Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Callum123456789]

I remember from one of the recent dev diaries there were talks of a dynamic encounter system is this still planned for sometime?

[NekoPawtato]

I might be overthinking this but I noticed in the pictures about learn by looting there is a section for "harvesting tools" and "blades"

A hunting knife is both a blade and used to harvest meat/corpses/etc so... do both trees increase crafting lvl of hunting knife? 

 

Similarly I think steel knuckles can also harvest, so would that be both knuckles and harvest tool trees?

 

Or stone axe as both a repair tool and a harvest tool?

Edited October 4, 2022 by NekoPawtato (see edit history)

[Roland]

7 hours ago, NekoPawtato said:

I might be overthinking this but I noticed in the pictures about learn by looting there is a section for "harvesting tools" and "blades"

A hunting knife is both a blade and used to harvest meat/corpses/etc so... do both trees increase crafting lvl of hunting knife? 

 

Similarly I think steel knuckles can also harvest, so would that be both knuckles and harvest tool trees?

 

Or stone axe as both a repair tool and a harvest tool?

There are no overlapping trees. Each tool or weapon is unique to a particular category. Just like any attempt to organize, there will be disputations about the appropriateness of assigning this or that to any particular category and some will be bothered that a tool is in this tree rather than that tree. But, regardless, everything is only in a single category and will only be advanced by reading one magazine type. 

[meilodasreh]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

There are no overlapping trees

can you add this to the confirmed feature stuff in the first post?

I mean, that wasn't updated for over two months now, which is really sad because we're all starving for some progress added there.

And well that would be at least something (though "no overlapping bandits" would be a bit more exciting)

 

...please? 🥺

[NekoPawtato]

3 hours ago, meilodasreh said:

can you add this to the confirmed feature stuff in the first post?

I mean, that wasn't updated for over two months now, which is really sad because we're all starving for some progress added there.

And well that would be at least something (though "no overlapping bandits" would be a bit more exciting)

 

...please? 🥺

Some of the info shared about the upcoming twitch integration that's going to be shown in the twitchcon could be added too right? 😆

[Cr0wst0rm]

I've also heard the news that cans/glass bottles are getting removed... Any particular reason behind it? I kinda get reasons behind removing the @%$#e, but..... Are they cleaning icon atlas for new items?

[meganoth]

21 minutes ago, Cr0wst0rm said:

I've also heard the news that cans/glass bottles are getting removed... Any particular reason behind it? I kinda get reasons behind removing the @%$#e, but..... Are they cleaning icon atlas for new items?

 

I would guess the main reason (or at least what started their thought process) was that getting water currently is trivial. Something like that is either a candidate for removal or redesign. Now in a survival game you don't remove water, you make it scarce.

 

While they were mulling over different ideas they also noticed that bottles and (the already totally useless) cans were the only liquid containers left. And that one solution to the water problem would not only make water scarce but also make glass jars unneccessary, two birds with one stone. OR removal of the containers was on their mind anyway to make handling of liquids generally the same and that was another positive factor for the water scarcity solution they eventually took.

 

Again, this is just speculation from the few facts we know.

 

[Snowydeath]

9 hours ago, meganoth said:

 

I would guess the main reason (or at least what started their thought process) was that getting water currently is trivial. Something like that is either a candidate for removal or redesign. Now in a survival game you don't remove water, you make it scarce.

 

While they were mulling over different ideas they also noticed that bottles and (the already totally useless) cans were the only liquid containers left. And that one solution to the water problem would not only make water scarce but also make glass jars unneccessary, two birds with one stone. OR removal of the containers was on their mind anyway to make handling of liquids generally the same and that was another positive factor for the water scarcity solution they eventually took.

 

Again, this is just speculation from the few facts we know.

 

 

I think you're right about the fact that water is trivial in the game. You don't have to do much in order to be stocked up on water the way it is currently. Plus it's another item that won't clog up the inventory space too so that's a bonus!

 

[Falcon197]

For A21: is there any plan to squash the persisting sound bug where sleeper ambient effects (growls, snores, breathing) play on a loop inside of 100% custom structures that have active land claims and bedrolls?  This has been quite the annoyance ever since sleepers were first implemented.

