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Thoughts on the balancing and changes in b221


InSanity

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Ok, I really enjoyed the game in A17 but after B221 all changed.

 

Power attack is useless now when cutting down trees (And other things), 3 attacks and you're tired and can't run away or continue for at least 2 sec before it regenerates. Using primary attack is faster and stamina will still regenerates while cutting the tree.

 

I can't have fun fighting hordes of zombies now because at the 3rd hit i'll be tired and instantly killed. Goodbye melee combat and hello ranged combat game only?

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Good old TFP. They simply cannot fix anything without also mucking about with something that didn't need fixed, and breaking that other thing in process.

 

In the previous build, using heavy attack on rocks and trees was only sensible because only the time it took to destroy that rock or tree actually mattered to overall yield (because of the bonus resources on the final swing, and the opportunity cost of physically getting to the next tree/rock asap). This meant that although the actual yield per boulder was higher using light attack, the yield per hour was higher using heavy attack. So in the end heavy attack was the way to go.

 

It could be that they have fixed/balanced this by increasing the yield per swing and reducing or removing the bonus resource on destruction. This would be a sensible change imo because as it was, light attack was utterly useless in the previous build of A17.

 

However, if they have not changed this and instead just made heavy attack burn more stamina in all situations to FORCE us to use light attack even when it is the inefficient choice, and without balancing the implication this has on mining (it will even slower than it was, and as we all know, it was already tediously slow) then yeah this change is a huge step backwards.

 

So now is Miner 69 now a useless skill?

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Ok, I really enjoyed the game in A17 but after B221 all changed.

 

Power attack is useless now when cutting down trees (And other things), 3 attacks and you're tired and can't run away or continue for at least 2 sec before it regenerates. Using primary attack is faster and stamina will still regenerates while cutting the tree.

 

I can't have fun fighting hordes of zombies now because at the 3rd hit i'll be tired and instantly killed. Goodbye melee combat and hello ranged combat game only?

 

Power attack was nerfed and normal attack improved. So that you would normally use normal attack (as the name implies) for everything (mining and melee) and power attack mostly as a finisher on enemies that were pushed down (you get bonus damage with a power attack then).

 

If mining and meleeing drains your stamina with the normal attack as fast as the power attack, yes, then we have a problem.

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Good old TFP....

 

So now is Miner 69 now a useless skill?

 

Good old nonadaptive players...

 

The power attack was always meant as a special move--not as the new standard button press to kill zombies and mine. The fact that there were posts telling people to forget about left clicking and always just right click shows that there was a problem.

 

The standard left click attack has been improved and the power attack now uses more stamina and also includes a recovery delay before the stamina refills making it something that you want to use as a finishing move and not something to spam during melee combat.

 

Miner69 has been changed to improve the standard left button hit just as it used to do in A16 (that's what you like right?). That makes it a very useful skill.

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What skill have you already leveled that this kills? I thought that Intellect was the skill that reduced crafting time. All they have done here is either:

 

a) Change the amount it reduces it too to 65%

 

or

 

b) Fixed the bug wherein if you watched something crafting, you got the reduced crafting time, but the moment you stopped watching it (ie left the Workbench) the time went right back up to full.

 

in my current game I am level 119 and say to make an arrow took me a fraction of a second per arrow with All crafting maxed out AND all int maxed out. This morning it was taking like 5-10 seconds per

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Good old nonadaptive players...

 

 

Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

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Only had time for a few hours so far. But must say it is an improvement. Few thoughts...

 

Still to many zombies in insignificsnt POI's

Change in XP seems better at a glance.

Good thing trader is carrying building mats.

 

That's the few things I've noticed in my short play time.

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

That's what the experimental is for..we test it out, report bugs, make some feedback and they make changes according to what they think is best. You can always opt out of experimental if you don't like how it is and stay playing alpha 16.4 or other previous alphas. This has barely been out for an day so no one has done a complete playthrough from start to let's say level 60 to see what difference the perks and mods do for power attacks. Lots of games on the PC have mods because players don't like how settings are in game..from skyrim to fallout to minecraft..if you don't like the Vanilla version feel free to get a mod or mod it yourself or how people have suggested before change the game settings for loot abundance and loot respawn for more chances of getting what you want.

