The direction of the game is questionable

Originally posted by lojezao da amazonhinhas:

Pointing out the lack of motivation to live in rural areas does affect the survival open world aspect of the game, even more if the biome around you is exactly the same all around. If you played older alphas, which I immediately assume you have, you do remember mountain formations, uneven terrain, bridges, rivers, lakes, islands. I think these should come back.

I lost you at walking simulator? I hope you are spawning with a bicycle, no way i'm walking 3km to the trader.. it becomes a chore eventually. So you'll build next to a trader, right? Then what's the point for the rest of the map? It's not like loot is exclusive to an area.

Is this constructive enough for you?

Most of your constructive criticism is about the early game. You do pretty quickly get a bicycle. You may need to camp near the trader in the beginning but later in the game you could build out in the wilderness far away from the trader. Once you've purchased a few water filters you don't need the guy any more.

Before traders and player skill progression was added to the game players spent hundreds of hours exploring, mining, building, and farming. Until Alpha 11 there were no vehicles at all. Everyone has such nostalgic and fun memories of the way the game used to be and the funny thing is that once you get about five water filters from the trader you can walk away from him and never return. Don't quest. Just explore, mine, craft, build, chop, harvest, and farm. You can play the game just like it used to be.

If you hanker for those glory days before the trader existed and player progression was a thing then spend the first week making money to buy your filters and then march far away into the wilderness and play just like we used to.

Originally posted by lojezao da amazonhinhas:
Sorry, I think "Most of your constructive criticism is about the early game" is wrong, it's about the "survival sandbox", which the whole idea the of the game revolves about.

The game is still a survival sandbox for most of your playthrough. Yes, you must either loot to get water or build dew collectors. Yes, to build dew collectors you must buy a filter from the trader. But all of that can be completed within the first game week. Once you have enough dew collectors built you are no longer dependent on looting for water and there's nothing else you need from the trader.

You are characterizing an entire playthrough as having lost the survival sandbox element simply because in the first few days you must utilize the trader to buy filters for your dew collectors and that is simply not a true representation of the entire experience. Once you get that small part of the game out of the way you have full freedom to play however you wish.

Sure, in 10 years there MUST have been an improvement, right? Vehicles are nice, but they don't cut it if instead i'm having less stamina (the game isn't just about running).

I'm not sure what you are talking about. You don't want a walking simulator but the game has vehicles. You don't have enough stamina to drive your vehicles? Is your finger glued to the shift button?

Antearz put together a very well detailed post, I recommend you read it. These "nostalgic and fun memories" weren't just implanted in our brains- The game was in a really good spot at the time it was released. 7 days to die made it to steam awards during the time i'm describing.

I know those nostalgic and fun memories were real and not just in our minds. That's my point. Before the trader was implemented and before we earned xp for doing things we simply played the game by mining, exploring, hunting, farming, crafting, building, and killing zombies as we pleased. It was a sandbox because we could just do whatever we wanted. That was real.

What is also real is that you can play that way still once you have handled your water needs and those water needs can be handled during the first week of your game. After that you can play for infinite game weeks only doing the things we did before there were traders. You don't need them anymore.

But they are there for people who do want to use them and do quests and trading. That's a pretty sandbox-like design.