PC Game feels like its punishing me for levelling up

Also you can adjust it right now changing gamestages.xml located at Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Data\Config\gamestages.xml using text editor.

So you can for example lower the difficulty bonus so you would get less iradiated zombies, they would come later on when you will be ready for them. Game will have same difficulty but less iradiated zombies. Should work well. Just make sure to backup original file just in case.

<gamestages>

<config

daysAliveChangeWhenKilled="2"

scavengerGameDifficultyBonus="1.0"

adventurerGameDifficultyBonus="1.2"

nomadGameDifficultyBonus="1.5"

warriorGameDifficultyBonus="1.7"

survivalistGameDifficultyBonus="2.0"

insaneGameDifficultyBonus="2.5"

startingWeight ="1"

diminishingReturns ="0.2"

For example if you are playing nomad you could just change line nomadGameDifficultyBonus="1.5" to a lower number (like 1.2, or even lower).

Gamestage is calculated gameStage = ( playerLevel + daysSurvived ) * gameDifficultyMultiplier

With lower gamestage you will get more standard zombies and less radiated ones.

 
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I play default difficulty level and have played since A15. In A16, game already felt like it was punishing me for levelling up. However, by the time I got steel armor and tools, I was pretty comfortable looting and raiding POIs. Sure there was an occasional irradiated zombie or two, but most of the time I could snipe the sleepers from far away.
In A17, I just hit level 80 with game stage > 200, still don't have steel armor, have steel tools, and am running into irradiated zombies all the time in POIs. I attempted a fetch quest in bear den, and what I believe to be 5 irradiated wights came out and destroyed me instantaneously. The game seems to be moving in the RPG direction with attributes and perks. However, in RPG games, the player gets stronger, not weaker as the game progresses. Even in games with level scaling like Oblivion and Skyrim, even though bandits run around with full daedric armor, you're strong enough to kill them, and you can loot their armor afterward.
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I can relate to that. I play as a single player and have to scatter my points accordingly. The first time I was on a radioactive zombie he killed me pretty fast and then again when I wanted to get my backpack back.

In the meantime I have improved my equipment and could also put points into melee so that I am better prepared. Nevertheless the radioactive zombies remain a challenge for me because I am not the best fighter.

Sneaking through a dungeon is practically impossible at this point. Even if you have all points in the stealth perks. That's why I've gotten into the habit of not following the path the developers suggest, but rather hitting my way through the walls and then luring the zombies outside. This gives me more freedom of movement. I also always leave a escape route open and mark the exits with wooden frames so I don't panic and take the wrong door.

 
Game is not punishing you for leveling up.
Game is punishing you for level grinding if you're not prepared to face harder challenge.
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not so fast buddy... a few things needs a balance in the gamestage... i'm on day 42 and simply dropped out the save because on my last blood moon i've spent 500+ ak bullets because there is no regular or feral Z's, just radiated ones (and my AK is with semi auto mod and rad remover).

As soon as the blood mon ended I've go to the trader to get a quest. On the quest POI on the 3rd room there is 15 radiated zombies waiting for me...

 
Better balancing of the game stage would be good. At some point it's just all irradiated zombies.

I run a server that I play with along with a few friends, recently I added a simple mod to keep the zombies in check.

Mod for gamestages.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<configs>

<remove xpath="//gamestage[@stage>'130']" />

</configs>

This basically caps the gamestage to 130. It seems good to me like this but if you want a bit more challenge I believe the sweet spot is somewhere between 130 and 150.

 
All I can see so far from people in this thread is that you're all trying to do stuff your character either doesn't have the correct perks to do, and/or you don't have the correct gear, or you've not adapted your base to deal with your current level enough, I'm on day 150 odd now (can't remember the exact day) and I'm spending around 50 bullets, 200 arrows, and the rest is melee on horde night. My gamestage is so much higher, where there's nothing but green zombies everywhere you go, and it's fine.

I did go through a stage around day 50 or so, where I was focusing so much on intellect to get all the cool toys to play with, that my character wasn't strong enough to do quests, so I levelled up in other ways and focussed on strength and fortitude - and what do you know? The quests are simple now - even being surrounded by 20 radiated whites isn't much of an issue anymore.

Also stop rushing to gain levels, take your time, it's easier that way.

 
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Another solution for endless numbers of green zombies might be the appearance of significantly more normal zombies moving faster in some cases? Not sure what this would do to performance, but bullet sponge greens in multiples in every poi makes scavenging a very expensive affair (if you are more comfortable with a gun of some sort). im at gamestage 300 and while i love the game, im avoiding many pois because of the green menace.

