Tails

How do all, let’s get on into it.
MP WORK
This week we were excited to welcome a new MP Strike Force team member into the ranks from General Arcade. Aleksandr comes to us with a lot of experience in Java projects, and will be working alongside Yuri and Andrei for the foreseeable future.
 
Whereas before our own team of testers and volunteers were putting the MP build through its paces, now the TIS team are working on mainline SP releases we have also separated testing duties – and GA have their own branch and testing channel populated by two other bright, shiny new faces – Oleg and Mikhail.
 
This allows us to concentrate on the more imminent 41 releases (Noiseworks, 3D items etc) while allowing General Arcade to come to us with cleaner builds for wider internal testing when the time is right – as opposed to our previous weekly TIS-side sessions.
 
Recent work has concentrated on combat between zombies and groups of players, though the guys have also hooked up a few things like thrown objects etc that had been left untouched thus far. As in the current build the latter still looks like the jankest thing in the game currently, but will do for now until we have time to input throwables that at least look like they obey the laws of physics.
 
“Last month we implemented a system in which zombies would visibly react to hits from their target player, but attacks from other players present would only create splashes of blood and drops in health” explains Yuri. “Unfortunately, this didn’t look good at all. You never felt that you’d hit the zombie if you weren’t its target, as it wouldn’t play a reaction animation.”
 
“As such, we allowed the zombie animated reactions to all players – but made it so that the super-close zombies within 5 in-game metres of their target would be far less likely to be distracted by other players. To add some texture to this, however, zombies also now have an aggro level – meaning that if attacked sufficiently within a short time interval a zed closing in on its target will change its target. The server now calculates aggro level for each zombie and sends a ZombieControl packet to change the owner.”
 
“We also put a lot of work into our syncing of zombies falling to the ground – which when allowed to happen out of time can lead to increased desync. Our first implementation was working fine for solo players, but when multiple players were attacking zeds the fall position was being rewritten and there was confusion between all the different clients. We believe we now have a solution for this by concentrating on the attacks of the target player, which the team are now testing.”
 
“We have also been fixing bugs discovered by our QA team, like players not being able to kill each other, debugged issues of corpse teleport, worked on various aspects of throwables that were not already implemented and many other issues.”
 
  NEXT 41
We don’t want to mix in too much more to the upcoming 41.54 version of the IWBUMS public beta feature-wise, as it’s already pretty packed. Likewise we also need to make sure that everything going into the 3D items behaves visually and performance-wise, so it’s going to be at least two weeks away most likely.
 
This said we are SUPER jazzed by how the 3D items are looking in-game, and look forward to being able to provide more varied in-game starting / zed story scenes to bring more variety to the map.
 

 
Please check out the entirety of this vid showing a player-decorated safehouse, and also note that since this was taken RJ has added in first iteration of a system that allows you to drag an item from your inventory and place it more accurately on the floor, and to rotate the item using the R key.
 
WIP NOTICE: You may notice when the camera is panned the 3D objects don’t match the 2D tile positions perfectly. This has been a longstanding issue with vehicles and zombies, but has never really been this noticeable as there’s been less of it to see on-screen. We’re setting Zac and his magical maths abilities on this fix tomorrow, and will also be looking to match the lighting of the 3D objects closer match the 2D tiles before release. Despite all this, we hope you’ll agree that it looks awesome.
 
  Oh, also clearly there’s Noiseworks sounds in here now too – we’ve covered the revamped PZ soundscape enough in the past now, but everything the NW team have done up to this point is now in the internal test build.
 
Phase two of their work is starting next week, alongside fixes and required changes brought up by our internal testers and agreed by the core team. Here’s a quick ‘latest’ vid on that front. (There’s some debate internally on the shotgun ‘bang’ noise – so please treat that aspect as WIP for now.)
 
 
 
Other smaller fun/necessary stuff going into 41.54 will be:
 
A fix for those pesky framerate chugs you can get after long journeys in a vehicle (hurrah!) Visible flies over corpses (and, later, rotten food etc)  
 
Some required nerfs to knife-fighting QoL improvements to multi-stage building Better lighting effects from emergency lights, to go along with the better Noiseworks sirens. (Sirens not playing in this vid, but oh well it looks good)  
 
On top of this there’ll also be Turbo and Pat_Bren/Will’s VHS and CD entertainment system – which we’ve covered in previous blogs and is also now in testing.
 
Pat and Will (but mainly Pat, in all truth) have provided 3900 new lines for the new system, which should keep the translators busy.
 
ALL THINGS LOUISVILLE
As we’ve mentioned before, our PZ version of Louisville is now certainly on the horizon – so we thought it might be a good idea to check in with our map team to provide you with a clearer idea of what to expect when it does arrive.

Q. To what extent is Louisville based on reality?
A. Mash:
 
“Initially Binky made the general layout follow reality for the most part, but from that base I took some liberties- some larger than others. For gameplay reasons I wanted to have our (necessarily smaller scale) LV to encompass the types of neighbourhoods you might encounter in any city: the “bad neighbourhood”, the “business district”, the “rich area”.”
 
“As such, the locations of these are not at all based on the real Louisville. For one thing, the city on our map is much smaller (though still relatively huge), so we couldn’t really adhere to reality. The main goal was to make map exploration more fun and engaging, and having varied neighbourhoods that might not be totally realistic but makes organic sense within the map is part of that.”
 
“I think there won’t be much recognition of Louisville and it feeling just like the real world one when you are exploring it on the ground, but that said you will see some recognizable buildings here and there, such as City Hall.”
 
“We are also taking some inspiration from real world districts when we are designing some of our own, for example I know that Xeonyx has loosely based our version of NE Louisville (home of our new Grand Ohio Mall) on the St. Matthews district east of real world LV, and his old town district around Fossoil Field is based off the real world’s Smoketown and Phoenix Hill.”
 
“As I said previously however, in terms of being close to reality it’s better to think of our version of Louisville to be closer to our more recent additions to the map, rather than having the veracity of places like Muldraugh and West Point”

 
Q. How does it differ when you’re designing a city, as compared to when you created PZ’s smaller towns?
A. Mash:
 
“The size of the city and the new map makes things exponentially more complicated, which led us to choosing to knuckle down on identifiable themed neighbourhoods which would benefit a game like PZ more clearly. From this we then had to make sure it transitioned from one area to another in a way that made some sort of sense. The smaller towns are, for the most part, fairly uniform in feel within each individual location.”

 
Q. Clearly with PZ you are limited to seven storeys and a rooftop – is it frustrating not being able to go higher?
A. Mash:
 
“I think things are pretty relative, and since buildings are only 1-3 storeys in other locations, the 7 storey buildings of our Louisville give a good sense of size and, I think, allow for pretty identical gameplay as if the game had even taller buildings.”
 
A. Xeonyx
“To me, being limited to 7 stories isn’t really a problem. It doesn’t negatively affect gameplay, and the buildings offer a nice mix of high risk/high reward while still retaining the feeling of a large city.”

 
Q. What are your favourite new buildings and locations?
A. Mash:
 
“Some of my favourite buildings I want to leave as a surprise, but one of my favourite areas is the university area.”


  A. Xeonyx
“The scale and design of Louisville offers many new playstyles and challenges to experience, but if I were to pick a favorite new location, it’d be a tie between the gritty industrial district, and the South Louisville district which was designed to be similar to the real life Auburndale district.”

NEW NOLAN MOD
Some areas that we are very aware that PZ needs some improvement in are those related to accessibility – some stuff we’re okay at, some stuff needs a lot of love.
 
For this reason we just wanted to take a second to highlight Nolan’s new mod – which will be of massive help to those who are hard of hearing.
 
Likewise it’ll probably be handy for those who like to PZ while doing another activity, watching TV or similar, where you’re not always glued to your speakers for audio cues and clues.

So, all in all, if this is something that you need improved in PZ, then for now please please check out the Sound Direction Indicator. Thanks Modding Hero Nolan!

  Thanks everyone next week we’ll have a Mod Spotlight on that beautiful creature Filibuster Rhymes, and in the dev blog following that there’ll be lots more goodies including a first full look at TIS newbie Eris’ awesome improved foraging system.
 
A changelist of all IWBUMS patches since the 41 beta was released can be found here. 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 you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too!

I'd say 1993 suits the game just fine. Why does it need to be changed? It really fits in with the lore. The government was easily able to prevent most information from getting out to the public since technology was more limited back in those days compared to now. Mobile phones not being that common, especially in rural areas.
 
