I can see their reasoning, i just think its a terrible decision. This game is best when it embraces the absolute freedom of the sandbox parts, everything what limits it further just turns it into yet another run-the-mill zombie game.
Thats the problem, TFP keeps removing choice from the player with each alpha past alpha 16 causing the game to get less and less like a sandbox it was meant to be, and more like some crappy on rails linear rpg, not that those are bad, but 7dtd will not work as one with how the game is.
First we got learn by doing removed and replaced by this stupid nonsense stat system.
Then zombies can dig, so now people who liked to build underground can't, I used to build underground because the Si system has a habit of screwing me over and collapsing entire bases I try to build all because I accdentally put 1 block to many, then it causes a cascade ruining what might have been hours of work. ONLY the most recent block should fall, not the entire row/floor.
Next we got zombies that can swim faster than the player some people used to float on top of water at night or on horde night, again player choice here some people like the bloodmoons others hate it.
Then we got vultures that can fly faster than a motorcycle can go.
We got the smart zombies which means the player has to pretty much build a base to exploit the AI or else they will just take your base down since they know exactlly where to hit to cause collapses, so you can't really build nice things anymore.
Now we got the loot system in a19 which removes any sense of randomness from the game, making loot completly linear with 0 variation what so ever. Needs to go back to a18 loot, and add the new items as i've said many times. The new loot system is mostly hated by players, that should be a pretty damn big sign to revert to a18's loot. I liked a18's loot as it was completly random what you'd find, though items did appear more often at higher GS like steel tools etc, you could get lucky and loot a quality 1 steel pickaxe on day 1 its all luck, and felt very sandbox-like. Most important of all, it made every game feel different, compared to a19 where every game feels the exact same as the last.
Seriously try a18 game, but do not spec in intel, other than 1 point in advanced engineering to get forge early. You rely on schematics now to craft things or finding the stuff in the world, makes every game different, especially if using rwg maps. I play dead is dead so when I die I tend to delete the save and restart, often on a entirely new rwg map even. This worked well in a18 due to the loot system being like it was, every single game was quite different than the last. A19? i've started about 5 or 6 new games total, and so far every single one has felt the exact same, destroying my desire to really play much more of the a19 at all. I am hoping in a19.1 they will switch loot back to how a18 was, all it'd take is copying a18's loot.xml and adding in the new items. If they do this, they can fix one of the largest complaints about a19 in one quick file copy and then edit.
