Additional findings after further testing: I have now spent several more hours testing this save and noticed a pattern that may be relevant. After a fresh game restart, performance is completely normal. There are no stutters, freezes, or noticeable slowdowns. However, after several hours of real-time play (not in-game time), periodic freezes begin to appear. These are not FPS drops but actual brief game freezes of roughly half a second. What is particularly interesting is that the interval between freezes appears to decrease over time. During my latest session I observed approximately: 20 seconds between freezes, then 18, then 16, then 12, then 9, eventually reaching around 4-6 seconds between freezes. As this happens, other systems also become progressively slower: Inventory windows take longer to respond. Context/right-click menus become slower to open. The map becomes less responsive. Animal zone management windows become slower as well. The important part is that saving the game, completely exiting Project Zomboid, and then reloading the same save immediately restores normal performance. The freezes disappear and the game runs smoothly again. This behavior seems more like a progressive runtime issue than a location-specific problem, because the freezes occurred while travelling across large parts of the map and were still present even when standing completely still. The save is also still exhibiting the previously reported animal-related issues: duplicated chickens, duplicated chicks, incorrect animal counts, animals appearing to be renamed or overwritten, extremely rapid hutch dirt accumulation, and mass chicken deaths inside affected zones. I cannot say whether the performance degradation and the animal issues are directly related, but both are occurring in the same save and both appear to worsen over time during longer play sessions. Hopefully this additional information helps narrow down the cause.

I can write down what types of weapons I would NOT like to see in the game - these are AK, Steyr, and other FAMAS that ruin the immersion in the American outback (even if someone says that these types were in Kentucky or something like that)

i try help u griffin.     at first, even if it sounds dumb , pls check ur version wich is running atm,.  you save file u try to load,  is from another version then the version u are running right now, or its  somehow corrupted, i have read u  had similar issues with  pre version ?  so i  think ur game isnt starting at all ? blackscreen starts? or just  starting and nothign happens ,no UI , no  sound, "click to start" etc ? (talking right now about  a regular solo mode game try , thats the base to get ur game  running and later ur save file )

Version: [42.19] Mode: [Sandbox] Server settings: N/A Mods: Additional Car Mods, Crowbar Mod Save: [New Save] Reproduction steps: Get a car with an alarm like a cop car or ambulance. Turn on YELP, turn off car, leave car near large hordes of zombies Watch zombies within the radius of tiles that the sound is active aggro the car alarm Get into another car still within sound radius and drive away Player is now outside of car alarm noise Every zombie on the car alarm has now dropped aggro and is wandering towards the sound of the car/truck leaving the scene Zombies have "forgotten" alarm is still blaring in tile they are within   There were over 100 zombies attracted to this car that randomly dropped aggro for my truck. When I returned the following day the entire lot was covered in random small groups of zombies as if the car alarm did not exist. They only were attracted to it once I entered ear shot of the alarm again. Many did not turn their aggro back to the car alarm. I have noticed this also happening with house alarms, car alarms, and random sound events. It's as if once the alarm is no longer heard by the player all the zombie's memories of it are wiped clean.

Hi,   I'm looking to calibrate Project Zomboids brightness but can't find anything. You know the slider (sometimes sliders) you get when you launch a game first time? It usually says something like "adjust brightness until logo/text/whatever is barley visible."   I read that this would be considered cheating by some and don't really get the argument. You are already allowed to cheat on many levels through sandbox settings, so why stop at something essential like a brightness setting? If I really want to cheat in MP I'll just use other means of increasing the games brightness outside of PZ's control.   Does PZ assume every screen is already calibrated for brightness? If yes, why do other games bother with those brightness settings?   Looks like currently people adjust the brightness for Project Zomboid by other means like screen brightness or NVIDIA Control Panel. I'm fine with the rest of my desktop and prefer darker settings in general but it doesn't mix well with Project Zomboid. Can you please add a brightness setting?   Thanks!   BR, Thomas