Is Darkness Falls too HARD after v4.1? 7 Days to Die Overhaul Mod

47 thoughts on “Is Darkness Falls too HARD after v4.1? 7 Days to Die Overhaul Mod”

1. Thanks for this, SnowBee! I find early game water is more of a thing than previously. There's still lots of early game food though and Khaine did add baked carrots to the menu. I find I'm competing with the survivors for wandering horde XP, the survivors are much tougher now. The searchable tree stumps are interesting, too. Pulled 2 hunting knives out of stumps recently. However, my character is basically a mobile gastro-intestinal tract, going through food and especially water at an unreasonable rate. I'm also not all that thrilled about the increased prices at the vending machines. Costs the same as buying from the trader. I am enjoying this update though, just need to get used to the changes and get more hours in to explore everything.

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2. Especially nice editing on this vid, SnowBee, and informative as usual. Looks neither too hard nor too easy to me from what you've shown, just differently balanced or, dare I say without having started an updated game yet, better balanced. The harder things you mention look a lot like what I was used to in 7 days back in earlier alphas, like heat/cold fx, with the option to turn difficulty up or down which has always been there, just maybe not what DF players were used to previously. I'll have to see what the effects of earlier crafting are before I decide if that's easier or not though. Sincerely doubt I'd ever progress to level 500, 200 was my highest in my first game of DF and ever since I stop around 150, done everything by then and gotten every skill point I want.

   I can see why TFP give us exp for doing non-combat tasks, it's a survival game so needs some reward for building and mining but that's always used to put those who concentrate on construction and mining at a disadvantage. You got used to it quickly though and the advice since day 1 has always been never increase game stage before you get the combat skills and equipment to deal with a higher stage. They obviously switched from use-based skill progression to plain perks to mitigate this when now it doesn't matter how you got the skill points, spend them on what you like, each attribute even having combat skills included. That's bland to me so DF adding use progression back in and locking combat perks to progress in that reverted the game to interesting again, you just have to manage what you do (as in previous vanilla) and when, ie don't neglect those combat skills as game stage increases. Lowering exp from mining and construction should help address this for those who refuse to adapt but to be frank, if someone can't manage their character development, that's down to them. Adapt playstyle ever so slightly and if anyone doesn't want to, well, there's always current vanilla or other mods using current vanilla mechanics out there. If every mod conformed to vanilla mechanics, what would be the point of mods. There are enough out there to suit many different tastes.

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3. I personally prefer Apocalypse now at the Moment 😅 i dunno why but for me its much more fun

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4. Fantastic video. Love the way this is done. Ive started a new world and made the mistake of increasing world difficulty even though the difficulty was increased but were getting used to it and surviving. i got bee hives down for the first time and just got a bunch of animal fat so ill have to read the journo lol. aside from that ive made my brother come do some of the upgrading so our levels stay closer together. I truly do blow past him as the miner/base builder. even if hes out doing missions

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5. I had to give up on the mod. I play on nightmare/insane as it is and the mod just makes for an extreme grindfest. It's why I don't play Undead Legacy. So, maybe I'll go back to Ravenhearst.

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6. One comment I really agree with is that it is adding back in some survival aspects back into the game. I remember when I first started playing and my buddy said to just ignore the hot and cold. You might have to drink and eat a little more, but it was basically a non-issue.

   When I first started DF, one thing I loved was that the biomes actually had a purpose and distinctions. Adding in the increased temperature debuffs just adds to that actual survival difference between biomes.

   Over the last couple of years, it seems the Fun Pimps are so heavily focused on switching everything to loot based from a game design perspective. Many of their decisions seem to be more about getting players to "play the game the right way" instead of allowing players to enjoy the open world environment. It's really irritating to me. One of the huge benefits of open world games is allowing player choice. It is both a blessing and a curse. You are free play how you want, but you have to take the initiative to make goals. Having a loose quest structure like DF can help and add some structure that the player can follow or ignore.

   I'm on the edge of a full-blown rant, so I'm going to stop here. 😀

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7. Just change your experience to 50% of normal so you don't level up to fast.

