Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[Sal]

Here's my opinion on A20 after playing for 5 days. Keep in mind, I didn't pay attention to the changes during development, or follow notes, comments, etc...I wanted to experience it myself without knowing anything. That's just me....I don't follow any game like that. Besides, to be frank, I don't have time for it either. Anyhow...

1) First impression means alot and this stood true with all of the terrain improvements that were made. When I first loaded A20 it looked like an entirely new game visually thanks to all of the small intricate changes. Everything just looked much smoother and even the simple things like grass looks much better.

2) I really like the improvements to the RWG! While I still might use a 3rd party program later on in the future just for the sake of flexibility, I don't feel nearly as compelled to do so like I did before in previous versions where it was almost a must. Between the changes to the terrain, the RWG overhaul as whole, and more options.....I feel alot more confident in being able to a create a map I like using the built-in system.

3) New zombie models. This is kind of hit and miss for me, but def more hit than miss IMO. I freaking love the new skateboard dude! That's no doubt my favorite. He scared the living hell out of me the first time he peaked around the corner at me. Please don't change him. The cop looks alot better with more detailed belt accessories and a new old traditional "cop-ish like" colors as if they were there years ago when the apocalypse actually took place.  I'm a bit indifferent on the new Z dog. Sometimes I like it better than before but other times I don't, so I don't know how I really feel about it. But maybe it'll grow on me in time. The new spider Z looks creepy as hell and MUCH better than Tom Clark on all fours. The new Wright doesn't do it for me.... I can't really point my finger on why but I actually liked the older one better. Creepier maybe? I don't know? The same with the new lumberjack. He's not as intimidating as before even though he can take the same amount of beating. Don't get me wrong, I like the new look but it's much shorter than before and it doesn't really fit with the theme of the character like the older one does. When you think of stereotypical "lumberjacks" you think of big, strong, burly woodsman men and the size of the older one represented it much better than the new one does. If it were up to me I would use the new model with the same height as the older model. The Bears seem like alot smaller too and I'm not a big fan of that either but I could be wrong on this one (maybe it's just me). The nurse looks alot better with scrubs. She actually looks closer to modern times than she did before when she looked like she jumped straight out of a 1950s movie.

 

4) Sticking to changes to zombies. I like how all zombies can now randomly crawl but the transition animations are not very smooth. It's almost as if they teleport from standing to crawling. But I really like the idea of it though since it adds another element of surprise to the game. The mechanics just needs some fine-tuning is all.

 

5) Feral sense is by far my favorite new feature added to the game! PLEASE continue building on this aspect! I love it! I had no idea this was being added but as soon as I saw it and read the brief description I was so psyched that I set it to ALL and have only ever played it like this ever since. I keep trying to do a 1 life agility run (and I have to max it out before putting points into any other perk) and this has killed me so many times. I put points into knife/archer but I have yet to make it to day 5 on warrior with a 5 day BM. The other day I was on a REALLY good run for day 2.....found a nice temp roof to live on (motel 7?), a forge schematic, an extremely rare crucible schematic, and the trader had a workbench for sale. I was short of money to buy to the bench so I took a "clear funeral home job" and I thought it would be easy to do because it was one of the old POIs that I was very familiar with and man was I WRONG!  Coincidentally I was instantly attacked by 3 ferals as soon I activated the quest and I only had a T2 knife, T1 club on me and I couldn't even run and leave the boundaries without failing the quest! Needless to say that was the end of that run. But I loved how it now keeps me on my toes.

 

6) Food/meds are now a REAL threat. I love this! I haven't experimented with farming enough to pass judgement yet but food seems like a real threat in early game whereas it wasn't before. I was in the middle of a separate agility run on day 2 or 3 (I don't remember) and my food was down to ~10% when nighttime was approaching and I had no more food. I was for sure going to start to die from starvation very soon and I was holed up in a FARM town at that! I did however notice earlier in the day that there were 2 boars in a field about 200M away in another POI and so I tried to take a chance to get meat and that was a bad idea to try with only a bow and knife 😟.

