JaWoodle Video "What's Happening with 7 Days to Die?"

I know everyone knows the issues in this video but I’ll put it here anyways…

 

[SkoomaCatJesus]

In their original roadmap, we should have had 3.0 "A New Threat" by now (Q2 2025), and heading for 4.0.

You are right, my memory is rusty. I had remembered an "update 2" scheduled for Q2 of 2025. I pulled up the image, and to my surprise, update 2 is "A New Threat." I have allowed my deep satisfaction with getting 3 consecutive updates within days of being in a single year, jade my memory of "the timelines."

 

[HammerDano]

Not at all. In my mind a Q2 release window includes all 90 days (that happens to be any nebulous day between April 1st and the last day of June), as clearly written on the release timeline. So far, they are "preposterously grossly terribly late" by a (rearranges glasses) 20 days. I mean, I'm not in finance or anything, but I do submit quarterlies. The last I checked... They paid they bill on time.

good grief... are there at least 6 months between dec and june?

is Q2 2025 over? because that's when Bandits were scheduled to drop. That's right now. I just want some communication...and I do mean back and forth with the community, but, even just a statement would be nice. A statement that they have hired a project and a community manager would be the best news.

 

[RyanX]

good grief... are there at least 6 months between dec and june?

is Q2 2025 over? because that's when Bandits were scheduled to drop. That's right now. I just want some communication...and I do mean back and forth with the community, but, even just a statement would be nice. A statement that they have hired a project and a community manager would be the best news.

The Huenink bros have checked out. They forgot to hire a PR guy first, so they won't ever know about any of the things we talk about. And the white knights will just simp for the game. It's over y'all

 

[seven]

good grief... are there at least 6 months between dec and june?

is Q2 2025 over? because that's when Bandits were scheduled to drop. That's right now. I just want some communication...and I do mean back and forth with the community, but, even just a statement would be nice. A statement that they have hired a project and a community manager would be the best news.

Q2 is April, May, June. It's July where I live.

 

[SkoomaCatJesus]

Positivity was worth a shot. I appreciate how good we've got it right now. The games industry, in general, is structurally in shambles right now. 7 Days To Die will continue changing, and I will likely still be enjoying the game well into the next established "flavor." Personally, I don't mind turning down the XP, loot, and chancing a character for 14 hours. I perk to a minimum and sometimes fake it until I make it long before I go to a trader for the first time. Depending on how I play, 8x normal zombie spawns for a blood moon is quiet the challenge. I guess the game just means so many things to so many people that TFP may not be able to ever truly satisfy them all. I predict that the game will fall into Skyrim infamy, and through modding, transcend anybody's single definition of what it is or should be.

 

[HammerDano]

Positivity was worth a shot. I appreciate how good we've got it right now. The games industry, in general, is structurally in shambles right now. 7 Days To Die will continue changing, and I will likely still be enjoying the game well into the next established "flavor." Personally, I don't mind turning down the XP, loot, and chancing a character for 14 hours. I perk to a minimum and sometimes fake it until I make it long before I go to a trader for the first time. Depending on how I play, 8x normal zombie spawns for a blood moon is quiet the challenge. I guess the game just means so many things to so many people that TFP may not be able to ever truly satisfy them all.

bud...you didn't even look at the roadmap before you confidently told me they delivered on time...as far as YOU were concerned.
BE positive...that is your right. I personally don't like that they delayed the game 6 months to add storms...in general I like 2.0...it needs a lot of fine tuning BECAUSE it was last minute. TFP are terrible at time management.
I get that THAT last sentence sounds more negative than positive...it is.
Its things like this that just add to my position "the roadmap was a lie to get console to buy back in".

 

[Kyoji]

If the loot limit is an unwanted side effect of biome progression, then yes, they should fix it, but I don't know if it's intentional or not.

I've already said that I agree with the old survival mechanics, they just need to be reworked.

It's not that only some criticisms are valid, but when something works well and someone says it needs to be fixed, that's what I mean. For example, vultures, screamers, etc.

