We just released a huge patch for the public build – bringing Build 38 up to 38.28. This not only marks the entrance of our new internal automated build process, but is also an extensive clear-out of nagging issues that have crept into the game in recent times.
You can find the full changelist here. Much of it is necessary ‘tidy up’ work – but you might also notice improvements with alarms and clocks, fixed stash map issues, a volume option for fly buzz, that annoying ‘add spice’ recipe bug gone, corpses no longer remaining highlighted and the sad end of the ‘infinite ice cream bug’.
This morning we booted Vehicle Build 26 out onto our public vehicles beta (details on how to access found here). There are two primary aspects of this version – the first being some general optimization improvement. Following on from this, most likely in the next build, we will also have ChrisW’s work on increasing FPS (quite dramatically, when compared to current versions) when in towns and around tall buildings – and likely some java garbage collection optimization too that’ll further limit occasional stuttering.
The other main addition, meanwhile, is a more authentic and aesthetic dashboard constructed by RJ and our artist Mash. Up until now the vehicle read-outs have looked like this:
We’ve also done this to fit in with the general ‘the player sees what the character’ sees mantra of PZ – so if there’s a general issue with the engine you’ll see it through a dashboard warning light, just as you would in real life. You’ll only be able to truly get to grips with it however, and analyse the issue, if you have the necessary Mechanic skills. Here’s a general vid showing how it all works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzpGqFN4kac
Elsewhere Yuri is doing a large-ish chunk of work on how we synchronise objects over the PZ map, which will also hopefully provide some performance benefits for vehicles, and we also have Bitbaboon Steve on-hand to hopefully chase down the map streaming optimization/fix we mentioned last week.
The plan is, once the newly patched Build 38 is clearly stable, to officially make our vehicles beta known as Build 39 and move it into our traditional ‘unstable version’ IWBUMS position.
Amidst all the general vehicles work we also anticipate some new rural map areas to be added to this, the (boring but essential) lwjgl3 java upgrade currently being implemented by Stas from General Arcade and many/varied gameplay nips and tucks from Connall the curator of the community suggestion list.
Beyond that Martin, Bitbaboon Mark and others continue to work on stuff for Build 40+: our larger workforce these days allowing for a far greater degree of rolling development.
New New Denver
We love so many of the mods and maps created for Project Zomboid, but the moving story behind New Denver and its creator XeonyX (told here) has always made the New Denver mapstand out for us – just as much as its size and authenticity to a real world location.
As such, we’re super-pleased to direct you towards its latest (and final) big town expansion – that of Silverton which lies to the south of New Denver itself. Thank you very much Jamie, and we do hope that you’re doing well.
This week’s imperilled survivor from FACAG@MES on your Steam service. 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 Centralized 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.
Rules of Attraction
Vehicle Build 25 (aka 39.25) got a release yesterday. Added in Build 25 were the new Mechanic profession and related traits, random highway wreck collisions, Mechanic XP gains through car tinkering and a lot of general optimization in terms of UI, net code and traffic congestion spawns. Today RJ also released a hotfix to reduce zed attraction to car noise, tie engine sound to RPM rather than speed and remove collisions with small items.
It’s all shaping up quite nicely in terms of the general handling/feel of what we want – but also highlights that we need to get back on top of the performance and garbage collection issues that have crept back in over recent builds. So, next up, Yuri will be optimizing the java garbage collection to address the stutter that some people are reporting – while resident artist Mash is also hard at work creating ‘damaged’ sprites for some aspects of road furniture for the next coder task.
Right now static object collisions are improved in that you can’t drive through solid street furniture – which perhaps makes sense for street lights and concrete walls, but less so for household mail boxes and traffic cones. As such we’ve gone through the various things that players are likely to collide with while driving – and working out what should remain impervious, what should look damaged but remain impassable after a collision (as below with the unhappy post boxes) and what should be smashed/crushed when hit at speed (as below with the even more unhappy household mail boxes).
In this way driving will feel that little bit more realistic, and an extra feeling of lasting change to the map will also be added to your survival run.
