Roland
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Posts posted by Roland
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2 hours ago, FoulFox said:
Not all of us enjoy or appreciate the RPG elements added.
2 hours ago, FoulFox said:Every update that changes skills, UI, adds RPG bull@%$#...
Just wanted to point out that RPG elements were planned and announced from the very beginning. This was always ever going to be a game with RPG elements to it. That fact was never hidden or downplayed. Even the most casual research about the game would have revealed that RPG elements were a core goal of the developers. It's too bad you missed that part of the roadmap but I have to believe that most customers knew what they were purchasing and downloaded it knowing and appreciating its RPG elements. There can't be too many who hate the RPG elements and bought the game thinking it wouldn't have any.
Then again, maybe there are also a bunch who hate zombies in games but picked this one up and gifted it out not realizing...
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2 hours ago, Beelzebubs Ghost said:
So will we still be able to find weapons and other items in loot? Because if not that will be another change that will have to be modded out.
Loot must mean something other than just finding magazines to find parts and further recipes...
Yes, magazines have been added to the loot tables but random items with random stats have not been removed.
2 hours ago, Survager said:New skills will only affect the quality and rank of items, as well as the discovery of new recipes?
Or will these skills also increase the player's ability to use one or another weapon and tool that the player constantly uses?
For example, now in Alpha 20 and down, if I want to use knives and sniper rifles equally effectively, then I have to buy levels of different attributes, but if I don’t like to use pistols and spears, it turns out that I am partially wasting experience points?
I hope I was able to explain my thought.
You learn new recipes as your skill level increases. You also gain the ability to craft already known recipes at a higher quality tier.
These new skills grant zero ability or advantage to the use of items. They are simply how we learn to craft things. So, as an example, the farming skill will be how seed crafting is unlocked but that's it. In order to get better yields and other advantages you have to perk into Living off the Land just like before.
In Alpha 21 to be able to use knives and sniper rifles equally effectively you will have to buy levels of different attributes exactly the way it is now. In order to be able to craft a sniper rifle and the machete at a high quality level you will need to find and read a lot of the respective magazines that lead to that knowledge.
The ability to craft weapons and tools have been separated completely away from the attributes. What you craft has nothing to do with any attribute you might perk into. However, the benefits and advantages for each weapon are exactly as connected to attributes as they have ever been.
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1 hour ago, POCKET951 said:
so what will happen to the skill tree ? how will this new system change skills like physician, advanced engineering and grease monkey?
These skills in A20 are almost entirely based on unlocking crafting recipes and crafting
The perks definitely got gutted...haha. They will be rebalancing the bonuses and benefits that perks give but remember that one important aspect of the perks in the new system is that they weight the loot table to what you want to find. So if you don't perk into Grease Monkey, for example, the magazines that give knowledge for vehicle crafting are going to show up randomly. Sure, you can go loot gas stations for a greater chance at finding those but you still won't be able to move up that crafting skill tree except at the whim of unmodified randomness. That could take weeks and weeks of searching and finding all the magazines you don't need.
Perking into Grease Monkey is going to pad the probabilities towards successfully finding those magazines you need to learn how to craft vehicles as well as the parts needed for those vehicles.
When the change first happened I was a bit frustrated with it because what I could learn to craft was so random and I had zero control over what I could learn to craft. But I was waiting to perk into anything until I knew what I would mostly find. As soon as I learned about the benefits of perking I did that and frustration was replaced by fun as I started finding more of what I wanted and needed. It isn't guaranteed but the probability does go up for spending points in the perks enough that you are finding what you want a lot of the time and making looting rewarding.
14 minutes ago, Survager said:@madmole Will players in Alpha 21 get experience points for killing zombies / upgrading blocks / mining / finding items and so on. Or is this part completely gone from the game?
There has been no change to gaining xp through various actions and earning skill points when you level up and spending those skill points on perks. That part of the game is exactly the same. Many of the perks themselves will obviously be different than what you've known and will need some adjustments.
1 hour ago, Survager said:Did I understand correctly that now in Alpha 21 it will not be possible to find a recipe for a weapon / tool / food / drink in the game? So players will be less likely to say "WOW" as progress will be very smooth?
You won't find recipes in books. Instead, you can think of it as finding pieces of recipes in several magazines. This is simply for crafting. You can still find those actual items in loot for a nice WOW moment. Whenever you've read enough of a magazine type to unlock a new recipe or a higher quality tier you feel a WOW moment. It's true that you will never learn how to make a steel club before you learn to make an iron club so if that is the type of WOW moment you mean then, yes, those moments will be gone. You will have to work your way up the skill ladder in order to learn how to craft the highest tech with no way to skip ahead by finding a recipe early.
