dnk3912

Build Vehicle 26:
 
[New]
New Vehicle Dashboard - final version from artist mash. Now has indicators to tell you if there's a problem with your vehicle, giving all the information a driver in the 'real world' would have to hand. You can now lock/unlock all doors from a vehicle's radial menu. You can now access pickup's open trunk without a key.  
[Balance]
Did some performances improvement on Bullet calcul. (Please let us know if this has an impact on your game.) Improved the random car crash spawning method. Reduced the number of car keys spawning on the ground.  
[Bug Fix]
Hopefully fixed vehicles being teleported randomly. The car will not try to start if battery is at 0. Fixed some exterior tiles acting as if they were offroad. Fixed some vehicle spawning errors. Fixed some bugs in the scripts. Fixed keys being removed from ignition before the engine stalls. Removed collision from some inappropriate objects.

This is the long awaited final release of build 38, a huge amount of bug fixes to increase the stability and quality of the game, which suffered due to our issues maintaining two public test versions - barring any serious issues, we will be moving on to the vehicle build completely.  This will be the end of having multiple public test branches, we thank everyone for their patience for this difficult build, and we're now onto greater things! 
 
WARNING: Due to necessary fixes to the server, it may not be compatible with previous versions. You can get it working by deleting map_meta.bin and map_zone.bin.
 
GOG version has been uploaded and should be released soon as soon as they are approved.
 