 

Also on land claims, I've noticed that bases I build that are big enough to fill but not exceed the borders of a land claim (usually with a perimeter wall setup just inside the land claim radius) will have issues on horde night where me and the other defenders will be situated near one edge of the land claim to deal with spawns but when the spawns move some zombies will pop up inside the land claim radius near the opposite edge, and end up inside our base or wall regardless of the land claim or player bedrolls.  

 

My thinking is the blood moon spawns are configured to populate a certain distance away from players, and that setting is overriding the land claim and bedroll spawn in ways it shouldn't.  Could there be a way to add conditional logic to force the spawns farther away so zombies end up outside the land claim radius or just redirect them to a new area via some kind of "IsLandClaimed: False" parameter?

 

I'm spitballing here.

[Kalex]

1 hour ago, Falcon197 said:

For A21: is there any plan to squash the persisting sound bug where sleeper ambient effects (growls, snores, breathing) play on a loop inside of 100% custom structures that have active land claims and bedrolls?  This has been quite the annoyance ever since sleepers were first implemented.

 

Also on land claims, I've noticed that bases I build that are big enough to fill but not exceed the borders of a land claim (usually with a perimeter wall setup just inside the land claim radius) will have issues on horde night where me and the other defenders will be situated near one edge of the land claim to deal with spawns but when the spawns move some zombies will pop up inside the land claim radius near the opposite edge, and end up inside our base or wall regardless of the land claim or player bedrolls.  

 

My thinking is the blood moon spawns are configured to populate a certain distance away from players, and that setting is overriding the land claim and bedroll spawn in ways it shouldn't.  Could there be a way to add conditional logic to force the spawns farther away so zombies end up outside the land claim radius or just redirect them to a new area via some kind of "IsLandClaimed: False" parameter?

 

I'm spitballing here.

We see the same issues on our large base as well.

[Uncle Al]

12 hours ago, Falcon197 said:

For A21: is there any plan to squash the persisting sound bug where sleeper ambient effects (growls, snores, breathing) play on a loop inside of 100% custom structures that have active land claims and bedrolls?  This has been quite the annoyance ever since sleepers were first implemented.

 

Also on land claims, I've noticed that bases I build that are big enough to fill but not exceed the borders of a land claim (usually with a perimeter wall setup just inside the land claim radius) will have issues on horde night where me and the other defenders will be situated near one edge of the land claim to deal with spawns but when the spawns move some zombies will pop up inside the land claim radius near the opposite edge, and end up inside our base or wall regardless of the land claim or player bedrolls.  

 

My thinking is the blood moon spawns are configured to populate a certain distance away from players, and that setting is overriding the land claim and bedroll spawn in ways it shouldn't.  Could there be a way to add conditional logic to force the spawns farther away so zombies end up outside the land claim radius or just redirect them to a new area via some kind of "IsLandClaimed: False" parameter?

 

I'm spitballing here.

Land claim blocks and bedrolls don't influence horde night spawns at all. They only affect POI respawns (LCB) or wilderness spawns (bedroll).

 

You're correct in that the closest a horde night zombie can spawn is about 35 blocks, so bases bigger than this can get problems with spawns inside the walls.

 

The solution appears to be to pave inside your walls.  Horde night zombies have to spawn on dirt, rock, asphalt, topsoil or snow.  There might be some other viable materials but generally speaking paving your courtyard stops the problem of spawns inside the walls. Even a wood floor will do the job.

 

Oh horde night zombies won't spawn on water, so theoretically flooding your courtyard would work. That's a bit of a pain to do with the messed up water mechanics but something I'm definitely going to try once new water is in.

[NekoPawtato]

1 hour ago, Uncle Al said:

Oh horde night zombies won't spawn on water, so theoretically flooding your courtyard would work. That's a bit of a pain to do with the messed up water mechanics but something I'm definitely going to try once new water is in.

this brings up an interesting question, as the front page states

Quote

All new water coding--water is no longer a block but a water voxel

Whatever this change means, would that impact whether zombies could spawn on water in A21? (if shallow enough)

Edited October 6, 2022 by NekoPawtato (see edit history)

[DanLW]

22 hours ago, Snowydeath said:

 

I think you're right about the fact that water is trivial in the game. You don't have to do much in order to be stocked up on water the way it is currently. Plus it's another item that won't clog up the inventory space too so that's a bonus!

