PC Is there a plan to return to survival horror?

[pApA^LeGBa]

Edit:  And i read that totally wrong and thought it was about slowing down the player progression when it was about blood moon difficulty. Don´t mind that comment.

 

[RyanX]

In other words it seemed so impossible to play at A12, that it was not enjoyable or fun in any way. I will say A16 was great but A12 to me was a joke that the developers seemed to make so impossible there was no point in playing.

There is something undeniably great about the A16-ish era.  There were faults with the game (minibikes clipping into the ground, spam crafting for example) , sure, but they had the atmosphere nailed.  It felt like survival horror to me and my wife.  The POI's were fairly bleak and lacking in loot, the world was much grayer.  Now zombies look like Ronald McDonald and I'm at a birthday party.  Now you can get to big stashes of loot with a few wooden frames.

It's more like an amusement park now than a zombie apocalypse, like I'm going from ride to ride.  Even the multiplayer servers have added to the problem with centralized "donor cities", loot crate drops, and teleports.

 

[Ananais]

For those finding loot is to abundant, I would suggest trying out a playthrough with loot set to 25% and no respawn if you have not already, lowering the exp can help as well as it will keep your loot stage down, as can playing on a map with few towns and cities.

I do play with a lot of mods, which is one of the best things about the game IMO, if I don't like something I can change it fairly easily 95% of the time; but even with only the default options, you can really make a big difference to how the game plays.

 

[Riamus]

I really do appreciate these tips (seriously no sarcasm). I play with a friend and he prefers to google all kinds of vids on YouTube that explain how to take advantage of AI , pathing, etc. I know pushing zombies around into pits and tricking them isn't always exploiting pathing per se, but I just wanted to point out that we do know how to build tower bases that allow us to conserve ammo. Again I do appreciate you taking the time to share strategies. I do still enjoy the game over all, my point was just that I think the devs need to tone down the speed at which horde nights progress ... just a tad and this is in-line with the OPs original points because it will allow people to focus more on the horror/survival aspect of the game for a bit longer. I do think horde nights should progress , just quite a bit  slower, and eventually become insane, but both the OP and I share the same view in that we should be able to play a survival game longer before all that happens .

One thing I thought of since making these replies is that the devs might be trying to appease the random/public multiplayer community by making the game 'more accelerated'. I play other survival games online and most people don't plan on playing on a pub more than a day or two, so people would of course want to progress fast. I get it , but maybe there should be a game mode specifically for that type of game play and for people who enjoy the tower defense aspect of the game more.

For example,  there just simply isn't any time to say pack up a whole bunch of food and go explore that military installation a couple hundred miles away from your main city because you need to use every last minute preparing/repairing your horde base, replenishing ammo, etc. I know most of you have 1000's of hours playing the game and so you know those POIs inside and out, but try to think of someone just learning/exploring the game and their world and just wanting to have fun surviving.

I can see what you're wanting, though I think that it would generally not be what most players want, so is unlikely to happen.  But have you tried lowering XP?  Progression is tied to XP gain.  You'll level more slowly but the zombies will also not get as difficult as quickly.  That will slow down all progression and not just blood moon but might be what you're looking for.  Give it a try and you might like it.  And I'd still recommend trying longer days.  Just know that with longer days, you'll level more in 7 days than otherwise and so will the zombies, so they'll be harder each blood moon than on the same blood moon with shorter days but you'll have far more time to repair and explore.

