PC How to avoid bad reviews ?

I fell in love with the game at A15, it was spam crafting, no sleepers, electricity wasn't really working all that well. A16 was a fantastic leap, the spam crafting still existed to be sure, but was much reduced though it made more logical sense that crafting something over and over would cause you to be better at making that thing. I didn't read the release notes when I upgraded to 16, and had no idea about the sleepers, and nearly wet myself the first time. I waited in barely contained anticipation for A17, with new vehicles, new POIs, and was even optimistic about the new skill trees. The skill trees fell flat, the loss of learning recipes via books hit exploration hard. I know I've harped on the stamina thing several times in other threads, but it's fixable via some balancing things, same with the death penalty. An Int gate for crafting some things we had in A16 and it was fine. I don't see how to fix the skill trees right now without scrapping big chunks of it, especially the crafting stuff. The laser focus of the Zombies in any instance is immersion breaking, like why should they know where I am unless I did something to draw their attention, much less laser focusing on a perceived weak block because you allow the AI to cheat and know the block HP.
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Fully agree to that.

And in addition the loss of simple pure paint colors for the walls (only possible to choose moldy/rusty textures to splat on the walls) made even the paint tool completely stupid, and look more like an error in the game than a tool. I was soo hoping for an advancement like a15->a16, and not for .... another bland shooter, thats soo much worse than the free to play ones like warframe.....

 
Fully agree to that.And in addition the loss of simple pure paint colors for the walls (only possible to choose moldy/rusty textures to splat on the walls) made even the paint tool completely stupid, and look more like an error in the game than a tool. I was soo hoping for an advancement like a15->a16, and not for .... another bland shooter, thats soo much worse than the free to play ones like warframe.....
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I doubt i'm the only one who moved into a POI early game, and "Fixed It Up". Being able to make a run down POI look nice again held some appeal for me, but the stamina stuff ruins the enjoyment of such things. I know it isn't house flipper, but it was one of the attractions of a sandbox voxel game, that I could destroy, build, and renovate. I would say the loss of some of the textures is temporary as they are redoing a lot of them. This is one of the features, that I still hold out some hope that they will actually fix. That and making the garage door tall enough to fit the 4x4 through. I think someone else said something along the line of adding in other doors for builders. The addition of the table saw really should make those kinds of additions more feasible from an immersion standpoint.

 
My issue is that other than the graphic change, PoI's the vehicles not a lot has been added to the game in over a year. Rehashing everything else is just smoke and mirrors to hide the fact there really isn't much difference going forward with no creativity in play here. The AI changes are lazy at best. The rest is personal preference. A17 is not holding my attention like A16 did so I have to decided to mod it or go play something else. Ive played games for decades that I have over 2 years in game play time so I tend to be loyal and focus on one game at a time but how many games can do that these days. A17 is a disappointment. If I had bought it as A17 I would have played it a few hours and moved on were A16 held my attention far longer. Issue for TFP is not with me as I have paid my money its if others continue to buy it.

 
Avoiding bad reviews should be easy if you already have good reviews at the time. TFP knows that. If the reviews start coming in mostly negative for the next couple months they will make changes and adapt. After all, that is exactly what they expected a large number of their player base to do when they totally overhauled the game, right?

 
To OP: I'm afraid you've missed the mark there.

A17 is not difficult. It's boring. I like difficult. I enjoy the challenge. I don't enjoy waiting for stamina to regenerate. That seems to be the only challenge 7D2D can provide me with these days. A zombie dog pack heading your way used to spell trouble. Now it's just an annoyance as they no longer know how to attack you.

A17 is not grindy. It's tedious. I'm fine with the grind, heck, I enjoy it. I managed to grind my way to the top in countless other games and I loved it. I had multiple high level characters in EQ, WoW and EQ2. A17 makes me wait before I can take the next action whatever that may be. This is a horrible game mechanic. It hasn't been used in games since the early days of EQ and other MMOs of that era.

I'm a builder in 7D2D. I don't want it easy and I don't need it easy. A17 is much easier than A16 due to AI's predictability. It used to take me three days to plan and and build a solid ground base in A16 that had a good chance of surviving the horde night. Now it takes me less than a day and I spend most of it making it pretty. It is no longer a base, it's a contraption.

