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This page lists the version history of The Dead Linger, starting from the first publicly released build. The changelog lists added, removed, or modified features since the previous game version. Note that the wiki changelog may differ from the official changelog, as not every change is expected to be listed in the latter. The game is expected to go through an alpha stage, a beta stage, and then receive further updates after the "full" release.

Alpha[ | ]

The alpha stage is the first phase of public testing, focusing on core game mechanics. The first alpha release was on October 31st, 2012. Though there is no definitive list of planned content for the alpha, extras such as driving cars, using maps, and other planned features are not likely to be included in the alpha stage. Access costs US$25. Until December 4th, 2012, those who purchased the game received the exclusive DOVRAC gas mask. (A retexture of the standard gas mask.)

Version Release date Changelog
Hotfix 15b 6 November, 2014

Performance Changes and Details:

  • Sweeping changes to our dynamic world LOD (iLOD) system yielding in a 50% or greater increase in framerate. You should now be getting substantially better framerate in all circumstances.
  • Made a minor grass performance improvement fix.
  • Added an additional tier of LOD to our system.
  • The iLOD for smaller office props was greatly reduced and tightened up. Should fix both performance in office buildings and prevent monitors from appearing under desks instead of on them.
  • Tweaked the LOD for the water tower making it appear higher detailed from farther away.
  • Object LODs now dissolve/fade in, so there’s a LOT less popping, especially inside buildings.
  • The office buildings now have LOD models so the game is no longer trying to render full detail office architecture from a distance.
  • Fixed an issue where cut down trees would still show their LOD when you move away from the area.

Zombie Changes and Details:

  • Slightly increased the chance for Strays to spawn.
  • Changed the pack-spawning amounts for Strays to 1-2 down from 1-3.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the general population of zombies to be quite low in all zones. The hordes have returned!
  • Made improvements to the convenience store navigation mesh.
  • Navigation mesh added to parking lots to help zombie pathing around Leland’s and office buildings.
  • If a zombie is on terrain but vertically clipping another navigation mesh but not using it, they should be moved on to that navigation mesh. This should fix 99% of issues with zombies clipping through floors and ignoring navigation meshes.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause zombies to float after a world refresh until they were active.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies were not using their correct walk speed when ‘idle wandering’.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies would sometimes turn to the side or turn around entirely when you ran towards them. This was due to a bug in the anticipation system for zombies.

Campfire Changes and Details:

  • There are now three different types of campfires; small, medium, and large.
  • Fixed an issue where the small campfire was using the large campfire mesh. All campfires now use the correct art.
  • Changed the “No Matches” message to say “You require matches to light a fire.”
  • Campfires are no longer over saturated and too bright.
  • All campfires now have a proper inventory icon for the crafting result screen.
  • Fires now die out over time.
  • When standing near (within 2.5 meters radius of) a campfire of any sort, the player can go into their inventory and right click on a log. The radial menu will come up with a new option “Add to Fire” which will add another log to the burning woodpile, resetting the die-out time for the fire every time a log is added.
  • Small Campfire: Provides light and allows for cooking. Created by crafting 3 Logs.
    • Duration: 30 minutes (real-time)
    • Cooking Speed: Slow
  • Medium Campfire: Provides light and allows for cooking. Created by crafting 6 Logs.
    • Duration: 1 hour (real-time)
    • Cooking Speed: Fast
  • Large Campfire: Provides light and allows for cooking. Created by crafting 10 Logs.
    • Duration: 2 hours (real-time)
    • Cooking Speed: Very Fast

Other Miscellaneous Changes and Details:

  • The in-game escape menu now has a new background!
  • Escape menu buttons have been changed to white.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing collision on certain steps in the prison guard tower.
  • Made it so that it was harder to fall off the prison guard tower stairs while ascending or descending.
  • Lots of redundant math from the tree bark shader has been removed.
  • Tree bark is now darker on the underside and is affected by the normal map, producing a really sweet effect.
  • Some tree billboards no longer look weird, especially the aspen.
  • Fixed an issue where there were no stairs to the roof in the office building.
  • Temporarily removed the audio of the Survivor’s footsteps. It will be returning with the new sound update in Build 16.
  • Fixed an issue that were causing impassible windows in the office buildings.
  • Added doors to the office roof module.
  • Added ceiling lights to all office building modules (instead of those funky pseudo skylights).
  • Fixed some lighting issues with the reception desk in office buildings.
  • Improved visibility of props on white/grey desks in office buildings.
  • Fixed the glowing bathroom stalls.
  • Re-added normal maps to desks, chairs, and props in office buildings.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Mastodon revolver to not have reload animations.
  • Fixed an issue with shields (both riot and ballistic) that was causing them to not have idle, sprint, or attack animations.
  • Fixed an issue causing the pumpkin and witch hats to float out in front of the survivor in third person mode. They now sit on your head properly. Happy Hat-oween!
  • Fixed an issue that was causing an alarm clock, a microwave, and Zed candy box to only be visible from about one meter out.
  • Fixed an issue that was making it so that you were not able to ride bikes found in garages.
  • Changed the FP arms commands to hidearms and showarms. Pretty much self explanatory.
  • Fixed a bug with the inventory icons for the rabbit meat bits.
  • If you open your backpack while holding (grabbing) an item, the item will now be dropped.
  • Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor would sometimes disappear when opening the radial menu in the inventory.
  • Missing item icon is now a rag and says “Image Not Found”. Let us know if you see any of these missing icons.
  • Some items no longer glow in the dark.
  • Changed the “Infection” bar to now properly say “Infection Risk”.
  • Fixed an issue preventing belts to auto-equip.
  • Cleaned up the logos on the main menu.
  • Fixed an issue where death/corpse markers and names over the heads of players now follow the FOV properly.
Build 15a Hotfix 31 October, 2014
  • Framerate issues in a ton of places have been fixed! You should no longer be dropping to 3 FPS, and places that had okay FPS should be even better than before! You may have to give it a short while after you load in to fully get your framerate up as the world is still loading but it should be way better right from the get go!
  • Motion blur is now disabled (quickest fix we had available.) We will bring it back later with a checkbox option to turn it off.
  • TDL Anniversary Achievement should now properly unlock if you play between tonight (Oct. 31st) and November 9th.
  • Grass no longer changes direction or twitches when you turn on the flashlight.
  • Grass is now about 50% better on performance.
  • Fixed an issue where windows would not show they were broken from a distnace.
  • Fixed an issue where textures and GUI elements (images) would be pixelated.
  • Added Nav Mesh to parking lots so Leland's and Office buildings should have less issues with zombies halfway in the floor. Still may be some issues here, please report them!
  • Fixed an issue where Zombie Bob (fat zombie) would disappear (LOD cull) at a very close distance.
Build 15 October 30, 2014

Brand New Zombies

  • Zombies have been completely overhauled both in visuals and some behavioral changes.
  • Zombies now spawn with randomized clothing and clothing sets (i.e. riot gear zombie)
  • Zombie skin textures have been completely overhauled.
  • Zombie pathing and physics load has been decreased by an insane amount. Buidlings now support a new ‘navigation mesh’ that the zombies use to compute their pathing and vaulting, meaning they move more realistically and easily through structures. We will be adding even more refined pathing in Build 16.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies would sometimes glow indoors.
  • Zombies are still in progress and do have some animation and rigging issues. Please report them!
  • Fixed a bug where a zombie would sometimes drop an “unknown cube.” It was a typo on a banana, folks. Nothing to see here.
  • This is a massive change to the underlying systems in TDL and there will be bugs. Please report them.
  • Again, this is a massive change to the underlying systems in TDL and there will be bugs. Please report them!

Brand New Menu

  • There is a massive new main menu system!
  • Brand new Create World screen and World Select screen to help you better manage your worlds and provide some statistics on your world saves
  • The menu has a cleaner look in general
  • Survivor card in top right in preparation for character creation and multiple character saves
  • News, Twitter, and a link to the latest Build Page can be found in the main menu.
  • New splash art when loading the initial game that transitions to a start screen.
  • Fixed a bug where the main menu would allow the GPU to run really hot. Main Menu has now been capped at 60 frames per second. In game you can also set your desired framerate cap in the Graphics Settings menu.
  • Fixed a couple issues where the default graphics settings were really low, causing some Survivors to think our game had very bad graphics. (Hey, be nice!)
  • Fixed a bug where the music slider would reset to 100% volume when the music looped.
  • A lot cleaner navigation in the Settings menus
  • Graphics settings screen now has a proper scrollbar
  • Back buttons everywhere!
  • And a whole lot more!

Performance Changes:

  • Large improvements to the spiral world generator. In general, loading is a bit quicker.
  • Better optimization of the far, very distant trees.
  • Massive reduction to sounds and general RAM stored during gameplay. The new sound overhaul may cause some things to sound weird or broken for a bit, including some sound sliders. It should all snap back into place *during the hotfixes and even more so in Build 16. Please be patient, but report any and all sound bugs you find!
  • Fixed at least one periodic “lag tick.”
  • Removed a TON of legacy (old) content, roughly 500 MB worth, possibly more.

Gameplay Changes:

  • NEW WILDLIFE – Rabbit: You can kill, skin, and cook this NPC for food, if you can catch it!
  • New Feature: Skinning inside the inventory. Small wildlife must be skinned while in your inventory, as long as you have a knife. Right click to open the menu to skin a rabbit.
  • New Feature: You can now lean around corners (and still shoot) with Q and E keys, but this does not show up in third person yet.
  • New Feature: Corn fields (and certain other foliage) now blocks line of sight of enemies.
  • Keybindings will be reset. If you had custom keybindings, you will have to rebind them. If you have issues picking up items or other controls are not working, go press Reset in the key bindings settings menu and that should correct the issue.
  • Zombie Bob’s size has been changed a tiny bit and he has new animations and has been brought up to the visual level of the new zombies.
  • Buck spawning rates have been increased and tweaked some, depending on the area.
  • There are 3 new Halloween-themed head items in the game. They will be permanent items and will not be seasonal.
  • Really cool Aviator sunglasses are now in the game and can be picked up and worn.
  • The Riot Gear set now has gloves and a belt to go along with it.
  • Hiking Boots are now actually boots with a tall ankle, different from Hiking Shoes.
  • Doors got a good kick in the pants. They should work a lot better for you now and doors should no longer go backwards.
  • Fixed a case where the ‘grab hand’ would show up when you couldn’t actually grab an object.
  • Fixed a bug where Survivors would sometimes get stuck in the death screen.
  • Some guns now have new or slightly tweaked sounds when fired.

World Changes:

  • Large improvements to the way roads sit on the terrain, making the dirt edges blend better
  • Trees now have proper collision meshes, so you can interact with them in a more detailed manner
  • Fixed an issue where some toilets or sinks would not have a texture.
  • Fixed an issue where campfires would not continue burning or relight when you reload a world.
  • Corn fields look a bit better than they did before
  • Someone’s been carving pumpkins!
  • Zombies are a bit more common on farms now.
  • Trees and other foliage now fades between its “level of detail” models, for a much smoother look and less popping objects.
  • Large improvements to the general sky system, yielding in better performance, better lighting, and a WAY better look. The new sunsets will blow your eyeballs right out through your brain socket.
  • Buildings now have a bunch of new props inside them. The farmhouse, for example, has a lot more detail on the interior, including multiple new rooms and… Ahem, secrets to be found.
  • Loot in general has been reworked in all the buildings and should be a little more balanced. Rotten food is a little more common and good food is a bit more rare.
  • Reloading a world should, at least in many cases, not try to generate a new world on top of the existing one.
  • There’s something out in the fields.

Misc Visual Changes:

  • Sweeping improvements to the lighting and ambient occlusion in all structures and buildings for better appearance and better performance
  • Fixed an issue where football helmet and other headgear would show purple or broken textures.
  • Fixed an issue where a lot of items and furniture would glow in doors.
  • Fires now have a completely new look, and they look rather awesome!
  • Sniper rifle scopes now have some refraction and a more detailed scope view. This is a placeholder until we get our dynamic scope system in place.
  • Small adjustment to the contrast on the Riot Boots inventory icon so it’s easier to see against the dark inventory.
  • There is a new HDR effect when entering and exiting buildings. You will need to adapt to the light over a short period of time.
  • There is a slight ‘frame interpolation’ or ‘motion blur’ now. We will add an option to disable this soon as we are aware some survivors are bothered by the effect.
  • The entire screen has some new filters, including anti-aliasing. The scene in general looks much smoother and more realistic.
  • Shadows are a bit sharper than they were previously.
  • Prison has new loading screen art.
  • Farmland has new loading screen art.
  • The chat box no longer has a black background unless you are actively typing into it.

Console Changes:

  • There is a new console command called “time” which allows you to set the time of day. Simply type “time #” into the console to set the time of day using a 24 hour clock (0 to 23)
  • Words like “time day” “time evening” “time dawn” “time dusk” “time noon” and “time midnight” also work.
Build 14b July 16, 2014
  • Survivor spawning has changed. Survivors are now more inclined to spawn in towns, prisons, and farmland, instead of forests or fields.
  • Fixed an issue where “Unknown” boxes were spawning in various wilderness locations.
  • Potential fix for some instances where survivors would encounter low framerate with many players in a multiplayer game.
Build 14a July 16, 2014

World Refresh The World Refresh has been completely changed in the following ways:

  • The loading bar is gone. The game no longer pauses during world refresh.
  • Fog rolls in during this change, and rolls out over about 15 to 30 seconds.
  • The survivor can continue walking, fighting, and so on during the world refresh.
  • A small spinner in the bottom right indicates the refresh is taking place.
  • Some stuttering may occur during the change, but we will be improving the cleanliness of this over time.
  • The look and feel of the new world refresh is not final, but we feel this is the correct direction.
  • You can learn more about the World Refresh in our latest Design of the Dead video!

More Fixes

  • In anticipation for the upcoming ‘main menu overhaul’ in Build 15, the loading screen has undergone a visual change for a cleaner, sleeker look.
  • Lowered the default graphics settings so lower end machines are not struggling right away when starting the game. Users with higher end PCs may want to adjust their settings again after this patch.
  • Added Antisotropic Filtering to the Graphics Options menu. On by default. This makes far surfaces much sharper and less blurry.
  • Fixed an issue where lumber supplies were not properly spawning in backyards and at construction sites.
  • Large tweaks to the way loot spawns in Cabins and Farmhouses. (Cabin loot in particular has been nerfed and re-organized.)
  • Added more general furniture to Cabins and Farmhouses.
  • Cabins now level a much smaller area around themselves when generated.
  • Rockland and grassland are now more common than they were previously.
  • Survivors can no longer fire a gun or aim down ironsights when climbing a ladder. (This functionality may return with 1-handed weapons in the future, but it was currently just a bug and not our planned implementation.)
  • Lots of fixes to multiplayer character movement. Survivor’s should appear to move around much smoother to one another.
  • Fixed an issue where clients in multiplayer games could not see trees or foliage.
  • Fixed an issue where the backpack would stay open when disconnecting from a game.
  • Fixed an issue where the weapon FOV was too high. Now default 60.
  • Fixed an issue where the survivor’s FOV would change when equipping a weapon for the first time.
  • Fixed an issue where weapon FOV would change when regular FOV was changed.
  • Fixed a bug where a survivor’s gun would fire or they would swing their weapon after clicking back in to the window when ALT+Tabbing.
  • Fixed a bug where buildings would sometimes disappear when reloading a world or returning to an area.
  • Fixed a rare bug where survivors might get stuck in the “You Are Dead” white screen.
  • Fixed a very large issue where suburban roads would sometimes spawn in sideways. Math typos are fun!
  • Fixed two menu typos on the Delete World screen. Programmers can’t grammars.
  • Fixed some positioning on the sign outside of the prison, so it is no longer sitting directly in front of the entrance.
  • Fixed an issue where controls would be locked for a short time after respawning from death.
  • Fixed a case where giant square holes would sometimes appear in terrain.
  • Fixed an issue where grass would float in the air after starting a new world after leaving another.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies were not spawning on anything but ‘clear grass,’ which was drastically reducing their population.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies were getting ‘confused’ on targets in multiplayer and not pursuing a target.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies were not animating while hitting a window or door.
  • Fixed an issue where far terrain would float after rejoining a world or starting a new world.
  • Fixed an issue where some animations were not showing in multiplayer.
  • Fixed an issue where some sound were not properly connected to the SFX slider in the Audio Settings menu.
  • Fixed an issue where certain [color] tags were not being ignored in names, specifically a user with [tags] joined a world.
  • Fixed an issue where deer were experiencing some strange stuttering in multiplayer.
  • Fixed an issue where survivor’s gear (in third person) would carry over from the previous world/inventory save.
  • Fixed one instance where roads would go up very steep cliffs.
  • Fixed an issue where some of the 2×4 objects would not properly ‘post’ into the ground with a sledgehammer.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies would disappear while climbing over a wall or crawling through a window.
  • Fixed an issue where the main menu music would continue to play in game after loading a second world save.
  • Fixed an issue where trees would float during/after a world refresh.
  • Fixed an issue in multiplayer where the host would be relocated a few hundred meters after a world refresh.
  • Fixed an issue where barricades would move up from their original position when rejoining a world or after a world refresh. [Thanks Akiruu87!]
  • Fixed an issue where fences in yards were sometimes oriented the wrong way, with the “back” beams on the fence facing outwards. Yards are now more secure from hooligans trying to climb your fences.
  • Fixed a typo in the description of the black Mastodon Revolver.
  • Fixed many cases where some road intersections would float or cross over themselves.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies would sometimes take double damage in a multiplayer game.
  • Fixed many cases where trees and bushes would appear in roads.
  • Fixed an issue where the game could potentially lock up on disconnect.
  • Fixed an issue where masks and face items from previous inventory would still obscure vision after joining a new world.
  • Fixed an issue where tall pine forests did not have the proper ground textures.
Build 14 June 27, 2014

Performance Changes:

  • Massive improvements to the spiral world generator. Tons more efficient to generate and load large amounts of content on the fly.
  • Tree system was thrown out and replaced with SpeedTree trees. Oh yes.
  • Terrain system was thrown out and completely re-written for vastly improved performance.
  • Sky system we were using was thrown out and completely re-written for vastly improved performance and a much better appearance in general.
  • Entirely new grass system for improved performance.
  • Slightly decreased the time it takes TDL to do the initial load when starting it up.
  • Fixed an issue where the GPU was running full blast in the main menu.
  • The game no longer pauses and stops computing physics when you ALT+TAB or the game window loses focus. Movement is still restricted, however.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing a huge framerate drop when interacting with doors.
  • Fixed a bug where barricades would not stay where you left them when exiting the area and returning later on.