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

Not adding fat pimps is a big mistake, I agree there (btw just from normal looting and stuff, had 23 bones, 3 glues, 4 duct tape by day 7, wasn't even trying to get them). but I think crying/declaring power attack is completely broke and worthless now (such as with other stuff lately "cough"cantbuildwithoutexploitingAIbeforeconcrete"cough"). I started a fresh run with this patch as melee, found me a sledgehammer from trader quest reward. Been meleeing 7 days now, and yes using power attack. It drains stamina -- and yes there's a skill that reduces melee stamina -- but it's worth it. Almost guarantee a knockdown and 1-shots a lot on Warrior difficulty; you don't have to use power attack the whole time... balance it with a normal attack. Normal melee does well, too. But, I guess everyone wants to be at 100% strength from day 1 lol. And mining and cutting trees aren't really affected by this change, if you just do it without salt-goggles you'll see. Sure it's not 100% balanced, but its a far-cry from "OMG YOU ♥♥♥♥ING BROKE IT UNPLAYABLE CANT MINE CANT FARM TREES CANT MELEE BROKEN GAME RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". I swear some of you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth with salt, take a salt bath, eat a pound of salt and wash it down with liquid salt everyday lol.

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

There are a lot more animals that I have seen thus far so bones haven't been a problem even remotely and you can not ask them to release the update sooner and say they're taking too long and in the next breath ask why they did not playtest to exhaustion.

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Not adding fat pimps is a big mistake, I agree there (btw just from normal looting and stuff, had 23 bones, 3 glues, 4 duct tape by day 7, wasn't even trying to get them). but I think crying/declaring power attack is completely broke and worthless now (such as with other stuff lately "cough"cantbuildwithoutexploitingAIbeforeconcrete"cough"). I started a fresh run with this patch as melee, found me a sledgehammer from trader quest reward. Been meleeing 7 days now, and yes using power attack. It drains stamina -- and yes there's a skill that reduces melee stamina -- but it's worth it. Almost guarantee a knockdown and 1-shots a lot on Warrior difficulty; you don't have to use power attack the whole time... balance it with a normal attack. Normal melee does well, too. But, I guess everyone wants to be at 100% strength from day 1 lol. And mining and cutting trees aren't really affected by this change, if you just do it without salt-goggles you'll see. Sure it's not 100% balanced, but its a far-cry from "OMG YOU ♥♥♥♥ING BROKE IT UNPLAYABLE CANT MINE CANT FARM TREES CANT MELEE BROKEN GAME RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". I swear some of you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth with salt, take a salt bath, eat a pound of salt and wash it down with liquid salt everyday lol.

 

Or they are totally normal humans that are passionate about a topic and have a more difficult time articulating their responses than you lmao. Some things are most definitely broken, (we all know it's experimental, spare it lol) and some things are working as intended. That doesn't mean that the intended outcome has to be liked by everyone. I swear some people wake up in the morning and drink a tall glass of "how can I prove I'm better than everyone else on the internet today"

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Regarding B221 performance, for me it runs pretty much exactly the same as all the previous A17e iterations.

 

So I guess the optimization part is coming later? I just got back home from work and don't have time to scroll through all the new threads and posts... So if there was any word about that, I'd appreciate if someone managed to catch a dev post about it and would be willing to share. :)

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

And I thought you understood what experimental was for. The problem is that people are wanting TFP to make changes and reverse decisions immediately based on minimal exposure.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

 

Which you have determined via gut feeling based upon your own playstyle rather than via exhaustive testing? I think we see that you aren't really interested in exhaustive testing so much as you are having it your way. I've been using the power attack perfectly well for the past week because when the change was implemented I stopped ONLY using the power attack.

 

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

Because you wanted it? Sorry but exhaustive testing on that point is still in progress.

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in my current game I am level 119 and say to make an arrow took me a fraction of a second per arrow with All crafting maxed out AND all int maxed out. This morning it was taking like 5-10 seconds per

 

 

You've either encountered a bug that weirdly specifically coincides with what the patch notes say but didn't mean or you're lying. Clearly the patch notes have a typo and it should say "Intellect reduces crafting TIME by up to 65%" or "Intellect INCREASES crafting speed by up to 65%" but someone had a brainfart and you knee-jerk raged.

 

It's correctly worded in game as "crafting is 65% faster" and it does work.

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Regarding B221 performance, for me it runs pretty much exactly the same as all the previous A17e iterations.

 

So I guess the optimization part is coming later? I just got back home from work and don't have time to scroll through all the new threads and posts... So if there was any word about that, I'd appreciate if someone managed to catch a dev post about it and would be willing to share. :)

 

There were some optimizations. The game seems to be running better for some people and the same for others. The BIG optimization they are planning is risky and will change some systems so they removed it before releasing this update so they can keep working on solving the bugs it creates.

 

For myself, I switched between 221 and 208 a couple of times this past weekend and it 221 was much better for me plus smoother.

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

Sorta agree ... The stamina usage for 221 is too harsh; but I will say it goes back to "normal" after a few perks ... Simulates getting better at higher levels. So, I'm fine with it.

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There were some optimizations. The game seems to be running better for some people and the same for others. The BIG optimization they are planning is risky and will change some systems so they removed it before releasing this update so they can keep working on solving the bugs it creates.

