Suggestions Regarding the Map

[Blue mame]

The current fixed maps lack the desire to explore. The once infinite, randomly generated maps sparked an immense urge to explore.
The issue with the infinite map at the time was that the map became more stable the closer you got to coordinates 0.0.0, and conversely, more unstable the farther away. Additionally, real-time map updates during multiplayer sessions caused vehicles to be unable to move at full speed. However, these were minor issues—we couldn't abandon such an excellent feature just to accommodate vehicles. After enabling random maps, I was filled with curiosity about all those unknown areas. Now, the map is essentially fixed. I always know the probable layout within 4096 coordinates. And the inability to see everything in the distance back then was also a great feature.

I think locking the map is a really dumb move, since we already have Navezgane as a fixed map area. Updates since V1 just don't feel as exciting as they used to. I hope we can return to infinite maps whenever possible. For instance, using 0.0.0 as an anchor point, we could generate infinite 500.0.500 coordinates as a second anchor to stabilize the map. As long as your hard drive has sufficient space, generating more anchor points infinitely can resolve the instability issues that arise when infinite maps drift too far from 0.0.0.

 

[bdubyah]

Not having infinite sized maps didn't kill the exploration for me nearly as much as the current system where biome layouts are basically the same on every map, along with towns and cities. You can generate tons of maps but they all feel and look pretty much the same now.

 

[Blue mame]

Not having infinite sized maps didn't kill the exploration for me nearly as much as the current system where biome layouts are basically the same on every map, along with towns and cities. You can generate tons of maps but they all feel and look pretty much the same now.

Your description is spot on—it's always so identical and similar. I've tried generating over 100 maps using different seeds and mob sizes, yet they all end up looking exactly the same. You've perfectly captured the current predicament.

 

[Kyoji]

Not having infinite sized maps didn't kill the exploration for me nearly as much as the current system where biome layouts are basically the same on every map, along with towns and cities. You can generate tons of maps but they all feel and look pretty much the same now.

It's specifically cities. You can get everything faster and easier in them then exploring the wilderness and finding wilderness POIs. Wilderness POIs need a considerable buff to what they offer whether it be something unique or better loot to warrant spending time exploring rather than spam another quest chain.

 

[bdubyah]

It's specifically cities. You can get everything faster and easier in them then exploring the wilderness and finding wilderness POIs. Wilderness POIs need a considerable buff to what they offer whether it be something unique or better loot to warrant spending time exploring rather than spam another quest chain.

Yeah, there needs to be something. Don't get me wrong, I think the cities overall are great and improved the look with tiles, but there coukd be more variety. Terrain also could be more varied. But as you said, you can pretty much bunker down in or near a city and stay there the whole game.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Calipers, people, calipers!

That was what always sent me exploring back in A16, was the need to find the ■■■■ calipers. Granted, with quests resetting POIs I guess you wouldn't need to go searching for untouched loot, but maybe make it so they can't spawn during a quest/after a quest reset somehow?

 

[zztong]

The once infinite, randomly generated maps sparked an immense urge to explore.

That was certainly my style of play in Minecraft and I think I might enjoy that in 7d2d too, though I recognize that could be a major design change with plenty of engineering challenges and perhaps would be a PC-only feature.

As an alternative, perhaps the game might let a player/character move between maps. In this way you might get:

(1) A player generating a neighboring map, moving between it, then eventually closing out the original map, letting them generate another neighbor.

(2) Servers that choose to interconnect, letting a player/character move between them. It might require some form of shared storage between the servers.

I could also see doing maps differently if they are chained together. For instance, maybe they only need to be 4k and they could be entirely one biome. You might get a "wilderness" maps, a "countrytown" map, a "town" map, a "city" map.

That sounds neat; I think I would enjoy it. I'm not sure it's worth the work.

 

[ALEXZANDER]

Yea, map gen now feels boring as f! Miss random map gen

 

[Dead Smarty]

As a PS5 console pauper, exploratoin is mostly being killed by performance issues:
- Driving at high speed is impossible due to object render distance being shorter than braking distance
- Looking around in snow at daytime with no large POI or horde near drops fps under 10
- Driving at high speed feels like jumping forward instead of driving
- Exploring large POI's... More like a rithm game than fighting due to stuttering and input latency

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy playing but I'm getting close to the point that the annoyances of traversing will make the game boring since it will confine me to my base and nearby trader.

