PC What would you adjust, and why

[4sheetzngeegles]

Questions:

Do you as a player feel that environment plays a major, midling, or minor,
role in setting, Suspension of Disbelief level?

If you actually had a strong directional guidance, What are 5 things that
you would adjust regarding, environmental elements. They can range from
LUT Lighting, Exterior prop types, Interior prop types, Interactivity, etc.
these are just a few general attributes.

If you would change something, how, from your point of view would it benefit
and or add to the game, and a general population of players.

1 Terrain/Visibility:

Spoiler

Lower visibility, of surroundings, to increase the need
to use other senses. Terrain to provide views, and also hide the inhabited areas.
The thought is to make it more of an unknown  quantity, until explored.

2 Map adjustments:

Spoiler

Map initially shows terrain but only shows Pois, and areas
that have been completed. Otherwise it shows only biome terrain. It would show
digging of holes, deforestation, bare groves of plants after picking flowers. Buildings
that are at least 10 x 10 as outlines. An added option, would be a dotted line, that
records a path traveled, as in hunting, or to a quest, or to a general location. With
the option to erase, keep or share.
Makes each players map an interactive account of their playthrough. Personalizes
it the same as people want to personalize their avatar.

3 The hud

Spoiler

removal of the Skulls for both the Biome probability, and the POI danger level.
The option for those that would feel more comfortable seeing the numbers, would be to tap
a button that would bring up both indicators temporarily. And the option for a permanent
display as a check box when you are starting the game. For the Biomes, because their is no
blending, the borders are defined. For the pois, It would open the possibility of having
randomized tiers, per playthrough for every POI. Creates more of the unknown, as danger factor.

4 Sound:

Spoiler

Use the decoy property, more with the, the basic actions, Each sound byte, in game can
be used to attract attention. Depending on the strength of the sound it would simply attract from a
longer distance. Some sounds, Breaking rock, felling a tree, breaking into a poi either wall, door,
or window, running through grass and over terrain material. This would have to be incorporated with
Number 5. Randomized distant sound, to create ambience especially at night.

5 Environmental life:

Spoiler

Have a constant entity presence, out side of Pois. There is exponentially more
real estate out side of Pois, and exponentially more potential for event structure. To create an
environment that is visually supportive of surrounding life. Because the additional filler life outside
would be a large multiple of what it is now, Exp. and loot drops, would be the combination of a probability
and Quotient. Otherwise it would just become another meta to speed run and level up.

 

[Suxar]

The map already shows the pits. Dig a pit and you will see it on the map.

I am more annoyed by small delays in the network game, because of which I often get hit when using cold weapons. And the late rendering of objects, such as cars on the road or stones and ore on the terrain, is very annoying. This is especially noticeable when you are riding a motorcycle or car.

 

[zztong]

There are some survival elements I'd like to change and/or fiddle with to see if the player based enjoyed them more than the current elements.

I'd like to flip gasoline refining to alcohol production and then have vehicles run on alcohol.

I'd like a dirt bike option for the motorcycle -- something more suitable for offroad travel.

In terms of the UI, I'd like alternative/modded UIs to be overridden by the client-side. I hate it when a server pushes a different UI on me.

 

[Dead Smarty]

I'd like to flip gasoline refining to alcohol production and then have vehicles run on alcohol.

I'd like a dirt bike option for the motorcycle -- something more suitable for offroad travel.

Alcoholl makes more sense to me, gasoline is the first that needs to go in the apocalypse. Diesel can be replaced with veggie oil but gasoline is too complicated to make in your backyard.

The dirt bike could be a replacement for the minibike but not for the motorcycle, maybe an extra tier inbetween. Dirtbikes are supposed to be relative light vehicles.

 

[8_Hussars]

Environment plays a major roll.  I will say the game is very serviceable and enjoyable but it needs some polish on the existing mechanics. 

1) Terrain is already serviceable.  Better options for lakes and rivers map-scaping. A little more misty in the distantcy.  Depending on the interpretation of the timeline the Burnt Biome needs some new growth greenery so its not so depressing.   

2) Map Mechanics.  I appreciate the "fog of war" on the maps to promote exploration.  I do wish players could find maps or parts of maps (area and cities) to open up the area.  Further, this would be a better use for the drone, exploring the map and finding ore nodes!  Get rid of a drone simple being storage tethered to the player and use its optical capabilities.  New mods to extend range and add optical search capabilities.    
 
3) I like the suggested changes in the OP.  Outside of the quest treadmill. Having randomized tiers for the same POI and a random chance for it to be "infested" would be great QOL and variation for those of us who generally don't quest.

4) I like the suggested changes in the OP.

5) More entities? Yes, please.  Having said that I do like "the purge" scenario from rebirth and wish it was an option for vanilla. It's an alternate solution to extend game play vs story mode.

