Version 5.09.14

New mechanics

Event queue

Events no longer open on top of each other. Only urgent events open right away — attacks, raids and threats to the settlement (marauders with demands, an ultimatum, a wandering gang, a revolution); the rest join a queue for 3 minutes of game time. If you haven't answered the current event yet, the new one also joins the queue (attacks go first). A list of pending events with icons and countdowns now appears on the right side of the screen: open any event by clicking its row or the icon above the settler. When the time runs out, the event opens by itself and waits for your decision — the game no longer answers for you. The queue is saved with the game.

New power grid

Buildings no longer have an "input" and an "output": a wire can run between any free sockets in any order, and power flows through the grid both ways.

• Sockets: Electric pole — 2, Transformer — 4, Gravity accumulator — 2, Thermal power plant — 5

• A Windmill can only be connected to a Thermal power plant — that is the only way its energy reaches the shared reserve

• The Gravity accumulator stores energy: each connected accumulator adds +1500 to the reserve (500 without accumulators). The accumulator's weight rises as the reserve fills; the top bar shows "reserve / capacity"

• The Hospital with an electrical panel can now be connected to the power grid and is heated by it

• Live wires are highlighted while you lay a new wire

• Electricity in the top bar now has a tooltip showing reserve and capacity

Economics window

Instead of "forecasts" that could be off by several times, the window now shows the real resource flows over the last in-game day.

• For every resource: stock, amount produced and spent over the day, balance, and how many days the stock will last

• Two columns: where the resource comes from and where it goes (gathering, production, settlers, heating and building upkeep). One-off costs — construction, upgrades, events, raid preparations — are shown separately and are not counted in the balance

• "Objects that produce a resource" lists the buildings that actually delivered that resource during the day; "Objects that consume a resource" shows "working / total"

• The numbers update on their own while the window is open

• In the top bar, the number next to the stock is now the resource's balance over an in-game day (income minus consumption), not the change over the last 15 seconds

Automatic builder assignment

Construction sites and buildings being dismantled that lack builders now recruit idle settlers on their own, as long as there is a path to them. A sign appears above a construction site with no builders. Auto-assign leaves settlers who have just been taken off a job alone for the first 10 seconds, so you can put them somewhere else yourself. It can be turned off in the settings: Gameplay → Auto-assign builders.

Difficulty presets

The new game window now has a Difficulty row: Easy, Medium or Hard. A single choice sets all 11 game settings. If you change any setting by hand, the row shows Custom. The default is Easy, with the previous values.

Armor

• Body armor and helmets now protect not only against bullets but also against zombie hits, animal bites, knives and explosions. Armor III with Helmet II cuts such damage by more than half. Armor does not reduce the chance of infection from a zombie hit

• A wall, building or hill between an explosion and a fighter halves the explosion damage

• Crouching or prone targets are harder to hit, whoever they are (previously this only applied to workers at their own buildings)

• Vehicle armor protects the vehicle itself: bullet damage is divided by the armor value (an assault rifle takes 1–2 points off an M113 per hit instead of 40, and 3–4 off an M706), and explosion damage is reduced by up to half

Pause between attacks

At least 10 minutes of game time now pass between attacks on the base. A squad that arrives earlier waits at the gates and prepares to attack — the squad panel shows its place in the attack queue and roughly when it will attack. Several such squads attack one after another. On the global map such squads also wait near the base, each in its own spot, and attack through the gates only after you return to the settlement.

Base zone

Buildings and walls can only be placed inside the base zone — within the ring of points enemies come from, and only on explored land. While a building is selected, the zone border is shown on the ground with red stripes.

Runner zombies

About one zombie in twelve is a runner. You can't escape it at a walk.

Animal attacks outside the sandbox

Wild animals now attack the settlement outside sandbox mode as well: boars from −10 °C (the start of Act II), wolves from −20 °C, bears from −50 °C. After the first visit, each species returns every 30–70 minutes. Previously, animals only attacked in sandbox mode. In a game already in progress that has passed these thresholds, the attacks will not start.

