On 3/11/2024 at 10:21 PM, meganoth said:
Not much can help once you tried out all base designs and know everything about the zombie behaviour and their limits. A game can't help getting very familiar once you play it for hundreds of hours.
Partly that is a problem of TFP making the game accessible to beginners and (at least until now) not balancing the higher difficulties. Since zombie behaviour is moddable as well in limits, someone will probably make a mod for that or you will find it in one of the overhauls. A problem for example is that you have practically endless ammo (because the game is sandboxy but also because of the balancing). And TFP balances it so you are supposed to be OP at the end of progression (which is easily rushable with the help of the trader).
And nothing can help someone if he checks out the best base designs on the internet and rebuilds them because those specifically exploit everything the game has to offer. That is one reason why I never watch youtubers and hate that a friend does and often employs that knowledge making the end bases of our group snoozefests as well. That doesn't happen in my single player games where I try to make every design unique by using a POI as raw frame for a base. I sometimes get overrun because some construct fails, with that in mind I often build with backup positions and I do need them. But I have fun and I couldn't even set the zombies on high block damage or I would be overrun much too often.
balance plays a huge part in enjoyment for alot of gamers, i love games that stimulate my brain to try and improve on stuff because its hard, whether its efficient farming, resource gathering, mechanical skill, game sense, or iq, which 7 days has all.
but my main gripe with modding stuff is, you shouldn't have to patch and fix everything you don't like the game should just be good as is.
you lose all the authenticity of playing 7 days when you do that, you download a few mods, revert a version, and change a bunch of settings you like and dislike, are you even playing 7 days to die anymore ?
ill paint a picture for you, you tell your friends you made it to day 100 without dying, and then say this and that, and you have to explain that you have the mega super zombie overhaul, no (insert arbitrary skill issue mechanic here x3), your settings are cranked, and you have the "we fixed traders" mod, and your playing on a version a year old because you didn't like how the zombies give you more boo boos now 
i could go on but you get it.
and the last part is yes i get PvE games aren't supposed to be taken meta meta (most effective tactic available) 24/7, BUT similar to the arguments of "just don't do that" "i play like this instead and don't do that " you're ripping all of the creativity of that style and players should have the option, hell divers 2 for example, has 9 difficulties, and it doesn't just change damage and what not it changes how the game is played and adds straight up mechanics which is cool, similar to insane nightmare which we have., BUT it adds that option of playing for the challenge using the best tactics and using team work and playing that "meta" but having it be fair, and playing and winning because more satisfying because its so hard
you'll have stuff like:
patrols are now a thing
enemies gain new attacks
certain enemies now can spawn all the time, and if you scale up some more they become more common
ambushes now spawn more enemies
outposts are bigger and have more defenses, and more stuff like jammers and turrets
like stuff like that is so cool and could also be leaned into, i feel like im a box of ideas because i think about what 7 days could be allll the time because i want to like it but certain aspects of the game are so good, the ideas are there but execution is off, if you get what i mean