Visual Changes:

  • Trees are now using SpeedTree-generated trees, which look and act way better than the trees from previous trees.
  • New terrain system allows for much, much further view distance. Max view distance is now sitting around 8 kilometers, instead of 3 or 4.
  • New terrain system has much better “erosion,” slopes, leveling, and less (if any) crazy-looking and unnatural peaks.
  • New sky system is gorgeous. Let it be known.
  • Massively improved lot leveling for neighborhoods, houses, and other buildings. Should be very few (if any) instances of “earthquake” terrain.
  • Grass has a completely new look, and now works properly with dynamic lighting (i.e. campfires.)
  • Roads have been completely reworked and improved in a number of ways.
  • Roads now seamlessly connect between zones.
  • Roads generally lead somewhere now. There are very few ‘dead end’ roads now.
  • Suburban and Town roads now have sidewalks and curbs.
  • Roads no longer float above the terrain or result in strange collision. Objects no longer fall through the road.
  • Fixed a bug where roads weren’t properly aligned with the area they were leveling.
  • Farm and forest roads now have properly fading dirt edges.

Gameplay Changes:

  • Survivors now initially spawn with a hammer and hatchet.
  • Zombies now emit (basic) blood particles when hit.
  • Large fix for fall damage not giving the proper amount of damage. You will now take a bit more damage when falling off of things. Remember to roll (Left CTRL) to mitigate damage!
  • Salt Shakers are locked to “Common” quality now.
  • Matchboxes are locked to “Common” quality now.
  • Duct Tape is locked to “Common” quality.
  • Removed annoying crunching sound when walking into a door.
  • New item: Oak Log.
  • Fixed a small bug from 13a where the day-night cycle wasn’t quite the same length as previous builds.
  • Wooden chairs can now be nailed.
  • Fixed a huge bug where the game would get stuck in a “refresh world” loop when traveling long distance on a bicycle.

World Changes:

  • Large changes to the world generation that make suburban neighborhoods and towns a bit more common and easier to find.
  • There is a new forest zone; Oak Forest, consisting mainly of large oak trees.
  • There is a new forest zone; Tall Pine Forest, consisting mainly of tall pine trees.
  • The old office building is gone! There is a new and more dynamic office building present in the world. This building is created with performance and modular floor count in mind. It will play a major role in upcoming builds. You can primarily find this building in Town zones.
  • The Barn has been remade for better performance, better visual quality (both near and far) and it also now has a slightly more intricate layout.
  • The Silo has been remade for better performance and better visual quality (both near and far.)
  • Time of day no longer resets when you quit. Time of day now saves with the world, so you will come back into an existing world at the same time you left (unless it’s running on a multiplayer server, in which case time continues to pass even when you’re gone.)
  • Garbage wheely bins now spawn in all varieties.
  • Garbage wheely bins now properly face the street when out by the curb.
  • Garbage wheely bins now spawn behind more buildings, such as the Swerts.
  • Mailboxes and other front yard objects now always tend to sit a proper distance away from the road instead of in the road.
  • Grass no longer appears under barns or silos.
  • Farm crops should no longer intersect barns or silos.
  • Dual Silos are now slightly further apart to avoid accidental intersection.
  • Prisons are slightly more frequent now.
  • Grass no longer appears under Leland’s Grocery Store.
  • Fixed a ton of instances of floating objects, such as trees and rocks.
  • Fixed an issue where buildings would spawn with duplicate objects, creating two (or more) of everything.
  • Fixed an issue (in almost all cases) where trees near a zone boundary would spawn on top of roads and inside buildings.

Menu Changes:

  • The Delete World menu now has a “Delete All Worlds” button.
  • Tons of new graphics options have been added to the Graphics Settings menu. (V-Sync, Framerate Lock, turning off shadows, and a whole bunch more!) You can find your settings.ini file in \AppData\LocalLow\Sandswept Studios\The Dead Linger\userPrefs.
  • Graphics options screen now uses Arial font.
  • New option for toggling Mouse Acceleration.
  • Grayed out the Mods and Extras button, since it’s not useable anyway.
  • Added SpeedTree logo to the bottom right corner of the menu.

KNOWN ISSUES: [These are not necessarily issues we plan to fix next, but they are issues that we don't need reported in duplicate, so if you encounter something on this list, just know that we know about it!]

  • Corpse waypoint doesn’t always disappear when you retrieve your items after death.
  • Arrows can not be retrieved yet, and will not stick into targets — yet.
  • Many animations are currently missing from third person view.
  • The third person camera currently does not collide with walls.
  • Some items will look a bit strange indoors as we phase in our new lighting system. These issues should be fixed over time.
  • Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
  • Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck’ from time to time.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
  • Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 13a March 26, 2014
  • New sky system added, simple but better! Some features may be missing from old sky, but performance has improved.
  • The moon is gone for a short while with the new sky.
  • Blue sky/black screen issue likely fixed with the addition of the new sky system.
  • Graphics settings are persistent between sessions now.
  • Fixed a ton of instances where duplicate objects may spawn in the world.
  • Fixed a duplication issue where rocks were spawning twice in rocky lands.
  • Small performance increase due to less (or no) duplicate objects spawning.
  • Cylinder-shaped hay bales should no longer be flying in the air, which was caused by the duplication glitch.
  • Hunting bow position in first person hands is fixed.
  • Crossbow string showing up when zoomed in on the crossbow has been fixed.
  • J-mac position in first person hands is fixed.
  • Survivors can now see their weapons properly in multiplayer.
  • Punch and kick ranges have been fixed.
  • “Gameplay” settings menu has been added!
  • Disable Pickup Messages – This turns off the messages that display every time you pick up an object.
  • Disable Status Messages – This turns off the messages that display when you get hungry, or your weapon decreases in durability.
  • Console commands “options” and “settings” now bring up the settings menu.
  • The timerate console command is now in minutes, with 1 minute being the lowest value. For example: “timerate 1 1″ is 1 minute day, 1 minute night.
  • Resolution dropdown menu now shows the current resolution by default.
  • Door creak sound effect is now linked to the ‘Sound Effects’ slider.
  • Backpack opening sound effect is now linked to ‘Sound Effects’ slider.
  • Massive holes in the terrain should no longer be present.
  • Fixed issue where you sometimes may end up tilted when sitting on a bicycle.
  • Fixed issue where houses were disappearing in certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a substantial shader error causing very low framerates in some circumstances.
  • Fixed an issue where the ‘Refresh World’ screen might be upside down.
  • Fixed a few visual issues with the status bar icons in the inventory as well as backpack visual elements.
  • Fall damage values have been doubled. You now take twice as much damage from fall.
  • If a survivor is on a water tower ladder and quits the game, joining a new world does not carry over their previous climbing state.
  • Horde aggro has been reduced from 85% to 70%, so they are more alert!
Build 13 March 19, 2014

Dedicated Servers:

  • Dedicated Servers are here! If you aren’t interested in running a dedicated server, then you can probably skip this section of the patch notes and go check out all the new stuff! We’re going to be talking about some “boring technical stuff” in this section.
  • The first version of dedicated servers is a bit primitive, but it’s enough to allow users to run a Windows-based TDL game server. Here are some quick steps on running a server:
  1. Before you run your server, you’ll want to customize it. Navigate to your TDL game folder (example: C:/Program Files(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/The Dead Linger/)
  2. Open up “server.cfg” and fill out the information. We’ll add a lot more to this later. “scenarioName” is the name of the server and world. “seed” (optional) is the seed you want to use to generate the world. “password” (optional) is the password you want on the server. Once you’re happy with your server configuration, save server.cfg and close it.
  3. Now to run your server, simply run “TDL-LaunchDedicatedServer.bat” and away you go!
  • You can switch the window between full-screen and windowed mode by pressing ALT+ENTER (for the time being.)
  • You do NOT require Steam to be running in order to run this server.
  • Though not fully tested, due to the way Unity works, you are likely unable to run TDL while running a dedicated server from the same PC. You will need a second Windows PC to join your server as a survivor. (If anyone finds a temporary workaround for this, we’d be happy to hear about it, though we wouldn’t recommend running a server and a client on the same PC as the game is very CPU-intensive at this stage.)
  • Have no fear! We have a TON of plans and improvements coming for dedicated servers, from easier customization, cleaner layout, multi-platform support, and headless versions that can run on a virtual private server.
  • If you have ANY requests, suggestions, tips, or require assistance on running a server, please don’t hesitate to post in our Servers & Administration forum.

The Bigfoot:

  • The first of many vehicles has been added to The Dead Linger! There is now a ride-able mountain bike called “The Bigfoot.”
  • Bikes can be ridden by interacting with them while they are on the ground.
  • This bicycle seats 1 person.
  • W is forward, S is braking/slow and reverse. A and D turn Left and Right, respectively.
  • Shift will cause the bicycle to “sprint” and it does use stamina.
  • Certain bicycles go faster or slower on terrain vs. road/solid surfaces. The Bigfoot is slightly faster on roads.
  • Fall damage is greatly reduced when on a bicycle.
  • You can still be killed while on the bicycle, so don’t assume you’re safe at any given time.
  • You can lock your speed on a vehicle by using “auto-run” (Numlock key)
  • We have more plans for bicycles in the future, specifically related to jumping and aerial trickery.
  • Bikes can be most commonly found in garages.

NPC Changes:

  • Bucks have a lower tendency to float in the air when they spawn.

Zombie Changes:

  • Large zombie hordes now roam the world.
  • Zombies have a new and much more satisfying knockback animation, depending on which side you hit them from.
  • Zombies can now be knocked back even if they are already being knocked back.
  • Zombies are now slightly less omnipotent and won’t always be alerted to the survivor with their back turned. The survivor can now sneak around zombies better while crouched, as well as sneak up right behind them.
  • Zombies now have a small chance to drop random loot when killed.
  • Zombies now climb over low fences much more reliably, and will generally no longer get stuck on them.
  • Santa Zombie “Nick” has been removed.
  • Fat Zombie “Bob” has been added. This rotund zombie variant is particularly damaging to doors and barricades.
  • Zombies now have a “corpse eating” animation.
  • Zombies have reduced hearing and sight while eating.
  • Zombies now have a few more animation variants for walking and standing around.
  • Zombies are better at hitting doors.
  • Zombies now always face the door when hitting it.
  • Zombies tend to no longer intersect doors while hitting it.
  • The sound when hitting a door is now synced better with the zombies’ animations.
  • Zombie population has been lowered in non-populated areas, such as forests, grassland, and rockland.
  • Zombie wandering no longer allows them to turn in the opposite direction, so zombies will tend to wander the direction they’re already facing.
  • Put in some potential fixes for an issue where zombies would sometimes try to vault or climb over the tops of doorways.
  • Strays have a slightly higher tendency to wander about now.
  • Strays can now be knocked back and interrupted by melee attacks.
  • Fixed a bug where Strays would sometimes pop into the air or float.
  • Small decrease to Stray run speed.
  • Lowered walk/wander speed on the Stray.
  • Zombies can no longer emit noise after they’ve been killed, and if they are moaning as they are killed, the moaning will immediately cease.
  • Removed a very rare circumstance where a “Fast” zombie could be encountered.
  • Improved a few circumstances where zombies might phase through walls or otherwise ignore collision.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies might vanish after a World Refresh.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would sometimes turn around when a survivor ran towards them due to a movement-prediction bug.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would frequently ‘float’ inside houses and on top of certain surfaces.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would animate their death twice in a row.

Difficulty/Death Penalty Changes:

  • HUGE: The difficulty has been increased. Items no longer respawn with survivors.
  • Survivors must retrieve their items from their corpse after death.
  • Corpse location is marked by a skull waypoint (for the time being.)
  • We have more difficulty levels planned in the future, and the ability to allow survivors pick their desired difficulty, but for now, this is the default intended difficulty.

Survivor Gameplay Changes:

  • Survivors can no longer move when kicking.
  • Kicks are now quicker than they were before. (Press F to kick!)
  • Kicks are now slightly further range than an unarmed punch.
  • Assassination: If a survivor melee attacks an unaware zombie from behind, it will deal twice as much damage.
  • Slightly lowered the height of survivor when crouching so they can fit better under certain objects and hide more easily. (90cm tall when crouching, down from 100cm)
  • Crouch-rolling out a fall is now slightly easier.
  • Fixed a bug where melee was sometimes dealing additional damage per hit.
  • The top right compass now has properly centered text lines for a cleaner look.
  • New art style for hand icons to indicate interacting with objects.
  • New art style of posture icon in the bottom left to indicate standing and crouching.
  • More fixes to the way items are retrieved from corpses.
  • Footsteps now change based on certain materials.
  • The “You are about to die of starvation.” text is now red.

Gun Changes:

  • New Gun: Autumn Rifle. A scoped, single-shot bolt-action hunting rifle that fires .30-06 rounds.
  • New Ammunition Type: .30-06 (white container)
  • HUGE: While this change affects all mouse-look, it affects aiming guns the most. Aiming is now substantially smoother and non-linear, allowing you to line up shots on distance targets to pixel-perfect accuracy.
  • HUGE: Recoil has been re-worked.
  • Guns no longer auto-reset to the original position after recoil and must be manually re-adjusted after firing a shot.
  • Recoil has been toned down to more realistic amounts.
  • Bullets can now penetrate multiple targets depending on the caliber, allowing survivors to kill multiple zombies with a single shot.
  • The words “handgun,” “rifle,” and “shotgun” have been removed from many of the firearm weapon names to avoid redundancy and make more room on tooltips. (Example: “Uinta Rifle” is now just called “Uinta”)
  • Rifle scopes now appear in front of face/helmet overlays, instead of cancelling them out.
  • Reloading is now properly interrupted if the survivor zooms in or aims down sights.
  • Small improvements to animation when coming out of a scope.
  • Bolt-action rifles can no longer be fired during the bolt-action… uh, action.
  • The “Out of Ammo” message when attempting to reload without the proper ammunition can no longer show up more than once every 3 seconds.
  • Sound effect ‘clicks’ on magazine refills now properly match when a round is loaded.

