My thoughts on A18 so far

[Shelgeyr]

Loving A18 so far. Particularly enjoying the way the Attributes & Skills create new ways to "spec" your survivor.

Some thoughts - hopefully a relatively balanced mix of positive & negative comments rather than just a bitch list:

• I like the way Health and Stamina go up with levels instead of being tied to attributes, which always made me feel like I had to spend points in places I might not necessarily have wanted to.
  
• I really like that Intellect is no longer mandatory in order to be good at crafting something.
  
• I'd like to see a little bit more benefit to leveling up attributes, instead of just the increased headshot dmg and dismemberment chance values. Maybe take one of the skills associated with each attribute and add those perks to the attribute advancement rewards?
  
• I like the fact that we finally have lockpicking - and that it isn't a cheesy minigame - and that breaking a lockpick doesn't send you back to square one. I am baffled, though, by the fact that it can't be used on doors.
  
• Food Poisoning - I get that something was needed to balance crafted food vs the canned stuff and I'm totally on board with that, especially with the "Iron Gut" perk there for the taking. However, I'm going to have to agree with something Alphado-Jaki said: the impact of getting sick competes heavily with the need to keep a full belly, and that penalty gets harsher the higher your level.
  I like the suggestion that food prepared by someone with Master Chef ranks should be less likely to make you sick, but that would mean 5 different "versions" of every player-made food item (4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, 0%).
  I honestly can't think of a better way to balance this so for the time being, my vote is "thumbs up, Pimps. you got handed lemons and made lemonade. maybe some would have preferred iced tea, but your system is a pretty good one"
  
• Hit detection: is it just me or has this gotten squirrely? I'm missing like half of my bowshots now, and I've never been that bad.
  Also, most of the time I don't even bother trying to melee downed zombies because more often than not I end up hitting the ground behind them instead. And it's not just combat, either. I'm finding that getting the loot prompt for a container has become wonky. Like, moving my cursor a few pixels to the right makes it go away even though I'm still aiming at the thing I want to search.
  
• I love that we can learn recipes by purchasing the associated perk or by finding schematics. It very much makes me feel like I can choose to spend points on the stuff that really matters while leaving the "it'd be nice" things up to RNG.
  
• I'm extremely pleased with being able to craft normal clothing items, and the ability to put POCKETS in the shirts, pants, and coats!
  Finding enough Sewing Kits (and never being able to craft them) can be a pain, though.
  
• I'm also really pleased with the hat mods for helmets. That is a genuinely elegant solution
  
• Brawling. First off - I know it's just about the stupidest idea in the history of zombie outbreaks to make fistfighting your apocalypse survival plan.
  Like, seriously, it's not something a sane person should do
  That said, I'm a little bummed that there isn't an "Art of Boxing" magazine series. If nothing else, I'd like to see your stun chance get a little better with each punch you land.
  

[Laz Man]

I think the main reason lockpicks aren't used on doors as it would require a potential redesign of some if not all POIs.

 

However, I do think the devs should allow it in the future which will make the lock pick perk more desirable.