Summary

This update adds biters, a new playable island area, stealth mode, changing weather and a reworked medical system, along with a long list of bug fixes.

Features

• Vehicles: abandoned cars can now be stripped for materials or repaired from the Repair screen.
  • Cars fall apart as they take damage from gunfire, melee, crashes and anything you run over: windows break, and doors, hoods and trunks tear off and fall away.
  • Shooting out a tire leaves the car on a bare rim until you find a replacement, and losing both wheels on one axle prevents it from driving.
  • Fallen doors, hoods and trunks can now be salvaged for scrap metal.
  • Tires, engines, radiators, fuel tanks, brake discs and headlights now have their own models and icons instead of all looking like the same cloth sack.
  • Sedans and coupes have a lootable trunk, and pickups, SUVs, wagons, vans and the bus sometimes carry a lootable box in the back.
  • Every car now has engine, starter and shutdown sounds.
  • Coupes, pickups, vans and SUVs are now two-seaters, while sedans and wagons seat four.

• Third person is now for vehicles only: on foot you're always in first person, and F5 switches between first person and the chase camera while driving or riding.
  

• Zombies: new types, new behavior and a far more dangerous infection.
  • Meet the Biter, a decayed zombie that walks a little faster and can grab you, giving you about a second to shove it off before it bites you. Bites are now the only way to catch the RV-29 virus, and every bite infects.
  • Catching RV-29 enrages every zombie nearby: they roar, their eyes glow and they hunt you down, with a bigger wave each time your infection gets worse. Horde events have been removed in favor of this new mechanic.
  • Any zombie can be a walker or a runner. Runners only break into a run once they've spotted you, and more difficult zones have more runners.
  • Walkers now walk a little faster and runners run a little slower.

• The number of zombies you come across has been increased drastically, and zombies are spread out better between indoors and outdoors.
  
• Base defences: work on house fortification has begun.
  • Hold Interact on a window to nail planks in place, preventing zombies from climbing through windows.
  • Zombies now smash the window, rip the boards off one at a time and climb inside.

• Doors in the church, the abandoned farmhouse and more houses now open and close.
  
• A new offshore island, with its own town, has been added.
  
• Some camps now have a campfire already burning when you find it, and fires smoulder with a column of smoke after they go out, so you can spot a camp from a distance.
  
• Searching a container now takes time: items appear one by one, leaving you with your back turned until the search is done.
  
• Car trunks, cardboard boxes and military crates now each have their own open and close sounds, and so does searching a zombie.
  
• Guns, ammo and attachments now only turn up in military crates, supply drops and military bags (flare guns also hide in glove boxes).
  
• Food and drink is now found less readily.
  
• New Customize screen for weapons and the flashlight: fit the Sniper Scope 5x to the M1A, Hunting Rifle, Marlin 336 or Crossbow, and swap in flashlight batteries you find in the world. The flashlight takes three batteries: it only works with all three fitted, and it goes out as soon as one dies.
  

Fit scopes to your rifle and batteries to your flashlight.

• The flashlight is now something you hold in your hand (left mouse toggles it), and it is brighter and shines further.
• Flares burn bright red on the way up, drift down slowly while lighting the area around them, and keep burning for a while after they land.
• New Medical slot on your belt: put any medical item in it and press J to use it without opening your inventory.
• Bandages, Splints and Antiviral treat the worst injury or infection you have.
• The healing syringe is now the Adrenaline Shot: +50 health and 15% faster movement for one minute.
• Bandages now restore 10% of your health whenever you're hurt, not just when you're bleeding.
• Find Medkits and Survival Kits in glove boxes, trunks and supply crates, and unpack them for a handful of medical supplies, food and water.
• Bandages can be crafted by hand from 2 Cloth, anywhere, while Painkillers and Antibiotics are now found rather than crafted.
• Total stamina and stamina recovery have been reduced, and melee depletes your stamina much faster.
• Hunger and thirst now drain half as fast as before (this can be adjusted when creating a new game).
• Crouching is now stealth mode: a new stealth meter shows how close you are to being noticed, and five new Stealth perks unlock, one every five levels.
• You now have to get a little closer with the Knife or Axe to connect with a zombie, animal or other player.
• Weather now changes: mostly clear to mildly foggy, with rain or a storm about once a week.
• Wading through rivers and lakes now splashes, with a heavier sound once the water is deeper.
• The Player screen (Tab) now shows a percentage at the end of each vital bar.
• Music now starts at 30% volume on a fresh install (your existing setting is kept).

Bug fixes

• Grenades, Molotovs and explosive barrels now actually hurt zombies, blowing them apart up close and setting them alight.
• Map discovery is now per player: each survivor uncovers places and clears fog on their own map.
• The map opens centred on you, has a new Centre on me button, keeps your view when you zoom, and lets you drag all the way to every edge.
• Vehicles:
  • Cars no longer get stuck on bumps and uneven ground: curbs and small steps are driven over, and a car touching something can always back out or slide along it.
  • Car prompts: the glove box only opens from a front seat, and seats can only be entered from the appropriate side.
  • Back-seat passengers in the sedan and wagon now sit on the seat instead of on the backrest.
  • Cars look more worn now.

• Animals and hunting:
  • Deer and rabbits run from you and from gunfire instead of wandering up. Stealth mode lets you get twice as close before anything notices you.
  • Animal hit boxes have been improved.
  • Shots on animals now sound like flesh instead of concrete, and no longer leave bullet holes floating in the air.
  • Bears and deer are much rarer: roughly one bear every 20 to 40 minutes, and deer in herds of two or three.
  • Animal animations have been improved, so animals no longer turn as abruptly.
  • Animals no longer stand in water over their heads: rabbits stop at the waterline and bears wade right in.

• A splinted arm or leg now shows as splinted, stops flashing, and tells you roughly how long it has left to heal.
  
• Medical items now have proper models.
  
• The M1A is now found without a scope, and the Sniper Scope 5x is a separate find.
  
• Nights are no longer overly blue, and early evening is no longer much brighter than the rest of the night.
  
• The player's collider is a little slimmer, so you no longer catch on door frames, stair rails and tight interiors.
  
• Interacting now picks the nearest thing you're looking at.
  
• The reticle no longer disappears when you aim or zoom in.
  
• Rain is louder.
  
• Level-up banners read "Level 2" instead of "Level 02", level and perk alerts use their own gold instead of lime green, and the perk point sound has been toned down.
  
• The island:
  • Footsteps on the island now match the ground (grass, dirt, concrete) instead of all sounding like concrete.
  • The island's terrain is much lighter on memory and physics, which should help frame rate around it.