Guten Morgen Survivalists,
Alpha 8.7 is out with many new additions, improvements and requested fixes including: New anti-cheat strategies with VAC enabled anti cheat integration, our new standalone Dedicated Server, new upgradable wood fort spikes, a heap of loot tuning, a ton of the most annoying player requested bug fixes and much, much more.

Note: If you want to try 8.7 make sure not to load your 8.6 save game as it might get corrupted. It might be fine but always back up your save. For best results start a new game with 8.7.

We’ve decided from now on to always make the last stable build 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 8.6 Stable’
6. The game will then update and download Alpha 8.6
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

And for your detailed oriented folks here is a complete list of new Alpha 8.7 Release Notes. So check it out now funk soul brother!

Official Alpha 8.7 Release Notes

Added

• Added several new measures to deter cheaters including turning on Valve Anti Cheat and have begun processing cheaters. Servers have the option to run VAC true or false.
• Added a new standalone Dedicated server software accessible to anyone who has purchased the game. You can find it in your steam client under Library/Tools/7 Days to Die Dedicated Server. Note: Client run coop will always be supported but Client run Dedicated servers will only be supported for a few weeks.. Server providers should run, test and migrate over to the new standalone server as soon as possible.
• Added integrated NGUI 3 to the game in preparation for vector fonts in the next release.
• Added new southwest adobe wall blocks and wedges in white, peach and tan wall. They also include variants with interior walls and trims
• Added: Loot group “seeds” so as we add more plantable crops to the game it’s easy to implement them into the loot system
• Added upgradable trunk tips and trunks
• Added Drop Ceiling02 black ceiling for clubs and theaters
• Added Ban now allows using steam ID to ban, does not require them to be on the server
• Added If banned steam id is on the server it will kick them when banned
• Added VAC Warning when joining a server with VAC Enabled

Changes

• Changed: Removed ‘Suicide’ button
• Changed: Chainsaws and augers are easier to find
• Changed removed the suicide button in the normal game mode. It’s now a debug mode option only
• Changed distribution of “low probability” ores like lead and potassium nitrate to occur more often in the ground
• Changed the terrain textures now use the asset bundles
• Changed moved some textures into external bundles. The dedi only build doesn’t include these textures now
• Changed removed old block cacti
• Changed stability glue of cloth so it’s more stable
• Changed improved performance on dropped items (simpler collision checks)
• Changed English.txt updating all new items
• Changed Bush1 the green bush that yields sticks in the plains is now a bit bigger to allow it to be seen better
• Changed removed old redundant “lit campfire” block id 856
• Changed femur has durability and breaks
• Changed increased durability of all wooden clubs
• Changed increased chance of finding garbage in houses instead of hero loot containers
• Changed increased chance to find empty jars than food in cupboards
• Changed greater chance to find garbage on roads instead of backpacks
• Changed added more deer and rabbits to the biomes but slowed the re-spawn delay significantly
• Changed: Improved water art
• Changed: over 96 blocks now drop scrap Iron when destroyed
• Changed: Decreased lower cupboard and stove loot from 1-2 to 0 to 2 items
• Changed: Increased spawn time for deer to re-spawn to approximately 8 days
• Changed Sped up daytime zombie alerted approach speed

Bug Fixes

• Fixed height collision on cacti
• Fixed zombies descending on hills don’t pirouette anymore
• Fixed Dogs should not clip through player
• Fixed cactuses don’t do damage
• Fixed can’t pick up some small rocks
• Fixed Window01 white and window02 collision
• Fixed bird nests and small trash being hard to loot
• Fixed bug where ammo and gasoline get consumed from your inventory by other people in MP
• Fixed bug when player is dehydrated and eats an item that lowers hydration further the stamina drain sound loops forever
• Fixed sound fade in on planes
• Fixed Can’t walk up a player placed dirt slope
• Fixed bug where TNT explodes twices
• Fixed placing a sleeping bag at some rotations allows half of it to be picked up
• Fixed trigger radius of landmines we’re too small
• Fixed in SP the DropOnQuit option was taken from the last MP game
• Fixed a lot of sounds issues when joining dedicated server
• Fixed Lumber Jack Digging, was broken
• Fixed bug that trunk blocks were not destroyable
• Fixed crash when flying in and out of police station
• Fixed players and crates are not affected by View Distance
• Fixed Terrain decoration on dead shrub so it doesn’t float on hills sometimes
• Fixed Terrain decoration on trash so it doesn’t float on hills sometimes
• Fixed pole blocks can now be burned for firewood
• Fixed other player names render on top of the crafting tarp
• Fixed bug where using water buckets you can break doors
• Fixed BannedUntil wasn’t being properly checked against server time

ServerConfig.xml

• Added a console “saveworld” command for dedis to be able to save the current state of a world
• Added a simple Zombie Performance Limiter as a GamePref so server providers can set this limit manually setup the default to 60 Added: VACEnabled GamePref Valve Anti-Cheat defaults to enabled. This will start tracking for any trainers or cheats that a client might be using when playing on a VAC enabled server.