JesterL

Thank you for your response! I appreciate your perspective, though I disagree with some things. Had this game been designed in such a way where we were combating smarter and deadlier enemies I'd be inclined to agree with you. But 7 Days to Die simply isn't built like this. I think in a survival situation everything should have its risk vs reward analysis. Keeping zombies purely as a risk in this game doesn't really fly when they're already so easily dealt with. They're also incredibly easy to avoid with the exception of Day 7. Not only that, but they're also incredibly predictable based on the current dungeon crawling like way they are being used. As the game currently is you're highly likely to survive most encounters, there is also little to no reward for staying alive for extended periods of time. Back in earlier builds dying used to be much more punishing than it is now. In earlier builds your over all stamina and health could drop as low as 50, including losing experience. We're only taking away engagement from the player when taking away the rewards for winning encounters and taking away punishments for losing them. Over all I also think death in the game should be much much more punishing than it currently is, and loot should be much more scarce. I also don't think its fair to say that giving loot the players turns this game into a basic arcade shooter, there is waaay more content at play in this game for it to even come close to that description. If you're concerned about the time wasted searching bodies, simple make the loot carrying body glow and the empty bodies un-lootable, don't entirely remove engagement. If the developers intend to make a game like you mentioned, I think they have a much steeper hill to climb when it comes to adding new systems that reward the player for avoiding zombies, rewards for surviving Day 7s, making zombies infinitely more terrifying, threatening, smarter and less predictable. Even if they were to implement these systems, the current loot balance is still set up in such a way that these more difficult enemies would be at a huge disadvantage with how much loot they keep piling on new players. I think over all its a much more efficient fix to simply adjust the scarcity, loot rewards and punishments for dying.

This makes sense considering I've probably discovered the bike chassis book at least 4 times in only 8 days of play, but not even a hint of the forge schematic. More evidence that a smarter system needs to be implemented. Perhaps a system where every duplicate found decreases the odds of that book being available to the player again? Also making some books more common than others. When it comes too the point system, the question comes into play of whether we need those points at all with how the current loot distribution is being implemented.

Thank you for your response! I think this is extremely important also and something I wasn't aware of. I think my perspective can be valuable because I very much got the "new player experience" when picking up the game again after 4 years or so. I've played alpha 19 for probably a total of 12 hours at this point and all of what I mentioned was self evident from about the 8 hour point. Unfortunately I've already lost interest as a result and will continue to wait for updates. I certainly hope that more long term veterans of alpha 19 will come forth to share their more in-depth perspective. I'd recommend the devs switch to less of a content focus and more of a balance, immersion and player engagement focus. I think loot scarcity is also needed to make the looting perks worthwhile.

