General Project Zomboid FAQ

[nasKo]

Here’s our run-down on the most asked questions we get about how people can get their hands on Project Zomboid, and where we’re going with it.

Q. What is Project Zomboid?

A. Project Zomboid is an open world zombie survival RPG set in a post-apocalyptic, obviously zombie-infested world where you are challenged to survive as long as you can until you inevitably die.
This is the story of your death, not how you overcame the apocalypse against all odds.

Q. Is there Multiplayer?

A. YES!

Q. Who is The Indie Stone?

A. We are people. We also have faces and you can see them here:
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/about-us/

Q. What platforms do you support?

A. Project Zomboid is available for Windows, Linux and Mac.
There are no plans for other platforms at this point in time.

Q. You've been in development and Early Access for a while. When will you release the game or consider it 1.0?

A. Two major features are yet to be implemented into the game, both of which are currently in full-time development each with dedicated full-time developer support. These are:

Animations Overhaul - New animations to allow for stealth mechanics (looking round corners, crouching behind walls, cover etc) as well as a rewrite of the combat system to leverage new animations to make combat more involved, intuitive and fluid.
The new combat and movement system will be the basis for NPCs, making the Animation Overhaul Update the first step towards implementing the NPC systems.

NPCS - A far reaching and in-depth NPC system with character relationships, personalities, and an emergent story engine that allows for diverse and emergent character based zombie survival story unique to every playthrough. This also includes the tutorial, a return of Kate and Baldspot who starred in the early alphas of the game.

Several features require either significant modifications, rewrites or completion before we could consider 1.0.

Map completion - We still have a major city, an army base, more wilderness, and several small towns to implement to the game map.

UI Rewrite - The UI isn’t perfect by any stretch. We would like to get a more intuitive and ergonomic UI system implemented.

Creative Mode - Making map creation more intuitive and fluid.

We tend to avoid ETAs generally because Early Access development, in particular, is often filled with unknowns and we want to ensure we get these highly anticipated features right. We do not want to compromise on the quality just to get them out.

In the meantime, however, we will continue to update the game and provide new features for our community to play with.
Several of our developers' full-time responsibility is providing frequent and new items, crafting recipes, skills, and survival gameplay elements to fill out any holes in gameplay, and provide frequent feature rich game updates in line with community feedback, while the other developers focus on finishing these specific remaining major features.

Q. What about after 1.0?

A. At this point, once we feel we have fulfilled every promise we gave when the Project Zomboid site first launched[web.archive.org] (except the last one, ahem, ignore that. Absolutely no one wanted that, it turned out), as well as the extra things detailed above, and the game is sufficiently polished and bug free, we will launch the game as 1.0 and leave Early Access.

What happens at this point depends entirely on whether the game is making money or not, but given the past solid performance of the game we see no reason why it shouldn’t be. Several developers within the team will likely start exploring our second project at this point, however, we have dedicated and passionate developers who were brought into the company via the Project Zomboid modding community, emotionally invested in the game, who are already a big part of the development and communicating with the community. As long as Project Zomboid is making enough to support their continued development of the game, and they are happy to continue working on it (which seems likely), we will continue making Project Zomboid indefinitely as long as there is interest.

That all said, we can’t make any solid promises beyond the 1.0 mark, however, there are countless things we would love to do that go way beyond 1.0 and sales make us confident that we’ll get the opportunity to explore them. Truth be told, given that it was Zomboid that put the money in the bank in the first place, as long as our company is secure and we can fund any other project's development comfortably, it's very probable we'd be willing to put some money back into the game beyond the point it's sustaining itself if there are any features, in particular, we can't bear to leave out of the game.
Words are wind though, and all we can do is guess where we'll all be by then. We really want to keep this train going as long as we can though, as long as it continues to the benefit of the game. At which point the modders will hopefully take the mantle with almost unlimited access to the game's core.”

Q. Do you guys need any help with music, artwork, translation or some other creative endeavour?

A. We’re fine right now in most areas; we’ve got a full complement of developers and helpers, but feel free to send over whatever you’d like. If you’d like to help out then the best way would be through our modding community[theindiestone.com]. If you'd like to add more languages or help with translation, please check out our translation forum[theindiestone.com]

Q. How much does/will it cost?

A. The game is currently available for 9.99 GBP / 13.99 EUR / 14.99 USD
The price will likely increase once we're dropping out of Early Access.

Q. What age rating is Project Zomboid?

A. We currently have no fixed age rating but would underline that this is a mature game dealing with adult subjects. Parental discretion is certainly advised.

