The zombie survival MMO H1Z1 is a hit on Steam, but three issues continue to plague it: the loot distribution is problematic, zombies are too dumb, and player structures lack fine-tuning.
H1Z1 is a hit: it competes with DayZ on Steam, streamers have discovered it, and the banned hackers constantly buy new Russian keys. But there are at least three major issues in H1Z1 that the game suffers from in this early version. We present them.
The loot – sometimes good, sometimes bad
The loot in H1Z1, how often players find something, is a persistent and recurring problem. In the beginning, there was almost nothing, then suddenly too much, now the loot has been reduced again and now the gamers find it too little.
The problem: After a server restart, everything works. Once the containers have been looted, respawning often does not happen. The H1Z1 devs must not only find a solution for the “full servers” that run with 200 players, but also for the smaller servers during non-peak times. That seems to still be an issue at the moment.
Zombies are still too dumb
Originally, the zombies in H1Z1 were intended to be “the great threat.” This was emphasized in every stream before: We are the zombie game with dangerous zombies. The game is designed around this idea, zombies should be a permanent danger that makes it difficult for players to “shoot at each other.” Without zombies: lots of kill-on-sight, much player-killing, a lot of overkill with wasted ammunition and more of a “shooter” than a survival simulation.
However, the server frame rate is a problem. There is not enough “brainpower” for the zombies. Thus, instead of becoming a ferocious beast, the zombie becomes a mere pole. This changes the dynamics of the game. Work is being done on these problems. Only once they are solved will there be real zombie hordes.
Here too, it shows: after a server down, players rave about the voracious, dangerous hordes and how much more exciting the game becomes because of it. Having this state permanently would please many and solve some subsequent problems.
Player structures block loot, are too easy to break
Another major feature is the player structures, small enclosures that gamers can build in the world. From the beginning, they offered too little protection, were too easy to break and raid. Players stacked various items on top of each other and used them as a ladder for entry.
At the moment, there is another problem: players use structures to “block loot,” such as building them in police stations or supermarkets, thereby blocking other players’ access.
Even if they have quite amusing effects:
These player structures are a complex system into which a lot of work and brainpower will likely need to be invested during development. Moreover, they create static elements in a sandbox. But it is exactly these basebuilding elements that can set H1Z1 apart from the competition. Surely, player structures will be the element that the developers will have to deal with the longest.
What do you think? Do you see these as the three biggest problems? Or are there other issues that you want to see addressed more urgently?