For full 38 feature changelist including what was already released, see here
 
[FEATURE] Bandages created from bloody clothing taken from Zombies, now have a small chance of causing player to become infected, if it has not been properly cleaned before being applied.
[FEATURE] Reimplemented flies buzzing near corpses.  Added flies volume Audio option.
[BALANCE] Clothes are now more likely to be bloody when coming from a zombie.
[BALANCE] Increased places where Hunting Knife can spawn.
[FIX] Removed lowest lighting option due to no performance difference between Low and Lowest.
[FIX] Converted server option WorldItemRemovalExlusionList to WorldItemRemovalList effectively changig it from a whitelist to a blacklist.
[FIX] Added obsolete tag to certain items.
[FIX] Fixed lua error picking up furniture affecting players at random. (Issues 516, 1209, 1219)
[FIX] Fixed VOIP memory usage merge glitch.
[FIX] Fixed eat sound playing when drinking HotDrink item. (Issue 1220)
[FIX] Disabled corpse sickness challenges 1/2/4/5.
[FIX] Fixed Cooking Pot with Water not heating up. (Issue 1160)
[FIX] Fixed bugs when displayName was different than username.
[FIX] Fixed teleporting splitscreen players.
[FIX] Fixed ISTextBox controller focus bug when clicking a button with the mouse.
[FIX] Fixed displayName being "Bob" for new players.
[FIX] If player is over max capcity, planks will be dropped on floor when unbarricading.
[FIX] Fixed Ctrl+A over collapsed inventory window prevents movement. (Issue 1164)
[FIX] Fixed "User Panel" "Admin Panel" etc button alignment
[FIX] Fixed IsoGridSquare.discard() not resetting haveElectricity / haveSheetRope.
[FIX] Fixed microwave looping sound not stopping sometimes in multiplayer.
[FIX] Fixed microwave timer sync in multiplayer.
[FIX] Fixed microwave sound not playing after loading a savegame if the microwave was already on.
[FIX] load() isn't called on the main thread so it shouldn't be trying to play audio.
[FIX] Typo Highlited -> Highlighted
[FIX] Fixed ZombieUpdatePacker exception. Seen when client was disconnecting.
[FIX] Fixed generators not marking squares as having electricty sometimes. When chunks near generators were loaded after the generator, squares on those chunks weren't getting the haveElectricty flag set.
[FIX] Fixed /card and /roll client command bugs with accessLevel.
[FIX] Fixed lua exception after disconnecting from server with accessLevel != none.
[FIX] Use equals() instead of startsWith() when checking server command names. (Issue 1168). Also changed handleClientCommand() to use the same argument-parsing code as handleServerCommand() (so quotes are optional in /changepwd).
[FIX] Fixed incorrect assert in ServerMap.init()
[FIX] Fixed server NullPointerException with ThunderStorm and zombified player.
[FIX] Fixed lua error after removing all entries from the server list. (Issue 1171)
[FIX] Fixed door locking/unlocking with keys in multiplayer. (Issue 1154)
[FIX] syncIsoObjectSend() was getting called before this.lockedByKey was changed.
[FIX] Fixed "NullPointer in BodyDamage breaks save"
[FIX] Corpses not being removed in mp
[FIX] lua error when selecting "spawn next to player X"
[FIX] Fixed sterilize bandages all only sterilizing one bandage
[FIX] Fixed no spawnpoint screen, new game loads current savefile.
[FIX] Fixed GameClient.ServerSpawnRegions not being cleared after disconnecting.
[FIX] Added WorldSelect UI to choose from multiple disjoint groups of maps.
[FIX] The new "SELECT WORLD" UI is displayed when there are enabled map mods whose maps don't join the game's (i.e., stand-alone maps).
[FIX] The new MapGroups class is responsible for putting each disjoint set of maps into a MapGroup.  It also has methods for reporting map-overlap conflicts.
[FIX] ModOrderUI now only displays maps with conflicts to reduce confusion to the user.  It is still possible for the number of conflicts listed to extend off the bottom of the ui, it needs fixing.
[FIX] Removed references to obsolete WorldScreen (now it's LoadGameScreen).
[FIX] Removed obsolete LastStandChallengeSelect.lua
[FIX] Removed West Point from the "Add an available map" combobox in the server-settings editor.
[FIX] Fixed default server spawnregions not including Riverside and Rosewood.
[FIX] ServerSettingsScreen do-nothing Lua fix.
[FIX] UI tweaks in MapSpawnSelect
[FIX] Fixed adding incorrect map coordinates in the Server Settings spawnpoint file editor.
[FIX] Fixed lua errors when adding mods and maps by name in the Server Settings editor.
[FIX] Fixed custom spawn regions not displaying in the Select Spawn Location screen
[FIX] The name of a spawn region was being treated as a map folder name, which isn't always the case, it's simply a human-readable label.
[FIX] Fixed setaccesslevel from server console/rcon not updating database.
[FIX] TYPO: Changed instances of "god mod" to "god mode"
[FIX] Fixed broken weapons sometimes not being marked broken after combat. (Issue 1206) This could happen with 2 hits in the same swing.
[FIX] Fixed allowing stacked crates to exceed wall height with 2x. (Issue 1208)
[FIX] Fixed IsoStove constructor adding to IsoCell.ProcessIsoObjects.
[FIX] GrabItemAction calls InventoryItem:setWorldItem(nil)
[FIX] Fixed some AlarmClock and rain-collecting-item issues.
[FIX] Fixed stopping an AlarmClock not being synced in mp.
[FIX] Fixed AlarmClock settings not changing on the server, only the clients.
[FIX] Fixed fridge/freezer works when moved outside a room before hydro shuts off. (Issue 1204)
[FIX] Dismantling a radio/walkie-talkie returns the battery and headphones. (Issue 1202)
[FIX] Fixed stash system modifying buildings after they had been visited.
[FIX] Fixed stash system not being reset after exiting a game and starting another.
[FIX] Fixed stash system exception exiting mp game after playing a sp game.
[FIX] Fixed non-working light in MP for other players after moving indoor or outdoor lamp.
[FIX] Fixed LightingJNI exception during startup before ChunkMap was created.
[FIX] Fixed IsoMetaChunk.removeZone() not removing reference to the removed zone.
[FIX] Fixed errors with Pasta created from a spice.
[FIX] Don't display savefile name in spawn-point ui in splitscreen.
[FIX] Pasta/Rice recipes not allowing any more items when creating the initial item from a spice.
[FIX] Fixed "Gode Mode" typo
[FIX] Use translated names when radio broadcasts increase a skill. (Issue 1118)
[FIX] Made perk columns as wide as needed in the Player Stats admin panel. (Issue 1147)
[FIX] Fixed spawn-with-player spawnpoints not working in splitscreen.
[FIX] Fixed ISTextBox bug with controller that broken splitscreen. (Issue 1106)
[FIX] Fixed lua error using the mousewheel to scroll through containers when the current container isn't in the list.
[FIX] Fixed position of two tickboxes in the options screen at 1280x720.
[FIX] Fixed corpses sometimes stay highlighted (again).
[FIX] Optimized rendering the inventory windows to reduce garbage creation.
[FIX] The load-game screen displays an indicator next to dead-player savefiles.
[FIX] Fixed "Continue" button showing the new-game screen for dead-player savefiles.
[FIX] Fixed not being able to enter a savefile name when there is only one spawn region.
[FIX] Fixed map screen not showing up when map is in the Loot Window.
[FIX] Fixed infinite icecream bug
[MODDING] OnZombieUpdate now triggers serverside, as well as clientside.

DedpaUrvor, That's not a crash site, that's how trailer park residents park...

Hello everyone - a shorter Thurdoid this week, just a few announcements.
 
Build 38
We've just released what will hopefully be the last IWBUMS of build 38 before we finally put it to bed. You can find the changelist for 38.25 here. We'll probably aim to go public with it on Monday, at which point the vehicle build will become the prime build and all hands will move onto it.
We've pretty much got the dedicated server system set up on the new build system, so will have updated that soon and will announce it when that happens with hopefully a good chunk of the weekend left to assure no issues remain with online play for a Monday release. At which point we'll upload to GOG and finally put this version to bed! Speaking of GOG:
 
GOG Builds
In the past, due to the difficulty of how we've handled builds it meant we haven't given GOG users as speedy or regular updates and we're sorry about that, it's clearly not been good enough. However part of the focus on revamping our build system means that we should be able to investigate IWBUMS support for the vehicles build once build 38 is out the door, at which point both versions will retain parity as much as possible. (It may be however GOG Linux will lag behind a bit since it requires a zip file upload to ftp, and is not directly uploadable via the GOG backend, but it will still be a lot faster and IWBUMS compatible).
 