OT - Other Changes (and yes I appreciate most of this could be modded.)

6) EFT polish.  The polish and detail on all the animations and mods from the overhaul need to be embraced in the vanilla game.

7) Bicycles are ubiquitous. Bicycle parts should be found in garages, in dumpsters, in recycling bins, etc.  Players should be able to assemble a bicycle after one FA magazine.  New mods; storage (saddlebags) and an electric motor assist for reduced stamina usage to start with.

8 ) Water Overhaul.  Get rid of the headgear water filter mod.  Players should have to treat water twice; once for particulates and once for pathogens.  This provides an opportunity to rebuild the water workstations; dew collector, rain catcher, water station and mods for them.  Purification filters and meds could supplement for balance.

9) Love the removal of gasoline and switching to alcohol production and then have vehicles run on alcohol.  This could also open up "wood gas" and "Bio-digester gas" for fuel sources as well.

10) Flip the Electric system where players can cobble together low power solar sources and then move into battery storage and finally engines.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@Suxar
 

Spoiler

I should, have used the words should show terrain.

Rereading it sounds like i am describing what it does now vs what
I would like it to simply do. That's my mistake.

So you mean packet latency, when in a vehicle.

@zztong
 

Spoiler

Could the alcohol replacement for the gas, be performed
by recipe and crafting mechanic, using the present resources?
We have corn, forge, An alternate Dew collector as a refiner, coal
heated and refined to make it activated, plus glue plus paper plus
plastic to make a custom limited use activated charcoal filter.

I like the idea of a dirtbike, If gravity allows for some gnarly
jumps. If so I would draw some natural inclines and launches over
chasms. Most of my landscape is offroad so that would fit nicely.

@8_Hussars

Spoiler

1 Possibly, Extending the plant atlas, It has 10 unused slots.

2 So right now we have treasure maps but that is for digging, Maybe the
map piece you mentioned could have an event tied to it. And instead
be a hint to a location in a POI. or a line of poi's each leading to
another clue, but must be found in an obscure location in the poi,
like under a table, or bed, or a box in a corner. Gives a high level object
that has limited use, and is destroyed on depletion.

4 The part I forgot to add, is that Zombies, fighting you could draw other
zombies or enemy entities, Not quite like the screamer, but if within hearing
distance, they would wander and cluster in that area. If one is beating on the
wall outside soon there are 2 the 4 then 8.

8 An extended purification system similar to what I posted above for zztong's post maybe.

 

[warmer]

Terrain/visibility

Forests feel REALLY parked out and artificial. We need more overgrown and tree density. Additionally more varied plant life/debris is needed. My biggest visibility gripe is the pop in of cars on road ways. The draw distance is set to chunks for objects outside of bases for long distance visibility. They should make certain objects like cars viewable at a much larger distance if possible. The same with zombies. Sniper rifles are silly in 7d2d because you can only use 10% of their effective range. 
 

I feel like this is partially baked into the overall design of 7d2d because development was started so long ago CPU/GPU/RAM standards were way lower. I have increased wandering hordes and zombie pop 3x normal and I have no slow downs with my Ryzen 9 12 core / 7800 XTX / 32GB Ram

Hopefully they will solve this with 7d2d 2, because I don't think they could do so now without rewritting a massive amount of coding/engine upgrade

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@warmer

Since you are somewhat comfortable editing for yourself. Do you know 

how to edit the splat3 and 4 for the roads. What I mean is to edit them

adding damage. By changing the damaged section to gravel and grass.

This can be used, for visibility purposes. Because things can still spawnontop

I think. Grass has passthrough damage also.

There is one other thing that you would have to do, you would have to edit the

scale of the tallgrass, to 2 or 2.1. It will restrict view, locally rendered, give 3 levels

of plant height visually, short grass, the model bushes, and the tallgrass.

It will make it so visibly, you will not have complete, line of sight of a horde or a

single zombie for that matter until they are closer. Makes stealth and headphones,

more valuable.  And makes running around willy nilly, a bit more costly. Any elevation

on a hill or stump or boulder or wreck becomes more appreciated.

Adding the tall grass to the road is a kind of cheat to stop some of the visual pop

ins. It also means finding things like stumps, garbage, tires, basically low hanging

fruit, becomes actually finding that in the terrain, instead of just walking up to it

like it is now.

 

[FranticDan]

1) Fog - to not bleed into interiors, including underground.
2) Rain - to not make interiors darker, even more so at night. (You can see just fine IRL in the day, and night time makes no sense, it's already dark).
3) Hazards - example: toxic gas in rooms, having to swim for extended periods to reach other rooms.
4) Electrical POI traps - example: turrets with computers to disable them.
5) Underground cave systems, retro systems that interconnect

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

NUM 1 2

Spoiler

Number 1 2, at the moment kind of share the same texture.
Maybe they adjusted for 2.0 I have to wait and see.
Fog for indoors can be set to off. It's in a dll class.
The option I went for is I changed the transition time
by 1000 sounds like a lot but in milliseconds not so much.
It takes time to transition to dark, vs the short time span.

