PC Now that You have played Alpha 19, What do you like or dislike?

[leaderdog]

I disagree, if the player can do it relatively easy I think its a fair change.  You forgot to mention how the player was 100% safe on top of a platform surrounded by steep wedge blocks which is game breaking...

I guess they could have gone the other way instead, make both the player and zombies be unable to go up a steep slope... but at the end of the day its basically the same thing.

not allowing humans up the steep slopes would make the most sense for a fix. and have zombies attack and break them. I made one on a day 7 and they did zero damage to the wall because they figured they could climb up it. 

Simple solution that wouldn't look so bad.

 

[Ramethzer0]

So after day 2 of loading up my first RWG map, I took a fly by to see if there was any improvement to the landscape generation.

I'm sad to report that most of the map is still open wilderness that will never ever be explored.   I eagerly await the update to Nitro maps!

 

[leaderdog]

Well... how would YOU have solved those issues?
Sure there might have been better ways, and I am surely nobody to be a TFPs lackey, but these issues had to be adressed someway or another.
The most important thing is for the challenge to stay viable. And as I said you can't have a viable challenge if there are exploits.
AFTER that you should be allowed to play however you like. But that doesn't mean every way should be just as valid. There is just no way to have everything be exactly the same. Things have benefits and weaknesses. Sneakbuild is awesome at clearing pois but bad at hordenight. Melee is ammo conserving but dangerous, M16 is a hordenight-zombie-shredder but uses more bullets than you could count.

But if the options are:
give up 10 seconds of your time to get the most awesome loot and be able to do that like 10 times per city
or
take 20 minutes clearing the poi to get the same

there is just no comparison. And with the stone age these exploity behaviours are reduced, ESPECIALLY in the earlygame where you can cheese this the most, having Q5 shotty and ak in Week 1.

Steep slopes - No one walk up them, and or have zombies attack them, see my last post.

swimming zombies - I can't tread water worth crap. I can swim just fine.  make it so stam drain is sensible in water so you can't just tread water all night.  you might be able to float on your back - I can't dense bones, but still simple solution and doesn't require a cheesey zombie change.

Digging zombies - as a developer accept that some people don't want to deal with the horde (since they removed horde night as an option) why have zombies chewing up the landscape.  This just could have been left alone.

and people will always find exploits... it's what they do when they're trying not to die.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

Steep slopes - No one walk up them, and or have zombies attack them, see my last post.

swimming zombies - I can't tread water worth crap. I can swim just fine.  make it so stam drain is sensible in water so you can't just tread water all night.  you might be able to float on your back - I can't dense bones, but still simple solution and doesn't require a cheesey zombie change.

Digging zombies - as a developer accept that some people don't want to deal with the horde (since they removed horde night as an option) why have zombies chewing up the landscape.  This just could have been left alone.

and people will always find exploits... it's what they do when they're trying not to die.

Steep slopes caused pathing issues. Should they need to destroy blocks to make a stairway? Quiteop if you ask me. But sure, they could have.

swimming Z's: I always found it weird that they couldn't float a little. Yes they probably should just be as fast as the player... but I have no idea what that even influences.
A base under water is fun... but not possible to defend. A stiltbase was an exploit with or without water.

Digging Z's: they didn't remove hordenight as an option, what are you talking about? Just set the frequency to Disabled and all is well if you don't like bloodmoons.

true ppl will always find exploits. But Devs should always seek to make them as hard as possible to find.
Exploits should be found, reported and never used again.
Some little tricks are absolutely fine. Like... how to get a pick day 1. But as soon as you completely break the flow and the challenges of the game, it needs to be fixed, no matter how much you personally like it. THAT is (and I do not use this reasoning lightly since I hate it myself when used incorrecty) what mods are for.

YOU want there to be exploits and that is fine. But devs shouldn't try to accompany everyone who wants an exploit to stay in the game.

 

[meganoth]

There is an option to turn off horde night and there is an option to give you 400% lot. There is an option to spawn in a T6 M60 on day 1 or give you 1 mio XP. There is an option to make you invulnerable and fly. This has absolutely nothing to do with the default vanilla game that everyone is playing. And it definitely can't be used to conclude something is not necessary because you have an option somewhere.

Default vanilla game must be dangerous and balanced, this is TFPs resoponsibility. If you use OP options, creative mode or giveselfxp then balance and fun is all your responsibility.

 

[Roland]

But the backdraw is, so i can now basically stop looting and just fight zombies to level up until my gamestage reaches the next level. As somebody wrote already here, i would waste time will not find anything better anyway, instead it's better to safe up the loot crates (especially the special ones) to open later when they can have spawned better things...

