Zorak

The reason is "leave some useful stuff at safe for the next lucky survivor".

it's always been 100% outside of bugs

Come on man they are letting us play the beta get over it. At least we can play the new content now. 

we done a stealth patch that should fix fps issues. We also figured out a potential cause of fps drop for rain / puddles but that's not made it in tonight.

NEW
All characters now start with a belt - giving them a "Back" slot & two belt (left/right) belt slots.
You can either right click a slot, or drag & drop a weapon to it.  Or, alternatively, click a weapon in your inventory to attach it to the hotbar.
Weapons will be shown on the player. Pressing a hotkey (from 1 to 5) will auto equip the weapon assigned to each slot.
This is a work in progress system that we'd love feedback on!
Added holsters
Holsters have a chance to spawn on police/policestate zombies (automatic get one if he had a gun)
- Rebuilt ProjectZomboid.exe as a gui application, no more console window. Should work with Steam remote play together now.
- Added player Bob_VaultOverToFall animation when climbing over fences.
- Added zombie Zombie_WalkTrees animation for walktoward and pathfind states.
- Zombie lunge animations played at 50% speed in trees.

BALANCE

- Boosted wood axe damage, speed, amount of time you can move during strafe, to make it a viable (but still quite slow) heavy damage weapon
- Force standing when drinking/filling items from sink.
- Reduced handgun model size (+ muzzle redone)
- Added Chipped stone to craft lance recipe.
- Made tall fences transparent when the player is behind them
- Disabled Hypochondriac trait until it can be fully reworked
- Reload XP now given when inserting bullets in clip (small chance) and when reloading (bigger chance).
- Added spear fishing.
- Now equip in 2 hands shovel when taking dirt/sands..
- Added Griddle pan for stir-fry.

FIXES

- Fixed zombies spawning in buildings long after a player has entered the building. 
- Fixed Double-barrel shotgun issues.
  1) Missing inventory icon.
  2) Removed chamber, which allowed 3 shells to be loaded.
  3) Racking not required.
- Fixed blob/suitcase Zeds on spawn
- Fixed FMOD crash on 64-bit.
 Java_fmod_javafmodJNI_FMOD_1System_1CreateChannelGroup() was casting a pointer to 'long' when it needed to be a 64-bit 'long long'.
 SoundManager was calling FMOD_Channel_SetPaused() instead of FMOD_ChannelGroup_SetPaused().
- Fixed zombies getting stuck in the air after climbing through a window.
- Fixed exception after renaming food to have a dollar-sign character in it.
- Fixed lua error when taking compost from a composter.
- Fixed zombified players interacting with doors/windows/etc by left-clicking.
- Fixed new shovels not being useable for taking dirt/gravel/sand.
- Fixed hammering animation when pouring dirt/gravel/sand from a bag.
- Fixed Logs.zip console.txts are limited to all of 2 lines during most crashes
- Fixed issues pressing Escape while entering or exiting a vehicle, or switching seats.
- Fixed players going through a wall when run-vaulting over a fence adjacent to the wall.
- Fixed issue: Unhandled Thread exception by the SQLDB in a non UTF8 environ.
- Fixed Protection screen not working with a controller.
- Fixed Info hair/beard buttons not working with a controller.
- Fixed clothing dryer and washer continuing to play sound after the power goes out.
- Fixed weather mask not updating when the zoom level changes.
- Fixed weather mask not rendering for splitscreen players.
- Fixed zombies get stuck after climbing over a fence with no floor on the other side.
- Fixed some files being closed via garbage collection.
- Crouch key only affects player 0 which fixes split-screen shared crouch
- Fixed "Sit On Ground" context-menu option is available when already sitting.
- Fixed "Sit On Ground" context-menu option is not available when using a controller.
- Fixed adding frozen food into recipes.
- Fixed old Socks still existing.

The idea is expand on the reading/learning/multiplier system currently only provided by reading profession skill books. Note this is NOT the same idea as the current Life and Living TV station giving raw skill XP; this is for the multiplier towards skills, although raw XP points could be done as well with the right balancing.
 
