It has been awhile since Zombie Panic! Source got it's major update, but after such a long wait, it's finally here! We have all enjoyed v2.4, but everything has to come to an end, but this time, it's for the better.


Windows XP Support

Windows XP is no longer supported in Zombie Panic! Source because of it's binaries and some third party libraries being used are not compatible with Windows XP.
In order to play Zombie Panic! Source, you can either upgrade your computer or use another one that runs Windows Vista or higher.

We're deeply sorry about this issue.

Zombie Panic! Dev Team

• Rebuilt ZPS from scratch using Source SDK 2013 MP Branch
  
• Switched the install directory to 'Zombie Panic! Source'

• Added DiscordRPC support
  
• Added character: Pedro Rodriguez
  
• Added Steam achievements
  
• Added survivors bios
  
• Added loading logo video
  
• Added zombie shader
  
• Added AngelScript support
  
• Added Linux dedicated server support
  
• Added AFK manager system
  
• Added built-in admin. system for server owners
  
• Added Cascaded Shadow Mapping (CSM) (DirectX 9.0c and higher only)
  
• Added optional anti-panic rush
  
• Added Steam Workshop support
  
• Added breakable doors entity
  
• Fixed critical memory leak
  
• Fixed security issues reported by many Steam users
  
• Improved body hit registration
  
• Updated the information when the player looks at their teammates
  
• Updated how random_ entities spawn system works
  
• Updated VBSP and VRAD compilers for maps
  
• Updated Infection system

• Added gun smokes
  
• Added IED and grenade explosion particles
  
• Updated muzzle flashes
  
• Updated bullet impact effects

• Updated survivor animations
  
• Updated all melee animations
  
• Updated and fixed firearms animations

• Added character selection
  
• Added vote system (similar to Left 4 Dead 2)
  
• Added game Instructor
  
• Added ZP Options
  
• Updated main menu
  
• Updated loading screen
  
• Updated score board
  
• Updated kill and microphone icons, and game tips

• Updated Hardcore
  
• Removed ZPA

• Added zph_pithole
  
• Added zpo_frozenheart
  
• Added zpo_zomboeing
  
• Updated zpo_aquatica
  
• Updated zpo_biotec
  
• Updated zpo_corpsington
  
• Updated zpo_harvest
  
• Updated zpo_keretti
  
• Updated zpo_murksville
  
• Updated zpo_shreddingfield
  
• Updated zpo_subway
  
• Updated zpo_tanker
  
• Updated zps_asylum
  
• Updated zps_blackout
  
• Updated zps_cinema
  
• Updated zps_clubzombo
  
• Updated zps_corpsington
  
• Updated zps_deadend
  
• Updated zps_hauned
  
• Updated zps_keretti
  
• Updated zps_nightmare
  
• Updated zps_policestation
  
• Updated zps_ruralpanic
  
• Updated zps_sapidcerebrum
  
• Updated zps_silence
  
• Updated zps_thrillvile
  
• Updated zps_town
  
• Updated zps_underground
  
• Removed zpa_badbayou
  
• Removed zpo_haunted
  
• Removed zpa_town

• Added VPK format files
  
• Added ZPS console commands:
  
  • status_full
    
  • zps_anti_bunnyjump
    
  • zps_anti_panicrush
    
  • zps_hardcore
    
  • zps_hardcore_infection_chance
    
  • zps_hardcore_pillscure
    
  • zps_hardcore_rounds
    
  • zps_infection_chance
    
  • zps_map
    
  • zps_objective_rounds
    
  • zps_survival_rounds
    
  • zps_teambalance
    
  • zps_testmode_limitweapons
    
  • zps_waitingforplayersmode
    
  • zps_shoottrough
    
  • zps_afk_time
    
  • zps_afk_time_lobby
  
  
• Updated ZPS Hammer entities:
  
  • logic_rounds
    
  • logic_player_manager
    
  • logic_hardcoretimer
    
  • logic_wincounter
    
  • logic_playercounter
    
  • logic_music
    
  • logic_script
    
  • func_precipitation
    
  • trigger_playercount
    
  • trigger_barricade
    
  • trigger_health
    
  • trigger_nojump
    
  • trigger_infect
    
  • trigger_uninfect
    
  • trigger_escape
    
  • trigger_capturepoint_zp
    
  • info_player_carrier
    
  • info_beacon
    
  • ambient_generic
    
  • item_armor (removed item_battery)
    
  • item_delivery
    
  • item_ammo_pistol
    
  • item_ammo_rifle
    
  • item_ammo_shotgun
    
  • item_ammo_revolver
    
  • filter_activator_team
    
  • filter_activator_type
    
  • prop_barricade
    
  • weapons_limit
    
  • random_ammo
    
  • random_any
    
  • random_def
    
  • random_weapon
    
  • random_firearms
    
  • random_melee
    
  • random_pistol
    
  • random_rifle
    
  • random_shotrev
    
  • game_text
  
  
• Updated ammo boxes texture
  
• Updated rain particle
  
• Updated sv_alltalk console command
  
• Updated random_*, item_ammo_* and weapon_* spawn entities
  
• Updated all textures to use the new Shader System
  
• Updated Hammer FGD's
  
• Updated mod events
  
• Updated VGUI
  
• Updated plenty of models to support prop_static
  
• Fixed many texture issues and other visual glitches

• Added FMODEx middleware to handle the musics
  
• Added CELT audio codec currently in use in TF2 and CS:GO
  
• Added Carrier footsteps
  
• Added 3 new soundtracks
  
• Added zombie sound cues (Roar and Spotting)
  
• Added new soundscapes
  
• Added Objective mode soundcues (when escaping and reaching timelimit)
  
• Added level specific sounddesign for zpo_frozenheart(Objective sound cue and soundeffects, item_deliver sound effects, event soundtrack)
  
• Added level specific sounddesign for zpo_zomboeing(event soundtrack and objective sound cue)
  
• Improved Steam Voice support
  
• Improved M4 and Winchester reload sounds
  
• Improved metal and wood melee weapons dropping sounds
  
• Updated infection sound

• Added weapon_pipewrench
  
• Added weapon_wrench
  
• Added holster animations for melees
  
• Added holster animation for IED and grenade
  
• Added unload pistol animations
  
• Added (fixed) recoil system for firearm weaponry
  
• Updated weapon_spanner UV and textures
  
• Updated weapon_pot textures
  
• Updated weapon_fryingpan textures
  
• Updated weapon_mp5 origin placement
  
• Updated item_deliver glow system
  
• Fixed weapon_frag duplication exploit

• Added sharing ammo and weapon directly feature (press the drop button)
  
• Added color type at player's name scaled by their HP
  
• Added bullet teammate penetration (optional by server owner)
  
• Added flashlight icon
  
• Updated movement speed
  
• Fixed where the max and current speed could be overwritten by external means

• Added Carrier feature: spotting ability
  
• Added optional zombie respawn delay
  
• Added zombie movement penalty when being shot in the leg
  
• Adjusted zombie movement speed
  
• Improved Carrier roar's glow effect
  
• Updated zombie vision
  
• Updated carrier textures and rig
  
• Removed knockback in mid-air
  
• Fixed where the max and current speed could be overwritten by external means

It has been awhile since Zombie Panic! Source got it's major update, but after such a long wait, it's finally here! We have all enjoyed v2.4, but everything has to come to an end, but this time, it's for the better.


Windows XP Support

Windows XP is no longer supported in Zombie Panic! Source because of it's binaries and some third party libraries being used are not compatible with Windows XP.
In order to play Zombie Panic! Source, you can either upgrade your computer or use another one that runs Windows Vista or higher.

We're deeply sorry about this issue.

