Zombadger

("Nah, Tupster, nah.") *cuping his hands over the cherry of his smouldering pipe to obscure the glow* ("Them folks are dangerous. not afraid to pull a trigger. We didn't live through winter on worms and dried salmonberries to throw it all away hoping for a tin of beans.") *Zom grins haphazardly, shifting his stale, struggling smoke from one corner of his mouth to the other with his bristlebearded lips* ("Unless you think they are acting nutso because they have nothing left to eat but whiskey...")

 
("... I could use a drink.")

Okay, this is a role play I'm starting but here are some rules:
V1.0 Rules
1. This is a strictly talk roleplay, I've seen others that include various locations that quickly get out of hand, therefore the only locations will be those that are in this house.
2. The setting is a group of people holed up in a house trying to figure out what to do next.
3. If you have a comment/question/concern, fell free to post it.
4. Use colored text when speaking in character, each person gets their own color.
V1.1 Rules
5. Put noises you make in asterickts
6. If whispering use parantheses
*I may at some point amend these rules if necessary.
 
And now for the starting sentence:
"Something must be done."

I had assumed you'd found something new. We know about those bugs, as they've been reported in the bugs section and on the forum.
 
Bugs are to be expected -- there's nothing that's perfect on release and no doubt people will be finding small issues with the map for years to come. It's just the way it is.
 
If you find anything new, report it and we'll fix it.

RJ is doing the zed map stuff tomorrow morning I think along with loot table and foraging stuff, primary aim for getting new map content out there in IWBUMS is getting feedback on map bugs really. The zeds will be more common in the next build
 
Prison has a lot more zeds in there as it has 200+ rooms, so it's triggering the spawn-lots-of-zombies code that was added for the Crossroads Mall.

Where do you see a moderator intervening?
 
I'm just expressing my opinion about your opinion on a private forum open to the public about a video game. Just because we might differ in that opinion doesn't mean you're being oppressed. (Hint: I don't necessarily disagree with certain aspects of the above.)
 
 

Oh no, how dare the guy taking most the flak for the  status of the game become somewhat cynical  and develop the attitude that his passion project is now a "job." After several dozen minor crises during the years and realizing your work is the underpinning for most of the criticism of the game, maybe you'd occasionally to feel the same way, too.
 
It may be unprofessional to not have one's thoughts restrained by a PR team, but I'd be hoping honesty and human reaction is one of those things someone looks for in an indie company, otherwise what's the difference between indie and AAA? I know I certainly feel the same way on my darker days.
 
It's been mentioned in the Mondoids several times the past few months and on the forums-- animations are part of the NPC code; we'll talk more about NPCs and start their release cycle once animations are out.

Why are you rerolling? Buckle up, buttercup, legendary heroes are made by living through extraordinary situations.
 

Why are you rerolling? Buckle up, buttercup, legendary heroes are made by living through extraordinary situations.
 

Gooooood. Gooooooooood.

Starting in a world with burnt warehouses could be fun,  that would fill the world with "surprises" and make the player change out his playstyle of rushing X warehouse to get X item, it would be just another day in the apocalypse where shit happens.

It just needs some more TLC. It'll get finished, for now it's there if you want to play with it, but we're not sure it's ready for prime time on the main game experience yet.

Q: What is it going to take to polish off the nutrition knob? Nothing says 'not playing game as intended' to me more than needing to enable something in the sandbox.

*radio noises*
"Why? It's easy, mate. Agenda 21. Anyone who survives it is genetic stock worthy of repopulating the earth with. That's why they watch you, test you and eventually, will come reclaim you to make cloned storm-troopers out of your alpha-human DNA. Stay out of sight, let them think you are dead. Stay safe."
*skzz-cht!*
 

*radio noises*
"Why? It's easy, mate. Agenda 21. Anyone who survives it is genetic stock worthy of repopulating the earth with. That's why they watch you, test you and eventually, will come reclaim you to make cloned storm-troopers out of your alpha-human DNA. Stay out of sight, let them think you are dead. Stay safe."
*skzz-cht!*
 

Hey survivors, here’s the latest from Zomboidton.
IWBUMS 34.19
The marvellous EasyPickins continues to build some nice tweaks and fixes in to the public test of Build 34, which seems to be coming to a natural climax now – although we still need to work out which side of the release fence polished nutrition and metalwork will be landing. An item of note in .19 is EP’s new precipitation system, which looks nicer and opens the door to falling snow and whatnot. If you want to join in with testing you can find details here.
BACKPACK LATEST
So with the animation update now surging through the pipeline we’ve got anims that allow the player to take bags off their back, and rifle through the contents on the floor.
As well as looking pretty as they jiggle about – they’ll also make a significant gameplay difference. If you’re carrying a bag on your back you will, in most cases, be unable to go rooting around in it unless you first take it off and put it on the floor in front of you. This means there will be no more intensive backpack resorting done while wandering around, as well as making looting much more interesting, with the potential of a panicked looter leaving their bag behind if they are not observant.

