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  1. Here you will find a (hopefully) comprehensive guide to map modding using TileZed, from scratch, to uploading to Steam Workshop. Step 1) Installation and setup Spoiler - Download the latest version of TileZed here: https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/forum/64-mapping/ 3 Step 2) Creating a new map - Creating A Master Image Spoiler The first thing you need to do to create a new map mod is to create some basic images you can import into WorldEd. You will need a paint program such as Paintshop, Gimp or Paint.Net (I use paint.net and it works great). Open your paint program of choice and create a new image, each pixel of the image will correlate to 1 tile when in game, so, if you want to create a map that is a single "cell" in size, you would create a 300x300 pixel image. If you wanted to make a 2x2 cell map you would create a 600x600 pixel image etc. Once you have created your new blank image save it as a png file (eg. MainMaps.png), this is so you can work with multiple layers, which will make your life way easier! - Creating The Base Map Image Spoiler Now you have your blank map image up and ready we need to setup the exact colours we will be using to draw the game world (when importing your image into WorldEd every pixel gets read and converted into the relevant tile (if the colour is recognised by WorldEd)). Use your programs colour palette to enter the colours below using the RGB values given: -----Base Map Colours---- Dark Grass | 90 100 35 Medium Grass | 117 117 47 Light Grass | 145 135 60 Sand | 210 200 160 Light Asphalt | 165 160 140 Dark Asphalt (main roads) | 100 100 100 Medium Asphalt | 120 120 120 Gravel Dirt | 140 70 15 Dirt | 120 70 20 Dirt Grass | 80 55 20 Dark Pothole | 110 100 100 Light Pothole | 130 120 120 Water | 0 138 255 ----Veg Map Colours---- Dense Forest | 255 0 0 Dense Trees + grass | 200 0 0 Trees + grass | 127 0 0 Fir Trees + grass | 64 0 0 Mainly grass, some trees | 0 128 0 Light long grass | 0 255 0 Bushes grass + few trees | 255 0 255 Dead corn 1 | 255 128 0 Dead corn 2 | 220 100 0 None (black) | 0 0 0 Now you are ready to start drawing your base map, for now you should ignore all the colours listed after water as you will be drawing these onto separate vegetation map layers. Example: Spoiler MAKE SURE TO TURN ANTIALIASING OFF AND CHANGE BLEND MODE TO OVERWRITE BEFORE HAND! (otherwise you will get colours not recognized by WorldEd, leading to extra work later). - Creating The vegetation Map Image Spoiler Now you have created your base layer which should contain your main roads (using the dark asphalt colour), paths and side roads (light asphalt, dirt, gravel dirt), dirt, water, sand and grassy ground (dark/medium/light grass), save this image as a BMP (eg. MyMap.BMP) (if warned about flattening the image just select yes/continue/ok) it's now time to start drawing the vegetation map on a new layer. Close the BMP image you just saved and create a new layer on your original .png,have it above your base layer (it should put itself there automatically), copy your original layer and paste it onto the new layer, then hide/untick your base layer. On this new layer start by selecting the None(black) colour from above and flood fill all the roads (and any other area where you do not want vegetation to grow such as water, sand etc (erosion vegetation will still work fine)) and delete any/every other colour from this layer, leaving just the black areas you just created. Now start drawing the other five colours (the ones you ignored when creating your base map) on places where you do want vegetation to spawn. Start off with using a seperate layer for each colour, starting with the Light long grass, just flood fill that entire layer with it, then drag your black "no veg" layer above it, this allows you to see the road/building layout easily. Then work your way up through the other colours (creating new layers for each one, each one above the last in the order list) as needed, all the way to the dense forest one. Save your PNG now, you're going to make some temporary changes you dont want to save. To save this as a vegetation image, make sure your base layer is still hidden/unticked (so only your vegetation layers are visible) and then start merging your vegetation layers together, from the top down. You should now be left with 2 layers, a single vegetation layer, and your hidden base layer, save the image as a BMP (eg. MyMap_veg.BMP) (if warned about flattening the image just select yes/continue/ok), note that this image MUST be saved with the same name as your base map BMP with the added "_veg" at the end, it must also be saved in the same folder as your base map BMP. Once you have saved the veg map BMP, close that image and then close your PNG WITHOUT saving, unless you want your vegetation layers to be permanently merged, making it a lot harder to make edits, if needed, in the future. Example: Spoiler - Creating The Zombie Spawn Map Image Spoiler You will also need to create a new image called a zombie spawn map to tell the game about the density of zombies in our map, this is a black and white image that is 10x smaller than your base and vegetation images, so, if your map image is 600x600 pixels, your zombie spawn map would be 60x60. Start by flood filling it black (black means no zombies), then add white and grey lines/circles/patches where you want zombies to spawn, white is highest density, getting lower and lower with darker greys. (example), Save this in the same folder as your base map and veg map, again giving it the same name but this time with the "_ZombieSpawnMap" suffix (eg. MyMap_ZombieSpawnMap.BMP). It can be handy to make sure anti-aliasing is enabled when creating this image as it will naturally add shades of darker grey around any white or greys you place. You now have all the required images to create a new world in WorldEd. Example: Spoiler - Importing into WorldEd Spoiler Open TileZed, click on the Tools menu and then Click on WorldEd, this will open a new window, click on New, give it the size of your map (e.g. 2 cells x 2 cells) and click ok, you will now see a number of numbered squares depending on the size of your map. Each one of these squares represents an in game Cell (300x300 tiles). Now, navigate to the folder where your map mod images are stored and drag and drop the base image (MyMap.BMP) into the WorldEd window, making sure it covers all the numbered squares correctly. Once done, click on File and then BMP to TMX, on the window that pops up, click on the 3 dots in export directory and create a new folder (e.g. MyMapMod) for your mod and click on select folder, then before you press ok, make sure "Assign generated maps to world" and "Report unknown colours" are both ticked, then click ok. Click ok on the sanity check (make sure you aren't accidentally overwriting the wrong mod etc) and WorldEd will do it's magic. You MUST have at least your base map image and your veg image made and in the same folder before WorldEd will allow you to import a map image. Now, if you forgot to turn anti-aliasing off, WorldEd will probably pop up and tell you your image contains rogue colours, it will then list each rogue colour found along with the co-ordinates (in pixels) of every pixel with this rogue colour, you will need to open your images, find ALL of these pixels/colours, replace them with the correct colour(s) from step 2 then re-import into Worlded, otherwise you will end up with errors in your game world when it comes time to play. If WorldEd didnt throw up any colour errors then all you need to do now is click on file and save, give your world a name (I like to use the same name as the map to avoid confusion) and save, you now have the basics of a new map, to which you can now start adding buildings and world detail! Step 3) Creating/Adding custom buildings Navigate to your TileZed folder and create a new folder inside named Buildings, this is where you are going to save any buildings you make or download. - How to create custom buildings Spoiler Open TileZed. Click on Tools then Building Editor In the new window click on New Building. In the settings window that pops up you can choose a template and the plot size for your building. The templates provide pre-made room definitions for certain types of buildings, which are crucial for spawning the correct loot in the right places. For now choose “none” for the template and leave the plot size at 20x20 tiles. It's always best to make your plot a bit bigger than your actual building and surroundings will be as you can shrink your plot to match your finished building later. Click OK. You will be presented with a grey screen with a grid of 20x20 squares. For now, make sure Iso is selected on the left of the window. The first thing you need to do now is create some room definitions for your new building, this will allow the game to spawn the correct loot into the right places, such as food into kitchens, clothes into bedrooms, medicine into bathrooms etc. At the top of the window, click on Buildings and then Rooms (or you can use the Rooms icon on the toolbar). In the small window that popped up. click on the + in the bottom left to add a new room type. On the right you can now give your new room a name which can be anything you want, and an internal name, which MUST match one of the names in this list: You can now draw your new room on the tile grid by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button (make sure the Draw Room tool is selected at the top of the window). Notice how the colour of the tiles turns to the colour you selected for your room in the previous step. Once you let go of your left mouse button your room will appear. You can change the shape of the room by clicking and dragging more pieces that connect up, or by holding CTRL and clicking/clicking and dragging to delete parts of a room. You will see that placing tiles of the same room type next to each other will automatically delete the internal wall between them, and placing tiles of different room types (e.g. living room and kitchen) next to each other will maintain the internal walls. You can create new internal walls (or delete internal walls) using the Place Wall tool (located to the right of the Draw Room tool). Simply click on the Place Wall icon, select the tiles you want to use for it's interior and exterior facing walls as well as grime etc and then left click and drag your wall on the tile grid, right clicking on a wall you place will delete, to edit it's length, left click on one of its "ends" and drag. So now you've finished placing the rooms for your ground floor you probably want to place some windows and doors. Click on the Place Doors tool at the top left of the window, then using the tile and furniture menu on the right, use the Doors and Door Frames options to select the door you want to use, then simply click on the tile grid where you would like the door to go. Exactly the same method is used for placing windows, except using the Place Windows tool at the top of the window instead (located to the right of Place Doors). You've now placed your windows and doors, but maybe you realised that your building is 1 tile too wide and you need to make it smaller. Just select the Draw Room tool, hold CTRL and click and drag on the area you want to delete. That worked, but your doors and windows that were on that side of the building are now floating in thin air, 1 tile out from the "new" wall. You