 

While I like the idea of not having all these jars, I think water should be trivial... past the first week or so.  It shouldn't be so scarce that we are spending a significant amount of time on water acquisition all the way into late game.  Rather it should be kept as it is, one of the first problems that players need to solve on their way to mid-game.

 

I mean, one could say that shelter is trivial.  It doesn't take much to maintain a base once established, especially if one decides to do horde night on a throw-away structure away from the main base.

 

What I'm saying is that it isn't a problem if water becomes trivial after the first week or so.  By then we should have solved the water problem and are instead working on the food problem or the antibiotics problem or the better tools problem or the raw materials problem.  There are plenty of things to try to find mid to late game without having to constantly worry about water.

[Falcon197]

5 hours ago, Uncle Al said:

The solution appears to be to pave inside your walls.  Horde night zombies have to spawn on dirt, rock, asphalt, topsoil or snow.  There might be some other viable materials but generally speaking paving your courtyard stops the problem of spawns inside the walls. Even a wood floor will do the job.

 

Appreciate this insight, but we shouldn't have to pave the entirety of our land claimed areas to prevent horde spawns.  Land claims should negate blood moon spawning by default, or at least trigger a recalculation of the distance from players at which spawns occur to adjust for spots that are within a land claim.

[Cr0wst0rm]

9 hours ago, Falcon197 said:

 

Appreciate this insight, but we shouldn't have to pave the entirety of our land claimed areas to prevent horde spawns.  Land claims should negate blood moon spawning by default, or at least trigger a recalculation of the distance from players at which spawns occur to adjust for spots that are within a land claim.

That problem is bit more complicated, because if they are not allowed to spawn on soil that occupies your land claim area, they could spawn outside of streamed terrain and fall out of world...

[Falcon197]

5 hours ago, Cr0wst0rm said:

That problem is bit more complicated, because if they are not allowed to spawn on soil that occupies your land claim area, they could spawn outside of streamed terrain and fall out of world...

 

Yeah, that occurred to me the more I thought about it.  So we're back again to the idea that instead of extending the distance of spawns, just have the spawn logic run a check to see if the ground it wants to use falls inside a land claim.  Then it can move the spawns in another direction to a space that isn't land claimed, is still in the active chunk, and retains the max range allowance to prevent spawns outside of the streamed terrain.  That way even if players are standing at the edge of a land claim zone, it won't put the spawns behind them and inside the zone (and potentially inside their base).  

 

The spawn conditions could feasibly consist of:

 

- Within ~35 blocks of players

- Within active chunk

- On terrain (solves for potential issue where occupied POIs can still spawn the horde inside)

- Not in a land claimed / bedroll radius

 

And to anyone thinking "oh this won't be abused at all" then consider what happens if you were to pave most of an active chunk to limit or prevent blood moon spawns altogether.  The current system has its own potential exploits.  I just want to stop having zombies appear inside of my walls.

 

Edit: I would even throw in an anti-exploit condition that says if and only if all the checks above fail and there's no ground available for spawns to migrate to, then the land claim / on terrain parameters get overridden to prevent people from trying to cover a chunk in land claims or pave everything and totally stop all spawns.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Falcon197 (see edit history)

[Roland]

15 hours ago, DanLW said:

 

While I like the idea of not having all these jars, I think water should be trivial... past the first week or so.  It shouldn't be so scarce that we are spending a significant amount of time on water acquisition all the way into late game.  Rather it should be kept as it is, one of the first problems that players need to solve on their way to mid-game.

 

I mean, one could say that shelter is trivial.  It doesn't take much to maintain a base once established, especially if one decides to do horde night on a throw-away structure away from the main base.

 

What I'm saying is that it isn't a problem if water becomes trivial after the first week or so.  By then we should have solved the water problem and are instead working on the food problem or the antibiotics problem or the better tools problem or the raw materials problem.  There are plenty of things to try to find mid to late game without having to constantly worry about water.

 

That is exactly what the A21 change accomplished. In A20 water was trivial and solved on Day 1. In A21 it will take about a week or two (depending on settings) to solve the water issue and make it trivial for the rest of the game. The process of getting the dew collectors going is interesting as well and adds to the "to do" list of early game tasks.