Build 39
A few interesting updates here. ChrisW has been working on the new cutaway system for some time, which as you know provides sexier cutaways allowing for more buildings to appear in full without the entire world being cut away at once. He's now moved onto a rather huge optimisation in the same arena of code that should allow us to address the severe FPS loss we've been experiencing, particularly on the vehicle build. By removing unseen furniture and other tiles from inside building levels above the player that are hidden, it should massively reduce the amount that the game needs to draw, and should have a noticeable improvement on FPS particularly on a zoomed out view and in towns. As well as this Steve from BitBaboon has turned his optimisation sights onto the vehicle build, and we'll hopefully make some big gains to FPS in the vehicle build.
Meanwhile RJ and Yuri continue to expand on the various vehicle systems required for release, this week with a particular focus on balancing, while Mash has been doing major work on the damage and other overlay textures. Next on the list from RJ is more work on the mechanics UI. Yuri and Martin will be looking into visibly opening trunks/hoods/doors to make interacting with vehicles much more realistic.
That's all for this week, apologies its a bit of a short one this week normal Thursdoid will resume next week!

So, after playing heavily and extensively on the Vehicle Build for over a week now, I've come up with more than a few ideas that could (IMHO) improve the whole vehicle experience quite a bit. I'll split them by type....
 
 
-Game Mechanics
 
1- Reducing Noise Radius Reach/Max Zombie Noise Draw Limit
 
Perhaps the biggest game-mechanic issue with cars right now is the amount of Zed they attract, and from how far away. Whenever I drive to somewhere that's not in the middle of nowhere (read: heavily within non-urban area), my car seems to draw Zed from at least 2 miles across. Sure, I don't mind having to fight a few dozens of Zed upon arrival, but finding 20-30 of them encircling my car when I leave the building, loot-laden, and with roughly the same amount showing up while I kill these can be quite a problem. And this is, of course, with me always turning off my car as soon as I get there; if you don't, expect that number to rise to 50-70, fully surrounding your car, perfectly recreating that one scene from Dead Rising.
 
In fact, I've found out that, if I ever need to have the Zed in an area move to another, all I gotta do is grab a Gas Can, find a car in the area I wanna move the Zeds to, fill it with gas (if it didn't had some already), hotwire it to start and sneak out; the Zeds will flock to the car as if the sounds of the engine were singing ''FREE BRAINS HERE!'' on a megaphone. This can be quite easily exploited.
 
So, to solve this issue, I propose two possible solutions. One, reduce the radius reach of the engine noise; if I park my car in the middle of an interception, it should not bring zeds from further away than 2 blocks on each side. Or Two, to set a limit of ''Car noise can only draw X amount of Zed for the next Y real time minutes.''; for instance, only 20 Zeds will be drawn to your car for the next 3 minutes after you turned your car off and either no more will come or the upcoming amount will be greatly reduced, but if you start/attempt to start your car, that timer resets.
 
 
2- Constant Key Duplicates
 
The vehicular cousin of the Padlock Duplicating Key Bug. Every time you turn your car on (or fail to do so) you end up with an extra key in your inventory, and this repeats ad infinitum. There was a time I found myself holding 152 Car keys, despite me only using 2 cars at the time. And while this has no real hurdle with the gameplay (as keys have no weight), it's extremely annoying. I dunno if the Padlock Key bug has been dealt with yet, but just like its cousin, this one can be quite a bother.
 
 
3- More Ways to Open your Trunk
 
A few days ago, my char's corpse got burn after a horde trampled over his fireplace, but of all the things I lost, the biggest one was my oldest car's keys. Getting back into the car was no issue, and neither was it hot-wiring it. However, I could no longer access the car's trunk (which was where I kept most of my Gas). In the end, my only choice was fully wrecking the trunk and driving in circles for quite a while until all the stuff fell out of it.
 
So, my first thought was ''We have a crowbar, we have a propane torch, we have a fire axe.... Why can't we use any of them to force the trunk open?'' or even better, why don't any of these cars have one of these:
 

(I asked a few car mechanic I know, and yes, these existed at the early 90s, so it fits the time period of PZ)
 
Sure, I can understand that cars with ''backdoors'' (Van, Stepvan, SUV) may not have it, but most sedans and sport cars really should have it. And while we're still on the topic of keys....
 
 
4- Make the Keys more Identifiable
 
Right now, keys are spread all over parking lots and random containers in buildings, but unless there's only one vehicle parked on the drive way, figuring out which key goes where beyond trying to open each vehicle is a bit of an issue, specially if you are trying to flee from a rampaging horde.
 
Car keys should start spawning either with brand-referential names or some kind of specific shape and/or logo for us to tell them apart. I mean, if I walk into a parking lot and I find this key on the ground:
 

 
And I have to figure out what car is it from, you can be pretty sure I'm not gonna be trying it on any Ford or Honda....
 
