[Suggestion] This game needs more medieval and steam engines!

H

Hollowprime

New member
(not sure if the right subforum)

Hello everyone! This is a TLDR post I made from here

https://www.reddit.com/r/7daystodie/comments/8ktxh5/this_game_requires_more_medieval_and_steam
regarding why the game needs more medieval and steam technologies and why they make more sense in this game.
In short what we're missing from the game :

-Portcullis aka castle gates with spikes aka murder holes. Instructions are easy to follow: Just keep opening and closing a gate while stabbing zombies and unprepared bystanders from bellow,worked pretty well in middle ages too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portcullis

-Pikes/spears/naginata. They are easy to medium to hard to craft and are perfect for impaling,decapitating or even slashing limbs of stationary targets . Since they require some distance for them to work they are preferable for defense positions (they can be hit through holed walls)! Pro tip: cover with grease to avoid being grabbed from zombies!

-Burning oil. Has a similar but more severe effect than molotov . It can spread and maintain burning effect for longer .It might not destroy the steel eating hands of zombies but sure as hell can melt their crippling feet. Or at least slow them down (it's oil),or even more hilariously make the ground hot slippery so basically both . Can be placed as traps or mechanisms in the edges of the top of your structures and rain hell in zombies bellow. Warning! increases heat dramatically and requires preheating it,do not use it unless already invaded!

-Catapults/trebuchets/gravity "bombs" generally traps or throwing mechanisms that storm big rocks/stone/metal/bones/the crushed hopes and heads of your enemies in zombies. Mostly zombies. Smaller versions can be placed on top of your walls for maximum defense value! Cons: Require manual reloading.

-Steam engines. The in between stage of middle ages and the age of information (I'm looking at you ,you useless TV panels). When you are short in gas engines and batteries are nowhere to be found or crafted, your classic totally-not-environmentally-good steam engine burns anything from plasstic,to fossil fuels to the dreams and hopes of humanity to produce steady amounts of electricity since ancient times (early 1900's or something). It requires some water to function (snow?) , pistons (a technology in between forged iron and steel) and are generally used by every nation ever existed pre zombie war apocalypse to generate dirt cheap electricity .

There are many more suggestions and ideas in this thread and mostly laughs,but please do consider giving your opinion.

 
Since this was suggested on steam and overwhelmingly everyone said no, i'll copy my response

Most of those make no sense or already exist

Portculis already exists, you can use bars, hatches, or a variety of blocks to create murder holes.

Spears are in development, but are actually HORRIBLE weapons for zombies because they are not designed to impale the head of a stationairy target let alone a moving target that a zombie would be. They would be prone to skipping off the curved shape of the skull, or getting stuck in bone.

Burning Oil would be next to useless, its not that hot and would scald flesh and do nothing to a zombie.

Catapults, trebuchet, etc are siege weapons and not meant for use against small fast moving targets. They are also basically stationairy and require multiple people to operate so again basically useless in this type of game.

Steam Engines - again just useless. Gas, batteries, and engines are incredibly easy to get. Just wrench a few cars and you have all 3. So no real use for em as their are more efficient options already available from nearly day one.

Again, there is absolutely no reason at all to EVER add steam engines as the gas engines we have are already available early in the game and are superior in every way. Literally all you need is a wrench and you have all the engines and batteries you could ever want scavenged from the world around you.

 
Agree with Brian...

Let's see, Portcullis is basically a big gate, same as jail door and/or garage door.

Spears one day or another will show up on 7dtd (Soon I hope, to give players a early weapon with some "safe" range [same as the sledgehammer maybe?])

Burning Oil is not a good thing to add (and flamethrower trap is in development)

Catapults, trebuchet has not sense at all, we have turrets (shotgun turret <3)... a "gravity bomb" too, especially with the molotov, pipe bomb and TNT on the game, with is basically a grenade.

About steam engines... well, I've never become short on gas, or engines, or batteries... just disassemble a few cars and you got everything you need. Actually I've got a workbench just for crafting gas barrels (and shale is easy as hell to find, just dig in the desert and you will find a big vein or walk around burnt forest).

 
Since this was suggested on steam and overwhelmingly everyone said no, i'll copy my response
Most of those make no sense or already exist

Portculis already exists, you can use bars, hatches, or a variety of blocks to create murder holes.

