PC For a 1000+ hr player you get kind of bored with the gameplay loop. I made 6 mod changes that made the game feel new again

[warmer]

Fire
When I moved into my perfect spot I thought, damn I have to tear it all down... OR... I could just throw this moltov and watch it burn  this is only 1 logical choice lol

Caves

One of my fondest memories playing 7 days to die is running through the woods in the dark without a torch with zombies behind me, only to fall into a cave. In my first 20min of play with the new mods I fell into a cave running through a forest. This was a great surprise. It felt new and I wanted to explore it so badly (randomly generated caves) but I was burning daylight and hadn't set up any type of base or gotten food or water sorted out.

Board Pulling 
Pulling boards on windows and crates  vs. destroying them. Much more realistic method of entry in a possible zombie infested structure

Chest broadcasting to work benches
this just saves you time and lets you have more fun. Workbenches pull from nearby crates

The above 4 are just a few of dozens from 0-Score SphereII mods, there are a ton of really neat quality of life and features, but it takes some manual editing of the blocks.xml file to turn them one. There are some great tutorials explaining how to get started doing so. 

Pickable doors:

this speaks for itself. With that said, a wall safe or a gun safe should require a level of 3 or higher in my opinion, simply because of how uncommon the knowledge/tools of dial safe cracking is compared to a rake and tension bar .

Lootable/semi-persistent decaying zombies
Non lootable zombies turn then into "purely" xp and ammo dumps. They cease to have any real identity. When you kill 20 of them around your base and they slowly decompose over time from a battle, it adds SO much dark grit to the game. additionally, these are great for starter clothing pieces and very basic food scavenging. It feels much more immersive.

Specific wish list "items/guns/vehicles" aside, what other fundamental gameplay aspects are missing?

 

 

[Fenris]

Chest broadcasting to work benches
this just saves you time and lets you have more fun. Workbenches pull from nearby crates
 

Is there a stand alone mod for this? I've only seen this in Undead Legacy. Looks like a cool mod, just a few too many changes for me

 

[Blake_]

Fire
When I moved into my perfect spot I thought, damn I have to tear it all down... OR... I could just throw this moltov and watch it burn  this is only 1 logical choice lol

Caves

One of my fondest memories playing 7 days to die is running through the woods in the dark without a torch with zombies behind me, only to fall into a cave. In my first 20min of play with the new mods I fell into a cave running through a forest. This was a great surprise. It felt new and I wanted to explore it so badly (randomly generated caves) but I was burning daylight and hadn't set up any type of base or gotten food or water sorted out.

Board Pulling 
Pulling boards on windows and crates  vs. destroying them. Much more realistic method of entry in a possible zombie infested structure

Chest broadcasting to work benches
this just saves you time and lets you have more fun. Workbenches pull from nearby crates

The above 4 are just a few of dozens from 0-Score SphereII mods, there are a ton of really neat quality of life and features, but it takes some manual editing of the blocks.xml file to turn them one. There are some great tutorials explaining how to get started doing so. 

Pickable doors:

this speaks for itself. With that said, a wall safe or a gun safe should require a level of 3 or higher in my opinion, simply because of how uncommon the knowledge/tools of dial safe cracking is compared to a rake and tension bar .

Lootable/semi-persistent decaying zombies
Non lootable zombies turn then into "purely" xp and ammo dumps. They cease to have any real identity. When you kill 20 of them around your base and they slowly decompose over time from a battle, it adds SO much dark grit to the game. additionally, these are great for starter clothing pieces and very basic food scavenging. It feels much more immersive.

Specific wish list "items/guns/vehicles" aside, what other fundamental gameplay aspects are missing?

 

Hi ! I think I can clarify some points here, but for further info you might want to talk directly to the devs. 

In red: Already discussed and it's not gonna happen because:

Fire: Performance reasons. Each block burning will literally decrease performance by the dozens of FPS, though a kind of fire will be implemented in a21 in the form of burning gas pipes which you have to close to pass.

Pickable doors: Design desition. it would need a full redesign of ALL the POIs in the game, which count close to 1000. However, some final doors MIGHT happen to have a similar feature in the future, still in progress.

Lootable Zds. Not gonna happen. Design desition. They had loot, there was an exploit that duplicated it in MP AND it generated a lot of junk loot AND it was tedious to search dozens of Zds AND performance took a hit because of all the decayed bodies AND etc etc, therefore the desition was made to change it to loot bags. Everything was solved and we get lesser loot, albeit more "gamey" in nature. Not good, not bad, just a design desition.

IN BLUE: MAYBE.

Caves. Kinyajuu answered that he might get into it if he has the time. That's an IF. Fingers crossed. 

Board pulling: Nothing has been said about it lately. There aren't even talks about it on the official thread. Nice of you to put it out there, because it might be fun to have an animation that does the exact same thing as breaking them but cooler.

Workbenches use nearby chests: There have been a few discussions here and there. I'm rooting for that option too! it's a cool quality of life addition and I will support it with my words whenever I have the chance. It would help a lot to take our hands out of those 80 forges, lol. Maybe an electrical tier that makes the feature more "believable" ? (lol).

