Alpha 7
Released 2014-02-28. The official release notes, with 30 changes linked into the database.
Alpha 7.0
General
Added new smooth terrain imported from the old world. The full terrain smoothing pass will come in the next big release
Added new high res ground terrain textures, new model trees, bushes, cactus, grass and destroyed building block pieces. Who says the apocalypse can’t be a beautiful place.
Added new sun shaft and brighter moon
Added regular zombie, fat zombie and snow zombie idle, walk and pain animations
Added ‘Destruction’ group in the creative menu and icons which contains all destruction sets
Added preview icons for all existing building destruction sets modular sets
Added impact particle effects for various materials vs snow terrain and block destroy effect for snow
Added impact particle effects for stone vs various materials
Game mechanics
Added a new Stealth System with minimap noise blips, zombie color aggression icons and an object throwing distraction system which currently works with Small Rocks and Pipe Bombs. The system also uses food smells. Meats smell the most, then charred, grilled and boiled smelling the least. Carbs smell the least, raw or cooked, at least to zombies, so things like corn bread and blueberry pie that do not increase your health but can fill you up smell very little. You can now run away in the dark and crouch and lose enemies. No more zombie GPS!
Added a Campfire Cooking system with many newly and improved recipes. The system uses 4 cookware including a Cooking Pot, Cooking Grill, Sharpened Stick or Beaker. Having a specific cookware combined with your ingredients unlocks new recipes.
Added a new horde spawning system where player’s noises contribute to the possibility of a horde spawning. Zombies no longer no exactly where you are day or night.
Added a new loot opening timer system. Crouching will take longer to open a loot container but make less noise. Take all gathers items quicker but makes more noise.
Added crafting time for crafting which improves the survival experience.
Lighting
Added a new lighting model which allows point lights in the world and flashlights and torches to look better.
Added a Household Flashlight binding key F which toggles on and off your flashlight or new Mining Helmet if you have.
Preferences
Added LOD for trees and large bushes and a slider in the video options that can be tuned to boost performance
Added new player spawn rules: New players in coop spawn near other players. Solo players spawn at start points. New players in PVP spawn at the nearest spawn 100 meters away from other players. If you quit and rejoin it spawns you where you were at. When you die if you don’t have a Bedroll its spawn you randomly 75 meters away from your death location. If you a bedroll and dies a selection comes 1. Spawn at bedroll 2. Spawn near from bedroll (75 meters away)
Added new drop on death and quit options drop nothing, everything, Tool Belt and Backpack only.
Added new player dropped backpack model and map icon so you can find your loot. The system only displays your last dropped backpack and the backpack stays in the world until it’s emptied.
Added start inventory of one Water bottle and one can of chili
Items
Added Glass Jar forging & Glass Jar Mold, windows now have a chance to drop Broken Glass items that can be collected and melted into glass objects
Added in an Industrial Wall Light and Fluorescent Ceiling Light
Added model and icon for Crushed Sand
Added Goldenrod Tea, Charred Meat, Grilled Meat and Boiled Meat recipes
Added Campfire and Cooking Pots to the cabins
Added Glass Pane forging
Added Mining Helmet to loot
Added Gravel recipe from Destroyed Stone
Added new icon for Coal Ore
Added four variation set of Steel Sink Faucet models
Added brass version of Sink Faucet set
Added Gravel underground and reduced its stability so it can cave in making natural ore veins
Sound
Added new stone hit sound set
Changes
Changed the Household Flashlight and Torch to useable melee weapons
Changed Rotated Wood Planks and Red Wood Planks so it tiles on stairs correctly
Changed Pig, Rabbit and Stag art
Changed Zombie hand animations to be more lifelike
Changed Sand so it can no longer make glass, but it can be crafted into Crushed Sand which can be used with the new glass forging system
Changed Player punch does much less block damage (Pure-Dur changed)
Change Removed recipe to make empty jars from sand and thin metal plates
Change lowered health regeneration rate
Change filling water bottles now gives you Bottled River Water instead of pure water
Change water can be boiled into Pure Water in the cooking pot
Change removed glass pane recipe from sand
Change removed Bed Frame recipe
Change reduced chance to find backpacks, purse, suitcases, etc (Storage)
Changed Rotated white and black woods so they tiled better
Changed Log blocks only yield 2 wood planks instead of 4
Changed Log spikes only yield 1 wood plank instead of 2
Changed Slowed fire rate of Hunting Knifes and improved animation
Changed Slowed rate of fire on Stone Axe and improved animation
Changed Ore to be several clusters
Changed weight of Iron Ore to 96 ounces instead of 432 ounces since it is found in clusters
Changed Stone Stairs to be Cobblestone Stairs
Changed Gunpowder and Gas Can recipe to be made with Chemistry
Changed all prefabs in the world to use new smooth terrain blocks where applicable
Changed all destroyed and burnt buildings in the world to use some of the new block destruction set
Changed wooden furniture you can pick up a fuel value so it can be burned
Changed thinned loot containers in business areas in the plains/grasslands and upped spawning
Changed lower stainless steel fridge to not be a loot container
Changed Sledgehammer hold and attacks
Changed Biome spawning to improve zombie counts
Changed Max Stack number on Crushed Sand to 16
Changed Concrete blocks break down into Gravel now (they don't)
Changed Red Wood Planks and Red Barn Wood recipes to require less Flowerpots per wood ratio
Changed Pine Forest spectrum to have more variety
Changed Gravel so it’s harder to mine and Iron Ore weigh less
Changed Concrete recipe so it requires Gravel instead of Stone or Destroyed Stone
Changed Removed Potassium Nitrate, Coal Ore and Lead Ore from the world, instead it is found randomly when Iron Ore is destroyed
Bugs
reflective water is not switched off unless you quit the game and re-start again
Zombie Dogs so they don’t spin circles
Hunting Rifle, Sniper Rifle reload animations to not jerk the camera
bushes to break easier and drop sticks
burnt zombie so he has the right shader
windows so zombies can see through them
naked zombies not always playing their attack animations
hunting rifle ammo icon based on bug report
problem that chunks were not drawn any more
crouch punch for male
feet clipping on the zombie dog
crouch punch for female
wasteland having concrete layer under it
+ Upgrading to Alpha 7 will sometimes cause players to lose key bindings go into options/controls/restore defaults and hit apply then close the game and start again to fix the problem
+ Augers and Chainsaw make idle sounds when they are out of gas
+ Sometimes trees are not rendered but their collision is there. The work around is to restart your server and restart your game. We will work on this for a patch.