This is an unstable ("I Will Back Up My Save) release and you can expect bugs.
Server operators will find .zip files with their server backups, should they need to revert. 5 cycling incremental backups each server run, and a special backup per version change. It can also be configured to backup periodically while the server is running, but you may expect a few seconds of lag if you do this.
Accessible via the "unstable" Steam branch, server and client. Right-click PZ (or the Dedicated Server tool if you are hosting) in your Steam library, select "Properties" and navigate to the "Betas" tab. Then, select "unstable" from the dropdown menu.
MP CHANGES
<*>Increased experimental maximum player limit to 100. Default remains at 32. Servers with more than 32 players will likely result in poor map streaming and desync, so proceed with caution. <*>Optional Login Queue system for MP servers added. - Players connecting to a full server will be placed in a login queue, connecting automatically once a slot freed up. The queue will advance after the client has finished loading the game. - LoginQueueConnectTimeout=60 server option determines for how long the server should wait for a connection of the client before they are timed out. <*>Added options for automatic server backups.<*>Several cheating security fixes to prevent unwanted admin access as well as unwanted actions performed by clients. <*>Several improvements and fixes for VOIP. Added Automatic Gain Control options.<*>Allow VOIP and text to travel to radios tuned into the same frequency.<*>Non-equipped stationary radios now two-way for text comms. <*>Added admin panel tool for creating custom safehouses/safezones<*>Added new PvP icons. Moved to the left hand side with the other UI icons. It will be moved up further before hitting the stable branch.<*>Servers now set a Steam server rule named "PVP" with a value of "1" or "0" depending on the value of the "PVP" server option. This can be used by server browsers to distinguish between pure PVE and PVP enabled servers.<*>Added a "SledgehammerOnlyInSafehouse" server option: - if AllowDestructionBySledgehammer is enabled, you can set SledgehammerOnlyInSafehouse to true to allow destroying stuff with sledge only in player's safehouse. <*>Added buildUtil.setHaveConstruction - This is a function to set the haveConstruction flag on a zone to prevent loot respawn if ConstructionPreventsLootRespawn is enabled in the server sandbox settings. - set haveConstruction on zone for building, movable, barricading events and when claiming a safehouse, so a home won't spawn loot after being claimed, even if a player hasn't built anything in them yet. <*>Updated /rainstart /rainstop and /thunder commands<*>Added /lightning /startstorm and /stopweather commands<*>Added providing optional reason in KickUserCommand<*>Added providing optional coordinates in AddVehicleCommand<*>Updated text for server commands<*>Updated ShowOptionsCommand to allow use by non admins<*>Disabled doubled-up commands AddAllToWhiteListCommand and AddUserToWhiteListCommand<*>Removed unnecessary server options. <*>Updated overhead username display - with only ShowFirstAndLastName enabled, show player nam - with only DisplayUserName enabled, show username - with both options enabled, show player name with username in brackets <*>Server .ini file now has the tooltips for the various options and settings attached as comments<*>Added limit for server public names to 64 characters and public descriptions to 256 characters<*>Disabled NightLengthModifier since it is currently non-functional. Will be reintroduced soon.<*>Added check and teleport for safehouse trespassing. - Fixes issue with players becoming trapped when a safehouse owner goes offline with DisableSafehouseWhenPlayerConnected enabled - Fixes issue with players intruding in safezone areas via movement exploits <*>Safehouse fixes: admins and moderators can quit safehouse (if not owner) admins and moderators can invite themselves to a safehouse do not show the 'Quit Safehouse' button to admins who are not in this safehouse <*>Fixed non-relevant Lucky/Unlucky traits being usable in MP.<*>Fixed some duplication exploits.<*>Fixed being unable to access/change player inventory as admin.<*>Fixed Ping Limiter not working. <*>Fixed showing the "ADMIN POWER:" debug text in multiplayer.<*>Fixed some cases where crashes at low speeds cause fatal injuries.<*>Fixes for some instances where black boxing could still occur when players were passengers in vehicles.<*>Fixed an exploit that allowed bypassing container item limits.<*>Fixed non-members being able to perform moveables actions inside safehouses.<*>Fixed admins in ghost/invisible mode still making sounds.<*>Fixed "Medical check" on another char in a car causing chars to be stuck in a car<*>Fixed crawlers sometimes teleporting when trying to path to a player. They will now turn to the target.<*>Fixed, via removal, defunct server option "LogLocalChat".<*>Fixed kicks in relation to Safehouse creations.<*>Fixed being able to exit a vehicle when inside a safehouse without having appropriate permissions.<*>Fixed a bug that rendered passengers unable to leave a car.<*>Fixed death by bleeding while driving causing a kick from the server<*>Fixed not being able to die near other players until hp drops down, and not being able to move if char died while other players try to rescue.<*>Fixed looting animation stopping when another player attempts to grab the bag/container.
NEW
<*>Added back the "Toggle Music" key binding, bound to nothing by default. It appears under the new "Audio" category near the bottom of the key-binding UI.<*>Players can now dismantle several player-built structures (floors, etc)<*>Corner pillars will now be built automatically when placing walls/fences etc.<*>Updated Kingsmouth and Studio maps. Room definitions, bed and foundation fixes, added video cameras, military equipment, and more.<*>Added tooltip information on what mod an item is from. Can be turned off in main options.<*>Added "Inventory Container Button Size" Display option to change the size of the buttons on the right-hand side of the inventory and loot windows.<*>Updated Survival Guide. Merged into a single window and also made to work with a controller<*>Added trait reset button to character creation screen.<*>Implemented the blue combination washer/dryer appliance. Use the context menu to switch between washer and dryer mode.<*>Context Menu is now usable in the loot panel backpack list.<*>Added more CDs and VHS tapes, including Dog Goblin sequels.<*>Updated ISCraftingUI and CraftTooltip to display multiple choice item counts, as well as heat requirements for recipe ingredients<*>Added AllowFrozenItem parameter to recipes and evolved recipes<*>Added Perogies, Peppermint, Potato Pancakes.<*>Added OnCreate item script property.
BALANCE
<*>Setting Cruise Control now starts at current speed when switched on<*>Attempting to sprint when the character is too exhausted to sprint will now make the character run as fast as they can instead of walking and having to press the "Run" key separately.<*>Fixed M16 still having its initial experimental values. No longer a death laser. MinDamage reduced to 0.8, MaxDamage reduced to 1.4.<*>Greased back hair now requires hair gel.<*>Frog legs and whole fish are now dangerous uncooked.<*>Military lockers and crates now movable. They'll also contain loot.<*>Unified spawn items and starter kit functions in SpawnItems.lua.<*>Fixed drinking directly from river/puddles not making characters sick. <*>Drinking tainted water now more merciful if character is already sick.<*>Added ability to use sheet ropes to create log stacks<*>Fixed players not becoming bored inside player-built rooms.<*>Agoraphobic and Claustrophobic traits fixed to work inside player-built rooms.<*>Added relevant tile properties (pick-up, rotate, water source etc) to: new farm dirt tile, washer-driers, dead farm plants, hay bales, red mobile tool cabinet, troughs, play castles, bird baths, sinks and more. <*>Spear charge fixes (MP and SP):<*>charge only zombies in front of the player<*>reset sprinting time when spear charge occurs
NOISEWORKS
<*>Added a volume automation for the hard of hearing trait in addition to the muffling we already had, additional -6db (needs some testing if this is okay)<*>Added EmptyPan sound for "Empty Frying Pan" and 2 other recipes. The sound is a placeholder for now. <*>Added values MeleeHitSurface for per-weapon door-hitting sounds.<*>Added DoorSound=WoodShackDoor for new door sounds for wood-plank doors.<*>Added StoveTimer sound.<*>Added sounds played while constructing gravel-bag and sand-bag fences.<*>Added sounds for turning media devices on/off and muting/unmuting.<*>Added Dismantle sound for radios and televisions. <*>Added generator repair, connect and refuel sounds. <*>Added sounds for drinking and filling containers from water dispensers.<*>Added new climb sound for high finces.<*>Added bullet impact sounds.<*>Added the violin melee hit/whoosh sounds <*>Minor volume tweak to zombie voices when they're very close, they were a bit too loud<*>Added occlusion to vehicle engines, horn, sirens (needs some testing)<*>Slight adjustment to the bass of the footstomp<*>Play PourLiquidOnGround when emptying paint buckets and similar items.<*>Fixed playing DrinkingFromTap or GetWaterFromTap when drinking from a river sometimes.<*>Play the FallLight sound when tripping over a hedge/tree.
IN-GAME MAP
<*>Added a button to the in-game map to remove all annotations and forget map knowledge.<*>Hide the mini-map when the inventory and loot windows are visible when using a controller (so the mini-map doesn't overlap).<*>Display controller button prompts in the in-game map.<*>Play the MapOpen and MapClose sounds when viewing the in-game map. <*>Fixed the in-game map view not being centered on the player the first time it's displayed, when the mini-map is also used.<*>Fixed moving map symbols with the mouse.<*>The mini-map will be moved up a few pixels before hitting the Stable branch in order to not cover up the MP info.
