Sols "Pimp Dream" Mega Thread

Sinz

Sinz

New member
So I've posted quite a few threads in "Pimp Dreams" and had SIGNIFICANTLY MORE conversations about dreams for 7 Days to die.

One of my pimp dreams have even made it into the alpha that came after I posted it! Maybe just coincidence.

And there is a large amount of ideas I've had that I just haven't posted here.

I've noticed that some of my threads here have gone unnoticed.

So I decided to make a MEGA THREAD of my own where I just reply to my own thread with more of my ideas.

That way each idea I have should bump my other ideas.

Hopefully more of my ideas are seen this way.

Some of the stuff I say might've already been discussed in other threads and I've probably missed them sorry. :crushed:

I'll also be updating and re-posting some stuff from my older threads that still hasn't made it to the game yet.

And that's what "Pimp Dreams" is all about right?

We hope that our ideas inspire conversations among the community and the developers and leads to change in the development plan.

With that said, enough rambling on, I'll kick off this thread with one of my most recent and more exciting dreams for 7 Days to Die.

The Behemoth Update

dhno4QG.png


The behemoth has been dropped from the entire game....
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The main reason was pathing. It would have required major reworking to make something of that size work properly in the world and since it was not listed in the original kickstarter goals it was viewed as beyond the scope of the game. The team discussed it and it was cut. Same deal with ziplines. To get them to work properly would have added more work and since they also were not part of the original plan they were cut.
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First I'll talk about why I think the Behemoth shouldn't be cut from the game.

Lots of people I've talked to about 7DTD say that it falls off late game (or that there is no end game) and they get bored and I know how they feel. I've seen people on the forums express the same and I think even some TFP staff have talked about it. TFP have done great work with the player progression using leveling and it makes the mid early game and mid game last a lot longer. But once you are max level with a big base the game still falls off. The main drive to continue playing at that point is finish build plans. But that is limited by the imagination, ambition and persistence of the player.

I think that late/end game would be more exciting and interesting if there was a challenge that is exclusive to late game and actually is a real threat to maxed out players and bases, because no threat gets boring.

I think the Behemoth is the zombie for the job.

I also think people will strive to reach that point where they are challenged by the behemoth and that it will have entertaining replay-ability if it is made to be a real threat.

So hopefully TFP change their mind about the behemoth. And if the community (yes you) get on board about adding the behemoth maybe TFP will add the behemoth.

I have a lot imagined for the Behemoth. But I'll be touching on a lot more than just the Behemoth here.

I'll start with what I think is only the only place to start. The origin and lore. How did a zombie mutated that much come to be? Now I know that TFP probably have their own brainstorm of ideas for origin of their zombie virus and I think they are heading in the direction of a malevolent experiment gone wrong by Dishong. But they haven't confirmed it yet so I'm assuming they haven't settled with the origin yet so I think there is still room to add to it.

  1. I think the awesome team of POI/prefab developers in TFP should make a new POI just for the origin of the behemoth. The run down nuclear power plant. The post apocalyptic world of 7DTD seems like it is set a long time after the apocalypse to me. So any nuclear power plants have probably melted down by now.
  2. This would also server as a great origin to the glowing irradiated zombies.
  3. I think this prefab should have noticeable evidence that the company was partnered with Dishong or the facility is owned by Dishong.
  4. I think this prefab should have noticeable evidence suggesting that the facility was more than just a power plant and that it was conducting experiments.
  5. I imagine it would have areas flooded with radiation. Obviously this would include the reactor chamber/room but I think it shouldn't be limited to that one area. Of course that is all up to POI devs. (FINALLY!, a use for the hazmat suit!)
  6. I think it should be the BIGGEST POI to date. It would take some serious research to get all the right facilities of a nuclear power plant.
  7. I think it should be the MOST DIFFICULT POI to date. (While radiation will contribute to that, perhaps a surprise auto turret/s in the high security experiment area would be fun)
  8. I think the POI should have a new zombie type, A lab coat zombie. As well as all the zombies you'd expect to find: Irradiated zombies, hazmat zombies, utility zombies, business zombies, etc.
  9. I think the POI should NOT contain a live behemoth. The reason I think it shouldn't be in there will be evident when you read further down about how I think the behemoth should function and behave. That being said, Maybe there could be a behemoth corpse somewhere inside. This can be evidence that this is its origin. Perhaps located in the irradiated reactor room which can be viewed safely in the non irradiated control room through bulletproof glass. Or perhaps it could be where the toxic waste or depleted fuel is disposed. Note that perhaps a way to have a static behemoth corpse could be to have a sleeper behemoth that is guaranteed to be dead.