Plus I'm pretty sure the mad cow disease outbreak was still occurring over in the U.K during that time period which is what contributes to some of the paranoia on the radio/tv ingame.
 
I'd say GPS wouldn't suit this game in my opinion. While more types of maps would be cool in vanilla[Such as a map of the highways], GPS just seems so unnecessary. Eris mini map mod scratches that itch for the people who really want that type of thing anyway.
 
The character can see their own weight for balancing purposes I'd imagine. If you wanted some item required for weighing your character, why not just implement bathroom scale? You don't need to set the game in 2005-10 for that.
 
More advanced vending machine variety? What is even the point of that? It's just something you loot for snacks. 
 
More food variety? Why make it set in 2005-10 for that? 1990's had plenty of different types of food.

Very excited to see some more single player content like noise works  get added since  us players were deprived of any new content for 6 months.
 
 
Take your time devs  for the multiplayer update.

Finding a police cars road blocks with badly damaged cop cars on every part of the car.
 
Would be nice if vehicle scenes had more better condition vehicles.

Very exciting to see more single player content to get added cant wait for this  update.
    
 
  3D items look amazing even on that table.

love the new sounds on that dryer also hope the washing machines also gets a new sound.
 
 
That mall looks nice cant wait to loot up that place.

I am glad single player content has returned  its been a long time.
 
But now everything  much better now.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
 
Project Zomboid IWBUMS beta update 41.51 contains significant optimizations to our save game system. As such any saved games played in 41.50 will NOT be operational.
 
A separate Steam beta containing the previous 41.50 build has been provided so that you can continue and finish your current game.
 
Similarly, in a changelist as big as this some mods WILL become incompatible.
 
If you enjoy playing modded PZ then please consider using the provided 41.50 beta to allow the creators of your favourite mods some time to update to 41.51.
 
This version also sees some of the foundational aspects of PZ updated to more recent versions - with it now running on Java 15 and LWJGL 3.2.3. These have, and will in future, give us access to many new optimizations and engine features.
 
Although any incompatibilities found in our testing group have been fixed, some issues may occur on outlier system set-ups, so please report any misbehaviour to us!
 
If 41.51 fails to run then please make sure you are not running an non-updated version of Windows 10, as the 64 bit version of 41.51 is incompatible with some older versions. The game should account for this, and choose not to load incompatible optimization features, but this might still be an advisable first step on a failed launch.

NEW/QOL
 
Now running on Java 15
Now running on latest LWJGL (3.2.3)
 
- Previously, to seed/water/harvest, you needed to right click on every plant and select an action. Now once you selected seeds, water or harvest, you'll have a cursor to water multiple plants easily.
- Shift+double click can now be used on clothing items in the inventory to wear the item
- Newest earned skill level is now highlighted when the skill panel is opened
- Added filter icon to inventory panel to add additional filter/sorting options, currently has 'weight'
- Water source now displayed in parentheses for the Drink/Wash option (partially to diagnose issues with puddles and rain)
- Analog watches no longer have alarms
- Digital watch display now has alarm button that can be pressed on the UI
- 'Saliva only' transmission option - player is immune to scratch infection
- Added tooltip to show which gun magazine will be filled
- Required items to cure plants and crops now shown.
- Zombies faceplanting on broken glass now get lots of blood on head/neck, and some on upper torso.
- Alarm clocks now display the same bell as digital watches when an alarm is set.
- When trying to repair a door on a vehicle through the mechanics menu, a tooltip appears telling the player that they need to uninstall the door before they can repair it. They can also then repair the doors from their inventory.
- When pressing Shift+E from any passenger door you will then move straight through to the driver's side if no one is already there.
- Added more smashed car models.
- Zombies can now pathfind through destroyable objects. They prefer to go around, but if there is no other path, they'll thump on walls and crates, etc.
- Added brazilian portugese radio translations
- Added hair gel. Mohawk will now be flatten if you wear a hat. Now need hair gel to fix it.
- Added new options to add padding/patch holes on garments. This will patch any holes if there are some and then add padding to the other parts.
- Added a remove all padding/patches option.
- Added small XP gain when ripping clothing/sheets. Gaining small amounts of XP when you recieve some thread back from items so it can't be abused.
- Added sandbox option for decay of items that are knocked off / fall off zombies
- Added some variety to crashed cars
- Use a cursor to choose which walls or objects to paint or plaster, when using the mouse and keyboard. This cursor was already used when playing with a controller.
- Added a combobox to Items List Viewer to choose which splitscreen player to give items to.
- Hats/Gloves added to the remove/decay list. Default also now set to 24 hours.
- Updated Korean fonts and translations, and updated community translations.
- Added "Please check PZ Steam betas for version 41.50." for WorldVersion 175 saves.
- Require Windows 10 version 1803 (build 17134) or greater to enable the newer garbage collector, earlier versions will just run without it and not receive the optimization.
- Added TrailerCover to VehicleDistributions.
- Allow trailer bodywork to be repaired by welding.
- Added a cursor for removing bushes, plants and wall-vines.
- Replace north-west corner wallframes with two separate wallframe objects (the first time they are loaded). The player can't upgrade the north-west corner objects.
- Car stories can now spawn decomposed zombies corpses.
 
MODELS AND ANIMS

- Added long hair style for when wearing hats
- Adjusted some clothes to accommodate new long hat hairstyles
- Adjusted a couple of female hats
- Tweaked female long hat hair to stop pixel flickering
- Added some new hairstyles
- Added some Braided hairstyles
- Adjusted some hairstyle definitions as they were pointing to a non-existent hairstyle and subsequently were invisible when wearing some hats.
- replaced the 'land gentle' anim with the heavier landing
- tweaks to turn 180 anims, first pass
- adjusted Zombie_Idle_FloorOnBack.X pose to match zombie death anim
 
BALANCE

- Added butter knives stuck in zombies.
- Reduced number of hunting knives stuck in zombies.
- Lowered zombie survivor in horde spawning rate.
- Lowered chance of alice pack on survivor zombies.
- Increased beef jerky nutrition values.
- Balanced weight of ammo/ammo box to be more consistent/logical (box weight is bit less than the full bullets stack)
- Dead animals (except rat/mouse) give unhappiness when you eat them raw, just cook them to remove that (tooltip was added to explain).
- White display counter (mainly in butcher shop) now also acts as fridge
- Added more tailoring books to kitchen.
- Added rifles in shed/garage.
- Zombies now do more damage to fences when crowding against/over them
- Now possible to recover and repair a weapon used in Spear creation
- M36 Revolver now only has capacity for five rounds
- Character can now auto-open nail boxes
- Beer can now returns an empty can after it's drunk
- Cockroaches and Grasshoppers can now be used to bait the StickTrap
- Tuna Can no longer requires a Can opener to be opened
- Increased health points of player built walls.
- Reduced the engine force & total speed of going in reverse with a car.
- Adding more items to partially consumed crafted foods will add new food values to original food, not partially consumed one
- Berries salad now reduces thirst
- Lowered amount of water in a bleach bottle.
- Increased recoil of pistols/revolver.
- Increased chance of creating crawler when hitting zombies with cars.
- Park Ranger/Lumberjack profession now gives a bonus to walking through trees.
- Leg fractures now reduce speed according to their severity.
- Splints increase walk speed with a fracture, depending on the doctor's Medical level.
- Can now add salt and pepper to sandwiches.
- Zombies spawning on vehicles stories now have high chance of having a key to a related vehicle.
- Increased the effect of injuries on sprint speed.
- Increased "wash vehicle" time.
- Crashing a car into objects can now damage the engine if hood condition is too low.
- Bags in hands/equipped now reduce run speed and walk speed. The more full the bag is, the bigger the slow down. Equipped bags in 2nd hand can also reduce combat speed.
- Fuel stations no longer have unlimited fuel.
- Added sandbox option under World category "initial fuel station gas", ranging from "Empty" to "Full" with "Low/Very High" etc. in between
- It takes a minimum of two zombies climbing over a fence at the same time to damage the fence. Metal fences take half the damage as wooden fences.
- Made firefighter clothing slightly heavier and increased their Run and Combat Speed Modifier accordingly.
- Lowered fanny pack capacity
- Increased empty gas can weight from 0.3 to 1.5.
- Added bullet defense in clothing tooltip.
- Some knives (mainly Stone Knife) slightly reduced in damage.
- Athletic trait now excluded when selecting Very Underweight.
- Adjusted weight of ammo boxes.
- Made tents thumpable so zombies can destroy them.
- Wooden wall frames placed by the mapper become IsoThumpables that can be upgraded, like user-placed ones.
- Did some balance on sneak/lightfoot exp gain: you now need to be rather close (15 tiles) from a zombie to gain exp, you also need to not be targetted by a zombie.
- Decreased damage done to feet when walking barefoot.
- Decreased damage done by trees when walking through them.
- Increased chance of spawning feeding zeds.
- Decreased chance of feeding zeds spotting you
- Set all bandana weight to 0.1.

