Welcome to 28 Alphas Later!
### UPDATED, NOW V.14 - A FRESH SAVE IS ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED!!! ###
SEE BELOW FOR CHANGELOG.
Now updated to support multiplayer!
The idea behind this mod is to slow progression, make traders less powerful, and generally extend the time for a playthrough, while keeping the vanilla look and feel.
STARTER ITEMS
"Starter" items are now in a backpack, found in slot 2 of your toolbelt. Open it with your primary action (LMB by default on PC)
When you open the backpack, read the note from The Duke to obtain your starter weapon of choice.
The starter quest is now just "place bedroll", which you'll receive on opening the starter backpack.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
Player starts with a new debuff - Despair. Despair is dynamically affected by various different factors, including:
1. Darkness. Too dark, and your Despair will increase dramatically. Torches, helmet lights and flashlights will mitigate this. Use these in conjunction with a campfire for the best effect.
2. Temperature. If you’re freezing or sweltering, your Despair will also increase dramatically. Find shelter!
3. Environment: Varying degrees of “wetness” will change how Despair affects you, as will your shelter. If you’re warm, dry, sheltered, well lit, AND near an operating campfire,forge or chem station you can effectively “treat” Despair.
4. Hunger and thirst affect how quickly your despair increases. Starvation/dehydration will drastically increase the rate at which you become affected by despair.
5. Injuries will affect how quickly your despair increases.
6. There is medication in trader stock and rare medical loot to treat your despair.
6a. There is also lavender growing wild, which can be collected to make your own lavender seeds, and is also used to make Lavender Oil in a cooking pot at a campfire. Treats 3% Despair.
7. All food has a positive effect. The better the food, the more effective the treatment.
8. Killing zombies and animals will reduce your overall despair. Conversely, getting hit by enemies will increase it.
9. Being in close proximity to zombies increases your Despair. The tougher the zombie, the worse the effect. The effect is compounded, so the more zombies there are, the worse it'll be.
10. Player “wellness”. Your maximum health will also slow down the effects of despair. Every 10 additional health slows down the rate at which Despair affects you.
11. The morale booster from the drone will decrease the rate at which despair affects you.
12. The trader has an effect. Being close to a trader will slow down and/or reduce your Despair.
13. The perk "From the Shadows" also has an effect on the way Despair affects you at NIGHT. The more points in the perk, the less Despair affects you at night.
Headshots ONLY. Zombies can only be damaged/killed with headshots, or with fire, or with explosives. (currently only works in single player games)
Zombies DON'T bleed. Nothing undead takes bleed damage.
Hazmat zombies are a guaranteed source of hazmat gear. Kill one, and if it drops loot, it'll have some hazmat gear in there.
There are more zombies in the world. Biomes are gamestaged, which means zombies get tougher and their number increases as you level up.
Zombies are tougher.
Nights are dangerous, downtown is much more dangerous.
Traders are still protected, but they open from dawn 'til dusk. No more waiting for 6 am anymore.
Traders and vending machines are MUCH more expensive to buy from, and will buy from you at a much lower price.
Crafting is 25% more expensive, and loot, harvesting and scrapping quantities are much lower.
XP required to level increased by 25%.
Dismember chance lowered to 1% per attribute level, max at 10%.
Knife base damage rebalanced.
60-slot backpack.
AMMO, WEAPONS, MODS AND ARMOUR
New basic wood arrow/bolt. Made from a single branch, its range is poor, its damage isn't great, and it always breaks on impact.
All arrows and bolts have a 25% chance of causing bleeding on a living target. Shame it doesn't work on the undead …
Ammo can be “dismantled” into its component parts.
The serrated blade only fits on spears and knuckles now.
Hazmat armour mods can be crafted from hazmat gear. You’ll still need all five mods (head, gloves, chest, legs, and boots) for full radiation protection.
New mods - blessed metal for stopping mutated regen. NiCd is back, as is Flaming Oil and Liquid Nitrogen.
New clothing mod - cycling shorts. Install them in your leg armour/clothing and save 25% stamina when cycling.
BLOCKS/WORKSTATIONS
The beehive. Find bees (and honey) in specific tree stumps (beehives) in the world, and use them to produce honey. Normal wild tree stumps have a higher chance of giving honey too.
