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Some general feedback on a17


konrax

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After some time playing the game and reading the feedback on the forum I would like to share with you all some feedback on the current state of the game.

 

Overall I feel that 17 is a vast improvement when it comes to the core framework of the game, with customization options available now in almost every aspect of the game. I had a feeling that because of how much the game changed there would be a few rough spots, it would need some balancing, some adjustments to systems, and just general tinkering to get it right. After all creating a game is very much an art unto itself and it just doesn't happen without some fine tuning.

 

So here are some of the main areas I would like to focus on for my feedback:

 

General AI & Horde Night

Experience System & Level Gates

Base Building

Ammo & Resources

 

 

General AI & Horde Night:

 

Zombie digging seems to come up a lot from the players, and after seeing it in action myself, I found that it was immersion breaking in it's current format. It isn't believable that zombies would just turn hills into swiss cheese like that, and I understand the point that TFP have the creative freedom to do anything they like with their lore. That being said, it also appears that underground bases have become almost obsolete because of how strong it really is that the zombies can dig that effectively.

 

I wouldn't want to remove zombie digging completely, but what would be great is if it was less frequent and zombies would only do it in bursts when they did do it. It should also be said that with a player nearby that they detect, zombies should do this more frequently.

 

The game needs to have a system added that would cause zombies to stay in an area for long periods of time, while either growing or shrinking in number over the course of many days / weeks. I understand it has been suggested before that the zombies use a breadcrumb type system, but for the application of this type of mechanic it would be really fitting. Being able to avoid large hordes underground would be great, but you don't want to let the players off the hook without any penalty. Having hordes hang out in the area players travel to enter their bases would force the players to eventually have to clear the zombies, and if you just leave them alone for too long your base will surely get overrun by the endless swarm of zombies on horde night.

 

Using the land claim stone as a beacon for zombies to draw them would be a good start, active bedrolls also, and combine this with a heat map based on how long and often a player is in a spot that takes days/weeks to cool down would help guide these hordes to the right spots. In the current form it almost feels pointless to try and make corridors and kill rooms underground because the zombies will just dig at you from all directions, almost making base design irrelevant underground.

 

Scaling for horde night is in a fairly good spot, the only thing I would really like to see if a fixed difficulty of horde based on date & level, and an exponential system used based on duration alive. This will help make the game harder for players who have stronger bases on horde night.

 

Players can also drive the entire horde night with the zombies running after them until dawn where they just wander off. If they were to instead target the area based on the above mentioned mechanics, players who wanted to go back to their bases would have to deal with the horde still hanging outside of their base.

 

With this added into the game, players will either have to fight the horde at some point to get their stuff back, or choose to move on to a new location to try and start over (nomad).

 

I recall asking Joel about if they had tested how many zombies the current system can spawn in a stable environment when he did the live stream with ninja when a17 dropped, and it didn't really appear that they had done this yet based on his answer. I would really like to see you guys focus on increasing the max zombie count as much as possible, and optimizing the game based on that. Hundreds of zombies hanging around in certain places would make for a really cool game environment, and would give you those "no go" places where the dead have claimed them.

 

 

Experience System & Level Gates

 

I would love to see the level gates kept, but consolidated to be a bit more achievable and to promote some specialization. Keeping the current structure of gates, but bringing the highest level requirement to 50 instead of 100 would allow for this pretty easily. Being able to craft a bike and forge at level 10 & 15 would be good spot I think for the scaling.

 

Experience for zombies should be toned down a bit, while experience for crafting & collecting resources should be buffed by at least 50%.

 

Scaling the exp on a balanced play style (equal parts building/searching/fighting/resources) you should end the first week at level 15 (forge).

 

The bike I feel is such a cool thing to have that it would really help promote new players to have an interest in the game. Many of my friends find the current state of the early game a bit too repetitive/limited, and having access to a bike fairly early would alleviate this by a lot.

 

 

 

Base Building

 

Make barbed wire work like how the log spikes used to work (plus maybe holding them in place). I think it really took a lot away from a bases ability to survive when the log spikes were removed because they would interrupt zombie attacks and reduce their DPS by a lot when they were standing on them. I strongly believe this is the reason why everyone says their bases "melt" right now. It would also be cool if barbed wire had a chance to catch and hold a zombie for a while, sort of like a bear trap but for an unknown amount of time. With these buffs please feel free to adjust the cost accordingly, or even make it a perk and level gate it.

 

 

 

Ammo & Resources

 

With all these zombies everywhere it does feel like ammo needs an increase in quantity it can be found. I would love to see boxes of ammo you can find and open to (sort of like an oil barrel) with a set amount of bullets in it.

 

Please also bring back the above ground resource piles that were biome specific, most importantly lead, sulfur, and coal for bullets.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, I may edit this a few times and include some feedback from you all. Please don't bother with get gud type posts, this is my opinion on what I think would make this game more fun!

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