PC New player, here what I think

[diegodgo87]

I started this game very recently me and my friends (all new players) are in day 44 right now, we only can play at weekends but we been having lots of fun.

Till day 21 we played with 200% XP when we discover that though zombies come faster in game I reset the XP gain to default, 2nd horde kill us and 3rd one too, After that no one else die, the horde base didn't break and we are in a stage that we are not "surviving" anymore, we have tons of food (never cook anything), tons of water (without ever collecting or cooking), full moded high level firearms thousands round of AP ammo and thousand dukes, even after one of us buy the grandpa elixir and we melted 25k for brass...

The first weeks of the game were awesome, we tried to survive (I even starve to death first week), enter a building to loot was a dangerous situation and sometimes no one do it alive.

The thing is we don't find any motivation to go on, the concrete corridor is safe, now upgraded to steel, we have trucks, motorcycles, Girocopter and all that let us run many trader missions at day, is getting bored, in one day the trader give me the missions in the same house, So i clear the PoI, start the mission, trader, back to the house, start again, and so on.

There is no challenge anymore and we are new players, my character doesn't eat in  all day, just when back at base at night a few cans and that's it (healing Factor at level 5). Before the 42 day horde must been day 39 our team split and we go to mining the stuff for bullets, We start the horde with 9000 bullets and at the workbenchs was 3000 ready to go.  Everyone of us have T5 auger with  mods, we already had 250000 gas, In just one day we gather coal, nitrate and lead for weeks. 

We are waiting for Alpha 19, we love the game, but as we advance in the game some of the survival aspect are lost, and those aspects were the thing why we got into the game in the first place.

People said about mods, about setting the game harder, and other things, We decider to put a harder mode in the next Alpha.

PS: Sorry about my grammar or spelling English is not my mother language and can be tricky.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

a new player that is asking for more lategame content? Quel surprise!
But... but he is not representative of all new players! Yes! Yes that's it. He was just too hardcore with his friends. Next time don't be so gud and rush to the endgame!


@diegodgo87: it is know since forever that 7d2d is lacking any meaningful endgame, so it has become a bit of a hot topic on the forums, because the devs have different plans (Bandits that were promised 4 alphas ago for example)
but I am thankful for your comment. Because us loyal players with 1000s of hours are not their target demographic, so our input is just not valuable (their words, not mine!)

 

[PoloPoPo]

I can completely relate to that. I am somewhat a "newer" player myself with around 100 hours of playtime, started around March this year. With my first savegame I have played until around day 70 until I got bored to death (standard settings). Then I started a new savegame on hardest difficulty ("insane") without building my own base, died four times during the first week but since then it is basically the same again. Way too much food everywhere, too strong weapons too early, too much ammo everywhere (not a single bullet crafted myself) etc.

Of course there will be people telling me now...

...that I don't have to pick up or use weapons at an early stage

...that I could only pick up every second piece of food

...that I could only pick up 50 % of the ammo found in loot and throw the rest away

...that I could deliberately jump from high buildings and play the game with a broken leg to make it more intense

...that I could play the game only going out at night without lighting to make it more intense

...that I could play the game using only my fist at horde night

...etc etc

But yeah, suggestions like that are total crap, sorry. A game shouldn't be designed in a way where a player has to keep excitement on a high level artificially.

Still, I like the game very much and will definitely start a new savegame with A19 but I think if A19 was not near I'd most likely stop playing 7D2D very soon. No problem for the developers of course as I have already payed for their game

 

[RipClaw]

I can completely relate to that. I am somewhat a "newer" player myself with around 100 hours of playtime, started around March this year. With my first savegame I have played until around day 70 until I got bored to death (standard settings). Then I started a new savegame on hardest difficulty ("insane") without building my own base, died four times during the first week but since then it is basically the same again. Way too much food everywhere, too strong weapons too early, too much ammo everywhere (not a single bullet crafted myself) etc.

Then you will be glad to hear that in A19 the progress will be much slower. You won't find strong weapons in the early game. You will have to fight the first horde with primitive weapons. The new Integrated Survival System will also make the game more intense as it is no longer possible to heal everything with just a bandage.

If you feel like you have too much ammo you should increase the size of the horde. A horde with 32 zombies at the same time consumes a lot more ammo than a horde with 8 zombies at the same time.

If you find too much loot then you should reduce the amount of loot. Even a reduction to 75% ensures that a lot of the loot containers are empty.

The game has many settings so that the player can adjust it to his preferences.