Car keys in PZ need a bit more of identity for them to be more easy to tell apart. We're already starting to implement names and brands for each car, so why not something like that for their keys as well?
 
 
-Added Car Functions/Submodel Ideas
 
1- Refrigerated Stepvan
 
Name says it all; a Stepvan whose trunk serves as a freezer/refrigerator.  They would come with their own function to enable/disable the refrigeration of the trunk (just like the patrol car sirens). While the engine's on, it would consume a bit of extra Gas to keep it cold, and with the engine off, it would eat up battery charge instead. This could provide an interesting refrigeration alternative once power fails as well.
 
As for their design, they could bear the GIGA Mart's logo, Food Market, or maybe even be an Ice Cream Truck. 
 
 
2- Emergency Vehicle Radios should be Two Way.
 
Again, pretty self-explanatory; police cars, fire dept trucks, ambulances, they should all have a two way radio like they do in real life.
 
 
This should be all for now; I'll add more ideas as I think of them.

Visible loot on pickup trucks would be neat.

WARNING: Due to the amount of development and features being added to this branch, please do not expect any save compatibility. We'll try to keep it compatible but you should expect breakage.
 
Please note: aspects of this, found at the bottom of the patch notes, will be released as a patch to the main public build once we know that everything is working and stable. This will also be when the new version is uploaded to GOG.
 
 
New version
 
You'll start with a wrench, a screwdriver and a jack to test mechanics.
 
Due to the sheer amount of stuff in Vehicle Build 22 there is a chance that existing Vehicles build saves will break. We'd encourage you to start a new game, but if you have a longstanding character then we have also provided the previous Vehicles Build 21 on a separate Steam beta branch so you can transfer your savegame. It can be accessed through the beta tab and is called 'previousvehicle'.
 
Please note that this build is more WIP than others that we've released, as we need player feedback during its construction. Please be patient if you discover unexpected irritation. Thanks!
 
[New]
New cars models including a Taxi and an SUV - and extra versions of small and modern cars. Or at least 'modern' for 1993. Horn and Siren system. Check the vehicle menu while inside the car! Press "V" (vehicle menu key) or right click on a vehicle to add or siphon gas. Cars can be refuelled at gas stations. Keys are now needed to open trunk. Please note: VehicleEasyUse sandbox option will make the car always start when set to true.  
[WIP] Mechanic System [WIP]
A new Vehicle Mechanics UI can now be accessed. Right click a vehicle and select "[WIP] Mechanics" or when directly inside the vehicle with the vehicle menu ("V" key). The system should operate much like the existing player health panel. Select vehicle parts to see information about them. Right click a part to see if it can be removed or installed. Parts can be repaired from your inventory although not everything can be fixed.  
PLEASE NOTE: this is a very early iteration of this system.
 
Not everything effects gameplay. The vehicle diagram is placeholder. Scripting is currently unfinished.
The Mechanic skill/profession isn't done - so highest level abilities are unlocked.
So what is in?
 
Different car parts like tires, gas tanks, trunk and brake systems. Low condition brakes will reduce your brake force. Low condition gas tanks can leak fuel. A car trunk that's been crumpled in a collision will have reduced capacity and may drop items stored in it onto the ground when in motion. Car parts and vehicles themselves are categorised as ‘standard’, ‘heavy-duty’ and ‘sports’. Only matching car parts can be used in relevant vehicles. [This may change in later builds should player have high skills, be prepared to lose condition with a car part in an inappropriate vehicle etc) New Car Visuals - Damage and Colors The Normal Car model can now have damage textures. When we have tested them out in-game we will create them for all vehicles. The game now spawns cars coloured by game code rather than textures - adding variety. Tire condition now has an impact on wheel friction. Each type of tire have a base friction, affected by Mechanic skills & tire condition. Mass is now taken into account in physics calculations. Added an option to inflate or deflate a tire. Beware of inflating a tire too much. Inflated tire will reduce wheel friction and brake force.  
New Sandbox options:
CarDamageOnImpact: Governs how much damage a vehicle will take after collisions. CarGeneralCondition: Governs what condition cars can have on spawn - whether very low or very high.  
Some changes on fixing script:
Added a GlobalItem property: GlobalItem : BlowTorch=5, Can now require multiple items (to factorize scripts) e.g: Require : SmallTrunk1;NormalTrunk1; Added a condition modifier property to change max condition repaired, e.g: ConditionModifier : 0.7, Fixing something will now give experience points if a skill was required. Condition repair bonus capped to 25.  
Balance
Increase max speed of vehicles to 120 km/h. Although clearly not all cars go this fst (not all car can go that fast!). Factorised some code in script. Increase the probability of finding loot in vehicles. Changed various car variables (mass, speed, power...)  
Bug Fixes
Fixed missing car sounds. [Though they will still need new versions] Fixed keys in ignition not always working. Fixed game not spawning all possible textures for cars. Fixed zombies being knocked down by non-moving car - added thump ability. Fixed MP sync problem on stoplights. Fixed cars not being synced in MP if you were out of range. Fixed car containers being respawned after reloading a save. Fixed non-updated loot inventory when someone enter/exits vehicle.  
Main Build Bug Fix
(Will be released as patch for Build 38 when we are sure it's stable, alongside some other fixes)
Fixed /card and /roll client command bugs with accessLevel. Fixed lua exception after disconnecting from server with accessLevel != none. Use equals() instead of startsWith() when checking server command names. (Issue 1168) Fixed incorrect assert in ServerMap.init() Fixed server NullPointerException with ThunderStorm and zombified player. Fixed lua error after removing all entries from the server list. (Issue 1171) Fixed door locking/unlocking with keys in multiplayer. (Issue 1154) Fixed "NullPointer in BodyDamage breaks save" Fixed inability for admin to change owner of a Faction in MP Fixed lethal corpse gas Fixed NullPointerException in LightingJNI.update() Fixed only being able to sterilize one bandage Fixed walkway visibility issues - changing definition of player built floor for culling purposes. Fixed other issues associated with new Tanglewood rooftop rendering system. Reexported map with fixes and changes to improve new rooftop rendering system.