The dew collector now uses a filter WITH durability. It has to be replaced when it breaks, or the collector will stop.
The chicken snare. Place this block down, and load it with corn seed to attract and trap chickens, which can be used in coops to produce eggs.
These chickens can also be butchered for meat, feathers and eggs, with a hunting knife in your inventory.
The chicken coop. Place this block, add a chicken from a trap, and it will produce eggs over time. The chicken will "dry out" over time, and will need replacing to keep producing eggs.
The tablesaw cannot be crafted, it can only be collected from POIs. Press "E" to pick one up.
The workbench now has slots for a wrench, hammer, ratchet, impact driver, and nail gun. These tools are needed to craft a lot of items, and some items have been moved from inventory crafting to workbench crafting.
The cement mixer now requires gasoline to work.
The forge no longer requires you to smelt items. You can use the items directly from your inventory.
Player-crafted king-size beds heal the player when stood on. Only the king-size bed and only the player-crafted bed has this effect.
BUFFS/DEBUFFS
Snakes and Spider zombies will envenom you when they attack. Kill snakes to extract their venom, which can be used to make antivenom. Antivenom crafting is unlocked after reading 10 medical magazines, and it can appear in loot and trader stock.
The Wasteland biome is irradiated, and very, VERY dangerous. You'll need a hazmat suit before you venture in there.
Radiated zombies now irradiate the player when they attack. A full hazmat suit or a full set of hazmat mods negates this.
Some Burnt zombies now set the player on fire when they attack. A full hazmat suit or a full set of hazmat mods negates this.
Honey infection treatment reduced to 3% from 5%.
Despair medication (Lavender, St. John’s Wort and Lithium) can be found in medical loot, and in trader stock. Lavender oil can be crafted from lavender flowers and used to treat despair.
ZOMBIES/ENEMIES
Bears and wolves are back in the forest.
Zombie health increases with game difficulty. Scavenger starts with zombies dealing 100% damage and no health bonus. Zombie health increases per level, up to 65% more health on insane difficulty. Damage received by zombies increases by 25% per level up to Survivalist, and then a further 50% jump to Insane (150% more damage dealt at maximum difficulty). The player ALWAYS does a flat 100% damage, REGARDLESS of difficulty.
Hazmat zombies are now immune to burning.
New Bunker Buster zombie. Only appears during bloodmoon(s), and can appear from the very first Bloodmoon. You’ll want to take it out quickly … think of it as a “light” demolition zombie.
Demolition zombies appear at a much earlier gamestage.
New Mutated zombie variant. Bigger, tankier, stronger, yellower, and with more radiated regen. You'll need a blessed metal mod to take them down - the wasteland is full of these guys.
New Frozen zombie variant. Slightly tougher, slightly slower, slightly more XP, and take slightly more damage than their “Normal” counterparts. Immune to the effects of liquid nitrogen, and if they touch you, your movement is reduced by 20%. You can negate this by maxing out the Well Insulated perk. Found in the snow biome.
New Rotting zombie variant. They have lower HP, lower XP reward, and they take more damage. Found in the forest and desert biomes.
“Normal”, “frozen” and “rotting” ‘Fat’ zombies (Big Mama, tourist) don’t puke, but they do explode …
During bloodmoons, ‘some’ zombies have a 10% chance to respawn after death, unless they’re killed with fire or explosives. There is also a 5% chance that a “boss” zombie will spawn, which boosts all zombies within range; their damage by 20%, and gives them regenerative properties. The boss is marked with a specific symbol, so target them with extreme prejudice.
Rotten and Normal “Fat” zombies (Cop,Big Mama and Tourist) are filled with a substance that’s irresistible to all zombies. If you are within range when they explode, they’ll cover you in this stuff - and attract other zombies …
FOOD/FARMING
All canned food found in loot, vending machines, and trader stock is "uncooked". Cook it to make it safe to eat, or eat it and run the risk of food poisoning ...
Uncooked cans don't replenish health, just food and water.
