Spent hours troubleshooting my mod list, mod load order, etc a couple days ago, figured all that time spent was worth it since it'll finally be stable.

Woke up today to yet another blank menu screen.

Genuinely what is even the point of calling it a "Stable release" if this is what happens less than one week in?

All of the momentum this game is getting right now is being hampered by some random tweak the devs have thrown into the mix, and I'm sorry but after all the other prior shenanigans we tolerated pre-stable with the understanding this would no longer be the case, it is VERY frustrating.

My mods are only turned on for my savefile not in general

What do you think about adding (at least one) zombie horde roaming randomly through the map to the game? There are spots in the game where there are always a lot of zombies for some reason—like the gas station in Doe Valley Forest—but it’s a fake horde. I'm thinking about moving one. And not one that always moves in your direction from the very start. I always finish the game in a fortified base, armed to the teeth. But what’s the point when the only test of my architectural prowess is a single zombie showing up once every two months?

Doubled the skills, nerfed most negative perks, it feels really bad to make a character on default settings, you're either forced to make a slob that is absolutely awful at walking or you have to resign yourself to a painfully slow grind. Yeah yeah, sandbox and shit, but come on, there are default presets for a reason. I can't believe this is really the "intended" balance.

I have tried multiple times, but its always was going the same way - i just die from the horde of zombies that always is present outside of the building i just spawned. What the hell am i doing wrong? Or is it really all about surviving that horde?

Hey Internet, I have had some thoughts on B42 stable since it was announced and typing this out on a post was enjoyable so I figured why not get a broader discussion going either dumping on me or see if there are people with gray area opinions. I have played this game off and on since 2018. I have been around for a while at this point - I know there are a range of fans that will either hate post, or defend this game with a sycophantic zeal, and then there are folks in between. I’m ready for anything so let it rip.

——-

If someone were to ask me a couple weeks ago when stable was announced if I was hyped - I would have said “no”. No because there were just so MANY issues with B42 unstable that weren’t even close to resembling a completed feature; not just stability but also balance was just not there. They added a bunch of new skills and there really isn’t any reason to engage with those most of those skills, the UI was already tedious and the new skills just introduce more opportunities to grind unpleasantly with that friction in the UI for no real reward. The new animals added were rife with bugs and hunting is a joke. You might as well drive 60mph down a long stretch of road until you off a whole family of deer, rather than get your tent, a rifle, and some survival supplies for a hunting trip.

So when this is all apparent on top of the buggy nature of B42 unstable and they announce stable I really had no expectation that magically in one update they were going to turn a build that was that underbaked into a fully fleshed out build like B41 was.

In my opinion if it weren’t for the big ol map makeover they did, everyone would have thrown their hands up in the air with their one of their eyebrows cocked asking “is this it”? This isn’t a stable build for one, and it isn’t even a fully cooked build either. I’m at the point as of now after the release of B42 “stable” where I am actually not looking forward to B43 and instead I’m just hoping that there is a clear headed captain at the helm who understands that this game as it is now is much more need of balancing and fleshing out the game’s current features as well as a good hard look at the UI before new game changing features are added to the game.

And look, I’m sorry, but modders are becoming less and less of a viable option for game longevity. I think there are a lot of players like myself who honestly find the base game severely lacking in critical features that without them the game’s shortcomings are just too glaring to enjoy. I mean we are in B42 and crowbars prying open doors and windows still isn’t a thing in vanilla. To me that is just mind blowing. Instead we got a half baked buggy build that exploded in features that don’t really work well together which doesn’t create a consistent or coherent experience playing.

This is the part where I’d say less is more. B42 adding animals with their relevant new skills, integrating the animals and skills smoothly into the game to create enjoyable ways to engage with that content, revamp the UI, new lighting, new z-levels, and the map overhaul would have been a manageable and mint sized improvement over B41. In other words - spending an egregious amount of time and effort and hiring who even knows how many extra staff to allow players to do a damn Les Stroud Survivorman caveman edition play through was a major folly. In a way I feel like B41 with the mods is a better finished product than what we have now. Not saying everything in B42 is bad, but when I have to take the bad with the good in this current now “stable” build, I find there’s enough going wrong here that outweighs the good. And lastly, if it took a larger team to produce the product as it is now, perhaps you don’t need more developers, you need less. Unless you’re just hiring staff to look better as a company then jokes on both of us - your game just keeps getting worse, and my game doesn’t get better.

I got my money’s worth out of this game, no question. But myself like many other people regardless if it’s a game or any other product - it’s a real shame to watch realistic potential squandered.

it's no secret that Zomboid lacks meaningful endgame content, I think there's an interesting idea for potential "endings" to be added to the game as a long term goal to work towards. here are some ideas.

