I love 7dtd. I think the game has been steadily improving and the latest alpha is the best version so far. I do have one gripe however and that is loot progression. Except for toilet pistols and purchasing from traders, there is basically no chance of finding a weapon of any higher tier than a blunderbuss or a tool of a higher tier than stone if you are below a certain gamestage.
I understand that having loot progression tied to gamestage is meant to prevent players from skipping past the stone age and instantly becoming op in the early game. I agree that players should have to progress, but I also believe that never having the chance to find something exciting, like an AK47, because of gamestage ruins a lot of the fun of looting.
I propose a middle ground solution.
How to balance finding above blunderbuss tier weapons in the early game (AK47, 9mil, etc)
1.) Ammo- Ammo is extremely abundant in A19. There are ammo piles behind every 10th picture, traders give you 150-200 ammo for one quest, secures storage chests give you more as well as shipping crates, etc. Just reduce the amount of ammo which can be looted. It can be argued that this looted ammo is needed to defend against the coming hordes, but I believe players can use bows and blunderbusses and will find a way even with less ammo at their disposal in the early game. Blunderbuss ammo is easily craftable, which keeps it as a viable alternative to a handgun or machine gun if handgun and machine gun ammo is made far less abundant.
2.) Repair Cost- [EDIT] A lot of people have said using tool/weapon parts for repair would be a hassle. You would have to carry too many items for repairing. SO! I suggest instead simply increasing the amount of repair kits required to repair something. That way it will be harder to maintain an above blunderbuss tier weapon early game which will allow blunderbusses to still be useful as an alternative.Repair kits are the solution to almost everything, which is a problem. Repair kits can be made with duct tape, cloth, and forged iron which are all easily obtainable, even in the early game. If weapons required their respective parts to be repaired, then there would be a limit to the usability of a higher than blunderbuss weapon in the early game. So, even if you find an AK47 in the early game, you would only be able to use if for so long before it broke. When it breaks you would need to find machine gun parts if you wanted to repair it.
Also, it could be made so repair effectiveness is tied to a players proficiency in the use of that weapon type. So a player who only has 1 level of machine gunner (or whatever its called) can only repair 30% of weapons durability in one go (for example). A level 5 can repair 100%.
3.) Gamestage RNG Hybrid Loot- If AK47's and other tier one weapons were made once again findable in the early game, gamestage could still play a role in limiting their effectiveness. For example, a player of gamestage 1-15 (An example set of numbers) can not find AK47's above quality level 1.
4.) Rarity- Even if tier one weapons and tools are findable in the early game, they could be made to be less common and more of a reward when they are found. Weapon bags could have a random chance to spawn at the end of the current dungeon crawl houses. Currently, they're pretty much always there; and even though they display actual guns sticking out of the zipper, if they are looted below a certain gamestage, they only ever contain blunderbusses. Make it so they somewhat rarely spawn at the end of a dungeon crawl, but when they are found, they are much more likely to contain an actual gun or at least gun parts. The same with gun safes. Make them rare to spawn, but with a high chance of gun loot. And with those super secure storage chests, make those certain to spawn guns, but of course they should be hard to break into and well guarded. In the regular unlocked secure storage chests at the end of dungeon crawls, the gun loot chance should be low and instead have a high blunderbuss and stone tool chance.
Just some ideas. I like where the game is going, but this one area I hope receives some more balancing.
I understand that having loot progression tied to gamestage is meant to prevent players from skipping past the stone age and instantly becoming op in the early game. I agree that players should have to progress, but I also believe that never having the chance to find something exciting, like an AK47, because of gamestage ruins a lot of the fun of looting.
I propose a middle ground solution.
How to balance finding above blunderbuss tier weapons in the early game (AK47, 9mil, etc)
1.) Ammo- Ammo is extremely abundant in A19. There are ammo piles behind every 10th picture, traders give you 150-200 ammo for one quest, secures storage chests give you more as well as shipping crates, etc. Just reduce the amount of ammo which can be looted. It can be argued that this looted ammo is needed to defend against the coming hordes, but I believe players can use bows and blunderbusses and will find a way even with less ammo at their disposal in the early game. Blunderbuss ammo is easily craftable, which keeps it as a viable alternative to a handgun or machine gun if handgun and machine gun ammo is made far less abundant.
2.) Repair Cost- [EDIT] A lot of people have said using tool/weapon parts for repair would be a hassle. You would have to carry too many items for repairing. SO! I suggest instead simply increasing the amount of repair kits required to repair something. That way it will be harder to maintain an above blunderbuss tier weapon early game which will allow blunderbusses to still be useful as an alternative.
Also, it could be made so repair effectiveness is tied to a players proficiency in the use of that weapon type. So a player who only has 1 level of machine gunner (or whatever its called) can only repair 30% of weapons durability in one go (for example). A level 5 can repair 100%.
3.) Gamestage RNG Hybrid Loot- If AK47's and other tier one weapons were made once again findable in the early game, gamestage could still play a role in limiting their effectiveness. For example, a player of gamestage 1-15 (An example set of numbers) can not find AK47's above quality level 1.
4.) Rarity- Even if tier one weapons and tools are findable in the early game, they could be made to be less common and more of a reward when they are found. Weapon bags could have a random chance to spawn at the end of the current dungeon crawl houses. Currently, they're pretty much always there; and even though they display actual guns sticking out of the zipper, if they are looted below a certain gamestage, they only ever contain blunderbusses. Make it so they somewhat rarely spawn at the end of a dungeon crawl, but when they are found, they are much more likely to contain an actual gun or at least gun parts. The same with gun safes. Make them rare to spawn, but with a high chance of gun loot. And with those super secure storage chests, make those certain to spawn guns, but of course they should be hard to break into and well guarded. In the regular unlocked secure storage chests at the end of dungeon crawls, the gun loot chance should be low and instead have a high blunderbuss and stone tool chance.
Just some ideas. I like where the game is going, but this one area I hope receives some more balancing.
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