Seven Days To Die, Four Days To Complain - Alpha 18 Releases Monday

So recently my household has taken up playing 7 Days To Die.  This isn't the first time I've played the game, but it's been long enough that it was definitely a new experience.  My reintroduction was enjoyable enough that I have not one, but two servers that I pay to have hosted.  One is for the pack of intractable reprobates I call friends and is set to more or less Vanilla settings. (120 minute days, Zombies walk at all times of day, including horde night.)
The other is set on something I find a bit more interesting, and a bit more challenging.  More on that later.
The point of all this is I've been having a great time with my friends and family. As a result, started developing some opinions about the game, and a fondness for the game I was experiencing in its Alpha 17 state.  They have announced that Alpha 18 will be being released on Monday.  Updates are usually a cause for celebration... and I certainly was interested in what they were going to change.

Then I read the Alpha 18 Official Release Notes.

That's When My Excitement For Seven Days To Die's Alpha 18 Release Waned

Let's be honest, it's got some great stuff in it.  Even some of the stuff that doesn't look so great turns out to be alright when you look a little further into it.  I'm going to touch on some of the things I love about Alpha 18 first.

What's To Love In Alpha 18

• A New Occlusion System - One of the first things I noticed when I started played 7D2D again was just how much of a resource hog it was.  Even though I met the minimum requirements my system had trouble running it at absolute rock-bottom settings.  The new occlusion system should solve some of that by not rendering things in my field of vision that I can't actually see.  Like everything inside a building and what's behind it from my point of view.
• XP Loss On Death - I've always felt that death in a game should hurt, and this new addition should make it sting a little. I'm a tad disappointed there isn't the option to lose levels and their associated perk points by dying, but it's pretty good without it. This change isn't without its issues though.  They also removed the existing Death Penalty, but more on that later.
• Melee Changes - As they mentioned in their release notes, melee has always been a bit of a binary situation.  You either hit or miss.  They've changed this up so that what were misses can now result in glancing blows, and you even have a chance to hit multiple targets based on the swing trajectory of your weapon.
• Dynamic Music System - I'm really interested to see how this system is going to work.  The idea is that the music will change based on the environment, time of day, and current activity.  It won't just play pre-established tracks, but instead will dynamically generate new tracks in up to "750 unique combinations."
• Infection System - During my time playing in Alpha 17 I've never had to deal with the infection.  I have a feeling they either eliminated it for Alpha 17 or set it to be so infrequent I never noticed it.  In Alpha 18 we'll be dealing with a much more active and present infection and given multiple options on how to deal with it.  Hits by zombies can increase your infection level, and the lower your health, the more likely you are to get infected.  Good stuff!  It appears we'll be having to deal with food poisoning and dysentery more as well. I'll withhold judgment until I get a chance to play with it.
• More Melee Options - In addition to changing up how melee works, we'll also be getting new weapons!  Spears, stun batons, baseball bats, knuckle wraps, spiked knuckles, brass knuckles, all goodies to help us deal a little more hand to hand hate on the zambies.
• No Repeat POIs - This one is big for me.  I love that we'll be able to move from town to town and know we won't encounter the same POI (That's Point of Interest, the prefab generated structures in the game) twice in a row.  Nothing to hate about that.
• New Mobs - Coyotes, Mountain Lions, Demolition Zombies, all new friends for us to play with, murder, and eat.

What's To Loathe In Alpha 18

Anyone who knows me knows I'm about to lay down some really unpopular opinions, but I don't much care about that.  Survival games are fun for me, and I prefer a certain degree of challenge to come with them.  I feel like there have been a few steps back in this area with Area 18.

• Junk Turrets - A portable turret that can be picked up, slapped down, and used to watch your back in any circumstance?  You can take that cheese and fucking toss it, thanks.  It doesn't matter how weak or ineffective it is, having my skin crawl because I can only be so certain I'm not being snuck up on.
• Reduced Zombies in POIs - I'm sorry... What?  How was this even a good idea? One of the first things I modded in my private server was doubling the zombie spawns because there aleady weren't enough.  They've done the same thing across all biomes, reduced zombie spawns...  This is one of those where it might not be as bad as it sounds, however.  They also increased the RESPAWN rate, which may be a balancing factor that restores the challenge reducing spawns would take away.
• Schematics Teach You A Recipe - Look, thematically I accept that a schematic can be reused and therefore it makes sense for it to teach you a recipe.  On the other hand, they limited how many of a thing you could make by being fairly rare drops.  Perhaps they've rebalanced ingredient lists to have more individually rare items, but I was fond of the schematic method and am sad to see it go.
• Removing The Death Penalty - 7D2D A17 had a pretty harsh penalty for death.  You'd temporarily lose stats, and their associated perks, for a period of a real-life hour.  I loved this harsh death penalty a great deal, and removing it just grinds my gears.  That being said the XP loss isn't exactly easy on you either, but I'd rather they provided options for one, both, or neither than removing it entirely.  This will be one of the things that I look for a mod to replace following the launch of A18.
• Easier Encumbrance - 7D2D already lets you carry a ridiculous number of resources in your backpack at the game start.  Now they're giving you an additional line of encumbrance free inventory to use when you join the game.  This effectively nerfs the Pack Mule perk and emphasizes the use of clothing mods.  In my opinion, they should have left the Pack Mule perk alone.  Instead, they should have the pocket mods give you additional inventory space that would always be encumbered when in use, regardless of your pack mule level.

I'm Still Going To Play The Shit Out Of It

In spite of my gripes, I'm still pretty excited about playing Alpha 18.  I want to see how my first blush opinions of these changes hold up in the face of actual playtime.  I am a bit disappointed that The Fun Pimps continue to take the path of nerfing things and making them 'easier' (read: boring).  That being said, they've produced a great game that's eaten a fair amount of my life since I rediscovered it.  Who knows, I may just like the changes.