.

 

Then you probably either use up too much stamina with your playstyle or you don't create good food. If all you eat is grilled meat but work in the mines and run around in heavy armor you just didn't adapt to your playstyle. I usually eat something once or twice a day (I think? I don't really notice it)

Nonetheless good idea to mod if you just don't like it.

 

33 minutes ago, IrishGhost said:

Now correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds as if trading is tied to your level correct? That sounds awful. I like the option to buy something good if you save for it or know a good way to make money, which in my opinion is fine. The way it is now, buying good stuff is slow but a good chunk of that is because of the cap the traders give due to your level with them (or was that tied to gamestage? Either way). Make getting money hard but not too hard with a nice and balanced economy (easier said then done really). See that level 5 shotgun you've been eyeing? Yeah that will cost 5000 dukes but if you loot for five days straight and with a bit of luck, you can have it. New Vegas did this alright despite the prices for certain things being absurd. I personally don't like artificial caps to certain things. 

 

It does sound very linear. And I think it would be good if the game had a value "price-multiplier" in the XMLs.

 

The trader would actually carry stuff that is ahead of your progression, but multiply the price of those items with "price-multiplier" * ("level above"+1). Price-multiplier could be something like 0.5. I.e. the trader would have a premium on the "better" stuff.

 

Result: When you are usually finding quality 2 AKs tops, you could buy a AK of quality 3 at price * 1.5, quality 4 at price * 2, quality 5 at price * 2.5 (compared to what they cost now).

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by meganoth (see edit history)