For example, I like storms, but if the devs now change the damage to a massive stamina drain, they're going to punish players who like to play aggressively. Maybe you like the change and I don't, leaving aside the fact that storms need to be fixed in other aspects, such as being able to see them in the adjacent biome, etc.

What benefits the game is subjective depending on the person. Someone might think that introducing dragons is good for the game.

I agree there is a slippery slope. However, the job they have and get paid for is to determine what is best from the feedback provided.

Many games have seen improvements from updates and listening to feedback from the players in conjunction with their own thoughts and ideas . Such games as Civilization VII, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Battlefront II and No Man's Sky to name a few.

So it's not that they should entertain all criticisms, but hearing a substantial amount of people complain or offer critiques about some of the gameplay elements could spark interest which then leads to them thinking of solutions that still fit within the scope of the game they have in mind.

 

[grz__]

I agree there is a slippery slope. However, the job they have and get paid for is to determine what is best from the feedback provided.

Many games have seen improvements from updates and listening to feedback from the players in conjunction with their own thoughts and ideas . Such games as Civilization VII, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Battlefront II and No Man's Sky to name a few.

So it's not that they should entertain all criticisms, but hearing a substantial amount of people complain or offer critiques about some of the gameplay elements could spark interest which then leads to them thinking of solutions that still fit within the scope of the game they have in mind.

That's what it's all about: listening to criticism that makes sense, not all of it. After all, 25 years ago, developers made games and we played them if we liked them, and if we didn't like them, we tried another one. There were no discussions among players trying to make the game to their liking. And some very good games came out of that era.

I think it's an effect of how the gaming industry is these days.

 

[HammerDano]

That's what it's all about: listening to criticism that makes sense, not all of it. After all, 25 years ago, developers made games and we played them if we liked them, and if we didn't like them, we tried another one. There were no discussions among players trying to make the game to their liking. And some very good games came out of that era.

I think it's an effect of how the gaming industry is these days.

I think it is a corporatization thing.
conflict drives clicks...live action services are cash cows/ticking time bombs of conflict...at some point the conflicts kill the project...as long as a lot of capital was extracted the "industry" is happy. I would say "even if we are not" but it's actually because we are not happy and clicking away. driving FOMO.

 

[SylenThunder]

Notes from the video

Not two minutes in, and he's falling back on the same issues as a lot of the complainers. Focusing on the way the game "used to be" when it had a bunch of mechanics and assets that were never going to be in the game long-term.

Then he brings up the Steam activity chart, which isn't reliable. More and more people are making their accounts private, which hides them from the chart. Basically these charts aren't useful anymore. Though I would agree that activity has dropped in comparison to 1.0. Which is to be expected since now the game is $45 instead of $25. You also have to consider that the chart only accounts for Steam. It does not account for people playing on MS Store PC, Xbox X/S, or PS5.

His list at 5 minutes on things removed.

• Open world playability - Game has never been solely open-world. That has always been an aspect of it, and not the core. And that option hasn't been removed, it just has the standard limitations most open-world games do for progression.
• Starting points and re-playability - This hasn't been removed. It was actually enhanced.
• Random and unique progression for each playthrough - Aside from the loot/biome progression, that is only removed if you don't have any imagination. And it isn't like the loot progression didn't exist before.
• Temperature and wetness - Known to be a work in progress, and will be returning. JaWoodle should know that if he pays attention to something he cares about.
• Dy-able clothing - A broken system that needed a complete re-work. I will admit to being wholly disappointed with the new "wardrobe" system that was supposed to replace it.
• Removed the need to eat food? - I'm sorry, was he smoking crack? There are a number of threads complaining about how much you have to eat already. Even one on the official forum about getting soft-locked if you let food and water drop to 0. You need to eat food still.

I do agree with his comments regarding weather/biomes. I'm not sure how the temperature/wetness system is going to function along side the biome progression. He's again assuming that those systems were replaced, and not still being worked on.

At 10 minutes, he's harping on "band-aid" fixes that weren't fixes the way he is looking at them. And anyone who thinks the previous system with jars was "survival" is wearing rose glasses. Taking 5000 glass jars that took you a few minutes to make in a forge to get 5000 murky water to boil wasn't survival. There was no challenge to that system.

