RhinoW

You're talking about game files and dev-only stuff then, unless there have been bandits in the game before A12, I don't recall any update mentioning the addition of bandits. When I said attempts I meant attempts in an update release, similar to sleepers, we all remember how those started out and how they got adjusted over time. It's an alpha, alpha is to build the skeleton of the game. Skills have been redone countless times, that's what alphas are for, testing and trying out stuff. No one would bat an eye if bandits were just simple ranged targets with a zombie cop behavior and got improved over time, it's part of the iteration process. People play with janky bandit mods because they just like the idea of enemies besides animals and humans zombies*, even with all the jank and lack of proper support.

The irony of talking about false assumptions and then calling me uneducated on my area of work lol. I know they are not the same ones working on AI, you should probably read what I said more carefully. My point is, have you seen any attempts at bandits for over 21 alphas? No, you havent. Instead, you saw systems being reworked countless times, pretty assets being made to blind the actual "uneducated" people of significant work being done and mediocre quest and enemy variants with very few significant things inbetween that don't justify how long each alpha takes to make. I would accept arguments of budget and team size many years ago, but they gained literal many many dozens of millions of dollars since it first appeared on steam. They became greedy, made greedy choices and lost the love for the game they once cared for. Which I understand the last part, its been too long working on this game that it probably feels like you're moving on ice, no wonder they announced a new project a while back. Again I don't expect much from a user that defends this game tooth and nail any time criticism surfaces (As if I hate the game lol). This is my take, this is what I see, and there's plenty of evidence around. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Twitch integration is also all about the money, it helps generating viewership which makes it more likely for people to buy the game and is more enticing for streamers to play. But again, 7 days to die livestreams never picked up, and never will. You have a spike when a new alpha comes out, and that's it, all the more reason to keep the game in alpha The art assets is part of the throwing sand, they didnt just "improve" things, they redid a lot from scratch into a completely new high definition style, as if the game didn't have performance issues before with the low poly stuff. This is to give you the same impact as a well designed announcement post, it's shining a pearl in front of your eyes distracting you from the lack of content with each update (in ratio to the time it takes for the update to come out). These new assets like you said, make the game feel very different, pair that up with the weather/lighting changes, and you get a completely different vibe. I personally don't mind the new vibe, I love taking screenshots of atmospheric stuff, but it's not something I really needed in 7 days to die in the first place (I started in A12 for reference). Unfortunately, they can do this because they don't have competition. Their competition is not survival games, no other survival game does the game loop as well as 7 days does, they're not competing with those games, they're competing with themselves. And they bring you and me back with every Alpha release on the thought of empty promises. It works, so why not do it? I'm just ashamed that they actually fell lower than before and this time tried to blatantly lie to us and shine a not so shiny pearl this time.

This sudden release is obvious, its called placebo effect and throwing sand in your eyes (yet again). The 1.0 release is half of what alpha 22 was originally meant to be, but give it some pretty pictures and word it nicely and it looks like the next coming of christ. This is just to get your eyes off the fact it has been 11 years in alpha, so the word alpha is no longer present and they can finally call it "post launch updates". Truth is, they preferred spending time on HD assets and making the game more "twitch interactive" rather than focusing on what is easily the two biggest kickstarter promises, story and bandits. After making it all pretty for 11 years, they finally begin AI work for bandits instead of slowly doing it over time. (note that I personally don't care about bandits or story, I'm just pointing it out). Could've worried about graphical fidelty as the final detail, and extra content as post-launch updates, since no one ever played 7 days for the graphics in the slightest. And it's honestly hilarious that there's talk of DLC before the bandits even get into the game. I'm already expecting the hate train to this post, but greed once again is plaguing the industry, and The Fun Pimps are no different, no matter how much praise you give them. I love 7 days to die, I don't love the decisions and vibes that the team started giving after A16.

Agreed, different experiences. But I believe there could be a better design that would make the danger consistent among players of different skill levels/equipment.

