How do you like A17 experimental?

[pattyboy27]

I love a lot of the new features (that I've seen in videos but yet to experience myself) but it's just a grindfest. I currently like the IDEA of playing 7D2D more than actually playing it, and generally after 20 minutes trying to clear a house I log off. I'm level 4 after almost 2 weeks of 'playing' since the new early release client.

 

Unsure if it's a bug but playing on a dedicated server and every single building has a feral in it. What happened to individual zombie spawns tailored to player level? If every single building has a feral and I'm level 1 to I dunno, 10? 15? What's the point? We previously wouldn't encounter ferals until about level 70-ish in A16.

 

Sleeper zombies resetting if you run away is totally stupid. On multiple occasions I have killed all bar the feral and 1 normal and ran when the feral awakened. Come back and there's 12 in the house again (checking via the live map).

 

The optimisation is horrible. I recently upgraded to a GTX 1060 and can play my other games at 60fps or better. 7D2D chugs along at about 40 max, dropping into the 17-30 range inside poi's. Playing on a server where I've always had around 200 ping and never noticed it - but suddenly in A17 that same 200 ping feels like 2000 ping.

 

 

This update might be better for hardcore fans of the game, but as a casual player I'm feeling really marginalised, to the point where I'm pretty close to uninstalling it to give hard drive space to another game.

[Colin248]

THere are certently things that can be improved with the game. Vastly improved. the enemy pathing will always take the most direct path, so setting up a kill room of spikes is pointless. i would like them to be semi randomized with there pathing, so they spread out a bit more.

 

Traps need to be improved, barbed wire doesnt slow as much as it used too, no longer turning them into walkers. and spikes seam to be vastly nerfed. need a bit of a buff to make them more pliable.

 

the gating and leveling needs a look at, let more stuff give exp, as it stands fighting zeds is the fastest and only way to level up. also trap kills should give experience. (from ones you place.)

 

who ever came up with the stamina system needs a kick in the teeth. its taken me a while to adapt but its still a asinine system. reduce the amount of stamina it takes away when your hungry. %50 hunger should be %75 stamina, not perfectly reflective of each other.

 

other then all that, i am quite enjoying this update. altho a bug im encountering is, despite my forges and nothing else working, screamers seam to be crawling out the wood work to my base for some reason... like i got 20 forges constantly working. may wana look into the heat map code, something is ♥♥♥♥ed.

[PogotTime]

Well after a long break i came back to 7D2D for Alpha 17 and was kind of surprised - i doesn't changed "that much" but the vehicles got me.

 

So to be a even better Game here is my Feedback:

 

 

Bugs / Crahes

- some mobs can glitch through a space between two 50 Pillars Concrete ?)

- sometimes when i run or drove with by bike, my Character fell through the world - i had to relgo to fix this

- there are some real glitches (mostly fixed in the experimental XML fixes like torches e.g.)

- i had some trouble setting up the server and that friends could connect (not listet, even with ip coulnd connect)

 

The mixed feelings Points (could be better

- Progression ins somhow hard. On day 14 there where Green guys jumping me with tons of other mobs and i was standing there with a bow

- Some zombies now dig mindlessly down ?? Ok i had begun a underground base...but zombies can "smell through 6-7 Blocks ?"

- To be able to produce Ammunition is really hard.

- i Missed the Wooden Log Spikes for my "fall down Trap"

- Stamina is an issue. Even with level 45 i can improve my stamina that i can mine longer than 5-6 hits

- i understand that there are fewer animals - but you need torches e.g. and i saw like 2-3 Animals between level 0 and 15 so thats doesnt fit.

- Zombies seem to scale faster that you and your inventory can. I was still with low end gear (Club / Bow) while there where those Football guys and on bloodmoons spitters / green jumpers e.g.)

- small engines are kind of super rare - but maybe that was so all the time (had to crack down 15 Cars to find 1)

- the precondition for perks are kind of hidden behind a tooltip - this could be better so see all the dependencies.

 

 

thats it for now

[toores]

-Random worlds look soo boring. I haven't found a place I want to build in. A16 felt much more like a believable world.

 

-The color schemes of different sub-biomes are annoying. The map is filled with burning spots that keep changing your colors, visibility and weather. Please get rid of it! It looks more like a bug then a feature. Also what's up with the fog making nights brighter?