General Item Changes:

  • New Clothing: (Riot Set) Riot Helmet, Riot Vest, Riot Shirt, Riot Pants, Riot Boots
  • New Weapons: A Riot Shield and Ballistic Shield have been added and can be found in the world. They are two-handed weapons and generally intended for defensive use, though you can still bash targets with them for a small amount of damage and a high amount of knockback. The Riot Shield blocks melee attacks and reduces projectile damage, whereas the Ballistic Shield will entirely block all forms of damage but is much heavier.
  • A message now displays in the chat area when you pick up an item.
  • Item quality has been added to loot. Most loot will come in various tiers of quality and higher quality will increase the base stats of the item. There are currently 7 tiers, but we’ll leave it up to you to discover them.
  • Lots of attributes now work properly on equipped items, including (but not limited to) Defense, Movement Speed, Infection Risk Reduction, Attack Speed, Reload Speed, and so on.
  • Durability has been added to items. Items will now display a “Condition” and through use, they will slowly deteriorate. Once an item reaches 0 durability, it will be destroyed. We have a repair system coming up in a future build.
  • Item quality affects how much maximum durability an item has. Lower quality items will have less maximum durability, whereas higher quality items will have higher maximum durability.
  • As a weapon reaches lower durability states, a message will appear in the chat box.
  • Many of the helmet and face overlays now have more transparency and glass is generally not as intense over the screen.
  • The “Classic Welding Mask” has been renamed to “Professional Welding Mask.”
  • Various items now have slower attack speed, such as the Sledgehammer, Fireaxe, and Pickaxe.
  • The Spade shovel now has slightly increased range.
  • The Spade shovel is now permanently a “Fine” quality item.
  • The Pet Rock is now permanently a “Rare” quality item.
  • The Freeman is now permanently a “Rare” quality item.
  • A few food items are now permanently “Rare” quality items.
  • Fixed a few helmet and face item positions that were sitting strangely on the survivor’s head.
  • Fixed an error with the firefighter hat showing up in first person when it shouldn’t.
  • Fixed an error in item quotes where symbols such as “@N” might show up in place of punctuation.
  • Contaminated items now gradually increase a survivor’s infection risk when equipped.

Dragging has returned!:

  • Survivors can now drag large objects by interacting with them.
  • Dragging has been re-worked since it’s original implementation in Build 009.
  • The survivor can not move very fast when dragging.
  • While dragging, the survivor’s hands are occupied and they can not do anything else except look around.

World Changes/Additions:

  • Zones now have randomly generated names based on the type of zone. This name displays on the top right compass. (Keep in mind that the information on the compass is temporary and will be replaced by actual compass items and maps in the future.)
  • Rocklands now have varying sizes of boulders and rocks, and much larger rocks than they had previously.
  • Forests now have more rocks in them as well.
  • Large additions to ambient sounds in various zones.
  • Large additions to music. More music tracks play in game, and zone-specific music will occasionally play.

Third Person Mode:

  • Camera bob has been removed while in third person mode.
  • Some crouching animations have been added to third person/multiplayer.
  • Some upper body third person/multiplayer animations have been added, such as swinging melee weapons.

Backpack Changes/Fixes:

  • The inventory has a brand new, darker color scheme and generally cleaner look.
  • Items now have a background in the inventory, to show how much grid space they take up.
  • The Defense and Speed status bars now properly reflect how much defense and speed the survivor has based on equipped items.
  • A message now displays in the chat box when you try to pick up an item but have a full inventory.
  • Items now highlight when you mouse over them in the inventory.
  • The inventory auto-sort button now has text on it to indicate what it is.
  • Text on the weapon set button has been changed to make a little more sense.
  • There is now a helpful text string on all tooltips to indicate right-clicking will open the radial menu.
  • Backpack tooltip properly shows up when hovering over an equipped backpack.
  • Radial menu “Equip” option will now always equip items to the correct equipment slot.
  • Fixed a bug where you could overlap items.
  • Fixed a bunch of cases where inventory items might ‘squish’ or otherwise lose their correct grid-shape when picked up.
  • Fixed a bug where the radial menu wouldn’t go away after pressing “Drop.”

Barricading Changes:

  • Small fix to barricaded objects to ensure they stay in place when you leave and return to an area.
  • Small fix to barricading to ensure you can properly nail objects to posts embedded in the ground.

General Changes/Fixes:

  • There is now a setting for Fullscreen and Windowed mode in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting on the fly during gameplay.
  • There is now a setting for screen resolution in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting on the fly during gameplay.
  • There is now a setting for Field of View (FOV) in the in-game Graphics Settings menu, so you can now change this setting without needing to use a console command. This setting allows between 50 and 120 FOV.
  • Fix for the “Pure Virtual Function Call” crash.
  • Fixed an issue where worlds would become corrupted during world-save and would not load. (Should no longer get stuck on the loading screen. Be sure to create a fresh new world for Build 13!)
  • Fixed a large framerate issue that occurred after a World Refresh.
  • Fixed a bug where the survivor would sometimes teleport around after a World Refresh.
  • Removed various errors that were cluttering up the console window.
  • There is now an indicator if you are losing connection to a server.
  • There is now a password input box when using Direct Connect to join a server.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors would sometimes get stuck in a white screen when joining a server.
  • Fixed a few instances where duplicate objects would spawn, such as doors, buildings, and loot.
  • Fixed a bug where SFX wouldn’t always play when they should. We’re not quite done fixing this, but sounds should be more reliable in general.
  • Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor would flicker on and off during gameplay while in windowed mode.
  • Fixed a case where survivors might show up in duplicate on a server if they were disconnected or kicked.
  • Removed a bunch of “Unity sample assets” from the project files.

KNOWN ISSUES: [These are not necessarily issues we plan to fix next, but they are issues that we don't need reported in duplicate, so if you encounter something on this list, just know that we know about it!]

  • Corpse waypoint doesn’t always disappear when you retrieve your items after death.
  • Arrows can not be retrieved yet, and will not stick into targets — yet.
  • Many animations are currently missing from third person view.
  • The third person camera currently does not collide with walls.
  • Some items will look a bit strange indoors as we phase in our new lighting system. These issues should be fixed over time.
  • Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
  • Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck’ from time to time.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and continue on to a new area where buildings do what they’re told.
  • Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 12 January 14, 2014

NPC Changes:

  • There is now a new zombie-type enemy — The Stray. It’s viscious; fairly fast and bites hard. As the rule with all zombies, aim for the head to make them dead.
  • Complete re-design to hit detection and how we check for headshots, melee hits, and so on. These things should be more intuitive and consistent.
  • The Buck is now 40% larger in size.
  • Fixed a bug where the Buck could sometimes not be killed by arrows.

Zombie Changes:

  • Zombie movement code has been re-written. Zombies were one of the main reasons framerate and performance were low, and now should be much better. There may be some side effects (read: bugs) as we tidy up this rewrite, but your framerate should be substantially better for it.
  • We took some time to clean up the zombie AI code and removed some bugs from it, so you should see slightly more agressive zombies as well.
  • Zombies now hit a bit quicker and will deal damage much sooner when swinging, grabbing, and biting at a survivor.
  • Zombies are now quicker to turn towards survivors when they’re trying to attack them.
  • Fixed an issue where some distant zombies would appear to float above the ground. Zombies no longer have magical levitation powers.
  • Fixed an issue where zombies were not properly repopulating an area over time.
  • Fixed a bug where slow zombies could not be killed by arrows.
  • There is a new bite indicator when bitten by a Stray.
  • Zombies no longer emit long moans after being killed.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies were super sensitive to sprinting sounds and some other noises emitted by the survivor.

Item and Weapon Changes:

  • HUGE: Melee has been drastically enhanced. You can now hit multiple targets with a single swing, and hitting zombies in the head/neck area is much more reliable than ever before. We have even greater plans with this system as we progress, and this is the first step towards visceral, bloody close-quarters combat.
  • There are 2 new firearms to be found in the world — The Mastodon Revolver and the C-Def Sandstone Rifle.
  • There is a new ammo type for the revolver — .357 ammo.
  • Head and Face items you are wearing now show up on your survivor in multiplayer.
  • Head and Face items that obscure your vision will show up in first person. For example, when wearing a motorcycle helmet, you will see the rim and glass of the helmet.
  • The Backpack you are wearing (if any) now shows up on your survivor in multiplayer.
  • Your currently equipped weapon now shows up in your survivor’s hands in multiplayer.
  • Removed the messed up ironsights mode from recurve bow. (For now.) Still accurate when fired from the hip.
  • Motorcycle Helmet defense changed to 3, down from 4.
  • Motorcycle Helmet now reduces movement speed by 2 when worn.
  • The collision boxes of some loot items have been improved, so they sit on the ground better and don’t fall through the ground or float above it.
  • Fixed a bug where items dropped from the inventory would return to their original spawn point instead of dropping in front of the survivor.
  • Arrows now visually stick into their targets. (They still can not be picked up yet, but we will be adding that feature in the future.)
  • Matchboxes can be seen from a bit further away.
  • Crossbow properly plays a fire sound when firing it while zoomed in.
  • Crossbow and Bow reloading is no longer interrupted by clicking.
  • Crossbow and Bow now fire faster and further than they did previously.
  • Small tweaks to the bow and crossbow spawn locations/spawn rates to make them slightly less common.
  • Scopes have had a visual change, and you now have peripheral vision while using scopes. We have some more plans for scope effects coming up in the near future.

New Recipes / Recipe Changes:

  • Putting together 4 2x4s in the crafting area now make a small size plywood sheet.
  • Putting together 8 2x4s in the crafting area now make a medium size plywood sheet.

World Changes/Additions:

  • HUGE additions to the LeLand’s grocery store, from loading docks, back hallways, office rooms, employee rooms, restrooms, and more!
  • Office Buildings are temporarily much more rare while we work out some performance issues with it.
  • Lit campfires now emit sound effects.
  • Breaking a window with unarmed attacks (punching, kicking) will now deal some minor damage to the survivor.
  • Added a new damage icon to indicate damage from breaking glass.
  • Roads fit the terrain a bit better. We have very large plans for roads, but this should be a good temporary fix for items falling into roads and being hard to see. (Some very small still do, but most items now sit on the roads instead of falling through.)
  • Footsteps now change when you are in a building as opposed to outdoors.
  • Fixed an issue where round haybales would look very low detail at a very short distance.

Third Person Mode:

  • For debug reasons, we’ve added a very basic third person view, toggled by the F5 key. You can re-bind this in the Key Bindings menu.
  • This feature is NOT complete and is NOT currently intended for gameplay use. You can use it if you’d like, but it will make gameplay very difficult until we improve it further. Things like the crosshair currently do not line up on targets or items properly. They will in the future as we tweak and progress with this feature over time.
  • There will be a server-side option to disable this feature in the future, especially when we get to PvP modes and other situations where some survivors would feel it creates an unfair advantage.

Backpack Changes/Fixes:

  • There is now an auto-sort button in the backpack. You can press this button to re-organize your gear. We’ll improve the sorting algorithm as time goes on.
  • Fixed a bug where available backpack inventory space didn’t change immediately when removing a backpack.
  • Fixed a bug where items could not be properly placed on the bottom rows of the backpack.

General Changes/Fixes:

  • You can now set a server password when hosting a server.
  • Hunger decays slightly slower, at a rate of 1.5x the rate when sprinting, down from 3x the rate.
  • Doors have had a big overhaul. They’re now much smoother, easier, and more intuitive to open. We will be improving doors even further in the future, as well as adding some additional gameplay options for interacting with them.
  • The diameter of the flashlight has been decreased by about 20%.
  • The camera near-clipping distance has been fixed, from 0.1 meters to 0.05 meters. This means your camera will no longer clip through walls when you walk up close to them.
  • You can now start to sprint from the crouched position.
  • The HUD and scope views no longer fade out for a moment after crouching/uncrouching.
  • Free Look (Left ALT key) can now look down about 20% further than before.
  • The survivor is now the proper height (taller.) You will no longer have zombies towering over you, and are more or less eye level with your foes.
  • Added a bunch of new gameplay tips to the loading screen.
  • Fixed a small bug where the menu audio sliders sometimes didn’t work properly.
  • Fixed a bug where the first person arms would sometimes freeze in the middle of a swing.
  • Fixed an issue where ambient environment sounds (i.e. wind) were not tied to a volume slider. They are now tied to the Ambient Volume slider in the Audio Settings menu.
  • Fixed a bug with sound. Zombies now properly swarm towards gunshots and other loud noises. Be careful out there!

Roadmap Changes:

  • List of roadmap changes coming soon!

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Arrows can not be retrieved yet, and will not stick into targets — yet.
  • Some gear may not always sit in the correct position, or may clip the survivor’s body at times.
  • Many animations are currently missing from third person view.
  • The third person camera currently does not collide with walls.
  • Some textures are missing from the helmets and face items that appear in first person mode.
  • Some items will look a bit strange indoors as we phase in our new lighting system. These issues should be fixed over time.
  • Survivors can no longer hurt one another. (This feature will return in the future once we plan it out a bit better. We are currently focused on the Coop Survival game mode.)
  • Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
  • Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck’ from time to time.
  • Creating and joining worlds without closing TDL.exe can cause things to get a little crazy. We currently recommend rebooting the game between sessions.
  • Dragging doesn’t work just yet. We will add this feature soon.
  • Host survivors may experience some mild framerate stuttering when new survivors are joining their game. We will be improving this as we progress.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Zombies are sometimes still appear in different positions for different survivors in multiplayer games. We will be improving this.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • You can sometimes have a phantom weapon or duplicate weapon in your hands when joining or rejoining a world.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and continue on to a new area where buildings do what they’re told.
  • The Anniversary achievement is basically the running joke at this point, and for that we apologize. We swear you’ll get it! Hang in there while we find some time to figure out a fix once and for all. (Once we get done with a few more important things.)
  • Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Hotfix 11c December 25, 2013
  • Mall Santas did not survive the apocalypse. They are now wandering the world, yearning for a taste of flesh. Ho ho ho!
  • Clients in multiplayer can now properly damage zombies.
  • Clients picking up items in multiplayer no longer duplicate them.

MULTIPLE LELAND'S SUPERMARKET CHANGES:

  • Updated various materials and added missing normal maps
  • Switched all of LeLand's props over to the new shader system.
  • Added cooling units with useable doors.
  • Added more loot spawns and 2 hidden weapon spawns.
  • Grouped static props into 'groups' for better batching. (Better performance)

MULTIPLE FARMHOUSE FIXES:

  • Added collision to the central overhang at the front of the house
  • Fixed a bug where broken windows might not appear to be textured

MULTIPLE SUBURBAN HOUSE FIXES:

  • Added new doors and bathroom props to the 1-story house
  • Added light probes to the 1-story house for the new lighting system
  • Fixed the direction some doors open in both houses
  • Added blinds to the light probe system for improved window lighting
  • Fixed a bug where Free Look (ALT key) can go upside-down and backwards with no upper limit.
  • Tweaked Free Look degrees slightly. Can now look 140, up from 130 degrees, allowing survivors to see behind them just a bit better.
Hotfix 11b December 24, 2013
  • Fixed an issue where rocks, trees, and other things would float above the ground.
  • Reduced the amount you should encounter a "Pure Virtual Function" crash.
  • Better memory cleanup / world cleanup as you travel. This should give slightly better framerate and performance, as well as saving more RAM.
  • Fixed a tiny problem with bushes.
Hotfix 11a December 23, 2013
  • Fixed some (but not all) of the lighting issues for zombies and certain objects glowing when inside buildings.
Build 11 December 23, 2013

Notes:

  • You will need to create a fresh, new world when you play this update.
  • If you are experiencing framerate issues, it may help to turn your Tree Billboard Distance down in the Advanced Graphics Settings menu.

Achievements:

  • For real this time; The Anniversary achievement is fixed. You should get it simply by playing Build 11, and we’ve extended the deadline out until further notice. We’ll probably close it off sometime in early 2014 to ensure everyone has a fair chance at obtaining it. To get it, you simply have to play the game.

Hunting Related Additions:

  • A new NPC roams the forests of the world. The Buck — a male deer with glorious antlers — has been added. You can hunt and skin this animal for food. Happy hunting!
  • Two new knives have been added; a Skinning Knife and a Combat Knife.
  • Knives can be equipped and used on a Buck corpse to skin it and obtain pieces of Raw Venison.
  • When right-clicking on items in the backpack, you will now see a menu with buttons such as Drop, Eat, Equip, Cook, and so on. These buttons are context-sensitive and will appear on items they pertain to.
  • By standing near a lit campfire, you can right-click on raw meat and cook it. Cooked meat will reduce your hunger by a larger amount than raw meat.

Item and Weapon Changes:

  • A multitude of weapons and items have been added.
  • There are now two stealthy weapons, a Recurve Bow and a scoped Hunting Crossbow. You will need to find Arrow quivers to use as ammunition for these weapons.
  • Bows are a new game mechanic! To fire a loaded bow, you will need to hold down to charge it, and then release to fire the arrow. The longer you charge (to a limit) the further the arrow will fly.
  • The following melee weapons can now be found in the world: Fire Poker, Police Baton, Crowbar, Pickaxe, and PVC Pipe.
  • There is now a new special melee weapon; The Spade. (Congratulations to Kickstarter backer Shawn “Spade” Huebner!)
  • Congratulations to Kickstarter Backer “Charles Kutz” who gets their name on the Crossbow.
  • Congratulations to Kickstarter Backer “Kim-Rogers” who gets their name on the Recurve Bow.
  • Removed and modified some descriptions on item tooltips.

