I think you make some assumptions that aren't true:
The water system idea I listed is obviously too big a base game change, but there was really absolutely no need to streamline the hydration system any further from where it already was. Making the water jars harder to craft would've been a far more sufficient fix.
The hydration system change is anything but a streamlining change. Attaining hydration security is now a much more complex and goal oriented process than it used to be. You are essentially building a water farm and until you are able to get it implemented there is a scarcity of water that forces you to make choices about how you will utilize your water. I encourage you to change your jar recipe to make jars harder to craft and see if that yields the same results as the A21 change to hydration survival.
They keep "fixing" systems that don't need fixing. Reinventing the wheel when its already functional.
They develop through iteration and they always have. Maybe you didn't pick up on the pattern until recently but it is how they have done everything since the beginning. Maybe if they would have done all their iterative development behind closed doors so you never witnessed the intermediate versions you would be a lot happier. But they have allowed those wishing to participate in early access to go through the process with them. I've personally been very intrigued by their process. I learned early on not to let myself get too attached to any one version of any particular feature. I think most who are still enjoying the development of this game are of this same mindset.
And this whole "level by reading" system they're doing now - I mean, the moment you stop and look outside of these forums here you can tell the wider community reception to that change is mostly negative, or at the very least very sceptical.
So what? Why should they listen to masses of people who have never tried it and have only heard incomplete descriptions of it and who are filling in all the gaps of their knowledge with the worst case scenarios that their worried minds can concoct? The game has had some form of learning by reading mechanic since about Alpha 11 and this is the latest iteration of what has already been part of the game.
I was talking about the hydration system, and the whole removing glass bottles thing, when there would've been other ways to make it harder to obtain large amounts of drinking water.
The purpose of the change was not to simply make it harder to obtain large amounts of water. It was to give murky water more of a presence in the game, to bring glass jar containers into alignment with all other containers in the game, to add a new type of farming to the game, and to make water survival more interesting. Having played the system, in my opinion, the change they went with accomplishes all of these things.
As for the crafting of levelled items - yes. Of course the new system leads to more crafting. But we've been there before, back when crafting was 600 quality levels instead of 6. So I just don't see the argument as valid since it reintroduces a bit of depth that should've stayed in the game from earlier already to begin with.
The 600 quality levels and the new system are so completely different from each other that it really shows your lack of understanding of the new system which is fair since you haven't been able to play it. What is not fair is to act like you understand both equally and so can lump them together as the same thing. Even in the 600 point system once you got your stone axe to 600 your fireaxe and steel axe were also automatically 600. The new system is different in that you are going to progress through the quality levels for all tiers of weapons and tools which not only means more crafting but also means no automatic skipping of about 70% of the progression. The depth of crafting the new system adds is completely fresh and not at all in any way the same as what might have been lost when we went to 1-6 quality levels.
And the roadmap does exist but it has practically been the same for years. For like 3 years, bandits have been teased as the "next big thing" coming to the game. Well, at one point they were just called NPCs and would've had much more depth to them, but from everything I read about them these days, now they're just zombies with guns essentially. And they're not here yet.
Bandits have always been referred to as bandits even during the kickstarter campaign. NPCs were also mentioned and were inclusive of traders and bandits. Followers were considered but ultimately dropped. Everything I have read and written about bandits is that in their first iteration they will be basic-- like zombies with weapons but that would simply be the very first implementation of them. Now that they have been pushed to A22 they will probably be more sophisticated. But I have never read a single official source that has stated that the dev's intention is to make bandits like zombies with guns and end there.
Instead the world gen was revamped 10 times, zombies were made slightly more HD 3 times or something, the skill tree system has been redone from scratch like 3 times as well
Nothing has been completely revamped or redone from scratch. Everything has evolved from already existing versions. I know it makes it sound so much more dramatic to say but it just isn't true. You show me a system you think was redone from scratch and I will show you how it developed over time from one version to the next. Even the new learn by reading system which was a dramatic change simply separated the crafting recipes from the perks and used magazines to unlock them. Nothing about the concept is a complete start over from scratch. The perk trees remain mostly the same from A20. I guarantee that nobody is going to be confused about how to use a magazine.
and the building system has been streamlined to just a single upgrade path as opposed to the multiple fun upgrade paths we had before. Another change that in my personal microcosm of communities I am a member of has seen more negative reception than positive. Yeah it made building more straightforward (kind of - there's so many shapes now, it is simultaneously more complex than ever), but it also reduced some of its depth and the decision making element of what type of building path to go down with the resources at hand. The path is now always the exact same.
This I agree with. Building is a lot more simplistic than it used to be. That was definitely a tough decision the devs had to make. Both Joel and Rick enjoy the building aspect of the game and see it as very important. Only they can say why they decided to streamline the building the way they did. They obviously want plenty of shapes to be available (there are many more coming in A21) but for some reason the various upgrade paths weren't as important to them.
