7 Days to Die was a game that was released in December of 2013, and little did everyone know it would make a big splash when it was released. It is a single-player and multiplayer survival horror where the player awakes after a nuclear attack from World War three. Especially in the fictional county of Navezgane, Arizona. The player – and friends if they choose to bring friends with them – must survive this nuclear apocalypse by finding the basics of survival shelter, food, and water. While scavenging is a must the player must fight through various types of zombies that are lurking behind every corner. While the plot stops here there is planned to have more plot as it unfolds with later updates.
After a decade, however, 7 Days to Die finally leaves Alpha and releases its version 1.0. With the release, we can see that there is a long list of patch notes that goes over each of the dynamics of the game. Bringing new features such as bandits, crossplay, weather system, and more for dynamic gameplay. The dev team also is revising how the player plays, defends, and even attacks. Another change is how the player will see themselves and how they want to build their base. While this update is a big moment for the development team they also hope that the roadmap they released will also bring in new players to the franchise.
“7 Days to Die 1.0” introduces a brand new custom-built from the ground up Character System which offers all new High Definition Models, 1st and 3rd person animations, variations and all new skin and hair shaders to elevate the overall experience. This comprehensive system enhances player immersion, allowing for a personalized and engaging gaming experience. See your hands in the viewport, the sex, skin color and the real gloves you’re wearing. Enjoy seeing your full HD model on vehicles, in the UI and with your friends. See what your co-op friend is looking at with the new character head tracking system. The new system offers extensive customization options including:
- Presets: Choose from a wide variety of pre-made character presets to get a jump-start on your adventure in Navezgane.
- Create your own custom character with a wide variety of of customization options including:
- Sexes: Male or Female
- Races: Black, White, Asian, Native
- Face: Each race and sex has four different face options for a total of 32 face options
- Eyes: There are over thirty eye color options
- Hairstyles: There are twenty unique hairstylesHair Color: There are ten unique hair colors
- Mustaches: There are five unique mustache styles to choose from
- Chops: There are five unique lamb chop styles to choose fromBeards: There are five unique beard styles
New Player Armor/Clothing System
Along with a brand new Character System in Version 1.0 we have also added a brand new High Definition Armor and Clothing System. This extensive new system amplifies player immersion, enabling a customized and compelling gaming adventure where looting, finding, crafting and upgrading Armor matters.
Witness your hands in the viewport, complete with details like gender, skin color, and the actual clothing you’re wearing. Delight in the sight of your high-definition model on vehicles watching details animate like cloth and backpacks jiggle, Experience the ability to observe what your co-op companion is focusing on, courtesy of the new character head tracking system. Moreover, the enhanced system provides a plethora of customization choices, allowing for extensive personalization including:
- Sixteen full sets of unique armor with Male and Female variants
- Four main clothing groups include: headgear, bodywear, footwear and gloves.
- 1 primitive set, 5 light sets, 6 medium sets, 4 heavy sets
- Except for the primitive set, each armor set comes with a set bonus when you are wearing all four pieces of one set with the lowest quality item governing the strength of that bonus.
- For Example if you we’re wearing the Lumberjack Armor set you would receive the following bonuses:
- Double wood harvest
- 5% less stamina use when using axes with a Q1 item in the mix
- Every slot using Q6 items in slots changes the stamina bonus to 30%
- We have kept and reworked most clothing mods with many options including:
- Glasses have been reworked as armor mods
- The following adds +1 to the attribute
- Perception – was the Shades
- Strength – was the Cigar
- Fortitude – was the Tough Guy Sunglasses
- Agility – was the Ski Goggles
- Intellect – was the Nerdy Glasses
- Treasure Hunter Mod – previously Lucky Goggles
- +10% XP Gain
- +10% Better Loot
- Treasure Radius -1
- Night Vision Goggles – now in mod form
- Updated screen effect
- The cigar is now an armor mod
- Adds +1 to Strength and +10% Bartering
- Added a Quad Pocket Mod
- Multiple pocket mods can be added to armor
- Must be of different sizes
- i.e. Two Triple Mods cannot be installed in one armor piece
- Must be of different sizes
- Stealth Boots Mod – previously Military Stealth Boots
- Reduces the noise and stamina penalties of medium and heavy boots
- Glasses have been reworked as armor mods
New Animal Models
Our elite team of character artists have been hard at work updating all of our animal models to match the modern aesthetics of our updated HD zombies. The system comes with new models, rigs, more realistic animations and a brand new high tech fur shader to make hair and fur more realistic. The current HD animal roster includes:
- Deer, stag, wolf, and mountain lion.
