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nasKo

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Hello all! Welcome to this week’s Thursdoid. News flash: I’ve just had to edit out the ‘Hurray! Build 41.40 has just been released into IWBUMS beta!’ portion of the Thursdoid, because a last minute issue with auto-shoves not protecting from scratches or bites was discovered. Obviously this would not go down too well, so will need repairing. Happy days! This will be fixed as soon as possible and we’ll get the build pushed hopefully today.
 

Big things include:
 

  • JEWELRY! Many more character customization options with necklaces, earrings, rings and so on.
  • Addition to animation system to allow better blending, to get rid of or be able to fine tune some pauses at ends of animations. Spear kill moves should be less dangerous now. May require some additional balances so let us know how things feel.
  • Numerous combat fixes to get rid of some long standing issues with target choice for downed/attacking zombies, zombies over the other side of fences and so on.
  • Added ability to refill water dispensers
  • Zillions of fixes.
     

To make up for the lack of a build at time of posting, Binky has kindly donated a WIP map tease screenshot of our rendition of Louisville:

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MULTIPLAYER

Work continues on fixing up the last remaining issues with zombie syncing. As stated before, the multiplayer has been in large part completely rebuilt from the ground up for syncing characters and zombies, to provide for much better performance and less issues with lag.
 

One big part in getting these last issues fixed has been in generating diagrams to help debug what is taking place over time between server and clients in order to make sure they both match close enough to provide a believable experience comparable to that of single player. Yuri has managed to sync up thumping and fence falling perfectly using the animation state transitions using this additional power. Though is still debugging a few edge cases where the system fails. (Look out for it in the video)
 

Lastly, just wanted to add a few candid words about the ongoing MP development – We know people are frustrated at the long wait, and are seeing more and more frustrated comments about MP’s absense from B41 as the weeks go by.

 

We’re sorry that it’s taking so long – however it is what it is, and is what it is for numerous reasons – not only the immense task of building a strong and capable multiplayer architecture, ripping out the old systems, creating multiplayer that will see the game succeed and help build up a larger multiplayer following on B41’s full release (something we’re not willing to compromise on, as B41 going live fully will be the most crucial opportunity for Zomboid to grow in popularity since the game’s initial release, and squandering that opportunity with flaky MP could have a hugely negative impact on PZ in the future), but also with only a limited number of the team able to undertake the work that needs to be done, along with the various additional challenges from fun and unavoidable lockdown/childcare related issues within the team that come from the ongoing COVID-19 situation. It’s definitely been a slog and will continue to be for a while.
 

As with many other dev teams, we’re not necessarily firing on every cylinder right now – but even if we were, this is and has always been a lot of work to undertake, something we’ve tried to stress again and again – and while it’s taking a lot of time in less than ideal circumstances, the results are extremely exciting, and progress is definitely picking up.
 

It’ll take however long it takes though – we’re never ones to give ETAs at the best of times, but as stated these are not the best of times, and all we can promise is we want it out there as much if not more than any of you, and will continue to work tirelessly on getting it out there to you all as soon as possible – and if you want a silver lining, if we went with our original plan you’d still be playing B40 while we worked on this. The whole reason we released B41 into IWBUMs as single player only was anticipating we’d be wading in MP guts for some time, though we didn’t know quite how long it would end up taking, so we’re thankful that people are getting to experience all the work we put into B41 now, along with improving B41 alongside the community while the MP work is underway – and finally we want to thank those who are showing patience and understanding about what we’re trying to accomplish here, and have shown support in the community. It helps keep us motivated a lot!
 

Once B41 is finally out there, we already got lots of real exciting stuff to show off for what’s coming next. We’ve long learnt from our mistakes of the past, and now only show stuff pertaining to the current build in development in the blog updates – but that doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of extremely juicy stuff piling up behind the scenes we’re dying for people to see.
 

Thanks for reading!
 

This week’s fireside shot from Rei Ayanami. A changelist of all IWBUMS patches since the 41 beta was released can be found here. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right hereOur Discord is open for chat and hijinks too!

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3 hours ago, Burleon said:

How to get PZ done in 6 months:

step 1 take a 50,000$ loan

step 2 hire more devs

step 3 work and release build 41 42 and 43 in 6 months

step 4 ????

step 5 profit

 

(( it's a joke, chill out )) 

Hire devs who are single and have no other obligations, so they don't have to take care of family. 

We should just build bots instead.

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Thank you for the update, do not worry, good things take time!

 

How is that epic computer DOS system thing going? Honestly that was one of the coolest things ever even if it's not slated for 41.

 

And great to finally see Louisville! I wonder how Louisville will be handled lorewise...

At the start of the infection it should be uninfected and outside the quarantine zone, will it be blocked off?

Edited by Gurluas
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I'm really looking forward to MP so I can get back to playing with my small group of friends. Please consider rolling some multiplayer into the next IWBUMS build, even if it's broken/incomplete, it'd be great to get together with my friends and see all the hard work that's gone into it!

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40 minutes ago, Karch said:

I'm really looking forward to MP so I can get back to playing with my small group of friends. Please consider rolling some multiplayer into the next IWBUMS build, even if it's broken/incomplete, it'd be great to get together with my friends and see all the hard work that's gone into it!