Just noticing now that not a single house in Riverside has a mailbox

bug: can't see.
 

 

Has a cure to the never ending bleed even after the wound heals been discovered yet?
 
Generators not powering items after logging off still a problem, but I appreciate that you have been trying to figure it out

The Thursdoids continue. They will not be stopped.
Build 38 Released
We released Build 38 last Friday and people have been getting their first tastes of Riverside, the new worldview features and much else beside. (Release notes here).
As you would probably expect, a lot of this week has involved collating and fixing up the various issues that arose when 38 was revealed to the wider public audience. To this end we’ve released 38.16, 38.17, 38.18 and 38.19 in the interim to patch things up.
Most critical issues have now been resolved, but there are still MP issues that we still need to get to the bottom of (generators faltering when players log out, magically unlocking doors etc) amongst other gremlins that need battering (zombie-proof windows, misplaced radio sounds, some Linux-y stuff).
As such we anticipate 38.20 tomorrow, and likely some follow-ups and a GOG release next week. Blindcoder is also in the process of updating the official PZ Map with Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club – it takes a very long time to process the map into an image, however, so it too will hopefully be surfacing at some point next week.
Build 39 (Vehicles)

Elsewhere work continues on our next build – which will be the first release of the vehicles initially constructed by EasyPickins, and now being knocked into shape by General Arcade’s Yuri and our own RJ.
We released Vehicles Build 21 last week, and discussed much of its keys/hotwire/loot content in the Thursdoid. Vehicles Build 22, meanwhile, will be released once the bug-chasing on the main public build slows down a bit.
Vehicles 22 will introduce ‘Zombie thump’ when zeds flock round a car, meaning that they will act in the same way that they currently do around building windows and doors – as opposed to their current habit of falling over next to the car and taking damage themselves. It should also sync up motor activity for different players in co-op, as well as hopefully put an end to lost trunk loot.
After various calls for more vehicle variety, meanwhile, the build will also feature a new modern car, an SUV, a two door smaller car and a taxi that Martin has created, and Mash has textured up. Many of these can be seen in the following video.

From another community request, emergency vehicles will also now have sirens and flashing lights alongside as a part of their UI – which will clearly be something of an attractant for zed-kind.

Finally, shown here in full WIP mode, are the beginnings of how the Mechanic Skill and Car Repair will work. Clearly there’ll be less references to ‘rubber bands’, the car diagram will be improved and only max-level characters will be able to see percentages in this way – but as you can see it’s much like how the current Health panel works. [As you can probably tell, this still needs a fair amount of work and won’t be a part of the next Vehicle Build.]

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 blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.

Ill test as soon as Ricky updates server
 
But I still hate seeing my screenname get swapped from my favorite hotsauce. Can I at least get it changed to my second favorite hotsauce?
 

You forgot to link part 2 of that video.
 
I am named after a hotsauce BTW

12 players online , no errors in console.
 
You are not allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts !!!  

I played PZ for a while and I noticed 2 bugs I think.
 
Here u can see a fridge...or 3 fridges? Is this a new feature?
 

 
And here, I think there should be a Wall. (Gas Station at Riverside)
 

getting a bug in the northern part of west point. tried a clean install but it didn't clear
 
 
 

