Cortman by Night

[MadDan]

 

Hey all. Alongside continued crafting work it’s very much a time of mixing/polishing previously announced and described things in the internal test build.

As such please forgive us if things are a little ‘bullet pointy’ and expanded info on things you’ve heard about before. It’s all stuff that needs doing.

CRAFTING

Some of the things we’ve been doing this month on the crafting revamp includes:

• On-boarding three of our friends from TEA games to add some firepower to the crafting team and get it all out of the door. While they’ve been getting up to speed with the code they have also been documenting it all with its latest implementation, which in turn will become our guidance for modders upon release.
• Working on crafting station animation interactions. In Build 42 you won’t see direct physical movement of player and crafting station when you interact, for example a potters wheel won’t spin. Until we, potentially, one day include 3D models on the map furniture will remain as static sprites as they always have been.
  
  What we do need, however, are natural player movements towards the crafting stations – that will in turn open up their individual crafting menu accompanied by a familiar crafting SFX, and potentially an on/off state dependent on what sort of crafting station it with lights on and glowing etc. They also needed depth textures added to avoid clipping and such, which have now been implemented.

 

 

 

 

• Working out how best to separate out the new skills. We became concerned that we were introducing too many ‘portmanteau’ skills simply for the sake of keeping the skill list slimmed down. There’s still some folding together of craft skills when there’s clear similarities in tools and techniques, but overall it felt wrong to lump too much together.
  
  It won’t be necessary for players to dedicate time and effort into building out these skills for the mostpart, unless they are trying to make a civilization on a forest map and other survivalist circumstances.

• Making sure that there’s sandbox settings that cater for faster progression. Sandbox and settings now include settings for Skill XP multipliers for individual skills, so your speed up each different ladder can be directly adjusted.
• Addressing undesired and unfun gameplay loops. A common server admin complaint is that the map swiftly becomes barren of furniture and loot containers due to players chasing XP. As such, in B42 scrapping, dismantling and ripping items will no longer grant XP.
  
  We no longer want progression in a skill to involve destroying piles of items or trashing the map; and instead to concentrate on making things. XP for actions such as building structures and repairing clothing has been boosted to adjust for that, and the individual skill XP multipliers in the sandbox settings also offer more means to compensate. (This said, as things stand, XP for dismantling electrical items or wrecked vehicles remains.)
• Adding skills for wilderness play. Knapping and Carving have both been added. Knapping is used for fashioning stone blades from the pieces of flint you can find in the world, for making knives, spears, axes, scythes and other tools. Carving involves carving wood and bone for similar purposes.
  
  Some carving will also produce decorative items, especially at lower levels, with more artistic and aesthetic crafting recipes due to be added to help you level up without making the same sharp stick over and over again.

 

 

 

 

• Improving how recipes work and are learned. There are a great many new recipes in B42, and when you become a Level 10 Master Blacksmith it makes no sense that you may not know some of them within that field. As such many of them now come with an ‘Autolearn’ requirement – in which a skill level (or a combination of different skill levels) will automatically know them.
  
  Another, minor, thing we have added meanwhile is making sure that the recipe schematics that can be found alongside the weapons and armor in the randomly spawned survivalist safehouses are generally diagram-based so illiterate characters can also join in the fun.

BASEMENTING

There are two different sorts of subterranean lair in B42 – random ones that could occur in various set places, and permanent ones.

As far as the permanent ones go there’s a range of bunkers, tunnels and cave networks waiting to be discovered – as well as simply new lower floors to some of the map’s more known and recognisable locations.

What we hadn’t done yet for B42, however, is mark all the potential locations for the random basements and then to test them so they’ll all fire off in your game once we hit Unstable beta.

Here’s a map of one of our locations showing the basic spread of what you can expect. Apologies for spoilers, we thought it wouldn’t be too bad seeing as it was only one town. So anyway here’s Brandenburg.

And here’s a quick video showing some, admittedly posed for the camera, testing – in which the same location is shown to have a different basement on a different run.