KNOX EVENT MAP
<*>Export of current dev map - including some new locations and improvement of general landscape<*>Pylons and radio masts added to map<*>Various map fixes
FORAGING / SEARCH SYSTEM
<*>Added foraging tips system to investigate area window.<*>Added some fixes to make the system work with controllers.<*>Overlay radius now used instead of item radius for placing investigate arrow markers.<*>Restructured trait/profession multipliers - now uses definitions.<*>Added profession and trait category specialisations. - Big bonuses to spot categories for professions. - Small/medium bonuses to spot categories for traits.<*>Added functions for modders to add trait/profession definitions.<*>Added ammunition category to urban loot.<*>Added medical category to urban loot.<*>Added clothing items to urban loot.<*>Added some more misc items/fruits/veggies.<*>Added pinecones (only available from September to December).<*>Added pinecones can be used as campfire fuel.<*>Show spotting arrows immediately when the player notices something.<*>Force-find now reveals an item nearby for the player instead of just moving it closer.<*>New identifying items system - items can be identified if close enough or from afar with high skill.<*>Zone display now reveals exact categories when reaching high enough level (identifyCategoryLevel).<*>Set a minimum dark overlay value so the search radius is always visible even in bright daylight.<*>Categories can be more or less common (or not available) during rain or snow.<*>Items can be more or less common (or not available) at night or during the day.<*>Items and categories can be more or less common (or not available) after it has rained.<*>Items are moved to player inventory if a backpack goes over capacit - Yotherwise dropped onto the floor.<*>Refactored, bugfixed and documented many functions.<*>Fixed resetting itemTotal when fillZone is called.<*>Fixed inverted light level values when indoors.<*>Added foraging weather effect reduction for equipped umbrellas.<*>Increased darkness/weather effect reduction cap.<*>Resolved an issue with calculating foraging darkness/weather effect reduction.<*>Fixed issue causing item markers to disappear when looking away.<*>Added a chance to generate extra items on affinity sprites - more firewood in forests - more stones on roads.<*>Tweaked and tidied bonus item generation and syncing.<*>Added a flag to bonus icons for future management.<*>Set affinity check to occur after all icons are loaded.<*>Activate nearby zones inside radius.<*>Allow multiple categories per affinity sprite.<*>Show item ghost before spotting if in visible radius.<*>Added bonus vision definitions for all professions.<*>Place item marker arrows when inside item spotting radius if item is visible.<*>Cloud darkness and fog level visibility increased on zone display.<*>Added some variation to the zone display fog.<*>Added zone display vision effectiveness tooltip.<*>Updated search info tip.<*>Skip checking icons outside loaded cell.<*>Changed default itemDef value canBeOnTreeSquare to true.<*>Added more search radius/trait/profession bonus info to Investigate Area tooltip.<*>Added showing the poison skull on forage pins for mushrooms/berries if player has herbalist skill.<*>More categories visible on Investigate Area window tooltip with high skill.<*>Tidied up and documented ISSearchManager/ISBaseIcon.<*>Tweaked forageSystem penalty calculations.<*>Fixed icon arrows remaining on screen when sprinting.<*>Added short sighted foraging debuff can be removed by wearing glasses/reading glasses.<*>Added testFuncs to skill definitions.<*>Fix rerolling zone icons while sprinting.<*>Fix spotting icons while fast forwarding.<*>Vision radius calculations refactored and tidied.<*>Icon performance improvements.<*>Fixed icons recreating with incorrect conditions.<*>Reduced and capped stuttering caused by cell checks.<*>Fixed overlay toggling in vehicles.<*>Improved search radius transitions when toggling mode.<*>Improved forage zone activation, icon moving, bonus icon generation.<*>Fixed wild crop seed spawns.<*>Fixed using the wrong broccoli type for foraging.<*>Fixed issues in force find tracker.<*>Skip sprite affinity checks on squares with trees or attached data.<*>Fixed missing spaces in search window tooltips.<*>Fixed missing item texture on pins for floor items.<*>Fixed moved objects spawning bonus items.<*>Removed performance impact for ISSearchManager, ISZoneDisplay, ISSearchWindow when UI not visible.<*>Removed seasonal variances from medicinal plants<*>Added WildPlants category for seasonal wild foods<*>Updated ISSearchManager table resets to use table.wipe<*>Updated radius and modifiers in ISZoneDisplay vision tooltip<*>Tidied up some debug stuff in ISZoneDisplay<*>Added foraging profession and trait specialisations for WildPlants Balance: <*>Increased maximum possible spotting range further for specialised characters.<*>Reduced base XP rewards for foraging.<*>Tweaked icon density in zones.<*>Insects, mushrooms, herbs are now much more common at night.<*>Medicinal herbs are much easier to see.<*>Increased medicinal herb yields.<*>Herbs and mushrooms are more common in the rain and after it has rained.<*>Added disabling search mode if a zombie is very close (about 1 square away).<*>Reduced headwear vision penalties, added penalties for more types (not hats, never hats).<*>Increased chance of items to be on affinity sprites (stones on stones, etc).<*>Allow affinity icons to be moved again if they were not noticed before.<*>Malus for item size adjusted to a curve to be less punishing.<*>Rebalanced many item sizes with overrides for spotting (fruit trees, crops, etc).<*>Reduced berries poison level by a lot - not likely to be fatal.<*>Reduced mushroom toxicity range - still very risky to eat unidentified.<*>Added additional food sickness penalty for consuming poison berries and mushrooms.<*>Added a new increased minimum vision radius for well-lit squares.<*>Increased variance of medicinal herb yields.<*>Weather penalty calculation tweaked for snow cover.<*>Weather penalty maximum increased.<*>Overlay radius tweaked to use forageSystem min/max size values.<*>Stones more likely to be found in cracks in the road + rates increased on roads.<*>Removed skill requirements for some item categories.<*>Tweaked sprite affinity and bonus icon chances.<*>Tweaked sprite affinity/bonus icon chances.<*>Foraged drainable items roll for a remaining amount.<*>Increased zone icon density.<*>Additional variation for zone density.<*>Added more sprite affinities to trash, junk icons, and insects.<*>Reduced chance of finding rotten wild foods.<*>Increased chance of fresh wild foods with high skill.<*>Profession and trait vision modifiers also affect the overlay maximum vision radius.<*>Increased vision cap for extremely skilled and specialised characters.<*>Decreased vision cap for non specialised characters.<*>Ensure vision radius bonus always applies when aiming or sneaking.<*>Rebalanced profession and trait darkness effect modifiers.<*>Check darkness cap before placing item marker arrows.<*>Removed override item size for some small items.<*>Added more sprite affinities to categories.<*>Dead animals much more likely to be stale or rotten.<*>Aiming takes priority over crouching bonus in forageSystem.<*>Bonus vision effects apply to maximum radius.<*>Chance to find logs reduced.<*>Rebalanced vision radius/view distance for spotting.<*>Increased maximum hunger bonus for food items.<*>Tweaked vision penalties for clothing.<*>Increased base spotting speed and bonus spotting speed when aiming/sneaking.<*>Reduced snow cover and cloud penalty.<*>Umbrella rain penalty reduction increased and only applies to rain.<*>Minor zone item count balance tweak.<*>Added more sprite affinities for stones.<*>Adjusted profession vision bonuses.<*>Category chances tweaked to accommodate WildPlants.<*>Debug:<*>Added a new IsoMarker type for debugging icon vision radius.<*>Added icon vision radius + category info debug options.<*>Added debug option: "Show Icons Locations". Splitscreen fixes: <*>Fixed split screen icon syncing.<*>Fixed picking up forage icons with controller in split screen.<*>Moved forage icon pickup option to the top of right click context menu.<*>Increased range of back button wheel pickup option.<*>Back button wheel forage options now use item textures.<*>Added discard item option to back button wheel.<*>Tidied up changes for split screen icon syncing.<*>Fixed syncing of arrows/markers when an item is moved or removed.<*>Fixed removal of icons noticed by co-op player.<*>Added zone display split screen support.<*>Sync forage item poison values in splitscreen co-op.<*>Fixed a bug when co-op player simultaneously picks up items in ISForageAction
MODDING
<*>Added ISCarMechanicsOverlay.PartList[].vehicles tables to any parts that don't have them.<*>VehiclePart.setInventoryItem() no longer calls setModelVisible(true|false) for all models, because this interferes with some mods that choose different models based on which item is installed for a part. Instead, a new method VehiclePart.setAllModelsVisible(true|false) was added that is called from these Lua functions: Vehicles.Init.XXX Vehicles.InstallComplete.XXX Vehicles.UninstallComplete.XXX Mods that define "init", "install.complete" and/or "uninstall.complete" Lua functions can now choose to hide or show whichever models they want. Additionally, VehiclePart.repair() now calls the part's "init" Lua function (if it is defined) when creating a missing item. This allows the "init" function to hide or show models. <*>The game will look for mod texture-pack files named Pack2x.floor.pack (correct) and then Pack.floor2x.pack (incorrect) if the first file doesn't exist.<*>Added IsoGameCharacter.XP.setPerkBoost(Perk perk, int level). This is for mods that want to change an existing player's XP multiplier for a skill.<*>Added IsHidden parameter for recipes and evolved recipes - If true, this hides the recipe on the crafting menu - Hidden recipes are still able to be crafted via the right click menu - Evolved recipes are hidden unless a result item exists - This allows adding additional ingredients via the crafting menu
