Bhaaltazar

Truth is what else will they have them sell... basically it is better to just ignore traders alltogether since they break a game - even with resetting POI's and rewards. Than they are selling magazines, crucible, cobblestone etc... Game feels much better without them ( played some I am legend mod that removes traders from the game and I was forced to move around much more since I emptied all the buildings in a town ). Problem is that traders shorten the game significantly. I was hoping they would be better used and evolved, when they announced it back than, but they act as a cheat code at the current state of the game. Unless they add more content, NPCs and more things to do when you reach that day 30+ game gets completely repetitive and stale, no satisfaction with any kind of good endgame play. Also noticed that game ratings on Steam keeps on dropping. Currently close to where the game was at A16 before graphic sugars were introduced.

So if I want to enjoy the game for a bit longer I go out in wilderness ignore Traders/Airdrops/quests/loot respawn and just try to do it like in A16. I move from town to town, loot POIs, no matter which tier it is and than come back to main base every 7 days or so. You really need to limit yourself against mentioned things since they really break the gameplay - despite traders got nerfed you still get rewards and you can buy stuff you need, that makes a huuuge difference from A16 - now tehre is no starving, no hunger, no illnesses anymore - trader has you covered

Moving away from Learn by Doing towards books was big mistake - I think only modders like Subquake who is making Undead legacy will save the game. Checked Steam ratings and they dropped for around 10% compared to before. Now you can sum down the game to collect magazines and go from bookshelf to bookshelf/mailbox/newsstand/bookstore so you collect them all and craft lvl 6 tools/weapons and restart the game since there is nothing else left to do after you reach that point. So if I want to enjoy the game for a bit longer I go out in wilderness ignore Traders/Airdrops/quests/loot respawn and just try to do it like in A16. I move from town to town, loot POIs, no matter which tier it is and than come back to main base every 7 days or so. You really need to limit yourself against mentioned things since they really break the gameplay - despite traders got nerfed you still get rewards and when you buy stuff you need, that makes a huuuge difference from A16 - no starving, no hunger no illnesses anymore. I really wish I could go back to A16 system and keep the new graphics and looks from A22 and hopefully they add some quality engame. Current game lost its mojo compared to what it used to be, even if game looked much worse than now. I love the game, I just don't like the way they want to make it easier for "new players" - sometimes it feels like playing in cheat mode. Also it is like they can't decide if you are the last survivor or there are comunities and if they are where are NPCs besides traders that would enrich the world. Bandits are coming, but I would like survivors faction as well or something along those lines, towards where you turn your focus and efforts with all the T6 equipment you kept collecting with looting and crafting.

Ferals and Rads arent special - you will find them in tier 2 and up, depends on difficulty you are playing on. Those spiders are just an upgraded crawler. Yea I agree specials are Demolition and Mutated that you meet later in game or wasteland. Cops also occur soon, though they do have ranged attack and explode. Oldest and first special zombie in game that you only met in wasteland hub city in old alphas.

There are no "special" zombies anymore - that only used to be a thing in old alphas with rads and spiders crimbing zombies.

Did 3 playthroughs on Warrior dificulty and mostly snow and wasteland biome looting and questing, but had full crate of first aid bandages and bunch of honey, first aids and everything left at dy 42 when I usually get bored and stop playing. Meds has been reduced some, but never run out of meds ( except maybe on day 1 and 2 ). IMO meds should be reduced even more.

Definitely learn by doing and add books and magazines as addition to it. Well they aready had id in place in A16 but they went on and fixed something that wasn't broken. Players pushed against it in A17 "they solved it" with adding even more magazines lol

