[Thank you for all the paint! (PSA for those who haven't discovered cheap paint crafting yet)]

I've mentioned this in comments on other threads and various places, but on both here and Reddit, I keep coming across more people who haven't caught on to this yet.

 

The Pimps have unleashed the paint! You might even say, they took the "pain" out of "paint".

 

See, in the recipes.xml, there's this bit:

<recipe name="resourcePaint" count="100" craft_area="campfire" craft_tool="toolCookingPot">

<ingredient name="resourceCropChrysanthemumPlant" count="1"/>

<ingredient name="drinkJarRiverWater" count="1"/>

 

See that? Campfire + cooking pot can get you cheap and easy paint cranked out 100 at a time!

 

Way back when I first started playing this game, I was so happy we could paint... but sooo sad that paint was so painful to make. Chem bench, oil, flowers... Paint was literally the only thing I would spawn in from CM because something that's purely aesthetic being so late-game in acquisition was just something I couldn't deal with. LOL Later on, scrapping dyes became my go to but again, choosing between pretty pants and pretty walls... painful. So back to the CM I went for my paint. And I didn't like that - I like to craft my stuff, I like the process of making things to create the base I want.

 

Back in A17, I did a co-op challenge with a friend, "30 Days to Live", on Navezgane. A horde base contest, basically. We were on opposite sides of the road outside Diersville close to the gas station. Though it was a competition, we did share some stuff, and since we could only make one chem bench between the two of us, we put it in the middle of the road between our claims and shared it. But he wanted to make gunpowder and I wanted to make... Yup, you guessed it - paint. Since he was hosting the game, he ended up CMing some paint for me. LOL (I named my base Pink Death, spelled out in metal letters on the front so it had to be pink or it wouldn't make any sense. These things matter!) (Also, I won, in case you were wondering.)

 

The pain is gone, the paint is here. In quantity. And I've been the paint evangelist, mentioning it whenever it was relevant ever since I noticed it, but it really needed it's own thread both to express my gratitude and to spread the word. 

 

Go, my friends. Go out and paint the world. 

 

Thank you, Pimps. You've made me very happy!

[What changes do you make to the game for personal enjoyment?]

I find that once I have my primary containers built and a bit of all the most common stuff in them, it doesn't feel micro-managey anymore because of the stack buttons. I push the stack button to move all like items / resources into the current container. After I've hit my primary storage containers this way, there's very little in my inventory that needs to be manually put away.

[POI names vs. generic name]

4 hours ago, PoloPoPo said:

Didn't know about that website but this is so helpful. Have always been looking for a convenient way to check out new randomly generated maps before wasting dozens of ours on it just to find out its layout sucks. That map renderer tool is awesome!

It really is a great tool. Lately it's been rendering the water in the wrong orientation for some reason. I haven't had a chance to check the git to see if it's known or needs to be reported though. But everything else is spot on, and it's very useful. I like checking the trader distribution, and to make sure that there are cities with the new downtown areas in most of the biomes.

 

Edit: I've just discovered that the water orientation is only an issue if you use the renderer before actually playing on the map. Once you've loaded into the map in game, you can load it into the renderer again with the additional files the game creates and the water is correctly oriented. 

[Things you obsess over?]

33 minutes ago, Darthjake said:

Also boxes must be organized, no auto sort allowed.

As someone who literally just paused the game to plan out my kitchen cabinet placement... I feel this. LOL I need separate storage for every type of stuff, and the stuff within the containers is properly organized. I hear people say early game is painful because you're weak and always need food, but no. Early game is painful because I don't yet have enough containers to properly sort my stuff. The only time I use autosort is on Day 1 when I'm working out of one box. I rush forge so that I can make nails to get storage going.

 

40 minutes ago, Darthjake said:

My base must be even and look pleasing, or I'm tearing it down and starting again.

 

This too. I once tore down my entire house because I didn't like the way the roof turned out. 

[Things you obsess over?]

8 minutes ago, PoloPoPo said:

Wish I had a lawn mower.