Meanwhile, Mission: Optimization continues. As discussed last week ChrisW is playing around with what PZ draws – hiding all squares behind solid walls from the game’s rendering system, and thereby freeing up your processor. Our chosen FPS hot spot was the four level flats in March Ridge which pre-optimization was coming in at 26 fps on ChrisW’s system, but is now coming in at 41 fps on an internal test build– which is a significant improvement.
Next on the list for Chris, then, is in optimizing the code so that it also brings benefits to general play – ensuring that the new background calculations themselves don’t clog up any performance gains. Bitbaboon Steve, meanwhile, continues to spotlight other areas for improvement.
In other technical areas of the game, meanwhile, we’re happy to have beckoned General Arcade’s Stas back into the fold – who will initially be finishing off our java upgrade from lwjgl2 to lwjgl3. This will open up a bunch of necessary day-to-day improvements for the game – better support for different resolutions, dpi awareness, neater alt-tabbing and general smoother operation.
Finally, last night’s Community Megatest for the IWBUMS Build 38 patch had to be put back a bit due to various serverside issues we’re still trying to get to the bottom of. Keep an eye out on the forums for more information on when the test will be once we’ve gotten to the bottom of it. We’ll be handing out PZ Steam codes for family and friends to some of the people who help out, so please do pop along. Thanks!
Today’s featured image from Jodidosciervos of Steam parish. 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 Centralized 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. Ooh and check out Texas956’s AWESOME TileZed buildings!
Vlad the Imbiber
Thursday: it’s back. Back from the dead. Back with the zeds.
VEHICLES
RJ and Yuri have been hard at work on Vehicles Build 25 – much of which has involved scrubbing up and polishing features added over the past few iterations. So you can expect optimization, UI improvements and general groundwork for the final ‘top down diagram’ vehicle UI screen – while Yuri is currently cracking down on a rogue memory leak and various aspects of non-syncing on MP servers.
Also in Vehicles Build 39.25 will come the end of drive-through streetlights and road furniture…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Y6blvqeDc
We’ve also added in the ‘random spawn’ car/wreck collisions on the Exclusion Zone’s roads to accompany the ‘lore’ wreck congestion , some new wreck models and map fixes – and have balanced a lot of aspects of the new Mechanic skills/profession and related car parts. We anticipate starting work on a better ‘dashboard’ UI once vehicles build 25 is out.
OPTIMIZATION
One of the biggest issues with the current Vehicles build is that driving through built-up areas results in performance hiccups – the game is being forced to draw too many tiles, too quickly. Currently, however, PZ draws *everything* – even when the player character can’t see it.
Stuff on higher floors, stuff in buildings you have no line of sight into and everywhere with doors and windows shut – it’s all being conjured up needlessly and chewing up unnecessary processor power. Enter stage left, then, our good friend Chris Wood.
“I’m culling squares inside the levels of buildings that are covered by the floors and walls so we don’t draw them”, he explains. “This is being done very simply, using building bounding rectangles that can hide about 20% of the scene in busy areas with lots of buildings, and thereby reducing what’s rendered by 20%. This does, however, leave window interiors looking a bit strange – as in these screenshots ”
“My current task is to make this work more intelligently: by hiding all squares behind solid walls and floors by projecting back onto them. This will hopefully draw even less, as it won’t draw anything when a square is totally hidden – including the ground behind buildings. It won’t have the same visual artefacts and it’ll hide more squares.”
“The idea is that by the time I’ll have finished it will all look identical to the current public build – but behind the scenes it’ll be drawing a lot fewer tiles which will make a huge difference to performance since tile drawing is the biggest bottleneck in the game.”
On top of this we’re talking to General Arcade about picking up the reins on our LWJGL upgrade, which will also have optimization benefits, and have best friend genius BitBaboon Steve prodding a vehicles memory issue that will hopefully help out people with slower systems. So, all in all, performance improvement should be on the way.
COMMUNITY MEGATEST
Everything seems in place for a public release of the Build 38 megapatch that we’ve been building up over the last few weeks, but we want to be sure it’s run through enough of your machines – and specifically on online servers – before release.
As such we’ll be running a Community Megatest in the coming days on a fresh server, and as ever there’ll be free PZ codes for a bunch of the people who turn up to help out.
We’ve just released IWBUMS 38.26 which is the build the server will be running on. Details on how to access the IWBUMS public beta can be found here, and info on the event itself will appear on the TIS forum over the next few days.