The basements on show here aren’t dazzlingly exciting, but this will of course be the case for most of the ones you find. Part of this testing is also checking the rules that we have in place to match random basement size and orientation to the size of the house.

 

GRAPPLETECH

Grappletech is, for all intents of purpose, done. This is the update to PZ’s animation tech that allows two characters to directly interact – whether survivor on survivor, survivor on zed, or zed on survivor.

As discussed and shown before, the first use-case of this will be in fixing the jankiness in PZ that’s always surrounded the carrying, moving and disposing of bodies.

In a previous blog we also showed an unimplemented animation of the player throwing bodies through a window, as an example, of where we would take it next – and this has now been added into the system. This can be seen in the following video, alongside some old friends.

PLEASE NOTE: We are aware that after the window chuck the plummet of the corpse doesn’t look great yet. This will be addressed in future, and is separate to what we’re doing with GrappleTech.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: The ‘effort’ noises the character makes while dragging corpses will be considerably toned down, or absent, in the release version. It’s a bit much here.

 

 

 

At present body dragging and window chucking is not in the internal test build, however it will be required at some point for the crafting revamp as this will allow for far more direct animations with irregularly-shaped crafting stations.

We had previously said it wouldn’t be a part of the Unstable beta, but now it’s done and playable feel it’s a potential – dependent on the progress made by the crafting team.

While we’re back at the K&B house by the way, check out how it looks during the day and the night now.

 

OTHER STUFF

• Newspapers have been finalled, and this week have been checked through for authenticity by a local American local news journalist. They will next be added to the game’s loot tables once relevant edits have been made.

 

 

 

• We weren’t entirely happy with the predictable way that deer were following our pre-defined paths through forests, and as such with zoning and biome work complete (as seen last month) a natural next step for this system would be to create multiple pathways for wildlife organically.
  
  Work on this is now underway alongside general polish of animal migration, and should make for a more engaging experience come Unstable.
• Over with the Sound Team (as well as providing noises and settings for new items, weapons and altitudes) we have tied their work more closely to the map tools.
  
  They will now have the freedom to create building-specific roomtones and oneshots, where as before hey could only generalise between 7-8 roomtones parameter values. So now we could have anything up to 260 different ambiances and reverb settings, which will make for more immersive experiences in key atypical buildings like movie theatres, large churches, more cavernous areas etc.
• We are also currently testing the glow-up of Muldraugh, specifically at night-time, and it’s looking pretty awesome to tell the truth. We hope that survivors are going to be tempted out of their bases during moonlit hours a bit more than usual to see it.

 

 

 

A full round-up of everything confirmed for Build 42 can be found here. A changelist of all our pre-release and post-release patches since the 41 beta began can be found here. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too. Experienced games industry gameplay coder and want to join Team Awesome? Jobs page here. Happy birthday to Andrei Knorr. 16 today!

[infectedkentuckyian]

Love the lighting improvements, and the map is looking good.

[Blake81]

Man, the Unstable is SO close-

 

 

(and it tastes of Bleach! Dies)

[Casual_Survivor]

There's a lot to be excited about b42, but ever since the first news of the lighting systems being reworked, that is really what I've been paying attention to. It looks so damn good now and I seriously can't wait to dive in and help test it all out.

[getstoopid]

Excited... excited... excited!! Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet???

[Zebulon]

Does the musics used in the videos will be in B42 or are they here just for the ambiance ?

[Sniper Bob]

Is there any info on B42 release date? Like quarter year or at least the year?

[Hugo Qwerty]

With all the new skills, & the number of modded skills already available, it would be nice if there is a feature in the options to hide any skills we're not interested in (First Aid is one I would probably hide, for example).

[MadDan]

13 hours ago, Zebulon said:

Does the musics used in the videos will be in B42 or are they here just for the ambiance ?

They'll be in B42. There's no "new" music, just different levels of intensity on all tracks based on current actions the player is doing.

