Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Mister Forgash]

23 minutes ago, meganoth said:

Yes, but 3 more zombies will not change that perceptibly. You would get 3 lookalikes instead. That is the point I am making: If they don't add dozens of new zombies players will still complain about not enough variation.

While I'm more in the camp of giving preexisting zombies an alternate outfit(/coloration scheme/whatever) or two as compared to padding the roaster with a couple new zombie types entirely, I understand what you're getting at. Either way, there's going to be a lot of repetition with enemies. Sadly, as someone without a lot of technical knowledge, and being the felloq on the outside looking in, it just '-obviously- should be so simple!' to give us all the zombies we could ever want.. And then you realize we're stuck within the confines of the framework that has been designed. I do not envy the Pimps with the choices they must make as the game draws nearer to gold- Us fans are ravenous, and each and everyone one of us knows exactly what the game needs, even when we're wrong. 
.. After Steve gets a blue shirt variant, maybe we can give Matt 1 skeleton gore pile. ❤️

[Crypted]

13 minutes ago, KOLAND said:

hello everyone guys. Yesterday I watched a recording of the developers' stream, they showed a lot of new different buildings, but I did not see the water objects that they showed on the art. There were yachts and, if I'm not mistaken, oil rigs. Can you please tell me if they are planned to be added with new water at all? And will a raft or boats float there for convenience? And will there be dangers in the form of sharks or zombie sharks? Or even new types of drowned zombies, for example? Thanks in advance if anyone answers me. I immediately apologize if there are errors in my text.

I don't remember seeing any yachts or oil rigs and I think they said no about adding a boat. As far as I know there aren't going to be any dangers In the water. 

[Riamus]

19 minutes ago, KOLAND said:

hello everyone guys. Yesterday I watched a recording of the developers' stream, they showed a lot of new different buildings, but I did not see the water objects that they showed on the art. There were yachts and, if I'm not mistaken, oil rigs. Can you please tell me if they are planned to be added with new water at all? And will a raft or boats float there for convenience? And will there be dangers in the form of sharks or zombie sharks? Or even new types of drowned zombies, for example? Thanks in advance if anyone answers me. I immediately apologize if there are errors in my text.

There may eventually be a raft of some sort, but they aren't likely to add sharks or other underwater creatures.  Water POI might get added considering they have done some work on a yacht, but if they don't end up making an easy way to access such POI, then they will probably decide not to add them.

52 minutes ago, Crypted said:

The Fun Pimps said in the interview with Guns, Nerds and Steel that they were thinking about adding more zombies then Joel said that he designed most of the new ones, but they didn't pull the trigger on them. Rick said maybe a couple before gold. So (If I heard this correctly) then shouldn't some of the zombies be already done or almost done. 

Yes, they said they are looking at adding a couple more zombies, but my point was that more unique zombies will have significantly less impact in adding variety than using skins.  With skins, you could easily have 50+ different looks to the zombies while still having the lower number of unique zombies.  And 50 is all extremely low estimate.  Add in a few hairstyles, half a dozen colors of clothing, and a few skin tones for each zombie and you can reach over 100 combinations easily with relatively little effort considering they are already coding a system for bandits that could be implemented for zombies unless I miss my guess.  And, honestly, if they didn't plan it to handle both, they really should have as the difference needed to do so would be minimal if planned ahead.

[Old Crow]

15 hours ago, Syphon583 said:

 

So, aside from having to carry a physical item in your inventory, what exactly are you expecting here? Because if that's it, cool, I guess?

 

Delivery from one trader to another, I guess. Could be a contract, or supplies, etc.

5 hours ago, Matt115 said:

They were working on random generated zombie but they give up

 

 

 

 

Left 4 Dead did it, they can't?

[Riamus]

One thing I noticed with the dev stream was their difficulty with questions because of the rate people were talking.  It made the question and answer part almost pointless.  I know they aren't doing Q&A in the next streams, but I would like to offer a suggestion for any future Q&A they may have...

