PC V2.0 Storms Brewing Dev Diary

I think the expectation is that you'd just hang out in a POI rather than run to a different biome. But as faatal said, they'd like to make it possible to see if a storm is in a nearby biome.
When I was in the burnt biome and the storm appeared I hid from it at Journey's End, since I had the burnt badge. But since I didn't have the desert badge, entering the desert would result in getting the message to leave the desert. Rinse and repeat until no more message. Maybe there could be a message in the buff/debuff queue while the storm for recently entered biomes is ongoing and print to screen when storm for biome is over. Then I could at least occupy my time with something else until i get the notice of safety instead of running back and forth over the biome's border like a crazy man to get the same information.
 
Oh. I see what they were doing but it seems like they just wanted to slow progression like even more now. It’s basically like playing exclusively in the pine forest’s loot level only you have to move to a different biome after a certain point, yeah?
It is to slow down progression yeah, but also to give you a decent reason to leave the baby forest biome etc.

People hate to hear it, but progression was too fast in most recent versions of the game. I introduced some friends to the game about a month before 2.0 dropped, and by day 30 they dropped the game and said they were "already done" because they had all Q6 steel tier weapons and thought they were basically finished with all the content. I kept playing for like another 50+ days, but they said there was no end game and didn't play again, very sad

And that was on completely vanilla loot settings and the second hardest difficulty. That's a pretty common response too, because you could pretty easily power through to end game. There were tons of people boasting about having auto shotties etc by like day 9 when they were actually min maxing it

2.0 slows it down, but it's honestly probably still too fast and you'll run into the same exact issues where you cap out and then have "nothing left to do". I personally like the sandbox aspect and building bases late game, but a lot of people need a goal or they will drop the game and declare it finished
 
I was headed to the desert to start working toward the desert badge when there was a storm in the burnt biome. Cool, I'll just slip into journey's end and loot it until it's over. Afterwards, I make it to the border in a few minutes and lo and behold... desert storm. Pop back into the burnt biome. How will i know when the storm dies? I keep crossing the border for the next few minutes until it's over. Firstly, would be nice if storms were not that close together, even if they operate on different schedules per biome. Secondly, is it expected that we run back and forth between the biomes until the storm dies to know that it's over or is there some other way i don't know about?
Just drop down some wood blocks and make a small hut. Then expand into the 2nd biome? You always have wood and/or builder blocks with you, right? Right??
 
Just drop down some wood blocks and make a small hut. Then expand into the 2nd biome? You always have wood and/or builder blocks with you, right? Right??
It was my impression that when the notice tells you to leave the biome it does not mean seek shelter in the biome. And who doesn't have wood frames on them?! lol
 
Other than expansion type mods or certain PVP or competitive games that require you to use the same DLC to be ranked, most games I have played that have DLC can be played with others who have different DLC than you do. And that includes non-cosmetic stuff. Usually when it is required, it is because it's an expansion that adds things not found within the original game that can't be seen by other players and so requires you to have the DLC. But these days, a lot of games have gone to the combination DLC+free update model, which removes that necessity. Even with older games, you could usually still play as a group where people have different DLC installed as long as it wasn't some form of PVP or ranked competitive game. I mean, even going back to the 90s and early 2000s, Diablo and WoW had expansions or DLC that wasn't required to play with others who had it.

What does combination DLC+free update model mean? That items added to the DLC are instead added to the free update but you can only get them if you have the DLC? Care to name a few since you say "most games"?

I played only a few multiplayer games who have released DLCs in the last years, all were coop and all needed everyone to be on the same DLC-level: Factorio, Mechwarrior5, Across the Obelisk. A developer has to really make an effort to allow such "crossplay" between different version and DLC-setups. And in co-op games there is almost no advantage for a developer to make any kind of pay-to-win possible.

WOW: You are correct. But MMOs usually tie DLCs to progression, so that in practice the players with and without DLCs are in totally different areas and the level difference makes it rather useless to play together. Only for PvP ganking it would make sense to go into lower areas.



In any case, I am against any form of pay-to-win paid DLC, such as improved perks.

I fully agree that pay-to-win in any form is despicable, but you seem to be against all DLCs just because some form of DLC can be pay-to-win.
 
@faatal, https://dotnetfiddle.net/AFt7Kn

please consider changing those "Fast" functions to use the built-ins, low hanging fruit and nearly zero effort optimization opportunity, it wont get us 100 extra fps but what is even the idea here? 😆, lets just leave such function to the runtime which should always yield the best performance given they are the standard. I stumbled upon those "Fast" functions a bunch of times before but today I thought I'll actually put that to a test and what do you know, I'm not surprised.
 
@Laz Man Who is the one working on Area 7? Hats off to them, even seeing it in its current state, it is impressive. Watching G9 go through it losing his mind since he is expecting to get ambushed as he doesn't realize it isn't finished yet. Haha. Worth a watch to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Worth nothing just how much anxiety it gave him not seeing zombies. Maybe some designed like that? Big abandoned spaces add to that creepy vibe.
 
Care to name a few since you say "most games"?

I'm not about to try to support the "most games" argument, but a good example of this is Space Engineers. SE has a truck load of DLC, most of them adding a bunch of cosmetic stuff (new block sets, etc). You can play with someone who has DLC that you don't, and you can see and interact with their cosmetic stuff, but you can't place any of it yourself.

When new DLC came out it was usually timed to come out at the same time as a content patch. The content patch would introduce new equipment and\or block types with new game mechanics. The DLC would give you a selection of different versions of the same stuff. So everyone gets the new feature, and people who buy DLC get more visual options--very attractive to have since the entire game is about building stuff. And the player base does not get dividing along the lines of who has bought DLC and who hasn't.
 
