Roland
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Posts posted by Roland
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I craft when I have the materials even if I'm close to the next quality tier. I don't craft every tier but probably every other or maybe every third tier so it doesn't really matter to me if I craft an orange just before I find the mags for yellow. I'll just stay on orange until green. I could wait until I find that one last mag for yellow but then I'd stay on yellow anyway until blue. The main thing I don't do is craft gear to try and hit each and every quality step. There's no need since we don't remain at any one quality level for very long anyway.
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This is a test server for TFP and they stated that they need people logging on and logging off. Coming and going and goofing around a bit doing different things on the server but logging in and logging out. They aren't testing PvP so it is irrelevant to this particular server. It began with PvP enabled but it wasn't set up to be a PvP server.
If you want to really help then the best thing to do is to log into the server and give a little rant about it not being PvP and then log out instead of giving your rants here. There has already been one warning given by an administrator and this is the second warning.
No more talk in this thread about PvP.
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I don't think we will know whether mods or popularity of mods is an actual indication of anything until the majority of the playerbase is participating in those things. Right now players who play mods are a minority faction of the player base and players who author mods are a smaller minority and players who author overhaul mods are extremely tiny. If there was no barrier at all to modding or playing mods so that everyone could do it we would likely have so many variants on the default version so as to see there really is no consensus at all about "fixing" anything.
Options are a good place to look for "voting". If 95% of the playerbase always adjusts their options to play 75% loot or less then that is a powerful vote that something is wrong with the loot balance. If 95% of the playerbase always enables feral sense every time they play then that is a strong vote to the devs for what the default version should be. Options are easy for everyone to participate in.
Just because a mod is popular among those who play mods doesn't make it a strong vote that the default version of the game needs to be changed in that direction. I also don't know at what point the devs would want to change a popular options to just being the default version of the game. If 90% 80% 70% of the playerbase always defaults to that option? What is the cut off point where that option would be viewed as a "fix" for the current default version? And if it is tough to know for such a clearcut action that is universally accessible like enabling an option then how much tougher is it to determine that based on authoring or playing a mod?
In the example brought up in this thread, item degradation is a very polarizing idea. I'm all for it but others would see it as breaking the game instead of fixing the game. If TFP ever adds an option for item degradation it would be interesting to see what percentage of the player base actually votes that the lack of it currently is something that is broken and needs fixing.
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I went on for a bit. Navezgane is a lot tougher to get started than RWG. Sheesh...
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Gammy is such a PvG gamer....
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3 minutes ago, Kalex said:
We always were interacting with the zombies. It's gone from us looking forward to blood moons to dreading them to players asking if it is possible to turn the blood moons off completely. These aren't newbie players either. The least experienced still has hundreds of hours in and the most experienced has thousands of hours in and has been playing since Alpha 2.
You can tell them that not only is it possible but it has been for years. Top Menu option: Turn off Bloodmoon and/or extend the time between them so they happen less frequently.
The fact that some players look forward to them and others dread them and yes that some have shifted from looking forward to them to dreading them is exactly why the option exists. 7 Days to die existed for years before the bloodmoon event was added and can exist now for anyone who desires it without a bloodmoon event. I don't even know why this is a topic of discussion when the option to modify their significance in the game has been in play for ages.
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2 hours ago, Scyris said:
TFP just feels like they got no interest in making it more to me
How can one person be told something as many times as you and you still just can't allow it to penetrate into your understanding?
I will try one more time. You are correct that TFP is not interested in making the game more with expansionary updates at this time. All updates are developmental and so involve polishing and reworking the existing base game to get it to the gold version they want to ship. Period.
Now deal with it. Stop wondering about how it seems like they don't want to add more expansion to their game. I just told you they don't. There it is. No more speculation is needed.
Go play Alpha 16 and be content.
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1 hour ago, meganoth said:
When I said that, they were more distinctive. Iterations happen behind closed doors and as many have seen with the progress of this game as a whole, sometimes the rudimentary basic version ends up being more distinctive from other things before it is polished and developed up. It's the double-edged sword of talking about stuff months before an update is released. The other quest type was postponed until A22 so all there is for A21 is the current "Infestation Clear" quest which originally was simply called "Infestation".
The problem with going back a year in a dynamically changing game is that information from then is outdated for the current state. Go back far enough and you'll read posts from me describing the new LBD and then look at A22 b324 and wonder why Roland is spreading misinformation.... 😜
But at least those problems will be solved for me going forward as I won't be playing A22 until everyone else does so you won't be getting any status reports or play impressions from me this time around.
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1 hour ago, Vampirenostra said:
And the beginning of this game was - Minecraft like zombie shooter with learn by doing strategy...
