HerrKingsley
Refugee
Disclaimer: Wall of text!
If your attention span is shorter that this sentence.. Don’t bother or scroll down to the summery!
There has been a lot of reviews of this experimental already but i still wanted to share my opinion good and bad about this update.
For starters i have been playing 7dtd since we had block shaped terrain (and digging zombies)
And i have played for more hours than i would like to admit! 7dtd is hands down the best game i have ever played. And i think we will keep on having a great relationship. BUT! There are a few things we need to talk about, I’ll get to that later!
I have many play styles when i play 7dtd, and that's what I love about this game, that i can have a few different save games going with different stories to choose from.
Usually I play:
Cave dweller with a big underground base and underground farm.
Basebuilder
Nomadic, no farming, no digging except for clay (Only stay in one POI for one week then move on to the next town)
Since I have had limited with time to play I choose to play two different games til day 8.
Playthrough 1: “Basebuilding”
I started up a game on Navezgane I spawned right by an abandoned house close to the farm so I decided to fortify it and stay there. Since I had a good amount of food and water resources around.
First thing that struck me was how good the game looks. The details, the poi’s amazing. Finally the world feels more immersive than ever, Great job!
I had a bit lower FPS but after lowering my resolution i got it back to 60fps without feeling it interfered with textures too much.
From the forum and streams I had heard that mining felt slow and tedious, so I had to see for myself. Unfortunately I share that view.
It’s more of a grind than i wish it to be. Having to wait for stamina to regain, gaining almost none to 0 xp from rocks and clay. Which is the foundation of early game base building.
The amount of resources you get and the damage stone axe gives feels appropriate for early game. But it is the drainage of stamina that gets to me. I noticed that if i have my food to 100% it stamina generates almost as fast as it drains so i could keep banging for a while, but since the hunger drains so fast i quickly went back to waiting game. Food is too precious to spend on maxing out stamina especially when xp gain is so low on mining.
On day two while digging for clay I got jumped by dogs. As a veteran my reflexes were quick enough to save me from a quick death but having them howl from further away than 2m would be nice. Especially when digging is draining stamina so fast it's hard to outrun them or even fight them.
I was lucky and had plenty of animals to kill so good wasn't really a problem. But having to put a point in cocking for basic boiling is just stupid. If you can set up a camp fire you can do some basic cooking.
I tried a trader treasure quest in hope of getting a home or at least enough money to buy one.
The treasure was located in winter biome which almost killed me. The new overlay is great and cold feels even more dangerous than in a16. I love it. Had to put up 3 campfires so I wouldn't freeze to death while digging for the treasure.
By the 7th day I was level 12 just from mining resources. I only killed 135 zombies by then.
I had fortified the walls with a second layer of flagstone and two rows of spikes outside. And was scared and excited for the BM horde!
Defending against the BM horde wasn't a problem. As long as I moved around I'm my base they didn't focus on one single block. It wasn't until I was certain that there where only a few left I stood still and let them punch through the wall. Which took under a minute.
But I lived to see another day!
Playthrough 2: “nomadic base building”
This playthrough was more focused on looting and killing zombies. And God damn those pois look good. I looted only a handful but as I walked down the street I stopped and looked at a few building intrigued by what was hiding behind those walls.
I found a poi with a forge on day one so I was lucky with that. On the other hand food was much harder to find in city area. And desperate as I was I picked a fight with a wolf. Which i lost the first round. The second round he ended up in my belly!
Somehow I didn't get death penalty. (Bug?)
I enjoyed the new melee attack I quickly abandoned my bow and when I found a sledge hammer I was very pleased. Stamina drainage is ok on power attack but as I mentioned earlier the connection between hunger and stamina seems a bit to much. I'll get back to that later.
Finding guns, ammo and tools was easy and since I had a forge in my base quality wasn't a problem. But I didn't fancy the iron pickaxe. The extra stamina drainage isn't worth it for the extra 10hp damage it deals. The steel pickaxe falls better but now where beer as good as I would hope!
By day 7 I was level 26 and had killed around 360 zombies.
And I had to log out to gain some courage before I logged in again.
I had fortified my base with two rows of spikes and one row of bar wire on top.
The POI's walls were made of flagstone so I only adds another layer to that.
Bm wasn't a problem either I had two cops but that was about it.
I lived to see another day!
Summarizing:
From my two playthrough you can easily see that killing zombies is more profitable than mining for resources. This will hopefully be balanced.
Forge: The way I see it is that the Forge is as much an endgame item as an AK-47 or Assault rifle. On playthrough 2 i got an AK and assault rifle on day 3. Those will definitely help me thrive in a more offensive play style. But as a builder your main item for thriving and progressing is gated by level. That would need to be balanced better!
Stamina: Its very immersive breaking to have it so tied to hunger. If the stamina had as much impact as it has now when hunger is below 50% i could live with it. Feeling that a full stomach actually gave you better stamina would feel more fulfilling.
Death penalty: I didn’t get death penalty when i died so i wasn't affected by it but i wouldn't mind having it lowered to 30 min or 15 and not affect intellect. My playtime is limited so 1 hour of penalty is a bit much for my taste.
Zombies: I like the new AI but some serious tweeking is needed, more diversity in path to player would be nice, tank goes straight through everything to the player, businessman finds the easiest path, the rest have more random calculations on what's the best path.
The deal way to much damage to blocks.
Digging not a problem for me but lower the block damage and it would be better balanced.
Hoe: Is basically just flipping dirt, don't understand why i need a forge to do that.
All in all I am found of A17 with some balancing I might LOVE it!
Also looking forward to those 300 mods!
If your attention span is shorter that this sentence.. Don’t bother or scroll down to the summery!
