Z-Collapse
Z-Collapse update 1.1.0
A new update has land today for Z-Collapse. Now in version 1.1.0. What's new in there ?
Here is the list:
-12 missing countries have been added. They were missing at game release because of their small size, preventing the AI from deploying initial assets. Then I thinked about it and told to myself "Can you please be a bit smarter?". And now here are the brand new countries : Cyprus, Belize, Brunei, Bhutan, Gambia, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Puerto Rico, Palestine, Swaziland, East Timor, Jamaica. Beware, as they are very small, they don't have a lot of population. Some of them even only start with a city and a powerplant. A huge challenge here!
-The army speed is now based on their composition. Helicopters-only armies will be very fast. But a large army with only footmen will be slow
-The speedness from every movable units is now drawed in the UI
-If refugees go back to their origin city, they will brought back the infestation they previously remove.
-Hooks can now be boarded in harbours
-Refugees now move a bit slower
-Added 2 brand new in-game musics
-Redrawed the map in Morocco and Somalia
-Set a ceil for daily pop joining bandits (yeah, the previous update made it a bit to harsh!)
-The daily TwH max production is now drawed in the top bar.
-The max resource storage is now drawed in the top bar
-The neutral refugees will now more try to seek for shelter in neighbours countries. With a preference for countries with low chaos.
-Fixed battles that couldn't be seen after discovering the GlobalSat tech
-Fixed bandit camps initial positions
-Fixed a bug for some save game files
-Fixed an issue that prevents some players to join a MP game using Steam
-Fixed an issue in the MP game players list for some screen resolution
1.0.3 small updates
A new small patch that fixes some annoying bugs, but also applies some balancing changes. Here is the detail:
-Fixed a bug that prevents to cancel a research in multiplayer mode
-Fixed another bug that was preventing to load save game in multiplayer mode
-Fixed a pathfinding mode that prevent to move unit far away. You can now bring them at the other side of the world! Yay!
-Fixed some bugs that caused desync issues un multiplayer mode
-Fixed two achievements that were impossible to be triggered
-Infestor now spawn farther than cities (but remember that they are cloaked by default ;))
-Bandit camps now also spawn farther than cities
-Reduced number of storages built by AI nations
-Changes in the panic effect: the population that now joins bandit ranks is now proportional to the existing pop. Meaning that if you have a strong population, bandit ranks will grow quickly!
-Raised distance of view from Ambulances/Builders/Family/Hooks/Agents
-Isolated countries are now less affected to zombie mid-game and end-game crisis
-Decreased attack chances from friendly AI
-Removed the ability to deploy building on places that are not connected with cities or harbours
-Various other small fixes and adjustments
Thanks everyone for your reports and feedbacks! Now let's back to turtling our countries!
1.0.2 small updates
-Added a port in Honshu island, Japan. Ending a city isolation
-Fixed a UI icon in the research tab
-Fixed a crash as some battles erupting
-Fixed an issue with joining a game in MP. If the first server joining failed, the player sometime had to restart the whole game to make a new attempt. This should be better now
-Fixed an issue with loading game in MP who sometime was stucked
!!Z-Collapse is now OUT!!
Today is a great day, because Z-Collapse is now available! But today is also a sad day, because it means that the Zombie Apocalypse has truly begun.
Dead survivors, I sincerely hope that you already have made a stockpile of food/medicine/toilet papers. Because now it's too late. We can only rely on ourself.
I also hope that your government will take all necessary measures. They are for now the only ones that could still prevent the extinction of mankind.
What will they do? Will they immediately build refugee camps, and evacuate all the population there? Will they try to silently kill the initial contagion centers, while trying to divert attention? And what will they do when the global trade will stop? How will they ensure enough resources for their people's daily life?
And most of all, will they try to find a cure? How will they adapt? Well, I sincerely hope that our leaders have played Z-Collapse to have answers to all those questions!
Now, more seriously, I'd like to deeply thank all the lovely supporters that really kept my motivation alive during the game development. You rock so much! Thanks also for translators that have done an incredible job (and some of them are still at work. You are the best!).
For the ones who are interested, a dedicated Discord server has been opened. Don't hesitate to join it to discuss about the game ;)
Have a nice game, and long live the undead! Oh wait...
Z-Collapse Release date!
Monthes of work have passed. I would like to thank all beta-testers that have proposed their help. The reviews were vastly positive. Thanks to them, bugs have been fixed, interesting new features have been implemented, and some other have also been added on the post-release list.
