Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Jost Amman]

I noticed it's impossible to climb up on a terrain shore if you're in water and the border is vertical, even if the water is at the same level.

I think there should be a way to land if you're in the water at roughly the same level, instead .of having to dig one block while swimming.

 

---WATER---###SHORE###

[HB_H4wk]

In RWG I was hoping for a map with flat sections to place some custom city streets/prefabs, but it seems about useless even with the settings to plains 75% and 0% for hills and the remaining percentage for Mountains. Any way to edit the terrain map in RWG?

**any Help would be appreaciated.

[Jost Amman]

2 hours ago, HB_H4wk said:

In RWG I was hoping for a map with flat sections to place some custom city streets/prefabs, but it seems about useless even with the settings to plains 75% and 0% for hills and the remaining percentage for Mountains. Any way to edit the terrain map in RWG?

**any Help would be appreaciated.

I don't know if this video is still relevant (I think so), but you can use the information provided here as a starting point, I think:

Spoiler

 

 

[cammel]

7 hours ago, HB_H4wk said:

In RWG I was hoping for a map with flat sections to place some custom city streets/prefabs, but it seems about useless even with the settings to plains 75% and 0% for hills and the remaining percentage for Mountains. Any way to edit the terrain map in RWG?

**any Help would be appreaciated.

For flatter maps change hills to 75-100% and plains to 0%, It is backwards.

[Morloc]

2 hours ago, cammel said:

For flatter maps change hills to 75-100% and plains to 0%, It is backwards.

 

I haven't verified this, but nice catch sir!

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

[métaphore]

Quote

Sure, a game where you can just enable Creative Menu and give yourself Dukes.....they are going to offer you in-game items for a price.....

 

I wish I'm wrong.

By the way, I'm not paranoid as I'm absolutely positive they are out to get me.

 

We don't know yet how the creative menu will look like when the game will be completed. A good benchmark would be to look at the next console release and we'll see what direction they are taking. In fact, they probably could restrict whatever they want or simply disable such feature in the basic game. I'm just skeptical about the development path since more than a couple of Alphas: the game is made more and more "Trader-centric" with each new release and pretty much less "Sandbox".

 

Beside, what about their business plan?

They have 60+ people now on the payroll on top of subcontractors and expert costs while the game is mostly selling for a few bucks only. They probably have had to sell yearly several millions of copies only to get TFP running once distribution cost is substracted.

 

Game features are subject to change but what matter most is what was changed in the late years in order to predict where they are heading next.

[Arma Rex]

1 hour ago, métaphore said:

 

I wish I'm wrong.

By the way, I'm not paranoid as I'm absolutely positive they are out to get me.

 

We don't know yet how the creative menu will look like when the game will be completed. A good benchmark would be to look at the next console release and we'll see what direction they are taking. In fact, they probably could restrict whatever they want or simply disable such feature in the basic game. I'm just skeptical about the development path since more than a couple of Alphas: the game is made more and more "Trader-centric" with each new release and pretty much less "Sandbox".

 

Beside, what about their business plan?

They have 60+ people now on the payroll on top of subcontractors and expert costs while the game is mostly selling for a few bucks only. They probably have had to sell yearly several millions of copies only to get TFP running once distribution cost is substracted.

 

Game features are subject to change but what matter most is what was changed in the late years in order to predict where they are heading next.

Take your thorazine.

[Jost Amman]

1 hour ago, métaphore said:

By the way, I'm not paranoid as I'm absolutely positive they are out to get me.

Spoiler

 

 

[Laz Man]

@Matt115

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VxdDFVkpoYPWi7KwpVFnr3zNWT7enPsD37RRpQ3mmojkNeBbacRijgqacLgerdXSl&id=100064605135636&mibextid=Nif5oz

[mstdv inc]

1 hour ago, métaphore said:

 

I wish I'm wrong.

By the way, I'm not paranoid as I'm absolutely positive they are out to get me.

