Survival Mode - "IT'S TOO HARD ETC"

So in case you're not aware, in Build 30 which we just released on the I Will Backup My Save beta branch , and in future builds, we're making big steps to increase the difficulty of the vanilla survival mode of the game. We're not just tweaking the difficulty,. Survival will be mind-meltingly more difficult than it has been previously.Survival times of a month or two will be squeezed into a week or two. Survival times of a year will be squeezed into being a few of months tops. If we do our job properly, surviving a year in post 30 zomboid in single player Survival mode should be achievement only a handful of players shouldaccomplish, and everyone in the community should know their names and speak of them in hushed reverential tones. Youtube videos of their survival achievements should be studied by future generations for tips, for they are surely gods amongst Zomboid players. Back in the day a PZ player by the name of Adric The Great cracked a year in Zomboid, and this blew people's minds. It was a thing of legend. Someone doing that these days would probably barely raise an eyebrow amongst the more experienced players, except perhaps to wonder how they didn't get bored.A few people have expressed concern at the latest build, which is still in early balancing and likely will need many changes before it goes out proper. But remember, Sandbox exists.In short - If itstoo hard, we'll try and balancing it so its JUST hard enough. There are likely bugs and balance issues still. It's still in balancing and its possible we've gone OTT with some changes and there are still bugs. [/b]Some people are reporting getting exhausted off killing 3-4 zombies and if that happens its a bug[/b]. In other cases. it's also possible the game's difficulty in previous versions has let you learn bad habits that are your undoing, or that surviving for months has become such an expected outcome that anything short of that strikes you as broken.Survival mode isto be hard. It's meant to behard. Every day you don't get eaten or starve to death should be a blessing. Escaping the horde should be an unending challenge and you should rarely feel safe. That's the genesis of Zomboid, and we lost our way over the years to try and be inviting to new people. So now we provided the beginner mode to give those newer people a helping hand, as well as sandbox with (ultimately more) presets to allow anyone of any skill level to play the game at any level of difficulty or amount of pressure they desire.The whole reason for this is is to free us of the shackles of trying not to alienate those looking for a more casual less brutal experience, but at the same time giving us the power to really drive up the brutal hardcore difficulty that is Zomboid's heritage for all those who supported us in the early days and have found the game has been watered down and compromised and no longer offers any challenge to them. As early supporters they deserve more than that.It may well be that due to early balancing, it's harder than it should be, even for Survival. OR it may be you're so used to your bad habits picked up in the easier builds, running, or swinging wildly, or X, or Y that are causing your downfall. Or maybe you're so used to surviving for months in every game, that post-patch you dying each time in the first week was unexpected or offended you. But you're notto survive for long, and making it even a month, especially in single player, should be a massive MASSIVE achievement you should feel eternally proud of. Not something you should expect from every game, or most games, but an achievement worth screenshotting or youtubing and boasting around the internet about. Then it all comes down to surviving a month and a week. Maybe next time you can survive a month and two weeks. Two months? One day. One day.The expectation of months of survival time is a problem and perception we've likely created by diluting the difficulty levels over the past year, somewhat out of fear of being too niche in hardcore difficulty to appeal to enough people on Steam to maintain popularity of the game. So we're readdressing that and making a bigger deal of the Sandbox mode as the go-to mode for people who aren't looking for sheer brutality.Either way, we'll continue to balance it to try and strike a balance that keeps the hardcore players happy but doesn't alienate those experienced players that have not felt the bite of the true evil Zomboid of yesteryear. Your feedback is appreciated and we'll try and consider the bigger picture in our future balancing efforts, but we need to consider those that have put hundreds of hours into the game as well as those who have put in 1 or 2, maybe 10 or 20, and make sure everyone is catered for in the long term.In the meantime just consider each day on your survival time as an achievement. Also consider your skill level as a player in the future. After a week, or in a month, or a year, in your evaluation of whether it is 'too hard' right now, since once you do finally reach that level of skill you may find the game boring as many of our long time players did prior to these recent builds. This difficulty is to provide the game with everlasting life, since there will always be another day, or another week, to stretch your PZ survival skills. If you can survive indefinitely after some practice, only dying when you get bored and decide to go postal with a shotgun, the game soon gets stale, and this is worth worrying about even if you're not at that skill level right now. You in a few months will thank us, even if you right now is swearing at us as you load Sandbox mode and feel inadequate as you turn options down to easy.Just remember, the sandbox is there to provide you with the experience you want, so please consider this and even if you feel Survival to be too hard or too stressful for you personally, bear in mind it was always intended to be the ultimate hardcore mode, the pinnacle of PZ prowess, for the competitive players looking to push against each other for survival times, eeking days on each other for forum and youtube prestige, and sandbox is there for those who want to craft their own experience and level of difficulty.If of course even with sandbox you're unable to create a satisfactory experience, then this is a problem and we'll look to balance it to provide the experience you're missing. We don't want anyone who has bought the game to feel they are unable to play it because of post-purchase patches making it too difficult. But at the same time we don't want to compromise on the vision we and a vast number of PZ players have yearned for because people don't want to go into sandbox and tailor the game to their own desires, or feel that Survival should be balanced how they desire. But if our changes mean that Sandbox cannot be tailored as such then we'll strive to improve that (an obvious thought is an option to alter the new bunching mechanic)So yes, if sandbox fails you, then we've failed you, and will look to provide any options we can to ease any difficulty in the game we can. We want sandbox to cater for absolutely everyone. But...We will not compromise on Survival though. Survival is where the blood will flow. And the scoreboard of survival across the entire internet should be measured in days and weeks, months for the TRUE elite, but not years. Unless Adric The Great comes back around of course.