Rathlord

Auld Lang Zyne Last day of 2020, last blog of 2020. It’s a shortish one, but hopefully a good one coming after three evening’s worth of bug-chasing on an internal Build 41 MP server. Over our own Western variant on Christmas Yuri and Andrei (who are Russian and therefore celebrate winter festivities next week) have made sure that the Multiplayer Strike Force has not fallen silent. They’ve been syncing various states that weren’t in alignment, sorting out instances of player de-sync, working out the best way to judge zombie shamble speed over the server/client, adding debug charts and tables, fixing zombie hearing in MP, sorting out gunplay and various other necessary things. Meanwhile a big pile of bug reports and videos have been stacking up from three nights of testing for the team to tackle in the New Year – none of them looking like they’re of ‘omg hideous delay’ stature, but still certainly enough for us all to chew through once the team has fully returned to their keyboards. Here are a few tester reports detailing their overall experience, as that’s probably the best way to let you know how it’s feeling currently. “There are still various bumps, glitches and issues to fix before this could be classed as stable enough for public tests in my opinion, but as a whole so far the progress is unreal. The game boots up on a click and loading times are much quicker, the animations run super smooth and the zombie hordes move scarily good too.“ “Spotting your dead self in a crowd is now much harder but fun to do, building with others is a blast and there seems to have been an eradication of a lot of problems 40 currently has. One thing I do find really amazing to see are the different variations in style on other players, you can really see everyone’s individuality for the character they are portraying and playing as.” “Overall it does still need a bit more time to work out the kinks though.” “Finally got some time to try the multiplayer, it felt pretty good. The biggest issues I had were that sometimes the zombies would keep moving toward me for a second or so after they had “died” and then snap back to the dead position suddenly. I saw clothes disappear and then quickly reappear a couple of times when killing a Z.“ “Also at one point I was moving a large group of zombies and managed to break LoS, when I reappeared they were still moving towards my current position, but then it seemed like the server said ‘oh wait we lost him’ and they all turned and moved towards where they should have lost me instead. Overall though looking good!“ “There’s definitely enough significant issues that show me it’s not in the right shape for an immediate ‘right now‘ beta release, especially in situations involving multiple players in proximity to each other.” “BUT it’s shocking smooth, my expectations were exceeded, and gameplay is strong. Also I’ve never experienced such quick and painless server logins.” There you go then. TLDR is that the test sessions went really well, people had fun and it’s clear that all this effort has been worth it, but also that we’ve got a busy (exciting) time ahead of us when 2021 rolls around. We promise we’ll be getting you all in as soon as the time is right, both for initial community megatest sessions (player numbers in these initial testing sessions has been relatively small) and then of course the wider 41 public beta release. Have a good new year all, and see you on the other side! This week’s Murder Shack from Injen. 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!

Greetings survivors! You're likely here because you're having an issue with the game, so let's cut right to the chase and get that fixed for you! You have three options for getting help with your technical issues, and you can pick whichever one suits you: 1) Follow some of the steps later in this post to diagnose/fix your issue. This fixes more than 90% of people's problems so we highly recommend checking here first! 2) Ask a question here on the forums for help from fellow players (see below for some tips on making a good post). 3) Contact us directly and we'll work with you to fix your problem. This may be a little slower than the other options, but we try to get to every request. Click here to send us a message and see below for some tips on how to ask for help! How To Ask For Help Whether you're asking for help here or contacting us directly it's important to include a few details to ensure we can help you out as easily and quickly as possible. Please always include the following details: What your issue is (be specific: don't say 'it doesn't work' or 'it crashes'. Tell us how far it gets, what happens when it crashes, etc.) What operating system you're using (Windows 10, OS X 10.12, Ubuntu Mate, etc) If possible, include the console file. Do this by playing/launching the game until you have the problem. Then close the game, and go to C:/Users/YourUserName/Zomboid (for Windows) and find the console.txt file. You can either upload the file, or copy and paste the text to something like pastebin.com and share the link from the paste. What version of the game you're playing. Whether it's the current release or one of the testing branches is important. If you don't know, that means you probably have the current release. What steps you've taken to try to fix it on your own, if any. Most Common Issues and Solutions Check here first for the most common problems players have and how to fix them! Problem: Game Crashes On Start Solution: Update your computer's graphics drivers. Do this by visiting your graphics card manufacturer's website, and once your drivers are up to date restart your computer. This fixes the vast majority of crashes. Here are the website links based on who makes your graphics card: ATI/AMD http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx NVIDIA http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us INTEL http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ Problem: Various Issues with Gameplay or Crashing Solution: The next most common problem is with mods. You may not think a mod is the issue, and other people might run the game okay with a particular mod, but always check the game without mods prior to asking for help. Issues with mods and mod compatibility make up another huge portion of the issues people have. Problem: Game Resolution is Too High and Options are Hidden/Off Screen/Gone Solution: Delete your "options.ini" file in \username\Project Zomboid\ folder, or manually edit it and change the resolution to smaller.