Woodcutting Changes:

  • Trees now drop Wooden Logs. These logs can be used to craft 2x4s and other objects, such as campfires. (See “Crafting Additions”)
  • Chopping trees now properly emits noise that will attract zombies.
  • Hatchets now cut trees at the default rate whereas the Fireaxe will cut trees down slightly quicker.
  • The chops required to cut down a given type of tree has been tweaked slightly across the board.
  • Other weapons and items can no longer cut down trees. You now must have an axe equipped to cut down a tree.
  • Fixed a bug where trees were sometimes refusing to drop any wood after being cut down.

Crafting Additions:

  • There is now a large “Crafting Mode” button in the top right of the inventory. Pressing this will open the Crafting Screen.
  • New Recipe: Campfire. Use 3 logs to create a campfire. Campfires will be placed on the ground infront of you when you craft them. You will require at least 1 Match in your inventory in order to light a campfire.
  • New Recipe: Venison Jerky. As with most recipes we’ll add, we will leave it up to the survivors to figure out how to create them.
  • New Recipe: 2×4. You can turn wooden logs into 2×4 weapons, or to use in barricading.
  • New Recipe: Large Campfire. You can use more logs to create a larger fire. Larger fires will give additional benefits in a future update.

Zombie Changes:

  • Fixed a bug where zombies were not properly repopulating a zone after awhile.
  • Zombies will be attracted to campfires that they can see. Be careful!
  • Fixed an issue where slow zombies might not animate some animations properly.
  • Fixed an issue where strange pink/purple objects would show up on dead zombies.
  • A small addition has been made to zombie spawning when the survivor hasn’t encountered the undead for awhile.

World Changes/Additions:

  • A new Farmhouse building can be found on farms in place of the old suburban house.
  • You can now find two types of Under-Construction suburban homes in suburban neighborhoods. These are a good place to find wood and building supplies.
  • There is a new, large building — a LeLand’s Supermarket. (Congratulations to Kickstarter backer Jonathan Leland!)
  • There are now fences in the yards of houses, and in a few other parts of the world. We will be adding gates and more in the near future.
  • There are now large bushes and additional foliage to be found all over the world.
  • Terrain now has new grass textures.
  • Better world-instance caching (fancy dancy programmer nonsense)
  • Fixed a bug where grass sometimes wouldn’t show up when it should.

General Changes/Fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where melee weapons weren’t dealing the appropriate damage amount.
  • Hunger now increases at 3x rate while sprinting. If you sprint a lot, you will get hungrier much faster.
  • There are now multiple chatbox messages indicating when your hunger level is getting dangerously low.
  • Slightly changed the field of view of the first person hands so you can see more of your hands and weapons. Now 60, up from 50.
  • Large refactor to the messy backpack code.
  • Fixed a bunch of issues where items would appear squished or stretched in the backpack.
  • Fixed a bug where you couldn’t properly swap out backpacks.
  • When switching to a smaller backpack, items will now automatically resort to fill the space, if it’s available. We will be adding an auto-sort button soon as well.
  • Sprinting sound fixed so it will only play when actually sprinting.
  • “Grab” has been changed to “Interact” in the key bindings menu.
  • Throwing held objects should now work properly in almost all cases.
  • The status bars in the inventory (hunger, stamina, infection risk, etc.) now properly fill their boxes on all resolutions and aspect ratios.
  • Fixed a rare bug where the survivor could get stuck holding a door after grabbing it.
  • You will no longer continue losing stamina if you open your backpack while sprinting.
  • The sprint animation will no longer play if you open your backpack while sprinting.
  • You can once again open doors and pick up objects while sprinting, allowing you to violently barge into homes.
  • Made some changes so that some items — such as baseball bats — are not usually standing on end when found in the world.
  • Added some ‘spam filter’ to message logging, so clients can never get spammed by error messages when something goes wrong.
  • Some big fixes to doors so they open more reliably and more intuitively. Some doors still have a few issues with opening the direction they should. If a door is not opening the way you’d expect, simply move the mouse in other directions.
  • Fixed a bug where strange things could happen to the game when the window was not focused in windowed mode.
  • In the Advanced Graphics Settings, Tree Billboard Distance can now only go to 40 (for the time being,) and will be set to 35 by default.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Arrows can not be retrieved yet, and will not stick into targets — yet.
  • Some items will look a bit strange indoors as we phase in our new lighting system. These issues should be fixed in a following update.
  • Survivors can no longer hurt one another. (This will return in the future.)
  • Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
  • Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck’ from time to time.
  • Creating and joining worlds without closing TDL.exe can cause things to get a little crazy. We currently recommend rebooting the game between sessions.
  • Dragging doesn’t work just yet. We will fix this soon.
  • Host survivors may experience some mild framerate stuttering when new survivors are joining their game. We will be improving this as we progress.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Zombies are sometimes still appear in different positions for different players in multiplayer games. We will be improving this.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • You can sometimes have a phantom weapon or duplicate weapon in your hands when joining or rejoining a world.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and continue on to a new area where buildings do what they’re told.
  • Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 10ii Hofix November 21, 2013
  • Zombies should stop being so inactive in multiplayer games.
  • This change fixes a LOT of object ownership issues. There should generally be a lot less popping, jittering and confusion of ownership on moveable items and NPCs.
  • Fixed an issue where a 'phantom' weapon would appear in the survivor's hand when a client joined their multiplayer game.
Build 010i Hotfix November 19, 2013

Notes:

  • You will need to create a fresh, new world when you play this update.
  • If you are experiencing framerate issues, it may help to turn your Tree Billboard Distance down in the Advanced Graphics Settings menu.

Achievements:

  • Due to some issues with earning the achievement, the TDL Anniversary achievement deadline has been extended to December 13th. Play The Dead Linger before that date in order to get this achievement! If you miss it, you’ll have to wait and get it next year.

General Changes:

  • Guns are working again! We’ve taken this opportunity to get the firearms and reloading system working and more clear to the survivor — better than they ever have in the past!
  • Right Mouse Button (default) will now enter iron sights or scope mode on firearms.
  • Most weapons now have reload animations and accompanying sounds.
  • Most weapons now have sprint animations.
  • Reloading from the backpack will begin to refill magazines.
  • Reloading with a full set of empty magazines will begin to refill magazines.
  • You can not refill magazines while sprinting or doing other actions, so if you want to fill up your guns, you need to allow the refill process to complete.
  • Magazine and round-count inside the magazine are now shown next to the equipped weapon slot of a firearm in the backpack inventory. The current magazine loaded into the weapon is highlighted.
  • “Out of Ammo” message will appear in the chat box if you try to reload and don’t have the appropriate ammunition type in your inventory.
  • Rifles can now sometimes be found alongside a box of their corresponding ammo type.
  • Guns and ammo boxes will retain their ammunition when dropped and picked up again by the same survivor.
  • Guns will retain their ammunition between play sessions and is saved properly alongside the inventory of a survivor.
  • Some items, such as ammunition, can now be stacked. The number of items in a is displayed with a red number on the bottom right of the item in the inventory.
  • Ammunition now has multiple rounds per box when picked up.
  • Zooming in with a scoped rifle now instantly enters the scope.
  • Guns now have recoil when fired. More powerful guns generally have more recoil.
  • You can press (default key) Right ALT to toggle between scope and “ironsights” on a scoped weapon. (Vegas Rifle, Uinta Rifle)
  • When hip-firing, guns will now vary wildly and be fairly inaccurate. It is recommended that you use the ironsights/scopes whenever possible.
  • Lowered minimum threshhold for mouse movement, yielding in smoother and more accurate aiming.
  • Guns such as the Vintovka Mosina and the Vegas Rifle will now require an (automatic) bolt-action between shots.
  • Fixed huge issues with weapons being held in the hands. No more floating weapons, in almost all cases!
  • Fixed a bug where host survivor would not receive a chat message when someone leaves the world.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors could not pick up items after auto-equipping a backpack until they opened their inventory.
  • Hunger now takes 40 minutes to starve, down from 50.
  • Removed crunchy door-hit sound effects in favor of thuddier ones.
  • The death sequence has been improved some. The survivor now falls down when dying.
  • Removed some of the silly placeholder text on the death screen.
  • Put in at least one fix for an issue where zombies would attack the survivor from far out of reach.
  • Potential fix for ‘phantom’ items visually appearing in your hands when you didn’t actually have them equipped, often leftover from a previous world.
  • Zombies will now be interrupted properly when hit and knocked back by melee weapons.
  • Zombies now deal damage later on in their attack animations, instead of immediately.
  • Zombie melee range shortened to 150, down from 170.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies could be killed by bodily injuries. Zombies can now only be killed by headshots. Remember; the only true dead is a headless zed!
  • Survivors can now receive headshot damage as well.
  • Melee attacks from survivors now hit their targets damage later in their swing animations, instead of immediately.
  • Survivors now make a hurt noise when injured by melee attacks, gunshots, and zombie attacks.
  • The ‘swoosh’ sound no longer plays every time you click with a melee weapon, and should now only play when the swing actually takes place.
  • Item names in the inventory tooltips now use a more readable font.
  • Backpacks now display their size below the name of the backpack. (Small, Medium, Large)
  • Backpack removal message is cleaner and can appear only once every 10 seconds.
  • Fixed a sprinting stamina exploit that involved opening chat while sprinting.
  • The world list is now sorted by last played/created.
  • Better interpolation between animations, in general.
  • Some of the larger weapons have received a movement speed penalty when equipped.
  • The Sledgehammer now has -2 Movement Speed.
  • The Vegas Rifle now has -2 Movement Speed.
  • The Fireaxe now has -2 Movement Speed.
  • The Cinderblock now has -3 Movement Speed.
  • The Alpine Shotgun now has -1 Movement Speed.
  • The Farmington Double Shotgun now has -1 Movement Speed.
  • The SKS Rifle now has -1 Movement Speed.
  • The Vintovka Mosina Rifle now has -2 Movement Speed.
  • Weather sound effects are now properly connected to the Ambient Volume slider in the Audio Settings menu.
  • Survivors can no longer be infected from a bite unless they have at least 20% Infection Risk. Keep clean!
  • Trees and grass will now appear closer around a cabin.
  • Haybales now generate more spread out, so there will be less projectile haybales when nearing a farm.
  • Fixed an issue where nailable objects could be picked up by other survivors in multiplayer.
  • The initial Unity configuration window now has new artwork and the new TDL logo.
  • We have converted the entire game over to the latest version of Unity (4.3) which has yielded in more efficent terrain rendering, object culling, and more!
  • Made game less shitty.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Survivors can no longer hurt one another. (This will return in the future.)
  • Ammo in boxes and guns do not keep correct ammo count when trading between survivors in multiplayer.
  • Animations will sometimes loop or get ‘stuck,’ but much more rarely than they did prior to 10i.
  • Swapping weapons directly will cause the weapon to not equip properly. Until we fix this (soon) you just have to re-equip the weapon again to make it equip properly.
  • Creating and joining worlds without closing TDL.exe can cause things to get a little crazy. We currently recommend rebooting the game between sessions.
  • Throwing objects doesn’t always work yet. We will fix this soon.
  • Dragging doesn’t work just yet. We will fix this soon.
  • Host survivors may experience some mild framerate stuttering when new survivors are joining their game. We will be improving this as we progress.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Zombies are sometimes still appear in different positions for different players in multiplayer games. We will be improving this.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • You can sometimes have a phantom weapon or duplicate weapon in your hands when joining or rejoining a world.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area. Your PC is most likely fine. It’s not you, it’s us.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and then start a fresh, new world, or continue onward to a new area.
  • Lots of other very obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 010h Hotfix November 5, 2013

Achievements:

  • New achievement “I Linger Too” is now active! Play The Dead Linger (10h) before the end of November 9th to receive this Halloween Anniversary achievement!

Multiplayer Changes:

  • HUGE: Tons of fixes to the multiplayer experience! We’ll try to list them all here.
  • General improvements to syncronization between clients. Survivors should appear in the proper position and generally move more fluidly to other survivors.
  • Survivors now see other survivors facing the correct direction in multiplayer.
  • Large improvements to the spiral world generator.
  • Fixed a bug where windows and doors would not stay broken after reloading a saved world.
  • Fixed a bug where some physics objects would pop into the air on World Refresh.
  • Large improvements to long distance travel in multiplayer. Survivors can travel further apart with less problems than before.
  • Chat should now properly show up for hosts and client survivors equally.
  • Survivors are now properly removed from the game and scoreboard when exiting a multiplayer game.
  • A message now properly displays when a survivor leaves a world.
  • Fixed an issue where survivors would sometimes stop showing any movement to other survivors.
  • Survivors can now see the flashlights of other survivors.
  • Objects held by other survivors will no longer drop repeatedly while being held.
  • Names from other survivors will now only show up from 50 meters away, and when you’re looking at the survivor instead of simply showing up when they’re on screen.
  • Survivors can now see other survivors opening and closing doors. Doors are synced better in multiplayer.
  • Survivor ping now shows up properly on the scoreboard in all cases.
  • Disconnecting from multiplayer has been cleaned up and should now work much better.
  • Improved host framerate when a client is joining a server. There is still some stuttering during the join process but it is minimal. We will improve this more later.
  • Fixed a bug where client survivors would experience large terrain holes in farmland areas.
  • Fixed a bug where a clients inventory was not being properly saved after rejoining a game, causing them to lose inventory items.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors sometimes would respawn all the way back at the center of the world (regardless of where they were,) instead of closer to their corpse as intended.
  • Large fixes to issues where host/client survivors would turn invisible to one another while still being able to interact with objects.
  • Client survivors can now cut down trees.
  • Fixed a bug where buildings (such as a watertower) might have a different rotation for each survivor.

Zombie Changes:

  • Zombies now animate their walks much better and no longer slide across the ground while animating.
  • Tying in to that; Zombies are now slower. We will be adding two faster foes… Soon.
  • Regular (Medium) Zombies now move at 1.1 speed, down from 2.5.
  • Starving (Slow) Zombies now move at 0.4 speed, down from 1.
  • Zombies are now less-CPU intensive than they were previously.
  • Zombies should now more properly aggro on multiplayer clients.
  • Zombie animations are now better syncronized across multiplayer.
  • Zombies should no longer be able to emit multiple zombies noises at once.
  • Zombies should no longer hit survivors through walls.
  • Zombies should no longer hit survivors from far away.
  • Zombie window climbing is improved. Zombies slide around and float much less when climbing obstacles.
  • Zombies should now decide to climb over an obstacle or through a window much quicker, instead of just walking into it for awhile.
  • Zombies should rarely (if ever) hang in the air or appear motionless after spawning in the world.
  • Zombies now pursue survivors more agressively once they’ve acquired a target.
  • Slow zombies should be properly animating now.
  • Potential fix for zombies repeatedly climbing the same obstacle and never getting over it.
  • Potential fix for cases where invisible zombies may be present and able to collide with and attack the survivor.
  • Potential fix for cases where zombie corpses may still move about and attack after they have been killed by the survivor.
  • Zombies should no longer hover or hang in the air until the survivor gets close.

General Gameplay Changes:

  • Hunger now decreases at a rate of .1% per 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds. In other words, it now takes 50 minutes to starve, down from 83 minutes.
  • Fixed a small delay caused by animations when swinging with some melee weapons.
  • Fixed a bug where a survivor would be able to climb a ladder to infinity.
  • Potential fix for a large framerate drop sometimes encountered when interacting with doors. (Not necessarily fixed in all cases.)
  • Some fixes for large drops in framerate when respawning. Additional fixes will come later.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors would be stuck on a white screen after dying. (Most commonly encountered when dying of starvation.)
  • Crosshairs now go away while interacting with or carrying an object.
  • Potential fix for a bug where the previous weapon from the last played world might appear in the survivor’s hands after entering a new world.

Barricading Changes:

  • General improvements to consistency of barricading. It’s generally easier to barricade now.
  • You can now pry boards off with Mouse 2 (RMB) while holding a hammer. (Fixed a bug where it was Mouse 1 (LMB) instead.)
  • Grab hand no longer shows up when looking at nailed objects.
  • You can no longer melee while holding a nailable object and wielding the hammer.
  • You can no longer melee while holding any object. The object will be thrown instead.
  • Some improvement on held objects accidentally pushing through houses, walls, and other objects.
  • When holding Mouse 2 (RMB) and dragging your mouse to rotate held objects, the cursor will no longer leave the game window. This is a particularly good fix for windowed users and users with multiple monitors.