Five new recipes - Chicken stew and chicken miso, top of the tier 3 food chain, along with Scrambled Eggs, a better use for eggs and Tramp/Vagabond stew(s), which use cat/dog food. Basic recipes, unlocked by default. Needs a cooking pot.
MegaCrush is craftable, in a campfire, with a beaker, and cheaper in a chemistry station.
Pies and cheesecake need honey for that sweet, sweet taste now.
Crops' growing time is double that of vanilla.
Farming is reworked entirely. You need a hoe to till the ground to plant seeds. Use the hoe with fertiliser to upgrade the tilled ground (can be upgraded twice). Level one tilled ground yields 1 crop, level two (first fertilised level) yields 2 crops and level three (second fertilised level) yields 3.
Farm Plots require fertiliser and nails to craft, are crafted in the workbench with a hammer, and are the same fertile level as level 3 fertilised ground.
Farmplots found in POI’s are no longer plantable.
There is no harvest bonus for Living off the Land, instead, seeds cost less crops to make per level, and the amount of fertiliser required to make farmplots is reduced per level. Fertiliser is craftable in the cement mixer and chem station, and is in *some* trader stock.
Wild plants can be picked up - press ‘E’ by default to pick them up. Wild plants always give one crop, whether they’re picked up or “punched”.
New plant - lavender. Purple flower found growing in the wild and in some POIs. Seeds crafted from lavender flowers, no unlock required. Lavender flowers can be found in loot and trader stock, and Lavender seeds in trader stock.
PROGRESSION
There is no more Daring Adventurer or Better Barter. Traders will give a drink after every quest tier, which will increase bartering by 5% and trader level by one for each tier of quests completed. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SPACE IN YOUR INVENTORY FOR IT!!
There is a new perk, Survival Instinct. It's a "single-player" version of Charismatic Nature. 5 levels, each level gains you an additional 5 health/stamina, 10% block damage, 5% entity damage, 3% XP, and carry capacity increases by 1.
Living off the Land now offers a discount to crops needed to make seeds, level 2 costs 4 crops per seed, level 3 costs 3 crops per seed.
Clothing which gives perk updates have been removed. Instead, the looting and night vision goggles, and the bandanna, have a mod slot. There are 5 mods available, specifically for these items, and each mod increases the 5 different perks by one. The bartering bonus (from cigars originally), and the crafting speed and XP gain (from the nerdy glasses) have been removed. The cigar itself remains as a recipe unlock (craft only).
RESOURCES
Trees no longer give wood, they give wood logs, scraps, and branches. Logs can be placed and then chopped with an axe for wood, or use the table saw to do it quicker and better.
Primitive weapons and ammo are now made from wood scraps, branches, plant fibres, and/or stone.
Cobblestone is now more expensive to make in your inventory. Use a cement mixer to make it cheaper.
Concrete now requires a bucket of water and is crafted in batches of 250. Returns an empty bucket when crafting is complete.
Most ammo can be dismantled into its component parts. Check ammo for recipes, and look at the 3rd tab to see what they dismantle into. Most need a workbench to do this, but basic arrows/bolts can be dismantled in your inventory.
Repair kits are more expensive, and weapons/armour/tools that require specific crafting parts now require a specific repair kit.
VEHICLES
All vehicles EXCEPT the bicycle are too heavy for you to carry.
Vehicles CANNOT be used underwater.
Version 1.4 changelog
Added shape helper block for bricks @2500hp
Bricks are harvestable from brick piles/pallets
Changed the economic value of carrots to be the same as peas
Added lootable cardboard boxes
Added medicine cabinet to cabinet shape helper block
Lowered amount of concrete in loot and trader stock
Lowered amount of shape helpers in loot/quest rewards
Hand-held torch requires fuel (gas)
Changed secondary action for the torch to a power attack
Burning shaft requires fuel (gas)
Wall torch is a separate item requiring fuel. (removed the buff from the torches as it doesn't work anymore)
Reduced crafting cost of portable water filter by 50%
Fix spear action skill slow debuff progression
Rework Living off the Land. Seeds now cost 4 crops by default, reduced from 5
Reduced murky water in loot
Cycling shorts and schematic are easier to craft and find
Removed guaranteed cooking pots in POIs and trader stock - crafting a pot/grill in a forge requires an anvil
The Dew collector now collects murky water with the filter as fuel, and converts to drinking water with the advanced filter
Advanced Water Filter is more expensive
Removed bleed particles from undead entities
Fixed "crippled" zombies walking with no legs. Now they crawl, as they should
Lithium and St. John's Wort are more expensive and rarer (esp. Lithium)
Bloodmoon boss zombies now functioning correctly
Removed tiers 1, 2, and 3 of restore power, and reworked tiers 1, 2, and 3 of Contraband Collection so they can be run during the day.