[Note: in the anim cycle the strap currently disappears when the bag is taken off and reappears when it’s put back on. There aren’t any easy ways to avoid this, but with clothing worn and in-game it will be far, far less noticeable.]
Holding a bag in your hand will add the extra advantage of being able to interact with it without stopping, which will make bag management much more strategic. Finally we may be able to look into a few more traits to further increase player’s capability to interact quickly with backpacks, as well as provide different speeds based on the type and convenience of the bag used.
If you weren’t around for the previous bag vid then let’s have another repeat, as it does look lovely.

HELLO LADIES
To complement all this, character-wise, Binky is currently experimenting with unifying the textures between the male and female animation meshes. Currently our new player and zed anims are all chaps, y’see. The result of this (if successful) will be a more in-depth way of assembling the base models. We’ll lose the need to double-up textures – have more variety in skin tones, will let players wear whatever they like and will also tie into having blood and bandage overlays on the characters themselves.
With the base mesh and clothing overlays all using consistent texture layouts we’d be free to overlay this stuff wherever appropriate. Better clean that bite mark, dress the wound, and grab a clean long-sleeved shirt if you want to pretend you’re unscathed and not in imminent danger of eating your compadres!
FINALLY
Do check out lovely Blindcoder, of map fame, and his new building mod. Thanks all!
This week’s featured image by Shadows on Steam.  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! Okay thanks bye! Oh, and community GoT spoiler chat goes… here!

What stops you dying while sleeping???

*radio noises*
"Why? It's easy, mate. Agenda 21. Anyone who survives it is genetic stock worthy of repopulating the earth with. That's why they watch you, test you and eventually, will come reclaim you to make cloned storm-troopers out of your alpha-human DNA. Stay out of sight, let them think you are dead. Stay safe."
*skzz-cht!*
 

As I am rapidy approaching my 700th hour of gameplay, I think I am ready to give opinions on things.
First, congratulations. I have not been this engrossed in a game since Chrono Trigger and FF3 came out on the SNES.
Second, EnigmaGrey, you do a very good job. You don't get enough credit on the forums. It makes your work a very salty chore.
Thank you Administrators and Indie Stone Devs.
 
 
Deaf - Great perk! I only observed the true power of this while watching a friend play, wherein I suggested taking it. Not hearing anything was completely disorenting to them. Death happened again and again with great rapidity from zambos behind doors, lurking in bushes, giving surprize hugs from behind while looking in the backpack for a soda etc etc. However, I play all games in 'Deaf FM' mode where I turn off the games sound and play my music. I thought that Deaf was kind of an interesting option since that is how I play all games. It did not affect me one iota in my gameplay, making it a no-brain choice for a quick, tasty 12 points, but is appropriately costly for most other people as it seems to be a certain death sentance unless you, as a player, possess intense focus and lengthy attention span.

Obese - * Great perk! Watch as your slow, easily edible tub of tasty crisco runs those thunder thighs off! Admire thier steely reserve as the pounds melt away! Be proud of thier determination with each upwards click of the Fitness bars!

Weak - See Feeble. *

Illiterate - Great perk! It allows you to keep track of what you have done in character advancement using numbers that are not skewed with book bonuses. Imagine doing fishing and carpentry instead of just reading about it. Illiterate makes for a more active, interactive playthrough with less downtime.

Feeble - Great perk! For roleplaying old ladies and unfortunate cancer suvivors. Could be a bit more expensive, as it makes combat a neigh impossibility until you swell those gains a little. *

High Thirst - Something to drink has never really been a matter of difficulty to obtain for me, even in 'I live in Mulblub, durnit.' runs. With barrels and bags, anything is possible. Still I think my propensity to be a sweaty, thirsty survivor has more to do with me picking this Perk than does this concept of 'free points'. Well balanced, balanced with a well.

Overweight - See Obese. *

Restless Sleeper - I dislike this Perk. Because I like to sleep. But if you are a cat napper, this is very appropriate. In that respect it balances well with the other sleep related perks. Wakeful makes those short naps effective. Sleepyhead perk combos this into a 'sleep away your life' style of gameplay where you only really need to wake up long enough to water the crops and sweep the zambos off the porches before it's time to settle down for another well earned eight hours.