Zombie Panic! Dev Team

• Rebuilt ZPS from scratch using Source SDK 2013 MP Branch
  
• Switched the install directory to 'Zombie Panic! Source'

• Added DiscordRPC support
  
• Added character: Pedro Rodriguez
  
• Added Steam achievements
  
• Added survivors bios
  
• Added loading logo video
  
• Added zombie shader
  
• Added AngelScript support
  
• Added Linux dedicated server support
  
• Added AFK manager system
  
• Added built-in admin. system for server owners
  
• Added Cascaded Shadow Mapping (CSM) (DirectX 9.0c and higher only)
  
• Added optional anti-panic rush
  
• Added Steam Workshop support
  
• Added breakable doors entity
  
• Fixed critical memory leak
  
• Fixed security issues reported by many Steam users
  
• Improved body hit registration
  
• Updated the information when the player looks at their teammates
  
• Updated how random_ entities spawn system works
  
• Updated VBSP and VRAD compilers for maps
  
• Updated Infection system

• Added gun smokes
  
• Added IED and grenade explosion particles
  
• Updated muzzle flashes
  
• Updated bullet impact effects

• Updated survivor animations
  
• Updated all melee animations
  
• Updated and fixed firearms animations

• Added character selection
  
• Added vote system (similar to Left 4 Dead 2)
  
• Added game Instructor
  
• Added ZP Options
  
• Updated main menu
  
• Updated loading screen
  
• Updated score board
  
• Updated kill and microphone icons, and game tips

• Updated Hardcore
  
• Removed ZPA

• Added zph_pithole
  
• Added zpo_frozenheart
  
• Added zpo_zomboeing
  
• Updated zpo_aquatica
  
• Updated zpo_biotec
  
• Updated zpo_corpsington
  
• Updated zpo_harvest
  
• Updated zpo_keretti
  
• Updated zpo_murksville
  
• Updated zpo_shreddingfield
  
• Updated zpo_subway
  
• Updated zpo_tanker
  
• Updated zps_asylum
  
• Updated zps_blackout
  
• Updated zps_cinema
  
• Updated zps_clubzombo
  
• Updated zps_corpsington
  
• Updated zps_deadend
  
• Updated zps_hauned
  
• Updated zps_keretti
  
• Updated zps_nightmare
  
• Updated zps_policestation
  
• Updated zps_ruralpanic
  
• Updated zps_sapidcerebrum
  
• Updated zps_silence
  
• Updated zps_thrillvile
  
• Updated zps_town
  
• Updated zps_underground
  
• Removed zpa_badbayou
  
• Removed zpo_haunted
  
• Removed zpa_town

• Added VPK format files
  
• Added ZPS console commands:
  
  • status_full
    
  • zps_anti_bunnyjump
    
  • zps_anti_panicrush
    
  • zps_hardcore
    
  • zps_hardcore_infection_chance
    
  • zps_hardcore_pillscure
    
  • zps_hardcore_rounds
    
  • zps_infection_chance
    
  • zps_map
    
  • zps_objective_rounds
    
  • zps_survival_rounds
    
  • zps_teambalance
    
  • zps_testmode_limitweapons
    
  • zps_waitingforplayersmode
    
  • zps_shoottrough
    
  • zps_afk_time
    
  • zps_afk_time_lobby
  
  
• Updated ZPS Hammer entities:
  
  • logic_rounds
    
  • logic_player_manager
    
  • logic_hardcoretimer
    
  • logic_wincounter
    
  • logic_playercounter
    
  • logic_music
    
  • logic_script
    
  • func_precipitation
    
  • trigger_playercount
    
  • trigger_barricade
    
  • trigger_health
    
  • trigger_nojump
    
  • trigger_infect
    
  • trigger_uninfect
    
  • trigger_escape
    
  • trigger_capturepoint_zp
    
  • info_player_carrier
    
  • info_beacon
    
  • ambient_generic
    
  • item_armor (removed item_battery)
    
  • item_delivery
    
  • item_ammo_pistol
    
  • item_ammo_rifle
    
  • item_ammo_shotgun
    
  • item_ammo_revolver
    
  • filter_activator_team
    
  • filter_activator_type
    
  • prop_barricade
    
  • weapons_limit
    
  • random_ammo
    
  • random_any
    
  • random_def
    
  • random_weapon
    
  • random_firearms
    
  • random_melee
    
  • random_pistol
    
  • random_rifle
    
  • random_shotrev
    
  • game_text
  
  
• Updated ammo boxes texture
  
• Updated rain particle
  
• Updated sv_alltalk console command
  
• Updated random_*, item_ammo_* and weapon_* spawn entities
  
• Updated all textures to use the new Shader System
  
• Updated Hammer FGD's
  
• Updated mod events
  
• Updated VGUI
  
• Updated plenty of models to support prop_static
  
• Fixed many texture issues and other visual glitches

• Added FMODEx middleware to handle the musics
  
• Added CELT audio codec currently in use in TF2 and CS:GO
  
• Added Carrier footsteps
  
• Added 3 new soundtracks
  
• Added zombie sound cues (Roar and Spotting)
  
• Added new soundscapes
  
• Added Objective mode soundcues (when escaping and reaching timelimit)
  
• Added level specific sounddesign for zpo_frozenheart(Objective sound cue and soundeffects, item_deliver sound effects, event soundtrack)
  
• Added level specific sounddesign for zpo_zomboeing(event soundtrack and objective sound cue)
  
• Improved Steam Voice support
  
• Improved M4 and Winchester reload sounds
  
• Improved metal and wood melee weapons dropping sounds
  
• Updated infection sound

• Added weapon_pipewrench
  
• Added weapon_wrench
  
• Added holster animations for melees
  
• Added holster animation for IED and grenade
  
• Added unload pistol animations
  
• Added (fixed) recoil system for firearm weaponry
  
• Updated weapon_spanner UV and textures
  
• Updated weapon_pot textures
  
• Updated weapon_fryingpan textures
  
• Updated weapon_mp5 origin placement
  
• Updated item_deliver glow system
  
• Fixed weapon_frag duplication exploit

• Added sharing ammo and weapon directly feature (press the drop button)
  
• Added color type at player's name scaled by their HP
  
• Added bullet teammate penetration (optional by server owner)
  
• Added flashlight icon
  
• Updated movement speed
  
• Fixed where the max and current speed could be overwritten by external means

• Added Carrier feature: spotting ability
  
• Added optional zombie respawn delay
  
• Added zombie movement penalty when being shot in the leg
  
• Adjusted zombie movement speed
  
• Improved Carrier roar's glow effect
  
• Updated zombie vision
  
• Updated carrier textures and rig
  
• Removed knockback in mid-air
  
• Fixed where the max and current speed could be overwritten by external means

We hope everyone's as excited as our team is, as we're only 4 days away from the release of v3.0! We're working hard on the final polishing of the build, and we can't wait to share our work with you all! You can check our Frequently Asked Questions thread for more information about the v3.0 update, or ask us any questions.



As we've mentioned before, we've ran into numerous problems with code that was ported over from ZPS v2.4 which has forced us to rewrite many sections of code to attempt to get things working properly. Unfortunately, it seemed that most of the previous v2.4 code was broken, or would cause issues in some ways. In order to completely fix these issues, we went through a complete overhaul of the code about a month ago, which removed all remaining v2.4 code.

Since we only started testing this overhaul of the code around a month ago, that hasn't left us much time to find and fix issues with it. That means it's very likely that there will be bugs/issues on release that we weren't aware of. In order for us to fix these issues, we'll need your help reporting them to us! We're ready to fix any issues we missed during development as soon as we possibly can!

