Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[schwanz9000]

On 6/3/2022 at 11:11 PM, faatal said:

Yes, I added block tech that allows some mesh "sides" to be opaque and others transparent, so a window block can have a frame and glass with each being in the chunk's combines meshes, instead of each window being a separate prop, which did make for a lot of draw calls. Allan has made many window blocks using this tech for the POIs.

Yup! I've already converted all of the store windows to shapes which has saved 1000's of draw calls. Downtown areas should be a bit more performant now.

I've also added several other window shapes to support some new POI's coming up.

As time permits, I'd like to expand the store window set for trimming doors and different placement orientations like a 45° angle set.

All will be player usable from the shape menu. Once Shawn is done with a few pending code changes, the glass can be smashed to downgrade to a broken version, repair back to the full glass version, and upgradable to another material. 

...AND THE FRAMES CAN BE PAINTED!!! YAY!!!

[POCKET951]

so on twitter it was mentioned that all the trader compounds were getting redone and made bigger

Will A21 trader compounds still have broken crafting stations( i.e forges, chem stations, cement mixers)

And if so, will we be able to fix these stations as our trader stage goes up?

like will we get special quests to go out and get parts/items to fix the workstations so we can use them?

[schwanz9000]

If we allowed players free access to usable workstations, they could skip over big steps of the game's progression. We've "talked" about the idea of allowing players to rent them, but that's a HUGE maybe later down the road. I'd personally like to see a repair quest for them, but we've got bigger things to finish up first.

With the new crafting system magazines, these broken workstations are a great place to find Forge Ahead magazines (improves workstation crafting skill) so you can build your own. No longer are you forced to pick up the advanced engineering perks for the workstations.

[POCKET951]

1 hour ago, schwanz9000 said:

If we allowed players free access to usable workstations, they could skip over big steps of the game's progression. We've "talked" about the idea of allowing players to rent them, but that's a HUGE maybe later down the road. I'd personally like to see a repair quest for them, but we've got bigger things to finish up first.

With the new crafting system magazines, these broken workstations are a great place to find Forge Ahead magazines (improves workstation crafting skill) so you can build your own. No longer are you forced to pick up the advanced engineering perks for the workstations.

 I am not asking for free access, but rather to have the ability to one day repair and use them.

It  would be nice if after you have unlocked tier 4 or 5 quest, you could get special quest from the traders to fix up there workstations?

I totatlly understand how it could skip early game progression, but would it be so bad if it was locked towards the later stages of the game when you would already have most of this stuff anyways?

and yeah,I don't expect stuff like this to be in A21, but maybe in the furute? A22?

what if one of the requirements for these special quest to fix the trader work benches was to already own one(proof that you know how to fix/repair it)

Edited June 6, 2022 by POCKET951 (see edit history)

[Blake_]

4 hours ago, schwanz9000 said:

Yup! I've already converted all of the store windows to shapes which has saved 1000's of draw calls. Downtown areas should be a bit more performant now.

I've also added several other window shapes to support some new POI's coming up.

As time permits, I'd like to expand the store window set for trimming doors and different placement orientations like a 45° angle set.

All will be player usable from the shape menu. Once Shawn is done with a few pending code changes, the glass can be smashed to downgrade to a broken version, repair back to the full glass version, and upgradable to another material. 

...AND THE FRAMES CAN BE PAINTED!!! YAY!!!

That is awesome ! Thank you !

[Lord Morphleyes]

 

Recently I had been looking to do a nomadic playthrough, but the crafting equipment makes that a little challenging.  To be able to use the trader benches would be great and I wouldn't mind having to wait until I had enough knowledge to build my own, and even had to build some rapport with the trader to do so.   Even a special mission for parts to repair it would be cool 

[Blake_]

@schwanz9000

I have a question :

 

Aside from windows, have there been any changes\additions to the shape system? 

 

I noticed that it seems to be a significant lack of logical shapes in some groups. For example, an imaginary shape A has 50cm, 100cm corner X, corner Y, half plate A, full plate A  etc etc and it might lack say corner X compared to a similar one of the same kind. Some cool advanced shapes do lack those variations, and that's fair as they are niche and complex, but geometrical blocks could use a more thorough "standarizing".