 

We don't know yet how the creative menu will look like when the game will be completed. A good benchmark would be to look at the next console release and we'll see what direction they are taking. In fact, they probably could restrict whatever they want or simply disable such feature in the basic game. I'm just skeptical about the development path since more than a couple of Alphas: the game is made more and more "Trader-centric" with each new release and pretty much less "Sandbox".

 

Beside, what about their business plan?

They have 60+ people now on the payroll on top of subcontractors and expert costs while the game is mostly selling for a few bucks only. They probably have had to sell yearly several millions of copies only to get TFP running once distribution cost is substracted.

 

Game features are subject to change but what matter most is what was changed in the late years in order to predict where they are heading next.

You are confusing TFP with large studios whose sole purpose is to make money.
TFP is an indie studio that grew out of the hobbies of several people, and these people love their game.
Over the years, they have earned the trust and respect of the community. 
Participation after that in the release of microtransactions or any pay to win function will be equivalent to a shot in both legs from two shotguns.
They can start releasing cosmetic add-ons for those who want to support them or use other ways to make money after the game is released.

[BFT2020]

1 hour ago, métaphore said:

I wish I'm wrong.

By the way, I'm not paranoid as I'm absolutely positive they are out to get me.

 

Oh the irony in this statement....  🤨

 

Quote

We don't know yet how the creative menu will look like when the game will be completed. A good benchmark would be to look at the next console release and we'll see what direction they are taking. In fact, they probably could restrict whatever they want or simply disable such feature in the basic game. I'm just skeptical about the development path since more than a couple of Alphas: the game is made more and more "Trader-centric" with each new release and pretty much less "Sandbox".

 

and yet, in 2 minutes I can create a modlet that gives you 10 full stacks of dukes at startup, and an item that gives you enough XP to max out your levels.  Change what the traders give you, or just give you OP gear at the start.

 

Again, mods can change it from Trader-centric to sandbox or whatever you want it to be, and the game will be released with Steam workshop support.

 

But it doesn't matter what anyone will say as you are absolutely positive that they are out to get you.  Did you give one of the owners a swirlie when they were in middle school or something

[NekoPawtato]

38 minutes ago, Laz Man said:

@Matt115

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VxdDFVkpoYPWi7KwpVFnr3zNWT7enPsD37RRpQ3mmojkNeBbacRijgqacLgerdXSl&id=100064605135636&mibextid=Nif5oz

But... there's no skeletons!😆

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, NekoPawtato said:

But... there's no skeletons!😆

I want to see the skeletons from old movies that were made to dance using strings.  That would be fun. 😁

[Mister Forgash]

This first look on alternate zombie colorations is something I've been hopeful for for a long time! I'm sure they want the emphisis that all this is experimental, but oh man would I be stoked if it's looking ready by 22.X
One of my bigger criticisms has been how same-y it gets when you get a room full of [In particular]business men, or some of the other more common Z's, so I think this'll be a pleasant improvement to PoIs, wandering hordes, and Bloodmoons. TY Fun Pimps, I love you and I'm sorry for everything I ever complained about!

-Until I have something new to complain about! 😁

[mstdv inc]

@Laz Man @faatal

This is the second time I have encountered this problem.
There is a hidden setting in the world for the maximum number of objects that are simultaneously placed in the world.
During a level 6 (5) task, if a screamer appears at the moment when you are approaching a large area of the appearance of entities, it will spawn two or three more screamers, and those, in turn, will spawn two dozen zombies, those entities that were supposed to appear in the task will be destroyed. will not be displayed from the moment they reach the maximum allowed limit.
I came across this now while going through the Invasion quest at Dr. Karen Hihashi's residence.
Just when I was in the room with the last loot, 4 screamers and 2 dozen zombies appeared. I killed them and took the last loot, but the task didn't count.
I went through the whole route again from start to finish, but nothing has changed. And only at the moment when I entered the zone with the activation button to open the last room that I had already activated earlier, the necessary zombies appeared.

Perhaps it is worth disabling the "area heat" for the duration of all quests of the 5th and 6th levels for the corresponding POI? Or stop spawning screamers for the same period.