Inventory Changes:

  • Items and objects should no longer fall through the floor of houes nearly as often.
  • Some backpack items experiencing a squishing issue should no longer squish nor stay squished when equipped into slots.
  • Some GUI elements, such as the inventory system, have changed appearance a bit; particularly in contrast.
  • Drop Item box in the backpack now has a darker color scheme.
  • Potential fix for overlapping items in the inventory.
  • Potential fix for an issue where backpacks would switch when switching weapon sets.
  • Fixed a bug where backpacks would not display their tooltip when moused over in the inventory.
  • Added some simple numbers above “Change Weapon Set” to show which set number you have equipped.

World Changes:

  • Large fix for framerate drops when running around farmland areas.
  • Suburban neighborhoods now have more trees in them.
  • Corn stalks have a brand new appearance.
  • Farm crops, specifically corn fields, are much denser. Other farm crop fields (wheat, soy, cabbage) have been removed for the time being and will return in a future build.
  • Far away houses now look much better, higher resolution, and more realistic.
  • Some detail objects have been added to the Swerts and Office building rooftops.
  • Better ambient occlusion lighting has been added to many of the structures in the game.
  • HUGE improvement to content creation. The general stuttering when building new content as survivor’s travel should be vastly improved.
  • Moved furniture and other items should remain where you moved them and no longer reset to its original position when rejoining a previously saved world.
  • Fixed a bug where you could not rejoin a world immediately after disconnecting from it. (Better memory cleanup.)
  • The interior water tower ladder now extends to the bottom of the tank, so survivors will no longer have trouble getting back out of the tank once they’ve dropped down into it.
  • Reloading an existing world or joining a multiplayer world will now properly show the correct cliff textures and other terrain textures.

Menu Changes:

  • There is now a View Distance setting in the Graphics Settings menu. Setting the view distance lower can drastically increase framerate and general performance. The default view distance has been lowered sligthly, but you can turn it back up again if you prefer it. We will also add an even closer view distance option in the near future, allowing for even more performance gains on lower end machines.
  • Worlds on the World List and Delete World screen are now in a more readable font.
  • Worlds on the World List and Delete World screen now include a timestamp of when they were last played.
  • On the in-game Escape menu, the “Game is not paused” text has been moved down, and now properly shows up on all Escape menu screens. [Yes, we do have plans for a Pause function in Solo Mode in the future.]
  • Funny bits on the loading screen now change at a bit slower rate.
  • Fixed a grammatical error on the loading screen.
  • For new survivors, the configuration launcher should initially default the game to “Fullscreen” mode instead of “Windowed” mode.
  • TDL desktop shortcut is no longer pixelated or low-resolution.
  • Dropboxes in the options menus now have a cleaner look.

Server Changes:

  • Console command “save” will force the world to save. [Saving is done automatically, but this forces a save if so desired.]
  • Fixed an issue where “-8″ coordinates (for one example) would be interpretted as “+8″

Audio Changes:

  • Removed the out-of-place breaking sounds that play when you run into a door.

Misc Bug Fixes:

  • Potential fix for the “black-screen only-hands” issue some survivors encounter when running in Windowed mode. This fix will manifest as a brief flicker when intializing the game in windowed mode.
  • Potential fix for a rare (possibly obsolete) DesiredStateInt crash.
  • Fixed an issue where the local survivor instance would be lost on death.
  • Fixed an issue where controls would lock up.
  • You can now force close the game by typing “quit” or “exit” into the console. This is good for closing TDL when it locks up or otherwise encounters a soft crash.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Swapping weapons directly will cause the weapon to not equip properly. Until we fix this (soon) you just have to re-equip the weapon again to make it equip properly.
  • Creating and joining worlds without closing TDL.exe can cause things to get a little crazy. We currently recommend rebooting the game between sessions.
  • Guns do not always reload or fire properly and are missing recoil. We will be updating the game to fix these issues in Hotfix 10i, coming up next!
  • Throwing objects doesn’t always work yet. We will fix this soon.
  • Dragging doesn’t work just yet. We will fix this soon.
  • Host survivors may experience some mild framerate stuttering when new survivors are joining their game. We will be improving this as we progress.
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. We have added a fix for this, but if you still experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode. You can also try moving the window frame, which may correct the issue as well. We will be looking at a more permanent fix for this issue.
  • Zombies are sometimes still appear in different positions for different players in multiplayer games. We will be improving this.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or otherwise crazy. Just press the ESC key or “Done” button to get the screen back to normal.
  • There is a bug where you will sometimes plummet to the ground very quickly when dropping from a ledge. Holding Left CTRL right before impact will mitigate some fall damage. Watch your step!
  • You can sometimes have a phantom weapon or duplicate weapon in your hands when joining or rejoining a multiplayer game.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they’re sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and then start a fresh, new world, or continue onward to a new area.
  • Lots of other obvious issues that we’re going to be working on. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 010g Hotfix October 4, 2013
  • NOTE: You will be required to create a fresh, new world in order to take advantage of these changes.
  • LARGE: Tons of fixes to the way worlds save and load data. Worlds should be replayable many times over without incident.
  • Zombies, furniture, and more now properly save in the correct positions when reloading the world.
  • Survivors should return to the same place they left off at in an existing world.
  • Barricades and nailed wood should no longer disappear when returning to the area or reloading your world.
  • Framerate should no longer suffer when rejoining an existing world.
  • Disconnecting from a Solo Mode game should no longer yield in crazy crashes. There is now a brief popup when disconnecting from Solo Mode.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Multiplayer in general is very buggy. We'll be spending some substantial time on the multiplayer in Hotfix 10h, starting tomorrow!
  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. If you experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode.
  • Zombies are sometimes unresponsive or otherwise braindead. (Hah. Hah.) We are working on their AI and will be doing some bigger overhauls on it in the near future.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or crazy. Just press the ESC key once or twice, or three times, or four times, or until the screen is back to normal.
  • Sometimes disconnecting from a game yields in a freeze/crash. You may have to CTRL+ALT+DEL, ALT+F4, or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to kill TDL.exe and then restart it.
  • Guns do not always reload or fire properly and are missing recoil. We will be updating the game to fix these issues in the near future.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they're sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and then start a fresh, new world.
  • Lots of other obvious issues. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 010f Hotfix October 3, 2013
  • LARGE: Tons of animations are now in, but not entirely tweaked. Some items will still be held a bit wrong and there are a couple animation bugs, but most animations will now play in the proper places. Enjoy!
  • LARGE: Zombie count has been drastically increased across the world. Good luck out there.
  • Zombies should no longer be stuck bobbing their heads in a never-ending knockback animation.
  • Zombies should now attack about 3 times faster than they did before. (Don't hate them for it, they're just rendered that way.)
  • Backpacks now auto-equip if you do not have a backpack equipped.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors could spawn extremely close to where they died. Now they will spawn a minimum of 100 meters away.
  • The console key (default ~ TILDE/BACKQUOTE) can now be remapped. This was specially added for non-QWERTY keyboard users, and users who harness unbridled hate towards the tilde key.
  • The X in the top right of the backpack inventory now works and will close the backpack when clicked.
  • Fixed a bug where the game would crash if you put a space on the end of a world name.
  • Stance (crouch/stand) indicator in the bottom left is now 25% smaller.
  • Fixed a bug where the Uinta rifle would not zoom in.
  • Upgraded mouse cursor (zombie hand) up to new Unity 4.0 standards.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Some survivors experience black screen with hands and nothing else. If you experience this issue, run in Fullscreen instead of Windowed Mode.
  • Zombies are sometimes unresponsive or otherwise braindead. (Hah. Hah.) We are working on their AI and will be doing some bigger overhauls on it in the near future.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped or crazy. Just press the ESC key once or twice, or three times, or four times, or until the screen is back to normal.
  • Sometimes disconnecting from a game yields in a freeze/crash. You may have to CTRL+ALT+DEL, ALT+F4, or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to kill TDL.exe and then restart it.
  • Reloading worlds from disk may cause problems such as duplicate items, lower framerate, and more.
  • Guns do not always reload or fire properly and are missing recoil. We will be updating the game to fix these issues in the near future.
  • The game and framerate will sometimes stutter for a short duration, especially when coming up on a town or new area.
  • Survivors getting far apart in multiplayer will experience some funky bugs.
  • Multiplayer in general is very buggy. We'll be spending some substantial time on multiplayer in the very near future.
  • Sometimes buildings will forget to spawn. Sometimes loot inside buildings will forget to spawn. The buildings want you to know they're sorry. If you experience this issue, curse loudly at the aformentioned buildings and then start a fresh, new world.
  • Lots of other obvious issues. (Welcome to Alpha!)
Build 010ee Hotfix October 1, 2013
  • Potential fix for white-screen crash when loading a world.
  • Lowered maximum allowed grass density in Advanced Graphics Settings.
  • Renamed multiple Advanced Graphics Settings. (i.e. "Basemap" is now "Terrain Texture Quality" and so on.)

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Zombies are sometimes unresponsive.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped. Just press the ESC key once or twice, or three times, or four times, or until the screen is back to normal.
  • Sometimes disconnecting from a game yields in a freeze/crash. You may have to CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to kill TDL.exe and restart it.
  • Reloading worlds from disk may cause problems such as duplicate items, lower framerate, and more.
  • Survivors getting far apart in multiplayer will experience some funky bugs.
  • Multiplayer in general is very buggy.
  • Exit button in top right of inventory does NOT work yet
Build 010e Hotfix October 1, 2013
  • All survivors who were encountering the "Steam_API.dll" and/or "SteamworksNative.dll" errors should now be able to play The Dead Linger.
  • There are now multiple new options to be found in the Advanced portion of the Graphics Settings menu. You can now - for example - turn down the grass density if you find it increases performance.
  • The cursor will no longer leave the window when playing in Windowed Mode.
  • Crosshair has been shrunk to its intended size - 5 pixels, down from 8 pixels.
  • Tooltips have been added to the inventory. Hover over items to learn about them, read their stats, and more! Many items do not display their special stats at this time.
  • Zombies will decide to attack in succession a bit faster than they did before.
  • Zombies are now grabbier! When hit by zombies, survivors will be slowed as they were in Build 9. If a survivor is hit by a zombie, they will be slowed and the effect will decay over a few seconds. If the survivor is hit again during the duration, the slow duration will reset.
  • Survivor speed has been slightly decreased across the board. (Walking speed; 2.5, down from 3. Sprint speed: 7, down from 5. Crouch-walk speed: 1, down from 1.5.)
  • Fixed a bug where survivor Hit Points began regenerating instantly after taking damage. Now there is a proper delay after taking damage in which the survivor can not heal.
  • Knockback no longer has an effect nor interrupts the target if the weapon has a 0 knockback value.
  • Punching now does 5 damage, down from 10 damage. Knockback effect has been removed from punching.
  • Kicking now does 12 damage, down from 20 damage. Knockback has been reduced to 0.7, down from 1.
  • First person arms now properly move with the survivor camera, instead of the camera bobbing independent of them.
  • The first person arms now properly follow the survivor camera when crouching.
  • There is now a 'posture indicator' in the bottom left of the survivor's HUD. It fades in when the survivor crouches or stands, and fades out after a short duration of time.
  • Names now show in multiplayer! Survivors can now see the names of other survivors who are within at least 50 meters and within line of sight.
  • The "You Are Dead" image on the death screen is now twice the size it was, as intended.
  • The survivor's first person hands no longer play the 'sprinting' animation when simply walking.
  • Fixed a bug where survivors would have difficult connecting to a server.
  • Improved the wording on some error message popups to be more specific and clear.
  • End User License Agreement when installing The Dead Linger on Steam has been fixed and now our EULA shows properly.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Zombies are sometimes unresponsive.
  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped. Just press the ESC key once or twice, or three times, or four times, or until the screen is back to normal.
  • Sometimes disconnecting from a game yields in a freeze/crash. You may have to CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to kill TDL.exe and restart it.
  • Reloading worlds from disk may cause problems such as duplicate items, lower framerate, and more.
  • Survivors getting far apart in multiplayer will experience some funky bugs.
  • Multiplayer in general is very buggy.
  • Exit button in top right of inventory does NOT work yet
Build 010d Hotfix September 30, 2013
  • Long distance travel has been improved. Traveling across the world should no longer cause the game and camera to go crazy. Instead, the survivor will be presented with a short "Refreshing World..." screen. This should only happen every few kilometers and lasts a short duration (about 8 seconds.) There are still some issues that can happen over a long duration of time (i.e. running out of memory).
  • Performance increases have been made across the board. Survivors should experience better framerate than they did previously.
  • World saves from outdated versions should no longer viewable from the World list. This is primarily to avoid weird glitches and corruption when joining a world from a different terrain generation revision.
  • Removed some debug commands from the key bindings menu.
  • Fixed a visual bug with the sky horizon.
  • Fixed an issue where the sky was drawing twice.
  • Fixed a bug where certain items could not be picked up inside the cabin.
  • Survivors can no longer see worlds on the Multiplayer Server List if they're hosted on servers that differ in version from there. (example: a survivor playing Build 10d can not see servers running Build 10c.)
  • Weapons in the 2nd weapon set should now properly save and not disappear when rejoining a world.
  • Weapons should now show up when first entering a world, without having to be re-equipped first.
  • Recently picked up weapons should no longer auto-equip on top of an existing weapon.
  • First Person arms and weapons are now hidden when zooming through a scope. [possibly fixed since 10c]
  • Survivors can pry nail boards off of surfaces by right-clicking (RMB) with the hammer out. [possibly implemented since 10c]
  • Zombies will no longer follow the survivor forever, and will lose interest if they lose line of sight for too long, or if the survivor gets too far away.
  • New console command: "fps" This command puts an FPS counter next to the build watermark in the top left, so survivors no longer have to keep their console open to view the framerate.
  • Added a normal map to the first person arms.
  • Put in a fix for the bug where zombies were sometimes seen floating above the ground.
  • Rocklands zone now has 25% less rock, yielding in 25% additional not-rock.
  • Removed an apple and a handgun that were spawning in front of every house. (Leftover from debug testing.)