Increased number of quests offered from 5 to 10 (credit Redbeard) (removed WMMTraderQuestMap from files as it's now incompatible)
Zombies now have a "visible" backpack (loot bag), which drops loot when they're killed
Lowered the number of zombie kills required for defend the safehouse quests
Change the description and icon for small batteries
Added despair AOE buff to hostile animals
Fixed Defend Air Drop spawns so they're sleeper game staged
Removed headshot only. Instead, zombies take maximum damage from headshots and added a 90% reduction for hitting any other body parts
Modified campfire buff so it includes "well lit". Sitting by a campfire ONLY will have a smaller effect on despair than also having a portable light source
Add an "overfed" buff for a despair and passive health regen boost. Keeping both food AND water above 95% gives the buff
Health bars removed
Added stages for positive outlook. Stage one positive gives 5% stamina reduction, 10% buff resistance, and 5% general damage resistance, stage two 10%, 15% and 10%, and stage three 15%, 20%, and 15% respectively
Added a "well-rested" buff. The longer you stay on your bed/bedroll, the longer the rested buff is, up to a max. of 10 mins
Added a Compost bin. Plant fibre can be slowly turned into fertilizer, over time, in the compost bin
Changed survival instinct/charismatic nature perks. Now you can have one or the other, but not both.
Prevent random hordes from spawning for the first 15 minutes of a new game
Reworked action skills/perk trees. Action skills govern damage/stamina/special effects, while perks cover magazines and books loot probability. Perks cost 1 skill point again
Two new traders added
Ammo press needed to craft and dismantle ammo in a workbench
Demolitions expert action skills fixed
Concrete mix can no longer be looted or purchased from traders
Increased time that wall torches burn (50% longer)
Increased the chance of harvesting a battery when wrenching
Batteries more common in MoPower loot containers
Economic value of batteries reduced
Lithium and St. John's Wort now need an increased trader stage to offset medical traders being OP for despair meds in the early game
Changed recipe for torch to require gas, not animal fat
Add a recipe for the lantern that requires fuel (batteries) to run
Increased portable water filter usage by 50%
Lowered health and damage resistance for zombies slightly
Fixed a discrepancy in zombie biome spawning
Simplified farming so terrain blocks and POI farm plots only have to be upgraded once
Added JoeSloeMoe's failsafe so action skills are not reset with Forgettin' Elixir
Contributors:
Particle systems/Unity edits - Author: redbeardt
Custom mesh files - Author: Schrader97
Farming template (xml code) - Author: Gouki
Original Chicken Coop model - Author: DocRabbit
HJPlayerItemCount - Author: w00kien00kie
IDCAdvancedDewCollector - Author: I Don't Care
IDCAnimalSnare - Author: I Don't Care
IDCBeehive - Author: I Don't Care
IDCCore - Author: I Don't Care
HPBars template (xml code) - Author: Khaine
60-slot backpack (xml code) - Author: Khaine
Khelldon Custom Menu - Author: Khelldon
Custom Menu Music - Author: Khaine
Material Modifier - Author: Zilox
ColoredContainerStates - Author: Scomar
WMMStaminaDehydrationFix - Author: w00kien00kie
CustomDifficulty - Author: Mythix
Radiated Wasteland (xml code) - Author: gemini
Action Skills - Author: JoeSloeMoe
Also a huge thank you to Frantic_Dan and redbeardt for the custom HUD base code, and main menu localization changes, and to YubiNashi and Frantic_Dan for ideas/balancing and playtesting.
direct download link: HellsJanitor/28-Alphas-Later: A mini-overhaul for 7 Days to Die (github.com)