Wazzup Survivalist,
Folks it’s Friday the 13th but the Pimps are not going to let a silly little superstition dampen their holiday mood. So in the spirit of Christmas we’re releasing a new Alpha 5 version of the game on Steam and we’re running a 15% discount on both Steam and on our own Buy Page through January 2nd. The game sells regularly for $35.00 so you have a couple weeks to grab it for the new low sale price of $29.75.

So why don’t you head on over to our Buy Page or our brand new Steam Store Page to pick up your sale priced copy now!

We’ve also left a little something in the stocking for our existing customers creating a new customer Get my Steam Key Page where you can login to our customer portal and convert your 7 Days to Die key to a Steam key. Then you can load up your Steam client and activate your Steam Key and play Alpha 5 with all the great new Steam integrated features.

Now let’s get down to the skinny on Alpha 5. The build is jam packed with many newly supported Steam features accessed in-game through the Shift-Tab. Including friend invites, in game chat, server invite friend invites, auto updating, screen shot uploads and more.
We’ve also spiffed up the graphics quite a bit adding a new high quality HD lighting in the video options, per biome sky, fog and sunlight colors and transitions, and a brand spanking new water shader with sun and moon reflections. If that wasn’t enough we’ve add a new zombie crawler that sneaks up on you and can dig and get through 1 meter size holes. And lastly we’ve added a brand new “Zombies Run” menu option to set any mode to default, always run or never run for three completely different experiences. You can thank our fans for the zombies never run option it’s their comments that drove this feature.

And for your detailed oriented folks here is a complete list of new Alpha 5 Release Notes. So check it out now funk soul brother!

Official Alpha 5 Release Notes

Added

• Added new higher quality deferred lighting and checkbox in video options to switch it on and off for low and high end computers
• Added new clouds, sun color and fog color spectrums so each biome is unique
• Added biome transitions so they blend between colors smoothly
• Added the ability for Dogs to get through 1 meter holes
• Added new zombie crawler who crawls on the ground and can get through 1 meter block holes
• Added water specular highlights for sun/moon
• Added new organic material so corpses play the correct impact sounds
• Added empty tin cans to loot
• Added scrap metal recipe from tin cans
• Added new destroy organic sound set so destroying corpses makes the right sounds
• Added new footstep organic sound set so walking over corpses sounds squishy
• Added recipes for gas cans from cornmeal and water
• Added recipes for oil drums from gas cans
• Added new loot safe, loot stump, loot suitcase and loot corpse sounds and Integrated new loot sounds
• Add 4th ultra shadow distance setting of 80-90 blocks
• Added Allow friend invites from dedicated server
• Added SteamID for banning and file saving
• Added new game options for zombies running always, never and default run night walk day
• Added new organic particle for destroying corpses
• Added sandstone recipe
• Added buckshot item which can be crafted from lead ingots
• Added feathers & shotguns to zombie loot

Changes

• Changed damage on tools to compensate for degradation
• Changed it so Zombie dogs break through dirt and wood faster
• Changed dirt, grass & stone for new high quality deferred render settings
• Changed balancing of the bone shiv & hunting knife
• Changed Items like the club so they don’t have a wireframe target focus any more
• Changed it so in steam builds the steam id is used to save the player data file
• Changed shaders to improve the look of the day/night colors in the game
• Changed female player club hold and attacks so more of the club is on screen at the beginning and end
• Changed the mass of wood to 5 was 6 now roofs should not break that easy any more
• Changed and darkened Corn specular to look better with advanced lighting
• Changed Increased head damage on knives & pickaxe
• Changed trash loot to drop more items
• Changed shotguns to not destroy blocks so easily
• Changed zombie dog offset so his head doesn’t clip into the player when attacking
• Changed removed degradation from femurs & lowered their damage output slightly
• Changed reworked water textures
• Changed bucket recipe to use forging metal instead of ingots
• Changed shotguns to not destroy blocks so easily
• Changed zombie dog offset so his head doesn’t clip into the player when attacking
• Changed text descriptions for difficulty settings
• Changed text descriptions for zombie run settings
• Changed all game modes should default to the 1. Scavenger setting for new players
• Changed Increased chance to find a pistol on zombie loot
• Changed bolt recipe to use small rocks instead of scrap metal
• Changed Increased number of bolts crafted from the recipe from 4 to 12
• Changed Increased number of feathers found in nests
• Changed Deleted arrow recipe until bows are finished
• Changed Increased chance to get more venison
• Changed Fat zombies now use backpack and purse loot
• Changed regular zombies always drop some loot
• Changed shotgun shell recipe to use buckshot instead of lead ingots
• Changed crossbow bolt recipe to use small rocks instead of scrap metal and it has a greater arrow yield

Bug Fixes

• Fixed problem that on a server when a client disconnected, 2 threads were not stopped
• Fixed bug that in create world mode when pressing Shift the wireframe focus of the block didn’t go into the target block any more
• Fixed problem that bushes, trees and cactus decorations we’re sometimes rotated wrong
• Fixed problem that rockets went through metal trussing
• Fixed problem when connecting to server where the client could not hit the ESC key and cancel the action
• Fixed problem where zombies and animals sometimes danced on bushes
• Fixed block preview shader so that alpha cutout blocks like metal trussing are displayed correctly
• Fixed block preview position so that it should fit the “real position”. E.G. placing ia block nto water and into grass lead to a wrong preview
• Fixed crash when there was a blank “ “ at the end of a game name. Now this isn’t allowed
• Fixed connection problem from Pre 4
• Fixed dog pain animation from spamming
• Fixed glowing dusk fog in city/forest biomes
• Fixed an oversight causing more zombie cops/spiders/hornets to spawn than intended
• Fixed mattress placing
• Fixed bug that the held block was black sometimes
• Fixed bug that caused the player to slow down with water effects when near water blocks
• Fixed Z-fighting in corn items
• Fixed missing icons on mattress items
• Fixed it so zombies don’t get stuck at a garage door any more
• Fixed weight on pig, stag and rabbit so they don’t get moved as much by physics
• Fixed bug where the bucket doesn’t remove water blocks anymore
• Fixed a bug where zombies spawn on the roof of houses. Now they spawn in the houses
• Fixed all chairs so they can be picked up
• Fixed deer to drop less bones than meat
• Fixed zombies respawning at POI upon entering game
• Fixed the zombie “dog head clipping problem”
• Fixed concrete blocks to use concrete impacts
• Fixed Offset dog root joint towards head so they don’t clip through things
• Fixed bug where restore defaults were not setting all game options to the defaults
• Fixed zombies so they all run when always run option is selected
• Fixed In “Never Run” mode the zombies reach the player better
• Fixed torch placement problems. Now torch can also be placed in the middle of a block again

Known Issues

• When you light a pipebomb and don’t throw it, it will explode but the pipebomb is not “deleted”/removed from your inventory. If you die, all of them are dropped, including the one that exploded.
• Players can sometimes get stuck in small vertical spaces less than 2 blocks high like on top of a cinder block or trash pile
• Mac builds need to quit game via the task manager