PC V2.0 Storms Brewing Dev Diary

Prior to V2.0, I usually just stayed in the Pine Forest the entire time. In the two playthroughs so far (experimental and stable), I now have moved my base at least once in each playthrough - experimental Pine to Desert, current stable playthrough - Pine to Burnt Forest to Snow.

When storms have hit, I have done the following:
  • Base improvements at my current base
  • Base improvements at my horde base
  • Cleared out a POI nearby
  • Finish clearing out an existing POI that I was currently in
  • Dig for more materials in my mine

I love the storms disrupting my plans for that day, it makes you have to adjust and do something different. It also makes you plan ahead. You don't want to wait until the last minute to upgrade your horde base only to have a storm roll through - especially if the base is quite some distance away.
 
As the story goes, being sincere , with a little pun.
There are five biomes; matching 5 mini boss controllers
would be a nice touch. There are two now, 3 more to go.
The bandits could be the great equalizer, increasing in
voracity as a player proceeds changing the traditional
endgame design.

The intro to bandits potential presents a problem and/or a
problematic solution. Players often by recalling posts;
like to stay at a superior advantage over the zombies.

But here is a few thoughts, bandits are human replicants, they
can use the same weapons that presently give players an
advantage. They can potentially use, all tools, weapons and
armor, projectiles, explosives, and tactics that the player
does. They can be focused on self preservation just the opposite
of zombie ai.

If they are programmed to artificially covet all of the things
presently coveted by the players. ??????

If they are programmed to emulate the standard player progression
but from a negative or antagonistic viewpoint. ??????

Zombie ai all execpt in mods are only interested in the player and
that controls their pathing. Humanesque AI, could possibly follow a
different path, and target a lot differently, like fortification, food
sources, farm plots, underground bases causing cave ins etc. ??????

Stealth may work very differently with them also, if a tree is felled in
a forest they may react, and if they may react they may come as a dog pack
does now only with projectiles. If you die in the open by their hands, and
they covet the same things as the player, then spawning near your backpack
may become a moot point. ??????

But it probably won't be like that.....Right.
 
Dark Sun said:
To each their own of course, but some people don't like the interruption to their personal flow during gameplay, which is fair, if you ask me. It's all a matter of taste at the end of the day. I've seen as many people say that they like the storms because they force (not in a bad way) these situations, and others dislike them for that very same reason.
Click to expand...
For me the surprise factor is what makes it interesting, having to change plans, the unpredictability, in my game I had to run into a zombie infested poi, clean the area and prepare to contain those outside, blocking the windows and weak points, when I barely had ammunition and bandages, It makes you be prepared the next time instead of knowing what exactly is going to happen, of course the current state of the storms can be improved, like being able to know if a storm is active from another biome, craftable armor that protects you and allows you to stay out longer etc.
 
grz__ said:
For me the surprise factor is what makes it interesting, having to change plans, the unpredictability, in my game I had to run into a zombie infested poi, clean the area and prepare to contain those outside, blocking the windows and weak points, when I barely had ammunition and bandages
Click to expand...

The interruption, the unexpected, is the appeal to me too. Oddly though, I've turned storms down to 50% to try and make them more unpredictable. In town, you dive into a POI and clear a room. In the wilderness... well... a POI if there's one handy otherwise... dig a hole?

I'd like to do the same with horde nights. I mean, I know I can make them really variable, but they're always at night and even if you turn off all of the notifications the red clouds/environment still tips me off. I've never been caught in an "oh crap, horde" situation other than perhaps a wandering horde... the sudden appearance of some dogs and a bear can make you scramble.
 
SylenThunder said:
If you think tht is all that was worked on for the update, you really need to take a better look at the patch notes. And also keep in mind that those public notes are heavily truncated, and don't contain the other 80 pages of individual notations on code changes that occurred over the past year.

Statements like this show severe ignorance on how game development actually works, and an over-simplification of what is takes to write entire game mechanics from scratch.

But hey, if that is all you are going to take from the changes, that is your opinion. Just remember that it is only an opinion, and a shallow one at that.
Click to expand...


I never said that this was the ONLY thing that was worked on. However, when you look at the Road Map these are the main things that were highlighted by them when they announced it.
 
The thing about storms that I think no one has commented on yet is that they put a lot of work into trying to make the storms look interesting, but then force us (unless you want to eat med kits) to stay inside where we don't even see the storm. I would prefer to have the storm have some impact that doesn't force you inside. At least let us experience the storms without hiding.
 
zztong said:
The interruption, the unexpected, is the appeal to me too. Oddly though, I've turned storms down to 50% to try and make them more unpredictable. In town, you dive into a POI and clear a room. In the wilderness... well... a POI if there's one handy otherwise... dig a hole?

I'd like to do the same with horde nights. I mean, I know I can make them really variable, but they're always at night and even if you turn off all of the notifications the red clouds/environment still tips me off. I've never been caught in an "oh crap, horde" situation other than perhaps a wandering horde... the sudden appearance of some dogs and a bear can make you scramble.
Click to expand...
Yeah definitely if you don't have a poi on hand it's a problem,that's why I put the armor thing,digging a hole and waiting afk isn't the most fun,but in town you don't have much of a problem,except in wasteland,where the zombies won't stop harassing you , I love it,a craftable armor for the mid game and a mod to make the vehicle drivable at the cost of speed or something would be nice.
 
