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Alpha 21 Dev Diary


Roland

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On 5/15/2023 at 1:46 PM, RipClaw said:

I only said that building has become meaningless in the game because a lot of the existing POIs are more than sufficient both as a base and can be easily secured by removing a few blocks. If someone builds bases scratch then he does it because he likes to do it but there is no incentive in the game to do so.

I would like to weigh in on this with my observations. Prefaced that everyone's experience is a little different and we don't yet know the entirety of values tweaked in A21.

 

I play solo, but I also play with 2 of my friends. When I play with my dudes, the typical day, especially in the first couple days,  2 of us run around and the other stays out and chops wood. He farms straight until an hour or two from dark, then begins building, from scratch. Where he was a little behind the first night, he's far ahead of us by morning. Soon he makes cobble stone his mission.
What I'm getting at is this. In terms of raw experience gain- undertaking a building project is the fastest way to get there. Personally, I believe it could use a 5-10%(?) nerf due to how eschew it is in terms of time invested to XP ratio, even if you have to spend large chunks of that time obtaining resources. - But that might really make the "They're going to ruin building! There's absolute no reason to build any more, EVER" crowd think they're being targeted.

... C'mon guys, you know you're digging/chopping XP to plaster it to your walls, right? Is that not reason enough

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Are the devs increasing the number of quests that the trader offer?

 

It's better having many options because the list gets populated with too many restore power quests, buried supplies and with the extra infested quests that will get worse. I do these quests from time to time but I prefer the Fetch and Clear quests.

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I'm not sure if this was asked before, but for infestation quests, if someone starts the quest, then abandons/fails it without going through the whole POI, would the house still be "infested" if someone were to go through the building later without a quest? (i.e. maybe a different player ends up exploring the house after you, would it still spawn the "infested" amount, or the normal amount of zombies?)

Edited by NekoPawtato (see edit history)
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11 hours ago, Burrfly said:

~60% of the comments on a youtube video "all alpha 21 update news", look it up if you dont believe me. Just saying, still no hatereviewsyt.thumb.png.9782876ad9cca8ad592539af0d288079.png

 

Are you seriously trying to use a YT comment section to prove something? That's one of the most whiny, useless groups of people that exists in this community. This happens every alpha. Then it comes out, and people realize the sky actually wasn't falling. They just overreact to things they don't even know all the details to.

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3 minutes ago, bdubyah said:

Are you seriously trying to use a YT comment section to prove something? That's one of the most whiny, useless groups of people that exists in this community. This happens every alpha. Then it comes out, and people realize the sky actually wasn't falling. They just overreact to things they don't even know all the details to.

And… As if it was impossible to create the same thing with extremely positive comments. Lol

Edited by SnowDog1942 (see edit history)
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13 hours ago, Burrfly said:

~60% of the comments on a youtube video "all alpha 21 update news", look it up if you dont believe me. Just saying, still no hatereviewsyt.thumb.png.9782876ad9cca8ad592539af0d288079.png

 

 

And we all know that 87.35% of all statistics on the internet are completely made up..   

 

C'mon dude.....   Seriously?   🙄

Edited by MichaelL. (see edit history)
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41 minutes ago, SnowDog1942 said:

And… As if it was impossible to create the same thing with extremely positive comments. Lol

 

It may be impossible simply from an execution standpoint. Happy players don't feel the same motivation to create a huge collage of positive statements. Only someone extremely motivated due to their desire for change would go through the tedium of cutting and pasting that many responses together--- twice! Then again, they do enjoy watching wet concrete dry.... ;) 

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19 minutes ago, Roland said:

Its looking more like June all the time. This weekend is most likely out if it hasn't been announced yet and next weekend is a big holiday in the USA (which TFP observes) so...yeah.


Thats it!!! Im gonna go to the steam comments and create a collage of people saying to its taking too long to release updates!!

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27 minutes ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:

Instead of complaining about delays, I am going to ask a constructive question. What type of bug/issue is holding the release back? 

 

They are unlikely to say, because it would be super embarrassing to admit that a show-stopper bug made it all the way to immediately before release without being found or fixed.

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12 minutes ago, HB_H4wk said:

I would like to see some radioactive terrain blocks for developing Wasteland POI's and the Radioactive suits actually block the radiation for a short time.

...the code, rad map and buffs are *definitely* set up for this very purpose and have been for a very long time, so at the least, it was a plan.

 

Hopefully it remains one. 

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25 minutes ago, enragedcamel said:

 

They are unlikely to say, because it would be super embarrassing to admit that a show-stopper bug made it all the way to immediately before release without being found or fixed.

Just because something isn't fixed isn't cause for embarrassment.  They have even given us rough numbers for the MF bugs.  It is even expected to still have some of those remaining when experimental is released, with the plan to have them completed before stable gets released.  And bugs are found all the time in games (and other software) long after release of even gold, let alone an alpha release.  Hardly unusual and not even embarrassing even then.

 

They have said before some of the bugs they've been working on, so there's no reason to think they might be unwilling to comment on the current bugs, but there is also no reason that they need to comment on them.  Whether or not they do is up to them and is not something they need to do if they don't want to.  Some bugs may even relate to future features they aren't willing to comment on and those unfinished features may have been started and may be causing a bug in something else.