OK so now I'll talk about how, when and why I think the behemoth should appear.

Why: I think this zombies purpose should be "base breaching" (aside from late game challenge and entertainment).

When: This thing should only be spawned for high progression players when their base is strong enough to withstand standard blood moon hordes with ease.

How: My idea of how the behemoth spawns requires some detailed explanation. I think it should have a complex spawn criteria.

Spawn Criteria:

  1. Specific game stage reached (really high).
  2. Once per solar eclipse. I think a solar eclipse should be added as a "super blood moon" but should only occur every 4th week or maybe every 8th week (monthly or bimonthly) and it should be clear when it's going to happen because the moon is really slow to cover the sun. It should be a short duration. Either way, if it's added, it should probably be optional and configurable (frequency, duration, intensity). And if the eclipse isn't added the behemoth should only spawn during monthly or bimonthly blood moons.
  3. Map heat accumulated to specific value to ensure that it only spawns at well established bases. (I don't know how map heat works under the hood. I assume that it's a cumulative value that's static to a broadened location and only certain things add to that value like running a forge. I assume that value goes down over time when map heat is no longer being generated. I imagine when it reaches a certain value, screamer spawn criteria is reached and screamers spawn. Assuming the above is true, I think the behemoth should have it's own copy of a map heat value that goes down over time slower when not being generated. And obviously it would need a higher map heat value than a screamer for this to read as a positive in the spawn criteria.)


Continued on next post (more than 10k characters lol).
 
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Behmoth Update Continued

And now I'll explain how I think the behemoth could function and behave to achieve its purpose of "base breaching".

  1. This thing should be like a boss (so, weaker than a zombie bear lol). HUGE health, bullet sponge. It would be good if its health could be dynamic based on the sum of all players progression in proximity. That way single players don't get rekt and multiplayers don't just own it.
  2. I like the idea of a unique weak spot on it's model that isn't it's head (because the head is big and too easy). Maybe the weak spot could be exposed for a short time. Maybe the behemoth could have a state (with unique visuals and sounds) that it goes into periodically for a short time where it is more vulnerable. Maybe a combination of the two. Perhaps a big long roar and you shoot the inside of its mouth. The roar could even debuff nearby players. Maybe the debuff could be a slow because the roar is so ear piercing.
  3. I think it should not have a health bar, but it should have several unique model or model mesh stages to indicate damage. Like Ark dinos.
  4. I think when it spawns it should make a unique (and scary) sound that's loud and clear to a large area (the roar).
  5. I think it needs a charge attack (the base breach). This attack should only be used when blocks obstruct it's AI path to a player and lots of room for a run up (minimum block count), this thing would be too over powered if it charged players too. The charge attack should have an obvious wind up animation and sound so people can react to get off the wall it's charging. The charge attack should deal extra damage to blocks (base breach) and deal a large area effect block damage. The area effect block damage should be enough to one shot a hole big enough for a behemoth into a reinforced concrete wall. That massive damage shouldn't be a problem because the minimum run up distance should make multiple charge attacks unlikely. And lastly the charge attack needs a good cooldown.
  6. I think the behemoths movement speed when not charging should be slow. It shouldn't sprint everywhere, it's huge, it doesn't need to.
  7. I think the behemoths standard attack should also deal area effect block damage (its fists are huge). Just not as big or as much as the charge.
  8. I think this thing should deal unreasonable amounts of damage. One shot players (don't get hit). It would be great if it had an animation to pick up a player model and eat it or slamming it on the ground.
  9. Oh, and of course, it needs to fly gyro copters.