Just seems over-done

 
Also stop rushing to gain levels, take your time, it's easier that way.
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The only way to stop rushing through the levels would be stop playing the game.

You get XP for everything. Even if you are not killing zombies you get XP for mining, wrenching stuff and even upgrading blocks or selling stuff to the trader.

Of course you could stop going to PIOs and just work at your base and farm resources instead, but that might be too boring for some.

The fundamental problem is transition. Actually there should be an extended phase in which one gets ferale zombies but no radioactive zombies yet and then the number of radioactive zombies slowly increases.

At the moment it's more like first the normal walking zombies are in the POIs and then suddenly the radioactive zombies appear without any real transition phase.

 
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That's why I couldn't care less about houses and nerd pole big POI's so if loot is there I can deal with zombies from distance and done. I'm not wasting hundreds of bullets for a meh loot, specially now (I'm lvl 187, day 90).

Looting POI's isn't rewarding mid/late game, so I think you shouldn't get only better items, but a lot more ammo. I'd say easily 150 7.62mm + 150 9mm rounds and 200 - 250 7.62mm + 200 ~ 250 9mm if top tier POI. If it's guaranteed I get at least my bullets back, POI's would be much more interesting.

 
That is one of the reasons why I kill most zombies with melee weapon (just one of many, cutting their heads off is fun :D ) ... you just need first aid bandages, weapon and fast legs :D , neither of those is a problem. I reserve ammo for bloodmoon (usualy I use around 2500-3000 AK rounds) and/or when someone in my party (or me) is in trouble, but that is just my playstyle, it is the way I like it.

I agree with you, there should be more ammo in the game, but I would not want to see to much of it, it would become to easy. I think this would be hard to balance.

About those rads: Maybe adding a new option in the game could be cool, to change

gameStage = ( playerLevel + daysSurvived ) * gameDifficultyMultiplier

into

gameStage = ( playerLevel + daysSurvived ) * gameDifficultyMultiplier * X

where X would be something you could set on server/SP game. So you could have radiated zombies rly late game, or rly soon. I also think that this is something that would not be hard to do.

 
I'm not understanding this concept of having any game punish you for any reason. People keep saying the game is punishing for X. Others respond that its not but instead punishing you for trying to grind too fast? People play these games to level up and get better at things. This entire concept of punishing is wrong and should not be accepted as a functioning game mechanic because it just isn't. This is a game balance issue most likely caused by far too many zombies in a POI in the first place AND far too many irradiated zombies spawning according to gamestage. If people can't leave their base past a certain stage or even feel this way at all then there's some kind of problem that needs to be addressed. Either apply quick easy bandaid by vastly increasing ammo drops OR finally admit that POI's have too many zombies in them and it doesn't make the game more fun and causes many extra problems later on.

 
Lower the difficulty problem solved.
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zyYbd32.gif


Lol kidding aside.

People who are playing on Default difficulty are having troubles.

That's on TFP not the players.

So .... either default needs to be lowered or they need to adjust the settings.

 
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I'm just gonna ask a few questions about gamestage calculation before giving my 2 coppers worth:

1) Is it strictly level or does it account for perks purchased?

2) I know death will reduce gamestage level, does anything else effect it either positively or negatively?

3) What sort of calculation is done based on multi-player if any?

 
Gamestage is primarily defined in my experience from player level, difficulty, and # zombies killed

Death doesn't really have much of an impact on gamestage

In MP it does some kind of average of all players. I think the raw math is shown in the gamestages.xml file if you want to learn all the nitty gritty math

 
I think the problem here is you are expected to put some points into combat skills; but because the player starts so badly handicapped and must spend tons of points not only in INT (to unlock crafts) but also STR (to carry more/mine with some efficiency) that by the time you get those where they need to be, your gamestage is heavily advanced and you are only maybe beginning to spec out firearm/survival skills. I can easily get to level 50 spending points in nothing but STR/INT and I still can't unlock everything I want fast enough.

At a bare minimum, voxels like concrete shouldn't require points to gain access to. Anyone with mix, a wheelbarrow, a shovel and some lumber can make concrete forms. That's just barely scratching the surface of the problem, but right now the game demands you dump points into INT so you can make better blocks, and points into STR so you can get raw materials faster. I've put about 30-40 hours into this 17A and I never got around to putting points into PER. At times I forgot that PER was even a thing.

