beHypE

I'm not saying 7 days should port over Valheim's system, obviously. I also understand food is just a side system because the genre requires it, and not by any means where the game tries to shine. Then again it wouldn't be a shame if it was a bit more complex than a bar you have to fill so the game leaves you alone, so to speak.

While true, this can be said for anything in the game; why bother updating the game at all if everything eventually becomes "the same ol'" anyways ? Not saying the system is perfect or couldn't be enhanced but Valheim nailed the food mechanism pretty well if you ask me. You can just ignore it and run around with 25hp or you can use junk food for easy locations, but at the same time when @%$# hits the fan you better have robust meals in your belly. And quite frankly they could (and probably will) add many more recipes with more buffs than just total health/stamina values. This is probably what is missing in 7 days to die. You can get by with bacon and eggs the whole game and there's really no incentive to diversify your food intake unless you're running out of eggs (or meat, but we all know that doesn't happen).

The real race is beating Diablo 2 Resurrected's release!

Yes, this is precisely what I want them to add sooner rather than later. I have a different perspective on the matter to be honest; polishing and balancing everything before adding such a gamechanging feature like bandits might force you to do so twice. I understand there's a lot to do yet but there's going to be a lot to rebalance/fix after the bandits are here too so... yeah, i'd gladly try to lay my hands on them within the current POIs and with the current items, rather than adding dozens of elements and then realising you need to change up a ton of stuff when adding the bandits regardless.

What ? Praises for everything accomplished, 7DTD is a masterpiece of a game and one of my all time favorites, but it's been 8 years of EA. I enjoy the process of iterations but it's only fair to expect some kind of end game content at this point in time. Sure, you can always argue that one can "forget about the game and come back in 2 years", but then again I don't think it's unreasonable to be thrilled about what's coming and not wanting to just "put the game back on the shelf until it's done". We've heard and discussed bandits for half a decade now, it seems pretty normal to me that some folks me included start voicing their concerns and doubts about it making it in the game in the way most people hope it does.

Bandits have been on the roadmap since the inception of the game and should be that 'end game content'. It's been years without even a glimpse of what it could eventually become besides some pipe dreams, so I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up with a 'sorry, we need to finally go gold and they will be in the sequel' type of ending. Hope I'm wrong but I'm not holding my breath.

That sounds promising! (my wife won't like it)

That's the thing. You bought into an idea and got disappointed that it didn't exactly go the way you fantasized it. Unless you like being surprised by change, which you seem to be resistant to, you might wanna stick to buying finished products in the future. Just something to think about.

Must be nice having time to scroll through the forum of a game you dislike so much. Why did I make kids? 😆

It's called an overstatement; but anyways we both know you didn't.

No, I don't mean a "lack of complete loot balance". I'm sure there is a fine middleground between "the path to greatness is tailored like a 20cm wide staircase" and "everything is handed to me on day 1". I'm not saying finding a level 5 M60 on day 1 should be a thing on a regular basis, but the loot progression definitely can't feel like the iLvl of items in a game like Diablo, for there aren't funky affixes or various bonus effects attached to make the small item pool at any given stage rich and fun enough. I mean, as a whole, yes; your overall progression should be a steady grind. But the odd lucky find here and there could change the course of your gameplay on a handful of occasions, and it would be different in each game. What's wrong about being lucky and finding a Q5 pistol on Day 6 ? Most likely you aren't even specialized in pistols to begin with, thus expanding the realm of choices at one point or another when you'll need to choose between using that lucky drop or a level 2 shotgun you've put points in. Right now ? There are no choices. You'll always find around the exact same quality for all items, thus automatically rendering most of them useless since they aren't of your skill branch. Also, equipment quality is one side of the loot table. The other side revolves around recipes, crafting table components and various other items; that got changed aswell and ended that "imminent breakthrough drop" hope I used to enjoy. Sometimes you'd find calipers early, sometimes a beaker. Sometimes you'd start completing the motorcycle recipe before even having your first bicycle schematic. Va-rie-ty. Now you fill your chest with bicycle recipes and wood cutting mods, and sometimes make a trip to the traders to turn that into an easy buck. Luckily, like you stated, it's being worked on ! If I had to choose between only one feature among all of A20, it would definitely be this one. A balanced but linear loot progression just breaks the fun too much in a game that emphasizes on looting so much. The prolonged wait starts materializing in the form of excitment more and more, and I hope it will blow my expectations out of the window 😄

What's the point of starting over with the same character though ? I mean if anything i'd want a fresh start just to see how much better I'll do compared to my first playthrough. Reusing my already existing character to just do the same story over with the added bonus of being both mechanically better AND my character being a beast seems foolish to me. That being said I don't look forward to starting a 2nd Valheim playthrough, because while the game is fun it definitely doesn't have much replayability value for now; one of the biggest asset 7DTD has over Valheim (or should I say, had, before loot linearity killed this aspect) is loot rarity and randomness. A18 and prior was designed in a way that didn't ever let you predict what you'd find and what you'd struggle with. Valheim doesn't have any rare items, everything is about the grind to have enough quantity. Also, while it's procedurally generated, there's really nothing special to be discovered throughout the world, POIs in 7DTD make a big difference to the thrill of starting over.