TFP should really stop trying to reinvent the wheel here. So many issues they are struggling with have been solved great many times before. They just need to look at other games and figure out what works and what doesn't.

 
How to avoid bad review? Don't take a bunch of game mechanics that had evolved to be extremely satisfying and replace them all with sub-par, dumbed down crap. If they had taken A16 and just added the new graphics, POIs and vehicles, I think the reviews would have been glowing.

 
Personally, I think 7 Days suffers from one fault, and one fault alone. "Oh, this is cool, lets try this." That's not to discourage them from trying new features, new mechanics, tweaking their under-the-hood settings, but it does mean, that if they change too much too quickly, it becomes a shock, and turns people off. You *can* chalk the aversion up to gamers being foolish, lazy, or young... or you can chalk it up to gamers... being people. As isolated individuals, people will evaluate something, decide if they like it, fear it, hate it, or want to mate with it; then they'll look around at what everyone else is saying, and jump on the band wagon that most closely matches their own opinion... and stick to that wagon as if their very identity depends on it. It's human nature. And it's human nature to dislike something you've come to love, becoming something different. I'm sure we can all recall a girl/boyfriend or friend, suddenly really getting into something we don't like, or understand, and their obsession with that thing, turns them into a moron we just don't want to hang around with anymore.

This is not the gamer's fault, and for the most part, it might not be the fault of the developer, it could just be the devs wanting to go in another direction, but if they do, they will have to face the fact that they'll have to find a new audience, because the old one, who came to love the game for "reasons," falls out of love, and has to find a new game. But equally, it could be the fault of a development studio who has a game suffering from a major identity crisis, and has no idea what it wants to be. I think this is what's happening with the Fun Pimps... they have no endgame. I truly believe they want to make a game that's spectacular, that'll win awards and approval from the masses, and I think they have some kind of vision... but I don't think their original vision included a skill tree, so now they're trying to decide what'll work best... and other stuff.

I am not your typical gamer... at least I don't think I am, I might be wrong... I'm a 37 year old woman with ADHD, moderately highly educated, and fairly intelligent... and games have always been a puzzle I enjoy solving. I own, and have beaten, over 600 games, and I'm not including my steam games because frankly, I haven't even touched 90% of those... I'm talking games from Asteroids and Defender, to Oxygen Not Included and Alien Isolation, to Super Mario and Super Metroid, to Spore and Kerbal Space Program... Games are a passionate hobby of mine, but so is fixing my car, building a 14 foot model submarine, coding micro sized programs to run on routers... I easily become board...

I'm not telling you this in an attempt to qualify myself as an expert, or as an outsider looking in... I'm saying all of this to firmly identify myself as a person diametrically opposite of the person Hek Harris suggests in his post. And I'm not afraid of a challenge, in fact, I don't find the game challenging in the least, go look at my last demonstration video: "

where I spent over an hour dancing around Zeds pounding their skulls in and shooting them with arrows. At several points, there were so many zombies on screen, I had to turn down the video quality.

In the end, everyone is right... those who think the game is broken and needs to be repaired... those who think the Fun Pimps should revert some of 7 Days to its "roots"... those defending against all criticization because Fun Pimps should be supported at all costs... and those who just don't care... they're all correct, and *some* might be foolish, lazy, and/or young, but most are disillusioned, and morning a game they thought was pretty good, becoming something else. Personally, I preferred Alpha 15 over 16... I loved 16's addition of painting and a few other mechanics, but I hated the RNG placed books... and I like 17 over 16, but not more than 15, but I do really like the new bicycle and 4x4 and some other stuff... Actually content wise, 7 Days has always increased in value. But do I prefer Alpha 15's progression mechanics because it was the first version I played? Probably. Does it matter? Not to me. And if the game never meets my expectations or desired "feel," that also doesn't matter, Fun Pimps has already given me my money's worth, has never tried to trick me... I'm looking at you Bethesda and EA... and if I never love the game again, that's okay, I have real life exes too.