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • Sometimes the Settings menus get overlapped. Just press the ESC key once or twice, or three times, or four times, or until the screen is back to normal.
  • Sometimes disconnecting from a game yields in a freeze/crash. You may have to CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to kill TDL.exe and restart it.
  • Reloading worlds from disk may cause problems such as duplicate items, lower framerate, and more.
  • Survivors getting far apart in multiplayer will experience some bugs.
Build 010c Hotfix September29, 2013
  • Large performance increases have been made.
  • Removed the animated menu background for the time being and switched to the original picture background.
  • Items now properly drop when pressing Middle-Click (scroll wheel,) instead of being thrown. You can still throw held items by pressing Left-Mouse-Button.
  • Text in the chat box now properly wraps down to the next line and is no longer cut off when survivors type long sentences.
  • Medium Zombie speed has been reduced to 1.5, down from 2.
  • Survivor height has been tweaked to be the correct height, and the survivor no longer towers over the zombies.
  • Fixed a bug where the Disconnect button would not work in the in-game Escape menu.
  • Multiplayer window-breaking (and some other interactions) are working properly now between clients.
  • Playerlist has been added to multiplayer. Hold TAB in multiplayer to view a list of the survivors in the game.
Build 010b Hotfix September 28, 2013
  • Added tons of sounds, ranging from ambient zone noises, zombies moans and shuffles, door hits, melee hits, guns, player injury, etc.
  • Removed the water-faucet sound when something was missing a click noise.
  • Cabins now spawn properly and can be found in roughly half of the forests. They will only spawn in newly explored areas if you are playing an existing world.
  • There is a new menu in the Settings menu called "Mouse Settings." This contains Look Sensitivity, Aiming Sensitivity, and the option to invert your mouse Y-axis.
  • There are now more volume controls in the Settings menu; Master Volume, Effects Volume, Music Volume, and Ambient Volume.
  • Resorted the quality settings. Settings are now simplified to Low, Medium, and High. You can tweak advanced settings in the graphics settings menu in the main menu.
  • Optimizations on zombies and a few other areas that should increase framerate.
Build 010 "The Big Engine Change September 27, 2013
  • Engine change from OGRE to UNITY3D
  • There is a new “drop” icon over items when they are eligible to be dropped from the inventory.
  • There is a brand new console. Press ~ to bring up the new console. There are many new features, such as copy/paste and using the arrow keys to scroll through previous commands. The FPS counter and your current world seed is also shown along the top of this window.
  • There is a new console command for server hosts. It is called timerate. It works as such: “timerate ” For example, you would type “timerate 60 60″ and press enter. This will make 60 second days and 60 second nights. (That is the minimum seconds allowed as well.)
  • There are now blinds on windows, and houses have taller windows.
  • Improved day-night cycle and lighting
  • New status bars in the inventory (hunger, infection risk, etc.)
  • Voronoi regions are now 512 meters (on average), down from 1024 meters.
  • The sun now produces sun shafts.
  • Steep cliffs now have a rocky texture.
  • Vastly improved Server Browser.
  • Vastly improved key bindings menu.
  • Much better control over graphical settings. It is not recommended to play on the lowest settings however.
Build 009c Hotfix May 19th, 2013
  • The new world save is TDLWorld009c. This will force creation of a new world and is required to receive the new changes. You can decline the update if you so choose, but you won't be able to play on 009c servers or see the new changes. If you have anything you want saved, back up your world file, and take screenshots and/or video of your creations.
  • Fixed a prison-related bug that was causing forests to never spawn less than 3 kilometers from the world origin. (0,0)
  • Changed a world generation rule to allow prisons to spawn within 3 kilometers of the world origin. This means survivors now have a chance to spawn in prisons when they create a new world.
Build 009b Hotfix May 18th, 2013
  • Fixed crash that sometimes occurred after cutting down a tree.
  • Fixed several crashes on the server and client.
  • Fixed lots of bugs and crashes inside inventory. Inventory saving should be more reliable now, and crashes due to inventory should happen far less often.
  • Added lots of error messages all throughout inventory, so if it does crash in the future, we know what went wrong and the crashes can be reported more easily.
  • Paintings can now be nailed up, mainly for decoration, as they are not nearly as strong as 2x4 boards and plywood sheets.
Build 009a Hotfix May 16th, 2013
  • Added a Delete World button to the main menu. It is highly recommend you delete your existing world for 009a, as many changes to the zombie spawn rates are saved with the world save.
  • Hammer spawn rates have been increased considerably.
  • Zombies, both far and near, have had some changes that make them more performant while chasing survivors, which should yield in slightly increased framerate.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would never lose 'aggro' even when the survivor was well out of their sight range or line of sight.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would sometimes not lose 'aggro' if the survivor was killed.
  • Zombie density has been decreased by roughly 5 to 10% across all zones.
  • Zombie sight range has been decreased to 150 from 200.
  • Healthy (Fast) zombies now have a 1% chance to spawn, down from 5%.
  • Fixed a few crashes that sometimes occurred when swapping or equipping items in the inventory.
  • Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when changing weapon sets.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when pressing Esc key in the Main Menu.
  • Potential fix for a crash that occurred when joining a game with an existing inventory save.
Build 009 "Blood Sweat and Tears" May 15th, 2013
  • Massive Feature: Fall damage has been added for both survivors and zombies. Watch your step!
  • Survivors can hold crouch (Default: Left CTRL) at the last second to mitigate substantial amounts of damage from a fall. We recommend using this technique often, or you will have very sore ankles.
  • Added a message on the death screen for dying from fall damage.
  • Massive Feature: Free-form nailing of wood for barricades and structures is now available.
  • Boards that are nailed up to cover doors and windows will have to be destroyed by survivors and zombies before they can progress past them. Improperly positioned boards will not stop zombies. The effectiveness of a barricade is directly proportional to the positioning of the boards by the survivor.
  • A message now appears in the chat box if the survivor tries to open a door that is blocked by something, such as a nailed up board.
  • To nail a wooden object to another stationary object, equip a hammer and grab a 2×4 or similar piece of wood. (Default: Middle Mouse Button or C key) Position the board against a stationary object, and then press melee attack to nail the boards into place. (Default: Left Mouse Button) This process takes 1 second. This system currently does not require nails, but it will in a future build. Build well, Survivors.
  • Survivors can remove a board by using secondary attack (Default: Right Mouse Button) while wielding the hammer. This will pry the board off of the surface after 2 seconds. This is the only way to salvage a board after it has been nailed to a surface.
  • Doors can not be opened if there is a board nailed across them.
  • You can now drive wooden 2x4s into the ground as posts. You can do this by equipping the Sledgehammer and grabbing a 2×4 or similar type of wood. Position the object vertically by rotating it (Default: Right Mouse Button) and hold it there, touching the ground. Then pound the object into the ground by using your melee attack (default: Left Mouse Button.) This action can only be done on terrain, such as grass or dirt.
  • Items that can be nailed by a hammer can no longer go into your backpack while you are wielding a hammer. (Example: The 2×4 weapon can not be put into your inventory while holding a hammer. We found this causes far less annoyance for Survivors when they’re trying to pick up 2x4s to nail them to a wall.)
  • There are now multiple nailable objects, such as varying lengths of 2x4s, and a few plywood sheets. They can be found in piles in random suburban backyards, or by chopping down trees and telephone poles.
  • Note to builders: You can currently climb ladders while grabbing objects and holding them in front of you. This is working as intended. While slightly unrealistic, we feel that the gameplay gains a substantial benefit from this.
  • Massive Feature: Trees can now be cut down by hatchets and fireaxes, and they will drop wood. Larger trees will take longer to cut down, but yield in more wood.
  • Two new sharp weapons have been added; a one-handed Hatchet and two-handed Fireaxe.
  • Fireaxes will cut a tree down slightly quicker than a hatchet.
  • Cutting trees with axes will reduce their durability.
  • Major Change to Sprinting: In order to improve long-distance travel, Survivors can now continue to sprint with no stamina, but they will sprint at a 25% slower pace and their stamina will not regenerate until they stop sprinting.
  • Fixed a bug so that survivors can no longer go into crouch state while falling or jumping.
  • Projectiles from a firearm will now shatter windows.
  • Doors and many other objects now use a health value for destructibility. This means that weapons that do more damage will destroy doors faster.
  • Doors generally take much more damage before breaking now.
  • To prevent confusion, all forms of the crossair are now hidden during certain actions, such as swinging a melee weapon.
  • Infection Diminish (the stat generally found on gas masks) now decreases Infection at 0.5% per minute, down from 1% per minute.
  • Fixed a bug where objects, including draggable objects, would reset their rotation when the survivor lets go of them.
  • Fixed a bug where objects grabbed by other survivors in multiplayer would not always appear in the correct place.
  • Fixed some bugs involving survivors holding, dropping, and carrying items in multiplayer.
  • Fixed a timing bug where melee and other action states would carry over for too long. Survivors should no longer encounter the issue where they would be unable to melee for a moment after a melee animation has ended. * * This also fixes an issue where guns would load rounds into magazines and firearms about twice as slow as intended.
  • Netcode has been improved so that survivors are no longer sliding around as much as before in multiplayer games, and more accurately show their position at all times.
  • Fixed a bug where the window-break sound was playing every time a window was hit.
  • A stomach rumble sound now plays when you are getting hungry. It will also play if you enter the world while hungry.
  • Other objects are starting to emit various noises when struck. This system is in preparing for zombie hit noises and other satisfying sounds.

Zombie Changes:

  • Fixed a bug where zombies visual aggression range was much shorter than intended.
  • Zombie sight range has been modified a bit to be more responsive and further distance. Zombies will pursue the survivors a bit more aggressively when they’re in proper sight range.
  • Zombie spawn rates have been tweaked a bit. Starving Zombies will spawn slightly more often (33% up from 30%) whereas Healthy Zombies will spawn slightly less often. (5% down from 8%)
  • Zombies now deal increased infection risk to survivors. 4% infection risk is added per hit, up from 3%. We are still investigating ways to improve the fairness and reliability of the infection system prior to adding more features to it.
  • Zombies will now attack barricades at different speeds, depending on their level of decomposition. For example, Healthy zombies will hit doors and barricades more rapidly than Starving or Regular zombies.
  • Multiple changes have been made to the way zombies react to survivors, particularly when the survivor is crouching. Survivors can now more easily avoid zombies by crouch-walking and otherwise sneaking about, as long as they’re careful.
  • Sprinting will not draw the attention of zombies as much as it used to.
  • Zombies will no longer slide about or animate a walk between hits against a door or barricade.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies were not repopulating areas over time.
  • Fixed a bug where the zombie knockback animation was not playing properly.
  • Added extra checks to ensure that ‘invisible’ zombies would properly update and appear on screen.
  • Zombies now update more often, especially when pursuing a survivor. Zombies should better represent where they are standing and should never not be visible when hitting a survivor.
  • Added some small changes to zombie pathing and the way zombies detect when they need to use a path point. Zombies should pursue the survivors a bit better around complicated obstacles, such as stairs.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies were not animating all of their actions properly. Zombie animations are now more reliable in general. Zombies will animate the proper motions more often, such as when pounding on a door or barricade.
  • Fixed a bug causing Healthy Zombies to not use their attack animation.

World Changes:

  • The new world save folder is called TDLWorld009. As usual, the game is in Alpha and data can sometimes be lost due to bugs. We ask that survivors do not get too attached to their worlds and inventories at this time, just in case.
  • Large, looming 4-story office buildings now spawn in Town zones. These are filled with loot, as well as numerous undead, and provide a great vantage point over a town.
  • A log cabin now has a 50% chance to spawn in any forest zone. This is a secluded and generally secure location, often filled with some unique treasures and items related to hunting.
  • Terrain colors have been rebalanced to more realistic hues.
  • We have created a system for randomizing house textures and the textures of other structures. Houses will now come in more varied colors. We will be adding more depth to this system later on, such as swapping out interior colors.
  • Suburban neighborhoods now have a higher amount of trees in the yards.
  • Transmission towers can now be seen looming across the fields and forests of the world.
  • Many LOD models (distance imposters) have been updated. Farm crops no longer appear as solid green or yellow blocks from a distance.
  • Grass clutter on the ground has been heavily optimized and should no longer cause the game to ‘hiccup’ as you travel. Unrelated hiccups may still be present, but far less often.
  • Grass now appears much further out. You can disable the grass by unchecking the checkbox in the Main Menu, Graphics Settings screen. This may yield in some performance gain for lower end machines.
  • We have taken some steps to reduce the memory usage and clean up memory usage in general. Survivors should experience less crashes due to running out of memory when traveling for very long distances.
  • Barns are now a great place to reliably find piles of wood.
  • The front doors on houses have received a new model and texture.
  • Round hay bales now appear in wheat fields.
  • There is a very low chance that an old cabin will appear on a farm instead of a farm house.
  • Farms will now sometimes be found with only 1 grain silo, instead of 2.
  • Swerts now only have a 1% chance of spawning in Suburban zones.
  • Swerts now have a 20% chance of appearing in Town zones.
  • Fixed a huge bug that was causing Town zones to never spawn.
  • City zones (which looked similar to Suburban zones) can no longer be found in the world, as we prepare them for a much bigger re-appearance in the future.
  • Town zones will almost always have at least 1 water tower.
  • Suburban zones now have a very rare chance of having a water tower.
  • City zones (which were currently identical to Town zones) have been removed until we have unique buildings (i.e. skyscrapers) prepared for them.
  • The Swerts store has undergone some substantial texture changes to enhance general grunginess and wear.
  • Small backpacks are a bit more common now, making them easier to find.
  • Ground should now appear flat underneath Swerts store parking lots, and better match the curb edge properly
  • Forests now have about three times as many trees as before.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing road intersections to appear darker than intended.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing road intersections to appear in off-center from where they should be appearing.
  • Some object weights have been redistributed to better represent their real-world weight.
  • Fixed a bug where doors would fly off their hinges and spin around in multiplayer games.
  • Fixed a bug where some objects were appearing multiple times on top of each other in the farm and prison zones. This should yield in a small performance increase, and survivors should no longer find multiple doors in a single doorway.

General Changes:

  • Inventory saving reliability has been drastically improved. Survivors should retain their gear between sessions much more reliably than before.
  • Added a new sprint animation for 2-Hand Long animations, such as the Sledgehammer and Lacrosse Stick.
  • Fixed a bug where the fog at the horizon was set to a longer distance than the horizon itself. Fog should now show near the far edges of the horizon.
  • The default far horizon has been moved in slightly to increase performance.
  • A bug causing the SK 63 rifle’s reload animation to appear strangely has been fixed.
  • The F1 Control Help List that appears on screen during gameplay now automatically fades away after 30 seconds. It can be re-opened by pressing the F1 key.
  • First person animations no longer default to ‘fist idle’ pose when the survivor enters various states such as jumping or crouching. Weapons now use the default idle animation when there is no existing animation to fall back to.
  • Fixed a bug where the survivor could not press OK to disconnect if the multiplayer scoreboard is up when a server shuts down.

KNOWN ISSUES:

  • There are sometimes strange looking ‘seams’ in the terrain on the edges of a zone. They do not adversely affect gameplay.
  • There are still some rare crashes that will occur (Remember; this is Alpha,) and they generally occur more often in Multiplayer than Solo Mode. You can generally just restart the game and you’re good to go.
  • Inventories can still be corrupted and not save during certain crashes, but they are rare.
  • Roads will sometimes intersect terrain.
  • Grass will sometimes still appear on roads when you first enter the world and spawn near a road. If you leave the area and then come back, the grass will be gone from the roads.
  • Some of the glass panes on the office building do not appear with the correct rotation.
  • Roads do not have collision and the terrain collision is currently used instead. Due to this fact, items can sometimes be hidden by falling on roads. We recommend that survivors do not intentionally drop items on road surfaces, or they might lose track of where it dropped.
  • There are some bugs with throwing held objects, especially in multiplayer. The objects may not always throw or land in the same way from different survivor’s perspectives.
Build 008b (Hotfix) - "No Place is Safe" April 8th, 2013
  • Speed now increases/decreases speed by 2% per point, down from 4%.
  • Hunger now decreases 10% faster. (81 minutes to starve, down from 90 minutes.)
  • Hammers are slightly more common now. (This is a sign of things to come.)
  • The various weapon spawn rates behind the counter of a Swerts store have been tweaked a bit.
  • Fixed capitalization typo in "hoodie" item tooltip.
  • Wellington boots now give -1 speed, instead of +1 speed.
  • Updated the first person animation for sprinting with a rifle.
  • Fixed a common bug where weapons would float in the air and not be obtainable after being dropped from the inventory.
  • Fixed a bug where guns would not find their proper ammo (unable to reload, or loading the wrong ammunition).
  • Fixed a bug where scoped rifles would not be able to zoom in with their scope and would be forced to use the ironsights instead.
  • Fixed a rare but crucial bug where the world would only generate terrain. (Thanks Kutagh!)
  • Possible fix for a frequent multiplayer crash.
  • Run TDL.exe to update to 008b. The patch is 6.8 MB. (We included the b this time.)
Build 008a (Hotfix) - "No Place is Safe" April 5th, 2013
  • This patch fixes a few multiplayer crashes we nailed down.
  • Run TDL.exe to update to 008a. The patch is about 670k. (That's k, not kb. VERY tiny! Hooray!)
Build 008 - "No Place is Safe" April 5th, 2013

World Generation Changes[ | ]

  • Huge changes were made to loading and saving. Furniture and moved objects should now save in their proper location from now on. Your hay bale forts are now safe. (That said, we are still in Alpha and things can be unstable. We ask that no one get too attached to their worlds and inventory saves at this time.)
  • The ground in fields, farms, and forests is now filled with fantastic, fancy foliage.
  • Slightly increased the frequency of prisons.
  • We have increased the frequency of hills and mountains in the world. The world is generally less flat now.

Zombie Changes[ | ]

  • Massive Feature: Zombie pathing has been substantially updated in the following ways;
  • Zombies will follow you in and through buildings.
  • Zombies will properly stop to attack doors and windows, and they will break them.
  • Zombies can now climb through windows, over obstacles, and pull themselves up ledges.
  • Zombies should no longer twitch up and down when at the edge of a 1 kilometer terrain block.
  • Increased zombie density in most areas.
  • We are reworking the sound design of the zombies. There are new zombie moans, groans, screams, and general zombie noises to be heard.
  • Zombies will now hold position while attacking a door or window, and they have a new animation for this action as well.