Wait... You said "release", right ? Oh yes I did. the Apocalypse has now a date. So make sure you a ready for this: Z-Collapse will be released on Steam on the 01-September-2022!
Alongside that announcement, here is a brand new trailer :
Are you ready to lead your country through the Armageddon?
Special units
I'm coming back to you, to introduce a new gameplay part of Z-Collapse: Special units.
In addition to armed forces and refugees, other units will be at your disposal to allow you to go through this crisis. And even to take the upper hand on your neighboring countries. Those units will generally be available at the mid-game, when the player had previously secured a part of his population and ensured a relative resource supply. At this point, he can invest on those options that bring him more strategical possibilities.
The first of those has already been introduced: the ambulances. Sent in cities and refugees camps, they are used to lower the infestation level. A mandatory cure to don't watch anymore your population turning into zombies.
This ambulance will cure a part of Ottawa's infestation
The second is the infestor. You heard right. By using technological research, you can learn to create your own infestor squads, that are totally under your control. You desperately need resources within the neighboring country, but it is too strong for you? You waited for too long for its collapse? So, give a hand to the fate by pushing your own infestors on its cities, and spread the disease there.
This homemade infestor will bring a huge mess on our neighbor
The third one is the agent. On the same style, he can destabilize other countries by spreading fake news and encouraging revolts. Send him on other countries' cities to make their panic to rise. And, as you already know, from panic are forming bandit groups.
An agent on his way to bring panic to Ukraine
And the last one is the hook. This brave unit can catch nearby hordes attention, that start to follow him rather that other units around. It only lasts a time, but this allows you to divert hordes from your vital structures. And even better, once hordes are following the hook, he can lead them on any other place (foreign countries, bandit camps, ...). The horde will then attack the designated place and destroy it... The perfect weapon for cunning players !
This hook is bringing a horde on a refugees camps, bad surprise when you wake up !
Combats and armed forces
Those poor refugees have been trapped by a horde. A lot of them will be eaten here...
In Z-Collapse, you will be able to deploy armies on the map from the garrisons contained in location that you own. You will then be able to move them on the map and regroup or split them. Those armies are a mix of several unit types, with each one its strengths and weaknesses.
Here are all units that you will find in the game:
- Civilians: They only come from refugees’ groups, and all attacked cities and refugees’ camps. Those terrified crowds won't inflict a lot of damages, but they will be decimated if exposed. Avoid them being caught in a fight at all costs!
- Militiamen: Composed of police forces and para-military groups hastily armed. They are quick to recruit and cheap. But their skills in battles are very limited.
- Infantry: The spine of your armies. They are balanced but a bit longer to recruit than militiamen.
- Tanks: Very efficient to fight enemies’ heavy units. They however need rare resources for them being built (High tech), and oil for moving.
- Helicopters: Very powerful and hardly destructible, they also require High Tech for them being produced, and oil for moving.
On the zombies' side, strange mutations are leading to multiple kinds of enemies on your way:
- Walkers: Basic zombies for sure. Slow and noisy. They are the hordes growling heart. They are also easy targets. But they may be in very high numbers. In this case it is no more the same story...
- Runners: Those zombies are running very fast, inspiring a deep horror inside everything that lives on the ground!
- Abominations: Huge monsters very resistant. They will provoke a lot of damages. Only tanks and helicopters may stop them.
- Spitters: Strange zombies that are able to spit some kind of acid. How is it even possible? Anyway, your helicopters are in danger because of them.
As it's not enough, your government will also be facing bandits, coming from the panic inside your population. They will build some camps and start to raid your bases. With them, you will meet the following units:
- Armed militiamen: The largest part of bandits’ parties. Dangerous in high number.
- Pick-ups: Basic vehicles but upgraded to protect their crews. They will cause a lot of damages on infantry. To destroy them, you better use tanks.
- Missile launchers: heavy weapons very powerful against tanks!
- Sharpshooter: Balanced units able to inflict a lot of casualties, without receiving many in exchange.
On a very classical way, battles are triggered whenever an army is met by another. The battles are solved automatically with a turn calculated each day. The only thing a player can do is to bring other armies to the battle, in order to be reinforced.
This coal mine should fall into our hands soon!
As you can see, a battle is also linked with a chaos value. It's the amount of chaos point that you will get in case of defeat. As a reminder, the chaos represents the loss of control from the central state. It is mainly raised by military defeats. When this value reach 100, the country collapses, and the player (or AI) loses the game. This chaos value in the battle depends on your number of troops engaged in the battle, compared with your total forces. But also, from the eventually attacked location (especially for cities, and your capital city, the chaos penalty will be salty!)
