What version of the game is the best

I'll go with 15 and lower;
Checking your corners meant something.
Just today checked a rooftop to be clear, walked down a collapse and instantly fled the triggered spawn back up. Didn't even have parkour, so the place wasn't designed to prevent me from that. Several spider zombies spawned basically on top of me, with no actual ability to get on the roof and not even spawn holes in sight.
Plenty more of that in the new design of everything ... just get your M60 and your tin can suit, the GM decided you're getting hit.

World was a world, not a chain of dungeons.
Zombies were stupid.
Guns didn't mystically do more headshot damage since you killed enough zeds to become more perceptive. Or strong. Or .. fat? Why is everything making the gun do more headshot damage?
Your progress could vary with luck.
Sticks!
Actual Bacon, that smelled delicious even to the zeds!

Also, didn't get thrown out from traders into a biome storm. Not exactly a big deal, FA is overflowing, but a bit hostile, even for Hughie.
 
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I'll answer with a question. What kind of Art do you like? Abstract Art, Modern Art, Midieval Art? My point, it's really so subjective to the individual taste of the gamer.

I personally like a mixture of many versions and can tailor my tastes to just about any version. At some point, the gaming community will need to merge their individual tastes to the vision that The Pimps have laid out.

In the final analysis, the community will have to decide if they like the vision the developers have settled on. Some will like, some will love, some will dislike, others will hate. The Pimps will have to decide if the consensus is good enough to move forward.
 
I think 2.0 is the best version. The only thing I don't care for is spending all this time looking for books and magazines. I'd rather see a level based skill tree where when you pick the skills you want you automatically are able to build everything associated with that level.
 
Difficult question to answer....
In the earlier alphas:
I loved the randomness where you could find a high end item early on, which could have a drastic impact on your play
I loved LBD
I loved unlocking recipes through books (forge ahead etc.)
I loved the vast amount of zombies
I hated the bugs (minibikes falling though the world)
I did not like spam crafting
The zombies were really dumb

In the later alphas:
Much more polished
Fantastic looking POIs
Electricity
Vehicles
I can live with traders but would rather there were no quests.

My ideal version of the game would be A14-15 with the modern updates.
 
IMO, Alpha 16 to Alpha 22 is too big of a range. There's a significant difference between A16 and A19.
This is very much true. There's a massive difference between A16 and A17. This next major break was when they added learn by reading, but I don't recall which alpha that was (maybe A20?)
 
Problem is that I like some mechanics from each version and dislike some. Also graphics from newer versions are much better to the point I wouldn't go back just for things like LBD, smell, etc.

I enjoyed the freedom of earlier alphas and how things like water jars and smell made sense.

I also enjoy the tile system and cities rather than the terrible random POIs in the woods design.
 
Problem is that I like some mechanics from each version and dislike some. Also graphics from newer versions are much better to the point I wouldn't go back just for things like LBD, smell, etc.

I enjoyed the freedom of earlier alphas and how things like water jars and smell made sense.

I also enjoy the tile system and cities rather than the terrible random POIs in the woods design.
I tried to play A16.4 a while ago (Valmar's Overhaul is still my favorite version of 7D2D) and I found the lighting really off-putting for some reason.

So I definitely get it.
 
Alpha 10 without a doubt, zombies literally everywhere, before cheesy vehicles where you can just drive off from threats lol.. no traders, never ending maps, all loot is needed and wanted, boiling water in a tin can using a stick as cookware, no jumping 4 blocks high when zombies can only jump 1..., real survival, smelly food that attracts zombies, chicken/rabbit/venison meat and all their recipes, water ladders, cob webs to stop fall damage and slow zombies down, real deep mining, no silly dungeon crawl poi's where zombies spawn in the same place every time and loot at the end of every single poi.., log spikes, hornets, wasteland cities are actually massive threats with never ending zombie spawns everywhere, I could literally go on and on...

Alpha 10 with zombies always run is the hardest the game has ever been and the most fun!

But most people will say a16, but the land is pretty boring and not many threats about.
 
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16.4 was best in spirit but there was a lot of jankiness, like falling through the world all the time, minibikes getting stuck in the ground, zombies hitting you from 20 feet away. If they would have stopped there and optimized instead of feature creep, I would have been happy. Then let the modders do everything else. Still, I prefer the jankiness over the feature creep.
 
I am not going to specify an Alpha as I want to move forward not look back. All the Alphas have issues and gaps (some more than others) and collectively (I assume) we all want a good game to our own tastes.

The vanilla game will never be what we all want it to be, as we all have different opinions and preferences. The best we can hope for is a great stable baseline (with working NPCs) that modders, can work their own magic from.
 
Most of what I look at is aesthetics, because the rest I can mod.
Been doing a cram session from 7 to now, I will hit you back in about a week or week and a half.

So far the qol differences.

1 No distances shown just a pointer
2 No pointers to Traders, it's more of a where is Waldo scenario, You find, you mark, you keep.
3 Entity sounds 2d distance not accurate, And joel had respawn delay set to 0. 7 plus constantly
building per area. But it makes you paranoid, because everything sounds right next to or behind
you. Dogs are the constant threat in every biome.
4 60 second follow memory. Relentless. And all zombies act like screamers, If one notices you then
here comes a mob.
5 Burnt trees intertwined hampering visual ahead. Creepy and beautiful. And bushes had colliders
so you had to run around them.
6 Billboard foliage, above eye height when crouched, but their texture was higher resolution.
Some trees sway like the Whomping Willow. While others just shimmy. A nice blend though.
7 textures grundgy. I think there was one of the older alphas that had a poi tag for old or new.
8 Multiple particle overlay for atmosphere. That is why I'm facinated at recreating it now.
9 All monitors in one location, lower left screen. The main part of the activity screen didn't
have numbers and text just action.
10 After the minimap was removed, the compass was a partial dial on top of the Belt.
11 7.11 the zombies looked up, like they do today, and the bullets were an arcadish bullet monitor.
12 everything was dirty looking. Neat but dirty.
13 Most of the Zombies were male femle, browns grays and greens. But generic so you only focused on
them being a threat. Not really paying as much attention to the detail reproduction.
14 This was before MOCAP, so the death animations, were more generic less theatrical.
15 Most of the beginning is trying to avoid, and kite 1 at a time, vs going full bam bam on them.

Thats it so far.

So for me it's all of them, but only bits and pieces. Which I go back and observe then try to inc in
which ever version I'm on.
Basically less was more.
 
Game was close to perfect in the A20's in my opinion. However A17 was the version that got me addicted in the first place. My first mega base was made in a17 and it had a boatload of log spikes.

I mean the inclusion of different vehicles was pretty cool. Also the drone was a cool Idea too. I think A21 had rebar frames as well and jars too.

I have to admit that when I tried an earlier version like A12 or A14 or whatever, I thought the game was a joke and died instantly over and over again. Once I followed the tutorial I had a better Idea of what to actually do to keep from dying so often. There's that wonderful time I had with dehydration and dysentery in a small river with some bee looking creature attaching me with no point of surviving at all. Also with the biomes right next each other, I could not quite understand what kind of game it was.
 
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