Hello, I'll do my best to write this review in a condensed manner because I understand that reading a long winded review might not be a way that most developers would want to spend their valuable time, but I'd like to start with a brief overview of my thoughts. For each section I will include a summery for easy reading. I'm a long time fan of 7dtd I've owned and enjoyed the game all the way since alpha 15. It wasn't until alpha 17 that I stopped playing. The main reason I stopped playing was due to the core changes in the looting system; particularly when looting corpses was eliminated, the changes to the looting system really crippled the game in terms of what made it fun and addicting in the first place, and since returning to the game in alpha 19 I've come to develop a more rounded opinion of the issues currently facing this game in terms of balance. One of the key features of any survival horror is the looting and crafting. Part of the brilliance in the games early development was the ability to turn worthless scrap into powerful weapons and new ways to survive. Positives Summery: The developers have improved many parts of the game, excluding the most important ones, looting, sound, balance and progression. I want to be fair and say that this game has come a long way since alpha 15. In terms of the amount of content, buildings, quests, graphics, zombies, music, atmosphere, items, blocks, performance, controls, user interface, systems. All of these things have improved to a huge degree and I would be doing the developers a huge disservice if I didn't recognize the huge amount of effort and care that went into each of these things. While all of these have contributed positively to the over all quality of the game I think that there are key elements in the game itself that have taken a hit and ended up on the back burner while these other things were being improved, these things being most important over all of them. Looting Summery: Zombie looting gives players a reward for fighting zombies everywhere and surviving day 7's, it keeps players engaged. Realism in the locations of loot make the world feel alive and creates a more engaging world. The first thing I want to start with is the elimination of looting zombies except during rare loot drop occurrences. I think that it is imperative to give players an incentive to engaging with the enemies in the game, especially in a survival horror game. I've seen a dramatic shift in the way zombies are used by the developers in relation to this concept. The switch to houses being more akin to dungeon crawling and zombies acting as more of a barrier in-between loot stashes. I think this approach is flawed for a number of reasons. The first being that it completely negates the desire to engage with zombies outside of homes, which leaves the entire outside world void of anything tangible save for XP and raw materials, which again can be obtained indoors. This is an even more severe issue that it conflicts with the very name of the game, that day 7's no longer hold any tangible reward outside of XP. The second issue with this looting system is realism, this game is very realism oriented at its core despite the fantasy concept. I think that it's essential that this same level of realism is applied to the loot aspect of this game. It is not realistic to find hordes of enemies conveniently placed in front of stashes of loot acting as barriers. It is not realistic to find large stashes of ammunition in nearly every single coffin in a funeral home. It would be common to find ammunition in places like, a defeated military zombie for instance, while finding bones in coffins. This can also create more addicting play when searching for specific locations for specific items. Even finding scrap on zombies is better than nothing at all. Balance and Progression Summery: The current loot distribution of late game mods, ammunition, weapons and tools, completely eliminates the need for any skill progression and makes early game schematics difficult to find, hindering progression and filling up a new players inventory with worthless junk. In the games current state you can find blunderbusses and shot gun ammunition, complex armor and weapons right out of the gate. This also goes against all manner of realism that in a survival situation in a world stripped of resources in a zombie apocalypse you would not find valuable books, weapons and tools at the drop of a hat. Coupled with the fact that many of these items you would not find at all in society. Primitive axes, tools and blunderbusses are something that are to be created, not found. The same goes for many pieces of armor currently found around the world. The easy gathering of these items at any quality level completely eliminates the need to put an effort into XP gain because if players loot a few houses they're likely to find what the skills would give them. This further devalues engagement with enemies and day 7s. Similarly, offering late game mods eliminates the need for late game skills and fills a new players inventory with stuff they don't understand and needlessly cart around. Late game systems and ideas should be introduced gradually along with progression so not to confuse new players. The over abundance of loot options makes certain essential early game techs difficult to find, such as the forge. Introduction of late game items early also makes the enemies comparably weak. I would highly recommend the elimination of craft-able early game tools in the loot pool and make high level mods and items extremely rare, in specific locations/zombies tied to a players level in order to avoid over encumbering and confusing new players. Sound Summery: Sound is a key feature in any horror game, hearing zombies very far way or even deep underground takes out the suspense and horror and makes the game less immersive. There are many issues with sound in the game, but I first want to mention that the developers have done a great job with the new music and sound track in the game. The music adds a fantastic layer of fear as well as a feeling of isolation when crafting alone at your home base. The issues with sound have been obvious and pervasive ever since I first started playing in alpha 15 and I'm disappointed that my friends can still hear me hunting rabbits two houses down when they're in our shelter underground. Zombie's can be heard and sound as if they're moaning in your ear even though they may not even be in house at all. There is seemingly no sound direction for the player to seek out said zombie and will be forced to patrol aimlessly until it is located and defeated. Similarly footsteps may be heard on the floor above you, but zombies will be completely silent on their approach when directly behind you. The sound issues in this game over shadow the excellent atmosphere the new music adds to the game. Ensuring the sound of the game is on point will make the zombies much more terrifying and less of a noisy hassle. I also have a recommendation that when the player is underground, rather than have zombies senselessly beating on walls and raising a ruckus above the player, annoying them to death, simply have zombies follow the player's scent and stake out the surface quietly so they have to deal with them in the morning. I hope that my feedback will be taken and be used to benefit the game. I'm a long time fan of 7 Days to Die and I have an immense amount of respect for the team and everything you have all created. Thank you so much for all you do and I'm looking forward to the future updates this game has to offer.