A game shouldn't be designed in a way where a player has to keep excitement on a high level artificially.

No game lasts forever. Let's face it. Most of the games are completed in less than 20 hours. If 7 Days to die was fun for 70 hours then it was worth the money.

 

[PoloPoPo]

Then you will be glad to hear that in A19 the progress will be much slower. You won't find strong weapons in the early game. You will have to fight the first horde with primitive weapons. The new Integrated Survival System will also make the game more intense as it is no longer possible to heal everything with just a bandage.

Indeed, sounds good.

No game lasts forever. Let's face it. Most of the games are completed in less than 20 hours. If 7 Days to die was fun for 70 hours then it was worth the money.

That is an interesting way of looking at things and I think you have a point there

 

[Maharin]

If 7 Days to die was fun for 70 hours then it was worth the money.

Then at over 5000 hours I'm thinking I might have made a good purchase. 

But I will say that a BIG part of the fun of 7DTD is that you can tailor the game to how you want to play.  Start with the built-in game options and then add or create mods as you feel necessary.  Start playing around with the XML files and I guarantee you will get a lot more than 70 hours out of the game. 

EDIT:  Also, worst case scenario is that you have to use Steam to repatch the game back to normal and start over.  Back up your changes to keep from wasting too much time.

 

[Kyonshi]

I faced a similar situation (after 700 hours of play). But im far from being bored. Its more about how i could find tons of resources with standard settings. So i amped the game with more brutal premises.

I made a 8k desert-only map (in NitroGen), with few towns and cities, so i have to cover a lot of terrain to loot stuff. Set the difficulty at Warrior. Loot at 67% and 10 days respawn. Desert-only map means no coal to mine. At all. So i cant make my own ammo in sufficient amounts to even cover the Day 14 horde (32 Zeds alive at time) and i will never be able to craft enough anyways. I can only count on upgrading junk turrets.

I also tweaked the values of zombies spawning over the map, in xml files, at 4x more during the day and night, with only 1 day for respawn. Now, things get savage quite quickly enough I barely go out at night, seriously. I get swarmed the minute i make too much noise. Oh and i raised the amount of Zs to 25-30 units for wandering hordes lol.

Im at 30 hours on this map and i dont have a forge or any other work station yet (but yeah im close to have at least 1 forge). I only have a bicycle, just unlocked the mini-bike skill. The heat is draining my water gauge. I had 300 9mm, some shotgun ammo and some for Junky. I burned through it all in the first Horde night.

There's always a way to pump up difficulty beside only using a slider. You just have to know how. And honestly, i enjoy this level of intensity a lot!

 

[diegodgo87]

a new player that is asking for more lategame content? Quel surprise!
But... but he is not representative of all new players! Yes! Yes that's it. He was just too hardcore with his friends. Next time don't be so gud and rush to the endgame!


@diegodgo87: it is know since forever that 7d2d is lacking any meaningful endgame, so it has become a bit of a hot topic on the forums, because the devs have different plans (Bandits that were promised 4 alphas ago for example)
but I am thankful for your comment. Because us loyal players with 1000s of hours are not their target demographic, so our input is just not valuable (their words, not mine!)

Yeah, we start this game looking for a survival game and we got it the first 3 in game weeks, of course for A19 we be doing some stuff diferently, Xp at 100%, rising up the difficulty, lowering the loot and maybe some more zombies, the thing is... as new player we didn't know about this stuff, less about  mods as Nitrogen or any other mod.

Our mistake was stay with one streamer, before start the game, and I don't even think that the videos we watch were from the right alpha, which is another problem for newbies, if you search for  7D2D in youtube there is a lot of content highlighted but from previous alphas and sometimes the video didn't say what alpha is.

Also have in mind the lack of streamers in spanish that actually plays the game, or they play modded versions.

 

[FileMachete]

One suggestion to the OP and others who might be feeling the same thing; consider trying earlier Alphas.

There are a number of youtubers who've been playing 7dtd for years and still have vids up for past Alphas.

Might seem a bit odd, but with all that TFPs have changed between say A16 and A18, a16 will feel quite different.

Other one would be, of course, trying the 'full overhaul' mods. There are several that have been supported for multiple alphas and dramatically change the game. Much more than you think would be possible.

Also have in mind the lack of streamers in spanish that actually plays the game, or they play modded versions

You might find a spanish speaking streamer you don't know listed in this thread;

https://community.7daystodie.com/topic/19127-announcing-a19-streamer-weekend-application/

Roland highlights their language, 'find' found 9 hits for 'spanish' on the first page where he's rounded up all the successful applicants.