 

Anyhow, these are just my initial thoughts. Keep up the good work guys. I can't wait to see what's next.

 

 

[beHypE]

5 hours ago, MisutoM said:

If this is an issue with a lot of other archers, it might be worth looking at possible solutions, such as upping the chance to find steel arrow heads in loot and starting at earlier game stages. Or, to rebalance both flaming and exploding arrows to need iron heads which are much more readably available since the recipes are already locked behind a book series that you have to randomly find. Personally I think iron heads would feel fair given their low damage compared to similar explosives and their otherwise high cost (an entire duct tape to do ~half a pipe bomb of damage). Perhaps even making two types of exploding and flame arrows, one for iron and one for steel with steel being the better of the two since it's more expensive. Alternatively, they could stay as a late game luxury, but maybe increase their damage to be same as a pipe bomb and similarly increase their gun powder to craft to 12. Finally, you could even consider two recipes for steel arrow heads, for example, without a crucible they cost 21 iron each, and a crucible reduces that cost to 7 (the current cost). They'd be 3x more expensive but still obtainable thus making the books you found actually feel impactful. There's likely many other ways you could go about changing this if anyone else even feels it's an issue, but those are the suggestions chat and I brainstormed together for whatever it's worth.  

 

I like those ideas! Indeed the cost seems high for the damage output compared to other, lower tier explosives. And the double gate is usually a bad thing. An alternative recipe that is more expensive seems like a fairly good compromise. 

[Aldranon]

SP is much harder than MP in A20 but it doesn't really matter if you don't play dead-is-dead.

 

For me, I finally got to my second BM without dying as SP!  There are some killer POI's (literally!) where MP could lock up a door when you get the "Super zombie rush".

I thought of blocking the door with an instant wooden block, but that would start breaking any believability I have.

I also am ignoring farming as hunting was something I never did and is turning into a fun sub-game!  (Cornbread forever is boring) 

 

Zombie Cops are tough when in close combat (you GOT to kill it or die!)

I love bear!  Bear meat that is, delivered fresh!  If I fail to see them I could have a problem!

 

Edit: So I forgot the point...

TFP don't change anything drastically.  You have a real winner here!

[Mick]

9 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

Can I ask what do you guys craft usually? 

...the usual stuff that players craft while playing 7Days? Srsly, lol!

 

[MisutoM]

1 hour ago, Khalagar said:

 

This is shocking to me, I have been finding DOZENS of crucibles for sale at traders, and found the schematic at least once or twice too. I did max out the trader perk, but just driving around to 2-3 traders I will find multiple crucibles.

 

Cigar was the one I absolutely could not find, so I checked all my local traders and found like 5 crucibles lol. I think a crucible costs me like 12k before cigar and sugar butts + the other discount stacking stuff, which isn't too bad. I though they buffed the spawn chance because they are so common for me. I  did have a run in A18 though where I was on like day 50 and still couldn't find the crucible or the schematic either one so I know your pain though

 

I've been told it's a better barter thing. I have 0 points in the skill and I had 9 traders unlocked that I checked every single reset. I think I had all 9 found by day 30 or so too. That's a looooooot of tier 0 basic secret stashes I saw and not a single crucible or schematic until day 57 (specifically the schematic for me). That is just variance though, anyone who plays long enough will likely end up in a world like this but also a world with a crucible on day 1-4 lol. Double gating exploding arrows still feels pretty rough though. Just a little bad luck leaves you with a non-functional book that should be a super exciting find for an archer build. 

[bachgaman]

14 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Omg guys. Stop wasting QA time like that. @bachgaman can't you see in the video that you have a series of thin plate blocks on the side of the wall including  that hole all the way down to the floor and therefore you can't place your blocks ? Destroying them will allow you to place them. It happens, lol.