 

Having watched other Twitch streams that had Q&A with a lot of talking by the viewers, others have had one or more moderators who would grab questions from chat during the main stream and place them in something like a shared Google Doc so they can easily be seen when it is time to answer questions.  If the moderators are familiar with what the devs will or will not answer, they can skip questions that won't be answered to make it even more condensed for the devs.  Just a suggestion as something that works very well for others and would likely greatly improve things for the devs here as well.

[jorbascrumps]

24 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

Left 4 Dead did it, they can't?

 

What an awful argument.

[Matt115]

30 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

 

Left 4 Dead did it, they can't?

It was early idea - it was scrapped early. zombies doesn't looked too good

[Old Crow]

1 hour ago, jorbascrumps said:

 

What an awful argument.

 

How is it an awful argument?

[beerfly]

26 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

 

How is it an awful argument

Not awful, just two different games as architecture and how much it could take for the sake of our HW.

 

Would be cool though, I am also in for more variety of zeds, but we can't have anything. Fingers crossed, though.

[Old Crow]

Just now, beerfly said:

Not awful, just two different games as architecture and how much it could take for the sake of our HW.

 

Would be cool though, I am also in for more variety of zeds, but we can't have anything. Fingers crossed, though.

 

I'd at least like to see the cut zombies return with new models. I'm not really sure why they were cut to begin with.

[Roland]

They were cut because they weren’t up to the standards of the new models and would have looked horribly out of place next to them. 
 

the team has been completely focused on bandit models and character models since that time so there has been no time to do more zombie models. Once they are finished with bandits and player characters, if there is time, they will do a few more zombie models. But they’ve put off the other entities in the game long enough and these others they’ve been working on are must haves before the game can be considered done whereas more zombie models would be nice but not necessary. 

[Old Crow]

6 minutes ago, Roland said:

They were cut because they weren’t up to the standards of the new models and would have looked horribly out of place next to them. 
 

the team has been completely focused on bandit models and character models since that time so there has been no time to do more zombie models. Once they are finished with bandits and player characters, if there is time, they will do a few more zombie models. But they’ve put off the other entities in the game long enough and these others they’ve been working on are must haves before the game can be considered done whereas more zombie models would be nice but not necessary. 

 

Wait, so the cut ones were already HD versions? Or no? Just making sure I understand.

[Matt115]

3 minutes ago, Roland said:

They were cut because they weren’t up to the standards of the new models and would have looked horribly out of place next to them. 
 

the team has been completely focused on bandit models and character models since that time so there has been no time to do more zombie models. Once they are finished with bandits and player characters, if there is time, they will do a few more zombie models. But they’ve put off the other entities in the game long enough and these others they’ve been working on are must haves before the game can be considered done whereas more zombie models would be nice but not necessary. 

They are working on bandits since A15 at least. They put from their own choice - they could add this much ealier but changed their mind.  And yes it's neccesary. It's even much more important that new props. Reason is pretty simple - if you make game about zombie where zombie our just 3 background.... why you ever added them? 

[Roland]

15 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

 

Wait, so the cut ones were already HD versions? Or no? Just making sure I understand.

Im not sure I understand what you are asking. The current crop of zombies replaced the previous crop. Many of the previous crop were upgraded to what we have now. Others were cut. 

[Old Crow]

4 minutes ago, Roland said:

Im not sure I understand what you are asking. The current crop of zombies replaced the previous crop. Many of the previous crop were upgraded to what we have now. Others were cut. 

 

Did the cut zombies (cowboy, football player, cheerleader) already have their HD models and were then cut, or did they get cut with no HD models being made? If it's the latter, of course they didn't fit in. They had no HD models.

[Roland]

17 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

They are working on bandits since A15 at least. They put from their own choice - they could add this much ealier but changed their mind.  And yes it's neccesary. It's even much more important that new props. Reason is pretty simple - if you make game about zombie where zombie our just 3 background.... why you ever added them? 

Actually working on bandits since A15? No.

They started and added some models back in Alpha 15 and then left them in the code which many overhaul modders took and have used. 
 

The devs have punted the work on bandits every single alpha deeming the timing to not be right. They started work on them again really for the first time with A21. This is the first time the bandits were pushed back due to not having enough time to finish the work.

