Zombie Fortress

NEW WEBSITE: Zombie Fortress 1.2.0 Released

2008-10-28T23:26:00.001-04:00

Click here to be taken to the new website.

Delays

2008-10-09T22:33:00.001-04:00

I have some real-life matters to take care of. Zombie Fortress 1.2.0 will release next week.

ZF_Panic V3

2008-10-06T23:48:00.003-04:00

This map has been used by a lot of servers and for some reason, I never got around to posting on the blog. It deserves recognition : )

FPSBanana Link

Zombie Fortress 1.2.0 Development

2008-10-06T22:28:00.003-04:00

Shock! No daily updates of Zombie Fortress! I have been busy and maybe only tomorrow will have the opportunity to work on ZF 1.2.0. Here are some things that I have planned for the next major release:

- Engineers being able to build multiple dispensers.
- Sniper improvements.
- Zombies spawning in waves.
- Zombies will no longer drop their weapons.
- Scouts no longer being able to crit.
- And many more small tweaks.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.5 Released

2008-10-04T13:46:00.000-04:00

Changes from 1.1.4 to 1.1.5:
- Stability fix that will solve most crashes.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.4 Released

2008-10-03T02:04:00.003-04:00

Changes from 1.1.3 to 1.1.4:
- Zombies with weapons finally fixed.
- Zombies not being able to use abilities sometimes fixed.
- Engineers can now fast build sentries.
- Pyro ammo reduced to 100.
- Other minor bug fixes.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.3 Released

2008-10-02T22:52:00.001-04:00

Changes from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3:
- Bug fixes.
- Text in color!
- Public cvar support.

Future of Zombie Fortress?

2008-10-02T20:44:00.004-04:00

After I release the next patch, I am going to work on a prototype to test out this possible gameplay configuration for Zombie Fortress:
- All ammo and health packs are removed from the map.
- Zombies no longer drop items to restore ammo or health (sandvitch).
- Survivors start with 150% health.
- Every 30 to 60 seconds, all the survivors get healed to 150% health and have their ammo refilled. The more zombies, the more frequent the resupplying.
- Zombies spawn in 15 to 3 second waves and the less zombies, the more frequent the waves.
- Medic joins the zombie team.
- All classes will be tweaked for this new gametype. Every zombie will have its own ability and role.

This prototype will accomplish the following things:
1) Allow for easier overall balancing due to item placement by the map maker no longer being influential.
2) A larger variety of maps that were not designed for zombie fortress can be used.
3) Creates a more of survivor horror feel to the survivors, who must manage to survive with a limited amount of resources.
4) A zombie's effort will never be in vain because any damage he does will stay till the next resupply.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.2 Released

2008-10-02T15:04:00.003-04:00

Changes from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2:
- Minor stabilization fixes.
- Weapon spawning zombies issue fixed.

What's next?

2008-10-02T00:43:00.003-04:00

I don't know. Best thing I can do right now is let the plugin stay as it is for a few days and see what response the changes I made get. I am also interested what maps are going to be pop up since quite a few people informed me that they are making ZF-specific maps.

Since I have time to kill, I might go experiment with different gameplay configurations.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.1 Released

2008-10-01T12:56:00.003-04:00

Changes from 1.1.0 to 1.1.1:
- Zombies should no longer spawn with weapons on occasion.
- Abilities should no longer activate when the plugin is off.

Zombie Fortress 1.1.0 Released

2008-09-30T23:29:00.001-04:00

This content patch is primarily targeted to make the zombies more interesting with the addition of class specific abilities and a new class. Zombie Fortress has been out for more than a week now and the response has been overwhelmingly positive and hopefully will remain to be so for the weeks ahead.

Changes from 1.0.8 to 1.1.0:
- Zombie Abilities. They can be activated by pressing the “call for medic” key. Abilities can be used every 30 seconds.
- New Zombie! The Spy joins the undead horde.
- Spy movement speed decreased to 260 down from 300.
- Spy's cloak lasts 4 seconds.
- Spy's cloak does not regenerate normally. The spy’s ability replenishes his cloaking gauge to full.
- Instantaneous cloak transition.
- The Scout and Heavy gain the Overheal ability that can be used when at full health. This ability increases the zombie’s health by 50% but the additional health quickly degenerates.
- Scout movement speed decreased to 340 from 360.
- Scout moves faster (400) when at full or more health.
- Heavy movement speed decreased to 240 from 245.
- Heavy now moves at 280 from 300 when at full or more health.
- Engineers can now use their shotgun.
- Pyros can now use their axetingushers.
- Pyro maximum flamethrower ammo increased to 150.
- Pyro movement speed decreased to 260.
- Auto Balance fixed…once again.
- Various minor issues have been fixed.