Q. When I buy Project Zomboid, what does that get me?

A. Project Zomboid is a game that’s still in development. When you purchase a license you gain access to every build we release, up to and including its completion. We will consider the game complete when we’ve ticked off everything we promised and planned out at the start of our alpha-funding campaign

Q. Will there be a demo?

A. There is! In it, you will start off as infected, so you can play as much/often as you like, but you will only last so long. Please give it a try if you're unsure whether PZ will run on your machine.

Q. How can I follow the game’s progress?

A. You can follow us on Twitter @theindiestone and check-in on our forums http://www.theindiestone.com/
We also blog about our progress[projectzomboid.com] every Monday.

Q. So where can I download the current build?

A. The latest stable builds will auto-update (if you have that option selected).
If you'd like to test the buggier, but sometimes more current, beta-builds read how to access them here:

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/4183-iwbums-the-i-will-backup-my-save-branch/

Please keep in mind, we're always looking for feedback about our "IWBUMS" beta branch.

Q. I found a bug! Where can I report it?

A. The best place with the highest probability of it being noticed is our bug tracker on our forums:
http://theindiestone.com/forums/?app=tcbugtracker&module=tracker&controller=projects&id=1

Q. Help! I’m having some sort of trouble with my PZ account!

A. First of all check out our Support section on the forum[theindiestone.com], if your answer doesn’t lurk there then fire off a mail to [e-mail], but be sure to include your receipt of purchase.

Q. Help! I’m having some sort of trouble getting PZ working!

A. In 99% of cases, our Support pages will be able to help you, but if the issue persists then post up in the Support section of the forum.

Q. WHERE ARE THE ACHIEVEMENTS?

A. We will add those later down the line when the game is more feature complete.

Q. I have a suggestion for a really cool feature that could go in PZ! Who should I contact?

A. Go to the Suggestions[theindiestone.com] part of our forum, search to find out whether anyone else has ever dreamt it up – and, if not, then dazzle us with a post about your zombie survival know-how.

Q. Can I monetize YouTube videos, "Let's Play" commentaries etc?

A. Yes! YouTube and Twitch are the lifeblood of our game. Go crazy!
Post this up in the youtube video description to be on the save side:
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/youtube-terms/

Q. Can I modify the game? Are there terms and conditions?

A. You're very welcome to modify PZ! We got terms and conditions covered here:
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/2013/09/terms-conditions/

Q. Will I have to purchase the game again once it appears on Steam (non-Early Access)?

A. No. If you've bought it during Early Access you will obviously get the "final" game, too.
Everyone who already bought the game even before we appeared on Steam Early Access will be able to get it on Steam for free.
Go here for all the info you need:
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/2013/11/returning-to-pz/

Q. Will you support Steam Big Picture mode?

A. We plan to do so! Controller support is currently in and we’ll work on the UI to fit Big Picture mode as well as controller support polish in the future.

Q. Will NPCs be friendly or hostile?

A. Neither and both. We don’t want to make it that simple. NPCs may gain your trust and then back-stab you horribly. We’re trying to make this as dynamic and most importantly non-predictable as possible.
Crusader Kings 2 is a pretty inspiring game ;)

Q. What is this “meta-game”?

A. It’s essentially what keeps the world around you on being interesting by “living”.
Think of it as an abstract level of simulation for NPCs and Zombie population, from where they're plucked and made concrete when you enter the area. This abstracted simulation accesses various metadata about the world (rooms, building definitions, and their locations) and is the underlying system coordinating the actions and events in the world that happen without you being in the immediate area.

You might want to think of it as a complex puppet theater where the puppets are playing behind the curtain. When you open it, the game looks at the state of the actors and spawns them into the world as concrete characters in their corresponding states.
They will still be driven by the puppet master (the meta-game) so their (inter)actions and interests play out in the same way, but now with the curtains wide open for you to see them playing out.

Q. Can I build my own fort? Can I also grow my own food?

A. Yes and yes!
We also have plans for other methods of obtaining food.

Q. I’m not sure what I’m doing in Project Zomboid. Is there a manual?

A. We do have a tutorial in the game that covers the very basics.
Check out the PZ wiki[pzwiki.net] and our forums[theindiestone.com] which will definitely help you on your journey through the apocalypse.

Q. What is Sandbox mode?

A. Sandbox mode lets you customize the lore to your fitting. You love the “28 Days Later”-kind of sprinting Zombies or just want a harder challenge? There are too many/too few Zombies and you want less/more? You want to set the speed of the ingame-time to real-time?