Nice attempt at history rewrite. The beginning of this game had nothing at all to do with learn by doing. Learn by doing didn't show up until Alpha 11 and that was in its most basic rudimentary form. It reached it's height in Alpha 14 and then began to decline when crafting was removed from it in Alpha 15 and then further de-emphasized in A16 when skillpoints were added and then completely gone by A17.
So LBD was in only 5 out of 21 alphas and right in the middle of the development arc-- not the beginning.
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1 hour ago, Aldranon said:
Once the bear rug at Joel's place is craft able, I'd say 7D2D went Gold!
You of all people want a bear rug?!? Next you’ll be asking for a deflated blimp to drape across your wall. Oh the betrayal…2 -
14 hours ago, theFlu said:
Ye, no offense intended; not that I think you took any. I do understand your position and disposition, I was kinda just stating the obvious that anyone can be wrong, even convincingly so
Sure. And this is why it is valuable to get thousands of players playing and why balancing still needs to happen even though the update took a year and a half to happen. I’m open to having been convincingly wrong…The problem is in the experience of the individual. The boost might be overwhelmingly obvious after thousands of die rolls but if they nerf it then there will be those individuals who have bad luck and never get the magazines they need.
For a fun game is it better to err on the side of generosity or stinginess when it comes to random chance? With generosity comes the greater chance that efficient and lucky players will rocket up the ladder while unlucky and inefficient players will still have fun because they are finding what they need albeit slowly.
With stinginess, lucky and efficient players will be slowed which will be fun for some but annoying for others while the unlucky and inefficient players are completely stuck.
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On 7/8/2023 at 6:52 AM, theFlu said:
Your first mistake was taking Trolland seriously..
He's always confident and optimistic, and enjoys a proximity to the dev team, so when he's off, he's just convincingly off.
All I can do is give my own experience and when I played there were times when I felt like the boost wasn’t doing anything and then other times where it did seem to be present. I never felt like the only books I was finding were the ones I was boosted in and so my assessment from my own experience was that the boost wasn’t overpowering.
My fear was that people would read about this boost for months leading up to playing and have expectations that didn’t match with what they experienced. I’ve read both kinds of feedback from players by the way- that the progression is too fast because the boost is too powerful and from others that the boost seems nonexistent.
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1 hour ago, ZehMatt said:
The feedback of users should be treated as a valuable input and not something to mock, you may disagree with what is being said but this is not the way to go about it, in my honest opinion.
It can be mocked a little bit and that’s all this is and much tamer than a lot of the mocking of the devs and this change by some who are against it. One funny meme doesn’t constitute not treating feedback as valuable. Sorry if the joke offended.0 -
5 hours ago, theFlu said:
Never have I ever scrapped an item to craft a worse version of the same thing. I don't think. Could I do it? Yeah, I know I could, I've crafted "roughly equal" main things my whole A21-SP experience, and none of the things I've done in game have required excessive cheese yet.
The reason for doing such a thing would be to test out the idea that the trader only gives parts. If you wanted to actually playtest that idea then you would scrap any weapons received from the trader to simulate getting parts instead and then craft the best you could.
So technically it is silly to scrap a better weapon for a worse weapon if you are playing the game the way it is presented but if you are pretending that traders don't give weapons to test out an idea then it makes perfect sense.
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20 minutes ago, theFlu said:
"Cannot be stopped" Well, the crafting could keep up along the questing rush via the questing rush, like giving books as reward and by looting the quest POIs for more books and the needed mats.. wait, that seems to be the current design, just mildly out of balance?
Sure, that solves part of the problem and I also made the suggestion that the traders only deal in parts and mats or low quality gear to which someone else replied that if the trader never has anything good as rewards then they become pointless so there are definitely other perspectives on what makes the traders fun to play with.
In addition, they just nerfed the book rewards by making them less frequently offered and fewer mags per bundle and that works against keeping crafting ahead as did their mailbox nerf. So there seems to be other things they are trying to balance besides just making it so people who want to craft everything are able to do so no matter how they choose to play.
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8 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:
I thought it was your point that adding a limit to quests was something the devs should not be bothered with and to restrain yourself from quests instead. I'm saying that adding a quest limit may not be the best idea, but it is at least a solution.
My point is that currently player choice is a large governing factor on whether looting and rewards outpace crafting. Sure, there is some balancing that still needs to be done but to guarantee that crafting stays ahead it will require new rules and limits.
Since these rules and limits would push the game into the way I already choose to play, it isn’t going to affect me but it will affect others.
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14 hours ago, AtomicUs5000 said:
I just don't agree with this.
Zombies were made to dig again even though a small subset of players lacked the restraint to not bury themselves.
LBD was removed because a small subset of players could not restrain themselves from doing mundane tasks to level up.
Vultures attack vehicles and vehicles take damage from zombies because a small subset of players could not restrain themselves from using them to avoid the horde.