These changes increase the difficulty of playing zombie, specifically for the Scout and Heavy. Since they are slower when damaged, they must depend on ambushing the survivors and activating their overheal as late as possible before being damaged (and losing the chance) so they can keep their speed to catch up to the survivors. The Spy is a support zombie who depends on the chaos caused by his allies to sneak in and kill any struggling survivors.

ZF_Industry without Control Points Released

2008-09-28T18:45:00.004-04:00

Courtesy of our friendly neighborhood mapper, Broken:Tripod-Turret.

Download Link

Zombie Fortress 1.0.8 Released

2008-09-28T18:39:00.002-04:00

A quick bug fix until 1.1.0 comes out.

Changes from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8:
- Fixed heavy survivor bug.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.7 Released

2008-09-27T17:34:00.003-04:00

This what I get for having no work and a lot of free time on the weekend.

Changes from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7:
- Auto-balance will no longer cause players to suicide.
- Engineer sentries now start with 60% ammo, down from 75%.

Works now officially starts on 1.1.0. The next release will be a content addition.

Help Wanted: Map Maker

2008-09-27T13:19:00.003-04:00

A gametype is worthless if it does not have a few good maps to go along with it. If you are interested in making a Zombie Fortress map, send me an e-mail at zf.feedback@gmail.com. This is a fledgling gametype and there is investigation still needed to be done to see what works and what does not.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.6 Released

2008-09-27T12:27:00.002-04:00

Another day, another bug.

Changes from 1.0.5 to 1.0.6:
- Weapon issue fixed.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.5 Released

2008-09-27T01:51:00.002-04:00

I have been trying to fix the same bug for about 4 versions now. Welcome to the wonderful world of game development. I hope it is finally fixed so I can actually go make real content. *sigh*

Changes from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5:
- Stabilization of the periodic timer.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.4 Released

2008-09-26T13:21:00.004-04:00

Changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4:
- Scout speed is now actually decreased to 360.
- Engineer sentries now last 30 seconds, however they have reduced ammo. When out of ammo, a sentry explodes.
- sm_zf_enable and sm_zf_disable will now restart the round.
- Updated help messages.
- Better auto-balance.
- Lots of optimization and bug fixes.

The feature set for 1.1.0 is coming along very well. I have set up all the necessary code to allow zombies to activate their abilities by pressing the reload key. All my current focus is on making sure the 1.0.x series runs well and without any issues.

What I am mulling over right now in terms of design is whether or not I should shuffle the current classes. A potential new zombie team will be: spy, demoman and heavy. Respectively taking the roles of light, medium and heavy zombie. The main reason I want to do this is because the soldier and demoman have overlapping roles and it is simply not fun facing stickies as a zombie. This change will bring the scout to the survivors as well, giving them a new play style. However, I am learing away from giving the survivors the scout to do their double capturing ability.

On Map Design

2008-09-25T21:27:00.002-04:00

Currently, the zombies need to capture points to win in addition to killing all the survivors. The original purpose of capture points in the first place is to give zombies an alternative way of winning if the survivor finds a glitch in the map, a location zombies can’t reach as a soldier/demoman or just is an annoyance as a cloaked spy.

The result is that the survivors have a hard time winning due to overtime and the zombies have a conflict of interests (kill all survivors or cap the point). This bad game design and there is a solution.

The survivors become the “attackers” and the ones who go capture points. If the survivors don’t capture all the points within the time limit, they lose. This opens up a lot more gameplay options (zombie ambushes), adds suspense, encourages survivors to travel and gives survivors a better chance of winning a round.

To whoever is interested in creating a map for Zombie Fortress, there a few things you need to know:
1. The only fixed win condition is that Zombies win once all the survivors are dead.
2. Disable team switching on round end. Teams are automatically scrambled by the plugin and doing so lets players compare how many times people won as survivors and as zombies.
3. Make sure there are no places where a demoman or soldier can reach that the zombies can’t. There are exceptions if you design such a location well, but avoid it otherwise.
4. Give Zombie Scouts their own routes separate from the other Zombies.
5. Spread out the zombie spawn. Having them spawn in only one general location encourages bad behavior.
6. Keep ammo outside the capture points. Survivors need to be under pressure once they are defending and having ammo outside encourages movement.
7. Have the medpacks spread out and be small or medium varieties only.

I will on occasion post map concepts once I have more time on my hands.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.3 Released

2008-09-25T16:11:00.003-04:00

This was not a content patch as I originally intended and given my current breeding rate of bugs, I am going to name the next content patch 1.1.0 to save myself some trouble. It is going to be a large patch, so look forward to that once 1.0.x is stable.

Changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3:
- Automatic config files now work again.
- Admin command changes. "sm_zf_enable" is no longer a cvar. The commands to enable or disable ZF are respectively:
sm_zf_enable
sm_zf_disable
- Possible fix to the whole crashing issue.