Rain the fog texture of that spectrum does the same thing, as clear
day fog. I changed the light opacity property for a lot of blocks also.

Console

Spoiler

You prob already know this but, to get an idea of which fog tint best suits you.
Bring up console if not on a server,

COMMANDS

weather fogcolor 0 0 0   or weather fog .01 .01 .01 Do not go to 1 1 1 or above
Stay less than 1 because it adds color and intensity. .34 max when not grayscale.

Weather fog from 0 to .65 after that it will kill extended view.

That boosts intensity of white and blows out screen view.

Wanna get creative then try .01 0 0 up to .21 0 0 and switch the .01 .21 to the
other slots various hues and tints.

Biome set

Spoiler

A concession, if only using console. Set all biomes to stormy. Set clouds to 0,.6 prob 1
set fog to 0,0 prob 1.

It will stop the flash when crossing borders, because of the gradients being the same
and it will lessen the dark inside, effect if you don't like it. Higher volume clouds
at night make it brighter. A fog color other than black, makes the distant terrain
at horizon level visible.

Num 5

Spoiler

For caves they will probably be poi made for a while, because Libnoise, and Perlin Worms
has been removed.

Num 4

Spoiler

Didn't we have that early on, the first version you saw it in the actual turret when
setting it up. Then I think it was Xyth, created a CCTV that can be used as a monitor.

If you gen base terrain above the default 30, water will naturally fill lower depressions.
I think they may be working on the water hazards. There are cars in the water, and trees,
So they may be adjusting blocks without raising expectations, to allow for full POI's.

 

[Suxar]

Alcoholl makes more sense to me, gasoline is the first that needs to go in the apocalypse. Diesel can be replaced with veggie oil but gasoline is too complicated to make in your backyard.

The process of producing gasoline from oil shale or oil is no different from the process of producing alcohol from mash. The equipment and process are the same, the only difference is in the raw materials.

Spoiler

So you mean packet latency, when in a vehicle.

There is a delay in drawing with the vehicle. I often fly into rocks, because they are drawn at too small a distance, I don't have time to steer out. Especially in a car.

 

[OneManStanding]

The only thing I might change is the biome blending, as it's still very sudden and jarring. I would even be open to not having all biomes in every map to increase the diversity of worlds you can generate.

Currently the world is guaranteed to have every biome in it, which is a little predictable. Like in Minecraft, all the biomes created more of a regular patchwork quilt effect versus a more unique world each time. You could have worlds which are entirely one biome, adding to the difficulty and challenges either way as some resources are not available. Or worlds which are a believable mix of certain biomes: for example, forest to burnt forest and wasteland; burnt forest to wasteland; forest to burnt forest; forest to snow. Additional biomes and sub-biomes could be added as we wouldn't be trying to fit them all in the one map.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@OneManStanding

If you would like to test it, I have a template that I always use for my blended biomes.

If you upload a world folder you are playing, I can blend it for you. Basically the 5 biomes

actually make 25 combinations. And if you use unified lighting scheme across the biomes,

there is no flash. The only indicator is that biome skull window on the hud, but without it

a single road would make 1 continuous change. and spawn rules overlap.

@Dead Smarty

I was just trying to think of a variant, for gas vs alcohol mechanic. Mostly for the visual, but

also to allow both options, with different pros and cons.

5) Underground cave systems, retro systems that interconnect

I was just thinking about this. @Riamus would have to verify it for me.

You may be able to get the caves, using the tile system. If the topsoil is

some form of adaptive or base terrain. Then below each type of section

could be saved as a 150x150 poi tile, like straight, incline, cross, deadend,

entry. I don't know if there is a depth limit for tiles. or it could be placed

with the prefab rwg. just some thoughts

 

[zztong]

Could the alcohol replacement for the gas, be performed
by recipe and crafting mechanic, using the present resources?
We have corn, forge, An alternate Dew collector as a refiner, coal
heated and refined to make it activated, plus glue plus paper plus
plastic to make a custom limited use activated charcoal filter.

Probably. You could probably reuse the Gas icons and make two recipes: one for methanol (grass) and the other for ethanol (corns). Or, keep it simple with just alcohol and have the recipes just give more gas with better materials:

Grass and other plants/foods (low yield)

Corn (modeate yield)

Super Corn (high yield)

I'd probably lean toward the Chem Station doing the work on the notion that it probably has a still.

 

[Riamus]

The only thing I might change is the biome blending, as it's still very sudden and jarring. I would even be open to not having all biomes in every map to increase the diversity of worlds you can generate.