Hola gang. Here’s the latest slice of Monday.
BUILD 38
Build 38 is fully baked, but requires two roof-rendering fixes to player-made bases from ChrisW who’s beavering away at them as we speak. We didn’t want to wreck the views of solo savegame and server player bases with a public release, and will be patching in further tweaks to the system (improved peeking, fairer window/zed visibility at NW corners etc) after release.
In the mean-time there’ll be a new public IWBUMS beta release tomorrow with other general/necessary pre-launch bug fixes from RJ and Connall.
VEHICLES
With the current vehicles beta soon to transform into Build 39 this week we’ve had extra hands descend upon it. Yuri will continue to oversee physics issues, car shadows, visible damage and general vehicles performance – meanwhile Steve will be providing optimization support game-wide, and now RJ is in amongst it working on gameplay aspects like realistic vehicle spawning, the Mechanic skill, gas used during journeys and the like.
[In the meanwhile Turbo will continue to work on his devices code, work will begin on the next big map update and Bitbaboon Mark will continue to work with the PZ team with the new animations for integration into the build(s) that follow.]
In terms of Build 39 RJ has begun this work with Vehicle build 19 (directions on how to access here) in which he transferred aspects of Yuri’s work into the overall PZ zoning system, added Mash’s latest textures for burnt-out cars, balanced attributes of particular cars, restarted work on car keys and added various Sandbox options to let players tailor their vehicular PZ experience a little better.
Build 19 also introduced some of Yuri’s fixes to vehicles in co-op and MP, so that will hopefully make for a smoother ride online – with less disappearing cars and loot.
Over to RJ for a brief word on his automobile work:
“Up until Vehicles Build 19 properties like engine condition, maximum speed and how much gas a car had were purely dependent on where the vehicle spawned. So at the moment I’m giving each car some individuality, although spawn area still matters as a vehicle spawning in a beautiful neighbourhood won’t have the same condition as something found in a trailer park.”
“Also now in the vehicles build the amount of gas consumed by a car is no longer static – previously you lost a set amount per-tick, but now it depends on various things: stuff like the total mass of the car and your loot, engine quality and the speeds you’re travelling at. So gas usage will really depend on how you use the car.”
“I’ve also made sure that when driving on non-tarmac surfaces cars will be slowed – and ultimately damaged if you’re driving over bumpy wilderness.”
“In terms of car spawning zones – that should now be improved, although spawn numbers will likely still need balance. Not every zone is done but where I’ve done work then cars should be appearing in more accurate places, burnt out cars should be appearing in junk yards and trailer parks, and ‘special’ vehicles like the Spiffo’s truck should be parked outside the Spiffo’s restaurant. Still to come is work that’ll make the way that they’re parked look a bit more ‘natural’.”
“Until Build 38 is released and I need to get back onto bug fixes I’m also working on engine power, car keys and locked cars, and balancing general vehicle stats. We’re also finalizing the ‘Mechanic’ skill design doc, and should be getting the sign off from the rest of the team this week.”
OPTI-MISSION
Optimization is currently vital as the vehicle build is careering towards a wider audience. As such Bitbaboon Steve’s opti-mission continues – chalking up two more FPS salves that we’ll test out in the Vehicles Build (Build 39) towards the end of the week, and also spotlighting something funky deep in the PZ engine rendering system that’ll require further investigation.
To aid him in his quest we’re investigating an update from lwjgl2 to lwjgl3 – which is no simple task, but has been on the ‘must do’ tasklist for a fair while. We’re at a point with it that should help Steve a fair amount when he dives deep into the rendering code, but when it reaches its full fruition then this will hopefully make for general better running of PZ, remedied display issues and general headache easing.
OTHER STUFF
Connall’s work on the ‘small things that make a big difference’ suggestion list continues, with the integration of imperial measurements (pounds, miles, Fahrenheit etc) to make our American audience feel a little less like… they’re in a European zombie apocalypse. We’ve stolen Nasko, our community manager, away from his actual real world workplace for a month or two to work on revamping the PZ Wiki – so it’s more accessible and better structured for community efforts. If anyone has any thoughts, or maybe even would like to help him on his quest when details need to flood the system, then please give him a shout. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless Mondoids for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.

Build Vehicle 19:
 
[New]
New method to spawn vehicles, that should look a little more like real life: Lot of experimental zones have been created (mainly in Riverside) including junk yard, special trailer park spawning, etc. Special cars (postal, mccoy...) should spawn in correct place, some can still spawn in the world randomly. New burnt vehicles textures. Some vehicle specifics are now set per car (and not a constant or per zone), can be influenced by the zone vehicle spawned on: Engine loudness Engine quality (junk yard have crappy quality for example) Initial gas Locked doors Balanced cars properties (speed, mass, acceleration, gas tank..) to correspond more with real life and make them more different. Gas consummed now depend on your engine speed, quality and your mass while in movement. Car keys can now spawn in nearby desk. Added new vehicle sandbox options: Car spawn rate: how much cars you want? Initial Gas: initial gas included in new spawned cars. Locked Frequency: frequency the cars will be closed (doesn't influence the chance of having the key spawning around). Gas consumption: (default 1.0) lower or increase the gas consumed by your car.  
[Bug Fix]
Fixed burnt car textures not showing. Added back "vehiclesDisable" in server-settings UI. Fixed bug with map loading infinitely due to a player in a stopped car. Fixed vehicles sometimes disappear when exiting and reloading a save

During the mega test i was living in an upstairs apartment in west point with the stairs safely sledged, whenever another player entered the store below me the lights would go off in the apartment. Abit creepy but also a handy early warning system.
 
So maybe this helps to squash the bug as it seems that the lights turn off when you enter a building, even if another player is occupying the building.

