Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[ZombieHorde]

Maple forest is just forest... plains is just basically desert nobody is losing anything really other than these can be sub biomes now. Anyhow the new terrain shader can only handle so many textures so something had to give and this will help the game run better. Trust me the new art will make you quickly forget about the old stuff. One gorgeous forest is better than two ♥♥♥♥ty ones.

 

So what will happen with the way that natural resources are distributed now? Because A16 you have more of one resource in a biome than the others.

[Xeen]

 

ROFL!

[Demonoid74]

Or , do like I am in my Unity Project...and no health bars for standard enemies...they just show up on tough encounters...

either way they will probably just add a toggle and then it really doesn't matter...

[ZombieHorde]

Anytime something is removed, it does feel like a setback to the game, however the balance is, overall, getting better and better.

 

I know this is a bit of a pipe dream because balancing would be difficult and just overall time consuming, however I'd love the progression of recipes in the game to be very simple at the start. So bring back sticks and even add things like tinder in order to light a fire. Use a few different varieties of lighting fires, like matches, lighter or magnifying glass. But after you've learnt how to do those things, the game progresses to new and more intricate recipes and therefore sticks and tinder are no longer necessary.

 

But I'd accept that maybe this can be a skipable introduction to how to play the game.

[Xrt]

Cool video, MadMole

Thanks for the update

[Karma]

Thanks again for taking the time to update us!

 

I've never said anything negative before, and I almost feel shame for this, but I very much dislike the HP and Stealth bars.

 

However, this opinion is balanced with the knowledge that it is not entirely fleshed out, it will likely be a setting or easily edited via xml and there will also likely be mods made shortly after A17 release.

 

My few cents, and as always, in TFP I trust.

[Survager]

At 17 Alfa, the map will become bigger?

 

One question:

At the end of the video Joel gets into the jeep and leaves Perishton to the north !!!

But there is nothing in the north. There's an end of map.

At 17 Alpha, the map will become bigger ?????

[dhlmaster]

It would be also cool to hear some news on lockpicking. When was the last time this feature was mentioned? Alpha 16 when it was being developed, I believe?

 

While dungeon crawling is cool and all, I still like to break through stuff, so lockpicks would be pretty cool to have already as an alternative.

 

I remember MM giving us a lockpick demo in one of the a15 videos

[Guppycur]

One question:

At the end of the video Joel gets into the jeep and leaves Perishton to the north !!!

But there is nothing in the north. There's an end of map.

At 17 Alfa, the map will become bigger ?????

 

He said it would in the video, but my guess is that they just found a cool way to end the roads... you'll notice that the road became more and more impassible.

[dhlmaster]

I remember when the new UI was made getting rid of the hunger & thirst bar. Madmole said that they wanted a uncluttered interface with less distractions and a more immersive feel. Anyone else remembers this? Come on put your hands up!

 

So can you explain to me now why we have a big arse health bar to show hit points on zombies that is as big as the navigation compass. Are we playing street fighter? What's next, Rage combos and power ups! That really takes away the immersion and making it more distracting. I can imagine on horde night when a dozen+ zombies with a top health bar shifting HP constantly giving you seizures. Speaking of distraction... That stealth bar is incredibly annoying to see. Going from left to right and changing shades constantly was the first thing I noticed from the video and made it quite irritating. Surely something better can be done. Oh wait! the modding community can do that.

 

Don't you find it annoying when your game as to be modded from day 1 with people begging modders for fixes?

 

I know, I know. Work in progress. Perhaps in 6 months, when the game is ready for experimental, we will see how this as evolved. Caves and water included hopefully!

 

I'm sorry to be negative. I try to remain optimistic but sometimes too much nonsense goes to far and another drop in an already filled bowl that is already spilling.

 

I thought they were using the HP bar in testing, so that when the devs are trying out different mods and weapons, they can see how much damage is being done. In that context, it actually makes sense to hav eit be a big ugly thing that you couldn't possibly ignore. I don't think they had made a decision on whether or not to include it in the game. At one point there was talk of a perk that enables it. I'm sure the daily negative feedback they get on the subject will motivate them to either take it out or make it an option.

[emarat]

He said it would in the video, but my guess is that they just found a cool way to end the roads... you'll notice that the road became more and more impassible.

 

From what i understood that area was still under construction. So that is why it was impassible.

[knivez1]

So yea.... new Perishton looks AWESOME! Not only do the buildings look better inside and out, but theres is now a town in the snow biome (everything was so far apart b4). the landscape itself also looks great (jeep ride at the end especially). The snow biome has always been my favorite, and this is DEFINITELY a huge come-up. im pretty sure the exclamation quest markers are gonna be subbed out for NPC's (non-trader survivors ftw!), signs, or notes (bulletin boards at traders would work well for this) and i couldnt be happier-- ive always wanted there to be actual quests besides the treasure hunts and the "Kill X creatures Y many times in Z amount of time" missions. Clearing out buildings, rescuing survivors, and of course the retrieval missions will add so much to the game.

