Heya everyone, so today we’re pushing the 41.69 patch out into the Unstable beta, which you can subscribe to by right-clicking PZ in your Steam library, selecting Properties, now go to the Betas tab and select the "unstable" branch from the dropdown menu.
This is a the first release of a wide-ranging version that touches many parts of the codebase – including some fairly foundational stuff to improve the smooth running of MP, some handy new hooks for modders and many and various different fixes and improvements.
The full and unexpurgated changelist is pretty vast, but a quick topline run-through of its contents will now follow:
- In MP: improvements to car physics, admin improvements, anti-cheat fixes, better handling of dead bodies, PvP and safehouse fixes, fixed grass growing through safehouse floors and much much more.
- VHS fix – an end to the peril of one-time-use video tapes on servers.
- A raft of Steamdeck compatibility improvements.
- New items, new forage finds, updated 3D models, new hair types and more.
- Scarecrows and Lab Skeleton ‘mannequins’ that can be kitted out in player clothes.
- Quality of life features: renamed Skill books, better item placing, movable minimap and many and various other things.
- 3D items now shown as textures rather than models. As such they now slide around less when the player moves, and have far less of a performance impact when all piled up.
- New/improved tag system for modders, and other general mod-side improvements.
- Added ambiance noise for different areas on the map tied to particular buildings and items, such as a little bit of mall muzak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWIk1drRVJU
- Relevant ‘power down’ noises for the above-mentioned sounds to flag the power/water cutting out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZyIgwBQ9uQ
- New sounds for arcade machines, gas pumping, vehicle headlights and car window opening (both via handle and electric windows). Also BBQ noises, campfire sounds, fireplaces and more zed trip/thump stuff.
- Improved treatment of inside/outside sounds depending on whether doors and windows are open or closed.
- Loads of UI and controller improvements that are universally handy, but have primarily been put in for (you lucky!) Steamdeck users. 41.68 works okay with the new handheld device, but 41.69 should provide some vast improvements.
- Lots of general balance, including a spotlight on foods and recipes.
- A shitload of general fixes.
We would be hugely grateful if players could move over to 41.69 and report any oddness or hiccups, and likewise to inform the creators of any mods that have been broken.
We have done our best to bypass disruption, but in such a wide-ranging patch there will always be mod toes that the code has unavoidably trodden upon.
(Creators of radio/TV-related mods should especially pay attention to the MP VHS fix, as it may cause some issues.)
OTHER STUFF
Elsewhere work continues on Build 42 and 43 content continues, with RJ still focusing on farm animals, and also the introduction of some basic AI versions of wild beasts also. Please consider these WIP!
Also coming to you today with a WIP tag (as we are working on far better player directional ‘strain and lean’ animations rather than a repeated ‘pull animation’) is a video from Aiteron showing his current work on the fishing update.
A lot of work these past few weeks has also been into making it work online, and our testers have been having some impromptu fishing competitions already.
Here, also, you can see:
- Water splashes (visuals WIP) to show placement of groups of fish, ultimately we plan to move to a more constant surface disturbance to show the positions of fish at any given time, as well as use the current splashes instead when the fish is struggling on the line.
- Lines and hooks that can be changed on the fishing rod that have an impact on your fishing.
- A fishing net you can catch items in, and a new ‘generic trash’ item that can also become snared up in your tackle and provide you with a random item (not always a shoe!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3olwEab7Oo
In the land of MP meanwhile the Strike Force are currently working on vehicle smoothness, and rare strange physics during and after vehicle collisions. They also have some imminent plans for better hit-fall position prediction, which should make corpse placement much closer to how it looks in SP.
We are also partway through a longer term process of making the inventory system completely server side (or rather authenticated server side) to avoid any kind of item spawning cheats. This is something we really need to do to close up the potential for item hacks on MP servers.
It will not likely appear for a while, most like coming in a major build rather than an iterative patch as it is a major piece of work and will also come with the potential for mod breakage for mods that spawn items directly on the client.
(We’ll make sure to keep it unstable a good period to give mod authors a chance to fix when it rolls around, and will provide some method for modders to legitimately spawn items recognized by the server when needed.)
This week’s stand-off from Viиicius. A changelist of all our pre-release and post-release patches since the 41 beta began can be found here. The 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.