There are probably dozens of things to add to this list... it would probably be easier to list the things that don't belong to it.
Then why did you just make my point for me? Putting a limit on quests and barriers to the tougher biomes is exactly in line with those examples and is likely what TFP will do if they feel that players are going to ruin the balance by questing too frequently or rushing into higher Lootstage areas with abandon.
The devs want there to be better loot in the wasteland and better rewards for higher tier quests. So the fact that anyone can get better loot than they can craft by rushing the quests and rushing to the wasteland will always be an option that cannot be stopped except by forcing limits to end those options that keep resulting in people being angry that they find/receive better loot than they can craft.
Lethal heat, cold, and radiation are all ways to keep players in the forest until they obtain the needed gear to open those gates. “Sorry, but I have no more jobs available today” is a way to slow players down from progressing up the quest tiers. Some people will appreciate those changes but some will see them as thinly veiled attacks on the sandbox nature of the game.
I’m fine with whatever but I hope the people who do rush the quests and exploit the world Lootstage bonuses and who take trader and looting perks and then complain that they always get better stuff than they can craft understand what they are asking for: Less sandbox and more rules.
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On 7/4/2023 at 12:53 AM, Gazz said:
It's rather the magnum/vulture that have no real niche in the game and were added purely for coolness, bloating the attribute even more. =P
We just need a wrist rocket added so we can have:
Vulture vs Wrist Rocket is coolness vs nerdy.
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9 hours ago, theFlu said:
I know, you Mod the game to fix the issue. You can do that, more power to you; but you're telling people to play vanilla that way, instead of asking for fixes to vanilla... why?
I can think of a few reasons:
1) The job of asking for fixes to vanilla is already being done by several other vocal people.
2) Playing a "fix" voluntarily often gives people more perspective about that change than simply talking about it.
3) It's a fun challenge to play the game in alternative ways and if you can do it voluntarily without actually needing to mod it. there is a lot less effort and learning involved.
4) You can play a "fix" voluntarily while waiting for the "fix" to be implemented officially.
5) A normal player suggesting voluntary "fixes" to vanilla in no way threatens or hurts the chances that the devs will "fix" vanilla themselves so why not?
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9 hours ago, meganoth said:
My group does all that, including taking every flower pot and wrenching of kitchens, and we still can do more than one quest a day at game start. We would have to artificially step on the brakes to do what you do. And we have fun doing more than one quest a day, so the argument that we remove the fun of playing with this doesn't work. Only that at the end we have finished the game much too early.
And there are ways to balance the game, some of which wouldn't even matter to your playstyle. For example reigning in the trader would not, equalizing magazine drop chances for different types would not, though increasing magazine drop rates would.
So I don't see the solution in following your advice (which, lets be honest, not many will do), but in a better balanced game.
I wasn't suggesting anyone do what I do, I was just sharing my own playstyle when I play solo. When I play with my fam we do three quests per day since we each take one and do them together and, yes, we progress a lot faster because of that. Also, I said 60 days or less but I usually play 40 minute days when I play solo but 60 minute days with my family.
My main point is that the game is great right now because players can decide how frequently they quest and most players have fun with their decision. We don't need the developers to force a limit on quests because of the small subset of players who hate the results of spamming quests but lack the will-power and mindfulness to limit themselves on quests.
Even with more balancing there will always be a way to stretch things if there is no hard boundary in place. So people who are calling for a perfect crafting progression that can't possibly be overwhelmed by looting and trading are actually calling for that as a forced play-style.
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4 hours ago, Slingblade2040 said:
That's literally saying don't play the game as intended if you want to craft and giving no examples. What the heck is power grinding?
The way I play the game results in mostly the experience that I like. That’s why I play it that way. For example:I usually do about one quest per day (60 minute days or less) and mix in other tasks and objectives such as harvesting materials for building and looting nearby POIs to find a cooking pot and other materials for cloth armor, a dew collector, and hunting for meat. I usually stick to the forest until a trader quest takes me into a new biome.
“Power Grinding” is a term I use to mean completing quests as quickly as possible to the exclusion of all else for the purpose of rapidly moving up the quest tiers to get to the best rewards as soon as possible.
There is nothing wrong with that playstyle as long as it results in fun for the person playing that way. When I play where I take roughly a job per day, I find that I do craft a lot of things before I find or am offered better as a reward. I’d like things to be balanced a bit more towards crafting but it feels pretty good.
There’s also nothing wrong with going into a tougher biome early on to get better loot if that’s what you want. I’m not calling on anyone to stop doing that stuff if it brings them fun and satisfaction.
When I play the way I described, my focus is on living a natural sort of life within the game world and it is fun for me to play that way even if there are faster methods of earning dukes and getting top tier gear, etc. I often don’t spend skill points until I’ve built up 4-5 of them because it isn’t my first focus. I’m not saying everyone should play my way but it is a good way to be more of a crafting player.