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8. The update changed how I play but I don't think difficulty is unmanageable. It has changed my early game tactics which I never varied from. Forcing me out of this style "rut" had made the game more challenging in a good way. I will say the weather changes suck. I find in a very short time span I go from too hot to too cold. This should be more gradual and you should linger longer in one condition if you are not changing biomes. This has forced me to carry clothing options in several precious inventory slots in the early game. Perhaps more annoying is having to stop frequently to change clothes and thus reducing the "fun" factor. I'm curious if others are finding this annoying.

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9. I sometimes get errors when playing this updated mod. Are other people getting them too?

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10. I'm not a fan of the new lock picking system and lack of controller support but otherwise it's a pretty good update.

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11. No its not^^ After some hours in, no its not too hard. We are only playing on warrior atm but we are not having any problems, so far. We are using 75% exp. hot and cold is just a bit of an inconvenience. you need to adapt but its not really harder. we will scale up to survivor and insane as we go. we will see how it goes then^^

    Maybe its just my bias, but i've played most of the old alphas….so its often just a throwback to how it worked back then…different but not harder imo^^

    A question about the white river scout: what loyality levels are needed for skill level 5? i got skill level 1 at 10. does it progress by 5s afterwards? so max is at 30?

    same question for masteries at caitlyn ; 30? ; aaaand: does caitlyn now have quests that reward rep with her? beforehand she had non so your rep with her only went up with white river so….yeah no thanks?^^

    Oh and 1 more thing that would be nice to have (reduction of gamestage creep): Reduction in exp for selling shit^^

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12. Fantastic overview as always! After playing most of the dev builds before 4.1 hit and now playing the official release, I'm liking most of the changes. I think my only complaint is that you expect to be safe from the weather effects once you go into a shelter like a house, however if you're standing inside the house but close to the outer walls, the weather still beats you down. To be able to be properly protected, you have to go to the middle of the house. Not sure if this is intended or not, but it's annoying. On the positive side, super happy to see animal husbandry is back! I also enjoy "cleaning the environment" of garbage and nests.

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13. The only things that irritate me about Darkness Falls is Horde Night having no way to end to the spawns due to being coded to only stop at sunset, literally kicking me in the teeth for effectively killing waves during the night.

    That and Screamers being absolutely ridiculous. I am OK with calling many screamers to my location over time because I'm ignoring Heat buildup in a mine and just killing them as they come.
    But i have had multiple experiences of going to a fresh unexplored chunk, entering a POI there, looting a box and immediately hearing a Screamer outside.
    Now that wouldn't be so much of a problem on its own, as i enjoy fighting screamer hordes in vanilla and UL, but when a Screamer calls a Screamer who then proceeds to scream a new horde that includes another Screamer who then proceeds to call in another, that's just wrong.
    (Had to kill 9 Screamers just doing a single clear quest at a PEP Army Base for example)
    Punish me with a horde for missing a kill shot on a Screamer if you will, But hearing a single Scream and having to entirely leave the area because that one Scream can and often does cascade into an endless stream of Screamers is not fun.

    Other than those 2 things, 4.1 Darkness Falls is a fantastic experience.

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14. Beginning feels alot like vanilla w/ QoL, as someone who plays with ferals at max speed, the game gets difficult faster due to the game stage, yes, but we also get things like the security class, and titanium gear which really helps mitigate that. After that, the next difficulty spike comes in with the wasteland & block damage on horde nights which can both be prepared for with enough foresight/guide watching. Though i'm still looking for a good fall base that'll fit bears & goliaths. Hot and cold difficulty is a bit overkill to me, but once I started in a forest biome, found some advanced insulation mods, gear to slot it, and specced a few points into survivial, I was fine & moved into a cold biome to base build. Happily on day 28 with 1 death starting up my farm for apples, honey and eggs so that I can craft all my skill books & masteries.

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15. Thanks SnowBee. I'm really enjoying the new 4.1 version and think a lot of the update definitely improves on what was already a great mod.

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16. Drawing out the ranking does not make you want to play it more. Quite dated game to be honest.