For me, I find that the blood moons are generally too easy.  I play a game with one other most of the time and our base suffers almost no damage as we end up taking out most zombies long before they reach the base with sniper rifles and turrets.  Granted, that uses a lot of ammo and our blade traps are rarely given the chance to slice and dice but repairs to the base can be done with few resources and I can complete the repairs on my own in about 10 minutes using a nail gun.  (Before anyone says it, I know I can increase difficulty to make this more challenging but I like target practice).  Note that certain defenses can greatly reduce base damage.  Iron spike traps around the entire base will slow zombies down and kill many of them and can allow you to kill any that aren't killed directly by the traps before they can damage the base.  A moat can prevent damage to your base except from the one direction you allow the zombies to get across it, greatly limiting the amount of repair work.  Barbed wire or electric fences can slow zombies down long enough to kill them before they can damage your base.  And you definitely don't want to let a demolition or cop blow up near your base.  You probably know all this but I'm including it just in case and also for anyone else.  In short, it is possible to limit base damage significantly, even on day 250.

 

[Dark Wun]

The game was called 7 Days to Die long before the blood moon was added to the game and the weekly horde night was ever a thing. If it could be called 7 Days to Die with no blood moon horde at all, then it certainly can still be called 7 Days to Die with a blood moon that only happens once every 30 days if that is how impactful you want the event to be in the game.

Fair enough. I did not know this. I think I will set blood moons to 10 days and that might solve all my issues. I still feel the game (on default settings) has too much of a time pressure aspect, but this will certainly help.

And I'd still recommend trying longer days.

Yes, I think you're spot on here, I forgot to say this. I think this is the tweak that will allow my friend and I to enjoy the survival aspect a little more than spending every waking moment gathering 9 mm rounds on day 20. There's just not enough time in the day to explore, try new base designs and tweaks and still be ready for that impending blood moon. Doubling the day time might solve this.

FYI I'm aware of all these settings, I just feel that downgrading them is kind of like a handicap compared to what the devs feel is the norm for the game.

 

[Roland]

FYI I'm aware of all these settings, I just feel that downgrading them is kind of like a handicap compared to what the devs feel is the norm for the game.

I totally get where you are coming from but I can assure you that the devs truly expect players to set the game options to their own preferences-- and that includes changing values in the xml files. Obviously, there has to be a default setting of some kind but in the case of this game, it isn't necessarily a statement of how they feel you should play the game so much as it is a starting point for you to decide how you want to change things to suit your playstyle. Longer days and 10 day bloodmoon cycle should definitely take the pressure off and bring more exploration time into your game so it isn't dominated so much by the horde night. Hope it works well for you! 

 

[bobrpggamer]

Iron spike traps around the entire base will slow zombies down and kill many of them and can allow you to kill any that aren't killed directly by the traps before they can damage the base

I hate the newer Iron spikes. I use them on a temp base because they work but they take way longer to repair because it is hard to find the right spot on them to point your hammer to repair them.

Is it just me or are the iron spikes incredibly difficult to repair with the stone axe, hammer, nailgun?

I really miss wood log spikes as they were a perfect defense and were easy to repair.

 

[doughphunghus]

For those finding loot is to abundant, I would suggest trying out a playthrough with loot set to 25% and no respawn

Also: there are mods that let you go lower than 25%. Personally, i found that 10% was "loot is so scarce, that early game its almost pointless to loot, unless you are hiding in a place at night".  This changes the dynamic so you start mining/harvesting/crafting a lot instead of looting. Of course, the trader "ruins" this with the abundance, so nerfing the traders would likely also be needed to make it a "difficult way to get stuff". 
 

To add more fun, mod out the boulders/rocks  showing whats beneath the surface (like back in ... a16?) so mining is more difficult early game.

Note: i usually like to nerf and mod the game to the point where when i play a test game i die so easily that i start having to play stealth to the point where i'm throwing rocks to distract zeds just to survive. Once i get there, its all about making the progression grindy so its a constant struggle, and "finally getting any decent weapon" a rejoicing moment.  So its kinda a form of bringing back the horror/survival back as you have to stay on your toes and be careful a lot longer than vanilla.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Its all about labels, as years pass, and the new generation, based around social media
has become prevalant. Everything has become a label, abbreviation or a meme, to describe
and condense an idea. The idea of horror and survival is different depending upon the teen
era each person is from. I have expressed in past posts my impression of horror and survival.