I spent 4.5 hours on the megatest server and I've gotta say that it's incredible how much better it is when it comes to zombies. There is almost no lag, combat is much, much more pleasant. I can even use knives as weapons. Awesome job.

I love those megatests, they're super fun.

Build 38.7
 
[New]
[MP] Optimization to limit the amount of zombie placement and zombie movement data that’s shared between players. Released in preparation for the Wednesday community megatest. Added cells copy conflicts for modded maps. Added a mod order UI, use it if you have conflicts in your modded map!  
[Bug Fix]
Fixed new custom maps loader not overriding vanilla cells. Fixed bleeding after healing a scratch.

Plenty on at the moment, and a new Community Megatest with free PZ codes up for grabs coming up on Wednesdoid…
 
NEW BUILDS
We released a new build of the Vehicles test branch today, in preparation for it becoming Build 39 once Build 38 gets a full release. Vehicle Build 15 fixes bugs with car wrecks spawning in the air and gently floating down, and also goes through and corrects the vehicle shadows and collision boxes of all our car models – meaning that flipped cars can no longer be walked through.
Yuri also finished off his gamepad integration work, adding gamepad control to our lootable map interface, which he will be transferring to Build 38 alongside the rest of his controller work.
The original plan was to release our new map expansion featuring the town of Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club into the vehicles build, but as the week has gone by it’s seemed increasingly daft to sit on something that’s finished for longer than is necessary. As such we’re currently working on the zombie spawn maps and player spawn points necessary for it to be released earlier with Build 38.
 
Our intention is to get this out, alongside rooftop rendering and general RJ fixes, in time for a Community MP Megatest we’ll be holding on Wednesday evening. This is as a result of the…
 
 
WAR ON ZOMBIE LAG
We currently have two technical director chaps working on Zomboid. There’s Mark who’s setting up animations and currently getting a character skinned renderer active on a toggle (so we can turn on the new anims on the dev-side one-by-one as we go), and Steve who we’ve initially tasked with optimizing MP connectivity.
 
Steve’s primary aim is to remove zombie lag (teleporting zeds, unfair bites and general server strain) and this past Friday he might have made a bit of a breakthrough – which has now been coded and is due to be released into our IWBUMS public beta for testing tomorrow. Essentially Steve discovered a way to optimize zombie transmission – limiting the amount of zombie placement and zombie movement data that’s shared between players, while still keeping the online gameplay rolling.
 
This, combined with Stas from General Arcade’s ‘server save pause’ that’s already part of Build 38, could hopefully provide a massive improvement for all our MP players and server owners when released.
 
Through the power of maths we can tell it’s likely to be a nifty optimization, but we can’t tell how nifty it will be without putting it to the test… and so…
 
 
SERVER COMMUNITY MEGATEST II
This Wednesday 23rd August at 8pm BST (GMT+1) we will be opening up a server that’s running the current IWBUMS build, and we’d politely ask those interested in helping out to attend. Full details in this thread.
 
As with our previous Build 38 Megatest, participants will all receive a free Project Zomboid code to give to a friend/enemy/close family relation. All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so, and it’ll probably be quite a fun escapade.
 
The only difference between this time and the last Megatest is that, to properly emulate a normal live PZ server, we will be capping the number of participants at 50. When the test is over, however, we will open the server a little wider. This does mean, however, that there will only be 50 Steam codes up for grabs.
 
 
AND FINALLY
Massive props to SoulFilcher for recreating this little scene in LEGO. Terrifying indeed.
 

 
 
Today’s featured image from SAS 6007. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless Mondoids for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.

The current focus in terms of our more imminent builds is twofold: to get Build 38 finished, polished and out of the door – and to get the an experimental vehicles Build 39 released as an IWBUMS beta in short succession, alongside Mash’s now finished map content. To which end…
 
BUILD 38
We’ve just released public IWBUMS beta 38.6 (try it out here) which follows a few versions that we had in internal testing. In recent public test builds ChrisW’s changes to rooftop rendering (which makes the map ‘pop’ out at you in more pleasing way and allows for cooler peeking through windows and such) has been something of an issue when it comes to player-built structures.
This is hopefully no longer an issue, but we do need to hear player reports on any remaining visual oddities – especially in MP. One known issue is that a weird one in which the north-western-most roof square of a building stays hidden after the other squares reappear. It shouldn’t be too hard to fix – and will be sorted in the next build.
 
Build 38.6 also comes with improved visibility when peeking through windows, and a bunch of general ‘tidy up and polish’ fixes from the rest of the team – map irregularities fixed, an oft-reported inventory lock-up nixed and the first results from Connall’s ‘legacy bug’ hunt.
 
VEHICLES
Tomorrow we plan to release Vehicle Test Build 16 (try it out 15 here) which is largely intended to clear out bugs and get our cars in a fit enough shape so that they can go into the Build 39 IWBUMS beta in an experimental form.
 
