[2023] About alphas

For me there are several. And for different reasons.

a10 - This is when I really got into modding the game, and hosting servers. It's also when I started doing a lot of testing and documenting performance metrics of the game. I loved the initial grid crafting system and weapon parts. I also loved having max alive at 450 zeds. Made that central hub city a real challenge. Still miss the minimap a lot though.

a13 - Peak performance here. Though at this point having more than 256 entities would crash Unity. Water system was a bit wonky, but the sound effects and environment of the game were extremely immersive. I did a lot of building, and a lot of "living" in this particular build, and it's likely the second one with the most hours played.

a14.5-14.7 - There are so many things that went well here, and so many that went wrong. This was a real turning point for the game with new map mechanics, changes to the zeds, and the caves! oh I miss those death balls. There were so many things wonky here, but also so much growth. This was a peak era for modding the game, and new mechanics were coming out for doing it too. I also spent a fair amount of time playing this version on the console in split-screen.

a19 - The new farming system and increased challenges really brought me back. Starting to see we're finally losing the easy-mode the game got stuck on in a16. A lot of effort from the developer to improve the AI for future bandits, and it's making zeds interesting again. I didn't play a lot of a17 or a18 due to a combination of being busy with life, and working on testing the next internal build. a19 had a lot of my attention both before it released to the public, and after.

a21 - I know you guys haven't had a chance with this yet, but I'm really liking the changes, and have put a pretty good number of hours into it on my own dedicated server. IMHO, there still needs to be some balancing done in regards to the traders making the game too easy. The progression is a lot nicer, and feels more fluid to me though.

Originally posted by t3gk: How did you play a21? Are not the game in 20.5?

Thanks for your reply. When I will done with this alpha I gonna try it some of your options, but I don't know how to get back to some alpha in question

I am part of the internal test team. I've been "un-official" head of support since 2014, and am one of very few people that test the dedi client on Linux.

As for choosing older versions, simply go into the program properties in Steam and select the version you want under Betas. There is was a Pinned topic in the Q&A section regarding playing older versions of the client, but it was probably removed because it needs to be updated. You can see a version of it on the official forum here[community.7daystodie.com]

For me, Alpha 11 remains my favourite (which I have heavily modified over the years), though I can also play an Alpha 16 game from time to time (minibikes and expandable inventory being the big gains there for me).