Version 1.0 (Alpha 22) Dev Diary

[faatal]

16 hours ago, Doomofman said:

@faatal You mentioned trader biome restrictions in a previous post and it maybe being tied to story progression in the future. But what exactly is happening in A22?

 

Are specific traders only going to appear in specific biomes for every map? (Example: Jen always in wasteland)

 

or is it more random like for each map you generate it decides which traders go in which biomes. I hope that makes some sort of sense (Example: One map Jen might only be in wasteland but another map Jen will only be in the desert etc)

Yes, specific traders appear in specific biomes in A22, but this could change as we test and iterate on the design.

[Jost Amman]

55 minutes ago, faatal said:

Yes, specific traders appear in specific biomes in A22, but this could change as we test and iterate on the design.

Hi faatal, has anyone been working on multi-tiered or multi-step jobs?

I remember someone from TFP said they'll later be used for the main story before gold...

[spud42]

good question. there is a mention of if a job is chained to previous jobs , or its hinted at because there is a "chained reward: none " at the bottom right when you open a quest.

[FranticDan]

@faatal Question regarding RWG, is there or could there be an option to determine the min/max distance that wilderness POI's can spawn apart from each other?
Reason I ask is I'd like a way through xml to have wilderness POI's spawn about 200m-250m apart from each other, as well as the potential to have close to 1000 wilderness POI's in an 8k map, and even more if people dare to generate a 16k map.

(Think of it like a nomadic playstyle, constantly moving around the map)

[Adam the Waster]

So when you were talking about remenat shopping plazas@Laz Man. 

 

 

Are they like ruins, ravaged and broken down or Just another set of plazas 

 

And how do they improve performance.  Do you merge them together? Like zoes nails and Vick Garsons 

 

[Makaroni95]

Im so proud of Funpimps! 

[Laz Man]

1 hour ago, Adam the Waster said:

So when you were talking about remenat shopping plazas@Laz Man. 

 

 

Are they like ruins, ravaged and broken down or Just another set of plazas 

 

And how do they improve performance.  Do you merge them together? Like zoes nails and Vick Garsons 

 

 

Remnants are often referred to as non-questable POIs.  They are great free form exploration locations and often are designed with the mindset that they can be taken over and retrofitted into player bases.  Coincidently, they are more performant than questable POIs (e.g. less vert / tris).

[Kam R.]

Whoop whoop! New game version numbers! :]

 

Does this mean no more map wipes though...?

[Doomofman]

Wild news, though kinda feels more like a "rebranding" of the term Alpha than anything

 

At least not long to wait for A22 1.0

[SylenThunder]

23 minutes ago, Makaroni95 said:

Im so proud of Funpimps! 

Don't forget to link the news page as well. 😀

 

Alpha Exodus: Leaving Early Access | 7 Days to Die

[Doomofman]

So do we have to change the name of the thread to V1.0 Dev Diary?

[Roland]

Thank goodness we'll never see an "Eleven Years in Alpha!" post....

 

[Code6]

Does the impending release of 1.0 this mean that TFP has worked out the optimization challenges?
I love this game, but performance has always been something that we excused as being something that would be addressed when it was time to leave alpha.

[User]

I'm glad we got a roadmap and 1.0 stuff, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit too soon? I thought the stuff was a roadmap to gold, not so much a post gold update cycle, but I guess thats pretty much the same thing. There's still a lot that's being/needing to be updated, so to me this almost feels like their releasing out of ea to help with a22 hype? That's probably not the case, but it feels like it a bit. Just considering how much stuff for the pre gold roadmap isn't in 1.0, I don't know. Just sort of confusing considering the previous roadmap? Could be wrong. I noticed outfit dlcs coming in the q4 2024 update. I don't really like that at all honestly, maybe I'm the only one. Not a fan of dlcs like that in general, but imo would be best to wait until all of the roadmap stuff is done before adding paid dlc, if they felt like it needed to be in the game. Having outfits locked behind dlc feels a bit bad to me, I just applaud games that don't have that kind of stuff.

 

I'm just a bit confused. Feels like this should be a road to 1.0 instead of a post 1.0 cycle, but I'm sure coming out of early access will generate a lot of attention. Does definitely feel too early for a price hike honestly though, espescially given how a22 isn't a particularily major release compared to the future patches purely based on the features that will be implemented. (outside of the console release) Looks like we're waiting another year for bandits.

Edited April 20 by User (see edit history)

[Space4Ace]

11 minutes ago, Roland said:

Thank goodness we'll never see an "Eleven Years in Alpha!" post....

 

Well, 10.5 years in Alpha on Steam (Alpha 5 and up), but if you add Alpha 1 to 4, you do get 11 years... Doh!

