Water physics are good, lots of options, feels good for most part. v2.5 b23 is an upgrade & good work.
The Biome Progression needs to be remade. It makes me feel forced. It feels artificial. Relys too heavily on the timer, and discourages me from exploring. Once I do explore, there's no reward, the forest gives me everything.
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These are some tools to work with for Biome Progression:
-Resources exclusive locking behind tech. Each Biome... get x amount of 'rank' skill books... earn 1 rank from it towards weapons. So if you do this to burnt forest, find x amount of rank books, you now craft weapons at 3. If you went to the snow biome instead, you get 3, if you went to both, got rank books from both, you got 3,.. then now at 4. Then navigate, ensure anything 'tech' gets unlocked... from exploration, not from challenges, from just having the resource. So fixate on Nitrate, ensure a player makes 2-3 farm plots in 30 days if they only stay in the forest... then go from there. I only found Shale worth mining... and I had 'all tech' staying in the Forest. Why explore?
-For encouraging 1 biome being harder than another do: Hp and Dmg. Probably make them settings players can change themselves..
Wasteland Zombies Difficulty Multiplier = ?
SnowBiome Zombies Difficulty Multiplier = ?
etc.
-On top of this.. Strengths and Weaknesses. They ensure a level 400 player will still have a challenge moving to any next biome. So they were tough, and knocked out the wasteland as their first. Sure it will be easier now, but going to the burnt forest, some of those zombies are still immune to them and deal damage. Having worked on mods for games, or making systems, its easiest to do a variable elemental type.. DamageType = "Fire", if target wearing "Fire", DamageBonus = 0. Damage equation being : Damage + Damage Bonus. So you only check the weapon or melee being fired, to targets 'wear'. For Players it's their gear. For Zombies, wear is what zombie it is. So Burnt Zombie is Wear = "Fire". Any weapon with DamageType "Fire" sets it's bonus damage to 0 if target is Fire. Making this system will save a lot of headaches. For example,... In Fallout New Vegas, they made an item 'Black Coffee'. But because the game has no strength or weakness mechanic, they still wanted their coffe to be unique.. and if you look up 'what it actually does', the answer is the effects are super complicated. They are trying to make up for what the game engine doesn't have. If you introduce this mechanic to 7 days to die, it wont solve everything, but it will solve half of the issue for Biome Progression. You'll be happy you put it in. It enables an unlimited amount of options for Gear, ingestibles... I made the system myself, but it was in Fallout, it does pay off!
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As for Mod influences.. the most notable for me or shocking.. is when I tested out Gore Blocks (The Alpha 14 version, not Alpha 15 version). I mean the real gore blocks, not the objects that aren't blocks that caused server lag. So I use the mod of gore blocks for v2.5 b23, and it just works. It makes the game better. The Zombie Ai loves them, the blocks dynamically get zombies to try new ideas, helps break 'perfect base builds' and it wasn't op like I thought it would be on paper. The downside is I need a flame thrower that has a specific ability to deal damage only to gore blocks, or an acid sprayer thrower.. and it just clears them out after bloodmoon. Nothing else is needed except 1 = a half block, if 1 gore block goes on another, it becomes 1 block. So its more smooth when layering on another. Probably gametest, let zombies 1 shot them, let you 1 shot them with shovels, common sense things. Don't let molotav clear them, but a special cleaner thrower weapon is good, for 'the next day'.
As for the current Zombie Ai, they need to learn how to dig 'up'. Everything else works. They make tunnels underground to my base, while the main hoard comes in normally, which is really cool, but once they are directly under, they aren't trying to dig up, and they can do so once 10-15 blocks or 20-30 from me. They only need to dig up past my walls. But they never do. It's really cool that they do tunnel their way to me as a long term side plan to enter my base. Its just they sit there.
For More Modding Influences, CAVES. So someone made a cave mod that pregens a cave system. That actually just works. It's very limited, feels like it backtracks to an Alpha 16 pregen underground, generic, but its really cool. What I would love to see is maybe something like this, but also... pockets of water. I'm curious what it will look like if your mining, and you break open underground a pocket of water. The water physics seem cooler now, so be really funny getting flooded by a cave. Also be really cool to have the tools to clean up water, like anything else we do. As quick as we shovel dirt, what tools or vehicles.. can we make to hose out (use wire mechanics?) pump out and collect water? I'd love to mine and have a truck at the surface with a water tank.
