Diehard a16 Player's Feedback for a18

[OldManBrian]

Overall, I like it so far and it's leagues better than a17, so thanks for all the hard work devs and especially thanks to MadMole as I've followed his posts and it looks like he recognized the problems and responded to feedback with some good changes.

 

Some random thoughts, after playing about 4 hours with default settings and no mods on the pregen1 map:

 

 

• Only gained 1 level. Seems way too slow for my tastes but I'll keep going to see how it feels later.
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• Zombies are rare, and seem to take a ton of hits before going down. Personally I prefer lots of easier to kill zombies.
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• Zombies seem to have too long of a reach. They hit me from much further than they really seem like they should.
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• Rage on hit is a fun mechanic, haven't had a problem with it like others I've read.
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• Weapons repair and retrieved weapons like the spear return to your hotbar which is great, but it only does it for the FIRST item, which is not great. So if you have two spears, the second goes to your inventory after retrieval, same with repairing axes and whatnot. You have to keep going in and fishing them back out to your hotbar.
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• Spear is great, but even then just when thrown to the head, everything else I've tried so far seems too weak. Feels ridiculous to keep hitting a single zombie over and over and over before he finally dies. I'll probably adjust zombie damage dished and received later, but I'll keep trying it out like this till at least lvl 10 or 20 depending on how long that takes.
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• Got food poisoning from the first thing I ate, a chargrilled steak. Was in the desert so I had to eat my canned food then a few yucca to get rid of hunger. Didn't seem too bad, but I'm not crazy with how likely food poisoning is, but I'm willing to give it a try as I understand there's probably balance reasons.
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• Resources are HARD to come by. Took a while just to scrounge up enough wood to build a door and meager defenses at a POI house I made into my first base. Personally I'd prefer at least 2x resource rates because I like to build, but I'll keep trying it out to see if it changes later.
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• I'd prefer an option to disable the environmental protection you get when starting the game. I like struggling with my starting environment.
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• Got killed by a single wood block of falling debris.
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• Graphics and performance are both GREAT!
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• Love the new block building mechanics, looks like it's going to be great to build stuff if only I can get enough resources without grinding.
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• I'm getting the feeling that I won't need to mod much if anything, other than changing a few server settings. This is coming from modding TONS in a16 before I got it how I liked it.
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• Loot feels good so far, haven't had enough time to fully evaluate, plus I'm in the middle of a desert so there isn't much to loot so far.
  

 

That's all for now, I'll add more posts as I get more playtime.

[Khulkhuum]

Getting perks into weapons works wonders. Even 2 points allow beheading from time to time. I even rarely one-shot with primitive bow T1 with 1 point invested.

 

Fighting is different, but can also be satisfying. I like how i chain blade attacks (such a small weapon doesn't need much energy), sometimes making fun attack patterns against a zombie. I wouldn't mind some kind of a dodge mechanic, but so far it's good. I still get beat up from time to time, but having full set of armor works wonders.

 

Later on you'll encounter bit more Zs and perhaps some WH.

[Shin]

I have personally not even downloaded yet. After watching some streams and vids I really havent got the urge to do so. To me it seems way to slow and tedious. I'll most likely download eventually, probably later than sooner though... Until then I wont pass any judgement.

[OldManBrian]

Getting perks into weapons works wonders. Even 2 points allow beheading from time to time. I even rarely one-shot with primitive bow T1 with 1 point invested.

 

Fighting is different, but can also be satisfying. I like how i chain blade attacks (such a small weapon doesn't need much energy), sometimes making fun attack patterns against a zombie. I wouldn't mind some kind of a dodge mechanic, but so far it's good. I still get beat up from time to time, but having full set of armor works wonders.

 

Later on you'll encounter bit more Zs and perhaps some WH.

 

I didn't realize I'd only be getting 1 perk point per level, so I bought a bunch of different things without really planning it out too much.

 

From what I remember, I got healing factor, pack mule, the brawler, and advanced engineering. I think I got one more but I don't remember which one.

 

1 level of brawler with the makeshift wraps don't seem to be able to compete with the spear so far.

[vedrit]

I love the spear. Half the time, throwing it causes the zombie to stagger, allowing my to retrieve it and throw it again. Bonus: Even if you run out of stamina, you can still throw the spear.

I've thought about having two, but I know it would just end up as one would be a backup in case the first broke or landed somewhere not immediately accessible.

[OldManBrian]

I have personally not even downloaded yet. After watching some streams and vids I really havent got the urge to do so. To me it seems way to slow and tedious. I'll most likely download eventually, probably later than sooner though... Until then I wont pass any judgement.

 

So far I am feeling that it's much slower. However, XP gain % is a in-game setting, so that part is easy to remedy. Same with zombie damage.