Grass used to annoy me too until I installed Red Eagle's short grass modlet.  Now it's still there but I can barely see it, so I only have to punch down the taller stuff that actually blocks building.

[A20 i'm disappointed]

11 minutes ago, Snowydeath said:

Unless I did something wrong, I followed your direction and am still prompted to play the game or show the game launcher no matter how  I try to launch it

Weird. Could just be Steam being Steam I guess. I tried it just to be sure before I posted that and it went right into the game. Did the same just now. Steam does have its quirks.

[Things you obsess over?]

I cut down all the small trees and ugly trees near my base before I even think about chopping other trees.

 

I clean up trash in the streets and eventually, the cars too. 

 

If I'm basing in a POI with a road or drive to it, I will dig up and replace any bits that have blood or garbage textures on them. Sometimes this leaves bumps in the road but it's better than looking like a murder scene.

 

If there is one of those giant stone nodes near my base, I will eventually mine the entire thing even if I don't need the stone because they are ugly and I don't want one in my yard.

[POI names vs. generic name]

Here's an A20 prefab list where you can search for the ingame name and then see what they are. 01 is Dishong, 02 is Crack A Book. https://kui.github.io/7dtd-map/prefabs.html

[How do I put a smoking chimney in my base?]

2 hours ago, ElCabong said:

That wouldn't look right. When you see a trader and there's smoke coming out of their chimney, that's what I'm looking for

Go to the trader, look at their chimney and hit F11. That will give you a bunch of info including the block name to look for. I haven't checked so I don't know if the smoke effect is separate from the structure or not, but if it's not then maybe you can find one in CM that way.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

54 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

You mean on the streets, naked?

 

OOPS HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

I'd take naked in a zombie-infested landscape over a bar full of revelers any day! Which is why I just popped up the recliner and have my laptop ready to go bring in the New Year in the seed that @Ricowanposted earlier.  Happy Zombie New Year!

[Mr.Devolver's modest modlist (last update: January 10, 2024)]

16 minutes ago, mr.devolver said:

Great, please let me know if it needs more balancing like ratio between individual machines - working, broken useless, broken lootable.

I'll definitely let you know, but vending machines are so very RNG dependent so I hope more people try it out and give feedback too. In one of my A20 saves, out of 18 vending machines I checked (yes, I was keeping a list at the time), the only working ones were at the two nearby traders. LOL Some of my other A20 starts have fared a bit better but not by much. That's why I was happy to see your mod - to break up the broken vending monotony a bit. Just a little something extra and new to make things interesting.  

[Mr.Devolver's modest modlist (last update: January 10, 2024)]

Oooh! I love the idea of the Free Lunch Machines. And I was looking for an excuse to start over anyway because I have a new seed I want to try. LOL

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

7 minutes ago, Ricowan said:

Bravo Fun Pimps, bravo!  Spawned into a new game, turned around, and this:

 

I wanna go live there. Like, in real life. Did you happen to make note of your map gen settings for that?

[Idea for7 Days ti Die]

I don't think they want you to have endless eggs and meat. Farming did just get some road bumps added to reduce the early food abundance so I don't see them buffing eggs and meat.

 

However, I think I saw a modlet that adds chicken coops in addition to some other things here on the mod forum, and I know at least one other modder is working on a husbandry mod though I don't know what the details of that will be. Telric has a fishing mod on his page for more food acquisition options, but be prepared to catch a lot of old boots until you get your bait situation sorted.

 

There are also some modlets that increase egg a bit (JaxTeller718 has one here, which adds eggs to fridges and adds the possibility of getting an extra egg in nests, and I've seen others), and you can spec into skills to increase meat yields from hunting. 

 

I do feel your pain, though. I used to play with loot on 200% mostly because of eggs but with Jax's modlet I no longer do that. 

[What changes do you make to the game for personal enjoyment?]

1 minute ago, Fenris said:

looks like it might not work on A20

Heh. I found the thread but didn't actually read it. Sad face. It's fine, though. Thanks for trying!

