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Roland

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Posts posted by Roland

    Please REMOVE the Strip Club POI

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Listening said:

     

    Note, I am the father of young women who love this kind of game.

     

    Perhaps you can use the game as a teaching moment and a show of your commitment to your values. Just as you would not patronize a stripper club in the real world, you could show your young daughters your values by not ever going into the stripper club in the game. By foregoing whatever loot might be in there and canceling any quest that might take you inside you could show your kids that even though such places exist, we don't have to take part in them.

     

    If you are religious as well you could even take the view that the proliferation of strip clubs in the pre-apocalyptic world brought down the judgement of the Almighty with a plague and punishment equal to the Flood in its devastation. In that case you would need to see the evidence of wickedness in the world that justified the wrath and that could justify their inclusion.

     

    Removing the strip clubs from the game as well as the stripper zombies wouldn't really do anything to lessen the objectification of women in the world. But YOU boycotting them by either removing them from the game, or refusing to interact with them, or even uninstalling 7 Days to Die and removing it from your household all together and letting your daughters witness your actions could be a powerful way to fight the objectification of women in your own sphere and set the example for the values you hold dear.

     

    The real lesson of import is that we cannot often control what the world and our environment throws at us that may violate our values. All we can control is what we do in response. To that end I applaud your feedback because you are doing something in reaction. As it is unlikely that there will be any change, you will have to choose next how you will react.

     

    Also....seeing as I quoted the part of your OP that gives people the faintest idea of why you are letting young children play an M-rated game in the first place....why are you?

    29 minutes ago, Kyonshi said:

    The Pimps said they dont wanna put kid zombies because they themselves dont feel good about doing so, not because of the fear of potential outrage it could cause.

     

    Actually the reason is because they want this game to be an international hit and some countries would ban a game in which children (even zombie children) are being killed. I don't think the devs are against it, themselves, as The Walking Dead was a major source of inspiration and it is infamous for depicting children being killed. Zombie Girl shot by Rick in the pilot episode and "look at the yellow flowers" being the two big examples I can think of.

     

    No, there is no reticence about including it in the game in and of itself. It comes down to what markets would we lose if we did it.

    6

    Thank you to everyone who tuned in and took part in the A20 Dev Stream Series!

    in News & Announcements

    Posted

    8 hours ago, secateurs said:

    Why was endgame content never developed?

    Because the game isn't finished yet.  They are still developing stuff.

    On 9/19/2021 at 6:10 PM, Guppycur said:

    The replacematerial XML property no longer works correctly due to a simple arrangement of children on *some* of the zombies, are there plans for uniformity in bone set up so things like the old system for radiating a zed will still work?

    I would tag faatal and ask this in the dev diary since your agenda didn't pan out last night. 

    0

    Endgame activities?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    7 hours ago, secateurs said:

    Then why is survival not very hard, or rewarding?

     

    Why then is there no real penalty for dying?

     

    This game is a looter shooter without the challenges that make finding loot great.

     

    Delete all on death is a pretty good optional penalty for dying. Try it out.  The game can be a looter shooter if you play it that way. But it can also be played otherwise.

    On 9/19/2021 at 9:12 PM, 7daystodierocks said:

    all i want roland is a massively improved RWG because right now it looks like someone drunk threw up on a blank canvas XD

     

    Granted!

    0

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Roland (see edit history)

    4 hours ago, meganoth said:

    Rolands 1000% got me thinking, because something about that number seems wrong, I just can't put my finger on it 😁. I am surprised he did not add minecraft-type builder to the three genres he think were first. Did that really come later as a consequence of the tower-defense part needing some build capability ?

     

    The three inspirations for the game from the very beginning were Minecraft, Fallout, and The Walking Dead.

     

    From Minecraft we get crafting, unit block building, exploration

    From Fallout we get post-apocalyptic RPG elements like the traders, quests, and player progression 

    From Walking Dead we get zombies, setting up and defending a base, and survival

     

    All of this was in the minds of the creators when they made their plans, did their preliminary prototype for kickstarter and then continued into early access on Steam. They NEVER said, lets build a survival game and then as they continued on added crafting, and building, and RPG elements as appendages to the main idea of survival. They NEVER said, lets make a tower defense game and then tried to mesh in elements of survival and roleplaying as supporting gameplay options. The idea itself was that it would be a hybrid game and they have pursued their goal without deviation from day one.

