Alpha 19 - Enemy balance progression / Finite Bloodmoon spawn

[Fleshpound]

Hi everbody,

 

its not easy to talk about, because it is not easy to explain and my motherlanguage is not english. So i will give my best to explain my problem. First of all i will honor the developer and the community for the unprecedented masterpiece 7 days to die. I baked this game when i firstly read, and played every version for lot of hours. I always was expectant, when a new version was announced. This is the only game I know which makes so much changes and adding/removing gameplay elements to create really the best survival game at all.
I think I can say, I really love this game.

 

So don't get me wrongt, this thread is focused only on the problem i will describe. I do not want to bash or make the A19 bad. I think the A19 has so much amazing improvments (like the interactive icons and the drop all into storage). The new locations are also great!

 

So back to my problem: In Alpha 19, when the blood moon occurs the total count of spawned of enemies (not the concurrent spawn of enemies) is very limited.

 

An multiplayer example:

Situation: I played with friends on a private server, we were 3 Players online total and 1 Player which started with us but stays offline, because he had no time to play. Difficulty was Warrior (or higher?), 7 Days Bloodmoon, 8 Zombies per Player

 

• Day 7: There was a small group of Zombies Arriving the base, maybe 12-24? After killing these rotten guys nothing happend. It was very easy because we surrounded our base with wooden spikes, in early stages of the game this was effective but in this night there was barely damaged. We thought that the next bloodmoon will be more difficulty and go on.
• Day 14: I concentrated on gaining XP via mining, which was always a good way to gain. We also used concrete for a security wall around our base, but we expected that we will have really problems in this night. I think i was around level 30 and my friends between 20-30. So the night came and there were a bit more zombies than on day 7. They stopped spawning after 30-40 or max 50 (total count). It started at 22:00 and after 23:30 zombie spawn was finished. They didn't really damaged our base and the most where killed by wood spikes or were shot from us from the top of the wall. Its a little bit time gone, but as far as i remember there where spider zombies but no vultures at all. It was boring, because we expected much more zombies and action in this night. In Alpha 18 the zombies made swiss cheese of our base at day 14.

• Day 21: The progression of our characters go on, we had steel working tools and so on, i think i was around level 50 because i was excessivly did mining (my friends were around 35-45). We didn't used higher technologies (like electro fence or robotic guns).
  The night was as expected, early stop of spawn, around 40-60 zombies. There was no challenge at all.

  After this night we stopped playing because it seems very boring. Last time i talked to a friend and it seems they continued playing. I do not know which day or level they were but he said its really boring because the zombies aren't a problem at all. Spawn is early finished and they doesn't really have a chance.
   

 

These days i played solo again, because i thiought they may were a misconfiguration or bug or an invalid gamestate (?). I tried same difficulty but blood moon every 4 days and instead of 8 zombies i set it to 24 zombies.
At day 4 a small group of 6-8 zombies arrived and where shot by me. After this the spawn seems finished.

 

My last solo game (A18) they took out my base on day 7 (Warrior or less?, default settings). I was really feared hearing, this hungry rotten zombies destroying the walls of my base. I were under preasure and it was really action.

 

I can't count how often i gone through the "Start game"-Settings screens, looking for an option i missed. I searched the internet and the only valid context i got were the release notes where the "enemy progression was rebalanced". 

 

Sorry for the long text, but what we do wrong? Can you explain me how to increase difficulty and the total count of zombies?

 

As i read, the spawning in blood night usually does not stop until all players died. And it will not "stop" at all it only will be "paused" (this was the behaviour of the A18, which makes sense).

 

Thanks for your help and taking the time to read

 

Cheers
Fleshpound

 

[RipClaw]

The information that the horde stops only after the death of a player is not correct. The horde stops after all 3 waves are spawned. On low gamestages this happens pretty fast while on high gamestages the horde usually end at 4am.

 

If you want also on low gamestages a horde that lasts until 4am there is a mod from @Boidster

You can find it here: https://www.nexusmods.com/7daystodie/mods/1087

 

[Pico]

I have only played Single Player, so I can't comment on your multi player experience. I like to play Dead Is Dead style, so no respawning - I start a new game if I get killed.

So I found A19 single player to be quite difficult to survive the early hordes. I wanted a challenge, but didn't want to be destroyed every 7 days. What works for me (using Sledgehammers) is to slow the zombies down to a slow jog, but to balance that out by having 12 of them alive at a time.

 

If I hadn't slowed them down I would get smashed by a group of Z's very early. Broken bones would make it impossible to fight or to run away, and lack of stamina, infection, fatigue, abrasions would all amplify the degree to which my player was doomed. It seems impossible to survive the early hordes on the default settings if you are among them using muscles instead of bullets.

 

Add in the pathetic early weapons, the low stamina, the poor ineffective armour, and you really are doomed to die.

Arrow draw/reload speed is also pathetic, so to defend a base from a safe position is also unlikely to work.

 

I'm somewhat comforted to learn your multiplayer experience is so much easier, as it means that these issues are a balancing issue that they should eventually sort out for us.

[Fleshpound]

@RipClaw Thank you! I will try that mod. Is there a way to get the enemy progression increased earlier/faster?

@Pico I think the most powerful is the strength perk tree. After gaining the 4 points for the starting quest i put points into pummel pete, mining and sexual tyrannosaurus. I often die when gathering things in houses. This often is a death trap if not having an exit. I always have a couple of woodframes in your toolbelt (to reach a roof or an exit) and some woodspikes (if there is more than one zombie you can place it and it will support you when while walking around the spikes). A blunderbuss is also helpful when fight melee. I attack with blunderbuss and if the zombie gets down i do not await the reload and switch immediatley to the club and beat him while on ground. After 1-2 hits i gain distance to target and waiting for restoration of endurance.

 

If you do mining you gain more XP because you faster mine resources. Stones and clay can be combined to cobblestone which is a powerful XP boost when upgrading walls.

 

Before the first bloodnight i chop a lot of wood to create wood spikes. Usually this is not a good strategy because you do not gain XP when a zombie is dying by wood spikes but it supports you. I always have a safe position, like a 3 blocks high wall and a backup plan if zombies enter the wall.

 

My last base in A18 i created a big divide by using TNT. This is a powerfull way to create a divide.

 

It is also much easier to modify a existing house in the city. I often do that when playing single player and want a relaxed gameplay.

 

It's nice to exchange game experiences and I agree that it can be very different.

[RipClaw]

3 hours ago, Fleshpound said:

Is there a way to get the enemy progression increased earlier/faster?

There are two ways. First, you can increase the XP multiplier in the settings up to 300%. With this you level faster and this increases the gamestage faster.

 

The second way is to increase the value of difficultyBonus in the gamestages.xml file. In A18 each difficulty setting had a different difficultyBonus. In A19 this is set to a fixed value of 1.2.

In A18 the values were as follows:
 

Scavenger: 1.0

Adventurer: 1.2

Nomad: 1.5

Warrior: 1.7

Survivalist: 2.0

Insane: 2.5

 

[Fleshpound]

Cool, thank you!