Question about release...

[captainfalling]

Hey,

Just downloaded the game on gamepass, was really excited from the description but unpleasantly surprised by the game when I loaded it up. Tried going to the steam page to seek a helpful answer but couldn't post as I dont own it on there. So my question is when is this game due to be released and considered finished?

It was released as early access in 2013, we are pushing close to a decade of early access now so what is the deal? I would have thought after "14 million copies sold" that the game would have had enough capital raised to cover development, especially at near 20 pounds  a copy.

I want so bad to love this game but I'm gonna be honest, this seems like an absolute rip given the state of the game and the time it has been in early access.

Anyone able to help me with answers here would be awesome.

[Roland]

Need more information. Are you playing the PC version or the Xbox console version? Your answer to that question matters quite a bit.

[captainfalling]

PC version, I guessed it was obvious from my reference to steam but my mistake

and to be clear, i am totally cool with a long ass reply if it sates my curiosity!
 

[Maharin]

The game is currently unpolished and missing a lot of content, some of which will be finished soon-ish and some will wait until after release.  You pay for the game once and get all the updates, though.  Also, this game is HIGHLY moddable so expect a whole lot of mods to change every aspect of the game.  Think of 7DTD as a full destructable voxel world game making kit and you'll get a small idea of what will be possible.  Buy it for the TFP version, keep playing because it can be so very much more.

 

That's my take on it. 

[Roland]

I did assume PC but wanted to be sure as many times I've spent time answering and turns out the person was playing the old console version.

 

There is no need for a long ass reply. It is simple. The game still continues to be developed. Some people like you feel a decade length development time is unconscionable and the devs must be doing something wrong and mismanaging the development. Others are perfectly fine with a long development time as long as the development is active and progressive. There is no objective answer as to whether 10 years is too long, too short, or just right. It is simply your own sensibility.

 

Regardless, it will be a 10 year development cycle at least. That's just the reality. So you will either come to terms with that and enjoy the game for what it is and come along for the rest of the journey and witness the last few changes and developments or you won't and perhaps just check in again after you learn that it is completed. Being on Game Pass notwithstanding the game is not a AAA title. It is an indie title but a pretty nicely polished one with some polishing still left to be done.

 

So...your call on whether you stick with the game or not. But there is no apology for 10 years of development coming your way.

 

PS.. The game often goes on sale on Steam. If you feel 20 pounds is too much for what you are getting, wait for the next sale and you should  be able to get it for much cheaper than that (maybe around 8 pounds). If you are able to let go of the resentment over what you expected and what the reality is and come to enjoy the game for what it is, then for sure wait for a sale before you buy it outright.

[captainfalling]

I was afraid that would be the answer. Got to admit, your last comment about an apology totally changed the tone of your response from seeming like a well-informed fan to being really defensive and somwhat patronising, not sure if that was the intent but hey-ho, thats the nature of purely text based communication.

This game is definitely not for me in it's current state so I wont keep y'all any longer.

peace!

[Roland]

I simply meant that there is nothing to apologize for taking 10 years to develop the game. It is a perfectly acceptable period of time. Sorry the game didn't strike your fancy and perhaps if you see it on sale later you might take a second look and change your mind....or not. Not sure if you played it solo or with friends but if you get some friends together at some point and try it again together, it might make the difference.

 

Good gaming to you!

[Laz Man]

I can understand why hearing the length of development can be perceived negatively.  However, ask yourself this.  What other game on the market is comparable?  Really the only fully destructible open world game on the market that is bold enough to attempt mixing so many different game mechanic's.

 

The current Random World Generation POI/Tile tech. is way ahead of anything else I have seen out there.

 

The time in development is worth the wait IMO which I surmise why many don't mind it so much.  That and we as customers are not being asked to pay for updates....😄

 

It is also worth mentioning 7d2d's gameplay encourages multiple playthroughs (e.g. adapt to changes each Alpha and see how long you can survive, etc.) which adds to the game's resilience over the years.

 

[bdubyah]

This just feels like a troll post given the lack of any info about what you don't like with the game. Just saying "It's been in development for 10 years but isn't considered done, so it isn't my kind of game" doesn't really explain much.

