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!
Gas 2 Go
Hola gang. Here’s the latest slice of Monday.
BUILD 38
Build 38 is fully baked, but requires two roof-rendering fixes to player-made bases from ChrisW who’s beavering away at them as we speak. We didn’t want to wreck the views of solo savegame and server player bases with a public release, and will be patching in further tweaks to the system (improved peeking, fairer window/zed visibility at NW corners etc) after release.
In the mean-time there’ll be a new public IWBUMS beta release tomorrow with other general/necessary pre-launch bug fixes from RJ and Connall.
VEHICLES
With the current vehicles beta soon to transform into Build 39 this week we’ve had extra hands descend upon it. Yuri will continue to oversee physics issues, car shadows, visible damage and general vehicles performance – meanwhile Steve will be providing optimization support game-wide, and now RJ is in amongst it working on gameplay aspects like realistic vehicle spawning, the Mechanic skill, gas used during journeys and the like.
[In the meanwhile Turbo will continue to work on his devices code, work will begin on the next big map update and Bitbaboon Mark will continue to work with the PZ team with the new animations for integration into the build(s) that follow.]
In terms of Build 39 RJ has begun this work with Vehicle build 19 (directions on how to access here) in which he transferred aspects of Yuri’s work into the overall PZ zoning system, added Mash’s latest textures for burnt-out cars, balanced attributes of particular cars, restarted work on car keys and added various Sandbox options to let players tailor their vehicular PZ experience a little better.
Build 19 also introduced some of Yuri’s fixes to vehicles in co-op and MP, so that will hopefully make for a smoother ride online – with less disappearing cars and loot.
Over to RJ for a brief word on his automobile work:
“Up until Vehicles Build 19 properties like engine condition, maximum speed and how much gas a car had were purely dependent on where the vehicle spawned. So at the moment I’m giving each car some individuality, although spawn area still matters as a vehicle spawning in a beautiful neighbourhood won’t have the same condition as something found in a trailer park.”
“Also now in the vehicles build the amount of gas consumed by a car is no longer static – previously you lost a set amount per-tick, but now it depends on various things: stuff like the total mass of the car and your loot, engine quality and the speeds you’re travelling at. So gas usage will really depend on how you use the car.”
“I’ve also made sure that when driving on non-tarmac surfaces cars will be slowed – and ultimately damaged if you’re driving over bumpy wilderness.”
“In terms of car spawning zones – that should now be improved, although spawn numbers will likely still need balance. Not every zone is done but where I’ve done work then cars should be appearing in more accurate places, burnt out cars should be appearing in junk yards and trailer parks, and ‘special’ vehicles like the Spiffo’s truck should be parked outside the Spiffo’s restaurant. Still to come is work that’ll make the way that they’re parked look a bit more ‘natural’.”
“Until Build 38 is released and I need to get back onto bug fixes I’m also working on engine power, car keys and locked cars, and balancing general vehicle stats. We’re also finalizing the ‘Mechanic’ skill design doc, and should be getting the sign off from the rest of the team this week.”
OPTI-MISSION
Optimization is currently vital as the vehicle build is careering towards a wider audience. As such Bitbaboon Steve’s opti-mission continues – chalking up two more FPS salves that we’ll test out in the Vehicles Build (Build 39) towards the end of the week, and also spotlighting something funky deep in the PZ engine rendering system that’ll require further investigation.
To aid him in his quest we’re investigating an update from lwjgl2 to lwjgl3 – which is no simple task, but has been on the ‘must do’ tasklist for a fair while. We’re at a point with it that should help Steve a fair amount when he dives deep into the rendering code, but when it reaches its full fruition then this will hopefully make for general better running of PZ, remedied display issues and general headache easing.
OTHER STUFF
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 Mondoids 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.
Over where?
Ello, ello, ello – here’s some of the latest.
BUILD 38
The public Build 38 release is feeling increasingly imminent – although there are still a few fixes to the new roof rendering and player view system that are still in the oven. Today we released IWBUMS public beta 38.11 that focuses on transferred optimizations from the vehicles build – so improved garbage collection, optimized lighting, memory leaks plugged and improved map loading.
There’s also a VoiceManager fix gone in, spotted by BitBaboon Steve and remedied by General Arcade, that should provide an FPS improvement in SP – especially on lower spec systems. So if you see/feel/sense any improvements then please let us know.