Spears are in development, but are actually HORRIBLE weapons for zombies because they are not designed to impale the head of a stationairy target let alone a moving target that a zombie would be. They would be prone to skipping off the curved shape of the skull, or getting stuck in bone.

Burning Oil would be next to useless, its not that hot and would scald flesh and do nothing to a zombie.

Catapults, trebuchet, etc are siege weapons and not meant for use against small fast moving targets. They are also basically stationairy and require multiple people to operate so again basically useless in this type of game.

Steam Engines - again just useless. Gas, batteries, and engines are incredibly easy to get. Just wrench a few cars and you have all 3. So no real use for em as their are more efficient options already available from nearly day one.

Again, there is absolutely no reason at all to EVER add steam engines as the gas engines we have are already available early in the game and are superior in every way. Literally all you need is a wrench and you have all the engines and batteries you could ever want scavenged from the world around you.
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In the steam forums people were banned for constantly going off topic on the post and the moderator there encouraged people to not bash on new ideas.

On reddit it's the complete opposite. There was a surprising amount of people who liked the idea or even better suggested amazing improvements over the current ideas.

I'm not such a fan of a trebuchet (unless it's for sieging but then we could make a cannon out of blunderbuss) but I'm ok with flame traps. Some alternative to burning oil would be sending flaming debris down on zombies,or perhaps something like the flaming turret trap of fallout 4,or even better spikes of hellish fire.

Steam engines are what I'd consider an engine substitute ,easy to mass produce (unlike engines which are non craftable),require fossil fuel to run and are generally cheap to build. Maybe people imagine steam punk scenarios too but it's more scifi than reality. A hydroelectric power plant is also neat but I imagine this as a POI rather than an actual generator with turbines.

Also I honestly believe wind turbines to be the absolute best alternative to solar panels since they have a much more stable energy output on windy areas like the snowbiome and the desert (we can literally see the winds there). Would be a cool addon for late game scenarios: If you are in the desert you're probably better off with solar panels,but if you are in the cold and rainy snow biome wind turbines should be a better alternative. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

A little bit offtopic,what do people think of crafting currently uncraftable must goods like engines,lead batteries and beakers? I know weapons will be craftable in A17 without having mods (kinda like the opposite of fallout 4 and without having access to an awesome assembly line,of which I am a huge fan btw) ,but engines,lead batteries and beakers seem the obvious logical step.

Thank for your input btw.

 
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Thankfully, some good mods allow crafting of batteries, engines, steel cased ammo, etc. I'm all for it. The more options, the merrier (in most cases).

 
Some alternative to burning oil would be sending flaming debris down on zombies,or perhaps something like the flaming turret trap of fallout 4,or even better spikes of hellish fire.
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It's called a molotov and it does the same thing. That plus hot oil wouldn't actually set anything on fire, it just scalds stuff which is useless against zombies.

Steam engines are what I'd consider an engine substitute ,easy to mass produce (unlike engines which are non craftable),require fossil fuel to run and are generally cheap to build.
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Again though, why would you EVER use an inferior steam engine that requires the same components to run as an easy to acquire engine?

Also I honestly believe wind turbines to be the absolute best alternative to solar panels since they have a much more stable energy output on windy areas like the snowbiome and the desert (we can literally see the winds there). Would be a cool addon for late game scenarios: If you are in the desert you're probably better off with solar panels,but if you are in the cold and rainy snow biome wind turbines should be a better alternative. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
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Perhaps, but again redundant versus solar and crafting and maintaining a wind turbine versus using off the shelf solar panels would be VERY different.

A little bit offtopic,what do people think of crafting currently uncraftable must goods like engines,lead batteries and beakers? I know weapons will be craftable in A17 without having mods (kinda like the opposite of fallout 4 and without having access to an awesome assembly line,of which I am a huge fan btw) ,but engines,lead batteries and beakers seem the obvious logical step.

Thank for your input btw.
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It's a good thing. Those items last forevor and its easy to get batteries, engines, etc. You can literally get a dozen engines and batteries in 15-20 minutes time if you want. If anything they should be far rarer then they currently are.

 
It's called a molotov and it does the same thing. That plus hot oil wouldn't actually set anything on fire, it just scalds stuff which is useless against zombies.


Again though, why would you EVER use an inferior steam engine that requires the same components to run as an easy to acquire engine?

