Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Exxodous]

threading holes for bolts and creating threads on bolts. re-threading if threads are messed up.

 

Most mechanics call it a tap and die set. The tap cuts the thread in a hole so bolts can be screwed in as joe said and the die cuts the threads on a rod or bolt.

 

In my exp dies are used mostly for re-threading existing bolts.

[FileMachete]

Sand yield: haven't seen mentioned? With Mother Lode-2 and Iron Shovel 9 Sand per block, 2 swings. 11 Sand for 3 swings using Stone Shovel. Also -no- XP for harvesting Sand. Sand = top layer in Desert biome.

 

---

 

Base build: curious what peeps thoughts are on this one, should this work?

 

 

Horde began, z's came to base of 'stairs', started jumping up on spikes. I'm sniping them. Seemed as soon as the first step spike broke they started after supports. Rather than continuing on up what was now a 'cheaper' path? .... Damn it!@&%^$# fer cryin out loud. Just figured out what I did wrong... son of a B****!

Once they broke that spike on top of the first 'up' block, the path became -2-blocks-TALL. So very high cost, and they changed over to taking out supports.

 

Welp, hope this saves someone some trouble (I'll be over here in the corner w the dunce hat mumbling to myself...)

 

After day 14 horde

 

 

 

was inside when collapse happened, missed haybales, broke leg, made it into water, swam out into lake. Sniped zeds below me until horde ended; only had one vulture hit me while floating. Lesson learned, don't go down w the ship. Also learned that going for a swim allows easy cheesing of horde.

 

[madmole]

Do motorcycles use more gas than minibikes? They should at least.

 

They do, but I haven't been able to play a long term game and figure out a good fuel balance yet.

[Kosmic Kerman]

Sand yield: haven't seen mentioned? With Mother Lode-2 and Iron Shovel 9 Sand per block, 2 swings. 11 Sand for 3 swings using Stone Shovel. Also -no- XP for harvesting Sand. Sand = top layer in Desert biome.

 

Thar be fractions! The more swings the more likely you won’t lose resources due to fractions. But the more time you spend harvesting.

[FileMachete]

Thar be fractions! The more swings the more likely you won’t lose resources due to fractions. But the more time you spend harvesting.

 

True was distracted thinking about why my base failed so didn't complete the sand bit; I think yield is quite low for sand.

[Doctor3D]

 

Base build: curious what peeps thoughts are on this one, should this work?

 

 

If I had to guess...

 

Your stairway is gonna get broke, and then they will all just pile up and beat on the supports. I can't tell by the screenshot, but if those bars are just wood - you're gonna have a rough time if you get cops tomorrow. The cop vomit will just blow all those frames away and you down with it.

 

Depends on your gamestage and what difficulty you have it set on..you might be OK for tomorrow - but it definitely would need lots of TLC for the harder stuff.

 

 

*Edit - nevermind - didn't see the second screenshot.... ya..that's pretty nasty

[Thecolours]

Tier 1 quests from traders should be no more than 500m away. Kinda crazy that you get quest that are 7km away and you dont even have a bike yet.

[FileMachete]

Update on top-layer Sand yield compared to top-layer Dirt.

 

Mother Lode-3, Miner69er-2, Iron Shovel, no mods

 

Sand, 2 swings, 9 Sand & 2 Dirt - no XP

Dirt, 4 swings, 28 Dirt & 2 plant fiber + 10 XP

 

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@Doctor3D , did I screw up & those thumbnails don't link out to postimages.org? Edit: links seem to work but pics are lower qual than I posted, so hard to see some details, bah

Yep, good eye, only the bars of the floor are Iron Bars (for SI), rest are Wood bars; GS was 60 so hoped none, or not many Cops (none showed thankfully).

 

I totally shanked it with the stair design, but it's fixable, heh. What I was trying for was cheap-skate just enough build. Only 20 Iron Spikes, no wood spike field. Was hoping that, _if_ they made it all the through the spikes that they'd be down to a trickle and be able to melee through the poles. If stilll too many then was going to pull up wood frames. Bummed I screwed the pooch and couldn't see how it 'should' work. Oh well, live and learn

[Lonestarcanuck]

POI - Question

 

I looted a gas station (the one with the two buildings and the cars in front) I scrapped the cars and put a chest and ladder on one of the buildings. I also looted the Pig/Corn house (Gracie) and that was day 42. well I came back around day 63 and my chest/ladder was gone and the cars and POIs all respawned. same with the Pig/Corn house. everything was new.