Changes

• The Constructing I research speeds up construction by 10%. Dismantling runs at the same speed as before

• The Camp has been removed from the build menu. Unemployed settlers without weapons now gather at the main warehouse on their own. A camp that is already built keeps working in old saves

• A building that builders haven't started on yet can be cancelled right away with a full refund

• Unavailable event answers (missing building or research) are hidden

• The settler window now has a discontent bar — you can see in advance who is close to rebelling

• Discontent slowly decreases while a settler is fed and warm

• Right-clicking a spotted enemy issues an attack order; the cursor turns into a crosshair over the enemy

• Infection is treated at the Hospital with herbs once "Antiviral vaccine" is researched. Infected settlers go for treatment on their own, even if they aren't wounded

• A frozen settler no longer warms up instantly on the spot — they go home to warm up. In an unheated house they warm up more slowly than in a heated one; "Heating" only helps in a heated house, "Thermal Insulation" in any house

• The Resource Station now reports when it dismantles itself because there is nothing left to gather nearby

• Settlers and fighters run away from planted dynamite and come back after the explosion

• Blast damage to fences and car wrecks depends on the weapon: a grenade breaks a wooden fence, a concrete one needs two grenades, a SMAW, a mine or dynamite

• Ordering a squad places a single marker on the ground, and a new order removes the old marker immediately

• Weapon tooltips in the warehouse and in production now show ammo type, damage, range and accuracy

• Repair & Service Point: the tooltip and title now show the vehicle name (Pickup, Van, HMMWV, M35A3, M706, M113). The armored car is now called M706 (formerly APC)

• Factory II: can now produce RPG Rockets — 10 metal per rocket. Unlocked together with dynamite

• While a battle is going on at the base, soldiers only go to eat when they are very hungry; after the battle they go right away, like everyone else

• Starting vehicles on the map spawn with random cargo (1–4 resource types)

• Settlers, fighters, zombies and animals now turn smoothly instead of snapping around in a single frame

• The upgrade button tooltip explains what the upgrade gives (stove, machine tools, electrical panel, machine gun) — even when you can't afford it

• The Dismantle the building button tooltip shows how many resources will be returned

• Stability is shown as a number: "Stability: 61 / 100"

• Body armor and helmet tooltips show how much damage they reduce; weapons without ammo show "No ammo"

• Clicking a law you don't have enough points for now shows a message

• New labels, tooltips and descriptions are translated into all 13 game languages

Balance changes

Buildings

• Shack, Gravity accumulator and Windmill are now half the price: Shack — 38 wood, 8 metal, 3 polymers, 10 stone (was 75 / 15 / 5 / 20); accumulator — 50 metal and 100 stone (was 100 / 200); Windmill — 75 metal (was 150)

• Greenhouse III: workplaces 8 → 4, the same as Greenhouses I and II. In old saves, extra workers are released on load

• Thermal power plant: output with 4 workers 48 → 88 electricity per cycle (15 seconds); the plant's workers boost connected windmills up to ×2.6

• Electric heating: instead of 1 coal, a building now uses 7 electricity per cycle (previously 10)

• Unloading Station: loaders unload vehicles about one and a half times faster

Weapons and vehicles

• RPG, SMAW: ×2 damage to vehicles, ignore vehicle armor; an armored vehicle is destroyed by 3 RPG hits, a light vehicle by 2

• Building-mounted machine gun: magazine 150; a new machine gun is loaded from the warehouse (previously a free belt)

• Vehicle-mounted machine gun: starting ammo 100 → 0, loaded from the warehouse

Settlers and enemies

• Hunting: meat from a boar 5 → 8, from a bear 10 → 14

• Fighter experience for hitting zombies and animals: chance 1/5 → 1/2

• "No food" and "no houses" hints: threshold 30 → 10 settlers

Optimization

• Settlers, zombies, animals and buildings are no longer all updated in the same frame — checks are spread out over time

• Bodies of dead people and zombies stop simulating physics and animation after 30 seconds

• The warehouse panel no longer rebuilds its list every second, and the warehouse window no longer recreates a hundred icons every time it opens

• Event windows no longer pile up spare UI elements

• The journal keeps the last 200 entries. Old saves are trimmed automatically

• Large saves load noticeably faster

• An event opened while paused no longer causes frame drops

• Settler and vehicle icons on the minimap are no longer recreated every frame

• Labels and icons above off-screen buildings, settlers, loot and vehicles are no longer processed every frame

• Settlers and zombies no longer scan everyone on the map when checking their surroundings