Where? I can't see OMG

 

[Khalagar]

So far, the only major bug I'm running into in A20 besides performance is the junk turret / sledge falling through the floor A LOT. This is a pretty serious one because it's nearly gotten me killed multiple times now. It happens a lot in the T5 sky scrappers when there are a lot of zombies, and it's very very very very not cool when you are fighting 10 zombies and relying on your turrets only to watch them just no clip through the floor and fall 3-5 floors below, leaving you alone with the mob

 

I tried only placing my turrets on frames I'd placed myself before the fighting starts but it doesn't matter, they will still fall through those too and fall to the floors below

[spacepiggio]

I've rejoined the game from dieing or quitting & having to start Basic Survival all over again even after starting a base & forge/claim block down & deactivated. Did a wipe & reinstall, but it did id again & I dont know the new patch installed so I needed a wipe anyway, got the runs. I'm ready to pull up Steam & I turned off auto update so I know when to wipe again. I'll edit this if it happens again, I also noticed the door/trap door graphics change to a floor tile after spawning on a bed. I spawned after dieing & rejoining the game & once the door changed & then the trap, green squared marble tile floor. I spawned & thought wheres my door?

[Jay_ombie]

Probably already been requested but we need (unless I missed something) to be able to mark and place POI markers on a map and our multiplayer friends can see them as well.

 

Same goes for quests, let us decide or not our friend can also see our quest markers to please.

[Blake_]

5 hours ago, bachgaman said:

Where? I can't see OMG

 

OMG, thanks! I apologize for the assumption . I found the issue and reported it in detail, For reference, this is how you shall report in the future if you want something solved, not here in the Dev Diary:

 

 

[Beelzebubs Ghost]

I second the other poster on the size of the lumberjack. He looks like a midget 🙄

[bachgaman]

50 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

OMG, thanks! I apologize for the assumption . I found the issue and reported it in detail, For reference, this is how you shall report in the future if you want something solved, not here in the Dev Diary:

 

 

OMG would like to see less hate for finding a bug

 

and you must apologize not for what you assumed, but for accusing me of blindness assuming I'm too dumb to see any little blocks in the air and supposedly QA shouldn't waste time on me because of this

[Blake_]

22 minutes ago, Beelzebubs Ghost said:

I second the other poster on the size of the lumberjack. He looks like a midget 🙄

The beenie is hilarious though. He looks like a Gnome from hell.

8 minutes ago, bachgaman said:

OMG would like to see less hate for finding a bug

 

and you must apologize not for what you assumed, but for accusing me of blindness assuming I'm too dumb not to see any blocks in the air and supposedly QA shouldn't waste time on me because of this

I didn't call you names. It IS a waste of time to post here, and I also do it, lol. Lazman and faatal might see it, but it better be well reported in the official thread or else it might get buried forever. 

Hugs !

[bachgaman]

2 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

I didn't call you names. It IS a waste of time to post here, and I also do it, lol. Lazman and faatal might see it, but it better be well reported in the official thread or else it might get buried forever. 

Hugs !

Don't jump off, I see what you mean here. And others too. 

And, OMG, I'm sure you went to check it only to prove that I was wrong

 

It happens, lol.

[Jay_ombie]

Be nice if the in game clocks worked & represented the outside world time, I go into the game and end up loosing so many hours.. ><

 

 

[doughphunghus]

Summary: a20 is *really* great. Thanks for all the hard work!

Details: I'm not going to go into *all* the things I'm liking about it (a lot has been mentioned in the thread already) but I will say that normally I play with lots of mods and I'm playing with 0 mods (and just some small tweaks to the vanilla settings to increase the difficulty a little. Zed count left default!) and I'm enjoying it immensely.  Other than the "look and feel" of the environment (loving the burnt forest ambiance), one of the things that "pops" the most to me is how the zeds movements have changed (and not just the crawling).  I'm having to re-learn quite a bit of the muscle and "timing" memory I relied on in previous alphas.

