Greetings, Survivors!
The new Major Update #5 is now available on the open_beta branch! It's not 100% ready yet, and some issues are expected to occur, but if you want to help us test the newest Major Update, feel free to join us on the open_beta branch. The instructions on how to join this branch are included below in the "Joining Open Beta" section. IMPORTANT: If you're after a more stable, polished experience, we recommend waiting a little bit longer for the official release of this update. Having said that, let's check all the newest changes to the game!
Changelog
HIGHLIGHTS
Added New Storyline. Have fun exploring the newest events in Infection Free Zone!
Added 5x5 Maps. Expect longer loading times when selecting 5x5 maps.
Added Laws and the corresponding Gathering Place building. You have to reach 200 citizens to unlock the Gathering Place, which allows you to change the Laws within the Zone.
Added Predefined Buildings.
Added the Clay Pit building. You can produce bricks in the Clay Pit.
Added Lairs of the Infected spawning on the map.
Added the Raider Hideouts spawning on the map.
Updated Infected Hordes' logic. While some Infected will still roam throughout the Zone, most Infected will now stay in the vicinity of their Lair. This change doesn't impact the behavior of Swarms in any way.
Added Convoys and the Zone Migration. Destroy Lairs, Hideouts, and finish the new Storyline to unlock the option to start anew at a distant location.
Added Heavy Machine Gun Vehicle modification. The corresponding research has to be unlocked first.
Added 10 new Research Nodes. They are mostly focused on providing the player with different bonuses towards production time, wall HP, etc.
Added Squad Drag-select. You can now drag-select multiple squads while pressing the CTRL button.
OTHER CHANGES
Added the translations for the newest Major Update. While some small parts of the game might still require translations, it should be about 90% ready at the moment.
New Walls and Barriers have been added to maps, based on their real data from Open Street Maps.
Some recommended maps were updated with new details, colors, and other changes.
ESC button will now make you go back when navigating Main Menu, Credits, Settings, Load Game, City Selector, Tile Selector, and some other screens.
Raw Meat will now spoil over time.
Bus stops, Street Signs, Windmills, Tunnels (non-enterable), and a few other map decorations have been added to the game.
Graffiti decorations have been added to some buildings.
Beach (sand) terrain decoration has been added to the game.
Tooltips for different resources have been updated to display more information about the player's economy.
Building-Split visualization has been updated.
Starting Keybind mappings for enabling Scavenge View and enabling/disabling Building outlines have been removed. They can be set up again via the Settings menu.
New "auto-pause" Settings have been added. Players can decide now when the game should pause and when it should not.
Forced auto-snapping has been added for walls in cases where the gaps between the walls are very small.
An option to claim the walls from the map's environment has been added.
Added visual indication in the weather panel for months with Megastorm and Full Moon.
Added a tooltip informing about the reason the structure building is blocked.
Added Statistics panel to the ESC Menu.
Improved enemy shooting mechanics from vehicles. Enemies shouldn't be able to shoot and drive at the same time anymore.
Improved vehicle pathing to avoid situations where vehicles took a longer route when not necessary.
Updated the logic behind the Rain transitions (Rain into Storm).
Updated the behavior of workers running away.
Multiple events have been updated to avoid the situation where some of them could get stuck.
Multiple optimization changes have been introduced to reduce the number of crashes and improve the game's performance and game's loading times.
BALANCE
The amount of resources carried by a single worker at once has been changed from 1 to 2.
Vehicle construction, deconstruction, repair times, and repair costs have been decreased.
The Cistern Vehicle maximum space for Fuel has been increased from 20 to 40, and resource capacity from 4 to 6.
Weapon damage has been adjusted depending on the range at which we are shooting. Some weapons will now be more or less effective, depending on the distance from the enemy.
Double and Triple Swarms have been added. You can expect more hordes attacking your Zone at later points in the game.
Increased chance for Megastorm, which was nonexistent in some locations.
FIXES
Fixed an issue with hordes sometimes stacking in one place and stopping from moving further.
Fixed an issue with time speed affecting time-to-kill for Squads.
Fixed an issue with building construction not ending at times.
Fixed an issue with vehicles sometimes getting stuck in buildings.
Fixed an issue with vehicles sometimes being able to ride over very steep slopes.
Fixed an issue with the animal death animation sometimes not playing.
Fixed an issue with vehicles sometimes instantly turning back.
Fixed an issue with vehicles sometimes stopping for a short while when selecting a new direction.
Fixed an issue that occurred during exchange with an empty squad.
Fixed an issue with the Squads panel displaying an incorrect number of ammo on different Squads.
Fixed an issue that occurred when workers were attacked by enemy units.
Fixed an issue with some animals not having swimming animations.
Fixed an issue where water had incorrect depth levels.
Fixed an issue with the incorrect position of a car after construction.
Fixed an issue with trees being possible to be planted in the adapted buildings.
Fixed an issue with vehicles sometimes using fuel when not driving.
Fixed an issue with citizens sometimes starving despite a warehouse full of food.
Fixed an issue with building/structure outlines displaying over vehicles.
Fixed an issue with normal hordes having infected dog icons.
Fixed an issue with rain disappearing after save/load.
Fixed gates missing the green fill.
Fixed an issue with infected not attacking Clay Pits or Fisherman buildings.
Fixed an issue with some tooltips not disappearing as intended.
Known Issues
Other than the English version of the game, the translation of this update to other languages is about 90% ready. The untranslated texts should display in English.
De-adapting our own building and adapting it again can result in the building becoming "Abandoned".
Joining Open Beta
Below are the instructions regarding how to join the open_beta branch on Steam. Mind you, it's recommended to make a backup of your saves first in case some unexpected issues arise during your gameplay.
Right-click on Infection Free Zone in your library,
Click on "Properties..." on the list,
Choose the "Betas" tab,
Select the "open_beta" from the list,
The newest build should start downloading. Enjoy!
If you encounter any issues, please report them to us via the in-game Bug Reporter (available in the ESC Menu). On the other hand, if you would like to share your feedback about this update, please let us know in the comments under this announcement. Is the new storyline too easy? Too hard? Just about right? Let us know all about it! Have fun and thank you for playing Infection Free Zone!
Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team