 

For myself, I switched between 221 and 208 a couple of times this past weekend and it 221 was much better for me plus smoother.

Thank you for sharing! It will be interesting to see how A17 runs when the big one hits. :)
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The patch notes say nothing about this. What's your actual source? Please note that "Madmole has stated..." doesn't count.

 

Are we saying they suck at patch notes too?

 

#Fanboisgonnaexcuse

 

Why do you play this game if it sucks so bad? I don't recall seeing even one slightly positive post from you, so why keep torturing yourself?

 

I know, I know "Because I love the game and it has so much potential but they are ruining it" (standard response from haters)

 

Well, I have an ex wife like that.....difference is I couldn't MOD her. So after uninstalling I got me a new toy to play with ;) and I'm much happier.

 

Maybe you should try doing the same.

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Good old non-playtesting pimps. I'm not saying I disagree with the changes at all. Well, because I don't. I'm just saying that this is what you get when you don't playtest to exhaustion.

 

What you are about the learn is, now, no one is ever going to power attack.

Also, you guys didn't add more bones or "fat pimps".

 

I'm still using the power attack.

 

*shrugs*

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And I thought you understood what experimental was for. The problem is that people are wanting TFP to make changes and reverse decisions immediately based on minimal exposure.

 

I understand perfectly what it is for. I am talking about your expectation that when you release something to everyone, that everyone will also understand.

Because you wanted it? Sorry but exhaustive testing on that point is still in progress.

 

Not just because I wanted it. It's pretty clear that there is a disparity with how much of the resource is required and how much you are providing based on several mathematical markers. Players end up with a years worth of meat and a weeks worth of ammo. That in it self causes a ripple effect on mushrooms' primary reason for existence. Not that I am complaining about infinite meat. Do you expect players to not spec into special arrows and bolts, or do you expect them to spec into it and not be able to make them?

 

I was lvl 113 in b208. I wasted a point into special bolts and arrows. I never had the material available to actually use them. If you changed nothing, then nothing will change. LOL, even for you to attempt to act like you know different at this point is laughable.

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I like just about every change I've experienced.

 

Zombie xp nerfed: OH NO! but...the early game is more tolerable with the buffing of basic attacks, increased axe (including stone axe) yield, miner69er working on basic attacks, guns (especially shotguns) being stronger and more useful for early POI clearing when you find one. It's taking me SLIGHTLY longer to get to level 20....but I also mind it FAR less than I did in 208.

 

reworked power attack: I never basic attacked in B208...every swing was right click. the stamina use was only a tiny bit more, but the damage was significantly better...why use regular attack at all? Now regular attack is stronger, so I don't mind using it, and power attack was made much more cost intensive (much more stamina cost, regen pause)...It doesn't take me significantly longer to melee kill zombies in 221 than it did in 208, same with mining (thanks to miner69er working on all attacks), and I can still use that power attack if i want. The allure of the gigantic damage bonus on the melee perks for using power attacks as a finisher looks pretty cool eventually too. Is it everything I ever wanted? not by a long shot, but its a decision that certainly made sense, and the implementation of it doesn't suck.

 

Mods for sale from trader: OMG YES! The first trader i visited in B221 had 9 mods for sale. One of my big complaints before B221 was that mods were way too late game....you didn't really get to start making serious use of them until level 50-ish. Now right from level 1 If i see a really nice mod, I can save up to buy it and slot it into my level 2 item.

 

Reworked ranged weapons: reduced ranged accuracy for low perception. This makes sense. It's a nerf to my playstyle, but before i could effortlessly get long range bow headshots just because -I- as a player was a good enough shot, and the 5% damage bonus on ranged weapons was insufficient in the extreme. Now It feels like those perception points will matter...I find myself aiming center mass instead of at the head every time now at medium ranges with 1 perception, which makes more sense. To offset this nerf, the guns, and especially the shotgun got a lot stronger. I found myself using the random shotguns and shells i found for dealing with the 800xp zombies in POIs...where before i just scrapped or sold all pistols/hunting rifles/shotguns.

 

Overall, the progression FEELS smoother to me than B208 did. I feel less helpless gathering resources in the early game, and less godlike killing wandering zombies. I haven't gotten very high yet (level 17 so far....default settings), but with the mods available from traders, it feels like EACH crafting quality increase will feel like a sizeable milestone...it'll mean 1 more mod in each piece of gear...which, if nothing else, is a slight effectiveness bonus.

 

I've even kept using power attacks, but i'm now much more judicious of when. I tend now to only use a rare single power attack on a single zombie if i'm in a hurry, or to get an important knockdown on a zombie if there are multiples around and i need to separate them out a bit.

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