This is the problem, as soon as there is any even broken multiplayer the interest in PZ will explode, there are big streamers waiting for it. Itd be a mess and then they would move on and unlikely return once we have solid MP. People treat IWBUMs as the official version once it's there. We can't risk having non functional and unreliable MP and it needs to get to a set level of performance and polish before it goes out in any capacity or it may mean the difference between millions of future sales and eeking by.

 

B41 is the most important update so far and a real opportunity to break the game into the mainstream and if we don't land it right it would be devastating. As explained in the Thursdoid.

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4 hours ago, lemmy101 said:

This is the problem, as soon as there is any even broken multiplayer the interest in PZ will explode, there are big streamers waiting for it. Itd be a mess and then they would move on and unlikely return once we have solid MP. People treat IWBUMs as the official version once it's there. We can't risk having non functional and unreliable MP and it needs to get to a set level of performance and polish before it goes out in any capacity or it may mean the difference between millions of future sales and eeking by.

 

B41 is the most important update so far and a real opportunity to break the game into the mainstream and if we don't land it right it would be devastating. As explained in the Thursdoid.

Why not have a testing branch for early multiplayer then? If IWBUMS is now regarded as a "Beta" branch then having an "Alpha" branch could be the solution. It'll allow testing while making it clear to people this isn't even a beta or IWBUMS. I mean this is what you did with cars.

Edited by Gurluas
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30 minutes ago, Gurluas said:

Why not have a testing branch for early multiplayer then? If IWBUMS is now regarded as a "Beta" branch then having an "Alpha" branch could be the solution. It'll allow testing while making it clear to people this isn't even a beta or IWBUMS. I mean this is what you did with cars.

1) That’s giving people way too much credit to act rationally.

 

2) There’s nothing to play right now. When there is, it’ll be part of iwbums.

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15 hours ago, nasKo said:

We’re sorry that it’s taking so long – however it is what it is, and is what it is for numerous reasons – not only the immense task of building a strong and capable multiplayer architecture, ripping out the old systems, creating multiplayer that will see the game succeed and help build up a larger multiplayer following on B41’s full release (something we’re not willing to compromise on, as B41 going live fully will be the most crucial opportunity for Zomboid to grow in popularity since the game’s initial release, and squandering that opportunity with flaky MP could have a hugely negative impact on PZ in the future), but also with only a limited number of the team able to undertake the work that needs to be done, along with the various additional challenges from fun and unavoidable lockdown/childcare related issues within the team that come from the ongoing COVID-19 situation. It’s definitely been a slog and will continue to be for a while.

My heart goes out to all of you devs putting in the time. I cannot imagine the stress and pressure that you all have been under. Not too mention all the regular stresses of living in 2020. lol If it makes any of y'all who are doing the dev work feel any better, I'm hella big fan. I've had a great time so far with PZ(I bought it up in 2012) and I've been able to reintroduce a lot of people back to couch co-op through PZ. Much love to everyone at The Indie Stone. Keep up the good work!

P.S. 
Don't let your heads get too big when Zomboid 1.0 blows tf up! 

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11 hours ago, nasKo said:

Hire devs who are single and have no other obligations, so they don't have to take care of family. 

We should just build bots instead.

Step 1: create a hyper-detailed reality simulator that requires players to think like people.

Step 2: create self-directing quasi-ai to operate in the simulator where they think like people.

Step 3: put in the ai in robots.

Step 4:???

Step 5: profit.

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1 minute ago, trombonaught said:

Step 1: create a hyper-detailed reality simulator that requires players to think like people.

Step 2: create self-directing quasi-ai to operate in the simulator where they think like people.

Step 3: put in the ai in robots.

Step 4:???

Step 5: profit.

Hmm... idk but sounds like something a bot might suggest. lmao Nah jk, I had a good laugh when I read this though.

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16 hours ago, lemmy101 said:

We can't risk having non functional and unreliable MP and it needs to get to a set level of performance and polish before it goes out in any capacity or it may mean the difference between millions of future sales and eeking by.

 

btw: Please polish the MP game design a bit as well!

 

For example, we still don't have a sanity/reputation system to combat griefing & KoS. PvP is either unlimited or disabled. The only alternative is admins constantly monitoring the server and banning players who break the rules. And then there are issues like clunky server resets, floating bases, or the lack of a working sleeping system...

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Looking forward to multiplayer! I've got a good many friends lined up to get it once it's dropped (Can't wait to show my girlfriend the ropes!) and honestly the reason why it's taking so long is perfectly rational. The second they release *any* sort of multiplayer functionality, it will automatically be treated as a final product as Lenny said. I'd rather play on a stable server than have it be buggy, unstable and a poor laggy experience. I have EU friends I want to play with but if the zombie lag bites and real time zombie placement isn't good then they'll get frustrated and quit from the lag. I really don't envy y'all's position seeing as if you release it now, people will play it, get frustrated and all the hype and build up you've had for the update will be for nothing. (Not to mention the outrage for delivering an unfinished product from the very same people who wouldn't quit begging for said unfinished product.) It's unfortunate that there's a ton of misinformation from the people who demand it so early as to why it's so time consuming, though I'm sure people will literally forget all about how long it took the second it drops. Anyway keep up the good work can't wait to see what it's like upon release!! 

Edited by DresdenBBQ
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