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17. no

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18. My only problem with 4.1 is the removal of gamestage loot bonus from the snow and desert biomes. I like that heatstroke/hypothermia were introduced but the problem is there is no reason to actually head to the snow or desert now. When I play with friends, we normally gear up and head to the snow for loot runs to get loot above our level. Without the bonus, we really have no reason to interact with the snow biome outside of the bunker run later on. Only reason we've ever gone to the desert was the crops as well. Think there needs to be some type of additions to further drive players to want to interact with those two biomes.

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19. Not for me. I'm use to it now, and since there was an update, I think its time a 3rd run. I think ill do 200 days this time after seeing the changes 🤔

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20. I think the best addition to the mod is the option to adjust the wandering hordes and screamer hordes…i hate to play the game the way is intended…making a base and getting ready for horde night is not for me…i like to be attacked by a massive horde when i least expect them rather then waiting for them to show up in a specific day…i would like to think i have a part in this idea…since i proposed it to Khaine one day…he acctually told me if i want a massive horde i should make some changes in the xml files but i don't have a clear idea how to do that…but now that he added this option maybe it was because of me and some other people requesting it…😁👍

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21. i think "Khaines Komer" as done a good job for Darkness falls as a mod for experienced players
    but thats just my opinion

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22. Looking at the patch notes I think the scaling was in theory adjusted in a balanced way and as long as people pay enough attention to know that it is more difficult than vanilla they should be fine.

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23. tbh i JUST did the df and only took me a 16 days at warrior and yes at start the game if u have a bad luck like me and start the game at snowfield its is pain in the ASS no joke but as u go up higher its make u more badass at killing Z and OMG the laser weps they are godlike , 6 or 7 weps that only use 1 type ammo OH YES PLEASE overall its a best mod i played in pass few days im really greatful of df team and u snowbee cuz u are the reason that i found this mod

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24. Hi friend! How is everything? Now you see if it's difficult now… I testify… I started just this weekend with a friend and it's brutal… Tremendously difficult… Thanks for these tips that always help. Regards my friend!!

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25. I love this update. Gameplay seems very balanced and enjoyable. Just get in there!!!

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26. Just applying my min-max-brain to these numbers… it looks like it's only "modestly" harder overall.
    HOWEVER… it looks like more difficulty is front-loaded into early game play, while much of the difficulty relief is back-loaded into later game play. That 'can' provide a "wow that was hard, but I overcame it!" experience, sure. But it's going to gate-block new DF players.

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27. Dun understand complaints , just decrease dif and your good , if you wanna have a challenge go crazy . I had to use a mod that allowed only headshots and a 99 percent chance to die when infected , larger hordes to have fun cause base game is way to easy and boring .

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28. Succubus easier to hit, faster access to forge, access to better guns faster VS may starve or dehydrate? Welcome to Darkness Falls, we welcome the challenge.

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29. Looooove it!

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30. I'm looking forward trying out 4.1 after I finish 4.0. Thanks for the update.

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31. Is a mod that personally I won't play, does not suit my play style, but I do enjoy playthroughs, I prefer UL for play much more, again that is me, this is on the same level as playing GregThech in Minecraft.

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32. Haven't played the mod before the update and I don't feel it particularly hard at all, though I find the mod tries to hard beein difficult /complex and due it make itself annoying to play which made me stop it. Some more QoL improvements would go along way in my opinion

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33. Love everything but the weather and sap…. It's killing me literally.

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34. Got it. Play on easiest mode with creative enabled.

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35. Max science at lvl50 crafting sure helps a lot as I was getting demons from lvl 38 and had to grind 40+ levels to craft blessed metal(no luck with loot) and start killing them properly.
    Though if they start spawning at lvl 20 then idk how helpful it is. Have to check it out myself.

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36. I have to shake my head every time someone complains about ANY mod being 'too hard', as 7DtD has more gameplay difficulty tweaking options & mods than almost any other survival game. (In most cases, I'll bet the complainers turned XP gain up to 300% so they can quickly level up and get all of those sweet points, not keeping in mind that by doing so, they are ensuring that the gamestage level will outstrip their gear level even MORE quickly. Pro tip: if you drop your XP Gain to 75% or even 50%, then yes, the grind will be much longer, but you will have PLENTY of time to fully gear up and set up a badass base before zombies start getting really difficult to deal with. What's more, you can actually completely change those setting each and every time you load your game. Want a quick, easy start? Bump XP up to 300% with no spawning zombies for the first few days, then change them back in time for your first horde–which doesn't have to happen until later, if you want.)