There's two ways to report bugs or issues to us:

1. Start a discussion on our Steam Community Hub's Discussion Boards under the Bug Reports & Issues sub-forum.
   
2. Post a thread on our new official website's forums in the appropriate sub-forum under Bug Reports & Issues.

This also means that there is a small chance that we could possibly need to delay the release due to newly discovered game-breaking, or major issues - if any are found. We're fixing up remaining known issues, and still plan to release on December 8th, but we'll update you if this changes.



Sadly, the recent rebuild of the game's code, along with a string of other issues, have made it impossible to gather enough footage for a launch trailer. We plan to do one at a later date, and in the meantime will be sharing a few more sneakpeeks from the coming update;


JonnyBoy did an outstanding job creating new first-person viewmodel animations for all melee weapons and firearms while you interact with an item, button or something usable. The video also teases something we'd like to expand upon after v3.0; Making cars, drawers. closets etc. lootable, to increase immersion and put more emphasis on the survival aspect of the game.

https://youtu.be/5lhmMPH7yAU


In the video, you can hear a snippet of the new soundtrack for zpo_frozenheart, by KaempeLaeske. We've decided to publish the soundtracks early, and you can stream and download the new soundtracks from his Soundcloud profile!





Phase 1 of the ModDB 2017 Mod of the Year Awards has begun, so go vote and show your support for your favorite mods! Voting also enters you into the draw to win games from their #modlove collection.

We ask that please you give us a vote, but be sure to give your other favorite mods a vote too!





We're happy to announce our official Zombie Panic! Source Avatars on Steam.

You can start using any of them by:

1. Clicking the Edit Profile button on your Steam Profile's page.
   
2. Under the Avatars section, click on "choose from Official Game Avatars".
   
3. Look for Zombie Panic! Source among your recently played games, and click on "View all avatars" then select one of them to use. (Or just follow this link to view all the Avatars.)

Huge thanks to community-member and Playtester, "Zombielle", who did the Survivor and Zombie portraits!



Apart from our own initiative to bring back the game, others have begun to bring ZPS to different games and platforms - spreading the news of its revival. We were excited to hear about these projects, and we wanted to share them with you!

It's important to remember that Monochrome, Inc holds the trademark on "Zombie Panic!", and the copyright to the IP, therefore anybody would need permission from them to monetize any derivatives of ZPS. But anybody is allowed to port and use content from Zombie Panic! for non-commercial purposes, and as long as there is nothing disrespectful, offensive, or damaging to our [both Monochrome, Inc, and us, the Zombie Panic! Development Team's] business interests. That, along with permission from us, is the reason why awesome projects like these are allowed to be created!


Zombie Panic! VR

Steam user "Darkghostterran" did a total remake of ZPS for the HTC Vive, called "Zombie Panic! VR". It has all the basic concepts of ZPS; melee weapons, the official map Biotec, and a couple of Contagion's weapons, as well as zombie AI.

You can download the demo from the game's ModDB page and give it a try!




Just Panic! - A GMod's Gamemode

A fan-based project created for Garry's Mod by "Mka0207" and his team. Branching out ZPS's avenue for players and experiences to a whole new horizon.

While ZPS is built on C++, Just Panic! is built on top of LUA, which means easier modifications and creation of new scripts. The mod also brings forth an entirely different barricading experience heavily inspired by Garry's Mod Zombie Survival. This, and more, are meant to create a fresh and unique experience for both players familiar and unfamiliar with Zombie Panic!



You can support and learn more about this work on their website here!

Note: The website isn't specifically dedicated to the "Just Panic!" project, but to the FWKZT community as a whole. The name "Just Panic!" is also not associated with KaempeLaeske nor the rest of our team. The name is simply a coincidence.



While the Steam Community Hub is convenient, we feel it lacks personality and a more complex forum system - and so our programmer, JonnyBoy, put together a new, stunning website for all of us to enjoy!



The website is also a viable place to share ideas and suggestions, as well as bugs and other issues with the game. Our team checks both - and the website, being out of direct access to players, is likely to host more serious discussions and topics compared to the community hub. The old website & forums are still up, however it has been abandoned and broken for many years.



As some of you may already know, we also have our own official Discord server! But now we're finally verified!



Here you can casually chat and banter with other players, playtesters, and developers about everything Zombie Panic! related or unrelated. Join now by clicking on this invite link: https://discord.gg/zps


And with that, we've brought you all completely up to date on what's happening with the Zombie Panic! title.

We are truly entering a new age for this game, and we cannot wait to start a new chapter in this game's long lifespan together with you all!


- Zombie Panic! Development Team


Follow us on social media at:

We hope everyone's as excited as our team is, as we're only 4 days away from the release of v3.0! We're working hard on the final polishing of the build, and we can't wait to share our work with you all! You can check our Frequently Asked Questions thread for more information about the v3.0 update, or ask us any questions.



As we've mentioned before, we've ran into numerous problems with code that was ported over from ZPS v2.4 which has forced us to rewrite many sections of code to attempt to get things working properly. Unfortunately, it seemed that most of the previous v2.4 code was broken, or would cause issues in some ways. In order to completely fix these issues, we went through a complete overhaul of the code about a month ago, which removed all remaining v2.4 code.

Since we only started testing this overhaul of the code around a month ago, that hasn't left us much time to find and fix issues with it. That means it's very likely that there will be bugs/issues on release that we weren't aware of. In order for us to fix these issues, we'll need your help reporting them to us! We're ready to fix any issues we missed during development as soon as we possibly can!

There's two ways to report bugs or issues to us:

1. Start a discussion on our Steam Community Hub's Discussion Boards under the Bug Reports & Issues sub-forum.
   
2. Post a thread on our new official website's forums in the appropriate sub-forum under Bug Reports & Issues.

This also means that there is a small chance that we could possibly need to delay the release due to newly discovered game-breaking, or major issues - if any are found. We're fixing up remaining known issues, and still plan to release on December 8th, but we'll update you if this changes.



Sadly, the recent rebuild of the game's code, along with a string of other issues, have made it impossible to gather enough footage for a launch trailer. We plan to do one at a later date, and in the meantime will be sharing a few more sneakpeeks from the coming update;


JonnyBoy did an outstanding job creating new first-person viewmodel animations for all melee weapons and firearms while you interact with an item, button or something usable. The video also teases something we'd like to expand upon after v3.0; Making cars, drawers. closets etc. lootable, to increase immersion and put more emphasis on the survival aspect of the game.

https://youtu.be/5lhmMPH7yAU


In the video, you can hear a snippet of the new soundtrack for zpo_frozenheart, by KaempeLaeske. We've decided to publish the soundtracks early, and you can stream and download the new soundtracks from his Soundcloud profile!





Phase 1 of the ModDB 2017 Mod of the Year Awards has begun, so go vote and show your support for your favorite mods! Voting also enters you into the draw to win games from their #modlove collection.

We ask that please you give us a vote, but be sure to give your other favorite mods a vote too!





We're happy to announce our official Zombie Panic! Source Avatars on Steam.

You can start using any of them by:

1. Clicking the Edit Profile button on your Steam Profile's page.
   
2. Under the Avatars section, click on "choose from Official Game Avatars".
   
3. Look for Zombie Panic! Source among your recently played games, and click on "View all avatars" then select one of them to use. (Or just follow this link to view all the Avatars.)

Huge thanks to community-member and Playtester, "Zombielle", who did the Survivor and Zombie portraits!



Apart from our own initiative to bring back the game, others have begun to bring ZPS to different games and platforms - spreading the news of its revival. We were excited to hear about these projects, and we wanted to share them with you!