 

my question is does B221 respawn or restore POIs?

[Jugginator]

How long should we shaft people early game? I played 4-5 hours using crap tools and got mine. In Rust I can usually get a forge going on the first evening and start getting iron tools. Iron tools without mods or perks to make them better are not great at all. I could have maybe got my forge up a bit faster but I spread a few other perks where needed like strength and pack mule. Iron tools are not end game. We can always level gate perks, I just don't like level gated attributes.

 

Hear me out, what if, say, you guys introducted tiered forges? Basic forge lets you craft an anvil, forged iron and other iron things and is rather easy to make. Next up would be a rock/lead/brass forge which is a bit harder (later mid-early game) to get. Next would be end-game forge (think large furnace from Rust since you mentioned that), that could smelt out steel and, perhaps, the rest of the stuff other forges could do, but also with more smelting slots + maybe faster production. I think that could help that out a bit.

 

And I agree with you on attributes not being gated. Maybe just let them be bought as you get points, but leave the perks gated? Maybe not all of the perks... I think crafting perks SHOULD be gated either way (esp the forges I mentioned above). That would allow getting stronger faster, but not end-game too fast.

[8bitkronik]

Feedback

 

From what I understand this game is still in an experimental build, correct?

 

Here are some of my questions/concerns:

 

1. Have we confirmed there is an easy way to "mod out" digging Zombies?

 

2. Player nerfed. As much as I like the new perks and skills the leveling system seems drawn out and tedious.

 

3. Zombies buffed. I'm glad that zombies can finally jump over obstacles they always should have been able to however I am upset with the unrealistic Super Saiyan jumping. I'm happy with the new path finding AI but I find myself wondering if the zombies were structural geniuses in a past lifetime and can identify, target, and destroy a necessary fulcrum.

 

It is this reason and others I have heard many others swearing off this alpha (experimental or not). I've been playing since Alpha 15 and I mostly play on console (I play on PC sometimes) but I'm glad I don't have to suffer through experimental builds (just crappy bugs).

[madmole]

part of the problem with this is intel sets the quality. by the time you get to iron, you arent making poor quality anymore. you are automatically set to making better quality for the first iron tool. it need to be tweaked a bit so that when you do make a higher tier req'd item, you start at low quality for first attempt and have to get better at it.

 

example you first get iron tool crafting capability. it starts at 1, but by the time you can make steel tools, iron quality is 3, but steel quality is 1 until you put pore points into it. same with weapons and armor.

 

Quality only affects durability and how many mods you can install, so it doesn't matter that much IMO.

[madmole]

@madmole,

 

Will we ever see the return of our feet which were supposed to come back "in a few builds"?

That or can we please have a way to hold and lean over an edge for block placing, etc; like was opposed because we were going to get our feet back?

 

No feet will not be returning. Nothing but clipping bugs. I never fall off. All you do is creep slowly at an angle until the raycast hits on the sidewall, its not hard. or make frame scaffolding.

[madmole]

Madmole

 

Can we see attack structures such as catapults and large crossbows as defenses that we put as turrets?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

 

I'm just like you, I love building defensive castles but we can see attack structures like catapults example and big crossbows as defenders that we put as turrets? and shoot big arrows?

Maybe the next game.

[madmole]

Thats fine if you are in a single player game.....what happens if you have a level 10, a level 40, and a level 60 on a server.....does everyone face level 60 hordes and zombies in POIS??? If all the players are in one general area around a trader..do the levels blend, take an average???

 

Are the zombies still leveled for each individual???

 

Regards

 

Ouch

 

Unless you are in a team with them and close, it uses your game stage just like in single player. Hit I to see your game stage.

[Thecolours]

Maybe the next game.

 

A survival game set during the black plague would be amazing.

[beerfly]

A survival game set during the black plague would be amazing.

 

And the best hero you can choose would be mouse.

[FileMachete]

Idea to prevent rng from having it's way indefinately. (prompted by Meganoths comments)

 

Assuming there will be a few things like the old Minibikes for Dumb♥♥♥♥s & the Wrench where rng can really be a problem.

 

Possibly add in a 'Supply Drop Request' mechanic.