• Fog of war updates 10 times per second instead of every frame

• Box-selecting fighters no longer tanks the frame rate on large bases

• An open build menu no longer makes the game stutter on large bases

• Adopting laws that affect fighters no longer freezes the game on large bases

• The research window no longer keeps adding buttons to its list every time it opens

Bug fixes

Heating and cold

• Fixed a critical bug where houses, the farm, barracks, prison, pillboxes, the hunting house and the hospital with a stove weren't heated and didn't use fuel — their heating never turned on at all

• Fixed a critical bug where a settler carrying a load couldn't go to warm up and froze to death. Now, in severe cold, they warm up without dropping the load and then deliver it

• Fixed a critical bug where workers at the Coal Production, kitchen and bar took raw materials from the warehouse while their building was turned off or out of fuel, and wandered around with them until they froze to death

• Fixed a bug where Greenhouse II and Greenhouse III burned fuel in spring and summer

• Fixed a bug where the bar, headquarters and Greenhouse III kept working without fuel

• Fixed a bug where the "cold level" didn't match the temperature: on the Village map it stayed at summer level down to 0 °C, and after loading, buildings were considered colder than they actually were

Settlers

• Fixed a critical bug where, after construction finished, people inside got stuck on the roof or in a corner of the model (including "workers stuck in the Coal Production"). This does not free settlers who are already stuck in old saves

• Fixed a critical bug where a settler ended up inside the Coal Production and starved to death there: the closed part of the kiln is no longer considered walkable

• A starving settler who can't reach the warehouse (for example, wedged between buildings placed right next to each other) is now led to the warehouse by the game

• Fixed a critical bug where, after loading, a building had more workers than workplaces ("11/3") and some settlers "disappeared". Duplicate IDs in old saves are fixed on load

• Fixed a bug where settlers starved despite full stocks while the base had no warehouse and no Merchant's Shop

• Fixed a bug where settlers starved and froze twice as fast during a gathering in an unfinished church or a church without a clergyman

• Fixed a bug where residents going home to warm up crowded into one spot, and camp residents went to warm up in a far corner of the map

• Fixed a bug where a settler with no job and no buildings walked off to the edge of the map

• Fixed a bug where a building's extra workers (which can happen after loading) walked off to the edge of the map

• Fixed a bug where a drink healed, warmed and removed radiation before the settler even reached the bar

• Fixed a bug where female settlers were named "None", names changed after every load, and the policewoman lost her post

• Fixed a bug where a convict lost health on the way to prison, and the sentence wasn't lifted when there was no prison

• Fixed a bug where discontent rose above 100

• Fixed a bug where the Hospital only healed up to 100 health instead of full health

• Fixed a bug where Hospital patients wandered between beds and stood three to a bed. Now every patient has their own bed, and up to 4 wounded can be treated at once

Laws

• Fixed a critical bug where the "Good will", "Good conditions", "Sociological research", "Steady hand", "Carrot and stick", "Civil defense" and "Physical exercises" laws stopped working after loading a save or returning from a raid

• Fixed a critical bug where the "Intimidation" law did nothing. Now the pause between attacks is 25% longer and marauder squads are 20% smaller

• Fixed a critical bug where the "Eloquence" law cut all trader prices in half instead of by 10%

• Fixed a bug where the "Analysis of the situation", "Gathering", "Labor training", "Church blessing" and "Church doctrine" laws did nothing — the bonus was lost to rounding

• Fixed a bug where "Church blessing" turned on when the church was demolished rather than while it was standing

• Fixed a bug where "Betting on the police" increased police accuracy tenfold instead of by 10%

• Fixed a bug where "Betting on the police" didn't affect Propaganda Center police, and the scaffold worker didn't become a police officer

• Fixed a bug where "Military trade reputation" didn't work together with "Mining trade reputation"

• Fixed a bug where "Sociological research" and "Political studies" didn't speed up law point growth

• Fixed a bug where "Aimed shooting", "Knowledge of weaknesses", "Analysis of the situation" and "Military training" only affected barracks workers and didn't work in raids

• Fixed a bug where "Military training", "Aimed shooting" and "Knowledge of weaknesses" were removed from fighters after loading a save or returning from the global map

• Fixed a bug where "Military training" increased soldiers' health without limit on every weapon change, and enemy soldiers received this bonus too