 

[diegodgo87]

One suggestion to the OP and others who might be feeling the same thing; consider trying earlier Alphas.

There are a number of youtubers who've been playing 7dtd for years and still have vids up for past Alphas.

Might seem a bit odd, but with all that TFPs have changed between say A16 and A18, a16 will feel quite different.

Other one would be, of course, trying the 'full overhaul' mods. There are several that have been supported for multiple alphas and dramatically change the game. Much more than you think would be possible.

You might find a spanish speaking streamer you don't know listed in this thread;

https://community.7daystodie.com/topic/19127-announcing-a19-streamer-weekend-application/

Roland highlights their language, 'find' found 9 hits for 'spanish' on the first page where he's rounded up all the successful applicants.

Thanks is very helpful.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

No game lasts forever. Let's face it. Most of the games are completed in less than 20 hours. If 7 Days to die was fun for 70 hours then it was worth the money.

NO! You can't compare a storydriven game like the last of us to a grinding survivalgame. That is simply not how that works.
Having fun is all well and good, but if that fun was just "grinding" because you thought you'd get an exciting endgame, then it was not "worth" it.
If you grind 200 hours to reach max level (or howeverlong it takes) because you expect to be part of sieges and high level PvP, but it just ends once oyu hit max level, those 200 hours might have been somewhat 'fun' but that would not justify the purchase.

Time spent =/= absolute fun. It can be fun grinding towards a goal. But if you then notice, that the goal was imaginary, it feels unsatisfying.

I can't believe I have to explain why spending 100 hours in Ark taking one giga that is gone after 10 minutes because a guy killed you for fun is not the same as spending 100 hours in an engaging story driven plot that is emotional and satisfying.

I am not saying looting and shooting Z's isn't fun, but you can't compare 70 hours of grinding to get the best gear, only to find nothing to do with it to be the same as 70 hours of a game of a different genre.
And 70 hours for a sandbox game is... honestly a bit lacking, if I am honest. Especially if it is your first playthrough.

*edit before I am ripped out of context*
I still enjoy every new alpha after ~1000h. That does not mean that a meaningful endgame is unneeded. Because at gold, players won't have the plus of restarting every year or so with a more or less new game!

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Time spent =/= absolute fun. It can be fun grinding towards a goal. But if you then notice, that the goal was imaginary, it feels unsatisfying.

I do not spend time, if i don't have fun.

I will invest *short* times of boredom, e.g. go mining for ressources for one or two ingame days, but i will never invest 100 hours pure grinding without any fun just because i hope there is something to come when i reach max level.

If you do that, you should judge your own attitude, not the game...

Imho diegodgo87 and his group might have been already experienced players. Having played other survival games earlier already helps a lot. Also they watched a stream. Even if that stream was from an older alpha it helps a lot, because many mechanics are still the same or still very similar. Maybe even their final kill corridor was more or less from that stream instead of trying out base designs from scratch on your own. And they started with 200% XP what makes the game even easier and progression much faster.

Imho they did "everything wrong" if you want to have longtime fun with such a game. Do not watch videos for games you want to explore. Play first game with "normal" difficulty or harder (if you are a good player) but don't change any settings.

But yes, sadly TFP seems to want to make the game casual-compatible. If you are not a casual, you have to change settings or use mods, otherwise the game is to easy and you reach the "final" very fast.

 

[diegodgo87]

I do not spend time, if i don't have fun.

I will invest *short* times of boredom, e.g. go mining for ressources for one or two ingame days, but i will never invest 100 hours pure grinding without any fun just because i hope there is something to come when i reach max level.

If you do that, you should judge your own attitude, not the game...

Imho diegodgo87 and his group might have been already experienced players. Having played other survival games earlier already helps a lot. Also they watched a stream. Even if that stream was from an older alpha it helps a lot, because many mechanics are still the same or still very similar. Maybe even their final kill corridor was more or less from that stream instead of trying out base designs from scratch on your own. And they started with 200% XP what makes the game even easier and progression much faster.

Imho they did "everything wrong" if you want to have longtime fun with such a game. Do not watch videos for games you want to explore. Play first game with "normal" difficulty or harder (if you are a good player) but don't change any settings.

But yes, sadly TFP seems to want to make the game casual-compatible. If you are not a casual, you have to change settings or use mods, otherwise the game is to easy and you reach the "final" very fast.

