Throughout Project Zomboid’s 13 years since release, it has been updated, upgraded, and reinvigorated at different milestones and has become a staple of the zombie and survival genres of gaming. And with its upcoming Build 42 update coming this year, it is once again going to increase the durability and longevity of this game way into the future, so let’s check out some of the upcoming features and future plans for Project Zomboid.

This huge game-changing update has five main goals to accomplish:

1. Lay a foundation for a deeper, feature-rich late game.
2. Providing multi-player servers with a way to run indefinitely.
3. Provide more community cooperation in multiplayer.
4. Provide a framework for players who want to focus more on community building and interaction than zombie survival.
5. Let the modders be all they can be.

I would say they are off to a good start with the changes. Project Zomboid was about trying to survive during a zombie apocalypse, scavenging what you could while fending off the zombie hordes. Unfortunately, eventually resources would run out, especially in the late game, and there would be no real way to make a living in a breathing new post-apocalyptic society, but that is all about to change with the addition of hunting, farming, and new crafting machines and methods.

While exploring the map, eventually you will see a number of new animals that may dart off screen; you might see their tracks in the dirt or even their offal droppings laying about. But now you can track those animals down, even learn their migratory patterns, and either hunt them down for some quick resources or breed them for a constant supply of meat, leather, eggs, and milk. Some of the animals that have been mentioned are sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, rabbits, racoons, and deer.

To build a new society, you need industry, so with the addition of new crafting machines and methods, we will be able to use kilns for pottery-related items such as pitchers and vases for carrying liquids and storing food. Stone is working to allow us to build defensive walls and maybe even larger structures. Each crafting station will have different tiers, everything from stone-age furnaces to advanced electrical machines that can only be found in the pre-apocalypse buildings of the old world.

Metal forging and blacksmithing are going to be added as well, allowing us to craft an assortment of new weapons and tools. Almost everything we think should be blacksmith-able will be. They might not be as pretty as conventional weapons, but they will do the job.

Weapons will also need to be maintained with the new Melee Weapon Degradation system, as each part of a weapon will have its own durability. For instance, the sharpness of your spear will degrade over time if you do not sharpen it; the blade may come off in a zombie’s chest at an inopportune time, but all is not lost, and you can now use the shaft of the spear as a club to continue to pummel your way to victory, and even use the old parts to fashion new weapons.

Dozens of new clothing and armor items have been added to the game. Armor can now be chosen based on which limb you wear it on, and you can even mix and match which colored armor you wear. The wearing of helmets and other headgear can now affect your hearing and vision. And we can now camp still, with the ability to roll up your tent and sleeping bag and attach them to your backpack.

Farming and fishing are long-held traditions of providing for the community and are also seeing a huge overhaul. Firstly, farming will be done with a lot less menu clicking. Now, if you have a farming tool such as a hoe equipped and are in a battle stance, each click of the action key will see a new furrow in which to plant.

Crops will now have growing seasons—more realistic growing times—and you will also have to maintain them by weeding them and protecting them from pests such as slugs and snails out looking for a free meal. Some of the new crops and herbs we can expect to grow are corn, peas, garlic, barley, flax, hemp, hops, rye, sugar beets, sunflowers, tobacco, and many herbs like rosemary.

Fishing is now more fun with some new mechanics. Fishing locations will be procedurally generated around the map. So, look out for splashes in the water to identify good fishing locations; the more splashes, the more fish in the area.

Fish are very sensitive to noise. Too much noise in an area, like shooting a gun or a helicopter overhead, will clear the fish from an area for an amount of time. You can wait or even throw some chum in the water to speed their return. At least 20 different fish have been seen so far; can you catch them all?

Long gone is the game where you could become a master of all trades, as the XP and skill system have been reworked to focus more on specializing in select professions, allowing players to contribute more to the survivor community while reducing the grindiness of higher-tiered skills. 

That about covers the community and crafting part of the update now on the map, as well as other playstyle enhancements. Three new towns and other smaller POIs are being added to the map, with other original POIs getting a bit of a refresh. But by far one of the biggest additions players will notice is that technical improvements over the years have now allowed the developers to raise the maximum building height to 32 levels instead of just 8, allowing the exploration and construction of skyscrapers and their counterparts to be 32 levels down. It will us to find interesting basements, and maybe even create underground survival bunkers ourselves?

If town life isn’t for you, and you want to walk out into the wilderness and go camping or hunting, now you can do so with randomized wilderness. No longer will you hit the end of the map, but instead procedurally generated wildness will open up and allow you to venture out. Though you might be able to travel great distances, it isn’t currently endless and is not designed to build your own town.

Lighting was always an issue in Project Zomboid, with rooms being totally dark if you pulled the curtains, but the lighting system has been redesigned, allowing light to now bounce off surfaces and be seen bleeding through curtains and blinds, providing a more realistic, dynamic lighting scheme.

To really set the mood, a dynamic music system is in the works, allowing for the music of the game to change based on what you are doing. Whether you are looking for supplies or running for your life, the music will adjust to provide you with just the right music to set the mood. Character voices have now been added as well; there are now four male and four female voices, so now we will hear the “heys, pssts,” and the puffs and pants of other players around us to add to the immersion and role-playing aspects of the game.

If you are interested in using mods, roleplaying, and setting up events, then you are also in luck. As a new integrated official mod manager, it will make its debut, along with some UI improvements. With a new Discord integration system that allows Discord chat and in-game chat to merge, administrators are able to run pre-written scripts to be played on the in-game TVs and radios to build up scenarios and run custom LUA scripts from the Discord server to create some unique events.

Build 42 is also going to show some love to players with large-resolution monitors, so now we will be able to read menus and tool tips without needing a magnifying glass.

There are so many new content and features coming that I wonder if I will even recognize the game.

What are your thoughts on this forthcoming update? Let me know in the comments below.