Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Bleepin]

6 minutes ago, AlaricBalthi said:

Different playstyles, i'm much too of a scouting/adventuring-type to do this. I like wandering around and exploring

Generally, i loot everything from the boxes i can carry but don't disassemble anything. Quick-loot and onto the next house. If the loot-run happens in a far away town/village, i put a stash box in visible place and dump everyhing in it. That way when i'm heading home, i can just grab the best stuff i found from the location and easier to grab what's left the next time i'm close-by. Sometimes i do strip some buildings bare if i need large number of cloth, pipes and such but it's quite rare.

Later when i find wrenches and need more electrical parts and such, i start making runs for the one thing. Again to go and drive around the beautiful post-apocalyptic landscape....

I go to the quest POI, do it first before selecting the quest. Usually need to puit a chest outside on the road to put loot into. Then go and accept the quest and do it again. I get double loot, it takes longer but its instant zombies that have been generated for you, right in front of you... and you get to loot twice. Trouble is early game is stamina trying to carry everythiung back.

So im in Australia and its monday afternoon here... so when TFP say afternoon onthe 12th, is that my time (:-p) or what time. i DONT want to bother anyone, but so hanging out for it and its already monday afternoon here "cry".

 

Is there a ETA how many hours till release roughly? like 8 hours time or something?

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

[mstdv inc]

12 minutes ago, Bleepin said:

I go to the quest POI, do it first before selecting the quest. Usually need to puit a chest outside on the road to put loot into. Then go and accept the quest and do it again. I get double loot, it takes longer but its instant zombies that have been generated for you, right in front of you... and you get to loot twice. Trouble is early game is stamina trying to carry everythiung back.

So im in Australia and its monday afternoon here... so when TFP say afternoon onthe 12th, is that my time (:-p) or what time. i DONT want to bother anyone, but so hanging out for it and its already monday afternoon here "cry".

 

Is there a ETA how many hours till release roughly? like 8 hours time or something?

If I understood everything correctly, the difference between CST and Sydney (Australia) is 16 hours.
June 12, 12:00 PM CST = June 13, 04:00 AM Sydney (Australia)

Edited June 12, 2023 by mstdv inc (see edit history)

[Bleepin]

9 minutes ago, mstdv inc said:

If I understood everything correctly, the difference between CST and Sydney (Australia) is 16 hours.
June 12, 12:00 PM CST = June 13, 04:00 AM Sydney (Australia)

...sigh... its hard living in the future...

[faatal]

9 hours ago, Sram said:

@Roland, @faatal On December 13, our favorite game turns 10 years old! Are you planning to do something in honor of such a grandiose date?

I have not thought about it. Dance a jig? Run around in the back yard? Give my wife a high five?

[faatal]

3 hours ago, danielspoa said:

was about to ask the same, and also if they found any game breaking bugs that would have to delay it. Anything you could share wish us? 😃

 

edit: guess my answer came while I wrote this. Ty for the "afternoon", this 12pm/am confuse the hell out of me.

 

We have made about 30 changes over the weekend. Mostly minor bug fixes and balance changes, but a few major bug fixes like randomly disappearing nav icons after a few deaths or crashing when putting a charged stun baton in a container. The last build was started just a few hours ago for the icon fix, so we will be doing final testing in the morning.

[Philipp]

@Roland

 

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. 

 

I would like a game-mechanic where I cant repair any item that Im not able to craft myself, so I am "Lucky" when I find a good sledgehammer and use it wisely. 

 

If it's already a game-mechanic, im sorry haha. 

Maybe I missed some Information in this massive forum. 👉🏼👈🏼

 

However, watched the Streamer weekend and im hyped for the next alpha 🙌🏼

 

[Arma Rex]

Just want to preemptively say great work TFP, we've all come a long way to Alpha 21 and I'm excited to try out the beta today. From what I've seen, the new update looks really smooth, especially with that killer water system.

[Jost Amman]

29 minutes ago, Philipp said:

Maybe I missed some Information in this massive forum. 👉🏼👈🏼

Yes, you did.  

 

 

 

[spud42]

so was the working workbench a bug or intended ? i have no seen any comment from The Fun Pimps.....

its about 1hr 50 minutes in to jawoodles second stream......

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by spud42 (see edit history)

[RipClaw]

51 minutes ago, Philipp said:

I would like a game-mechanic where I cant repair any item that Im not able to craft myself, so I am "Lucky" when I find a good sledgehammer and use it wisely. 

 

If it's already a game-mechanic, im sorry haha. 

No it is not. You can repair something you have found or bought as many times as you want without loss of quality or durability.

1 hour ago, Bleepin said:

...sigh... its hard living in the future...

See the advantage. The weekend is not quite as far away as it is for the rest of the world.

[Elukka]

45 minutes ago, Arma Rex said:

Just want to preemptively say great work TFP, we've all come a long way to Alpha 21 and I'm excited to try out the beta today. From what I've seen, the new update looks really smooth, especially with that killer water system.

 

Beta? Did I time travel to 2026? 😁

[Aldranon]

Anyone else getting the feeling that perception has been custom built for A21?