[Cazmyr]

Good Day Everyone, 

 

I just got caught up reading the 81 monstrous pages of this diary. It was nice to read what is coming and see everyone's thoughts. I am really looking forward to A21 and can't wait to see how things play out. 

 

For the crafting skills getting their own magazines: I am a crafter, through and through. I take Adv. Eng. and Grease Monkey to level three and four respectively every game play for electric goodies and Motorcycles. So we will have to see how the perks get rebalanced. I am guessing a fairly decent shift in my gameplay though.

 

For the WaterBottleGate: I see this as a positive. It will be difference at first not having multiple stacks of 125 bottles at any given time, but we adjust. I do think that the new workstation is very cool and look forward to trying it out. 

 

I do have an idea/ question about a change that I can see as useful. IMHO it would be beneficial to be able to choose what level you craft items at. So, if you can make lvl 5, you can make an item Level 1 - 5. One reason is material cost. As it is now, it goes up as the level goes up. And when you don't have enough of something,  you can make a lower level one and still improve your gear. Also, you may be making an additional workstation (for example) and need a hammer. If you don't have any hammer, you can always make one, but why make a lvl 5 hammer, just to throw into a workbench? 

 

I totally get it if it is seen as below the scope of intent. And I agree that it is a total QoL change, but QoL is a thing! 

 

Thank you for all the hard work you all do! And nice to have some time to post again.

 

[faatal]

On 9/28/2022 at 4:39 AM, Games'n'Grumble said:

Hello, @faatal! You have already answered that DLSS and FSR are unlikely to be included in 7DTD, but what do you think about XeSS, a new technology being developed by Intel? Are the same principles used there?

And also please tell us what you have been working on lately and what are you working on now?

If it is not a new technology being developed by Unity using the built in render pipeline (old, so they won't), then it would be a no. Or some driver level feature that works outside the game.

[Ryiah]

On 10/7/2022 at 6:51 PM, faatal said:

If it is not a new technology being developed by Unity using the built in render pipeline (old, so they won't), then it would be a no. Or some driver level feature that works outside the game.

 

Here's an implementation of FSR 1.0 for Unity's built-in render pipeline.

 

https://github.com/tatoforever/AMD_FSR

Edited October 9, 2022 by Ryiah (see edit history)

[faatal]

On 10/9/2022 at 12:56 PM, Ryiah said:

 

Here's an implementation of FSR 1.0 for Unity's built-in render pipeline.

 

https://github.com/tatoforever/AMD_FSR

Thanks for the info. I looked at that today and in testing, it both looked worse and had lower FPS than just switching to a lower resolution. FSR 2 is probably much better, but it appears a lot more complicated to integrate.

[Jugginator]

38 minutes ago, faatal said:

Thanks for the info. I looked at that today and in testing, it both looked worse and had lower FPS than just switching to a lower resolution. FSR 2 is probably much better, but it appears a lot more complicated to integrate.

 

Yeah FSR 1 is rather lackluster; evidently, they made a lot of changes in FSR 2 that make it way better.

[Old Crow]

On 10/3/2022 at 10:15 PM, NekoPawtato said:

I might be overthinking this but I noticed in the pictures about learn by looting there is a section for "harvesting tools" and "blades"

A hunting knife is both a blade and used to harvest meat/corpses/etc so... do both trees increase crafting lvl of hunting knife? 

 

Similarly I think steel knuckles can also harvest, so would that be both knuckles and harvest tool trees?

 

Or stone axe as both a repair tool and a harvest tool?

No overlap, but it would be nice if bone knives and hunting knives felt more like weapons and less like just tools. I do like that they can pull double duty as both, but that tree doesn't feel like an actual weapon until you get a machete.

[Syphon583]

50 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

No overlap, but it would be nice if bone knives and hunting knives felt more like weapons and less like just tools. I do like that they can pull double duty as both, but that tree doesn't feel like an actual weapon until you get a machete.

Just curious what you mean by the knives don't feel like weapons. What is it about them (besides using them to slash/stab zombies to damage and cause bleeds) that would make them feel more like weapons?

[Blake_]

Hello there, @Roland, do you have any info on if there is any info? TFP have been radio silent regarding a21 for quite a while. 

I, you, We, They would love some pics or juicy features and sneaky gameplay feelings, or juicy feeling pics and sneaky features or whatever. Please?