That is why I play the way I do. Nomadic, shoring up a poi, to survive as I explore.

When it is no longer suitable to keep my character safe, I move on and look for something
stronger. I use mostly primitive bow, stone spear, and melee in that order. Why, first my
choice, second I adjusted the sound levels, and Z AI to simulate a need for truer bit of
stealth. The sun is darker like its dying, wind and fog are sometimes blinding.

To me that is the beauty of the game. I can do what ever i want.

Everyone that talks about modding and mods, if you step back and take a look, everyone is
a modder just to different degrees.

Explanation: Mod "descriptive change from the original" Adj, "To mod" Verb, "A mod" Noun.
If a person purchases a game, and changes any setting from the default, be it sound, volume,
brightness, or aesthetic visuals, has just modded the game. It's no longer the out of the box
version. But, because of the way this game is written, Anyone can take it to the next level
and also change game play, difficulty, environment, and even most of the visuals. It all comes
down to time, and willingness to dig deeper.

Horror for me is A Dark environment, inhospitable weather, $#!t that wants me dead, and creepy
ambient sounds and music. So i dig and dug into the Dlls, assets, and xml, and fine tuned it to
my own story. This game to me is a template into the mind of the authors, TFP. I've learned to
change each one of these things to my liking. I wouldn't have been able to do it if they had
locked the files. So horror and survival is sill there. Just a few numbers were changed to make
it more sales friendly.

It's your story rewrite it the way you want. They did.

4Sheetz

 

[Riamus]

I hate the newer Iron spikes. I use them on a temp base because they work but they take way longer to repair because it is hard to find the right spot on them to point your hammer to repair them.

Is it just me or are the iron spikes incredibly difficult to repair with the stone axe, hammer, nailgun?

I really miss wood log spikes as they were a perfect defense and were easy to repair.

I usually don't even bother repairing them as they aren't a serious consideration for defense of my bases and are just there simply because they are cheap.  But if I do repair them, I normally don't have any problems.  Occasionally it will try to repair the ground instead but that isn't too common.

 

[ijese]

I feel like the challenge of the early game has fluctuated over time.

What challenge?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm also one of those that can't play on defaults any more. So far though, I have been very happy that vanilla options exist to do e.g. permadeath run, no traders, 50% loot, random blood-moon etc. I perfectly understand that I'm in minority there, and I *want* devs to focus on income and audience so *I* get more of what I want in future releases. 

What I would like to see is more of such options in vanilla itself, and implemented better. Reducing loot is far from ideal, due to loot calculations (e.g. you need  zillion nests to find 2 eggs etc, I don't know whether a21 fixes this), or stuff that you can get only from traders, etc. Sometimes I fiddle with XMLs myself, but it's far from ideal. It's rare that I have time to do it, including finding out imbalances for my own settings in the first place.

Just keeping at least some focus on open-style play, is probably what I'm trying to state as my wish. Not saying it's easy, though.

 

[minisith]

What challenge?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm also one of those that can't play on defaults any more. So far though, I has been very happy that vanilla options exist to do e.g. permadeath run, no traders, 50% loot, random blood-moon etc. I perfectly understand that I'm in minority there, and I *want* devs to focus on income and audience so *I* get more of what I want in future releases. 

What I would like to see is more of such options in vanilla itself, and implemented better. Reducing loot is far from ideal, due to loot calculations (e.g. you need  zillion nests to find 2 eggs etc, I don't know whether a21 fixes this), or stuff that you can get only from traders, etc. Sometimes I fiddle with XMLs myself, but it's far from ideal. It's rare that I have time to do it, including finding out imbalances for my own settings in the first place.

Just keeping at least some focus on open-style play, is probably what I'm trying to state as my wish. Not saying it's easy, though.

It has more options for play style than a lot of games out there.  And more friendly to modding too.   I think of how Skyrim is and see this game getting to that point.