I hope my answer helped ! Cheers!

 

[warmer]

Hi ! I think I can clarify some points here, but for further info you might want to talk directly to the devs. 

Is there a stand alone mod for this? I've only seen this in Undead Legacy. Looks like a cool mod, just a few too many changes for me

@Blake_ all of the changes were easily made with 3 mods and 0-Score SphereII mods pack. not sure what you mean in your reply. Sounds like you read mine as a wish list rather than what is easily modded by a user. If you don't like the performance hit, don't use it. I played for hours with them and didn't notice anything.

@Fenris the 0-Score SphereII mods blocks.xml file has to be edited in two locations for the chest broadcasting to work with workbenches. No other mods are required, so you can use this in vanilla settings with only this feature enabled if you want to. The same mod file is used to add fire and caves.
 

 

[Roland]

I recently made the simple change of reversing the zombie speed between day and night and it has completely freshened up the game for me. Run during day and walk at night is a simple change you can do in settings without need for modding and it really changes the whole feel of the game. I know people have done this already and posted about it in the past but it is the first time I've tried it and it is pretty amazing how different it makes the game feel.

 

[ElDudorino]

Pickable doors: Design desition. it would need a full redesign of ALL the POIs in the game, which count close to 1000. However, some final doors MIGHT happen to have a similar feature in the future, still in progress.

I'm confused. Why would this require a full redesign of all PoIs? You can already just break the doors.

I can see in places like Red Mesa that certain heavy-duty doors are meant to be kept locked but you could just make it so that anything steel-tier can't be picked.

I've recently been playing Undead Legacy which makes doors pickable and it's a nice improvement in my opinion without heavily impacting the game. Overall I'm not crazy about the full mod but some features like pickable doors and storage broadcasting are just obvious wins.

Anyway good topic, I like to see what people are doing to keep the game fresh. Maybe when a21 comes out I'll try what Roland does with the reversed speed settings. It sounds kinda intense since night sprinters at least have the weakness that they can only hear and can't see you for the most part.

 

[BFT2020]

I recently made the simple change of reversing the zombie speed between day and night and it has completely freshened up the game for me. Run during day and walk at night is a simple change you can do in settings without need for modding and it really changes the whole feel of the game. I know people have done this already and posted about it in the past but it is the first time I've tried it and it is pretty amazing how different it makes the game feel.

With or without Feral sense on?

 

[warmer]

I'm confused. Why would this require a full redesign of all PoIs? You can already just break the doors

Ya that statement didnt make sense to me either. It absolutely doesn't require a redesign. It is an object/block attribute. No POI needs to be edited if the change is at the object block level.

 

[katarynna]

My memory isn't perfect, but I do remember reading something from one of the devs on this subject.

What I remember is that they would not want every door to be able to be lock picked. Because of this, they would have to go through each and every poi, decide which doors they don't want you to be able to pick, and changed those doors to a different block like "jammed door". Then they would make all doors they didn't change to be able to be picked.

Of course, they could add it in without going through all of that if they were willing to add it without doing it the way they feel it needs to be done. But it seems they would rather do it "right" or not at all.

You can always mod it.

 

[Roland]

With or without Feral sense on?

I never play without feral sense on. That setting is a must for anyone with 1000s of hours of experience, imo.

Maybe when a21 comes out I'll try what Roland does with the reversed speed settings. It sounds kinda intense since night sprinters at least have the weakness that they can only hear and can't see you for the most part.

It is mind bending because after 1000 hours you are used to Day = Good and Night = Bad so event though I know the settings are changed I'm still casual about going out at day to chop wood and such and wandering hordes can be on you in seconds. I've had so many jump scare moments. When I first spawned I was running from everything and only fighting to knock them down and then keep running until I was able to catch a breather at the trader. Then I got my rooftop base established and its been better since then but my initial trader was 1km away and I was on the wrong side of the city so it was pretty intense.

I guess I could have stayed in my little safe zone spawn area until night and then gone over but that didn't even occur to me at the time. Creature of habit.

 

[zztong]

Ya that statement didnt make sense to me either. It absolutely doesn't require a redesign. It is an object/block attribute. No POI needs to be edited if the change is at the object block level.

I'm puzzled too. I wouldn't extend the feature to all doors. Those big 7,000 point steel hatches, for instance, I wouldn't make pickable. There may be a few POIs that get some adjustments, but I doubt it would be a big deal.

Other than that, external doors to POIs make sense to me to be pickable. As a designer of POIs, I fully expect somebody will knock down a 300 point exterior door. I do when I play. Heck, I routinely pound through gun safes with a stone axe. (It gives me a chance to get up and walk around while the computer works.) I say let folks pick them.

 

[ElDudorino]

What I remember is that they would not want every door to be able to be lock picked. Because of this, they would have to go through each and every poi, decide which doors they don't want you to be able to pick, and changed those doors to a different block like "jammed door". Then they would make all doors they didn't change to be able to be picked.

That seems like such a pointless and arbitrary exercise. Why bother making some low-tier doors unpickable? If I can bash through a door in 10 seconds with a stone pick and axe at no cost other than noise, why can't I pick it in 30 at the potential cost of a couple lockpicks?