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On 7/4/2023 at 1:51 PM, The_Great_Sephiroth said:
This was just annoying as my entire stealth trip up the tower meant nothing at the end.
I'm not defending the triggers but I would like to understand this statement. There is no achievement to be earned by 100% stealthing a POI. There is no punishment if you don't and no reward if you do. So how does stepping onto the roof into an ambush make the entire trip up previous to that mean nothing?
The way I see it you were able to enjoy stealth gameplay for 95% of the entire trip which means it was meaningful and you were enjoying the benefits of your perks and that playstyle. You got to play that way for most of the trip.
Now if there were bonus rewards for remaining in stealth for the entire 100% and an ambush trigger made accomplishing that impossible then I would be in complete agreement that the rooftop made your entire stealth trip meaningless since you would fail those bonuses.
If you were only able to stealth for less than 50% of your trip I could see that as wasted points on stealth since in less than half of every case you were getting no benefit from your points. But you stealth-tripped the whole thing until the roof. You got majority benefit by a huge margin.
What if the ambush had happened at the start of the quest when you first entered and then after cleaning that up the whole rest of the POI was able to be finished through stealth? Would the 5% ambushing at the beginning feel better than the 5% ambushing at the end?
Again, I agree completely that there needs to be some adjustments applied to stealth and triggers and spawn volumes in general. But I think it is also clear that the developers aren't interested in creating POIs that can be stealthed 100% and that they want a few ambush situations to mix things up. But as long as they don't add rewards or penalties dependent upon stealthing an entire quest I don't see why if your stealth doesn't work in a couple of situations it invalidates stealth for all situations.
On 7/4/2023 at 1:51 PM, The_Great_Sephiroth said:In other words, keep the triggers, but don't over-use them.
I agree with this. But nobody is going to agree on the definition of "over-use" haha
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2 hours ago, Slingblade2040 said:
Doing activities? You mean the whole premise of quests, traders, looting and going into biomes.
How is that not ignoring content? How is that you not telling people well if you want to craft ignore all of this content vanilla content that basically makes up like 90% of gameplay. So yes that is exactly what it sounds like you are saying but doing your best to word it differently.
You must know that I’m talking about frequency and intensity of those activities and so it makes me wonder what your agenda is in your obvious misrepresentation.
I didn’t say avoid doing doing those activities at all. I said avoid power grinding or going into high Lootstage biomes so early if you want to craft.
You’re basically pleading with the developers to force a limit on daily questing and gating the biomes to forcibly prevent players from going there until certain conditions are met. No matter how much balance is applied, as long as players have the freedom to go anywhere and spam anything from day 1 there will always be an optimization path that such people will claim is the only successful way to play.
Hope you’re happy if the devs do decide to protect optimizers from themselves. So far they’ve been fine with letting people choose how they play.
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19 minutes ago, Slingblade2040 said:
This whole idea of oh just ignore perks, ignore biomes, ignore traders is insane and shows a really imbalanced game. Telling experienced and new players that they need to ignore all of that if they want to craft is ridiculous. Heck even you calling it slow progression shows the ridiculous imbalance that traders and their quests rewards have made along with this whole loot bonus stuff from PoIs and biomes.
Telling players to literally ignore a massive portion of game content due to terrible balancing issues shows the kind of state this game is in even after 21 alphas.
Make stuff trader and biome exclusive. Didn't spawn near the gun trader? Oh well go out and explore for that trader. Remove the the whole loot bonus nonsense from PoIs and biomes.
And before the whole think of the new players stuff is brought into this i wish the pimps would stop treating new players like they are brain dead and can't get the grasp of this game. This game isn't that complicated or difficult that they can't get the hang of it after a few hours or watching some YouTube LP. For some reason some folks here like to use new players as the scapegoats for certain decisions that either dumb down gameplay or as a way to justify certain imbalances.
Nobody is telling anyone to ignore anything if they don’t want to. There are plenty of players who skip all the crafting and just use the trader and are happy with it. There are players who go straight to the wasteland and loot high level gear and are very pleased with that.
There are also players who stick to the forest and minimize their quests and who craft most of their stuff and who are happy.
It appears that the only people who are unhappy are those who hate getting gear above what they can craft but can’t help themselves from doing activities that skip the crafting progression anyway and so they need the game to limit them forcibly from playing in a way that will ruin their fun.
The end of this balancing road that people are asking for is going to be more restrictions that result in less sandbox elements— Just so everyone understands what is necessary in order to stop the few players who lack the impulse control to not optimize the fun out of the game for themselves….
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Alpha 21 Dev Diary
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Just make the twitch integration “confetti” a top menu option for anyone who doesn’t want gore for whatever reason.