I don't post often here, but I've been playing for years on both Xbox and PC and even some briefly while I had my PS4. Recently Ive been creeping here reading, almost daily, waiting for A17E. I bought the game three times, and encouraged four of my friends to play. Together we each play the game a little bit differently. I have a friend that just loves to build, he is our group architect. Another friend loves harvesting and his goal is to find all the recipes so he can make anything, and he provides much needed resources for the architect. I and another like to be the guards. We patrol the area and keep the Zs at bay. Although I spoke in favor of killing zombies, I like all the different aspects of the game and the real point of my reply was that the game's true value lies in its ability to appeal to many different playstyles. I played pre kill XP, and I was very excited when it came because I always thought it didn't make sense that all that time, effort, and the resources expended, gave no xp reward. I still liked it, just felt it was odd not to give xp. I don't even like or play FPSs predominantly because I like more RPGs and survival games. I've played most all survival games out there and fell this one is up there right with Ark as the best one out.First of all yellow text is horrible on mobile. I was interested enough in the convo to press my edit button so I could read it in plain text but nobody else can do that so...maybe Red next time?
Apologies for the text color. I don't read this forum on my phone, so I had no idea it was an issue, I just thought it had good contrast against the black background. At first it was blue, but on my screen it looked horrible, and I thought red made it seem too aggressive, lol.
Secondly as to your points, what Tea is talking about is incentives...This is, in fact, the way the game was for the first 11-12 alpha versions before xp was added...Anyway, you definitely don’t need to earn xp from killing zombies...However, I also recognize the fun that people have killing zombies and getting rewards for doing so and I think those who want the feel of the game to be more survival horror than first person shooter are probably in the minority so probably best as a mod. Can’t wait Jax. I’ll def give it a go.
I have definitely had zombies (dogs and wights), get across a 2 metre gap that I use as a base buffer, and it was definitely related to the speed of the zombie.I'd be very surprised if the ability to leap wasn't linked to their moving speed. A first-level shambling z should have difficulty clearing a one-block gap whereas a feral at full sprint should be able to leap further.
+1 pedantry for everyone using the word "leap" instead of jump... I assume you've seen this already...
XP for killing was the replacement of spam crafting.I agree with you about the strength of the game being that people can play in different ways. I personally don’t like the xp aspect of the game so much. It’s better now without the spam crafting but it pushes players to play in certain ways for rewards that are gamey.
I’ll still play with xp and all that but I am intrigued by Jax’s teaser on his other mod. I guess the main thing is this: How much time do you spend thinking about experience, leveling up, and trying to optimize experience gains? I remember a time with fondness when those thoughts never intruded. It was simply going from one objective to the next to survive and not a moment of time spent thinking at the level of earning and spending points to improve things. Maybe my memory is not as rosy as I think but I did breathe a sigh of relief when thoughts of spam crafting no longer existed so I wonder.
Two suggestions to add to this idea:For the ladder "exploit" what if they weren't stackable?What if you had to make the ladder in pieces as you do now but you had to combine the amount of pieces to make the length of ladder you wanted and the ladder was a single item that had to start at ground/floor level. If you tried to break the bottom rung you destroyed the whole ladder.
For instance. I have a little horde base I want to use early game. It's 6 blocks high. Instead of being able to make 5 lengths of ladder so it doesn't go all way to ground, I have to make 6 pieces and make them into a 6 block length ladder that I can place on my base. I can't break bottom to keep zombie off base or I break my whole ladder. Now I have to find some way to stop them from climbing on my base. I could box in top of ladder to add a hatch but from what I recall they are going to make zombies able to attack blocks above them. So now I have to actively defend my ladder too.
It would be same for any building. If an apartment building is what I want to climb and it is 40 blocks high I have to make 40 pieces of ladder and find a clear spot on building with no openings or other blocks to stop it to put up my ladder.
This is just something that popped into my head so there may be disadvantages that I haven't thought of but it does seem one way to get around the "exploit" of ladders.
I also have 0 knowledge of how this would be implemented or if it would even be worth the time to do so, so there is also that.![]()
Spider zombie should climb, and then make way for other, that is how it is done. it is like when they reach on top they destory things and then something fall and covering that broken piece making them accessible to zeds below. The AI should make them aggressive to charge and destory block when they cannot find way in normal sense.Having smarter zombies in a game like 7 days to die is needed. I don't want a game were if you just take out the ladder your safe. It's just lame and feels like your exploiting the AI's incappablity to make this game challenging. Also MORE SPIDER ZOMBIES need to be added that can leap and get at you in multiple ways. Smarter/ more cappable AI is need for this game to be more engaging.
Reading your post, I'm going back and forth on how proactive I'd be in taking out zombies in different situations. I feel like I could write a huge post listing examples where it would or wouldn't make sense to kill them for their loot, bringing in comparisons to other games in different genres and other zombie lore, and exploring the justification for experience points as a game mechanic overall.So to my mind we shouldn't be being rewarded for killing zombies at all, other than the "reward" of still being alive. Actually fighting zombies should be an activity of last resort, because you failed to avoid them and ended up putting yourself at risk. So I would suggest that you shouldn't be getting loot or XP from killing zombies because that perversely incentivises you to go after them when you should be hiding/fleeing from them.