     

    Sure, they experimented with HOW those goals might be implemented and some people became enamored with some of those experiments to the point that they thought that those implementations were the point of the game. For example, Learn By Doing was a method to push player progression and after experimenting with it they chose a more traditional (and much more Fallout-esque) method of central experience pool for purchasing advancements in progression. So their goal of player progression as one of the elements of the RPG genre that they wanted for the game never wavered but the way they implemented it changed-- for better or worse depending on who you talk to :)

     

    Before Alpha 11 there was no RPG elements to speak of other than progressing from primitive tools and weapons to better tools and weapons. Those weapons and tools didn't even have tiers of quality. So for 10 alphas there were no RPG elements to the game to speak of because they had not reached the point at which they felt it was time. In Alpha 11 we got the first push which was that every time we crafted a tool we could craft a better one with a +/- 50 randomizer. For the first time ever in the history of the game "spam crafting" became a thing and it was a huge game changer and the only form of progression in the game. From Alpha 11 until Alpha 16 various forms of progression and experience cocktails were experimented with as well as the role of books and schematics and what advancements could be purchased with points and which would be learned by repeated action. Finally, in A17 the final decision about how players would progress was made and it has been built upon until now.

     

    My point in relating this history is that to the casual observer it might appear that RPG elements were not originally conceived to be part of the game but were tacked on later. But this is far from the truth. That this game would be a mix of survival, tower defense, and RPG was planned from the beginning. If past studios have always started with one pure genre and branched out from there then I can definitively state that the approach TFP took was ground breaking because they did not start out at all focused on a single primary genre. But I suspect, that this idea that a studio must start with one primary and all others are secondary to it is a misconception and not true at all. I doubt TFP were the first, although they have been quite successful.

    1

    Point to where to learn to export my base from my game

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Roland (see edit history)

    I don't know that there was much of a change between A18 and A19 in that regard. I think if you follow the A18 procedure with A19 you will be fine but I could be wrong. I'm usually messaged by people who update their tutorials for A19 if it is necessary. But perhaps someone will correct me and say that there are changes. And when they do, I'll ask them why they haven't put up a new tutorial in the past year and a half...

    0

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Lets all relax. We all agree that the game is mixed genre and if it helps someone enjoy playing because they believe that out of that mixture there is one dominant genre that the game follows with the rest being sub-genres, there is no harm in that. We don't have to analyze things down to the hundredth of a percent as to whether survival, RPG, and Tower Defense are all at 33.33% represented in the game or if they were all equally in the minds of Joel and Rick when they dreamed it up.

     

    I'm sorry for my part in quibbling about whether it is one or three or whatever. My main interest in this conversation is the notion of whether it truly is or is not impossible to develop a game from the start as a true hybrid or whether as the OP asserts you MUST start with one genre and then add in other genres as you go. I don't agree with the OP on this and from my vantage point, I really do feel that the developers have had this mixture of Minecraft (survival, crafting, exploration) Fallout (RPG in an apocalyptic world) and The Walking Dead (Base defense from unending zombies) firmly in their minds from the very beginning. Even though they put off adding the RPG elements for a bit, they were most definitely advertised in the kickstarter campaign at the start.

     

    If there have not been very many (if any?) games that have been a well executed mashup like this one in the past then I submit that this game is the ceiling breaker on development of hybrid genres that busts the myth that game developers must focus on one single platform for the game to be successful. 

    0

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I will say that from the beginning they wanted RPG elements but it wasn't until Alpha 11 that they started really implementing them so for the first 10 alphas the game was mostly survival and tower defense. Since Alpha 11 the RPG aspect has grown in its footprint on the game. So in implementation you could say that they have moved from one to the other. 

     

    0

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I do like it a lot better when people come here to ask questions hoping to learn something rather than asking questions that they already believe they know the answers to...

     

    Must be the teacher in me. ;)

     

    There are two philosophies about experiencing something you previously thought was impossible:

     

    1) "Wow, that's amazing! I need to reassess what I thought was possible."

    2) "I know that's impossible therefore there must be an explanation within the realm of what I already believe to be possible."

     

    The first leads to growth and new knowledge. The second leads to stagnation and status quo. The first is risky because maybe you are being duped. The second is safe because you don't have to change your perspective. But if you believe the first and end up being wrong then you simply return to your previous state of "what is possible" and if you are right then your idea of what is possible expands. If you go with the second then you will always remain limited to your current pool of knowledge.