Perhaps, but again redundant versus solar and crafting and maintaining a wind turbine versus using off the shelf solar panels would be VERY different.

It's a good thing. Those items last forevor and its easy to get batteries, engines, etc. You can literally get a dozen engines and batteries in 15-20 minutes time if you want. If anything they should be far rarer then they currently are.
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About the molotovs,well those do server the purpose of expensive ranged weaponry. They also don't provide xp and I'd rather keep my oil for repair kits you know? Plus,imagine functioning fire pits with spikes or movable chainsaws or flamethrowers instead of what we have now,which is basically nothing.

Also regarding the steam engines,well it's just that,easy to mass produce. When you get in a server that is above day 200 you usually end up with no undamaged sedans so no engines/batteries for you to harvest. That's the main problem with those items,they are not craftable,are rather rare to find in traders and some become borderline impossible to find on MP. On single player of course that's a totally different story. You can farm cars and zombie bikers with high scavenging and they have a chance to drop engines (I also think they drop batteries just not sure).

And let's be honest here for a second.If I can craft mechanical parts and electrical components which usually require entire foundries but I can craft them in my backyard, I am more pretty sure I'm more than capable of crafting engines and batteries and a freaking beaker. So I personlly hope in the next update we will be able to craft at least those even if they might require schematics which I admit I'm also not a fan of for the same reason I can craft generators and electrical components with perks..

As always thanks for the input.

 
About the molotovs,well those do server the purpose of expensive ranged weaponry. They also don't provide xp and I'd rather keep my oil for repair kits you know? Plus,imagine functioning fire pits with spikes or movable chainsaws or flamethrowers instead of what we have now,which is basically nothing. Also regarding the steam engines,well it's just that,easy to mass produce. When you get in a server that is above day 200 you usually end up with no undamaged sedans so no engines/batteries for you to harvest. That's the main problem with those items,they are not craftable,are rather rare to find in traders and some become borderline impossible to find on MP. On single player of course that's a totally different story. You can farm cars and zombie bikers with high scavenging and they have a chance to drop engines (I also think they drop batteries just not sure).

And let's be honest here for a second.If I can craft mechanical parts and electrical components which usually require entire foundries but I can craft them in my backyard, I am more pretty sure I'm more than capable of crafting engines and batteries and a freaking beaker. So I personlly hope in the next update we will be able to craft at least those even if they might require schematics which I admit I'm also not a fan of for the same reason I can craft generators and electrical components with perks..

As always thanks for the input.
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Again though your suggestions wouldn't provide xp either so thats not a fair argument. Also if you were planning to keep your oil for weapon repair kits then where you were you planning to get the oil for your hot oil traps?

As for crafting engines and batteries its a personal choice, some items should be rarer, and a server doesn't have to be balanced for new people and established people. Hence why the game is moddable so people can add those in if they want as recipes without destroying the balance of the vanilla game.

 
Honestly I'm thinking a stationary steam engine might be a good idea. The problem is, you're thinking about is as a replacement for the engine powered generators instead of an upgrade path to them. Forged iron is a mid-game material, and would be perfect for the steam engine as a barrier to entry at like a hundred forged iron bars. If the steam engine uses easily available wood and bottles or buckets of water it would be cheaper than the generator bank to keep running because the operational material cost wouldn't be that high. To offset that the steam engine would need to be bigger (like 3x6), create more noise, have a higher heat map tick rate, and produce less electricity than a fully loaded generator bank with three hundred quality engines. As a complimentary addition you could also have a kinetic flywheel to store the energy as an alternative to the battery banks that would drain over time when the steam engine is off. Of course storing less energy than a battery bank, taking up more space, being more fragile, and requiring the steam engine in the first place to balance it out. This would move stuff like the solar panels to far late game and provide an incentive to keep pushing towards them, as you get progressively less and less noisy means of generating electricity. Right now you simply put up with the generator bank until you've got enough money for three or four solar panels, and you don't feel that rewarded when you get them.

 
Maybe add some

This topic seems very controversial, but most are focused on the gameplay and not much about game style. This game has humor like “Am I gone funeral home”, sonadding things like a gigantic medieval gate or catapults adds to the fun. Plus you wouldn’t use something like it until late game. It not such a bad thing.

 
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