The build also does various soon-to-launch jobs like updating community translations, alongside several of Connall’s Community Suggested tweaks: first aid kits now spawning with sterilized bandages, suture needles being able to be used for sewing like regular needles and the ability to sterilize bandages in boiling water. He’s also made aspects of tea preparation and drinking less frightful through the addition of a new recipe. Full changelist here.
VEHICLES
This week Yuri is moving onto commonly reported MP issues in the public vehicles beta in preparation for the wider testing audience when Build 39 goes into IWBUMS. As such stuff like vehicles disappearing on exit, precious loot removing itself from the boot (trunk if you’re American) and similar will all come beneath his steely glare.
He’s also, finally hopefully, zapped the ‘trapped in walking animation’ bug that’s been vexing our car testers for several builds now – with a fix due in Vehicle Build 19.
Vehicle Build 18, meanwhile, came out last Friday – and came with the much requested addition of making sure that the number of players that can fit inside each car model is accurate to the number of seats, and hopefully a fix to the strange lights on/off syncing issue that MP players have been reported. It also came with actual visible headlights appearing on vehicles (rather than just having the beams) and red brake lights to boot.
It brings a surprising amount to the vehicles when it’s all seen in-game, as you can hopefully see in this video. [Although Yuri’s coding music is a little… mellow (?) for our taste.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uAOvTz-DUk
We’ve also updated the Vehicles Build with the latest IWBUMS, so testers can explore the new town of Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club in relative leisure – as seen below.
39+ PLANS
Once Build 38 releases the current plans are for Build 39 to be a relatively quickfire release, essentially getting the existing experimental vehicles out to the public in as bug-free a state as possible – albeit on the current selection toggle. We anticipate improving on their current zoning/spawning alongside aspects of their optimization, but the meat of their maintenance will come in the following build.
We’re currently firming up the design docs – but the current plan is for vehicle damage, repair and car wreck player injuries to be a focus in Build 40, and then to turn to player-crafted improvements and realistic ‘apocalypse survival’ modifications in later versions.
As we’ve mentioned before, maintaining your cars will work in much the same way as our current medical system – covering stuff like dead batteries, burst tires and the more common engine issues as well as structural damage. Don’t expect My Summer Car levels of vehicular knowledge requirements [although we certainly hope the modding crowd will think towards this] but do expect the Mechanic profession to be a fun/useful one to have.
Elsewhere Turbo is making good progress with his Devices overhaul (this week reworking radios so it’s easier to find and tune into different player wavelengths), Bitbaboon Mark is fixing up the new skinned renderer in the now integrated model loader in the anims build and his colleague Steve is marking up various targets for optimization to ensure that vehicles run as swimmingly as possible when they’re released. Oh, and Mash is adding more detail to the wilderness areas around Riverside for those who venture into the back of beyond.
Today’s featured massacre from C.P. 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 Mondoids 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.
Riversiders
Ello’ all, and happy Bank Holiday for UK-ers and beyond.
RIVERSIDE RELEASE
The town of Riverside and the countryside around it was added to the IWBUMS public beta Build 38 last Thursday in 38.8, and we’re getting plenty of positive reports from the testers exploring its separated rich/poor districts, the Scenic Grove trailer park, the stone angels of its graveyards and the delights of the Knox Heights Country Club.
We’ve also added a lootable map, and have been adding foraging zoning etc to it since release. Here’s a section of it, but there’s plenty more besides.
We’ll be adding the map to the vehicles build imminently, tomorrow hopefully, which will probably help you in your exploration as it’s been constructed to favour drivers a little more than previous map expansions. Initial reports suggest people are digging the different building styles, and there’s still some more to come from Mash in terms of extra buildings and detail. It sounds like zombie numbers need to be topped up a little, though, so if the Country Club tennis courts feel like they need a bit more action then please let us know.
MEGATEST RESULTS
Last Wednesday we ran the IWBUMS Megatest II to try out Bitbaboon Steve’s new effort in the War Against Zombie Lag – and we’re very pleased to report a resounding success.
We opened up the server toward the end of the test and had 141 people playing off/on over the hour, and 87 at its peak – and the usual peril of ghosting zombies, unfair bites and general combat sludginess was hugely improved. Even better, things didn’t seem to degrade the more players got online.