Gameplay Changes[ | ]

  • Massive Feature: The Infection system has been added to the game at a basic level. We will be improving this system further. Here are the basics, though we’ll leave much of it for you to discover;
  • Infection Risk now shows in your inventory as a bar, much like Hunger, Battery, and Stamina. The lower the Infection Risk bar, the lower your Infection Risk is. Keeping it low should be a high priority for survivors. There is always a very small chance to be infected, even if the bar is empty.
  • When you respawn from death, your Infection Risk is reset.
  • When you are attacked by a zombie, kill zombies in close range, or interact with infected material, you will gain Infection Risk. To avoid gaining Infection Risk, get items that reduce it, or avoid too much close contact with the undead.
  • When attacking you, zombies now have a random chance to bite you instead.
  • Every time you are bitten, you have a chance to become infected. There are a few tell-tales when this happens, if you’re paying attention.
  • If you are infected, you will soon know, and you will begin dying. There is no obligation to tell other survivors, and there is no cure.
  • When a survivor dies from infection, their corpse will return as a zombie shortly after.
  • Multiple new stat modifiers now work on equipped items. They are as follows:
  • You will move faster (walk, crouchwalk, and sprint) with items that increase Speed, (Example: Hi-Tops Shoes) and move slower with items that decrease Speed. (Example: Football Helmet)
  • You will reload faster with items that increase Reload Speed, (Example: Magazine Vest) and reload slower with items that decrease Reload Speed.
  • You will gain less Infection Risk with items that reduce Infection Risk Gain, (Example: Welding Mask) and gain more Infection Risk when wearing items that increase Infection Risk Gain.
  • You will steadily decrease your Infection Risk over time with items that steadily reduce Infection Risk. (Example: Gas Masks)
  • Huge fix to inventory: The inventory should now properly save between sessions, and backpacks should no longer be dropped or lost when reloading a scenario. (There can still be save corruption and some data can be lost during crashes, or if you ALT+F4 out of the game without allowing the game to save.)
  • Death sequences have been improved some.
  • Death messages now show on the death screen, depending on cause of death.
  • Survivors should no longer spawn high up in the air when entering a world.
  • Climbing speed on ladders has been increased by about 25%. You can also hold shift to quick-climb a ladder, but this uses stamina.
  • Stamina now recharges at half the rate while on a ladder, instead of not recharging at all.
  • When a survivor leaves a game, they are now properly removed from the player list count and scoreboard
  • Potential fix for a certain crash that sometimes can occur when eating food items.
  • The debug “d_player” now properly shows “100” as the value for maximum HP.
  • Fixed some issues where survivor’s dead body would set to their new respawn point before they were finished with the death sequence.
  • The Flashlight now projects about 10 meters further than it previously did, making it more effective outdoors.
  • Fixed a commonly reported issue (Thanks!) where survivors would sometimes get stuck and unable to move for no apparent reason.
  • Aim-Down-Sights (ADS) Sensitivity can now be changed in the Gameplay Settings menu. This allows survivors to have a separate aiming mouse sensitivity from their regular look mouse sensitivity.
  • Survivors will now experience themselves collapse onto the ground if they starve to death.

General Changes[ | ]

  • We have made dozens of fixes to performance and world save/load. You will find better framerate, less jittering, and less hiccups while traveling through the world.
  • Some graphical performance improvements on the backend. (Fancy complicated programmer stuff!)
  • Strange or abnormal characters in the server list will no longer crash clients. The characters will appear as a ? instead.
  • There are a couple new musical tracks in the game that will play during gameplay.
  • In the Audio Settings menu, the audio level sliders should no longer take control of the mouse cursor and should work properly now.
Build 007 - "The Prison" February 19th, 2013

World Generation Changes[ | ]

  • Prisons can now be found anywhere in the world, but never near the spawn. There are rumors of at least one prison roughly 2 kilometers to the north. Good hunting!
  • The first prison complex is named after Kickstarter backer “Elias Thompson.” Congratulations!
  • There have been well over 70 new art assets added to the world of The Dead Linger, ranging from telephone poles to brand new and much more performant houses. The entire world looks newer, fresher, more realistic, and more beautiful than ever before.
  • Farmland is laid out in a much more intelligent manner. It now has a road passing through it, along with substantial size increase to the crop fields, better visibility of crops, improved farmhouse, hay bales, and more.
  • More world loading has been shifted to take place during the loading screen, so initial framerate when joining the game should be smoother.
  • Trees should no longer appear on roads as often as they have in the past.
  • Substantial new improvements to terrain texturing and terrain variety.

Gameplay Changes[ | ]

  • Survivors can now see their first person hands, along with dozens of new animations for weapons, reloading, and more.
  • The framerate during gameplay has been drastically increased in almost all cases, and the world looks much better than ever before.
  • Time of day is now saved with the world file, so games will be resumed at the same time of day they left off.
  • Inventory should now save much more reliably than previous builds. Please try to avoid getting attached to world saves or items, though! We are still in Alpha after all, and sometimes data can be lost.
  • Holding Tab (default) will display the scoreboard/player list. If you are in a multiplayer game, this will show the other players in the game (up to 32 players) and display their network ping.
  • There is now a temporary compass in the top right of the HUD. It shows the cardinal direction you are facing (North, East, South, etc.) and your X Y location in the world, accurate to 100 meters. This feature will be removed once we add in maps, a compass item, and other methods of locating your friends in multiplayer.
  • Survivors now require backpacks for larger inventory space. Survivors start with “pockets,” by default. Pockets are a small 3×4 inventory space that can hold a very limited amount of items. If you have existing items in your inventory from 006, all excess items will fall onto the ground when you spawn. For those who played 006 and wish to start fresh for 007, please be sure to delete your Inventory folder in %appdata%/Sandswept Studios/The Dead Linger/.
  • There are now multiple backpacks that can be found in the world and equipped. These backpacks range from Small (10×4) to Medium (20×8).
  • Fixed a bug where knockback would not stop a zombie’s movement. All knockback from weapons will now work properly. This provides a substantial change to melee combat.
  • All objects now carry more realistic weight values. Couches and refrigerators are now very heavy, while other objects are light. They currently do not apply any physics damage if they fall on enemies or players, but that will be coming in a future update.
  • Farmington Shotgun hipfire spread has been tightened a bit, so hip-firing with this gun will yield more accurate results. (This does not affect the spread of projectiles, but where the projectiles are grouped when firing from the hip.)
  • A player’s vertical position is now saved. (If you log out on top of a water tower, you will now respawn there, instead of down below on the ground.)
  • Heavy objects can now block doors a bit more than before.
  • Survivors now have the ability to drag large objects. Dragging allows the player to slide large objects, such as couches and refrigerators, in order to block doors and rearranging rooms.
  • Objects held by the player will now collide with other objects and walls.
  • Held objects will no longer start rotating randomly when they bump other objects.
  • Held objects can now be rotated by (default key setup) holding X or Right Mouse Button and dragging the mouse in the desired direction.
  • When grasping or dragging objects, weapons are now holstered and can not be used.
  • Objects the player is grasping or dragging can be thrown. Throwing items uses stamina. Throwing currently does not deal damage, but that will be changed in a future update.
  • Objects will now be knocked around when hit with a melee weapon.
  • Cursor is hidden when grasping or dragging objects.
  • Weapons should no longer disappear when crossing kilometer block boundaries.
  • The Vegas Rifle no longer spawns in garages or homes. It can be found… elsewhere.
  • Gun and ammunition spawn rates have been decreased, but also spread around. Survivors will find ammo and weapons in more unique places, but it will be harder to find as a general rule.
  • Magazines are now refilled at twice the rate as before. The standard gun reload animation plays for this. We will add more animations in a future update to help clarify the magazine reloading process.
  • Some minor and some major improvements to shadows and lighting.
  • We’ve added a new rim lighting shader to the engine which makes many objects look excellent.
  • Various skyboxes have been added to the sky. These are mostly temporary as we design a much larger and more advance sky simulation system, but for now they will bring some flavor to the sky and change during different times of day.
  • Multiple new crossair hand icons added for dragging, opening doors, and more.
  • Multiple new third person animations have been added to the game.
  • Animation length on melee attacks now matches the action length.
  • Small fix to improve glitchiness with terrain on kilometer block boundaries. This often manifested itself in causing the player to fall through the ground for a moment. It should now happen less, if it happens at all.
  • Survivors can no longer shoot or use weapons while climbing ladders.
  • Fixed a bug where players could lose rounds of ammunition by shooting while reloading, but with no effect.
  • Fixed a large bug where scoped weapons might not be able to use their scopes, or other items may not have their proper attributes.
  • Fixed a bug where stamina did not regen while carrying objects. Stamina now regenerates at half the normal rate when carrying objects.
  • Fixed a bug where inventory items would appear over the main menu after a server disconnect, and in some other rare cases.

General Changes[ | ]

  • The game should crash substantially less than it has in previous builds. 007 is officially the most stable build to date
  • The game now uses camera-relative rendering, which should substantially decrease flickering of textures and objects from a distance.
  • Screenshots taken with the Print Screen key now save in a subfolder in %appdata%/Sandswept Studios/The Dead Linger/. This subfolder is called “/screenshots/”.
  • Screenshots now save with the prefix “thedeadlinger-” instead of “screenshot_”.
  • Removed multiple settings from the Ogre Engine Rendering Setup window when TDL.exe is started. This change will require you to reselect your Rendering Subsystem when you launch TDL.exe after the patch.
  • Renamed “Video Mode” to “Resolution” in the Ogre Engine Rendering Setup window when TDL.exe is started. Be sure to change the Fullscreen and Resolution settings to match your desired setup!
  • There is now a new loading symbol for when the game is initially loading during a black screen. This screen can take some time when you run TDL for the first time, so this should help players understand what’s going on better.
Build 006 - "Happy New Fear" January 16th, 2013

World Generation Changes[ | ]

  • Massive: The world generation in The Dead Linger has been completely overhauled. You should experience a brand new, much more realistic world from 006 and onwards.
  • There are multiple new areas to find, including (but not limited to) rocky landscapes, grass plains, towns, and rural farmland.
  • There are now old barns, silos, and fields of crops to be found in Farmland areas.
  • Players should now always initially spawn in a suburban neighborhood or town.
  • The spawn rate on handguns has been increased slightly, while the shotgun and rifle spawn rates have been decreased slightly.
  • Rotten food and melted candy spawns less often than it did before.
  • A few more objects spawn where they previously did not.
  • Military clothing spawns much less often in houses than it did before.
  • Hallways and rooms inside houses are generally wider now.
  • House generation now checks for slopes better, and houses should rarely, if ever, appear underground or partially buried now.
  • There are multiple new forest types. Forests are much, much larger, as well as much more dense.
  • Stores and houses should no longer spawn double doors (two doors side by side or going into the same room from the same room) as often as they did previously.
  • Zombies are much denser in previously populated areas, and less dense in rural and forests. There are scattered reports that they can sometimes be seen huddling in crowds as well. Stay alert.

Gameplay Changes[ | ]

  • Ladders are now climbable. To climb, walk to a ladder and look the direction you want to climb. Jumping will detach you from the ladder. Every ladder you encounter can now be climbed. Enjoy the view, Survivors.
  • Firearms now have recoil when fired. This system is not final, and as for any feature, feedback on our forums is welcome.
  • Most food items now give slightly less hunger fill than they did before.
  • Vegas Rifle now contains 5 rounds at a time, up from 1. It is intended to be a 5-round bolt action rifle, but until that functionality is in, it is a 5-round semi-automatic rifle, making it much more valuable than the Uinta Rifle.
  • The readability on both 7.62 ammo boxes has been improved.
  • The readability on the 12 gauge ammo boxes has been improved.
  • Some items that had “increase” instead of “decrease” and vice versa in the tooltips have now been corrected. For example, firefighter pants no longer say they “increase fire damage taken.”
  • When reloading rounds, the survivor will now prefer to take rounds from the stack with the lowest amount first.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies could hit the player from much further away than was physically possible.
  • Players can now merge stacks of items in the inventory. Piles of ammunition can now be merged, and will automatically merge when picked up as well.
  • The collision on store shelves has been improved.
  • The collision and texture of the iconic water tower has been vastly improved and updated.
  • Player walking speed reduced to 4.1, down from 4.5. Sprinting and other speeds remain unchanged.
  • When a player is killed, a message will now be displayed in the chat for all players.
  • There is now a “gun click” sound when a player tries to reload without ammo.

General Changes[ | ]

  • Key binding controls can now be bound to different keys via the Settings menu found in the Main Menu of The Dead Linger. Mouse bindings currently do not work.
  • The male survivor mesh is brand new, and looks much better, in preparation for clothing and other customization features, such as hair.
  • Console commands now give more information when activated.
  • Players can now log in as a server admin while playing on a server. To do so, they can either bring down the console or open text chat and type “/login ” to log in. The server host will need to customize the administratorPassword in their TDL folder \content\ServerConfig.tsc file, OR by running the server with the command flag “–adminpass= ” (no < > symbols, put your desired adminpass there instead.)
  • Framerate has been improved in multiple cases. This will be an on-going process as we optimize the game further.
  • The chat box now announces when a player joins AND exits the game.
  • There is no longer a blank button on certain popups that only contain one option. (i.e. “OK”)
  • The backpack on the male survivor no longer fails to cast a shadow.
  • The server list now uses a simpler, more readable font.
  • Servers can now be passworded. When creating a server, you are prompted to enter a password. Leave the text area blank if you do not want a password on your server. When joining a passworded server, players are prompted to enter the correct password before being allowed to join.
  • Potential fix for a rare bug where the loading screen would remain up after the game has loaded.
  • The shadow algorithm has been improved a bit — shadows now look cleaner.
  • There is now a new shortcut target command argument you can set when running The Dead Linger. If you add (no quotes) “–datapath=:\” to your TDL or TDL server shortcuts, you can relocate where the world and inventory is saved, if you do not want it in %appdata%. [Thanks, YouJellyMan!]
  • New sound for door kicking/hitting for zombies and survivors.
  • The text in the in-game chat box and the Build Version Number are now larger and more readable.
  • In the menus, the escape key can now be used to go back one menu.
  • You can now view the Settings menu (except graphics) while playing the game. Check Known Issues for potential issue with this screen.
Build 005 - "Feliz Navidead" December 18th, 2012
  • There is a new type of ammunition in the game. (.308)
  • There is a new, rare, and more powerful .308 scoped rifle – the Vegas Rifle.
  • There are a few new melee weapons, including a Katana.
  • There are some new furniture pieces to be found in the world.
  • Certain items have had their spawn rates tweaked. Firearms in particular should spawn quite a bit less often now.
  • Many objects have had their collision boxes fixed up and will no longer block the player or otherwise sink through the ground. This should also make many objects easier to pick up.
  • Multiple improvements have been made to the console window.
  • Players now have visible backpacks. This is one step closer to swappable backpacks, which are planned in a very near update. We will have more information on the Kickstarter backpack reward later on.
  • Firearms now spawn in the world with at least 1 box of ammunition.
  • Zombies no longer slide around as much in the distance.
  • Opening a door while reloading will now interrupt the reload process.
  • Kicking while reloading will now interrupt the reload process.
  • Fixed a “right_hand” crash.
  • Other crash and bug fixes.
  • Backpack stat bars now show up quicker when the backpack is open.
  • There is now a popup box when failing to connect to a server.
Build 004f - "Zombie Buffs" December 17th, 2012
  • Zombies have become more challenging, and groups of zombies are much more dangerous.
  • Zombies will now hit players from slightly further away.
  • Zombies will now slow players for a short duration when they hit them with their swipes.
  • Zombies ignore players for 12 seconds, down from 25 seconds after respawning or spawning into the world.
  • Fixed a crash that would occur when breaking a door that the player is holding.
  • Players can now spawn within 100 meters of their corpse, up from 20 meters.
  • Items can be seen from further away. (Apples, ammo, etc.)
  • Hazmat Jacket can now be picked up properly.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would not attack you if you were right in between their minimum and maximum range.
  • Servers hosted by players can now use spaces in their names.
  • Fixed a memory corruption issue causing infinite ammunition in some cases.
  • Various other crash fixes. The game should crash less now, in general.
Build 004e - "Informative Stuff" December 16th, 2012
  • Mosin and SKS rifles now stand vertically at 2×4 grid squares in the inventory, instead of horizontally.
  • Potential fix for a specific crash involving skeletal animation bones.
  • Fixed a bug where the chatbox would lose focus after the console was closed.
  • Added bold red text “GAME IS NOT PAUSED” to the escape menu.
  • You can no longer open the inventory while on the respawn screen.
  • Item durability now scales with item tier. Higher quality items, such as Well Kept, will last longer than lower quality items, such as Flawed.
  • The game world no longer shows up behind the escape menu while respawning. The respawn screen now shows properly when in the escape menu.
  • The chat box automatically says “Press “T” to Chat” to better inform players on how to chat in game.
  • Crosshairs and hand-icons are now hidden when the backpack is open, to avoid confusion for players.
Build 004d - "Freedom of Movement" December 15th, 2012
  • Player’s are no longer interrupted while swinging or reloading if they are hit by a zombie or take damage.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies could not hit you if you were too far downhill from them. Zombies will now hit you if you are standing them as well. In general, zombies can hit you from angles they previously could not, but should have been able to.
  • Server names are much less restrictive. They can now be between 2 and 32 characters long, and include all sorts of symbols, spaces, and numbers they previously could not.
  • You can now run Solo Mode again immediately after exiting Solo Mode, without an error message or other interruption.
  • You can now jump without stamina, and stamina can not recharge while jumping. We will modify this later to avoid bunny-hopping and other unrealistic jumping tactics.
  • You can now open your backpack while aiming down firearm sights. This will now cancel the aiming.
  • You can now refill magazines while walking, but sprinting or jumping will cancel the action.
  • Fixed some of the long load times that can happen when entering a game, usually in Solo Mode.
  • You can no longer run forever by opening the ESC menu when running.
  • Fixed several issues with certain sound files. Some sounds should play more consistently.
Build 004c - "Crash 'n' Bug Fixes" December 14th, 2012
  • The auto-patching process has been improved some, but mostly under the hood.
  • Cleaned up some error messages to be more clear and informative.
  • Zooming out of a scope now unzooms instantly, instead of over a short duration of time.
  • Removed a wave of “Gun Prep” messages when loading a world.
  • Fixed a bug where items would appear to move, wiggle, or sink into the ground when you picked them up and put them into your backpack.
  • Rebalanced some of the item spawns. The Tundra Hawk and .44 ammunition boxes will spawn quite a bit less often now.
  • Fixed a door-related crash.
  • Fixed an “ActorMotion” related crash.
  • Fixed a few more random crashes.
Build 004b - "Better Error Reporting" December 13th, 2012
  • There is a now a crash error window that should pop up when the game crashes. Please CTRL+C the information inside the window and post it on the Bug Report forum so we can fix the issue.
  • Friendly Reminder: Please do not get attached to your world saves or items at this stage in development. We can not guarantee world or inventory stability at this time.
  • Store windows now have glass, but it does not yet have collision or break.
  • Fixed a bug where the game would minimize in fullscreen when running a Solo Mode game or Hosting a game.
  • Friendly Reminder: If you would like to play in Windowed or Borderless Windowed mode, as well as change your screen resolution, you can do this in the OGRE Rendering Setup window that pops up when you run The Dead Linger Alpha.
  • Fixed a bug where weapons were not properly counting ammunition.
  • Fixed an exploit where players could run forever by opening the console window.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would rapidly slide around on the ground without animating. (Not fixed in all cases)
  • Fixed a bug where zombies wandering around aimlessly would not animate their walk.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies in the distance were sometimes seen walking backwards.
Build 004b - "Stronger Zombies" December 12th, 2012
  • Windows and other objects now have alpha blending. This means windows have transparency.
  • You can no longer run/sprint forever by opening chat while running/sprinting.
  • You can now close and open doors when a zombie is attacking it.
  • Sounds that didn’t always play should play now more often. Sounds are still not always playing at the right times, but it’s an improvement.
  • You can now get the black console window back by adding –console to your TDL.exe shortcut. We may request you do this for helping us debug and test.
  • The game no longer minimizes when starting Solo Mode or Hosting a Game.
  • Scoped rifles will now always have their scope.
  • Fixed a few more crashes.
  • You can no longer open your backpack with ironsights up.
  • Items will no longer hover around a player’s feet in games. It may still occur under laggy conditions.
  • Zombies now do twice as much damage to players. Players will die in about 7 swipes, instead of 14.
Build 004 - "Breach Point" December 11th, 2012

