Friday November 19th,
Hello everyone, another week closer to the 1.12 release and the team has been making steady progress. There’s a good deal going on behind the scenes, James has been working on quite a few features along with zombie improvements. John is reworking a ton of original zombie animations. Andre has been working on map improvements among other new introductions. We’ll discuss a little of what’s going on below but be sure to check out our Changelog for more information.
Zombie Improvements
We’re making some pretty big changes to zombie behavior in the coming build. Some of the biggest changes you’ll notice are the increased amount of day zombies. Previously zombies that made it through the night would die off. From 1.12 on they’ll no longer die, they’ll simply turn from ‘night zombies’ to ‘day zombies’. There are increased numbers of zombies all around and we’ve made some decent optimizations to surrounding AI systems.
Along with the increased numbers of zombies you’ll notice there will now be small zombie behavior differences. Zombies that around during the day will be dumb, slow and sluggish. Day zombies that aren’t inside darker structures won’t really be a massive threat; their danger comes in the amount of zeds not their speed and strength.
Day Zombies Roaming
Day Zombies Gathering in Alleyway
In addition to the added number of zombies you’ll also notice a few more changes. Zombie animation speeds have changed along with zombie speeds themselves. We’ve introduced some variation in zombies, some are faster than others, some are far slower. This should greatly improve the general feel of zombie hordes.
Zombies are now easier to kill and headshots drop them easier than before. This change is very simple but plays into the changes we’re making with more zombies. The overall feel we’ve gone for here is that headshots get the job done much easier now, range and weapons being a factor of course.. Overall though zombies should just go down easier. It feels more satisfying to kill them in general and feels far more apocalyptic with the increased amounts.
Zombie walk and run animation have been improved to reflect new zombie speeds. We’ll continue to tweak these as we move through development.
Updated Slow Zombie Walk
We are still looking to add new zombie models although to be completely transparent with everyone the assets we had been working with have fallen through. Seems they have been completely removed from the asset store and the developers behind them have gone dark. We’re currently expanding the team and looking for freelance designers to tackle some of our needs, zombies and character rework being a major one.
In the meantime Andre has made some really nice texture improvements to our current zombies and we’re concepting a random texture system for scaring and clothing. The updated textures remove a lot of the bright colors and shininess the zombies have. They look way more fitting the the world and bring the zeds far closer to what the team originally imagined. They’ll make better placeholders for the time being.
Updated Zombie Textures
Updated Textures
Waypoint Improvements
We’ll be introducing a fully placeable waypoint system in 1.12 you’ll be able to add one marker anywhere you’d like on the map. Along with that, you’ll not notice all important map markers highlighted depending on your needs. Should the guide be directing you towards something like a car lot
Waypoint Placement
Additional Strip Malls
We’ve been greatly expanding the quick guide and plan to continue to do so. In 1.12 the guide will continue right on through to finding a vehicle and getting to a hardware store for some fortification materials. We’ve added around 20 new strip mall additions, mainly hardware stores, gun shops and pharmacies.
Hardware Stores, Pharmacies and Gun Shop Additions
We hope to have an experimental build of 1.12 out in the next week. There are a lot of major changes to zombies and it will require a good deal of testing.
Thank you for the continued support, we’re working on issues you’re finding so please keep reporting any bugs and making any game suggestions you can think of.
Links