Started playing Ylands as it was just released on the 6th. It's no 7dtd but it's pretty good. Kind of tedious though and a little buggy. But, it has lots of potential. Recently purchased Empyrion as well but haven't played it much...yet.

Also, I play Golf with your friends fairly often. Great for a quick game to break things up. It's not a game you can play for very long at one sitting but still very fun. Always looking to have more friends to play that one. Gotta be in Discord though.

The long dark very slow burn thought full survival  has story mode or sandbox more like RL survival against elements and animals no zombies and such i find it relaxing to play sometimes .
The forest ....wow scary as the  mutants are creepy as and going into caves scary as bit bugged but they still working on it .Very easy to start multiplayer and play with friends did i mention scary well i think so any way .

I recommend This War of Mine. Hadn't played a game like it before. It's simply post-war survival. Finding food, trying to protect yourself, staying warm, if you're lucky you can get a gun and maybe engage bad guys, but I was never good enough for that. Honestly I found it a little depressing too cuz the different characters have very different responses to situations - "I'm so depressed, I can't believe I didn't share my food with that stranger and they died, it's my fault". It's just 2D, but very well done IMO.

Very funny. I've taken a break from 7DTD to try some other things, thought about coming back around, and saw this thread.
I've been sampling these:

The Long Dark - Appealing to the hard core survival side of me. A survival game where death actually means something. I look forward to them finishing out their story episodes. One thing 7DTD is lacking in my opinion is a backstory to the world--maybe they'll add some of this eventually. Maybe 7DTD will actually be serious about a hard-core mode, too. No building in TLD, though. Then again, there isn't time to be creative when you're starving and everything is decaying on you.

The Forest - Spooky. On the fence regarding how much I like the mechanics. Decent story elements. Building isn't as cool as 7DTD.

Ark - Dinos are fun. Mild story elements. Building mechanics are hard to get the hang of and limited when you do. Ark PVP would be fun in a controlled server with people you know. The public servers are a mess.

I'll be back on GZ when A17 drops or when I get bored with Ark--whichever comes first. Await the return of the glorious Chunnel!