[CKyHC]

will they update only Muldraugh or other cities too?

[infectedkentuckyian]

2 hours ago, CKyHC said:

will they update only Muldraugh or other cities too?

From what they said in the "Glowing OneZ", it seems like a yes with the newer areas/towns being worked on first and then the old ones (Muldraugh, Riverside, etc) but they might change it and give us the updated towns after the unstable build. So the devs said yes but time will tell.

[apostle_berezovskiy]

The 42nd build will definitely feel like another game. Guys, I'm asking you to give us an orientation on the release date.. Because there are a lot of rumors, and one tweet from the official information))
It's just that there is a strong feeling that we are already at the finish line and the update will be presented very soon

And I'm sure guys that the 42nd build will blow up again, as the 41st build did at the time.

Edited July 28, 2024 by apostle_berezovskiy

[infectedkentuckyian]

On 7/25/2024 at 6:12 PM, Zebulon said:

Does the musics used in the videos will be in B42 or are they here just for the ambiance ?

I think they said they would be updating the music to set the ambiance of the curtain situation the player is in so basically, yes, but I don't think new music will come to B42 only new sound effects and ambiance.

[Axiomatic]

Quote

As such, in B42 scrapping, dismantling and ripping items will no longer grant XP....(This said, as things stand, XP for dismantling electrical items or wrecked vehicles remains.)

Woah, this is going to completely change the approach to carpentry and tailoring. I don't think its going to solve much of the issue with dismantling/ripping so many things in the gameworld though, because players will still need the resulting pieces to then create new things/patch clothing. 

 

Does this also apply to mechanics and how dismantling and rebuilding cars provides XP?

[Goyarkbro]

Looks great. I hope we don’t have to wait too long for it

[Nazarito22]

Add new large shelves (like the metal large shelves) for canned vegetables and fruits that might be found in basements as food storage.

[Nazarito22]

Sometimes I don't understand why so much variety is needed?
Instead, you could focus on the "end game". Instead, we have 100,500+ skills and none of them ends in anything.

For example, take construction: you can't create a sofa, various furniture, ottomans and other decorative items, of which there are a lot in the game. At level 10 of construction, there is nothing to do. I won't even mention the fucking roof that can't be built or to build a roof now you need to dance with a tambourine.

The same thing with electronics. It's boring. You pump up the electronics skill and can't even bring light to the base, you can't even remove the switch and put him on the wall of base's room (at least you can add this possibility  temporarily until the electrical system is done) and make normal light at the base. Instead, you have to remove 100,500+ lamps in the city so that every corner of the base is lit, turning the city into dark shit, and your base into an invasion of lamps.

Car mechanics. Yes, the cars were introduced recently, but here too it would be nice to have the ability, for example, to make parts, and not look for a donor.

In general, you can come up with a ton of ideas for each skill, but when to add them if you are doing less important things.

 Of course, basements, new lighting, new crafting and other innovations are important, but is it worth delving into them deeply? For example, why create clay pots? Is it possible to omit such details (temporarily) and do what is critically important (the same switch at the base or the ability to have a normal roof).

 In any case, I do not want to offend any of the developers with my words, but only push them towards more important things that are critically needed by players now. You are undoubtedly doing a great and difficult job, for which I thank you. Because there is no better game about survival and zombies.

[Nazarito22]

I understand that if you are engaged in crafting, then you can't do construction. But who sees? Who will judge you if instead of creating a clay pot, you fix old problems with the roof or add the ability to light the base.

[Nazarito22]

 

Question: will it be possible for modders to add their own newspaper or piece of paper as a GUI window with a picture of this newspaper or sheet of notebook? 

Edited August 13, 2024 by Nazarito22

[Nazarito22]

In general build 42 looks amazing and exciting. The only thing I'm worried about is that there won't be any optimization for weak PCs, and in principle there won't be any for top PCs (I've heard a lot from Russian-speaking YouTubers that the game lags even on top PCs)

Edited August 13, 2024 by Nazarito22

[glupek25]

Wait, corpses will be 3D now?

