8 years of Early Access and 7 Days to Die shows no signs of slowing down on the major upgrades, with Alpha 20 Experimental out now on Steam. It's opt-in, so you need to select it from the Beta menu for the game on Steam, and once it's stable enough it will be out for everyone.
This version is another huge change for the game with lots of new character / enemy models that look and perform better, along with some massive world-building upgrades to the whole experience.
Just some of what's new and improved includes:
- A brand-new version of Random Gen World creation with new cities, city tiles and a part system spawner. You will be blown away by it!
- Over 200 new POI’s and updates to many of the older POI’s. Over 550 Explorable locations total
- Navezgane has many city improvements, terrain improvements and new rural and wilderness communities
- Nearly 25 new HD characters with a couple with improved shaders
- 6 New weapons and 13 HD remakes with the addition of new primitive pipe weapons
- Overhauled shape menu with hundreds of new shapes organized and buildable from a simple frame with in-game, creative and level design support
- Block Placement Improvements
- We have added a Robotic Drone Companion to carry your extra gear, heal you and more
- Dynamic Imposter System renders accurate changes to POI’s and player bases at far distances
- Rendering improvements with 100s of new PBR models
- Quest Improvements including new restore power night Quests
- AI Enemy Improvements including city spawning, ducking, obstacle attacks, head tracking and burst attacks.
Seems this update has managed to pull back a lot of players too, with it hitting a recent peak count of over 40,000 players at a time, which is the highest it has been for quite a few months.
You can pick it up on Humble Store and Steam. Full Alpha 20 Experimental release notes here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
Start a new world after almost a year of not playing. Dropped into the almost on the doorstep of a trader. Lucky! Killed the first zombie, but after that another one came running around the building with bright yellow eyes. Nearly died and ended up with 10 HP and a broken leg. Had to spend the rest of the day finding resources for a splint without attracting any Zs which resulted into almost starving to death. This game can be vicious. I love it!
2 Likes, Who?
I'm excited to play the 1.0 release, but considering this game is still in alpha after all these years, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get to play it.
1 Likes, Who?
I'm excited to play the 1.0 release, but considering this game is still in alpha after all these years, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get to play it.
Every alpha since A14 has been a 1.0 release for me. So A20 is like 1.6. It's an amazing game that they just keep adding more to.
2 Likes, Who?
I've played for a number of hours now, and it is quite different to the previous Alpha 19.
The immediate thing to come to my attention was the world generation. The street layout and additional decorative elements really make it feel different. For instance the bridges across the roads, the storm drains lining the edges of the roads. As I made my way to find the trader, I got quite close to the centre of the town, and spotted a zombie cop, and the new spider zombie. Not something that would be wandering around in the green biome on day 1 in previous alphas.
There seem to be many more wandering zombies. There are a vast number of new buildings to explore. Even the regular buildings, such as Rekt's trading post has completely changed and looks nothing like Rekt's place in Alpha 19.
There seem to be numerous balance changes. I haven't been reading the Dev notes, especially. But from my knowledge of Alpha 19, I can see that items in the Trader's are costing more. It seems like I can't sell the salvage for as much financial gain.
The building blocks - It's quite different to build now. The growing and seeds usage has changed. Seems like a number of ways to "take advantage of the game" have now been nerfed. Difficulty seems to be a bit harder for the same settings as Alpha 19 (which I feel is a good thing).
With all the nice extras, there is a bit of a performance hit though. I did turn down some of my settings to get framerate similar to Alpha 19 framerate. I also went into the start menu, and activated Vulkan (rather than OpenGL) and that seems to now be working okay (and a little faster I feel than OpenGL).
The immediate thing to come to my attention was the world generation. The street layout and additional decorative elements really make it feel different. For instance the bridges across the roads, the storm drains lining the edges of the roads. As I made my way to find the trader, I got quite close to the centre of the town, and spotted a zombie cop, and the new spider zombie. Not something that would be wandering around in the green biome on day 1 in previous alphas.