     

     

    1

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Roland (see edit history)

    37 minutes ago, Ashlockheart said:

    but I know for sure when it comes to developing a video game all games have a foundation to start on.

    And THIS foundation has three platforms.

     

    1 hour ago, Ashlockheart said:

    Oh I am 100% positive the devs did pick a main core category for the game.

    I'm 1000% positive they picked three. (being privy to their development meetings and all)

     

    37 minutes ago, Ashlockheart said:

    but I know for sure it has a core foundation category to it, and I was only wonder which one is was. Never cared which one they did choose

    Good to know you don't care since there are three and whichever one of those three YOU pick for your own focus makes you correct for you. In other words if "What is the core foundation of 7 Days to Die" was a multiple choice question and the answers were A) Survival   B) RPG    C)Tower Defense   you could pick whichever the of the three you wanted and you would be correct unless there was a D) All of the above and then that would be the only correct answer.

     

    If in your experience no other game has been able to do this then your experience has now been broadened.

    0

    What is 7 days to die?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Ashlockheart said:

    Well the main important reason why I will keep trying to put the game in a category is because of balance, and it is too easy to throw the game off of what made the game fun, and pulling people into it.

    That's really not your responsibility so don't stress over it. Your responsibility is to play what is released and find the fun you like to have with it. You could ask five different people what kind of game this is and they will give you five different answers and all feel like they are having fun. If you are having fun with this game as a survival game but then someone tells you it is actually a shooter so you try and play it that way and then don't feel like you are having as much fun then just stop playing it that way and go back to the way you like to play.

    3 hours ago, Ashlockheart said:

    One update could put the game into full Minecraft mode, and it would take a few years of updates to pull it back down to survival. Another update could put the game into full RPG Skyrim, and it would take a few years to pull the game back into Shooter/Survival, and vice versa.

    Its true that as the devs have developed 7 Days to Die certain updates have emphasized one aspect of its hybrid nature. But no update has pulled it so far to one single way to play it that it has taken years to settle back into hybrid territory. In my experience, the game has maintained its emphasis on survival, RPG, and tower defense ever since they started adding RPG elements in about Alpha 11.

    3 hours ago, Ashlockheart said:

    Every game has at least a main core to it even if the game does more than one category so its easyer to keep the game developed on the correct direction, and its less likely to rear off road, and throw the game in a very bad state that would take a long time to pull out of.

    Sounds like a misconception to me. Or maybe it is every game but one: this one. I think this game has three main cores: Survival, RPG, Tower Defense and I believe the devs have kept those three anchors in place pretty well throughout development-- or at least since Alpha 11. What is interesting is that beginning with Alpha 11 there began to be a huge dissatisfaction from the PvP segment of the community who noticed that things like character progression and tiers of weaponry that were not equally available to everyone from the start really created unfair situations and they wanted TFP to maintain a balanced PvP experience. But, TFP never invisioned this game first and foremost as a PVP shooter and as time went on the game diverged more and more from a game that worked well for PVP. Alpha 10 really was the pinnacle of PvP gameplay before the RPG elements became a stronger and stronger influence on the game.

    3 hours ago, Ashlockheart said:

    Mixing things up is great but one of the category's is the correct one that made the game popular, and held peoples interest. So I will always keep asking what the main category is because I am sure the devs did pick one. It would be weird for devs to make a game that they don't know what type they dreamed of making.

    No. The devs from the very beginning stated they were making a game that was "Minecraft meets Fallout meets The Walking Dead". They dreamed of making that game and so it is a hybrid and not one single genre. The fact that you are confused about what the game is because you think it must be one and we all understand perfectly because we accept that it is plural should be proof enough for you. You have always believed that it is impossible for there to be a decent game that splits its focus between more than one genre but I say that something is only impossible until someone proves that it actually is possible.

     

    Witness history in the making.

    1

    Endgame activities?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    12 hours ago, White-Gandalf said:

    With that rule in place, i'm holding back from massively riding POI's. This has led to never having run out of unknown (and thus: interesting) places so far with about 8000 hours invested since A14.

     

    You will absolutely adore A20 :) There are so many new locations to experience--many of which are T4 which I think is the true POI sweet spot and even a few T5s which are also fun every once in awhile or co-op. If you keep to your philosophy, A20 POIs alone will probably secure you another couple thousand hours.

     

     

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