A talk about "high game stage" blood moons

A strong follow up post to my writings about behemoths would be to talk about end game blood moon and difficulty settings.

Not really a pimp dream but I do want to talk about it and I do think changes need to be made here but I don't have any well thought out ideas on this.

I think, in it's current state (A16.4), end game blood moons are too hard to defend against efficiently.

Alpha 16 introduced multiple factors contributing to this. The main things being:

  1. A bunch of new and more difficulty zombies. Feral and Irradiated zombies with more HP and HP regen.
  2. Player level bases spawn scaling.


On the other end of the spectrum A16 also introduced new and more powerful defenses that can be used against the new and more powerful threats.

Those defenses being the electrical traps.

In my experience, at about level 120+ blood moon starts sending large quantities of irradiated weights and cops, the strongest zeds.

In my attempts defending against them, I have used, steel walls, blade traps and electric fences on top of steel spikes as well as me and auto turrets covering all of the above. AND STILL, the majority of the spikes and blade traps break and I use a TONNE of ammo between me and the turrets. Also i use explosives on zeds before they reach everything I mentioned above.

Repairs are always substantial.

Add 2 more level 120 players to the mix and it's insane.

And that's on normal difficulty. I can't imagine insane difficulty. Wait I can imagine, I imagine the irradiated HP regen would outdo any amount of damage me and my traps could output.

My point is, I don't think the damage output of players and traps would be viable in insane difficulty.

I appreciate that this is probably imbalanced because the new zombies and traps weren't extensively tested at this level pre A16 and because testing is focused on normal difficulty.

And I'm not trying to complain about it.

I'm bringing it up because I think it needs to be addressed and I want to discuss ways that can be done.

I like the normal difficulty setting.

I like the new difficult zombies.

I like the new progressive blood moon hordes.

So I think defenses need a buff:

  1. I've seen other people modding in an upgraded reinforced blade trap that can output damage for longer before breaking. I made the same changes when I first encountered the A16 end game blood moon hordes. I think that's a good start.
  2. I've also modded reinforced steel upgrade to steel spikes which I think would be another good addition.
  3. A higher caliber gun turret (AK47 turret) would be a fine addition.
  4. Electric fence posts can only have one parent wire which is a problem when you want to attach the shock wire to the post that has the power source wire attached to it (you need 5 post to make a full square). I think the posts need to be changed so that they can have a parent wire from a power source as well as a parent fence wire (example: power source -> post 1 -> post 2 -> post 3 -> post 4 -> post 1, post 1 needs to be able to have two parent wires).
  5. Keeping auto turrets and player munitions and mine fields stocked takes a lot of coal, nitrate, lead and brass.
    I think (and I've modded this myself):
    • A more reliable source of brass should be added. Adding copper and brass ores to world gen allows players to mine brass and then zombies wont need to be the source of infinite brass anymore (who carries door knobs around anyway?).
    • Coal and Nitrate ores need to be given more HP and more yield per hit resulting in more gunpowder.
 
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Nice thread!

Some really nice ideas, some not 100% agreeable.

The biggest one is the behemoth.

It doesn't fit into the game. At least in its original look. (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/96kzb7hiz80/maxresdefault.jpg)

It should be a chunk of meat. Or a lot of zombies melted into each other. Because every enemy ingame is "realistic".

But the behemoth has no reason to be there. His looks are stonegianty, his size is supernatural and his animations super clunky.

EITHER make it a boss like for a quest...

Or redesign it. Because I really dont think the Behemoth in its planned form neither fit into the game, nor looked very interesting/good.

 
Yeah I agree with you on the looks. I preferred the first concept art of it compared to the one that got modeled. I liked the eyes, the current model looks kinda alien without them. I think it has too much external bone plating. Opposed to the bones on the first concept art which look like they've chaotically mutated too big and protrude the muscle tissue inconsistently. I also think the current version is too skinny, I liked the bulky look. But skinny works better for models not clipping into themselves I guess?

I also agree that it doesn't fit in the game well which is why I talked so much about its origin.