There seem to be many more wandering zombies. There are a vast number of new buildings to explore. Even the regular buildings, such as Rekt's trading post has completely changed and looks nothing like Rekt's place in Alpha 19.
There seem to be numerous balance changes. I haven't been reading the Dev notes, especially. But from my knowledge of Alpha 19, I can see that items in the Trader's are costing more. It seems like I can't sell the salvage for as much financial gain.
The building blocks - It's quite different to build now. The growing and seeds usage has changed. Seems like a number of ways to "take advantage of the game" have now been nerfed. Difficulty seems to be a bit harder for the same settings as Alpha 19 (which I feel is a good thing).
With all the nice extras, there is a bit of a performance hit though. I did turn down some of my settings to get framerate similar to Alpha 19 framerate. I also went into the start menu, and activated Vulkan (rather than OpenGL) and that seems to now be working okay (and a little faster I feel than OpenGL).
0 Likes
I love the game and I own it but why is this still in Alpha it came out in 2013
It's not in Alpha, by any stretch. They just stuck with the terminology for some reason. Still, 8 years of continual updates - incredible commitment. I know quite a few dev outfits that would have put out A16 four years ago and drawn a line under it. Indeed, thanks to the legal fiasco that occurred when Tell Tale went under, it's still A16 you'll get on the Xbox and PS4.
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Dec 7, 2021
Every time I play this, I run into a show stopping bug. Last time it was whenever I'd get near the Trader's door, it'd teleport me away...
Do find it amusing that it's an Alpha / Early Access, yet it's on the Playstation Store...
Do find it amusing that it's an Alpha / Early Access, yet it's on the Playstation Store...
0 Likes
Every time I play this, I run into a show stopping bug. Last time it was whenever I'd get near the Trader's door, it'd teleport me away...You mean you were getting teleported away even after 6:05? Are you sure the trader was open?
Do find it amusing that it's an Alpha / Early Access, yet it's on the Playstation Store...
0 Likes
Every time I play this, I run into a show stopping bug. Last time it was whenever I'd get near the Trader's door, it'd teleport me away...You mean you were getting teleported away even after 6:05? Are you sure the trader was open?
Do find it amusing that it's an Alpha / Early Access, yet it's on the Playstation Store...
It would be nice if they shrunk the teleport box a bit so it would only teleport yourself away if you got inside or on top of any of invulnerable blocks. Now it also does it when you just clip the corner when running around it.
1 Likes, Who?
Every time I play this, I run into a show stopping bug. Last time it was whenever I'd get near the Trader's door, it'd teleport me away...You mean you were getting teleported away even after 6:05? Are you sure the trader was open?
Do find it amusing that it's an Alpha / Early Access, yet it's on the Playstation Store...
It would be nice if they shrunk the teleport box a bit so it would only teleport yourself away if you got inside or on top of any of invulnerable blocks. Now it also does it when you just clip the corner when running around it.
It always did that. Shrinking it is probably not an option, because if you are able to come too close to it, you might exploit for some protection, because the trader walls are indestructible. If anything, some more clear indication would be probably better solution... let's say, some sort of (red?) flood lights around the compound to indicate where the border is. I can imagine some better iteration will come, but probably isn't on the top of the list currently. Mods might provide some nicer solution.
0 Likes
TheRiddick Dec 8, 2021
Game still runs on OpenGL under Linux doesn't it?
0 Likes
thanks to the legal fiasco that occurred when Tell Tale went under, it's still A16 you'll get on the Xbox and PS4.
Was Tell Tale their publisher for consoles? Can they not get a new one?
Edit: sounds like they will be doing a new console port:
https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Console_edition
Last edited by Phlebiac on 8 December 2021 at 6:50 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Game still runs on OpenGL under Linux doesn't it?
OpenGL is recommended. Vulkan is available. I've been playing some A20 with Vulkan, and it might be less stable but it does appear to run a bit quicker.
Meanwhile, I have been playing the game with Feral Sense setting activated. Woo - A nice boost in game difficulty. The zombies hear you easier and from further away.