Edited July 25, 2023 by mstdv inc (see edit history)

[métaphore]

2 hours ago, mstdv inc said:

You are confusing TFP with large studios whose sole purpose is to make money.
TFP is an indie studio that grew out of the hobbies of several people, and these people love their game.
Over the years, they have earned the trust and respect of the community. 
Participation after that in the release of microtransactions or any pay to win function will be equivalent to a shot in both legs from two shotguns.
They can start releasing cosmetic add-ons for those who want to support them or use other ways to make money after the game is released.

Well, I'm not confused at all.

 

TFP certainly need to make money out of the game, like any other game studio, from the smallest to the largest or they will go belly up. Otherwise, they would be some kind of charity funded by unknown donnors, which they aren't ... or they would be spending taxpayers money granted by zombie-slayers officials but, last time I've checked, they were not listed as public contractors.

 

Take me as an example: I've bought the game a few years ago and paid less than $10 for two copies, including the one actually used by my wife. Later, I've build a $5.000+ home dedicated server for our co-op campaign that we played back in Alpha 16 to 20. We spent offline several thousands of hours on our LAN (but I've still managed - I don't know exactly how - to log over 1.000 hrs on my 7D2D Steam account).

 

So, in fine and mostly to play this game, I've spent about a thousand times more for my computers (server and laptops), than what I did spend for the game, including what didn't go directly into TFP pocket but was paid instead to Valve and Unity Engine.

 

And since the Alpha phase is still running after 10 years, no matter how many millions of copies they have sold up to his point, all this money would be now largely behind them considering the actual cost of development in order to finish the game - with an end line at least several years from now - and for releasing a new console version. So I'm pretty sure that TFP are backed by investors.

 

And, as you know, those Investors will need their money back at some point.

But, are you, like me and almost everyone posting here, going to pay again for this game when the day of its full release at full price will come?

I'm pretty sure you won't.

[HB_H4wk]

Zombie Clowns please.

[métaphore]

3 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

 

Oh the irony in this statement....  🤨

[...]

But it doesn't matter what anyone will say as you are absolutely positive that they are out to get you.  Did you give one of the owners a swirlie when they were in middle school or something

 

I have overestimated you as, for one single moment, I thought you had catched the irony in this statement.

[Riamus]

2 hours ago, mstdv inc said:

@Laz Man @faatal

This is the second time I have encountered this problem.
There is a hidden setting in the world for the maximum number of objects that are simultaneously placed in the world.
During a level 6 (5) task, if a screamer appears at the moment when you are approaching a large area of the appearance of entities, it will spawn two or three more screamers, and those, in turn, will spawn two dozen zombies, those entities that were supposed to appear in the task will be destroyed. will not be displayed from the moment they reach the maximum allowed limit.
I came across this now while going through the Invasion quest at Dr. Karen Hihashi's residence.
Just when I was in the room with the last loot, 4 screamers and 2 dozen zombies appeared. I killed them and took the last loot, but the task didn't count.
I went through the whole route again from start to finish, but nothing has changed. And only at the moment when I entered the zone with the activation button to open the last room that I had already activated earlier, the necessary zombies appeared.

Perhaps it is worth disabling the "area heat" for the duration of all quests of the 5th and 6th levels for the corresponding POI? Or stop spawning screamers for the same period.

Removing screamers while doing tier 5 and 6 quests wouldn't be a good option.  It is far better to just destroy any non-quest zombie (s) when you need to spawn a quest zombie if the cap is reached.  And they may be doing that.

 

What you are experiencing may be something else.  Fun what I've seen posted here by others, if a quest zombie wanders off, it will go back into a sleeper volume but that may be a different one than it was originally in.  So it may end up in the loot room that you already cleared.

 

I know I've seen a zombie end up spawning where they don't normally spawn after wandering off before after I completed everything and had to follow a yellow dot to find the last zombie.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[mstdv inc]

1 hour ago, métaphore said:

Well, I'm not confused at all.