He is spot on about the feedback. A lot of you guys need to be better about providing useful feedback.

15 minutes in talking about the console release. IMHO TFP shouldn't have released to the console until after 4.0. They always said they were going to wait until the game was finished, or nearly so. And then went back on that.

16:25 he's doing a list of removed features again. Some of which we already covered, so I'll skip those.

• Zombie Smell System - Removed to be re-worked because there was too much overhead after adding the breadcrumb system in, and TFP didn't want to raise the super-vague minimum hardware specs because they knew it would alienate close to half of their player base. System was said to be returning when it and the game got better optimization. Then we got Feral sense as a replacement. And now we have the Series-S hardware to content with, so forget anything like it ever returning again. This is one I am personally ■■■■ed about as well, but I can see the reasoning behind why it no longer exists.
• Wellness System - This was a very broken system, and heavily exploited. It should have been tweaked with caps instead of being tossed entirely. Though it could also kick you in the ■■■ while you were down, and soft-lock your character as well. It was tossed in favor of developing new systems.
• Weapon and armor parts for upgrading and assembly - Another one of those base systems that was lost as the game grew. TFP basically had a choice. Either item mods, or the old part system. They could not co-exist because they used the same interface. Though I miss the old assembly system, I like the mods better. This was a move in the right direction. Upgrading however, was horribly broken and heavily exploited. That part needed to be removed. Once more one of those features that was just exploited to ignore survival aspects.
• "Learn by doing" - If JaWoodle has been paying attention to the developers as long as he stated he has been playing the game, then he knew this was only ever a placeholder. The current system is something the devs have openly talked about since alpha 8.
• Multiple unique guns and variants. - Most of those were from the Unity store. They weren't unique. I do miss the blunderbuss, but the pipe shotgun honestly isn't any different functionally.
• More zombie spawns in the world outside of POI's - This has been missing since Alpha 12. And there are multiple reasons for why it is missing. From a12-a14.4 it was due to limitations in Unity with the entities. From Alpha 14.4 until a21 or v1.0 it was because of the UMA system. (I recall the first release where on a high-end computer having more than 10 zeds active would cripple performance.) With 2.0 this is actually coming back a good bit, though it is also really easy to kill the random spawns in a town and then hardly see anything. The system still needs work. And again, this is another one of those issues where TFP is forced to deal with default settings for low-end hardware like the pathetic Series-S. We need options again though. We used to have them, but now it is limited to dedicated servers.
• Real Weather - The new storms were supposed to be kind of like this, but also rather poorly implemented. Especially since it is nearly impossible to remain outside with the current system. You should be able to equip gear to endure it. Which may partially fall back on the wetness/temperature system that has not yet returned. (Which wasn't honestly removed with 2.0. It's just been there and not doing anything since alpha 21.
• Stamina loss, clothing, punishing hunger and thirst for weather, random events like snow - All part of the wetness/temperature system. He's going to bring this up 20 more times isn't he?
• Multiple Zombie models removed - Yep, because they were tied to two POI's and removing them allowed for more textures and optimization for other things. Some may still be making a return.
• Gore blocks - A very un-optimized system that was killing client and server performance. Plus most of the loot you got from them was crap. Other mechanics were re-balanced to support it's removal for an overall net zero change. It was a neat system, but it needed to go, and it isn't like they just pulled it for the sake of pulling it. (There was one build in Alpha 12 where the gore blocks would stack. It was crazy insane. Effectively broke gameplay though and was removed quickly.)
• Log spikes - Removed for multiple reasons. Primarily because it broke AI pathing when placed correctly, and also because it was heavily exploited by inverting them. You can make them again, they just don't do damage, and that is fine. It's a limitation of the voxel cubes that they cannot apply the damage to all but one side of the bock.
• Removing a variety of block types - Because TFP hit a wall where they couldn't add new items and blocks without doing some cleanup. So a lot of unnecessary stages were removed. Since then the system could probably support more, but again isn't added because of hardware limitations on low-end systems.
• The world actually being dark at night time - I have been openly complaining about this and submitting tickets since Alpha 19 was in internal testing. In response, TFP has adjusted the way the brightness slider functions. IMHO, the default brightness should be what 25% is right now.
• Vehicle Parts - Same as the armor and weapons. You can't have two different systems existing in the same space.
• Barbed Wire - Again, another heavily exploited block. I remember when they enabled this for players to create, and Joel openly stated in the developer diary that he didn't agree with it, thought it was a bad idea that would get abused, and said it would probably get taken out later. Guess what? He was right on all points. JaWoodle would be familiar with this if he paid as much attention to the development of the game as the says he does.
• Fertilizer and hoe farming system - Really sad to see this one go away, but there was a good reason why it did. There was an update to the landscape mesh system, which caused a problem with the fertilized soil system. This is a case where TFP had to make a completely new system to fix an issue that was a result of upgrading the client engine mechanics. It isn't like they dropped it on a whim.
• Usable table saw - Sure it was neat, but then we got the option to hold R and select the shapes, thus making that workstation obsolete. We didn't really need another workstation anyway, it was made because having so many recipes in the workbench was causing performance issues when you opened the workbench. This was a very short-lived mechanic which most people don't miss at all.
• Zeds taking fall damage - Again, fixing a player exploit. Maybe if people didn't make drop bases to AFK horde night, it would have never been nerfed. Zeds still take fall damage, but the amount of damage they take is capped.
• Biofuel - Surprised he didn't mention steel casings as well. There really isn't any need for an alternative fuel.