So I have been with the game since A9 ( little over 7.5k hours in 10 years according to steam ). Game has always been designed that you reach the Mid game ( well at least in my opinion when you max out your gear and you can comfortably defend against hordes that should be end of Mid game and that is the point where you switch to serious end game stuff ). In all these years there has never been any talk about end game, more like let's just stretch the game and slow progression so this is the end game than.( therefore let's remove learn by doing progression and replace it with "comic books" because your character doesn't have any brain left to learn anything by using tools or weapons. But lets leave that aside for now... So according to little bits of information about further updates, it looks like there are 2 factions in game, White River and Duke and do not like each other ( from what I could pick up from Hugh dialog ) and there will also be bandits that will attack everyone. Game is great until this end of the Mid game ( once you reach max T6 levels in progression with gear/quests often times you don't really have a real benefit to use that gear for anything anymore, unless you just want to "challenge" yourself with repetitive T6 quests or running POI's and doing big builds and play with broken farming ( Bring back farming of A16 and before please ). OK game still needs lots of balancing to do, but after A16 I have never bothered to collect brass to make bullets and stuff etc, farming, I mine much much less than before to fill my needs ( In A 16 I used to play usually to around day 70 horde now I stretch it and play at max to around day 42 maybe 49 - everything gets too repetitive after that. ). So what is the end game? - clear the zombie plague ( is that what T6 quests are all about maybe, so you do this infested POIs that take couple in game days to finish so you find some sort of research to find out what they were doing in those labs that maybe caused the plague and look for cure ( Higashi, Dishong tower, army bases research etc... ) - or create a safe heaven for your faction where you build and protect a small town that can thrive and protect your citizens like maybe what you do in State of decay 1 and 2 where you clear the map of all the infestations so plague stops spreading ( though I saw one of staff members said they do not plan to introduce any new NPCs ) Modpacks like Darkness falls go for secret military bunker endgame with military research and portals for plague origins and all the mutations etc... What I worry about 7D2D currently is a great game with great potential which can be ruined with weak ending game mechanic where you don't find much satisfaction when you end the game. Similar to what Game of Thrones last season did to the otherwise great series, quick lackluster rushed endings that hardly made any sense to the ark they built in previous seasons. I do not know what TFP plans to do, but in 10 years there has never been any concrete information about how they plan to bring ark of the game to satisfactory ending and what the real end game goal will be. Or how Pixar explained their big success: Brands that have the most compelling stories win. Please do not take this as a rant ( I would still rate the current game lets say 85 - 90 out of 100, but without proper endgame at full game release that would drop down to probably solid 70 - 75 ). One of the games I replayed the most with friends and solo gameplays, but if there is lame ending after all these years of development than I will say Thank you for fun and many hours, it had a great potential but it wasn't meant to be one of the best after all. So what would your suggestions be for a good end game for 7D2D?

T5 or T6 takes waaay too long ( 7Days suits drove me mad looking for missed zombies for a whole day running around looking for few groups I somehow missed ) to be worth doing it for traders. I did couple off them just for the sake of a resetting of POI so I can scrap them for materials ( book stores for those roles of paper - for shotgun shells crafting, Army outpost 7 for beds and car parts, Grover high for quick library run and quick xp with all the zombies hordes you get...) Lower tier quests gets you quick magazine bundles or duct tapes. Otherwise I only use traders to buy couple of food ( cans and potatoes/corn ), than usually I buy cobblestone to save time, occasionally duct tape and glue, magazines, lamps, Dew collector 1st two mods and Crucible to send me ahead. That is it, all the rest is useless in their menu. Don't even bother with them, just go to the wasteland for higher Loot stage and you get all the items you need much faster for lower tier POI's. Also for skill progression just do mail boxes, newspaper stands and bookstores instead of buying from traders - frankly that is all game is all about now since there is no learn by doing anymore.

I wish! +1 Feels sort of empty sometimes. I liked A16 mechanic where zombies sniffed you outwhen you entered new town and you had to "Clear the streets" first before you looked for loot etc... You get more of them in wasteland but they just keep spawning in out of thing air behind you even after you cleared them.

You can still do quests and turn them in as normal, only difference is after you get a message those quests do not count towards trader tier progression. After midnight counter resets for trader progression counting.

New POI's are made mostly out of few triggers/ambushes where you get big waves of zombies before proceeding to next floor/level. You can use that to your advantage, where you just use choke points ( doorways, spikes, wire traps etc... ) and just kill all the zombies there by using either grenades, or in my case Sniper rifle with perception build, bust best of all shotguns dmg with headshots through holes in damaged doors. Quick and easy even with Rads or ferals. Grover High on snow biome was my quick way to farm for xp/books/loot/salvage. The other T5 POI I like for a quick shotgun run late game is T5 military base US army post #7 I think it's called. Also plenty of zeds with trigger events - which once you get used to it play to your advantage for quick disposal.

Water is abundant, if you loot all the toilets, kitchen appliances, coolers etc.. you will have an extra chest just for water. On day 5 I haven't found a wrench yet, neither I could craft one - lacked mechanical parts for it and Rekt wasn't selling one. I found Stun baton on day 2 which is huge early game leap, so to go through so much work for sledge turret doesn't feel to be worth it. Especially when you can't rotate the sledge direction when you place it down ( like facing you if you in front of the door ).

I get all that, it just seemed like big discrepancy compared to other classes at thit stage. And it is a sledge turret, kinda useless unless you plan for its use, usually you just found a few of these in loot in earlier alphas.

So WTF is with recipes in intellect build? wanted to make me Sledge turret lvl 3 on day 5, but the recipe want me to make 30 duct tape, on top of 120 Forged iron and 30 springs? Doesn't make any sense since Intellect doesnt have mining nor salvage perk? Intellect recipes are exponentialy more expensive than any other classes?

