Here is my latest installment covering news about the development of the game 7 Days to Die. Currently, the Fun Pimps (the developers of 7 Days to Die) are working the Alpha 17 update for the game, which will likely make some significant steps in the game’s development. You can click the following links for the first and second installments, to see what was covered before. This article will brief on the latest information about Alpha 17’s development.

Progress continues to be made with developing the game’s new vehicles. They’ve developed a model for the new gyrocopter, which seems mainly operational, and when finished would bring the addition of flying travel to the game. While it’s not certain whether it will be completed in time for addition to the game in Alpha 17, its progress indicates that there’s a fair possibility that it may. The developers continue to make progress on developing the new jeep. Improvements were made to the collision and terrain interaction, so that it will move better. And a mouse guided driving system was added. The motorcycle has gotten its own set of sounds attached to it. They have changed the way that vehicles interact with water. Instead of vehicles getting stuck in the water (and having to tear them apart and put them back together on land to use them again, as it is currently) water will just slow down the movement of the vehicle.

The developers have moved forward with developing the new combat system. They will add new perks that can be gotten, such as ones to change reload speed. They are adding new melee power attacks, which will give increased damage and critical hits, at the cost of using more stamina. They’ve developed animations for the power attacks. They’ve changed arrows, so that once an arrow hits a zombie, it will leave an image an arrow on them. They might make the arrows retrievable in the future.

They are working on improvements to terrain generation to get maps to generate smoother and more consistent terrain. They’re working on improvements on the distant terrain viewer to make things look smoother, and to make so that trees can be viewed in the distance.

Finally, the developers have begun to reveal progress on the development of human NPCs. They’re adding a new dialogue system for certain human NPCs which will allow players to communicate for in game lore information and quests. The traders and potentially other NPCs will be able to give the player quests to advance themselves in the game. Different NPCs will likely be given different communication content, based on their part in the game. The full system of dialogue has not yet been finalized. Though this addition marks a significant step for developing human NPCs as a significant feature in the game and will hopefully be included with other advancements in this field, when Alpha 17 is released.

That is it for news on incoming features. Though there is some news in relation to when it should be arriving. Now as anyone familiar with how the development of this game goes, the developers don’t set dates as when they will release their updates. They do their updates on a when-it’s-done basis. Howver, on the 7 Days to Die Forum’s thread for Alpha 17, they have added a red bar which indicates their progress with it, and once it runs out it supposedly will be done.