Sandbox mode lets you edit these settings and more to your liking. The Zombie lore is completely customizable to the point, where you can edit the kind of transmission, the reanimation time after death as well as the infection mortality. You can also edit Zombies’ abilities to hear, see and smell as well as abilities such as memory and cognition.

Q. How big is the map?

A. The game takes place in Muldraugh, KY and we’re expanding to the surrounding areas, eventually. Muldraugh itself is a relatively small town, so don’t expect huge office buildings while you’re there. A good overview of the map can be found here (thanks to the awesomemest blindcoder!):
http://pzmap.crash-override.net/

Cities and other locations will eventually be included. We’re going for “huge” rather than big, so you’ll have to actually prepare for longer trips.
Also, our lovely modding community will be able to provide a lot of interesting (additional) maps!

Q. Is the map procedurally generated?

A. No. We have a clear story in mind and have plans on where the story will take you. Random map generation does not work very well with generating cities or towns that are supposed to actually feel different. However, it does work well for creating natural terrain, so we might end up using random generation to provide an infinite map size beyond the borders of the hand-crafted map. This would require a fair amount of work, though, so it is fairly low on our priority list.
We're sure that some modders will take up the challenge at some point :)

Will there be vehicles and means of transportations?

A. Another short one: Yes!

[Miller Highlife Enjoyer]

Those planned npc things look nice... Umm....

"Crusader Kings 2 is a pretty inspiring game ;)"

0_0

Now I'm gonna get a NPC group, and then someone will ask me to stop being the leader or they'll kill me. I'll leave and dissapear into the woods, or decline, and be brutally murdered by a group of friends and family when I turn my back or blink my eye. Hopefully if that happens they'll use knives and stab, so I'd become the modern Julius Caesar.

[Crackshot Mcgee]

Keep up the great work!

[Angelo Volando]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me on an issue I've got with my controller. I know it's a common thing what is happening to me- when hitting or shooting with the character the camera keeps moving towards where I am aiming to. (sorry for my english, I'm argentinian) I've already edit every config file I've found like it's said in this discussion.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/108600/discussions/1/617321352356626328/ there it also says that you devs have fixed that? I don't know how to make it work properly. Please help me, I want to try playing the game with a friend.

P.S.: If you want me to post in anotehr place in order to make your answer available for more people, let me know and I will post this question in other page/forum, etc. Thanks in advance!

[Goweigus]

When is the Kate and Baldspot tutorial being re-released?

[Gonzo Max]

Originally posted by Goweigus:

When is the Kate and Baldspot tutorial being re-released?

When it's ready.

[Waneess]

=)

[Psychopath]

Hey Guys, just a quick one: I've forced installed the server through SteamCMD, runs fine and connected. Though I seem to get the black border issue when logging in with local IP. Naturally i checked the server RAM through edit on the startserver32 batch file and set to -Xms2048m -Xmx2048m . When starting the server it states its using -Xms768m -Xmx768m, what am i doing wrong, which file should i edit for the forced installed server? Thanks for any ideas.

[Malikyte]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but since Workshop has been put in finally... where does Workshop put the downloaded mods? I need to find the install directory for one of my Workshop mods because I just downloaded a file that acts as a plugin for the base mod.

EDIT: Disregard, found it. For anyone else wondering this same thing, PZ's Workshop mods are not kept in the Zomboid directories at all, they're kept here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\108600

[P_ter]

it would be cool if you just team up with a npc and a day later it shoots you point blank and maybe a skill or trait allows to see if he is really as trustworthy as he seems

[Agent spacetech]

Didn't read this very much, but what's the port for this?

[Tourfaint]

Quick question, because I'm not sure on it. Do the zombies spawn/respawn? Are you theoretically able to wipe out the zombies so they are gone from the map? Do more zombies come from the map's edge? Or do they just randomly spawn out of nowhere in the cities?

[P_ter]

Originally posted by Tourfaint:

Quick question, because I'm not sure on it. Do the zombies spawn/respawn? Are you theoretically able to wipe out the zombies so they are gone from the map? Do more zombies come from the map's edge? Or do they just randomly spawn out of nowhere in the cities?

they are generated on a daily mulitplier yes u could kill everyone on the map but once u left say the left corner more would spawn

[P_ter]

Originally posted by Tourfaint:

Quick question, because I'm not sure on it. Do the zombies spawn/respawn? Are you theoretically able to wipe out the zombies so they are gone from the map? Do more zombies come from the map's edge? Or do they just randomly spawn out of nowhere in the cities?

in fact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuoSMCmnSVg