Patch applied, server restarting. Edit: redditors are complaining about another possible bug related to building. Bet there’ll be yet another patch or hotfix soon.
Here’s an odd question, remember the Conan MMO? How does this compare to that?
I only played the conan mmo for about a month at launch so take this with a grain of salt. The only similarities are both made by funcom and have a high level of nudity/violence.
The mmo was a standard mmo with quests, grinding, etc. Although it was awful at lanuch after you left Tortage.
The new survival game is just that, a survival game. No formal quests, no formal structure. You are dropped into one zone map and make your own fun alone or with up to 70 other folks. There is progression via exp, leveling up, learning new and stronger items to craft. The big thing is base building.
There is fair amount of PvE content in the game, many monsters we can’t fight yet with the few of us on the Qt3 server. The combat technically average at best, no combos, no real strategy.
They are putting out a second zone map soon. Also npc groups raiding player bases soon (The Purge). Mounts, more crafting items, more stuff etc.
It is a big hit for Funcom. Hopefully they continue to aggressively patch/support it. I hear the official servers are a mess due to the chinese griefer/exploiter situation, according to reddit/official forums anyway.
So basically a Horde mechanic. I don’t mean that in a bad way though, just the idea that the NPCs could be challenging enough to make a PVE only sever worthwhile.
Yeah, the horde mechanic really appeals to me. The NPC group spawns at one of the borders of the map (except southern, where new players spawn) and begins to make its way to a worthy target, which I gather is going to be one of the larger player-made bases. These groups will include one or more high level thralls and/or some rare/unique, named, high level thralls based on characters from the stories*, making it a super tempting target for other players on the servers looking for good thralls.
*Except Conan. Naturally, the Conan NPC will be unkillable/unkidnapable.
I don’t recall re: the Conan MMO but something I very much like and which is entirely in keeping with the original Robert E. Howard Conan milieu is the Conan Exiles game is very, very low magic. I feel like I’m done with games where the holy trinity of glass cannon mage / damage sponge tank / sneaky thief is paramount.
But that being said, it would be nice to have a little more to do in combat. I feel like somewhere in the whitepapers of the game they talked about different attacks; like a fast and a heavier hitting slow attack. I don’t feel like this has been fully implemented.
Just to play devils advocate, there’s a reason why some of the archetypes keep getting used, they offer distinct playing styles, that offer depth to both tactics and gameplay when you switch characters. This in general, is something that has become homogenized over the years, for a variety of reasons.
It’s one of the things that really bore me about modern MMOs, everyone can do everything, or all the characters toolsets are largely the same, just with different effects attached to them. I like games with distinct classes, that offer really different playing experiences based on what you are playing. Maybe other people don’t get as much enjoyment out of it, but it’s one of the pet peeve sort of issues for me.
I’m also not really a fan of “sticking to the lore”…when it comes at the expense of game play. Hey, we’ve accurately re-created this style of combat that was in some book a while ago…it’s boring as fuck but…it’s accurate!!
It would be nice to come up with “some other system”, but then again, archetypes become archetypes for a reason. The holy trinity offers a very defined style of play, that by it’s nature requires cooperation. That’s hard to duplicate when you start trying to make everything perform the same. To my mind, it’s one of the major faults in multi player design lately, outside of games like Overwatch, which have actually gone back to embracing extreme archetypes.
At the end of the day, everyone is really trying to re-create rock/paper/scissors. That’s hard to do when everyone is rock.
I thought the holy trinity was DPS/Tank/Healer. The rogues and mages are usually DPS.
Yeah it’s a hard because everyone can do everything makes it bland and a never ending cycle of balancing and leads to the solo everything mentality. If you have hard lines in classes though, you spend hours looking for the tank or healer or you try and fail with your mix group.
It seems like a more ideal set-up is what FFIXV set-up, sort of a swap where you can fill in, and well when needed. But for these survival games, it seems nice if you can just play to someone’s skill, some people like ranged combat, others up close and personal, and then the “tricks”.
I’m digging 7 Days right now because it really allows us to do what we like. We can have someone spend all day adding or fixing the base, another person racing around the map on their mini-bike looking for treasure or something specific and someone else hunting, gardening and looting nearby houses. It all contributes and in the end, it’s about what you have and how you use it and not what you are. They could easily break it by introducing something too powerful, but we had a an awesome sniper rifle tonight, that helped take out specific mobs but they wound up using a bow and arrow in the end because that gun had very little ammo.