It's almost like he doesn't realize he's been playing a game that is still in development, and that things are expected to change.

 

[SylenThunder]

"Never got the things promised in the kickstarter" - Maybe bring this up after TFP says they have completed the game. It's just another baseless complaint base on "leaving EA" as being "finished" which is completely false. And was explained en-depth months before v1.0 dropped. v2.1 is just Alpha 23.1.

DLC - Yeah, pretty much. It isn't like TFP is the first to do this though.

"Rushing 3rd-person mode" - No, this is something that has been held off intentionally because it wasn't ready, and has been steadily worked on for years. It's finally about ready to go live. It wasn't rushed at all. To say that only further shows how little attention JaWoodle actually pays to the games developers and processes. Or he's just lying to increase the emotion in the video. Take your pick.

"Dedicating all these resources to DLC stuff" - Again showing ignorance in regards to game development. Maybe four people out of a team of 60+ worked on the DLC. Either ignorance, or again just flaming emotions.

22:30 "Lost the learn by doing system in alpha 17" - Wrong. This system was already partially removed in Alpha 15, and was almost completely removed in Alpha 16. Also read my earlier statement in regards to this system. He describes it as a fix, for a fix, for a problem that didn't exist. Completely ignoring the fact that the new system is what the developer was pushing towards from the beginning, and that there is always going to be stages in developing a new system. The LBD system didn't "work" before as much as a lot of you like to pretend it did. There was a LOT of unnecessary grind to it that actually slowed progression unless you exploited certain mechanics.



A lot of this video, is completely JaWoodle not understanding how game development works, and not paying any attention to developer discussions for all the years he has apparently been "loving" the game. He's just catering to the complainers to get clicks on his video.

 

[bdubyah]

To say that only further shows how little attention JaWoodle actually pays to the games developers and processes.

This. This is what I kept feeling watching his vid. How someone who plays the game as much as him knows so little about what's going on with it is surprising.

The Huenink bros have checked out. They forgot to hire a PR guy first, so they won't ever know about any of the things we talk about. And the white knights will just simp for the game. It's over y'all

Then why are you still here? Why do you people that obviously hate the direction of the current game stick around just to whine and complain? Go play something else, there's no shame in doing that.

 

[Corwyhn]

The JaWoodles of this game have about as much chance as the MisterChurches of Fallout 76 to influence much, if anything, going on within TFP's decision-making processes as Bethesda's decision-making processes. They're fighting an uphill battle they can't win against overwhelming industry practices and influences that obviously have influenced the way the gaming industry is headed in general and, given the roadmap, it's far too late to salvage this particular game from those overwhelming influences, imo. It's too far gone. As for the next TFP endeavor? Who knows? Guess I'll check back when they have any information to share with us about it. In the meantime, all I can do is wish them well and the kind of success that hasn't been reduced to financial "success" alone.