CONTROLLER
<*>Pressing and holding the left analogue stick displays a radial menu that allows toggling crouching, sitting on the ground, and auto-walking. A quick press of the left joystick button toggles crouch, the same as before.<*>Pressing the controller A button when a text entry has the focus displays the on-screen keyboard. - Left shoulder button changes focus between the text entry and keyboard. - D-pad navigates in the text entry.<*>Foraging / Search mode improved to work with controllers
FIXES
<*>Fixed a Lua error when trying to spawn a new character in game when the AllClothesUnlocked sandbox option or Character.CreateAllOutfits debug option is enabled.<*>Fixed the "Aim Outline" option default being "None" instead of "Ranged Weapons".<*>Fixed the volume controls not working in multiplayer.<*>Fixed Home VHS tapes switching from blank to not-blank after reloading sometimes.<*>Fixed some unique Home VHS tapes never being spawned. Now CDs and VHS tapes are randomized in ItemPickerJava.<*>Fixed translation files from required mods having priority over the mod that required it. If mod B requires mod A, then mod B's translation files will be loaded first so they override the same translation in mod A, if present.<*>Fixed sitting zombies facing random angles in multiplayer.<*>Fixed an IllegalArgumentException in IsoChunk.SafeRead() when reading an empty map_X_Y.bin file.<*>Fixed the mini-map displaying the game's map data in cells that have been overridden by mods.<*>Fixed some curved-road zones.<*>Fixed traffic jams on curved roads by implementing "traffjam / ParkingStall" and "rtrafficjam / ParkingStall" for polyline zones<*>Fixed exercises not starting when a two-handed weapon attached to the back is equipped in both hands.<*>Fixed a thread-synchronization bug with ZomboidFileSystem.getString() accessing RelativeMap. This led to walls not being cutaway due to failing to load the CircleStencil Shader.<*>Fixed Character.Debug.PlaySoundWhenInvisible default being true when it should be false.<*>Fixed a few cases where sounds from invisible players could be heard in multiplayer.<*>Fixed bug in world dictionary when an item similarly named to a base item but with different module would be removed. This was due to scriptmanager.getModule defaulting to 'base' when the module was not found.<*>Fixed scriptmanager.getModule testing for equals("Base") or startsWith("Base.") instead of startsWith("Base"). This would otherwise result in the same error happening still if one would name their module for example "BaseBuilding".<*>Fixed item loading when trying to create an item with the same name in a different module. When a mod adds "MyMod.Apple" this a new item that exists alongside "Base.Apple", when MyMod is removed the "MyMod.Apple" bytes in the saves should be skipped. However due to ItemFactory.CreateItem calling the same scriptmanager functions that default to "Base" when no module found, it would try and instance "Base.Apple".<*>Fixed bug in WorldDictionary ItemInfo where print debug would not print all lines.<*>Fixed GameLoadingState doing GameClient stuff in single player.<*>Fixed any exception that occurs when the "failed to create vehicles database" message is displayed not being printed.<*>Fixed spawned fish in shops and stories unable to be filleted.<*>Fixed getting extra materials when multiple players scrap an object.<*>Fixed being unable to construct objects or floors through an open window.<*>Fixed being unable to disassemble closed doors facing S and E.<*>Fixed "take pills" anim playing only once when the action is queued.<*>Fixed 'take pills' action being possible while running (it has no animation).<*>Fixed the resize behavior of the "Select Spawn Location" ui.<*>Fixed disallowed scrolling of map description in the "Select Spawn Location" ui using a controller.<*>Fixed some forest and vegetation zones near curved streets.<*>Fixed "ReceiveRemoveCorpse: incorrect square" messages on the client due to corpse rotting. These messages weren't errors.<*>Fixed incorrect looping in RandomizedZoneStoryBase.cleanAreaForStory().<*>Fixed multithreading issues on the server with the vehicles database. <*>Fixed radial menu for light sources only available for secondary item slot<*>Fixed double-clicking a watch runs an action but doesn't equip it.<*>Fixed adhesive bandages weighing too much.<*>Fixed mechanics books not being in SkillBook category.<*>Fixed missing Fishing.OnCreateFish function on server.<*>Fixed default name of a profession preset not being the name of the profession (has a number if there is already a preset with that name)<*>Fixed bowl of beans recipe not scaling to source can's hunger reduction.<*>Fixed two-tile table stories possibly spawning on two different tables, possibly with a wall in between.<*>Fixed trailers being detached on the client but attached on the server.<*>Fixed explosive traps not damaging zombies in singleplayer.<*>Fixed server soft-reset throwing errors.<*>Fixed "bare hands" checks which used translated item names.<*>Fixed lightbulbs breaking even if unpowered.<*>Fixed inability to plumb sinks in existing buildings if the water is still on.<*>Fixed zombies densities not affecting loot spawn in MP. This caused Sledgehammers and other items to be a lot rarer in MP than in SP.<*>Fixed not being able to climb over tall fences when a vehicle is nearby.<*>Fixed being able to get XP from VHS tapes again after relog.<*>Fixed TVs showing test screen (only happens 14 days after apocalypse and onward).<*>Fixed one TV screen not showing in the screen 'animation'.<*>Fixed the first channel not being properly loaded when radio loads its savefile.<*>Fixed, via disabling, zomboid radio debugger in mp client that was throwing errors due to stuff not being present on client<*>Fixed bug that caused the temperature panel to display all values as zero. (the call to PZMath.clamp in the panels would randomly pick the int or float overload between diff game boots). Also added Thermoregulator node debugger panel.<*>Fixed WAV sounds flickering between speakers when near the player's location.<*>Fixed some problems with clothing losing condition due to holes.<*>Fixed the client savefile not being deleted when the server savefile is soft-reset or recreated.<*>Fixed playing DrinkingFromTap or GetWaterFromTap when drinking from a river sometimes.<*>Fixed trap synchronization issues in multiplayer (including multiple explosion sounds).<*>Fixed noise-trap sound continuing after the trap is picked up.<*>Fixed farm-plant names not being translated in multiplayer.<*>Fixed missing translation for "Spent Rounds" in firearm tooltips.<*>Fixed Disassemble tooltips for movables showing the incorrect object name (and no icon)<*>Fixed unlimited maximum title and text entry for journals, notebooks, paper<*>Fixed impossible disassembly of tall fences south and west of player<*>Fixed missing radioInteraction codes for perks<*>Fixed bug in RadialProgressBar with texture offsets<*>Fixed bug in ISSafetyUI where second part of the radial cooldown would display incorrectly.<*>Fixed alarms being enabled in buildings the player spawns in (in MP).<*>Fixed NullPointerException in DeadPlayerPacket.set().<*>Fixed ability to have more than three saved splitscreen players in multiplayer.<*>Fixed issues managing saved splitscreen players in multiplayer.<*>Fixed SafeHouseRemovalTime greater than 596 removing safehouses.<*>Fixed player facing direction never getting set on the server.<*>Fixed Survival Guide error showing the guide when isShowFirstTimeSneakTutorial() is true.<*>Fixed the "Learned Recipe" text above the player's head when watching a VHS not being translated.<*>Fixed EvolvedRecipe.java using DecimalFormat (which uses the default locale) and instead use NumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.US) to try and fix rare crafting exceptions.<*>Fixed getting Fitness XP without exercising when starting exercises while aiming.<*>Fixed being able to dismantle carpentry window frames and door frames before removing the window or door.<*>Fixed Z location check in RecipeManager isNearItem<*>Fixed playing sound from the waist of zombies that are on the ground and instead play from their head.
42 Techdoid
Hey all, here’s a general update from TIS Towers on various things. We do hope this finds y’all well.
First off a quick heads-up on the forthcoming 41.66 patch. It’s now content locked, and is now receiving required fixes reported by our internal testers. We will look to put it out into a new unstable beta branch as soon as we can.
As previously mentioned the core MP team will be sticking with Build 41 patches to improve life out on the servers for the immediate future, but work on the next big build has nevertheless now begun/continued in earnest.
Already announced for Build 42 was a major expansion of late game crafting and a major focus on game balance – details on which can be found here.
There are a few other irons in the fire for this build too though. As ever, no ETAs on any of this.
We are very much still in the early versions of this build, and indeed much of the late game crafting update is currently in the ‘pen and paper’ planning stage. More on this in future blogs.
Engine Tech Improvements
We have recently taken some time to get rid of a bunch of our longest standing issues with the game’s engine.
Whilst this is definitely not a b41-style level of disruption, we’re digging deep inside our renderer and looking for ways to get rid of the quite severe problems that have been baked into our engine for a long time in terms of both capabilities and performance.
Performance
Of course, the biggest issue our engine struggles with daily is the extreme CPU and GPU heavy requirements of having a map composed of so many unique tiles, shaders and other stuff without the ability to use a z-buffer to let us render in an optimized way like most 3D games.
Ironically the fact that its ‘a simpler looking 2D game’ is what works against using a lot of the power of the GPU to render the map fast. This results in large FPS drops, particularly when zooming out due to the mind meltingly inefficient draw method that the ISO perspective forces on us.
