My Take on Alpha 21

[shimdidly]

• A21 is the best 7D2D. Been playing since A18. They keep getting better.
• The new POIs and POI overhauls are wonderful. Whoever is responsible for these POIs is an artist. I always get excited when I trader sends me to a new POI I haven't seen yet in A21.
• Overhauled Trader Posts look great.
• A21 IS FUN! Looting, crafting, killing, mining, defending, questing, exploring, all the mechanics feel solid and rewarding. Looting and crafting aren't mutually exclusive. Sometimes you get lucky and find what you need looting. Sometimes your crafting skills in a category outpace what you are looting. It's a dynamic almost roguelike experience. No 2 playthroughs are the same. There's some knobs to twist to get this just right but it's close.
• Lighting is generally much better, and the best I've ever seen. It is weird when a room will darken as you walk into it, though. Overall, I'd say it used to be 25% of the way there. Now it's 90%. The lighting is almost exactly where it ought to be. Just a handful of oddities to work out.
• Zombies are smarter than they've ever been. It used to be that you could easily cheese the zombies every horde night. Now I'd describe their behavior more like "swarming ants". I used to feel very confident on horde nights, now I'm at the edge of my seat.

 

TL;DR 

 

A21 is buzzin

[Rotor]

3 hours ago, shimdidly said:

•  
• Zombies are smarter than they've ever been. It used to be that you could easily cheese the zombies every horde night. Now I'd describe their behavior more like "swarming ants". I used to feel very confident on horde nights, now I'm at the edge of my seat.

 

TL;DR 

 

A21 is buzzin

 

Personally, I like dumb Zs.  Because they are supposed to be:

 

[Stranded_Napkin]

On 12/2/2023 at 12:48 PM, shimdidly said:

• Zombies are smarter than they've ever been. It used to be that you could easily cheese the zombies every horde night. Now I'd describe their behavior more like "swarming ants". I used to feel very confident on horde nights, now I'm at the edge of my seat.

Zombies can't be smart. A thinking zombie isn't a zombie at all. I will say that zombies are better than they used to be. Alpha 16 had them sprinting right past you if there was a ledge to be sprinted off of. Alpha 17 or 18 had the zombies with engineering degrees update. Little @%$#s would run through a damn maze like they had a cheat sheet showing them the way through the whole time. Not sure if it was alpha 19, 20, or 21 but the AI was updated again and now is close to where it needs to be. Zombies path a little too well for me to call them zombies right now.

 

I will say, this is the best the game has been since Alpha 16. I still miss the superior skill building of learn by doing, but the fun pimps aren't bringing that back so A21 will do...lol

The learn by reading thing is working. It still makes sense, so I'm not against it. Just think it's half of what needs to be in place....coughLBDcough. lol

[Ramethzer0]

40 minutes ago, Stranded_Napkin said:

Zombies can't be smart. A thinking zombie isn't a zombie at all.

 

I kinda concur with this notion.  I think their AI has gotten better at being scary, part of which has a lot to do with their "Find it.  Kill it.  Eat it.  Can't find it? DESTROY EVERYTHING."  While it seems formulaic in shorthand, I find myself a bit surprised when they do stuff I don't expect.   For example, when zombies duck my shots or melee swings and instantly get a shot at my knees at close range.

 

Now, my opinion of that AI behaviour is literally couched in a coding issue that has been left to fix later, so naturally I hate it.  It's not the way its supposed to be!

But, what I love about it is the impact it has on my psyche lol.  It's an insult that can only be responded to with pixel violence, which i'm more than happy to dish out to the offending zed.

 

The opposing discussion is how easy it is to manipulate the zeds into doing precisely what you expect them to do. 

 

Despite all this, I'm happy that the OP is happy with the state of things.  I remember when this game used to scare the @%$# outta me, and I kinda miss that sometimes.