PC v1.x Developer Diary

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I was running around on my server in the wasteland city and almost no zombies in the streets. Cities are very populated and there needs to be more wandering zombies in the streets. Yes I know about the Wandering Hordes Mod and tried it, but I shouldn't have to resort to using a mod for zombies that should be wandering in cities.

 
Does anyone here knows much about SteanDB entries?

There's been many entries in the last few days about this:

Changed Early Access Release Date – 13 December 2013 › 13 December 2013

In Steam, it already shows 13 December 2013 as the early access date, in the lower part of the Steam store page.

My question is: What are TFP trying to change that is already there?

 
HB_H4wk said:
I was running around on my server in the wasteland city and almost no zombies in the streets. Cities are very populated and there needs to be more wandering zombies in the streets. Yes I know about the Wandering Hordes Mod and tried it, but I shouldn't have to resort to using a mod for zombies that should be wandering in cities.
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It seems to be a bug that they are trying to figure out.  There is a topic in general support about it.  If you have additional info, it might help them to figure out what is happening.

 
TWORDY said:
The Behemoth looks like some mystic Earth Elemental creature rather than something grounded in post-apo zombie game. Perhaps a creature taken out of a Resident Evil... dunno.

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True. He would be an odd fit but one could make that argument for the spider zombie and mutated zombie as well. 

I agree though, Behemoth does look straight out of Resident Evil...but that's not a bad thing. 

They could give us tar man from Return of the Living Dead, or that sewer zombie from Return of the Living Dead 2, he always creeped me out as a kid. 

Hell lots of inspiration could be taken from Return of the Living Dead zombies. The series definitely gets a little (lot) ridiculous as it went on but they definitely had some creative zombies!

 
HB_H4wk said:
I was running around on my server in the wasteland city and almost no zombies in the streets. Cities are very populated and there needs to be more wandering zombies in the streets. Yes I know about the Wandering Hordes Mod and tried it, but I shouldn't have to resort to using a mod for zombies that should be wandering in cities.
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We shouldn't have to rely on mods to improve the game, period.

 
Why is it that the Treasure map chests disappear after emptying them and the buried loot quest chests do not???

 
HB_H4wk said:
Why is it that the Treasure map chests disappear after emptying them and the buried loot quest chests do not???
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It's for loot respawn gremlins.  If loot respawning is enabled, those little guys get busy and fill all the containers with loot.  They only like empty containers though, so make sure to toss anything you don't want on the ground.  So yeah, keep those treasure map chests on your map and you can find new loot in them.

I am probably wrong on if they respawn loot or not.  I am pretty sure they do lol.  I don't play with loot respawning though, so i never think to look.

 
It is probably because the loot in them is particularly good, so allowing you to keep relooting them isn't a great option.

 
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HB_H4wk said:
Why is it that the Treasure map chests disappear after emptying them and the buried loot quest chests do not???
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In my opinion, if you are sharing the quest with others, they need to be able to grab the buried supplies as well. If it destroys, that would just fail for everyone else.

 
Old Crow said:
We shouldn't have to rely on mods to improve the game, period.
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I’ll call BS on that. TFP can’t possibly make a game that has features that appeals to every person nor can they put in every single feature that every single person wants. The player base can’t even decide among themselves what features and changes constitute an improvement or a backslide. Opinions range all over the place. 
 

Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that for certain people with a particular set of preferences, they absolutely must, should, and will rely on mods to improve the game for them. 
 

It’s unreasonable to think that one set of default game rules is going to be good enough for everyone and nobody should mod those rules for their own pleasure. Other games that can’t be modded are ignored and uninstalled by players that wind up disliking them but this game can be tailored into something enjoyable even if the vanilla experience is not something they like. So should they just ditch the game since they supposedly shouldn’t have to improve it for their own preferences or is it actually a huge bonus to be able to find or create modified versions that someone might like better?

The truer statement is that more games in the industry should be modable to improve them for your tastes so that as a gamer you can rely on being able to find some version that really aligns with your sense of fun. 

 
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If a new form of zombie were added I'd like something a little more simple.

For instance, one is the Bubble head that spews all over the area, since he is radiated
there is an option in the xml for Z radiated reskinning, if he spews in a crowd of
regular zombies have them turn into radiiated. A second blast and they become radiated
ferals.

The scout or screamer could take advantage of the Ai for take cover, showing intel.

The animals could function the same as the scout, a specific wail would potentially
draw a pack or a flock.

The vultures, could have a random, short burst attack then fly away, if during
their flight pattern they come within a specific distance to the player, then they
could swoop attack and fly away. Its hard enough to tag one with a bow in flight,
imagine unprompted burst attacks from any direction, and if you get wounded enough
you get swarmed. Also add circle of life, all dead attack all living, unless you are the target.

