Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[ivailogeimara]

Maybe the new framework they built won't allow this from from being implemented simply? I think the easy solution would be to just give more xp for other types of activity so people can gain as much experience as the zombie slayers.

 

I think it'll be quite easy to implement. Well they'll have to change some of the code but it's not that much. They basically have to add different types of XP and make these skills/perks (the main/top ones) level like your general level.

Giving more XP from things other than killing zombies doesn't really solve the problem because you can do just one thing and level what you want. The idea is to do things loosely related to the skills.

[wolffblood]

Ah, good idea, I can probably dig around in the XMLs and find it, I was just showing my son how to find those, he's getting into such things, and of course he already knew. I've worked in advanced robotics for 20 years and never touched a line of code, I'm all design and anatomy, engineering/prototyping, physical stuff. I know a few colleagues who would be shocked to hear I touched some code. I'd just tell them "But I need my tablesaw to help me survive the zombie apocalypse!", make the duh face, and walk away.

 

Thanks again wolffblood.

 

Not a problem at all. I'm just a bit too lazy to do it when I know an update will be out in a day or two (my bet, not TFP). I do enough coding at work to want to fix some of the more simpler stuff on here. Weird, I know, lol.

 

 

Btw, are bicycles and mini bikes supposed to have the same speed? I'd figure mini bike would be faster.

[FileMachete]

yet another post re: Stamina, heh.

 

Figured out that, to me, the Food & Water should be flipped.

So keep Water fairly topped off, but don't worry about Food until <50%

 

From RL way back when I was a framer (carpentry) you'd go through 2+ gallons of water a day and sure 6000+ calories, but half or more of the cals would be after work. I'd often just not have much appetite mid-day, but was always guzzling water.

 

--Also noticed something odd: in the Status UI the statusi you get when eating, Health & ?, count -up- from 0 secs until 36s then disappear.

Pretty sure they use to count down to zero, and that would make more sense.

[wolffblood]

huh, won't let me edit my post, just a wall of red. Even refreshed, closed/open browser, nada. Anyways, was going to add that the description of the bicycle and mini bike are both 10m/s, I've yet to actually get on the mini bike yet, so not sure if the actual speeds are the same.

[ivailogeimara]

My experience with Unity store assets is they are ok to quickly prototype something, but usually are not optimized and aren't just a drag and drop in experience. Especially with our game, its more like the 7 days engine and unity is a small subset of code. Usually they aren't worth the effort to try and get them in. By the time you do that you could have coded your own that does exactly what you wanted it to without bloatware. (UMA, UFPS) Then there are the performance considerations.

 

Does the game still use UFPS (modified of course)? I know in UFPS there are 2 variables per gun (in 7dtd case it would be for holding type I guess) that change the recoil animation (Spring2Damping and Sprint2Stiffness I think). Can this be done in 7DaysToDie. And this variable to be available in XML? I know there is recoil in the XML but that doesn't change the hands animation (like these 2 variables do in UFPS).

Also do you(TFP) plan in the future to improve pistol animations. Hunting riffle has way better animations that pistol (because it was added a lot later I guess?).

[Mechanimal]

You could fix it in the progression xml file I believe. Just have to make it actually be unlocked. That is quickest way. It's the same with the chem station, need the table saw to craft something to craft the chem station, lol. I forgot what it was though. But I bet the next build will fix that issue.

 

I've also just started to work with all the flagstone pieces since not able to do wood, so the Nope-Saw did cause me to discover that, and I actually like it. I even found a working cement mixer at the gas station just East of Diersvill, which also happens to have huge reserves of stone/sand patches, so I'm getting to reinforced concrete much quicker than usual, which is nice because I'm at day 14 in this session. Ha, look at me finding excuses to avoid actually finding and changing the XML. Though I probably will, tomorrow(in-game), especially if the Chem Station is also bugged.

 

I dig the flagstone though, love all the new shapes, and it looks nice, all castley, my rooftop garden has a nice medieval courtyard vibe, which I can keep since I don't need to upgrade that.

[Gareee]

Maybe there could be extra xp from activities that go into the main categories, kind of like a bonus exp point earned in each section.

 

If I craft a lot, after a while I get a bonus intelligence point to spend, if I mine a lot I get a bonus point in the category where miner is located, that sort of thing.