PRE NOISEWORKS SOUND CHANGES

- Preload sample data ahead of time so that sounds can play immediately when started.
- Fixed some sounds randomly starting muted due to the Occlusion parameter not being re-initialized to the correct value.
- Don't set Occlusion to 1.0 as that seems to completely mute some sounds.
- Pause music when the game is paused.
- Fixed the BreakObject sound not playing when destroying carpentry objects.
 
DEBUG

- Added context menu option "[DEBUG] UIs > Spawn Points" for teleporting the player to various spawn points to check their positions.
- Added a context-menu to the "[DEBUG] UIs > Spawn Points" editor.  This can be used to reposition and remove existing points.
 To save the changes, use the "Copy All To Clipboard" menu option and paste in the appropriate spawnpoints.lua file.
- Added a separate menu "[DEBUG] Vehicle > Set Script (Smashed)" for smashed vehicles.
- Allow deleting map_zone.bin from the "More..." load-game ui in debug mode.

LOOT DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
 
Partially implemented new system - as yet untouched loot tables remain the same as before.
 
New more handcrafted loot placement / container system used for places like Giga-Mart and residential kitchens now applied to the rest of the map. Locations that previously spawned random grab-bags of loot (like Spiffo’s) should have their contents sorted into relevant lists: If you’re looking for a bladed weapon or some fresh-cut chops, try looking around the kitchen of any place that sells meat (i.e, not a bakery) for the meat-cutting station. If it’s baking supplies you need, look for where the sacks of flour are stored-- they’ll probably be next to a rolling pin.

Convenience stores, corner stores, and gas stations have had their shelves’ contents sorted so loose cigarettes no longer mix with the lollipops. Players who visit the pharmacy already have an idea of how the shelves are laid out: Some have snacks, some have drinks. You’re less likely to find medicine in a gas station but it’s not unheard of-- ditto car supplies in a Zippee’s. If you want the most of a particular kind of item, it’s best to stick to the relevant business. Gas station tylenol is a ripoff anyway.

Medical locations now sort their contents into tools, medicine, and doctor-related stuff like gloves, masks, and scrubs. Bars, beauty salons, butcher shops, cafes, and liquor stores all take the same approach. Giant ‘catch all’ loot lists should eventually be replaced with tailored selections of items that are relevant to the location they’re spawned in.

MOVABLES
 
- Fixed movable items, such as radios from cars, having correct condition when placed and picked up again.
- Movables can now be dismantled from inventory, except for the multi tile object ones i.e: beds.
- Added MovableRecipe which has no script definitions, instead gets created on the fly from movable definitions.
- Refactored some stuff so the MovableRecipe has the same chances, xp, resultitems, equipitems etc as world object dismantling.
- Single tile Movable items are now defined as 'Moveables.world_object_sprite_here" instead of all being 'Moveables.Moveable'.
 this also means these movables can be easily instanced directly now

CONTROLLERS UPDATE
 
- Removed the old JInput library which was used for controllers.  The GLFW library, part of LWJGL 3, is now used.
- GLFW has a database of several hundred Xbox-like controllers, including PlayStation controllers, so these should
 have a good chance of working.  Recognized controllers are listed in media\gamecontrollerdb.txt.
- The user can create their own gamecontrollerdb.txt file in their User\Zomboid\joypads directory.  This can be done
 to add new controllers or to override a controller in the game's media\gamecontrollerdb.txt.
- The game should handle controllers disconnecting and reconnecting during play.  If player 1's controller is
 disconnected, they can choose to revert to keyboard and mouse input.
- The controller X button now rotates objects in Place mode.