Zombies presently are definitely dead on the second drop unless radiated. What if they
randomly played dead, unless you made sure to double tap them to the head. Come too close
and get swiped.

Last if the zombies were killed, and a screamer is present then her hoard call could
rez those that have not been decapitated or disappeared yet.

Simple stuff like that.

 
Roland said:
I’ll call BS on that. TFP can’t possibly make a game that has features that appeals to every person nor can they put in every single feature that every single person wants. The player base can’t even decide among themselves what features and changes constitute an improvement or a backslide. Opinions range all over the place. 
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I'll politely call BS in turn, Roland, because I and many others rely on mods or DIY fixes out of habit since we don't expect our feedback to be taken seriously.  No one who understands how small-time early-access game development works is demanding a perfect product, and there's lots of fog around what the community wants for a variety of reasons, but that's no excuse to write off feedback the way it frequently is.

 
With so many new POI's that came along, what i'd like to see is more of those included in Trader quests; now and then, yes i do playthrough's where i hardly go to traders for quests, ie just loot lots of POI's as and when i want, thus i can sometimes go to POI's i haven't seen before; but most of the time i play such that i do lots of trader progression, and that's where it would be nice to see more variety in the POI's offered

 
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Falcon197 said:
I'll politely call BS in turn, Roland, because I and many others rely on mods or DIY fixes out of habit since we don't expect our feedback to be taken seriously.  No one who understands how small-time early-access game development works is demanding a perfect product, and there's lots of fog around what the community wants for a variety of reasons, but that's no excuse to write off feedback the way it frequently is.
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What we're talking about here are preferences which, by nature, are 100% subjective. You "rely" on mods because your preference is to play a certain way. Just because you feel whatever feedback was given in the past was ignored does not mean all feedback is. I've only been playing since A19, but I've recognized at least a handful of changes they've made which can be argued came from player feedback. TFPs job is to build a base game that can be enjoyed by those who align with their vision, while also being incredibly mod-friendly for those who like to customize to their liking. THAT is Roland's point and not a single point you brought up invalidates what he is saying.

 
Exactly.  Just because they didn't decide to change specific things based on feedback from some people doesn't mean they didn't listen to it.  Take any major topic in this game... Learn by doing is requested by many players, yet many other players don't want it; glass jars coming back is requested by many players, yet many other players are happy they are gone.  If they make a change based on one side's feedback, the other side thinks their feedback is being ignored, and vice versa.  In reality, you can't please every player.  That is why making the game easy to mod is such a good thing.

 
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Syphon583 said:
TFPs job is to build a base game that can be enjoyed by those who align with their vision, while also being incredibly mod-friendly for those who like to customize to their liking. THAT is Roland's point and not a single point you brought up invalidates what he is saying.
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A few things I'd point out -

TFPs' vision for 7 Days has been murky and subject to constant change.  It's difficult to align to something inconsistent. 

And it's not just me relying on mods as a remedy to bugs or poorly refined features that were forced as part of that murky vision.  My frame of reference is a long list of stuff that was pushed ever since I started playing back on A11, which was poorly received by multiple large groups of people I've played the game with over the years.

I'm not saying TFPs ignore all feedback, but a considerable amount of thoughts offered in good faith and shared by many gets ignored or smacked down ala blanket comments like what I originally called out; that because the community at large doesn't clearly articulate what it wants, there's no point in heeding feedback deemed inconsistent regardless how many people agree with it.  My beef is with that reasoning specifically, because TFPs don't seem keen on seeking player feedback in the first place. 

I hope I'm wrong about that, but it doesn't seem like much gets considered beyond bug reporting, backer requests, and what gets posted by a subset of people on here who are subscribed to whatever form the devs' vision takes.

Plus, objectively, I can't say I've ever seen another group of devs put up the kinds of resistance TFPs do to things they don't like or don't get.  A perfect example of this would be changes to base building that discourage or outright punish players who enjoy base management by downscaling building XP, removing depth in construction and component crafting, and generally reducing what can be done outside the scope of exploring POIs, looting, and slaying hordes.  The rationale given on the dev streams was that they "couldn't imagine someone wanting to play their game that way" - yet many people do.

What I'm honestly curious about is how the devs assess and compile feedback apart from forum posts and the bug reports section, because I can't say I've ever seen surveys put out or other forms of player feedback actively solicited.  Like are Steam reviews with lots of awards and upvotes considered?  Are streamers surveyed?  There are pools of data out there which can be tapped and analyzed to better inform decisions, but if anything like that goes on it isn't mentioned in the dev streams.

 
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