 

I'm gonna give it a few more levels just to see, but so far it doesn't seem slower to make it "grindy" like something like Ark does. It just seems like it's deliberately balanced to be slower, and I just need to give it some more time to see if there's enough there that it's fun vs a slog.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I love the spear. Half the time, throwing it causes the zombie to stagger, allowing my to retrieve it and throw it again. Bonus: Even if you run out of stamina, you can still throw the spear.

I've thought about having two, but I know it would just end up as one would be a backup in case the first broke or landed somewhere not immediately accessible.

 

I run with two, but the problem is that the 2nd doesn't return to your hotbar, you have to run back a bunch of steps and then quickly dig it out of your inventory after you retrieve it. I still prefer it to having just one, especially if I put points towards the skill and wouldn't want to be without a backup. But it is pretty annoying having to keep fishing it out.

[Ghostlight]

The damage from falling debris is REAL.

[Kosmic Kerman]

I’ve found getting wood in the desert has always been a challenge. If you end up in another biome, wood is not a problem at all.

[OldManBrian]

I’ve found getting wood in the desert has always been a challenge. If you end up in another biome, wood is not a problem at all.

 

Yeah, part of it is I've been playing a ton of empyrion and in that game you can break down POI's into resources at a fairly good pace with an acceptable amount of loss of resources.

 

In 7 Days though, you really don't get hardly any resources back from destroying blocks, at least not at an effective pace. I tried tearing down the ceiling supports so the roof would collapse since that type of "debris" block is generally easier to break down for resources, but that's how I died the 1 time lol.

[Bloodyvixen]

The less zombies around is actually something that doesn't bother me. I feel like it's a benefit to the game that you are not tripping over half a dozen of them every minute or so. One of the biggest frustrations to me early on each game in 17 was how you couldn't focus on doing anything too long without every single zombie in the area with super sense/heat missile mode coming to you. You could be halfway up a second story building and every zombie that spawned in the area would pat into your area. Doing anything in your base at night early game was frustrating, because the amount of roaming zombies (again with super senses) would be irritating. I don't expect to be doing much at night early on but opening a few chests to manage inventory shouldn't be such a big deal. Right now it isn't.

[vedrit]

Yeah, part of it is I've been playing a ton of empyrion and in that game you can break down POI's into resources at a fairly good pace with an acceptable amount of loss of resources.

 

In 7 Days though, you really don't get hardly any resources back from destroying blocks, at least not at an effective pace. I tried tearing down the ceiling supports so the roof would collapse since that type of "debris" block is generally easier to break down for resources, but that's how I died the 1 time lol.

 

I would occasionally level a POI. Just break the bottom most blocks, starting from the inside out, and watch things fall. This was usually done to run down houses that didn't really have many lootables anyway. But yeah, Empyrion does spoil players by giving back most if not all resources used to craft the block

[ChJees]

By day 4 you should had gained a few levels at least... But then I found a town and started looting the heck out of it and thus gaining lots of XP in the process by murdering every zombie I came across.

 

Tip: If you have a hard time to hit the head of zombie in melee; first hit them in the leg to your right and the zombie will present their head nicely for a follow up power attack!

[DanLW]

From what MadMole was saying leading up to release, leveling too fast might bite you in the posterior because it ties to your game stage. Better to beef up your damage by finding weapons, mods, and books to make you stronger.

[tricorius]

I’ve found getting wood in the desert has always been a challenge. If you end up in another biome, wood is not a problem at all.

 

Hmmmm...I just go on a murder spree against the small curved log deadwood thingies. They actually grant a reasonable amount per log and seem pretty prevalent (at least in Nav desert).

[PinKidd]

Falling debris damage! - I got instagibbed by a collapsing ship, weirdly took half the dock out with it. Stupidly I assumed since they'd refreshed that POI, that they would have gotten rid of that bug!

[qbot3000]

Wow it’s been a long time since i posted here. Fell off the radar with A17, didn’t like it in the first 30 min. Thought I would give A18 a try, and loving it so far. One gripe though - how do I tell when i’ve Earned points besides checking obsessively? I seemed to earn 4 points in my first game before I even reached level 1 - so how does the point system work? How are they earned exactly, because they didn’t seem to be tied to earning the next level.

[Khulkhuum]

Wow it’s been a long time since i posted here. Fell off the radar with A17, didn’t like it in the first 30 min. Thought I would give A18 a try, and loving it so far. One gripe though - how do I tell when i’ve Earned points besides checking obsessively? I seemed to earn 4 points in my first game before I even reached level 1 - so how does the point system work? How are they earned exactly, because they didn’t seem to be tied to earning the next level.

 

You get 1 skillpoint per level, as well as a couple for finishing the tutorial levels.