Roland
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Posts posted by Roland
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8 minutes ago, MechanicalLens said:
I got the message long ago, thanks.
It's RWG Mech!
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4 hours ago, Crater Creator said:
That's well worth pointing out. But I also feel like @wizard puke has a point. Under default options, that horde is coming on the seventh day whether you prepare for it or not. Plus your survival needs, e.g. hunger and thirst, are always draining. So in that sense you are always on a timer, and you need to do things to get out ahead of the threat. Further, you hope to do things efficiently, because if you do things wastefully you'll raise your gamestage more than you raise your survivability with useful output. So there is a driving force of sorts, pressuring you to seek efficient ways to success, like getting quest rewards on top of the stuff you'd get from a POI without the quest.
There are xp rich activities that if spammed will propel your gamestage faster than you can keep up. Killing every zombie you encounter and triggering screamer hordes to kill as many zombies as you can is an example of xp-rich activities that will cause the gamestage to possibly outpace you. I'd say that spamming quests as opposed to simply scavenging POIs on your own is also towards that end of the spectrum. Remember that your bonus reward is not just cash and gear but it is also XP on top of what you earned as you did the quest. Speed running quests is going to ratchet up your gamestage-- possibly faster than you may be comfortable with on horde night or if ferals and radiated start popping up before you are prepared for them.
Getting back to topic...How would you solve the problem of spammed quests? Even if the trader travels you will still have a marker to return to him to gain your reward. What's to stop you from taking a new quest right away? Would you not get a location to return for that quest and have to find the trader to turn in your package for your reward? I don' think that would go over very well. The only way to stop quest spamming is to limit how many can be done per day. Some people will not like that restriction.
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If zombies being in rafters and closets don't make any sense to you then make up a reason and use that as your personal backstory. Mine is that the Duke planted people who crossed him in those places knowing they would turn. He would have done the same to me but something went wrong and I found myself dazed on the side of the road instead.
As for the linear path of each house-- it's your choice to follow those or not. You have the means to hack through whatever locked door you want to go through and I often do. POI's seldom feel linear to me.
Honestly, though, I just don't overthink the silly and bizarre situations in the game. I just accept them as the way the world works and have fun within those parameters. Zombies WILL be in closets, Zombies CAN break down concrete with their bare hands, I CAN carry a ton of building materials, Zombie Vultures DO attack vehicles, A red moon DOES agitate and enhance zombies, AK-47s ARE in abundance in America, Every business IS named as a pun, etc. Navezgane may not be a perfect representation of our world but it is consistent with itself if you choose to accept the rules of its universe.
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22 minutes ago, FA_Q2 said:
True or not, the game incentivizes play around the trader by both the mechanics of the trader itself and the fact that the game gives very little direction except the trader where it is telling you where to go.
IOW, from the very first quest you get when you start a new character, the game is pushing you to the trader. You can avoid it and have good reasons to as you understand the game mechanics. In general though, I think most players are just going to go along with the flow of the game.
That is a great point and I very much agree with this assessment. But if they remove those incentives and force players to just one quest per day then it will feel artificial and nobody will like that either...
The way it is now you can choose to be casual with quests or hardcore with quests. If one way is turning out to not be fun for you then choose the other way.
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27 minutes ago, Matt115 said:
Well game stage is important right but it is rly hard to survive blood moon without at least shotgun and 50+ ammo , yeah you can find guns in random POI but it is usually not enough, and cutting down trees consuming a lot of time to create defens. So maybe i accelarating gamestage but i have enought defense to counter it
My point is that the reason it is rly hard to survive blood moon without at least a shotgun and 50+ ammo is because of you turbo boosting your gamestage. If you back off of leveling up so quickly then your first couple of blood moons are actually pretty tame. Gamestage is everything and when you play in a way that accelerates the xp you earn, of course it will feel like you're always behind the timer. Like I said, start a new test game and try ignoring the trader and do no quests during the first week and try surviving the first bloodmoon with whatever you've found simply by scavenging POI's on your own. It will be a cake walk.
For me, the best zone is to do a single quest each day. Trying to spam 3-4 quests each day to maximize the xp gains and rewards and money is not ideal nor is just ignoring quests altogether and wishing them to be removed. Moderation is key in my opinion. I usually do a quest and scavenge nearby POI's as well using a chest to gather all the best stuff. Sometimes I don't get back to the trader the same day to get my reward. I'll return the next morning and pick up a new quest for that day.
That's when I play solo. With my family it is different. We all share our quests and then do them all together so we end up doing a few each day but then there are more of us to take on the horde as well.
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6 hours ago, wizard puke said:
It's just hard to not feel like you're "falling behind" by just exploring since the game is on a timer and balanced around doing those quests.
That’s not true though. The game is balanced around your gamestage and the timer ticks according to the pace you choose. Maybe it’s counter-intuitive but the more efficiently you try to play the more you are going to feel like you are falling behind.
