Feedback: Loss of Sandbox Base Defense Identity and the downfall of the game as a whole

[brycebrown141666]

Dear Developers,
I’m writing as a long-time player to share some honest feedback about the current direction of the game. I’ve been playing since the alpha stage, and I’ve stuck with it through years of changes because of how unique and fun it used to feel.
At its core, 7 Days to Die used to feel like a sandbox base defense experience—where creativity, experimentation, and player-driven strategy were the heart of the gameplay. Building unique bases, testing designs against hordes, and progressing at your own pace made the game stand out.
Recently, however, it feels like that identity has been lost.
The increasing focus on progression restrictions, reworked perk systems, and tighter control over loot and crafting has shifted the experience away from sandbox freedom and toward a more rigid, grind-heavy survival model. Instead of encouraging creative base design and player choice, the game often feels like it’s funneling players into specific playstyles.
Base building—once a core pillar—now feels less rewarding. Many mechanics seem to discourage experimentation rather than support it, and horde nights no longer feel like a true test of creativity so much as a test of whether you’re following the “intended” path.
What made the game special was the freedom:
Freedom to build how you wanted
Freedom to progress at your own pace
Freedom to approach survival in your own way
That freedom is what made it a sandbox base defense game. Without it, the experience feels more restrictive and, honestly, less fun.
This isn’t coming from a place of hate—just frustration. The game still has incredible potential, but it feels like it’s drifting away from what made it unique in the first place.
I hope future updates can bring back more emphasis on player choice, creativity, and true sandbox gameplay.
Sincerely,
A frustrated fan

 

[Blue mame]

I completely share all of the feelings you have described.
It is clear that TFP wanted to expand the game into a true open world with meaningful exploration, but unfortunately their execution fell completely flat. Exploration requires proper motivation and rewarding progression to keep players invested. Instead of adding new biomes, diverse ecosystems, and unique world content to enrich the existing freeform sandbox, they chose to over-restrict the original gameplay, rework progression systems, and limit player freedom.
It is not that the development team lacked effort, but the end result of their design changes turned out extremely underwhelming and counterproductive. Hopefully they can learn from these missteps moving forward, and add more explorable areas, new environmental threats, and varied world ecology to finally give exploration a proper, meaningful place within the game.

 

[Kyoji]

I don't understand. You said you have played since alpha which is even further than me but I recall tons of updates where they turned base ideas into ashes from building up high to building underground to drop bases to forcefield bases. I don't think there has been any new achievements gained in the past few updates that deviate from this.

That being said I agree that a lot of bases have been nuked due to their ability to what people call AFK or low maintenence bases. It was indeed nice not having to repair a ton after every horde night and have things go critical because you missed a repair somewhere. Kill zones could use some work to make bases more diverse. Currently a lot of bases function by funneling enemies and trying to negate poor AI implementation that would otherwise wreck havoc on their base. Even simple things like better pathing to the player or a siren or horn that can draw enemies towards you without them punching holes in your walls because your block is one too many for them to "consider" reaching you. The game isn't conducive to running around four sides of a base to fight off enemies and the developers should understand this and make it to where the AI isn't breaking down walls behind you when it's clearly faster to run around and get to you. It's frustrating and leads to cookie cutter designs because the AI is so convoluted and confusing at times.

Of course this is just my opinion on the matter and I'm sure others will have differing opinions. I prefer direct confrontation not getting sneak attacked by zombies that broke through from behind.

 

[Riamus]

The game isn't conducive to running around four sides of a base to fight off enemies and the developers should understand this and make it to where the AI isn't breaking down walls behind you when it's clearly faster to run around and get to you. It's frustrating and leads to cookie cutter designs because the AI is so convoluted and confusing at times.

It's funny that you say this because so many others post about how they want the enemies to attack all sides of the base and ignore paths, stating that the zombies always take the path rather than trying to attack from all sides. Heh.

Everyone has a different opinion about what they want the zombies to do, and maybe there will be a game option for it, though I don't really think that will happen. Some want zombies to stop being "smart" and to just follow a straight line to your base from wherever they come from and start attacking your base. Others want them to do a tower defense method and follow paths you set up for them (being "smart"). And others want something in between those.

Personally, I like them to follow a path I set. If I want to make a maze for them to follow, I'd like them to do so even if a few go into destruction mode and break some holes in the maze. As it stands now, mazes are almost impossible because zombies won't walk too far away from the player on horde night, so any maze that has paths that snake around and sometimes go away from the player won't work. But I can at least do other kinds of bases... elevated paths that might split into more than one to break up the enemies, towers, kill zones with traps, dropping enemies into spike pits, bases in the sides of mountains, etc. There are many options available if people don't get hung up on only making the same OP base design every time. And, for me, having my base fail because I forgot something or missed something or whatever is not a bad thing. If I'm running around dodging enemies on the ground while trying to get to a backup location or just any POI, that just adds to the fun for me.

 

[Roland]

I’m writing as a long-time player to share some honest feedback about the current direction of the game. I’ve been playing since the alpha stage, and I’ve stuck with it through years of changes because of how unique and fun it used to feel.
At its core, 7 Days to Die used to feel like a sandbox base defense experience—where creativity, experimentation, and player-driven strategy were the heart of the gameplay. Building unique bases, testing designs against hordes, and progressing at your own pace made the game stand out.
Recently, however, it feels like that identity has been lost.

Thanks for the feedback. 7 Days to Die was always intended as a mixed genre game that was part Minecraft (building and destruction), part Walking Dead (zombies and survival) and part Fallout (progression). When the game was in alpha not all pillars were implemented. The game was just as you describe-- heavy on building, tower defense, and survival. But the progression aspects you don't like were always planned and even listed in their kickstarter goals. I know it doesn't change how you feel but the fact is that the game is coming into the identity it was always planned to have and not losing an identity that it was always supposed to have.

The increasing focus on progression restrictions, reworked perk systems, and tighter control over loot and crafting has shifted the experience away from sandbox freedom and toward a more rigid, grind-heavy survival model. Instead of encouraging creative base design and player choice, the game often feels like it’s funneling players into specific playstyles.

The devs have come to see that many fans don't want the progression systems. The next major update coming sometime this year is aimed at helping players adjust the game to how they want it. You will be able to remove most if not all of the restrictions inherent in a game that wants the player to progress. The update is aimed at returning the pure sandbox nature of the game so that as TFP moves forward with their plans to continue adding progression systems, players who don't want that can ignore it.

Base building—once a core pillar—now feels less rewarding. Many mechanics seem to discourage experimentation rather than support it, and horde nights no longer feel like a true test of creativity so much as a test of whether you’re following the “intended” path.

Such as? Can you be specific about which mechanics discourage experimentation and creativity?

What made the game special was the freedom:
Freedom to build how you wanted
Freedom to progress at your own pace
Freedom to approach survival in your own way
That freedom is what made it a sandbox base defense game. Without it, the experience feels more restrictive and, honestly, less fun.

The next update should address these issues completely for you.

This isn’t coming from a place of hate—just frustration. The game still has incredible potential, but it feels like it’s drifting away from what made it unique in the first place.
I hope future updates can bring back more emphasis on player choice, creativity, and true sandbox gameplay.
Sincerely,
A frustrated fan

You will like 3.0 a lot.