- Coming in a future patch: Bear, zombie bear, boar, Grace, vulture, rabbit, snake, and dire wolf, coyote and vulture
These updates will be released progressively in patches as animation and rigging are completed, adding more lifelike and detailed creatures to the survival experience.
New Challenge System
We did away with the old tutorial quest and journal system and rolled them into a brand new Challenge System. The challenge system is designed to help new players learn the ropes with an easy-to-follow introduction questline that offers worthwhile rewards. Additionally, long-term challenges keep players engaged with enticing rewards for completing various challenge categories while teaching more advanced mechanics. This system ensures both new and veteran players have continuous goals to strive for, enhancing their gameplay experience. The system includes:
- Over one hundred and twenty unique challenges are broken into twelve categories
- Basics of Survival
- Homesteading
- Advanced Survival
- Crafting
- Traders and Crafting
- Harvesting
- Gathering
- Farmer
- Survivor
- Hunter
- Zombie
- Slayer
- A challenge quest tracking system. Track what you want and see your progress
- Redeem completed challenges for XP. Some challenges can be redeemed for XP and rewards given by any trader. See each challenge for details.
- Some items have in-game sprite help making it easier to learn
- Do the challenges in any order of and still get credit for your work or resources you have on
New Vehicle Models
Our artists have also given the existing vehicle models an update, bringing them to parity with the other improved models in Version 1.0. Most vehicles now have additional seating to accommodate at least one friend. There are also new vehicle armor mods available that allow them to withstand wasteland wear-and-tear. Many vehicle mods now have a visual model update so you can see the mods you have installed. These updates enhance the visual appeal and functionality of the vehicles, offering a more immersive and enjoyable driving experience in the game.
The update has many improvements including:
- Bicycle
- Mini Bike
- Motorcycle
- 4×4 Truck (Now comes with 4 default seats and can be modded to hold 6 players)
- Gyrocopter (Now comes with 2 seats to fly with your friend)
- We have added new Vehicle Mods. These mods are visible on the model. Including:
- Bicycle
- Light Mod
- Motorcycle
- Armor Mod
- 4×4 Truck
- Plow Armor Mod
- Gyrocopter
- Armor Mod
- Light Mod
- Bicycle
Random World Generation Updates
Several improvements and optimizations have been made to our RWG system, making it leaner, faster, and able to create better looking worlds than ever before, with refined composition and layouts improving the overall fidelity and detail of generated worlds.
RWG Game Improvements include :
- Faster Creation Time: The time required to generate new worlds has been significantly reduced.
- District Density Calculation: Improved calculations for better urban planning and layout.
- Biome Distribution Variants: New variants to create more diverse and interesting world biomes.
- Road Smoothing: Enhanced road generation for smoother and more realistic paths.
- Bigger Cities and More POIs: Approximately 50% more Points of Interest, with larger cities and more wilderness locations.
- Chunk Reset: Improved chunk management and resetting for a more seamless experience.
- Performance POI Placement: A new POI placement algorithm has been implemented to keep cities more performant placing lighter weight POIS around more expensive heavier weight POIS
- The Burnt Forest Biome is back in newly created and Pregen RWG maps
RWG Tool Improvements Include:
- New biome distribution presets include:
- Biome Layout
- Center Forest – Default
- Center Wasteland
- Circle – Biomes arranged like a pie chart
- Line – Biomes arranged like a layered cake with 90° rotations i.e. Forest to the South Wasteland to the North
- Biome Layout
- Burnt Forest is back!
- District Colors
- Light Blue = Rural
- Yellow = Industrial
- Blue = Commercial
- Grey = Downtown
- Green = Residential
- Darker Colors of each above are lower density POI’s like remnants
- Red = Traders
- White = Wilderness
- Spawn Points in the forest can be seen when zoomed into the map. They are small X’s on the country roads and are near wilderness POI’s within 1km of a trader.
New Points of Interest
In order to complement our updated RWG system, our Level Design team has added a ton of new content with over 75 new POIs that will be coming to Version 1.0.