I think that is probably true for the Tech 0 age but as soon as you reach Tech 1 that changes--- unless you are not into crafting that is. Finding brown level Tier 1 weapons will give you parts that you can use to craft the higher Tech level weapons long before your gamestage lets you start finding them in loot. Now if the A18 "Looter Shooter" meta was the best change ever for you then absolutely you will want to save all containers until you have a much higher gamestage. It all depends on how you like to obtain your weapons. The current change brings crafting back as a viable choice.

 

[Laz Man]

not allowing humans up the steep slopes would make the most sense for a fix. and have zombies attack and break them. I made one on a day 7 and they did zero damage to the wall because they figured they could climb up it. 

Simple solution that wouldn't look so bad.

Think about it more, its probably easier to do what they did because if the wedges were laid flat instead of vertifical, then the AI might get even more confused instead of walking on them LOL..

 

[Boidster]

Exploits should be found, reported and never used again.

100% agree. Except I define 'exploit' as 'using knowledge or skills that the character does not or could not actually have within the rules of the sandbox universe'. So the terrain-clipping X-ray thing is absolutely an exploit. Dupe glitches are exploits. The old bug where you could 'sprint' on a bicycle at 0 stamina was an exploit. I could have a reasonable argument with Roland that nerdpoling is an exploit (tho I do love me a good nerdpole).

Placing a ladder up the side of a building (as an example) to check out what's in a top-floor room is not an exploit. The universe gives us the ability to make ladders which stick to blocks and which we can climb. It gives us axes and picks which can bust through wood/concrete. If that is how a player chooses to use those capabilities, great! Why would we care? No need to report, no need to fix. Especially since 'fixing' would mean moving away from a fully-destructible, fully-buildable voxel world. You can't create such a world and then tell players, 'don't use the tools we've given you in this way because it's The Wrong Way To Play'. Just let people confront, or avoid, challenges as they see fit - this is not a linear game where everybody eventually must do The Correct Things In The Correct Order to win. "The flow of the game" is entirely up to the player, though TFP have given us plenty of hooks and incentives to try out some of the stuff they've built.

 

[Shin]

15K hours, 3 posts...... Anyways, I might be the one you refer to not liking it.  Might come as a surprise to you that release notes and A19 dev thread gives you more than a good idea of whats coming. On top of that I can add changes made to A17 and A18, all wich have made me dislike the game more and more. In any case I'm very surprised that someone with 15K hours in the game loves it so much today... If you love this looter/shooter RPG so much it has have to been a real chore to add up that many hours in earlier Alfas.

Personally I'd say this game sucks today. Looks very pretty for sure but thats all good I can say about it. I'm only here  cause I have a daft hope of this developmnet being a joke and I have the odd go at Darkness Falls and Ravenhearst (thanks  Khaine and Jax) even if changes to vanilla also makes these games to easy.. But I realise more and more every day that TFP has abandonded their original idea of a good game for something better. A cash cow.

Sad for sure This could have been great.

 

[Twallox]

ive played since the start . i love this update as is changes the "experience" . lighting on the whole is amazing , walk into a darkened building and it becomes dark , look out over a dark horizon and as your eyes adjust it becomes slightly lighter  . the atmospheric music is wonderful ,the additional suspense because of it is fantastic . 
 

whist i like the new zombies the head turning seems a little "clunky" and the way they hit you is magical , i.e. they dont actually make contact  but i can live with that ... i have loved my journey playing 7DTD , i am happy you guys have stuck with it  , i am ecstatic with the modding scene you have allowed to flourish ... i am sure they have pushed you to new boundaries .Cannot wait ti see what they do with this release!! 

thank you fun pimps for making a game i love playing x

 

[JCrook1028]

Like:

New lighting is awesome. It looks incredible and runs better at the same time.

Stone age - love it. I do not want to be finding an AK D1. Period.

Food - Love it. I'm still only up to D4 or so but it's always on my mind to be sure and kill something during the day so I have dinner. It steers me to quest in a different direction every day to find fresh animals also.

New POI's and Zombies. Love em ofc, who wouldn't.

Dislike:

Combat music. As I feared, it's already close to making me want to turn off the rest of the music just to get rid of the combat music. It is not only very repetitive but it also serves as an unwanted warning that zombies are coming. If I don't see thew 5 zombies coming my way then I want my first clue to be blood splatters as one of them hits me. I DO NOT ant the music to warn me they are coming.

Candies - No thank you. I hate temp buffs. Period

On Screen Sprites - Urgh. Hate em. I'm not 12 and playing a kiddie game. Especially the digging circle. Seeing them on the compass was plenty. I do not want stuff onscreen in my direct view.

Overall I love A19. Fantastic progress and polish across so many areas of the game.

 

[rivle]

At this moment we can't have it both ways.

We would like to have certain POI "work" at a higher gamestage so that a shotgun messiah factory would maybe have +100GS and you could find the cool loot in it.