can easily get around this by selecting the Select and Move Objects icon at the top of the window, then clicking and dragging the area select over the doors/windows etc you want to move, then clickng and dragging one of the rectangles at the base of one of the objects, all objects will move together as one, making bulk/mass changes easier to deal with. Now it's time to place some furniture down, simply use the Tiles and Furniture menu on the right of the window to browse through and select the furniture piece you want, then at the top of the window the Place Furniture icon should now be clickable, once selected simply left click on the tile grid where you would like your furniture to go. Right click will delete a previously placed piece. You will notice that items will automatically orient themselves to have their backs to the wall if placed against one. If put up against 2 walls (such as the corner of a room) you can change its' orientation by moving your mouse cursor within the tile it's to be placed on. You can also select the orientation of furniture by holding the left click down as you place it and moving your mouse round, once in the desired orientation, simply let go of the left mouse button. If you are placing multiple objects on the same tile then the last object added will be drawn on top, so if you want to have a chair on top of a rug, make sure you place the rug first and then the chair. Your ground floor is complete, now it's time to add some stairs and a first/top floor. Click on the Place Stairs icon on the toolbar at the top of the window, select the stairs you want to use in the Tiles and Furniture menu on the right and then left click on the tile grid where you would like to place your stairs. Right clicking on previously placed stairs will delete them. Now click on the Floor icon on the toolbar, this will pop up a new window that lists the floors of the current building (currently only Floor 1). Click on the blue + icon to add a new floor, you should see that it has added Floor 2 to the list, above Floor 1, click OK. Now that you are back to the tile grid you will notice that your building currently looks darker, however if you look at the toolbar you will also notice that the floor icon has changed (now reads Floor 2/2), indicating that you currently have your new floor selected, and any room/items you place will be on this floor. You can now place rooms and furniture etc like before (making sure the correct tool is selected in the toolbar), notice that when you add a room that sits above your previously placed stairs on the floor below, BuildingEd will automatically "cut holes" in the floor to allow the player to move between floors. If any of your lower floors are not covered by rooms on higher floors then don't forget to add some roof pieces over the gaps. To do this, navigate to the floor above and then click on the Place Roof icon in the toolbar and select a roof type (e.g. Flat Top), then on the right of the window select Roof Tops (or Caps/Slopes depending on the roof type being used) under Tiles and Furniture and select a roof tile to use in the area below. Then click on the tile grid where you would like to place the roof tile (e.g. a flat roof tile to cover a ground floor room is placed on the "floor" of the next floor up). When you want to add a roof to your top floor, create a new floor using the Floor icon like before, then select the Place Roof icon in the toolbar, select the type of roof tile you want to add and place on that new layer. Flat roof tiles are by far the easiest to add, bu the prettier sloped roofs can be figure out with a little bit of trial and error, again using right click to remove any previously placed pieces, just remember to have the correct roof type selected in the Place Roof tool depending on what tile you're trying to add. Finally you might want to add detail around the outside of the house such as gardens and paths. To do this, first click on Tile (underneath Iso) on the left side of the window, you should notice that the options on the right of the window have changed. At the top right is a list of every layer, ticked layers have all tiles placed on that layer visible in the tile grid, un-ticking them makes those tiles invisible, allowing you to hide the buildings walls when placing flowers or ground tiles for example. At the bottom right as a list of all of the different tiles you can use. Click on the category and then the desired tile on the right. Left clicking on the tile grid will place the selected tile on the selected layer, overwriting any tile that is already at that location and on that layer. Hold CTRL and left click to remove a tile from the currently selected layer. Lastly you will need to add a room definition for any full tile roof peice that is not over an internal room of your building. This is to allow the new roof occlusion system to function correctly. For any bits that are above an internal room, simply make sure that room has a room definition (all room in buildings should, even hallways etc). If the roof bit is over an outside area (such as a porch) then instead of giving it an internal room definition, which could possibly mess with loot tables etc, use the new room definition made for this situation - emptyoutside. In the example below you can see that this building has a porch roof outside the front door, all other bits of roof are already over a pre-existing room definition and so we don't need to worry about them. We do need to add an emptyoutside room definition on/under the porch roof however as there currently is no room definition outside the building. In this example, the porch roof is on the roof layer of floor 2. If we check Ortho view you can see that a room definition of emptyoutside yellow) has been applied to the corrosponding tiles on floor 2. If you're having problems getting it to work properly, remember: every "full tile" roof peice (the little overhang peices you see in the example above do not need to adhere to this rule, just leave them as is if you have any) must be "over/on" a room definition, so make sure every room in your buildings has a room definition (including hallways etc). Add a room definition of "emptyoutside" (without " ") to any full tile roof peices that do not sit "over/on" an internal room definition. Now your building is complete, its time to save it. If you havn't already, create a folder inside you TileZed folder called buildings, you can create any number of sub-folders in here to help organise your buildings if you like. Now, in BuildingEd, click on File and Save As, navigate to your buildings folder, give your building a name and save it. To make life easier when creating similar buildings in the future it's a good idea to save your buildings template, so when you create a new building you can select it's template and have all of your room definitions, wall tiles etc already set up for you. To do this, click on Building and the Properties, here you can see the default tiles that will be used on any building created with this template. To the left is also a button for checking/editing the room definitions. Clicking on Save Template will ask you for a name and then save it to the list of templates. As you can see you can quickly edit and create multiple templates rather fast using this method. - How to add buildings to your map Spoiler If it's not already open, open WorldEd (open TileZed, clikck Tools and then WorldEd) and load your previously saved map. You can now edit your map by double clicking on one of the cells, it will open a new tab (named cell x,x) containing a preview of what that cell will look like in game. You can use the sliders to navigate the camera around the map as well as holding down control and using your scroll wheel to zoom in/out. To the right of the preview window you will see a couple of areas, one labeled "maps" and one labeled "history", in the maps section, navigate to your buildings folder, you will see all of your buildings listed as tbx files (you can create multiple folders within the buildings folder if you like to help organise your buildings to make them easier to find). All you need to do now is click and drag a tbx from the section on the right onto the preview window (make sure "Select and move lots" is selected on the toolbar at the top of the screen), you will see the building moving with your mouse cursor over the world, just drop it wherever you want it to go. Once you have placed all the buildings you want on this cell click on File and then Save and then close the tab (named cell x,x). You should now be back to seeing your entire map. You can now repeat the process for each other cell. Once you are finished adding buildings (you can always add more later if you want to start off small and test a few things first) come back to the world view and save your map. Step 4) Exporting and testing the map - Exporting Spoiler Before adding world detail such as lamposts, road markings, road signs etc you probably want to load your map up and run around in game to make sure everything is as you want it because any world detail changes you make will be lost if you need to make edits to your BMP files and re-import them into WorldEd. The first thing you are going to need to do is add a spawn point (or more) on your map. To do this you will first need to create a spawnpoints.lua file, just navigate to the folder you created when you imported your BMP's into WorldEd (e.g. MyMapMod) which by default will have been created in your TileZed folder. Once there create a new text document, open it and then click on save as, change Save as type to All files, name it spawnpoints.lua and click save. Then open WorldEd and load your map, double click on the cell you want to add a spawn point to, once it opens, click on the "add spawn point" tool at the top of the window and click on the map where you want your spawn point to go, it will place down a prism to allow you to keep a visual track of your spawn points as well as opening a dialogue box to select the profession that can spawn here (if no boxes are ticked then nothing will be added to the spawnpoints.lua file when you write spawn points). Once finished, save the cell, come back to the world view (close the cell's tab) and click on File and then Write Spawn Points, on the dialogue box which pops up, navigate to and select the spawnpoints.lua you created above and save. Once you have created your spawn point(s), save your map then click on File and then Genrate Lots>All Cells. Here you will be asked for 4 things, the first being the directory your lot files will be saved in, click on the 3 dots and navigate to the folder you created for your map mod when you imported your BMP into WorldEd, then right click and create a new folder called Lots, select this folder. Secondly it needs your zombie spawn map, just click on the 3 dots and navigate to your zombie spawn map and select it. Third is the Tile Definitions folder, again click on the 3 dots and this time navigate to your Project Zomboid Steam Install folder (c:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Project Zomboid), click on the Media folder and then click Select Folder. The last thing is the World Origin. If you are making a stand alone map which is not connected to any other maps then you can just leave this as is. If however you are wanting to add your map to an exisiting world or overwrite a cell(s) in an existing world you will need to change these values. The