Viktoriusiii
Refugee
Hey there again.
I do these kinda regularly... and so I feel it is time to go over all the good, the meh and the bad once again.
So let me start with the good... something I do not talk about very often, since I do not feel the need to change anything about it and there are enough fanboys complimenting you:
The good
-voxel/physics
The world is awesome. While some minor bugs and annoyances do happen, over all I have not seen a game get voxels right to this degree. Except for maybe earth->stone transitions.... but other then that it looks and feels nearly perfect.
-zombies
while their AI is getting updated (finally) the look of the zombies(while definatly not perfect or diverse enough) are unique and their abilities and walkspeeds do make them stand out from each other.
-progression
I always loved the progression in this game. While I did not like the switch from "spamcrafting" to a more streamlined rpgish style (dont comment on this since you do not know the whole story and im too lazy to explain every detail. no im not pro spamcrafting) It still feels alright. It makes you feel like you really progress from day 1 with nothing but a stone axe to the later fully armed military guy.
-traders and electronics
they have been one of the greatest updates for this game.
they make the world a lot more dynamic and diverse. While I was hoping for some npc guards that shoot zombies... I guess that comes in a later alpha. Some adding to electrics should happen A18 so I'm happy and waiting
-the overall feel
It never feels out of place. The voxel/physics never feel just like an addon but feel like they are integral to the game.
Every weapon has its purpose and you never feel like the game is bull♥♥♥♥ting you to get a certain effect.
Well... nearly never (zombiebears on day 35 after not dying once is too brutal even on difficulty 6)
And while this doesn'T sound like much, I do enjoy so many aspects (smaller ones that I do not want to list because there are too many) which leads me to come back to the game every alpha to play another 100-200 hours, before waiting for the next update. And while I do realize that I'm only about in de middle, I still have played about 800hours of this game... and I do not regret putting in the money.
The reason WHY i constantly criticise, is because I want this game to be the best it can possibly be...
The meh
-patch frequency
This is something every negative steam review does so I wont go into it in detail. Yes i know developing is hard and you never know what can go wrong... but I DO think that updating to unity in alpha when at least 2 more alphas are planned only to very probably update again in beta is not needed... and a few other questionable descicions... but its their game...
I just think it could be faster for the amount of content we get.
-no pvp support
its a meme by now, but something that I really think could add a whole new playerbase.
I dislike offlineraiding... but it could be so easy to fix some pvp things without breaking singleplayer... but there is absolutly no desire to do anything pvp related... which is kinda sad.
-communication from the team
I know that if you do and cant keep your promise you are an ass and if you don'T talk to us you are an ass...
BUT why not simply say "look guys! this week we had problems with: "unity integration" "pathing" "lootcontainers bugging"
we expect to fix the latter two this week but the first is a bigger one and we expect about 3 weeks more. Will update you next week on what happened"
this isn't TOO big of a dealbreaker... but its still sad because so much of the negativity (especially on steam) could be avoided with regular updates on progression... and since you have weekly meetings that bring those points up anyways... taking 2 minutes to write that in the forums isn'T an issue (or shouldnt be)
A bit of a rant about alpha (only read if you are prepared to read an emotional rant):
The bad
-the community
holy crap... while I understand that a lot of communities nowadays of alpha (or prealpha) games consist of two types of players:
'fan who visits the site daily' and 'average guy who once in a while looks for news but is pretty much absent' which means that only hardcorefans remain, trying to give points of criticism so obvious that they shouldn't need mentioning, they are still defended rigorously by nearly everyone on the forums, with only a few reasonable voices trying to find a middleground.
(I'm not innocent. I know that I can sound condescending even when i don't mean to and I get aggrevated pretty quickly when ppl misrepresent or talk ♥♥♥♥... which is not helping a good debate)
and nearly every problem one has is countered with "edit xml"... which is nice for them... but not for someone who actually enjoys playing with others... and if I would edit every xml file I disagree with, I'd not find a single server.
Which is why this argument would be helpful if I had a problem with it and ask for help... but oh well...
-the developers
like... I kinda like madmole and I love that faatal does regular updates on what he is doing. (only one really giving any infos about his current work)
I hate how they handle the people who have problems with the game. Namely: they don't do anything and say "its an alpha, deal with it!"
If there are ENOUGH people complaining then they will look into it... but support for one player? completly absent. My ticket from 2015 still didn'T get answered... back then I couldn't play multiplayer for over 1 1/2 years... and since I'm a multiplayer guy I couldn't play 7d2d... and I got NO help whatsoever.
Sadly the 7daystodie.com site is completly dead. Nothing gets posted there, nothing gets answered.
The only hope is the community helping... but they can'T help with the more insane problems.
-the overall development and goals
yes I had the long patchabsence and I had the alpha status rant... but this is different.
I dislike how they are handling the game/what their preferences are.
Instead of trying to fix a brilliant system with one fatal flaw (spamcrafting as an example, but not the only one), they completly rework the system to a super basic "get xp, learn whatever you want" boring and streamlined system.