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11 minutes ago, madmole said:
We can consider it. Now that it requires great effort to reach the top skill level crafting Q6 doesn't feel so bad.
My take on it is that Q6 gear is too frequently and easily given out as quest rewards...
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3 hours ago, RipClaw said:
To be fair there have also been some changes. In the beginning, blade traps and turrets triggered the explosion of the demolisher. Only dart traps where safe to use.
With A19 blade traps no longer triggered the explosion and in A20, SMG and shotgun turrets no longer trigger the explosion either, even though it was never officially confirmed that this is intended.
That is fair. The fact remains that in 2022, demolishers can be dealt with through building strategies and traps. The OP is talking like it’s still 2019.0 -
1 hour ago, Novamourne said:
I really don't care for this argument/counter point. It really shouldn't be on the players to solve the balance issues presented in design implementations. It's not always about min/maxing either, it can just be the path of least resistance. Humans are hard wired to prefer it. Development needs to design with that in mind. Also, if you're playing alone that might be fine but if you're playing with or against people who are using the quest system exclusively then you will fall behind and not be relevant.
TFP is walking a tightrope between "game" and "sandbox". The more restrictions they implement the more game-like 7 Days to Die becomes but then at the same time the less sandbox-like it becomes. Right now everyone can choose to play how they like. I can limit myself to 1 quest per day per trader. You can spam quests to the exclusion of all other activities. Others can find somewhere in between to play. That is a sandbox oriented design. As soon as they code it to be one or two quests per day it does become a stonger game with rules that better define and limit-- but now there is less freedom to play in different ways.
Personally, I think it would be best if they limit it and let modders remove those limits for those who want more freedom in questing. But the game is still under development so nothing is set in stone. They very well may plan to limit quests in the future. Until they do, you can either play in a way that is going to burn you out or you can play in a way that protects your enjoyment. You can moralize all you want that it is the devs' responsibility to ensure your longterm enjoyment of the game and then continue to play in ways you know will lead to being burned out....or, you can do something about it and limit yourself.
3 hours ago, Novamourne said:This is another player solution to bad design argument. Sure, there is nothing preventing me from using other weapons and they will surely all work. I guess there's no reason to spec into any weapons then, right? Those are just dead points. No, you spec into something to see progression and increase power. Why would you make player progression decisions based on one specialization and then not do what you can to use that advantage you worked for? What's the point of progression at all if you're just gonna ala cart the game and whimsically use whatever and whenever regardless to any sort of power gains you've acquired? Very weak argument, imo.
You said, "The skill system locks you into weapon choices. This is an apocalypse, I should have to be using everything at my disposal because I shouldn't have so much of anything that I can specialize. It's not immersive and it makes the game smaller."
I am simply affirming to you that you CAN use anything and everything at your disposal. This is what YOU claimed to want and I'm telling you that you can pick up any weapon you find and use it and be successful at surviving. No weapon is denied you in the game. The only thing that stops you from using any weapon is you rejecting it because in your mind it is suboptimal and you can't get past that idea.
The inaccurate part of your statement is that it is the skill system that locks you into a limited number of weapons. Wrong. It is your own unwillingness to use a less than the most optimal weapon. Period. Well, that's your choice. I do enjoy deeply speccing into a few weapons and like that they are my primary weapons for that game. But just because I have an auto shotgun that I'm fully perked into and every mod slot in that weapon is filled doesn't mean that is the only weapon I'm going to use. It doesn't mean I'm locked out of using an assault rifle as well. I know it, because I often do exactly that with great results.You can call my argument weak but here are the results of my argument: I still enjoy the game after thousands of hours of play time and love using a variety of weapons in every playthrough.
Look at where your approach to playing has led you.
3 hours ago, Novamourne said:There's no base design or trap design to counter them.
heheh...this was what a lot of posts claimed in the first week after the update when the demolishers were introduced and a lot of people made the same assumptions you did. But just like every update over the past 8 years it turns out that while some cried others tried and learned. You must have quit playing during this time and so never witnessed all the threads and videos showing exactly the base designs and trap designs that players developed to counter them. No...demolishers have been around for a couple of years now and base designs and trap designs to counter them have definitely been found.