I'd say it's healthy that such "social media influencers" (a phenomenon I will never understand) haven't relinquished their own powers of reasoning, common sense, empathy, etc. in a world that demands they do so in the name of Urizen and Mammon, but that's about it. I only hope those who listen to them won't relinquish theirs either.

Yawn. Was there any point here? Anytime a new version of the game is released, there are these same threads. Yet the game does better and better. It is played for far more horse than just about any have that isn't an MMO. Clearly people enjoy the game and a bunch of people trying to bring down ratings won't change that. They'll run out of people to do that and the ratings will go right back up.

All of this is just opinion anyhow. DLC are bad? Opinion. New enemies ruin the game. Opinion. More zombies in POI are too much. Opinion. Etc. Opinions are fine. But they aren't facts. Present them as opinions and don't get upset when people disagree. Don't try to make them out to be facts or try to say everyone else agrees with you. Doing so just causes everyone to go off topic arguing about that instead of discussing the topic, as seen here. Unless you are just trying to cause a lot of off topic talk.

As far as JaWoodle goes, I've never watched any of his videos, but I tried watching his stream during streamer weekend for a couple of different versions and had to change to a better streamer after only a few minutes each time. I'm sure some like the way he talks about stuff, but it just seems inane to me. (I'm ready for the rush of dislikes and hate from saying that. ). Besides, what is with his followers spamming the video over and over here? Isn't one thread enough?

I can only take Jawoodle for short doses because he speaks non stop in his videos. But my dislike of his presentation style is separate from critiquing this video in particular. The information he presents is pretty spot on as far as talking about "sandbox survival" games even with RP elements (which I personally like though some stuff being called RP when it doesnt seem to be confuses me). I RP all my survival games. I like to play as a survivor not someone playing a game.

I've had a chance to watch the video now. I have mixed feelings.

PRO: He makes good points about the new features and I hope TFP hears them.

MIXED: He laments the loss of a long list of mechanics. I share his feelings on some, but don't miss them all.

MIXED: I'm not sure his interpretation of the numbers available to him (or me, or anyone) stands up to scrutiny. My fear is the numbers are so general that they lend themselves to many interpretations. I would say that recent "Mixed" reviews would be troubling to me as decisions I make about what games to buy are influenced by that.

CON: He speculates about developer motivations in a way that I think some viewers will assume is fact, but that I don't think are likely to be accurate.

As for if it is a "movement", I'd say it is. Harder to characterize is if it is representative of the larger player base. I would note I haven't made a study of it, but my perception is that new arrivals on this forum are more likely to be complaining about the new features, which I think also suggests there is a "movement."

I would agree it is better not to attach motivation in the same video as talking about mechanics but I will agree that I am confused about the design strategy with the game.

 

[Corwyhn]

"Never got the things promised in the kickstarter" - Maybe bring this up after TFP says they have completed the game. It's just another baseless complaint base on "leaving EA" as being "finished" which is completely false. And was explained en-depth months before v1.0 dropped. v2.1 is just Alpha 23.1.

DLC - Yeah, pretty much. It isn't like TFP is the first to do this though.

"Rushing 3rd-person mode" - No, this is something that has been held off intentionally because it wasn't ready, and has been steadily worked on for years. It's finally about ready to go live. It wasn't rushed at all. To say that only further shows how little attention JaWoodle actually pays to the games developers and processes. Or he's just lying to increase the emotion in the video. Take your pick.

"Dedicating all these resources to DLC stuff" - Again showing ignorance in regards to game development. Maybe four people out of a team of 60+ worked on the DLC. Either ignorance, or again just flaming emotions.

22:30 "Lost the learn by doing system in alpha 17" - Wrong. This system was already partially removed in Alpha 15, and was almost completely removed in Alpha 16. Also read my earlier statement in regards to this system. He describes it as a fix, for a fix, for a problem that didn't exist. Completely ignoring the fact that the new system is what the developer was pushing towards from the beginning, and that there is always going to be stages in developing a new system. The LBD system didn't "work" before as much as a lot of you like to pretend it did. There was a LOT of unnecessary grind to it that actually slowed progression unless you exploited certain mechanics.