Installation Notes: If you get an error saying "sm_zf_enable is already a cvar", please delete the config file in ctf/sourcemod in your tf directory and restart TF2.

Now, I am off to get my haircut that has been delayed more than once by this cursed thing.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.2 Hot Fix

2008-09-25T00:26:00.004-04:00

Another issue popped up. Please download 1.0.2 again.

A config file is no longer created because it was the cause of the issue.

EDIT: God damn, annoying day today. Another hot fix.

EDIT: Once again, with feeling. Sentry self-destructing at 0 ammo removed.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.2 Released

2008-09-24T23:47:00.009-04:00

NOTE: Whoever the first 3 people were who downloaded 1.0.2, please download it again as there was an issue in the previous file. Everything in red has been removed due to bug issues and will be reintroduced in 1.0.3.

I originally intended for this update to contain both the Zombie Spy and Zombie Abilities, but there were issues that had to be dealt with. I wanted to incorporate forced weapon switching for the axetingusher and KGB, but apparently its not possible using a plugin.

Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2:
- Better memory management which should help avoid crashes.
- A config file is now automatically created.
- Scouts now move 10% slower, 360 down from 400.
- Scouts now regenerate 2 health every second, up from 1 health.
- Heavy speed boost at full health increased to 300 from 280.
- Heavies can now use the KGB.
- Engineer Sentries again last 22 seconds but they use ammo a lot faster. They explode when out of ammo. (Sentries will be redesigned once the Zombie Spy is introduced).
- Pyros now move 6% slower, 280 from 300.
- Last Stand will no longer spam messages.
- Prettier Code : )

IMPORTANT: If anyone is intending to create a map for ZF, please send me an e-mail first at zf.feedback@gmail.com.

Onwards!

2008-09-23T01:38:00.002-04:00

For the next couple of weeks, there will be many frequent patches. I will release them as I accumulate enough feedback to do something meaningful to the plugin.

If anyone has something they want exhibited on the blog, simply send me an e-mail and I will post it up here.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.1 Released

2008-09-23T00:38:00.003-04:00

Some changes to address the most popular complaints. I am not a mapper, so there are no alterations to zf_industry. I am going to keep releasing these smaller patches so I can gauge my progress.

Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
- New "Last Stand" Mechanic. As there are less and less survivors, the respawn time for the zombies increases.
- Improved admin commands, replacing previous commands:
sm_zf_enable "0/1" - Activates/deactivates the Zombie Fortress plugin.
sm_zf_force_on "0/1" - Toggles whether the plugin should deactivate on non-zf map changes.
sm_zf_ratio "0/1" - Percentage of players on the survivor team at start. (Default 0.60 or 60% survivors).
- Heavy Zombie now moves faster when he is at full health.
- Engineer Sentry now lasts 30 seconds (up from 22), but each shot takes more shells.
- Pyro's flamethrower now caps at 100.

Changes impending

2008-09-22T02:05:00.005-04:00

I have been busy this weekend, but I will have 1.0.1 up by late monday or early tuesday.

As a side note, the gracious Broken:Tripod-Turret who made zf_industry is busy with post-secondary endeavors. The mapping situation is currently uncertain.

Note: Images completely unrelated.

Got something to say?

2008-09-20T18:26:00.002-04:00

I'd like to hear it.

Zombie Fortress just had its first release and I don't honestly expect to have everything fully balanced just yet. If you see something you don't like, please e-mail me at zf.feedback@gmail.com and tell me what it is.

One thing that I need a lot of feedback on is how often survivors or zombies win and what's fun (and contrastingly, not fun).

There are some things that I can't do (right now) and that is having programmed bots and zombie skins. These are technical limitations.

Screenshots

2008-09-20T11:55:00.004-04:00

Early Test Build Screenshots:
EDIT: Note that the final scoreboard was bugged at this test version. Disregard it.

Zombie Fortress 1.0.0 Released

2008-09-20T00:45:00.006-04:00

I’d like to thank Nirolak Draal, Broken:Tripod-Turret, Spoit, DualEdge and the rest of the Penny-Arcade community members for their help.

Have suggestions, criticisms or questions? Please e-mail me at zf.feedback@gmail.com.

Zombie Fortress is a SourceMod plugin that brings the zombie survival genre to Team Fortress 2. The survivors (RED) must fight back a horde of zombies (BLU) and survive an allotted amount of time before they are all killed and turned. Zombie Fortress is specifically designed to be compatible with a normal map rotation. Maps that are specifically designed for Zombie Fortress will automatically activate the plugin and deactivate it at the map’s end.