 

Also, you call this game a “zombie game”. That is how YOU see it but it is actually a post-apocalyptic survival game with zombies, radiated mutants, bandits, and hostile animals. It is 7 Days to Die by several means—not just zombies. Let go your fixed belief about what this game is because you will just get more and more disappointed as the game continues to grow beyond just a zombie game. 

24 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

 

Did the cut zombies (cowboy, football player, cheerleader) already have their HD models and were then cut, or did they get cut with no HD models being made? If it's the latter, of course they didn't fit in. They had no HD models.

 

If you don't see it in the game then it didn't get a new HD model. Everything that did not get a new model was cut. Since that time the focus has been on bandits and player character models. Once they finish with the current tasks there might be time to do a few more zombie models. I'm not sure how to make it clearer. Hopefully, you get it from this statement.

[Old Crow]

6 minutes ago, Roland said:

If you don't see it in the game then it didn't get a new HD model. Everything that did not get a new model was cut. Since that time the focus has been on bandits and player character models. Once they finish with the current tasks there might be time to do a few more zombie models. I'm not sure how to make it clearer. Hopefully, you get it from this statement.

 

I do get it now, yes. Your initial statement wasn't entirely clear, which is why I asked for clarification instead of just assuming one thing, like an idiot. But hey, thanks for talking down to me!

[Laz Man]

4 hours ago, Crypted said:

I agree with you on the story and factions, I haven't heard much about these though to talk about It. 

 

Hmm, perhaps some info. will be shared in an upcoming dev stream...🤔

[Matt115]

19 minutes ago, Roland said:

Actually working on bandits since A15? No.

They started and added some models back in Alpha 15 and then left them in the code which many overhaul modders took and have used. 
 

The devs have punted the work on bandits every single alpha deeming the timing to not be right. They started work on them again really for the first time with A21. This is the first time the bandits were pushed back due to not having enough time to finish the work.

 

Also, you call this game a “zombie game”. That is how YOU see it but it is actually a post-apocalyptic survival game with zombies, radiated mutants, bandits, and hostile animals. It is 7 Days to Die by several means—not just zombies. Let go your fixed belief about what this game is because you will just get more and more disappointed as the game continues to grow beyond just a zombie game. 

 

You literalty say no then comfirmed that yes. i doesn't say they finished but they were working. 

 

"grow beyond" - no it doesn't. Fun fact - in many generic post apo games you have mutants, bandits and animals - so this sounds like... "7dtd became generic like others". and wait a sec :With over 15 million copies sold, 7 Days has defined the survival genre, with unrivaled crafting and world-building content. Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead,

so:  Zombies should "main meat" not addition - just rest of enemies be addition. While now zombies are just left far from finished. No it's not beyond - it's much backward zombie game for now.

and one more thing:

Combat – Encounter over 50 unique zombie archetypes including special infected with unique behaviors and attacks.

 

this is from offical 7dtd page : if we count infected animals ( i shoudn't count zombie bear and zombie dogs but left it be ) - it's 30 not "over 50"

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Matt115 (see edit history)

[Callum123456789]

Hey guys out of curiosity do the infested clear quests go from tier 1-6 or do they only start at tier 2? I think if they had a very low probability of being in the quest pool for tier 1's so we can get more dangerous quests right from the get go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crypted]

12 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

Hmm, perhaps some info. will be shared in an upcoming dev stream...🤔

I hope that Is the case but I don't think so sadly. 

12 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

 

You literalty say no then confirmed that yes. i doesn't say they finished but they were working. 

 

"grow beyond" - no it doesn't. Fun fact - in many generic post apo games you have mutants, bandits and animals. wait a sec :With over 15 million copies sold, 7 Days has defined the survival genre, with unrivaled crafting and world-building content. Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead,

so:  Zombies should "main meat" not addition - just rest of enemies be addition. While now zombies are just left far from finished. No it's not beyond - it's much backward zombie game for now

 

 

Matt115 has a great point to make when it comes to the zombies. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Crypted (see edit history)

[Roland]

Just now, Matt115 said:

 

You literalty say no then comfirmed that yes. i doesn't say they finished but they were working. 