A lot of this video, is completely JaWoodle not understanding how game development works, and not paying any attention to developer discussions for all the years he has apparently been "loving" the game. He's just catering to the complainers to get clicks on his video.

I would agree with you on "a few things" but not a "lot of things". And I admit I have no idea on whether they are rushing third person though I agree they have mentioned it before.

 

[Corwyhn]

Correct, I discriminate against youtubers, just as I discriminate against lobbyists, pimps (the sort without fun in the name), professional killers, drug dealers, mafia goons, ticket-scalpers, pyramid scheme sellers ...

I don't discriminate against race, gender or religion.



I'd prefer that.

One point about the new weather: I like that the weather protection is a time-limited buff via smoothie, not an armor mod that you just wear and be save for eternity and can ignore. You really have to prepare and drink the smoothie from time to time. I can think of explanations just good enough that it doesn't disturb my immersion. Maybe a pill instead might be better, or an injection, for players that have more immersion problems than me.

Sure, after a short time you are acclimated by silly badge and it is for eternity. That is why I want smoothies or pills/injection to help with storms as well

LOL you are putting all youtubers in the same boat as lobbyists, pimps (the sort without fun in the name), professional killers, drug dealers, mafia goons, ticket-scalpers, pyramid scheme sellers?

Let me say that your opinions are completely valid to have but I completely disagree with some of them. That doesnt mean I am right and you are wrong though just different. In the end all we have are opinions short of someone having experience with an actual zombie apocalypse AND the FP saying that particular zombie apocalypse is their guiding start.

I dislike the smoothies. That was done in a lazy manner. I could have excepted making meds via the chem station to improve resistance but, in my opinion, it would have been better that the item lessened damage not eliminated it.

 

[zztong]

Temperature and wetness - Known to be a work in progress, and will be returning. JaWoodle should know that if he pays attention to something he cares about.

I hadn't heard that. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

And anyone who thinks the previous system with jars was "survival" is wearing rose glasses. Taking 5000 glass jars that took you a few minutes to make in a forge to get 5000 murky water to boil wasn't survival. There was no challenge to that system.

I've mentioned this before, the 5,000 jars argument isn't relevant to water and survival. The issues are access to water and the steps involved to make potable water. There don't have to be jars in the game for those aspects to be reasonably addressed. Likewise, the Dew/Rain Collector isn't an issue either.

The world actually being dark at night time - I have been openly complaining about this and submitting tickets since Alpha 19 was in internal testing. In response, TFP has adjusted the way the brightness slider functions. IMHO, the default brightness should be what 25% is right now.

This rings to me as a no-win situation. You can't account for tastes, the player's equipment, the lighting in the player's physical space, the player's ability to see, the player's willingness to turn up the light for an advantage, etc. I can only recommend providing options.

Zeds taking fall damage - Again, fixing a player exploit. Maybe if people didn't make drop bases to AFK horde night, it would have never been nerfed. Zeds still take fall damage, but the amount of damage they take is capped.

This is a toughy. I see why. I can see being doomed if they made this change and doomed if they didn't. They made the change and everyone complains player ingenuity and creativity were taken away, which is true. But if you don't make the change, everyone complains that hordes are too easy. JaWoodle would be making videos showing the perfect AFK horde base -- like he already does -- and people would be laughing. If you make the zombies smart enough to take other approaches, now they're structural engineers. It's a no-win. Nothing will universally make everyone happy...

Except maybe configurable options. For instance, would it be all that terrible to have a setting that determined how much damage zombies took from falling?

 

[Corwyhn]

"Never got the things promised in the kickstarter" - Maybe bring this up after TFP says they have completed the game. It's just another baseless complaint base on "leaving EA" as being "finished" which is completely false. And was explained en-depth months before v1.0 dropped. v2.1 is just Alpha 23.1.