I would find it more acceptable if it was some sort of genetic experiment made by Dishong. I imagine that Dishong were trying to make super humans that can be sold for warfare (pre apocalypse). Splicing human DNA other creatures (sharks, reptiles, bugs etc.) for specific improvements to things like, bone density, immune system, rapid growth and healing, testosterone production and muscle density. I imagine that they tried adding gamma radiation (the hulk lol) to their experiments and lost control of the subjects.

Also you shouldn't worry about its animations. I don't think it's finished.

I really like the idea of a Boss made of zombies all connected to each other. Some grotesque fusion of rotten zombies still animated to life by the virus. It's a creature that's been used plenty in horror film and games. It would be nice to see a TFP version as an addition rare boss type enemy.

 
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Another dream I have for the game is focused on multiplayer play. An extensions to the land claim system and friends system.

The Faction Update

I think that the way I imagine a faction system would greatly improve 7 Days to Die as it is, but would also be crucial for any alternate PVP game modes.

I think sharing and land claims can be improved via a faction system detailed as follows.

I think any implementation of a faction system would need it's own tab in the user interface. I'll start with a picture of how I imagine the faction UI to look to help explaining how I imagine the faction system.

i8pUXzT.png


This clearly needs further work so please suggest any changes and additions.

I imagine players can make and name their own faction.

I imagine factions can have a 3 digit tag which will be visible next to player names in chat and on floating player names.

I imagine the "invite to faction" button will be in the player list UI next to the send friend request button.

I imagine players will be able to make and name their own ranks within their faction and assign members to those ranks.

I imagine that factions ranks can be assigned specific permissions relating to land claim/protection and faction management.

I imagine that land claim blocks will be changed so that they can be picked up and only defined faction ranks can do so.

Currently structures like crafting stations or electrical appliances can only be picked up by the player who placed them only if that player has a land claim block in range of those structures. I think that this should be changed over to the faction system so that anyone with permission can pick up these structures.

Currently land claim blocks provide reduction of explosive damage to blocks within the zone. I think this should be configurable so that claim owners and faction members can use explosives to mine or for demolitions within their own claim without removing claim and lowering their defenses.

I think lockable doors and containers should have an additional security option added for faction members. The options would be: Unlocked, Faction Locked and Locked. Where Faction Locked would still be locked to strangers but would be unlocked to faction members, no lock code required AND no need to copy paste 100 lock codes into every damn lock! (Also, this way lock codes can't be leaked)

I think the other permissions for factions ranks shown in the demonstration picture are self explanatory.

In the demonstration picture I have a list of factions and details labeled as "Faction Politics". Most of this, I think, is self explanatory. But I think war status should be automatically change to "at war" when one faction destroys another factions claimed blocks. "Declare war" is a button that can be clicked to send a notification with a sound to the rival faction. And I think if two factions are at war with one another, one faction must click request truce and the other must click accept truce for the status to change.

I think factions should be able to configure specific permission for their allied factions. And in my demonstration UI picture I've added a section where you can see the permissions the other faction has allowed you. And I think a faction should be able to click on a denied permission with an allied faction to send a request notification to that faction for that permission.

I also think that players who are in a faction should be able to place a land claim block outside of the claim zone clearance of the factions claim and then hold E on that LCB and toggle it between faction claim and private claim. Thus if they were kicked from the faction they would still maintain ownership of any claims they'd set to "private" and they could then change those to a new faction. But this should only be possible to the placer of the LCB so that claim can't be stolen. If a player who placed claims for the faction is kicked from the faction those claims are forfeit.

I think with all these additions a log would be necessary.

I think the log should record:

Faction invitations

Faction joins

Faction kicks

Alliance requests

War declarations

Truce requests

Changes to member ranks

Changes to rank permissions

Changes to ally permissions

Changes to factions permissions with allies

Requests for permissions from allies

Placement of land claim blocks

Pickup of land claim blocks

Destruction of doors, containers, electrical appliances and workstations (inside job)

A system like this has potential for a lot more than what I've talked about here. For example a reputation system. But I think I'll keep this pimp dream small, it's a good start and would serve as a good extension to land claim and protection

I've got idea related to factions that I'm on the fence about.