 

It would become a hybrid of the old a16 progress system, and the new progress system, and appease both people who like both systems.

 

That would also give us slightly more points to spend trying to keep up with the game difficulty ramping up.

 

I also think the range of shared xp needs to either be increased for dealing with big screamer hordes, or an option to increase it in the menu.

 

I just had an epiphany! How about xp range sharing range increased by the number or people in a party?

Example:

2 members, 100 meters

3 members, 150 meters

4 members, 200 meters

5 members, 250 meters

 

That keeps the party together encouraging teamwork, but not on top of each other in each others way.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

We just read gamestage is calculated by number of players.. we are seeing MUCH later game zeds way too early..maybe still add them together and divide by two? What we are seeing should be day 30, not 15.

[faatal]

To me it feels like the spawn mechanism isn't working 100%. Sometimes it activates, sometimes you can loot entire buildings and the last cabinet spawns a horde in your face. If you've never seen it, that baffles me. Ever since sleeper system // POI spawning was changed in Alpha 14 or something it happens quite a lot.

 

But better some slow FPS when going near buildings then broken spawning right?

 

There could also be content issues. There are a huge amount of POIs, each containing may sleeper volumes and sleeper blocks and I have not played through the majority of them.

 

Also, the spawn range is now 8m away from the sleeper volume, which seems pretty big to me.

[faatal]

I love to ride my bicycle, I love to ride my biiiiiiike.

 

The mouse-look steering is much nicer than I'd expected. I have somehow toggled it off though, tryin to ding the bell/horn while be chased by a vulture. Keyboard steering is rly not as nice by comparison, curious to see if remains true on all other vehicles. Anyone know the toggle key by chance? I'll just mash keys till I find it if not.

 

Tried applying dye, it went into a mod slot, but nothing happenified. Rly hope that gets implemented, but I don't rly mind the yellow, makes it easier to see it as it rolls down the hill away from you. Yeah, be mindful of where you dismount, though it is amusing.

 

Should be a mouse button. The left one I think.

[faatal]

Fully agree with everything here. Fun Pimps, fantastic work and great job with everything, but number one priority moving forwards, especially now that it's been close to 6 years in the development cycle, is to work on optimising processing and gameplay moving forwards. A stable 70 plus FPS on this game consistently would make this hands down incredible.

 

My current theory is the increase in POI block variety and maze like density (less empty space) has increased the overdraw your GPU is doing, which is why dropping resolution is giving the big boosts it has, since less pixels to draw. This is going to take additional optimizing like a culling system, which we are working on to get some of that performance back.

[wolffblood]

Is the marksman rifle the new sniper rifle? Just checking, I can now make sniper rifles, but can't find it anywhere, but can make marksman rifles.

[GARGEAN]

Hm, I have such idea... What about having same lvl gating as now, but adding specialized lvl to main player lvl when calculating gate. Like when you gaining XP from crafting, you will get main XP AND int XP. Abilities lvling should be somewhat slower (2 times maybe), and will not give any points, but will lower gate respectively, thus with Intellect lvl 5 you will gave gates not at 20/40/60, but at 15/35/55.

This way you will still be able to lvl everything by jerking infinitely one action, but to proper progression in wanted direction you will be better doing connected activity.

Thoughts?

[wolffblood]

Um... so I need Stone to make Cement, but I need Cement to make Stone... so how do I make concrete? lol

[Gnomaana]

It is not infinite zombies during the time. Time only effects the stopping of the remaining zombies once 4am arrives. Low game stages don't spawn that many zombies.

 

Even at low game stage I think horde night lasting more than 2 in game hours would be more fun. Any chance this will be balanced a little higher so the waves of zombies lasts longer?

[argeos]

is it just me or when I place a ladder or a hatch and its the last item in that toolbelt (1x hatch or 1x ladder section) I end up punching the placed ladder or hatch and doing damage to it.

 

I am on Windows/Multiplayer server - asking for a friend

 

We have the same problem. Last item placed will "send a punch". You can quickly move away so the punch will hit the air.

