jacobvandy wrote on May 4, 2024, 01:57:

Kosh401 wrote on May 4, 2024, 00:19:
Mods have kept it going. The devs have been screwin the pooch IMO over the last several iterations by redoing systems over and over and not adding much substantial new gameplay or systems, especially at endgame. Upcoming changes like replacing the armour/clothing system with an armour/clothing "sets/theme" system are almost certainly going to be even more steps backwards.

But my biggest gripe is that this feels like turning the upcoming Alpha 22 release into "1.0" is just an excuse to jack up the price and then start charging for future (and long-promised) content as paid DLC's.... Bandit DLC? $20 please! MTX for new POI's etc.

If you can grab it on sale then I would say yes, you will get your $ per hour out of it. Try vanilla and then get into the overhaul mods like Undead Legacy and/or Darkness Falls. Top tier mods that have extended the base game's life incredibly well.

Eh... The bulk of the playerbase growth has happened post-pandemic (peak concurrent player count of 103K happened last weekend), so the folks who still remember how the game used to be and sometimes complain about recent changes are probably in the minority now. It may seem at times like they're ignoring feedback and "screwing the pooch," but really they're taking a more pragmatic approach and using the unbiased high-level data they have (i.e. sales and gameplay statistics) to help guide what they're doing instead of knee-jerking in response to some ruffled feathers of stubborn long-timers. AFAIK, they still have alpha branches available on Steam going back 10 years and haven't mentioned anything about taking those away, so said long-timers are free to continue playing whatever old version they still love so much. And there are some pretty good mods out there, but for the record, the vast majority of those 16+ million players they've amassed over this ridiculously long Early Access phase don't bother using any... The most popular one on Nexus is a re-styled UI with a little over a million downloads -- Darkness Falls is at around 100k.

In regard to paid DLC, that has been presented as a possibility, and frankly I would be very likely to purchase some as long as they aren't completely outrageous. But everything on the roadmap they released will be free, including Bandits and story mode, two separate major updates they're aiming to deliver next year.

For anyone looking to pick it up before the price increase, they already had a "last chance" sale where it went as low as $5-6 everywhere. IndieGala has Steam keys right now for ~$14, but it's well worth it even at full price, IMO. I've been playing on and off since 2013 and have racked up 800 hours.

Totally fair points, I'll 100% agree that I'm in the old timer disgruntled feathers category. The changes/redesigns to skill and crafting systems are a big part of why our group only plays the Undead Legacy or Darkness Falls overhauls at this point. Then there are things like being able to actually repair pretty much any vehicle wrecks that you come across in the world (Undead Legacy mod) are features that I would have wanted to see in the base game before it went "1.0"

Hopefully the long promised major content drops like Bandits will be free. I get they want and need and deserve to make $ but I'm a bit jaded these days by how paid content gets handled in many cases. Time will tell I guess here.

For anyone considering picking it up who hasn't played it before I do think it's worth the price of admission especially if on sale, and especially if you're open to modding (pretty easy process). POI packs ("Nitro", etc) can add hundreds of custom fan-made buildings as well to the random map gen pool.

Beamer wrote on May 4, 2024, 07:14:
Is it any fun solo?

Like 96% of my 800 hours has been solo... I'd say if you enjoy sandbox games that employ voxels for ultimate freedom to shape the world (Minecraft is a core inspiration, but 7D2D does have physics), survival games with lots of scavenging, and/or just popping loads of zombie heads with various weaponry, it's a solid choice. Even without mods, there are lots of options that allow you to customize the difficulty and grind to taste, and you can pause as long as there is nobody else in your game.

Most of my experience was on a multiplayer server (PvE), but to be fair, 90% of the time everyone on the server was just doing their own thing. Occasionally you'd bump into someone in town, or team up for a quest. A few people played in pairs, or at least shared a base.

The positives I experienced:

• The core gameplay loop is addicting and there's a decent sense of progression.
• There's a variety of stuff to do between questing, base-building, and scavenging
• The random maps are impressive. Yeah, I know, the POIs are hand-crafted, but the way they get mixed up to create artificial towns is kindof amazing.
• Lots of well-designed POIs with consistent design elements to help you navigate through them.
• Fully-destructible (and rebuildable!) terrain lets you fight and/or tackle quests in very creative ways

But there are a few negatives that keep me from going back often:

• Transportation is just a constant source of pain. Early-game is brutal for everyone, at least until you can get bicycle, and then it takes forever to unlock anything better.
• Performance is kinda crap in places, especially during blood moons. And in multiplayer, zombies start acting really weird when the server is struggling. We experienced this many times.
• There's not much to do once you achieve a base that's surviving blood moons with ease. Granted, that takes dozens of hours.
• I'm not crazy about having to loot hundreds of magazines, one at a time, just to be able to craft stuff. It feels like a slog.
• The stealth system feels pretty good for once, but I hate that there are POIs that spawn a bunch of wide-awake zombies right in front of you. It feels cheap.
• Sometimes trying to find the last zombie for a quest area is super-unfun. Especially in multi-story buildings that take a couple minutes to backtrack through.