 

And finally: Feral sense (as an option) is now my favorite thing. I'm getting constantly mini swarmed from outsiders when trying to do "normal stuff" and it just works really well. I was worried about the pipe weapons being "an issue" (balance, etc) but they are not. 

 

And, as one must always put the small request for improvement after the praise: I will forever pine for the blunderbuss and its quirkiness so if its not coming back in any usable form I propose making a new picture/art on the wall of someone (a zed before being a zed, or the duke,  or just anonymous person) holding it and standing over a bear or something like some "days of old" picture

[meilodasreh]

On 12/8/2021 at 5:39 PM, madmole said:

Nope, they completely bypass the natural progression that gives the player a feeling of accomplishment. WIthout needs and desires, the game is boring so I had them make them ALL broken. Now when you finally craft one or buy one you feel extremely rewarded instead of meh I'm already at late game tech because I found a trader with all the workstations intact on day 1. @%$# that.

So all the fancy stuff they place within their stronghold is just garbage, meant to impress the newly arrived survivor? That would fit for Rekt, but for lovely Jen? 

😀

What do you think about this:

Traders have functioning workstations, but you're not allowed to use these workstations at first.

Maybe the workstations that are functioning are in a locked room, and you get access when you have done lets say 10 or 20 quests for that trader (number could vary with difficulty level). Or they unlock with tier 3/4/5 quest level.

I think this would fit more into the "story" that you have to gain some level of "trust" or whatever, you know they wouldn't allow any new stranger, but later...

 

...except for Rekt, he should permanently deny them to you 😆

 

So this would bypass the bypass progression problem, and even add to "logic" (I mean traders are the most developed guys in the game with some kind of life standard. Them not having workstations running seems weird to me.

[Jost Amman]

8 hours ago, Mick said:

...the usual stuff that players craft while playing 7Days? Srsly, lol!

Duh! I found a smart-ass here I see... 

What I mean is... what do you actually craft based on your skill choices, the parts you find and the materials you loot.

 

We've been talking about crafting being nerfed, because most people can't find enough parts early enough to craft something that makes crafting worth it vs. just looting or buying better gear from the trader. By your answer, so you apparently never had this problem?

[meilodasreh]

On 12/10/2021 at 11:51 PM, bachgaman said:

It would be cool to be able to craft "poor ammo" (with a chance of misfiring and lower damage)

I had a similar thought because some of the guys (including me) had stated that especially the pipe machinegun is OP (easy and early to craft).

And with ammo being so regularly found, that thing is a just too reliable DPS monster.

 

To counter that:

What about all pipe guns have a chance to jam and you have to reload to make em work again.

Chance to jam could be for example 10% for low/grey quality, decreasing to 2% for high/purple quality.

If you ask me they even should have a very low chance (0.5%?) to explode and brake completely (maybe also hurting you) when fired.

 

So there would be a constant need/interest to develop further/buy a better one/invest points or whatever.

 

And - well I know the word realism isn't the thing to bring up, but - guns made of just pipe pieces, glue and wood shouldn't be reliable at all.

...says the guy who is able to construct those, but can't figure out how to make coffee and bacon&eggs without a recipe 😂

 

edit:

I have played a game (can't remeber which) where you had you gun heating up when fired (displayed by a bar filling), and when it overheated it was very likely to jam and had to cool down again before use.

That would also do the trick. The poorer the quality, the faster it heats...

[Callum123456789]

hey guys all I have to say is that this is by far one of the most fun alphas of this game I have ever played what an outstanding job you guys have done @the fun pimps

 

also another thing I wanted to say is that your previous record players was around 45k which its now 57k and the alpha has only just begun this is great to see 

[bachgaman]

55 minutes ago, meilodasreh said:

I had a similar thought because some of the guys (including me) had stated that especially the pipe machinegun is OP (easy and early to craft).