 

-POIs are awesome but the sleeper amount and type ruin the fun. Too many in all, too many ferals, too many radiated, too many cops.

 

-The "super-precise" aiming is so much better for ranged weapons and SO much worse for melee. Melee (which I prefer) is almost unusable against running zombies.

 

-Melee has still not got any better. The added weaker attack is useless (let's be honest, the power attack more resembles the A16's only attack). The perks regarding melee are uninspiring. (hit 4 times to triger something on the 5th or incremental damage) Your options to interact in combat are still as limited, just count the hits to know when a zombie falls down and when it's dead.

 

-Perk system and level gating... Where to start?

Leveling skills by doing would force you to different path based on your gameplay. Perks that are locked to there skills would complement that system. Also having to find items from the world would keep your progression unique every time.

In A17 everything is available the same way and is pretty much a linear grind now. I can't see myself making poor perk choices to vary and mix up the progression. Why would I want a worse experience? Level gating even prevents the specialisation because you can't really advance more in one area the others.

 

-Blood moon hordes... If I wanted to, I could handle them. I really can't see how new players could handle them though.

I did some tests with high level character and to be honest I don't want to get there. Zombies are so powerfult that it comes down to huge grind of toughest materials and massive repairs. The unenjoyable loop of doing the same thing. Where, mr MM, is the STEALTH perk that was suppose to give me STEALTH even from BM hordes?

 

 

I am sure the updated systems are much better and the potential is there but balancing and some design choices make me think A16 was much more fun game.

[toores]

- Stamina is an issue. Even with level 45 i can improve my stamina that i can mine longer than 5-6 hits

thats it for now

 

You have to progress to steel pick and as high as you can in sex rex perk. Steel pick is so much slower that the stamina regen makes the total stamina consumption pretty ok when mining.

[Menace312]

I played my first A17 game on the Navezgane map, since I heard it got changed.

Mixed feelings about the new game, but like others I will reserve judgement, since I havent played the game enough yet (very busy with work right now).

 

BUT, during last week and this weekend, we played a fresh RWG map to try that out.

Now, I´m beginning to understand a lot of the issues I am hearing on the forum.

 

RWG could really use some love... But go play the Navezgane map! It has changed alot! And it plays much better and smoother that RWG.

 

Hope it helps someone...

[toores]

I played my first A17 game on the Navezgane map, since I heard it got changed.

Mixed feelings about the new game, but like others I will reserve judgement, since I havent played the game enough yet (very busy with work right now).

 

BUT, during last week and this weekend, we played a fresh RWG map to try that out.

Now, I´m beginning to understand a lot of the issues I am hearing on the forum.

 

RWG could really use some love... But go play the Navezgane map! It has changed alot! And it plays much better and smoother that RWG.

 

Hope it helps someone...

 

If there's going to be a main story taking place in Navezgane, I don't want to spoil the experience by knowing the map beforehand. I haven't played Navezgane since Random gen was introduced.

[jaela]

This is not a comment per say but a question, is there any way you could make it so you can still use E to collect plants etc instead of having to hit them with something to do so. Also I do not care for the way that points and leveling up happens there is not as much clarity to know when you have done so and when points have accumulated (or ive not figured that part out yet) without going and checking to see if you have points etc.

thanks jae

[meganoth]

This is not a comment per say but a question, is there any way you could make it so you can still use E to collect plants etc instead of having to hit them with something to do so. Also I do not care for the way that points and leveling up happens there is not as much clarity to know when you have done so and when points have accumulated (or ive not figured that part out yet) without going and checking to see if you have points etc.

thanks jae

 

There is an audio cue and a text message whenever you level up. The sound feels more like you just got an infection or you did something wrong), but if you haven't muted that sound it should be obvious enough.

 

There is also a blue xp bar just above the toolbelt, if that one is nearly empty you probably have leveled recently.

[meganoth]

Unsure if it's a bug but playing on a dedicated server and every single building has a feral in it. What happened to individual zombie spawns tailored to player level? If every single building has a feral and I'm level 1 to I dunno, 10? 15? What's the point? We previously wouldn't encounter ferals until about level 70-ish in A16.