This week’s well-kept safehouse from RyuVladimir over on Steam. 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 Centralized 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.
Pitch Battle
Today we’re dropping a Build 38 patch (38.24) into testing that’s full to the brim of fixes that follows on from Monday’s 38.23. Our current course is to pack as much in there as possible and make sure it’s all working correctly so we can minimise disruption to MP servers upon public release.
Vehicle Build 24 is planned for release tomorrow. As well as fixing up some load errors this adds in differing engine volume stats for each vehicle (actual sounds to follow), adds in missing parking zones for the vehicle-free parts of the map (Rosewood, March Ridge, Dixie etc) and introduces the canonical in-game brands for vehicle type.
Build 24 will also be reintegrating the car wrecks we had in earlier vehicle builds with a better zonal spawning system. The plan is that we’ll have certain ‘lore’ traffic build ups on the edges of the map where survivors suffering from the first wave of the infection tried to get out of the Exclusion Zone prior to their zombification – which in terms of gameplay will also help us flag where the edge of the map will be when you’re out motoring. Elsewhere, meanwhile, there’ll be smaller pile-ups and abandoned cars that’ll spawn differently for each new game you play.
There’ll also be improved vehicle placement spawn (rich homesteads will have nicer cars), better terms for the different car parts you can tinker with if you play as a Mechanic and hopefully a fix for the several players who were experiencing an irl game crash after in-game one.
Build 24 will also introduce suspension and a tangible differences in vehicle control when you go off-road – dependent on the sort of car you drive, and the suspension condition hidden within it. You can see this in the following video, though as ever please be aware that this is its first iteration and we’re aware that the low condition suspension in the second half of the clip looks like it’s out of an old rap video and needs toning down:
https://youtu.be/IsKY8VE-ssM
In terms of the next vehicles build Yuri is currently integrating Mash’s damage textures into the game – which will add variety, and also visual clues into a vehicle’s general condition. Here’s a few vids showing how they’re currently looking on the mean streets of Muldraugh. Please note, however, that Project Zomboid cars will not be chameleons – and the colour changing is just an example of the governing code we’ve got going.
https://youtu.be/qlOw8KPROeo
https://youtu.be/al6mGoryxcI
Finally here’s a quick vid showing aspects of all of the above, couple with some improved ‘line of sight’ mechanics that fit in better with the way PZ works – although we’ll be wanting feedback as to how much testers get on with it. Again, the vehicle spawn-rate here is from a debug mode.
https://youtu.be/iUhbQkvhFbk
Once 38 is fully patched (and we’ve also finished current tasks to make the dedicated server build work with our fancy new internal automated build processes) then we’ll be promoting the Vehicles build up the beta branches and into our accustomed IWBUMS beta slot as Build 39.
It’s been said before, but just so everyone’s on the same page – in the background to all this Bitbaboon Mark has the new animation code working with the vehicle branch on a toggle, so it can soon be present in a deactivated state throughout the rest of vehicle development.
This will ensure that we can start ‘turning on’ the various anims features so it all gets integrated as soon and as well as possible for the builds that follow vehicles. This will also make development of different concurrent builds backstage a lot easier in the mean-time, as well as maintaining test branches when they become needed.
This week’s zombie hooligans from Ziron360. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kepthere– so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info.The Centralized 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.
Max Damage
We’ve just released Vehicles Build 22 into the vehicles Steam beta (details for accessing found here), details of which can be found below.
We are also currently working on a final patch for our public version 38 of the main build (much of which is also in the new vehicles build) which we’ll release once we’re sure everything is operating and stable. At this point we’ll also release on GOG, as we’ll know save games will be safe.
Blindcoder, Zomboid friend and champion to all, has also updated the official PZ map with Riverside, the Knox Heights Country Club and its surrounding roads and wilderness.
So if you want to check it out, and maybe find some new places to explore and hold out, you’ll find it right here. Also, if you have any new favourite places to call home in the new map then why not share your location in this thread?
Vehicles Build 22
First off, due to the sheer amount of stuff in Vehicles Build 22 there is a chance that existing Vehicles build saves will break. We’d encourage you to start a new game, but if you have a longstanding character then we have also provided the previous Vehicles Build 21 on a separate Steam beta branch so you can continue your game without issues. It can be accessed through the beta tab and is called ‘previousvehicle’.