 

TFP certainly need to make money out of the game, like any other game studio, from the smallest to the largest or they will go belly up. Otherwise, they would be some kind of charity funded by unknown donnors, which they aren't ... or they would be spending taxpayers money granted by zombie-slayers officials but, last time I've checked, they were not listed as public contractors.

 

Take me as an example: I've bought the game a few years ago and paid less than $10 for two copies, including the one actually used by my wife. Later, I've build a $5.000+ home dedicated server for our co-op campaign that we played back in Alpha 16 to 20. We spent offline several thousands of hours on our LAN (but I've still managed - I don't know exactly how - to log over 1.000 hrs on my 7D2D Steam account).

 

So, in fine and mostly to play this game, I've spent about a thousand times more for my computers (server and laptops), than what I did spend for the game, including what didn't go directly into TFP pocket but was paid instead to Valve and Unity Engine.

 

And since the Alpha phase is still running after 10 years, no matter how many millions of copies they have sold up to his point, all this money would be now largely behind them considering the actual cost of development in order to finish the game - with an end line at least several years from now - and for releasing a new console version. So I'm pretty sure that TFP are backed by investors.

 

And, as you know, those Investors will need their money back at some point.

But, are you, like me and almost everyone posting here, going to pay again for this game when the day of its full release at full price will come?

I'm pretty sure you won't.

The money you spent on the server would not have gone to TFP anyway, because this is a third-party activity.

I don't count TFP money and I don't know if they have investors. 
I am fulfilling my duties as a player. I bought the game, I'm playing, I've been helping beginners with tips for the last 4 years, I report bugs found.

Of course, after the release, the price of new copies should increase, but I don't remember a single game that would have gone out of early access and would require a repeat purchase at full cost. (Actually I may be wrong because I haven't played many games in early access)

People who received the game at the development stage bought it cheaper, but instead suffered from bugs, mechanics were tested on them, they actually act as testers. Therefore, I am 99.9% sure that those who bought the game in early access will not be required to pay the full cost after the release.
In any case, it was the early access players who helped bring the game popularity.
I agree that TFP should earn money and pay salaries, but not at the price of reselling the game at full value.

In any case, time will tell.

[Mister Forgash]

2 hours ago, métaphore said:

And, as you know, those Investors will need their money back at some point.

But, are you, like me and almost everyone posting here, going to pay again for this game when the day of its full release at full price will come?

It's not a secret any more that behind the scenes, TFP have another project they've been allocating resources towards.

Seeing as the Early Access model worked so well for 7D2D and they're so familiar with it, I imagine if TFP are hard up for money (and probably even if they aren't), they'll show us what else they've been up to when the time is right and give us a new reason to give them our money.

[mstdv inc]

37 minutes ago, Riamus said:

Removing screamers while doing tier 5 and 6 quests wouldn't be a good option. It is far better to just destroy any non-quest zombie (s) when you need to spawn a quest zombie if the cap is reached. And they may be doing that.

 

What you are experiencing may be something else. Fun what I've seen posted here by others, if a quest zombie wanders off, it will go back into a sleeper volume but that may be a different one than it was originally in. So it may end up in the loot room that you already cleared.

 

I know I've seen a zombie end up spawning where they don't normally spawn after wandering off before after I completed everything and had to follow a yellow dot to find the last zombie.

This time there was no yellow dot. 
The next quest completed by the invasion is the 6th level in a nursing home.
At some point, 3 screamers appeared, again two dozen zombies, and I was again looking for quest zombies that did not appear throughout the location.
In addition, they broke down the doors on the ground floor and thereby violated the "path of the developer" from the beginning to the final extraction. I passed this location for the first time and, to be honest, I was at a loss where to go, and wandered around the floors for about 10 minutes in an attempt to restore the path and find the very zombies that never appeared. 
I saw that the door to the kitchen was knocked out, but I didn't remember if I went in there, there were no zombies there, and as soon as I entered, they appeared.
I said I was facing this problem for the second time.
The first time was in A19, when I was cleaning Dishong Tower, a few screamers came, and then I had to fail the task because the zombies did not appear in the quest.
Another problem with screamers is that before they appear, I get 30-40 frames per second in level 5 (6) quests, and when they appear, they become 15-25.
Again, not shooting in quests of this level will not work, too many zombies come out at the same time.
I will be glad if they find a way out of this situation, but it seems to me the most logical thing to remove the screamers during the quests. This is a mini-horde, which complicates an already difficult quest and significantly reduces productivity.
Performance, because of which a new player can make a refand or write a bad review.