The loot and xp should be got from building and scavenging, and the zombies should be an obstacle to doing that. The only reason to fight a zombie other than in self defence should be because it's preventing you from building or scavenging - in which case the "reward" for killing it is that you get to do the activity that it was preventing you from doing.
I think we agree here. We're probably splitting hairs, but this is like cover versus concealment. The zombies could get to you at all times, but it doesn't matter if, thanks to stealth, they're not aware of you.I agree with that with one caveat - the tower defense part of the game should apply to horde night only. It should be possible to hide from the zombies in such a way that (outside of horde night) they can't get to you because they can't find you. But on horde night - when the zombies always know where you are and stealth is useless - there should always be a way for zombies to get to you.
Ooh... :tsk: We may have to agree to disagree on this not being a FPS among other genres. But on the subject of death loops until morning, a more formally recognized & implemented failure state is definitely one option. Most any other game would handle dying on horde night in one of three ways:There definitely needs to be some work done on the death-loop-until-morning problem. As I say above, I think getting to the point where you're actually fighting zombies should be a failure state rather than the aim of the game (whatever blend of tower defence, survival horror, sandbox, and rpg the game is it definitely isn't an fps!) but even so, part of the balance should be addressing what happens when you are forced into that situation. The death-loop-till-morning result is far from ideal.
Well I can assure you that it will be fun. For a few hours...I agree with you about the strength of the game being that people can play in different ways. I personally don’t like the xp aspect of the game so much. It’s better now without the spam crafting but it pushes players to play in certain ways for rewards that are gamey.
I’ll still play with xp and all that but I am intrigued by Jax’s teaser on his other mod. I guess the main thing is this: How much time do you spend thinking about experience, leveling up, and trying to optimize experience gains? I remember a time with fondness when those thoughts never intruded. It was simply going from one objective to the next to survive and not a moment of time spent thinking at the level of earning and spending points to improve things. Maybe my memory is not as rosy as I think but I did breathe a sigh of relief when thoughts of spam crafting no longer existed so I wonder.
I was under the impression you had all the animations you anticipated needing already motion captured quite some time ago, and the rest just hadn't been cleaned up and hooked up yet. Can someone clarify?Have not tested yet. It should not be too hard to do, since they can attack while moving and climbing a ladder is just them literally walking up the wall, since we have no climb anims yet.
Why is that stupid, though? We accept the premise that these corpses are reanimated. They have the same bipedal bodies that humans have, and they're capable of locomotion: they can crawl, walk, and run. Most mammals can jump (or leap), so it's not dependent on advanced intelligence. So I ask you, what's so stupid about it?Please do not add in zombies actually leaping over gaps...that just sounds so stupid...and makes me think of god awful zombie related media like the remake to Day of the Dead , War Zzzz and that syfi channel show...
Spider zombies , sure...but regular ones? no...
A thing to remember is that walking upright is hard. There are not many species that have achieved it. So I don't see zombies that can climb a ladder leap across a gap as out of the realms of possibility, they are essentially magic in any case.Why is that stupid, though? We accept the premise that these corpses are reanimated. They have the same bipedal bodies that humans have, and they're capable of locomotion: they can crawl, walk, and run. Most mammals can jump (or leap), so it's not dependent on advanced intelligence. So I ask you, what's so stupid about it?
Personally I think the xp/upgrade system is a great idea for most survive based games. The hardcore sandbox MMO community has not had much love in a really long time I get my fix off of survive rpg hyberid's for the experence I crave. RPG mechanics can add so much depth and longevity to the game.I agree with you about the strength of the game being that people can play in different ways. I personally don’t like the xp aspect of the game so much. It’s better now without the spam crafting but it pushes players to play in certain ways for rewards that are gamey.
I’ll still play with xp and all that but I am intrigued by Jax’s teaser on his other mod. I guess the main thing is this: How much time do you spend thinking about experience, leveling up, and trying to optimize experience gains? I remember a time with fondness when those thoughts never intruded. It was simply going from one objective to the next to survive and not a moment of time spent thinking at the level of earning and spending points to improve things. Maybe my memory is not as rosy as I think but I did breathe a sigh of relief when thoughts of spam crafting no longer existed so I wonder.
So, you have a better solution I gather? Because I haven't heard one from anyone at all.Xp for killing predated and was concurrent with spam crafting. The replacement to spam crafting was xp for mining, farming, harvesting, trading, building, etc. Many activities other than killing started generating xp in A16 when spam crafting went away.
Personally I like the XP system the way it is in A16 but that's me.So, you have a better solution I gather? Because I haven't heard one from anyone at all.
Edit: You see all that was done was replace one no-risk exp gain for several no-risk exp gains?