The producers of the game 7 Days to Die have released the latest update of the game, Alpha 15. 7 Days to Die is an early access produced by The Fun Pimps game company. It is a sandbox survival game, set in a post-apocalyptic zombie world. Players scavenge, collect resources, hunt, farm, craft, build bases, and fight off against zombies. The game has a fully buildable and destructible world, in which players can alter the environment. It also features single player and multiplayer, and a wide variety of game setting options to enable people to play in a variety of styles. As one of the main game creators, Joel Huenick, described it, “its like the Walking Dead, meets Fallout, meets Minecraft”.

The release of Alpha 15, marks the latest advancement of this game. Previously, the developers had allowed the option for players of the game to opt in to help test the update before release. I had been one of the people, who opted in to testing it. In a previous article, I had written about my early impressions of the update. Now, I intend to describe the details of the update’s stable release, and my more establish experiences of the game’s new dynamic under the update.

The Alpha 15 update has made quite a few significant changes to the game.

The game’s landscape design system and graphical elements have been changed. A new terrain generating system now allows for a more natural looking and varied terrain. Now you can face mountains, valleys, canyons, and other pieces that make a nicer terrain. For those who would like to enjoy the view of this new terrain, there is the good news of the new distant terrain viewing system. This new system allows for players to see farther into the distance. The distance view now produces a simplified view of land further away, with the look of distance, which blends into the horizon of the sky. In addition, there have been changes to the art of various things, to help boost the aesthetics. A new system for generating building placement, now allows for more natural shaped towns. Now, instead of just having square townscapes on flat ground, there can now be towns which more closely resemble actual towns.

There have been new buildings and locations added to the Navezgane and random gen maps. These include trader settlements, hotels, football stadium (Navezgane only), large underground bunker, auto parts store, oil refinery, prison, funeral home, Red Mesa government facility, Buildings for the Canyon in the Navezgane map (including Native American homes, Giftshop, Scenic Overlook, and Gold Mine), Bar, Strip Club, Rock and Roll Club, Skate Park, and new Trailer Park.

7 Days to Die has taken its first steps toward human AIs in the game, and trading. They have introduced the trader settlements, with the trader AIs. This allows players to buy and sell items in exchange for tokens. The traders allow you to be able to buy a variety of items, including special items you are unable to craft. Also, the more you buy and sell stuff with the traders, the more it increases the new bartering skill, and the better deals you can get with traders. They have also introduced vending machines. Various vending machines can be found to buy stuff, mainly food and drinks from. Players can craft vending machines or rent them from trader settlements, and use them to sell stuff to other players.

They have introduced a new UMA system for creating zombies. This has allowed them to create new zombie types much more easily. They have added several new zombie types: Fallen Soldier Zombie, Hazmat Zombie, Cowboy Zombie, Utility Worker Zombie, Cheerleader Zombie, Football Zombie, Miner Zombie, Biker Zombie, Stripper Zombie, Farmer Zombie, Risen Zombie, Hungry Zombie, and Walker Zombie. A number of these zombies are designed to spawn in certain areas, and some of them, such as the soldier and hazmat, drop special items.

They have introduced several new dynamics to the game. Experience generation has been changes, to give more experience for killing zombies. A new system has been established for the blood moon hordes. Now players will get individual hordes based on their calculated experience level. Groups of people in an area will get a collected horde, based on an average of player levels. Recipe searches now show recipes which are made at stations. The farming system has been changed. Multiple new crops can be grown. The rate of production is now based on the quality of soil, and tilling and fertilizer increase crop yield. The crafting system has had some changes. Most notably, items can now only be crafted up to 500 quality on one’s own. The workbench can be used to combine items to make higher quality items. A number of skills have been changed. For instance, the steel making perk now has three stages, and thus it takes longer to be able to craft all steel products. Mining has been changed so that rocks yield a mix of different resources. Also, rare materials of gold, silver, and diamonds have been added. They can be sold to traders for large amounts of tokens. Sorting options have been added to backpacks. And steam achievements have been added to the game.

They have added many new recipes, and new items (lootable, buyable, and or craftable). There is a wider variety of clothing options. The new chemistry station adds new craftable things, and makes other things easier to make. You can now craft arrow slit blocks, which can allow a more concealed opening to fire out of. You can craft catwalks, a drawbridge, electric lights, a garage door, and many other things. Craftable signs have been added, which you can use to write things on. New important crafting materials, including mechanical parts, electronic parts, and electronic components, have been added. These features have significantly changed the dynamic of what you can make and how you go about making it.

In the next section of this, I will continue onto describing things from my experience of playing Alpha 15, and some things I learned playing which may be useful.