We’ve had a few rather bold ideas on how to solve this, using the caching of chunks that have already been rendered, which we hope will vastly increase the FPS in B42.
It’s early days, but looks promising. This tech requires heavier use of the GPU memory, however, so it may be that this optimization will only be able to benefit cards with a few gigs of free VRAM. We’ll have to see which generations of GPUs will be best able to leverage it when its dev time is a little further down the line.
Speaking of not being able to use a z-buffer to render things in an optimized way: in actual fact, we’ve also been working towards being able to use a z-buffer to render things in an optimized way.
This essentially frees us from having to slot the draws of zombies, vehicles or players in between the appropriate tile draws in ‘back to front’ order.
We’ll be able to simply draw all the characters and vehicles on-screen at the end, their pixels then discarded if they are deeper into the scene than an existing building object’s pixel.
This should massively optimize the rendering speed of zombies, and allow us to sort them by materials. It will free us to use cached chunks indefinitely, until the lighting or cutaways demand a change, rather than rendering all the tiles individually.
We have had some surprising FPS results in 4k on max zoom,howeverwe also expect this will likely fall a lot in practice – once the work is complete and everything is drawing. Please excuse any visual glitches at the moment!
[previewyoutube="G6t5h0_Sfqc;full"]
Due to all this, in B42 it currently feels safe to assume that zooming out will have significantly lower performance penalty – and that higher resolutions will become more feasible for at least mid-range GPUs, and possibly lower end GPUs too.
Variable Chunk Heights
In the game, since our very earliest builds, we’ve been limited to 8 storey buildings. This was primarily because the height was global, and increasing this would incur a penalty to performance across the entire map even if that extra space was not used.
The other issue was simply performance when drawing those extra floors. If we’re struggling to render the amount of tiles we already have, adding extra tall buildings would be a big mistake.
Thirdly, there’s something to be said about less being more in terms of gameplay. However, this hard limit of 8 has long been a thorn in our mappers’ sides, as well as for our mod community.
Seeing as it looks like we’ll be able to solve the performance issues discussed above, we’ve now added a variable chunk height system which will allow each chunk of the map to define its own max height.
This means that in Build 42 it’s looking like a particular area could have floors up to 32 in height, should the mapper desire it.
Four way stairs
Currently, due to certain tech limitations, we only have stairs that rise in north or west directions.
This is annoying, and we’d like to get rid of this limitation for numerous reasons. We’ve done some mock-ups of how stairs would look in the other two directions, and think we’ve found a way to make it work.
They look a little odd, however functionally being able to have stairs in any of the four directions would give mappers and ourselves much more freedom in building design.
Map Coordinates
Another limitation that has been very longstanding is the fact that negative map coords (expanding out the map in the negative X and Y directions) is not possible in PZ – due primarily to some TIS naivety early on in development.
For the maths-minded out there: casting a player’s x, y, z location to an int to work out what tile they are standing on will return the wrong value if any of those coordinates are a negative value.
There were thousands of places where this occurred in the codebase, and they all needed changing from a static cast to a math.floor, so that they will work in negative dimensions.
Making negative map coordinates possible means that we, or modders, will feasibly be able to build northwards and westwards, and opens up a huge extra area of potential map area to expand to.
It likewise also puts other cool stuff (back) on the game dev table that we’ll discuss at a later date.
Light Propagation
We have also been updating our lighting system.
In the current B41 we have an ambient light level that’s inherent to every tile within the map – though slightly reduced indoors. Light sources are only capable of lighting the room that they are in.
Locking yourself in a cupboard with the door shut currently results in the same light level as you’d get in the living room with open curtains.
For B42 we are rejigging how lighting is calculated, to make a much more interesting and realistic light propagation system.
Now being in a room with no windows, even in broad daylight, will leave you in the darkness. The evening sunset glow will encroach through the window and bathe your room in a red tint, creeping back toward the window and dimming as the sun goes down.
Interiors of buildings will lighten and darken with the daylight based on how much exposure to the bounced light they will feasibly receive. Opening a door to a lit room will bathe the outside corridor in light, and so on.
This is all still development in progress, and it maybe requires tweaking of light intensities, colours and fall-off ranges.
Please also excuse any glitches you see, this is all still very much in the oven!
[previewyoutube="9_0TiPQ-JQA;full"]
OTHER BIZNESS
This week’s flamingo funfrom Cute Cappuccino. A changelist of all our pre-release patches since the 41 beta began can be found here. The Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too! And you can always find our bi-weekly blogs over here.
2022 and Beyond
Howdy survivors! Another crazy week for us, we’re still in a bit of a daze!
Just a few more days until the entire team are back together after the various international holiday periods have all come to an end, and we’re looking exceedingly forward to fixing up a few of the big issues that have come out in the wash since the MP launch. You can read more about them in last week’s blog here.
So the big question, now 41 is out there, and after the remaining MP issues have been fixed up, is what comes next?
Two Team Release Schedule
Going forward, now the behemoth that is Build 41 is increasingly looking to be in our rear-view mirror, we are going to structure the internal game’s development into two distinct teams (With General Arcade continuing in the meantime on improving MP, optimizing the server, increasing the player count and other MP related tech)
First, a little bit of a teaser!
[previewyoutube="oULByHbq5Tk;full"]
(This is a fairly old internal video, created as a working proof-of-concept of various aspects of our NPC tech. It’s also not necessarily canonically accurate anymore. It was built to echo our earliest tech demo, but this might not be the start point we take with narrative in future, even if the characters would still be familiar.)
It’ll have been no surprise to anyone who read the interview in which Lemmy dropped some major Thursdoid spoilers that one of those teams is going to be focusing exclusively on NPC development from this point on. We’ll also be able to talk about it (not necessarily every Thursdoid, but certainly no longer in a vacuum), rather than work away in secret due to our ‘only discuss what’s coming next’ rule we instigated after a few instances of talking far too early about stuff.
Long ago we stated (informally on a forum post) our planned features for future builds, starting with hunting for build 42, and then numerous NPC builds for build 43 and onward.
However, many changed circumstances and much ponderings later, we’ve decided that this is not the best approach to take. First of all, its very clear that human NPCs have long been the most requested feature that is still outstanding, and the source of most of the frustration and bad feeling from those who consider the game to still be incomplete.
Not only this, but in slightly more selfish reasons, a big reason for not being comfortable with hunting and pets being first, is they are still NPCs and would necessarily leverage all the technology we’ve being working on for years at this point.
We have such amazing and peskily talented modders out there, we know fine well that as soon as we released this tech within their grasps, we would end up seeing extremely powerful NPC mods appearing, using our NPC tech heavily, before we had the pleasure of seeing this hard work paid off with our own NPCs.
It may be the initial build still contains hunting and wild animals, they ARE NPCs after all. It may be they drop into a subsequent build or later on in the unstable beta cycle, its not clear yet for reasons we’ll discuss in a bit. But the next BIG thing will be NPCs and we’ll have a dedicated team working toward this goal going forward.
However, NPCs will still, technically, be build 43. This is because we’ll be running a second dev team exclusively on a quicker, less risky yet still super cool content patch before the NPC work is complete, and then ongoing alternately between the other NPC patches to keep the content train going.
Behold this fancy graphic we cooked up! Now that we’ve blown up a bit we need some fancy graphical charts in our Thursdoids!
Hopefully the chart shows that, in very real terms, NPCs will be coming out as quickly as they can, uninterrupted, and the other builds are there to help bridge the gap. No build will ever take as long as Build 41 did, it was a practical rewrite of large portions of the game, but non-the-less NPCs will take time to emerge, and we don’t want to leave the community without new content in those waits.
Build 42
There is still a lot of polish and fix work to do on 41, primarily for the MP team but also with a side-salad of bug-fixing issues in both online and solo.
Beyond this, however, is a much ‘smaller’ but still extremely cool update that’ll drop before NPCs, that will release during the push toward an NPC release.
I say ‘smaller’ only because no major functionality or new fundamental systems, and it will be more a balancing and content patch while NPC team’s work is underway. However it will still be pretty beefy in terms of what it brings to the game.
It will serve several important purposes:
1) To balance a lot of the existing mechanics, particularly in relation to traits, professions, skills and other areas of the game that have been neglected or suffered some degradation during the years of development since they were introduced. Balancing traits and professions, medical system, and other stuff where it comes down to essentially tweaking numbers to make more builds viable or close up ‘free points’ exploits in character creation. Loot balancing and anything else that’s an easy balance but will help improve the game also fits in here.
2) To begin the expansion of the ‘tech tree’ of the game significantly to provide a more rich end-game experience. While until NPCs exist, some of this may be slightly less impactful on single player (though we’re sure will still add a lot of potential), it will significantly improve the MP experience by servers being less pressured to wipe or have loot respawning, providing players and communities ability to create more items that at present can only be obtained through looting.
While we may not hit this spot in our first build, our ultimate goal is to provide significantly extra crafting potential to allow players to effectively create a post-apocalypse nu medieval community, to provide plausable alternatives to any of the lootable items in the game that would logically be plausable with the correct skills and resources so players don’t feel pressured to restart the early game repeatedly to get long term fun out of the game. Want to be the person who makes clothes and sells them to a neighbouring settlement? Build brick walls and create something that resembles an actual house? Maybe even build a windmill? Who knows.