FIXES
 
- Fixed "delete all" on bins not working.
- Fixed tailoring book/farming mag not spawning in shelves.
- Fixed water container in office weighing 3.
- Fixed white display counter not cooling food.
- Fixed zombies not being able to pathfind through obstacles surrounding vehicles.
- Fixed some minor pathfind issues.
- Fixed zombies thumping windows when they didn't hear a sound or see the player, when the "Environmental Attacks" sandbox option is disabled.
- Fixed not being able to plaster doorframes built at Carpentry level 7
- Fixed stretched sprites in cutaways, including roof wall tiles, garage doors and certain windows
- Fixed heatable water containers not heating up if put into campfire/bbq before they are lit
- Fixed deep wounds having a shorter half-life than scratches or lacerations before healing
- Fixed GameWindow.StringUTF writing garbage characters at the end of strings. (Fixes saves)
- Fixed lights losing their custom color. (For example, the blue Pharmahug sign was only blue the first time it was loaded. Moveable lights lost their custom color when moved.)
- Fixed misplaced door models on the cars with door-models.
- Fixed keypad key names being the same as keys on the main keyboard.
- Fixed scissors not allowing jaw stab.
- Fixed corpses clipping through furniture and walls with the RBShopLooted story.
- Fixed FMOD .bank files not being found when the current working directory is not the same as Java's -Duser.dir option.
- Fixed some flying cars
- Fixed crawling zombies getting stuck while moving near walls.
- Fixed crawling zombies not thumping fences like they do with doors.
- Fixed crawling zombies trying to go through open windows.
- Fixed crawling zombies trying to crawl through fences when there is a nearby way around.
- Fixed zombies sometimes thumping on wall frames that they can climb through.
- Fixed WorldDictionary ID's not being reset uppon new game.
- Fixed the 'campfire bug'. in some cases sprite were not being set properly on IsoObject, this may have also affected erosion objects.
- Fixed edit item coloring not working.
- Fixed map issues.
- Fixed the fishing UI appearance not changing when a controller is disconnected.
- Fixed not being able to add any condiments to a Burger found in game
- Fixed Empty Pop Can appearing after char drinks a beer
- Fixed Sawed-off JS-2000 shotgun only being reparable with another Sawed-off.
- Fixed Hoodie unequipping when hood up + baseball hat
- Fixed cooking food increasing weight of the dish inconsistently
- Fixed player being able to eat by double-clicking when full to bursting
- Fixed Bourbon having two options to empty the bottle
- Fixed M9 pistol and D-E Pistol having their icons mixed up
- Fixed Wet Bath towel losing Favourite status after drying
- Fixed new ammunition types not being dismantlable 
- Fixed "Sleep on ground" option in the car when char is Ridiculously tired
- Fixed some furniture not being thumpable by zombies.
- Fixed unhidden "Hat" related hair type.
- Fixed incorrect alpha fades on non-updating objects such as roof eaves and furniture.
- Fixed being able to survive bleach death by eating lemongrass
- Fixed not being able to repair double doors
- Fixed Fish fillet / Chicken behaving strangely when used in salad
- Fixed filling up an empty bottle / bucket from a river or a lake incorrectly showing "Puddle" as a source
- Fixed not being able to hold RMB and use F to turn on flashlight
- Fixed "Easy use" causing all car trunks to be opened, not only unlocked
- Fixed Analog watches not having alarms if Spanish language is selected
- Fixed Padlocks that spawn in stores oftentimes getting called "house key" + a string of numbers
- Fixed not being able to freeze separate eggs
- Fixed inconsistence in rmb -> grab and basic transfer inventory action.
- Fixed some tile defs (bunker cutaway, railward vendor machine, changed shelves to clothing rack on certains container for clothing store).
- Fixed laundry basket acting as a dryer.
- Fixed zombies spawning outside very large buildings (eg. Mall) when unexplored rooms are seen for the first time.
- Fixed drinking from soup/stew bowl with a spoon not using the spoon.
- Fixed being able to bandage a fractured body part.
- Fixed cure flies/mildew on plants causing a crash.
- Fixed harvesting plant while plant info window was open causing a crash.
- Fixed some foods (notably a lot in Zed stories) having zero nutritional values
- Fixed not being able to wash blood stains off vehicle windows
- Fixed furniture sometimes fading away while the player is still close enough to see inside.
- Fixed not being able to freeze wild eggs
- Fixed seat naming weirdness by removing  "BigCarSeat" and "SportCarSeat" items, and renamng "NormalCarSeat" items to just "Seat".
- Fixed the random vehicle generator which was causing "Standard Seat" to be selected every time.
- Fixed being able to do fitness exercises when you shouldn't.
- Fixed a physics bug that caused the Sports Car to not accelerate to it's top speed of 120 km/h. This also caused vehicles to get pushed downwards at higher speeds.
- Fixed office water dispenser weighing only 5.
- Fixed blue hospital curtain requiring electrical skill to be picked up.
- Fixed "Hat" variants of hairstyles showing in the "Change" menu in the character-info ui. Some hairstyles (for example TopCurls) have a "Hat" hairstyle in their "Trim Choices". 
- Fixed dropping equipped container while being overencumbred duplicating the container on ground.
- Fixed being able to grab items through fences.
- Fixed being able to do fitness while climbing.
- Fixed house alarm and helicopter sounds ignoring the master sound volume.
- Fixed UI showing up on savefile thumbnail images.
- Fixed the clock not being centered in splitscreen and overlapping the button prompts.
- Fixed splitscreen savegames taking a screencap of the middle of the screen. Thumbnails will now be created from Player 1 screen.
- Fixed OpenGL exceptions when creating a new game due to trying to create the thumbnail image in GameLoadingState's thread.
- Fixed "can't create player at" error when going back from the character-profession screen and starting a challenge.
- Fixed being able to rotate carpentry objects while they are being built. ISBuildMenu.cheat no longer controls whether build actions complete immediately. Instead, IsoGameCharacter:isTimedActionInstant() is called, as is already done by most other actions. This makes it easier to test build actions without having to have all the materials.
- Fixed inventory tooltips flickering between visible and hidden when using a controller while in the main menu.
- Fixed controller glitch when closing a map by clicking the close button in the titlebar instead of using the B button.
- Fixed smart zombies triggering house alarms when opening windows when the "Zombie House Alarm Triggering" option is disabled.
- Fixed bumping into (and possibly being tripped by) zombies on the other sides of doors/walls/windows.
- Fixed being able to load bullets into or unload bullets from a magazine after it has been inserted into a firearm by a previous action.
- Fixed broken behavior assigning keys in the options.
- Fixed animation lockup pressing Alt + Space when Alt is assigned to both Sprint and "Manual Floor Attack".
- Fixed uninstalling parts resetting the condition to 100 sometimes
- Fixed items not saving condition if the condition was 10. Now condition only isn't saved when condition equals condMax (max condition).
- Fixed being able to open multiple sleep dialogues.
- Fixed sea horse bins not having "delete all" button.
- Fixed new liquor store in Muldraugh distributions.
- Fixed some wrong definition for bar.
- Fixed display case in pie restaurant.
- Fixed thin skinned giving more resistance to being damaged while walking in trees.
- Fixed icon for shooting glasses.
- Fixed Saucepan repairing itself after it was filled with water
- Fixed items being rendered in the wrong position (offscreen) after drying out on the ground.
- Fixed a Lighter being equipped when a Lit Candle is available when pressing the 'F' key.
- Fixed not being able to reinstall radios in vehicles.
- Fixed tainted water source being prefered over a non-tainted water source when drinking or filling bottles. Prefer a non-tainted water source over a tainted one when drinking or filling bottles.
- Fixed having to move and place sinks after water shut off to be plumbable again.
- Fixed not being able to use some shovels and handforks to pick up hedges, flower beds, etc. Any item with the DigPlow tag can now be used to pick up objects with the PickUpTool=Shovel sprite property.
- Fixed random horizontal and vertical lines appearing along the edges of some textures.
- Fixed the Crawl Under Vehicle sandbox option not being applied in some instances, so all zombies could crawl under vehicles.
- Fixed formatting of WorldItemRemovalList in xxx_SandboxVars.lua files.
- Fixed the player death-drag-down animation EndDeath being overridden by HitReactionFromBehind. They both had one condition that didn't exclude the other animation.
- Fixed the player always getting up from sitting sometimes.
- Fixed multiple different VehicleDistribution Specific categories of loot being applied to the same vehicle. Now a random Specific category is chosen for the vehicle as a whole, instead of for each container.
- Fixed LuaManager.refreshAnimSets() not checking all players in splitscreen.
- Fixed error clicking on a plant infested with flies without having Insecticide Spray in inventory.
- Fixed Fitness.save() saving exeTimer.size() twice.
- Fixed the inspect-garment ui not resizing to accommodate the Bullet column.
- Fixed being able to do exercises while climbing ropes.
- Fixed some cutaway problems.
- Fixed evolved recipe (cooking stir fry...) not resetting their base nutrition values, giving big boosts to nutrition on those recipes.
- Fixed invisible players triggering house alarms.
- Fixed some issues with zombie visibility.
- Fixed duplicate Scratch Defense stat in item tooltips where nothing or Bullet Defense should be.
- Fixed missing BodyParts\overlays textures by rebuilding UI2.pack
- Fixed layout issues in the inspect-garment ui.
- Fixed debug context menu exception when there is no zone on the clicked square.
- Fixed models with capital "I" in the name not loading on the Turkish locale.
- Fixed analog watches sometimes having the alarm set, which can't be turned off.
- Fixed a Lua error when running out of paint or plaster when using the paint/plaster cursor.
- Fixed some spawn points that were inside furniture or outside buildings.
- Fixed broken Perk translation in carpentry tooltips.
- Fixed unknown RemoveUnhappinessWhenCooked item parameter. Now "Cook to remove happiness malus." appears in the tooltip for fish, may want to edit this.
- Fixed thumbnail images for savefiles using mods not being updated after returning to the main menu.
- Fixed some hair type list.
- Fixed some parking spot in Muldraugh.
- Fixed wooden pillar acting like a wall.
- Fixed DataChunk exception with a user-created walkway on a guard tower.
- Fixed Lua error building fences.
- Fixed a garage in Riverside having an inside-out door and an old dirt floor tile (with a stray pixel in it).
- Fixed broken carpentry-tooltip perk translations.
- Fixed Shift-E allowing the player to switch from a rear seat to the driver's seat in the police car.
- Fixed "laundry" being in the list of buildings that RBShopLooted can happen in.
- Fixed WorldItemModelDrawer ignoring ModelMesh.m_transform. This fixes rotation of the forthcoming 3D item models so they match what is seen in assimp_viewer.
- Fixed font loading.
- Fixed InventoryItem.attachedSlotType being treated like an item module.type when it isn't. This fixes the "WARNING: Cannot get registry id" spam in console
- Fixed "Open File Location" button in the load-game "More..." ui, since it doesn't work with -Djava.awt.headless=true.
- Fixed the farming-cursor tooltip showing the exact water level for farming skill 4 instead of 5+.
- Fixed hats not rotating as they fall to the ground.
- Fixed the item type of Radios being changed to Radio.worldSprite which broke translations.
- Fixed untranslated names of movables being displayed for the Disassemble recipe.
- Fixed the Disassemble recipe for movables being displayed when the player couldn't actually perform the recipe
 (due to missing tools, for example) which is different than other recipes which aren't displayed.
- Fixed some tiles properties problems.
- Fixed duplicate VehicleDistributions.Hunter. One had TrailerTrunk, the one without it was removed.
- Fixed randomized building code adding barricades to double doors or garage doors, which the player can't do.
- Fixed campfire and tent options appearing in the context menu when in a vehicle.
- Fixed foraging ui being visible still when the player gets in a vehicle.
- Fixed duplicate radio items appearing in the "Install" men
- Fixed two unused files from "maps/West Point, KY".
- Fixed smashed StepVanMail using the StepVan template instead of StepVanMail (which didn't exist).
- Fixed upgraded doorframes blocking movement.
- Fixed weapon models without a "world" attachment not being oriented the way they used to be when on the ground. This is why things like the Club Hammer were standing on end.
- Fixed missing "world" attachments on several weapon models.
- Fixed some multi-hit sandbox problems in which some weapons would not multihit.
- Fixed TrailerCover missing from container distributions.
- Fixed Trailer-TrailerTrunk missing from container distributions.
 
MODDING

- Allow modders to add new vehicle zones to the global VehicleZoneDefinition table.
 Previously, only the game's zone names and types were allowed.
 This should work for any vehicle zone not called TestVehicles or containing TrafficJam.
- Added support for loading animations from a mod's media/anims_X directory (and subdirectories of that). It should handle activating and deactivating mods.
 