Well... there is one person who's "not right"... Hek Harris... A wanna be aristocrat if I ever heard one, pretentious, pompous, and pontificating... A failed word chef, proverbially serving you lawn clippings and calling it a gourmet salad... A self-stylizing elitist, looking down at everyone through a mirror because not much is below him. I'm glad, he's glad, to have shared his opinion even if no one else cares, because, in the end, isn't that all that matters? Fellating yourself to make yourself feel better than everyone else? Calling people names and classifying them as lesser to make yourself out to be an oh so good power gamer, because "*huff huff, dab dab,* this game is oh so tough, and oh so challenging, and takes an oh so talented person to be as good as me, and if you're complaining, it's not the games fault, or poorly implemented mechanics, it's your fault because your a foolish lazy child who should stick to mobile games... and... and... LEAVE THE PC(Brittany) ALONE!!"

So far, I haven't even touched on game reviews, or review bombings, and how they're the only weapon a gamer... or consumers in general... have to fight against a mostly faceless provider... or how trying to tailor a game to fit as many people as possible, leads to stagnant reviews and division amongst players... and would require specialization of multiplayer servers because the differing game styles do not mix, and would lead to some groups being easily griefed... which would take up another several pages, and I'm sure no one really wants that.

I don't know you Hek Harris, I could be getting the entirely wrong impression of you, or the point you're making... maybe it is a language barrier and you're not intending to call the majority of 7 Days' players foolish, lazy, and too young to have a fully articulated opinion... Or maybe, you're my uncle Jac, swirling a glass of box wine from Quebec we secretly substituted into his Margaux bottle, telling us how wine from the old country is just better, and how "you kids just don't have the pallet to enjoy the finer things," and admonishing everyone in the room for acting uncouth... and scolding anyone less than 5 years younger them him for having a differing opinion to his, because they haven't lived enough to truly form an informed opinion of their own, and besides, they usually deliver such opinions crudely, and without nuance... not anything like espousing the virtues of sipping an 8 dollar bag of wine out of a 150 dollar bottle.

 
How to avoid bad reviews?

Its very simple. Make the game enjoyable for the casual players, which are after all the majority of buyers.

The problem we have is that TFP actually listens too much to the hardcore fans who never can´t be satisfied because they always feel that the game is too easy.

I will say it again, but A16 had a good balance. Improving what TFP already had and adding new stuff to the game is what most people wanted. Not a totally overhaul that turns the game into a slaughter grind festival. How can they even think that this is good development and be wanted from the majority of the casual gamers? TFP may have a vision and I respect that. But by all means what is this game worth in the end when it looses its character and fans?

 
Above all, I want to apologize to those who have been offended by my post. It was not the goal, but it seems to have been the result, so, sincerely, sorry.

I do not confuse in any case the casual players who have little time to invest and the fools that I quoted in my post. Both categories are dissatisfied, but totally different.

I returned to read the negative feedback on Steam and I remain convinced that many overreact and forget that they play a version in development. I am also convinced that we can not prevent this other than by giving them the opportunity to enjoy themselves better.

But what many of them are asking for goes against a greater difficulty and it is therefore necessary that it remain optional. I do not want to play the game they want, I want to play the game as it is now, and as it will be if TFP follows the road.

(...)maybe it is a language barrier and you're not intending to call the majority of 7 Days' players foolish, lazy, and too young to have a fully articulated opinion...(...)
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Mostly, certainly, very hard to write in english and not be precious, I have no practice at all and usually choose the wrong words. That said, I can be a real jerk when the desire comes to me, which makes us a common point. And our affection for Monty Pythons. After that I do not want to fight against some kind of "frenshbashing", after all it's our national sport and we're better than the others for that.

Just a point: idiots play video games does not mean that video games players are idiots. But I knew it would be badly received, so I can only blame myself.

 
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To the OP

My English Professor once said to the class,

"Say what you need to say in as few words as possible."

Next time you want to post a thread and don't want bad reviews yourself.... maybe consider that.

TLDR

 
To the OP
My English Professor once said to the class,

"Say what you need to say in as few words as possible."

Next time you want to post a thread and don't want bad reviews yourself.... maybe consider that.

TLDR
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"Don't you mean, 'Communicate effectively using minimal words'?", I would have asked the professor.

 
"How to avoid bad reviews ?"