Overview on population and refugees management
This new post will introduces the population and refugees management.
As the number of infected peoples is exponentially rising, and the zombies hordes are getting bigger, the only solution for a government and for a country is to keep its population alive, and the largest possible. In this context where the war for the survival of the species becomes total, the strength is found in numbers!
Indeed, from your population depends your resources production, and your manpower for recruiting troops.
However, you have to keep in mind that the largest your population is, more it will consum energy (which represents the daily consumption for their survival). So you will need resources to maintain it. The smart-player will seek to make his population grows, by ensuring the available resources stocks high level.
How do you keep your population alive ? First at all, by making sure that they won't join the zombies crowds of course !
In your infected cities, the population will progressively turn into zombies. And the more overcrowed the city is, the quicker the infestation will rise. The situation will quickly became unbearable at those places. There will be no other choices than building refugees camps to bring your population to, so they will be easier to watch!
Preparing an evacuation
The player will have to organize the cities evacuations to avoid that the situation gets out of control. However, take care. Evacuations are never a harmless operation. It will generate some panics and chaos among the population.
The evacuated peoples must be quickly brought to refugees camps. The more time they will stay outside, the more people will die from diseases, hunger, and even joining local bandits and zombies forces.
The refugees are led to a camp
Another kind of refugees are the neutral. They come from other countries where the governement has collapsed. When it happens, all the population contained in cities and camps are throwed on the roads. They will wander around, try to find refuges on neighbours countries, and even try to reach some isolated islands (Iceland, Madagascar, Cuba, ...). Those refugees can be welcomed if they cross your national territory, or if you bring an army near them.
The mexican government has collapsed. Refugees are coming from there
If you decide to not welcome them (if you lack the required resources for instance), don't forget that the natural attrition from those wandring groups will reinforce zombies and bandits in your countries. You will have to decide if you just wait for them to leave, or if you take more brutal and ruthless measures... A zombie apocalypse mays take your humanity...
Bring on the multiplayer !
I'm back after a few quiet monthes. The project is still going well. During all this time, I have been working on a huge feature of the game, that can now being disclosed : Z-Collapse will be playable in multiplayers mode !
Several players will be able to play together within the same game. Each one leading its own country, and trying to make it survive the apocalypse!
There will be 2 multiplayers game modes :
- Classic : Each player leads its country. They can attack each-others. You will find out who your friends really are...
- Cooperation : Each player leads its country, but can't attack each others. The fog of war is shared between players.
The daily production
Furthermore, it will be possible to set the victory conditions as follows :
- The first player able to discover a vaccine win the game
- No game end, until you decide to stop!
When it's a matter of oil, there ain't no friendship anymore...
Now I'm back to tweaks given by the first testers. I will keep you in touch !
Resources management
The development is still going on, and it's time for me to introduce a new gameplay concept of Z Collapse. This one is so important that it will define your whole strategy : the resources management !
As the zombie invasion is in full swing, human governements will have to fall back, shelter their population as much as possible, and hold firm while waiting better days. In this context, states strategical resources stocks will be primordial to ensure your population survival, building constructions, and armed forces upkeeping.
There are 5 strategical resources in Z Collapse :
-The Production : This is a generic resource that represents all materials and mechanic tools coming from the industrial world. This resources can be produced in dedicated factories. It is mainly used to build new structures, and producing new troops.
The daily production
-High Tech : Those are complexes industrial pieces, coming from material and crafting from different location in the world. they are essential in producing tanks and helicopters. As they can only be produced in a globalized-type of World, it's not anymore possible to create them when global trade is disturbed by a zombie invasion. Therefore, human nations will only rely on the initial existing stock of high tech pieces. If you are in shortage, maybe you can take some from your neighbours ? ...
-Oil: The black gold is of crucial as you can imagine. When you are in shortage, your motorized troops won't be able to move anymore, as your boarded units as well. Oil can also be used by your power plants to create energy. It can be produced by oil wells, and off-shore.
An oil well
-Coal and Uranium : Those two resources are extracted from mines. They can be used to produce electrical energy. This is very important as a good energy supply will allow your population to keep a relatively normal activity, and keep them under your control. If your population lacks energy, they will panic and progressively join bandits camps.
A power plant, and its supplies options
All those resources can't be stacked as will. They need to be stored somewhere. Cities and refugees camps can have some, but the better option is to build some dedicated storages. It's useless to say that they will need to be watch with strong military forces, as they will attract greeds from everywhere...
It's also possible to loot your neighbours, or even wait for them to collapse, and take all what remains. It's all yours.