cell of your map that is at 0,0 (the one furthest to the north west) will be given the values you use here, allowing you to offset your map to make existing maps bigger or overwite cells of an existing map. Once ready, click ok - Getting it in game Spoiler OK now you have all of the files you need to test your map in game, so lets go ahead and do that. First, create a new folder on your desktop (or somehwere easily accesible) and give it a name (e.g. MyMapMod), inside create another folder called media, inside there create a 3rd folder called maps and then inside there, create a final folder called MyMapMod (or whatever the name of your map is). Inside this final folder is where you want to put all of the .lotheader, .lotpack and .bin files that were created when you generated the lots for your map, as well as the spawnpoints.lua file and and objects.lua (dont worry about this for now, you will create one when you add foraging zones later). You also want to create a text file(it will actually be saved as a .info file), using Notepad, in this folder, called map, include the following: Spoiler title=Your map name here lots=Muldraugh, KY description= Your map description here fixed2x=true (in this example were adding/overwriting cells in the base games map, but all the files will be kept seperate so the mod only appears when selected in game(hence the lots=Muldraugh, KY)). Click on File and Save as, now instead of saving it as a text file, at the bottom, select Save as type and choose All Files, then name the file map.info The next file you need in this folder is a PNG file called thumb.png, this is the thumbnail used in the games menu for your mod, for now you can just create a blank one using your paint program and save it in this folder. From this folder, navigate up 3 folders until your in the first one and can see the Media folder, in this first folder, alongside the media folder you want to create 2 final files, the first is a mod.info file, again just create a txt file (saved as .info instead of .txt) this time called mod and include this info: Spoiler name=The Name Of Your Mod Here id=The Name Of the First Folder You Created Here (e.g. MyMapMod) description=Description Of Mod Here poster=poster.png The very last file you need is another png, just copy your thumb.png you created a little earlier, paste it here and rename it to poster.png All that's left to do now is drag and drop (or copy and paste) that entire folder structure into: C:\Users\YourUsernameHere\Zomboid\mods Then load up Project Zomboid, click on Mods, enable your mod, create a new game and select your map on the world selection screen. You should find yourself spawning in on one of the spawn points you created earlier. Step 5) Adding world detail Spoiler Now that you have had a run around your map in game and are happy with the layout, vegetation, bulding placement etc it's time to start beautifying your map by adding detail. To start, open TileZed and then open WorldEd, load your map. Right click on the cell you want to add detail to and then click on "open in tileZed". Bring TileZed to the front (or minimise WorldEd) and you will notice you have a zoomed in view of that cell. In map window to the right of the screen, click on the layers tab halfway down, the window above should populate with a number for layers with different names, these are what you will use to place your various bits of detail, allowing you to stack multiple things on top of each other without overriding the previous one (such as road markings on roads, trees on tiles with grass etc). Below this will be a tilesets window listing all of the different tilesets currently used in game, clicking on one of the names will display its contents directly to the right, as you will see, most tilesets have multiple tiles. Adding detail to your world is simply a matter of finding the item you want to place from the tilesets, making sure you're on the correct layer (so placing a tree wont delete the ground tile etc) and then clicking where you want to peice to go (making sure the stamp brush tool at the top of the window is selected). There's a lot of useful tools listed along the top to help you, such as undo and a rectangular select to allow you to copy and paste areas of detail, for example, simply place down some road markings from the street_trafficline_01 tileset on to the FloorOverlay layer, then select the Rectangle Select tool, select the cells with the road markings on, press CTRl+C and then CTRL+V, now you can click away, placing copies of that area (only tiles on the currently selected layer) with a single click, allowing you to place large amounts of detail rather quickly. Once you are finished adding detail to your cell, click on File and Save then close the tab. You can now go back to WorldEd and repeat the process with each other cell, once complete come back to WorldEd, click on File and Generate Lots. Your world detail has now been saved and can be seen in game. Any time you make changes to your map and want to test it in game you will want to re-copy all the .lotpack, .lotheader and .bin files along with your spawnpoints.lua and objects.lua into the folder structure you created in the step above "Getting It In Game", overwriting old files as you go, then copy into: C:\Users\YourUsernameHere\Zomboid\mods as you did before, again overwriting if asked. Step 6) Zoning Your Map Spoiler A - Foraging and Loot Respawn Zones Find the .pzw file for your map mod (generally in the parent folder to your mods .lot files) and open it in a text editor (e.g. Notepad). Look for the line(s) that starts with "<bmp path= ...", after the last one, paste this chunk of code: Spoiler <objecttype name="TownZone"/> <objecttype name="Forest"/> <objecttype name="DeepForest"/> <objecttype name="Nav"/> <objecttype name="Vegitation"/> <objecttype name="TrailerPark"/> <objecttype name="Farm"/> <objectgroup name="TownZone" color="#aa0000" defaulttype="TownZone"/> <objectgroup name="Forest" color="#00aa00" defaulttype="Forest"/> <objectgroup name="Nav" color="#55aaff" defaulttype="Nav"/> <objectgroup name="DeepForest" color="#003500" defaulttype="DeepForest"/> <objectgroup name="Vegitation" color="#b3b300" defaulttype="Vegitation"/> <objectgroup name="TrailerPark" color="#f50000" defaulttype="TrailerPark"/> <objectgroup name="Farm" color="#55ff7f" defaulttype="Farm"/> Save the file and close it. It is possible that your pzw file will already contain this code, in which case it is not necessary to add it again. Open TileZed and then WorldEd and load your world, dbl click on the cell you want to add foraging to. Click the "create object" button at the top of the window. At the bottom of the window you will see 2 selection boxes ("Level: 0" and "Obj Grp: <none>") Click on "Obj Grp <none>" and you will see the list of foraging zones you can add to the world. Select the type you want, you can then draw a rectangle on the game world by clicking and holding left mouse button. You can add multiple rectangles of any type and size to each cell, allowing you to be as specific or general as you want. Once done, save the cell, close it and move on to the next. These zones are used for respawning loot and new zombies, the nav zone is used for zombie horde migration, basically marking the path of least resistance through a town/area. More specifically, only buildings that are within "TownZone", "TrailerPark" or "Farm" zones will be allowed to respawn loot. B - Vehicle Zones Adding vehicle zones is very similar to adding the forging zones. Simply add the following code to your map mods' PZW file the same way as you did for the foraging zones above. Again, if your pzw file already contains this code then there is no need to add it again. <objecttype name="ParkingStall"/> <objectgroup name="ParkingStall" color="#85929e" defaulttype="ParkingStall"/> List of vehicle zone names to use in WorldEd: bad good medium sport farm junkyard trafficjams trafficjamn trafficjame trafficjamw rtrafficjams rtrafficjamn rtrafficjame rtrafficjamw police ranger fire mccoy fossoil postal spiffo radio ambulance burnt The first group is the most common type of vehicle zones used. The second group are for traffic jams pointing in specific directions to immitate the flow of traffic. The ones prefixed with r will spawn less than the regular trafficjam zones. The third group are specific zones for the type of vehicles listed, they are still also spawn random cars but will also spawn the vehicle listed. The final one will add random burn out vehicles. Vehicle zones should be placed as a multiple of 4x3 tiles (4x3, 8x6, 28x3 etc) with 4x3 being a single vehicle, 4 being its side and 3 being its front/back. Once done, load your map mod up in WorldEd, open a cell and add your new vehicle zones as you would foraging zones. Whenever you add a zone you need to use the objects panel on the left of the WorldEd window to give the zone a name (use the names listed above) that will be visible in WorldEd as a tag over the zone, making it easier to keep track of what you have placed where, if these are left blank then the game will default back to grabbing random vehicles from the ParkingStall zone. Example: After you have added vehicle zones to all of your cells, save your map. If you are having trouble with your vehicle zones, you can always take a look at the vanilla objects.lua within the muldraugh folder of your zomboid install, once opened just search for "ParkingStall" to see examples of vehicle zones used in the vanilla vehicle branch. C - Water Zones As above, the first thing you want to do is add the needed code to your map mods' .pzw file, if already present there is no need to add the code snippets again. Look at the beginning of your pzw file and find where the "propertydef"' lines are and add the first chunk of code to the end of that block, same for the "template" and "objecttype" chunks, find their respective blocks and add to the end. Spoiler <propertydef name="WaterDirection" default="0.0"/> <propertydef name="WaterSpeed" default="0.0"/> <propertydef name="WaterGround" default="false"/> <propertydef name="WaterShore" default="true"/> <template name="WaterFlowN"> <property name="WaterDirection" value="0"/> <property name="WaterSpeed" value="1.0"/> </template> <template name="WaterFlowS"> <property name="WaterDirection" value="180"/> <property name="WaterSpeed" value="1.0"/> </template> <template name="WaterFlowE"> <property name="WaterDirection" value="90"/> <property name="WaterSpeed" value="1.0"/> </template> <template name="WaterFlowW"> <property name="WaterDirection" value="270"/> <property name="WaterSpeed" value="1.0"/> </template> <template name="WaterZone"> <property name="WaterGround" value="false"/> <property name="WaterShore" value="true"/> </template> <objecttype name="WaterFlow"/> <objecttype name="WaterZone"/> Now you will see 2 new zones in WorldEd in the same place your other zones reside, WaterFlow and WaterZone. WaterFlow zones are single tile-sized objects that you can place down on any body of water to make it flow in a given direction and at a given speed, any water tile connected to the tile you placed the zone on in a given cell is affected. You can then follow the flow downstream adding more WaterFlow zones to change its direction/speed to match the landscape/route the river/stream takes. Here's an example from the vanilla map: WaterDirection is in degrees with 0 being North and 90 being East etc. WaterSpeed goes from 0.0 to 1.6. The second new water