One of the things we’re proudest of in Project Zomboid is the fact that survivors can wake up and brew a delicious and refreshing cup of tea so that they’re ready to face the world. And all the zombies.

What’s more, in the final updates to Build 32 we’re now introducing a crafting UI that will make the tea brewing process even more streamlined! [And of course all the carpentry, cooking,building, medical care, trap building and whatnot as well.]

BUILD 32: THE IWBUMS CONTINUES

Let’s underline first, however, that right now we’re putting in the final updates to the public test version of Build 32 before it goes fully live. At the time of writing we’re on Build 32.8, and as such the new crafting UI we discuss below is in the game and playable – now just waiting for your bug reports.

If you’d like to read up on all the changes and bug fixes then you can do so here. If you’d like to join in with IWBUMS testing then you can find all the details you need in this introductory thread. If you’d like to know more… read on!

A CRAFTY FRENCHMAN

The last hurrah of Build 32 is something that’s been sorely lacking in PZ for a very long time. Namely, a crafting UI and guide. It looks a little something like this, and has been created by our resident gallic superhero Romain ‘RJ’ Dron.

The new crafting window contains all the different recipes that your character knows. Some recipes will be known to your character from their pre-apocalypse life and perhaps career, while more advanced stuff (fishing, explosives, traps) can be learned in-game and added to the list.

The new system looks both at what’s in your own inventory AND what’s in arm’s reach of your character – so you can craft with items in cupboards or cumbersome items that you’ve left on the floor. You can even ‘favourite’ the recipes you love the most. Don’t believe us? We gave internal test code to lovely Tooks and he crafted the aforementioned refreshing cup of tea in the following video:

As you can see there’s now also a facility to make Evolved Recipes (say, a salad with lots of different foodstuffs in it), while it’s also important to note that the old crafting method is still in the game too.

ZOMBIE MANAGEMENT

First off many thanks to the whole community for the great feedback that has been provided on the new (and awesome) Zombie Management System. EasyPickins thinks he’s worked out the best spawn numbers and respawn settings for Survival to ensure you’re challenged to begin with and brought under threat later on, and would especially like to thank LeoIvanov and Svarog for their dedicated pursuit of .ini file edits and testing.

Ultimately the new system will also be customisable in-game, while you can also clearly expect zombie behaviour upgrades in future too. Another recent addition to zed habits in Build 32.7 was the reimplementation of zombie-grouping code, for example, which sees zombies gather around ‘leaders’ rather than bunch around random map locations. These leaders are then encouraged in the game code to stay away from each other, and as such the spawn should seem a lot more natural. Zombies will now also lunge through doors if they’re thumping them and the doors are either opened or destroyed.

STEAMY BUSINESS

Steam MP Integration work for Build 33 in the hands of those marvels at General Arcade, meanwhile, continues apace. We’ve had some builds in internal testing, which have had the kinks worked out and glaring bugs fixed – and will soon have release builds of all 32 and 64 bit native libraries for Windows, Mac, Linux in-hand. There’s still a few hazards to negotiate with Linux that need investigation, but otherwise it’s all going well.

THE BIG RELEASE

These are the last significant tweaks and additions for Build 32, so you can expect a full public release relatively soon. We can only imagine that those who haven’t yet encountered the revamped zombie horde are in for quite a surprise when it descends upon them! More news on Build 33 and beyond next week!

Today’s Featured Image from Tombomcbombo, if indeed that is his real name, over on Steam. Do you dream of a world in which isometric zombie survival game news is emailed to you every Monday, come rain or shine? Friend, you already live in that world.