Please note that the new Vehicles Build 22 release is more WIP than others that we’ve released, as we need player feedback during its construction. Please be patient if you discover unexpected irritation.
A new Vehicle Mechanics UI can now be accessed. Right click a vehicle and select “[WIP] Mechanics” or when directly inside the vehicle with the vehicle menu (“V” key). The system should operate much like the existing player health panel.
PLEASE NOTE: this is an early iteration of this system. Not everything affects gameplay. The vehicle diagram is placeholder. Scripting is currently unfinished. The Mechanic skill/profession isn’t done – so highest level abilities are unlocked. Contents may have settled during shipping etc
Today’s featured image from DadAhead on Steamsies. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kepthere– so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info.The Centralized 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.
Grave Harvest
The fourth day of the week returns with a vengeance. Welcome back to Thursdoid.
Build 39 – Vehicles
What with Build 38 released publicly, there hasn’t been a vehicles beta release since Build 21– but there’s enough brewing to mean that the upcoming Build 22 will be a good one – as mentioned last week there’s sirens on emergency vehicles, zeds that thump cars rather than lie down next to them, more varied car models, fixed MP sync work, some optimizations etc.
On top of this there’s also a lot of finessing of Build 38’s new ‘window peek’ and ‘visible rooftop’ systems from ChrisW and slight map tweaks waiting to be dropped in (that’ll require testing rather than being hurled into 38 itself) to eradicate the (pretty occasional) view-blockers that you might have come across on PZ maps.
Also whirring along the production line, meanwhile, are:
Vehicle Damage
Our initial vehicle damage system, currently being worked on by Yuri, will use textures to indicate damage rather than start mangling the car models themselves. To this end Yuri will create a map of damage zones on each vehicle – and work alongside Mash and Martin to create textures to show light damage and heavy damage. The following is a Yuri’s initial example of what it’ll look like in-game – but please be aware that it hasn’t been through the art department just yet (Also ignore the debug lines).
This system will also add to the visual variety of the cars you find scattered around the map, as well as give better indicators of the quality of cars that you’ll discover. Indeed, another aspect of this work will be to create textures that look dirtier/rustier to give a fairer indication of a vehicles’s age and quality.
Yuri is also, meanwhile, going to implement a system that determines a car’s colour through software rather than the texture itself – which will again add to the visual variety of the family cars, farm trucks and very occasional sports cars that spawn on the map.
Mechanic Profession/UI
And now a word from RJ about how the mechanic system and UI have been developing since we discussed it all last week. Oh, and a new video too!
“The Mechanic stuff is progressing well. Right now, you can uninstall almost everything on a vehicle, and certain parts have to be removed first before you get at others – so getting to brakes will need you to remove the tire first. All parts have their own weight too, so if you’ve got the right skill level and tools then you can potentially sacrifice a seat to reduce your car’s weight, go a bit faster and consume less fuel.”
“I’m working on it so that those with the required skills can adapt their vehicle to the survival style they want: a fast car, a loot car (high container capacity, and also quieter) or even a more robust car that can withstand more zombie collisions.”
“I’m also working with Yuri to ensure that conditions also impact the vehicle gameplay/physics: a bad condition gas tank could leak fuel, a car that’s been rear-ended might not have as much trunk capacity, poor condition brakes will increase stopping times etc. Likewise dangerous driving at full speed with the worst condition suspension and poor steering might not end well..”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgkgWqIWOfU
Build 38
Patches for Build 38 continue with various coders behind the scenes being corralled into areas of 38 that had a rougher ‘bugs’ landing that we’d have liked – and that both ourselves and the community are used to. We mentioned this, and what we’re doing to improve it all for future builds, over on the forums.
The TLDR of it is that, to avoid complications arising from maintaining two test builds at once like 38 and vehicles, which has been a big factor in the problems in this release, in future when we have long standing features in development we’ll merge them into the main codebase as soon as possible, with some kind of switch to disable them until they’re ready.
This is, in fact, already due to be the case when animations roll around. [Although for those thinking ‘Whoop! Hackable animation system!’ we’ll also leave out the data files until they are ready too.] This should mean that having two separate public test branches, for example a public animation test, with far less fuss.
