I have been trying to adapt and keep a positive note, but while I applaud the lovely improvements in POI'S and the general world (road smoothing is incredible). I am still left with the bare facts. My former group play of 5-8 people on a Server each week has dwindled to 2-3. This version is simply not capturing the attention for many people. I have offered options to those that had been steady players in My Multiplayer group, such as using the red tea to help with thirst, but there is still a very obvious dislike of the games current direction. and yes, I know, 7DtD recently set a record for player count a week or so after the release of Alpha 21, but I know that in My home town the recent opening of a 'What-A- Burger" franchise had people lined up in dual drive through lanes for 60-90 minutes just to get a burger and fries. Not that What-A-Burger is that good, but because people FLOCK to try something new. If for no other reason than to say they tried it, so they won't be the only person in town to say they didn't go......... at least once. Now that Fast Food spot has been open a couple of months, and guess what? Its fairly empty now when I drive by the location. Why, because despite the hype....their burgers are simply...just another Burger. Same is true for this Alpha 21. It looked shiny and promised lots of new changes. But once people are playing it, they are finding the overall changes to be distasteful.
I still keep the hope that some of My Gaming Friends will come back to playing 7DaystoDie; but I can't honestly say anything more that might sweeten the pot for them. Just look at the changes released today.... Compared to Alpha 20, you now need to mine 5 x the amount of Oil Shale to keep your supply of gas at a decent level. The water system is still filled with more logic holes than anyone cares to discuss, Vehicles still move at a snails pace (average walking speed of a mature male is about 4.5 km an hour ); and yes....I still return to My base and find mobs of zombies visited when I was in another town over 1km away. Zombies still spawn inside My Land Claim block area which has become sad that the ONLY way we discovered to keep them from spawning in, was to place our bedrolls outside at intervals to create a zone that Zeds can't spawn into, this seems like trash after putting much effort building My walls that I worked on so hard to secure. Many Gamers are weary of waiting another year or more for the "chance" that the Raiders have been introduced; there have simply been too many hints or expectations laid out since at least Alpha 19 that longtime fans of the game are getting fed up. One of My Gamer friends recently said; I started playing 7Days before my son was born, this year he is going to first grade, and the game really hasn't changed for the better. The farming changes weren't liked, the recent changes don't seem to be igniting ANY enthusiasm. Many Gamers don't like...funneling magazines that they worked to find, to one player just so the group can get access to a freaking workbench. My experience with gamers on Multiplayer servers is that they want to cooperate in battle, but don't touch 'their' loot. The BEST thing about Alpha 21 to most of the people I play with.???? They LIKED getting the silly arse Wall Portraits, but still felt let down there weren't any new paint textures added.
Now, before someone drags out that much overheard response of; "Then you can just get mods to reflect your playstyle", I reply with this. MANY Mods require both a Client Side and Server side download, meaning that Each and Every Player needs to download every Mod. Some require disabling EAC, and several of My friends don't like that option at all. It also means that if My buddy Alphonse wants to drop in to try out this new Alpha 21 I have been talking up, that He needs to first take the time to sign up for nexusmods, then download each mod that We run, BEFORE He can ...drop in for a try. That is a pain in the arse to most gamers. Its been such a pain in the arse in the past year, that the 2-3 of us that still play haven't added any Mods....because we don't want our friends to have any reason to decline an invite to join us in a play session. There isn't ANY sort of reliable roadmap of "coming changes". It's more of "We have something new that we are finally releasing in a few months. We like it and hope you do too. Chooo Chooo ...start up the Hypetrain."
But I am starting to feel that the Hypetrain is simply going round and round to the same locations.