PC [A17 Feedback From Twitch Streamer]

[saulysw]

The focus of the game has changed, and not surprisingly some people don't like this change. The move is away from a quick concrete fort building towards more moment-by-moment survival. Before, looting a POI was fairly trivial, a few head shots here and there and then see what you got. Now you have to fight for every square inch, and running away in failure is a real possibility.

I'm yet to play it but I watched some streams and know that I like the way this is headed - but I appreciate those who like the concrete fort style of mid-end game will struggle with this long and hard early game. You may well need to dial back the difficulty a lot compared to A16. This is not a loss of honour! It is effectively a different game, so start again.

I can't wait to finish work and fire it up.

Edit : It seems to me that also there is a shift more towards melee style of play over stealth/ranged attacks. I prefer the stealth bow myself, so this is not so welcome. Still, I will try and adapt. What is not clear is if the "Boom! Headshot" perk applies to bows as well as guns. I hope so. There is a lot to learn about the best mix of perks and when to take them. That will take at least a few playthroughs, I reckon.

 

[Aldranon]

It does prevent rushing through the early progression. Those who don't like playing as a weak character for very long won't be happy and if you want to specialize in just one area then you will have to save points rather than spend them.

My problem and maybe I'm spoiled, but most people who don't get lucky and find a working forge early on need to think about restarting their game. With me, restarting sucks something from the game (I'll here typing and not playing).

 

[Xandyr78]

I guess I don't understand what all the grousing is about. Yes, early game is a bit grindy...it is, after all, the apocalypse. How quickly do you think the average Joe would be able to get themselves up and running, survival-wise, once the zombies outnumbered the living?

I've only played for a few hours (into day 3 on my RWG game), and I typically get frustrated when a game feels too grindy, or too difficult right out of the gate.

However...I am loving A17. Sure, I'm only level 3 (nearing 4!), but I am having an absolute blast. Got dropped into the frozen biome (how's that for a giant F-U from the game?), then had to run my nearly-naked self until I found something more palatable (and survivable---I mean, lumberjacks? Day 1?). Didn't have enough inventory space to carry everything, so I had to be strategic about what I kept (food/water/wellness priority 1, then weapons/armor/clothing, then whatever).

I killed a few zombies with some well-placed headshots (and a LOT of random body shots), collected a few of my arrows back (that was nice). Found a small POI outside of a city, cleared it of its 5 zeds (a small, single-room POI with 5 sleepers. I was SO anxious!). Tried to aggro just one at a time...was successful for the first few, then the last two got up and came at me simultaneously, so I was bobbing and weaving and trying to fire off arrows. It was intense, a little manic, and a LOT of fun.

Started leveling STR, PER, and INT. I like archery, I enjoy melee when I need to do it, and I am a building aficionado. Can I dive right in and start ANY of that right out the gate? Nope. I have to scrounge, sneak, and scavenge what I can. I have to be mindful of EVERYWHERE I go. I cleared out a Pop-N-Pills on day 2. Took me nearly the entire day, as it was FULL of sleepers (and I'm only playing on Adventurer mode -- I want to get a feel for how it all works together before I ramp up my difficulty), and more than one of them would wake at a time (can't wait 'til I get my Stealth perks up!).

There was a lot of running, turning to fire off a shot, clubbing a zed if I needed to, trying to stay behind different objects for cover while my stamina was regenerating...it was an actual challenge, even on just-below-default difficulty.

Just my two cents...but I really am enjoying this build. A ton.

 

[Vechs]

10) On B197 now. It seems TFP have increased the drop rate of special loot. I got 6 bags to drop, where I only got 1 in my early streamer release in b194. This is a very welcome change. I'm not sure what the exact % chance is they went with, but a 3 to 5% drop rate seems about right to me.

I really enjoy getting zombie loot less often, but when it does drop, it is much higher quality and more impactful. It's like all the loot drops have been compressed. I appreciate the time saving.

This aspect probably warrants a little tweaking on the drop rate to where it feels good for the most amount of people, but the general idea (less frequent drops that are more impactful) is very solid.

Good job with this change.

 

[Vechs]

11) I am not really focused on base building in this b197 playthrough, as all the good options for basebuilding are level-gated. So all I can really do is run around and loot and kill zombies, and grind out quests. This is fun, although it is the only real source of XP.