This was the only point I objected to. First I don't mind that we are 12 years into the initial release of the game but to be fair that is a long time to still not have kickstarter features that were promised. I guess there are a few things I disagree with Jawoodle on so glad I posted about all this. Since he and I were not in the Kickstarter I don't think its up to us to complain about it. But 12 years is a long time for those who may have been expecting the feaure. And I thought the release of 1.0 took the game out of early access? Or was that meaningless? Again, I am fine with the same still being worked on and that features are still not all there yet but it is not unreasonable to bring that issue up.

And will the game eve be finished? 12 years so far. Not a problem for me but your comment seemed out of line in my opinion. And that is all it is my opinion. You voiced yours and may feel its totally valid but it seems a stretch to me.

Your other points I didn't quote are definitely food for thought though.

 

[Riamus]

I've mentioned this before, the 5,000 jars argument isn't relevant to water and survival. The issues are access to water and the steps involved to make potable water. There don't have to be jars in the game for those aspects to be reasonably addressed. Likewise, the Dew/Rain Collector isn't an issue either.

I'd agree, but I have brought that up a number of times in discussions about bringing back empty jars and the responses I got from most people supporting bring them back wasn't that it would be fine if they could get water from a water source without having empty jars. The responses were almost always that they wanted the empty jars back. There have been exceptions and sometimes someone will agree that it would be fine if they could just get water from a water source, but a lot of the time people are hyper focused on having empty jars. That sounds more like they want to have the extremely easy way to get all that water very quickly than that they just want immersion. There are people everywhere on that spectrum and most don't bother posting about what they think, so it's not easy to guess what kind of overall response there would be to having the ability to get water from a water source without bringing back empty jars as well. If they let you use a pot that you could only have one of and you could go fill it up to the equivalent of 2 jars of murky water and then boil it so that it takes a lot of time to gather water that way, would people be happy that it is immersive? Or would they still be complaining about no empty jars that let them get hundreds of water in seconds? I think it's the latter, but it's just my guess based on the posts I've seen and I may be wrong. And again, some would be happy with that change.

And I thought the release of 1.0 took the game out of early access? Or was that meaningless?

It took it out of Early Access, which is a Steam thing. That doesn't mean it isn't still in alpha development. And the reason I personally think that they changed it from A22 to 1.0 was for the benefit/requirement of console. They had just gotten done posting a new dev diary titled A22 days before they announced that it would be called 1.0. That sounds like it wasn't a planned thing to me and was just something they had to do for the console release. But that's just my guess. They haven't stated one way or another, and probably can't due to how negotiations work.

 

[Kyoji]

That's what it's all about: listening to criticism that makes sense, not all of it. After all, 25 years ago, developers made games and we played them if we liked them, and if we didn't like them, we tried another one. There were no discussions among players trying to make the game to their liking. And some very good games came out of that era.

I think it's an effect of how the gaming industry is these days.

A product of early access I would argue.

Notes from the video

Not two minutes in, and he's falling back on the same issues as a lot of the complainers. Focusing on the way the game "used to be" when it had a bunch of mechanics and assets that were never going to be in the game long-term.

Then he brings up the Steam activity chart, which isn't reliable. More and more people are making their accounts private, which hides them from the chart. Basically these charts aren't useful anymore. Though I would agree that activity has dropped in comparison to 1.0. Which is to be expected since now the game is $45 instead of $25. You also have to consider that the chart only accounts for Steam. It does not account for people playing on MS Store PC, Xbox X/S, or PS5.

His list at 5 minutes on things removed.

• Open world playability - Game has never been solely open-world. That has always been an aspect of it, and not the core. And that option hasn't been removed, it just has the standard limitations most open-world games do for progression.
• Starting points and re-playability - This hasn't been removed. It was actually enhanced.
• Random and unique progression for each playthrough - Aside from the loot/biome progression, that is only removed if you don't have any imagination. And it isn't like the loot progression didn't exist before.
• Temperature and wetness - Known to be a work in progress, and will be returning. JaWoodle should know that if he pays attention to something he cares about.
• Dy-able clothing - A broken system that needed a complete re-work. I will admit to being wholly disappointed with the new "wardrobe" system that was supposed to replace it.
• Removed the need to eat food? - I'm sorry, was he smoking crack? There are a number of threads complaining about how much you have to eat already. Even one on the official forum about getting soft-locked if you let food and water drop to 0. You need to eat food still.