FEATURES:
- Adds a brand new gametype to Team Fortress 2.
- Two unique sides to play as. The survivors are well armed but once killed are permanently turned into undead. The melee zombies with a quick spawn time use sheer numbers and focus fire to overwhelm the survivors.
- A fair and reliable auto-balance system to ensure all players have equal opportunity to play zombies and survivors.
- Extremely quick rounds compared to other zombie survival games. A round will at most last approximately 5 to 8 minutes.
- Extensive help system to introduce new players.
- Almost all classes have been modified in some way, adding variety to a server.

BASICS:
At the beginning of the round, the teams are shuffled in such a manner that 2 thirds of the players are survivors and the remaining third are zombies. Each team has classes assigned to them and they can only be that class.

The survivors (pyro, soldier, demoman, engineer, sniper, spy and medic) must prevent the zombies from capturing the control points while at the same time avoiding being killed in the process. If a survivor is killed, they join the zombie team immediately. The biggest issue the survivors face is running out of ammo, especially since the maps have very little ammo around the control points.

The zombies (scout and heavy) need to either kill all the survivors or capture all the control points to win. Unlike the survivors, the zombies are only armed with melee attacks with the exception of the heavy’s sandvitch. Group efforts to take out important targets is crucial as a lone zombie will often lose to a group of survivors. All zombies have minor health regeneration.

MEET THE SURVIVORS:
PYRO [Assault]: Cannot use the axetingusher. The pyro is the frontline defense against scouts and with assistance, deal with heavies. A pyro is often within melee reach and can be killed with a single heavy critical punch, so beware.

SOLDIER [Assualt] Starts with double rocket ammo, this ammo returns to normal limits once the excess is depleted. Increases speed, same as demoman. The soldier with his high health is a great at stopping waves of zombies from overwhelming the survivors. However, he is not as great against single targets.

DEMOMAN [Assualt] Starts with double grenade ammo, this ammo returns to normal limits once the excess is depleted. Fills the same role as the soldier but accomplishes the task differently.

ENGINEER [Support]: Cannot use the shotgun. Sentry only lasts 22 seconds and cannot be repaired/upgraded/refilled. Dispensers do not resupply and instead used as barricades. Sentries with their knockback are great for warding off zombies but require a large amount of metal to maintain.

SNIPER [Support]: Whenever the sniper kills a zombie, he regains 50 health, 5 rifle rounds and 25 SMG rounds. The sniper, alongside the spy are resource efficient ways to kill zombie heavies which normally drain a lot of the survivor’s ammunition.

SPY [Support]: Cannot use the sapper. Can cloak for 33 seconds and can attack immediately after decloaking. Fulfills the same the role as the sniper but more efficiently. However, the spy is a melee class and can easily be killed.

MEDIC [Support]: The medigun’s overheal is capped at 125% and last indefinitely. Fulfills the same the role as the sniper but more efficiently. One of the key players in the survivor’s defense and expect them to be targets of the zombies quite often.

MEET THE ZOMBIES:
SCOUT: Melee only. Quick and deadly with the bat, the scout is most suited to killing the support classes. Whenever a scout is killed, he drops his bat which restores 100 ammo when picked up a survivor. If you intend on trying to drain the survivor’s resources or want to kill a pyro, go heavy.

HEAVY: Increased movement speed. Melee and sandvitch only. The heavy is the siege weapon of the zombie team. He can take out most classes with one critical punch and can soak up a lot of damage due to his 300 health. A heavy zombie normally drops nothing upon death unless the sandvitch is equipped, which is dropped to be a health pickup to be used by either team. The heavy due to his slow speed is not suitable at taking out support classes alone.

FOR MAPPERS:
You really need to be aware of three things. First of all, all maps designed for zombie fortress must start with zf_ to be automatically flagged by the plugin as a ZF compatible map. Secondly, remember that the survivors need to be strained for resources. Otherwise they will always defeat zombies with their superior fire power. Lastly, the teams must not switch at the end of the round.

OTHER CREDITS:
While I never personally thanked or asked… bl4nk’s Sudden Death Melee plugin was what got me started in making this plugin. SourceMod and its SourcePawn language is not that easy to dive into given its unique tendencies and it helped me out a lot into developing my own plugin.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.9 Hot Fix

2008-09-18T16:38:00.005-04:00

Zombies are once more BLU and survivors RED. Apparently this was the cause of the crashes... I don't know why however.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.9 Released

2008-09-18T16:38:00.004-04:00

The release of 1.0.0 is impending. It will be the first official release of Zombie Fortress to the public and I am eager to present. 0.5.9 will most likely be the final version of 0.x.x series of releases. 0.5.8 is being disregarded since it crashed servers.