I don't know if TFP intends for more varied playstyles, but I think harvesting, building, and crafting XP might need to be bumped up, because harvesting 7 trees is way more work for the same XP as killing a single zombie. l personally have no issue running around killing zombies for XP, I like fighting. I am concerned, though, that players who want to focus more on other aspects of play won't be able to get enough XP to level up enough to keep up with horde days. As a tester I am trying my best to think about other playstyles, even when something doesn't affect me personally.

 

[Laz Man]

11) I am not really focused on base building in this b197 playthrough, as all the good options for basebuilding are level-gated. So all I can really do is run around and loot and kill zombies, and grind out quests. This is fun, although it is the only real source of XP.
I don't know if TFP intends for more varied playstyles, but I think harvesting, building, and crafting XP might need to be bumped up, because harvesting 7 trees is way more work for the same XP as killing a single zombie. l personally have no issue running around killing zombies for XP, I like fighting. I am concerned, though, that players who want to focus more on other aspects of play won't be able to get enough XP to level up enough to keep up with horde days. As a tester I am trying my best to think about other playstyles, even when something doesn't affect me personally.

That's a great observation. The tricky part with Awarding xp for non combat activities is figuring how much is too much. In my opinion zombie killing should be the highest xp sources otherwise game will be 7 days to tree chop....

Edit: unless they make tree chopping dangerous again, other wise people will grind trees instead.

Edit: XP gain should be balanced with the risk vs reward mentality. Low risk = low xp and vice versa.

 

[DrTeath]

For point 2 and 2.a . You dont loose points if you save them. Bank those bitches till you can spend them where you want .

Its like money man . Just because you cant afford that new pc with what you got from your last paycheck doesnt mean you have to go out and spend it all at the bar . Save that ♥♥♥♥ . And just because the next gen console isnt out yet doesnt mean you cant save for it . Put the cash away , and buy it when it comes out instead of wasting it elsewhere.

 

[JCrook1028]

11) I am concerned, though, that players who want to focus more on other aspects of play won't be able to get enough XP to level up enough to keep up with horde days. As a tester I am trying my best to think about other playstyles, even when something doesn't affect me personally.

To be fair tho. Days don't up the horde strength much, Gamestage does. If you're earning less xp by not killing as much your horde is weaker too.

 

[Vechs]

12) I've started a server for my Patrons. Acid is too rare. People are leveling way past bicycle before they find enough acid to craft the tires.

 

[Vomkat]

Come on Vik.
At least PLAY the game first....

this^

- - - Updated - - -

12) I've started a server for my Patrons. Acid is too rare. People are leveling way past bicycle before they find enough acid to craft the tires.

In a real zombie apocalypse, I always find lots of acid, it's a common household commodity. I have no idea why acid would be considered an uncommon commodity. In the last zombie apocalypse, a real one in real life, I crafted tires on the first day.

 

[Poojam]

I bought my tires from the cholo's that live down the street.

 

[grieferbastard]

On the level gating -

I am almost to level 120 and I'm still pretty specialized, just that any specialization is still going to want another skill tree, (for example I focused on melee, so I went strength, health and you still need a few things in the intellect tree).

So by specializing in melee I still have 0 points in stealth, a bit in cardio/stamina, a good sized chunk in the health tree and damage mitigation, a bunch of intelligence stuff because I don't want to be 100% reliant on one crafting guy or I'm worthless for building the base out.

Early on I'd wished I got more stuff faster. Now I'm glad I didn't because it would have made all the early tier and iron tier stuff 100% irrelevant because once you get a good feel for the game and are clearing POIs solo you're going to knock out 5 levels in a single POI. I generally spend points when I have like 4 to spend because it's usually a bunch of dependencies; you need to get X to 7 so you can unlock A, B and C to 3.

Every system has some room to improve but I'm finding it an excellent mix of level gating to force tradeoffs early on and then resource bottlenecks to manage building later on. At level 100 you can potentially unlock anything but I still haven't gotten even 1/2 the stuff unlocked because available points and of the stuff I have there's tons I haven't made due to lack of available resources, like the gyrocopter.

I see people talking about stealth builds + bow, mix of stealth and melee and several other approaches you can take that are completely different from what I did. I went heavy melee and mobility/stamina for kiting and light armor. Now I"m trying to build up other options but it's going to be a while before they're nearly as effective as my primary approach.