Great news on the video. Thanks to Richard and the full team. Bought the game when at Alpha 10, and it's still my favorite game.

[User]

17 minutes ago, Code6 said:

Does the impending release of 1.0 this mean that TFP has worked out the optimization challenges?
I love this game, but performance has always been something that we excused as being something that would be addressed when it was time to leave alpha.

I agree. The performance can get espescially terrible with high zombie counts. I've seen discussions of various optimizations on the forums which I don't know much about, but at least I personally haven't seen any word on major named performance improvements. A couple ones of note I know of are something about jiggle physics being disabled at certain points, and the previously mentioned window interiors being obscured at certain distances, and unity updates, but as it stands there are still a lot of issues that I'm not sure are fixed for the release. Things like trader walls having horrendous pop-in even on good settings, and brightness turning grass white just to name a couple are some I've experienced. This kind of stuff hasn't really been mentioned, and the release is a month off or so, so performance is definitely a concern. Ideally it comes out performing great, though.

[RhinoW]

54 minutes ago, User said:

I'm glad we got a roadmap and 1.0 stuff, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit too soon? I thought the stuff was a roadmap to gold, not so much a post gold update cycle, but I guess thats pretty much the same thing. There's still a lot that's being/needing to be updated, so to me this almost feels like their releasing out of ea to help with a22 hype? That's probably not the case, but it feels like it a bit. Just considering how much stuff for the pre gold roadmap isn't in 1.0, I don't know. Just sort of confusing considering the previous roadmap? Could be wrong. I noticed outfit dlcs coming in the q4 2024 update. I don't really like that at all honestly, maybe I'm the only one. Not a fan of dlcs like that in general, but imo would be best to wait until all of the roadmap stuff is done before adding paid dlc, if they felt like it needed to be in the game. Having outfits locked behind dlc feels a bit bad to me, I just applaud games that don't have that kind of stuff.

 

I'm just a bit confused. Feels like this should be a road to 1.0 instead of a post 1.0 cycle, but I'm sure coming out of early access will generate a lot of attention. Does definitely feel too early for a price hike honestly though, espescially given how a22 isn't a particularily major release compared to the future patches purely based on the features that will be implemented. (outside of the console release) Looks like we're waiting another year for bandits.

 

This sudden release is obvious, its called placebo effect and throwing sand in your eyes (yet again). The 1.0 release is half of what alpha 22 was originally meant to be, but give it some pretty pictures and word it nicely and it looks like the next coming of christ. This is just to get your eyes off the fact it has been 11 years in alpha, so the word alpha is no longer present and they can finally call it "post launch updates". 

 

Truth is, they preferred spending time on HD assets and making the game more "twitch interactive" rather than focusing on what is easily the two biggest kickstarter promises, story and bandits. After making it all pretty for 11 years, they finally begin AI work for bandits instead of slowly doing it over time. (note that I personally don't care about bandits or story, I'm just pointing it out).

 

Could've worried about graphical fidelty as the final detail, and extra content as post-launch updates, since no one ever played 7 days for the graphics in the slightest.

 

And it's honestly hilarious that there's talk of DLC before the bandits even get into the game. I'm already expecting the hate train to this post, but greed once again is plaguing the industry, and The Fun Pimps are no different, no matter how much praise you give them. I love 7 days to die, I don't love the decisions and vibes that the team started giving after A16.

[User]

17 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

 

This sudden release is obvious, its called placebo effect and throwing sand in your eyes (yet again). The 1.0 release is half of what alpha 22 was originally meant to be, but give it some pretty pictures and word it nicely and it looks like the next coming of christ. This is just to get your eyes off the fact it has been 11 years in alpha, so the word alpha is no longer present and they can finally call it "post launch updates". 

 

Truth is, they preferred spending time on HD assets and making the game more "twitch interactive" rather than focusing on what is easily the two biggest kickstarter promises, story and bandits. After making it all pretty for 11 years, they finally begin AI work for bandits instead of slowly doing it over time. (note that I personally don't care about bandits or story, I'm just pointing it out).

 

Could've worried about graphical fidelty as the final detail, and extra content as post-launch updates, since no one ever played 7 days for the graphics in the slightest.

 

And it's honestly hilarious that there's talk of DLC before the bandits even get into the game. I'm already expecting the hate train to this post, but greed once again is plaguing the industry, and The Fun Pimps are no different, no matter how much praise you give them. I love 7 days to die, I don't love the decisions and vibes that the team started giving after A16.

Honestly, the twitch integration thing always seemed redundant to me. I don't know why they added it, seems more like something that should be added post release, if at all.

 

I agree about the dlc. Espescially given like you said- the game isn't finished. Doesn't seem very fair to add.