[Riamus]

9 minutes ago, mstdv inc said:

This time there was no yellow dot. 
The next quest completed by the invasion is the 6th level in a nursing home.
At some point, 3 screamers appeared, again two dozen zombies, and I was again looking for quest zombies that did not appear throughout the location.
In addition, they broke down the doors on the ground floor and thereby violated the "path of the developer" from the beginning to the final extraction. I passed this location for the first time and, to be honest, I was at a loss where to go, and wandered around the floors for about 10 minutes in an attempt to restore the path and find the very zombies that never appeared. 
I saw that the door to the kitchen was knocked out, but I didn't remember if I went in there, there were no zombies there, and as soon as I entered, they appeared.
I said I was facing this problem for the second time.
The first time was in A19, when I was cleaning Dishong Tower, a few screamers came, and then I had to fail the task because the zombies did not appear in the quest.
Another problem with screamers is that before they appear, I get 30-40 frames per second in level 5 (6) quests, and when they appear, they become 15-25.
Again, not shooting in quests of this level will not work, too many zombies come out at the same time.
I will be glad if they find a way out of this situation, but it seems to me the most logical thing to remove the screamers during the quests. This is a mini-horde, which complicates an already difficult quest and significantly reduces productivity.
Performance, because of which a new player can make a refand or write a bad review.

Many people wouldn't be happy to remove that difficulty.  I don't mind the screamers at all.  They add a challenge that is at least somewhat different each time you do the POI, which is nice.  I'm not sure why you have the FPS problem.  I haven't ever had issues with FPS due to numbers of zombies even on horde night with 5-6 people in the group and even when I only had 8GB RAM.  I know some people have issues with large numbers of zombies even when they have a better computer than I have but I have no idea why that is.  It's obviously related to specific hardware or software running on their computer (kill Chrome if it's running) but why is a big question.

 

As I mentioned, it's very easy to just despawn non-quest zombie(s) if you're at the cap so you can spawn in quest zombies.  That's the better option and I'd be surprised if they aren't doing that.  Considering we don't see tons of people complaining about not zombies not spawning, I think it has to be something other than this cap being a problem.  The people complaining right now are complaining specifically about zombies that aren't spawning because of the new triggers not working properly, which is entirely different and is a bug.

 

I haven't yet found the nursing home so I can't say how it's worked for me.  For some reason, I haven't found that one or either prison on my map, which is unfortunate because I want to see what everyone's complaining about.    For most POI, screamer hordes don't spawn soon enough to mess up your route if you're following the intended path.  You'll usually be off the first floor before they do and they'll usually take the path of least resistance, which usually means following your path unless your path requires jumping.  If you are going up and down, that might cause issues, though.

 

As I said, I've seen a wandering zombie despawn and end up as a yellow dot in a skyscraper POI (the one with the broken corner of the building at the top 4-5 floors, IIRC).  Is that Dishong?  I can't remember.  Might be Higashi.  Anyhow, when I followed the dot, I ended up getting the zombie spawning next to a large hole in the floor that you are intended to just walk around (not go up or down through) when following the intended path.  I've never seen zombies spawn there before.  And there's no way I could miss that spot as I walked around the hole originally.  There was just that one zombie that spawned there.  And I have no doubt that it was a zombie that wandered off.  Letting zombies fall off the sides of buildings or letting vultures fly away always results in these weird re-spawns after a time.  Note that that particular example happened in A20.6.

