Monthly Archives: August 2014

Alpha 9.1 Get it while it’s Hot! 08.22.14

привет Survivalists,
Alpha 9.1 is out with many new additions and user requested improvements and fixes including: 35 new location types in random gen, a new claw hammer that can upgrade buildings faster, full category recipe searching, grass not blocking melee or looting fixes, re-spawning underground fixes, compass stays on screen, tooltips shrank and moved, friends list fixes and much, much more!

Official Alpha 9.1 Release Notes

Added

  • Added “Search…” default text to recipe search field
  • Added pickup items in the game now show item name
  • Added about 35 new locations to the random gen spawn list including army camps, all old businesses, ghost town and factory locations
  • Added claw hammer and recipe. It upgrades faster than a stone axe or wrench
  • Added home maintenance volume II which unlocks the hammer to rare book loot
  • Added military munitions crate to the police station prefab and made military munitions loot crates harder to get to at the army camps

Changed

  • Changed spawning so zombies and animals re-spawn faster in biomes
  • Changed compass so it never hides and adjusted Tooltip messages and backpack so they never overlap and shrank tooltip text size
  • Changed recipe search to now search across all categories
  • Changed made the player map icons about 1.5 to 2 times bigger
  • Changed increased max zoom out on map
  • Changed added new sleeping bag house icon that’s easier to see on the map and compass
  • Changed increased chance to find rural hubs from 70% to 85% in random gen
  • Changed increased possible max rural lots to 4 locations in random gen
  • Changed slightly increased chance to find Wilderness POIs in random gen
  • Changed inhaling sound is now only played after you are under water for a minimum number of seconds or take drowning damage
  • Changed background color for offline friends to a darker gray to be visible on friends list
  • Changed stack limit on sticks from 64 to 250
  • Changed stack limit on trophies from 10 to 64
  • Changed doorknob stack limit from 10 to 64
  • Changed stack limit on shotgun shells to 128
  • Changed stack limit on feathers to 250
  • Changed stack limit on buckshot to 250
  • Changed increased stack limit on all jarred items to 15
  • Changed scrap lead to be in the junk category, reducing its chance to spawn in trash
  • Changed redwood planks no longer downgrade to a frame that was never built in the first place
  • Changed and removed some underwater messages that were redundant or self-evident
  • Changed all recipe colors for known, unknown, craft-able and un-craftable and the recipe header color
  • Changed removed fuel “Burn Time” text and moved the header and timer for campfire
  • Changed removed show friends icons game option it’s now hard-coded true
  • Changed chainsaw is now able to attack also frame blocks
  • Changed reduced probability of getting the Iron helmet schematic was too common
  • Changed Improved dogs play pain animation functions
  • Changed Increased the weight of pistol parts to be divisible by scrap iron
  • Changed improved mip mapping setting for decals atlas so that street lines render at greater distances

