Developer The Fun Pimps is finally about to release the much anticipated experimental alpha 17 of 7 Days to Die, which should be early next week.
A recent screenshot of A17, showing off new lighting.
The last update to the game was around October last year so this has been in progress for some time now. As expected, it's going to be absolutely huge. So big in fact, that to talk about most of it here would be a bit ridiculous. Honestly, even doing some simple highlights I'm utterly lost for where to start it's so long and exciting.
Here's a few interesting things coming: They've updated Unity to bring in some massively improved lighting; texture streaming; a new party system to share XP, share quests and track their location and health; the quest system is brand new, which lets you pick up quests from traders and progress through tiered quests difficulties; the Navezgane map is more than double the original size; many new locations and many improved locations from the previous alpha; multiple new vehicles; overhauled AI system, which includes some scary sounding behaviours and absolutely loads more. To say they've been busy, would be a pretty big understatement.
You can see some preliminary patch notes here.
The actual release isn't going to be the full alpha 17, they're saying it will be an experimental public beta which will be available Monday (depending on timezones).
I spoke to the developer today, who said this about the Linux version
Monday's release is the experimental version so hopefully it will be working well but it is an incomplete version that we are seeking feedback about so that it can be completed. There is an equivalent linux version built alongside the windows and mac versions so hopefully there won't be issues but can't promise anything.
Across this weekend, some livestreamers were given access to test it out, you can see a list here. Sadly we didn't get in on that, as we only have around 3.5K Twitch followers (our channel here) whereas you needed at least 5K.
As long as the Linux version runs well enough, our livestreamer Sin will be taking a look next week as soon as she can.
It's currently on sale on the Humble Store with 64% off, good time to pick it up.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: silverMy favourite game. ^_^ I hope they have managed to fix it so it doesn't crash that often anymore. It uses Vulkan now I think (?)Well, technically Vulkan is in (as far as Unity's support goes) but the shaders haven't been updated to work with either Vulkan or Metal yet unfortunately. So for now it's basically still only GLCore, but that will change at some point.
Quoting: WorMzyWill be interesting to see if The Fun Pimps actually come through this time. Historically they've been very lousy with their Linux/Mac support, uncommunicative when they break the various builds, and pretty shitty to people who ask them about what problems they're facing. It would be nice to see that they've grown as developers and actually test their builds before they release them, and are open and communicative when things go wrong. They might actually make it off my blacklist if they can demonstrate that.
The last bad experience was the A14 shader cock up which Alloc noted above. For all the alphas I've been a part of (A14, 15 and 16), there's always been a dedicated "Linux Issues" stickied forum post which cuts down on the noise hugely and helps them fix any problems.
Fingers crossed the game is maturing to the point where such issues are fewer.
Quoting: AllocSeems like Sin will be happy then! What is your role on the pimps team?Quoting: WorMzyWill be interesting to see if The Fun Pimps actually come through this time. Historically they've been very lousy with their Linux/Mac support, uncommunicative when they break the various builds, and pretty shitty to people who ask them about what problems they're facing. It would be nice to see that they've grown as developers and actually test their builds before they release them, and are open and communicative when things go wrong. They might actually make it off my blacklist if they can demonstrate that.Suppose you're talking about pre A10? From that time on I always tried to make sure no one was left out with new releases and I definitely gave as much support to everyone on the forum as possible considering I also have to work on my dev tasks ;)
(Yeah, there was this one alpha (14 iirc) that had a broken OpenGL shader for a while ... would have liked to fix that but no clue about shaders myself and the graphics dev back then was busy with other stuff unfortunately. But it was communicated)
So far this release seems pretty stable though :)
Quoting: liamdaweSeems like Sin will be happy then! What is your role on the pimps team?Third-party integrations (Steam and EAC most of the time), network layer, admin stuff, modding support (though that's mostly what I do on the side, officially that's planned for post-gold), some UI work etc ;)
Nothing gameplay related, I suck at gameplay dev.
Quoting: Patolaare you confusing with Outlast 2?yup sorry. I guess don't like to kill zombies, i prefer being the mouse than the cat :P
Last edited by haiku on 19 November 2018 at 7:43 am UTC
Quoting: BeamboomThe one big question remains though: Can we start a new coop session on this patch and expect to survive an upgrade to the final A17 patch, or will we need to regenerate the map (and characters) between now and the final A17 patch?Map is most likely gonna be fine (though obviously any fixes made there might not apply to your already started map). Characters though *could* receive a reset but noone can tell you at this time.
Quoting: liamdaweThe actual release isn't going to be the full alpha 17, they're saying it will be an experimental public beta ...
Wait---what? This is a public beta of an alpha? I've got nothing against that. I just think its lovely to say aloud! "It's the beta of the alpha, the beta of the alpha, the beta beta beta of the aaaaaallpha!"
Version metrical lyricism aside, it's been a few years since I spent any time in 7DtD, so it might be time to look in on Navezgane again. Alone or with friends, I enjoyed 7D2D primarily as a base building/exploration game in a zombie infested world. People kvetch about the graphics, but I never saw any thing wrong with them.
The game did have a couple quirks that drove me to such distraction that my sense of immersion was undermined, and that I think in the long run would inevitably erode my fun to the point that I would cease playing.
The first was an ambient audio environment that was loaded with screams, cries, and groans that had absolutely nothing to do with the actual environment. I don't know which was more annoying, hearing zombies right behind me in the middle of an open field, or constant awareness of how much richer the environment would be with the actual sounds of the actual critters in the area.
The second was the inexplicable frailty of so many building materials under the blows of supposedly "rotting" flesh. I could overlook, maybe, their tunneling through dirt, but brick? Concrete? Steel? How was it I could harm these zeds with clubs or arrows or even lead bullets? It wasn't a matter of realism but of not being internally logical.
All that said, I never lost sight of the game's alpha state, and have always found each new iteration of the game to be better than the last and have always been happy that the devs cared about their Linux build.
Last edited by Nanobang on 19 November 2018 at 1:41 pm UTC
Quoting: NanobangWait---what? This is a public beta of an alpha?Well, yes. You see there's a difference between the regular (static world) FPS where each time you get into the game you start clean (or at most keep some kind of skills or item selection). Not much of an issue if such games change stuff in between because you start a "new game" anyway. With games like 7dtd and the like changes required to fix issues can just as well lead to breaking saves and this is obviously very annoying for players. That's why we do an experimental first that's hopefully *primarily* opted in by people who are aware of the implications and also willing to provide feedback before the masses get the regular build.
As for the other stuff ... as I said I'm not much into gameplay features, I love to just play it myself ;)
But do you really want materials that are impenetrable by zombies? I know I wouldn't because that would make the game stale at that point as you'd just have no threat at all anymore once you got a building of such a material. Sometimes logic has to be reduced in favor of more interesting gameplay.
I'm sure you'd also not like if you couldn't carry any blocks but would need some kind of (pushed/pulled) vehicle to e.g. move a single block of stone :D
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