 

Thanks in advance ! It's nice to hear about your awesome work from time to time.

[zztong]

19 hours ago, Lord Morphleyes said:

 

Recently I had been looking to do a nomadic playthrough, but the crafting equipment makes that a little challenging.  To be able to use the trader benches would be great and I wouldn't mind having to wait until I had enough knowledge to build my own, and even had to build some rapport with the trader to do so.   Even a special mission for parts to repair it would be cool 

 

At Traders would be neat, but so much happens at Traders already, that I'd like to see a reason to go elsewhere.

It was neat in A19 to sometimes find a working station in a POI. Then you at least had to be raiding POIs to find them and might see Z's respawn. I guess now in A20 the various workstation "Random Helper" blocks we put into POIs must not include a chance for a working version.

 

I sometimes play nomadic. If you put a landclaim block down, then place your workstations, you can pick them back up.

 

I think a Workbench mod for the 4x4 would make sense.

 

[schwanz9000]

11 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Clipped quote: "Missing" shapes question.

I have filled some gaps where they were either needed by level design or as you say that were "logically" missing.

I do not recall which ones specifically since as of today, I've added 230+ new shapes to A21. 

[Matt115]

9 minutes ago, schwanz9000 said:

I have filled some gaps where they were either needed by level design or as you say that were "logically" missing.

I do not recall which ones specifically since as of today, I've added 230+ new shapes to A21. 

i think level design need skeletons soo much 😅

[Doomofman]

2 hours ago, schwanz9000 said:

I have filled some gaps where they were either needed by level design or as you say that were "logically" missing.

I do not recall which ones specifically since as of today, I've added 230+ new shapes to A21. 

Sounds like it's shaping up nicely

[Victor.19]

2 hours ago, schwanz9000 said:

I have filled some gaps where they were either needed by level design or as you say that were "logically" missing.

I do not recall which ones specifically since as of today, I've added 230+ new shapes to A21. 

From the list of things to do from the A21, any chance of him leaving this year?

[Slingblade2040]

Any plans to add an advanced options tab for further game customization?  Where we can adjust trader restock days, vending machine restock days. Zombie damage, wandering horde size and zombie/animal spawn rates. 

[meganoth]

3 hours ago, Slingblade2040 said:

Any plans to add an advanced options tab for further game customization?  Where we can adjust trader restock days, vending machine restock days. Zombie damage, wandering horde size and zombie/animal spawn rates. 

You already can adjust zombie damage

[BobbyLee298]

when will Shrek be added and or swamps

[faatal]

On 6/4/2022 at 12:26 AM, Blake_ said:

Hi faatal! I have a few questions regarding water:

 

1. Does it allow for you guys to create rivers and waterfalls without any visual or performance problems?

 

2. How does "placing a block inside the new water voxel" work? Does the voxel disappear and the other voxels go around or does it have another behaviour altogether?

 

3. Does the new water allow for stuff like SS Reflections, other advanced dynamic reflections,  and/or even shadow and fancy volumetric ray reflections or other post-processing shenanigans?

 

4. Are swimming animations or other underwater animations (like combat)  planned for players and npcs?

 

5. Have you guys talked about improvements for underwater gameplay, like kelp, rocks, or dangers (sharks, piranhas, Snowdog in a swimsuit)?

 

6. In your opinion, how much better will the new water be in terms of performace compared to the current one at top graphics?

 

 

Thank you in advance.

1 It does not flow constantly like a river. Water can fall, but it does not really work for waterfalls as the water would just drain and no more falling.

2 It depends on the block. A solid block would remove the water. Other blocks would sit in the water.

3 No changes have yet to be done to water rendering, just the simulation. Rendering will probably not be that different.

4 Not that I know of.

5 We have talked about sharks, but not really seriously.

6 Hard to compare, as the old water sim was heavily throttled, so it did not really work well and some of the bugs it had may be from that. The new water will actually do stuff, so you could say performance will be worse than broken gimped water. In any event, it is being designed to not be a resource hog and work within reasonable limits.