These are all examples of things we could do here, and may not all appear in Build 42, but hopefully our intended direction is clear. Ultimately to build up to the point that Alexandria / Hilltop / Kingdom style communities can form years after the apocalypse, giving more incentive to keep playing and building on existing worlds instead of intentionally replaying the early game because there is no real late game.
All this would be a time sink and require a group effort and wouldn’t be compulsory for those who prefer to just die repeatedly in the early apocalypse days, but the hope is to allow for a much greater level of community building, and facilitate trade and potentially years of stories and rich history from within a single world, be it NPC populated or an MP server, spanning numerous player lives (so it can still be the story of how you died).
These professions and expanded tech trees would be heavily gated and require specialization, often in case of the more complex crafting paths requiring pre-apocalypse skills that while it’s possible, are extremely difficult to attain to high levels after the apocalypse without a character specced toward them. We long ago ‘nerfed’ a metalworking system that was added to the game due to the implausibility of some random survivor crafting spoons and katanas in the apocalypse, however we’ll be expanding this again to include better items available through sufficient mastery and enough plausibility with the character build.
We’ll increase the amount of recipes that’ll be unlockable within the world through books, magazines or VHSs, and try and accurately model more advanced and multi-tier crafting professions to allow survivor communities to thrive and provide much more diverse activities for players who like to stay in the safehouses.
Finally, and vitally, we’ll be introducing the concept of ‘crafting surfaces’ to further restrict where some crafting recipes can be used. Some more complex recipes will require specific tables or equipment, some will just require a table or surface of any kind, while others can be carried out in your hands with no surface at all.
This will add an extra level to the crafting, as making a place suitable for crafting the more complex multi-stage recipes, and potentially upgrading your crafting station and equipment, would become a more fulfilling experience than standing in the field and being able to make a stir fry.
We have many and varied other things we want to inject into the game also – we’re currently working on seated / reclining characters for example, and also want to expand on in-game events and tie them to the map. We also need to do some work to improve guns, and PvP, at some point. It’s not clear when smaller features will start appearing, however, so will report on them in blogs as the year progresses.
Build 43
Worked on concurrently to the balancing and crafting update, as well as discussed and shown within our blogs going forward, will be the first version of NPCs. We’re still deciding what should, could and would be present in the first NPC build. It could include autonomous NPCs that the player can group with, it could primarily include the reintroduction of the story mode, it could have NPC animals, or that could come later.
We really need to look at what we have, and what’s feasible to deliver in a reasonable amount of time, as well as what we could release as a first build and not have people who’ve waited years for them to appear be disappointed. There’s a lot of plates to spin, decisions to make that require more brain power than we’ve had to spare during B41’s development, so we’re going to take some more time to discuss what would make the most satisfying and manageable first build, and take a stock check of what we have.
We’ve got a LOT of NPC code, lots of cool systems, from Rimworld style priority and jobs system, personality systems, procedural story event systems, combat systems, autonomous survival behaviours, advanced group behaviour systems, vehicle driving systems, and a whole bunch more. While nothing could be described as 100% complete, the vast majority of the hard work has been done, is functional and is extremely cool.
But B41 has taken a huge amount of our time and resources, and also taken some elements of the PZ workings in a different direction to things our NPCs were using, and so they need some time to be reintroduced to the most current build and made MP compatible. And when we do that, we’ll be moving stuff over in stages to release, rather than try and get everything functional and release ready at once.
A good analogy is we’ve got two rooms, one full to the ceiling of extremely cool and complex circuit boards and wires that we’ve spent years making, one room is empty.
Trying to tidy and assemble everything in the first room will be a nightmare. So we’ll start moving bits into a new room, setting them up, plugging them in together, and making something cool out of them to release. After release we’ll continue bringing in more pieces and attaching them, and so on for perhaps 2 or 3 builds until the first room is empty and our vision of NPCs is complete. It doesn’t mean that’s all we have, far from it, just sorting that entire packed room out would take too long and we want to finally start pushing NPC content out as soon as possible.
We also have some big plans for a gun mechanics rework at some point, to provide a more solid gunplay experience that will make guns not only more interesting to use, require more a player skill element, but also make PVP encounters a lot more interesting for those who enjoy that kind of thing, as our PVP component is still one of the more lacking elements of our multiplayer experience. But for now we are not committing to where this will thread into the release schedule.
The process of moving stuff over will take some time, and so we may be quiet for a couple of Thursdoids until we start getting stuff moving in the current build. As soon as we are though, we’ll be talking about the ongoing NPC development, alongside the concurrent crafting and balance patch, until they drop. Exciting times!
It shouldn’t go unsaid, however, that if a big new feature is not ready then it’s not in our DNA to push it out of the door uncooked. We’re confident that this will be a great year for PZ, and feel we can keep the content pipe flowing, but also won’t be abandoning our accustomed position as the tortoise in the ‘tortoise vs. hare’ race which appears to now be paying dividends for both game and community.
Much love,
TIS x
Build 41 - Released!
It felt like the day would never come, but we’re really happy and proud to announce that Build 41 has been released to stable!
If you’ve been out of the loop on the beta, a good place to start would be our new trailer to celebrate the release and show those new to Zomboid what’s in store for them:
[previewyoutube="nPbsDmzZ3Oc;full"]
This build marks a huge step for us, the graphics, gameplay, audio and netcode being significantly remastered and radically improved, Build 41 feels more a sequel than a patch update. As well as a huge map update, new mechanics and systems, its by far our biggest update yet.
Under normal circumstances, we may have done a little more polish and fixing before releasing to stable, but the truth is next to no one are playing Build 40 now, apart from those that didn’t know of the beta branch. It’s presence if anything has been damaging to Project Zomboid’s first impressions and we were only waiting for multiplayer to drop in a somewhat stable fashion to allow us to move on, as we feel strongly that Build 41 even with the remaining bugs and issues that need weeding out, casts a far superior first impression for new players.
Build 40 will forever live on in a branch, access the beta branch “legacy40 – Classic Zomboid” at any point to continue playing, or if your specs aren’t capable of running build 41 comfortably.
So what’s new in this build?
Massive animation and character overhaul, more immersive animations and smoother gameplay and combat, highly customizable character that shows clothing and equipment in the world. Visibly ripped and damaged clothing. Visible Backpacks and Bags.
In-game map system to allow the player to chart their exploration and find their way around the huge map.
New animations and new movement systems. Sneaking, sprinting, jogging, racking, reloading, climbing, fence-jumping, collapsing and much much more.
New multiplayer built from the ground up for smooth, immersive and low latency player and zombie movement.
New combat, new weapons, new difficulty balance.
New tutorial teaching you the very basics of the new movement and combat.
New character creation – many, many different new clothing options both on spawn and discoverable in the world as loot or on zombies.
New city to explore, the gargantuan Louisville, as well as many improvements across the entire map, including new buildings, decoration, and curved roads for easier driving.
New zombie behaviour: feasting on recent corpses, lolling against walls, falling over fences etc.
Blood and dirt system that progressively bloodies bodies and clothing of survivors and zombies
New injury system – movement and combat visibly hampered when injured. Lacerations now possible, an injury state that lies between bites and scratches.
Randomized environmental storytelling elements. Death Scenes, zombies discovered in the situations in which people died. Prayer meetings, sports-viewing parties, survivor zeds wearing backpacks etc, vehicle crashes and blockades.
Situational zombie type/clothing and inventories – cop zeds in police station, firemen zeds in burnt buildings, Chef zeds in restaurant kitchens, bride and groom zeds at a wedding ceremony in church etc.
Clothing protection: different clothing provides different levels of protection from zombie attacks.
New Sims-style cutaway vision system.
Vehicle handling improvements, resizing and appearance tweaks.
Updated, remastered and expanded Kentucky-themed soundtrack.
Complete soundscape overhaul – All new sounds, building a more immersive and compelling sonic landscape.
Items now have placeable 3D models in the world, for all your decorative needs.
New Gameplay Styles Apocalypse: Stealth focus. Short lifespan. Combat best avoided and picked selectively. Survivor: Powerful combat. Longer Lifespan. A challenging playstyle based on PZ’s previous Survival mode of Build 40. Builder: Construction, Exploration, and Farming focus. A more relaxed experience.
New Challenges Kingsmouth – A separate challenge map, Kingsmouth puts you on a paradise island vacation resort. Studio – Try to survive as the Knox Infection hits the dream factory. Some of these zombies are not like the others.
Entirely new foraging system.
New inventory slots – belts and holsters now give quick equip slots. Weapons can be attached to the character’s back.
New thermal / body temperature system.
New Tailoring system for clothing repairs.
New Fitness / Exercise system.
New emote system – Hold Q to bring up the Radial Menu for Emotes.
New water visuals – including visible flow direction.
New puddle system during heavy rain.
New fog visuals.
New levelling system.
New VHS, and CDs system.
Broken glass and related injuries.
3D Store Mannequins – can be dressed however you like
Working washing machines and driers
Server-side saving: MP save system now in a server-side database. Offline SP-side, also means no more lost cars via irl power outages.
New radial menu for reloading firearms.