You can pick the demolishers as the special infected you don't like and someone else will pick the screamers and someone else will pick the spiders and everyone will have their own personal reason for not liking them. But the truth is this is a game with a variety of special infected with their own unique abilities and what you don't like others do and there are strategies for dealing with them all.
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1 hour ago, theFlu said:
Or if not, at least apply it evenly;
"no need to fix force fields, people don't need to use them"
"no need to make zombies dig, players can choose not to hide underground"
I'd rather drop it too though..
Well I do apply it evenly.
I'm all for the devs fixing blocks that foil zombies as they discover them.
I'm all for the devs implementing digging zombies.
I'm all for the devs limiting quests per trader per day.
But until that happens, I'm also for reminding players that nobody is holding a gun to their head to make choices that will ultimately lead to their dissatisfaction.
"I'm forced to spam quests every day until I loathe them" is a mindset I will oppose every time. I think a limit on quests would make the game better but if the devs decide to keep it open and free-will then I'm fine as well because I'm mindful of what destroys my fun and play accordingly. Anyone can do it.
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1 hour ago, No_Name_Idea said:
Can we please drop the whole "lol just don't use it if you don't like it" argument? I think that traders and quests are blatantly overpowered but I'm not looking for a challenge run. The "lol just don't use it" approach imo leads to stagnation of the game. And yes, it is on the devs to protect us from our own bs to a certain extent. There is this pretty famous quote by Soren Johnson: ”given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game”. I figure it's kinda famous for a reason.
Oh, I am totally for designed restrictions on questing. But saying so usually brings a lot of irritated people out of the woodwork ranting about people forcing their playstyle on others. I know the quote and believe in it wholeheartedly. But as long as the devs leave it to me, I'm capable of self-limiting and so I do. But I think there should be a game mechanism that limits for sure.
1 hour ago, No_Name_Idea said:This is just factually not true. Weapon+corresponding weapon perk is obviously better than just the weapon. You may claim that all weapons are viable (and to a certain degree I'll agree) by themselves, but they aren't equal.
I didn't make that erroneous claim. I said any weapon is equal to the task of killing zombies. I never said all weapons are equal to each other. I love the fact that the weapons are not all the same in their killing power because it gives great variety in feel depending on what you choose. Some people around here really want the weapons to all be equal but not me. They are not and they should not be.
However, you can kill zombies and win the game with any weapon even if you are not perked into it. That is what I meant and I stand by it.
1 hour ago, No_Name_Idea said:Uhh, I'm gimped in literally every way? Weapons, exp, cash, loot - all of this is either easier to get or more plentiful with traders. I've never said that it's necessary to play without traders, all I'm saying is that it is objectively more viable to play with heavy usage of them.
You say that you don't play that way and more power to you, but not everyone is like you. Some people just don't like gimping themselves for no reason.Do you know what a gimp is? A bad leg or a bad arm that makes you function below normal human efficiency. Its usually used in game terms to compare yourself to another player who isn't disadvantage like you as you compete. Foregoing a playstyle that turns you into a god isn't gimping yourself unless you are directly in competition with someone else. So I asked whether you are playing PvP because in that case, yes, you must use the traders as much as possible or you'll find yourself out of the competition. But for PvE in single player or multiplayer? There is no conceivable "gimp" if your goal is to survive. You just progress slower but you still win.
But that is just semantics and I know what you mean.
Like I said, I know how to get long term fun out of this game and I don't need the devs to force me to it. If you do, then I am all for the devs imposing limits on the players so that they don't min/max themselves out of the fun of the game. When that day comes I hope you won't be on the side complaining about the huge questing nerf.
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9 hours ago, Novamourne said:
Quests
Way too lucrative and way too often.
Completely voluntary. You don't have to do a single one. Its totally possible to do one quest a day and explore a ton of POI's of your choosing and win the game. Doing quest after quest after quest maniacally striving to grind up to the highest tier as quickly as possible is not even close to necessary for survival and success. It really is interesting to me that the most LBD-like feature in the game today is the quest system and people get obsessive about unnaturally power leveling up the quest chain just as they did up the skill chain with LBD. Should TFP put a daily quest limiter in the game to save people from themselves and burning out on questing or should they keep it as a choice: quest obsessively if you want or once or twice daily/weekly if you want? Part of me wants them to keep it a free choice but part of me is tired of people posting that questing ruins the game and act like they're forced to quest constantly or they might lose somehow. Maybe some forced restriction on questing would help those folks not overdo questing.