Changes from 0.5.7 to 0.5.9:
- Autobalance improved. It no longer breaks the game and is fully reliable.
- When you first join a server running ZF, you will be greeted by a welcome and a help message.
- Survivors no longer get a 3 subtraction whenever they kill a zombie. In a full 24 or 32 person server, it would result in two minute games.
- I have removed the plugin-side timer. Mappers now again have full control of the round timer.
- Medic overheal bonus reduced to 125% from 150%.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.8 Released

2008-09-17T17:09:00.003-04:00

I think I finally fixed the bug that caused event_start not to fire, or more precisely - stopped it in its tracks.

Changes from 0.5.7 to 0.5.8:
- Zombies are now red and the Survivors are not blue.
- Hopefully fixed the "bug".
- A performance improvement on game start.

If everything works out, I plan to implement the following features for version 0.5.9:
- Complete overhaul of the round timer system so that it will work with the original TF2 round timer.
- Better help messages.
- Zombie abilities.
- Slight Medic nerf
- Create an alternative way for survivors to regain health without the help of a medic but without negating the class.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.7 Released

2008-09-15T17:21:00.004-04:00

Changes from 0.5.6 to 0.5.7:
- Survivor weapon anomalies fixed.
- Redesigned zombie tracking.
- Balance is made more reliable. You should no longer be a zombie twice in a row or a survivor three times in a row. If this does not occur, it was intercepted due to the fact that the starting team ratios would be upset. You are more likely to switch to the proper side next round.
- Various glitches fixed.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.6 Released

2008-09-14T13:10:00.003-04:00

Another small patch.

Changes from 0.5.5 to 0.5.6:
- A debug fail-safe has been added to the event_start function. This should ensure the plugin will be always playable until I find out the reason why it gets skipped.
- Zombies no longer receive class information on spawn.
- The announcer should speak more properly when announcing 60 and 30 seconds remaining.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.5 Released

2008-09-13T23:27:00.004-04:00

A patch to 0.5.4, this update actually holds a lot of new features behind the hood which are not exactly interesting to discuss.

Changes from 0.5.4 to 0.5.5:
- Once again, a new auto-balance has been designed.
- Round timer related bugs have been fixed.
- Class help information has been updated.
- Zombie winning due to all survivors being dead no longer uses cheats to accomplish the task and instead use entity inputs, making it look more professional.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.4 Released

2008-09-13T13:08:00.002-04:00

The biggest change this version is the implementation of the new round timer that is now run by the plugin instead by TF2. This basically removes the power from map makers to affect the round timer.

Changes from 0.5.3 to 0.5.4:
- Rounds will now always last 5 minutes. This is no longer a variable that mappers can affect.
- When a zombie is killed 3 seconds is subtracted from the clock.
- Snipers when killing a zombie, now recover 50 health instead of 25.
- Auto-balance has been made further reliable.
- Spy cloak now lasts 33 seconds before the spy has to uncloak and recharge his cloak meter.
- Minor fixes all around.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.3 Released

2008-09-11T22:29:00.002-04:00

This update is much smaller than I wanted and expected it to be. A few features that were going to be implemented seem to quite tricky.

Changes from 0.5.2 to 0.5.3:
- Zombie Regeneration! Heavies will now recover 10 hp/sec and scout's 4/sec.
- Scout ability redesign. Whenever a Sniper kills a zombie, they regain 25 health, 5 sniper rounds and 25 SMG rounds.
- New GUI help system that should help out new players who are too lazy to type out "zf_class" or "zf_help".
- Demomen now start with double primary ammo, sharing the ability with soldiers.
- You can only be a survivor 3 times in a row before being forced to be a zombie.
- Spies have lost the sapper but gained the disguise kit.
- The Axetingusher and Engineer Shotgun should no longer appear in play.

Current Code Length for 0.5.3: 953 (+133 from 0.5.2)

Not-Quite-Saturday Poll

2008-09-10T23:46:00.003-04:00

A good percentage of people voted towards having living engineers. Which is very convenient since I already implemented them in Zombie Fortress of survivors.

The new poll is calling for the opinion of the people who played ZF. Did you like it? Hate it? All that nonsense.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.2 Released

2008-09-10T19:01:00.002-04:00

Yes, 0.5.1 got skipped. 0.5.1 was used in a test server and since I catalog every build, 0.5.2 was the next logical choice. I will include changes from both 0.5.1 and 0.5.2 in the list.

Changes from 0.5.0 to 0.5.2:
- Completely revamped auto-balance system.
- Medic overheal bonus returned to 150%.
- Multiple sentry bug fixed.
- Dispenser health possibly increased to 300.
- Spawning with prohibited weapons supposedly fixed.

The largest change in this new version is the amount of optimization that came with the new auto-balance system and spawning changes. The amount of lines in the program was reduced by 150. Currently, there are 820 lines of code, a 15.5% decrease.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.0 Hot Fix

2008-09-09T23:23:00.001-04:00

The download link has been updated.