[What changes do you make to the game for personal enjoyment?]

4 minutes ago, Fenris said:

And unfortunately it appears as though the link for the Unity Assets Bundle Extractor no longer works, but I feel like I've seen it recently on the forums here not to long ago.

Thank you for all of that! And I found the new page on the forum via the UABE github page. I'll drop both the links here for anyone else that wants to try it out.  A lot of pages got their links broken back when the forum switched over.  I have an extra clean install via the mod launcher that I can test it out on later. 

https://github.com/DerPopo/UABE

 

[What am I doing wrong?]

21 hours ago, 8_Hussars said:

Maybe, but you can play however you want.  Many players spec weapon skills first; many spec survival skills first, and many spec around what they loot.  For myself its rare to spec a weapon past the first point before 25-40 skill points.

 

Last night on my new save, I used my first 5 points to get Parkour 2 for the soul purpose of being able to jump higher and find out what was in Rekt's upstairs room. Spoiler alert - he's a slob.

[A20 i'm disappointed]

4 minutes ago, meganoth said:

I get that option to start the launcher every time. But I don't know if this is happening to everyone, I am on a different operating system and I think I have seen someone else not getting this question pop-up on Windows. It may have something to do with old settings in the registry maybe

 

If you start the game from the Steam main interface "Play" button, you get the launcher option every time. However, if start it by using the list of recently played games by right-clicking the Steam tray icon, it goes straight into the game. I used to use that method to start a lot of games but the same thing happens with other games that have start options and sometimes I need the start-up choices (ie, starting Ark with or without anti-cheat depending on server, etc) so I broke the habit of using that.

[What changes do you make to the game for personal enjoyment?]

55 minutes ago, Fenris said:

1) Pull the night time "mood" music out. I find it a really cheesy way of trying to build tension. And it is so loud I can't hear zombies running right next to me sometimes.

Can you tell me how you do this? While playing last night it annoyed me even more than usual, especially since I no longer play with headphones because 'phones make my tinnitus more noticeable.

[Traders should be open all night]

13 minutes ago, ricp said:

On the flip side, we can turn on Feral Sense which, while not nerfing the trader progression, will slow progression simply due to the number of bodies thrown at you.

I can attest to the fact that Feral Sense turns a quick jaunt to the Laundromat for questy goodness into a Pied-Piperesque exercise in zombie collection with me repairing my noob club three times before even getting where I'm going. But it was fun jogging down the street singing, "Come on zombies, follow me! I'm the zombie piper, follow me, I'm the zombie piper, and I'll beat you in the head..."

 

(Don't look at me like that. Don't tell me that none of you sing to the zombies.)

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

1 hour ago, Quantum Blue said:

I would even promote trying 90 or 120 or even the 30 minute settings.  One of the reasons 7D2D might be so successful is because it has so many ways for people to experience.

It's definitely why I still play. Mods help with that too. I recently installed Red Eagle's mod that adds additional day duration settings as well as how many hours are night. I've been playing 180min days and I'm really enjoying it for the way I want to play right now.  Prior to that, I found that 120 was my sweet spot.

 

But the biggest differences for me have been the many other ptions that TFP added over time, like being able to turn off Blood Moon. In fact, I remember the debates back when some people were asking for that option, and lots of people saying "that would remove the whole point of the game". But the point of the game is to play it, as far as I'm concerned. "How" doesn't matter so much (unless you're giving feedback, which I generally only do when I feel it applies to more than just the way I play). And because of all these options that TFP have given us, and the extremely moddable xml framework, I'm still playing it. It's not because the vanilla "intended" experience isn't good enough - it's great! I just don't always want to play that way.

