When the Game was Good - A16.4

 

Donations - Tips

 

Server restarts are performed daily at 6:00 am Eastern timezone.

 

Rules

 

  • BREAKING ANY RULE PUTS YOU AT RISK OF BEING BANNED
     

  • We're all here to have fun, so respect other players and staff.
     

  • No hacking or cheating. Intentionally exploiting game glitches is bannable, without discussion. If you are caught duping you will be addressed by an admin. If the duping was unintentional you will have one free pass. If you are caught again you will be banned with no discussion.
     

  • Keep chat clear of racist comments, insults, politics, excessive cursing (admin discretion), griefing, spamming, CAPS and advertisements.
     

  • Player killing is prohibited. Friendly fire is turned off, however if you find a way to kill another player you will be addressed by an admin. If you don't have a good explanation, with confirmation from the injured player, you will be banned.
     

  • Offensive names or names with special characters are prohibited. You may be removed or your name changed at our discretion.
     

  • We regularly refresh city areas to renew loot. These areas are marked as Reset Zones. If you enter a Reset Zone, a message will display in the chat area. DO NOT build in the Reset Zone. When you leave the Reset Zone, another message will display, indicating you are leaving the restricted area. If you build a base inside a reset zone, it will be wiped when we do a region reset.
    Avoid building your base closer than 50 blocks to a city, even if you are outside the reset zone. Do not block any roads or paths by building on them or digging holes in or under them.

     

  • Claim land by placing your land claim block. You get one when you first join the server. Once you have placed your land claim block you should set your home teleport. Type /help for a list of current commands. Type /bag to teleport back to your death location. Do not block any roads or paths. Pick up your vehicle when you are done using it. If you leave it out and it glitches, we are not responsible for replacing it. Use vehicles AT YOUR OWN RISK.
     

  • Claims are 41 blocks by 41 blocks. The center of your claim is your Land Claim Block and your land claim extends out 35 blocks from each side of it. If any part of your land claim is in a reset zone it will prevent the zone from being reset. If this happens your land claim block will be removed, so the reset zone can be refreshed.
     

  • Digging down to bedrock is NOT ALLOWED.  If we find you have done this, we will fill in the hole and you risk being banned.
     

  • This is a PvE server, so do not enter another player's base without permission. Claim blocks will expire after 14 days if you do not login during that time. If you want to claim an abandoned base, talk to an admin FIRST.
     

  • Do not destroy buildings or destroy loot spawns (with the exception of cars). Do not claim significant loot spawns (hospitals, army camps, factories, survivor camps, etc.) even if not in a reset zone. Courtesy to your fellow survivors is a must.
     

  • Players are allowed ONE GARDEN of no more than 100 plants. This can be any shape as long as you do not exceed the 100 plant limitation.  Players are allowed ONE TREE FARM of no more than 16 trees. This can be any shape as long as you do not exceed the 16 tree limitation.
     

  • Do not block any roads or paths. Pick up your vehicle when you are done using it. If you leave it out and it glitches, we are not responsible for replacing it. Use vehicles AT YOUR OWN RISK.
     

  • Do not dig lower than -55 (check your map for elevation). If you dig down to bedrock and we see it, your hole will be filled in and you could be banned.
     

  • If you have any issues contact an admin in Discord or type /calladmin and open a ticket. We'll respond within 24 hours.

Tips and tricks

 

Optimization

 

Since the game is currently in Alpha development still, a lot of core features have not been optimized. By disabling these features, you will get a definite increase in FPS.

 

Options to disable are...

UMA Textures set to lowest (they don't have a real function atm anyway)

Shadows

Reflections

Mosion Blur

SSAOVoice Chat

 

If you have 8GB RAM or less, lowering the Texture Quality to half or quarter can help.

The client also benefits greatly if you can run it from an SSD instead of a traditional hard drive.

 

Running a17e and a16.4 on the same PC

For those of you who wish to have the best of both worlds, here are some rather simple instructions.

Note: If you do not start the client from inside Steam an error will appear about a missing file. It is safe to ignore this error and continue by pressing the 'Escape' key.

 

Method 1

  1. In your Steam games list, right-click the game in the left menu, and choose "Properties".
  2. Click on the tab labeled "Local Files".
  3. Click on the button labeled "BROWSE LOCAL FILES".
  4. You will find yourself in a folder that looks similar to this.
  5. C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die
  6. Go up one folder path so you can see the game folder itself.
  7. C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\
  8. Right-click on the folder "7 Days to Die"
  9. From the drop-down list that appears, choose "Copy".
  10. Now right-click in an empty space in the folder, and choose "Paste" from the drop-down menu.
  11. You will now have a folder called "7 Days to Die - Copy"
  12. Right-click the new folder and choose "Rename".
  13. Replace the word 'Copy' with 'a16.4'

    Congratulations, you now have two games!
     
  14. Go back to the Steam Properties window for 7 Days to Die.
  15. Click on the tab labeled "BETAS".
  16. From the drop-down list, choose "latest_experimental - Unstable build"
  17. Click Close
  18. It will now download the a17 Experimental client version.
  19. Go to the copied a16 folder located similar to...
  20. C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die - a16.4
  21. Right-click on the file "7DaysToDie_EAC.exe", and choose Sent to > Desktop (create shortcut).
  22. Now close those windows so you can see your Desktop.
  23. Right-click the newly created shortcut, and choose "Rename".
  24. Change the name to something like "7DtD a16.4"
  25. Now you can use that shortcut to launch a16.4, and you can launch a17e directly from Steam.

Method 2

  1. In your internet browser put "steam://open/console" into the address bar, and hit Enter.
  2. Steam will open the SteamCMD console.
  3. In the bar at the botom enter "download_depot 251570 251576 7468628160220339213" and hit Enter.
  4. Wait. There is no activity indicator on progress. You can see the bandwidth usage if you check your Downloads in Steam.
  5. Once the download completes, you should see something similar to "Depot download complete : "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\content\app_251570\depot_251576" (1590 files, manifest 7468628160220339213)"
  6. Move the depot_251576 folder somewhere easier, rename it, and create a desktop shortcut for the 7DaysToDie_EAC.exe file.
  7. Note that upon starting the client and reaching the main menu, an error will appear about a missing file. It is safe to ignore this error and continue.

    If you require the old 32-bit client, you can change step 3 to "download_depot 251570 251571 1651451362444695891"

 

Putting saves on a different drive or path for the Client

Note: This is very helpful if you are running two versions of the client.

 

  1. In your Steam games list, right-click the game in the left menu, and choose "Properties".

  2. Click the "Local Files" Tab

  3. Click the "Browse local files" button.

  4. Copy serverconfig.xml file, and rename the copy to serverconfig.SP.xml (or any other name you'll remember).

  5. Open serverconfigSP.xml in notepad and edit the save path to where you want the 7DTD Gamesaves to be stored.
    Most of the serverconfig.xml properties are ignored when running the Client version of the game, but that property does carry over correctly.
    Here is an example from my file:
    <property name="SaveGameFolder" value="D:\GameSaves\7DTD\a16Saves" />

  6. Save AS serverconfig.SP.xml

  7. Now go back to your Steam client library.

  8. In your Steam games list, right-click the game in the left menu, and choose "Properties".

  9. In the General Tab, click the "Set Launch Options" button.

  10. Place the following in the box:

  11. -configfile=serverconfig.SP.xml

    Now when you start the game it will use your set path for the save files.