New game cursor
New loot balance and loot balance system: houses and stores now have loot in the containers you would expect from real life – and not in a jumble.
Isometric aiming cursor that shows where you’re aiming in iso space to aid in combat.
A gigantic list of fixes and QoL improvements.
Thank you
A huge thanks everyone for the wonderful experience we’ve had since releasing multiplayer, seeing such a wave of positivity has been wild and made this long journey for this build more than worth it! Seeing the player numbers dwarf our previous record has been crazy:
We’re over the moon over the success the multiplayer has seen and we vow to continue and expand on that.
We’re so proud of everyone on our team, we know we wouldn’t be here today if we didn’t have such dedicated devs working on all these features, often under intense external pressure, and the support team for helping us keep the sometimes chaotic wheels spinning. Every one of them is wonderful and deserving of all our thanks.
Finally, a huge specific thank you to General Arcade, in particular Yuri and Andrei who have put such amazing work into bringing a quality to Zomboid’s multiplayer we simply would never have (and indeed, hadn’t) achieved without them. They’ve put huge amounts of work into this, and we’re thankful to them for helping Zomboid multiplayer come to the vision we had for it.
That’s all for this update. See you all after the new year where we’ll talk about what comes next!
Build 41 Multiplayer Beta Available Now!
Build 41 and MP info
Hello survivor! Here’s a few notes of introduction for players new to the Knox Event.
Build 41 is our playable beta of a complete overhaul of Project Zomboid: new animations, new combat, new soundscape designed by some of the folks who won awards for Alien: Isolation, new map function, vast new city added to the map. New everything, really.
We have been working on it for two years, and very recently have reintroduced multiplayer which has proved extremely popular – and may even be the reason that you are here reading this!
It looks a little like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI-tEpmS4g
And here’s some advice from Nurse about how to access and what’s included:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCqRYjAepBk
With Build 41.61, we've increased the supported player count to 32, already.
This build is NOT currently the initial download Steam users are presented with – we intend to give Build 41 its full release and move it into the mainline early next, year once we have fixed and polished remaining issues with the new MP.
So how do you access the latest build?
Simply go to your Steam betas, and select the one called "b41multiplayer".
Please be aware that this is a test build, and is still being actively patched, fixed and worked upon.
While many (many!) people are having a great time with Build 41 MP, there are still issues we need to fix – and support issues that we need to address.
Public servers are currently not recommended. Whitelisted and co-op servers are strongly advised for the best experience.
The new update is very complex, and we are a very small team. So please be understanding while we update, fix and polish ready for the full launch next year.
We would like to thank our amazing community for the help they have been giving to new players, and all the enthusiasm they have shown during this exciting time for Project Zomboid.
We hope you all have fun! Have some Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
Build 41 IWBUMS Beta out
The public ‘I Will Back Up My Save’ beta for the long-awaited Build 41 is now open for testing by the Project Zomboid community.
The IWBUMS beta is accessible to anyone who plays Project Zomboid. Right click Project Zomboid in your Steam library and hit “Properties”. Then, navigate to the betas tab and select the “iwillbackupmysave” branch from the dropdown menu.
Those who test IWBUMS beta builds must be aware that what they’re playing is a work in progress.
IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS - MAKE SURE ALL MODS ARE DISABLED - then please try verifying the steam local cache within those same options. If this doesn't work, try a full uninstall and reinstall (while also deleting or renaming the installation folder as well as your user folder in C:\Users\YourUsername\Zomboid). Sometimes Steam updates can be buggy with big updates.
For further details on what IWBUMS testing entails, please check here.
WHAT?
Build 41 is the most fundamental and wide-ranging update that Project Zomboid has ever had. We intend it to be a stable foundation for us to build on for many years ahead. For this reason too,however, we anticipate a fairly long public beta while all the various issues presented to us by community testers are spotlit and remedied.
Some key features, primarily MP, are initially disabled in the IWBUMS beta build – and will be turned on during the testing process.
Build 41 currently contains:
Build 41 and is the first (biggest) step in our overall plan to bring more life, variety and activity to the Knox Event. From this build onwards we will be adding in (and improving) our existing AI work layer-by-layer.
Build 42, for example, will use the power of the Build 41 animations build to introduce animals and wildlife.
We will also be releasing AnimZed, our animation tool, to the community during the IWBUMS beta process – meaning that modders will receive a huge boost in what they can create within PZ.
WHAT NEXT?
During the IWBUMS beta process for Build 41 the following features will be re-enabled and/or improved.
WHAT ELSE?
Due to the extent of engine and gameplay changes in Build 41, existing savegames will NOT be compatible.
At the time of the full build release, for those wishing to continue playing on old saves, a Steam beta branch of the current Build 40 will be available – and will continue to be available at all times.
This will be known as ‘PZ Classic’, and will also allow people to continue to play with their favourite mods until such a time as they are updated.
Hey all, here’s the highlights of the last few weeks of Project Zomboid development – compiled from the Thursday blogs that appear at http://www.projectzomboid.com/blog/ and on the PZ Steam boards.
First up, we recently had a full stream for 2-3 hours of the current internal build courtesy of steamer Mark.exe. This can be viewed in its entirety here.
If you don’t have time for that, however, then here’s a quick video that’s shows off most of the things discussed in more detail below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyuAw_I5kNA
The primary thing that’s being shown in this video is the rotational animation system that our team, primarily Zac and Martin, have finally managed to conquer – barring polish and minor bugs. We’re not going to give any indication of a countdown for an IWBUMS release, but eagle-eyed Thursdoid blog readers will have noticed that this was always on of the major barriers to releasing a public beta.
At the time of writing, however, gameplay connected to this new system, still needs to be wired up and polished– and optimization still needs to be fed into the machine to improve performance with large zed hordes and also bolster lower-spec PCs.
Something we are considering is releasing the IWBUMS beta in SP form first – before wiring up the MP during the beta process. Not only would this speed up a release (as there are likely gremlins waiting to jump out on us as there always are) but it will make a lot of sense to test and improve MP on a community server – and to restart all the usual Community Megatests and such to aid with the testing.
COMBAT BALANCE
Previously, while looking good in videos and such, player movement felt tank-like and sluggish – but now 180s are smooth, combat/defense can take place at an angle and you can move in the direction you want to move in a far slicker fashion.
A big aspect in build 41 has been the combat balancing. We wanted to make the one on one combat feel a lot easier, where fighting with groups would be much much more deadly. This however has been too successful if anything, and we ended up with groups being SO deadly it was actually near impossible to survive a few fights with small groups, which ended up way too punishing even for ours, the most masochistic of gaming communities. (Sorry) As such, due to the new animation system’s ability to allow animations to play only on the top half of the body, RJ has made a change that allows you to strafe while shoving and swinging your weapon.
https://youtu.be/R2x6a8inq7s
We have also, partly in response to community concerns raised that it would be very easy to ‘kite’ the zeds – continually batting them off and keeping yourself safe from the horde, made sure that hordes are… something of a danger. https://youtu.be/k4r-mKPjiDA
MOVEMENT BALANCE
Far and away the biggest change in recent weeks came as a result of some serious discussions about the responsiveness of the main player controls.
For the entirety of anims development the mission had been to balance the increased realism of movement and increased presence with the slight lag of control you have from the character moving realistically: with character footsteps actually accounting for movement, instead of an internal switch that’s flicked the moment you press a key.
Many AAA games have a slight delay in movement, even extremely amazing and popular ones such as Red Dead Redemption 2, so overall we thought this was a noble aim. The end results of which however, amidst a lot of positives, led to grumbling from internal testers. This week then, we experimented – tightening it further. Trying to push it to its very limit of control responsiveness, without the animations looking robotic.
We tightened blend times between standing idle and walking, tightened blends when turning etc, and now we think we’ve found a much tighter balance. Most of the internal testers, re-accustomed to the weightier movement through extended play, were already pretty much satisfied with what we had – but all now agree that the tightening of these screws has made things a lot better.
As such we’re now feeling a lot more confident that, after some adjustment period once both beta and final version are live, most established PZ players will have far less issues over how animations have changed the feeling of mobility within the game. Which has come as a relief
OPTIMIZATION
Zac’s current challenge is to be able to draw large quantities of articulated, walking, shambling, crawling, eating, and swarming zeds at a reasonable frame rate. Right now it’s okay-ish on a decent system, but wouldn’t stand up to a huge amount of zombie horde herding – which we know is a favourite pastime of PZ players.
Crowd Rendering is a collective term that involves a number of techniques that take advantage of the large numbers of crowds to make the process much more efficient.
To know where to aim, however, it’s a big help to have intimate knowledge of just how the PZ engine is performing, and where the hot-spots are. Toward this end, we are adding a Performance Analyzer module to AnimZed, and will direct our efforts to wherever it takes us.
OTHER STUFF
The new Kentucky-themed soundtrack from our music maestro Zach Beever is now entirely in-game for build 41, working with the sadistic music director and has drama calculations tweaked too. The 36 new tracks span 2hr:41m in all, and also come with the gift of a new ‘level up’ noise, for those fed up with the singing lady.
Muzzle flash.
Survivor Zeds have been added to the roads of the area. They’ll spawn with a bunch of other zombies, but will always carry a good rucksack filled with survival goodies and an annotated map to lead you on elsewhere.