Fixed

  • Fixed grass blocking collision when hunting or fighting zombies also improves looting of zombies in the grass
  • Fixed Spawning/re-spawning on top of buildings/above ground.
  • Fixed all known friends list and invite problems
  • Fixed displaying friends or other players sleeping bags on the compass
  • Fixed not being able to see all screen resolutions, now uses scrolling drop down
  • Fixed game options list getting cut off sometimes
  • Fixed drowning buff was sometimes not removed when leaving the water
  • Fixed all bedrolls showing on compass
  • Fixed bedrock not spawning under some places in map
  • Fixed land mines and trunk tips not giving damage when on top of them
  • Fixed server browser search to no longer be case sensitive
  • Fixed server browser sort header clicking
  • Fixed favorites server list column headers
  • Fixed explosion resistance on player armor
  • Fixed random gen wilderness POI placement
  • Fixed random gen wilderness POI terrain trimming
  • Fixed random gen floating wilderness prefabs
  • Fixed random gen wilderness prefabs not being set at the correct y Offset
  • Fixed random gen rural lot spacing so one prefab will not cut off another
  • Fixed cloth gloves values to be consistent with cloth items
  • Fixed wasteland car04 now drops scrap iron
  • Fixed textures on wooden upgradable inside corner wedges and ramps to be correct
  • Fixed player placed dirt self-breaking. Seems to be when dirt is placed on top of more dirt
  • Fixed sawmill rotation to 0 for facing the road and set proper y offset
  • Fixed terrain in random gen around wilderness POIs being cut down to dirt and clay
  • Fixed backpacks on slopes, stairs and sometimes terrain are swallowed up, elevated to the next open Y coordinate, or simply just not appearing
  • Fixed decayed brick recipe uses fertile dirt instead of dirt
  • Fixed debuff items showing wrong description
  • Fixed Inventory Menu render order
  • Fixed planted maple seeds now grow maple trees instead of pines
  • Fixed supply crates have a chance drop keystones in MP games
  • Fixed english.txt for Pickup items
  • Fixed bug in code that snaps terrain to cubed blocks
  • Fixed bug where crafting search box would stay active after closing inventory
  • Fixed possible ArrayOutOfBoundsException in the context of random terrain generation
  • Fixed augers so they can impact surfaces you can shoot through like frames
  • Fixed improved Stag in water. Pig is too low, rabbit still seems to run atop the surface. Needs more work still. Bounding box issues most likely.
  • Fixed grid spacing collision for drag and drop on belt, backpack and crafting grid so accidental item drops are not possible
  • Fixed bug where dog death animation didn’t play right away
  • Fixed cook button being off center
  • Fixed server browser not filtering by server version
  • Fixed problem that cars could not be opened again after looting

ServerConfig.xml

  • There are no changes to the serverconfig.xml

Known Issues

  • 32 bit Operating Systems can run out of memory sometimes. We’re still optimizing this.

Playing Old Versions

We’re also making the last stable Alpha 9 build and older builds available to re download so here’s how you do it.
1. Open your steam client.
2. Click on Games/View Games Library
3. Right click ‘7 Days to Die’ and select properties
4. From the new popup dialogue box select the ‘BETAS’ Tab
5. Under ‘Select the beta you would like to opt into’ – select ‘Alpha 9 Stable’
6. The game will then update and download Alpha 9
7. Switching back to the latest version is as easy as repeating steps 1-4 and on step 5 choose the option ‘None – Opt out of all Beta Programs’ and you’ll revert to the latest version

Alpha 9 with Random Worlds is out! 08.15.14

Ahoy Survivalists,
Our Massive Alpha 9 update is finally here with a multitude of new additions, improvements and fixes here’s the skinny. The biggest addition is our beautiful new Randomly Generated Worlds A.K.A. Randomz-gane which have full gigantic cities, roads, rivers, lakes, cliffs, mountains, roadside and wilderness locations and feature all biome types.

We’ve also reworked the entire in game GUI with new Art, Truetype fonts and many new features including fog of war, waypoints, friend tracking and recipe search.

If that wasn’t enough we’ve added some major Buff System enhancements including, Broken Legs, Sprained Legs, Dysentery, Drowning, Concussions and First Aid Kits. We’ve also including new rendering enhancements including soft shadows and underwater effects. In addition the player can now craft a full cloth armor set and use scrap iron build and upgrade forts. Folks this update is jammed packed with features!