I gotta say regarding the argument about how "Valheim's skill system enhances the player instead of confining him"... I STRONGLY disagree. We all went blunt damage early (not even gonna argue about why you should ever play anything else really), and at some point I was like "dude, I want a sword". It was painful; even though it was the next tier compared to my mace, the damage was @%$#poor because just like in 7 days to die, once you're specialized in something, it's really uneffective to switch to something else. I grinded my ass off for hours before I was merely able to deal the same damage with my T+1 sword than I did with the T mace. I wouldn't say 7 days' system is any better, but it ain't worse, just to clarify. That being said, the LBD system in Valheim is a huge asset in my book. It just feels so nice to become steadily better at everything (especially jumping lol). What really makes it great is not only the organic progression but the huge impact dying has on your levels. My character is way higher level than my mates just because I died way less often; if anything, it's good to feel rewarded. 7 days hasn't ever had a decent dying penalty; losing a bit of experience on your current level is ridiculous when you lose 3+ levels of everything in Valheim. And yet, even my noobish girlfriend thinks it's great, because while she definitely rages when she does die, it makes it meaningful when she doesn't for a while (and it's a great motivation not to).

I know but that "mid to end game content" has been on 7 days to die's roadmap before Valheim even started being under development, not to mention Valheim has a roadmap of its own, so I think it's only fair comparing what the products have delivered as of today without taking into consideration any "will have should have"s.

"Story-driven" is a stretch for Valheim lol, it's more of a system where 1 biome = X monsters + 1 ressource + 1 boss. But you can totally "sandbox" the experience and go visit (almost) all areas on day 1, just like in 7 days to die. The key difference in 7 days to die is that there really isn't a huge difference between say the snow biome and the forest. Blueberries, differently skinned zombies, cold weather and cougars but... that's it. Meadows and the swamps are nothing alike in Valheim, to only name a few. Then again all those "story driven" elements and bandits and such are yet to come but... yeah, they have been for years now with not even a glimpse of what it will look like.

One huge asset Valheim has over 7 days to die is that, as some have stated, time is no issue. You could be grinding the starter biome for 20 hours if that's fun to you, just casually hunting birds and deers, or you could try to rush as quickly as possible to the next biome until you finish the game (or get rekt and realise you need to prepare). This also brings a level of flexibility 7 days doesn't have. We've had days with my group where we really wanted to push it and get a challenge, and then there were days of "let's just hunt some meat and feathers and maybe do a low level cave because we need early game mats". You can't do that with 7 days. The way the game is designed, it's basically a rush against the clock to be prepared by the next horde. Sure, you can turn off hordes or just play on 2 hours days with easy settings, but then the whole challenge is gone for the entirety of the game. You can't just hop in and do whatever you feel like depending on the day and your IRL energy level, you'll have to live with the decision you made when you first started playing (unless you constantly change settings which would feel gamey to the point of being close to cheating the game). In addition, the biomes really feel different, as in, different monsters, different ressources, different milestones in crafting/building. The biomes in 7 days feel like basic reskins with the odd wildlife difference, but zombies are all the same especially in their mechanics. Hopefully A20 will turn that a bit around, but unless we get special creatures for the harder biomes, just "raising the gamestage" won't give biomes a different combat feel. Oh yeah, combat. Valheim's combat is simple but it's fun and engaging. 7 days melee combat is quite frankly subpar on so many levels, especially compared to how awesome the game is in other areas. Lastly, bosses. We've had crazy fun doing the 2nd boss to the point we're thinking about picking up Monster Hunter. There's a great sense of adventure when you sail off with the purpose of defeating a boss in Valheim, and a great feel of accomplishment once you're done. There's really no milestone in 7 days that is comparable. Sure, the hordes are fun, but the aftermath doesn't change jack to your game besides you having repairing to do and less bullets to expend.

I'm sorry if this has been asked before as I've been off the forums for a while, how is the new "biome tier system" coming along, and how exactly will it work ? I'm talking about having better loot in tougher biomes / POIs.

A new tool to pickup any deco block in POIs would be one of the most welcome additions for my player group. But performance reasons for people who would abuse it somehow makes it a bad idea...

Having lots of zeds in the cities would not only make it more fun but it would also bring some challenge to what is currently a day 1 lootville ! It used to be "logical" in some way, concentrated loot area = hard area. Back in the days we looted isolated houses and small towns, but a hub city ? Better be ready for that. Right now, there's no reason not to head towards the biggest city nearby on day 1, and it kinda kills any sense of area progression and makes all those isolated POIs / smaller towns a waste of time, not an opportunity. The best of all would be a dynamic POI concentration spawn filter. 1 isolated house, 1 or 2 roaming zeds. 4 POIs nearby ? A whole bunch of zeds. A rural area with shops and whatnot ? Mirrions !

I'm not sure his issue is latency-related. I think it's more about the overall animations, feel, variety in gameplay. And on that subject, he's not wrong, there's really nothing special about the combat system. It's really binary to be honest, left click or right click with the right timing, rinse and repeat. Quite honestly it's the only thing, along with animations, that still screams "alpha" when I play; it seems like a first pass of something bigger.

This, exactly this! Make cities the end game not the Day 1 loot fest!

Well yeah, reading the official list of planned changes completely changed my mind on what I wrote on page 2. Alpha 20 looks amazing, moreso than A19 for my taste since A19 brought more eye candy and the loot progression was a fun killer. Hope the changes to that will be good. Damn I'm hyped! 😍 I know no dates, ready when it's ready etc... But earlier this year there were talks of A20 being a late 2020 update, is that still a possibility or is the A20 update way more ambitious than initially planned?

Haven't been able to watch the stream yet but from the list above (thank you by the way) , I don't see any big changes regarding gameplay ? Vehicle mods are a nice addition and the 3 pipe guns will make early days more convenient for everyone, but there seems to be nothing drastically gamechanging or adding/renewing the challenge. Has there been more detailed information regarding the very linear progression system of A19 that A20 was supposed to improve ? Scratch that, the official list looks amazing.

Since the A20 dev diary isn't even up yet, I think you are good to go for several months