Been playing A18 for like 2 months and thought I'd give my feedback. Even though this post will probably be too long and loaded with suggestions/wishes, keep in mind that for the most part I'm happy with how things are now. Tl;dr: I like A18, its an improvement over older alphas, I like the direction things are going, I have nitpicks but my only real beef is that I wish there were more wandering/patrolling zeds.
Skills/Progression
Improved over A17 IMO - it feels like you have multiple viable choices, fewer
mandatory choices, and that every point counts. Having a ♥♥♥♥ton of lootable/purchasable recipes as an
alternate progression path is also good, it adds some RNG to spice up games but you generally aren't gated behind it. That being said, some of the perks feel way too niche, and others are mostly or totally made obsolete when the player finds the relevant lootable recipes. In 18.1 and 18.2 TFP added some bonuses to recipe-only perks (crafting speed/efficiency/etc) - this is the right idea and should be expanded on. Off the top of my head:
- The Infiltrator could use more value in PvE. Maybe damage bonuses against doors and boarded windows?
- Animal Tracker and The Huntsman could maybe be merged, don't know whether it should go under Perception or Fortitude though.
- Pack Mule has no mid/late game value. Maybe have it give maximum stack size bonuses, or an extra belt slot at perk level 4 and 5?
- Master Chef has little mid/late game value, as default cooking speed isn't really a constraint. IMO this perk should also be like Physician, but for food: give bonuses to food values (and less chance of food poisoning) and use it to feed other players in co-op!
- Grease Monkey has little mid-late game value, crafting speed really isn't a concern because vehicles are a one-and-done craft job. Maybe have some perk levels grant +1 to max speed of crafted motorized vehicles?
- TFP will probably have the stats on this, but I'm guessing the Fortitude perks (other than Machine Gunner of course) are probably underused. Maybe a merge of 2 perks or some buffs/changes are in order.
- The only skill gate that I'm unsure about is putting the Crucible recipe at Level 5 Advanced Engineering. Yes, steel is powerful and there are other places to get a Crucible, but requiring 9 INT+Glasses to eliminate the RNG factor is a bit much for a widely used crafting material IMO.
Crafting/Building
The addition of helper blocks (ie. being able to change the shape before deploying) is an absolute game-changer and sooo good for base builders. I just wish there were more shape options that don't require Creative mode, and its a bit weird that different shapes are available for different building materials. I know TFP has plans for reworking or removing the Table Saw, but if you're going to keep it, use it to create other helper blocks (Advanced Wood Block?) instead of lots of different ones.
In terms of material value vs zombies, Flagstone does feel a bit too good... its ease of crafting on Day 1 makes Wood obsolete, and its trivial to upgrade to Cobblestone, which makes Brick obsolete - I bet most players don't even know or care how to make Brick blocks at this point. But that's a tricky thing to balance.
Oh, one other nitpick - the Paint Brush's paint roller mode seems to splash a lot of things that aren't intended, it would be nice if it only splashed adjacent blockfaces and not stuff way in the background.
World/POIs
A17 really raised the bar in how good the world and POIs look, and I'm glad A18 continued the updates in this department. We're now at the point where most pre-A17 POIs look butt-ugly in comparison and stand out in a bad way, so keep up the good work. A few POI archetypes seem missing from the small town setting though - strip malls, small apartment buildings (~3 floors), warehouses, and Wal-Mart-esque big box stores. The latter could make a good T4 or T5 quest location. This is just nitpicking of course.
Not going to pass judgement on the RWG itself since everyone likes different things, there are performance considerations, and its always a work in progress.
Combat/Zombies
Melee feels better in A18 but I can't shake the feeling that swinging weapons still feels too finicky, especially when you're not hosting/playing locally. The weapon swing arcs and graze hits just feel too limited to make a difference, and the best example of this happens when fighting Vultures, where players often miss or graze between the wings and body. The spear feels good because the required precision matches the animation and is a good trade-off for the weapon range, but the other weapons basically feel like short range spears with more damage.
Guns feel good, but then again I like the arcadey style and super-fast weapon swaps. That being said, the M60 is too damn good. Makes you feel and play like Rambo - no careful tactics, no fear of zombies, just walk around, hold down the trigger and kill everything. Its only real downside (reload speed) isn't enough of a deterrent and the Bandolier minimizes it anyway.
And now for probably the most negative part of this post - the Zombies. The Zeds themselves are fine (although more variety in skins/models/types is always a good addition), but I feel like reducing the amount of wandering/active zombies in the world was a bad move. Whether it was done for performance reasons or gameplay reasons (ie. to not overwhelm players in the early game or give too much XP), the end result is that the world feels more empty and less dangerous. Sleepers are a good thing both in gameplay and theme, but there aren't enough non-sleepers. That being said, I don't think wandering zombies should be more numerous
everywhere - just in built-up areas (towns and cities). Rural bases shouldn't have to deal with frequent zombie attacks unless they're generating lots of heat. This could be tied to gamestage and/or difficulty as well, but the bottom line is: more zombies please!
7D2D's tagline is "the survival horde crafting game", and I hope the necessary optimizations and tweaks can keep the word "horde" in there.
