How do you like A17 experimental?

[Roland]

Now that we are fully two weeks into experimental what is your overall feeling about it?

 

There is a poll. If you are on mobile you'll have to request desktop view in order to see it and vote.

[Kam R.]

Overall feeling: Mixed. Unsure. Needs more updates. Trying my hardest to reserve absolute judgement.

Probably will have to finally stop being lazy about learning to mod the game.

[Gamida]

Overall feeling: Mixed. Unsure. Needs more updates. Trying my hardest to reserve absolute judgement.

Probably will have to finally stop being lazy about learning to mod the game.

 

Was just going to copy and paste but changed my mind but it does sort of sum it up for me.

[jdifran]

B208 was a BIG improvement over the first release. Looking forward to the next update. A lot of fun, but still feels like a grind at times.

 

I average 2 levels per game day, and worry that it will take 100+ hours just to get to where I feel like I'm at "end game" with electricity, traps, turrets, and a nigh-impregnable base. I like variety and replayability, but not if it takes 100+ hours each time. I don't think many people would buy a game that required 100+ hours to "win." (I think this can be fixed with some tuning, either lowering the level gates or increasing the xp so we level faster.)

 

RWG is a hot mess right now, but I know Kinyajuu will get around to it (hopefully for A17.0 and not A18). I prefer RWG, but think I may just play Navezgane until it's fixed.

[RestInPieces]

No poll? Edit: oh ok all is normal.

 

Put briefly, the overall feeling is great, since I like the direction the game is taking. I did prefer the old leveling system concept and some balance issues may make the game seem like its heading farther from the survival/TD/building genres, but I feel the opposite is happening, with the game's genres synergizing with each other better than before.

[Roland]

Overall feeling: Mixed. Unsure. Needs more updates. Trying my hardest to reserve absolute judgement.

Probably will have to finally stop being lazy about learning to mod the game.

 

I changed the middle selection to include your description. If you voted and want to change your vote to this let me know.

[Jarod_Silverstar]

I am liking it so far, most of my current concerns can be resolved with tuning and balancing. Right now my worst issue is the wandering hordes are too over powered. In the past if you were working on something, you could avoid a wandering horde by moving out of the way and then coming back once it had passed by. Now the hordes stop nearby and start wandering around forcing to take the time to deal with them. Now, it seems the only option is to completely leave the area for a day or so. Can be annoying if you didn't want to have to deal with too many zombies at that time...

[Teezer]

In my opinion, i think the game mechanics is very good and need to stay on this way. But it definitly needs new contents now because it's still a boring game. You need to add something that will impact the game as far as the game is progressing. Like... cities or checkpoint to conquere and defend. Add some roleplays with npc, add some life and IA, add something to zombies that makes each zombies unique...

[Nugetti]

I opted for:

In general I like it. It has bad aspects but overall it is improved.

 

I like the improved graphics, new game mechanics systems, melee combat, vehicles, zombie AI, new POIs, etc.

 

The bad aspects for me atm are:

- How it runs overall (FPS indoors)

- Slow / nerfed early game (no proper options between stone tools and iron before level 20)

- Stamina balancing (imo stamina cap should not be 1:1 tied to hunger)

[Aerial]

Though there are some very good changes in this release (zombie AI improvements, textures, vehicles, whole guns and mods) I dislike more than I like about it. It has ceased to be a survival game or much of a sandbox game.

 

It's still fun, don't get me wrong. But it's no longer a game I will play for thousands of hours, like it once was.

[Kam R.]

I changed the middle selection to include your description. If you voted and want to change your vote to this let me know.

 

All good, poll came after I posted, voted now.

[Whorhay]

The stuff I really dislike:

Level gating feels extreme, wrecks trying to specialize.

Zombie AI deciding to break out the stairs rather than walking down them.

The extreme rate at which stamina degrades when trying to do anything that uses stamina.

Item quality levels feel like garbage given that the only difference is better durability and the possibility of more mod slots.

Mods need more variety and to be more available. Give us different ranks of each mod and allow their crafting or looting at an earlier gamestage.

 

Stuff I love:

The proliferation of new POI's/dungeons.

New vehicles, though being able to pocket them is kind of silly.

Mods, though as I said above I think they have a lot of room for improvement.

Smarter AI, though it needs better decision making about when to dig. And there should be a few different AI's that get randomly used.

[Teezer]

I'll also add that the "mod" system is a great idea but totaly not enough worked to be added that soon.

i think this system is like... 30% done

[vonstorm]

Though there are some very good changes in this release (zombie AI improvements, textures, vehicles, whole guns and mods) I dislike more than I like about it. It has ceased to be a survival game or much of a sandbox game.

 

It's still fun, don't get me wrong. But it's no longer a game I will play for thousands of hours, like it once was.

 

This:

Many of the players have been around for a while, and although it gets polished the grindiness feels exaggerated with each replay.