New features

  • All firearms can now be toggled to Aim Down Sights by pressing Right Mouse Button. You can not sprint while aiming down sights, and firing from the hip is now extremely less accurate.
  • Scoped rifles now use the scopes when aiming down sights; by pressing Right Alt the scope can be switched with iron sights.
  • Guns now require ammunition to be reloaded and fired.
  • Melee weapons now have durability. When they reach 0 durability (indicated by text: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Bad, Broken) they become broken and will be destroyed.
  • Clothing can now be found and equipped, but is not shown visually and has inactive stats.

New items

  • There are some new weapons to be found, as well as some rare ones[which?]. There is a new handgun (along with a new ammo type, .44), a sledgehammer, a wooden 2×4, and more.
  • Clothes added. [which?]

Removed features

  • The DRM added in Build 003 has been removed; players can now check the box "Play Offline" in the login screen and play offline without requiring a login. Playing online requires restarting the game, and a pop-up has been added to inform players of this.

General changes

  • There is now a list of controls when you start the game. This list can be hidden and revealed again by pressing F1.
  • Weapons now follow the player camera when looking up and down.
  • Weapons now have their own FOV so that they feel closer to the player.
  • Weapons that are equipped by other players will now appear in the other players’ hands in multiplayer, though many animations remain absent.
  • Physics objects (i.e. a trash can, a chair) will now react when shot with bullets. Weight and propulsion values are still unfinished, so some objects will seem much lighter or much heavier than they should.
  • Directional damage indicators are now 50% their original size.
  • Doors are now more responsive to your mouse movement.
  • The math on door pulling has been changed. Pulling a door is now completely relative to player position, so it feels much more natural.
  • Doors now collide better with other objects, though many objects are still too light and are easily pushed out of the way.
  • There is now a background image (placeholder) when the backpack is open.
  • Inventory item tooltips no longer fade in and are now instant.
  • Items held by the cursor when the inventory is closed are now dropped on the ground.
  • Common quality items no longer have a prefix on the tooltip in the inventory.
  • When the backpack is open, the player can now see bars with hunger level, battery, and stamina.
  • Inventory now saves more often during play, so if there is a fatal error less data is lost.
  • Item tooltips no longer display damage or other stats of the items, and items include more description as to what they do.
  • When running in Windowed Mode, you can no longer resize the window during play, nor maximize it via the button in the top right. If you wish to change your resolution, change your resolution (“Video Mode:”) in the initial OGRE Rendering Setup window at the start when launching the game.
  • Borderless Windowed Mode is now available. You can select it in the initial OGRE Rendering Setup, going to “Fullscreen:” and setting it to “No – Borderless”.
  • Loading screen should no longer appear after signing in.
  • Loading screen now calculates world generation and will vary in length based on the speed of the world generation.
  • A yellow disconnect icon will now show if the client has not contacted the server for 4 seconds. The red disconnect icon will now show if the problem persists for 8 seconds. You will automatically disconnect from a server if you have not received a message from it for 30 seconds.
  • SSAO (Ambient Occlusion) has been optimized some and should not be such a burden on your GPU, yielding in improved framerate.
  • Multiple error message popups have been added in various locations where the game simply used to crash with no description as to why.
  • The entire login screen and text input boxes look better, and are easier to read and navigate.
  • A "remember me" function has been added, so you can remember your login and password for speedy login. Enter key works to log in.
  • An "Exit to Desktop" button has been added.
  • Clicking sounds have been added to the screen.
  • Better support for varying resolutions.
  • Other small fixes to make the screen more visually appealing, in general.
  • You can now change mouse-look sensitivity by going to the Gameplay Settings menu in the main menu.
  • You can now choose to invert the Y-Axis (up-down) of aiming and looking around in-game. You can change this setting by going to the Gameplay Settings menu in the main menu.
  • Options that are changed in the Settings menu will now save when you leave the screen, and save properly between sessions where they sometimes would not.

Gameplay changes

  • Zombies will now attack doors and break them if they are in search of someone on the other side.
  • The zombie head hitbox now more reliably matches the shape of the zombies head.
  • The stat gain between various item tiers has been modified. Items of higher tier now offer a mild gain, instead of an overpowered one. Items of lower tiers are not as bad as they were.
  • Many melee weapons [which?] have been buffed to do more damage.
  • The general melee distance has been shortened by roughly 25%, or 1 meter. Melee weapons will have varying ranges later on.
  • Hunger level is now saved between sessions.
  • The day-night cycle has been changed. A full game day is now 1 hour and 30 minutes of real time, down from 2 hours. Day is now 60 minutes long (down from 85), and night is now 30 minutes long (down from 35).
  • Players' last position in the world is now saved.
  • Sprinting now drains stamina twice as slowly.
  • Stamina now takes 4 seconds to begin recharging after activity, up from 1 second.
  • Hunger now burns 25% faster, so starvation happens in 1 hour and 30 minutes, down from 2 hours.
  • Player can no longer walk around while the backpack is open.
  • Certain items can now stack in inventory, such as ammo boxes.
  • Items dropped by another player can now be picked up in multiplayer.
  • The last weapon equipped is now saved between sessions.

World changes

  • New furniture: couches and other things.[which?]
  • Buildings now have windows, which can be broken.
  • The chance for Flawed and Contaminated items to appear has been reduced.
  • Far house LOD now matches the color and shape better.
  • The spawn rates of food, weapons, and other item have been substantially modified.[how?]
  • A bunch of texture changes and improvements to houses and other objects. (Kitchen tile, house siding, ceilings in houses, bathroom objects, and more.)
  • The front of a house now has a fancier door, instead of the regular white one.
  • Convenience stores now use a glass door, and have metal doors in the rear.
  • The water towers are undergoing some visual changes in preparation for ladders in a future build.

Bugfixes

  • Weapons no longer inter-penetrate walls when you are standing close to them.
  • Zombies no longer block each other's line of sight.
  • A bug has been fixed where zombies would not properly repopulate an area. Areas will now keep track of total zombies, and if the maximum limit is not high enough, it will steadily spawn new zombies randomly within the area.
  • Doors should no longer fling, fly or otherwise rotate off of their hinges when being pushed by zombies, players, or objects.
  • Doors now latch reliably when closed, and will no longer latch and hold in place when they are still visually open.
  • Objects no longer hover or can be frozen when dropped. When dropped, objects now fall to the ground at reasonable gravity, instead of slamming into the ground.
  • Fixed unlimited sprinting exploit with backpack.
  • Multiple crashes related to inventory and inventory saving have been fixed.
  • Multiple fixes to instances where inventory would not properly save.
  • Inventory item tooltip quotes should no longer be cut off or in the wrong place.
  • Fixed a bug where sometimes items would refuse to drop when dropped around the right side of the inventory.
  • Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when un-equipping a weapon.
  • The cursor no longer disappears when you right click food to eat it, while it’s being held.
  • Items now have the correct names. Example: “weapon_melee_cinderblock” now shows as “Cinderblock” and so on. Guns now have names for easier identification.
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause all of the text chat entered in the chat box to be capital letters, even without caps lock on.
  • The collision of stairs found outside houses has been modified a bit to prevent some cases where a player would be stuck on a very tall set of stairs.
  • Mailboxes should no longer float.
  • Fixed some open faces found near garages.
  • Fixed more crashes that occur on disconnect and when quitting the game.
Hotfix 003a – "Server List Improvements" November 21st, 2012

General changes

  • Load screen now establishes instantly when running or joining a game. There is no longer a gray screen when joining, and there is no longer a "disconnect" icon when joining or starting a game.
  • The server list has a refresh button now.
  • Only servers that use the same version as the player's client will show up on server list now.

Bugfixes

  • Sounds (except music) do not play in the loading screen anymore.
  • Fixed a bug where the server list would sometimes not show any servers when there were servers.
  • Player count now shows on servers: instead of "0/0", Current/Max will now show properly.
  • Objects no longer jitter or wiggle around when they should be sitting still.
  • Fixed some sounds that weren’t playing.
  • Removed some sounds that weren’t intended to be there.
  • Fixed a few cases where the game would crash on disconnecting from a server.
Build 003 - "Feature Friendly" November 20th, 2012

New features

  • Players are now required to log in to their Sandswept Legion accounts to play, once for offline play and every time for multiplayer.
  • The world now saves state and player position periodically.
  • Player inventory now saves on a per-server basis.
  • Zombies now steadily respawn in areas they have been cleared from.

New items

  • Weapons: there are a bunch of new melee weapons to be found.[which?]

General changes

  • The build watermark (i.e. “The Dead Linger Alpha Build 003”) now shows up on every screen, including the main menu.
  • All debug text (such as d_fps) has black drop shadow now.
  • There is now a hardware cursor in the game by default.
  • Flashlights no longer appear "flat" on a surface.
  • Improved sound system so more sound can be loaded, more variety in sounds added.
  • A pounding sound is now heard when a player kicks a door.
  • New sound when sprinting.
  • Sounds (such as gunshots) can now be heard by other players and grow quieter with distance.
  • A sound now plays when food is eaten.
  • The character now makes a noise when injured.
  • Doors now make noise when opened and closed.

Gameplay changes

  • Zombies can now only be killed by headshots, and not by damage to other parts of the body.
  • Zombies can now be alerted by sounds, such as gunshots, and will seek out the source.
  • At night, flashlights pointed in a zombie’s direction can now alert them.
  • Fast zombies now appear less often compared to other zombie types.
  • Slight reduction to intensity of the radial blur effect when injured.
  • A directional damage indicator now pops up when under attack.
  • Day/night are now 85/35 minutes long, from 60/60. 24 game hours remain 2 real-time hours long.
  • When a player has no weapon equipped, the next weapon they pick up will be auto-equipped.
  • Jumping now reduces ppstamina[[, and stamina is required to jump.
  • Resized a bunch of inventory items, and made inventory items fill out their region more accurately.
  • Double left-clicking no longer eats food in the inventory. Right-click instead.

World changes

  • New building: Swerts Convenience Store.
  • Rooftops of houses have been raised.
  • Items are more scarce.
  • Floor removed from garages on the sides of houses.
  • Stairs added to door leading from garage into houses.
  • Houses should no longer be found with two doors side by side.
  • Trash wheely bins have been slightly decreased in size.
  • Garbage cans now also come in black/brown, tan, blue, and green textures, with backer names.

In-game chat changes

  • If there is no chat message typed in, the chat box will now close upon pressing Enter.
  • When players type messages, it now shows on the server cmd window with their name.

Bugfixes

  • Fixed multiple crashes that occurred when disconnecting from a game.
  • Added a hint for NVIDIA Optimus driver so the game prefers the dedicated GPU. Requires NVIDIA driver 302 or higher.
  • Gaming mice freeze issues have been mostly fixed.
  • Zombies should get stuck on walls less, and react quicker to the presence of a player when stuck.
  • There is no longer a massive delay in chat and other network messages when first joining into a game.
  • Removed a subtle gap between doors.
  • Some furniture will float less.
  • Servers are generally more reliable now.
  • Fixed a bug where the cursor would disappear after moving inventory items or equipping them.
  • Fixed a crash when picking up more inventory items than the inventory can handle.
  • Fixed a bug where weapons without knockback would not deal any damage.
Build 002 - "Hotfix Alpha" November 6th, 2012

New features

  • There is now a drop area in the inventory to help players understand how to drop items.

General changes

  • TDL.exe and TDLServer_Main.exe now have desktop icons.
  • Esc menu text now reads “ESCAPE MENU” instead of “GAME PAUSED” due to the fact that some players were confused. The game does not pause when in the escape menu in either single or multiplayer.
  • Console command “kill” can now be used. This will kill the player character and respawn them.
  • Removed console command “d_playerflip”.
  • There is now a popup indicating when the player has been disconnected from a server.
  • Improved error messages and error logging to help catch bugs and assist players with reporting issues.


Gameplay Changes

  • Unarmed punches now do 75% less damage.
  • Reduced zombie health to 80, down from 100.
  • Increased zombie damage to 15, from 6.
  • Lowered kick damage to 5, from 30.
  • Lowered kicks required to break doors. 3 to 4 kicks will now break a door, down from 7.
  • Couches, fridges, and some other large items can no longer be picked up, but they can still be pushed around.
  • Many items are now placed diagonally in their space to give better representation of how much space they require.

World changes

  • Worlds now generate and appear much sooner.
  • Players should rarely (or never) encounter holes in terrain or houses that pop in right in front of them.
  • There is a performance increase when loading chunks of the world, both initially and when traveling through it.

In-game chat changes

  • A sender's names now appear next to their message.
  • The chat box window is now localized to the bottom of the screen, instead of taking a full third of it.
  • The chat box now closes after sending a message.
  • Players can no longer send blank messages.
  • A message now appears when a player joins the server.
  • A series of messages now appear as the player gets hungrier.

Bugfixes

  • The Print screen key will now properly create and save a screenshot while the inventory is open, as well as in other menus. Screenshots taken this way are saved to the %appdata%/Sandswept Studios/The Dead Linger folder.
  • Quite a few crashes, both on startup and during play have been fixed.
  • Players can now be able to disconnect from a server and reconnect to a new server without crashing all of the time.
  • Fixed crash on startup for certain GPUs.
  • Servers do not crash as often.
  • Fixed a bug on slower machines where the game would crash on startup and/or initial connection to a server.
  • A chat panel overlap bug on some resolutions is now fixed.
  • Zombies no longer slide or "skateboard" around.
  • Weapons and items no longer disappear when traveling long distances.
Build 001 October 31st, 2012

First release. Includes:

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