PC V2.0 Storms Brewing Dev Diary

[Space4Ace]

With the return of cosmetic dlcs for 7Days would there be a chance return of The Walking Dead Dlc?

I don't see this happening. The Walking Dead DLCs were from Telltale, based on characters from their Walking Dead series of games.

The Fun Pimps should stay far away from anything Telltale anyway... Too many bad memories. 

 

[firewalker101]

I think perhaps they're should be a full tutorial with the menu's crafting, etc you can do , aside from the Challenge tab at start up.

I feel players pop on to the game (my session or others) and go through the short tutorial and then abandoned by any more guidance; not knowing about water limitation, food or cooking, where to get a cure to clean infection, etc. And to have some specialty book you may or may not even get till your well beyond level 100; that allows you to chop a tree and get Honey to get cures (based on chances / luck also even with book) ...
New players get infected and they're pretty much @%$#ed unless they figure out what can cure and what to specifically look for to cure their ailment. 
 

Perhaps a specialty map that is 1 k in size (newbie training map crafted and tailored by TFP's themselfs) that has zombies that get triggers through the tutorial only, not walking zombies random zombies, not random dogs that can be a real mess for new players because of their speed and infection rate and damage. of course you have folks could cop-out and just say "watch a youtube video" while their actively playing trying to follow along. I feel that shouldn't be the responsibility of "other" players since the game was made by TFP's .. perhaps players who would create content might skip things, or assume "if you reached this point, then likely know how to do it" ; even though a player may or may not as many players of different intelligent levels might miss / over look some aspect / stage.  At times i even watch a youtube on a game, not just 7D2D and many just past-pace it due to any youtube time limit or something. or player see's something beside the guide in the video and wonder what it is or how to use it, but the youtube content just assumes you should know that already. Perhaps a Tutorial of a POI also aside from digging a little hold in the ground and what to look for and how to follow the path, etc. 

Having players just get tossed into the game without further guidance is a sure-fire way to get someone to quit especially if they're dieing alot; who might not otherwise of died if they new what that feature or options did or was available. Alot of players learn from others which in my experience, puts a burden on the admin having to hold-hand saying "no you do not want to make that now, that'ss more of a later down the road thing and useless right now"   or they come wanting food or water cause they can't find any in scraps they find or bins, etc because their loot bonus and perks are none-existent yet because they have to level up... but to level up and not die because you need that food / water to survive - ends up becoming a catch-22.  

I have seen players, including myself when i start a new map because i maxed out every and want to re-challenge myself again - find that a trader can be 1.4 km away --- talk about a hike for stamina that sux and health that drain's like it's going out of style.... and hoping you made it there before dark and not get distracted by potential good loot around which then causes you to become encumbered and now you're walkin slower than the zombies with lack of stamina..

Just a general feedback from the observations i have seen and experienced.. being that i'm very skilled at the game, i know what to do and how to manage hell-lot better, but that's months / years of game play... genuine new players may not have the patience to go through that; but instead just goto an experience player for handouts cause after the tutorial, they don't know what to do next..

 

[Roland]

Meh…we had a tutorial book that even popped up with notifications for years and nobody read the entries. We don’t need to go back to a digital ingame manual that nobody will read. 
 

The current challenge menu takes players through most of the essential things they need to know if you count all three of the first three rows. Each challenge step has written instructions that new players can read. It’s way more information than I had when I first started playing. 
 

New players can also turn off zombies while they’re learning and even turn on the creative menu if they want to make sure they always have water and food. 

 

[Riamus]

New players aren't stupid.  If they know anything about games, they can figure things out.  Will they die?  Of course.  That is the nature of such a game.  This game is not all that difficult.  You learn what to do as you go.  And just like in most games, the majority of mechanics are learned that way and not through some tutorial.  Besides, these days, if people are struggling in a game trying to figure out how to do something, they just look it up online.  Most people, especially gamers, know how to do that. 

If you make a game that caters to new players too much, then it won't be of interest to the majority of players who know how to handle challenges and expect them.  This game is already easy, especially on the default or lower difficulty levels.  You will die, but that is expected.  If you can't handle dying, you shouldn't play this kind of game.  In the end, this game is far easier than most survival games, so it is already basically a tutorial for such games for people who haven't ever played them before. 

For the majority of players, games need challenges or they get boring quickly.  Challenges keep people interested.  The challenges being mentioned that you originally commented on were about T6, which, as you agreed to, are not what a new player experiences right away.  Other challenges may apply to new players, but there isn't anything wrong with that.  They've already made the forest a newbie zone but removing a lot of the dangers from it.  No longer are to facing wolves or bears within a few hundred meters of spawning into the game at level 1, for example.  They don't need to handhold new players even more.

You mention console, and I have to wonder if this is a console mentality.  A very large number of console games are very simple and easy and tend to be more casual games.  There are, of course, many regular games as well, but the majority seem to be those kinds.  If a player has only ever played such games, then yes, they may have trouble in a game like this.  But there isn't any reason they can't learn it easily enough.  Maybe they'll quit.  If they do, so what?  Not every game is for every person.  I've quit a variety of games because of difficulty being too high too early.  But this isn't one of those games.

 

[Roland]

I've quit a variety of games because of difficulty being too high too early.

Woah! Never admit that a skill issue made you quit a game. Instead say that you quit because the game was garbage or because the devs ruined it or that the grind was way too tedious.

 

[bdubyah]

I think perhaps they're should be a full tutorial with the menu's crafting, etc you can do , aside from the Challenge tab at start up.

That's what the challenges are for though. If they aren't enough to get you moving then I don't know what to say. Should the game pause every few seconds and highlight your UI and explain what your HP bar means? Then highlight rocks and stuff on the ground in an even more obnoxious way than the current nav objects? I mean, come on, if you gotta take away self discovery to keep someone interested in the game, it simply isn't for them. And that's okay, they can play a different game.