Land claim could be made indestructible to players until both factions agree to "go to war".

I think a function like this would need to be a toggle configuration since some PVPers are for and some are against consented battle.

But a feature like this would encourage more player vs player. Player vs offline base isn't what PVP is about anyway.

PVP Idea

An idea for PVP that would tie in with the above proposed faction system. This idea is focused on an alternate game mode for PVP and wouldn't have a place in a PVE server.

A "Save Claimed Base" and "Restore Base" button.

Might sound weird but let me explain.

All blocks within the claimed area can be backed up and restored in real time without server restart (like coppi mod).

Raiders come along and destroy everything needed to break in, destroy the beds and win the siege. They get the loot. They leave.

The victim restores their base from the saved backup. BUT!

The restored base doesn't restore what was in the containers.

The "restore base" function would need restriction based on enemy proximity and a cooldown timer after enemies leave proximity. This would prevent it being used to prevent return loot trips or as an active defense against a raid.

I think this could have potential because it would encourage prolonged PVP. So often I've seen people get raided and flat out quit. PVP is player vs player, it's about the battle, not the griefing and not destroying competition. With a feature like this players can get back on their feet faster after being raided and the action can begin again sooner without having to start from scratch. Players would be more likely to make adjustments to their build based on each defeat and learn how to combat player raids faster with a feature like this.

Anyway guys, that's more than enough for one post. Thanks for reading.

Please give me feedback and let me know your thoughts, whether your thoughts might be changes to my ideas, agreement, disagreement or ideas of your own. I appreciate brainstorming.
 
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Regarding late-game base defense...

Don't use explosives on rad zombies.

They have explosion resistance, so low chance of blowing bits off and less damage.

 
About that PvP update:
ohCYkAy.jpg
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Actually I haven't played PVP for quite a few alphas now. I used to play it back when it was more viable in comparison to PVE and exploits weren't well known.

But if you look here you will see that TFP do plan to turn their attention to PVP and I think I might link my comment in this thread in that PVP thread.

Regarding late-game base defense...
Don't use explosives on rad zombies.

They have explosion resistance, so low chance of blowing bits off and less damage.
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I didn't know that. I've never looked at their properties. But I usually focus explosives on groups of zombies that I know I can one shot with explosives. Gotta use that gunpowder sparingly.

The behemoth has been dropped from the entire game....
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You trolling? Well at least you've given me confirmation on that, thanks. It was a bit of a stretch to fit that into the game lore. That's why that was my focus. Is there discussion or comments on reasons why? Could you please direct me to that?

 
The main reason was pathing. It would have required major reworking to make something of that size work properly in the world and since it was not listed in the original kickstarter goals it was viewed as beyond the scope of the game. The team discussed it and it was cut. Same deal with ziplines. To get them to work properly would have added more work and since they also were not part of the original plan they were cut.

 
Ah that makes a lot of sense. Bugger, that's a shame, that probably means it wont make said "DLCs" either since it doesn't work due to base code of a game fundamental.

Interesting that the team decided to cut it completely and not postpone it. Especially considering how much they don't want the game to fall off late game. But I'm sure TFP will do a good job fixing that, they're working hard and doing well with game staging and player progression.

 
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I updated the first post about the behemoth since I was informed that it was cut from the entire game.

 
Nerd pole fix

Just FYI a nerd pole is when a player jumps and places a block under their feet over and over until they’re standing on a pole.

I think the way to fix the nerd pole exploit is to make it so players can’t place blocks while in the air.

This might make some building inconvenient and I have an idea on how to solve that too. Currently if you aim your crosshair very close to the edge of a block you can place a block on the face you can’t see. Here is a picture of this:

FDlmbBY.png


The area to aim at for this to happen should be expanded or maybe a shortcut key could be added and when it’s held it could expand the area to aim at. This would allow players can place blocks up high without jumping and it would make a lot more building easier.