It's important to remember that Monochrome, Inc holds the trademark on "Zombie Panic!", and the copyright to the IP, therefore anybody would need permission from them to monetize any derivatives of ZPS. But anybody is allowed to port and use content from Zombie Panic! for non-commercial purposes, and as long as there is nothing disrespectful, offensive, or damaging to our [both Monochrome, Inc, and us, the Zombie Panic! Development Team's] business interests. That, along with permission from us, is the reason why awesome projects like these are allowed to be created!


Zombie Panic! VR

Steam user "Darkghostterran" did a total remake of ZPS for the HTC Vive, called "Zombie Panic! VR". It has all the basic concepts of ZPS; melee weapons, the official map Biotec, and a couple of Contagion's weapons, as well as zombie AI.

You can download the demo from the game's ModDB page and give it a try!




Just Panic! - A GMod's Gamemode

A fan-based project created for Garry's Mod by "Mka0207" and his team. Branching out ZPS's avenue for players and experiences to a whole new horizon.

While ZPS is built on C++, Just Panic! is built on top of LUA, which means easier modifications and creation of new scripts. The mod also brings forth an entirely different barricading experience heavily inspired by Garry's Mod Zombie Survival. This, and more, are meant to create a fresh and unique experience for both players familiar and unfamiliar with Zombie Panic!



You can support and learn more about this work on their website here!

Note: The website isn't specifically dedicated to the "Just Panic!" project, but to the FWKZT community as a whole. The name "Just Panic!" is also not associated with KaempeLaeske nor the rest of our team. The name is simply a coincidence.



While the Steam Community Hub is convenient, we feel it lacks personality and a more complex forum system - and so our programmer, JonnyBoy, put together a new, stunning website for all of us to enjoy!



The website is also a viable place to share ideas and suggestions, as well as bugs and other issues with the game. Our team checks both - and the website, being out of direct access to players, is likely to host more serious discussions and topics compared to the community hub. The old website & forums are still up, however it has been abandoned and broken for many years.



As some of you may already know, we also have our own official Discord server! But now we're finally verified!



Here you can casually chat and banter with other players, playtesters, and developers about everything Zombie Panic! related or unrelated. Join now by clicking on this invite link: https://discord.gg/zps


And with that, we've brought you all completely up to date on what's happening with the Zombie Panic! title.

We are truly entering a new age for this game, and we cannot wait to start a new chapter in this game's long lifespan together with you all!


- Zombie Panic! Development Team


Follow us on social media at:

We’re happy to finally be able to announce that the v3.0 update for Zombie Panic! Source will be released on the 8th of December, this year! Look to pass the time when the air is cold and the days are short? We've got you covered! A tiny bit past Fall, but not nearly during Winter!



Understandably, many of you have been eager to know when the update will release. Many of you have also been disappointed in our refrain from giving a decisive release date. We've done this to allow ourselves to focus as much as possible on ensuring a top quality update, without having to worry too much about the large string of problems that occur and delay development.

To begin with we branded the update as an “engine-port” that seeked to fix exploits and instability, creating a solid base for us to build upon in later updates. The plan was to use the old code as the base, fix its flaws, and build new code on top. We eventually realised that this would not work as the old code present from v2.4 was incredibly broken and nearly impossible to work with on the new engine. After having already rewritten most of the old code, our lead programmer JonnyBoy0719, with the assistance of our second programmer, Shepard62fr, then had to completely reconstruct the code for the game. This caused a big delay but was entirely necessary for us to be able to implement the things we wanted, as well as expand upon the game in the future.

These continuous hiccups let to a few halts in code development, and the rest of the team sought to work on maps, models etc. while the code was being reviewed and fixed. However, there were two things which we couldn’t accurately prepare for; The headache of trying to string old code together with new, and the massive amount of attention and hype that has surrounded this update.



As we continued work on the update, expectations grew. Former players, server owners and content creators kept expressing their excitement and hopes of this update bringing the game back to life. When issues with salvaging the original code let to temporary breaks in development, we started coming up with ideas on how to make the game look, sound and feel more modern – While still maintaining its game design that we believe is not found in many of today’s games.

At times, this led us to develop new content which was not exactly part of the original plan for the update, but that we felt needed to be in the update to make it a success, even if it slowed development down at times. It’s safe to say that we were treating the update as a one-shot-opportunity to reinstate the game. An ambition which ironically led us to become sidetracked when the schedule was affected by code issues. It sadly means that we aren't able to give everything the close attention it needs, but we have plans for more updates after v3.0. So, we do apologize but we still think you'll find the update worth the wait.



Many of the levels were introduced on the release of ZPS in 2007, or not much longer after, and haven't been changed too much since then. At the time they looked great and were very fun to play, but naturally that isn't the case anymore. Some haven't aged too well and have become unbalanced in some ways, or come to look old and outdated.

It would be better for us to completely remake the levels from scratch, but that would take too much time to prepare the levels than we had for the v3.0 release. Instead, we decided it would be best to give the levels updates, and adjust whatever necessary. This way we could improve upon the level's issues and provide levels that are more balanced and play better for the v3.0 update.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to polish every level up to the standard we'd like to, because there are so many. Although, we believe you'll be more satisfied with the changes we're making. The levels will receive more improvements in the future as we experience and learn what works and what doesn't, as well as receive your feedback on them.







In order for players to feel immersed, it's important that they aren't pulled away from that when the last hope of humanity is defeated by zombies spawning on top of their head, or when the experience of the zombie apocalypse is reduced to camping the exit of a bathroom!

We have touched upon the big overhaul we felt the game needed in regards to balance in various announcements. The most substantial change you'll find in-game is the removal, or inaccessibility of, most of the zombie spawns from the playable area. We have touched upon this before, yet we have not shown you what it looks like in-game.








We wanted to present a fully developed Hardcore Mode, but sadly we have been unable to dedicate time to develop the mode fully. However, we have made good changes to the gameplay of the mode. What has changed is that zombies are no longer bullet spunges; Headshots do close to the regular damage of zps and zpo, but bodyshots are as futile as they've ever been.

This allows us to play around with the gamemode more since survivors now actually have a chance at holding out an area from the buffed undead. These changes make the gamemode feel more like an actual "hardcore" version of regular gameplay. We want to add more depth to the gamemode but are forced to wait until later updates.



We have also worked on expanding upon the sound design of the game to streamline certain events in the game and make players feel more immersed. Our Sound Designer, KaempeLaeske, has produced sound cues and sound effects for the various in-game events, as well as 3 new soundtracks for the game's OST - Each one dedicated to the 3 new maps in the update to help set the tone of the levels and give you some new tunes to enjoy while fighting for, or against, the undead.


We want to make it easier for new players to understand what's going on when playing zombie. We don't necessarily think that the solution is found in buffing the stats of the zombies, but by streamlining communication between them. It's easy to miss the glowing Carrier or the highlighted survivors on the screen if you're not looking in that exact direction. However, with a sound cue you'll be able to know when these events are taking place. This way new players are more easily guided towards the main action.




Our programmer, JonnyBoy0719, has worked hard on making the game look like a standalone game. Everything from the booting of the game to the game's scoreboard has been updated and given a unique design. One of the steps to achieving this is through updated loading screens that fit and explain the game to players; Every official map now has their own dedicated loading screen, giving players a taste of what to expect as well as accounting for the map's name and dedicated gamemode - along with randomly generated gameplay tips to read while waiting for the map to load.

Through our new game menu, we've streamlined a lot of the actions a player might take when playing and/or interacting with the community on the game; The new game menu allows players to access their achievements, character selection and bios, as well as the community hub and workshop by a simple click of the mouse. On top of this, options specifically related to Zombie Panic! are now easily accessable from the main menu and not hidden away in the advanced options - with the addition of the console being available by pressing on its own dedicated button.