- Global ModData
Registers moddata tables with a given String key.
When Global Moddata is initialised during world loading it triggers the event "OnInitGlobalModData" with parameter: boolean isNewGame.
LuaTable ModData.create(String key) creates and returns the table with given key, returns null if the table already exists.
String ModData.create() creates a table with a random UUID key, note: returns the string key.
LuaTable ModData.getOrCreate(String key) gets or creates the table with given key.
LuaTable ModData.get(String key) returns the table with given key or null.
boolean ModData.exists(String key) return true if table with given key exists.
LuaTable ModData.remove(String key) removes the table with given key if exists and returns it or null.
void ModData.add(String key, LuaTable table) store the table with given key (overrides any existing table).
ArrayList getTableNames() returns a list of all registered tables.

Networking

Global ModData is not synced between server and client as depending on what the moddata is being used for this may not be required or even unwanted.
Syncing of data where needed is up to coder/author. There are however two methods for networking:
void ModData.transmit(String key)
- this will attempt to transmit the table with given key, when called on server this is send to all clients, when called on client send to server. (see note on receiving moddata below)
void ModData.request(String key)
- client only, this sends a request to server to send back the table with given key to this client.
When the server or the client receives a moddata packet it is not automatically added to the local register.
Instead the packet is read and the event "OnReceiveGlobalModData" is triggered, the String key and LuaTable table are passed as arguments.
NOTE: the table argument can be 'false' when moddata packet replied to a ModData.request.
The coder/author can then decide to parse, register or keep it as temporary lua table only etc.

- Fixed issues with setting appropriate texture flags when loading mod texture packs.
    - World textures were missing the flag to create mipmaps, resulting in "sparkly" textures when zoomed out.
    - Floor textures were using compression, resulting in visual artifacts sometimes.
    - UI textures were using compression and "mag linear" filtering instead of "mag nearest" filtering.
    - When a mod texture-pack name ends with ".floor", compression is turned off.
    - For texture packs containing UI textures and/or item textures, the mod.info file should add "type=ui" to pack= lines, like this:
    pack=MyPackFile 
    type=ui

- Allow vehicle scripts to override the "model" without a name.
 Previously, "model XYZ" would override a previously-declared "model XYZ", but "model" alone wouldn't override "model".
 
- Allow mods to define custom sandbox options.
 Each file called media/sandbox-options.txt that exists is loaded before Lua files are loaded.
 
- Allow mods to define custom perks (Skills ingame).
 Each file called media/perks.txt that exists is loaded before scripts and Lua files are loaded.
 New perks and perk categories can be defined.
 This required removing the Perks enum.  Now Perks is a class containing static instances of Perk.
 So Perks.Strength is now the Strength perk itself instead of an enum value.
 The Lua Perks table contains the predefined perks and also any custom perks.
 Fortunately, these changes didn't require any changes to Lua files. 

- Added textureShadow property to vehicle scripts to allow overriding the shadow texture.
 For example, write "textureShadow = schoolbag_spiffo," without quotes.

- recipe.Prop1 and recipe.Prop2 can specify a source item to display in the player's hand.
 For example, Prop1:Source=2 will use either the Saw or GardenSaw model:
 
    recipe Saw Logs
    {
       Log,
       keep Saw/GardenSaw,
       Prop1:Source=2,
       Prop2:Log,
    }
 The Log model could also be specified as Prop2:Source=1.

- Vehicle windows will have color from the textureLights texture applied. This was added for the boat mod. Call BaseVehicle.setWindowLightsOn(true|false) to control this.  This setting isn't saved, or synced in multiplayer.

- Vehicle-shadow size and position may be set using the shadowExtents and shadowOffset properties in vehicle scripts. These can be edited in the vehicle editor, under the Chassis section.

- Fixed "Mod: XYZ" in item tooltips for mod items always displaying the name of the last mod loaded.
- Added Tooltip.ModName debug option to control displaying "Mod: XYZ" in item tooltips for mod items.
 This could be changed to a Display option if wanted (translations needed though).
- Added GameTime helicopter-related methods for mods:
 int getHelicopterDay()
 setHelicopterDay(int day)
 
 int getHelicopterStartHour()
 setHelicopterStartHour(int hour) // 0-24
 int getHelicopterEndHour()
 setHelicopterEndHour(int hour) // 0-24
 
TECHNICAL

- Optimized game variable look-ups.
  - AnimCondition no longer repeatedly searches for the same variable by name.
  - Instead, it creates an AnimationVariableHandle and re-uses it.
- GameProfiler.invokeAndMeasure now check whether or not the recorder is running, and avoid capturing a new Lambda

- Performance improvement. Added an early-out to updateTwistBone
  - If the current twist is <1 degree, the function aborts.

- Savegame compression optimization from Turbo

- Refactored and tidied up WorldDictionary.
- Server now sends the WorldDictionary data to clients when connecting.
- Client now only saves WorldDictionaryReadable.lua in game folder.
- WorldDictionary now respects Core.noSave.
- World loading should now abort correctly if any problems are found with the dictionary.
- Added method getModID(), getModName() and isVanilla() to InventoryItem.
- Added the mod name which added the item, and optionally any overrides, to item tooltip.

- Performance improvements to BoneTransform calculations for a 2x boost to animation system.
 
- Fog optimization

- Memory optimization: placed IsoGridSquare.collideMatrix, IsoGridSquare.pathMatrix and IsoGridSquare.visionMatrix arrays to 32 bit integer and wrote bit access functions for those.

- Refactored IsoRegion system
 including optimized region calculations and fixes for a bunch of things that could cause bugs.
- Added new IsoRegion debugger based of ZombiePopulationWindow
 (can build via debugger now for quick testing).

- Added IsoRegionLogger, logs can be viewed via debugger.
- WorldDictionary -> disabled logging of missing object ID.
- Colors.java -> added GetColorFromIndex, GetColorsCount.
- Added Character.Debug.Render.Vision option to display the player's vision cone and see-nearby-characters radius.

- Use the proper distance instead of Manhattan distance in IsoPlayer.updateLOS().
- Fixed IsoGameCharacter.updateSeenVisibility() not handling the see-nearby-characters radius, resulting in zombies behind the player (or nearby but outside the vision cone) not becoming visible when they should

- Don't use shared animations on the nearest 20 zombies, to avoid foot-sliding when they're lunging. IsoWorld.sceneCullZombies() already sorts zombies by visibility and distance, so it is used to set a flag on zombies that shouldn't use shared animations.
 
- Removed IsoPlayer.m_moveDelta because IsoGameCharacter.m_moveDelta already exists.  The value is always 1.0 in any case

Wow, with the cool little LCD displays for radios and TVs I wish we had a UI overhaul for these.
Something along the lines of having a low poly radio/tv model open in a new window instead of the current UI, with usable knobs and controls.

And then, suddenly, fourteen days had rolled around once more…

41.51 IWBUMS BETA RELEASE
41.51 is pretty much cooked at this point, and the past few days we have been primarily addressing any potential incompatibilities on different / more elderly operating systems. We intend to release this early next week.
The latest changelist for 41.51 can be found here.

Some items of note:

As previously mentioned, 41.51 contains significant optimizations to our save game system. As such any saved games played in 41.50 will NOT be operational or loadable.
 
A separate Steam beta containing the previous 41.50 build will be provided so that you can continue and finish your current game.
Similarly, in a changelist as big as this some mods WILL become incompatible – especially those dealing with loot distribution.
 
We have kept the PZ Discord modding channels informed of the primary forthcoming change, but there will inevitably be a period of waiting before some of your favourite mods (and certainly mod packs) are fully operational again.
 
Again, if you enjoy playing modded PZ then the 41.50 beta will still be there for you to use in the meantime.
 
If you’re a modder who would like further information on what’s changing then please click through to this thread on our forum, where mapper extraordinaire TheCommander has also made a very handy forum post and easily understood infographic.
 
Please be patient with all the community’s modder crew while they find the time to update their/our beloved mods!

