My first instinct was to leave this alone. I have a strong feeling on it but after reading here I think I'm wasting my time, as I think TFP have already made up their minds. But screw it, I going to say it anyway.
I absolutely hate the squeeze being put on skills and perks. I'm a mostly sp guy and this only hurts people going it solo. I'm not the kind of guy that needs all perks and skills maxed, there are lots of perks i don't take. But there are a group of perks I feel we should be able to get, if we work hard enough at it. The solution of just restarting is a really bad one imho. I work too hard, grind too much and put in too much time to be forced to start over because of that group of perks I never got to enjoy.
And don't think I missed that little tidbit about needing to put points to strength just to get bag space we already had in alpha 16. So you're limiting our bag space and requiring, very limited, skill points to get that bag space back? Please let me know if i'm missing something?
Now I'll admit I haven't played alpha 17 obviously but this concern is more than justified based off everything TFP have said.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, that was proven with the removal of the zombie hp bars. Well I'm squeaking.
Please don't regard this post as hostile. I'm sure I'll love alpha 17 either way. Just voicing my concerns.
Currently you start the game with 40 slots (including the toolbelt). In A17 you will start the game with 35 slots (including the toolbelt). By spending 3 points you will gain six slots and already be above what you are used to and the rest will be gravy. This is largely a preference issue and TFP can't solve for all preferences other than making the xmls available which they have.
MY preference would be to start out with only the top row available and then progress from there. Allowing 3 rows at the start is too much imho. Players should have to resort to using strategic stashes at the start until they progress to larger sizes. I also think a nice alternative would have been to purchase slots at the trader to represent buying a larger pack. That would free up skill points for other things as well. I'm likely going to learn how to mod the locked inventory slots so I can start at a much leaner inventory count and then change the number of slots that each point of strength will unlock so I can still get to the top if I wish. Others may want to change it so you start with more or maybe even start with the max if they don't enjoy inventory management and then they wouldn't even have to spend points in that area. I think TFP chose a good middle ground.
Can I just throw in my two cents here? As for me, i'm more MP rather than SP, and imho zombie hp bars were nice. First of all, from the beginning of the game it's very important to understand, how strong Z is, because nobody wants to waste time on strong bosses with axe and 5 arrows. But later, when you have good firearms, you and your server friends just want some fun killing stronger Z and getting better loot (on most servers there are customizable Z, so you can't learn all of the stats). So, imho, it will be perfect if devs give us a switchable option of zombie hp bars, so everyone will configure the game as he wants himself.
PS. Sorry for bad English, doing my best to explain
pps. Kage848, nice videos :cocksure:
The HP bars for enemies are still implemented in the game as of now. If you go into debug mode they are there for every enemy. Now they might change this but I think they probably won't as it is a really useful tool for development. We will have to wait until people who know what they're doing take a look but it might be an extremely simple toggle to get them to appear again during normal play.
I do have to put in a plug, however, for my own preferences once again... Having played both ways it is much better without them. TFP have made changes such that all the cheesy ways that allowed you to know for sure that a zombie was finally dead are gone. You literally have no idea if it is going to stand back up or maybe take a swing at you if you come up close to bash its head a few more times. It is very creepy and one of my favorite differences between pre-A17 and post-A17.
So to recap, you can press F1, type dm, and then ESC and play your game with HP bars if you want, possibly be able to mod them in, or play it like a survival horror game and just wonder if that zombie you "killed" behind you might possibly be standing up right now....
To be fair, the people on this forum represent the die-hard gamers with most of them having over at least 250 hours of gameplay. They do not want this HP bar because it would break immersion.
However they forget that 90% still plays a game, not a Zombie Killer Simulator
To be really fair, that 90% are usually happy to just play whatever automatically downloads onto their computer and consider playing a game in any way other than how the developers intended it as sacrilege....
@Roland , please . can you check the bosses (legendary biker, worker ,animal boss grace , etc) if they are just pool of health or they have different effects . can they jump higher , can they spit fire
. running in speed of bullet , etc ;D
Nothing will be revealed about bosses. You will have to experience them for yourself. That is all.
I agree on the fact that limiting the skills and perks, you can get, isn't good. TFP justified this by saying that it forces the player to make choices. Do I want to play like this? Or do I want to play like that? Here is why I think that this is wrong.
In Skyrim, one of the most famous games in the world, you can maximize everything, there is no restriction. I played more than one game as different characters, one for example as an archer, one mage, one warrior.. also, guess what, I played one as a mixture of everything, and I enjoyed it. I won't be able to do this in A17 (unless I mod it, which I will do). So they will not force us in any more vary gameplay. They will just limit our choices.
Having no cap allows you to play as A, B or C, or everything. Having a cap only allows you to play as A, B or C. You are not enhancing gameplay, you are restricting it.
Here is the error in this argument. Just the knowledge that you can eventually get everything eliminates choices due to the fact that gamers will always gravitate to the most efficient and preferred pathway. They will always get their same favorites first because there is zero risk and they can get what they consider the lesser perks later on if they feel like it. Compare that to a game where there are several great choices but you can only be strongest in 3 of them and average in 4 but you are really curious how the game plays with some of those 4 maxed out. That means the next time you play because you know you can't have it all you will choose from the second set and settle for being average in the first set.
The knowledge that you can't get everything also makes each choice a more considered and tougher choice. Why spend more than a moment's thought on what you purchase if you can purchase everything eventually? Games with tough and interesting choices are better than games with weak or uninteresting choices and choosing (A or B) is always more interesting than (A then B) or (B then A).
Finally, this game is not, imo, about being the ultimate superman survivor. It is about surviving against the world presented by the game and having some weakness that you must deal with while surviving make the game way more interesting than having no weaknesses. Some people play with the creative menu enabled and have fun but I can't play that way. Giving myself a sniper rifle with five stacks of ammo is fun at first but it gets boring fast.
Again this is a preference issue so nobody is wrong about how they like to play. Thankfully the devs have given us the means to redesign it for varying play preferences.