 

It being "finished" isn't gonna look a whole lot different than what it is now. Bandits, improved water, maybe a raft and heli, and I'm sure a few other sneaky things is likely all that's left for the first release. Unless the story stuff makes it in, but I feel like that'll be after, but that's just me. Point being: if you don't like the game now, you probably aren't gonna like it when it's "finished", whether that's tomorrow or another 10 years from now.

[JoeDaFrogman]

Minecraft was released to public in 2009.  It gets significant content upgrades about once a year with new features.   Why does "it's a new alpha" vs "it's release twentynine.fourteen" mean any thing?

 

Different but related topic: Skyrim was released Nov 2011 and its follow up game was at least "started" in some way(story, code, who knows what that means) a few years later but has been announced as being at least a few more years out.  I would highly suspect that it's release timing will easily be on the timeline of 10+ years once it is finally released and this IS a AAA title!    That last bit means it has a significantly higher budget and more people working directly on the game over a consistent time period vs 7d2d.    Yea yea, I know Elder Scrolls 6 was "announced" in Jun 2018 and it's now 2022 so that's 5 years since announcement and LIKELY another 2-3 years before release, but I can pretty much guarantee Bethesda started some parts of the game 2-4 years before that announcement in 2018, so yea it will in some ways have been in development for 10+ years by the time it comes out.    The difference here is that 7d2d was stated by a tiny team of developers(that has grown massively in the past 2 years) and gives you access to test and give feedback(that is sometimes ignored and sometimes is incorporated into the next release.  I don't mean "ignored" in a negative light, it's just that some people want things that don't align with the developers vision)

 

Im sure if I dig deeply enough, I can find hundreds of others games that have been in development for 10+ years, AND the overwhelming majority of those typically have a larger development team for most of that time period(in comparison to 7d2d having a small team for much of that period).    However unlike most of those games, 7d2d let's you pay a reduced price for early access to those games as they change over time.

 

at the end of the day, the op used game pass for it's express purpose, trying out a game they might ordinarily try with no cost to them.  It seems it was not for them, but they never gave any insight on what they felt "was missing after 10 years of dev", nor what their expectation based on the description of the game was.

 

 

[Matt115]

9 hours ago, Laz Man said:

I can understand why hearing the length of development can be perceived negatively.  However, ask yourself this.  What other game on the market is comparable?  Really the only fully destructible open world game on the market that is bold enough to attempt mixing so many different game mechanic's.

 

The current Random World Generation POI/Tile tech. is way ahead of anything else I have seen out there.

 

The time in development is worth the wait IMO which I surmise why many don't mind it so much.  That and we as customers are not being asked to pay for updates....😄

 

It is also worth mentioning 7d2d's gameplay encourages multiple playthroughs (e.g. adapt to changes each Alpha and see how long you can survive, etc.) which adds to the game's resilience over the years.

 

Well i think 7dtd don't have any  comparable  game because.... well making story, big enemy fights in voxel 3d  game is very hard ( that's why there is no behemot) that's why it's easier to make game with limited destructible world - better graphic, AI, location balance etc. - so why to risk of using exploit by players , risk a lot about bugs if you can make something in conan style? 

 there is no race game similiar to BeamNG.drive - because any car company will give licence to use their cars. 

Games similiar to minecraft is easier to make because... well fantasy worlds are easier to make it more unique - so in minecraft you have nether but in minecraft clone you can world with big sea with trees. But what could be done diffrent in 7dtd clone? not so much -  maybe diffrent country, a little bit diffrent crafting system with perk points and design of zombies. B4B is good example for that - they wanted to make l4d2 clone but - this not possible because... it is hard to something good and to avoid copy - health system is bad because it have be diffrent that l4d2, desigin of enemies is bad because to looks diffrent that l4d2.

That's why there won't be any 7dtd similiar game - it's too risky.

1. setting - medieval setting would work only as made by TFP because it would be too similiar to 7dtd, Sci FI - could work but minecraft have sci fi mods so... why buy game if you have free alternative ( we can say that a lot of players have minecraft too)

2.  number of players- to looks better it have to be singleplayer only but then it must have good lore + be cheaper that 7dtd to be consider for buyers , or have more that 8 players let say at least 32 players so min spec of pc will be highter that 7dtd.

3. long time of development

 

So 7dtd won't have rival because... it is

 

 

16 hours ago, Maharin said:

Also, this game is HIGHLY moddable so expect a whole lot of mods to change every aspect of the game. 