Official Alpha 9 Release Notes

Added

  • Added new game map option ‘Random Gen’ which creates a randomly generated world seed based on the name you give the world. The random world generation includes all biomes, a full random sized central city, random in the wild cities, roads, rivers, lakes and random roadside and wilderness locations. Simply select Random Gen as the Game World and the name you give it will be the seed.
  • Added new sexier data driven ‘M’ map that renders based on where the player has visited with ‘Fog of War’ functionality. The new map shows, current position, cursor position, has waypoint functionality, recenter view to player, track friends on compass, mouse wheel scroll to zoom and left click drag to pan.
  • Added new biome type wasteland hub with custom spawning definition for random gen cities
  • Added overhauled most of the GUI including the new belt, backpack, compass, map, freinds list, character screen, loot container and more as well as new gui functionality and Truetype fonts
  • Added many new locations never before seen that appear only in the randomly generated worlds including, city blocks, movie theaters, several apartment buildings, parking garages, parking lots, new destroyed buildings and giant sewer holes.
  • Added a Debuff system for sprained, and broken legs that work with a new craftable splint that accelerates the healing time. Legs can also be re-injured more easily while on the mend and the more severe the injury the longer the recovery time.
  • Added Dysentery Debuff contracted from drinking river or murky water. Dysentery is cured by drinking goldenrod tea or taking antibiotics.
  • Added new stunned concussion debuff which slows the player down for a few seconds and has a chance to happen with zombie hits.
  • Added soft shadows to moon and sunlight
  • Added Simple drowning Debuff system that detects when the player is underwater and displays the icon. Going above water removes the icon. staying underwater for too long causes drowning pain damage and drowning death
  • Added Underwater visual effects, sound effects & leaving water effects with refract & screen particle effects
  • Added new tooltip loading screens
  • Added craftable Cloth jacket, pants, shoes, hat and gloves
  • Added cotton, cotton growing and cloth recipes from cotton
  • Added new scrap metal frame, ramp recipes and upgrade path for more fort building options
  • Added scrap metal inside corner wedges for scrap metal upgrade path
  • Added outside corners for scrap metal forts
  • Added recipe for scrap metal inside corner frames
  • Added Apartment building, Parking Garage, Movie Theater and new destroyed buildings to Navezgane Gravestown
  • Added eat glass for suicide option
  • Added empty jars added to inventory when using water, coffee, murky water, yucca juice, and goldenrod tea
  • Added recipe for adobe tan made from sand or sandstone and cement
  • Added paper to trash loot
  • Added cabinet filler pieces and cabinet top plate blocks for counters replacing some of the cabinet loot in the world
  • Added green plaster wallpaper full blocks
  • Added, blood bags, blood draw kits and first aid kits to the world. First aid kits heal 50 hit points immediately plus an additional 50 over 10 seconds. It is made from a bandage, grain alcohol, and a blood bag. Blood draw kits can be reused to make blood bags.
  • Added “gunpowder charge” item & recipe which is made of 9 gunpowder
  • Added inside corner wedge and wedged corner for oldwood for attics
  • Added seeds to garbage and backpack loot
  • Added icons for leg splint, blood bag, blood draw kit, first aid kit, gun powder charge\bottle, cloth hat, cloth pants, cloth jacket, cloth shoes and cloth gloves.
  • Added slowed movement speed in sand, water and web for player and entities
  • Added weapon parts to loot lists, reduced chance of finding complete weapons
  • Added a new water biome sound loop plays on rivers in random gen only
  • Added Reduced damage from crawling zombies but gave them a chance give the player a sprained leg
  • Added new blocks creme wall with backsplash block, wood floor with drywall ceiling block
  • Added city street painted lines
  • Added random rotation to loot on roads
  • Added Player placed dirt now grows grass
  • Added bookcase blocks, textures and recipes to craft them and bookcase loot containers to the world
  • Added updated english.txt random gen description and new items
  • Added MovementState to hornet controller to stop error msgs
  • Added a few pigs to pine forest biome
  • Added smell debuff code support and buff note: smell blips still show up on the main map
  • Added upgradable inside and outside wood corners useful for building mitered roof corners
  • Added scrap Lead to garbage loot
  • Added recipes for wooden inside and outside corners