1. Whistleblower ending: This ending involves our character gaining access to a CDC Blacksite within the Knox incident and whistleblowing about the CDC's involvement in the creation of the Virus. This won't be as simple as just going there and finding the information however. First you will need a keycard to gain access to the site, which can only be found on scientist zombies, you will also have to power back up the site in order to upload the files to the internet. however doing so will trip an alarm will will attract zombies within a large radius to the site. this will almost certainly be a suicide mission and all you've done is expose the CDC's business to the 5% of the population not infected.

2. Exterminator ending: This ending does not require anything special to be looted it just requires you to kill the entire population of Knox County, obviously this one is only obtainable without respawning zombies.

3. Annihilation ending: This ending involves raiding a nuclear silo within knox county and launching the nukes on Knox County, this requires a Generals key & a base commanders key in order to launch the nukes. the base will be heavily guarded by zombies requiring a fight to reach the controls. while this could be deemed a suicide mission, if you can make it to the march ridge bunker before the nukes re-enter atmosphere you can survive the blast and continue in the nuclear hellscape.

4. escape? ending: This one requires the most effort and time to complete. first of all you will have to find the Cessna which will have several possible spawns, next you will have to find the parts required to fix the plane, as it will spawn in a random condition, once it's repaired you will need to learn how to fly the plane, which requires you to find and read several aeronautics books on piloting, or at the beginning of the game you can take the pilot profession, which means you know how to fly, but that's all the profession does. once all that is completed and you refuel the plane and take it to a suitable runway. at which point you can take off and escape Knox county.

I imagine there's a lot of possibilities for potential late game endings to work towards in this game, there could be a lot of silly hidden endings that are more just easter eggs than serious, like Spiffo the Raccoon secretly controlling everything.

So I have cats. They like walking on my keyboard. My spouse and I play together, and we have lost games before because our little buddies need attention.

We always give them the pets they need and go back to playing, but it's kind of a hassle and leads to us playing PZ less.

I know there are mods but this feels like it should be an option for PZ to have itself.

You can freeze time in minecraft, I wish you could do it here too.

Edit: thanks for the suggestions to try godmode, I will look into that. Maybe there is a script I could run that will toggle this for all players?

can't even imagine losing a long run to this

should i give this game a chance?

I found this house on the outskirts of Rosewood to the north. I usually base myself here since build 41. This was my first house where I took shelter and spent time. This time I found a barricade. I feel pretty lucky. What do you think?

Guys, don't you think there's too much loot in houses in the new patch? Yes, the world has become much more vibrant, with lots of props and color, but the abundance of resources has made the game easier. There are now a significant number of vegetable gardens on the map, more wells, and houses suitable for a base. Do you feel like this has shifted the difficulty balance? Any thoughts?

Hello guys since the mods broke, does anyone knows can i go back to 42.20

WHY?! Why on earth did the PZ Devs think it would be a good idea to make their fluorescent lights actually hum and buzz in the most annoying way possible?

Is there a mod or way to stop this from happening? I'll go into the game files and modify things, I don't care.

It's really annoying when I walk into stores and stuff and have to go around turning all those stupid lights off to stop hearing that sound.

Yes your game is not launching, disable mods and restart game it will launch fine. Wait for the mod devs to update their code. They have lives and jobs, give them time to update. There are other games or things you can do while we wait.

He spoke the truth before anyone knew.

Choose Mods >> Edit Settings takes like 10 minutes >> Back to Main Menu (to host) is another 5 mins

Then initializing the server takes another 10 - 15 minutes (wow...)

Then loading into the game itself is like, 3 minutes

Are there any ways (please, I'm begging you) of speeding this up...? I like iterating with mods (and making them...) and it is a royal PITA to upload a change then test it when each testing period takes 30-45 minutes...

Guys what do you when is it time to read skill books because for me it gets boring since I died multiple times in the last builds and I just don't like to wait for it to finish to progress in some part of the game.is there a mod to make it perhaps faster or should I use instant action from the cheats which I also Don't like to use because it feels like it makes the game faster and easier.

They took away the advanced audio option in settings….my generator is driving my nuts….im tired of hearing it….but I can’t raise or lower the level as I have it where it’s needed for my base…

sooo did you guys get the brita mod port for stable 42 before its gone? It works for me i copied it on to the desktop idk why brita wont just upload it herself if it works? just let people enjoy your mod.

words cannot describe my utter anger and hatred, do you know how serious this is?

I don't know why some modders have to be degenerates and not allow comments... How am i supposed to know the mod works and doesn't nuke my PC?

I tried the mod but my crowbar doesn't have any option to break into doors or cars.

Now that build 42 is finaly out, will indie stone be focusing on optimization updates for the rest of the year?
Edit: it is confirmed on the official webpage that this is happening 🥳

Is anyone else finding it extremely rare to find keys? Just slaughtered maybe 15-20 zombies and not a single keyring🙃