Well hard to say - after change mod location it can be problem

14 minutes ago, JoeDaFrogman said:

Minecraft was released to public in 2009.  It gets significant content upgrades about once a year with new features.   Why does "it's a new alpha" vs "it's release twentynine.fourteen" mean any thing?

 

Different but related topic: Skyrim was released Nov 2011 and its follow up game was at least "started" in some way(story, code, who knows what that means) a few years later but has been announced as being at least a few more years out.  I would highly suspect that it's release timing will easily be on the timeline of 10+ years once it is finally released and this IS a AAA title!    That last bit means it has a significantly higher budget and more people working directly on the game over a consistent time period vs 7d2d.    Yea yea, I know Elder Scrolls 6 was "announced" in Jun 2018 and it's now 2022 so that's 5 years since announcement and LIKELY another 2-3 years before release, but I can pretty much guarantee Bethesda started some parts of the game 2-4 years before that announcement in 2018, so yea it will in some ways have been in development for 10+ years by the time it comes out.    The difference here is that 7d2d was stated by a tiny team of developers(that has grown massively in the past 2 years) and gives you access to test and give feedback(that is sometimes ignored and sometimes is incorporated into the next release.  I don't mean "ignored" in a negative light, it's just that some people want things that don't align with the developers vision)

 

Im sure if I dig deeply enough, I can find hundreds of others games that have been in development for 10+ years, AND the overwhelming majority of those typically have a larger development team for most of that time period(in comparison to 7d2d having a small team for much of that period).    However unlike most of those games, 7d2d let's you pay a reduced price for early access to those games as they change over time.

 

at the end of the day, the op used game pass for it's express purpose, trying out a game they might ordinarily try with no cost to them.  It seems it was not for them, but they never gave any insight on what they felt "was missing after 10 years of dev", nor what their expectation based on the description of the game was.

 

 

TES 6 wasn't made until this time because... it was pointeless because people still bought skyrim - so why make sequel if people still buy skyrim?

[Kyonshi]

On 4/26/2022 at 6:12 PM, captainfalling said:

I was afraid that would be the answer. Got to admit, your last comment about an apology totally changed the tone of your response from seeming like a well-informed fan to being really defensive and somwhat patronising, not sure if that was the intent but hey-ho, thats the nature of purely text based communication.

This game is definitely not for me in it's current state so I wont keep y'all any longer.

peace!

You got the most appropriate, articulated and well-informed reply you could have, from a person who is actually an immediate staff member of the Fun Pimps and who has his seat in production meetings with the founders and lead designers.

 

And you still throw shade at him and the factual info and data you've been courteously handed. Even while you actually have no goddamn idea of what you're talking about, regarding the state of the game.

 

The game is completely playable and your experience can be tailored as you see fit, through extensive settings and mods. The fact that it's been in developement for 10 years doesn't affect the experience of the community, who's been stacking thousands of hours on it. If you can't come up with common sense, set aside your poor and close-mind misjudgment and actually play the game for real, you'd see that the long development period doesn't hinder in any dramatic or game-breaking way.

 

And that there's no rip-off or anything dumb like that. The game is still supported and worked on years later on. We see the improvements in a pretty cool frequency, given the colossal task of managing an immense open world, entirely destructible and generating millions of possible interactions. Damn, I see major studios releasing AAA titles that are such in bad shape upon launch, they need to be patched right away or in some cases, pulled off the shelves for further fixing... For the vast majority of us, it's the best 20-30 bucks ever invested in a game that gave us returns in thousandfold.

 

Damn right there's apology to be given to you. Please see yourself out and it's with pleasure that I'm happy to know you will.

[Roland]

lol kyonshi...I think he really did leave when he said he did. 

[Pernicious]

It's interesting how people respond to disappointment in games, and how the dedicated community responds. I've been on both sides (fan and not a fan). 

 

I got into a game called "Rust" which has similarities to 7d2d, but was almost exclusively PvP (virtually no PvE combat).  I gave it a decent go. Maybe about 40-50 hours over 6 weeks and 6 play throughs? 

 

Anyway, I got involved in a community similar to this to get help, as I was really getting owned. Not so much in combat, as I was holding my own there, but you log off for one night and almost guaranteed your base is raided. And not only raided, often walled off so you can't recover and reinforce that base, you have to start over. (And you lose everything on your inventory too - and there is no levelling or skills)

 

Anyway, a long term fan of the game posted a whine that "All the servers suck now, you get newbs join for a day, then they never come back".