Changed

  • Changed removed old minimap compass and replaced with new sleek minimalist compass that shows player sleeping bag position, set waypoints and tracked friends
  • Changed Hordes are smaller in general but except every 7th day they are super nasty.
  • Changed thinned the total amount of loot containers in all world prefabs and moved the best prefabs to harder to reach areas
  • Changed Drinking river water doesn’t damage your health and you get some stamina now just like drinking pure water, but there is a chance of catching the new Dysentery Debuff from drinking it. Dysentery is cured by drinking goldenrod tea or taking antibiotics. If untreated it becomes advanced dysentery which damages stamina and health which is only curable with antibiotics
  • Changed credits adding all Kickstarter Backers and made it scroll faster
  • Changed cupboards to have 0-1 cans of food instead of 0-2
  • Changed increased amount of food you get from canned Lamb and Chicken
  • Changed decreased weight of candy tins, hub caps and air filters
  • Changed slowed crop growth
  • Changed spiked club recipe to require ingots instead of scrap metal
  • Changed white flowers are now cotton plants
  • Changed lowered zombie player damage to work with the new stun system
  • Changed awnings are made from cloth instead of plant fibers
  • Changed most all interior house walls are a full block thick improves lighting and enemy pathing
  • Changed pipe bombs are now made from gunpowder charge instead of gunpowder
  • Changed TNT now uses loads of gunpowder instead of gunpowder
  • Changed replaced all plate block and plate block corner thin walls in old houses and ranch houses
  • Changed new default spectrum (used in plains and Diersville) with magenta sunset and bluer nights
  • Changed craft time of sandbags from 30 seconds to 5 seconds
  • Changed all blocks that use the shape of the pine tip are now only 1m height.
  • Changed backpacks so you have equal chance of finding the items they contain
  • Changed pistol book so it gates pistol part mold crafting instead of pistol crafting.
  • Changed removed shotguns from the book so they can be assembled by anyone who has the parts. Molds still require the book to learn how to craft them
  • Changed Sandbags can be picked up
  • Changed made both mattresses work as player bedrolls when placed
  • Changed Fog, Sunlight and Sky in forest
  • Changed when placing a regular block on the terrain, the terrain now “snaps” to this block
  • Changed Zombies are no longer slowed by forge or campfire light at night, and never run in dark places during the day
  • Changed increased chance of clay deposits in earth. Removed chance of getting clay when digging dirt
  • Changed increased chainsaw wood damage
  • Changed removed flicker from wall mounted torches
  • Changed plains terrain grass is a little greener
  • Changed resources underground so there are only 3 minerals per layer. There is stone and iron ore in every layer. The third mineral changes every twenty layers down starting with coal, then potassium nitrate, then lead, and finally tungsten.
  • Changed radiated terrain texture, added more loot to cupboards
  • Changed Added peeling paint and grunge to Diersville houses and white door
  • Changed reduced cars in Diersville and gravestown for performance
  • Changed the way chunks are build in background threads to optimize them
  • Changed scrap metal wall and reinforced scrap metal wall art
  • Changed dirt grows into grass, grass grows into tallgrass
  • Changed ramp trussing textures to use new scrap metal textures
  • Changed redwood cabinets plain on sides and bottom
  • Changed removed blob shadows on all entities (zombies, animals, players, etc)
  • Changed Biome intensity fading now also over time
  • Changed winter biomes have less fog and brighter midday
  • Changed dirt to sides of burnt forest blocks and burnt forest dirt on the sides of the wasteland blocks
  • Changed tweaked cupboard loot. Added empty cans and coffee beans are now in the seed group
  • Changed Reduced decal litter on roads
  • Changed increased weight of fishing weights from 1 to 4 ounces
  • Changed cars now only have automotive loot
  • Changed crafted doors to be unlocked by default
  • Changed Serverconfig.xml defaults to zombies normal 3
  • Changed: Moved VAC window to the top

Fixed

  • Fixed scrap timer not updating when adding more scrap while it’s in progress
  • Fixed problem that other players HUD text was flashing
  • Fixed elevator to surface bug
  • Fixed all backpacks and purses have terrain decoration flag so they don’t clip terrain
  • Fixed animals should avoid water > 1m deep unless they are forced in via physics somehow.
  • Fixed player should be push out of ground correctly
  • Fixed: Gave wasteland scrap metal block terrain decoration flag so it doesn’t float
  • Fixed drinking from river not being the same as drinking murky water
  • Fixed the VAC warning dialog
  • Fixed problem with animated doors on a client and also open/close state of a door can be saved in a prefab
  • Fixed regression: god mode wasn’t enabled in Cheat mod
  • Fixed bug where Mouse Sensitivity was not adjustable
  • Fixed horizon colors flickering a single time when time turns from about 13:50 to 14:10
  • Fixed Spinning rabbits and deers
  • Fixed the rotation of the preview of a door before placing is now correct
  • Fixed loot not spawning the right amount of items
  • Fixed severe problem that sometimes the collider for a newly placed block wasn’t generated
  • Fixed: Fat Cop Zombie Vomit Projectile disappears before it hits anything
  • Fixed old window upgrade path showing wrong model
  • Fixed old window upgrade path to include scrap metal reinforced version
  • Fixed window01white to require scrap metal to reach the metal reinforced version
  • Fixed walking in shallow water plays footsteps from ground below
  • Fixed playing “fall into water” sound now only if the fall distance is > 1m
  • Fixed hovering over item in campfire and closing causing item names to stay
  • Fixed Removed muzzle flash & smoke from crossbow
  • Fixed problem that client player in a Coop game was not seen by enemies if far away from the server