 
I think the problem here is you are expected to put some points into combat skills; but because the player starts so badly handicapped and must spend tons of points not only in INT (to unlock crafts) but also STR (to carry more/mine with some efficiency) that by the time you get those where they need to be, your gamestage is heavily advanced and you are only maybe beginning to spec out firearm/survival skills. I can easily get to level 50 spending points in nothing but STR/INT and I still can't unlock everything I want fast enough.
At a bare minimum, voxels like concrete shouldn't require points to gain access to. Anyone with mix, a wheelbarrow, a shovel and some lumber can make concrete forms. That's just barely scratching the surface of the problem, but right now the game demands you dump points into INT so you can make better blocks, and points into STR so you can get raw materials faster. I've put about 30-40 hours into this 17A and I never got around to putting points into PER. At times I forgot that PER was even a thing.
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Preach it man. This right here is the main problem with the current system as it is IMHO.

In A16, it was a non issue. If you wanted to get better at mining? Just mine. Now, you have to get mining 69er, and the only way to get that is to spend points on strength, and points are at a premium. Mining is almost the most important thing you need to do in this game, making mining 69er NOT OPTIONAL, but MANDATORY, thus pointing points in STR is literally required. Well between that and INT which is also mandatory to function in this game (especially single player) you're left with no HP, armor resistance, or ranged weapon damage, nor stealth. However, you're at a high gamestage, which leaves you facing green zombies with little to no points in HP, damage resistance, stealth, or ranged weapon damage.

I suppose the consolation prize is that you have melee weapon damage, and can use a sledgehammer. HOWEVER, again - you have no points in stealth, so you maybe will get one or two kills before you wake everybody up. And good luck against high end zombies with no HP especially on hard difficulties. Green Cops can do 100+hp damage a hit easily with no armor. And did I mention you have no HP or armor? So, one hit = RIP

I mean let's think about it from another angle.

The max level is 300, right? SO logically, you should start maaaybe getting end-game content in the 200's, right? WRONG. You easily start getting green zombies regularly long before even level 100. At level 100 you only have enough skill points to have about 1/3 of the skills you need.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

We're not debating whether or not you "can" win with this setup (Obviously you can), but this does not change the fact there is an imbalance here. I should not be getting end-game zombies until I'm level 200+. Full stop IMO.

 
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My current skills are 7,7,5,5,10

This moment i skill Strenght, next i will skill Defense more. And then i still have many perks i want like gardening. So no more skillpoints for the next ?80? level in perception. And the Leveling at 129 is allready slower.

I have nearly 1000 Hours Death is Death gameplay in A17 and it is not so that i have no clue or i cant succeed.

All i say is that the gameplay with armys of Green Bulletsponges in all Dungeon pois destroys the gamefun for me and force me to spend 3 time so much time for harvesting and mining to get ammo than clearing the pois

 
I'm just gonna ask a few questions about gamestage calculation before giving my 2 coppers worth:
1) Is it strictly level or does it account for perks purchased?
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The gamestage is composed of the number of days played, the level and the degree of difficulty.

2) I know death will reduce gamestage level, does anything else effect it either positively or negatively?
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The level of difficulty is a big factor in gamestage. Death itself reduces gamestage only slightly. For every death, two days of playing time are subtracted.

The formula for the calculation can be found in gamestages.xml:

gameStage = ( playerLevel + daysSurvived ) * gameDifficultyMultiplier

daysSurvived should correctly be called daysPlayed because the number is not set to 0 at death but only 2 days are subtracted as described before.

gameDifficultyMultiplier is based on the difficulty level.

For example, Nomad is 1.5 and Insane 2.5.

3) What sort of calculation is done based on multi-player if any?
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This is also explained in the gamestages.xml but roughly speaking the 5 highest single gamestages in a group are added together and a group gamestage is calculated.

 
If you're using guns do clear POIs, you're doing it wrong. Waking up everything at once is bad. Using a silencer reduces your damage, this is also bad. Guns should be your "oh ♥♥♥♥" weapon. I'm around level 150 and only use guns for horde night. All of my POI clearing is done with a sledgehammer and compound bow /w steel arrows and lots of sneak attacks.

 
I think that silencer on a pistol or marksman rifle should at least be one way to use guns effectively, but its not.

What is the point of the silence. Serious question?

Right now it is pointless, because it still wakes zombies up nearby.

 
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