Alpha 20 is the long-awaited update for survival horror game 7 Days to Die. Announced October 28, 2020 by developer The Fun Pimps, the update will revamp the 7D2D's random world generation, zombie models, environment, and more (see full list of changes below).
Alpha 20 is scheduled to be released in the first part of December 2021.
Unity
- The Fun Pimps are working with Unity developers
Random World Generation
Pre-Alpha 20, user's needed to use external tools such as NitroGen or KingGen to craft custom maps. But this update brings the following:
- Better tools for crafting your own map, including a stamp feature to manually add mountains, hills, and rivers to the world's biomes.
- Direct control in the map generation process (E.g. sliders to determine mountainous vs flat terrain).
- Biome and city selectors.
- New map sizes (6k, 7k, and 10k).
- Improved city tile generation. Buildings will be better aligned above ground, and sews will be better aligned below ground.
Vehicle Mods
- Tinting mask to allow different color details on vehicles.
- Fuel Saver
- Off Road Headlights
- Super Charger
- Expanded Seat (extra passengers on Minibikes, Motorcycles, and 4x4 vehicles).
- Reserve Fuel Tank
Shape Menu and Building
- Shapes are shown as shaded drawings of blocks.
- Blocks from the shape menu are placed as particle board blocks that function the same as frame blocks.
- Simplified upgrade path: Frame/Particle Board -> Wood -> Stone -> Concrete -> Steel
- Blocks destroy to air. They do not downgrade.
- Fourteen new categories and over 1000 new shapes.
Dynamic Imposters
- Added distant visibility for player-made terrain and building changes.
Micro Splat Improvements
- Improved terrain blending.
Feral Sense Game Option
- New game option, which allows Zombies to sense the player from farther away and stay focused on the optimal path to the player
- Zombie senses are heightened so stealth play is more challenging
- Settings are: Off, Day, Night, All
Biome Difficulty
- Snow, Desert, and Wasteland biomes will have gamestage boost creating tougher enemies and better loot.
New Weapons
- Pipe Rifle
- Pipe Pistol
- Pipe Baton
- Pipe Shotgun
- Pipe Machine Gun
- Pipe weapons craftable from backpack without need for schematic.
- Lever Action Rifle Tier between Bolt and Sniper.
- Many weapons reskinned to apocalyptic art style.
Trader Progression
- Balanced Trader goods offered to better match gamestage progression.
- Re-balanced Trader prices.
- Improve quest progression. Lower tier quests will remain available.
- Improve quest tier completion reward and Trader to Trader quest.
Loot Progression and Gamestaging
- Biome gamestage modifiers added for loot and enemies
New Points of Interest (POIs)
- New Gas Station
- Over 145 new POI's and many new props and environmental decorations.
- New Tier 3, Tier 4, and Tier 5 locations
- Many legacy POIs updated
Dynamic Music and Ambient Audio
- More tracks and better segment mixing for wider variety.
- New Bloodmoon track
Environment
- Weather changes more often and has more variety.
- Wind dynamically affects leaves and plants and wind will gust.
- Improved textures for environment art.
- Temporal Anti Aliasing option with a separate sharpening options.
- New mesh generation, shaders and lighting for plants and grass and optimized colliders.
- Bedrolls can be recolored during placement.
- Fuse Boxes updated and made into triggers.
Quests
- Digging Quest improvements.
- Tier 3 Digging Quest added.
- Tutorial Quest uses the beacons to point out nests and rocks.
Restore Power Quest
- Lights go out when rally marker is activated.
- Find the generators and repair them.
- Added a block trigger system with multiple triggers, like switches, and can be on a layer. Blocks, like doors, can respond to them by doing something such as opening or closing.
New Zombies
- Trader Hugh
- Nurse
- Drone
- Screamer
- Fat Cop
- Burnt Zombie (cold, hot, flaming)
- Hoodie Dude
- Lumberjack
- Radiated Zombie with AOE acid bursts
- Converted all legacy zombies to new HD standard
- Converted all traders to new HD standard
- Started Bandit models for A21
Twitch Integration
- Streamers and Audience can interact through the game.
- Chat commands to help or harm streamer.
AI and Sleeper Improvements
- Zombies can duck and crawl through areas that are less than 2 meters but more than 1 meter.