The game used to ramp up in difficulty based mostly on the game day but that is no longer true. Now it ramps up in difficulty based on your gamestage which increased as quickly or slowly as you choose to play.
Speed run the game and that timer is going to fly. Play at a leisurely pace and the timer slows way down.
By spamming quests you are not just keeping up with the timer, you are also accelerating it.
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2 hours ago, FA_Q2 said:
He can ignore the trader but what he is asking for is not removing them but bringing them in line with other means to progress.
Well, the guy he was responding to was calling for a complete removal of quests and I have to agree that people who want the quests completely removed should try a playthrough without them to just make sure they like the game without them. Then, if they find they do really like the game without them then they won't really be tempted to use them so the necessity for their removal kind of goes away anyway.
I played the game before there were traders and we pretty much spent our time mining, building, exploring, and scavenging POIs. Quests simply add an objective and extra reward to the "scavenging POIs" part of what we were already doing. Remove quests and we will STILL be scavenging POIs.
I like CC's suggestion because it removes the need for protected land and a static destination that is always the same. It adds some variety. But I still want to be able to shop for cool stuff and I still want to do quests-- you know-- since I'm going to be scavenging POI's anyway...
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11 hours ago, Yark said:
If you've ever worked with a person who felt that the job he or she was doing was "good enough" despite not being done well, then you know about what we're dealing with here
I have and I know exactly the attitude you are talking about. TFP don't fit that. They never claimed that the localization was all done and good enough. If they leave it the way it is once they are done then I will be right there with you calling them on it. But I know they won't. There used to to be a lot more of these cases and slowly but surely they are changing them over. Game is still in development and nobody has said, "Okay Old_house_3 is what its gonna be cuz that's good enough!"
11 hours ago, Yark said:New animations are obviously significantly more complicated, so the art team could be excused for not having addressed missing attack animations... If not for the fact that they just spent time creating an HD model that nobody asked for.
Brett is not the same guy who does animations. His work on the cop model in no way shape or form delayed animations nor was it work done instead of animations. The programmer who would add attack animations was surely doing something else instead but there is zero correlation between the Cop model and lack of attack animations in the game. In addition, somebody did ask for the HD model. Brett doesn't work for free so he was hired, asked, and paid by the owners of TFP specifically to do the HD models and he is doing a great job.
But...I'll be sure to let him know you gave him a free pass for not doing something he wasn't hired or expected to do.
11 hours ago, Yark said:Hopefully after my next year-long break from the game
That might be long enough but no promises.
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2 hours ago, 7daysexpert said:
actually roland your wrong on the player directed changes in A16 a player could make an underground horde base and now we cant as the zombies seem to have gotten super smart as a few players whined and @%$#ed about people making underground bases
I’m definitely not wrong about this. Zombies could dig since the very beginning of the game. At some point, at around Alpha 12 or 13 they stopped them from digging until they could overhaul the pathing. That happened in A17 when zombies once again started digging.
it wasn’t a change because the devs felt nervous due to really whiney players. It was always in the game except for a brief hiatus. Zombies have been digging in more Alphas than they haven’t been digging.
The devs are creating their game. If they were as sensitive to community outcry as some like to believe then we most definitely would still have LBD....
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4 hours ago, Spatch said:
player-directed changes
No such thing. Everything is dev directed and they make changes whether those changes are asked for or not.I agree generally with you that people shouldn’t concern themselves with how others play, but AFK bases are definitely contrary to dev vision for this game. They want a game that requires player engagement. That’s why the title of the game isn’t “Idle 7 Days to Die”. Granted, players will find a way but they are going to make players work for it, for sure.
Also, you can still drive around on horde night....if you make an underground track.
1 hour ago, Ornias said:Honestly they could have gone gold with 16.4 with some vehicle upgrades and most of use would have been happy.
Well...most of you who liked A16 would be happy but not necessarily most of the player base. Player numbers haven’t exactly dropped off since the demise of A16.4....😜
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Finding is finding. Whether I find something in a box in someone’s attic or at the trader, I’m finding it.
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Its more of my own sensibility about a game being tight and erasing loopholes more than trying to stop people from cheating. I know people will cheat no matter what and if it is their own personal game then so what. This isn't a hill I would die on.
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I guess I always assumed that the commands existed to assist the testers and developers and not as gameplay options. I don't really consider having using console commands autofail quests as going down a rabbit hole. I'm not saying to completely disable "killall" after all. I'm just saying make it so if you use it during a quest, the quest fails. But...if I'm wrong about the purpose of console commands and why they are part of the game then so be it.
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45 minutes ago, Mastermind said:
Right now, we are kindda forced to fall in traps to clear POI which is lame.