Easy -

After you release an experimental, have a presence and listen to your fans posting all over the forums for over a month about how terrible some of the new systems are received. Then do something about it OTHER than dismiss it all as "you just need to relearn the game".

I've never actually seen it before, but Steam now has a big tan bar above the reviews. "High volume of negative reviews detected Dec. 23 - Dec 27" Lol

 
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Or ya know, just listen to this guy that started a thread 3 weeks ago that was titled "why you broke your game".

So every time any one of the many players give negative feedback on here they get called emotional, aggressive, combative, are told they dont know the game, are playing it wrongly or that its alpha and any of a multitude of other reasons why their feedback is not wanted or wrong.
So here is some factual feedback for you.

1. Tools

Previously a player could find, make or buy, tools of different levels of quality, this is a fact

Previously a player would progress from poor quality tool to eventually Q600 steel tools, this gave a long progression curve and every time the player found, or bought or made a better tool they progressed, this progression was satisfying.

The new tool system means the grey fireaxe does the same damage as the purple fireaxe, sure the better quality ones have more mod slots but more are hard to come by and are random in what you find. Other than durability there is zero reason to want a better tool than the one you find in a random container on day 1, this damages the players sense of accomplishment because their progression is extremely limited.

2. Guns

Previously a player could find, make or buy weapons and weapon parts from Q1 to Q600. In order to put a weapon together or disssemble it you needed to find instructions on how to do it (schematics). When you found a new part or gun that was better than your current one you progressed, this was satisfying.

Now the gun thats level 1 and grey that you find one day 1 does the same damage as a level six purple one, it has less mod slots but again finding mods and or schematics to use/make mods is random and rare and cannot be counted on therefore you have no incentive to try and find better guns and the fun you had from continually working towards a high quality gun is totally gone

3. Armour

Same argument as for guns and tool, you took away the progression

4. Exploration

Many players like to explore the world, finding new places is fun, discovering new towns and cities is fun, some players like to build far out in the sticks, some like to find the 'perfect' spot for their base, this is fun to many players.

A combination of massively nerfing stamina usage and regen PLUS the removal of all the useful stamina drinks and the mass nerfing of coffee and beer means that you cannot now run more than about 100m without being out of stamina and having to rest constantly, this is not fun.

You have massively nerfed exploration and taken away that choice of gamestyle

5. Claim stones

You have limited all players to one claim stone and therefore hurt both you pve and pvp playerbase because now the players who like to build large elaborate bases cannot do so anymore because other players can destroy and grief them. You have also massively negated the usefulness of claim stones because only having one it is trivial for an enemy (pve or pvp) to count out the location of that claim stone and easily remove it.

This change takes away one of the biggest fun elements (large scale building) from the game

6. Zombie damage

You have greatly increased the damage zombies do to blocks and this combined with their changed AI means that even a reinforced concrete base is useless against a horde, they just chew right through it. This invalidates the desire for a player to spend a lot of time building a base when they know the zombies will just chew it up

This change greatly reduces the base building aspect of the game

7. Digging zombies

Many players of all types preferred to choose when and how they fought zombies, by some players building underground they gave themselves choices on how they played that did not, ever and in any way, affect other players, by making zombies magically know you are hiding at bedrock you took away this play option completely

8. Bedrock depth

Many players liked to build huge bases surrounded by moats at bedrock and then filled in these moats with spikes knowing that the fall would kill most (not all) zombies. These bases took enormous time and effort to construct and the sense of achievement when finishing them and having excellent defenses was a source of pride for many players. By nerfing bedrock depth severely and reducing fall damage to zombies you have remove this playstyle option for players and removed the players choice on how to protect themselves

9. Level gating perks

No objection to the perk system itself however it is gated by having to spend points to buy them, it is further gated because you have to buy the points in a perk tree in sequential order. To then add completely arbitrary level gates to this totally removes the players choices for specialisation and it is a punative and deliberate blatant ploy to slow the player down

In A16 you could and players did, choose to specialise, you have removed this from the game

10. Death penalty

Previously the penalty for death was reduced health and the run to get your bag back, I dont recall anyone complaining about this and it was well balanced. Now, even after your partial reduction of the death timer debuff the players are horribly punished for dying and this in a game which has many situations seemingly devised to give you no chance to live (traps in POI's, random dog or wolf hordes popping next to you, ferals on day etc etc)

This punishment is over harsh and discouraging and demotivates players from playing.