Yes I have played tower defense games, and you could say I know my way around videogames. I know what good enemy design looks like. Again, I don't have troubles with demolishers, and I am aware of the things you said about him being "a good design", and my apologies if I wasn't clear. That's precisely his problem, its that all his purpose goes away when you pop him from afar, such a big monster taken down with ease, and every other zombie around it. The only times he causes any sort of trouble, is when a turret pops him, which you really have no control over, and it comes off as an annoyance more than anything, it's not like you missplayed and suddenly you lost your traps. With kamikazes, you know they're going to explode, they will explode on contact, they run fast, they're not just 1, they're also not very tanky, but they're fast, and if they reach your walls, its your fault. The demolisher zombie ticks before he explodes, meaning your turret can tap him and he still has time to reach your base with all that health, and you could never really react to that turret tapping him with all the confusion going on in a bloodmoon. Alas, the only "troubles" I've ever had in A21 bloodmoon with demolishers, was a 2 time thing in a total of 62 days, first time out of negligence, we had a wall breached by the zombies and a demolisher entered, and one of my friends missed a shot and he blew up in the middle of our base, taking down a few wire relays but not much. And the second time, it was on the later days, we allowed him to explode and breach a wall. All of this could be avoided if I didn't handicap myself by saying "we don't repair blocks during bloodmoons, only if they're broken". Because zombies still focus on 2 of the most damaged blocks, allowing players to spam repair them, which I didn't want to do this time around. On the other hand, spider zombies and cop zombies, are the only ones that consistently make bloodmoons interesting. As for your spike example, I never said I didn't agree my friend, I really like the fact he stomps spikes. I am totally against an easy bloodmoon, thought that was obvious from the start. My issue, is that the demolisher doesn't consistently make the bloodmoon hard/interesting, unlike cops and spider zombies (mostly cops). He is just annoying when he explodes, not because I care about my walls being breached (I'm running parkour and run and gun, killing zombies on an open field is my comfort zone), but because currently explosions damage electrical components through walls. I can't tell you how many times cops sniped my spotlights or turrets and I'm forced to take them down or bait their shots, but that is dynamic and interesting, and also makes sense (you can see the windup, you can see the projectile, you can move away from your turrets, you can place your turrets behind cover, you can stun the cops before they puke..etc). The demolisher falls flat on its face, simply because, unlike the other 2 special infected, his ability is not a consistent threat, or even an ability for that matter. Even if you do activate his explosion, you have time to gun him down, even when he's ticking (but you gotta be focus firing him from the start of course). I said I like the that he is a big boy, but there is so much emphasis on his explosion, when its really just a random occurence that in this day and age of 7 days to die, is not even a big deal when you have so many resources and ammo, making it another bullet sponge (which I don't mind, but then again, it brings nothing to the table unlike the other 2). Demolisher is simply a newbie killer, by the time he shows up, he's not really a threat. I always take over a POI for my bases, and this last time we used a military checkpoint, meaning, concrete walls, catwalks, spotlights, single spike row around the base, nothing too strong, mostly just realistic. So imagine if we actually tried to make a proper bloodmoon base to abuse the zombies, or had a separate one with no regard to damages because f*ck aesthetics for that one. Hence why I said, I would much prefer more zombie types, that swarm your base with different effects and abilities, and force you to pick VIPs and rethink weaknesses of your base based on what you have placed there. The demolisher is simply an overtuned normal zombie (which is perfectly fine), but somehow is a "special infected" because he can explode by getting shot in the wrong place? He could be a brute/bruiser, and have AoE on his normal swipes, dealing 500 per hit, on a wider block radius, that would be much more interesting and consistent, and also allow more to spawn. And when I meant artificial difficulty, I mean that its just something they shoehorned in to give you some difficulty. I mean c'mon, it's obvious this design wasn't really thought through, his visuals make no sense and like I've said before, he's just a normal overtuned zombie that "might" explode. I would much prefer normal zombies to have explosive variants, rather than the whole personality of a custom modeled tanky zombie to be that he shines and explodes by the players demand (how many people actually know he can stomp spikes, I didn't until I started modding 7days lmao). Right now, we only have 2 zombies (3 if you count the demolisher :P) that make the bloodmoon somewhat interesting and dynamic. Demolisher: Heavy breacher, minibosss, really dangerous to walls (should you focus on his physical aptitude and less on his explosion) Cop: Sniper/Breacher, takes out turrets and spotlights from afar Spider zombie: Jumps over defenses and forces you to either build a higher wall, or cage yourself to avoid it. Honorable mention: Vultures, as they force to put sky coverage on your catwalks/platforms. In the end, I would much prefer if they doubled down on the demolisher's physical attacks and make him a force to be reckoned with, with no cheap way of killing him, and also no cheap way of getting stuff blown up by things you sometimes don't have control over. I will note however, I do like that he makes explosives a danger to work with, but his weakness is still the same if you willingly pop it from afar, no explosives needed 😕 In hindsight, it would be really nice to have those kamikazes have this particular strength. They won't pop from shots, but they will from explosions. Considering their faster movement and higher spawnrates, not being minibosses, it would be a good trade off (1 explosive for 1 explosive zombie). Also I lose my track when writting really fast, so if I didn't mention some things, it's quite common whenever I'm brainstorming or discussing a topic. I automatically assume people understand what I mean with some things, when I should've been more specific. My bad for that.

I give up.