 

[beerfly]

Woah! Never admit that a skill issue made you quit a game. Instead say that you quit because the game was garbage or because the devs ruined it or that the grind was way too tedious.

My 5th grade nephew looks at its math book and thinks exactly the same.

Growing up is interesting process, going through stages, ages, alphas. Very well said. 

 

[Riamus]

Woah! Never admit that a skill issue made you quit a game. Instead say that you quit because the game was garbage or because the devs ruined it or that the grind was way too tedious.

Lol!  I play games for fun.  I want a challenge, but if it's set up that the only way you can progress is to stay in one place and grind for hours to have enough strength to continue, then I don't find that enjoyable.  Maybe it is lack of skill, but the games I've done that with are ones that I feel were just not designed well.  Either way, I don't care what people might think of me doing that. 

 

[Cruggles]

Still nothing about going back to the old system where perks unlocked craftables instead of making us find magazines?

 

[SylenThunder]

Still nothing about going back to the old system where perks unlocked craftables instead of making us find magazines?

Not sure why you would expect to hear news on that.  The current system is the one the developer wants. It closely resembles the system they described as wanting close to a decade ago.

But hey, there are mods for that. Which exist because the developers have 100% supported modding since Day One.

 

[Javabean867]

Would like to see grass, rot, bones and leather used in crafting (especially early game) Primitive armor mods would be made from bones and leather. These resources accumulate in tons now (especially bones and rot)

You need to turn that rotten flesh into hobo stew!  The best non-can recipe in the game!  

 

[KirillWright]

You need to turn that rotten flesh into hobo stew!  The best non-can recipe in the game!  

I know about it, it accumulates more than you think.

 

[Skarbero]

Is the rumoured Fast Travel between traders system upcoming in 2.0 or sometime beyond?

 

[Roland]

Until Rick finds himself on camera again there will be no updates to such rumors. We need to find an interview for him to do. 

 

[Grandpa Minion]

If players rage after a few deaths when first playing a survival game

the thing is this game has been around so long most people forget its a survival game first..

whole generations have grown up since this games concept was conceived..

alot of players now grew up on first person shooters arena style games which is a complete different gaming genre so they just assume this game needs to be that way to..

most of them want everything handed to them without having to work to attain while surviving..

the bottom line mmo players have become lazy its not like how it used to be such as i grew up on. 

 

[Old Crow]

Until Rick finds himself on camera again there will be no updates to such rumors. We need to find an interview for him to do. 

I'd rather Rick NOT say things like that if it's not something that's planned lol. Less babysitting for his brother and Lathan to have to do.

Serious note though, would be nice to see the helipads and radios used for something. One idea my friends and I had was for maybe an optional "emergency airdrop" you could call every 10/20/30/etc of days, that lands at the helipad of the trader you called it from. Nothing extra special inside, just the same type of stuff a normal airdrop would contain.

 

[faatal]

I imagine because the climbing looked terrible, and they'd need to add a whole new animation for it.  Also, they were kind of pointless since all you had to do was put a lip around the top of your base and they were rendered completely impotent. 

Granted, I think zombies can attack upward now (they still seem to have problems attacking down) so they could theoretically eventually bash their way through if you just ignored their existence.

The old pathing system was replaced years ago and the new one does not make path points on walls, so no wall climbing. Anims could also be tricky to look right.

Zombies can attack upwards and I did fix a bug this week with them not attacking you if about 2m above them.

Regarding the lighting strikes topic... my understanding is that the 7D2D world is a post-apocalyptic world, and in that regard extreme weather events could perfectly fit the theme. My idea is to have for each biome ONE rare extreme event.

Example:

• Forest : lightning storm
  
• Burnt : ember / cinder "rain"
  
• Desert : dust storm
  
• Wasteland : radioactive wind
  

Regarding specifically lighting I'm envisioning something similar to that old Mad Max game from a few years back.

As you can see in this video, most of the negative effect for the player is some damage and very low visibility.

In 7D2D @faatal could program the game (i.e.) to ALWAYS miss the player, but not by much! Meaning that a lighting would sometimes strike a few blocks away from the player and only hurt him/her by X% of the health. That way the storm would be a meaningful threat but you'd still have the option to quickly heal or run for cover.

I did give it a thought and if done I would make it do some amount of damage, not drop you dead.

 

[Old Crow]

The old pathing system was replaced years ago and the new one does not make path points on walls, so no wall climbing. Anims could also be tricky to look right.

Zombies can attack upwards and I did fix a bug this week with them not attacking you if about 2m above them.

Will players and zombies ever get a proper ladder climbing animation?

 

[faatal]

I'd still call it an item in its own slot.  It just apparently can't be removed according to Roland and is more of a buff than an item because of that.  faatal had already said you couldn't give it to anyone else, and since it is upgraded for higher tier biomes, it makes sense to just have it act like a buff rather than be an item that can be moved around.  The effect is the same.  The term "kit" is probably misleading and wasn't how it was described by faatal.  It's just what everyone else started calling it.  It's a single item (or buff) that gets upgraded, and not a kit of multiple things.

It is an item, it does have kit in the name, it only goes in the kit slot, you can't do anything else with it and it may auto equip by the time we are done with it.

@faatal

For the one meter egress is the 1 meter an absolute empty space poi.    

Never mind this part, looked it up, cpu based, no gpu visibility checks.

View attachment 33706

No, it could contain some amount of colliders on edges and they would fit. It would also depend on the zombies character controller radius as they vary a bit.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

Cool, and thank you. So it should allow passthrough damage like holes in doors, except

here it would allow entity passthrough. depending on the controller.