The other issue we faced with Build 38 was the simple fact that in the past six months the team has grown a hell of a lot – and our existing processes need to be improved to cater for it. As such we’ve been working with the help of our friends at BitBaboon to research and implement a robust and fancy new build system.
It’s still in the latter stages of setting up, and it’s boring ‘backroom stuff’ for a Mondoid Thursdoid so apologies for that, but we’ll have automatic compiling from the code repositories, as well as automatic construction of builds, along with automatic testing, old save file testing and the like, as well as automatic uploading to a steam branch.
This should not only cut down on the potential for build breaking save bugs and the like, but also allow the versions to be updated by any developer on the game, as well as facilitate instant updates for our testers, and stuff like auto mailer sending mails to anyone who has broken the code. With all this in place we should have a much easier job during build 39, finishing off the vehicles and what lies in the far beyond.
New Model
The Thursdoids continue. They will not be stopped.
Build 38 Released
We released Build 38 last Friday and people have been getting their first tastes of Riverside, the new worldview features and much else beside. (Release notes here).
As you would probably expect, a lot of this week has involved collating and fixing up the various issues that arose when 38 was revealed to the wider public audience. To this end we’ve released 38.16, 38.17, 38.18 and 38.19 in the interim to patch things up.
Most critical issues have now been resolved, but there are still MP issues that we still need to get to the bottom of (generators faltering when players log out, magically unlocking doors etc) amongst other gremlins that need battering (zombie-proof windows, misplaced radio sounds, some Linux-y stuff).
As such we anticipate 38.20 tomorrow, and likely some follow-ups and a GOG release next week. Blindcoder is also in the process of updating the official PZ Map with Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club – it takes a very long time to process the map into an image, however, so it too will hopefully be surfacing at some point next week.
Build 39 (Vehicles)
Elsewhere work continues on our next build – which will be the first release of the vehicles initially constructed by EasyPickins, and now being knocked into shape by General Arcade’s Yuri and our own RJ.
We released Vehicles Build 21 last week, and discussed much of its keys/hotwire/loot content in the Thursdoid. Vehicles Build 22, meanwhile, will be released once the bug-chasing on the main public build slows down a bit.
Vehicles 22 will introduce ‘Zombie thump’ when zeds flock round a car, meaning that they will act in the same way that they currently do around building windows and doors – as opposed to their current habit of falling over next to the car and taking damage themselves. It should also sync up motor activity for different players in co-op, as well as hopefully put an end to lost trunk loot.
After various calls for more vehicle variety, meanwhile, the build will also feature a new modern car, an SUV, a two door smaller car and a taxi that Martin has created, and Mash has textured up. Many of these can be seen in the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwO0fOsSil4
From another community request, emergency vehicles will also now have sirens and flashing lights alongside as a part of their UI – which will clearly be something of an attractant for zed-kind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SkmlXkLKL8
Finally, shown here in full WIP mode, are the beginnings of how the Mechanic Skill and Car Repair will work. Clearly there’ll be less references to ‘rubber bands’, the car diagram will be improved and only max-level characters will be able to see percentages in this way – but as you can see it’s much like how the current Health panel works. [As you can probably tell, this still needs a fair amount of work and won’t be a part of the next Vehicle Build.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyZuCYcp7lk
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.
Build 38
Build 38 has been released to the public, the details of which can be found below.
Build 39 will be the current vehicles test build (Vehicle Build 19 available for you to play and feed back on here), which will be moved into our normal public IWBUMS beta branch once the dust has settled on 38 in terms of patching.
Please note that from this point the traditional Mondoid blog will be moving to Thursday – henceforth to be known as ‘Thursdoid’. This is intended to fit in better with the work schedules of the 3-4 extra contractors we now have working on PZ, provides a better lead-in times for releasing new builds and also because we ran out of Monday puns a long time ago.
If you come across any annoying bugs then our tracker lives here. Thank you!
Version 38: The Pre-Vehicles Build
Riverside Map Expansion
New map area added! The spawn-point town of Riverside, the nearby Knox Heights Country Club, Spa and Golf Course, and many/varied wilderness areas are now ripe and ready for exploration.