Edited June 7, 2022 by faatal (see edit history)

[Matt115]

24 minutes ago, faatal said:

1 It does not flow constantly like a river. Water can fall, but it does not really work for waterfalls as the water would just drain and no more falling.

2 It depends on the block. A solid block would remove the water. Other blocks would sit in the water.

3 No changes have yet to be done to water rendering, just the simulation. Rendering will probably not be that different.

4 Not that I know of.

5 We have talked about sharks, but not really seriously.

6 Hard to compare, as the old water sim was heavily throttled, so it did not really work well and some of the bugs it had may be from that. The new water will actually do stuff, so you could say performance will be worse than broken gimped water. In any event, it is being designed to not be a resource hog and work within reasonable limits.

So for example  backpack or bones can respawn "underwater" without making bubble?

[vergilsparda]

46 minutes ago, faatal said:

1 It does not flow constantly like a river. Water can fall, but it does not really work for waterfalls as the water would just drain and no more falling.

2 It depends on the block. A solid block would remove the water. Other blocks would sit in the water.

3 No changes have yet to be done to water rendering, just the simulation. Rendering will probably not be that different.

4 Not that I know of.

5 We have talked about sharks, but not really seriously.

6 Hard to compare, as the old water sim was heavily throttled, so it did not really work well and some of the bugs it had may be from that. The new water will actually do stuff, so you could say performance will be worse than broken gimped water. In any event, it is being designed to not be a resource hog and work within reasonable limits.

 

skimmed this thread to update myself and didn't see it asked so I'll ask:

 

Will the new water simulation change how the player swims through it? It's incredibly slow to swim through the current iteration of water and while I can totally understand why (I mean, we are carrying a backpack on our back, plus armor, clothes, etc), but it makes crossing even small lakes or rivers incredibly time consuming and somewhat difficult to navigate. Especially since zombies are not also hindered by the molasses quality of the water 😅

[Blake_]

9 hours ago, schwanz9000 said:

I have filled some gaps where they were either needed by level design or as you say that were "logically" missing.

I do not recall which ones specifically since as of today, I've added 230+ new shapes to A21. 

Wow. Thank you very much for that! Building is enjoyable enough, but nothing beats a " death while looking at the shape menu in awe" while picking a cool shape to place.

10/10 I would die again.

[faatal]

2 hours ago, vergilsparda said:

 

skimmed this thread to update myself and didn't see it asked so I'll ask:

 

Will the new water simulation change how the player swims through it? It's incredibly slow to swim through the current iteration of water and while I can totally understand why (I mean, we are carrying a backpack on our back, plus armor, clothes, etc), but it makes crossing even small lakes or rivers incredibly time consuming and somewhat difficult to navigate. Especially since zombies are not also hindered by the molasses quality of the water 😅

The water simulation changes how water data is represented and how it flows. The player checking if in water and moving is the same end result with old or new water. The poor movement of the player in water is just a bug as far as I'm concerned with the player code and not water's fault.

[Laz Man]

10 hours ago, Matt115 said:

i think level design need skeletons soo much 😅

There's a POI with a painted skull on one side...

[Blake_]

3 hours ago, Laz Man said:

There's a POI with a painted skull on one side...

Nice! By the way! Do you know if sewers will be getting improvements like... massive underground labyrinths?

 

Edit: Underground fighting is just pure adrenaline in this game, hence the question.

Edited June 8, 2022 by Blake_ (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

Can TFP tell their "drone guy" to look at this thread on Steam please?

Seems fairly reasonable to me... good stuff to put into A21 IMO.

 

Thanks 

[Matt115]

7 hours ago, Laz Man said:

There's a POI with a painted skull on one side...

Yep but this is like..... what if 7dtd had only painted zombies on walls..... i need lying on ground skeletons sooooooooo much. Even more that bandits. Why? because without acid pool we can't change bandits into skeletons 😕

[meganoth]

11 hours ago, Matt115 said:

So for example  backpack or bones can respawn "underwater" without making bubble?

 

I think there are more important questions: What about underwater newsstands?

😉

Edited June 8, 2022 by meganoth (see edit history)