EXISTING CD's + CD Player (battery) + Ear Buds:
 
Educational CD's for jobs (carpentry, cooking, etc) need to be found When equipped, your character "hears" the lesson the same way they currently do through the TV "Life and Learning" channel: Text of the "audio" appears above your head (may be 'annoying' over your head but that is part of the balance) Hearing/perception greatly reduced (similar to Hard of Hearing trait) because you have ear buds in and are trying to learn  
Balance considerations:
 
Main benefit should be that you are MOBILE while learning Craft, manage base inventory while listening Extra combat debuff from the 'distraction' - a flat learning rate needs to be established for CD's, so an appropriate combat debuff may be needed for balance reasons Learning speed vs reading a book Battery consumption of CD Player CD's could possibly be an entire SERIES of books (Cooking CD = Beginners through Master) Spawn rate and location (profession house and place of work almost exclusively?) if an entire series is on a single CD? CD Players in cars for those long drives (no CD player + battery req)? Or just wear the ear buds while driving  
 
NEW VCR Cassettes that work with current TV's - Possibly needing a VCR Player as well (more work to implement but ideal)
could go with DVD/DVD players instead of VCR... this takes place in the 90's right?
 
Educational cassettes for jobs (carpentry, cooking, etc) need to be found Works with TV's even after stations go dark as long as generator is running Same learning/educational process as "Life and Learning" TV station: Area of effect learning buff depending on volume  
Balance considerations:
 
Main benefit is that you can do other things in the area while receiving the multiplier for what is playing Learning speed vs reading a book Requires generator and gasoline Produces noise that could attract zombies - Future NPC/bandit considerations as well? Amount of content per cassettes - should not be as much as CD (Beginner + Intermediate = 1 Cassette to find?) In multiplayer, everyone in the area of effect receives the buff Should the TV/VCR only provide the buff to line of sight + audio? Seems the TV/VCR should require visual to be a big part of learning, not only "hearing it"  
I think this would add some variety to skill multiplier system while giving the player some risk/reward options while performing the more 'mundane' tasks. Thoughts?
 
Cheers,
 

Ok, few things from me:
The new build is great, thanks a lot guys.
 
Now few things that im worried about:
 
1) dont change ballance so fast. What i see here and at steam is that a lot of guys complain about difficulty after few days of IWBUMS... Play a bit more, try to adapt. Dont whine at forum becaouse you died 4 times in a row. Look at some youtubers, they are dooing just fine at survivor (apocalypse) mode. Its not 100% ballance issues, its you not adapting to the new game.
 
2) I have mixed feeling about new game modes (brawler , survivor etc). Imo they will spread out, small, multiplayer community. I know that some players may have problems with new fighting mechanics. But instead of creating many "game modes" just utilize that skill system. Multi hit etc is cool, just merge that to fighting skill and/or strenght.
You want to kill zombies - build brawler character and dont sellect brawler mode. That will also add a lot of deepth to multiplayer system and NPCs.

@Lornsteyn Well ive seen quite a few topics about how hard the new combat is.
Some of them are hidden behind "I like hard games BUT ... "
 
Devs changes how combat work a lot (and its fine). I cant see how people can complain about it after a few days.
They play the same old way they did in b40 and expect it to work in b41.
 
You can find a lot of gameplays at twich or YT, where you see that 41.14 was playable and with the right tactic you can still kill 100's of zeds and survive more than a few days.

@Lornsteyn Well ive seen quite a few topics about how hard the new combat is.
Some of them are hidden behind "I like hard games BUT ... "
 
Devs changes how combat work a lot (and its fine). I cant see how people can complain about it after a few days.
They play the same old way they did in b40 and expect it to work in b41.
 
You can find a lot of gameplays at twich or YT, where you see that 41.14 was playable and with the right tactic you can still kill 100's of zeds and survive more than a few days.