 

[Jost Amman]

It's always The Next thing with you guys.

Think about it: what will really change if they re-unlock infinite maps?
Nothing at all.

It's not like getting further away from 0.0.0 will magically create new POIs or new Town/City configurations!
What you may want is even more POIs and unlocking of more tile configurations, PLUS more/better types of STUFF to find.

I want special items (weapons, armor, tools) that I can only find in special locations, maybe risking a fight with a special Mini-Boss or something.
That's what we really need in my opinion. Not miles and miles of samey towns, cities and countryside.

 

[Morloc]

Howard Johnson is right!


I'd like to see Unique items with special abilities.
e.g.

-A Ghoul Mask.
-Extremely powerful Holy Water (yes, I know, these are not curse zombies, but tell that to The Preacher).
-Auto trebuchet for base defense. Runs on electricity. Fires huge stones for AoE damage (build those from concrete).
-White phosphorus ammo.
-White phosphorus trebuchet ammo!!
-Thumpers. (Not Bambi's friend)
-Active base armor. Upgrade a concrete block using a Special Unique Tool and rather that turning into a steel block, it becomes a spiked block which does damage to zombies chewing on it. Costs steel and mechanical parts for this upgrade of course.

 

[Blue mame]

Yeah, there needs to be something. Don't get me wrong, I think the cities overall are great and improved the look with tiles, but there coukd be more variety. Terrain also could be more varied. But as you said, you can pretty much bunker down in or near a city and stay there the whole game.

I went back to the A15 version yesterday. The procedurally generated map is absolutely fantastic, though the graphics are definitely outdated. That sense of exploring the unknown really sparks my curiosity. It’s great how the ruined city makes me feel like I have to bring every item I find back to base.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:08 PM

Calipers, people, calipers!

That was what always sent me exploring back in A16, was the need to find the ■■■■ calipers. Granted, with quests resetting POIs I guess you wouldn't need to go searching for untouched loot, but maybe make it so they can't spawn during a quest/after a quest reset somehow?

We can’t stand still, yet we’ve lost the best parts of our core—it’s a torment, just like having to choose between A and B, knowing that if I take one, I must lose the other. We should have been able to have both.

 

[Blue mame]

That was certainly my style of play in Minecraft and I think I might enjoy that in 7d2d too, though I recognize that could be a major design change with plenty of engineering challenges and perhaps would be a PC-only feature.

As an alternative, perhaps the game might let a player/character move between maps. In this way you might get:

(1) A player generating a neighboring map, moving between it, then eventually closing out the original map, letting them generate another neighbor.

(2) Servers that choose to interconnect, letting a player/character move between them. It might require some form of shared storage between the servers.

I could also see doing maps differently if they are chained together. For instance, maybe they only need to be 4k and they could be entirely one biome. You might get a "wilderness" maps, a "countrytown" map, a "town" map, a "city" map.

That sounds neat; I think I would enjoy it. I'm not sure it's worth the work.

I think the programs they’ve been using all along could be brought back and simply optimized further. Just as Minecraft maps can be infinitely large, we can adopt that underlying logic to ensure all blocks remain stable. As far as 7DTD games developed in Unity go, they’re already excellent, but we hope to see an even better version of 7DTD.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:15 PM

Yea, map gen now feels boring as f! Miss random map gen

Many players feel that this is a common issue—one that anyone who has played the older versions is well aware of. The cities are better now, but they’ve lost a lot of variety. They always look the same. That initial sense of awe gradually gives way to aesthetic fatigue, much like how the passion of newlyweds turns into irritation after seven years.

 

[ALEXZANDER]

Many players feel that this is a common issue—one that anyone who has played the older versions is well aware of. The cities are better now, but they’ve lost a lot of variety. They always look the same. That initial sense of awe gradually gives way to aesthetic fatigue, much like how the passion of newlyweds turns into irritation after seven years.

Not only that but also Level designs of all POIs are lame too

 

[Blue mame]

It's always The Next thing with you guys.

Think about it: what will really change if they re-unlock infinite maps?
Nothing at all.