This build sees an update to the physics so that cars can’t clamber over each other, or burnt out cars, and should also ‘jump’ a little less when running over zeds. Yuri has also investigated and fixed a bunch of reported crashes, stopped vehicles magically being visible through walls and fixed some of the misplaced storage areas we had on several of the car models.
Our happy band of vehicles testers should also be aware that cars will now be ‘turned on’ through a toggle on the New Game screen. Currently Yuri is correcting ‘vehicle shadow’ and also darkening it a little so that it’s more obvious and cars are more grounded, and this may well be a part of the update too.
 
Beyond any other reported game-breaking bugs, Yuri will then be tightening up gamepad controls, as well as fixing gamepad control issues game-wide while he’s in there and fiddling with buttons. Before we release into the 39 IWBUMS Mash also needs to paint up some new textures for the burnt out cars as the ones we have in there currently are from the old visual style.
 
MAP
Mash’s next map update, featuring the town of Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club, is now ready for integration. We don’t want to distract testing away from the current IWBUMS beta too much though, so won’t be dropping it into the vehicles build for four-wheeled tester exploration until 38 is pretty much ready to go.
 
It should make for a fun chunk of the map to explore in cars when it’s first released, so we don’t want to give too much away in terms of showing new screenshots when it’s so close – but Riverside is a new (fictional) waterfront town that’s around the size of West Point, with a very strong rich/poor divide in terms of areas and amenities.
 
The Knox Heights Country Club meanwhile we’ve already mentioned, but has a golf course, swimming pool, sauna and tennis courts – and should be a fun place to fortify.
 

 
ALSO
Many Zomboid survivors will be more than familiar with Hydrocraft, the mod primarily worked on by HydromancerX. We just wanted to flag that Hydro now has a Patreon so that players who want to support him in his endeavours, both in his excellent mods for various different games and his personal artwork, should anyone like to contribute.
 
Today’s featured image from Rico. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless Mondoids for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.

Current focus is getting 38 out of the door, while putting roots down for the initial vehicles release in Build 39 and beyond. And so…
 
BUILD 38
We’re fixing up and polish Build 38 for release, and want it to be as clean as possible so we can drop the vehicles build straight into IWBUMS beta testing afterwards as Build 39 – with the new map expansion that includes the new town of Riverside and the Knox Heights Country Club.
 
This includes ironing the final kinks out of ChrisW’s rooftop rendering and peeking changes – as right now in the beta we’ve still got a few irritations like occasional see-through roof slants, canopies around the edges of buildings that never disappear and wonky player-built second floors. It’s ‘tidy up’ work more than anything, but we want it all to be as seamless as we can make it once it hits public.
 
As such, while this is done and in the build-up to release, we’ll continue to fix and polish RJ’s existing 38 work with graves, sandbox options and other stuff – alongside turning as much of the Bug Tracker from red to green as possible.
 
Yuri meanwhile, he of Vehicles Build fame, is going to transfer as many of his branch’s optimizations as we can into the IWBUMS version – so they’re not stuck in a holding pattern. He’ll also transfer his current work on improving gamepad controls and making sure that screens like in-game maps, foraging and sandbox game creation can all be navigated without a keyboard.
 
BITBABOON GANG
As regular readers will know we’ve now got Mark and Steve from Bitbaboon, both established Technical Directors from the land of AAA, bedded down with the team to help with animations (Mark) and MP/general optimization (Steve).
 
Steve’s first task is to optimize MP connectivity – and so we’ve set him up with a build so he can get some detailed stats back on bandwidth, cpu and memory for servers, and track what happens when latency rises. While he does so he’s also marking targets for when his role turns to more general FPS optimization.
 
Mark, meanwhile, is approaching the point at which the new animation system is merged into the main game code, but on a (development side debug) toggle. This means that it will always be integrated into the PZ build, allowing our coders to flick its various visual/gameplay switches ‘on’ as we go and start releasing test versions – keeping it in date with the main game much easier and allowing it all to co-exist with vehicles much more neatly.
 
VEHICLES
We released Vehicle Test Build 16 on Friday, which was something of a ‘wider IWBUMS testing’ preparation build as it put vehicles on a toggle accessed from the Game Select screen. It also corrected and darkened shadow positioning as well as, hopefully, prevented unrealistic car-climbing and bouncing on zombie corpses.
 
Next up Yuri will be integrating Mash’s redone burnt car models, an example of which is below, before moving onto a spot of optimization. This said, in amongst it all, there are a few other aspects we’d like to see integrated before/during the 39 IWBUMS: specifically clearer headlights, red brakelights, car horns, sirens and accurate numbers of seats for each car model. We’ll see how much we can fit in, basically.
 

 
WOLDREN MAPS
If you fancy holding out somewhere new and different than can we also suggest you check out the wide range of awesome maps that Woldren has created? Over the River, especially, is pretty awesome – as it creates a huge bridge over from West Point, with its own docked ship nearby, and a range of interesting locations for you to explore on the opposite bank. Definitely one to check out.
 
NOLAN GATES
Something we’ll need to be adding to the main game in build 39+ are player-built gates that’ll allow vehicles inside. In the meantime the lovely Mister Nolan has you covered with his new Log Wall Gate mod. Vid here.
 
Today’s featured image from Boop. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless Mondoids for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.