Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[George Gordon]

Surely, when designing the "Loot to Learn" system, TFP realizes the current state of the abysmally bad loot system where finding Books, and especially certain books, is a task of impossibility?

 

If a bookstore or a book retailer or storage only holds 5 useable book stands and the remainder, over 90% of them, rest are empty shelves, and most of the useable book shelves spawn only paper, then we have a severe problem with gimping the loot system too much to make the early game longer, and I think this is what is being sold here as revolutionary changes.

 

All the changes done so far have been attempts to stretch the games "interesting period", that comes before most players fall into a bottomless pit of boredom, because they have seen everything, and the game wears off.

 

I find it highly concerning that we are now butchering the skill system and most importantly, the crafting, even further, in a futile attempt to make the game "longer". It is nothing but artificial content creation, and nothing substantial.

 

It is comparable to making the player require to read a book to just be able to use any item or weapon they find, so the players are forced to fist-fight for nearly 300 hours of play time, unable to use anything else.

 

I am highly concerned by this system due to the sole fact that finding loot is terrible, and loot tables as well as chances are set up in such a way that one could think that the Developers don't even want you to play the game, as there has been people in early versions, when books were first introduced, who never found a book to make a Forge, in their long gaming sessions, some people never found books for vehicle or weapon parts.

 

RNG and chance based loot in all honor, but it is unenjoyable to be subjected to a system where you are entirely dependant on a sub-par and terrible overall chance that you cannot do anything about unless you Mod the game.

 

In contrast, this would remind one of classical RPG's like Diablo or Path of Exile, where the player makes a certain Build - only that the build requires a whole array of specific items, or it will not work. Such builds are always for the "rich" players, since you buy these items in those games. If those games had no buy system and thus you were up to the requirement to find these items:

 

We would have a 7DTD situation, abysmal drop chances make you unable to play your build entirely, thus hindering from doing what you want to do. Only that in 7DTD, you have no alternative than to learn how to make a forge, workbench, cementmixer, weapons, etc. - whereas in the RPG's, you can switch your build or play a different character or type of skills. But as I said numerous times now, in 7DTD your survival and most importantly, your fun that you have while playing, depend on finding books.

 

I personally think it is a step in the wrong direction if the system takes a shape of finding books, while under the influence of a hellishly bad loot system, but I am always open for surprises and look forward to the new Alpha release with excitement nonetheless.

 

And if everything fails, modding is an option, but a sad option, as it is a sign of the desperation of the players trying to make the game the way it should be.

[xiiMaRcLeoN]

Looking foward to the learn by looting system.

[Telly G]

I really hope that the armor system has 6 or 7 slots cos 4 is just too low compared to the 12 now.

 

Something like head, shoulders, arms, legs, feet, and chest (maybe underarmor)

 

It would also fit nicer with the perk magazines being around that much for full sets. 

[sillls]

I wonder when we will be able to see the new boat and water physics?

[vergilsparda]

Can't remember if this was talked about before, but will we see any improvement to the weapon/tool/armor tiers in A21? Or is the idea of say, a tier 6 primitive weapon being better than a tier 1 iron weapon intentional? I know a lot of people still talk about how it shouldn't be that way, and I'm in agreement, but I can't remember if it was talked about.

 

And if it isn't intentional, and it's not in a21, are there any plans at all in the future to change the way tiered items work?

[KhaineGB]

I believe that was intentional as TFP didn't like the fact that a T6 tool was useless as soon as you found a T1 of the next tier up.

Should be better than a 4 or 5 though IMO.

[saltychipmunk]

6 hours ago, vergilsparda said:

Can't remember if this was talked about before, but will we see any improvement to the weapon/tool/armor tiers in A21? Or is the idea of say, a tier 6 primitive weapon being better than a tier 1 iron weapon intentional? I know a lot of people still talk about how it shouldn't be that way, and I'm in agreement, but I can't remember if it was talked about.

 

And if it isn't intentional, and it's not in a21, are there any plans at all in the future to change the way tiered items work?

 

5 hours ago, KhaineGB said:

I believe that was intentional as TFP didn't like the fact that a T6 tool was useless as soon as you found a T1 of the next tier up.

Should be better than a 4 or 5 though IMO.

 

Yeah , I think this really only an issue because mass producing tier 5 items is too easy to achieve in the current build in the game.  This is why I like how darkness falls did things by tying crafting quality more to class choice and overall player level rather than a persons ability to brute force down a specific stat type to rapidly create  tier 5  items of a given type.

[Doomofman]

7 hours ago, KhaineGB said:

I believe that was intentional as TFP didn't like the fact that a T6 tool was useless as soon as you found a T1 of the next tier up.