World View update
MP and Co-op Improvements
Corpse Management
New Sandbox options:
Clothing Degradation
Optimization – in preparation for incoming Vehicles build
Custom Map Loading change
Balance Changes
Fixes
Updates
38.28
Nov 16
[FEATURE] Bandages created from bloody clothing taken from Zombies, now have a small chance of causing player to become infected, if it has not been properly cleaned before being applied.
[FEATURE] Reimplemented flies buzzing near corpses. Added flies volume Audio option.
[BALANCE] Clothes are now more likely to be bloody when coming from a zombie.
[BALANCE] Increased places where Hunting Knife can spawn.
[FIX] Removed lowest lighting option due to no performance difference between Low and Lowest.
[FIX] Converted server option WorldItemRemovalExlusionList to WorldItemRemovalList effectively changig it from a whitelist to a blacklist.
[FIX] Added obsolete tag to certain items.
[FIX] Fixed lua error picking up furniture affecting players at random. (Issues 516, 1209, 1219)
[FIX] Fixed VOIP memory usage merge glitch.
[FIX] Fixed eat sound playing when drinking HotDrink item. (Issue 1220)
[FIX] Disabled corpse sickness challenges 1/2/4/5.
[FIX] Fixed Cooking Pot with Water not heating up. (Issue 1160)
[FIX] Fixed bugs when displayName was different than username.
[FIX] Fixed teleporting splitscreen players.
[FIX] Fixed ISTextBox controller focus bug when clicking a button with the mouse.
[FIX] Fixed displayName being "Bob" for new players.
[FIX] If player is over max capcity, planks will be dropped on floor when unbarricading.
[FIX] Fixed Ctrl+A over collapsed inventory window prevents movement. (Issue 1164)
[FIX] Fixed "User Panel" "Admin Panel" etc button alignment
[FIX] Fixed IsoGridSquare.discard() not resetting haveElectricity / haveSheetRope.
[FIX] Fixed microwave looping sound not stopping sometimes in multiplayer.
[FIX] Fixed microwave timer sync in multiplayer.
[FIX] Fixed microwave sound not playing after loading a savegame if the microwave was already on.
[FIX] load() isn't called on the main thread so it shouldn't be trying to play audio.
[FIX] Typo Highlited -> Highlighted
[FIX] Fixed ZombieUpdatePacker exception. Seen when client was disconnecting.
[FIX] Fixed generators not marking squares as having electricty sometimes. When chunks near generators were loaded after the generator, squares on those chunks weren't getting the haveElectricty flag set.
[FIX] Fixed /card and /roll client command bugs with accessLevel.
[FIX] Fixed lua exception after disconnecting from server with accessLevel != none.
[FIX] Use equals() instead of startsWith() when checking server command names. (Issue 1168). Also changed handleClientCommand() to use the same argument-parsing code as handleServerCommand() (so quotes are optional in /changepwd).
[FIX] Fixed incorrect assert in ServerMap.init()
[FIX] Fixed server NullPointerException with ThunderStorm and zombified player.
[FIX] Fixed lua error after removing all entries from the server list. (Issue 1171)
[FIX] Fixed door locking/unlocking with keys in multiplayer. (Issue 1154)
[FIX] syncIsoObjectSend() was getting called before this.lockedByKey was changed.
[FIX] Fixed "NullPointer in BodyDamage breaks save"
[FIX] Corpses not being removed in mp
[FIX] lua error when selecting "spawn next to player X"
[FIX] Fixed sterilize bandages all only sterilizing one bandage
[FIX] Fixed no spawnpoint screen, new game loads current savefile.
[FIX] Fixed GameClient.ServerSpawnRegions not being cleared after disconnecting.
[FIX] Added WorldSelect UI to choose from multiple disjoint groups of maps.
[FIX] The new "SELECT WORLD" UI is displayed when there are enabled map mods whose maps don't join the game's (i.e., stand-alone maps).
[FIX] The new MapGroups class is responsible for putting each disjoint set of maps into a MapGroup. It also has methods for reporting map-overlap conflicts.
[FIX] ModOrderUI now only displays maps with conflicts to reduce confusion to the user. It is still possible for the number of conflicts listed to extend off the bottom of the ui, it needs fixing.
