Hey all, hope you had a restful Christmas and New Year-ing if you were celebrating. Here’s a quick run-down on who’s doing what while we pick up tools and face the bright new dawn of 2019.

• The MP networking features that Bitbaboon Steve added in before Christmas sound like they’ve had a positive impact for server-owners, but we still haven’t worked out the optimum values for them. To this end we may well be holding another Community Megatest in the near-future, as well as looking into any bumps in the road that have been reported. We will also be investigating the garbage collection stutters that a few players have reported recently.
• TEA continue to work on the animations system for Build 41. Most recently Zac was sorting out some shader and multi-threading issues. We’ve got a big catch-up tomorrow, so should have more news in this area next week.
• General Arcade’s Stas just released the Controller Test Build 9, which has improved Inventory usage, and implemented new gamepad binding windows for Xbox and Dualshock type controllers. We’ll be handing out the first round of free PZ codes to Controller Build testers very soon, but there’s still plenty of time to join in with the testing and grab your own in the next batch.
• RJ needs some testing on his improvements to the PZ loot system – adding different values to items so we can play with difficulty and loot scarcity more efficiently, without reducing the spawn of lesser value clutter items. He would like some extra feedback, so will be opening up a limited test beta on the forums for it in the near future.
• ChrisW is back on his internal Sims-style cut-away system for Build 41, and hopes to have something visual to show off on it fairly soon.
• EP spent Christmas playing around with potential new UI map systems we could incorporate into PZ, which is looking fairly fruitful currently. More if/when it happens.
• Yuri has fixed up the MP issue in which cars could be pushed into being hovering and upside down and, for 41, is now looking to complement his existing work on improved water visuals with tricks like a subtle reflective pooling of water on roads during rain.
• Mash continues her work on Louisville alongside suburb-house-populator Ringod, amidst news on the forums that her secret additions to the map in Build 40 are now getting wider appreciation. Xeonyx, too, is working on another new Challenge Map that will be a part of 41.

Thanks all, plenty of other stuff going on aside from the above too. 2018 was probably one of the best years Project Zomboid has had so far, so here’s hoping 2019 will be its equal – or better. Have a good one!

This week’s non-accessible vehicle from ShadowGuardian91. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here –so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ MailingList that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.