 

Could be something like; in first supply drop there's an instruction sheet saying,

"We know there are survivors, we want to help.

Please fly the supplied colored flags in the combinations detailed to indicate what critical supplies you need.

We'll do our best to get them to you in our next drop."

1) Green only = need Food

2) Medical Flag = need Medical supplies

3) etc

 

Thinking it would be a 'Base Flagpole' that you build, place, then interact with ('we' wouldn't be actually putting up the flags, the game item would based on our checking a box).

 

Say 'item x' is required to make 'station y', and balance wise is intended to be found/used at lvl 50+. The Base Flagpole would add an option to ask for item x when a player of lvl ~60+ accesses the interface.

 

So the 'Supply Request Form' could be a static table, more items displayed as player progresses; basic player lvl check done when Base Flagpole is interacted with.

 

Could add in % chance on 1st request, greater % chance on 2nd, 100% chance on third.

 

Kind of convoluted to describe. Hope it makes sense. Bottom line of course is to always have a way to beat rng, in the end. Sure, let him toy with us, make us pray to her, curse him, sacrifice goats in her name, just, in the end, have them be magnamimous

[A Nice Cup of Tea]

Unless you are in a team with them and close, it uses your game stage just like in single player. Hit I to see your game stage.

 

Is there any chance that while we're teamed with someone and close to them we can share all xp rather than just that for killing zombies?

 

I love being able to set the shared xp radius to larger than the map so we can always work as a party, and it would really make it easier when playing co-op to have one person building and one scavenging and one trading if we don't have to worry about everyone getting xp at different rates for their different activities. If we all shared all xp then it wouldn't matter whether you took on did the xp-rich role or the xp-poor role.

[tankedup_]

perhaps with the forge, maybe it could be that alot more recipes are gated behind the anvil so that you only have basic options such as getting the raw resources out of it (i dont understand how you dont need an anvil to make forged iron) and have the anvil require a high amount of resources to craft/ make it a quest reward (say 1500-2500 scrap iron and 400 clay).

[Freshmint]

Re: weapon quality, I always logically expected higher tiers to have a higher rate of fire and damage considering there was a new speed rig attached in A17. Visually seeing a weapon fire faster side by side would make it feel more "elite" and less clunky. I guess it would be pretty hard to balance though. Maybe damage would go down slighty as ROT increased making it overall a better and more perky weapon.

[lesipher]

Sand yield: haven't seen mentioned? With Mother Lode-2 and Iron Shovel 9 Sand per block, 2 swings. 11 Sand for 3 swings using Stone Shovel. Also -no- XP for harvesting Sand. Sand = top layer in Desert biome.

 

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try the same idea but place a layer of ramp blocks on top of each step followed by spikes. that way they have a walkable slope to the next set of spikes.....also reinforce for cops and such in later runs.

[Kage848]

How long should we shaft people early game? I played 4-5 hours using crap tools and got mine. In Rust I can usually get a forge going on the first evening and start getting iron tools. Iron tools without mods or perks to make them better are not great at all. I could have maybe got my forge up a bit faster but I spread a few other perks where needed like strength and pack mule. Iron tools are not end game. We can always level gate perks, I just don't like level gated attributes.

 

I love you madmole. Iron tools asap please.

[faatal]

1920x1080.

 

And yeah, I have everything off and low except trees on middle. Shadows off.

 

Maybe I'll lower the rez :/

 

settings: https://imgur.com/a/V126S9D

 

With your settings, which are very low, I'd expect it to run great on a GTX 1060. It would look bad, but FPS should be >30 FPS most of the time and >60 FPS outdoors.

[faatal]

Nights are a bit boring, though. Every night when I've tried to do something, the Z's hear me and kill me, so now I'm doing very little until I build up a better base. In the meantime, not sure what I would suggest to fill in the time, however I feel something more needs doing at nights. Maybe when food spoilage goes in it will require more sorting out. Oh, but it's actually sorting things out that Z's will hear, too. So we really are too limited in what we can do that doesn't make noise.

 

I'd set Zombie Night Speed to Run. That is what I play on and I can stealth around at night with no problem. Do not use a light source or be near one. Stay in stealth. Keep the stealth meter below 20. Zombies have to be pretty close to see you then and won't hear you moving or run moving. Use the stealth run movement to scoot away if one sees or hears you. Use your bow and then relocate or wait for them and power attack to head, then relocate.