Scaffold blocks idea

I also think that TFP should add a wood and metal scaffolding block to assist with base construction (NO NERD POLES!).

People often use frames to climb buildings instead of ladders, or build bridges over traps etc. and they only need a few frames that they can retrieve them. Lots of people think this is a bit cheaty since 8 frames can be picked up and reused as an endless ladder/bridge. But perhaps frame placement can be restricted to claimed area only if my scaffolding blocks are in the game. But restricting frame placement to claimed zone has some serious draw backs too like having to place land claim before building any structure.

ANYWAY!

The scaffolding blocks would function as follows:

  1. Same shape as Metal Trussing Block but functions as a ladder on all sides.
  2. (Optional) Can be placed anywhere but can only be picked up inside claimed areas (instant pick up timer).
  3. Both should have stability glue the same as wood and rebar frames.
  4. (Optional) Wood scaffold should require nails. The reason for this is to reduce people mass crafting them on the fly while scavenging to climb like people do with frames. This way if people want to climb POIs they need to use ladders and if they want improvised bridges they need to plan and craft blocks in advance.
  5. Metal scaffold crafted in forge.



Even without frame placement restrictions and scaffold pick up restrictions I still think a scaffold block should be added just to make building easier, especially if nerd poling is removed.

Minecraft style edge cling

Lastly I think that players shouldn’t fall off ledges or ladders when crouched (like in Minecraft).
 
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Manufactured VS Jury-rigged

Disclaimer, I may have had to much to drink before writing the “manufactured vs jury-rigged” posts

I think that this topic is incredibly important for 7DTD (and for any post-apocalyptic game).

The way manufactured/jury-rigged items are implemented can set the realism and thus create immersion.

The way manufactured/jury-rigged items are implemented can enrich loot and crafting while controlling a gap between those elements of gameplay and content.

All this can make a big difference to gameplay.

At the moment I find it hard to determine the direction TFP are taking with manufactured items vs jury-rigged items.

I think TFP are aiming to make the game feel realistic enough to be immersive using jury-rigging and while it’s obvious that some hasn’t been done yet and some will be revised and adjusted in other alphas, I think that lots of opportunity for manufactured vs jury-rigged has been missed or hasn’t been approved for the game. This makes me worry that the game is maybe losing direction on what could be an epic, fundamental element.

I’ll elaborate and be more specific as to why I’m worried for the direction of the game. The reason I’m worried is because I feel like TFP have neglected all the manufactured loot that should be in the world that would make for great gameplay against zombies and great gameplay for crafting and building. Imagine you’re in a real-life zombie apocalypse, you think about what to do, do you once think about jury-rigging? No, your mind goes straight to arming yourself with manufactured goods. You’d probably drive your manufactured car too. But in the world of 7 Days to Die there is a severe drought of manufactured goods. There are only sedans, no RVs or utility vehicles. There are no baseball bats, crow bars, etc. And those are just some of the common iconic things we see in post-apocalyptic zombie pop culture. I haven’t even scratched the surface with manufactured goods that could be utilized against zombies. There is so much that needs to be added. I’m not trying to diss the game, I’m just bringing those things up to try make my point. And by no means am I saying ditch jury-rigging either, I love what TFP have done so far with jury-rigging! Keep it coming!

I hope the following gets revised by TFP:

  1. On one hand, there are many items players can craft that look like manufactured items (for example, the miners hat, tool handles, the handle bars, etc. And soon in A17, weapons and maybe more?).
  2. On the other hand, there are many jury-rigged items that players can craft which are much more immersive (most items, but for example: spiked club, blunderbuss the armor sets, the chemistry station, the minibike, all the electrical appliances and more)
  3. Meanwhile when you raid a pharmacy you find jury-rigged chemistry stations inside or raid a military base and find jury-rigged missile launchers.

So currently, manufactured items vs jury-rigged items are conflicting and crossing over where they shouldn’t.