 

 

There is a difference between working steadily on bandits since A15 until today and starting on bandits for A15 and then putting them aside until the start of A21 work. The first statement denotes about 5 years of working on bandits while the second more accurately puts it at about a year and a half.

 

Because the second version is actually the truth it explains why since the time of A15 we had a lot of experimental work on zombies and adding new models and then finally updating a subset of all there were to the set of HD models we have now. It also explains why there are no new zombies for A21 because the team turned to focus on bandits and character models and there is nobody working on zombies at this time.

 

7 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

"grow beyond" - no it doesn't. Fun fact - in many generic post apo games you have mutants, bandits and animals. wait a sec :With over 15 million copies sold, 7 Days has defined the survival genre, with unrivaled crafting and world-building content. Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead,

so:  Zombies should "main meat" not addition - just rest of enemies be addition. While now zombies are just left far from finished. No it's not beyond - it's much backward zombie game for now

 

You can quote whatever you want. I'm just telling you the reality of where the game is continuing. There aren't going to be any more new zombies until they are finished with bandits and player character models. That is a fact. Go ahead and read the line about the world being overrun by the undead a couple more dozen times and still, it won't change the fact that the world is going to have zombies, mutants, bandits, traders, the Duke, Noah, and all the hostile animals. It also won't change the fact that the priority at least through A22 is bandits and player characters and not adding more zombies.

[Matt115]

10 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

There is a difference between working steadily on bandits since A15 until today and starting on bandits for A15 and then putting them aside until the start of A21 work. The first statement denotes about 5 years of working on bandits while the second more accurately puts it at about a year and a half.

 

Because the second version is actually the truth it explains why since the time of A15 we had a lot of experimental work on zombies and adding new models and then finally updating a subset of all there were to the set of HD models we have now. It also explains why there are no new zombies for A21 because the team turned to focus on bandits and character models and there is nobody working on zombies at this time.

 

I doesn't know how situation was looking in this moment. I remember official screens

 

10 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

You can quote whatever you want. I'm just telling you the reality of where the game is continuing. There aren't going to be any more new zombies until they are finished with bandits and player character models. That is a fact. Go ahead and read the line about the world being overrun by the undead a couple more dozen times and still, it won't change the fact that the world is going to have zombies, mutants, bandits, traders, the Duke, Noah, and all the hostile animals. It also won't change the fact that the priority at least through A22 is bandits and player characters and not adding more zombies.

i edited because i remind myself something ;

Combat – Encounter over 50 unique zombie archetypes including special infected with unique behaviors and attacks.

 

well: this is from offical page - now if we count infected animals ( i shoudn't count zombie bear and zombie dogs but left it be ) - it's 30 not "over 50". so - they should add at least 20 zombies more before gold. It should be in roadmap in :

 

ROADMAP TO GOLD AND BEYOND

1. Bandits
2. Armor
3. Weather
4. Factions & Story
5. Steam Workshop Support

 

so: it have to be OFFICIALLY confirmed and added before gold. i'm not complaing about A21 only - but lack in roadmap. 

If they officialy add to the list " at least 20 more zombies " or " at least 50 zombie in game before gold" - i would be satisactioned

Edited April 15, 2023 by Matt115 (see edit history)

[Riamus]

22 minutes ago, Callum123456789 said:

Hey guys out of curiosity do the infested clear quests go from tier 1-6 or do they only start at tier 2? I think if they had a very low probability of being in the quest pool for tier 1's so we can get more dangerous quests right from the get go.

The quests are still tier 1-5, but a tier 1 infestation is equivalent to a tier 2 clear.

3 minutes ago, Matt115 said:

If they officialy add to the list " at least 20 more zombies " or " at least 50 zombie in game before gold" - i would be satisactioned

More likely, when they are made aware of it still saying 50+, they will correct that number.  They certainly aren't going to add 20 more zombie types before gold... If ever.

[Matt115]

3 minutes ago, Riamus said:

The quests are still tier 1-5, but a tier 1 infestation is equivalent to a tier 2 clear.

More likely, when they are made aware of it still saying 50+, they will correct that number.  They certainly aren't going to add 20 more zombie types before gold... If ever.

So in this situation it would be false advertisment