 

I'll also point out that when I try a new POI (mainly tier 4 or 5 since they are big), I can sometimes miss things or end up going the wrong way.  After I do the POI 2 or 3 times or so, I'll have figured out the correct way and where things are and then I don't ever have problems with missing zombies, no matter how many zombies are outside or downstairs due to screamers.  My only issue now are broken buttons preventing zombie spawns but those can be dealt with by breaking them while we wait for a fix for that bug.

2 hours ago, métaphore said:

Well, I'm not confused at all.

 

TFP certainly need to make money out of the game, like any other game studio, from the smallest to the largest or they will go belly up. Otherwise, they would be some kind of charity funded by unknown donnors, which they aren't ... or they would be spending taxpayers money granted by zombie-slayers officials but, last time I've checked, they were not listed as public contractors.

 

Take me as an example: I've bought the game a few years ago and paid less than $10 for two copies, including the one actually used by my wife. Later, I've build a $5.000+ home dedicated server for our co-op campaign that we played back in Alpha 16 to 20. We spent offline several thousands of hours on our LAN (but I've still managed - I don't know exactly how - to log over 1.000 hrs on my 7D2D Steam account).

 

So, in fine and mostly to play this game, I've spent about a thousand times more for my computers (server and laptops), than what I did spend for the game, including what didn't go directly into TFP pocket but was paid instead to Valve and Unity Engine.

 

And since the Alpha phase is still running after 10 years, no matter how many millions of copies they have sold up to his point, all this money would be now largely behind them considering the actual cost of development in order to finish the game - with an end line at least several years from now - and for releasing a new console version. So I'm pretty sure that TFP are backed by investors.

 

And, as you know, those Investors will need their money back at some point.

But, are you, like me and almost everyone posting here, going to pay again for this game when the day of its full release at full price will come?

I'm pretty sure you won't.

You do not have to buy the game again after Early Access.  I'm not even sure that Steam allows a developer to charge once in Early Access and again after gold, though they might.  But it definitely isn't something that will happen here.

 

 

What you spend for equipment is entirely your choice and has nothing whatsoever to do with TFP.  Also keep in mind that they have sold millions of copies (I think someone said 15 million).  That's not a small amount of money.  I doubt they are having any financial problems, though that's an assumption just like yours is.  It really isn't anyone's business.  They seem to be doing just fine, though.  If they were strapped for money, they'd probably release as soon as possible and leave things like bandits for after gold so they can get that influx of money from going gold.  They don't seem to be in a rush and that suggests they are doing just fine.

[mstdv inc]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

Many people wouldn't be happy to remove that difficulty. I don't mind the screamers at all. They add a challenge that is at least somewhat different each time you do the POI, which is nice. I'm not sure why you have the FPS problem. I haven't ever had issues with FPS due to numbers of zombies even on horde night with 5-6 people in the group and even when I only had 8GB RAM. I know some people have issues with large numbers of zombies even when they have a better computer than I have but I have no idea why that is. It's obviously related to specific hardware or software running on their computer (kill Chrome if it's running) but why is a big question.

 

As I mentioned, it's very easy to just despawn non-quest zombie(s) if you're at the cap so you can spawn in quest zombies. That's the better option and I'd be surprised if they aren't doing that. Considering we don't see tons of people complaining about not zombies not spawning, I think it has to be something other than this cap being a problem. The people complaining right now are complaining specifically about zombies that aren't spawning because of the new triggers not working properly, which is entirely different and is a bug.

 

I haven't yet found the nursing home so I can't say how it's worked for me. For some reason, I haven't found that one or either prison on my map, which is unfortunate because I want to see what everyone's complaining about. For most POI, screamer hordes don't spawn soon enough to mess up your route if you're following the intended path. You'll usually be off the first floor before they do and they'll usually take the path of least resistance, which usually means following your path unless your path requires jumping. If you are going up and down, that might cause issues, though.