Here are some details for how I envision manufactured vs jury-rigged gameplay in the world of 7DTD:

  1. I think manufactured items should exclusively be available as loot. Players should not be able to craft any manufactured items (like weapons have been teased for in A17, but I’ll have to wait and see about that).
  2. I think all current manual labor tools (except iron pickaxe and hoe) look manufactured and need new models that look shabbier like the iron pickaxe.
  3. I think there should be a set of manufactured tools (fiber glass handles) that have better durability and perform better than player crafted tools but cannot be maintained via player crafted materials or cannot be maintained at all.
  4. I think there should be more jury-rigged firearms, like pipe guns from fallout 4.
  5. I think manufactured weapons should be modifiable, jury-rigged style, and such mods should be irreversible.
  6. I think cosmetic building blocks with no gameplay function that look manufactured should be craftable as a compromise to realism in favor of building (because you know we need our pimped presidential suite!).


To expand more on manufactured and jury-rigged items I’ll be making separate posts later that will be loaded full of game addition suggestions for:

  1. Prefabs
  2. Hand-held equipment
  3. Powered hand-held equipment
  4. Clothing/Armor
  5. Workstations
  6. Vehicles


Stay tuned.

And as usual:

Thanks for reading.

Please give me feedback and let me know your thoughts, whether your thoughts might be changes to my ideas, agreement, disagreement or ideas of your own. I appreciate brainstorming.
 
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Vehicles, Manufactured VS Jury-rigged

Note:

I am aware that devs have confirmed A17 drivable vehicles are crafted and assembled in a work bench then the complete vehicle is placed like a block.

I am not sure if this is TFPs intend this to be permanent.

I think TFP was onto a good thing with the way a minibike was assembled in A16.

I think that TFP should bring back A16 style vehicle assembly in a later alpha perhaps with some changes or expansions.

I think TFP are doing a great job with the jury-rigged vehicles.

Currently in 7DTD, manufactured vehicles cannot be driven and I think it’s been stated by devs that they never will be.

I think all manufactured vehicles should be drivable.

This is how I imagine that:

  1. Each vehicle you see has a UI like the A16 minibike with parts
  2. Majority of vehicles in world are missing parts, have broken parts and have no fuel (assuming survivors before you never maintained them or got them wrecked)
  3. Parts cannot be repaired simply with a repair kit on the spot (perhaps a repair kit with the part in a workbench or even a more elaborate recipe for repair)
  4. Some parts should be irreparable once broken and therefore should be maintained, the HUD should have some form of warning towards this.
  5. Some parts should require a perk to be removed, installed and repaired
  6. Most vehicles don’t have keys, hotwire perk required
  7. 2nd teir of hotwire perk allows key crafting


I also think there needs to be more variety of manufactured vehicles in the world.

Mainly for two reasons.

  1. They are what you would expect to see in the real world. This adds immersion. Also has unique loot list potential.
  2. They each have unique functions and uses when assuming that they are drivable.

Here is a list in no particular order:

  1. Pickup truck
  2. Van
  3. RV
  4. SUV
  5. Motorcycle
  6. Medium sized box truck
  7. Large truck cab
  8. Flat deck trailer
  9. Gas tank trailer (full of mostly highly explosive fumes since most gas is long scavenged)
  10. Shipping container trailer
  11. Tank (uses ammo and missiles)
  12. And obviously, a pram!


I easily could’ve made that list bigger but I appreciate that making these would be A LOT of work so I want to keep it realistic.

Vehicles that didn’t make the cut (but hopefully one day they will? Modders?):

  1. Ambulance (unique function, siren draws zeds)
  2. Police car (unique function, siren draws zeds)
  3. Taxi
  4. Bus
  5. Garbage truck
  6. Fire engine (function, siren draws zeds, water cannon)
  7. Military truck
  8. Cement mixer truck (unique function, 2x mixer crafting speed)
  9. Buggy (this could be jury-rigged)
  10. The bat mobile


Finally, I’ll talk about vehicle mods.