• Fixed a bug where removing a fighter from the soldier post healed or wounded them

• Fixed a bug where "Knowledge of routes" was lost on weapon change, and "Physical exercises" wasn't restored after a settler put their weapon away

• Fixed a bug where "Civil defense" and "Physical exercises" didn't affect new settlers

• Fixed a bug where "Devastation" only increased resources lying on the map in the first second of a raid

• Fixed a bug where "Improved assembly drawings" didn't reduce material costs at the factory

Events

• Fixed a critical bug where an event whose time ran out applied the answer from the previous event: it could accept refugees, banish a settler or declare war

• Fixed a bug where answering an event opened while paused unpaused the game and broke the fog of war

• Fixed a bug where time kept running while the trade window was open

• Fixed a bug where the "accept" answer in the hostage event didn't make the hostages part of your settlement

• Fixed a bug where people accepted into the settlement from events (for example, a wandering gang) were still counted as part of an enemy squad: the enemy marker at the edge of the screen pointed at your own settler, and the "enemy squad destroyed" message came at the wrong time. Existing saves are fixed on load

• Fixed a critical bug where an event (for example, an expedition returning) whose participant died in the first seconds of the cutscene didn't open its window and left black bars on the screen forever

Attacks, raids and the global map

• Fixed a critical bug where an enemy squad with a truck landed at the base twice, and if the squad arrived while you were in the city, the truck and its crew disappeared

• Fixed a critical bug where enemy squads on the global map replaced your squad and "multiplied"

• Fixed a critical bug where the second of two enemy squads arriving at the same time "got lost"

• Fixed a bug where, after retreating from a raid, enemies "teleported" to the base and the location's garrison was restored instantly

• Fixed a bug where hostages disappeared after retreating from a location and couldn't be freed on the next visit

• Fixed a bug where a fighter or driver standing at the map exit vanished when a squad was sent on a raid, and a vehicle without a crew was lost along with them

• Fixed a bug where fighters returning to the base from a raid appeared twice

• Fixed a bug where fighters dropped out of their squads 1–4 after a raid

• Fixed a bug where a squad's food and fuel on the global map weren't deducted during a chase, fuel wasn't consumed once food ran out, and the preparation window didn't count food for those riding in vehicles

• Fixed a bug where the fighter slider in the raid preparation window counted those who can't leave

• Fixed a bug where an enemy squad disappeared from the squad panel long before the attack

• Fixed a bug where sandbox mode had no attacks by other survivors, and an encounter with an enemy faction happened only once per game. Now squads come in winter: one per winter from the second winter, two per winter from the third; faction encounters happen every winter unless you are at war

• Fixed a bug where the number of neutral animals on the map exceeded the difficulty limit

• Fixed a bug where there was one more enemy, zombie or animal than set in the settings, and large waves almost never reached the maximum

• Fixed a bug where marauder squads on Medium difficulty were half the intended size

• Fixed a bug where no new zombies or game appeared for 10 minutes after a wave was repelled or a hunt

• Fixed a bug where the order queue (Shift) on the global map showed distances three times longer than they were

• Fixed a bug where the "Forest Camp" and "Gas Station" raids showed the city minimap

• Fixed a bug where, in sandbox mode, summer lasted 7 minutes instead of 40 about once every three years

Vehicles

• Fixed a critical bug where refueling a vehicle during a raid didn't work, and a fighter sent for fuel at a base without a warehouse stood still for the rest of the game

• Fixed a critical bug where you could select an enemy vehicle with its crew and give it orders

• Fixed a bug where enemy vehicles didn't run over the player's settlers and fighters but only pushed them aside

• Fixed a bug where the crew in enclosed seats of armored vehicles was killed by bullets through the armor, and a fighter behind an enemy vehicle could be shot through it

• Fixed a bug where grenades, shells and mines didn't wound fighters in an open truck bed or next to a vehicle

• Fixed a bug where a single explosion damaged a vehicle several times (a van took four times as much)

• Fixed a bug where the M706 and M113 only fired their machine gun forward within a ±60° arc instead of 360°

• Fixed a bug where the machine gun on a vehicle standing on a slope didn't fire

• Fixed a bug where the M113's on-the-spot turning speed depended on the frame rate — on powerful PCs it spun several times faster