Notable additions, improvements and efforts include:
- A high focus on new remnants enhancing performance and providing more diverse environments to explore with lighter zombie counts. A majority of the remnants were created for the downtown district which was low on these types. These efforts have helped significantly with performance.
- New high-tier locations have been introduced for players to explore and conquer.
- Haven Hotel (Tier 5)
- 7 Days Suites (Tier 5)
- Navezgane Athletics Complex (Tier 5)
- Grover High (Tier 5)
- Minotaur Theater (Tier 5)
- 6 – New Tier 4’s
- A new zombie spawning throttling triggering system has been added to the level editor and the level designers have made use of it to keep the higher count POIS challenging but running better.
- RWG Performance POI Placement: A new POI placement algorithm has been implemented to keep cities more performant placing lighter weight POIS around more expensive heavier weight POIS
New Zombie Variants and Zombie Updates
Our existing zombies didn’t get left out. Version 1.0 introduces several new zombie variants with unique outfits. Most have received several clothing, skin and hair variation options that spawn, giving large groups a more organic composition and promoting an immersive experience.
Notable additions include:
- A nurse from a children’s hospital with bears on her uniform
- A bowling alley-themed outfit for the fat Hawaiian zombie.
- Many more variants are coming, adding fresh visual elements to the game’s undead horde.
- The demolition zombie has received a complete model makeover, aligning with the newest generation of zombie models. This iconic foe now features an updated and more terrifying look.
World Lighting Graphics Update
The shader programming and technical art team have been busy adding in an overall improved lighting model that looks amazing. Improvements include:
- Overall more even and consistent lighting
- Over bright areas are toned down and areas that were too dark are easier to see
- Details in world and character models are more noticeable
- You can play now without a mining helmet or torch in dark areas
- Biome Spectrums and Storm Spectrums have been reworked to give the right amount of mood but provide more consistent lighting overall
- AO has been turned back on
- Shadows on Grass has been turned back on
- FSR has been added to the Graphics Options
- AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution (FSR) uses cutting-edge open upscaling and advanced frame generation technologies to help boost your framerates in supported games and deliver amazing high-quality, high-performance gaming on virtually any hardware.
Optimizations
We have worked hard to optimize the game for all SKUs. Efforts to make the game run on the consoles has paid off. Many optimizations have been done including:
- A new POI placement algorithm has been implemented to keep cities more performant placing lighter weight POIS around more expensive heavier weight POIs
- A ton of lighter weight remnant POIs have been made to lighten the weight of cities and give more variety in POIs
- A new zombie spawning throttling triggering system has been added to the level editor and the level designers have made use of it to keep the higher count POIS challenging but running better.
- Many art assets have had reduced draw calls or simproved settings in Unity to make them run more preformant
- The Cutout atlas has been removed
- A new window tinting system makes window glass opaque until you get close. Occluding the interior or exterior improves performance (moderately), especially for skyscrapers.
- Game updated to Unity 2022 LTS with better Vulkan and DX12 support (Note: DX12 performance seems worse than DX11)
- New lighting update manager
- Ambient occlusion better handles large amounts of props
- Block entities (props) spawn over multiple frames
Massive Progression Update
We have given a lot of attention to overall progression and balance in version 1.0. Here are some of the more notable improvements:
- Traders give less dukes and have nerfed rewards that no longer break progression.
- Trader inventories offer sales staged items for sale that are more appropriate for your character’s level.
- The game is a little more crafting oriented than in the past, and legendary items are now craftable.
- The end result is the game feels much more balanced and even in a coop team players will find themselves still engaged on day 70, single players even further.
- Crafting
- Quality 6 crafting is back
- Tools/Weapons/Armor
- Requires new Legendary Parts
- Traders/Biome order
- Rekt – Forest
- Jen – Burnt
- Bob – Desert
- Hugh – Snow
- Joel – Wasteland
- Quests
- Quest Progression has been improved so you get higher Tier Quests offered with each trader and can roll back to lower tiers if you want to
- Armor
- Quality determines perk level
- Basic Example – Q1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 = 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50%
Legendary Crafting
- We have added new Legendary Parts which can be acquired in high end loot chests, and higher Trader rewards
- With these player can craft Legendary Q6 weapons, tools, and armor