There has been a lot of reviews of this experimental already but i still wanted to share my opinion good and bad about this update.
For starters i have been playing 7dtd since we had block shaped terrain (and digging zombies)
And i have played for more hours than i would like to admit! 7dtd is hands down the best game i have ever played. And i think we will keep on having a great relationship. BUT! There are a few things we need to talk about, I’ll get to that later!
I have many play styles when i play 7dtd, and that's what I love about this game, that i can have a few different save games going with different stories to choose from.
Usually I play:
Cave dweller with a big underground base and underground farm.
Basebuilder
Nomadic, no farming, no digging except for clay (Only stay in one POI for one week then move on to the next town)
Since I have had limited with time to play I choose to play two different games til day 8.
Playthrough 1: “Basebuilding”
I started up a game on Navezgane I spawned right by an abandoned house close to the farm so I decided to fortify it and stay there. Since I had a good amount of food and water resources around.
First thing that struck me was how good the game looks. The details, the poi’s amazing. Finally the world feels more immersive than ever, Great job!
I had a bit lower FPS but after lowering my resolution i got it back to 60fps without feeling it interfered with textures too much.
From the forum and streams I had heard that mining felt slow and tedious, so I had to see for myself. Unfortunately I share that view.
It’s more of a grind than i wish it to be. Having to wait for stamina to regain, gaining almost none to 0 xp from rocks and clay. Which is the foundation of early game base building.
The amount of resources you get and the damage stone axe gives feels appropriate for early game. But it is the drainage of stamina that gets to me. I noticed that if i have my food to 100% it stamina generates almost as fast as it drains so i could keep banging for a while, but since the hunger drains so fast i quickly went back to waiting game. Food is too precious to spend on maxing out stamina especially when xp gain is so low on mining.
On day two while digging for clay I got jumped by dogs. As a veteran my reflexes were quick enough to save me from a quick death but having them howl from further away than 2m would be nice. Especially when digging is draining stamina so fast it's hard to outrun them or even fight them.
I was lucky and had plenty of animals to kill so good wasn't really a problem. But having to put a point in cocking for basic boiling is just stupid. If you can set up a camp fire you can do some basic cooking.
I tried a trader treasure quest in hope of getting a home or at least enough money to buy one.
The treasure was located in winter biome which almost killed me. The new overlay is great and cold feels even more dangerous than in a16. I love it. Had to put up 3 campfires so I wouldn't freeze to death while digging for the treasure.
By the 7th day I was level 12 just from mining resources. I only killed 135 zombies by then.
I had fortified the walls with a second layer of flagstone and two rows of spikes outside. And was scared and excited for the BM horde!
Defending against the BM horde wasn't a problem. As long as I moved around I'm my base they didn't focus on one single block. It wasn't until I was certain that there where only a few left I stood still and let them punch through the wall. Which took under a minute.
But I lived to see another day!
Playthrough 2: “nomadic base building”
This playthrough was more focused on looting and killing zombies. And God damn those pois look good. I looted only a handful but as I walked down the street I stopped and looked at a few building intrigued by what was hiding behind those walls.
I found a poi with a forge on day one so I was lucky with that. On the other hand food was much harder to find in city area. And desperate as I was I picked a fight with a wolf. Which i lost the first round. The second round he ended up in my belly!
Somehow I didn't get death penalty. (Bug?)
I enjoyed the new melee attack I quickly abandoned my bow and when I found a sledge hammer I was very pleased. Stamina drainage is ok on power attack but as I mentioned earlier the connection between hunger and stamina seems a bit to much. I'll get back to that later.
Finding guns, ammo and tools was easy and since I had a forge in my base quality wasn't a problem. But I didn't fancy the iron pickaxe. The extra stamina drainage isn't worth it for the extra 10hp damage it deals. The steel pickaxe falls better but now where beer as good as I would hope!
By day 7 I was level 26 and had killed around 360 zombies.
And I had to log out to gain some courage before I logged in again.
I had fortified my base with two rows of spikes and one row of bar wire on top.
The POI's walls were made of flagstone so I only adds another layer to that.
Bm wasn't a problem either I had two cops but that was about it.
I lived to see another day!
Summarizing:
From my two playthrough you can easily see that killing zombies is more profitable than mining for resources. This will hopefully be balanced.
Forge: The way I see it is that the Forge is as much an endgame item as an AK-47 or Assault rifle. On playthrough 2 i got an AK and assault rifle on day 3. Those will definitely help me thrive in a more offensive play style. But as a builder your main item for thriving and progressing is gated by level. That would need to be balanced better!
Stamina: Its very immersive breaking to have it so tied to hunger. If the stamina had as much impact as it has now when hunger is below 50% i could live with it. Feeling that a full stomach actually gave you better stamina would feel more fulfilling.
Death penalty: I didn’t get death penalty when i died so i wasn't affected by it but i wouldn't mind having it lowered to 30 min or 15 and not affect intellect. My playtime is limited so 1 hour of penalty is a bit much for my taste.
Zombies: I like the new AI but some serious tweeking is needed, more diversity in path to player would be nice, tank goes straight through everything to the player, businessman finds the easiest path, the rest have more random calculations on what's the best path.
The deal way to much damage to blocks.
Digging not a problem for me but lower the block damage and it would be better balanced.
Hoe: Is basically just flipping dirt, don't understand why i need a forge to do that.
All in all I am found of A17 with some balancing I might LOVE it!
Also looking forward to those 300 mods!
Although I'd like to point out that you'd need to test against later BM's to really see some of the AI zerg flaws. I guess it's easier to defend a base playing singleplayer also, but I never do that so I wouldn't know.