The game is already designed so you can bash your way off the intended path or build your way past it, so it's not like this would suddenly add sequence-breaking to the game. Yeah sure keep the hardest doors unpickable but something I could bash through with no effort, just make it pickable.

Caves. Kinyajuu answered that he might get into it if he has the time. That's an IF. Fingers crossed. 

Did caves have zombies spawn in them when they existed, and would they spawn in them again if caves were back?

At one point I tried to create a modlet to make it so zombies could spawn inside of PoIs to spice things up, but I ran into the roadblock that zombies only ever spawn at the highest-elevation block at a given set by of coordinates. So what I ended up with was PoIs whose rooftops were covered in zombies but the insides were the same sleepers.

 

[Riamus]

The way I look at locked doors is that most are jammed or rusted or boarded up enough to prevent opening or welded shut or  whatever rather than actually locked.  After all, how many interior doors would have had a lock on them in the first place?  Offices, though most aren't actually locked in the game.  Secure areas in military buildings and water plants and such.  But most interior doors would not have locks on them to lock them with.  Exterior doors are of course different and some could be simply locked rather than have something done to them to prevent them opening.  Those could be picked, but the rest couldn't.

 

[Blake_]

I'm confused. Why would this require a full redesign of all PoIs? You can already just break the doors.

I can see in places like Red Mesa that certain heavy-duty doors are meant to be kept locked but you could just make it so that anything steel-tier can't be picked.

I've recently been playing Undead Legacy which makes doors pickable and it's a nice improvement in my opinion without heavily impacting the game. Overall I'm not crazy about the full mod but some features like pickable doors and storage broadcasting are just obvious wins.

Anyway good topic, I like to see what people are doing to keep the game fresh. Maybe when a21 comes out I'll try what Roland does with the reversed speed settings. It sounds kinda intense since night sprinters at least have the weakness that they can only hear and can't see you for the most part.

I don't presume to know the why, it was just a design desition. It would be nice, yes. It is faster than breaking them though, so that would affect balance, I guess? Idk. With the multipath POIs they might be a go in the future as that reason gets even more ridiculous. We can ask and see what happens.

Did caves have zombies spawn in them when they existed, and would they spawn in them again if caves were back?

I think they did not have entities spawn inside back in alpha 10-11 ?

They were a bit small,  perlin worm ones with steep entrances and  nitrate stalagmites and stalactites, some ores and mushrooms. 

I really hope for them to get implemented in a better fashion. That'd really be a game changer. 

 

[Laz Man]

Lockpicking of doors has been brought of numerous times.  Keep in mind, although evervy POI is destructable, all quest POIs have an intended player path.  This path serves many purposes. Combat pacing, quest clearance without having to double back on previously visited areas.  Sure a player can knock down a door, but if they choose to do so, it will most likely make questing the POI take longer and/or situations where sleepers don't spawn correctly.

If locking picking was ever introduced, level design would have to revist every quest POI to analyze what adjustments are needed.

 

[ElDudorino]

If locking picking was ever introduced, level design would have to revisit every quest POI to analyze what adjustments are needed.

If breaking down doors or walls were possible, level design would have to... Wait. It IS possible.

Where is the actual difference as far as level pathing goes?

 

[Laz Man]

If breaking down doors or walls were possible, level design would have to... Wait. It IS possible.

Where is the actual difference as far as level pathing goes?

Depends on the POI.  A locked/barricaded door in a current POI may cut through a significant portion of the POI.  At the end of the day it will require time to revisit, analyze and adjust.  Due to the push for gold, chances are slim lock picking will be added for this game.  Who knows, maybe the next one

 

[ElDudorino]

Are you not aware that the player can already cut through a significant portion of the PoI by breaking the door, at less cost than it would be to lockpick? Breaking pre-steel doors is trivial even with stone tools and nearly instant with iron tools. It's like the argument against pickable door locks is coming from somebody playing a different game.

 

[Laz Man]

Are you not aware that the player can already cut through a significant portion of the PoI by breaking the door, at less cost than it would be to lockpick? Breaking pre-steel doors is trivial even with stone tools and nearly instant with iron tools. It's like the argument against pickable door locks is coming from somebody playing a different game.

Let me know which specific door in which POI you are referring to and I will be more then happy to look at it personally.  Not all locked doors compromise the player path mind you.  However, if there is a locked wooden door preventing the player from getting to the final loot room versus going down the "designed" player path, then we probably need to change that door.

 

[ElDudorino]

I'm not talking about any specific PoI. What I'm saying is that the argument against pickable door locks is invalidated by the fact that we can already destroy those doors very easily. If your goal is to make it so players can't break the path of a PoI, you've already failed and won't make things any worse by making the locks pickable. All you'd be doing is allowing a stealth/tactical alternative to existing functionality. And for this reason you are incorrect in thinking that you'd need to revisit and redesign any PoIs.

Do still keep steel doors unpickable and the difficulty in breaking them will discourage breaking the path but the argument against making lower-tier doors pickable fails at a fundamental level, and existing mods have shown that them being pickable is a pure improvement to the game with zero unintended consequences.