• Fixed a bug where a vehicle arrived at a raid and came back with 500 or 80 units of fuel regardless of its tank (the screen could show "500 / 100")

• Fixed a bug where fighters were "seated" in a vehicle but didn't get out on command and didn't follow orders

• Fixed a bug where vehicles got the same numbers

• Fixed a bug where vehicles at the base lost their bumper, windows and paint after loading

Electricity

• Fixed a critical bug where windmills stopped producing electricity after loading a save or returning from a raid

• Fixed a bug where the transformer "multiplied" energy: three outputs gave 2.5 times more than went in

• Fixed a bug where wires laid before the plant was first started received no power

• Fixed a bug where cancelling the dismantling of a wire cut power to the grid beyond it until a reload

• Fixed a bug where, after removing a wire, saving and loading, the grid beyond poles and transformers "died"

• Fixed a bug where a repaired house on the map couldn't be connected to the power grid

Research and production

• Fixed a bug where the research queue stopped after loading a save or returning from a raid

• Fixed a critical bug where, with a working Science Center II, any research finished in 2–3 minutes, while an empty center gave nothing. Now the center speeds up research by 15% per worker

• Fixed a critical bug where Greenhouse II and Greenhouse III produced the same harvest as a regular one — 1 per trip. Now it is 2 and 3

• Fixed a bug where Science Center II used fuel even though its description didn't mention it

• Fixed a bug where workers dismantling the Science Center were counted as scientists

• Fixed a bug where a demolished Science Center II stayed in the building list and kept hiring workers

• Fixed a bug where the factory, when short on workers, produced ammo, grenades and gas masks without using metal, and didn't produce weapons and armor at all

• Fixed a bug where the factory stood idle if there was enough metal for production but not for every worker

• Fixed a bug where the Resource Station stood idle forever if only unreachable resources were left nearby

• Fixed a bug where car wrecks became intact again after loading

• Fixed a bug where an outpost with a crew of up to 9 workers produced nothing while the player was in the city

• Fixed a bug where the last units of cargo were lost when a vehicle at the Unloading Station was emptied

Cemetery

• Fixed a critical bug where the gravedigger only buried one body and ran between bodies without reaching any of them, and work stopped after the gravedigger died or the cemetery was demolished

• Fixed a bug where a body dropped by the gravedigger stayed on the ground forever

• The gravedigger now drags a body by the arm and walks with it; previously the body slid along the ground a couple of meters behind him

• Fixed a bug where the body in the gravedigger's hands was thrown into the air after the game was unpaused

• Fixed a bug where a hungry gravedigger dropped a body halfway, and without a warehouse dropped it every 10 seconds

• Fixed a bug where the church's discipline bonus was granted for choosing a body rather than for the burial

• Fixed a bug where enemy bodies stayed on the map forever

• Fixed a bug where the "A large number of corpses" penalty kept coming back when there were no bodies on the map, and even if the bodies had been removed in time

• Fixed a bug where the "A large number of corpses" event window only had a title, with no explanation of what to do

• Fixed a bug where the "A large number of corpses" event came up as a random settler event at high discipline even when there were no bodies

Hunting, farm, trade and loot

• Fixed a critical bug where the hunter got stuck at an empty carcass

• Fixed a bug where the trader sold piglets without a farm, and bought piglets appeared at the warehouse or in a corner of the map

• Fixed a bug where a full farm gave birth to unowned piglets

• Fixed a bug where identical items at the trader were duplicated, and buying from the second row took the item from the first

• Fixed a bug where the largest amount of loot (from trees, stones, at the trader, in vehicle cargo) dropped less often than intended

• Fixed a bug where loot fell under the roads, sidewalks and parking lots of city maps and disappeared on slopes. Loot under roads in old saves is lifted on load

• Fixed a bug where a two-person weapons expedition brought back polymers instead of weapons

Construction

• Fixed a bug where builders still ran to the house site after construction was cancelled or the house was dismantled

• Fixed a bug where a builder who hadn't reached their spot worked from afar, even if the site was cut off by a wall

• Fixed a bug where a new wall snapped to the ends of demolished walls and gates

• Fixed a bug where a building destroyed by an explosion was rebuilt in two builder hits

• Fixed a bug where the metal wall, greenhouses, shack, warehouse and other buildings crumbled into stone wall debris