 

i do have 2 small complaints tho-

1. the enemy HP bars are a lil too big and too opaque for my personal liking i just feel like they take up too much space in its current form

2. The jeep's suspension. i know its gonna be hard to make the jeep roll over things more smoothly, given that the blocks are all about the size of its tire, but it looks awkward as it was driving over offroad terrain.

---yes, i know its all WIP, just adding my 2cents.

 

what im most interested in though? THE ZOMBIE PATHING! nothing more annoying than being swarmed by a horde of zombies running in circles, running away from you, deciding to attack the building 20 ft away from you cuz it cant figure out where u r lol. id take an AI update over evvvvverything else in this update if i had to chose between em. Keep up the good work pimps!

[Ripper270]

Hi,

 

Please make the HP bars optional - that should not be too hard in my opinion and would give people a choice.

[dhlmaster]

From what i understood that area was still under construction. So that is why it was impassible.

 

Yes, I think he even said it would be paved later on

[Red Eagle LXIX]

OK, so of course the health bars came up on the Steam side again with the latest video.

One thought, any possibility the bars could be hidden for any zed/animal at full health?

The reason being that it was and is noticed that hidden zeds in the darkness can easily be found by pointing in their general direction.

While the bars fill the need to know which zed you've smacked a few times (until something cool like blood and guts and visually healing are possible{if ever}), the immediacy even prior to engagement can be some-what exploity.

[Snowydeath]

yeah being engine limited sounds odd, like is this on a free liscence or something? because unreal engine shouldn't have such a stupid limitation, in other games it does not.

 

Uhh, don't you mean Unity? Cause this is not Unreal Engine lol. unity is a very limited engine, and requires a ton of work to make a decent game on.

[Survager]

Question about regdoll.

 

Question about regdoll.

 

In the video, Joel says that the reglogall we see is the first results of working on it and that's why it looks so bad.

 

But we've already seen regdoll when stunned in one of the past videos right here:

 

 

What changed? Why did regdall become worse? And how did it happen that the zombies are stunned to spin on the ground?

[kamer1337]

it was just flat surface so it looked better

[Survager]

it was just flat surface so it looked better

 

 

 

Here is we have flat surface too, or not?

[Survager]

 

Shots in the hands now also get damage?

 

I hope we can not kill a zombie by shooting him in the thumb on his leg from AK47, how is this possible in Fallout 3? )))

[FreeKiLLL]

Ehh, my hope they use HP bar only for testing like Roland said.

 

And still immersion breaking when I shoot eight shots and load two in shotgun , hope they fix that someday..

[Survager]

Ehh, my hope they use HP bar only for testing like Roland said.

 

And still immersion breaking when I shoot eight shots and load two in shotgun , hope they fix that someday..

 

I Agreed!

[Tin]

Uhh, don't you mean Unity? Cause this is not Unreal Engine lol. unity is a very limited engine, and requires a ton of work to make a decent game on.

I guess I really don't get the whole Unreal is better than Unity deal.

Each engine has it's strong areas and weaknesses. Overall, neither is really a cut above the other.

 

Unreal: Does Graphics better!

Unity: Does Voxel calculations better!

 

For 7Days to Die, they made the better choice at the time for their project.

 

Choose the engine best suited for the project.

First time game developer with little coding experience and no designated coder? Then choose Unreal for their out of the box node system.

Got a project that utilizes heavy CPU calculations? Then use Unity.

 

Either way, both Unity and Unreal engines are still being improved upon but so far neither has the deceive edge.

I have and use both, off and on.

Nothing as grand as making a purchasable game..yet! but I still haven't seen where one is overly better than the other.

 

If I had my pick: I would like 7D2D2 use the VRage engine for future Voxel based projects that it was specifically made for.. or they (TFP) eventually make their own. Hopefully this game makes it a reality for them to do so.

OFC this is just my opinion based on using both/reviews etc,. and I'm not a guru, so take it for what it is as I just fail to understand this whole one engine is better than the other deal.

[The Gronk]

The 4 texture per pass limit wasn't put in place by Unity, it was put in place by NVidia.

 

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/CgTutorial/cg_tutorial_appendix_c.html

 

I'm pretty sure the Unreal Engine has the same limitation since shader code is independent of the game engine.

[Hawk-X51]

Are y'all going to bring back Perlin dithering for the terrain in RWG? My favorite spots to build a home were in those little sub-biome pockets that would pop up in random places, like a stand of trees in the plains or a meadow in the forest. Since you're taking out my two favorite biomes I was hoping they'd still appear in limited fashion, or at least that we can lose those sharp borders again so similar features might be discovered.