Instead of trying to balance things (like weaponparts) they completly remove the progression and make it 6 stages instead of 600x4(4 parts all having quality, changing different stats about it)
it is sad to see them dumb down every system because they dislike 1-2 exploits.
Now they want you to "make a choice" of using weapon attachments.
Instead of fixing the water cans not disappearing, they actually say "ha now weaponattachments can visit the watercans in the void" instead of giving us a reason why you would waste a perfectly good attachment.
Those are all things that dumb down the game because they don't want to go through the act of balancing it.
I'm just waiting for the day where they remove vehicles because "you shouldnt be able to traverse the map this quickly", remove traders "because everything you find should feel special" remove electronics "because zombies should always feel like a threat"
Obviously, they wont do that... because it was too much work implementing those things. But that is their mentality. At least to my knowledge. And it has been stated by Gazz that they want to "game back" on people using their system in a way they didn't intend it.
I do these kinda regularly... and so I feel it is time to go over all the good, the meh and the bad once again.
So let me start with the good... something I do not talk about very often, since I do not feel the need to change anything about it and there are enough fanboys complimenting you:
The good
-voxel/physics
The world is awesome. While some minor bugs and annoyances do happen, over all I have not seen a game get voxels right to this degree. Except for maybe earth->stone transitions.... but other then that it looks and feels nearly perfect.
-zombies
while their AI is getting updated (finally) the look of the zombies(while definatly not perfect or diverse enough) are unique and their abilities and walkspeeds do make them stand out from each other.
-progression
I always loved the progression in this game. While I did not like the switch from "spamcrafting" to a more streamlined rpgish style (dont comment on this since you do not know the whole story and im too lazy to explain every detail. no im not pro spamcrafting) It still feels alright. It makes you feel like you really progress from day 1 with nothing but a stone axe to the later fully armed military guy.
-traders and electronics
they have been one of the greatest updates for this game.
they make the world a lot more dynamic and diverse. While I was hoping for some npc guards that shoot zombies... I guess that comes in a later alpha. Some adding to electrics should happen A18 so I'm happy and waiting
-the overall feel
It never feels out of place. The voxel/physics never feel just like an addon but feel like they are integral to the game.
Every weapon has its purpose and you never feel like the game is bull♥♥♥♥ting you to get a certain effect.
Well... nearly never (zombiebears on day 35 after not dying once is too brutal even on difficulty 6)
And while this doesn'T sound like much, I do enjoy so many aspects (smaller ones that I do not want to list because there are too many) which leads me to come back to the game every alpha to play another 100-200 hours, before waiting for the next update. And while I do realize that I'm only about in de middle, I still have played about 800hours of this game... and I do not regret putting in the money.
The reason WHY i constantly criticise, is because I want this game to be the best it can possibly be...
The meh
-patch frequency
This is something every negative steam review does so I wont go into it in detail. Yes i know developing is hard and you never know what can go wrong... but I DO think that updating to unity in alpha when at least 2 more alphas are planned only to very probably update again in beta is not needed... and a few other questionable descicions... but its their game...
I just think it could be faster for the amount of content we get.
-no pvp support
its a meme by now, but something that I really think could add a whole new playerbase.
I dislike offlineraiding... but it could be so easy to fix some pvp things without breaking singleplayer... but there is absolutly no desire to do anything pvp related... which is kinda sad.
-communication from the team
I know that if you do and cant keep your promise you are an ass and if you don'T talk to us you are an ass...
BUT why not simply say "look guys! this week we had problems with: "unity integration" "pathing" "lootcontainers bugging"
we expect to fix the latter two this week but the first is a bigger one and we expect about 3 weeks more. Will update you next week on what happened"
this isn't TOO big of a dealbreaker... but its still sad because so much of the negativity (especially on steam) could be avoided with regular updates on progression... and since you have weekly meetings that bring those points up anyways... taking 2 minutes to write that in the forums isn'T an issue (or shouldnt be)
A bit of a rant about alpha (only read if you are prepared to read an emotional rant):
-constant avoidance of criticism by simply saying "its an alpha"
I can't hear it anymore. This nearly made it into "the bad" category, but you cannot have the same argument for 4 years.
That is not how gamedevelopment works. You sell a product that is at least trying to be finished. You sell it to get the funds to do what you invisioned. But you don't even try to fix major issues most of the time (A17 will feature smaller maps to get a better performance... thats like reducing the quality to get better fps
... but at least its a start) and you don't even TRY to balance because "its just an alpha".
"Alpha is the stage when key gameplay functionality is implemented, and assets are partially finished. A game in alpha is feature complete, that is, game is playable and contains all the major features. These features may be further revised based on testing and feedback. Additional small, new features may be added, similarly planned, but unimplemented features may be dropped. Programmers focus mainly on finishing the codebase, rather than implementing additions. Alpha occurs eight to ten months before code release, but this can vary significantly based on the scope of content and assets any given game has. "
Things wrong with 7d2d's Alpha status:
things get added AND REMOVED over time
features are seemingly so big that one alpha takes as long as 9+ months (which should be the total developmental cycle of alphas)
"feedback" is something TFPs don'T even take. MAYBE if you are lucky or write staff directly they will direct the feedback onwards, but for 99% of the playerbase feedback wont get through, because its "just alpha"
Yes Madmole has redone the firezombie and the beartextures after facing major criticism under the video... but what else has changed?
