My thoughts on 0.55

[BeefBacon 1185]

I like it.

 

The zombies are a bit too tough and loot is a bit too scarce, but I like it. Of course I have the advantage of having a character from .54, so I have access to a few cans of food, a decent weapon and some ammo. I daresay I won't enjoy it quite as much when I'm a freshspawn.

 

But, honestly, I had more fun playing last night than I think I ever have. I was forced to use bullets on zombies and I found that I was actively searching for food rather than just picking it up as I went along. I think once loot starts respawning (and more food spawns in cities and larger villages) and the attack rate and health of zombies is reduced, I'd go so far as to say it'd be spot on.

 

I know that a lot of players on these forums won't be happy until the population of every server is fighting for the last can of beans using only sticks and burlap sacks, but I'd rather see a small increase in food spawns. It seems to me that cities eventually (if they're not already) will become death traps. Being spotted by a single zombie might be enough to force you to run, thereby attracting even more zombies. Perfect, I say. However, what's the point in going in to cities if they spawn virtually nothing? Where's the risk/reward? The chance that the police station hasn't already been looted?

 

Raiding cities, and all the risks associated with it, should be a viable playstyle. 

 

I also have a small problem with the 'tech progression' as it were. There seems to be a catch-22. The best way to get food, it seems, is to either farm or hunt. In order to get the necessary tools to farm and hunt one needs access to things like axes and shovels which can only be attained in settlements. This being the case, forcing players inland doesn't really make any sense given that there's no way to make these tools.

 

The ability to make a simple hatchet and a bow out of readily available materials would go a long way towards alleviating this issue. I understand that bow strings can be fashioned from animal guts, but how do you get animal guts if you can't make a bow to kill the animal? If you have animal guts, odds are you have a bow so it seems that there's not much point in being able to make string out of animal guts unless you're in a group. And, of course, the bow itself can only be gathered from a few select (and rare) trees which, unless I'm mistaken, can only be taken using an axe.

 

So this has somehow become a suggestion. I say that simple bows should be fashioned using generic sticks and plant matter. Such a bow would be considerably less effective than the standard improvised bow and would break after a few uses, but it would allow players to hunt. Being able to gather ashwood sticks without an axe, and ashwood trees being more common would help too. The ability to start fires with sticks would also be nice, since matches don't spawn in forests.

 

It's also worth noting that in the three or so hours that I played last night I saw a single chicken. More animal spawns, particularly in dense forests, would be good.

 

Christ, this is a lot longer than I had intended it to be. Yes the game is in alpha, but without knowing what exactly the devs plan to do in terms of the availability of food, making suggestions based on the current state of the game is the best I can do.

 

I'd like to reiterate that I really, really like 0.55. The new zombie AI is quite refreshing, as is the scarcity of loot, but I dread to think how frustrated I'm going to get when I'm back on the beach.

 

 

tldr; food scarcity and the threat from zombies, while refreshing, seems like a repeated death sentence for anyone unlucky enough to spawn in 5 minutes after everybody else. Freshspawns should have more options when it comes to obtaining food.

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

 

without knowing what exactly the devs plan to do in terms of the availability of food, making suggestions based on the current state of the game is the best I can do.

 

 

 

This. This sums up why I don't really offer much feedback. I have absolutely no idea what goals the devs have. 

 

Every time I think about offering up a detailed opinion, I get lost in my own ideas and how they may have absolutely no bearing on what the devs plan to do anyway, wasting everyone's time.

 

For example, if the devs plan for food to be really scarce and they want new spawns to commonly die, then what good does me writing 5 paragraphs about how I think the game should be changed to make gameplay a bit easier on new spawns do? None. 

 

I feel like the devs need to give us a little bit more insight on what they are are trying to test with each patch, what we should be watching for, what their design goals are, and what they are specifically looking for feedback on. 

 

I'm not trying to be harsh or rude btw. I just think the devs are handling us like we are a post release community of customers rather than a set of alpha testers that paid for the privilege. 

Edited April 2, 2015 by ColdAtrophy

[Mullraugh 1151]

I've spent the past 30 minutes outside of Vybor picking apples from a tree because the surrounding area is completely void of food.

 

Apples do barely anything for hunger.

 

I've eaten about 70 apples and haven't gotten energized. I hope they fix this bottomless pit of a stomach and a weakness that makes us die in half a day if we don't eat.

 

 

 

3 apples is enough to fill a guy up for a quarter of the day. That's 6 hours

Edited April 2, 2015 by mullraugh

[BeefBacon 1185]

This. This sums up why I don't really offer much feedback. I have absolutely no idea what goals the devs have. 

 

-

 

I'm not trying to be harsh or rude btw. I just think the devs are handling us like we are a post release community of customers rather than a set of alpha testers that paid for the privilege. 

 

Yeah, no worries there. I do agree. I'm not convinced that the devs pay a great deal of attention to the forums. They pop in from time to time but I daresay that there's little that can be said that would incur any change. A better explanation of what the final product might look like would be beneficial. As it stands we have no idea if the scarcity of loot is for testing purposes (like when shoes would degrade very quickly) or if it's something that will be largely unchanged for the rest of the development cycle.

 

I like how open the devs are, but more clarity on the future and what the game might be like in a year or so would be quite nice.

Edited April 2, 2015 by BeefBacon

[Mookie (original) 799]

Yeah, no worries there. I do agree. I'm not convinced that the devs pay a great deal of attention to the forums. They pop in from time to time but I daresay that there's little that can be said that would incur any change. A better explanation of what the final product might look like would be beneficial. As it stands we have no idea if the scarcity of loot is for testing purposes (like when shoes would degrade very quickly) or if it's something that will be largely unchanged for the rest of the development cycle.

 

I like how open the devs are, but more clarity on the future and what the game might be like in a year or so would be quite nice.

 

Absolutely right. This is partly what leads to the constant debate about "this is an anti-game" versus "I bought this thinking I might have some actual fun". Perhaps there's a sweetspot between the two, but it seems far from obvious right now. And it's really beginning to put people off.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Mookie

[CJFlint 357]

I think IF persistants works as well as the devs say now. The question is does it wipe every week still or at all anymore? I have been pondering making a camp. Before I left for a while I became kind of a minimalist walking bush, so does this mean I can store shit now and not worry about it just disappearing into the either? If its more perm, this patch changes the playing feild....

 

Persistants is the big ? in my mind...........so it works now..........right? Or is all wishy washy still........it kind of works sometimes....your shit might be there.......maybe not........lol I just dont want to waste a bunch of time just to find out it dosnt work...

Edited April 2, 2015 by CJFlint