zone is.... WaterZone. WaterZones allow you to play/remove with the blends that you will normally see where water meets land. This allows you to do things like have pools without the water in the pool creating a shore-like blend with the tiles next to it, which obviously for a pool, wouldn't make sense, here is an example from the vanilla world where a WaterZone has been used is this exact way, notice how the WaterGround and WaterShore properties are both set to false: It might be a little hard to tell from the picture but the WaterZone completely covers the pool and all tiles bordering it, allowing it to remove the shoreline blend from said tiles. You can play with the settings and placement of WaterZones to get different effects/looks depending on your needs. D - Zombie Zones Zombie Zones allow you to specify specific costumes for zombies that spawn within certain areas on your map (such as in and around buildings). As you did for the water zones etc first you need to add the following code to your map mods' .pzw file. Add the objecttype line at the end of the existing ones, same for the objectgroup line: Spoiler <objecttype name="ZombiesType"/> <objectgroup name="ZombiesType" color="#555500" defaulttype="ZombiesType"/> As before you will now have a new zone in WorldEd called ZombieType, you can select it and place zones as usual, the larger your zones the better chance of zombies spawning within them. These zones do not add "extra" zombies, they just affect zombies that spawn within them. Each ZombieType zone must be named, similarly to vehicle zones, the list of current ZombieType zone names is: Spoiler School Prison VariousFoodMarket Wedding Fossoil Offices Seahorse Dinner Restaurant Doctor Pharmacist FarmingStore Police ConstructionSite Gigamart Bank FancyHotel Spiffo CarRepair Factory Gas2Go ThunderGas McCoys TrailerPark CountryClub Athletic Spa PizzaWhirled Pony Jays Survivalist Boxing CoffeeShop Butcher Baseball StreetSports FireDept NursingHome Church Football Rocker PileOCrepe Bar Nightclub Army Above you can see an example of 2 Factory ZombieType zones and 1 TrailerPark ZombieType zone. The factory zones have been made to mainly only affect the zombies that spawn inside the buildings where as the trailer park zone has been made to cover the enitire park. E - Story Zones Story zones allow you to add small "scenes" to your map, such as a camping trip "gone wrong" as well as some others. As with the previous zones we first need to start off by adding the code snippets for these new zones to our maps .pzw file, once again add the objecttype line to the end of that section of code and the same with the objectgroup line, and if they already exist, they do not need to be added again: Spoiler <objecttype name="ZoneStory"/> <objectgroup name="ZoneStory" color="#ffffff" defaulttype="ZoneStory"/> You can now use the regular object tool to add Story Zones to your map. Best practice is to make the zone at least 10x10 tiles but you can also make them much larger to add a bit more randomization as to where they spawn in your zone. The zones themselves, like other zones do not guarantee a spawn of a story, only a chance. There are currently 3 different Story Zones used in vanilla, just like with vehicle zones and zombie type zones you will want to name each zone one of the following: Spoiler Lake Forest Beach As you can imagine, each one spawns vehicles/items/zombies you might expect to find in a "scene" from a zone of that type (eg. a bunch of tents, a campfire and a zombie eating some hiker/camper corpses). Above you can see an example of a Forest story zone and a Lake story zone. F - Loot Zones The new loot zones work alongside the new loot distribution system to allow us to take loot customization to a whole new level, 2 identical houses, but one with a loot zone over the top can produce wildly different loot spawns if you want it to. You do not need to add any loot zones to your map but they will offer wider loot variety and easier control of it. As with the previous sections, you will first need to add the code for these new zones to your map mods .pzw file: Spoiler <objecttype name="LootZone"/> <objectgroup name="LootZone" color="#ff00ff" defaulttype="LootZone"/> You can now add loot zones to the map the same way as any other zones. There are currently only a few zones used in the vanilla game (Rich, Poor, TrailerPark and Army), with more on the way, but you can easily create and use your own loot zones too. Here is a seperate guide about customizing loot for your map mod: Once all cells have had their zones added close any cells left open so you are back to the main world overview in WorldEd. Click on File and the Generate Lots>All Cells. If they aren't already then make sure your path to your lots directory and zombie spawn image are complete. Then for your tiles definitions folder you want to point that to the media folder inside your Project Zomboid installation folder (steam>common>... etc). Once done, click ok. Click File and then "Write spawn points to lua", then click on File and click "Write objects to lua". G - Map Zones Build 41.6 introduced the new in-game mapping system which allows your map to be procedurally drawn from a top down and an isometric view in game. All it requires is to tag your buildings in buildingEd with a type (commercial, industrial etc) and to add some simple zones over your roads/trails. There is a simple standalone guide on how to add these and get your map mod working with the new in game system here: Step 7) Uploading to steam workshop Spoiler Create a folder (anywhere for now, desktop is handy) with the name of your mod (e.g MyMapMod), place your mods preview picture (named preview.png) and a .txt file called "Workshop" which includes the following code: Spoiler version=1 title=Your Mod Name Here description=Your mod description here description=Second line of your mod description here (you can add more description= lines if you like) tags= visibility=public then save the file. Within the same folder as these 2 files create a new folder called "Contents", and inside the Contents folder add another folder called "mods". Inside this folder is where you want to copy and paste your mods main folder (the one you have been placing into c:\Users\Yourusernamehere\Zomboid\Mods when you test your mod in game). Once this is done cut/copy/paste the entire folder structure into your C":\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid\Workshop" folder and load up PZ. Click the "Workshop" button towards the bottom left and the click "create and update items", then select your mod (if it doesn't show dbl check you added it to the correct folder which will be shown at the top of the screen). Make sure the items details are correct and then press next, your mod will then be uploaded to steam workshop (wait for the upload confirmation)and should be viewable within the hour. You now have a map mod on steam workshop! Anytime you update your mod, simply copy/paste the updated files over the existing ones in your "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid\Workshop" folder and follow the above step again from loading up Project Zomboid, anyone subscribers will have the update pop up in their downloads automatically. Tips Spoiler Map Image Creation: If you are using paint.net, I recommend the Selective Palette plugin. You can choose a palette of colors and all pixels in your image will be assigned to the closest color. Find it here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8043-curtis-plugin-pack-update-for-354/ - Ciber Ninja More Coming Soon FAQ's Spoiler Coming Soon Other Helpful Guides Spoiler Building Making - Current Room Definitions How To Add Custom Texture Packs And Tile Definitions Blackbeard06's Video Mapping Tutorial - How to create lootable maps for your map mod How to customize Loot Spawns Big thanks to Capt_Paradox, Blackbeard06, Suomiboi, Thuztor and the whole modding community ❤️
  2. Guest

    Trapping Guide

    Greetings everyone! I'm The Gravedigger. I really hope you don't need a grave. But I'm so sorry if it happens. I'll take care of your character corpse. An honorable burial! After all, everyone dies in this game. Then, I'm creating some guides, maybe could be useful. Let's start with Trapping! Feel free to contact me if you need any help. It'll be a pleasure. https://imgur.com/a/eCiM0H5
  3. Table of Contents: Click the links below to quickly navigate to sections you need. 1. Foreword">Foreword 2. Preparation">prep 3. Firewall Settings">firewall 3.1 Port Opening for Zomboid">pfiptables 4. Steamcmd for Zomboid Server Files">steamcmd 5. Zomboid Server Files">zomboid 5.1 Editing Zomboid Server Settings">serversettings 5.2 Editing Zomboid Server Difficulty">serverdifficulty 6. Server Monitoring Tools">tools 7. Launch Exceptions (Common functioning server errors)">exceptions 1. Foreword: This an installation guide is for beginner-intermediate users, steps are mostly in detailed explanations. If you just got SSH capabilities, a terminal on putty, and centos 7 on a vps/dedi provider, this is for you. Read carefully and make informed decisions via copy and paste. I am not responsible if you brick your server, if you're unsure, google first. VPS and 64bit dictates the tested environment, while providers of your server can be different from mine, centOS 7 is able to reliably run a project zomboid using the steps provided. If your CentOS is older/newer, tweak are needed for repositories, and libraries. Checks and options for the variations of CentOS are provided, but this guide does not derail into helping 32bit and dedicated server users, hopefully this helps you. Side Note (I excluded firewallD and replaced it with good ol' iptables): This entire guide ignores CentOS 7 firewallD and uses the old iptables for firewall options. because botnets were brute forcing SSH port on day 0, while I was newly acquaintenced to CentOS 7, I didn't have time to learn, so I used what I knew, iptables, with fail2ban. If you can help harden this in more native CentOS 7 options with fail2ban and firewallD, feel free to add your input. Editor's Note: [2/19] Going to format this better tomorrow, it's completed but not looking too pretty. [2/22] Update: Proof read and All steps recently tested and working on another dedicated server I'm running. [~~~~] ToDo: Append more zomboid server settings and server tools in the future. 