10 hours ago, Novamourne said:Game Stage -
As of A20 things are getting closer to as you wish them to be. Different biomes have a higher gamestage value making them very difficult to tackle until you are stronger. Hopefully they will continue to fine tune and improve this going forward. I believe they plan on allowing individual POIs getting an additional gamestage boost as well.
10 hours ago, Novamourne said:Skills
This is an apocalypse, I should have to be using everything at my disposal
Every weapon is viable and equal to the task of killing zombies whether or not you are perked into them. I use weapons all the time outside of my skillset and they are fun and effective. Once again, this complaint is only going to come from the most stringent of max/min players who can't bring themselves to use anything but whatever gives them the most effect dps. A purple weapon fully modded that you have zero skills invested into will mow enemies down. You say that survival is about using whatever you pick up. So do that. Nothing in the game prevents you from that kind of gameplay.
10 hours ago, Novamourne said:Screamers & Heat Map -
Nothing killed this games crafting and production aspect faster and more efficiently than this atrocious mechanic. I don't even know where to start. The old roaming hordesRoaming hordes are still in the game. They never left. If you don't like screamer hordes that's one thing and you are entitled to your opinion of them but regular wandering hordes are still very much a thing. It takes awhile before you notice them because they start out very small in the beginning but as the weeks go by they get bigger. You can mod them larger as well because....well....they are still in the game.
11 hours ago, Novamourne said:Gun Parts/Loot and Crafting Parity -
This week we will hear new details on how looting and crafting are going to be changed for A21. Hopefully the changes will be to your liking.
11 hours ago, Novamourne said:"Smart" & "Gimmick" zombies -
There's nothing to be said here except that the devs love special infected zombies. This may not be the zombie game you want although it has been a zombie game with special infected zombies since the very beginning and you should have known. Cop zombies that launch acid vomit and all zombies with the ability to tear down structures with their bare hands were special abilities from day one. Later came spider zombies that could run up the sides of buildings, screamers, radiated zombies, demolishers, pus erupters, and there may still be a few more coming before they are done. This is that kind of game and always has been
. Period.
11 hours ago, Novamourne said:Still no NPCs / Limited Game Modes
Still to come: More NPCs and more game modes. You bought an unfinished game and they are taking their time to finish it. It is not surprising that some people will lose patience and move on. It is perfectly legit to shelve this game for a year or so and then check back in and see where it's at. Lots of people who are now loving the game haven't played it in 3-4 years and have picked it up to try it out.
1 hour ago, No_Name_Idea said:No it not mandatory per se but ignoring quests gimps you severely, especially in early game. I'd say quests right now are probably the best source of loot and of course cold hard cash.
Gimps you severely against whom? Are you competing against other players? I know you can't mean the game because even at Warrior difficulty I intentionally limit my quests and I survive and thrive quite well. So what or who are we gimped versus? I know for a fact that spamming quests is like drinking out of a fire hose and absolutely not a necessary strategy to survive and win the game. I also know that the end of that gameplay style is boredom and burnout. Therefore, I don't play that way. The big question is why does anyone else?
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Well I think that another vending machine in the breakroom with both sweet and savory snacks would be very much appreciated....
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1 hour ago, Necrozis said:
you want to complain about lighting? how about the server browser? everyone complaining about this must be playing single player or something. the server browser is the real issue right now
Epileptics everywhere will want to kiss your feet when they realize that flashing lights were never the problem doctors have been saying they are for the past few decades of video games.
It was always server browsers or playing single player all along. Pffft…neurologists….bunch of quacks compared to you.
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Yeah, you can quote me on A21 in 2022.
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2 hours ago, zootal said:
Is there any way to adjust biome size and distribution with RWG? It seems that there is not a lot of variation with different seeds, you get a half dozen large biomes and that is it. Rwgmixer.xml no longer has biome distribution adjustment like older versions did. I'm looking for a way to control what percentage of the map is this or that biome, and maybe the sizes of said biomes.
There will be more adjustability in this department for A21. Nothing too fancy but you'll be able to define percentage of the map for each biome. It always adds up to 100% so by making one or more smaller you make the others bigger.
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4 hours ago, Gamida said:
lol should we be concerned that you never commented on it such as it seems better or makes the game more enjoyable. That you think it is an improvement over the old system.
That was on purpose. I'll share my feelings about the feature once it is revealed. Its enough to say that it is different than what we had and different than any game I've played that has crafting and so is quite unique. Maybe others who have played more games than I, will find some parallels to other games they've played but to me this is going to be one of those features that makes 7 Days to Die different in the vast field of survival crafting games. Madmole will give all the details this coming week. I'm excited to discuss once its revealed and everyone starts speculating on whether it is an improvement or not.