MP STRIKE FORCE
As discussed previously we are now updating on all things MP every month – for the reasoning behind that decision please click on through.
And so, here’s a run-down of what Yuri and Andrei have been up to over the past few weeks, followed up by a nice little vid that Yuri made for us.
First of all, we added FPS data to our statistics. Servers will now collect FPS data from each client and collect it their statistical data. Seeing as the introduction of local ownership may lead to performance degradation on clients, knowing client FPS will help us to improve performance and as such we can use this tool in load testing. We then spent some time investigating zombie desync. We noticed that our zeds were pausing after they changed ownership between clients. As such we’ve made a fresh implementation of how zombie behaviour syncs. Right now the zombies will continue moving to the target and restore their state on a new client after changing ownership. What’s currently in the build is an initial implementation – we’re going to test how it works before developing it further. We implemented ‘get up’ sync for zombies. This bug could lead to zombies that were laying down on one client, but standing upright on another. We synced zombie falling. Zombies in local ownership now calculate the position and rotation of their fall point, and the client sends this information in the hitCharacter packet. Now all clients will show the same falling anim, and desync where zeds dropped in different places for different places is avoided. This issue also led to players seeming to finish off invisible zombies while you were playing. We had a long think about how we can improve a fight between a zombie and more than one player. A primary issue was how a zombie should react to hits from other players, as often ownership change can lead to desync. We had the idea that zombies should react to hits from their target player, but hits from other players would only lead to splashes of blood and a decrease of their health without a change in ownership. We’ve made an initial implementation of this, but it doesn’t seem to be a full solution yet – as such we will debug it, and potentially think of ways to improve or replace the system. We’ve spent some time updating our tools, specifically the fake clients we use to simulate a full and active server. Now clients can process zombie AI, we needed to simulate the same in our fake clients. This will help no end in our future testing and edge-case scenario simulation.  
 
NOISEWORKS
Tomorrow (barring minor fixes) is the last day we have booked in for work with Noiseworks on their PZ Sound Revolution – although we are also making plans for a ‘Round 2’ to further improve the PZ soundscape, put some more work into the implementation of the procedural music system and respond to the feedback of the PZ community once it’s been released out into the wild.
 
As such the Noiseworks build shouldn’t be *too* far behind the release of 41.51 into the public IWBUMS beta.
 
The primary final polish that’s been put into Noiseworks over the past week or so has been on vehicles, music selection and general mix balance and bug fixing. Vehicles, especially, needed a little more love as gear changes / RPM and how the new sounds interacted with the existing PZ framework needed a fair bit of love.
 
The vehicles are now 10x better than the angry lawnmowers currently in Build 41, though we intend to come back to them in Noiseworks Round 2 when we have more time to make some code-side improvements to help them out.
 
Here’s a quick video of what they’re sounding like at the moment.
 
(Please note there will be improvements to zombie collision thuds, car door and trunk noises before we release!)
 
 
Something else we intend to release with the Noiseworks build are the 3D items that Rockstar Mark and RJ have been working with, but that’s not 100% at the moment as they’re working out the best ways to scale/rotate items in their export process. This is the way that a box of jars currently appears in-game, which isn’t… ideal?
 

  VCRS
We want to shake up the current ‘spend the first week watching TV’ meta, while also introducing some new and typically 90s loot, and as such Turbo has been working on the PZ entertainment systems.
 
This will be a simplified media playability version of the Devices branch that Turbo has had as a side project for a long time now, and will include retail CDs and VHS tapes – with common, rare and exceptional spawn changes depending on the recording. Clearly, some of these will also be the shows shown on the television with XP and skill bonuses. There will also be unique home VHS tapes, which will either be shows recorded by the people of the area or camcorder recordings, that have a 1 in 5 chance to attempt to spawn instead of a blank tapes.
Clearly all this will be textual, just as the current TV and radio channels are, but we hope it’ll be a nice way of adding some more flavour to the world. There will be lots of new movies, TV shows and general new writing content.
 
The ability to record material will not be in the build however, and will have to wait until Turbo’s fully fledged Devices side project (which includes computers and security systems) comes to fruition.
 
Here’s a quick video of its current implementation, along with the ways that recordings can impact on your player’s skills and moodles if we so choose.
 
PLEASE NOTE this won’t be how it ends up in the game proper. Being terrified by a horror movie to such an extent that it would leave you vulnerable to the zeds probably wouldn’t be much fun – so please consider WIP!
 

LOUISVILLE
Work on our version of Louisville continues, which as discussed in previous blogs is now visible in the mid-distance.
 
This week we won’t be showing any new chunks of the map, as our map team continue to be quite protective of their giant sprawling baby, but maybe we can have a quick look at some of the new brands and locations that the more urban environment will bring.
 

  This week’s featured image from Rexiem. A changelist of all IWBUMS patches since the 41 beta was released can be found here. 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 you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too!

Awesome cant wait for the next IWBUMS update.
 
 
The vehicle sounds are very nice even those sirens are very nice cant wait for the noise works to get added. 
 
 
 
 

Awesome cant wait for the next IWBUMS update.
 
 
The vehicle sounds are very nice even those sirens are very nice cant wait for the noise works to get added. 
 
 
 
 

This is a good idea since I have wanted some better loot on zombies with more better loot items that would make it feel more rewarding.
 
 
 
Military zombies
 
Military backpacks should have some realistic loot like some ammo , higher end guns such as an assault rifles like the M16 and M14. They could add some handguns as well.
 
 
Student zombies
 
Other items for those backpacks like lunch boxes with random amounts of food and snacks to have even some cookies as well.

Awesome, man! I do hope something similar to this makes it in when they start looking at those looting changes.

Hello! From what I've read, I understand that they are actually working on more specialized loot tables for the next versions, so hopefully something like what you suggest will happen for backpacks too. More organized and thematic loot will definitely add immersion to the game and make looting more comfortable.
 
This is the link for what's coming next update https://pastebin.com/4w9SazYT 
It doesn't mention backpacks specifically but I'd guess they are aiming for that as well eventually

This is a good idea since I have wanted some better loot on zombies with more better loot items that would make it feel more rewarding.
 
 
 
Military zombies
 
Military backpacks should have some realistic loot like some ammo , higher end guns such as an assault rifles like the M16 and M14. They could add some handguns as well.
 
 
Student zombies
 
Other items for those backpacks like lunch boxes with random amounts of food and snacks to have even some cookies as well.

Hello, Zomboid players! I have a small immersion qol suggestion that I think would be enjoyable and could also be reasonably balanced. Right now in-game, there's various zombies that can spawn with backpacks (satchels, school bags, duffel bags, hiking bags, and big backpacks), which are quite a nice find, but it's always bothered me how few of these backpacks spawn with anything of note in them! It makes it difficult to imagine what it was used for by its unfortunate owner before zombification. 
 
Therefore my suggestion is as follows: More backpacks should have unique loot tables based on the former occupation of their zombified owner.
 
Below are a few sections describing different zombie types that can spawn with backpacks and my suggestions for goodies or junk that should be able to spawn in their bag.
 
Office Worker Zombies (Spawn with satchels or duffel bags): These poor folks were the white collar backbone of rural Kentucky before the Knox event, so it seems only natural they should carry some office supplies in their bag, along with some occasionally more interesting loot...
 
Common Loot Items
Pencils and pens Glue, scissors, rubber bands, adhesive tape Sheets of paper and notebooks Books, magazines, newspapers Rare Loot Items
A bottle of bourbon (for those weeks when your Friday feels like a Monday) A random skill book of beginner or intermediate level (Maybe they had a hobby at home!) Coffee (It might be their turn to fill the pot at work)  
Hiker Zombies (Spawn with hiking bags): Sometimes you spot these unfortunate campers outside of the more urban areas of the map. While I know their stories usually spawn with some food items, I think a hiker with a backpack should carry some of their own nonperishable snacks and maybe a few other useful items for roughing it. Let's gather around the campfire and groan our zombie song...
 
Common Loot Items
Peanuts, sunflower seeds, or beef jerky (I find it hard to believe a hiker with their own backpack wouldn't have some dry snacks!) Water Bottle Tent pegs Notched wooden plank, lighter, or matches Sturdy sticks A paperclip (Dean said to always carry one!) Kettle Tea bags Rare Loot Items
A copy of "The Herbalist"  A saw Some medicinal herbs  
Student Zombies (Spawn with satchels or school bags): Kentucky's graduating class of '93 really did have it rough. I imagine students would carry lots of various knick knacks, many of which aren't immediately useful, similar to what you can find in a school locker.
 
Common Loot Items
Pencils and erasers Glue, scissors, adhesive tape Sheets of paper, notebooks, or a journal Books, magazines, comic books Baseball, basketball, football, golf ball, or tennis ball Earbuds, headphones, CD player, or video game Rare Loot Items
A baseball bat, hockey stick, tennis racket, or golf club Chocolate, chips, or another nonperishable snack A lunchbox with some random food items (suggested by Tails)  
Bandit Zombies (Spawn with large backpacks): These zombies can be spotted in rare road events after more time has passed since the Knox Event. They would be much worse news if they hadn't gotten themselves infected. A former bandit should carry some ammunition and/or various survival items.
 