In summary you have removed the choices of players in many areas, you have removed the base building, the choices players made in how to fight, their ability to fight, their ability to be creative with large bases, their sense of progression in many many areas and increased the grind by (subjectively in my opinion) about 300%.

You have done with at the same time as adding precisely one end game item (Jeep) which many players wont even bother with. You did not add legendary weapons or armour or tools, you did not add bandits, you did not enhance electricity.

You have ruined the fun element of your game for a large proportion of your playerbase, I have 53 friends on steam who used to play 7dtd, this week i saw 'one' of them playing and when i asked around they all told me it was broken and grindy and just no fun anymore.
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I've never actually seen it before, but Steam now has a big tan bar above the reviews. "High volume of negative reviews detected Dec. 23 - Dec 27" Lol
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oof, I had to look when you posted this. I have never seen that bar before, that can't be good. Seems a lot of people came out of the woodwork on this one. A lot are says the same things many in these forums get ridiculed for saying.

 
After that I do not want to fight against some kind of "frenshbashing", after all it's our national sport and we're better than the others for that.
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My full name is Joëlle Emmily Lapointe-Séguin, my first words were in French, I was taught half my subjects in Parisian French, my Rs do not sound like Ls, and you and I both know someone like Jac... and you and I are probably the only two in this thread who got all the subtext. I am french Canadian, and although you french want to believe you're the only true frenchmen in the world, the Parisian being the worst of the worst violators of this, I am just as french as you, and if you weren't trying to be a a Jac, okay, I'm sorry for slamming you... but you were being an aristocrate.

I would also like to disagree that France is the best at bashing the french... I suggest you speak to a few Quebecker first, and know that Canada, is the only place in the world were a french accent is not sexy... here, a french accent means Jos Louis and cheep beer breath, and some guy NAMED Guy trying to act suave as he drools into into your glass.

 
If TFP caves and changes A17 to be more like A16 then those that want that will praise TFP for listening to customer feedback but those who don’t want that will criticize TFP for selling out on their vision to chase sales and dumb the game down for the masses.
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Yep. This would happen. However, I don't know a case where in the end this actually had some serious negative affect on a company or its products. Going the other way is easier and can sometimes lead down a very bad path. I know in the past changes were made, and of course people complained, and in the end TFP has still delivered an excellent product... but taking that as proof (the #Gates thread comes to mind) that this will always be the case could be a terrible mistake.

There are a lot of great ideas for expanding the newer systems, and I don't doubt for a second that I will enjoy it. I don't doubt that many will. I also don't doubt that many won't and by the looks of the reviews, I hope TFP steps back for a moment, reevaluate what's been changed and tries to come up with some compromise.

 
My full name is Joëlle Emmily Lapointe-Séguin, my first words were in French, I was taught half my subjects in Parisian French, my Rs do not sound like Ls, and you and I both know someone like Jac... and you and I are probably the only two in this thread who got all the subtext. I am french Canadian, and although you french want to believe you're the only true frenchmen in the world, the Parisian being the worst of the worst violators of this, I am just as french as you, and if you weren't trying to be a a Jac, okay, I'm sorry for slamming you... but you were being an aristocrate.
I would also like to disagree that France is the best at bashing the french... I suggest you speak to a few Quebecker first, and know that Canada, is the only place in the world were a french accent is not sexy... here, a french accent means Jos Louis and cheep beer breath, and some guy NAMED Guy trying to act suave as he drools into into your glass.
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Al Bundy, an American hero, was pretty good at giving the French hell, lol. ;)

 
Al Bundy, an American hero, was pretty good at giving the French hell, lol. ;)
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Al Bundy... Al... Bundy... Oh, Polk High, 1966? 4 touchdowns in a single game? Smelled like feet, married a gold digging redhead too bubble-brained to get her claws into a rich man? 2 kids who'd cook him and eat him if he stood still for too long? Sold woman's shoes in a failing mall and who's only joy was to have really good bowel movements? Yeah... *sigh* he's the greetest... A real paysan du le peuple. Joie de vivre de Al Bundy m'amis americains!

 
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