2. Preparation: CTRL+C on windows and right click in a putty terminal to paste. Codes will be in boxes like these: EXAMPLE: DOUBLE CLICK SELECT AND COPY ME# These are comments, no need to copy Updates and checks are needed. Ingredients: Putty, your port 22 access, root and your password, and a centos7 server. What now? Log into your root account. Check for 64bit CentOS: uname -aYou should see "x86_64 x86_64 x86_64" at the end of line, congratulations, you're 64bit. If you're 32bit, the installation process will be a lot easier. Due to you not needing to install both 32bit libraries and 64bit ones to make zomboid work. To make sure you're root: whoamiyou should see "root" at the next returned line after you enter this command. Update repolist for yum: yum update Afterwards, to see what repos you have available: yum repolistTo check if you have RHEL 7 - RPMforge.net for java, and htop. This step is for those that do not have RHEL 7 rpmforge on their yum repolist: yum install yum-utils(wget in a folder if you want organized downloaded files) wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpmwget http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txtrpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txtrpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpmTo delete these setup files: rm -f RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txtrm -f rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el7.rf.x86_64.rpmTo check for GPG keys: rpm -q --qf "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} \n %{SUMMARY} \n" gpg-pubkeyTo check yum if you have RHEL 7 on the list yum repolist##And if you don't have RHEL 7: yum-config-manager --enable rpmforge 3. Setting up iptables as firewall: I had to prevent botnet attacks on day 0, didn't really get to learn firewallD/firewall-cmd, if you know a better process for this, please append your revision below. You might already have these services on your VPS/Dedi, it doesn't hurt to run yum install, because it updates the services if you already have it, and it will do nothing if you're already up-to date. yum install iptablesyum install iptables-servicesDid it come with a firewallD? systemctl status firewalldsystemctl status firewall-cmdfirewallD is on, disable it systemctl mask firewalldsystemctl start iptablessystemctl stop firewalldsystemctl enable iptablesno firewallD, it's off (skip this if you went through 4 lines above that disabled firewallD, it just repeats starting iptables.) systemctl start iptablessystemctl enable iptablesstart gets it running, enable gets it running after your VPS restarts (hopefully never). IMPORTANT [sSH] If you do not include this line you will be locked out of your server. iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 22 -m --state NEW -j ACCEPT#22 is not your ssh port? change accordingly.(Got locked out twice while I was trying to edit iptables on a dedicated server , no judging) Fail2ban is a quick and easy way of filtering out unwanted login entries from ssh I had security problems on my VPS, so I used it and it works. The latest version of fail2ban is on EPEL, you need to install the repository for it: yum install epel-releaseyum install fail2banEdit with your favourite text editor vi, nano or vim, I chose vim. yum install vimvim /etc/fail2ban/jail.localAppend the following to the empty file, bantime is in seconds, equals to 24 hours. If within 10 minutes, 10 entires were placed, they would be banned for a day, via the firewall settings of iptables set in jail.conf (default setting, where it inherits modifications of jail.local) [sshd]enabled = truebantime = 86400findtime = 600maxentry = 10action = iptables[name=SSH, port=ssh, protocol=tcp] Editing with Vim: 3.1 [important] Opening ports on iptables for your zomboid server: iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 16261:XXXXX -j ACCEPTiptables -I INPUT 2 -p udp -m udp --dport 16261:XXXXX -j ACCEPT#UDP and TCP are needed#Replace Xs with additional users to 16261#XXXXX = 16261 + (player capacity)The Xs stands for the amount of users you want added to 16261, the range is dictated by the colon operator, where numbers left to right are inclusive. As in 1:3 is 1, 2 and 3. I read from somewhere that 2GB ram is equivalent to 10-15 players. You can do this later if you want, it's always changeable. My personal experience on a OpenVZ Linux 2GB VPS is that 2GB RAM handles 5 - 7 users smoothly with single player zombie settings. Removing iptables Rules [to refine your open port/mistakes] The oh no, I miscalculated amount of users I can handle, I can have more, or less. Delete old rules set above by... #To check rulesiptables -L INPUT -n --line-numbers#To delete rulesiptables -D INPUT <NUMBER_FROM_LINE_HERE>First line is to acquire a list of rules you've set on iptables. Second line is to remove it via the annotated line#Number dictated by the first command, you don't need the square bracket. Warning: Rule number on list is concatenated, not static. If you delete rule 2, rule 3 is now rule 2. Re type rule check command every time you want to delete, I locked myself out by deleting the SSH port two times too many. Saving iptable Changes service iptables saveYou thought service was replaced by systemctl? lol not quite. Wrapping fail2ban around iptables Check if you have fail2ban running after installation: systemctl status fail2banIf it's not running: systemctl start fail2banAnd enabling it starts it at every restart. systemctl enable fail2ban Congrats! You're done with basic firewall settings. 4. Getting steamcmd for zomboid server files: steamcmd is a script that helps you validate and obtain project zomboid server files and other steam supported games.. Install java and the libraries for glibc in 32bit form. yum install javayum install glibc.i686 libstdc++.i686because zomboid is 32bit, and your server is 64bit centOS, it requires 32 bit library to run a 32 bit game. Other libraries ([verified not needed] optional): The following should give you whatever resources it needs to run the zomboid dedicated server shell script properly as I have installed this out of fear that it would throw exceptions. I hope you wouldn't need the extra step, if you like to do a test, this is the step you don't include, and then include if the shell script terminal throws a bunch of exceptions during initialization. This is usually for when you get some obscure exception thrown at your zomboid console that is not normal. yum install libstdc++.x86_64 glibc.x86_64 glibc-common glibc-devel glibc-headersconcatenated version of the updated code from this op, in addition to the 64 bit versions of the previous glibc libraries. Adding steam user to run zomboid scripts It's recommended you use a separate user when running the zomboid server and steamcmd, out of security reasons that root shouldn't be logged in at all times. adduser steamuserpasswd steamuser#<type steamuser's password> Then you want to add the user to the group for using admin commands, called wheel. But before that, you want to check if this is allowed in the first place. visudoScroll down using arrow keys to find this line (make sure %wheel ALL(ALL) ALL is not commented out), it should look like the above. How to use vi to edit? (it's very similar to vim) Adding steamuser to wheel group usermod -aG wheel steamuserSwitch User to steamuser su steamuserCheck which group you're in by typing groupswhoami is just an empty command to test sudo on. sudo whoamiyour sudo password is that which you set for steamuser, not root. exit#this exits your su steamuser session, not putty terminal for your ssh session.It will return to [root @ yourserver] Making directory for steamcmd navigate to your folder of choice, for the purpose of defaulting a location for the guide, I chose /home/steamuser/ to install steamcmd and project zomboid under. mkdir /home/steamuser/steamcmd#makes directory aka folder called steamcmdcd /home/steamuser/steamcmd#goes to directory aka folder called steamcmdwget http://media.steampowered.com/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz#gets the file from the web, provided by valve.tar -xvzf steamcmd_linux.tar.gz#unzips the filerm -f steamcmd_linux.tar.gz#remove unnecessary install files -f ignores prompted warnings and force yes./steamcmd.sh#runs script, a terminal appearing notifying you with...#Steam>You are now in the terminal of steamcmd.sh, type the line below, replace brackets with your account info. Make sure you have project zomboid on this account or else you wouldn't be able to download the dedicated server files, and be aware, password is visible, so watch your back login <STEAM:USERNAME> <STEAM:PASSWORD>You will be prompted with steamguard verification, yes this is everytime you want to run an update on project_zomboid from steam, fetch and type it from your email, hit enter, after login is confirmed. If you've mistaken your steamguard key, and the steamcmd terminal didn't kick you, type "quit" hit enter, repeat ./steamcmd.sh again and redo from the login. force_install_dir /<ANYWHERE>//<ANYWHERE>/ is a folder soon to be created within /steamcmd/, and it will hold the zomboid server files, to everytime you want to launch you have to visit and type it, i named it /server/. All immediate zomboid server launch options will be allocated within home/steamuser/server after you type this command in the steamcmd terminal: app_update 108600 -beta onlinetest validateThe above line is from the wiki, last revision in 2014, still worked for my setup. app_update is a cheap term for, install if you don't have, update if you do. 108600 is the ID for the steam game, project zomboid. beta opts-in the latest version onlinetest is maybe an id identifer for it (optional??? if someone wants to exclude for a test, results would be appreciated) Validate is just a check to confirm you didn't download a car, cause it's illegal you know. quitThis exits steamcmd terminal 5. Zomboid server files and settings: Preparing for your zomboid server launch. you are in your /home/steamuser/steamcmd folder cd server#or whatever folder you force_install_dir intoList the items under this folder with: ls You better see 'projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh' in there. Allocating RAM: We're going to edit RAM values allowed by the script to run your zomboid server. vim projectzomboid-dedi-server.shEdit these values with vim: -Xms4096m \ -Xmx4096m \Change to your ram's capabilities. Generally RAM: 1GB = 1024, 2GB = 2048, etc., Connal referenced Kirrus on this thread, noting to not place it over 80% of your VM's capacity, that means your VPS. What is Xmx and Xms? heap size allocation (what is xmx/xms) (Minecraft ram allocation) because minecraft runs in a similar setting in java as to this game, it's useful to see how other server hosts allocate RAM. How do you use vim again? (Smash spoiler button with hammer to find out) Spoiler [Ins] #Hit the (Insert) key on your keyboardNavigate your cursor to the place you want to replace, edit like a text file on windows, just backspace to delete, etc., When you're done editing. Hit [Esc] #escape key top left of keyboard to exit out of edit mode from [Ins]After you finished with the values you'd like, hit [shift] + [;] (semi colon), then type wq and enter to save and quit. :wq Using "screen" for multiple tabs in your window. Now we install screen to allow multiple instances of tabs/windows running in your VPS. yum install screenscreen[CTRL] + a , [c] #you actually have to hold Ctrl + a, release both, then hit cWhat screen allows is multiple instances of "tabs" on your one SSH window. To use it just [CTRL] + a, [c] to create a new instance of that tab. Then [CTRL] + a, [n/p] (n or p, to navigate next or previous tabs) and [CTRL] + a, [k] kills the process. (closes the tab) Additional info on "screen" If you see immediately when SSH login is steamuser, click on spoiler to fix. First time running Zomboid Server After you're acquainted with windowed navigation with screen. Launch your server ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.shFor the first time it'll prompt you with an admin password, and another prompt to confirm what you entered. Wait for it to load. when you see.. You're golden. You shouldn't see more lines after server is listening on port, unless you felt a bit hastey and joined it. quitTo exit out of the server in order to change settings. 