Tha AI has improved alot for day to day zombies, but seems to be stupider for 7 day horde - case in point, build a 5x5x5 cube with a door - a ramp up to door with 1 block missing - club zombies as they drop down the hole.

Randomizing zombie behavior, or assigning them a behaviour (at least on 7th day) that fits their specific specialty would help. The loss of the Behemoth was a big blow for endgame, and the only thing that may help is if we have few but smart bandits coming along.

Great game but the unending tweaking is getting crazy. Add options in the options page for playstyle and get it finished so modders can take the time to Mod properly without worrying their countless hours will be for nought.

[PoppaTot]

So I put ambivalent because I do like it, but can't see myself pouring 100s-1000s of hours into anymore. Maybe balancing will fix it, but it A17 has removed a lot of things I like, and the good it brought doesn't outweigh the removal of things for me unfortunately. I hope the balancing will change my opinion. However, it is still a fun game, but probably only for a few play-throughs for me.

[ktr]

The overall direction of the game feels good. I'm eager to see what the balancing passes and getting the final pieces into the game changes things. I also play with a couple of friends who were really worried that they wouldn't like the new direction (they aren't big into the horror genre and are somewhat ambivalent about survival games in general) but even they think the new direction is engaging and the emphasis on certain survival aspects (such as stamina and food) making for a more dynamic experience.

 

I think we're all holding off on final opinions until stable comes out tho.

[chinothepony]

I agree, the game seems to be in a healthy state.

[SnowDog1942]

As ive said in another thread.

 

A17 with the random gen and performance of A16 would be a beautiful thing.

[SickPuppy]

In general I like it.

 

At first I loved it, thought it felt more survival based. But then it felt that way for the wrong reasons. Level gates, harder to hit zombies, etc.

 

Once u work out how to deal with the zombies (always run) it very quickly became an xp grind. They also run slower than A16 which is a big downer as it means they're less of a threat. A16 you had to stick to roads or use terrain to out run the fast ones, running bikers were a threat, but now you can out run anything on any terrain, much less threatening.

 

But overall for me the pros out weight the cons:

 

+ new textures / lighting looks great

+ new poi's look great, jump scares needs toning down and sleeper respawn bug is the worst

+ weapon mods hell yeah

+ trader quests, but needs expanding bit bland atm

 

- level gates

- no using action skills, everything is one main xp pool

- respawning sleepers

- no books to learn new skills, everything behind perk

[Roland]

The overall direction of the game feels good. I'm eager to see what the balancing passes and getting the final pieces into the game changes things. I also play with a couple of friends who were really worried that they wouldn't like the new direction (they aren't big into the horror genre and are somewhat ambivalent about survival games in general) but even they think the new direction is engaging and the emphasis on certain survival aspects (such as stamina and food) making for a more dynamic experience.

 

I think we're all holding off on final opinions until stable comes out tho.

 

We'll definitely do another poll a couple of weeks after stable comes out.

[Wildgrave]

Yep like it a lot. Some of the gating seems extreme but that can be balanced. Has slowed down progression which suits my play style as I love early game and just doing my own thing and RPing, but I can see how that may put some people off. The modding is great too, going to make life a lot easier for us to change the bits we don't like. All in all I think the future is bright :-)

[Krougal]

LOL, no votes for "It is perfection. I love everything about it."

Keep rocking the fixes and tweaks though and I hope to be able to say that when the "E" comes off the build.

[Roland]

Once u work out how to deal with the zombies (always run) it very quickly became an xp grind. They also run slower than A16 which is a big downer as it means they're less of a threat. A16 you had to stick to roads or use terrain to out run the fast ones, running bikers were a threat, but now you can out run anything on any terrain, much less threatening.

 

You'll be glad to know that in the next update there will be new options for zombie speed. Speeds can be selected for zombies during the day and night, for ferals, and for bloodmoon. Four speeds for now: Walk, Jog, Run, Sprint. All but Sprint are slower zombie speeds with sprint being the default run speed. They are planning a fifth speed which would exceed the player's speed for higher difficulty.

 

With these options you'll be able to have zombie walk all the time but ferals run but everyone runs on bloodmoon. Or Run during the day but walk at night. Or Everyone jogs to increase POI pressure. or whatever strikes your fancy.

[grieferbastard]

I love the direction it's going. It's experimental so the new stuff that needs tested/examined is getting dialed up way more than it would in release.

[SickPuppy]

You'll be glad to know that in the next update there will be new options for zombie speed. Speeds can be selected for zombies during the day and night, for ferals, and for bloodmoon. Four speeds for now: Walk, Jog, Run, Sprint. All but Sprint are slower zombie speeds with sprint being the default run speed. They are planning a fifth speed which would exceed the player's speed for higher difficulty.

 

With these options you'll be able to have zombie walk all the time but ferals run but everyone runs on bloodmoon. Or Run during the day but walk at night. Or Everyone jogs to increase POI pressure. or whatever strikes your fancy.

 

Very cool, very very cool. That fifth gear put a big smile on my face. +1 this.