It's not like getting further away from 0.0.0 will magically create new POIs or new Town/City configurations!
What you may want is even more POIs and unlocking of more tile configurations, PLUS more/better types of STUFF to find.

I want special items (weapons, armor, tools) that I can only find in special locations, maybe risking a fight with a special Mini-Boss or something.
That's what we really need in my opinion. Not miles and miles of samey towns, cities and countryside.

Larger, more open areas can make players feel a sense of loneliness, and this feeling triggers a sense of belonging. The urge to bring even a small amount of loot back home after exploring is something that material possessions simply cannot replace. The problem now is that there are too many cities, and since they can be reset, resources are overly abundant—which is terrible for the gaming experience. There’s no sense of belonging, and no desire to explore.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:22 PM

Not only that but also Level designs of all POIs are lame too

Yes, I agree with you. The reason is that after switching back to the older version, I rediscovered that familiar feeling—the shattered city always makes me cherish what I see.

 

[Blue mame]

It's specifically cities. You can get everything faster and easier in them then exploring the wilderness and finding wilderness POIs. Wilderness POIs need a considerable buff to what they offer whether it be something unique or better loot to warrant spending time exploring rather than spam another quest chain.

The excitement and sense of fulfillment I get from finding a safe in A15 is definitely greater than in versions after A17, because the cities before A15 were all in ruins. The dopamine rush from obtaining high-level unknown rewards must be far more thrilling than in today’s cities, which are overflowing with resources. Moreover, even if I open a safe and only get three-quarters of the parts for a weapon, that alone can excite me. The threshold for enjoyment in gameplay must include a sustainable goal to pursue and those unknown areas. If I already have a rough idea of an area’s layout, I lose my passion for exploring it. I feel like I’d turn into a pre-programmed machine—just as I know 1+1=2, if you make me perform that calculation a thousand times, I’ll get frustrated. This is the problem with the game as it stands.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:34 PM

Yeah, there needs to be something. Don't get me wrong, I think the cities overall are great and improved the look with tiles, but there coukd be more variety. Terrain also could be more varied. But as you said, you can pretty much bunker down in or near a city and stay there the whole game.

This is nothing short of a regression to the primitive; just think about it—it’s a gameplay style that offers absolutely no fun.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

It's always The Next thing with you guys.

I guess I wasn't around for "infinite" maps, but A21 era RWG was leaps and bounds better than it is now and I rolled a lot of maps testing it out. Far more variety and 0 bugs, afik, e.g. the huge holes to nowhere that appear especially near downtown city blocks and especially in the Wasteland (though not only there) that are at least a tile maybe two wide. For what? Neapolitan ice cream maps?

 

[Blue mame]

I guess I wasn't around for "infinite" maps, but A21 era RWG was leaps and bounds better than it is now and I rolled a lot of maps testing it out. Far more variety and 0 bugs, afik, e.g. the huge holes to nowhere that appear especially near downtown city blocks and especially in the Wasteland (though not only there) that are at least a tile maybe two wide. For what? Neapolitan ice cream maps?

Infinite maps were only available prior to A16; starting with A17, the maps became fixed. The default size of an infinite map is 20K, but you can still explore beyond 20K—you just need to traverse a radiation zone of about 6 to 8K. However, the further you move away from the 0.0.0 coordinates, the more unstable the map becomes.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

Infinite maps were only available prior to A16; starting with A17, the maps became fixed. The default size of an infinite map is 20K, but you can still explore beyond 20K—you just need to traverse a radiation zone of about 6 to 8K. However, the further you move away from the 0.0.0 coordinates, the more unstable the map becomes.

I think the map sizes are fine as they are, mainly for performance reasons, which I imagine is why they were locked down in the first place. A map that just goes on forever doesn't make much sense to me. 10k is pretty darn large. I've never traversed one, much less checked out every POI in it, and consoles can't even handle the larger maps. I'd think a RWG without the major issues it obviously has now would be more desirable.

 

[Jost Amman]

Yes, I agree with you. The reason is that after switching back to the older version, I rediscovered that familiar feeling—the shattered city always makes me cherish what I see.

Rose tinted glasses is all I'll say regarding your comment.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 4:55 PM

Larger, more open areas can make players feel a sense of loneliness

Or simply of emptiness.