Riamus said:
The thing about storms that I think no one has commented on yet is that they put a lot of work into trying to make the storms look interesting, but then force us (unless you want to eat med kits) to stay inside where we don't even see the storm. I would prefer to have the storm have some impact that doesn't force you inside. At least let us experience the storms without
Click to expand...
Yes but storms have to be dangerous by nature, as I said an armor that protects you a little more from damage would be nice making you prepare for danger,it's an interesting survival mechanic,the problem I see is that you can't tell if a storm is active a block away in the adjacent biome,health drains very fast,and if you get caught far away from a poi,you can't do much about it. Otherwise I like the idea of being interrupted, sometimes it can be tedious but it's part of the fun, like the screamer.
 
grz__ said:
Yeah definitely if you don't have a poi on hand it's a problem,that's why I put the armor thing,digging a hole and waiting afk isn't the most fun,but in town you don't have much of a problem,except in wasteland,where the zombies won't stop harassing you , I love it,a craftable armor for the mid game and a mod to make the vehicle drivable at the cost of speed or something would be nice.
Click to expand...

Yeh, I've privately wondered if I might be able to construct a shelter in time. I've not tried to see if Building Blocks were enough to withstand the storm. If I had to upgrade them to solid wood I fear I'd be dead.

Riamus said:
The thing about storms that I think no one has commented on yet is that they put a lot of work into trying to make the storms look interesting, but then force us (unless you want to eat med kits) to stay inside where we don't even see the storm. I would prefer to have the storm have some impact that doesn't force you inside. At least let us experience the storms without hiding.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. If I'm not clearing out a POI or at least a room to stay in, I'm usually standing on a front porch or by a window where I can shoot zombies who are out in the storm and asking them to bring back my arrow. :)
 
zztong said:
Yeh, I've privately wondered if I might be able to construct a shelter in time. I've not tried to see if Building Blocks were enough to withstand the storm. If I had to upgrade them to solid wood I fear I'd be dead.
Click to expand...
Yes, it works, approx 25 blocks, but, don't freeze up, and usually there is a zombie nearby, so stealth
becomes a necessity. and killing them before they break the weak blocks, don't even touch the bike
it gets blown around like in the wizard of Oz and drops stamina. Other than that yes it works perfectly.
 
Story time!

The last horde was a show stopper in terms of relentless mayhem. I've gone with a traditional tower set-up for this run, involving me raining bullets and bombs down at the undead as they congregate down below to smash down my vault door and walls. This week, I built a wall around my land, excavated a large trench around them, filled in the walls with cobble and concrete, and made further fortifications to the main structure itself. The horde now only has one way in, and if they were smart, one way out. It was day 28, and I got my first mutated zombies, plague spitters, and a single frost claw during the course of the horde. I'm going for a Perception run this time around, and I deliberately maxed out the attribute, the mastery perk, and Dead Eye as quickly as possible early on, to deal maximum damage. A quick expedition out to the snow biome yielded me a quality level 1 sniper rifle inside a soldier's z pack. I am loving the themed zombie loot within their respective bags!

It was absolute chaos, and although they only ended up destroying one block by the finish, some had crawled inside my crafting room and had destroyed a forge in the process. Luckily I was down there at the time, and had scooped up the bag containing the stone, cement, and forge mods. No massive loss, really, but it definitely added to the fear factor!

Nonetheless, I emerged victorious and collected my spoils come dawn. I am able to craft 150+ contact grenades. May as well, right? ;)

7DaysToDie2025-07-0812_55_46PM-ezgif.com-resize.png
 
grz__ said:
I have never tried it, but I think building a square of building blocks works, although it would be boring to be waiting inside a cube.
Click to expand...
That's would be a good time to pull up the map, dig down a few meters, and see how close you
can mine toward a poi, at the very least you get a lot of clay for crafting in a forge, maybe hit a
partial vein then you can meercat it as you go.

If i get caught in a poi I have already cleared, I shallow mine to pass the time, mainly because I
don't mine unless it's a treasure quest.
 
zztong said:
That's interesting. If I'm not clearing out a POI or at least a room to stay in, I'm usually standing on a front porch or by a window where I can shoot zombies who are out in the storm and asking them to bring back my arrow. :)
Click to expand...
Considering the number of times I've started to take damage (or at least started the countdown) while inside a POI, I avoid being close to windows and doors. Besides, there aren't that many zombies in any given area, so you might not even see any. But yeah, you could stand and watch. But being in it would be better, imo.
 
4sheetzngeegles said:
That's would be a good time to pull up the map, dig down a few meters, and see how close you
can mine toward a poi, at the very least you get a lot of clay for crafting in a forge, maybe hit a
partial vein then you can meercat it as you go.

If i get caught in a poi I have already cleared, I shallow mine to pass the time, mainly because I
don't mine unless it's a treasure quest.
Click to expand...
Yes, you can always improvise something, it's a good time to mine resources, the bad thing is that you don't have a miner's helmet and a coffee at hand. I usually only mine when I have decent tools.
 
grz__ said:
Yes, you can always improvise something, it's a good time to mine resources, the bad thing is that you don't have a miner's helmet and a coffee at hand. I usually only mine when I have decent tools.
Click to expand...
Yup, I agree with that. I just use it as a way to occupy time, I don't invest in any mining and i buy the first pick I
can get or find. Plus it is kind of creepy mining in pitch black, using the map constantly, and not knowing if I am
going up or down until I hit the storm or solid rock. I fill in some dirt blocks behind me as go so no sneak attacks.
 
The new Pop-N-Pills factory was terrifying. Having to run throughout most of the lower levels of the building for an entire night cycle trying desperately to avoid getting 1-2 tapped by radiated, infernal, and charged construction workers, and taking them out when I could, was an adrenaline rush like no other. I went through all of my first aid kits and bandages, and 3 pain killers. Next time, I'm burning fort bites and recog, maybe some beer and mega crush as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top