If this summary from Svarog is anything to go by, life for our MP players should be vastly improved when 38 is released: “I’ve gotta say that it’s incredible how much better it is when it comes to zombies. There is almost no lag, combat is much, much more pleasant. I can even use knives as weapons. Awesome job.”
Our thanks to Steve for his eagle eyes and code skills – and also for his ongoing work as there’s still room for improvement. During the test he set up various headache testcases with groups of helpful players, and there’s still plenty of areas he feels he can ratchet MP performance tighter, before moving on to general PZ optimization to aid and abet both vehicles and the animation system that his colleague Mark is helping out with. Hurrah then!
NEXT
Current focus is to tidy up Build 38 and get it out of the door – with IWBUMS 38.9 fairly imminent with Riverside forage zoning, new spawnpoints, Yuri’s recent gamepad work and some work on legacy bugs from Connall.
(Incidentally Connall is now taking ownership of much of the ‘Small but Important Suggestions thread‘ so if there’s any minor thing that you think could make life that little bit more fun or realistic in the game then feel free to holler at him there. From 38.9 if you’re sleeping outside then rain will wake you up, for instance.)
Yuri, meanwhile, continues his work on the public vehicles test – and is currently adding brake lights, and a change in appearance of the physical headlights to accompany the light beams we already have in the game. He’ll most likely be turning to co-op issues later in the week, while we’ll also be internally testing his engine optimizations when they’re integrated into Build 38 so that we can pave the way for the release of the first iteration of vehicles in Build 39.
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 Mondoids 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.
Optimal Transmission
Plenty on at the moment, and a new Community Megatest with free PZ codes up for grabs coming up on Wednesdoid…
NEW BUILDS
We released a new build of the Vehicles test branch today, in preparation for it becoming Build 39 once Build 38 gets a full release. Vehicle Build 15 fixes bugs with car wrecks spawning in the air and gently floating down, and also goes through and corrects the vehicle shadows and collision boxes of all our car models – meaning that flipped cars can no longer be walked through.
Yuri also finished off his gamepad integration work, adding gamepad control to our lootable map interface, which he will be transferring to Build 38 alongside the rest of his controller work.
The original plan was to release our new map expansion featuring the town of Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club into the vehicles build, but as the week has gone by it’s seemed increasingly daft to sit on something that’s finished for longer than is necessary. As such we’re currently working on the zombie spawn maps and player spawn points necessary for it to be released earlier with Build 38.
Our intention is to get this out, alongside rooftop rendering and general RJ fixes, in time for a Community MP Megatest we’ll be holding on Wednesday evening. This is as a result of the…
WAR ON ZOMBIE LAG
We currently have two technical director chaps working on Zomboid. There’s Mark who’s setting up animations and currently getting a character skinned renderer active on a toggle (so we can turn on the new anims on the dev-side one-by-one as we go), and Steve who we’ve initially tasked with optimizing MP connectivity.
Steve’s primary aim is to remove zombie lag (teleporting zeds, unfair bites and general server strain) and this past Friday he might have made a bit of a breakthrough – which has now been coded and is due to be released into our IWBUMS public beta for testing tomorrow. Essentially Steve discovered a way to optimize zombie transmission – limiting the amount of zombie placement and zombie movement data that’s shared between players, while still keeping the online gameplay rolling.
This, combined with Stas from General Arcade’s ‘server save pause’ that’s already part of Build 38, could hopefully provide a massive improvement for all our MP players and server owners when released.
Through the power of maths we can tell it’s likely to be a nifty optimization, but we can’t tell how nifty it will be without putting it to the test… and so…
SERVER COMMUNITY MEGATEST II
This Wednesday 23rd August at 8pm BST (GMT+1) we will be opening up a server that’s running the current IWBUMS build, and we’d politely ask those interested in helping out to attend. Full details in this thread.
As with our previous Build 38 Megatest, participants will all receive a free Project Zomboid code to give to a friend/enemy/close family relation. All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so, and it’ll probably be quite a fun escapade.
The only difference between this time and the last Megatest is that, to properly emulate a normal live PZ server, we will be capping the number of participants at 50. When the test is over, however, we will open the server a little wider. This does mean, however, that there will only be 50 Steam codes up for grabs.
AND FINALLY
Massive props to SoulFilcher for recreating this little scene in LEGO. Terrifying indeed.
Today’s featured image from SAS 6007. 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 Mondoids 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.