Slow Healer - Great perk! Assuming everything else is fine and dandy in ones life, Slow Healer lets you spend more time figuring out how to bandage correctly and use appropriate measure of disinfectant instead of simply dousing the area down. And in the end, higher First Aid will keep you in better shape faster. Keep a broken window on hand for cutting yourself, because Broken Leg Simulator doesn't require the frequant health checks that a nice, deep laceration will do for.

Slow Learner - Great Perk! Learning slowly means you end up struggling a lot longer before becoming skilled at anything, extending the amount of time it takes before you have an impenatrable fortress and infinate supplies. The begining of the game is no doubt the most exciting part, and this perk extends the 'begining' by that much longer.

Thin-skinned - I have mixed feeling about this one. On the one hand, it's an area that needs to be represented. On the other hand, my longest living character with Thick Skin and Defense Blunt/Blade both at 7 and Lucky died in the spring of her third year of the very first injury she had ever taken, ever. All the defensive Perks in the world wont save you from cruel fate, so taking Thin Skinned is pure free points when your game play involves never getting hit ever.

Asthmatic - This is like having Obese or Overweight in the games begining, but you can never work it off. Needs to be more expensive. I occasionally use this for points when I am not making a fatty.

Agoraphobic - See Adreniline Junkie. *

Claustrophobic - See Adreniline Junkie. *

Conspicious - * Needs to be more expensive. My word, hard to get anything done when you proc every zombie in a circle  around you two blocks out.

Disorganized - I think this perk is balanced for it's cost, but I never wind up picking it other than for experimental build reasons. A savy carpenter has three shelves on every wall in the storage shed. No need to organize, just offload.

Hearty Appetite - I have never had a problem staying fed, even with this Perk. However, I stopped taking it after the fifth of sixth playthrough I as enjoy seeing food stockpiles swell. Would need to be another point or two more expensive for me to be tempted into taking it in these modern days.

Pacifist - I... I don't understand. All these people got eaten or shot in the first month of The End, didn't they? I have never picked this Perk and would look down on anyone who did.

Prone to Illness - Great Perk! Why wait for the inevitable? Die of a shallow scratch by the time it takes you to think of a new character and move on is what I say.

Sleepy Head - See Restless Sleeper. *

Unlucky - Great Perk! For a cost of only -4 points, Unlucky incentivises you to explore the WHOLE MAP in search of the One Saw to rule them all. This is great for playthroughs as often you can find spade, trowel, axe, saw, sledge and a dozen boxes of nails under a single roof without this handy perk, severely reducing the enjoyable difficulty/tension of a new playthrough.

Hemophobic - Panic is scary. I understand why people think that this Perk is free points, but. I think that those people are dissasociated from the experiance. Have you ever had to stich up a ragged wound that was litterally spilling your life out of you? It's not easy. It's terrifying. You have to hurt yourself more with a freaking NEEDLE to fix it. If only there was a way to make the player 'feel' that terror. Noone would pick this Perk even if it was worth -15. At -3 for no actual impact on a savy player, however, it's free points.

Weak Stomach - Would need to be more expensive to be balanced if the problem of abundant food supply choices were fixed. Easy -3 points otherwise.

All Thumbs - Great Perk for a home-body, terrible for a raider.  Could easily be a -3 and still be balanced.

Clumsy - See Conspicuous. *

Cowardly - See Adrenaline Junkie. *

Hard of Hearding - Discount Deaf. Have never used due to a preference for Deaf.

Hypochondriac - Needs to be more expensive for the toll it takes on every concievable reserve of physical and mental assets.

Short Sighted - Have used on occasion and don't see much of a difference. What am I doing wrong? What is the tangible effect of this?

Slow Reader - Great Perk! This one lets me cook dinner while I am reading in game. I can run down to the store for sandwitch fixings, come back, and I'll just be finishing the book. Great for the lazy player who AFK's frequantly.

Cat's Eyes -  This shouldn't be red! Worthless perk as darkness doesn't help you sneak. If anything, Zambos are MORE aware at night. People who are out when it's close to midnight deserve what they get. IMHO it is not worth the few points it's worth. Likely added to fill out the Perks list. Who knows.
 
I do not tend to use a lot of these. Making the game easier is not what I am about. However.
Dextrous - Amazing. Grab that dogfood with laser speed and precision. Could be a +3 and I would still entertain notions of getting it.

Fast Reader - Needs to be more expensive. Drilling through 2 books in a day with 100% comprehension is a task of herculean adroitness.