You purposefuly dodge my points about the demolisher and fail to understand why he is a poorly designed enemy. I should just drop this, but let me explain it to you slowly. - The demolisher, like all late game enemies in the game, has around 800-1200 HP - The demolisher has 60% damage reduction on top of that - The demolisher stomps spikes and doesn't take damage - The demolisher deals the highest amount of block damage to your base (500) - The demolisher is a steroid version of all other common zombies with the ability to stomp spikes. So what makes the demolisher so terrible? The fact that it punishes you and your base, for playing the game. It's the only enemy, in the game, that requires the same focus fire as all other zombies, but even more so because of the damage reduction, but you have to carefully aim to avoid being punished for literally shooting at a zombie horde "trivially" (whatever the hell that means in this context). This is not his "ability", this is artificial difficulty that goes against the main flow of the game, you don't simply put a nuke on the tankiest enemy, that can go off if you miss a shot, on a game about unloading lots of ammo on hordes of zombies that are breaking the blocks in your base. - Traps can set him off, making your own turrets work against you - Explosives can set him off, which I think is fine, because explosives are very good anyways, so I agree with that And in the end, it adds nothing to the game, because his "ability", only acts if you miss a shot or he gets caught in a turret. Which is just annoying, if you can't see that on a game that's about base building and fighting hordes of zombies, I really don't need to continue this thread further. The cop does a much better job at this already, and is the game's best designed zombie yet. Imagine if the gargantuan from plants vs zombies had a chance to explode upon being shot, that's what the demolisher is. And no, I don't have much trouble with demolishers, and my bases are not poorly designed. The demolisher is objectively a bad design that was shoehorned to create a difficulty spike, instead of having creative blood moons. The blood moons are still easy and will continue to be easy, no matter how many bullet sponges they add to the game, the only thing that will make them harder and more fun, is engaging fights with actual special infected (or nerfing ammo, that's way easier and much more cost efficient in production value am I right lads?) It's not rocket-science to understand this, I could tune up the damage of the zombies to ridiculous levels, and make the game difficult in ridiculous ways, it doesn't mean its well designed, but it sure as hell gave you more difficulty. Also, you don't have to defend this game tooth and nail. We're all on the same page here, I like this game as much as you do, if not more, that's why decisions like these annoy me. And seeing people blindly defending it without questioning stuff annoys me even more.

They might not do it so people don't see their console experience instant combustion with extra zombie spawns.

But the demo is by all means a bullet sponge already, that if you miss a shot, destroys your base. You kinda proved my point there. Kamikazes with low hp can be targeted as a priority, much like the demolisher, yes, that's the whole point of the demolisher, getting your attention, without it being a BS enemy for the most part (mind you, I don't really have that many troubles with demolishers, its simply a bad design overall). Lots of kamikazes will force you to take quick shots or they 'll explode upon attacking the wall. Different than the demolisher, its high octane time attack with them, while not being spongy. The driller zombie would simply breach your walls, and you would have to spot him, since he won't be glowing like the demolisher from a mile away. And the fear of the explosion, is the fear of the explosion that goes through walls before breaking them, considering most electronics have awful resistances anyways. Not breaching my walls. He already does that without exploding. Which the hypothetical breacher/driller zombie, would do. And I like how you didn't mention the other ideas. Because your original point was boring and samey blood moons, which those other 3 fix, in a more dynamic and diverse manner, than "another high HP zombie, but this one goes boom if you miss a shot, if you don't shoot anyways, he will break the wall fast, so kill it fast, also screw your turrets, blade traps and spikes, oh and he also has 60% damage reduction if you dont use AP"

It doesn't take the fact it's a bad enemy design. So many more concepts could've taken its place. It's not like hordes don't get easy anymore, because they do, and they become trivial after a while since its always the same thing, bullet sponges hitting your walls, with the exception of the cop. They just put a kamikaze effect on the toughest enemy in the game, that already deals 500 block damage with each attack. You don't need the explosion. Not to mention the concept itself connected to its visual design doesn't make sense at all. (C4 strapped to a military guy and a bunch of nades or canisters whatever around him?) Here's better examples: Horde of kamikazes, self explanatory, low hp, glowing, really fast zombies that just want to blow up Bruiser tank zombie (demolisher but without the explosion, and much more focus on his melee attacks, perhaps a small AoE punch that also damages blocks) Driller zombie that while not as fast, would have mutated hands that allow him to destroy stone/concrete blocks really fast. Support buffer zombie that, well, buffs nearby zombies Screamer that stuns the player with a projected scream, making him miss shots and lose pressure EMP zombie that destabilizes and makes turrets and eletric equipment malfunction in a radius around him

Don't respect demolishers, that's what will get you killed. Either pop them from afar, or gun them down with auto weapons with AP rounds... though I'm saying this because I have the penetrator perk which maxed out allows you to deal raw damage to them. Also it's one of the absolute worst enemy designs in history.

You completely missed the point.

100% with you on this. When I saw the first sneak peek of the axe, I was so hyped for a new weapon, and suddenly its just a boring ass resource gathering tool. It feels like the devs didn't thoroughly communicate the purpose of the weapon and simply told the artists "make a cool post apocalyptic axe". And same thing goes with the steel knuckles, why the hell are they spiked? Such a wasted opportunity to allow the metal spikes mod to also be installed on the knuckles.

Seriously? No mouth opening, biting, twitching? Most of 7dtd encounters are close quarters. it's so weird having all zombies keep the same face no matter what. To each their own, but if they ever add it, you'll see.