Currently the world is guaranteed to have every biome in it, which is a little predictable. Like in Minecraft, all the biomes created more of a regular patchwork quilt effect versus a more unique world each time. You could have worlds which are entirely one biome, adding to the difficulty and challenges either way as some resources are not available. Or worlds which are a believable mix of certain biomes: for example, forest to burnt forest and wasteland; burnt forest to wasteland; forest to burnt forest; forest to snow. Additional biomes and sub-biomes could be added as we wouldn't be trying to fit them all in the one map.

Unfortunately, with the new biome progression stuff, you need every biome if you have it enabled.  Loot is capped per biome, so you need the wasteland if you want the best loot and you can't make the kit to protect you from the wasteland without having the other biomes to make kits for those as they said you go into the specific biomes to do the challenges and kits have to be done in order.  Of course, if it's off, you can do whatever combination of biomes you want.  Editing the biome map is very easy and can be done in any image editor if you don't want to generate one.

@OneManStanding

If you would like to test it, I have a template that I always use for my blended biomes.

If you upload a world folder you are playing, I can blend it for you. Basically the 5 biomes

actually make 25 combinations. And if you use unified lighting scheme across the biomes,

there is no flash. The only indicator is that biome skull window on the hud, but without it

a single road would make 1 continuous change. and spawn rules overlap.

@Dead Smarty

I was just trying to think of a variant, for gas vs alcohol mechanic. Mostly for the visual, but

also to allow both options, with different pros and cons.

I was just thinking about this. @Riamus would have to verify it for me.

You may be able to get the caves, using the tile system. If the topsoil is

some form of adaptive or base terrain. Then below each type of section

could be saved as a 150x150 poi tile, like straight, incline, cross, deadend,

entry. I don't know if there is a depth limit for tiles. or it could be placed

with the prefab rwg. just some thoughts

You could, but it would require making a lot of special tiles.  Maybe not the best option, but possible.  Of course, you could also use The Descent mod to generate caves.

 

[ElCabong]

The only thing I would adjust is getting rid of them damn screamers. I have positively hate having to watch everything I burn because I don't want to spawn a damn screamer. Hell I just put on some red tea in the campfire and less than a minute later I made four new armor pieces and that spawn three of them b******.

They're not hard to deal with they're just a pain in the rear.

 

[Rotor]

The ability to pick up water with a pot (not a-jar), carry it and boil it.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@Rotor

Personally, I would be satisfied with a two serving Canteen on the utility belt. That can only

hold  water, and cleans but not completely purifies it with Alum pills. 

@Riamus

Thanks for the pointer to the caves, I didn't see it. But I got it now.

@ElCabong

TotalAlive means how many are alive at once. I use this with my biome spawns,
because it's like spawn Viagra. It helps keep it up. for a long time.

<property name="TotalAlive" value="2"  This is the Screamers setting, in each screamer setting.

As far as your heat map, I feel for you. But, It's actually been nearly the same since A20, the only time

It became noticeable is when the screamer sound volume was lowered to to mouse whispers,

and each scream  was set to spawn twins, as well as bringing forth the scout horde.

Slight of hand to make them relevant, maybe not,  but that's just the way it reads.

Curious Contradictions though:

It's ok for screamers to generate 20 plus creatures at once.
It is ok for 7th day horde to generate 30 plus creatures at once.

It's even ok to have 20 plus sleepers at once.
All of these are also included with Consoles.

But, It's not OK  for Biomes to spawn 20 plus creatures at once, because it is too Taxing.

I still raise my spawn anyway.

 

[warmer]

5) Underground cave systems, retro systems that interconnect

did you mean metro system? Like subways. That would be cool between towns. Rust has a sweet system for trains above and below ground.

@warmer

Since you are somewhat comfortable editing for yourself. Do you know 

how to edit the splat3 and 4 for the roads. What I mean is to edit them

adding damage. By changing the damaged section to gravel and grass.

This can be used, for visibility purposes. Because things can still spawnontop

I think. Grass has passthrough damage also.

There is one other thing that you would have to do, you would have to edit the

scale of the tallgrass, to 2 or 2.1. It will restrict view, locally rendered, give 3 levels

of plant height visually, short grass, the model bushes, and the tallgrass.

I will give this a try  Thanks for the idea

 

[FranticDan]

did you mean metro system? Like subways. That would be cool between towns. Rust has a sweet system for trains above and below ground.

Whoops! Yes, that was a typo. Metro not retro 
Some tiles sorta have them already but they are small and don't lead anywhere.
If sound travel was addressed to be more realistic (so nothing can hear anything through thick enough blocks/terrain), it would be cool to turn an underground subway into a base, as well as travel underground between towns and cities while also having things to loot and harvest.