ServerConfig.xml

  • Renamed GamePref ShowAllPlayersOnMap to ShowFriendPlayerOnMap
  • Server config file option “ShowAllPlayersOnMap” has been renamed to “ShowFriendPlayerOnMap”

Known Issues

  • 32 bit Operating Systems can run out of memory sometimes. We’re still optimizing this.
  • Some users have trouble setting the video to higher resolutions like 1920×1080 or 1920×1200 as the list appears to long. The work around is to use your keyboard up and down arrow to reach these.

More News

Achievement Hunters

Be sure to check out the latest Achievement Hunters Video the 4th installment. The word on the street or Reddit is they may make us a regular or semi-regular series. Let’s Play 7 Days to Die Part 4

New Free Tool

Also we are pleased to announce that our friends at www.blackboxservers.net have released the 1st Visual Rcon tool (7DTDCC Alpha 0.1) for 7 Days to Die. The Rcon tool enable Server admins to:

  • Control and administrate multiple servers live
  • Chat with players and add MOTD’s when players join
  • Kick Ban/unban players ( select player name and kick/ban )
  • Live Navezgane Map – View player location, msg players , kick and ban
  • Change Server settings on the fly (without server Restart)
  • View and log / search game server console.
  • Create server banners for websites and forums using www.bbtracker.net
  • No need to download any additional software it is all web base interface

One Year Ago Today
Coincidentally today is our 1 year anniversary of getting funded on Kickstarter. Thanks folks for funding us! We all remember “where’s my Key Bro… where’s my Key!” Thank god that’s behind us. And for all of you waiting on tangible goods don’t worry we’re working on getting the T-shirts, Map and Zombie poster designs done and out. We can’t finish them until the world and characters are done so thank you for your patience.

Playing Older Versions
We’re also making the last stable Alpha 8.8 build and older builds available to re download so here’s how you do it.
1. Open your steam client.
2. Click on Games/View Games Library
3. Right click ‘7 Days to Die’ and select properties
4. From the new popup dialogue box select the ‘BETAS’ Tab
5. Under ‘Select the beta you would like to opt into’ – select ‘Alpha 8.8 Stable’
6. The game will then update and download Alpha 8.8
7. Switching back to the latest version is as easy as repeating steps 1-4 and on step 5 choose the option ‘None – Opt out of all Beta Programs’ and you’ll revert to the latest version

Alpha 9 Status Update! 08.02.14

What’s happening Survivalists,
I tell you what’s happening the team has been busting a move on an awesome Alpha 9. The Random Generated World has been coming along nicely with fully generated cities. Kudos to Robert and Chris for their hard work. Be sure to give them a big pimp high five if you run into them. The new GUI is really shaping up thanks to the outstanding efforts of Ryan and Joe these guys deserve a Goldenrod Tea or two. And lastly the addition of Gore blocks and a slew of new buffs are changing the game play in amazing new ways. Tip of the Fedora to Joel for his continued dedication to making the game fun.

For the most up to date Alpha 9 development info, screenshots and more be sure to follow Joel’s Dev Blog here:
7 Days to Die Dev blog

Also be sure to check out the latest Achievement Hunters 7 Days to Die! Let’s Play Video. These guys are awesome!
Let’s Play 7 Days to Die Part 3

You stay classy Survivalists,
The Fun Pimps