The way trees are harvested changed 3-4 times and is currently bugged for the ENTIRE A16.
With the amount of money they got from sales they can rival other BIG companies, but only hired one pathing expert, but slowed down pace more and more over time.
This is not alphastatus... this is something different... its a developing game like minecraft. It develops over time...
I can't hear it anymore. This nearly made it into "the bad" category, but you cannot have the same argument for 4 years.
That is not how gamedevelopment works. You sell a product that is at least trying to be finished. You sell it to get the funds to do what you invisioned. But you don't even try to fix major issues most of the time (A17 will feature smaller maps to get a better performance... thats like reducing the quality to get better fps
... but at least its a start) and you don't even TRY to balance because "its just an alpha"."Alpha is the stage when key gameplay functionality is implemented, and assets are partially finished. A game in alpha is feature complete, that is, game is playable and contains all the major features. These features may be further revised based on testing and feedback. Additional small, new features may be added, similarly planned, but unimplemented features may be dropped. Programmers focus mainly on finishing the codebase, rather than implementing additions. Alpha occurs eight to ten months before code release, but this can vary significantly based on the scope of content and assets any given game has. "
Things wrong with 7d2d's Alpha status:
things get added AND REMOVED over time
features are seemingly so big that one alpha takes as long as 9+ months (which should be the total developmental cycle of alphas)
"feedback" is something TFPs don'T even take. MAYBE if you are lucky or write staff directly they will direct the feedback onwards, but for 99% of the playerbase feedback wont get through, because its "just alpha"
Yes Madmole has redone the firezombie and the beartextures after facing major criticism under the video... but what else has changed?
The way trees are harvested changed 3-4 times and is currently bugged for the ENTIRE A16.
With the amount of money they got from sales they can rival other BIG companies, but only hired one pathing expert, but slowed down pace more and more over time.
This is not alphastatus... this is something different... its a developing game like minecraft. It develops over time...
The bad
-the community
holy crap... while I understand that a lot of communities nowadays of alpha (or prealpha) games consist of two types of players:
'fan who visits the site daily' and 'average guy who once in a while looks for news but is pretty much absent' which means that only hardcorefans remain, trying to give points of criticism so obvious that they shouldn't need mentioning, they are still defended rigorously by nearly everyone on the forums, with only a few reasonable voices trying to find a middleground.
(I'm not innocent. I know that I can sound condescending even when i don't mean to and I get aggrevated pretty quickly when ppl misrepresent or talk ♥♥♥♥... which is not helping a good debate)
and nearly every problem one has is countered with "edit xml"... which is nice for them... but not for someone who actually enjoys playing with others... and if I would edit every xml file I disagree with, I'd not find a single server.
Which is why this argument would be helpful if I had a problem with it and ask for help... but oh well...
-the developers
like... I kinda like madmole and I love that faatal does regular updates on what he is doing. (only one really giving any infos about his current work)
I hate how they handle the people who have problems with the game. Namely: they don't do anything and say "its an alpha, deal with it!"
If there are ENOUGH people complaining then they will look into it... but support for one player? completly absent. My ticket from 2015 still didn'T get answered... back then I couldn't play multiplayer for over 1 1/2 years... and since I'm a multiplayer guy I couldn't play 7d2d... and I got NO help whatsoever.
Sadly the 7daystodie.com site is completly dead. Nothing gets posted there, nothing gets answered.
The only hope is the community helping... but they can'T help with the more insane problems.
-the overall development and goals
yes I had the long patchabsence and I had the alpha status rant... but this is different.
I dislike how they are handling the game/what their preferences are.
Instead of trying to fix a brilliant system with one fatal flaw (spamcrafting as an example, but not the only one), they completly rework the system to a super basic "get xp, learn whatever you want" boring and streamlined system.
Instead of trying to balance things (like weaponparts) they completly remove the progression and make it 6 stages instead of 600x4(4 parts all having quality, changing different stats about it)
it is sad to see them dumb down every system because they dislike 1-2 exploits.
Now they want you to "make a choice" of using weapon attachments.
Instead of fixing the water cans not disappearing, they actually say "ha now weaponattachments can visit the watercans in the void" instead of giving us a reason why you would waste a perfectly good attachment.
Those are all things that dumb down the game because they don't want to go through the act of balancing it.
I'm just waiting for the day where they remove vehicles because "you shouldnt be able to traverse the map this quickly", remove traders "because everything you find should feel special" remove electronics "because zombies should always feel like a threat"
Obviously, they wont do that... because it was too much work implementing those things. But that is their mentality. At least to my knowledge. And it has been stated by Gazz that they want to "game back" on people using their system in a way they didn't intend it.
). Roland is kind of a community manager too, getting info on the inside and sharing it bit by bit. This level of communication and newsfeed is quite decent - at least on these forums - not sure if it's properly conveyed on steam.