I have been thinking about it today when I was looking for some cofee in wasteland kitchens. There was ton of cooking magatines ( which I maxed already ). Than I figured I guess looting and progressing is just all about books and magazines. I still miss A16 learn by doing where magazines were just additions for recipes and alike. Now it feels it is all about finding all the books/mags and than game over. I sit on 12 skill points that I dont really need to invest anywhere late game ( Day 48 ). With all the books and mags dependancy game lasts you 30 - 35 day than you have no reason why would you even do any of the T5+ quests. No reason since there are no rewards that would benefit you at the end. The only reason why I do T5+ is to clear it and than salvage it for paper mostly ( constantly lookin for T5 Bookstore quest ), to make shells for shotgun. Don't even know why would I want to go to depressing wasteland landscape, snow gives everything you need ( well even forrest for that matter ). Main thread of the game is go after mailboxes and bookstores. Than you are half way through with current gameplay. p.s. Dont get me wrong I love the game, been playing since A9, but I just wish they kept progression from A16 and lower. Tweak them and add magazines as addition, but now to have these as bread and butter of progression.

There should be more of this idle zombies moaning. So when you get into a city you know there is a bunch of them in there. These new sounds are great addition.

Personally I would prefer we get big roaming hordes - not just few zombies run by. Secondly I would prefer you attract screamers with running forges, fires etc... and they should keep screeming if you do not get reed of them. There used to be much bigger hordes coming when they came over. The only time it got bit pesky was when you weer mining and they came. But during this play through I really miss them. Only get a couple here and there if I used shotgun in T5 quests and few when I was burning forges for cement. But mostly I only get them around day 40, they are Rad version but when I let them call horde she mostly calls for bunch of normal Zs and ferals.

I completelly skipped Iron Sledgehammers and used T5 stone sledge. Iron sledgehammer are waste of time - worst game in weapon IMO. At higher levels I still just use Stone sledge for knockdown and finnish Rads off with Steel sledge hammer.

You could make the same argument for lack of ranged weapons for Strength build, early game shotgun is useless for long range, but that is the point. If you want range use either bows or some automatic rifles. Dunno when I play intellect I usually go for melee and just use turret as a shotgun, otherwise I just use sledge turret to knock them off at some bottleneck. Each class needs to be played differently, but I usually progress the fastest in intellect with some points in perception as well for few points in lucky looter. I get majority of my equipment from looting which surpasses my current crafting skills.

Met one on day 6 at night trying to quickly jump in into Animal Hoarder house to get the loot since trader just closed. Man was I in for a big surprise with those red eyes. Shot 3 clips of 9 mm and I still almost died. Who ever made it great job and great new sounds!! Really liking it.

I like the new armor system, all with pros and cons. I am switching around pieces quite a lot and I like it adds to imersivness. +1 Was expecting with preacher gloves it will be melee all the way, but after day 25-30 or so when you get Rad weights in snow biome and rad bikers it feels like poking them with a stick. Feels more like old school difficulty and I hope they keep it. Been playing on adventurer, but it felt too easy even for the first playthrough, switched to nomad feels better. Well I enjoy this first playthrough much more than before, but I am getting close to reaching max levels with armor and weapons/tools. So I can say it took me 25% - 30% longer than before to get here, currently on day 40 and in haven't played this long since A16. ( been playing 7D2D since A9 ). Game feels much more balanced items/money wise. I never had to look for leather before( except A16 ), I actually started breaking down seats in restaurants again and collecting chairs for leather to build armor sets. Money is also not abundant, hardly ever have more than one stack and for the first time I am actually finding vending machines candy useful and needed. So great job pimps with balancing the game and making scavenging interesting so it makes you think about what to craft first and than scavenge for more resources to craft rest of the stuff. But that said I don't see much to do after day 40 or even 50+.

I am playing on nomad with spears and I thought with preacher gloves it will be like a walk in the park, but it is anything but that. When encountering bunch of rads and ferals in tier 5 spear is kinda useless, feels like using a toothpick agains them Gulping down Skull crashers like candies but it doesnt help all that much. Don't get me wrong I like it that it is more challenging now, I need to plan whole lot more and also bringing some pipe bombs with me as well and playing with spikes and whatnot to slow them down when whole floor wakes up. End chest rewards are kind of meh I mostly crafted all my gear to lvl 5 and 6 at day 39. With full lucky looter and +20% looting headgear with mods I did get ocasional good drop to upgrade the weapons ( sniper rifle lvl 5 from tier 5 quest chest ).

I got honey from a first stump on Day 1 when I was looking for wood for starter quests. So I guess just a random luck.

You got a great basic game which is good foundation for potential future mod packs. Modders are already doing great stuff as it is only expecting even more in future. Pimps can't please everyone's taste and desires, but as you wrote yourself they did meet many of them. Minecraft basic game is also lacking compared to modded Minecraft, bud modded community made the game what it is, still after so many years later. And I also wish they would add something to wilderness experience which is currently dead space with trees, like maybe random encounters,special quest locations etc., or you could only mine in hilly areas as such- in old Alphas you had to travel between biomes to mine specific ores, but than again what ever they do there will be players who wants it differently or doesnt like the additions.