 

I pointed out that all 6 play throughs I had done, I had done pretty well on day 1, but I was not only offline raided, but my base blocked out, so it's actually easier  to find a new day 1 server, than try to recover from being behind. I only meant this as an explanation of why servers had 30+ people on day 1, 10 on day 2, and 1 or 2 on day 3, but boy I really copped the "Oh go cry to yo mamma baby", reaponses. 

 

So, I quit. No hard feelings for me. The game was $30, I got quite a few hours out of it, but nope, not my kind of game, and player responses confirmed for me the community wasn't worth sticking around for either.

 

I think we need to be careful we don't get that toxic here, and need to be mindful of how defensive we get when someone criticises a game we love. We aren't anywhere near that point, but we do need to be careful we don't go down it.

[Roland]

4 hours ago, Pernicious said:

I think we need to be careful we don't get that toxic here, and need to be mindful of how defensive we get when someone criticises a game we love. We aren't anywhere near that point, but we do need to be careful we don't go down it.

 

We've been mindful of that for years and years. For the most part this community is very helpful and supportive of those who post asking for advice. When people criticize the game without being toxic about it they rarely get toxic replies and often find that others share the same criticisms. The friendliness of the forums has remained pretty constant over time and I don't think it is suddenly going to go down the tubes now.

 

PvP players are often as aggressive in forums as they are in the games they play. Forums of games that are primarily PvP oriented tend to be pretty ruthless as well. This game used to have a larger PvP following back in the day and there was a lot more toxicity than there is now. 

 

A much higher percentage of the people who are here are PvE players who instinctively recognize that we all have to work together to survive the forum.  

[Kyonshi]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:48 PM, Pernicious said:

I think we need to be careful we don't get that toxic here, and need to be mindful of how defensive we get when someone criticises a game we love. We aren't anywhere near that point, but we do need to be careful we don't go down it.

Funny how this comes out after my post 😏

 

People who throw uncalled abuse at the devs will be served the same, that's it. You can observe this for any type of developers that benefit from the steady support of their communities. As far as I'm concerned, I not only support the Pimps because the game is that good, but because they stay in close contact with their community and openly inform it about the development of the game, whether its through the forums or the live streams, and the founders themselves interact with us. This shows how they have consideration for the fanbase. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one seeing this.

 

You don't see this very often.

 

I have nothing against constructive criticism, and I even consider this vital for any kind of project. Hell, I have criticism against certains aspects of the game myself. But this guy came in with the deader-than-a-dead-horse, dumb argument "omg this game's been in development since X years, this is so stupid will it be done before I die lolololol" and also took it as pretext to claim there's a scam underneath it...

 

This is so moronic, I can't even. He gets the most diplomatic explanation but he brushed it off like it was apparently offending him. Basically he threw @%$# in the fan and then left right after. Personally, I have no respect for this kind of jerk.

 

This community is open-minded and friendly, I observe this regularly and I interact with newcomers myself, here and on the 7DtD Facebook page and groups of fans. Don't worry about us pal 😉

[Pernicious]

 

7 hours ago, Kyonshi said:

Funny how this comes out after my post 😏

 

 

Nah, your post wasn't even that harsh. There were some other comments across the forum - a small burst regarding the new regional server finder and stuff I thought was getting a bit defensive.

 

The trigger for my post was that, at the heart of it, I'm largely with the "If you don't like the game, leave" ... Which is exactly what I did with Rust, and exactly what OP did here. But yeah, without being able to point the finger at any single post, I have seen a bit more biting back at the game's critics lately.

[Matt115]

2 minutes ago, Pernicious said:

 

 

Nah, your post wasn't even that harsh. There were some other comments across the forum - a small burst regarding the new regional server finder and stuff I thought was getting a bit defensive.

 

The trigger for my post was that, at the heart of it, I'm largely with the "If you don't like the game, leave" ... Which is exactly what I did with Rust, and exactly what OP did here. But yeah, without being able to point the finger at any single post, I have seen a bit more biting back at the game's critics lately.

Your link don't work

[Pernicious]

Just now, Matt115 said:

Your link don't work

 

It was just a graphic::

 

[Matt115]

Just now, Pernicious said:

 

It was just a graphic::

 

okay , i just wanted to help