It has usurped the strength builds long reign.  Hope we get at least few months to play perception as is.

 

If you disagree with me, that's good as I will get to play this complete face rolling fun build longer!!

[Doomofman]

10 minutes ago, Aldranon said:

Anyone else getting the feeling that perception has been custom built for A21?

It has usurped the strength builds long reign.  Hope we get at least few months to play perception as is.

 

If you disagree with me, that's good as I will get to play this complete face rolling fun build longer!!

 

Honestly I think it's just because everyone is playing it as it feels new with the changes. I don't necessarily think it's going to be the best build in the long run

[Aldranon]

2 hours ago, Doomofman said:

 

Honestly I think it's just because everyone is playing it as it feels new with the changes. I don't necessarily think it's going to be the best build in the long run

 

Thats good! 

But I must say as finding skill books are now half of player progression, a perception build can easily get twice as many skill books!  That alone would be enough, but there are other things... 

 

 

Edit: UPDATE: the Streamer said he doubled all loot so it's not as amazing as I thought.  Perception is still a solid choice now, however.

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

[OgreSlayeR]

2 hours ago, faatal said:

We have made about 30 changes over the weekend. Mostly minor bug fixes and balance changes, but a few major bug fixes like randomly disappearing nav icons after a few deaths or crashing when putting a charged stun baton in a container. The last build was started just a few hours ago for the icon fix, so we will be doing final testing in the morning.

 

 

Nice to hear, I hope the balance changes are directed at the trader cause they seem a bit out of wack with the intended slowing of progression.

 

I saw one streamer take Daring Adventurer for example and he managed a tier 3 Auto Shotgun by around day 12. That seems pretty soon.. and I also saw another get a tier 3 Steel Spear around day 10.

 

I think the traders definitely need a nerf or at least the Daring Adventurer perk cause getting items like that early and skipping progression is a bit silly..

 

Otherwise this alpha is looking really great.

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

[RipClaw]

4 minutes ago, OgreSlayeR said:

Nice to hear, I hope the balance changes are directed at the trader cause they seem a bit out of wack with the intended slowing of progression.

This is due to the new trader stage and how it is calculated. A large factor in the trader stage are Daring Adventurer and the quest tier at this particular trader.

Daring Adventurer is basically the new Better Barter and the new meta is to put as many points as possible into Daring Adventurer early on and to spam quests.

 

[OgreSlayeR]

3 minutes ago, RipClaw said:

This is due to the new trader stage and how it is calculated. A large factor in the trader stage are Daring Adventurer and the quest tier at this particular trader.

Daring Adventurer is basically the new Better Barter and the new meta is to put as many points as possible into Daring Adventurer early on and to spam quests.

 

My suggestion would be for the change Daring Adventurer to not affect the trader stage, but rather the rewards you receive.

 

For example, maybe it could be a bonus if you get 100 9mm ammo listed as a reward maybe you could receive 200 instead at max rank or something like that. It shouldn't be the meta choice every time like it is currently, but could offer a nice bonus.

 

Also maybe traders could offer gun/weapon parts as a reward rather than just straight weapons? Just a thought.

[Aldranon]

6 minutes ago, RipClaw said:

This is due to the new trader stage and how it is calculated. A large factor in the trader stage are Daring Adventurer and the quest tier at this particular trader.

Daring Adventurer is basically the new Better Barter and the new meta is to put as many points as possible into Daring Adventurer early on and to spam quests.

 

 

Ahh, maybe that was what I was seeing, the guy received a skill book set from the trader and received 3 sets of 6 books vs 3 sets of 3 books.

[Doomofman]

I hope one of the fixes in the exp release build is for that weird animation bug when switching between weapons. It's been the most obvious bug I've seen, not game breaking in any way but very in your face all the same

[RipClaw]

23 minutes ago, Aldranon said:

Ahh, maybe that was what I was seeing, the guy received a skill book set from the trader and received 3 sets of 6 books vs 3 sets of 3 books.

Maybe. Daring Adventurer affects now the trader inventory like Better Barter did with the secret stash. Every point in Daring Adventurer adds 10 points to the trader stage.

 

According to WaywardEko is the formula for the trader stage "player level * (1+trader quest level) + (Daring Adventurer level * 10)".

 

If you put one of your 4 starting points into Daring Adventurer you will be already on trader stage 11 on your first day. Without Daring Adventurer and without doing quests you would need to be level 11 to see the same trader inventory.

 

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

[meganoth]

2 hours ago, Bleepin said:

...sigh... its hard living in the future...

 

At least you have the realistic option of flying over the date line and get the game one day earlier 😎😁

 

2 hours ago, Philipp said:

@Roland

 

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. 

 

In A20 you needed the steel sledgehammer book before you could craft any. Whether you find an item or can craft it was very random but skewed to finding it first in A20. In A21 the progression should be smoother with more steps of upgrade and easier to balance for TFP. So likely you will get to craft better weapons a lot more than in A20.

