Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Anabella]

So all these details are not finalized so I'm going to give you a rough description. You will have to join a party with your friends. You will have some way of sharing the quest with your party. Then you all go together to the rally marker and the quest owner will then activate it. Everyone in the party as long as they are within range can share progress on the objectives (example is zombie kills). If you are outside of range when the rally marker is activated or leave the quest area then you fail the quest.

 

That sounds awesome Prime. So do you know yet how we tell if we are in range? I am looking forward to the quests and all the MP features that are being added for a17. Also thanks for taking the time to give us some info.

[The Gronk]

They also have lots of female voice files they haven't used. They have done at least two huge VO sessions and have plenty of material to use for both genders and for a range of emotional states and attitudes toward the player. Your statement about them deciding not to hire voice actors until later is something I haven't heard but I don't remember everything. You have a source on that?

 

Yes... you about two years ago :-)

 

I'm cursed with a reasonably decent memory, my guess is that the voice work was done about the same time as the mocap?

[Xrt]

So a Woman gamer on my server was asking "Hey how come we don't have female Traders?" I thought that was a great question! So what's the deal?

 

May I ask you, why, is this a big deal?

I mean, I have no problems with not having a female action hero in every computer game, movie, and TV series.

[themirror]

Any chance about changing the crosshair color on options or maybe on xml? It's pretty annoying try to aim on snow biome on few occasions =)

[meganoth]

May I ask you, why, is this a big deal?

 

You just made it a big deal ;-).

[Micre]

May I ask you, why, is this a big deal?

I mean, I have no problems with not having a female action hero in every computer game, movie, and TV series.

 

How about the fact that is a survivor story. Men would hardly be the only survivors, nor would they be the only ones with sense to set up a trading Post. Just because you can live without proper representation doesn't mean it wouldn't make sense or be desired.

[The Gronk]

How do you know trader Joel isn't female? Are you assigning gender identity based on physical appearance?

 

"If a gorilla shot an alligator with an AR-15 to save a Muslim refugee child while their transgender parent was in the bathroom the internet would go silent for a while as everyone tried to work out who's side they're supposed to be on"

- Kevin Smith

[eidobunny]

I just listed a variety of options to show that PvP-players can do lots of things depending on their circumstances and tastes. There is no reason to imagine they'd be helpless suddenly faced with a dialog that makes them immobile. The idea about walling off was more about a fast small wood block directly around the player to gain seconds to react before a sniper tries to take you out, similar to a wood frame wall to help against dog surprise attacks. There is no "claiming" involved.

 

Also, what would a PvP environment be without "watering holes" to lure out and find other players who otherwise hide in their underground bunkers

 

I was under the impression from Roland's thread on A17 that the quest givers are the traders primarily, so the premise is "being at a trader." Which yeah, you are vulnerable at a trader, but also you can't build within so many blocks of a trading post so it's doubtful that you'll see constructions built "around" quest givers is kind of what I'm trying to say.

 

And yeah it does make for good PvP, I've done some great PvP around trading posts for sure. Both ambushing and defending against ambushes and just running into someone in the area. But I don't think - at least until factions / faction bases are a thing - that there will be random quest givers just standing in the middle of nowhere where you can build a shack around them or whatever.

[Tin]

So all these details are not finalized so I'm going to give you a rough description. You will have to join a party with your friends. You will have some way of sharing the quest with your party. Then you all go together to the rally marker and the quest owner will then activate it. Everyone in the party as long as they are within range can share progress on the objectives (example is zombie kills). If you are outside of range when the rally marker is activated or leave the quest area then you fail the quest.

 

The details on this are still in the works. There should be a notification popup when the rally marker is activated notifying you that people will fail the quest allowing you to choose if you wish to continue. Also there should be a visual cue in the Party HUD showing if a party member is out of range.

 

TYM for "Drive-By" Info drop. Much appreciated. Hope you drop in more often

[Odetta]

Yes... you about two years ago :-)

 

Que Twilight Zone music

[Lonestarcanuck]

Not gonna lie, I would actually like to hear MM doing the voice acting for a female trader. That or just put in a female trader model and use the current voice for trader Rekt.

 

The look of utter confusion on someones face after witnessing that would be priceless.

 

Monty Python did it for most of the woman roles and well it might fit in nice with 7DTD, scruffy woman Trader with MM voice over.

[Lonestarcanuck]

So all these details are not finalized so I'm going to give you a rough description. You will have to join a party with your friends. You will have some way of sharing the quest with your party. Then you all go together to the rally marker and the quest owner will then activate it. Everyone in the party as long as they are within range can share progress on the objectives (example is zombie kills). If you are outside of range when the rally marker is activated or leave the quest area then you fail the quest.

 

Excellent - I was hoping group questing was an option.

 

Will there be any quest that just can't be done solo? I know some players will complain but getting out and making virtual friends is good!

[Guppycur]

The details on this are still in the works. There should be a notification popup when the rally marker is activated notifying you that people will fail the quest allowing you to choose if you wish to continue. Also there should be a visual cue in the Party HUD showing if a party member is out of range.

 

We'll be able to decide what objectives get group xp vs self xp, right?

[Armstrrong]

Turn down the biome particle effect/Lower the amount of grass/ thin out the biome decorations. Instead of needing to turn down the distant terrain gen, lower other resources heavy things.