Stas’ improved controller work is going to be left until Build 42 so the current gamepad support has been improved to cater with the new movement and combat. L3 (pressing the left stick) toggles sneaking. Right-trigger while moving makes the player run, similar to the gas pedal in a vehicle. Right shoulder button is reload firearm. Left shoulder button is rack firearm.
New Blood layer system so clothing closest to wounds gets stained with blood first, before progressively making blood marks on the next item of clothing. So a t-shirt gets a blood stain first, before then starting to make a mark on the sweater that covers it. Quick video of this in testing seen here.
A big bugbear in the current internal build has been that the player could drop-dead from bleeding from non-consequential areas – like a gash in your feet. Now all injuries have their own bleeding modifier, so a neck wound has far worse bleeding implications than, for example, your leg.
A speed modifier has been added to different body parts – so that injuries on some body parts have a greater impact on your walk and run speeds than others. So, for example, an injury on your upper leg will have less of an impact on speed than one directly on your foot.
A ‘player appearance’ tab has been added to the in-game health/skills panel. Here you will be able to make whatever in-game appearance customisations to your survivor that are available to you – dependent on you having the relevant scissors, combs etc. in your inventory.
The character customization screen has been receiving some polish– improving suggested player and profession clothing load-outs, making coloration choices less garish and polishing the idles of the character model that you’re dressing up. After much internal discussion on what to give away to players in terms of profession costumes, Martin has been creating some additional branded t-shirts to go with various professions in the game.
We also decided not to keep this rotational disaster in-game, but the modders amongst you will be able to revive it if needs be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8_-XVSGpSs
This is the eighth Steam round-up of development news for Project Zomboid, but weekly Thursdoid blogs are posted both on our website and on the Steam discussion boards. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info.The Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.
Spiffo’s Round-Up #4
Hey all, here’s the highlights of the last few weeks of Project Zomboid development – compiled from the Thursday blogs that appear at http://www.projectzomboid.com/blog/ and on the PZ Steam boards.
Here’s a quick video that shows whereabouts we currently are with the internal anims build, with subtitles to highlight work still to be done – which will also hopefully provide an accurate picture of what it’ll look and feel like to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3bLv8Hl_0Y
As you can see there’s a lot of general smoothening of rough edges happening on the build at the moment, and likewise alongside our friends at TEA we still need to plug in work on rotational blending, MP hook-ups and the work on the zoom that led to the sharper-looking models we showed off in past weeks.
With that put up top then, let’s have a look at some of the other stuff that’s being introduced into the next PZ build.
BODIES EVERYWHERE
In Build 41 we will be adapting the lore slightly (hopefully forgivably) by making it so that the zed impulse to bite someone who’s unturned isn’t entirely removed after their death. Idle zeds will be slightly attracted to human corpses, and will crouch to feed – meaning you can sneak by or attack without them noticing you as easily. This can be seen in the vid below:
https://youtu.be/bC5LYYJPI8A
Meanwhile, the same event can be added to our growing roster of interesting scenes we can spawn in random houses, which can be seen in the below screenshot– which is also a good example of how neatly ChrisW’s cutaway system will be improving the game.
(Please also note that since this screenshot and video were taken we’ve added in more poses for feeding zombies – so they won’t all be doing the more human-like crouch, and some will be on their knees and pawing at the corpse.)
In the current build the discovery of survivor bodies can be quite crude, with bleach or alcohol bottles scattered around willy-nilly for example. With our new systems we can also quite easily add in bodies that tell a clearer and neater story. Even if it’s as simple, and tragic, as someone who died from self-inflicted gun wounds.
[PLEASE NOTE THIS IMAGE IS WIP - POSES ETC WILL BE MORE VARIED AND IMPROVED]
OTHER NEWLY IMPLEMENTED ANIMATIONS
[Traditional disclaimer: work in progress! Improved/sharper character models seen in previous blogs not yet in main test build!]
Here’s a quick vid that shows off the ability to pour out liquid from a container, the ability to sit on the ground to have a rest, and an idle that shows the survivors warming themselves in front of a heat source.
Crikey, this game's quite dark isn’t it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vllCqedCauw
New animations tied into the new system include: applying bandages and taking pills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgZwqkchCoc
Also, digging graves and pouring contents from bottles out onto the ground. Allowing you to pour one out for your homies, if you so choose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66qBOvl8h0g
MODDING POTENTIAL
We will be releasing our new AnimZed dev tools to the community when we release this version (perhaps even when we are still in IWBUMS testing if the documentation is ready) and just wanted to touch on the sort of thing that could be done quite easily with them once they’re available.
For example, a while ago Martin made us some skeleton models. These are primarily intended for use when exposing bone under character flesh when mortal body damage occurs. Likewise, bodies that have been feasted on may have exposed limb bones where the flesh has been picked clean – and on top of that, there's always the opportunity for crawlers to be dragging skeletal bloody legs across the floor and for more damaged zeds to be appearing in Six Months Later and beyond.
All that’s still to come though, and as a quick mod experiment on his birthday (when he should have been having a day off) RJ decided to have a look what they’d look like if used in-game in their entirety.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN EXAMPLE, AND NOT A REAL GAME FEATURE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiu4dAFEOU
The results are a bit rough still, but we’re sure you’ll agree: Boom, there’s the beginnings of aHarryhausen or fantasy mod. Good times to come hopefully.
SMALLER CARS
We had been waiting for the animations build to resize cars, due to the difference in size between our old and new character models. Yuri has now done some magic, and readjusted the physics – so now the in-game vehicles look like this. Which, we reckon, is a nice improvement.
https://youtu.be/l7_5qWYe_nE
Now Yuri is tweaking his water effects, adjusting the intensity of their outlines and improving the banks of rivers, while also looking to improve the vehicle saving system so (very rare) events of car loss can be eradicated.
WINDOW HOPPING
Something else that might be of worthy of mention, and a quick vid, are some examples of where the new animations system are highlighting ‘in-between’ states that the game could previously get away with – but now either look weird, or have resulted in a show-stopper bug.
A good example of this is when a player either bumped into a zed when escaping through a window, or was very closely pursued by zeds when escaping – this was not only resulting in visual weirdness in the anims build, but also was trapping the player in the window frame for all perpetuity. As such, after a consultation with Animator Martin, we can use this sort of situation for some cool new gameplay considerations.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a WIP animation, and whatever anyone tells you – the big saucepan is a bug that’s already been fixed and won’t be in the final build. (We’re also working on more 'table against window' polish).
https://youtu.be/1hfDXZbZCtU
On top of this we will be improving this further – perhaps with a zed grabbing and pulling you into the window instead of pushing you out.
Anyway, those are the main headlines. If you’d rather read ‘em on a weekly basis, alongside the smaller details we’re ticking off and issues we’re addressing, then check the website or the Steam forum. Thanks all!
This is the fourth Steam round-up of development news for Project Zomboid, but weekly Thursdoid blogs are posted both on our website and on the Steam discussion boards. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. The Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too. Our thanks to our good friend Xeonyx for creating the header image using the internal anims build. That’s all for now, keep tabs on our website for more every week!
Spiffo’s Round-Up #3
Hey all, here’s the highlights of the last four weeks of Project Zomboid development – compiled from the Thursday blogs that appear at http://www.projectzomboid.com/blog/ and on the PZ Steam boards.
First off here are a couple of gameplay videos. This first one is a demonstration of ‘zoned zombie outfits’ – which is essentially the system that ensures that firefighter zombies spawn in fire stations, chef zombies spawn in restaurant kitchens and the like. (Please note that there are a few individual animations in this vid we want to speed up, and in most cases already have done)
Next up, meanwhile, we’ve had some significant improvements and fixes made by Bitbaboon Mark to the core animation blending system in past weeks. He’s fixing a whole bunch of issues, snaps and glitches that have been vexxing us for a long time – digging deep into the code, and doing a total rewire where necessary.
In prior Thursday vids we cut around these uglinesses as much as possible, but they still reared their heads. Snaps between character animations, jarring moves when turning to certain compass directions while strafing, and various other ugly things that we just couldn’t account for were plaguing us – but have now finally been fixed, leading to a far smoother animation blending system.
Zac’s prepared a video demoing the new blending – although please note he’s running in debug, so this doesn’t represent gameplay.
https://youtu.be/QMYGUWlVyMI
Speaking of, please note, that we’ve decided to put the completion of the high-res model rendering work described in the last Spiffo update on ice for little longer, since there were still numerous issues with it that meant it wasn’t suitable to put into the main line – and also it kept getting further broken by the flurry of additions and changes from the team’s work described above.
We feel it would be best approached toward the end of Build 41 dev just before IWBUMS, at the point we could get extra resources on board to get it working right. As such all videos until then will use the traditional character resolution.
TORN CLOTHES AND BLOOD
Zac’s work on masking out different parts of clothing items has resulted in several extremely useful features. First, it now allows us to wear pieces of geometry clothing on top of other geometry clothing – as opposed to being a texture drawn over the character’s skin. This used to be impossible: the clothing worn underneath would always poke through the geometry of the clothing on top, especially when moving.
So now we can layer clothing appropriately, and also spray blood on individual layers and garments – instead of your survivor’s body as a whole.