 

I just started (another) new save because I got an idea for a mini castle I want to try with land claim size set to 21. I have Blood Moon on default at the moment for this save, but if I don't think I can weather it, I'll turn it off or set it to something else. I survived a tornado last year and I still don't do so well with building something and possibly having it destroyed, and having that option and many others is why I'm spending my holiday vacation immersed in A20 instead of playing something else. Besides, there's something immersive and satisfying about the process of exploring, looting, boppin' zombos on their heads, then coming home and mining, cooking and building. Routine is nice, even in the apocalypse.

[Alpha 20 Dev Diary]

1 hour ago, PoloPoPo said:

Quick question considering the book Art of mining Vol. 3:

 

It says it gives 10 % more ressources when mining with an axe or pick axe under the influence of coffee.

 

Does that mean this does not give 10 % more when mining with an auger? I have always used coffee with an auger... turns out this might have been useless all the hours? 😄

Or has this been changed to A20?

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but in the XML the perk is tagged for miningTool, and augers are tagged as miningTool so I'm going to say that it does affect augers.

[What changes do you make to the game for personal enjoyment?]

I use a lot of mods, but they mostly only change one type of thing each. I prefer that modular approach instead of overhauls, because I really like the vanilla game, I just like to tweak stuff here and there.

 

I have a bigger backpack mod (AGF's mod). I loot with wild abandon, and I've just played way too many RPGs and survival games to find inventory management the least bit compelling. LOL I still end up having to drop / scrap stuff but it helps.

 

I use mods to have storage containers like sinks, cabinets, etc to hold a lot more items (Saminal's mods), and also to add more decorative items to craft (Saminal and Telric). Some of those deco mods add new items, but most of what I use is in the game but not normally craftable, and I prefer to craft items rather than using the CM to get them. I have a mod with working faucets. I also like working appliances because I need a nice kitchen. (Yeah, I feel like every other post I make on here manages to mention my kitchens. LOL) 

 

Other stuff, I switch up quite a bit based on my mood when I'm starting a save. Sometimes I want more skill points. Sometimes I disable blood moon, sometimes I start with it off and turn it on once I've decided what I want to do. Sometimes I start with it on set it to 7 days, other times 30. These days I almost always play with modded long days (3hrs - Red Eagle's mod) and 300% XP. I used to play with 200% loot but I was only doing that for eggs and honey so now I'm just using mods (from JaxTeller718, who also made the working appliances mod I'm using) that increase the drops of those two items a bit., and dropped loot back to 100% I also recently installed a mod to make sewing kits craftable. 

 

I set the land claim deadzone to 0 so that I can build next to the trader if I desire, and also to minimize interference with quest locations. I have a mod that allows more claim blocks (Red Eagle)

 

I have the Bushcraft Bites mod (Arramus) for some more early food option. I also have JaxTeller718's Canned Foods mod but I haven't yet used it. (As I've gotten used to the new stuff in A20, along with new mods I want to try... I've been starting over a lot. LOL)

 

I also have Telric's Fishing 2.0 installed. I'm currently building a pond next to my house to facilitate safer fishing.  I haven't caught anything but old boots so far but I'm gonna go get some better bait later today. 

 

I think I got AGF's backpack from Nexus, but almost all of my mods were found here on the forums.

[Changes To Farming]

7 hours ago, Survior said:

Orclover reposted some good advice that he found from a steam thread, to change that 50% into something else.. for me it's 100% because of the extra time to manage it.

 

I would recommend learning how to do this as a proper modlet rather than changing the base xml. There are resources for that here on the forum, and on Guppy's discord. Actually, I think there are already a few modlets that do this or something similar in the mods subforum here and probably on the other mod sites as well. There's been a glut of farming adjustment modlets since the change.

 

Advising people to change the base xml just leads to chaos the next time the game updates the relevant file.

[A21 Modlets - Craft water from snow or buckets, fast plant growth, no heat dew collector and more]

On 12/25/2021 at 1:05 PM, pahbi said:

Added Acid and SewingKit recipes to workbench.

Thanks for this. I used to use a mod to craft sewing kits back in A19 and I miss it in A20 because in addition to medical and vanilla crafting, I have mod recipes that need sewing kits and I was starting to get desperate. LOL