• Fixed a bug where 7 houses on the City, Forest and Village maps turned into a different house after repair

• Fixed a bug where a building next to a ruined house "stuck" to it after loading

• Fixed a bug where demolishing a building refunded 75% of the next level's upgrade cost instead of its own

• Fixed a bug where dismantling a building didn't return the stationary machine gun to the warehouse, and its model stayed on the map

• Fixed a bug where a building stayed turned off if you started dismantling it while an upgrade was being installed and then cancelled

• Fixed a bug where, after instantly cancelling the construction of a Sawmill, Stone Crusher or Resource Station, the work radius circle and the resource highlight stayed on the map forever

Combat

• Fixed a critical bug where mines only went off under those who had appeared on the map less than a minute earlier: a wave coming from the map edge crossed a minefield without losses

• Fixed a bug where only the last of several nearby mines worked

• Fixed a bug where extra mines appeared in the center of the map after loading. Corrupted saves are fixed on load

• Fixed a bug where a dead body set off a nearby mine

• Fixed a bug where a dead fighter in the selection "ate" a mine, and the stock of mines and dynamite went negative

• Fixed a bug where a gunner without ammo sat idle at a building's machine gun

• Fixed a bug where every save load reloaded all building machine guns for free

• Fixed a bug where a pillbox protected a fighter from explosions only from some directions. Now a fighter at their post takes half damage from explosions from any side

• Fixed a bug where zombies and animals didn't attack a watchtower or gate soldier even after they had left their post

• Fixed a bug where a fighter returned to a random spot after a battle instead of their place in formation

• Fixed a bug where a fighter picked up an item instantly while the game was paused

Saves

• Fixed a bug where, after loading a save made during an attack, the game forgot a battle was going on

• Fixed a bug where "day 1, +11 °C" was shown for the first few seconds after loading

• Fixed a bug where the time of day wasn't saved — after loading it was always 9:00

• Fixed a bug where loading a raid or the global map added an extra day, and radiation and cold weren't taken from the save

• Fixed a bug where loading an old save switched the game to sandbox mode

Interface and sound

• Fixed a bug where clicking a UI window selected the building underneath it or sent fighters there

• Fixed a bug where the "Fire: Enabled / Fire: Disabled" buttons were hidden and couldn't be pressed

• Fixed a bug where a fighter ran the first few steps backwards after an order

• Fixed a bug where the officer keys (F1–F4) opened an empty panel if all fighters were unarmed

• Fixed a bug where the "Adopted" label in the laws menu disappeared after the next law was adopted

• Fixed a bug where a connecting line in the laws menu ran down "into nowhere"

• Fixed a bug where pictures on the warehouse buttons in the equipment window "got stuck"

• Fixed a bug where body armor, helmets and knives had no tooltip, and an empty slot showed another fighter's weapon

• Fixed a bug where a weapon from the list was equipped instead of body armor, and the knife disappeared from the weapon list. Weapons without ammo in the warehouse are now marked in red

• Fixed a bug where the accuracy in a weapon tooltip was negative ("-20" for the RPG)

• Fixed a bug where the warehouse window and building panel showed no more than 100 items

• Fixed a bug where the "… (All)" button was shown on buildings with nothing to turn off

• Fixed a bug where the "Select Units" button remained on all military buildings

• Fixed a bug where the time on a research button didn't match the actual time

• Fixed a bug where neutrals were marked red on the minimap like enemies, and accepted ones stayed red

• Fixed a bug where in long selection lists (camouflage, flag, screen resolution) the current option slid off the edge

• Fixed a bug where numbers in the top resource bar overlapped. The daily balance is now shown on a second line below the amount

• Fixed a bug where the settings didn't show the description of the selected row

• Fixed a bug where about twenty labels (event answers, tooltips, save slots, raid escape, the global map, the outpost name) were in Russian or English in every language

• Fixed a bug where the same weapon had different names in the fighter window and in the warehouse (Tavor, MAC 10, GALIL)

• Fixed a bug where the Hospital's electrical panel lay at the map origin

• Fixed a bug where watchtowers and Pillbox III granted the achievement for building Pillbox I

• Fixed a bug where sound settings from old versions of the game muted sound and music on top of the menu settings

• Fixed a bug where the sound of rain continued after the rain stopped