What was your name on the server and when were you connected if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks for the feedback Soul Filcher, we super appreciate it and everyone else who showed up!

Hey guys- we've got another multiplayer madness megatest coming up for anyone who'd like to participate! The Spiffospace server is running a brand new IWBUMS build, featuring some exciting new multiplayer zombie performance improvements! We're trying to test out multiplayer stability with this new system, so having as many people on as possible would be great! All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so and having fun! Event begins at roughly 5 PM on December 18th! The main testing point is how zombie movement looks on the server, especially zombies close to you. Zombies farther away may not be as consistent, but we're hoping the closest zombies to you should be more consistent now. KEY GIVEAWAY IS FINISHED! During the event we will check all players active on the server and those will be given codes. You'll want to post in this thread or message Rathlord on Discord to claim your code if you are online for the giveaway! SERVER DETAILS: *Join the IWBUMS testing branch of the game. If you don't know how, follow the instructions here. *Join the official Spiffospace Canada server through the game's server listing. IMPORTANT INFO WE NEED: Please report any buginess, crashes, etc that you find here in this thread. This test is to check on multiplayer stability and general playability of the build. We'd really like to hear how consistent zombie behavior is, especially those closest to you.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and for all the help!

Hey guys- we've got another multiplayer madness megatest for anyone who'd like to participate! The Spiffospace server is running the cutting edge IWBUMS build, released today! We're trying to test out multiplayer stability with the new features (Updated chat and weather among other things!) All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so and having fun! We ESPECIALLY need to hear from you if you have trouble logging on! OFFICIAL SERVER TEST IS NOW OVER. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO MESSAGE RATHLORD ON DISCORD FOR YOUR KEY IF YOU SHOWED UP DURING THE EVENT TIME! SERVER DETAILS: *Join the IWBUMS testing branch of the game. If you don't know how, follow the instructions here. *Join the official Spiffospace Canada server through the game's server listing. IMPORTANT INFO WE NEED: Please report any buginess, crashes, etc that you find here in this thread. This test is to check on multiplayer stability and general playability of the build. We really need to hear from you if you're having trouble joining the server! [To redeem your code, message me (Rathlord) with a screenshot of the Players list (ESC -> Players, while in-game) with your name visible, after the event is over. Discord is preferred (find me in the list on the PZ Discord) or PM me here on the forum.]

Hey guys- we've got another multiplayer madness megatest for anyone who'd like to participate! The Spiffospace server is running the cutting edge IWBUMS build we released today with many improvements across the board for vehicles and general playability. All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so, and it’ll probably be quite a fun escapade. The event is NOW OVER but still feel free to play around on the server and see if you can find any bugs and/or just have fun! No free codes will be handed out beyond the end of the event. Keep an eye out for the next test for more chances to win free codes! SERVER DETAILS: *Join the IWBUMS testing branch of the game. If you don't know how, follow the instructions here. *Join the official Spiffospace server through the game's server listing. IMPORTANT INFO WE NEED: Please report any buginess, crashes, etc that you find here in this thread. This test is to check on multiplayer stability and general playability of the build. Any feedback you guys can leave for us here would be much appreciated!

There's not an error there, is there something more?

Hey guys, specifically for performance-only feedback, can we get people to give this a test and post here: https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23583-project-zomboid-needs-you-yes-you/ Thanks!

We're looking for feedback on performance for this build, if you guys give it a try please post here with the information requested:

Hey guys, with the latest vehicle build we introduced a plethora of changes that should make the game faster almost universally. We'd like to hear from you guys and see how well we did. I can't stress enough how useful this feedback would be for us so we can see how well we did and what we still need to work on. It would be awesome if you guys could just have a stomp around on the newest vehicle build (make sure you got an update from the evening of 3/15 UK time/late afternoon US time). Run and drive around and let us know how it feels, and post your specs and what you see from your framerate here. Steam has a built-in frame counter now! All you have to do to turn it on is go to the Steam menu in the top left, click settings, click "In-Game" from the list on the left, and enable the "In-game FPS counter" from the dropdown menu. Have a look at your fps and let us know that and your system specs (at the least your RAM, Graphics card, and processor) if you can. The perfect feedback would look something like this: Don't forget to include your resolution! Make sure to let us know how it feels compared to previous builds especially. And that's my real feedback from this build- I only drop below 60 when I go to maximum zoom out and drive as fast as I can through a city in a car. The game now has an uncapped framerate option! We highly recommend you use it in this test!! MAKE SURE YOU'RE ON THE VEHICLE BRANCH AS PER INSTRUCTIONS HERE: https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/22436-released-vehicle-tech-test-build/ Edit: Also, please make sure to test without mods. There's known problems with hydrocraft in this build, and mods can also considerably negatively impact your performance, *especially* if they're causing problems.