  1. We have no idea what mods are in store for A17 but I’ll talk about my vision for mods in correspondence with the ideas.
  2. I think that jury-rigged vehicles should have better mods and be more modifiable than manufactured vehicles
  3. I imagine mods to jury-rigged vehicles will be removable but some mods to manufactured vehicles will be permanent
  4. I imagine all vehicle mods would look jury-rigged (even mods compatible with manufactured vehicles), and therefore, they’re exclusively player crafted
  5. I imagine crafting, installing and removing vehicle mods would be gated through perks
  6. I imagine some vehicle types are more modifiable than others, for example the RV and the bus
  7. I imagine vehicles with lots of inside space (RV, bus and truck trailers) could be compatible with mobile base style mods (beds, workstations, traps, etc.)


Vehicle mods:

  1. Mad max/punisher style vehicle armor
  2. Bull bars, plows and other front mounted offensive armor
  3. Roof mounted auto turrets
  4. Roof mounted passenger turrets
  5. Side mounted spikes
  6. Wheel blades
  7. Storage expansion
  8. Spotlights
  9. Battery bank
  10. Electric cage
  11. Siren (to draw zeds or scare rivals in pvp)


That’s all.

So as usual:

Thanks for reading.

Please give me feedback and let me know your thoughts, whether your thoughts might be changes to my ideas, agreement, disagreement or ideas of your own. I appreciate brainstorming.
 
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Game Launcher


Currently the launcher for 7DTD looks like this:

SlosopE.png


  1. First off, I think that the artists should give this launcher some love lol.
  2. But more importantly, I think this launcher needs a bunch more things added to it and should launch every time by default.
  3. I think all the existing options in the current launcher should be moved over to a tab called tools or settings or options or something.

I think the main page and other tabs of the launcher should have:

  1. A nice 7DTD themed arty wrapper.
  2. A news/patch-notes tab that uses official sources with hyperlinks to read more from the source.
  3. A dev tracker tab that consolidates all the official dev posting sources like madmoles tumbler, twitter, youtube, forum stuff maybe, and more.
  4. A tab for trending forum posts.
  5. A mods tab. For now it would probably only link to popular mod threads on the forum but I assume that eventually this could be removed when the game supports the steam workshop.
  6. Maybe a tab with links to sponsored content creators from twitch/youtube?
  7. A nice “report issue” button that links to the bug report section of the forum lol.



It’s hard for players to track all the previews because there are so many different places and sources to track and it must be hard for TFP to keep track of their wider player community comments between all of those places that support communication like the forums, steam community pages, tumblr, twitter, youtube, twitch and who knows where else. Especially when there are multiple accounts and what not, things get missed

 
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Sharing Map Discovery (Cartography)

Currently in A16, we can share map markers.

I think players should be able to share their exploration of the map.

This could be implemented in a simple way, the same as how we share map markers. But I would like it If we had to craft a physical map and share it face to face. It could be like a schematic that is consumed (actually now that I think about it, why are any schematics/books consumed upon being read?!).

I would also like If we could craft a map canvas that we can place in our base (like Ark).

Here is how I imagine a map canvas would function:

There would be different sized map canvases to choose to craft.

You can see the full extents of the map on the canvas without opening up any UI.

To update the map canvas with new exploration you need to use a paint brush and paint.

Other players can interact with the map to update their UI map to show your exploration.

KPbVt5K.png
 
A Fix For: Servers In The "Modded" Category Getting Less Player Traffic

Currently in A16 the server browser has categories split up into tabs and has a tab for vanilla servers and a separate tab for modded servers.

Currently simple changes to the game settings move servers to the modded section when they shouldn’t (For example. Turning on air drop markers or HUD bars for hunger and thirst).

Servers in the modded tab get significantly less player traffic.

May people of the 7DTD community dislike this for obvious reasons. I’ve seen many requests for it to be changed/fixed.

The solution is simple.

Remove the modded tab.

Put all modded and vanilla servers in one tab.

Add a column that indicates if the server is modded (like the other columns).

This will undoubtably increase player traffic on modded servers significantly for obvious reasons.

Reasons like:

Many players will just choose a server from the first list they see.

Majority of players who avoid “modded” servers because they want vanilla probably don’t know that vanilla settings flag servers as “modded”.

P.S. I still think there are many settings that shouldn’t flag a server as “modded”.
 
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