Did we mention that the menu now includes animated backgrounds? Because it does! Character bios have been brought back and put into the main menu. Our level designer, Casei Magnus, has rewritten them, borrowing from the old bios of Zombie Panic! Source and Contagion.




We've dedicated time to fixing and improving a lot of the already existing textures, as well as adding a lot of new ones.

Our new Texture Artist, Desty, has overhauled the textures of many different things to fit better with the improved visuals and atmosphere of the game in general.






"Larry's Diner", the place where it all began. In the official comic by Hential Gerpies, this specific diner is established as being the point where the original group of survivors find themselves together, by chance, against what appears to be the early stages of the outbreak. On the current 2.4 version of zps_town, this diner is not named correctly. v3.0 changes that.




Our team were all big fans of the lore that used to be in the game. Years ago, the character bios vanished as a result of the website not being maintained. The comic was never written with any dialogue, and with the established lore in the game's levels being so inconsitent, naturally a big chunk of the lore was lost with the character bios.

A significant focus for us was to reestablish the pre-existing lore, as well as expand upon it. However, just like the comic's narrative, the details are left unclear and up to the individual to interpret.

A lot of incosistencies in the game's levels makes it hard to get a feel for the story. Because of this, the map bios have all been written to account for the journey of the survivors as well as give each level a real-life location. For example, zps_policestation is now set in Boulder City, as the logo in the lobby suggests.

We've included a number of easter eggs that hint at how the survivors get from one location to the next. We have indeed mapped out their journey on a map of the United States, and put thought into considering how the survivors get from a small diner in an infested small town to the deck of a torn-in-half tanker. However, as we know a number of players like to dig into the story of the game, we are letting these to be discovered by you!



There's so much more we would have liked to improve upon or include in v3.0, but we unfortunately didn't have the time to begin working on them, or even continue working on them in some cases. It would have required more time for us to develop than we wanted to take, so we decided it would be best for these things to wait for future updates.

Just know that we have many more exciting things planned to come!



Finally, we want to thank you all for the massive support - not to mention the ton of really great suggestions for how we can improve the game. The backpack, penetrating bullets, Explore Mode, Human Spotting, among others, are all ideas that we've come up with from either listening to your suggestions or talking with players about random ideas when we occasionally jump on to play the game with you.

We failed to acknowledge this in the last announcement which was the result of us being forgetful in the midst of a ton of work. We apologize, and we are thankful for having such an incredibly supportive and engaging community! We are by no means a professional team, and some of us have been out of touch with the game for years. Having dedicated players giving us feedback and suggestions is a luxury which we could not afford to lose.

Now that the update is nearing completion, we are going to start dropping trailers as we inch closer to the release date.

Happy Halloween!

- Zombie Panic! Development Team

Follow us on social media at:

We’re happy to finally be able to announce that the v3.0 update for Zombie Panic! Source will be released on the 8th of December, this year! Look to pass the time when the air is cold and the days are short? We've got you covered! A tiny bit past Fall, but not nearly during Winter!



Understandably, many of you have been eager to know when the update will release. Many of you have also been disappointed in our refrain from giving a decisive release date. We've done this to allow ourselves to focus as much as possible on ensuring a top quality update, without having to worry too much about the large string of problems that occur and delay development.

To begin with we branded the update as an “engine-port” that seeked to fix exploits and instability, creating a solid base for us to build upon in later updates. The plan was to use the old code as the base, fix its flaws, and build new code on top. We eventually realised that this would not work as the old code present from v2.4 was incredibly broken and nearly impossible to work with on the new engine. After having already rewritten most of the old code, our lead programmer JonnyBoy0719, with the assistance of our second programmer, Shepard62fr, then had to completely reconstruct the code for the game. This caused a big delay but was entirely necessary for us to be able to implement the things we wanted, as well as expand upon the game in the future.

These continuous hiccups let to a few halts in code development, and the rest of the team sought to work on maps, models etc. while the code was being reviewed and fixed. However, there were two things which we couldn’t accurately prepare for; The headache of trying to string old code together with new, and the massive amount of attention and hype that has surrounded this update.



As we continued work on the update, expectations grew. Former players, server owners and content creators kept expressing their excitement and hopes of this update bringing the game back to life. When issues with salvaging the original code let to temporary breaks in development, we started coming up with ideas on how to make the game look, sound and feel more modern – While still maintaining its game design that we believe is not found in many of today’s games.

At times, this led us to develop new content which was not exactly part of the original plan for the update, but that we felt needed to be in the update to make it a success, even if it slowed development down at times. It’s safe to say that we were treating the update as a one-shot-opportunity to reinstate the game. An ambition which ironically led us to become sidetracked when the schedule was affected by code issues. It sadly means that we aren't able to give everything the close attention it needs, but we have plans for more updates after v3.0. So, we do apologize but we still think you'll find the update worth the wait.



Many of the levels were introduced on the release of ZPS in 2007, or not much longer after, and haven't been changed too much since then. At the time they looked great and were very fun to play, but naturally that isn't the case anymore. Some haven't aged too well and have become unbalanced in some ways, or come to look old and outdated.

It would be better for us to completely remake the levels from scratch, but that would take too much time to prepare the levels than we had for the v3.0 release. Instead, we decided it would be best to give the levels updates, and adjust whatever necessary. This way we could improve upon the level's issues and provide levels that are more balanced and play better for the v3.0 update.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to polish every level up to the standard we'd like to, because there are so many. Although, we believe you'll be more satisfied with the changes we're making. The levels will receive more improvements in the future as we experience and learn what works and what doesn't, as well as receive your feedback on them.







In order for players to feel immersed, it's important that they aren't pulled away from that when the last hope of humanity is defeated by zombies spawning on top of their head, or when the experience of the zombie apocalypse is reduced to camping the exit of a bathroom!

We have touched upon the big overhaul we felt the game needed in regards to balance in various announcements. The most substantial change you'll find in-game is the removal, or inaccessibility of, most of the zombie spawns from the playable area. We have touched upon this before, yet we have not shown you what it looks like in-game.








We wanted to present a fully developed Hardcore Mode, but sadly we have been unable to dedicate time to develop the mode fully. However, we have made good changes to the gameplay of the mode. What has changed is that zombies are no longer bullet spunges; Headshots do close to the regular damage of zps and zpo, but bodyshots are as futile as they've ever been.

This allows us to play around with the gamemode more since survivors now actually have a chance at holding out an area from the buffed undead. These changes make the gamemode feel more like an actual "hardcore" version of regular gameplay. We want to add more depth to the gamemode but are forced to wait until later updates.



We have also worked on expanding upon the sound design of the game to streamline certain events in the game and make players feel more immersed. Our Sound Designer, KaempeLaeske, has produced sound cues and sound effects for the various in-game events, as well as 3 new soundtracks for the game's OST - Each one dedicated to the 3 new maps in the update to help set the tone of the levels and give you some new tunes to enjoy while fighting for, or against, the undead.


We want to make it easier for new players to understand what's going on when playing zombie. We don't necessarily think that the solution is found in buffing the stats of the zombies, but by streamlining communication between them. It's easy to miss the glowing Carrier or the highlighted survivors on the screen if you're not looking in that exact direction. However, with a sound cue you'll be able to know when these events are taking place. This way new players are more easily guided towards the main action.




Our programmer, JonnyBoy0719, has worked hard on making the game look like a standalone game. Everything from the booting of the game to the game's scoreboard has been updated and given a unique design. One of the steps to achieving this is through updated loading screens that fit and explain the game to players; Every official map now has their own dedicated loading screen, giving players a taste of what to expect as well as accounting for the map's name and dedicated gamemode - along with randomly generated gameplay tips to read while waiting for the map to load.