[ivailogeimara]

Hm, I have such idea... What about having same lvl gating as now, but adding specialized lvl to main player lvl when calculating gate. Like when you gaining XP from crafting, you will get main XP AND int XP. Abilities lvling should be somewhat slower (2 times maybe), and will not give any points, but will lower gate respectively, thus with Intellect lvl 5 you will gave gates not at 20/40/60, but at 15/35/55.

This way you will still be able to lvl everything by jerking infinitely one action, but to proper progression in wanted direction you will be better doing connected activity.

Thoughts?

 

Sounds good but it'll be harder to implement and harder to balance than my suggestion. But SOUNDS GOOD. Either way (my and your idea) it'll require to add specialized XP (which I don't think is that hard to code in). Your solution is better from modding standpoint because you would probably be able to mod it to make it behave like my solution or leave it to behave like yours.

[Doctor3D]

My current theory is the increase in POI block variety and maze like density (less empty space) has increased the overdraw your GPU is doing, which is why dropping resolution is giving the big boosts it has, since less pixels to draw. This is going to take additional optimizing like a culling system, which we are working on to get some of that performance back.

 

The reflection maps still appear to be showing even with reflections disabled as well - if that assumption is true - then that could also be why people with mid-range and lower machines are getting lower FPS.

 

Look at the garbage can in the game for example - and move around it - there's reflections. The duct work in the game if you set a chest on it - the chest will reflect on the duct-work - even with reflections disabled. FPS penalty for reflections is pretty severe - especially in a dense POI.

[Survager]

HALK mode for armor, it is awesome!!! )))

 

[wolffblood]

Need a catwalk with 3 railings. That way can attach to top of a wall to be able to shoot down the side of the wall and still have railings to make sure you don't walk off

[joeevaristo]

Does anyone know if it's intended (or a bug) for Zombies Never Run to also apply to 7th nights now?

 

In previous alphas, zombies always ran on the blood moon horde regardless of your choice, but now it's respecting that setting. I don't remember seeing anything about whether it was an intentional change or not.

[Aldranon]

Ran a test, I removed all level gates for all the attributes.

 

I put a few points on other things but mainly focused on fortitude perks. Let me tell you, I was one tough mo-fo! Too tough.

 

So, at least some level gating is a good idea. Less than what it is now, but I don't know what the balance point is.

[Doctor3D]

Ran a test, I removed all level gates for all the attributes.

 

I put a few points on other things but mainly focused on fortitude perks. Let me tell you, I was one tough mo-fo! Too tough.

 

So, at least some level gating is a good idea. Less than what it is now, but I don't know what the balance point is.

 

 

Yeah I'm only on my fourth week in the game and I can already tell that i'm gonna be OP really soon. Game hasn't even got close to killing me yet. With all the talk about how hard and slow the game is - my actual concern is that the game gets too easy pretty quickly in fact. But - I know I'll be in the minority - at least for awhile - so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

[ivailogeimara]

Ran a test, I removed all level gates for all the attributes.

 

I put a few points on other things but mainly focused on fortitude perks. Let me tell you, I was one tough mo-fo! Too tough.

 

So, at least some level gating is a good idea. Less than what it is now, but I don't know what the balance point is.

 

That's why just removing the level gates is not a good idea. If you do that by the time you reach level 10 you'll be able to max out 1 of the top stats (let's say intellect) and by the time you reach level 20 (which is easy) you'll be able craft like every mod or something (well in that particular example you need schematics (I think) but you get my point). That's why the system needs a little bit of rework. With the system I suggested you may become level 40 or level 100 by the time you become specialist in crafting (and it can be modified how fast you can level these) if you only do crafting and disassembling BUT that way you will be weak at other things like fighting, gathering materials, etc.

 

The current system is really hard to modify and tweak especially if you want to make people do different things and not just do the same thing over and over (the thing that gives most XP (killing zeds atm)).

[Aldranon]

Yeah I'm only on my fourth week in the game and I can already tell that i'm gonna be OP really soon. Game hasn't even got close to killing me yet. With all the talk about how hard and slow the game is - my actual concern is that the game gets too easy pretty quickly in fact. But - I know I'll be in the minority - at least for awhile - so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

 

 

Game stage goes up to around 5000. I would like to see a playthrough of one day in the life of people up that far.

[FlufferX]

I'm having the same issue with running and my controller. I can hardly play anymore. So frustrated!