[FIX] Removed references to obsolete WorldScreen (now it's LoadGameScreen).
[FIX] Removed obsolete LastStandChallengeSelect.lua
[FIX] Removed West Point from the "Add an available map" combobox in the server-settings editor.
[FIX] Fixed default server spawnregions not including Riverside and Rosewood.
[FIX] ServerSettingsScreen do-nothing Lua fix.
[FIX] UI tweaks in MapSpawnSelect
[FIX] Fixed adding incorrect map coordinates in the Server Settings spawnpoint file editor.
[FIX] Fixed lua errors when adding mods and maps by name in the Server Settings editor.
[FIX] Fixed custom spawn regions not displaying in the Select Spawn Location screen
[FIX] The name of a spawn region was being treated as a map folder name, which isn't always the case, it's simply a human-readable label.
[FIX] Fixed setaccesslevel from server console/rcon not updating database.
[FIX] TYPO: Changed instances of "god mod" to "god mode"
[FIX] Fixed broken weapons sometimes not being marked broken after combat. (Issue 1206) This could happen with 2 hits in the same swing.
[FIX] Fixed allowing stacked crates to exceed wall height with 2x. (Issue 1208)
[FIX] Fixed IsoStove constructor adding to IsoCell.ProcessIsoObjects.
[FIX] GrabItemAction calls InventoryItem:setWorldItem(nil)
[FIX] Fixed some AlarmClock and rain-collecting-item issues.
[FIX] Fixed stopping an AlarmClock not being synced in mp.
[FIX] Fixed AlarmClock settings not changing on the server, only the clients.
[FIX] Fixed fridge/freezer works when moved outside a room before hydro shuts off. (Issue 1204)
[FIX] Dismantling a radio/walkie-talkie returns the battery and headphones. (Issue 1202)
[FIX] Fixed stash system modifying buildings after they had been visited.
[FIX] Fixed stash system not being reset after exiting a game and starting another.
[FIX] Fixed stash system exception exiting mp game after playing a sp game.
[FIX] Fixed non-working light in MP for other players after moving indoor or outdoor lamp.
[FIX] Fixed LightingJNI exception during startup before ChunkMap was created.
[FIX] Fixed IsoMetaChunk.removeZone() not removing reference to the removed zone.
[FIX] Fixed errors with Pasta created from a spice.
[FIX] Don't display savefile name in spawn-point ui in splitscreen.
[FIX] Pasta/Rice recipes not allowing any more items when creating the initial item from a spice.
[FIX] Fixed "Gode Mode" typo
[FIX] Use translated names when radio broadcasts increase a skill. (Issue 1118)
[FIX] Made perk columns as wide as needed in the Player Stats admin panel. (Issue 1147)
[FIX] Fixed spawn-with-player spawnpoints not working in splitscreen.
[FIX] Fixed ISTextBox bug with controller that broken splitscreen. (Issue 1106)
[FIX] Fixed lua error using the mousewheel to scroll through containers when the current container isn't in the list.
[FIX] Fixed position of two tickboxes in the options screen at 1280x720.
[FIX] Fixed corpses sometimes stay highlighted (again).
[FIX] Optimized rendering the inventory windows to reduce garbage creation.
[FIX] The load-game screen displays an indicator next to dead-player savefiles.
[FIX] Fixed "Continue" button showing the new-game screen for dead-player savefiles.
[FIX] Fixed not being able to enter a savefile name when there is only one spawn region.
[FIX] Fixed map screen not showing up when map is in the Loot Window.
[FIX] Fixed infinite icecream bug
[MODDING] OnZombieUpdate now triggers serverside, as well as clientside.
38.22
Oct 5
[Bug Fix]
Fixed tutorial/challenges not working.
Fixed linux version's .json.
Fixed corpses not being removed in MP.
38.21
Oct 2
[Bug Fix]
Fixed saves with map mods not able to load.
38.20
[Bug Fix]
Fixed radio sound related bugs.
Fixed some missing sounds/various fmod related problems.
Fixed zombies not being able to thump windows/barricade.
Fixed changing owner of a faction not being synced.
Fixed craftingUI recipes list not being auto-sorted.
Improved CTRL + A select all, to not be so detrimental in movement.