I would love a fantasy game that had the can travel the map solo, can take on big things together and of course building in a way that benefits everyone. What I am missing from 7 days, there really isn’t anything besides the horde or a surprise horde that encourages people to team up and fight.
Come join the Qt3 fun! Lots of opportunities such as what you describe, we just need more people. Folks can even clan up with us temporarily before venturing off to try other things.
Maybe in the future, and I might bring a few with me but…I cannot bring myself to do another Early Access that early on. I need the bread to at least start to brown a little. I have so many games that seem likely to never finish…
Yeah, you’re right. Healer, not Thief (Rogue). In my defense I sometime revert back to original Diablo’s 3 classes.
FYI - I’m a big fan of 7 Days myself. I have put it aside for now but absolutely intend to get back to it. Definitely scratches my itch. I hear what you’re saying about teaming up and fighting (or defending) but I’m maybe more of a soloist at heart.
See I love adventuring together. I hate someone telling me on the mic that going to the treasure chest, or chasing down the crate is a solo event. We’re better off splitting up for the day. I keep thinking… if I wanted to play solo, I would play solo. I want to group together. 7 Days doesn’t hugely encourage that, neither did ARK, but I am hoping Conan will… eventually.
I am also a fan of the trinity because it not only pushes you together it makes you learn your role. The downside is there is usually some half-ass class that doesn’t fit quit right that gets left out, there tends to be this idea that there is only one way to make and grow a character or you did it wrong, and there is not much flexibility/scalability for a varying group… even with the holy trinity you can’t do the harder challenges without crowd control, have 6 that want to group together… too bad it a 5 man instance.
These survival games offer flexibility the MMOs don’t.
Sorry to cut in – been enjoying the discussion – but wanted to mention that another hotfix is on the way to fix the structure placement issue introduced with last week’s patch ("…we have fixes inbound for the building “snap” and placement issue, as well as further planned improvements for “lag” caused by attempting to place structures partially inside of terrain."). They wanted to push it out today but it looks like tomorrow is more likely.
Think I was experiencing those structure placement issues; be looking forward to that fix.
Server patched and restarted!
The structure placement issue may be at least partially fixed. Not very clear based on cryptic hotfix note: “Fixed issues with building piece placement including stalls” (official link). Edit: Also this reddit comment: “This hotfix updated issues with lag when placing objects as well as the ability to place out certain pieces like stairs. Unfortunately this didn’t update other issues such as gates/doors but will be fixed ASAP! Thank you all very much for your patience.”
Edit: Here’s a possible fix or workaround for the structures issue:
Will give that a shot this evening unless another patch is released.
Trebuchet sneak peak:
Interior of a new tower Kono and I built last week (his design, probably borrowed from a redditor):
Exterior of an amazing tower shared by a different redditor this week:
This guy may have been the first person to actually showcase the triangle center concept (via reddit):
One of the devs requesting feedback on combat in general on reddit:
Jay_EV: This being Early Access there are several things that are subject to change, and combat is one of them. Our creative director knows that something needs to be done about it, and combat is his baby so he’s always reading feedback about it.
It’d actually be great if you could give us feedback on how combat currently makes you feel as a player, and how you would like to feel in a combat situation. That’s more helpful than saying “just copy Chivalry”. :)
Some pretty good responses.
Hey what material did you and Kono use? Is that 3rd tier?
I dug your tower but that reddit one is sublime.
On another topic: Decay
Can anyone accurately explain how it works or point me to something that is correct and succinct?
It sounds to me like a single block if not connected to anything will decay in about an hour. But I do not know how it scales or what I should expect. Seems like the bigger the building and/or connected blocks will last longer before decaying but what resets the decay meter? Do I have to interact with it or be in close proximity for a length of time or just by logging on the server are ‘my’ buildings reset in terms of decay clock?
It seems to me that proximity/interaction must be a factor. I was going around to a number of places where I had done building; proto-bases and some whimsical stairways and the like. In one case I could find no trace of my construction (admittedly, the lower stairs were gone so I couldn’t get up top to see anything more).
In another, an base that I used for a long time but not in a while but that I probably pass by or near on occasion was in partial decay; maybe 10% or 20%. Weirder still it seemed like it was decyaing before my eyes as I climbed up a ways to start deconstructing things on the way back down. At one point I seemingly could not destroy a few blocks though I could see them. I noticed however my feet weren’t touching the ground. I continued where I could destroy blocks and in a minute when I looked back the way I came those indestructible blocks had vanished.
On the whole I think the decay system is good; saves me from having to go back to things I do want to abandon. But there are several buildings that I do not want to decay and I want to know what it is that needs to be done.