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On 5/15/2023 at 5:10 AM, RipClaw said:

I don't see the disadvantage for using a prefab. You save a lot of material and time and if it is a quest POI it will even be repaired with the quest reset. All you have to do is remove the ladder and the POI is ready for the next horde.

 

That is compelling evidence that you and I have verrrrry different play styles.  I would hate a base that auto-repaired. 

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13 minutes ago, Prydonian said:

That is compelling evidence that you and I have verrrrry different play styles.  I would hate a base that auto-repaired. 

 

I wouldn't even call it auto-repairing since any and all reinforcements, pathways, funnels, fall-backs, crates of backup supplies, etc that you worked into the POI would be erased. It wouldn't repair your enhancements, it would remove them and you would have to rebuild and resupply all of them. If I ever got a quest to the POI that I was using for a horde base I would cancel it as soon as I saw the exclamation point sitting in my front yard...

 

But I think he was assuming that most players who take over POIs do it because they just want to quickly destroy access to the second floor and simply shoot from above and not enhance anything or add any defenses.

Edited by Roland (see edit history)
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4 hours ago, Roland said:

Its looking more like June all the time. This weekend is most likely out if it hasn't been announced yet and next weekend is a big holiday in the USA (which TFP observes) so...yeah.

 

The lesson to be learned for TFP is: Don't set a date (if you have to, give a loose percentage of completion).  Creating disappointment is not conducive to a good image.

 

I decided to find another game to play that was considered similar to 7D2D.

So, I bought "Project Zombiod" because some sadistic person told me it was very close to 7D2D...

No.  No it is not.  

The graphics are 1980's look down and I didn't realize just how immersion breaking and clumsy that is for what should be a FPS.

The game goes out of its way to kill you.   Which I kind of like.

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5 minutes ago, Aldranon said:

 

The lesson to be learned for TFP is: Don't set a date (if you have to, give a loose percentage of completion).  Creating disappointment is not conducive to a good image.

 

I decided to find another game to play that was considered similar to 7D2D.

So, I bought "Project Zombiod" because some sadistic person told me it was very close to 7D2D...

No.  No it is not.  

The graphics are 1980's look down and I didn't realize just how immersion breaking and clumsy that is for what should be a FPS.

The game goes out of its way to kill you.   Which I kind of like.

Project zomboid is a great simulation game.  Another big plus is that game manages huge number of zombies.

 

It has actually been in steam EA a similar amount of time as 7d2d.

 

Similar genres, but two drastically different types of games imo.

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3 hours ago, enragedcamel said:

 

They are unlikely to say, because it would be super embarrassing to admit that a show-stopper bug made it all the way to immediately before release without being found or fixed.

 

Nothing embarrassing about new bugs cropping up.  It's common for new bugs to unexpectedly come up due to another change.

 

There is one particular nasty bug  where the quest rally marker will disappear after it is activated (and not progress).

 

Not sure if it's a MF but it's really annoying and would require the player to log off the server.  Thankfully, one of our testers may have stumbled on the cause so that one might be fixed in our current build now

 

We are definitely getting closer day by day, just have to cross our fingers no more unexpected MF bugs crop up...

 

There is at least one bright side to the alpha taking longer....

 

...you guys get more POIs generally as the level design team can normally continue working on new POIs due to their modular nature.

 

This week, i'm cranking on another one of those new roadside checkpoint POis that was shown in one of the dev streams.  If it doesn't make it in during the experimental launch, hopefully one of the point releases afterwards...😎

Edited by Laz Man (see edit history)
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2 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

 

Nothing embarrassing about new bugs cropping up.  It's common for new bugs to unexpectedly come up due to another change.

 

There is one particular nasty bug  where the quest rally marker will disappear after it is activated.

 

Not sure if it's a MF but it's really annoying and would require the player to log off the server.  Thankfully, one of our testers may have stumbled on the cause so that one might be fixed in our current build now

 

We are definitely getting closer day by day, just have to cross our fingers no more unexpected MF bugs crop up...

 

 

THIS! 

This is exactly how "Damage Control" should be handled if a release day (or month) is missed.  (An approximate percent complete would prevent the need for it)

Like the police quote: "Just the facts, Ma'am".

 

No need to troll or counter-troll people who are annoyed and disappointed and vent something less than helpful.

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2 hours ago, Roland said:

But I think he was assuming that most players who take over POIs do it because they just want to quickly destroy access to the second floor and simply shoot from above and not enhance anything or add any defenses.

Exactly. At least that is what I saw a lot of times. At best they place some wood spikes but that is it. No further reinforcements. Often gas stations or POIs like the working stiff are used because they are sturdy and have only one way to lead up to the roof.

Edited by RipClaw (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, Laz Man said:

 

Nothing embarrassing about new bugs cropping up.  It's common for new bugs to unexpectedly come up due to another change.

 

I am never embarrassed if the testers find a bug in my code.

I am embarrassed if an end user finds a bug in my code during User Acceptance Testing, as it shows the testers and I did not do enough Unit Testing / System Integration Testing.

 

But that is nothing compared to what I feel if a bug makes it into production (where my system 'tracks' ore worth ~US$3.6 million in profit / hour in real time).

 

['tracks' = contextualises operational infomation from IOT devices / SCADA, via a historian, into business information, and communicates / persists that information as required.]

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