Our old solution was to to draw underclothing as textures directly on the character model, which unfortunately led to the side effect of them looking like body paint and lacking the bulk of real clothing. Now we can easily turn off areas of the clothing that are covered, so we are provided with many more options.
https://youtu.be/0-DiI2trU7g
This also allows us much more visual indications of damage and clothing wear and tear (quite literally).
As well as putting a player’s newly scavenged/treasured Spiffo shirt at risk of damage, this will allow much more variety with zombies in particular. RJ has been adding code to implement this new system to further randomize zombie’s clothing conditions, and tie potential clothing damage into the various game systems for the player.
https://youtu.be/Y_YEw1zRy7c
SURVIVOR ZEDS
Our primary rule with Build 41 is that we’re updating animations to complement and add foundation to our existing gameplay, rather than get too excited and add in loads of new systems that could otherwise wait till a later version.
A good example of this is something that’s been in the game for a while, but have always been hidden slightly: our annotated survivor maps that show you the way to various hidden stashes.
Now though, to create a bit of a breadcrumb trail for players to follow, we have introduced ‘uniformed’ survivor zeds. They are the walking corpse of a survivor like yourself, who will not only carry some handy loot, but also potentially lead you to a place of interest.
They will always be rare and spawned in a big crowd of zombies, but also appear bloodied and messed up and wear a neat backpack. One of our prototype Survivor Zeds looks a little like this:
https://youtu.be/ukLzLSER28w
OTHER FUN STUFF
Over with General Arcade Yuri has been continuing his visual effect work – and has fine-tuned his water so that waves and ripples aren’t as small. When it was windy in-game this was fairly uncomfortable on the eyes of our internal testers, so they now look like this.
Right now he’s also addressing something that’s been an issue with cars since their introduction, but that we were waiting to address once the differently proportioned new character models were in-game. As such, say hello to the more sensibly-sized cars that Yuri’s currently updating the physics for:
GENERAL GAMEPLAY ADDITIONS
Here’s a quick run-down of other items of interest that have gone into the internal branch of Build 41 over the past month.
<*>Extended idle animations. Depending on your character moodles, pain or other variable, you’ll sometimes see you character scratching an arm, shivering, checking his weapon, wipe his legs to check for blood etc.
<*>New timed action animations, alongside fixes for the current timed actions: digging graves with a shovel, looting on the ground or in shelves, cleaning blood etc.
<*>New outfits are also being added along with their own zone - Gigamart employee for example, and branded logo-ed shirts for various locations.
<*>New animation variants for the player defending against zombie bites. Three new variations of zombies thumping on objects.
<*>We’ve gotten ChrisW’s Sims-style wall cutaway system into the main line, but there are still a few issues to work out before its 100% operational.
<*>Garage doors can now be opened. – huzzah. We will also be addressing the size of garages on the main map, and at the same time adding some more signage to the Exclusion Zone road network
<*>Support for characters to lower and raise hoods on hooded clothing, for example hoodies and certain coats, have been added alongside several new idle animations used when the character has injuries.
<*>Zach continues his great work adding more tools and features, this time to allow Martin and the other devs to quickly add and test new costume pieces through the AnimZed editor and preview them in game.
<*>We have added many clothing items such as a poncho, hoodies, scarfs, aprons and swimming outfits. RJ also now has hair and beard styles being associated with zone costumes (for e.g. so you don’t tend to get military zombies or cops with hippy hairstyles and big beards).
Oh, and just today we found a way to make PZ feel a little more American.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow1qUukvjK4
This is the third monthly Steam round-up of development news for Project Zomboid, but weekly Thursdoid blogs are posted both on our website and on the Steam discussion boards. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. The Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too. Our thanks to our good friend Xeonyx for creating the header image using the internal anims build. That’s all for now, keep tabs on our website for more every week!
Spiffo's Roundup #2
Hey all, here’s the highlights of the last four weeks of Project Zomboid development – compiled from the Thursday blogs that appear at projectzomboid.com and on the PZ Steam boards.
LATEST IMPLEMENTATION VID
First off, a general ‘recently implemented animations’ video to whet your appetite along with some new Zach Beever musical goodness that will be coming in build 41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2NBd8kR6c
MAP ZONING FOR ZED OUTFITS
A key aspect of PZ mapping is zoning – which we primarily use to mark up areas that are (for example) suitable for foraging and car spawns. Now however, with different clothing for zombies, we can flag which parts of the PZ map can spawn which particular zombie – or which group of particular zombies.
This, then, is how we can spawn only guards and orange jumpsuit-wearing prisoners in Rosewood prison.
Likewise, RJ has created a ‘wedding’ spawn zone over one of the churches on the map – which ensures that all zombies inside it, and outside for the selected area, have a very high chance of dressing in smart clothing, with a guaranteed bride, groom and church minister amongst them.
This system will allow us to have many and varied different pockets of particular zeds – police in police stations, lumberjacks at McCoy logging, military in military areas etc. Likewise, we will be examining the best methods to make sure that zeds in bathrobes or not wearing clothes are only found in homes and home bathrooms in particular.
(It should be noted that aspects of this will also involve a very slight rewrite of PZ lore in terms of the outbreak, but we had intended to return to the radio/TV broadcasts soon in any case).
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
We’ve been waiting for some important/complex work on rotational anim movements from TEA for a fair amount of the past few weeks – but there’s still been plenty of other areas for us to work in this time.
A few examples of this includes knife attack animations, and tying survivors and zeds getting bloodied by attacks in general in-game.
This has also involved us adding some additional combat skills, and in the process removing the skill point system. From Build 41 onwards skills will automatically level up when you gain the XP requirements, as we felt the manual skill point system never worked particularly well and would do so even less with many more skills.
ZED BUMPIN’
RJ also adds a note on how running through crowds of zeds will now be a little more fraught with danger.
“One thing that’s new and that people might be interested to see in action, is an effort to make sure players can’t dash through hordes without getting slowed down.”
“As seen in the video below, we’ve now added bumping against zeds. Colliding with one or two while you’re running isn’t dangerous, you’ll just get slowed down, but try running through a horde and you’ll stumble and fall – leaving you temporarily exposed to the encroaching zeds. We might add in a few more different sorts of animations for nudges/pushes, but right now it looks like this:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQB4ewT412s
MODEL CLARITY
Next up, the issue of character and zed model visual fidelity.
An area that was proving strange in terms of 41 development was that somewhere along the way some of the visual fidelity of characters had been lost – and simultaneously, somehow, models looked far more buff/hunky than intended. Feet, also, seemed a little on the large side. After a bit of a dig, we finally located a bug in the exported model data that explained it.
Due to this bug, the lighting of the characters was broken, which resulted in very washed out characters with little lighting shading – which in turn removed definition that made muscles look bulkier. This has now been fixed and, after re-exporting all the clothing, has allowed us to achieve much better character model rendering and lighting than we’ve shown off previously during this recent leg of anim development.
As ever, please keep in mind that we’ll continue to balance/tweak to make sure characters fit their surrounds as well as possible – as well as adjust the models themselves seeing as you can now see individual facial features much more clearly. These caveats notwithstanding, however, we’re pretty happy how they’re looking.
During this process we also focused on another prominent issue: that the character pixel resolution when zoomed in was extremely blocky and lacking in detail. Due to the ways that our initial zoom system handled things, characters were too harshly pixellated. This caused them to be extremely jaggied compared to what it was in the old days, when we were rendering characters to an off-screen sprite before placing them into the world.
So over the past few weeks we’ve been doing some significant work on changing how the game handles the zoom, which in addition to fixing this issue should ultimately lead to slightly more optimized rendering of the game – as well as providing the character models much more detail to play with.
The branch with this system on it isn’t complete – navigating indoors presents issues, mouse input hit-testing isn’t fixed up yet, and we’re having issues with seams between tiles when zoomed out – so it’s not quite ready for integration into the main test build. Here’s a quick video of us running aimlessly around zombies under lights to show it off though.
(Along with some new Zach Beever musical accompaniments!)
https://youtu.be/cul1ykzHBJo
DEV AND MOD TOOL IMPROVEMENTS
Zac and Mark from TEA have continued their work on the tech, ironing out the last few issues with the animation blending, as well as providing some extra cool tools to help us implement and debug the animations (as well as the modders once it releases!)
https://youtu.be/ZspLm_D0JFM
https://youtu.be/HJC5bUTltfI
https://youtu.be/hy9wWeTkLQ4
OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE
Zac has been doing a whole bunch of optimization work, with fun example vids of his wares seen here with his zombie spawning, and here with multi-threaded rendering.
RJ has implemented his previous work on looting improvements – giving us more control over general clutter, and more realistically placed items in houses.
Mash has begun creating icons for new clothing and weapons, Will had begun setting naming conventions for them.
Connall and Turbo have continued to implement new timed actions.
Yuri has finished adapting his water/puddles into Zac’s revamped shader system, and is now experimenting with a particle system that will provide the bedrock for his fire improvements.
The other Zac meanwhile, Young Zach, continues to deliver the new South-tinged PZ score that can be heard at playing over the initial video in this blog.
Xeonyx is chasing/fixing map bugs in his now complete Kingsmouth Island challenge map.