 

Most of the newer buildings should be considered like a high level area in other games or as a "challenge area", they also provide high level loot. As a low level character I usually go through basic houses (rule of thumb: houses known from A16) or ruins until I have the weapons to confront bigger foes. The newer buildings can be tackled with extreme caution and traps (and an exit strategy ). In A17 you are slightly faster than a feral, if you can keep up running stamina long enough, you should always be able to escape if you start running before the have you surrounded or didn't fall through the floors into a trap.

 

TFP said they have to rebalance at least the "boss zombies" of many of these new buildings, so this is not final. Also the next experimental version has individual options for run speeds of zombies, you might turn down run speed a notch, also general difficulty can be lowered any time.

 

Sleeper zombies resetting if you run away is totally stupid. On multiple occasions I have killed all bar the feral and 1 normal and ran when the feral awakened. Come back and there's 12 in the house again (checking via the live map).

 

If this is true then it is certainly a bug. But does the live map show sleepers? Maybe you didn't wake every sleeper. Not that I don't believe you, just checking all possibilities. If you did start a new game with b208 you could make a bug report.

 

This update might be better for hardcore fans of the game, but as a casual player I'm feeling really marginalised, to the point where I'm pretty close to uninstalling it to give hard drive space to another game.

 

Like every experimental balancing is horrible at first. Remember how you were killed by animals at day 1 in A16.0? A17 seems to get a lot more options to control difficulty besides zombie HP and damage.

 

If you want to play a little more casual, go down one difficulty step, set day length to 90 mins, turn down feral run speed one notch (once the next experimental is live) and you have a much more casual game on your hands.

 

 

 

>Snip By OzHawkeye - Keep it civil please< Your poll says 30% love it. Well those who dislike something generally aren't going to bother posting here, they'll be playing something else (Two Point Hospital in my case).

 

Bravo for posting a theory and a counter-example at the same time.

[stupid]

Can people give feedback without being reminded its experimental in every other reply? The title of the thread is "How do you like A17 experimental?" It's experimental. We get it.

[PoppaTot]

Can people give feedback without being reminded its experimental in every other reply? The title of the thread is "How do you like A17 experimental?" It's experimental. We get it.

 

I just wanted to make sure that you do understand that the "e" is for EXPERIMENTAL

 

Sorry, couldn't resist lol

[meganoth]

Can people give feedback without being reminded its experimental in every other reply? The title of the thread is "How do you like A17 experimental?" It's experimental. We get it.

 

If you are refering to my post, it makes a difference if someone gives his opinion and says "this is not a state I want to play it" or if he says "I'm at the point to uninstall it/give up". The latter also implies "and that will not change anymore". And in that case I feel it might be helpful to remind him that this is not final and what changes seem to be in the pipe that may improve things for him.

 

That assumes that "point to uninstall it" isn't just a flowery phrase to generate drama.

 

(As an example: What is the difference between the following reasons to quit the game?

A) I can't stand the perk system

B) I can't stand the zombie killing giving most of the XP

 

If you know that the former will probably not change anymore and the latter is already announced as changing, it makes a huge difference)

[fragtzack]

Where is the poll vote for "Can't play game anymore due to bad performance" ?

 

All the game play changes are a moot point if folks (including me) won't even play A17 due to performance.

[Ghostlight]

I honestly don't know what you did for the past year. .

 

I reckon they spent that year (365 days) as follows:

 

Upgrade to new Unity / graphics overhaul: 10 days

New zombie AI: 5 days (+ 0.002 days to test it thoroughly)

Designing new dungeon POIs: 8,926 days

Designing new Stamina / hunger system: 6 minutes

Designing the new Perks system: 12.8 seconds

 

Realizing that A17 has no replayability, and is the shortest alpha ever (in terms of player becoming OP): 0 days

 

That totals a year, right?

[Ghostlight]

You have to progress to steel pick and as high as you can in sex rex perk. Steel pick is so much slower that the stamina regen makes the total stamina consumption pretty ok when mining.

 

Nitpick; Sex Rex 4/5 is enough. It is impossible to run out of Stamina using a Steel Pick if you have 4/5.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

If you are refering to my post, it makes a difference if someone gives his opinion and says "this is not a state I want to play it" or if he says "I'm at the point to uninstall it/give up". The latter also implies "and that will not change anymore". And in that case I feel it might be helpful to remind him that this is not final and what changes seem to be in the pipe that may improve things for him.