This hot fix is regarding spy cloak.

Zombie Fortress 0.5.0 Released

2008-09-09T22:39:00.005-04:00

0.5.0 is the beginning of Zombie Fortress beta. Yes, up till now I considered it to be the alpha.

Changes from 0.4.7 to 0.5.0:
- Spies can now permanently cloak.
- Medic uber now again lasts 10 seconds.
- Medic overheal now increases health only to 125%.
- Engineer Sentries should no longer lose health too quickly or not at all.
- Auto-balance should be finally fixed.
- Axetingusher will no longer be useable.
- Survivors can no longer have the zombie weapon configuration applied to them.
- When the last survivor leaves, the zombies win.
- Ben is no longer killed.
- Turkey is fixed.
- Lots of optimization.

Current Code Length for 0.5.0: 970 (+3 from 0.4.7)

Zombie Fortress 0.4.7 Released

2008-09-08T18:25:00.005-04:00

Changes from 0.4.6 to 0.4.7
- NEW Survivor: The Engineer.
- When a sentry is built, it cannot be upgraded/repaired/refilled with ammo/demolished. However, it is still able to attack. Sentries beginlosing health as soon as their construction is complete taking 5 damage per second which will destroy a sentry in 30 seconds.
- A sentry will run out of ammo after dealing roughly 450 damage worth of shots.
- Dispensers when constructed are disabled and are to be used as barricades against the ravaging undead.
- Both Sentries and Dispensers cannot have their build time accelerated by whacking them repeatedly with a wrench. They take 10 and 20 seconds, respectively to be built.
- Engineers no longer have access to the shotgun. Sentries, their pistol with outrageous ammo and crit-happy wrench will have to suffice.
- Auto-Balance Fix: You should no longer be a Zombie three times in a row. You will automatically be assigned to the survivor team.
- Various fixes and optimizations.

Once all the bugs in 0.4.7 are found and fixed, the next version of Zombie Fortress will be 0.5.0.

Current Code Length for 0.4.7: 967 (+129 from 0.4.6)

Saturday Poll

2008-09-06T12:49:00.000-04:00

Zombies individually was the hands down winner for this poll. So that's the end of that.

The next poll is about which side the Engineer should be part of. Here are the two possible Engineer configurations.

Survivor Engineer: As a normal engineer but can build only level 1 sentries. A sentry requires 130 worth of metal to fully reload and runs out of ammo after shooting 450 damage worth of ammo. Also has access to teleports, but not to dispensers.

Zombie Engineer: Equipped with only a melee weapon and his ability to create the teleporters. Teleporters require only 5 seconds to charge up to be usable by the next person. Zombie Engineers move at a speed slightly slower than a Zombie Scout.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.6 Released

2008-09-06T12:37:00.000-04:00

Changes from 0.4.5 to 04.6:
- Improved Autobalance. You can no longer be a zombie more than twice in a row.
- Autobalance pattern changed to make it easier for zombies earlier in the game.
- You should no longer be able to get the axetingusher as a Pyro.
- Fixed the technical messages repeating in chat when zombies win by killing all the survivors.

Planned Changes for 0.4.7:
- Rewriting of zombie tracking, saving 128 variables worth of memory.
- Removal of scouts dropping bats.
- Fixing the bugs from 0.4.6.

Current Code Length for 0.4.6: 838

ZF_Industry Screenshots

2008-09-06T01:18:00.001-04:00

Zombie Fortress 0.4.5 Released

2008-09-05T00:03:00.000-04:00

The changes that were planned for 0.4.5's development have been implemented and the download link to 0.4.5 is on the right side. If are interested in testing Zombie Fortress, please first download the latest version of ZF_Industry.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.5 Development

2008-09-04T00:11:00.000-04:00

Planned changes for 0.4.5 from 0.4.4:
- Auto balance will activate at the end of a round, instead in the first 5 seconds of a round starting.
- Fail-safe created to ensure teams are always auto-balanced before or after a round starts.
- Zombies will automatically win when a round ends.
- Minor fixes in help messages.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.4 Released

2008-09-02T21:04:00.000-04:00

It has been a while, but 0.4.4 is finally ready for testing.

- The way autobalance activates has been changed, alongside some other tweaks. If this rendition works, I will try to improve the timing so it activates right before the next round starts.
- Pyros can no longer use Axetinguishers.
- Heavies can no longer use the K.G.B.
- Heavies are now permitted sandvitches.
- Soldier speed increased to 280 equivalent to the demoman.
- Additional optimization.