Should be better than a 4 or 5 though IMO.

 

Pretty sure Joel said earlier in this thread that this is no longer a thing with the new system, that T1 Iron Axe will always be a bit better or close to equal (before mods) to a T6 Stone Axe

[Ryrii]

I hope that the new vehicle models also mean that we will get a new vehicle model for the player made 4x4. In my opinion it is one of the player made vehicles that could use a touch up to look a bit more "real", perhaps it would look a bit more like a modified ambient 4x4 as opposed to something entirely different. 

[BenZ0]

On 6/21/2022 at 7:44 PM, faatal said:

Yes, that is the plan, but it may be a while before we do it.

I thought it would be cool to have a driveable police car, but it is not setup for that.

The blimp was a joke vehicle I did years ago.

 

Don't know what art is planning for crops.

Since the Iron armor got revealed I wonder what happened to the armor system now? Are we going to have atleast for alpha 21 still the same armor system with Cloth, Leather, Iron, Steel and Military? Will it be moved to alpha 22 or did the idea of new armor sets with bonuses got scrapped?

[FerMeister]

What I hope for this potentially amazing game is that the devs put good systems in place and then optimize it, go gold, and leave the addition of content for after release.

[Maharin]

20 hours ago, FerMeister said:

What I hope for this potentially amazing game is that the devs put good systems in place and then optimize it, go gold, and leave the addition of content for after release.

 

Not exactly the way they work, though.  They will build good to great systems, much better than "good enough", and leave lots of room for us to build on top of them if we choose.  They will also build new content over time, I would guess official an unofficial,  as well as tweak things that have minimal chance to break the ecosystem to improve overall game play.  In other words, they will not likely ever completely abandon 7DTD.

 

Someone will likely build an overhaul mod making 7DTD into Sesame Street, for example.  Today's horde brought to you by the number 7 and the letters F and U.  Well, it could happen.

[Roland]

 

Headshot!

[Laz Man]

The sky during bloodmoons would look like this...😅

 

 

[Jost Amman]

1 hour ago, Laz Man said:

The sky during bloodmoons would look like this...😅

 

 

Is that @Maharin turned vampire?? 

[schwanz9000]

Looks like The Count is still playing A10...

[Maharin]

4 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

Is that @Maharin turned vampire?? 

 

Baby Animal vampire zombie Yoda, or Bavzy for short, at your service.

[Matt115]

12 hours ago, Maharin said:

ild an overhaul mod making 7DTD into Sesame Street, for example.  Today's horde brought to you by the number 7 and the letters F and U.  Well, it could happen.

If this someday became true i will make Zeit maschine  ( german language is perfect if you want so say something in more sinister style) and i will convince Madmole to create some funny sandbox game. Why? because people will make deppresing and hard mods ! 

 

I wish Toplitz and TFP together made a 7DTD dynasty XD this would be ultimate game 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Laz Man said:

The sky during bloodmoons would look like this...😅

 

 

XD

 

7 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

Is that @Maharin turned vampire?? 

Hm.... not again... but don't worry i'm expert about  that : vampires , zombie , aliens, mother in law,  annoyng kids,  barbers etc. i can deal with everything except tax office. i'm not crazy enough for that one

[Adam the Waster]

were the helmet tho

and it reminds me of colonial marines from aliens

[Matt115]

2 hours ago, Adam the Waster said:

were the helmet tho

and it reminds me of colonial marines from aliens

Yeah me too.  But it's looks good

[manzocco01]

Something really good to see would be new player models (because rn your teammates looks like wood), more interaction with the world and better animations, just these things would make this game way better

[Jost Amman]

3 hours ago, manzocco01 said:

more interaction with the world

What do you mean exactly by that? 

[Shyara]

It all looks great and i can't wait (cept that Iron armor, its hideous, sorry) but when might ( and if this has been answered before i apologize), when might vehicles do actual damage to zombies? If i make a speed bump out of a zombie, it should die or at the very least, be grievously wounded  

[AaronG85]

3 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

What do you mean exactly by that? 

 

Personally I would love when we open doors our hands actually open the door or ability to kick open a door with animations, emotes for PvP, more hand to hand combat animations.

[thecapotek]

The game is good and all, I keep playing it occasionally. What actually bothers me is that there's still no actual point to it.
There's no consolidated storyline or quest system that leads up to something.
I mean, I gather resources, weapons, food and all that, in order to achieve what, exactly?
I'm not really up to speed with game updates and betas but there doesn't seem to be any actual work towards this direction. Not to mention the fact the game hasn't left Alpha stage despite being worked on for years and years. I'm not even trying to be hostile or anything, I enjoy the game as I said, I just think that sooner or later a game has to have an actual goal for the player to achieve.