[apostle_berezovskiy]

On 8/13/2024 at 11:41 PM, Nazarito22 said:

Sometimes I don't understand why so much variety is needed?
Instead, you could focus on the "end game". Instead, we have 100,500+ skills and none of them ends in anything.

For example, take construction: you can't create a sofa, various furniture, ottomans and other decorative items, of which there are a lot in the game. At level 10 of construction, there is nothing to do. I won't even mention the fucking roof that can't be built or to build a roof now you need to dance with a tambourine.

The same thing with electronics. It's boring. You pump up the electronics skill and can't even bring light to the base, you can't even remove the switch and put him on the wall of base's room (at least you can add this possibility  temporarily until the electrical system is done) and make normal light at the base. Instead, you have to remove 100,500+ lamps in the city so that every corner of the base is lit, turning the city into dark shit, and your base into an invasion of lamps.

Car mechanics. Yes, the cars were introduced recently, but here too it would be nice to have the ability, for example, to make parts, and not look for a donor.

In general, you can come up with a ton of ideas for each skill, but when to add them if you are doing less important things.

 Of course, basements, new lighting, new crafting and other innovations are important, but is it worth delving into them deeply? For example, why create clay pots? Is it possible to omit such details (temporarily) and do what is critically important (the same switch at the base or the ability to have a normal roof).

 In any case, I do not want to offend any of the developers with my words, but only push them towards more important things that are critically needed by players now. You are undoubtedly doing a great and difficult job, for which I thank you. Because there is no better game about survival and zombies.

 

 Tough, but to the point, dude

[ambrosia]

On 8/13/2024 at 2:13 PM, Nazarito22 said:

Add new large shelves (like the metal large shelves) for canned vegetables and fruits that might be found in basements as food storage.

Agreed, new overlays to replace the old overlays would be nice. Especially if they filled dynamically like in Skyrim. 

[ambrosia]

On 8/13/2024 at 2:41 PM, Nazarito22 said:

Sometimes I don't understand why so much variety is needed?
Instead, you could focus on the "end game". Instead, we have 100,500+ skills and none of them ends in anything.

For example, take construction: you can't create a sofa, various furniture, ottomans and other decorative items, of which there are a lot in the game. At level 10 of construction, there is nothing to do. I won't even mention the fucking roof that can't be built or to build a roof now you need to dance with a tambourine.

The same thing with electronics. It's boring. You pump up the electronics skill and can't even bring light to the base, you can't even remove the switch and put him on the wall of base's room (at least you can add this possibility  temporarily until the electrical system is done) and make normal light at the base. Instead, you have to remove 100,500+ lamps in the city so that every corner of the base is lit, turning the city into dark shit, and your base into an invasion of lamps.

Car mechanics. Yes, the cars were introduced recently, but here too it would be nice to have the ability, for example, to make parts, and not look for a donor.

In general, you can come up with a ton of ideas for each skill, but when to add them if you are doing less important things.

 Of course, basements, new lighting, new crafting and other innovations are important, but is it worth delving into them deeply? For example, why create clay pots? Is it possible to omit such details (temporarily) and do what is critically important (the same switch at the base or the ability to have a normal roof).

 In any case, I do not want to offend any of the developers with my words, but only push them towards more important things that are critically needed by players now. You are undoubtedly doing a great and difficult job, for which I thank you. Because there is no better game about survival and zombies.

Electrical let's you steal stoves at level 3 or 4. Agreed about Carpentry, though, the level 10 build options are seriously lacking. The only upside is being able to paint boxes different colors and the builds look cleaner.

[ambrosia]

I love so much of all of this. To list it:

 

I love the lighting

I love the new items, like tents and lamps

I love the new door swing

I love the town rehaul. It looks nice!

I love the new grass.

I love the different sized generators.

 

Also the new weapon and armor and furniture options.