5.1 Editing more server settings Now you want to start another screen to visit the server settings. [CTRL] + a, n #you actually have to hold Ctrl + a, release both keys, then hit nWill bring you back to the next screen, (you have two screens, we're navigating this one to another location), use it as much as you like, it cycles. vim /root/Zomboid/Server/servertest.iniTo edit values such as public, pvp, maxplayers, etc., Below are the values I really tweaked from default. How do I use vim to edit again? Settings I changed: PVP=falsePauseEmpty=truePublic=truePublicName=[CENTOS]TESTINGPublicDescription=TESTING 1 2 3MaxPlayers=15Remember 2GB = ~10-15 players, RAM wise, scale accordingly, and make sure to delete old iptables and reopen ports according to change. After that is done, you can safely restart your server. su steamusersudo ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh#note if sudo every prompts you of a password, it's always the password of that user you're on. Server should launch, and you and others should be able to join. Just know you have screen options, every time you close putty or whatever program you use to gain access to your SSH. You will have the option to resume with screen -rTo switch, just use: CTRL+a, then n. Provided you have two screens, navigates you out of the running server for you to do other server stuff. If you have only one screen, CTRL+a, then c to create a new. 5.2 Server Difficulty Tweaks: Luckily you're given a tool to create this file yourself. it's located on your steam copy of zomboid folder on windows CXYZ:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\ProjectZomboidThe file name of PZServerSettings.exe It's a GUI guided editor that automatically creates the file named servertest_SandboxVars.luafor your server location of.. C:\Users\YOURNAME\Zomboid\ServerFor your VPS it must be placed on /root/Zomboid/Serverif only you had winscp or an equivalent program to run the .exe file within the vps. Fear not you can just create "servertest_SandboxVars.lua" and paste the following inside. 6. Optional server monitoring tools: (more to be added) Install htop via yum install htophtopit's like task manager for windows, but in a terminal, you can end trees of processes. 7. Common launch Exceptions (if you see these while initialising you shouldn't worry) I see these two common exceptions being handled gracefully, meaning the server still runs. If you have other common launch exceptions, just paste below and I'll append it. I saw these two on my first installation of zomboid, still experimenting with my VPS. On my 3rd installation on a dedicated server, I didn't see the public server one thrown. During initialising phase of server system: "failed to parse Recipes..." When public server is set. you see java.lang.NullPointerException iptables, the perfect setting (guide in progress) Aiming for security and ability to connect players, and public server list, without using no firewall at all. iptables is very logical in its setup, almost too much, where orders matter from top to bottom.The Green and Red are establishing new rules to connection types below it. The bold black rules for udp and tcp is what your server needs for zomboid to accept connections The bolded REJECT is what you want to add SSH access to, before it. See The OUTPUT policy needs to be just that, I'm only using this as a gaming server, and I trust myself and zomboid devs I don't see the need to filter my own server's output. If it's not on ACCEPT, use the following line below. iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT#accepts all outward going packets. Because it's your server sending files.We're a server, so we need to accept input, but filter it. If for some reason it's not on ACCEPT. iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
  4. So yeah, I've been trying to do it for 3 days and I don't want this time to get wasted. Here is a guide that will let you set up a private server for your friends within 1-2 hours. INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOST: INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLIENTS: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: I hope, that I'll help at least one group of friends to play this game. To admins: I will not answer to this thread. I registered just to write this one post and disappear forever. So feel free to edit it. I waive the rights to what I've written above. Peace
  5. I've created a new foraging guide since my old post on here was archived. Here is a link to it on steam http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=556622628 It is current as of IWBUMS build 33, and includes the new herbs as well as the new poison mechanics. Enjoy
  6. BayCon (Also known as El_Buhdai, or Ɛɭ Ɓʊɧɖąį) Presents... Something I had been meaning to write for awhile but never had the time... A guide so extensive, that it should be highly referred to... Ɛɭ Ɓʊɧɖąį~βαɣƇᴑŋ's Extensive and Comprehensive Guide to Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse [WIP] Pre-Introduction Introduction My goal with this is to make an almost fool-proof, community-made guide to surviving long amounts of time in Project Zomboid. I want it to cover almost every possible scenario, with steps and tools for how to stay alive when faced with as many specific dangers as possible. Clearly, I can't do this completely by myself, so your feedback, additions, and personal experience would be greatly appreciated as we try to make the very best Project Zomboid Survival Guide Available! Introduction The moment you start up a new game in Project Zomboid, you've already lost. You won't survive. There is no hope at all, no reason you should believe that you will make it in the new world of death that you are placed in, but does that mean you should give up? Hell no! You may not be able to survive in Project Zombod, but you can at least extend your poor little character's life for as long as possible, and here's how. Let's get started. 10 Things You Will Need To Survive Where Others Would Surely Perish... 1. A sharp mind and quick wits 2. Knowledge that, no matter what your situation is, you are never safe from your inevitable death 3. A constant sense of constant caution, without ever getting cocky 4. The right equipment and the know-how to use it effectively and efficiently 5. Effective and efficient ways of getting what you need and don't have 6. The ability to think ahead about how your current actions, no matter how big or small, will affect your character down the line 7. Some level of stability, or at the very least a strong system or process for living on the run. 8. (Harsh Multiplayer Only) The ability to outsmart other players, and use their lives as potential sacrifices for you or your group's. 9. Strategy and the motivation to plan for tomorrow, today.. 10. Just good ole' fashioned, good friggin' luck... You Can't Know How To Survive, Unless You Know All the Ways You Can Die It only makes sense, right? Know all the ways you can die, and figure out every possible way to prevent those things from happening. Simple, right? Well, not quite. Here are a list of as many possible ways you can die (If I miss something or add one that isn't true, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.). There are plenty of ways you can die in each of these categories, but I wanted to keep them small in numbers and go into more detail with each of them individually. They are bound to change due to feedback, here they are.. [Zombies + Zombie Infection] [illness + From Food + From Tainted Water] [Non-Zombie-Related Cuts, Gashes, and Wounds + Infection + Blood Loss] [Fatal Burns] [Fractures and Broken Bones, Falling Too Far] [Lack of Food And/Or Water] [Other Players + Peer Player-Inflicted Injuries]
  7. YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS ANYMORE YOU CAN RENT A READY TO GO SERVER. LIST HERE: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/9856-project-zomboid-server-hoster-sites/ TESTED ON DEBIAN WHEEZY, SUPPORT FOR UBUNTU UNKNOWN WILL BE COMING LATER IF NEED BE LOOKING FOR LINUX INSTALLATION GUIDE? GO HERE http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/5841-buying-running-a-linux-project-zomboid-server/ SCRIPTS FIXED AS OF 23/06/2014 Hey there, Are you struggling to install a Project Zomboid server? Trying to cut your way through all that Linux mumbo jumbo? Well then do I have the script for you. One of the biggest things I usually get, whether it's through PM's or posts on my Linux server guide is that some people are just struggling too much with the guide. Some people are just not technically minded with these sort of things, so it looks like reading a SCUD's schematics in Russian. With that in mind, this is the first part of a multi part project in making the installation and maintenance of servers that little bit easier. This way of installing requires minimal knowledge of Terminal etc and makes think that much easier. The downside is you have less knowledge about Linux making things a little bit harder to troubleshoot. So obviously use these if you really are struggling, but support for issues that arise might be a tad bit harder to explain on how to solve. Anyway you can choose to use this method, or the full Linux installation guide. The choice is yours on what to do. This version will still require you to download FileZilla and Putty. Script Information The scripts currently come in four parts. two parts for installing the server and grab other necessary scripts as well. One to use when updating the game (currently fixed to a beta branch which I hope to change later on, basically means anytime the game switches over to another branch will recover an upgrade.) and one to start the server (can also restart the server if ran when a server is running.) It's slightly buggy at this point in time as I try and find a better solution to starting the server. If it fails then you can just have to run through terminal. Hopefully I'll have the issue resolved relatively quickly. If you're technically minded and want to take a look under the hood of the script I've put it up on Github: https://github.com/Connall/Project-Zomboid-Server-Scripts So feel free to take a look. Guide to Using Script So first off, obviously go download the software I mentioned above. Putty and FileZilla. For sake of ease anything you see that's formated like this: Formatted like this.means that is something you type into the terminal. Got it? Good, great... alright... moving on. First make sure you have the necessary IP Address to connect to the server, provided by the hoster. Boot open putty and connect to the server using that address. Log into the root user account for the server and do the following. wget http://www.terminal-control.com/pz-server/scripts/pz-server-install.shOnce that's all done, do: bash pz-server-install.shThat will run the script. Follow the instructions that the console says. Make sure to take note of what password you choose for pz-server user since you will need to be able to connect to that user frequently. Once the script has finished close putty and open FileZilla. You’ll now need to edit the projectzomboid-dedi-server.sh and set your RAM values. This is dependant on how much RAM your server has, I personally didn't set them to use my complete server capacity, I did about half but the choice is up to you. (Kirrus: Don't set more than 80% of your VM's capacity.) Use FileZilla and double click on the file and it should open it up in an editor, find these two lines: -Xms1024m \ -Xmx1024m \ And edit the values to your choosing. Save and close the file and it will prompt you for the root password of FileZilla so put it in and it will be updated. When using