Through our new game menu, we've streamlined a lot of the actions a player might take when playing and/or interacting with the community on the game; The new game menu allows players to access their achievements, character selection and bios, as well as the community hub and workshop by a simple click of the mouse. On top of this, options specifically related to Zombie Panic! are now easily accessable from the main menu and not hidden away in the advanced options - with the addition of the console being available by pressing on its own dedicated button.

Did we mention that the menu now includes animated backgrounds? Because it does! Character bios have been brought back and put into the main menu. Our level designer, Casei Magnus, has rewritten them, borrowing from the old bios of Zombie Panic! Source and Contagion.




We've dedicated time to fixing and improving a lot of the already existing textures, as well as adding a lot of new ones.

Our new Texture Artist, Desty, has overhauled the textures of many different things to fit better with the improved visuals and atmosphere of the game in general.






"Larry's Diner", the place where it all began. In the official comic by Hential Gerpies, this specific diner is established as being the point where the original group of survivors find themselves together, by chance, against what appears to be the early stages of the outbreak. On the current 2.4 version of zps_town, this diner is not named correctly. v3.0 changes that.




Our team were all big fans of the lore that used to be in the game. Years ago, the character bios vanished as a result of the website not being maintained. The comic was never written with any dialogue, and with the established lore in the game's levels being so inconsitent, naturally a big chunk of the lore was lost with the character bios.

A significant focus for us was to reestablish the pre-existing lore, as well as expand upon it. However, just like the comic's narrative, the details are left unclear and up to the individual to interpret.

A lot of incosistencies in the game's levels makes it hard to get a feel for the story. Because of this, the map bios have all been written to account for the journey of the survivors as well as give each level a real-life location. For example, zps_policestation is now set in Boulder City, as the logo in the lobby suggests.

We've included a number of easter eggs that hint at how the survivors get from one location to the next. We have indeed mapped out their journey on a map of the United States, and put thought into considering how the survivors get from a small diner in an infested small town to the deck of a torn-in-half tanker. However, as we know a number of players like to dig into the story of the game, we are letting these to be discovered by you!



There's so much more we would have liked to improve upon or include in v3.0, but we unfortunately didn't have the time to begin working on them, or even continue working on them in some cases. It would have required more time for us to develop than we wanted to take, so we decided it would be best for these things to wait for future updates.

Just know that we have many more exciting things planned to come!



Finally, we want to thank you all for the massive support - not to mention the ton of really great suggestions for how we can improve the game. The backpack, penetrating bullets, Explore Mode, Human Spotting, among others, are all ideas that we've come up with from either listening to your suggestions or talking with players about random ideas when we occasionally jump on to play the game with you.

We failed to acknowledge this in the last announcement which was the result of us being forgetful in the midst of a ton of work. We apologize, and we are thankful for having such an incredibly supportive and engaging community! We are by no means a professional team, and some of us have been out of touch with the game for years. Having dedicated players giving us feedback and suggestions is a luxury which we could not afford to lose.

Now that the update is nearing completion, we are going to start dropping trailers as we inch closer to the release date.

Happy Halloween!

- Zombie Panic! Development Team

Follow us on social media at:

We hope everyone is having a great Summer full of lots of fun! We're also having so much fun working on the final stages of the build. Unfortunately, we likely won't be able to reach a Summer release due to features that need to be adjusted and tweaked, as well as bugs and issues that need to be ironed out before release. So that means we'll have to release sometime in the Fall, but it should be well worth the wait.

Like our last announcement, we have so much to discuss about our development progress and what we've done the past few months. While our main priority is security and game stability - we're always working toward improving our ability to develop with the addition of new content such as entities, animations, props and textures. As development has gone on, we’ve listened to the ideas and feedback of the community, and taken the time to implement ideas that we’ve agreed with and/or have seen as possible to address without delaying the release. Let's get straight to introducing some of these things to you, shall we?


Zombie Panic! Source will now have Angelscript support in v3.0, it works similar to how NUTscript works for Left 4 Dead 2 or Contagion. Angelscript was added to cut down the entdata for maps that use a lot of entities to make certain math related sequences.

At this moment, Angelscript is only supported for maps, but will have added support for plugins in the near future sometime after v3.0. For those who know C or C++, they will understand the basics of Angelscript. For those who don't, there is an Angelscript documentation to get you started once v3.0 goes live!

There will also be a ZPS API documentation for Angelscript, which will be easy to navigate. This documentation API will be available once v3.0 goes live!




We've been working really hard preparing Linux binaries for v3.0, we need to fix all current crashes and incompatibility issues within our build. We're doing everything we can to make Linux support happen for our Linux users out there, both server and client! We would like to give a special thanks to one of our testers, Shepard62FR, who is assisting our programmer with this huge task!


If you've watched our Twitch development streams in the past, you may already be aware that Ratboy was modeling destructible doors. You can set the HP of the door and they'll have a certain amount of stages to break through. The door will become more broken the more damage you do to it, until it breaks to pieces and falls off the hinge.



Trigger_infect/uninfect

• If the player touches trigger_infect, depending on how much % the trigger is set to (example; some can be set to 10%, or others will be 25% etc), they will get infected. Also if your health is 25 or lower, you have a higher risk of getting infected.
  
• If the player touches trigger_uninfect, their infection will be removed immediately.

Trigger_health

• This trigger will either slowly or quickly heal the player, or set their health to a specific amount. But it cannot go above or beyond their actual max health.

Trigger_barricade

• When this trigger is enabled it will destroy any barricades it comes in contact with.

Trigger_escape

• The trigger_escape works similar to how escaping worked in Contagion. Instead of instantly triggering a Survivor win like how it normally works on objective maps, this trigger will cause the individual player who touched it to escape. Escaping results in the player being switched to the spectator team and receiving additional points for achieving their own victory, their weapons and ammo do not drop to the ground. After 30 seconds, those players can join the zombie team to help finish off the round.
  
  This trigger will work great on certain maps by keeping them from ending abruptly when there's still lots of fun action that could unfold. It will also make it more urgent that the player successfully escape instead of trying to camp and rack up as many kills as they want, since they'll eventually get overrun and killed by the other players who already escaped. (Although that strategy of camping for kills in objective maps can never completely be prevented by us, and it will require moderation of the server if players feel that it's an issue.)

The game instructor is the same one used by Alien Swarm and Left 4 Dead. It can be used to teach new players how to perform actions and abilities, and be used to relay other important information to players.

It will tell players things like how to manage their inventory as survivor, not to damage your teammates, how to Roar and Spot as the Carrier, things like that which will be important for new players to learn, or things that are important to inform the player of.



The game instructor can also display a temporary beacon with text. One of the ways we've implemented this is for when someone requests weapons or ammo, you'll see a beacon display on the player who requested the item with text explaining what they requested.


The backpack was originally intended to serve as a visual indication that a player is carrying an item_deliver (the objective items that you carry in your inventory), for those that don't have their own world model to display. But we're still debating what other uses to implement the backpack for. For v3.0 this will likely remain its only use, but in the future this might change.

This model was developed by our modeler, Darb Dude! As some of you might be able to tell - the selection of this particular looking backpack was inspired from the backpack which was used in the original Zombie Panic! mod for Half-life.




Creating new sexier models, props, textures, and sounds - reworking animations is in one of our future plans both before and after the v3.0 update. Jonnyboy has been working hard to improve as best as he can our survivor animations, especially the reload and idle animations, which you can see in those images below.






The item_deliver now has the option to be set to require two hands to carry it, making the player vulnerable and unable to attack until they drop it. This will make it important for players to be very cautious or have a teammate around when transporting these items. The idea for this was inspired from the two-handed items used in L4D, such as the gas cans and propane tanks.


