Why to people always focus on Alpha 16? That was probably one of the absolute buggiest versions that existed. Drive down a road and your minibike would teleport into a hill next to you with you on it. Managing servers was almost a complete nightmare unless you used several API mods to counter a number of the games issues in the world.
It was probably the first version that started taking away most of the survival aspects. Oh wait.. THAT"S why you like it so much. Alpha 16 was basically easy mode with no challenge and infinite food and ammo.
Because it had the best skill system, actually felt sandbox like as you had choices about things that have been taken away in a17+, it didn't try to force anyone to play a specific way like a17 and up does. Locking weapons to stats was the stupidest thing TFP ever did with the games skill system, it could have worked if done properly but its TFP thats expecting too much. A way to do it properly is add a way so you can mod gear to add up to +6 to a stat from mods. This way you can be more adaptable in your builds instead of being forced to power one stat to max. TFP also keeps putting in things to screw over specific playstyles specifically, with no real counter you can do against it. The whole sleeper volume trigger system was mainly done to screw with stealth builds. Yeah yeah I heard it said with higher stealth less chance of them getting triggered but thats only part of the problem. The other part is sleeper positioning, they are almost ALWAYS behind another block or placed in a way you cannot get line of sight it just looks super fake and artifical. The zombie rage system where they randomly get mach 2 speed all of a sudden was put in to screw over melee liking players as it doesn't really effect ranged users. Then you have digging zombies, now if it was only dogs or bear zombies/animals that could dig I'd be fine with it, but it makes NO SENSE for a zombie to be digging with their bare hands. I let the fact they can punch thru concrete slide because if they couldn't zombies wouldn't be any threat.
I've been playing since alpha 10.2, and up to a16.4 the game was great, but then a17 and they started going downhill by taking features away from the game and not adding anything actually new. By new I mean totally new, not a rehash into a worse form of the same gameplay system. I mean Steel tools and radiated zombies I believe were the top in a10.2 even, how has the game gone no where item or enemy wise in like 8-10 years?
I been playing a mod called Afterlife, everything is a action skill EVEN ATTRIBUTES. Use clubs? it ups all stats but primarlly str. No weapon is locked to a stat, they all start equal and you get better with them by using the weapon of your choice. The attributes also do things, Str ups block damage, entity damage with certain weapons, carry weight and a few other things. Agility ups move/run/sneak speed as well as ups damage with agi based weapons. Most weapons are split between 2 stats. like Spear is Str and perception. Blood moon/zombie Ai also is back like a16, zombies come from all sides, and will not neatly walk into your kill box for you, you need to defend all sides as hey won't give a damn about your planned path. Granted in a16.4 something did need to be done because all u needed was to be on the 2nd floor of a poi and the zombies would run in circles under you if you knocked the stairs out, but they went too far, by TFP making the zombies TOO smart they made them actually the opposite. Its easy to just herd them to a kill box and they'll generally do little damage to the base if built properly. Afterlife also uses the magazine system but in a better form, stats or perks do not factor into what mags you find, but you CAN scrap magazines into materials to craft them into magazines you DO want, Perk books too. Mod also removes traders entirely, they still have half destroyed pois you can loot, with maybe a gun vending machine and a machine to turn old cash into dukes, but other than that, your on your own. Gotta loot or craft everything.
Ever notice how most of the top 7dtd mods throw tfp's stat system in the garbage? its because basically no one likes it. Only people who like it are ones who have never played a16.4, so they don't really count for an opinion on it IMO as they never played the game with it.
People liked how sandboxy and free alpha 16.4 was, in the skill system, bases, basically everything. But in a17 and up more and more keeps being taken away and players are being forced into playing the same way. This is why many people who played a16.4 feel a16.4 was the last time the game was actually good, as its honestly just gone downhill since gameplay wise. best thing TFP did is prob only the mod system allowing you to swap mods in and out of weapons and armor, but other than that, not much of value has been added, and pretty graphics don't fix gameplay issues.
They also used to call this game a tower defense, but its lacking most of the things that those games have, 7dtd needs far more traps, a good example of this is dungeon defenders, or orc's must die. Or for a zombie game simmlar to 7dtd, Night of the Dead has nightly blood moon like waves but has proper defensive traps to deal with them, something 7dtd lacks. I am not saying 7dtd has no traps, I am saying it has a severe lack of them, and most of them break to fast to be useful for long.