 

That assumes that "point to uninstall it" isn't just a flowery phrase to generate drama.

 

(As an example: What is the difference between the following reasons to quit the game?

A) I can't stand the perk system

B) I can't stand the zombie killing giving most of the XP

 

I know! I know!

 

A) is tough luck because the devs' arrogance has already made them state the new perk system is 100% here to stay.

 

B) Is a balance issue so the player can fix it himself.

 

What do I win?

[Jabber]

i am wondering- what exactly things take a one year of development?

I starting to play with alpha 7 it was 2013. 6 years of development and still dont beta. Its wonderful game, with a huge potential but development speed .. =(

And one year for a17. But still random gen buggy, still no optimization, still a lot of bugs. In a17 we can see things most part of which was implemented in mods long time ago. I have no idea what take a one year for dev. May be devs let us know?

[Jabber]

Expectation from a17 :

optimization.

normal random gen

NPC - survivors, bandits, other settlements

BEHEMOTH!!!

i can be a death from the skys with molotov in my hand!

zombie AI

its really hard to survive 7th night now

Reality:

WTF?!?! and one year for this??? really???

my ass is on fire

[beHypE]

The worst part isn't that A17 took so long to hit the shelves, it's actually that a lot is still labelled as a "WIP". But I just can't see how they'll finish / balance / fix a lot of the current issues (e.g. RWG) in a matter of weeks, when a whole year wasn't actually enough time to do so.

 

Overall I wish core foundations would finally get polished before another complete framework overhaul tears everything down for "the bigger picture". As a developer myself, I understand how much time can be saved by rewriting legacy code and early framework decisions, yet it's usually something you do mid-early, and not in an alpha that was labelled as one of the last.

 

Honestly, if I could wish for one thing, it would be for A18 to be a short (2-3 months) release with 80% of emphasis put on balancing. There's sooo many aspects that are totally broken / useless because of poor balance, food and tools/guns efficiency being one of them. And mostly, make it short so you don't bury yourself into a "vision" before it's too late to take into account community feedback at "low cost".

[meganoth]

 

I know! I know!

 

A) is tough luck because the devs' arrogance has already made them state the new perk system is 100% here to stay.

 

B) Is a balance issue so the player can fix it himself.

 

What do I win?

 

Honorable mention for most valuable influencer in the yearbook of the Society for Depression Assistance.

 

By the way, you forgot to throw in a mention that you are at level 100 and have everything now.

[Ghostlight]

Honorable mention for most valuable influencer in the yearbook of the Society for Depression Assistance.

 

By the way, you forgot to throw in a mention that you are at level 100 and have everything now.

 

Aha, that's because I am level 110 now and have TWO of everything. In fact A17 is so broken I have all of the items you can get in Don't Starve as well.

[JCrook1028]

The worst part isn't that A17 took so long to hit the shelves, it's actually that a lot is still labelled as a "WIP".

 

17 has NOT hit the shelves. We are merely now allowed onto the factory floor to watch it being built and play around a bit with some incomplete samples coming off the assembly line.......

[Toy truck]

I love it but i think lvl 20 to use forge is a little much.maybe 15 or lower.

[OzHawkeye]

i am wondering- what exactly things take a one year of development?

I starting to play with alpha 7 it was 2013. 6 years of development and still dont beta. Its wonderful game, with a huge potential but development speed .. =(

And one year for a17. But still random gen buggy, still no optimization, still a lot of bugs. In a17 we can see things most part of which was implemented in mods long time ago. I have no idea what take a one year for dev. May be devs let us know?

 

Well, for one, a major engine (Unity) update, that I note, some other developers have had so much trouble with that they've had to walk it back.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Expectation from a17 :

optimization.

 

From an experimental alpha? Beyond optimisations necessary to keep the game up and running in a reasonably good condition, this is something you'll need to wait for Beta for to see TFP concentrate on.

[Feycat]

 

A) is tough luck because the devs' arrogance has already made them state the new perk system is 100% here to stay.

 

 

I don't understand how the devs are "arrogant" for making their game. It seems a lot more like the players are "arrogant" for demanding that the programmers do what THEY want, instead.

 

We bought their game. We knew they were developing it, and they still are. What's arrogant about that?

 

And I'm not white-knighting. There's a LOT of crap in this game that I hate - have in previous versions and do now. But it's not "arrogant."