0 Likes
Game still runs on OpenGL under Linux doesn't it?
OpenGL is recommended. Vulkan is available. I've been playing some A20 with Vulkan, and it might be less stable but it does appear to run a bit quicker.
Tried it with Vulkan. While it runs smoothly, it gives me a slight but noticeable increase in input lag.
Meanwhile, I have been playing the game with Feral Sense setting activated. Woo - A nice boost in game difficulty. The zombies hear you easier and from further away.
I cleared a house. By the time I was done there were more zombies coming in from the outside than had spawned inside.
Actually had to take out my gun at some point!
2 Likes, Who?
From the notes, they added the Epic Online Services backend 'for future cross-platform capabilities'... ooh, do you think they're going to resurrect/update the console versions now that they've got the rights back (RIP Telltale) and apparently have money?
Started my own A20 server for friends last night, and definitely liking the changes so far. This is a huge update over A19. I've been running it on Vulkan since A17 or A18 with no major issues (AMD RX 580 on AMDGPU / Mesa, however) - I'd recommend people go ahead and try it (pick the Game Launcher when starting and you can even save it as the default there) if you haven't already.
I do have a couple minor issues where if the game crashes, it forgets half of the options you've changed (controls, video, etc.) that session; it must save on exit, and loading in at least single player works fine the first time, but if I quit out to the main menu and then try to load back in to that same save (e.g. after changing draw distance in the options), the game crashes.
Always the 2nd load in; first is always fine. So that's a new bug, but it's in the latest_experimental branch for a reason.
Started my own A20 server for friends last night, and definitely liking the changes so far. This is a huge update over A19. I've been running it on Vulkan since A17 or A18 with no major issues (AMD RX 580 on AMDGPU / Mesa, however) - I'd recommend people go ahead and try it (pick the Game Launcher when starting and you can even save it as the default there) if you haven't already.
I do have a couple minor issues where if the game crashes, it forgets half of the options you've changed (controls, video, etc.) that session; it must save on exit, and loading in at least single player works fine the first time, but if I quit out to the main menu and then try to load back in to that same save (e.g. after changing draw distance in the options), the game crashes.
Always the 2nd load in; first is always fine. So that's a new bug, but it's in the latest_experimental branch for a reason.
0 Likes
Tried it with Vulkan. While it runs smoothly, it gives me a slight but noticeable increase in input lag.
Just curious - is that with Vsync on, and does turning it off fix it? I seem to remember this issue in a couple games.
I've got a FreeSync monitor working right now so I have no perceptible input lag with Vsync/adaptive sync on under Vulkan here, for comparison.
0 Likes
Tried it with Vulkan. While it runs smoothly, it gives me a slight but noticeable increase in input lag.
Just curious - is that with Vsync on, and does turning it off fix it? I seem to remember this issue in a couple games.
I've got a FreeSync monitor working right now so I have no perceptible input lag with Vsync/adaptive sync on under Vulkan here, for comparison.
I have G-SYNC on, but since it's always above 60 Hz, it's hitting VSYNC.
I did a similar test early A19 and there it was much worse. But when both gsync/vsync were off everything was fine. Again, no input lack using OpenGL just like it is now.
0 Likes
I love the game and I own it but why is this still in Alpha it came out in 2013
Why's it matter? Would you rather they stop development on it and call it a day? Alpha means it continually gets massive improvements. I just don't understand why people think this way. It'd be different maybe if they only put out tiny updates seldomly or something.
were did I says it should stop being developed for also there are lots of games that keep updating after Alpha what are you even talking about that being said I was just wondering why it still in Alpha, as Scaine, explained without taking oddly personal lol, is it just in name ok cool I love the game and own it if you mint to or not your message comes off like I was being malicious when all I asked was why is it still Alpha.
I think the reasoning is the Developers love their game and they don't feel it is ready to consider as "complete". Unlike certain OSes (Windows) and AAA gaming titles (nearly every one out there, but particularly Cyberpunk 2077) which release the game as "ready" but then have to go back in for following years to clean up their mess.
0 Likes
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