🧟 Rise of the Zeds - Update v0.5.2

Hey there, survivors!

We have an exciting update to push! This one focuses heavily on zombie behavior, combat feel, AI interactions, and performance improvements. Lots of small fixes add up to a big step forward in how the world feels when you’re out there surviving. We are still working out a few kinks and will keep improving based on user feedback, so thank you survivors for always reporting.

We’re still a small part-time team, but your support keeps us going. We’ve also got some really exciting updates coming over the holidays, so stay tuned!

🌎 World & Spawning

• Added 300+ new zombie spawns across the map, roads, and empty areas. The world now feels more alive… or, well… “un-alive.”

• Updated JSON POI Manager spawn settings across MainLevel and DemoLand.

• Increased several AI spawner iteration speeds to make spawning more responsive.

⚔️ AI Combat & Behavior Improvements

MoreInteractions

Everyone fights everyone now:

• Scavs attack zeds & animals

• Animals attack zeds & scavs

• Zeds attack scavs & animals

Basically, the ecosystem is a whole lot angrier - and more fun to watch!!

Louder Zeds

• AI now broadcasts attack sounds, so nearby AI will react even if they’re not facing the action.

• Fixed issues where zombies would attack but not look at their target correctly.

• Fixed bugs causing scavs/zeds to ignore each other during investigation state or fail to deal damage.

Melee Adjustments

• Reduced melee attack delay, making hits feel much snappier.

• Increased how fast zombies turn to face you during attacks.

• Cleaned up melee logic so zombies only stop movement for the proper duration of the animation.

• Removed a buggy bite animation that caused attack hitches. (RIP weird bite montage - you will not be missed.)

🧟 Zombie Tweaks

• Added new systems to prevent zombies from sliding or moving while in spawn or hit reactions.

• Tweaked attack montage play rates to feel less sluggish.

• Redesigned zombie animation blending so upper-body attacks play cleanly while the legs still chase you. (less “ice-skating zeds” around the map.)

• Fixed zombies attacking next to a scav but not facing them properly, causing missed hits.

• Added checks so zombies can’t break out of disabled movement while climbing out of the ground.

• Increased the climb-out-of-ground animation speed and tightened timing.

• Added footstep cues for zombies so they sound more grounded and alive (or… undead).

Sneak Attack Bonus

• If you melee a zombie before it’s aggro’d, it now takes 3x damage.
  Time to channel your inner post-apocalyptic ninja.

🔧 Performance & Optimization

• Added cull distances to AI.

• Added LODs to most zombie and AI meshes and created a mesh reduction profile.
  (We’ll likely generate LODs for all unique meshes soon.)

• Disabled fixed mesh bounds on base zombie models to fix camera edge culling.

• Improved pawn sensing so alert cues play correctly.

• Added safety checks to prevent null reference crashes in multiple systems.

🐞 Bug Fixes

• Fixed AI getting stuck in MoveToTarget state with movement disabled.

• Fixed rare null pointer in AI multicast montage system.

• Fixed AI bug where enemies played the “sense” alert every time they heard you.

• Fixed null pointer in Async Spawner Func Lib.

• Known visual bug: ranged AI may not aim guns correctly when too close and meleeing, but their shots still register.

🛠 Internal C++ Plugin Updates

Various adjustments and backend improvements to our internal AI plugin to support the new systems.

Thank You, Survivors

As always- thank you for all the support, bug reports, and patience. ZSGO is built by a tiny part-time team, and updates like this happen because you keep pushing us forward.

We have some awesome new features already in progress (more news soon 👀), and we can’t wait to share what’s next.

Stay alive out there,
  - The ZSGO Team 🧟‍♂️