Fixed adding fuel in BBQ not working.
Build 38.19
Sept 26
[New]
You can now build log wall with dirty rags.
[Balance]
Increased a tad pain killer duration.
Increased a tad soap spawn rate.
Increased soap duration (from 10 uses to 20).
[Bug Fix]
Fixed generator being reset on reload on MP.
Fixed not being able to forage (missing zones).
Fixed wrong calculation in bleeding/scratch time.
Infinite bleeding time should be fixed.
Exported new tiles in 1x (to fix some people not seeing new graves tile).
Fixed nullPointer during SleepEvent.
38.18
Sept 25
[Bug Fix]
Hopefully fix for generator in MP! (cannot really reproduce here, so tough to fix :/)
Build 38.17
Sept 25
[Bug Fix]
Moved zone saving into meta_zone.bin, this should avoid bufferunderflow and causing map_meta to fail loading:
Fix alarms being reset
Fix safehouses being reset
May fix generator (can't be sure for now)
Removed HoursForCorpseRemoval from server options, it's now a sandbox options.
Fixed wrong Soap spawning (not able to wash clothings).
Fixed flies not being removed in case of bodies were removed by server.
[Bug Fix]
Fixed mac version not working
Fixed black square near West Point.
Thursdoid Rising
And so begins a bold new era of… Thursday.
Build 38
We realise the 38 release has been built-up a fair amount, it’s been on the brink for so long while we mop up this bug and that – but on the approach to release on Monday we realised that some aspects of the build’s optimizations hadn’t been properly integrated in recent 38 builds, and as such as a whole the ‘release candidate’ hadn’t received sufficient public testing. There’s a lot of changes under the hood in Build 38, and the last thing we want is for an unironed version to go out and disrupt people’s ongoing games.
It’s all in place now, however. As such, if you’re an IWBUMS tester or fancy being one for the day, please jump into the latest beta – let us know how it runs for you, and we’ll press ‘go’ when we see enough green lights.
Build 39 (aka Vehicle Test Build 21)
As mentioned in a previous Mondoid, we now have various people working on Build 39 (the vehicles build) so have a ‘gameplay’ coder and Bitbaboon Steve doing general optimizations – all alongside Yuri’s existing ‘nuts and bolts’ engine and physics work.
A few threads have popped up on the forum saying that we could do with a bit more variety in vehicle models to make things look a little bit more realistic – and as such Martin has been modelling up some different variants on existing car models, as well as creating a few new ones, for Mash to paint up some textures for.
These won’t appear in Build 39, most likely, but will pop up in the relevant areas in the versions that follow
Behold the Thursdoid
Hello everyone. A little bit of a short Mondoid this week. In fact the last one ever. But don’t worry, we’re still keeping up with the weekly updates.
It’s the end of an era. This Mondoid is just an announcement to say that from this point the traditional Mondoid blog will be moving to Thursday – henceforth to be known as ‘Thursdoid’.
There are several reasons for this. We know some people look forward to Mondoids to combat the back to work/school Monday blues, but as our team has grown quite dramatically over the past year, it has become more and more clear how inconvenient Monday updates are, how much harder it is to coordinate the week’s work after a weekend, and how they are ultimately of detriment to the game, player-base and developers. From the game’s side, it means we’ve had an entire weekend just prior to the most important day of the week, where it may have been more difficult to get hold of people, or work has been at its lightest. From the developers side, many of the contractors we’ve taken into the fold have families, and its a bit crappy of us to impose our historic looming Mondoid pressure onto them.
We feel that moving to Thursdays will be better for everyone, as we’ll have had several working days of preparation and week day communication to make sure the Thursdoids are on point, versions have had sufficient time in the incubators during the week, and yet we’ll still have Friday to fix up any problems that crop up before the weekend starts (that’s not to say the workaholic elements within will not continue to poke at the game during the weekend as we always have). It’s also closer to the weekend, so when versions emerge, players have less time to wait to have dedicated time to enjoy them.
Also we ran out of Monday puns a long time ago.
We had hoped to sweeten this final Mondoid with a public release of build 38, but in the last hours discovered a few issues we really need to address. As such we will warm up for a full release as soon as we can this week, and we’ll see you on Thursday!