We're removing the limitations from infection, such as not being able to chat, and not being able to manage your inventory or interact with items. We've decided to remove these limitations because they don't actually prevent griefing/trolling like they were probably intended to do. The player will ultimately find some way to troll or grief if they really want, limiting the players' ability was not the proper way to try to prevent that. It just made it more frustrating to play when you were infected if you actually tried to survive as long as you could. We also feel the limitations didn't offer much in terms of immersion, it was more frustrating than immersive.

When it comes down to trolling or griefing, we'll do what we can from a development perspective to prevent it - but with this issue in particular there was no good solution that worked well. It will be up to the server owners to decide if doing things like hiding or wasting ammo before they turn into a zombie is against their rules or not. It will also be up to their own community to help enforce that rule.

To help limit a players' ability to perform actions which will give them an advantage when they turn into a zombie from infection - we've reduced the known infection time to 10-15 seconds. That means you will only get an indication of your infection 10-15 seconds before you turn. This is to reduce the time the player will have to react to their infection, giving them less time to do something which will sabotage the survivor team and give them an advantage when they transfer to the zombie team.


We've implemented some restrictions to the zombie selection code that selects which players are going to be zombie at the start of the round. We've made it so that a player will no longer be zombie twice in a row, unless they volunteer for it. The less times you've been zombie, the more chance you'll have of being chosen as a starting zombie if there's no volunteers. But also the more you volunteer for zombie, the less chance you'll have of becoming zombie against others volunteers who haven't been zombie as many times.

This is to help prevent people unfairly being chosen as a starting zombie multiple times in a row, when other players haven't been chosen at all. It will also make it more fair for people to have a chance to be a starting zombie if there's a lot of other players volunteering, so that the same few people aren't always getting starting zombie.


While bullets penetrating through teammates is a bit unrealistic, we felt this was a necessary addition for multiple reasons. One issue is that you can have a room full of people like the living room on harvest, where there's not a whole lot of room to shoot past your teammates - and a lot of people end up blocking each others' bullets unintentionally. Then there's griefers who will intentionally stand in your way in an attempt to waste your ammo or get you killed.



So we've implemented bullet penetration through teammates in order to solve these issues. What bullet penetration does is allow bullets to penetrate through teammates, and reduced the damage of bullets which have penetrated through teammates. But we understand that some people might not enjoy this feature, and we've decided to make this an optional cvar that server owners can control.


Bullets will now have drop-off damage, meaning that the further a bullet travels the less damage it will do until its damage is completely negated and reduced to 0. This is intended to keep players from being able to snipe across the map with every firearm. We can properly limit their range, thus helping to balance out the effectiveness of wide open areas.


It is no secret that our team’s priority is to develop the original design of the game. It is undoubtedly the design we cherish and wish to expand upon. However, this doesn't mean that we look at custom content with ill intentions.

We understand that the reality of the new update breaking a lot of custom content is scary but it is by no means intentional. It’s a matter of the two engines being different. Triggers, events, and entities are named differently, updated or just don’t exist anymore so naturally most SourceMod plugins won’t know what’s up or down.

Our team is not going to spend time updating all custom content. We simply don’t have the time. It has always been the community’s responsibility to update their own content. We'll be releasing our Mod Tools completely updated once the v3.0 update rolls out. From there, you'll be able to create your own maps and upload them to the Workshop!


For the past 4 or so months, Janaz Leonheart, owner of Vertigo Gaming, has been working on updating SourceMod so that it is ready when the update launches. He is currently awaiting some finalization of our Linux build to continue his work. He has also been helping us with his extensive knowledge of exploits used to attack other servers, making sure that the build is as secure as possible. Once his work is complete, he has agreed to release it, along with a guide and whatever plugins he may have updated in the testing phase, publicly for the entire community to use.

His work is not part of our development, they are two separate processes. We are merely overseeing his work while we focus on our own.


Twitch Development Streams
When we first started our development streams, we planned to be streaming weekly on Fridays. But due to our schedules, the lack of work suitable for streaming and people willing to stream - we're unable to deliver on that promise. From now on the streams will be as we're able to do them, which we'll inform you of through Tweets and the Channel Feed on our Twitch Page, as well as posting a Steam Event once we're live.

You can always check out the past broadcasts directly on our Twitch page (these VODs only stay up for 2 weeks), or we've started archiving these streams on our YouTube channel.




YouTube Channel
While we don't have much of anything uploaded to our YouTube channel yet. We plan to be uploading our teasers, trailers, and other videos to this channel. We would appreciate it if you'd all help support the channel by going and subscribing to it for future content.

We're very thankful of the huge support everyone has been giving us, it means a lot to us!

-Zombie Panic! Development Team


Follow us on social media at:

We hope everyone is having a great Summer full of lots of fun! We're also having so much fun working on the final stages of the build. Unfortunately, we likely won't be able to reach a Summer release due to features that need to be adjusted and tweaked, as well as bugs and issues that need to be ironed out before release. So that means we'll have to release sometime in the Fall, but it should be well worth the wait.

Like our last announcement, we have so much to discuss about our development progress and what we've done the past few months. While our main priority is security and game stability - we're always working toward improving our ability to develop with the addition of new content such as entities, animations, props and textures. As development has gone on, we’ve listened to the ideas and feedback of the community, and taken the time to implement ideas that we’ve agreed with and/or have seen as possible to address without delaying the release. Let's get straight to introducing some of these things to you, shall we?


Zombie Panic! Source will now have Angelscript support in v3.0, it works similar to how NUTscript works for Left 4 Dead 2 or Contagion. Angelscript was added to cut down the entdata for maps that use a lot of entities to make certain math related sequences.

At this moment, Angelscript is only supported for maps, but will have added support for plugins in the near future sometime after v3.0. For those who know C or C++, they will understand the basics of Angelscript. For those who don't, there is an Angelscript documentation to get you started once v3.0 goes live!

There will also be a ZPS API documentation for Angelscript, which will be easy to navigate. This documentation API will be available once v3.0 goes live!




We've been working really hard preparing Linux binaries for v3.0, we need to fix all current crashes and incompatibility issues within our build. We're doing everything we can to make Linux support happen for our Linux users out there, both server and client! We would like to give a special thanks to one of our testers, Shepard62FR, who is assisting our programmer with this huge task!


If you've watched our Twitch development streams in the past, you may already be aware that Ratboy was modeling destructible doors. You can set the HP of the door and they'll have a certain amount of stages to break through. The door will become more broken the more damage you do to it, until it breaks to pieces and falls off the hinge.



Trigger_infect/uninfect

• If the player touches trigger_infect, depending on how much % the trigger is set to (example; some can be set to 10%, or others will be 25% etc), they will get infected. Also if your health is 25 or lower, you have a higher risk of getting infected.
  
• If the player touches trigger_uninfect, their infection will be removed immediately.

Trigger_health

• This trigger will either slowly or quickly heal the player, or set their health to a specific amount. But it cannot go above or beyond their actual max health.

Trigger_barricade

• When this trigger is enabled it will destroy any barricades it comes in contact with.

Trigger_escape

• The trigger_escape works similar to how escaping worked in Contagion. Instead of instantly triggering a Survivor win like how it normally works on objective maps, this trigger will cause the individual player who touched it to escape. Escaping results in the player being switched to the spectator team and receiving additional points for achieving their own victory, their weapons and ammo do not drop to the ground. After 30 seconds, those players can join the zombie team to help finish off the round.
  
