IWBUMS AWAY!

Build 35 IWBUMs has begun! To the uninitiated, the ‘I Will Back Up My Save’ is the PZ beta branch and details on how to access it can be found here . You can also find a changelist here with the main additions to the build. Whilst we’ve got some really cool stuff to release in today’s IWBUMs; the new welding system, multi-stage wall construction, dismantling furniture and other world tiles for materials, a new sleeping system, and realistic big trees in the wilderness being the headliners — this is not the complete feature set planned for build 35. Instead of holding it back until everything was in, we wanted to get some new stuff out there for people to play with, as we’re mindful that it’s been a while since our last build–however there is still plenty more to come, which will drop into the build in the subsequent bug fix builds, before it is promoted to the main branch and released to all. The main big feature that will drop into the IWBUMs further along the way is obviously the animation and clothing overhaul, and while there are still a few things to finish off, we’ll likely hold back the IWBUMs until that is ready to drop into it. As such you should expect this particular IWBUMs to go on for some time, as the animation system will likely yield a whole bunch of bugs and compatibility issues that need to be resolved once it lands, and it will also likely play havoc with the game balance, which is something we certainly need our community to help us fix up.

ANIMATION TODO

Pretty much all the tech and anims are now in the game and we’re getting really close, but as mentioned above, there are still a few things that need to be completed before we could possibly release it in IWBUMs. Notable things are:

• Females – We’re still in the process of running the ladies through the same model and texture revamp that allowed for the new clothing and overlay system you’ve seen in previous Mondoids. They are close but not quite done yet. Right now it’s a bit of a sausage fest and that will not do.

• Dead bodies – at the moment, the dead bodies of zombies seen in previous videos are actually still 3D models lying stationary on the ground with collision disabled. Anyone who’s played PZ will know quite how many bodies can accumulate, and that this is not a great long-term situation for zombie carcasses and frame rates playing nice together. We will need to adapt the current build 34 system (effectively taking a photo snap of the 3D dead body and using that texture in future to represent the body from that point on), however due to the optimizations and improvements made and changes in the method of isometric drawing of 3D models there are a few hurdles we have to overcome to get this working with the animation build.

• We need to make sure the entire game is playable with the new anims – Some things like climbing through windows, climbing over high fences, and a few other things need fixing up since they were broken by the bag system, model, and texture revamp. They won’t take long to fix, but we need to do a pass over the game and make sure there are no others that have cropped up that escaped our notice, and that all interactions the player can do work properly with the