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7 hours ago, Morloc said:
Somebody stuck this in my mailbox!
Damn kids.
-Arch Necromancer Morloc
I saw Hamilton and that's not Thomas Jefferson!! 😎
5 hours ago, Laz Man said:Edit: Joking aside, please contain your negativity until you hear what the change is first....
haha..Khaine doesn't have to hear what the change is to know that a major system change of any kind is going to bring him a ton of work for Darkness Falls. Cut him some slack until he works through the five stages of grief...lol
❤️ for Darkness Falls!!!
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In the Alpha 20 dev diary, Madmole actually talked about this change. If you go look for what he said you will have a rough outline of what to expect next week.
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Just now, Subquake said:
I don't mind core systems being reworked as long as it will bring a major improvement to the game instead of being just different, but it would be lovely if you guys wouldn't keep mod makers into the dark, I would very much appreciate that.
And I agree with Khaine on the information part, just saying that it's gonna have a major impact on gameplay is not enough information, more details on what's actually being changed would be lovely.Again, it isn't my job to give the details-- just to stir the waters that the details are coming next week. The change isn't coming next week. You won't see the change until A21 later this year. But the details are coming next week. Today I am letting you know that details are coming next week so that you won't be in the dark about changes coming later this year.
1 minute ago, KhaineGB said:
So it's a notice of the forthcoming notice?Its an ad for forum goers to tune in next week for the announcement of what the new system will be. The new system won't hit until A21
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1 minute ago, KhaineGB said:
In fairness, most of the "advanced warnings" seem to be things designed to prolong the development of the game for seemingly no viable reason. 😛
Again, not trying to be argumentative or anything, but I feel like announcements such as this MUST come with actual information about what's changing and why, because it just feeds into the "TFP are rudderless" arguments i've seen in every other dev post.
This is why people get annoyed. Because there's just massive changes done with seemingly no reason, no information and it will just drag out the development process even longer while bugs get fixed... because of the new system.These ponderings and more will be answered next week when Madmole gives more detailed advanced notice of exactly what will be coming with actual information about what's changing and why. My message was simply advance notice about the true advance notice which will be full of details-- while my advance notice is ambiguous purposely in order to avoid Madmole....displeasure.
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7 minutes ago, KhaineGB said:
I mean this with all respect...
Can we please STOP re-writing core systems when TFP have said, several times, they'd like to get the game to gold? Because stuff like this is just going to make it take longer, introduce more bugs, which then need fixing, etc.See? This is what giving advanced warning gets us...
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We shall see!
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Just spoke to Madmole and he plans to give us an update on the new crafting system next week! I've played with the new system and it is definitely a different animal than anything we've had in the past and will have a major impact on gameplay. Hold onto your butts because when you hear what it entails you will most likely yourself utter those infamous words....
Spoiler"It's a whole new game!"
--Joel Huenink
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The purpose of the territory name is to obfuscate the seed so that people can't replicate your world on their SP game and fly around finding all the best stuff and then exploit that on your map. Of course, if they look at their output log after a session in your world I believe they can find the seed anyway...
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It’s like trying to push your buddy off your wall for laughs during horde night except there’s no push function.
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8 hours ago, Alice said:
Wow, this community is so kind ❤️
Modders can't resist quests...
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Alpha 21 Dev Diary
in News & Announcements
Posted
All recipes unlock through the crafting skill tree. The Forge Ahead magazine unlocks those as you continue to find more of those magazines. Whole recipes for anything will no longer be a loot drop or a trader item or a quest reward or a perk ability. The only path for gaining any crafting recipe other than what you know at the beginning is by reading magazines.
This particular change is simple. You don't have to relearn anything. It boils down to: read any magazine you find in loot or get as a quest reward. If you already know the game then you already know what recipes there are to be learned and the game will tell you whenever you unlock a new one or as soon as you can craft a better quality tier. Its all automatic and all you have to do is loot and read. The perks will be somewhat different but there's always time at night to peruse the perks and decide how you want to spend your points. It is a big change but it really carries a very small relearning barrier to it.
You can play most past versions. Alpha 10 was the pinnacle of the game just before RPG elements started getting introduced in Alpha 11. It is classic 7 Days to Die sans RPG elements. PM me if you don't know how to load past versions of the game.