  This trigger will work great on certain maps by keeping them from ending abruptly when there's still lots of fun action that could unfold. It will also make it more urgent that the player successfully escape instead of trying to camp and rack up as many kills as they want, since they'll eventually get overrun and killed by the other players who already escaped. (Although that strategy of camping for kills in objective maps can never completely be prevented by us, and it will require moderation of the server if players feel that it's an issue.)

The game instructor is the same one used by Alien Swarm and Left 4 Dead. It can be used to teach new players how to perform actions and abilities, and be used to relay other important information to players.

It will tell players things like how to manage their inventory as survivor, not to damage your teammates, how to Roar and Spot as the Carrier, things like that which will be important for new players to learn, or things that are important to inform the player of.



The game instructor can also display a temporary beacon with text. One of the ways we've implemented this is for when someone requests weapons or ammo, you'll see a beacon display on the player who requested the item with text explaining what they requested.


The backpack was originally intended to serve as a visual indication that a player is carrying an item_deliver (the objective items that you carry in your inventory), for those that don't have their own world model to display. But we're still debating what other uses to implement the backpack for. For v3.0 this will likely remain its only use, but in the future this might change.

This model was developed by our modeler, Darb Dude! As some of you might be able to tell - the selection of this particular looking backpack was inspired from the backpack which was used in the original Zombie Panic! mod for Half-life.




Creating new sexier models, props, textures, and sounds - reworking animations is in one of our future plans both before and after the v3.0 update. Jonnyboy has been working hard to improve as best as he can our survivor animations, especially the reload and idle animations, which you can see in those images below.






The item_deliver now has the option to be set to require two hands to carry it, making the player vulnerable and unable to attack until they drop it. This will make it important for players to be very cautious or have a teammate around when transporting these items. The idea for this was inspired from the two-handed items used in L4D, such as the gas cans and propane tanks.


We're removing the limitations from infection, such as not being able to chat, and not being able to manage your inventory or interact with items. We've decided to remove these limitations because they don't actually prevent griefing/trolling like they were probably intended to do. The player will ultimately find some way to troll or grief if they really want, limiting the players' ability was not the proper way to try to prevent that. It just made it more frustrating to play when you were infected if you actually tried to survive as long as you could. We also feel the limitations didn't offer much in terms of immersion, it was more frustrating than immersive.

When it comes down to trolling or griefing, we'll do what we can from a development perspective to prevent it - but with this issue in particular there was no good solution that worked well. It will be up to the server owners to decide if doing things like hiding or wasting ammo before they turn into a zombie is against their rules or not. It will also be up to their own community to help enforce that rule.

To help limit a players' ability to perform actions which will give them an advantage when they turn into a zombie from infection - we've reduced the known infection time to 10-15 seconds. That means you will only get an indication of your infection 10-15 seconds before you turn. This is to reduce the time the player will have to react to their infection, giving them less time to do something which will sabotage the survivor team and give them an advantage when they transfer to the zombie team.


We've implemented some restrictions to the zombie selection code that selects which players are going to be zombie at the start of the round. We've made it so that a player will no longer be zombie twice in a row, unless they volunteer for it. The less times you've been zombie, the more chance you'll have of being chosen as a starting zombie if there's no volunteers. But also the more you volunteer for zombie, the less chance you'll have of becoming zombie against others volunteers who haven't been zombie as many times.

This is to help prevent people unfairly being chosen as a starting zombie multiple times in a row, when other players haven't been chosen at all. It will also make it more fair for people to have a chance to be a starting zombie if there's a lot of other players volunteering, so that the same few people aren't always getting starting zombie.


While bullets penetrating through teammates is a bit unrealistic, we felt this was a necessary addition for multiple reasons. One issue is that you can have a room full of people like the living room on harvest, where there's not a whole lot of room to shoot past your teammates - and a lot of people end up blocking each others' bullets unintentionally. Then there's griefers who will intentionally stand in your way in an attempt to waste your ammo or get you killed.



So we've implemented bullet penetration through teammates in order to solve these issues. What bullet penetration does is allow bullets to penetrate through teammates, and reduced the damage of bullets which have penetrated through teammates. But we understand that some people might not enjoy this feature, and we've decided to make this an optional cvar that server owners can control.


Bullets will now have drop-off damage, meaning that the further a bullet travels the less damage it will do until its damage is completely negated and reduced to 0. This is intended to keep players from being able to snipe across the map with every firearm. We can properly limit their range, thus helping to balance out the effectiveness of wide open areas.


It is no secret that our team’s priority is to develop the original design of the game. It is undoubtedly the design we cherish and wish to expand upon. However, this doesn't mean that we look at custom content with ill intentions.

We understand that the reality of the new update breaking a lot of custom content is scary but it is by no means intentional. It’s a matter of the two engines being different. Triggers, events, and entities are named differently, updated or just don’t exist anymore so naturally most SourceMod plugins won’t know what’s up or down.

Our team is not going to spend time updating all custom content. We simply don’t have the time. It has always been the community’s responsibility to update their own content. We'll be releasing our Mod Tools completely updated once the v3.0 update rolls out. From there, you'll be able to create your own maps and upload them to the Workshop!


For the past 4 or so months, Janaz Leonheart, owner of Vertigo Gaming, has been working on updating SourceMod so that it is ready when the update launches. He is currently awaiting some finalization of our Linux build to continue his work. He has also been helping us with his extensive knowledge of exploits used to attack other servers, making sure that the build is as secure as possible. Once his work is complete, he has agreed to release it, along with a guide and whatever plugins he may have updated in the testing phase, publicly for the entire community to use.

His work is not part of our development, they are two separate processes. We are merely overseeing his work while we focus on our own.


Twitch Development Streams
When we first started our development streams, we planned to be streaming weekly on Fridays. But due to our schedules, the lack of work suitable for streaming and people willing to stream - we're unable to deliver on that promise. From now on the streams will be as we're able to do them, which we'll inform you of through Tweets and the Channel Feed on our Twitch Page, as well as posting a Steam Event once we're live.

You can always check out the past broadcasts directly on our Twitch page (these VODs only stay up for 2 weeks), or we've started archiving these streams on our YouTube channel.




YouTube Channel
While we don't have much of anything uploaded to our YouTube channel yet. We plan to be uploading our teasers, trailers, and other videos to this channel. We would appreciate it if you'd all help support the channel by going and subscribing to it for future content.

We're very thankful of the huge support everyone has been giving us, it means a lot to us!

-Zombie Panic! Development Team


Follow us on social media at:

We've managed to fix the start up issues caused by changing depots. Changing the depots caused the new build to not be able to read VPK-files, once again stressing how crucial it is for the update to be released so we can get the game off this broken, old engine!

Our new depots are now sorted and ready for the release of 3.0. We still don't have a release date, but the update is shaping up nicely and will see a release within the scheduled release window. That's all the news about 3.0 for now.

Your game should update automatically and install the fix. If you don't see a pending update, restart Steam.

If you installed the first update but are still getting errors related to "hl2.exe", then note that this has also been fixed and only requires a second update.

Once again, We are sorry for the inconvenience,
Happy Gaming!

- Zombie Panic! Development Team

We've managed to fix the start up issues caused by changing depots. Changing the depots caused the new build to not be able to read VPK-files, once again stressing how crucial it is for the update to be released so we can get the game off this broken, old engine!

Our new depots are now sorted and ready for the release of 3.0. We still don't have a release date, but the update is shaping up nicely and will see a release within the scheduled release window. That's all the news about 3.0 for now.

Your game should update automatically and install the fix. If you don't see a pending update, restart Steam.

If you installed the first update but are still getting errors related to "hl2.exe", then note that this has also been fixed and only requires a second update.

Once again, We are sorry for the inconvenience,
Happy Gaming!

- Zombie Panic! Development Team