If you’ve ever found a ladder in Project Zomboid and wondered why you can’t actually climb it, your only recourse has been turning to mods, but that’s finally about to change. Developer The Indie Stone has just released a new Project Zomboid update that includes working ladders, the ability to use crowbars for their actual purpose, and a range of gameplay balancing in the wake of the build 42 release. It also marks a new approach to the update cadence of the zombie game, as the studio moves away from the long wait for stable builds.
The old ‘unstable’ branch is going away in favor of the renamed ‘pre-release’ branch, with the intention of making it clear that future Project Zomboid updates will be in testing for just a short while. “Going forward, we’ll be releasing builds into the pre-release branch before they go forward to the stable branch (barring urgent hotfixes that may need to go directly to stable,” The Indie Stone explains. Expect builds to spend “at least one week” in testing to identify any potential issues, and to give modders a chance to prepare accordingly.
For Project Zomboid build 42.22, we get the “first rung” of ladder implementation. “Given the number of ladders across Knox Country, we’re counting on intrepid pre-release explorers to climb up (and down) every one to make sure every rung is sturdy,” The Indie Stone notes.
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Another much-requested feature is the ability to use crowbars for their actual intended purpose. You can now pop open a wide range of locked windows, doors, and gates, including garage doors, although some high-security places such as jail cells will be too tough to crack. Strength increases your ability to get the job done quickly, and you’ll get an additional bonus if you have the Burglar trait.
Alongside this comes an additional range of balance changes and bug fixes. You can now push things while holding items in both hands, and are able to open ammo boxes while walking, but can no longer sleep if in close proximity to a bad smell. Large trees should be less likely to impede your visibility, several unintended issues responsible for “untimely animal deaths” have been fixed, and instances of duplicate characters in multiplayer or miscalculated PvP damage have been curbed.
Project Zomboid update 42.22 is live now on the pre-release branch, which you can access through the ‘game versions and betas’ tab of the properties menu, accessed from your Steam library. The Indie Stone warns that you should always make sure to back up your saves before attempting to move them across to the testing build. Once it’s happy with the testing results, 42.22 will be moved across to the live game.