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37. Blows my mind people are pointing out that this ADDED hypothermia and heatstroke ?
    When were those removed ?
    7 days console which is stuck in a previous release stage had always had heat statuses up til that point.

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38. Its a bit harder yeah but its fun . But one thing im not sure is the clothing , I mean now if you topless your warmer than if you were a tank top in the snow and other clothing like that make no sense to me . And the duster is a desert coat not winter, like the cowboy use them in the desert. So in my opinion the clothing need a patch .

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39. Waterproofing your clothing to prevent from freezing in the cold is not that hard; a garbage bag could do the trick. I used that basic survival "technique" in my youth and this is the garbage world of the future. And if they try for "realism" then you shouldn't need to gather insane amounts of resources for basic survival, the homeless have been doing it for generations. Scrap polymers could be used to craft a good mod for surviving in the cold and good white cloth (and water) for the desert. Garbage landfills should be added to the game, a place where untold treasures lie and where society had to use to dispose of the ever growing undead problem…

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40. My first play of the new update ended in 7 deaths in 7 days!!!

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41. Another well made gem.

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42. As someone, who plays only on Insane difficulty. I can say it is hard. From T2 quests, you start to see the tough zombies 1400+ HP. In every POI you need your safe room with hatch to deal with them, because you die on 3 hits from harder zombies (which is everyone from T2 questst), if you have at least 150 HP. Food/water is little difficult at the beggining, especially if you failed to find the cooking pot and grill until first nightfall. If you have nothing to eat/drink, its better to just stay quitelly at your place and wait until morning.
    I welcome all the tips there how to deal with hunger/thirst at the beggining of the game, because mine heavily depend on if i find cooking pot/grill or not.
    The first horde night will welcomes you with the tough zombies, mutated night stalkers and even demolishers. I never managed to have concrete on fist horde night and you can imagine how the cobblestones last long, maybe for few seconds. You deffinitelly need some crowd control there. You dont have much ammo too, so you need melee base. I found neccessery to have electrical fence there. Without it, it's fast game over, without stunned zombies, they will smack through that cobblestones like nothing. The el. fence also must be in enough range for you to repair it during the night and also far enough from ocassionally exploding cops. You also need to deal with birds. How you guys survivng the first horde night on insane difficulty?
    But with all these also come good loot. You have guns (but very low ammo). You have good melee weapons like machete at day 2-3. I happend to drop titanium knife, which save my ass, at day 6 from wandering horde zombie.
    Wandering hordes are no joke. You can't really head on them, its better to let them pass and lure them one by one (good loot and experience). If they catch you in POI and you have no vehicle for escape, you will have very hard time.
    Also i never found time to craft basic ammo. You need so many resources to craft them and its way easier to just use what you find/buy and just collect scrap poly and el. parts for coil ammo, then waste your time for crafting normal ammo. In vannila, its the only ammo you need, so i get those prerequisites, but in DF, where that ammo become obsolete very quickly it need to be crafted easier to make actuall use of it IMO.

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43. I think DF team does a pretty good job listening to the community while keeping their vision of the game, its not too grindy for materials, and they redid poi's to help with performance. DF with that combo pack takes me like 10 min to load with those massive pois. hoping the this new update will be better.

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44. I'm actually new to 7 days to die and installed the mod soon after because it was too easy. This mod imo makes the game perfect. The difficulty scale is there for a reason pick what suits you and enjoy a rewarding survival game experience. Food is the toughest thing. Doing quest is so important in the beginning.

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45. Thanks for the video!! I like to play on survivalist difficulty and was super confused when I had 5 screamers come at me day one at lvl 6 lmao note it makes sense! Ty!

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46. It’s supposed to be difficult. Managing the difficulty and picking your own level of pain is a huge draw for DF.

    And removing the sap exploits and such is the right thing to do.

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47. yes, darkness falls is too hard for my friend and I. Yes, I know maybe the game is not ment for only two players. I understand that. i just wish there was a way to adjust the difficult level for the number of players.

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