We are an experienced group, been playing together for 6 years Path of Exile, we been looking a game to shift things that's why we were watching videos. We never played survival game before but we are a solid team.

 

[Maharin]

But yes, sadly TFP seems to want to make the game casual-compatible. If you are not a casual, you have to change settings or use mods, otherwise the game is to easy and you reach the "final" very fast.

When playing on random gen maps the end of this game is what you want it to be.  You can give yourself goals that satisfy you.

On another general note, you can adjust the difficulty settings prior to entering your save each time.  So if it seemed too easy the last time you played that save you can make it harder when you play next time.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

I do not spend time, if i don't have fun.

I will invest *short* times of boredom, e.g. go mining for ressources for one or two ingame days, but i will never invest 100 hours pure grinding without any fun just because i hope there is something to come when i reach max level.

If you do that, you should judge your own attitude, not the game...

Well... that... OR there is a whole genre of grinding-towards-a-goal games and saying that grinding is my personal problem, rather than a preference is a bit short sighted

 

[Liesel Weppen]

On another general note, you can adjust the difficulty settings prior to entering your save each time.  So if it seemed too easy the last time you played that save you can make it harder when you play next time.

Wrong quote. I tried many different things, different settings, different self imposed playstyles (e.g. no building) up to total conversion mods.

A NEW player, as the op of this thread, most likely will play vanilla without any changes first, and that is what he is talking about. And if you are experienced in such kind of games, 7d2d currently is really easy from the start.

We are an experienced group, been playing together for 6 years Path of Exile, we been looking a game to shift things that's why we were watching videos. We never played survival game before but we are a solid team.

Then do the same you did in PoE (while PoE imho in comparison to 7d2d is absolutely pure grind!). Try different playstyles and lower the progress speed. Play with 50% XP, and now do a STR build instead of an AGI build. Make exploring the map your target. Have you already found all traders on your map? Was it even a random map? Did you try living in the wasteland instead of carebearing in the forrest?

 

[diegodgo87]

When playing on random gen maps the end of this game is what you want it to be.  You can give yourself goals that satisfy you.

On another general note, you can adjust the difficulty settings prior to entering your save each time.  So if it seemed too easy the last time you played that save you can make it harder when you play next time.

While I have to agree with you, let me tell you that new players will always set the game as default, tweaking  game settings requires some knowledge about the game.

In our case we set up XP at 200% and we were not ready for cops spitting to us in 2nd horde and demolishers at 3rd horde, non of the videos we watch before had them and there is no way to know that as new player and no hint in the game set up that how zombies level works. The thing is that those 3 first weeks with harder zombies was much enjoying than now when we have lots of ammo and hard bases. We don't care about dying, we actually looking for real challenge.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Well... that... OR there is a whole genre of grinding-towards-a-goal games and saying that grinding is my personal problem, rather than a preference is a bit short sighted

My preferred goal is to become overpowered, and once i am, the game is over. The way to getting overpowered is what makes my fun. And of course then playing a little further as overpowered. Doesn't matter if playing Path of Exile, Borderlands, Minecraft or Fallout, once there is a way to make your char better in form of skills or euipment, i want to become overpowered. If the enemies become better in the same speed as my char becomes better, i feel no progression anymore. That is just moving status quo. And that doesn't make fun (for me atleast).

 

[diegodgo87]

Then do the same you did in PoE (while PoE imho in comparison to 7d2d is absolutely pure grind!). Try different playstyles and lower the progress speed. Play with 50% XP, and now do a STR build instead of an AGI build. Make exploring the map your target. Have you already found all traders on your map? Was it even a random map? Did you try living in the wasteland instead of carebearing in the forrest?

Yeah, we are going to run the things very different now, waiting for alpha 19 we may have another weekend with this save.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

In our case we set up XP at 200% and we were not ready for cops spitting to us in 2nd horde and demolishers at 3rd horde, non of the videos we watch before had them and there is no way to know that as new player and no hint in the game set up that how zombies level works.

And that is the reason why you should not start an unknown game with modified settings. And if you do, but you are an experienced group, at least choose harder settings, not easy settings. Play it first, look at what the game offers, so you know what settings you should change for the next playthrough... that's also a point of such games: Starting over and over again. If you think you played it once and it's done now, the whole genre might be wrong for you.

waiting for alpha 19 we may have another weekend with this save.

Umm, A19 is a major update. Even if it might work (in parts) to continue an A18 save with A19, it is not recommended. New alpha -> new game.