@Lornsteyn Well ive seen quite a few topics about how hard the new combat is.
Some of them are hidden behind "I like hard games BUT ... "
 
Devs changes how combat work a lot (and its fine). I cant see how people can complain about it after a few days.
They play the same old way they did in b40 and expect it to work in b41.
 
You can find a lot of gameplays at twich or YT, where you see that 41.14 was playable and with the right tactic you can still kill 100's of zeds and survive more than a few days.

id love to see a cursor like either of these

Internal tester's quote that I think should relax a few people in here:
 
"I usually bolt to the hardware store in West Point first thing. Couldn't grab much this time before they knocked the door down and chased me out. Very narrowly avoided getting bitten: Survival margins when fighting 3 at once indoors are near zero now. Even 2 can be tough if they both come at you at once! "
 
Also:
 
 

How about binding strafing with melee combat skill ?

"
A big aspect in build 41 has been the combat balancing. We wanted to make the one on one combat feel a lot easier, where fighting with groups would be much much more deadly.
This however has been too successful if anything, and we ended up with groups being SO deadly it was actually near impossible to survive a few fights with small groups, which ended up way too punishing even for ours, the most masochistic of gaming communities. (Sorry)"
 
To reiterate, you haven't played build 41. You're comparing it to 40, but as we've stated repeatedly, the entire combat system has been 100% replaced, rewritten from scratch, from what you're playing already, so we're balancing based on that, not what you're currently playing. Where you can get grabbed and bitten at a moment's notice. Where if at any point three zombies get close to you they will right there and then drag you to the ground and kill you instantly? Where any zombie that sneaks up behind you is almost guaranteed to take a chunk out of your neck? Where basically ANY 1v2 fight are not only difficult but ends 99% with you getting a bite the moment you swing at one of them, are unable to move, and the other gets into range during your swing?
 
Without the strafe moving, build 41 was literally about 10x harder than build 40 that you're playing, and everyone including extremely seasoned players in closed testing agreed it was way too punishing and would piss everyone off, and every one of them to a man/woman were celebrating the strafing combat as 'that's the last piece of the puzzle, and exactly what was needed', and you're making judgement calls on balance we're doing to build 41 based on 'it already being too easy' in build 40 - its kinda frustrating as I said above we're considering the ramifications of strafe moving on kiting etc to make sure it doesn't break the difficulty, just provides more scope for players to avoid certain death within their first few encounters.
 
We already stated we're going to ensure that difficulty is not compromised by kiting, we're balancing hit damage, zombie reactions, chance of knockdowns, speed of backward strafing, all manner of things to make sure strafing is not OP. But the game being IMPOSSIBLE to survive for a decent playlength was not good balance either. Our end goal for the balance is it will be deadly to try and fight against 3+ zombies with a start character. But taking on a couple of zombies at once you'll have a chance of getting away alive, and killing a single zombie on its own will be not too bad providing it doesn't get the jump on you. We have a very specific plan for balance and the goal is that groups will be much scarier than they are in build 40, but if we go too far (how it was prior to this addition) it will turn off all but the most skilled players and even those may get extremely frustrated before long.

We'll make sure it's balanced so kiting isn't something that keeps you safe. If by dumbing down you mean 'allow someone to survive more than a day' I'd agree with that no one here has any idea how unbelievably difficult the game is compared to 40 with the rebalanced combat. Thanks for your concern and we'll definitely bear this in mind.

oh, apologies. We were under the impression people wanted us to delay it as long as we possibly could.  we've obviously been trying to get it out there as soon as possible. We also said upfront before this build it's a massive rewrite of the entire game and will take a long time. People keep using this 'lose interest' like some kind of warning. If people are impatient and annoyed, we'd MUCH prefer them to lose interest, and then find interest at some point in future when they find out its out. Interest in the form of being annoyed and complaining the build isn't out yet is of no benefit to us whatsoever, there are plenty of other games in the meantime to sink your teeth into.
 
As said in the thursdoid, we're down to our last 'big thing that needs to go in', while nothing is certain the dates you said are perfectly plausable for IWBUMs, its certainly nowhere near another year.