I agree with this for sure. This could be fixed by extending the vertical on the sleeper volume. Not even counting the quest, it isn't really a fair trap if the zombies don't even spawn until you are already in free fall. Get your improvement ticket trigger finger moving on this one @Laz Man
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Achievements are disabled if you open dm or cm in the console. This would be along the same lines. I understand that during development programmers and testers might need to use commands in order to work on the quests but if the quests are pretty much finished then using console commands and dev tools should cause the quest to fail. We can't stop cheaters ultimately but we can at least remove some of the low hanging fruit. They still would get the loot from the POI but forego the Trader reward if they use godmode or killall commands during the quest. Is this unreasonable?
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The way/path is meant to eventually lead the player to the treasure room througha circuitous gauntlet and is not designed as a guarantee that the player will cross paths with every zombie in the building. When a child is lost in the forest, searchers do not religiously remain on existing paths and trails expecting to eventually come upon the child. They methodically cover all the ground on and off the path because they are searching the entire area. The clear quests require us to search and find zombies in the entire building and clear them out. The radar gives general abstract clues as an abstraction of our situational awareness once zombies are awake and moving around but they are not meant as high tech infrared spy tech to remove all the searching out of the quest. By the same token, if you could solve every quest by making noise and having them all come to you they would be too easy. It was for this reason the change you referenced was made. They used to all come raging out and were easily dispatched by kiting, nerdpoling up to high ground, etc. The way it is now there is room-by-room fighting and it is much better, imo. As for surviving a horde of indoor zombies, we had that in A17 and people hated it so zombies were thinned indoors.
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I sympathize with you having a tough time with the higher tier quests but I have to completely disagree that we need more radar information on the compass or anything at all done to dumb down the quests. The point of the clear quest is to search the entire building and clear it. All the lower tier clear quests can easily be done during daylight hours. It is just the higher tier quests that might cause you to either camp out in the building over night or keep trying to clear it through the night depending on how well you do against running enemies. But that's the point: they are higher tier (AKA more difficult) and you should not expect them to just be able to be done quickly before night comes.
In my opinion, after reading this, there are only two things that need to be done. 1) Allow lower tier quests to be chosen so players aren't forced to take quests that are too difficult and 2) make it so using the killall command auto fails the quest.
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30 minutes ago, bloodmoth13 said:
Sounds like a good start. Obviously its not a major issue but its always good to have important things feel good to do.
Are we only having 4 slots in the next alpha? will clothes and armor still be separate or are they combined?
As of now the next alpha will be the same as now in regards to clothes and armor.
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8 minutes ago, bloodmoth13 said:
Honestly that kind of stuff is fine so long as it feels right to do. If its opening a menu to drag and drop several pieces it becomes annoying and tedious. If its too easy though there isnt an opportunity cost so it becomes automatic and kind of lame.
I remember in previous alphas carrying 2 jackets, a duster and a poncho for hot or cold climates, at the time i liked the idea but hated the gameplay, i felt smart for doing that but it wasnt fun to do. Not sure if its possible to make getting dressed fun, best idea i have is being able to create a collection that i can apply all with one click without having to navigate my bag to assign all of the pieces and then go backwards afterwards. Give it a 'cast time' so you cant do it in the middle of a fight or something.
The current interface is probably fine but i generally prefer to just do things inefficiently than to swap out gear between tasks.
I agree, that a non-tedious way to switch clothes is best. Have a wardrobe workstation for outfits. You open it and can create outfits by mixing and matching the four pieces you want together into an ensemble. Then you can instantly wear an ensemble or switch to a different ensemble. You can always swap clothes quickly and easily at your base using your wardrobe or (if you must) you can carry clothes with you to change tediously out in the field if you want to take advantage of a bonus.
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1 hour ago, pregnable said:
it might be a good idea to move away from having any bonuses that strongly encourage the player to constantly swap armor.
Why have a dozen different outfit choices if they are all bland enough and samey enough that it just doesn't really matter what you're wearing? Strong bonuses that influence different aspects of the game make the outfits exciting and unique. Sure...some will feel forced to have to swap outfits before they do anything because they can't bear to do something at less than the maximum possible ability and then they will complain about the constant outfit swapping. That can be mitigated by making the outfit swapping process fast and easy. I would rather see an abstracted instant change than see all the outfits be just differently skinned versions of the same basic advantages just so some people won't feel compelled to swap clothes.
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1 hour ago, pregnable said:
If it is really worth it to swap armor, for certain tasks, then it will become the meta, no matter how you talk about self control, and people will complain about it...
I think it is lovely making the min-maxers squirm....
The more opportunity cost choices there are, the better it is, imo.
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I would and I'm still waiting for their counter-offer. Apparently they are hung up on the word "bajillion" but I won't go any lower.
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Discussion and Requests in the mod forum is the better place for something like this or even a personal message to sphereii. Moved.
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4 hours ago, meganoth said:
Pipelining means that the game designers already work on a new project when their tasks on the older project are practically finished. In the next phase graphics artists for example change over when everything has been drawn that will be used in the older project. Meanwhile programmers and some other people like level designers still finish up the older project and mainly fix bugs or polish balance.
This is exactly the model that is occuring.
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