But then you'd have to survive getting there.

At this time it would just be a freebie where the awesome loot is defended by GS 1 enemies. So nope.

I love the idea that different POIs have different Gamestages. Especially late game its very tiring when even small houses with no special loot crates has glowing Zeds in.

For early game the opposite. Its like “hey you wanna good loot? If you feel ready fighting ferals with your blunderbuss and scrap armor then go”

On Topic: I really love the new lighting. It looks now so much better. 

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Variance. I found two pistols (Q1) in toilets the first two days. I also recently just received a DB shotgun around Day 5-6.

That is not variance, that is gating.

The game isn't forcing a playstyle it simply reduced the availability of better gear early game.

Gating what you can (atm) loot IS forcing a playstyle. If i knew for sure i can't find any better, why loot then?

Not mentioned that i just lost lvl6 spear, bow, stone axe and various other stuff, like an ak lvl2 (at gamestage 23... from what i understood i shouldn't even be able to find such) from "lost backpack"-bug... That bug exists since i play, what at least is A15....

In terms of A19E, why not just play the game and see how it feels.

I do. I know i can mod it. If the answer ALWAYS is "then mod it" who even plays vanilla? Imho some changes should go into vanilla, because vanilla should also be a reasonable play-through. I'm not talkin about min-maxers think it's to easy. From my recent playthrough, vanilla is still to easy from an experienced players view. But "to easy" doesn't mean it's a good mechanic.

 

[Feycat]

Well, it performs terribly for me, I'm super disappointed. I listened to streamers praise the new visuals to the sky, even cranking their settings up without any loss of frames. Instead, I've had to turn mine *down*. Both my husband and I were working at custom setting, tweaked to where we liked them to get a nice mix of performance and good-looking game (high textures, low shadows, no particles, etc) and now we're both playing blobworld. It sucks. 

 

[Wit]

Like: The new lighting looks great. 

Dislike: My new 144 Hz monitor has input lag from the keyboard. Probably not the developers fault.  Probably some damned Windows thing that just happens to interact with something in a weird way. 

Like: New zombies look good, although I was fine with the old ones. 

Dislike: The blood is like neon red, which doesn't match the aesthetic of the Zombies. Should they even squirt blood that far? Do they have a heartbeat? No blood would be more immersive than neon red. 

Like: I like the idea of filling in the progression system with new items. 

Dislike: I already don't carry vitamins and splits, because it's annoying. But I leave them in my car. Now if I have to carry 5 things for 5 conditions, I might just get so sick of the inventory management that I just cheat them all away. 

Dislike: I don't like that everythign penalizes stamina. And early. At a mere 15% infection (Day 1, I checked several POIs the trader, and many stumps no honey) and 50% food (not even that hungry! Why is it so dire already?) I am literally on the forums because I was waiting for my stamina bar to refill. That's a bad sign. Seriously, I might replace all of the medical stuf with a pile of glass and a sleeping bag if that works in this alpha. Far fewer inventory slots. 

Now if there was like a super suppository that cured all ailments, that would be fine. But as I look ahead my list of things i have to carry on every run is just getting longer and longer. There's a line between interesting and just tedious inventory management. 

Like I like the idea of different effects beyond just damage, but I odn't know how to make them interesting. Like I would much rather the infection just kills you at 100%, and increases 5 times as fast. That way there's an urgency (must find honey or I'll die!) but the game doesn't literally become less fun because I have a condition.  I am fine with reductions to hit point maximum, because the game gets more dangerous, but not more tedious. Same with the arm injuries. I deal less damage but the actual gameplay doesn't change that much. Leg injuries . . . as far as I can tell the solution is either afking, hoping it happens beofre al ong base building session or mining session, or . . . glass. 

(Please please please don't make death a 25 min afk again just because it's my solution to everything, I beg you). 

Like: I honestly think harder to get food is good.

Dislike: Reduced stamina regen at 50% food? Awful. I do not like having to stay above 90% food, it's micromanagement. Having to stay above 10% food would be exactly as much danger/looting but far more fun. Like at 20% "Oh, no, I am getting close to something really bad!" is more fun then "crap, the game sucks until I find food because wrenching a sink requires going afk twice while stam regens." (I don't even think that's an exaggeration right now?). 

. . .this is just day 1. 

Some notes about how I play:
Zombies on Jog or Run during the day.

I prefer to play on the highest difficulty to increase zombie damage, but reduce zombie hit points manually by modding to closer to Nomad. 

In increase player block damage to 125%.

18 hour days, 90 minute days. 

Most other things standard? 

Oh, and no loot respawn.

3 day air drops, with markers. 