FileZilla, do not use quick connect but the server manager. When it asks for protocol do NOT use FTP, use SFTP otherwise you will be unable to connect to the server. Now open putty back up and log into the pz-server user and run this command. bash pz-server-start.shThis should start up the server. If it seems to be acting strange then you can do it this way instead: screen -dr(Checking to see if there is a screen running.) If it doesn't say no screen detached, skip next step. screenEnter through it until you face something that looks like: pz-server@server - thing. Do: cd /home/pz-server/Steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboidthen ./projectzomboid-dedi-server.shthat will get the server started if the script seems to be acting up. Future... I do plan to make this a more in depth system as time goes on, to hopefully move through complete server autonomy. I want to turn this into a bit of a project hopefully. So will see where it takes me. Support Obviously the scripts should work fine since I've tested them a couple of times but always be on the lookout for any errors that might be spawning in the console in case they might shed light on the situation. I've tested this on Debian Wheezy so I know it should work fine (except for the problems mentioned above) but obviously unknown problems can pop up, so if this is the case then just post in here (please don't PM me) and I'll see if I can't resolve the problem. License For those that care it's using a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ I doubt the script would get the attention of anybody who would be using it for commercial purposes, but I just decided to do it that way just in case. (Original Attribution and non removal of credits is also required.) I would appreciate if scripts being released as an adapt were done so when it's clear I'm no longer around and can not work on the project anymore. Programmers As I said above, everything is on Github if you want to take a look at the source code to check for anything malicious (which there isn't) before running it on your server, if you feel like pointing something out on a way to improve it then go nuts, I'll listen but I imagine the big ones like checking if program is already installed or check if file exists are already things I want to be tackling in the coming updates (hopefully.) Disclaimer While I make sure the scripts work and won't mess up/with a server, I still must say that you use these scripts at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any perceived damage they may cause and that if using these scripts on a server with existing important data, then I recommend backing up this data before using the scripts. If something does go wrong, a quick fix is usually an OS re-install away. Now obviously I don't believe the scripts should be causing catastrophic problems, but I don't want anybody blaming me for their serving becoming messed up. FAQ Q. Why you doing this? A: I needed a project. I was originally going to write some guides for Multiplayer to exist beside my Linux Server setup guide but the ever changing nature of multiplayer caused a couple of guides to become obsolete. So I decided to tackle an issue on something I knew about and I like helping people, so there's that. Q: How is this going to be expanded? A: One thing I really want to aim to do is make a website interface and cut out the terminal in it's entirety but that's a long time down the road I think. Most likely working on stuff like automating backups and fixing the running server and fixing beta branches. Really just see where the road takes me. Q: I have knowledge about x can I help? A: This is a very personal project for me as a way of building up my knowledge so at the moment I'm not particularly looking for help. You can offer me help, and I'll keep you in mind if I decide to expand this out otherwise I'm just going to keep going at this, chipping it away by myself. Q: Support for OS Y A: If it's a Linux derivative and can run Project Zomboid, odds are a script will come with it. However this is really for people who don't understand Linux all that well, so don't expect me to help every single little os. Q: What about Windows? A: I kind of feel that setting up a server for Windows is easy enough already without requiring more help, so support for it will not be coming. Same goes for Mac's. Q: What about updating scripts? A: At the moment you still have to run the wget command. I'll probably introduce a script update script for the time being use wget for the following addresses if needed http://www.terminal-control.com/pz-server/scripts/pz-server-install.sh http://www.terminal-control.com/pz-server/scripts/pz-server-part2.sh http://www.terminal-control.com/pz-server/scripts/pz-server-start.sh http://www.terminal-control.com/pz-server/scripts/pz-server-update.sh Install should be gotten in root user, while start and update should be gotten through pz-servers user. Enjoy! Credits Myself (Connall Lindsay) - Script Creator Kirrus - Assistance Everybody who read and commented on the guide, really appreciate it. <3
  8. What is this? I'm doing a comprehensive guide on traiting and professions in Project Zomboid, because I feel like the new people should be assisted with this. Something you find necessary is missing? Just tell me down below and I'll make my best to add it here. This also focuses primarily in single player, but works online too. Traits, what are they? Well, traits let you choose what good sides and bad sides your character will have, and will greatly affect core gameplay. Here are my choice of the traits that affect the game the most. All the profession traits: It's pretty obvious that the job traits are the most important ones, because it doesn't cost any trait points to actually choose a job, and I don't see a point to be unemployed. Athletic: This trait allows you to run faster, without tiring. I find it very useful when running through an area densely populated with zombies, because tiring up in the middle of an horde isn't the best thing to happen. Strong: This trait is extremely useful, as it allows you to carry 16 instead of 8. That's double. I use it always, because its so efficient to not be used. Lucky: In single player, it affects loot rarity, and chances of getting bitten. This is very effective with the Police Officer and Construction Worker, because the Police Officer uses a lot of ammo, so when using lucky and looting dead zombie bodies its a relatively common chance to find pistol ammo. Also, the Construction Worker has the Thick Skinned trait, what affects chances of zombies breaking the skin, and lucky also decreases the odds of a zawmby scratching or biting you, so its a good combo. Light Eater: Well, as you can probably see from the title, you need to eat less. This, this is very good. Eating plays a vital role in the game, and its good if you are scarce on food. Lets move on to the professions. Professions, A.K.A Jobs This is where it gets interesting. There are so many ways to blend traits with professions, and how they relate to each other. Lets dive right in. Lets start with the Fire officer. This is an ideal setup for me. The strong allows you to carry as much as you can, and isn't a woodworker usually very strong when wielding an axe? Strong also gives the effect of bigger knockback, and that paired with the increased attackspeed with axes from Axe Man makes you a killer machine. Graceful is useful, so you can sneak right past the zombies, and you don't need to attract attention, because you aren't shooting a gun, you're swinging an axe. The defective traits are the most non-affecting traits I could find, I mean Cowardly increases panic, and yes panic does reduce accuracy and slow the reloading speed, but as I mentioned, you are not a trained shooter. Next the cowboy of modern apocalypse. Stout is like the smaller brother of Strong, but if you actually need it, just take the bigger one instead. Oh, Lucky, oh you. This is where it gets complicated. Lucky changes everything. It changes the chances of you getting scratched, that's good. That is still not the reason why we are here for it. It increases the loot chances. At first I was like, oh boy this sure is a bit useful, but then... I looted zombie corpses, and realized how useful it is. I found 10x 9mm ammo in about 5 zombies when I killed them by melee, then I found one wielding a pistol, another one with a Big Hiking Bag, all these very useful things you can find, and mostly of all, the ammo as I mentioned. That is why Its useful. Brave? That's because you get easily panic'd when facing a horde, and you just cannot afford to lose all that reload time to panic. Lucky also increases the chances of finding Beta Blockers in bathrooms, which reduce panic easily. This is a solid combo. The other traits are pretty straightforward, I tried to grab as little effecting traits as possible, and the Overweight is because you wont be hitting -> running back -> hitting the zombies like you would do with the Fire Officer. Ah, the newbie friendly class. Lucky + Thick Skinned decreases the chances of getting scratches and bites from zombies well, and also add some easy looting time for the starters, Strong gives good knockback, so the player can use weapons with small amount of knockback and survive better with them too, and have increased carrying size what usually is a common problem due to starters (atleast it was for me). The not-so-effective traits are none so bad, and you don't need to be less panicked as long as you use handguns, and that paired with lucky gives you easy time looting 9mm ammo for your pistol (By this I mean the pistol is significantly easier and faster to reload compared to the shotgun). Ok, this is the leaf guy that loves being outside. Outdoorsman allows you to negate completely the chance that raining will make you sick, what is a good bonus. Strong gives you more carrying speed, so its pretty obvious. Eagle Eyed? Why'd I pick that? Its because when you are a lot outside, you gotta see alot, so you don't get ambushed. The other traits are obvious, but there is one thing I'm not sure of. Prone to illness increases the chances of getting sick, but there is one thing: ☐ Getting sick from rain ☑ Getting sick from eating rotten food. So just watch out for that. Otherwise everything will be going well. [ATTENTION: THIS CLASS DOES NOT WORK IN MULTI PLAYER, DUE TO SLEEPING NOT BEING IMPLEMENTED YET.] The hipster of our professions, the unnormality of our professions, this is actually not that popular, but still a good class when paired with similar traits. The Night Owl trait allows you to be the most nerdest guy of them all, requiring no sleep and no food (with Light Eater ofcourse ;D), and hear every single thing inside the house you are in. You wanna know why this class is especially good? You have no idea how many times I have died while looting a house, going inside a room and finding that there is a zombie and start fighting it, and then another zombie comes behind me and hits me so hard that I'm scratched five fucking times? You know how angry you feel then? That wont happen. You hear every little "Nhgheea" or "Ggggrowl" or a zombie banging his head when you use this character. This character is the character who stays inside. You hear me? Of course you don't, because you have Hard of Hearing (just kidding ). Feedback Did you like this guide? Is something missing? Please post feedback below, I would greatly appreciate it.