And with ammo being so regularly found, that thing is a just too reliable DPS monster.

 

To counter that:

What about all pipe guns have a chance to jam and you have to reload to make em work again.

Chance to jam could be for example 10% for low/grey quality, decreasing to 2% for high/purple quality.

If you ask me they even should have a very low chance (0.5%?) to explode and brake completely (maybe also hurting you) when fired.

 

So there would be a constant need/interest to develop further/buy a better one/invest points or whatever.

 

And - well I know the word realism isn't the thing to bring up, but - guns made of just pipe pieces, glue and wood shouldn't be reliable at all.

...says the guy who is able to construct those, but can't figure out how to make coffee and bacon&eggs without a recipe 😂

 

 

Not only would it be fun, but it would also be beneficial for balance. I'm afraid it will be the same story as with stone tools, which are much better than iron and low steel ones due to illiterate balancing of characteristics. The funny thing is that most often you do not have time to use high level steel tools due to the appearance of motorized ones. In the end, my standard game is Stone Tools -> Gas Powered Tools. Perfect balance.

 

I'm playing without trader right now and I feel how valuable ammo is. I think they balance game for playing without trader 😁 Although all they need to do is nerf the awards and assortment. It's funny that I buy a thousand concrete in the first week and build a concrete base without even having a workbench (in game with trader).

[MechanicalLens]

This negative 7D2D review basically sums up the majority of negative reviews I'm seeing these days, excluding the other types of stupid ones like, "My Internet went down, downvoted."

 

(I post this in congratulations to TFP. This game was going places before, but now it's shot past the moon.  The positive reviews are coming in thick and fast. Take reviews like this one no notice.)

 

"I love this game and its concept - basically Minecraft with zombie survival - and periodically come back to it to see how it's going and what's changed. However, I cannot in all good faith give it a positive review for a very simple reason: it's still in Alpha.

This wouldn't be a problem normally; games get prereleased all the time to fund their development. But 7 Days to Die has been in development for so long it's starting to give Duke Nukem a run for its money.

I purchased this game in Alpha (pre-Alpha maybe, I honestly don't remember) back in 2014; I was single and living with my parents. I now have a wife and a small child, have a stable job and pay taxes. If a lonely, nerdy geek with a passion for Lego can do that in seven years, but a team of developers can't bring out a finished product, that's a very bad sign for said product.

I have my doubts that this game will ever be finished one day. I'd love to be proved wrong; as I said before I love the game as a whole. The fact, however, that I paid for an unfinished product with the unspoken accord that it would be finished within a "reasonable" timeframe, annoys me no end, and is synonymous of a mentality that stinks of a distinct lack of respect to the players of the game.

 

 

[Doomofman]

I don't get that attitude of hating on it because it's still in alpha.

 

Game is fun, game is good.

 

Hell, each Alpha they put out feels like getting a new game all over again.

[MechanicalLens]

27 minutes ago, Doomofman said:

I don't get that attitude of hating on it because it's still in alpha.

 

Game is fun, game is good.

 

Hell, each Alpha they put out feels like getting a new game all over again.

 

Eh, it's just a blind mob mentality thing, nothing more. Ask them why they don't like alpha games, and they'll say, "because". Ask them why they think all early access titles are scams, and they'll say, "because". Ask them why a simple label change will satisfy them, and they'll say, "because". Pay them little mind.

 

The fact these are the majority of the negative reviews I'm seeing is a good thing. Outside of crashes and optimization for the game, I'm seeing fewer and fewer legitimate points of negative/constructive criticism as time goes on.

[faatal]

13 hours ago, Sal said:

4) Sticking to changes to zombies. I like how all zombies can now randomly crawl but the transition animations are not very smooth. It's almost as if they teleport from standing to crawling. But I really like the idea of it though since it adds another element of surprise to the game. The mechanics just needs some fine-tuning is all.

We don't have a hunched over anim, so I made do with what we have. It needs more work.