Example:Biomes.xml

 

<weather>
<Temperature min="-80" max="-70" prob="1"/>
<Fog min="0" max="0" prob=".9"/>
<Fog min="100" max="100" prob=".1"/>
<CloudThickness min="0" max="100" prob=".5"/>
<CloudThickness min="95" max="100" prob=".5"/>
<Precipitation min="0" max="0" prob=".0"/> <!-- it has to be at least 70% cloudy before it can rain -->
<Precipitation min="50" max="100" prob=".75"/>
<Wind min="20" max="40" prob="0.9"/>
<Wind min="40" max="100" prob="0.1"/>
     <ParticleEffect prefab="ParticleEffects/p_snowstorm1" ChunkMargin="7"/> [color="#FFFF00"]<- increase the chunk margin to thin it out.[/color]
</weather>

 

 

<decorations>
<decoration type="prefab" name="rock_form02" prob=".001" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="prefab" name="rock_form01" prob=".01" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="prefab" name="resource_coal_pile" prob=".0007" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="lootForestHelper" prob="0.00025"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="rock05" prob =".005" />
<decoration type="block" blockname="rock06" prob =".005" />
<decoration type="block" blockname="rock07" prob =".005" />
<decoration type="block" blockname="rockResource" prob =".0005" rotatemax="3"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="rockResource02" prob =".0005" rotatemax="3"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="cntBirdnest" prob ="0.0007" />
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeWinterEverGreen" prob="0.003" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeWinterPine01" prob="0.003" rotatemax="7"/> 
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeWinterPine02" prob="0.003" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeWinterPine03" prob="0.003" rotatemax="7"/> [color="#FFFF00"]<-- lower the prob "0.0015"[/color]
<decoration type="block" blockname="cntTreeStump" prob="0.0005" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeSnowyDeadBush" prob ="0.005" rotatemax="7"/>
<decoration type="block" blockname="treeSnowyGrassDiagonal" prob =".1" /> [color="#FFFF00"]<-- lower the prob "0.001"[/color]
</decorations>

 

Doing those things help with the performance.

Especially thinning out the tall trees like 16m or above. You can even increase the amount of smaller tree by like amount (in total) and still get a decent gain on performance.

 

You can also lower the probabilities of having the larger hubs from forming. Reducing the Excessive amounts of the larger hubs can give you a pretty big performance gain.

 

Lots of things ppl can do to increase performance. Those are but a few easy quick "To Do's" without needing to go deeper than you need.

If I remove all trees in snow biome, it will increase performance even more?

[The Gronk]

If I remove all trees in snow biome, it will increase performance even more?

 

If you remove anything it should increase performance. You might want to take ferals out of the spawn lists, if memory serves they're a bit heavy on system resources.

[Armstrrong]

If you remove anything it should increase performance. You might want to take ferals out of the spawn lists, if memory serves they're a bit heavy on system resources.

 

Ferals must stay, trees gonna die.

I thought to remove all the trees except the pine forest to increase perfomance.

[The Gronk]

Ferals must stay, trees gonna die.

I thought to remove all the trees except the pine forest to increase perfomance.

 

You could try lowering the spawn rate instead of removing them entirely, that way you can still collect some wood no matter where you are.

[Armstrrong]

You could try lowering the spawn rate instead of removing them entirely, that way you can still collect some wood no matter where you are.

 

Just need to wait for release of A17, to decide the fate of my trees.

Less wood sources could add a bit of a challenge to the early game.

[Tin]

If I remove all trees in snow biome, it will increase performance even more?

 

In the snow biome.. yep!

You would need to tweak the other biomes as well to get similar results.

[Armstrrong]

In the snow biome.. yep!

You would need to tweak the other biomes as well to get similar results.

 

thanks for the info.

[Tin]

thanks for the info.

 

no problem.

[meganoth]

I was under the impression from Roland's thread on A17 that the quest givers are the traders primarily, so the premise is "being at a trader." Which yeah, you are vulnerable at a trader, but also you can't build within so many blocks of a trading post so it's doubtful that you'll see constructions built "around" quest givers is kind of what I'm trying to say.

 

Ok, but traders are already surrounded by walls behind doors you can close, so the premise of the poster I was answering to seems to be something else. Make sure no one is inside the compound, make sure the compound door and the door to the room are closed (so you hear the doors opening) and the trader should be relatively safe to talk to.

[uowaep]

That already happens automatically with unity, technically it's the colliders attached to the physics objects that are the problem but without them everything would fall through the floor.

 

Removing colliders from objects and making them static far from the player would have some odd consequences, I'd be able to shoot a rocket launcher at a pile of corpses and the projectile would just pass through them. Activating them all when a rocket got close enough to them would give the frame-rate a crippling stutter for a few frames and probably send bodies flying through the air for miles, the physics engine would read the activated colliders as new collisions and behave appropriately.

 

Nice idea but unworkable.

 

Physics engines are great for things like vehicles, and realism overkill, but IMO I don't think anything besides the vehicles really need to use any kind of complex physics engine. TFP could write a lower level physics handler for things like gibs, and whatnot, and run them both. I don't know anything about how unity works, and what freedoms the coders have though...

[faatal]

Will the zombies at least slightly turn their heads towards the player when they are above or below the zombie? Now zombies look only in front of themselves and do not turn their heads at all

 

It is on my list. Not sure that will make A17.

 

Will the zombie have an animation of the face (movement of the jaws and eyes)?

 

All this can add fear to the game, is not it. Now zombies are just dolls that are not like people and therefore do not inspire fear to players (

 

Not planned as far as I know.

[The Gronk]

That assumes that quests will only ever be given by traders which would be a shame and a wasted opportunity.

 

What about random encounters with other survivors out on the road? There was talk of bandits demanding bribes from you, if they get the drop on you then you're not going to have time to build a wall around the entire gang. What happens if you're having a conversation with a settlement's guards outside their walls, are you going to be able to build that close to their base?

 

Forcing a player to look at the character they're talking to is fine in a single player game but it's very unrealistic from an immersion perspective and a liability in a pvp environment.