Overall I'd say the current price point is reasonable, provided you have a beefy PC, but if they raise the price because of "1.0" then honestly I'd recommending passing.

Is it any fun solo?

If "over a decade of Early Access" does not scream 'stay away' as loud as possible then I don't know what does. Clearly an extremely incompetent developer at work here. Extra hard pass.

Kosh401 wrote on May 4, 2024, 00:19:
Mods have kept it going. The devs have been screwin the pooch IMO over the last several iterations by redoing systems over and over and not adding much substantial new gameplay or systems, especially at endgame. Upcoming changes like replacing the armour/clothing system with an armour/clothing "sets/theme" system are almost certainly going to be even more steps backwards.

But my biggest gripe is that this feels like turning the upcoming Alpha 22 release into "1.0" is just an excuse to jack up the price and then start charging for future (and long-promised) content as paid DLC's.... Bandit DLC? $20 please! MTX for new POI's etc.

If you can grab it on sale then I would say yes, you will get your $ per hour out of it. Try vanilla and then get into the overhaul mods like Undead Legacy and/or Darkness Falls. Top tier mods that have extended the base game's life incredibly well.

Eh... The bulk of the playerbase growth has happened post-pandemic (peak concurrent player count of 103K happened last weekend), so the folks who still remember how the game used to be and sometimes complain about recent changes are probably in the minority now. It may seem at times like they're ignoring feedback and "screwing the pooch," but really they're taking a more pragmatic approach and using the unbiased high-level data they have (i.e. sales and gameplay statistics) to help guide what they're doing instead of knee-jerking in response to some ruffled feathers of stubborn long-timers. AFAIK, they still have alpha branches available on Steam going back 10 years and haven't mentioned anything about taking those away, so said long-timers are free to continue playing whatever old version they still love so much. And there are some pretty good mods out there, but for the record, the vast majority of those 16+ million players they've amassed over this ridiculously long Early Access phase don't bother using any... The most popular one on Nexus is a re-styled UI with a little over a million downloads -- Darkness Falls is at around 100k.

In regard to paid DLC, that has been presented as a possibility, and frankly I would be very likely to purchase some as long as they aren't completely outrageous. But everything on the roadmap they released will be free, including Bandits and story mode, two separate major updates they're aiming to deliver next year.

For anyone looking to pick it up before the price increase, they already had a "last chance" sale where it went as low as $5-6 everywhere. IndieGala has Steam keys right now for ~$14, but it's well worth it even at full price, IMO. I've been playing on and off since 2013 and have racked up 800 hours.

I have put 100s of hours into these alphas and recommend playing the vanilla game to learn the basics and then to try out the many, many great mods for that game that, in some cases, change just some mechanics and in many cases are pretty much total conversions. The modding scene is what makes 7DtD great! E.g. Darkness Falls and War of the Walkers are simply amazing.

Mods have kept it going. The devs have been screwin the pooch IMO over the last several iterations by redoing systems over and over and not adding much substantial new gameplay or systems, especially at endgame. Upcoming changes like replacing the armour/clothing system with an armour/clothing "sets/theme" system are almost certainly going to be even more steps backwards.

But my biggest gripe is that this feels like turning the upcoming Alpha 22 release into "1.0" is just an excuse to jack up the price and then start charging for future (and long-promised) content as paid DLC's.... Bandit DLC? $20 please! MTX for new POI's etc.

If you can grab it on sale then I would say yes, you will get your $ per hour out of it. Try vanilla and then get into the overhaul mods like Undead Legacy and/or Darkness Falls. Top tier mods that have extended the base game's life incredibly well.

937 hours on this game. It's awesome and the mod community is amazing. So many possibilities and a random generated world with points of interest. The changes coming are only going to make the game more fun to play.

Bill Borre wrote on May 3, 2024, 20:05:
Anyone playing this? The trailer makes it look like a cross between Fallout and World War Z.

I put in tons of time a release or two ago. It's more like a cross between any survival game (Ark, Valheim, Rust) with Fallout's scavenging and then over-the-top base defense every few days, as every 7th day a massive horde of zombies beelines toward you, smashing anything in their path. You play six days getting ready for the 7th, then six more getting ready for the 14th, and so on, advancing, questing, scavenging, building better defenses, and so on.

I have way too many hours in this. I really enjoy getting a new base up and running and making it sustainable. The main problem with it is that they keep changing the skill system. That gets pretty annoying. Hopefully this locks it down. Still very fun though. They've got a ton of POI (Point of Interest) that act like puzzles. Think "how to get up to the top of the skyscraper". Sure you could just build a ladder up the side, but you miss out on all the goodies along the way. This is currently my #3 game on Steam behind Rimworld and Oxygen Not Included (around 400 hours). Might be time for another play through.

Anyone playing this? The trailer makes it look like a cross between Fallout and World War Z.