Common Loot Items
Ammunition boxes: .308, 5.56, or shotgun shells Maps Some canned nonperishable food and/or TV dinners Water Bottle or Alcoholic Beverage Cigarettes Lighter or matches Flashlight or Hand Torch Batteries Rare Loot Items
Tactical Walkie Talkie Molotov Cocktail  
McCoy Lumber Workers (Spawn with satchels): These guys are a lot more common now that McCoy's is less safe. Since they were hardworking lumberjacks before the infection, their satchels could carry some woodworking gear.
 
Common Loot Items
Wood Glue Saw Box of Nails Rope Safety Glasses Rare Loot Items
A spare Hand Axe A bottle of Beer or Bourbon  
Military Zombies (Spawn with Military Backpacks): These men and women died for their country, but it'd be a shame to let Uncle Sam's gear go to waste! Military zombies with backpacks should carry some of the most valuable loot for someone with a character focused on firearms. (suggested by Tails)
 
Common Loot Items
Ammunition Boxes: 5.56 Various weapon attachments Hunting Knife Spare M16 magazines Spare M14 magazines First Aid Kit US Army Walkie Talkie Rare Loot Items (These should probably spawn attached/holstered to the zombie rather than in the backpack, but would still be nice to see)
M16 Rifle or M14 Rifle An M9, M1911, or D-E pistol  
I could probably go on and on, but I think that's a good place to stop to let curious eyes judge my suggestion. Let me know what you think about the idea, and feel free to suggest some changes of your own if I forgot a type of backpack zombie.

- Reduced number of hunting knives stuck in zombies.
 
Not sure if this is needed, they are very rare now anyway. In my latest run I think I maybe found 6 hunting knives in close to 1500 zombies killed.
 
It would be cool if the number of better weapons on zombies increased at least slightly with time passed.
 

Well, two weeks takes ages to get through right? Here we are with the first fortnightly Thursdoid which hopefully contains enough morsels to keep you satiated.
 
For details on what’s happening with MP, and why we’ve moved to blogs every two weeks for the foreseeable future, please check out our MP Status Update from last time.
IWBUMS 41.51
As we discussed last time, we have six months worth of polish, changes, additions and fixes waiting to go into the IWBUMS Build 41 Public beta that are completely unrelated to the parallel MP work.
In this past two weeks, then, we have removed/disabled its WIP multiplayer components, and are now preparing to release this as a beta update.
 
The changelist is pretty vast, and can be found here if you are interested.
 
Sometimes in the past when we have released builds with lengthy gestation times they have been buggier than we’d have otherwise liked, which is why we are putting this through a lot of testing – and are currently opening it out to an expanded pool of internal testers over the coming weekend. Please note that when we talk about holding this build back for testing, it’s not in the same league, stadium or planet as the testing for the MP overhaul, we just have to do our due diligence after all the talk of being careful about what we release not to completely break the current b41 build by hurrying to get going with the builds again.
 
This new version also includes some fairly foundational changes like updates to the Java and LWJGL we are using, that will improve a legion of compatibility issues we’ve often come up against, and many optimizations.
 
Likewise there is a big savegame file size optimization going into this version, which will mean that your current savegame will NOT be compatible. But, clearly, fret not – the current 41.50 version will remain available to you, and step-by-step savegame transfer instructions will be provided should they be required.
NOISEWORKS SOUND UPGRADE
The Noiseworks full soundscape upgrade has just gone into its first round of testing, and we’ve collated a full list of bugs and missing / wrongly wired sounds back over to them.
 
Primary issues include some rethinking of how we’re doing car noise due to some engine sound issues, lots of stuff that needs an adjustment in how its rigged, and a few sounds that don’t entirely fit the action on-screen. We’re making good headway with all this, but it’s probably best to expect its appearance in 41.52.
 
A video, and then a few tester quotes.
 
 
 
 
“The ambient sounds of the wildlife is amazing. I found myself a few times just listening to it all. hearing the zombies shuffle outside a building you are in can put you on edge, but you think you have time until that first bang on a door or window which will make you jump. And the rain sounds changing as it intensifies is amazing, you feel an urgency to immediately seek shelter, you know it’s about to get bad outside.”
 
“The game feels a lot more… full (?) with all the noises. I noticed it had tactical advantages too, as I heard the footsteps of a bunch of zombies around a corner before I got there. That was super cool.”
 
“WOW the UI makes sounds now??? Did not expect that it is awesome. Also the tweaks to the This is How You Died screen for loading into the world and all are incredible.”
 
“I haven’t felt suspense like that while playing for a long time, the jump-scares really get you as well. The new sounds give it a completely new, different experience imo, like just the eerie silence when you walk into a house all of a sudden, instantly makes you put your guard up and listen out.”
3D ITEMS
Also for likely inclusion in 41.52 are the 3D items that ‘Rockstar Mark’ has provided – which will mean that we no longer will have to use inventory icons for items left on the floor.
 
We still have to make sure these don’t dampen performance when used in extravagance, but they are already paying dividends in terms of the ‘zed stories’ we tell in abandoned houses – the frat boy zombies will have real-looking beer and chips on the floor now, while the ‘sex zombies’ we suggest were having rumpy pumpy will have real-looking clothes strewn on the floor around the bed.
 
This has also allowed for RJ to put in an extension of the world-building ‘Marie Celeste’ nature of various homes within the Knox Event – putting items on tables to suggest what was happening (or about to happen) in the build up to disaster striking.
Someone here, for example, was about to bake a cake.
This will be expanded on heavily in future, with our hopes that all items present on shelves will represent the actual items. This is a long term goal however.
 
In terms of gameplay the 3d items will bring, we do plan however in the more immediate future to make tables into containers, which allow items to be placed on them and be visible at a glance. This will surely be a welcome feature for those packrats looking for some extra storage space.
 
Also, Mark just sent us these, which should much better allow us and those like us to simulate our bedroom floors within the game with more accuracy.
MAP WORK
As discussed last week we are bumping the urban map expansion, our PZ version of Louisville, up the running order of releases – though it’s still too far off to pin down in any particular version.
 
This week Jamie (Xeonyx) has been on ‘Operation Building Heighten’ – as we have increasingly become aware that we need to reinforce how verticality in the city’s innermost districts will be a big part of the feeling of difference between it and our existing rural areas.
 
We have an upper limit of seven storeys and a rooftop in PZ, which is an unavoidable performance constraint (and also something of a balance issue even if we one day surmounted it) but it should still feel urban, new and different to what’s currently available. Here’s some of Jamie’s building heightening in action:
Kukrapok/Ayrton meanwhile continues with his own mission to bring more realistic curved roads and road patterns to both the existing and new areas of the PZ map.
There’ll also clearly be loads of new tiles and decorations that come with the map update and, while the blog writer doesn’t find it hugely exciting, I am reliably informed that the ability to spruce up your bases with lovely new vegetation will be of encouragement to some.
NEXT TIME
As discussed in our last blog, when we return for our next dev update we will get the latest from Yuri and Andrei on MP, who have now an entire month to do deep dives into their work without us poking them with a stick every week for something to show the world – as well as all the SP latest similar to that discussed above.
 
In the interim we will also put up the next Mod Spotlight from Pat_Bren, who this month will be talking to none other than the elusive Snake. Thanks all for reading!
 
This week’s featured image from KPKPlays. A changelist of all IWBUMS patches since the 41 beta was released can be found here. 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 you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too! Our thanks to all bratty stepsisters out there for refusing to relinquish their gaming PC!

1141. Allowing  rain water to wash the blood off the car naturally.

1141. Allowing  rain water to wash the blood off the car naturally.

1141. Allowing  rain water to wash the blood off the car naturally.

1139. Washing cars should prioritize using tainted water if available in inventory or bags on the player. Currently if I have a water bottle with clean water in main inventory and buckets with tainted water in backpack, the character uses clean water from the water bottle.

THE BAD NEWS This week we have been playing the MP build extensively, to try and get a clearer and more solid idea how much work would be required to get it into a state we’d be comfortable releasing, and have increasingly become aware that it’s not good enough. We have been too optimistic, and for that we are extremely sorry.
 
Advances have been made, and the quality of where it is going is clear from our many tester testimonials and gameplay sessions, but since the (vital) transitions to zombies on the client it is not even close to the quality that the game or our players deserve, even for a beta. Furthermore, the deeper we’ve looked into it, the more systemic issues deep down have reared their heads.
It needs more time in the oven. We simply cannot release it half-baked. You don’t have to look far in gaming to see what can happen when you do.
 