As for Zomb
The Biome Progression needs to be remade. It makes me feel forced. It feels artificial. Relys too heavily on the timer, and discourages me from exploring. Once I do explore, there's no reward, the forest gives me everything.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are some tools to work with for Biome Progression:
-Resources exclusive locking behind tech. Each Biome... get x amount of 'rank' skill books... earn 1 rank from it towards weapons. So if you do this to burnt forest, find x amount of rank books, you now craft weapons at 3. If you went to the snow biome instead, you get 3, if you went to both, got rank books from both, you got 3,.. then now at 4. Then navigate, ensure anything 'tech' gets unlocked... from exploration, not from challenges, from just having the resource. So fixate on Nitrate, ensure a player makes 2-3 farm plots in 30 days if they only stay in the forest... then go from there. I only found Shale worth mining... and I had 'all tech' staying in the Forest. Why explore?
-For encouraging 1 biome being harder than another do: Hp and Dmg. Probably make them settings players can change themselves..
Wasteland Zombies Difficulty Multiplier = ?
SnowBiome Zombies Difficulty Multiplier = ?
etc.
-On top of this.. Strengths and Weaknesses. They ensure a level 400 player will still have a challenge moving to any next biome. So they were tough, and knocked out the wasteland as their first. Sure it will be easier now, but going to the burnt forest, some of those zombies are still immune to them and deal damage. Having worked on mods for games, or making systems, its easiest to do a variable elemental type.. DamageType = "Fire", if target wearing "Fire", DamageBonus = 0. Damage equation being : Damage + Damage Bonus. So you only check the weapon or melee being fired, to targets 'wear'. For Players it's their gear. For Zombies, wear is what zombie it is. So Burnt Zombie is Wear = "Fire". Any weapon with DamageType "Fire" sets it's bonus damage to 0 if target is Fire. Making this system will save a lot of headaches. For example,... In Fallout New Vegas, they made an item 'Black Coffee'. But because the game has no strength or weakness mechanic, they still wanted their coffe to be unique.. and if you look up 'what it actually does', the answer is the effects are super complicated. They are trying to make up for what the game engine doesn't have. If you introduce this mechanic to 7 days to die, it wont solve everything, but it will solve half of the issue for Biome Progression. You'll be happy you put it in. It enables an unlimited amount of options for Gear, ingestibles... I made the system myself, but it was in Fallout, it does pay off!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for Mod influences.. the most notable for me or shocking.. is when I tested out Gore Blocks (The Alpha 14 version, not Alpha 15 version). I mean the real gore blocks, not the objects that aren't blocks that caused server lag. So I use the mod of gore blocks for v2.5 b23, and it just works. It makes the game better. The Zombie Ai loves them, the blocks dynamically get zombies to try new ideas, helps break 'perfect base builds' and it wasn't op like I thought it would be on paper. The downside is I need a flame thrower that has a specific ability to deal damage only to gore blocks, or an acid sprayer thrower.. and it just clears them out after bloodmoon. Nothing else is needed except 1 = a half block, if 1 gore block goes on another, it becomes 1 block. So its more smooth when layering on another. Probably gametest, let zombies 1 shot them, let you 1 shot them with shovels, common sense things. Don't let molotav clear them, but a special cleaner thrower weapon is good, for 'the next day'.
As for the current Zombie Ai, they need to learn how to dig 'up'. Everything else works. They make tunnels underground to my base, while the main hoard comes in normally, which is really cool, but once they are directly under, they aren't trying to dig up, and they can do so once 10-15 blocks or 20-30 from me. They only need to dig up past my walls. But they never do. It's really cool that they do tunnel their way to me as a long term side plan to enter my base. Its just they sit there.
For More Modding Influences, CAVES. So someone made a cave mod that pregens a cave system. That actually just works. It's very limited, feels like it backtracks to an Alpha 16 pregen underground, generic, but its really cool. What I would love to see is maybe something like this, but also... pockets of water. I'm curious what it will look like if your mining, and you break open underground a pocket of water. The water physics seem cooler now, so be really funny getting flooded by a cave. Also be really cool to have the tools to clean up water, like anything else we do. As quick as we shovel dirt, what tools or vehicles.. can we make to hose out (use wire mechanics?) pump out and collect water? I'd love to mine and have a truck at the surface with a water tank.
As for Zomb