 

The trader will sell parts more often than complete weapons, so this is another step in the direction for more crafting

 

2 hours ago, Philipp said:

 

I would like a game-mechanic where I cant repair any item that Im not able to craft myself, so I am "Lucky" when I find a good sledgehammer and use it wisely. 

 

This is an often discussed topic with many players very much for or against it. TFP seems to have decided to make items easily repairable, but there surely will be a few mods that will provide that game mechanic

 

2 hours ago, Philipp said:

 

If it's already a game-mechanic, im sorry haha. 

Maybe I missed some Information in this massive forum. 👉🏼👈🏼

 

However, watched the Streamer weekend and im hyped for the next alpha 🙌🏼

 

 

[Neminsis]

8 hours ago, meganoth said:

Maybe then the looter has learned his lesson.

Maybe, but did you notice that none of those things are going to happen during the first 7 days? I mean, where did that overfilled box of food come from in your scenario? It takes seconds to queue anything on any workstation and then you can just walk away. 

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. 

The other part of this that everyone seems to be ignoring is that a strict gatherer needs those better stone tools in order to keep up with the exp gain of someone who is looting, and remember that pois are much more spread out at the beginning and most quests will take the looter outside of exp sharing range. I know that TFP have put some thought into this in advance because of the ability to sell bulk raw materials and crafted items like stone arrows to the trader, it's just not quite there yet. 

[meganoth]

7 minutes ago, Neminsis said:

Maybe, but did you notice that none of those things are going to happen during the first 7 days? I mean, where did that overfilled box of food come from in your scenario? It takes seconds to queue anything on any workstation and then you can just walk away. 

 

Sure, the learning curve may extend to two playthroughs. Replayable games are fun because you can always learn something new and apply it to the next run. 

 

And sure there will be a few idiots who won't learn anything from it. Should the game be balanced for them? Or for the majority (probably) who knows how to play co-op and learns how to put down a few storage chests in the streets to combat full inventories.

 

7 minutes 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. 

 

Tools really are a bad example because it **really** doesn't matter who learns to craft them. The builders won't have any disadvantages if the looter simply reads the tools magazines and crafts the new tools as soon as he is able to.

 

There isn't even any additional delay because either the looter comes back with magazines in the evening or with the ability to craft the tool. And since progression is smoother now he will just get a scrap pickaxe of quality 4 when he is already using a quality 3 scrap pickaxe at a minimum.

 

The only person who could feel bad about this is a player who wants to be a crafter as main occupation or wants the satisfaction of crafting his tools by himself. But crafter as main job wasn't really an option in A20 and won't be one in A21.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Neminsis said:

The other part of this that everyone seems to be ignoring is that a strict gatherer needs those better stone tools in order to keep up with the exp gain of someone who is looting, and remember that pois are much more spread out at the beginning and most quests will take the looter outside of exp sharing range. I know that TFP have put some thought into this in advance because of the ability to sell bulk raw materials and crafted items like stone arrows to the trader, it's just not quite there yet. 

 

Xp and xp sharing has nothing to do with the topic of magazines and crafting progression. Even idiot looters who don't understand co-op and read all magazines will happily craft the better tools for the builders at home as soon as they come home (which would be the same time as the intelligent looters would return home to drop off the magazines needed by builders for crafting their better tools). Tools crafted by idiot looters are exactly as good and sharp as tools crafted by builders themselves 😉

 

 

 

[Elukka]

10 minutes ago, meganoth said:

Even idiot looters who don't understand co-op and read all magazines will happily craft the better tools for the builders at home as soon as they come home (which would be the same time as the intelligent looters would return home to drop off the magazines needed by builders for crafting their better tools). Tools crafted by idiot looters are exactly as good and sharp as tools crafted by builders themselves 😉

 

 

 

 

Based on what I've seen in streams, there are so many books/magazines that they fill the inventory in no time and it would take a lot of time to stop and figure out what does what and who needs what. Better to be the idiot and just get rid of them by reading them.

But, need to play the game first to make that determination. Based on streams the amount is overwhelming. I totally understand the consequences for those who stay at base, building and mining. Interesting mechanic anyway that will require new gameplay styles.

[meganoth]

9 minutes ago, Elukka said:

 

Based on what I've seen in streams, there are so many books/magazines that they fill the inventory in no time and it would take a lot of time to stop and figure out what does what and who needs what. Better to be the idiot and just get rid of them by reading them.

But, need to play the game first to make that determination. Based on streams the amount is overwhelming. I totally understand the consequences for those who stay at base, building and mining. Interesting mechanic anyway that will require new gameplay styles.

 

Yes. Maybe there will be even groups where the looter just puts magazines in storage chest somewhere and asks the builder to collect them at this place. But generally I think magazines are the "gold" of early scrounging while you don't need lead or brass this early in the game. I'm sure most groups will leave other stuff behind in storage chests and bring back the magazines that the others need.

 

Figuring out what magazine does what is just a learning process of a few hours or days. Similar to books, I don't think anyone who played 7d2d has a problem with immediately associating "The Art of Mining" book icon with the strength player/builder.

 

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