Iron Gut - I have never eaten rotten food in the game on purpose. One I ate a pan of raw steak, chicken, mutton and porkchop stirfry by mistake. She died in spite of my best efforts. This affordable Perk might have saved me. :/

Angler - Great Perk! You can avoid the whole game by being a good enough fisher.

Baseball Player - +4 cost for a +1 Skill point, when I could spend +2 more and get brawler. Needs work and a Blade version counterpart.

Brave - For what it does, I think +4 cost is balanced for this. I would even get it at +5 in spite of how abuntant Beta Blockers are.

First Aider - Useful on Multiplayer where a lot of this happens, but not useful enough for the cost. Just get Boyscout and bundle that FA with a more useful skill.

Gardener - Important for making sure your first crop can be sprayed for pests and such. I have heard that other people do not seem to have this problem, but I cannot make 'Cures' for my plant until I have at least one point in Farming.

Graceful - Could-be-a-5-useful.

Inconspicious - Could-be-a-5-useful.

Gymnast - Is-a-5-useful. Balanced, yo.

Brawler - Great Perk! A true survivalist fights well weather stabbing, slashing, chopping or crushing. If weapons wernt so easy to find, this would be a must have. But since people pick either blunt or blade and stick with it, maybe make this one a odd number? There needs to be more odds and this one is kinda lame to those cis-weapon battlers.

Eagle Eyed - Have used a couple times, not impressed. Normal vision works just fine and is free.

Fast Healer - It's not kidding. You heal very fast.  Maybe jack this one up into another odd? This and Fast Learner would look great at +7. They are totally worth it.

Fit - I have no opinion. Seems pretty balanced to me.

Former Scout - Pairs well with Hiker, but I hardly ever use it because Hiker is enough and in SP you just don't get hurt enough for First Aid to matter. One Chomp, One Scratch and all your knowledge of the differences between Cetyl Alcohol and Ethyl Alcohol means nothing.

Hiker - Best Perk! Live off the land! Would need to be bumped up to a +8 cost because of how usefull BOTH of the abilities are. Maybe toss in a +1 to Fishing and be like 'Look, Hiking is as expensive as Handy but makes you a true outdoor enthousiast!'.

Keen Hearing - Dunno.   I am Deaf.

Adrenaline Junkie - WOOO! BETA BLOCKERS WEARING OFF, EAT MY DUST ZAMBOS.

Handy - I often buy this for the extra blip in Carpentry, but I don't need the maintanance. It goes up fast enough on it's own. I hope this gets split into a cheap Carpentry +1 and a less expensive +1 for the maint's. Something like a +6 cost like Hiker.

Hunter - Needs animals. Have not used/wont use until I get cute, fluffy things to murder at range and then eat.

Athletic - Balanced. Dunno why anyone would choose this over Overweight though. Too bad you cannot be a big, chunky fitfat guy.

I made a song today. It doesn't have much to do with zombies, but I can always write songs about zombies.

I made a song today. It doesn't have much to do with zombies, but I can always write songs about zombies.

Granted, but some jerknut comes along and corrupts it.
 
I wish we all could get to see Small Soldiers 2 made before Denis Leary is taken from us.

now that i think about it, are you planning to add something to balance the dog? since it won't be attacked by zeds you can just use it to slowly clear the area
perhaps stuff like thirst and hunger for it? or maybe having it getting "tired" after a certain number of kill in a certain amount of time

Glad you asked. Right now I'm animating different animations for the dog over 60 frames in Maya, then setting it to specific intervals to then render each image. Put simply, we're currently using sprites that are made from 3d models. I actually have a camera that looks down on the model from an orthographic view that matches the isometric perspective in the game, which I then rotate by 45 degrees each time to get the next direction (North, North East, East, etc.).
The fact that I'm doing this in 3d and converting the results into sprites means that it looks pretty damn close to the original style of the game (which I think is awesome!) but it also means that a single frame of animation requires 9 individually rendered images that I then have to scale down manually and refine before finally saving, naming properly and uploading them. It's very tedious, but I think it's worth it.
This way, of course, isn't the ideal way of doing things, but it definitely works for now. If we ever get custom models with animations working in-game, everything I've made so far has actually been rigged and animated, so I don't see why we wouldn't be able to throw it in without much effort if such a thing was possible in the future. Hopefully that clears that up!
(Also, if you were asking more specifically about the coding aspects, I'm sorry, I'm just the artist )

Did you know, commanding a dog can be as easy as shouting "Hey you!" or "Over here!"?