[2020] Why is this game still in alpha?

Originally posted by Vulc:

Originally posted by BattleSquirrel7: I know more information, so letting you know as requested.

For example, the square root of 9 is 3, Asia is the largest of the continents, and oh yeah...games being in Alpha nowadays just means they are still working through various design and implementation ideas so they don't want to call it "finished".

I believe they are still working toward NPC bandits (at least I hope so), and the latest changes to the weapons and skills and such are what most of us would call a substantial change, so it's a new Alpha version. Better to not be so concerned with it being "still in Alpha testing" and think of it more as an ever-evolving bundle of zombie-smashing fun ;)

At this point Alpha is just an excuse from actually being responsible with how bad some parts of the game are.

It's almost like some parts of the game are unfinished and little more than placeholders...*Cough Water cough* Kinda like the game is in Not Finished and still an alpha. The devs focus down one thing at a time, It's senseless to try and build up every aspect of the game all at the same exact time. Get one thing how you want it, then move onto the next. By the very nature of doing things one or even a handful at a time, some things will remain unfinished and unpolished for long stretches of time.

Originally posted by Handsome Arrow:

Originally posted by Shurenai: It's almost like some parts of the game are unfinished and little more than placeholders...*Cough Water cough* Kinda like the game is in Not Finished and still an alpha. The devs focus down one thing at a time, It's senseless to try and build up every aspect of the game all at the same exact time. Get one thing how you want it, then move onto the next. By the very nature of doing things one or even a handful at a time, some things will remain unfinished and unpolished for long stretches of time.

They've been working on this game for almost 10 years with a similar team size to Rust, and similar success up until recently.

The main difference is Rust actually made progress, and succeeded, whereas 7 days to die if anything is regressing, to the point that we're going a year without any significant updates. The tiny patch we just received is absolutely nothing.

This game will never, ever be finished.

..Tiny patch? A19 was tiny? O_o Also we're just past the 7 year mark by a month or two- When measuring years you shouldn't round up as it easily over-exaggerates the actual time span.

Heck, A18.0-A18.4 were also within the last 12 months. But 'no significant updates' apparently. GG.

Originally posted by Handsome Arrow:

Originally posted by Shurenai: ..Tiny patch? A19 was tiny? O_o Also we're just past the 7 year mark by a month or two- When measuring years you shouldn't round up as it easily over-exaggerates the actual time span.

Heck, A18.0-A18.4 were also within the last 12 months. But 'no significant updates' apparently. GG.

Tiny in terms of progress.

All of the "progress" made is lateral, the game isn't moving forward. It's getting different, not better.

The game is in such a bad place, they programmed themselves into a corner and need to go back and untangle the spaghetti, at this point a complete rewrite would do the game a bigger favor than it would set it back.

'Better' is purely subjective to the person. You don't think it's getting better, But I do. Both of us are right, Because our own opinions are what they are.

Starting over would just make it take 7+ more years. It might go faster than that, to some extent, due to them not making (m)any mistakes along the way as they did the first time, but it would absolutely make it take longer than if they just continue with what they have.

Lateral progress Is still progress. At some point all things must be refined and set in place so that it can be polished. Game development isn't always about constantly adding new things at every turn- Sometimes you need to take a step back and fix something you think could have been done better, Or change something that doesn't mesh with systems that were designed a year later in development.