During the streamer weekend, I spawned on the opposite side of the map to the burnt forest, so I had to travel quite far to get the to "next biome". I was wondering if the random spawns could be closer towards the burnt forest?
No plans to change that other than there is a bug with spawn locations being slightly into non forest biomes.
 
I'm surprised that the "biomes in a line" spawn isn't the default tbh. It's so much better from a progression standpoint

View attachment 34674
Now that you mention it, I have dreams for my next play through of doing a 4x12 km map using line that goes from forest on south to wasteland in the north. That would require me to travel through each biome to get to the next instead of just staying in the forest and dipping into each biome to unlock one at a time. I am curious to see what breaks when the map is not square.
 
I used to go to more difficult biomes to get better loot, but I don't quite see the point of staying in those biomes anymore with loot stage bonus being removed? Like why would I stay in the wasteland for any longer than 35min if I get the same loot as in the forest? Right now i just did all the burnt forest objectives to get the badge, and I went back to the regular forest straight away. For earch biome I'll just get the badge and leave which doesn't sound right.. maybe I'm missing something obvious? But right now i see the biome badges as a quick XP boost and that's about it.
 
I have not visited the forums for a quite long time. Don't know what the majority of players here think of the 2.0 update. In my opinion gameplay is getting worse and worse with each patch.

What is this biome mod thing you have to unlock before you are able to stay longer than a few minutes in it? Idea is ok but implementation is biggest joke ever. You have to waste several minutes going in and out the biome, waiting to catch your breath. What has mining nitrate to do with being able to stay in a biome? I haven't played 2.0 yet and won't do unless my current go-to mods are compatible with 2.0 but I have watched some YT lets plays. This looks so boring and dull, how can grown men think this is a good idea? Do you even play your own game and say "oh this is so much fun"? Why a childish biome mod? Why don't you have to unlock some kind of respiratory device or go and find and FIGHT FOR IT? Why a stupid childish badge? Why a "burnt smoothie" and not a weather mask or something else that wears off over time? Holy moly. Game design for kids?

This boring concept goes through the game like a common theme. "Here there is an air drop, it makes so much noise (airplane) and blinks and smokes but still won't attract any zombies. To compensate for that the loot is utterly useless in 9/10 crates." Why not implement something fun? Airdrops that are worth our efforts with amazing and unique loot but that are secured by dangerous enemies?

"We cap max loot per biome now and sell it to you like a good idea. You will only find bs loot until day whatever to artificially drag out your game progress. You have to read boring magazines to progress instead of doing something that is fun". What about having BIG and USEFUL GUNS for example in every shotgun messiah store? Looting that building should give me at least one good shotgun guaranteed, no matter if it is day 1 or 100. Don't want me to have that shotgun on day 1? Guess what, make looting that POI so hard that is is nearly impossible to do so with stone weapons. It is a survival game, whenever I see military buildings or police stations in other survival games I EXPECT to find super good loot and firearms there. I also EXPECT the run for the loot to be SUPER HARD and I KNOW it might not be a good idea to try without proper gear. Just in 7D2D it is dull easy and the loot sucks in addition.

Why not give me an auger if I manage to loot a big working stiff POI at day 1? If you don't want me to have one so early make that POI dang hard to loot. Make gas rare so I can't use that auger. Make screamers spawn more frequently so I can't use that auger at day 1 or I get killed by screamer hordes.

All those restrictions suck! Let me play the game how I want, give me some challenges. 7D2D nowadays is stupid easy after day 3 and all it is is get a trader job --> do that job --> get a new job and at best live near the trader. Boring!

Storms where added now. Cool idea but again implemented so nooby. Do players really want a big text on their screen saying "leave biome now" or whatever? Do we need a text telling us a storm is coming? Why not make it clear through sounds and visuals that a storm is coming? It is a survival game, players will know that going inside a POI when there is a storm might be a good idea, we don't need an information text. This game gets less and less immersive with each update, more and more dull and restrictive.

Zombies can "crawl" now, cool, but that animation looks "funny" at best.

Guess I won't ever play that game again without mods. Mods is everything that keep this game alive.
While it's a shot in the dark for TFP to take criticisms on the gameplay, keeping it brief and concise does help things.

I do agree with you though. Biome progression and storms were both great on paper but implemented in a terrible way. Temporary fixes for biome hazards should not be a shake, nor should permanent fixes be merit badges. I really hope they reverse the change for something far more realistic.

Additionally as well, the day one loot cap is also a shoddy idea that doesn't reward players for braving high tier POIs for loot. As time goes on, more and more I feel like the game is being designed to be far more restrictive on player agency and creativity.
 
@faatal Hi there!
What are the chances of 3.0 being done before the end of the year? 0% 50% 100% (or should I go get a life? 😁)
And what about 2.0 Stable? By June 30? Or even earlier maybe? How's the bug killing going?

As always...Thank you for supporting the forums.
 
I used to go to more difficult biomes to get better loot, but I don't quite see the point of staying in those biomes anymore with loot stage bonus being removed? Like why would I stay in the wasteland for any longer than 35min if I get the same loot as in the forest? Right now i just did all the burnt forest objectives to get the badge, and I went back to the regular forest straight away. For earch biome I'll just get the badge and leave which doesn't sound right.. maybe I'm missing something obvious? But right now i see the biome badges as a quick XP boost and that's about it.
yup, you did miss something lol. no worries. there is so much information out there that it is easy to miss. Each biome has a loot stage cap. So in the forest the highest loot stage will get to is 40. where as the wasteland is able to go above 250. So even if you have that kind of loot stage available, the lower tier biomes will just cap out.

Now supposedly the biome badges give a slight bump to the biome loot stage cap, but i am not 100% certain on that.
 
Back
Top