We recognise that (especially in the past two weeks) we have been making cautiously optimistic noises – but put simply the more we played, the more we became aware of deep-rooted issues that it would be near-impossible to fix in a ‘live service’ situation. 
 
Project Zomboid has every chance of being extremely popular when we release MP – it’s something that we’ve read from people everywhere, and increasingly something we’ve quietly believed ourselves. As we’ve said multiple times in the past, the multiplayer release of 41 is by far the most important build in Zomboid’s history, and if we don’t stick that landing it would be bad.
 
As it stands the MP build we’re playing internally isn’t robust enough to cope with potentially huge floodgates being opened upon it. Support requests, tech queries and bug reports would simply drown us – and the player and community experience would be poor in the absolute extreme. 
 
We had a big meeting with General Arcade, and went through everything that could (and should) still be done to make PZ a MP game that could both stand the test of time, and a huge launch day. Something that would keep multiplayer servers populated and not result in disappointment for our community that have been so patient for so long.
 
This will likely be a much longer wait than we’ve been hoping, and particularly in light of the last two weeks of misguided hopefulness over improvements that while exciting, in the cold hard light of day still are far short of what we would dare release. 
 
We have long shied away from giving any form of ETA, but in the interest of ensuring we are not stringing anyone along with vague notions of a timescale Thursdoid after Thursdoid, we have agreed with our MP team that anything up to six months should be the ballpark we’re now aiming for when it comes to getting a Build 41 MP release into player hands to a level of quality we’ll be confident it won’t blow up in everyone’s faces. 
 
We know this will be of disappointment for many — and we’ll likely receive some flak for this decision — which is understandable, especially given the noises we’ve been making in the Thursdoids recently. 
 
But we ask those that are upset by this news please to bear in mind other recent releases that people were begging for, and getting increasingly hyper-frustrated at the frequent delays — only to finally have it in their hands, as they facepalmed and asked themselves why the hell this wasn’t held back further??
 
That’s what we’re doing — because we’re lucky enough to be in a position we’re able to do that, both financially, as well as without marketing spends or boardroom pressure forcing our hand, and we are committed to the fact that while we feel the pressure from the community’s frustrations at the wait as well as our own desire for it to be ‘done’, we will not allow that to blind us to putting something out that will end badly for both us and our community that want to see the game grow. We may get a bloody nose for delaying it further and for this long, but we’ll take that gladly to ensure that doesn’t instead happen on release–as that’s a bloody nose we might not recover from.
 
This has been an immensely difficult week for us — people sometimes forget that we want this build out there too. It’s not just a game to us but our daily lives, and the march toward a multiplayer release — the moment we’ve desired to see for so long vanishing away months into the distance, and the prospect of continuing that climb for another six months is heartbreaking to us. 
 
Nonetheless, it’s 100% the right call — we will not waver, and when all is said and done and multiplayer has been out for months and everyone is playing it, we promise everyone — ourselves and our community — will be glad we made this call, instead of releasing in a soon forgotten whimper. 
 
We may take our time, but we get the job done in the end. Hopefully the almost unanimously positive reception to the long awaited animation update proved that to be the case. I honestly believe we wouldn’t be where we are today if we weren’t just as strict back then on what we put out, when everyone was chomping at the bit to play it, bugs and all, and couldn’t fathom why we were being so careful and protective for such a long time. Now people have had it for a long while, no one would want to go back in time and have us retroactively release the anim build 6 months earlier than we felt comfortable doing so, and risk it crashing like a lead balloon and damaging the game’s reputation and future. Our caution led to the most success Zomboid has ever enjoyed. We know the same will be true about multiplayer when people are finally playing it.
 
We’ve discussed with GA about getting two more internal QA engineers the MP team will have direct access to day to day while working, to allow them to more quickly diagnose and test stuff with more players outside our TIS internal tests. 
 
They are also on the lookout for additional resources for the coding team to speed things up. Though it’s worth pointing out that this will require some significant time to learn the codebase and get up to speed for any new developer, which is why it was never a practical solution before our decision to commit to this longer delay with which to capitalize on another coder. 
 
We hope with the changes we make, along with many organizational changes to improve our internal workflow with GA, we can deliver something sooner, and will of course continue looking for new avenues to speed things up — but for all intents and purposes we’re committing to this period of delay to make sure it is definitely achievable and no one should be under any illusions of expecting it sooner. 
 
 
THE GOOD NEWS
It’s not all bad news however. This longer and more defined schedule of getting MP up to scratch makes it clear that we can’t just continue this release drought in the meantime. 
 
Therefore we are going to start releasing IWBUMs builds with new content in the interim, rather than holding back until the MP build is complete as was our original plan.  
 
We will be removing MP elements from the current trunk code that would interfere with the single player game, and releasing a six month backlog of changes, fixes, optimization and upgrades waiting to go into the game. LWJGL 3 and java 15 upgrades in particular that will improve performance and compatibility, not least a new fancy garbage collector we’ve never had the opportunity to use before that should all but eliminate any periodic pauses that have plagued our game in the past.
 
After this, we will be starting to release additional content builds to tide the community over in the wait. We have to be somewhat careful on the style of content we add, so as to not make the MP work more complicated and hold it back further, but stuff you should be able to look forward to in the coming months include:
 
Noiseworks sound overhaul. Noiseworks are due to provide the first complete version of their ‘round 1’ additions to the game, replacing all sounds in the game, for testing and feedback from TIS. Those keeping up with the Thursdoids will have a good idea of what this will bring. After some testing, and adjusting sounds to tester and community feedback, we’ll be getting this out to you as soon as we can. Noiseworks will then be continuing with adding additional sounds, and a procedural music system, which will bring even more atmosphere to the game.
  Map updates. We’re pushing toward a release of Louisville, which nears completion outside some zoning work and bug-fixing. It’s unclear how much time remains to polish this up to releasable standard, but it seems very likely it will drop before multiplayer. Non-90 degree roads with curves, improvements to the existing map, and even perhaps beyond our original scope of the map now our mapping team has grown.
  Several other really cool gameplay features. We’ll talk about them in the coming Thursdoids when we can feel confident they will drop in the interim period.

  THURSDOIDS
Speaking of Thursdoids, a primary piece of feedback we’ve had from the MP team has been the detrimental effect that the weekly cycle of blog updates on MP progress has had on the development process. 
 
A weekly development sprint, where results are desired to show off or talk about makes it much harder to work on longer term improvements. To be honest this is not the first time this has been brought up or felt by the TIS team, the weekly blogs have always stacked a lot of pressure on our shoulders, only ever being 7 days away. But we are both immensely proud of our weekly blogs, and have found them to be a huge part of keeping our community content and informed. Truth be told, we have also been somewhat nervous that reducing their frequency suddenly may be perceived by our community as some kind of winding down, rather than something that would improve development in any way, and so have long been resistant to change.
 
However, in the interest of aiding the MP team in having the time to do longer and less interrupted work on features without the pressure to provide small incremental improvements that clearly haven’t been enough to make the leaps to release that are needed–we are going to make the following changes to how we release Thursdoids over the coming six month period.
 
We will be doing bi-weekly Thursdoids (that’s every two weeks). These will likely be more content-packed, and have more time spent writing them. They will hopefully provide much more bang for your buck and less likely to have us repeating ourselves.
  We’re only going to focus on multiplayer development every other Thursdoid, allowing the team to have a solid month to make longer term, deeper and more substantial improvements without worrying about us coming knocking for stuff to show or test. The alternate Thursdoid will focus on the single-player interim updates, features and fixes coming in the shorter term. That all said if we do have cool MP stuff to talk about, we’ll be sure to let you know regardless of what week it falls on.
  We’ll see how these Thursdoids go down over the coming months, and will decide based on that what to do once multiplayer releases whether to go back to weekly Thursdoids or to carry on with bi-weekly.
 
Thanks for reading, and apologies again for the major misstep in our recent enthusiasm. While we did state it was ‘cautious optimism’, we regret letting short term improvements and perhaps a bit of wishful thinking colour our blog updates. Sometimes you just get lost in the weeds and an uptick one week is deceptive to how much work really remains. We hope the firmer date will give solace to those who check week after week to frustration, who are largely only interested in multiplayer, that they can safely put our game aside for a while, and when to start looking again. And to everyone else, we hope getting fresh content again will help the time pass that little bit quicker.

 
Much love
 
The Indie Stone