PZ is currently 40% off and as many as you know, we've always said that we're not discounting the game heavier as a thank you to our early supporters.
 
https://store.steampowered.com/app/108600/Project_Zomboid/
 
This is also the last sale before we increase the price of Project Zomboid after many years. 
The price increase will come with the animations build.
 
For those who aren't aware, here is our reasoning for not discounting the game heavier over the years:
 
 

it's not currently planned, as it creates a real issue with the river, which is there purely as a a natural barrier way of meaning we won't have to model the entire of Louisville and surrounds over the river, only the portion on this side north of where the mall etc is (which will still be meaty enough in terms of work and play area). Also in terms of lore, for a good portion of the early game at least, the other side of the river is fine and unaware of the zombie threat across the river, so there are multiple issues with adding swimming and maintaining our story, the huge ton of work it would add aside.
 
Maybe if at some point we can do some kind of 'currents are too strong' thing to keep the river uncrossable we could consider it. No promises though.

Hear the 'difference':
 
 
The zombie sounds we've added are surprisingly similar (though we didn't consciously imitate) to a show that probably represents the most culturally relevant modern depiction of the zombie in popular culture, so to those saying 'too animalistic' or 'over the top' I respectfully disagree. The vast majority of feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive, we're extremely happy with the results, we may tweak volumes and hearing distances before release, or add more variation and degrees between different zombies, but this is how the zombies are now and there's nothing wrong with them. If they are 'too scary' then they are doing their job well, and someone of a nervous disposition or young age should not probably be playing if they are too scary. Zomboid has never been intended for the faint of heart and always blatantly and clearly intended and advertised to be a dark, bleak, nerve-wracking survival horror experience, and if it wasn't before these zombies, then it was a failing we've managed to overcome. This ain't Minecraft, it's Project Zomboid.

anims still aren't to the point the first vehicle build was - multiplayer is completely non-functional, the game difficulty balance of the game is completely fubared, it will run like an asthmatic dog with high zombie counts, and anims have been hyped for years longer than vehicles were, so we have to make sure first version doesn't piss people off cause there is 100x more 'it's taken them X long to do' expectation. We're also very much hoping that anims going public will coincide with a sales increase that will pay for all the significant extra resources and money we've put into getting them out there asap, and pushing them out in an underwhelming state would be dangerous to risk muting the excitement and attention it would get. Sadly as much as IWBUMS is a testing beta branch, a huge amount of people take it as the defacto build as soon as it goes public in any way.

As much as testers are positive about them, they just aren't ready for IWBUMS before a few key things, particularly the rotational blending and MP support, as well as some SERIOUS optimization to not cut off the bottom half of our players. But that day is definitely getting closer. We won't keep it in private testing longer than i needs to be, but a few minutes of video simply doesn't tell you the whole story.

Are we going to be able to pick up the broken glass and place it somewhere else?
 
It would make a nice way to know if someone is going around your base with them crunching that glass.

If you think you can just wave things like a comically giant pan and a skeleton dance party in our faces and expect us not to demand it...? Well, brother you got another thing comin'!

Probably not in the anim update, but we have a completely new gun aiming system planned that'll prob be in the hunting update after. Think of the old Commandos games with their sniper rifle sights that follow the mouse. We're going to try make shooting a more player skill based, visceral and satisfying, with less reliance on RNG with some of the FPS style mechanics like bullet spread indicators on sights, and aiming with your mouse (tho obv the bullet will still travel from the player and may hit cover etc)

Actualy I preffer less skills but more important ones. Instead of 8 combat related skills 1 would be fine. Just add perk system each 2 lvls, where you can choose 1 combat perk on top of passive buff. Same goes for Agility skills. Its weird that I can fight like a champ with long blunt and at the same time have no idea what to do with short ones.

Beside that the update looks cool.

IMO there's really no need for Blunt Guard and Blade Guard, just merge them into one skill.
Same with Lightfooted and Sneaking, they even lvl up at almost identical speed.