Saturday Poll

2008-08-30T02:00:00.001-04:00

The results of the latest poll is in! People don't want super / carrier zombies. This was my original policy since having exclusive roles always leaves players cheated. Plus, if someone has a special role and they are bad, the whole team suffers. There is a reason why the Hunted got replaced with Payload.

The new poll is up now, it is regarding whether zombies should spawn in short waves or individually. If zombies spawn in waves, the survivors will be periodically assaulted with breaks in between and individual spawns will have a constant pestering. Either method can do what the other offers. Individually spawned zombies can group together attack as a wave and wave spawned zombies can split their forces. This basically dictates the default behavior for new players.

Back in Business

2008-08-30T01:41:00.000-04:00

I was away (read: distracted) for quite some time, which I primarily blame on the Red Alert 3 Beta. That game is fun! Now that my obsession with it has waned, I am going to get back to work and inch ever so slowly into completing a 100 percent stable Zombie Fortress release.

0.4.4 is going to be a small release. Its mean features will be strengthening the survivors, fixing the auto-balance and implementing loadout restrictions. Loadout restrictions are going to be applied to the Axetinguisher (Pyros can only use the normal Axe), the K.G.B (Heavies will only be able to use normal Fists) and the Sandvich (They can use the sandvitch but not the shotgun). If a person is using a restricted weapon, that will weapon will be removed and the person will be peppered with messages telling them to return to spawn and switch their weapons. I can’t force players to change weapons since that information is decided client side, sadly.

I have decided not to add Arena support to Zombie Fortress simply because it will require me to completely change the gameplay mechanics and it will come with additional baggage. What happens if all the zombies are killed at once? How will I properly do auto-balance? Plus, the fact that Arena maps are basically void of med packs makes it extremely difficult for survivors. The only advantage I will gain from supporting Arena maps is that we gain some new maps to play around with.

Expect a 0.4.4 to come out Monday along with a crappy test server hosted off my own humble computer.

Saturday Poll

2008-08-16T15:41:00.001-04:00

The results of the previous poll are in. People are aiming for 8-10 minutes a round. Which is pretty reasonable and what I expected.

A new poll is up! Whether there should be carrier / super zombie or not.
An example of a Super Zombie: There can only be one on a team and they are stronger than the average zombie. The super zombie would act as a leader for the zombies, having the ability to occasionally force respawn all zombies to his location.

Map Concept: ZF_Industry

2008-08-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

This is a gravelpit style map, in the sense that there are three independently defendable points. These are survivor hold-out locations with different play styles.

A - Ammo Locations
S - Survivor Spawn
Z - Zombie Spawn

*All hold-outs have health spawns.
T - The Train Station: This is the most basic point to defend. It has small ammo spawns and only has one large entrance to defend, the north railway entrance. Where periodically, a train will come by and squash any on the tracks and briefly open up the back entrance to the zombies.
"You enter a fortified railway station that has both large doors leading to the road barricaded. The back gates for the trains has been left intact, but the front gates have been destroyed - leaving it open."

W - Warehouse: This is the point that is best suited for fire fights and rooftop combat. It has the most ammo, with medium ammo spawns but has a) a front entrance, b) a 2nd story window entrance which scouts can jump into from the adjacent building and c) a skylight which is also accessible by scouts. This holdout location is very much based around using the abundant resources to dominate the front gate and the roof tops. Additionally, the rooftop defends (soldiers and demos) have access to supplies littered among the surrounding roofs.

M - The Mines: This is the most traditional zombie defense location. Best way of describing it would be the second point of Goldrush 1. There are two platforms in the front that act as entrances (accessible to scout zombies) and a tower similar to Point C of Gravelpit to be used by snipers to pick off zombies from the field. However, this point has no ammo at all. You must depend on occasional trips to the large ammo depot near the point. Snipers and Spies are best here, since they can kill without ammo dependency.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.3 Released

2008-08-15T00:04:00.000-04:00

It's in the right hand sidebar.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.3 Development

2008-08-14T13:08:00.000-04:00

Planned changes for 0.4.3 from 0.4.2:
- Auto balance to be finally fully fixed.
- Soldier being upgraded to demo speed.
- Spy getting a 33.3% increase in speed. (A little bit slower than a scout).
- Removal of Zombie Regeneration until there is a need for it. The plugin needs a slimming and the zombies are strong enough. A new solution for zombie regeneration is in the works however./

In other developments, I am going to wait for the heavy update and what the K.G.B does to the plugin. If it is not enough boost to the heavy, the pyro is going to lose the axetingusher since it murders them.