If anyone can report on their performance, especially driving around, running, etc compared to old builds that'd be really useful for us. Please note that we're tracking an issue with compatibility mode (also turning off zoom in menu). Just uh... don't, for now. It's bad. We're aware of it

At first glance, looks like you have a mod installed that's probably not compatible with brand new build

Can you give us your console output? C:/users/YourUserName/Zomboid/console.txt Upload it to www.pastebin.com and put the link here and I'll have a look. Might just be an installation problem.

Also is this singleplayer or multiplayer?

Whoever is installing the server needs to make sure to opt into the vehicle branch, just like it would be if you were installing the vehicle branch of the game to play on. If it's hosted at a server service, you'll have to contact them. We obviously don't run those services and there's many of them out there, so not really any way for us to know how they handle it :\

@Kim Jong Un If you're trying to run it by clicking "play" in the Steam library can you try running it via the StartServer64.bat file instead and see if that works?

I think they're on the server list and not whitelisted, so you just find them on the list and join.

Edit: Forgot to mention, any constructive criticism welcome. As promised, some terrible poetry. The first is just a freeform poem, no rhyme scheme or rhythm. The shape of the poem and how it sounds are what I focused on. Bonus points if you can guess the subject material; it may not be super obvious from the first reading. Hint is the title. And secondly, we have a proper poem with a rhyme scheme (and even an alliteration scheme). This one is somewhat autobiographical.

Really lovely skies zoey. I love basic nature art, it's the kinda thing I'd put up in my place. On an unrelated note, I've been dipping back into writing again. I might post a poem or two here in a bit.

Next time maybe read my post before insulting me, especially given all of your arguments I'd already replied to in my post, but you didn't bother to read it. I've been around since Pong was the best thing out there. I played Myst on release, the game that inspired the entire adventure genre and arguably most of the video game industry in general. My first console game was the Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt cartridge. You're right, some people always will be stupid. But you know what doesn't make you seem any smarter? Trying to discredit me with personal slurs rather than answer my points. If you actually think I'm wrong, read my post and argue the actual points instead of insulting me based on nothing. Mayhaps you lack the basic reading comprehension for that, but I suggest you start trying. If I see you post a post like this to any member of this forum other than myself, you will find yourself banned. Understand?

I wasn't going to reply to this, but these two lines are honestly just stuck in my brain. What on earth are you actually talking about? If developers believed in their product they wouldn't take the risk of going bankrupt so they wouldn't do EA? How on earth does that make sense? Do you even understand how a business works, much less the game dev industry? You can't make a game without initial investment. You have to pay people- the people working for a company need to eat, have somewhere to live, have transportation, maybe even be able to buy christmas presents for their kids. Then there's business expenses- computers, software licenses, lawyer fees, etc. And of course constant overhead, like office space and supplies. None of that can be paid for by believing in one's product. Most people don't have the capital sitting around to just start a small business, pay a bunch of salaries, and go for a few years without making any money. Thus, businesses need investment. They have a few options. First, to find a publisher. That's what AAA games have done, and many larger "indie" companies. However, if you don't have an established track record, this is essentially impossible. PZ is the first game by TIS as a studio. They could not have gotten a publisher. Second, you can go to a bank and ask for a loan. This is... possible, but requires putting personal assets on the line as collateral. As an individual, that's okay I guess? But as a company with no assets other than personnel, it would be insane to ask one member to put their house or other personal assets on the line for the company. Finally, we have the third option. For most other business, this doesn't exist, but for game companies, you have Early Access. It's a way to pay people's salaries while the game gets built. There are a lot of valid criticisms of EA, and I myself am not a huge fan (to date have purchased or backed 3 EA projects including this one, so far all three have been successes). PZ wouldn't exist without Early Access. Not because the devs don't believe in it, but because that's how businesses work. For someone who throws around a lot of "in this generation" and "back in the day," you have a rather startling lack of understanding of basic business fundamentals. I'm not really trying to be an ass here, I just hate seeing stuff like this from people. Ten other people will see that and without thinking it through at all will leave this thread with the idea that EA exists because devs don't believe in their games, and that's frankly nonsense. Edit: Also, Early Access devs still risk bankruptcy. I don't know what possesses you to think otherwise.

What's really surprising is people who think a couple of posts represent the majority of the community. But I'm sure you, with your 20 posts on the forum, are much more in sync than the devs and people like me who've been around for 5+ years in this community. TL;DR you are not a majority and don't speak for one. Not trying to be a dick, but you are flat out, categorically, objectively wrong.

No big deal, it's just easier for the devs to sort through feedback this way