I do agree with his comments regarding weather/biomes. I'm not sure how the temperature/wetness system is going to function along side the biome progression. He's again assuming that those systems were replaced, and not still being worked on.

At 10 minutes, he's harping on "band-aid" fixes that weren't fixes the way he is looking at them. And anyone who thinks the previous system with jars was "survival" is wearing rose glasses. Taking 5000 glass jars that took you a few minutes to make in a forge to get 5000 murky water to boil wasn't survival. There was no challenge to that system.

He is spot on about the feedback. A lot of you guys need to be better about providing useful feedback.

15 minutes in talking about the console release. IMHO TFP shouldn't have released to the console until after 4.0. They always said they were going to wait until the game was finished, or nearly so. And then went back on that.

16:25 he's doing a list of removed features again. Some of which we already covered, so I'll skip those.

• Zombie Smell System - Removed to be re-worked because there was too much overhead after adding the breadcrumb system in, and TFP didn't want to raise the super-vague minimum hardware specs because they knew it would alienate close to half of their player base. System was said to be returning when it and the game got better optimization. Then we got Feral sense as a replacement. And now we have the Series-S hardware to content with, so forget anything like it ever returning again. This is one I am personally ■■■■ed about as well, but I can see the reasoning behind why it no longer exists.
• Wellness System - This was a very broken system, and heavily exploited. It should have been tweaked with caps instead of being tossed entirely. Though it could also kick you in the ■■■ while you were down, and soft-lock your character as well. It was tossed in favor of developing new systems.
• Weapon and armor parts for upgrading and assembly - Another one of those base systems that was lost as the game grew. TFP basically had a choice. Either item mods, or the old part system. They could not co-exist because they used the same interface. Though I miss the old assembly system, I like the mods better. This was a move in the right direction. Upgrading however, was horribly broken and heavily exploited. That part needed to be removed. Once more one of those features that was just exploited to ignore survival aspects.
• More zombie spawns in the world outside of POI's - This has been missing since Alpha 12. And there are multiple reasons for why it is missing. From a12-a14.4 it was due to limitations in Unity with the entities. From Alpha 14.4 until a21 or v1.0 it was because of the UMA system. (I recall the first release where on a high-end computer having more than 10 zeds active would cripple performance.) With 2.0 this is actually coming back a good bit, though it is also really easy to kill the random spawns in a town and then hardly see anything. The system still needs work. And again, this is another one of those issues where TFP is forced to deal with default settings for low-end hardware like the pathetic Series-S. We need options again though. We used to have them, but now it is limited to dedicated servers.
• Real Weather - The new storms were supposed to be kind of like this, but also rather poorly implemented. Especially since it is nearly impossible to remain outside with the current system. You should be able to equip gear to endure it. Which may partially fall back on the wetness/temperature system that has not yet returned. (Which wasn't honestly removed with 2.0. It's just been there and not doing anything since alpha 21.
• Stamina loss, clothing, punishing hunger and thirst for weather, random events like snow - All part of the wetness/temperature system. He's going to bring this up 20 more times isn't he?
• The world actually being dark at night time - I have been openly complaining about this and submitting tickets since Alpha 19 was in internal testing. In response, TFP has adjusted the way the brightness slider functions. IMHO, the default brightness should be what 25% is right now.
• Vehicle Parts - Same as the armor and weapons. You can't have two different systems existing in the same space.

It's almost like he doesn't realize he's been playing a game that is still in development, and that things are expected to change.

For what it's worth I agree with much of what you stated and appreciate the actual feedback.

But the ones you said could use work are generally related to 2.0 and storms/temperature. The only thing I see that I have on my wishlist is weapon parts which I don't see why you couldn't have both. Mods took the spot? Add a new one. Much like they did for biome badges. For how impactful it would be to extending the end game I think it's worth spending time on.