I am currently in the process of designing of zf_industry which I hope that I can pass off to a confident mapper. The design should be up when I am back from work.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.2 Released

2008-08-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

Changes from 0.4.1:
- Zombies now have regeneration. Every 10 seconds, all scouts regain 15 health and all heavies regain 50 health.
- New Admin Debug Command: "zf_respawn" forces a rebalancing of teams.
- New Admin Debug Command: "zf_regen" toggles zombie regeneration. Use this command only if zombie regeneration causes noticeable server lag. Use this command only every 15 seconds or bad things will happen.
- Better 24 person support.
- Optimizations everywhere to prepare for the introduction of zombie regeneration.

I have pretty much nothing else to do until balance problems creep up. What that means is that there won't be anymore new releases until there is a dedicated server up that ran the plugin a few times. Maps that currently are best suited for ZF are cp_gravelpit and cp_dustbowl (on some points).

Thanks to everyone who helped me test. If you are interested in testing, a Steam Group has been created.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.1 Released

2008-08-13T00:17:00.000-04:00

Changes from 0.4.1:
- Auto balance works properly now.
- Minor errors in help system.

Other Information

2008-08-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

A new poll is up!

Anyone can now comment on blog posts, if they wish to.

Admin commands for ZF 0.4.0.
zf_enable
zf_disable
note: ZF will be automatically be enabled on maps with "zf_" as the first 3 characters in their file name.

Zombie Fortress 0.4.0 Released

2008-08-12T02:54:00.000-04:00

Changes from 0.3.5:
- New Balancing System: Every round the teams are scrambled and survivors will always begin with 3 survivors for every 2 zombies.
- New Help System: Type in "zf_help" or "zf_class" in chat to receive gameplay information for your team or class, respectively.
- Soldier movement speed increased by 8%.
- Heavy movement speed increased by 7%.
- Scout movement speed decreased by 7.5%
- Soldiers now start with double rocket ammo, which will returns to normal once bonus ammo is depleted.
- Snipers now regain full health and sniper rifle ammo every 45 seconds.
- Medic overheal no longer degenerates.
- Spies can now immediately attack after decloaking and their cloaking meter regeneration is increased to be 1:1 with consumption.
- Once the first person dies in a round, spectators can no longer join the survivor team.
- Zombie respawn time increased to 8 seconds from 6.5 seconds.
- A slew of other small bug fixes, optimizations and improvements.

New Poll

2008-08-11T01:40:00.000-04:00

Previous Poll: Scramble wins!

New Poll is up.

Zombie Fortress 0.3.5 released

2008-08-09T23:17:00.001-04:00

Thank you for everyone at Penny-Arcade who helped me test 0.3.3 and further improve the plugin.

- When you are converted into a Zombie, your rag doll no longer changes.
- No longer possible to get negative kills.
- Killing survivors during humiliation no longer transforms them into zombies for next round.
- Zombies now spawn immediately after seeing their kill cam.
- A brand new auto-balancing system is now used that favors survivors.
- Medic's uber charge now only lasts 5 seconds.

Zombie Fortress 0.3.4 released!

2008-08-09T12:47:00.001-04:00

It's located on the sidebar and without specific maps for it, I would recommend tc_hdyro as the best map for it. To activate Zombie Fortress, type in "zt_enable 1" in the console.

A word of warning, this being a first release: expect bad things to happen in terms of bugs and gameplay issues.

Zombie Fortress 0.3.3

2008-08-07T23:47:00.000-04:00

Zombie Fortress Alpha 3, otherwise affectionately known as 0.3.3 is the current version of the plug-in that is in private testing. This is right now the most likely candidate for release as 1.0.0 due to the fact that to my knowledge, it runs without any major bugs and is free of exploits. A sentiment that will most likely be crushed as soon as full server testing begins.

A team of survivors (red team) must defend a single point against an endless onslaught of zombies (blue team) for a period of time. The survivors have the advantage of versatility and fire power, they employ the solider, pyro, demoman, engineer, sniper, spy and medic, who are all fully equipped. The zombies on the other hand, comprised of the melee-only scout and heavy have only one advantage, the ability to respawn. If a survivor is killed, they are forced to join the zombie team to kill their remaining once-allies.

The survivors classes play as they would in a normal team fortress 2 match. The only restriction they have is scacrity of ammo and no lockers. Ammo can only be found outside the defended point or scavanged from dead teammates or slain scout zombies. The survivors only have a good chance if they can still shoot their weapons. Avoiding death is the paramount.

Zombies very differently from usual team fortress 2 matches. They only have their melee weapon and a very short 2 second respawn time (7 with kill cam). Scouts while stronger than the heavies thanks to their speed and double jump, are a long-term liability because unlike the heavy, they drop a ammo-replenishing bat when killed. Heavies with their large amount of health are ideal to strain the survivor defenses and when they are vulnerable, a scout push will usually mean the end of the survivors.

Braaaaaaaaaains

2008-08-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the blog that will serve as the website for my Zombie Fortress plugin.