I am neutral on the sprites in the world. It neither reduces my immersion nor is it strictly necessary. Although I suspect the first time I am in a 20 story mega dungeon on a "kill all zombies" quest and I cant' find that last zombie, I will love sprites. Having watched Kage848 I htink the new digging is a lot better and like the in-world outlines for that a lot. It might be good if it were a quick key to toggle them, so you could turn them on when you have trouble finding something by holding down a button, but leave them off by default, although I noticed when trying to experiment with some custom keys that this game actually uses most of the keyboard already. 

Oh, and the blunderbuss. Killed my first dog. Loved it. 

If I were playing on a hhhger diffuculty though, it might be useless due to things turning into bullet sponges. 

Oh, and I tend to play "drop belt" only.

And I greatly increase player XP and/or reduce the cost of all levels of attributes/perks to 1. 

In my experience I enjoy playing until day 56 or so and then restarting. I play solely single player. 

I think the game is balanced right for multiplayer progression wise, for me personally.

 

[Bruce the Shark]

I love the Dynamic Music, New Lighting and New zombie models. So immersive!!

I don't like the lack of Animals - on Day 26 with an established mid game base and still find myself hungry. (Maybe my world is bugged who knows)

I don't like the FPS. - 10 Fps In wasteland Biome! (awful) -  lets hope when full release comes it will be slightly more optimized.  (My PC is way above recommended specs and framerate doesn't change with settings)  

I Think Stamina needs to be a little faster when it comes to the Regen. (Starter game feels awful and is just a waiting game when farming resources with tool)

Alpha 19 has the potential to be the best Alpha!   

 

[Wit]

More thoughts:

Traders in town means more quests closer, love it. 

After a while I think traders will send you to other traders? Super love it. 

For what it's worth, it seems to be the things you need a restart to change that have the greatest effect on the fps, probably no suprprise, but I don't think the game tells you which items require a restart? I switched from custom to ultra, frame rate stayed okay. Then restarted the game to fix this keyboard lag problem (which I am having right now, it has something to do with running 7days to die on a 144hz 1440p monitor (even with gsync off) on windows 10, as I am getting the lag in my 1080p monitor while running 7days to die. But if I made the 1080p normal monitor primary, no keyboard lag.  (I promise you it is not the keyboard or usb ports, as I tried non-usb keyboards and unplugging all the usb stuff, and I can tell you the xbox controller and mouse have no latency and all sticky keys were murdered. Rumors is it is connected to how Windows Fullscreen works, but who knows). And yes, not the forum for it. Just was a thought while I was here just in case it colors my impressions. Mostly it just means I get hit more than I should because my movement keys do not always register or take 0.5-1 second to register a press or release. Which affects how often I get effects like infected, although I just went brawler to help with that.

 6700k, 16GB Ram, 1080 

 

[Galifrey1965]

Love the graphics updates and the new POI's, enjoying the in dynamic game music but it is starting to get a little repetitive, more variety wouldn't hurt. 

Food is a little ridiculous, if I kill a  stag and get 40 meat or a Bear and get 60 meat, that is gone in less than 1 nights mining, overall food consumption is way too high. Burning ridiculous amounts of calories while using a Motorcycle or Truck seems to be a bit dumb tbh.

Stamina use needs a bit of work imho (to say the least) I mean, with the amount my guy eats, he shouldn't have to constantly stop swinging his pick axe in the mine like a 60 year old asthmatic! (3 points in Sex Rex so far) and why does the impact wrench burn through stamina so quickly? 

Some weird FPS drops (from 100 to 20) in places, one of which is the cave just before the final room in the House on the Hill POI, that is some nasty lag in there!

Overall I think the game is in a decent place, even though I dislike being forced to play in a certain way, my current play through I managed a Minibike on day 3 and a Motorcycle was crafting on the evening of day 8 so my progression hasn't really been slowed, just made less pleasant although the food changes (constant need to eat) for me could become a deal breaker and send me back to modded versions of the game like War3zuk with more food types.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Traders in town means more quests closer, love it. 

In theory.... for me it is different, trader is now in town, but every fetch/clear quest is in the neighbour towns. Everything >1km away, only thing is burried supplies which i got <500m.

 

[RipClaw]

I love that you don't get swamped with guns from the start. Apart from the Blunderbuss, my first firearm was a Q1 toilet gun on day 5.

I fought my first Bloodmoon horde with a stone sledgehammer, two Blunderbusses and a pistol for emergencies. That reminded me of A15/A16 when I fought my first horde with a bow. I also think it's great that the bow and crossbow have more sneak damage. That makes them a perfect weapon for stealth gameplay.

That the traders are now on the outskirts of towns is great. However, the level 1 quests are often far away. That costs a lot of time if don't have a means of transport. Fortunately I found the college jacket and the high performance running shoes in a POI early on. With these I am at least as fast as with a bicycle.