 

As I said, I've seen a wandering zombie despawn and end up as a yellow dot in a skyscraper POI (the one with the broken corner of the building at the top 4-5 floors, IIRC). Is that Dishong? I can't remember. Might be Higashi. Anyhow, when I followed the dot, I ended up getting the zombie spawning next to a large hole in the floor that you are intended to just walk around (not go up or down through) when following the intended path. I've never seen zombies spawn there before. And there's no way I could miss that spot as I walked around the hole originally. There was just that one zombie that spawned there. And I have no doubt that it was a zombie that wandered off. Letting zombies fall off the sides of buildings or letting vultures fly away always results in these weird re-spawns after a time. Note that that particular example happened in A20.6.

 

I'll also point out that when I try a new POI (mainly tier 4 or 5 since they are big), I can sometimes miss things or end up going the wrong way. After I do the POI 2 or 3 times or so, I'll have figured out the correct way and where things are and then I don't ever have problems with missing zombies, no matter how many zombies are outside or downstairs due to screamers. My only issue now are broken buttons preventing zombie spawns but those can be dealt with by breaking them while we wait for a fix for that bug.

You do not have to buy the game again after Early Access. I'm not even sure that Steam allows a developer to charge once in Early Access and again after gold, though they might. But it definitely isn't something that will happen here.

 

 

What you spend for equipment is entirely your choice and has nothing whatsoever to do with TFP. Also keep in mind that they have sold millions of copies (I think someone said 15 million). That's not a small amount of money. I doubt they are having any financial problems, though that's an assumption just like yours is. It really isn't anyone's business. They seem to be doing just fine, though. If they were strapped for money, they'd probably release as soon as possible and leave things like bandits for after gold so they can get that influx of money from going gold. They don't seem to be in a rush and that suggests they are doing just fine.

There were no such problems with the prison. The frame rate per second is within the normal range.
And I didn't have any broken buttons on any quest.
I've been playing A21 for 104 hours on two different maps with different world settings, and what I've described is the only and biggest problem I've encountered.

[métaphore]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

You do not have to buy the game again after Early Access.  I'm not even sure that Steam allows a developer to charge once in Early Access and again after gold, though they might.  But it definitely isn't something that will happen here.

 

Of course we won't have to buy this game again after it went Gold...

Hence, TFP perfectly know that: we already bought it and we won't pay again (the vast majority of us), even to support them out of sheer love.

 

That's the point. Because we are not going to buy the Gold version again, we'll also not be their targeted customers for Gold. What TFP would have studied, in order to cover their investment, are all those other people who still didn't buy it after more than a decade on the market. In fact, it might represent quite a different population and a new business model (my assumption).

 

The question we don't know the answer is would a Gold edtion of Seven Days to Die be rather bought at $60 or $40 by [insert the min number of sale required] of new people - or would it rather be successful as a barely Free to Play version with in game monetization?

 

 

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

What you spend for equipment is entirely your choice and has nothing whatsoever to do with TFP.  Also keep in mind that they have sold millions of copies (I think someone said 15 million).  That's not a small amount of money.  I doubt they are having any financial problems, though that's an assumption just like yours is.  It really isn't anyone's business.  They seem to be doing just fine, though.  If they were strapped for money, they'd probably release as soon as possible and leave things like bandits for after gold so they can get that influx of money from going gold.  They don't seem to be in a rush and that suggests they are doing just fine.

 

What I've spent on hardware, only for running 7D2D, was mentioned to underline how cheap the software is compared to hardware upgrade. Since I've bought 7D2D, I've added no more than a dozen games to my library and, put together, it's probably less than 0.5% of the money I've spent to run them with my gaming set in the mean time.

 

And out of this software money, only a fraction is actually going to the Publishers. Unity and Valve would be taking a good share of TFP sales. Hence, even if they had sold 15 millions copies over a decade - an impressive number nonetheless, they probably would not cash, in average, a very large amount per unit. In fact, their strategy would be based on their actual level of sales and projection for the future rather than what they have sold in the past. Making game content is certainly a very expensive business but I agree that they have been, so far, quite successful at it.

 

When (if) they release an updated console version in the close future, I guess that we'll have a better understanding at what they are aiming for the gold version of this game.