Feedback on A17

[Athin]

Hey guys,

 

I wanted to try help give some good constructive feedback on the game for the devs to take in. I know myself how valuable good feedback is so I'll try to cover what I think on the new patch and talk about the direction they are going rather then things that are just balance issues. To clarify as well I've played up to day 14 so far in A17 with my wife so everything is from a duo perspective.

 

Zombies: We love the new AI. Great job on the improvement on this part and I feel like the AI is heading in a really good direction here. What seal the deal for us was the fact that we went into a new POI exploring and heard a horde walking by. We kept looting expecting they'd walk by but o were we wrong. They actually came into the POI the way we went in and it was a mad dash to escape with our lives. Absolute blast! We haven't had that much fun in a long time!

 

Combat: I like the new heavy/light attacks to help mix up the combat a bit. If the direction is to add more "Combo" style maybe through skill points then I'd say its heading in a good direction but if they plan on only having heavy/light attacks then I'd feel it will be a bit repetitive just like before. Combos can be simple like running forward while using a heavy does a sweep attack, walking backwards with a light attack pushes them down ect. I'd like to see more to get rid of simple click combat.

 

Skill Points: I'm mix on these things and its simple due to not knowing what direction they will take in the future. If everything is a "passive" ability then they all are kinda......meh. I'd like to see something exciting to get like my examples above with combat. Some passive abilities are fine but I feel like we need that 5th ability to be something really cool and exciting to get/play with rather then just I get tired 10% less. Overall skill points may just be too new to fully see where they land.

 

(Side Note: I personally don't like anything level gated and would love to see everything fully unlocked but use the primary stats for a soft gate. A fun idea may also be to use "achievement" plus soft cap to unlock abilities. Something like kill 100 zombies plus 5 STR lets you unlock random weapon skill level 5. Gives a player a clear goal and no hard level gate rather then just waiting/grinding out levels.)

 

Looting: I actually love the idea of not being able to make anything worthwhile at the start. You have to find gear. Only over time will you be able to just make what you need. I think this was a great step in the right direction for a survival game and brings in the excitement of finding something nice at the beginning.

 

Zombies rarely dropping loot I think was a good direction to go in as well. We definitely get the "O Shiny" feeling when we see a bag drop (If we see the dam thing as it blends in badly for us)

 

Progression/Item Grades: I've tied these two together cause they are kinda the same. I like the idea of how they are handling this and I think they are going in a good direction with it but aren't quite there yet. Currently early game, you have almost no progression. We are about level 25ish on day 14 and it feels like our characters are just now getting slightly better. Maybe some cheepy craftable mods can fill that gap?

 

(Side Note: I'd love to see a two tier grade system with items. one for the Tier "ex colors" and one for the mod slots "ex numbers". Colors can up the damage/durability while numbers are the mod slots. This will definitely help with the progression problem I'd think)

 

Performance: This was a huge letdown for us. I know this is only experimental and it will improve but I highly doubt it will get back to A16 levels with all the newly added things. We are playing at bare min graphics and everything is ....ugly and its hard to play at times due to not telling what you're looking at until you're on top of it. This isn't really a direction issue and more of a personal experience on it but I felt it was that bad that I had to at least mention this.

 

Food/Health: I like how important food is and how scares it is to find now. I know some balancing needs to be done with it but its going in a good direction on how they impacts you.

 

I do also LOVE the wounds mechanic now making first aid valuable again. That was a good direction to go with and really makes all those items very valuable again.

 

(Side Note: I personally don't like how health doesn't naturally regen over time unless you perk into it. There should be a base regen that slowly heals you over time and the perk speeds the process up with max rank healing wounds. The perk shouldn't heal you fast enough to ignore healing items though so I'd say a max 1health per 45s and 1 max health per 120s at max rank would fit better then current perk levels.)

 

TL : DR

 

I think the game overall is going in a good direction with a few areas like skills a bit early to tell and can go either way.

 

Thanks for the game guys, I know alot of love and work went into it and its definitely paying off! (P.S. this is the ONLY game my wife ask me to play with her so you did something right )

[Gazz]

I personally don't like how health doesn't naturally regen over time unless you perk into it. There should be a base regen that slowly heals you over time and the perk speeds the process up with max rank healing wounds. The perk shouldn't heal you fast enough to ignore healing items though so I'd say a max 1health per 45s and 1 max health per 120s at max rank would fit better then current perk levels.)

There is natural healing. It's just slow. =)

 

Personally I consider Healing Factor one of the top OP perks but it's early and there are other areas to clean up.

[Athin]

There is natural healing. It's just slow. =)

 

Personally I consider Healing Factor one of the top OP perks but it's early and there are other areas to clean up.

 

I definitely agree that the Healing Factor is one of those "Sneaky" OP skills once fully spec. Definitely needs another look but the idea behind it is solid.

 

Also how slow is "Slow" as I don't ever recall gaining health ever passively without the perk?