  9. Merrin

    Quick start

    For those of you who still don't get it but want to play PZ multiplayer badly - here's how I did it. Kirrus added this: There are bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. Read the full release release details here: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/5577-multiplayer-open-test-details-inside/ This is merely for joining already existing servers. - open steam - Right-click PZ and click properties - Select Beta tab - Select onlinetest - Close Project Zomboid [onlinetest] will be the name of PZ in steam now. - Various servers are being posted on the forums, choose a public server and copy that (ip) address - Start up PZ - Select Join Server - Add server - Fill in IP, Port, Username and Password. IP will be offered on the forums, and a specific port can also be provided, but my default port 16261 works for most public servers right now. Username and password can be random, fill in whatever you like. - Save - Join Server In short, if I had seen this guide, I would've played it sooner. I hope this helps. To return to single player, go back to the beta tab under properties and opt out of beta.
  10. First things first; Project Zomboid is an addictive drug that has begun to consume all facets of my life! But seriously, my buddy cannot go 30 minutes without talking about new base building ideas, farming techniques, or just general craftiness. Props Indie Stone - Keep delivering and you've got a real indie hit. Anyways, like I said, my buddy (Slanga) is completely consumed by PZ. He has a a pretty sprawling base built in the free zone between a 4-square of houses. Here's a pic. At this point, he's leveled his farming to 5 and Carpentry is almost there. Here's some things we've discovered...( I mostly watch him play) -Skills books: Enable extra fast leveling of skills 1. Must be read in order and only corresponding to each level from: ex. Read Beginner at Carpentry 0, Intermediate at 1 -Beginner x?, Intermediate x4, Advanced x8, Expert x12, Mastery x16 (number = exp. multiplier) 2. As you level skills past 3/4 with books you will begin to accumulate MANY extra skill points (20+), as the experience multiplier counts towards your level. (Slanga currently has 35, presuming this is a bug) 3. Stash your skills books in your safe house. They never get used up, and can be used by subsequent survivors with new reset skills. - Farming: Only long term sustainable food source 1. Potatoes, potatoes, and moar potatoes. And Cabbage. Potatoes last forever, and will fill you up. Cabbage grows more quickly than any other crop we found. As far as all the decadent Kapua Suite fruit (strawberries, oranges, etc...), stay away. This is the Latvian Zomboid apocolypse. You live on potatoes and you'll die happy because of it. 2. Spread your crops out. Slanga prefers rows to clumps, as clumps can spread plant disease quickly. Also, try to start several self contained farming areas with in your base, each with it's own water barrel and watering can. 3. Higher levels of Farming skill allow you to check on your crops statuses more easily, but you should still check plants water level EVERY day. If you are planning on multi-day excursion, make sure all plants are watered up before. 4. The GigaMart in Westpoint is bugged for Slanga. Power has been off weeks, but 2 random fridges keep perishables indefinitely fresh. It's the GigaFridgeofLife -Carpentry - Do NOT level without skill book, as will typically waste precious nails. 1. Find a Hammer, Axe, Saw, and Nails. Lots of Nails. Always pick up Box o' Nails. Box o' Nails is number 1 best item game. 2. Start by cutting down every tree in the vicinity. Bug allows you to pick up as many logs as you want, if you right click on them. Slanga's hauled 48 back at once. Sawed up to damn near 130+ planks. Sawing logs levels Carpentry, and is the best way to avoid building too many shit walls. Plan on doing some sawing for each level. 3. If you look closely above, you can see the progression of Slanga's walls as he leveled his Carpentry around his base. 4. Stairs seem currently bugged. Slanga and I have tried building stairs in both of our games, and both times lead to a crash shortly after construction. Advise exiting game to save, before attempting any level 2 construction. 2nd floors, in general, seem a bit buggy and cause crashes. 5. Plaster is hard to come by, and heavy as a donkey. Don't plan on doing any extensive dry walling. Game time: 2 months, 10 days Power and water are both off, but it is also a Sandbox game with out infection (No danger of zombification). We more wanted to see how the later stages of the game functions. I've heard stories of zombies gathering up in hordes at 6 months+, and besieging forts. Is there any validity to that? Would love to hear other's experience with the late/end game! Been difficult to find any streamers with an established survivor.
  11. An ongoing Survival Guide, by TinnedEpic. Welcome! First thank you so very much for clicking on this thread and checking out my survival guide. Before I begin ranting on there are a few things I need to say: <--------------------------------------------> Firstly, much of what I have written is subject to objection or differing opinions among players. All I can say to that is this are the tips and tactics I use to survive, this is how I personally play and for me it works. My way is not the only way. I am by no means closed minded either, I take all suggestions/advice onboard. If you wish to discuss/dispute/suggest content within this guide I highly encourage it. Sharing of strategies and ideas is exactly what a guide is all about. Chances are someone out there will have a better way of doing something and it's no good to anyone if they hold it back. (Unless they want to keep it a secret, in which case I have only one thing to say to that person... Grawr!)Secondly, everything in this guide is subject to change. As I play I learn new things or I learn better techniques from watching/reading other people I may change or add things to the guide to make it better. Even as the game updates and adds more content/challenges/changes I will need to adjust the material accordingly. It's very much an evolutionary thing.Thirdly, SPOILERS! HEAVY SPOILER ALERT! This guide will contain detailed information on project zomboid and how to survive. While it possibly may be helpful, it may also take the fun out of the game for you not begin able to experience it first-hand yourself. I implore you, only look up sections you are having trouble with. These guides are meant to help new players overcome challenges, however can routine aspects of the game. I encourage that new players who have been using this guide after a while should break away from it and try new things constantly and even take risks you normally wouldn’t take. THIS IS YOUR FIRST WARNING, If you do not want aspects of the game ruined for you I encourage you do not read them. Fourthly, while English is my first and only language, I suck at it... If you find spelling or punctuation errors please point them out (I have proof read it, however I'm not willing to trust myself to pick up on every mistake).<--------------------------------------------> If you're new, welcome to the game! Keep in mind this guide may contain spoilers so if you want a genuine experience I highly recommend you play the game first and then come back to this thread if you’re having trouble. Otherwise I'll try and explain things as in-depth and clearly as I can, I hope you find this helpful. If you're un-new, welcome anyways... Hope you enjoy the guide . If you want to discuss/question/debate content feel free to. I hope you find this helpful and enjoyable. View PDF here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/utzc1hb5py6ti9k/Epic%20Survival%20Guide%20Version%201_1.pdf Download for iPad and eReader Browsers here (.epub file): https://www.dropbox.com/s/l94ymwx6042algz/Epic%20Survival%20Guide%20Version%201_1.epub EreWeGo's "Unofficial PZ Manual" If your looking for another, slightly less spoiler filled guide I recommend EreWeGo's Guide to Project Zomboid. The similarities of our guides are notable however purely coincidence. Just go's to show great minds think alike. Anyways if you want a more technical run down than an opinion piece (like my own) of Project Zomboid I suggest checking this out over my own: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/51-unofficial-pz-manual/ <--------------------------------------------> Just letting you know now, the reason I made this guide was because I felt like giving something like this a go. I am not by means an 'expert' but I do consider myself experienced. I do sincerely hope that this helps people grow and learn from what I suggest and thus allow them to prolong their inevitable death. If you want me to link your guide in my post I will be most happy to do so. Sharing is caring . This guide took 4 weeks to complete and consists roughly on 10,900ish words. Kudos if you read it all.
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