 

The art assets confuse me as well. I figured and hoped they would redo some of the old very noticeable textures, like some of the ground textures, textures transparent at certain angles, tree models & textures, etc, but it's been mostly pallets and crates and random props that I've seen so far. I also personally don't see why they needed jiggle physics on models in the first place but thats just me, having a floppy belly or gore pieces really don't add anything imo 😅

 

I think there was something to be said for the old graphics too. Something about lower detail models with the fog and sounds of the old versions made it scarier to watch and play imo.

 

I can agree with you there, I don't care a ton for bandits or the story, I just mentioned them since they've been pushed quite a few times now.

 

 

Edited April 20 by User (see edit history)

[RhinoW]

1 minute ago, User said:

Honestly, the twitch integration thing always seemed redundant to me. I don't know why they added it, seems more like something that should be added post release, if at all.

 

I agree about the dlc. Espescially given like you said- the game isn't finished. Doesn't seem very fair to add.

 

The art assets confuse me as well. I figured and hoped they would redo some of the old very noticeable textures, like some of the ground textures, textures transparent at certain angles, tree models & textures, etc, but it's been mostly pallets and crates and random props that I've seen so far. I also personally don't see why they needed jiggle physics on models in the first place but thats just me, having a floppy belly or gore pieces really don't add anything imo 😅

 

I think there was something to be said for the old graphics too. Something about lower detail models with the fog and sounds of the old versions made it scarier to watch and play imo.

 

I can agree with you there, I don't really play the game for bandits or the story, I just mentioned them since they've been pushed quite a few times now.

 

 

Twitch integration is also all about the money, it helps generating viewership which makes it more likely for people to buy the game and is more enticing for streamers to play. But again, 7 days to die livestreams never picked up, and never will. You have a spike when a new alpha comes out, and that's it, all the more reason to keep the game in alpha

 

The art assets is part of the throwing sand, they didnt just "improve" things, they redid a lot from scratch into a completely new high definition style, as if the game didn't have performance issues before with the low poly stuff. This is to give you the same impact as a well designed announcement post, it's shining a pearl in front of your eyes distracting you from the lack of content with each update (in ratio to the time it takes for the update to come out).

 

These new assets like you said, make the game feel very different, pair that up with the weather/lighting changes, and you get a completely different vibe. I personally don't mind the new vibe, I love taking screenshots of atmospheric stuff, but it's not something I really needed in 7 days to die in the first place (I started in A12 for reference).

 

Unfortunately, they can do this because they don't have competition. Their competition is not survival games, no other survival game does the game loop as well as 7 days does, they're not competing with those games, they're competing with themselves. And they bring you and me back with every Alpha release on the thought of empty promises. It works, so why not do it? I'm just ashamed that they actually fell lower than before and this time tried to blatantly lie to us and shine a not so shiny pearl this time.

[Dreyseth]

I'm quite interested to learn what this New Challenge System will be.  I don't recognize it from the reveals in the forum here.  

[mstdv inc]

33 minutes ago, RhinoW said:

Truth is, they preferred spending time on HD assets and making the game more "twitch interactive" rather than focusing on what is easily the two biggest kickstarter promises, story and bandits. 

If I'm not confusing anything, then the Twitch integration feature was created by Fubar Prime in his spare time and did not belong to the main development stream.

[Makaroni95]

2 hours ago, SylenThunder said:

Don't forget to link the news page as well. 😀

 

Alpha Exodus: Leaving Early Access | 7 Days to Die

Oh, i didntknow that! 

[Riamus]

2 hours ago, Makaroni95 said:

Im so proud of Funpimps! 

This sounds so much like Microsoft or Sony are forcing them to have a 1.0 release to go along with console release.  It is just too unexpected.  If they had said this before making this A22 thread, then maybe you could say it was planned.  But the timing suggests that this was not planned or intended.  It certainly isn't a great move after pushing back bandits so now they won't Even be there for the 1.0 release.  Not to mention all the other things that should really be finished before gold - editor improvements, bugs, story, etc.  I think this is a bad move.  If they are being forced to do this, then so be it.  If not, then it is a bad decision by them.

[Kosmic Kerman]

1 hour ago, Code6 said:

Does the impending release of 1.0 this mean that TFP has worked out the optimization challenges?
I love this game, but performance has always been something that we excused as being something that would be addressed when it was time to leave alpha.

I'm sure there's been minor performance improvements. And there may be more in the future. But I don't expect there to be major improvements. There is only so much that can be done to optimize a game that is voxel-based.  Ultimately, this is all about expectations. If your hopes were the same amount of zombies/enemies you would get in a non-voxel game, that was an unrealistic expectation. 

[User]

3 minutes ago, mstdv inc said:

If I'm not confusing anything, then the Twitch integration feature was created by Fubar Prime in his spare time and did not belong to the main development stream.

Ah, sorry. Did not know.