tdevine

I know 8k to 10k are normal, but the editor also lets us make 9k, can all players still use it if I share it or is there something I am missing and they can't?

Maps are usually 8k or 10k, but the editor can also make 9k maps. Are they playable by other players when downloaded or is there some reason they can't?

Actually I use both. I can make my own maps with placed canyons, rivers, mountains, coastal areas or islands, and reshape or resize them how I want. I still use MapToolz for this by switching between Alphas as it is outdated. After a year I have the world editing down pretty well. As far as Prefabs, I am getting much better after all the practice, but would like some information on more advanced features so I can improve the quality of them. I am in the process of making an entirely hand crafted map with 100% placed POIs, with some of my own designs, like the mountain bunker I am still working on below. It drives me crazy how much potential the game has for creativity and content past the usual blood moon cycle of game play. Designing an overhaul that would actually have an end game to accomplish while exploring the world and dealing with hordes.

I have been learning by trial and error so far as finding specific information is exhausting. I spent 2 days trying to figure out why I could not modify the terrain on my new map because I could not find the information to tell me that it could not be done. The scattered information around all forums and platforms is unreal. So much so that I just want to make my own thread or video that will cover as much as possible in one easy place.

It says it is A16 specific. So how much of the information is outdated or wrong? Is it going to help with A21 enough to even read?

Trying to put a lot of facts and answers into one thread. Please put the number of the question in the beginning of your response so others can quickly find what they are looking for. 1 How to name a POI so that name shows up in game. The editor name may not be the one you want for the game. Example, TFP "Factory 1" is actually "Shamway". I can't find the file to set the name I actually want. And if you want a name that's more than one word in the editor, you can use a space or it will give you an error. I can use "_" between words, but I would like to do it better than that. 2 What tool do I need to modify a .dll file for this game? 3 When you copy a sleeper volume, why does it copy the size of the volume and number of zombies to spawn, but NOT the trigger of the original volume? 4 What is the purpose of the Load Into button as compared to just using the Load to Clipboard button to bring a copy of an existing POI into your new project or POI?

It seems to me that the modding community has kept this game alive in a much bigger way than the developers themselves. I would think that TFP would have an official thread that goes over as close to everything that the prefab editor and world editor has to offer, and keep it updated. It would take a little time, but the community deserves it for the 1000's of mods that gave more life to the game. And thank you for the offer to help, I just may use it, thanks again.

This game has sold about 14m copies or so and around for 10+ years. I have been messing around with modding for about a year or so. Why is it soooo hard to go to one site, one link, one thread that explains everything about the editor? At least what all the options and types of things there are on the right side panel. Most of the info I run across is old and obsolete. Why is the information about the modding of this game so scattered and missing? I use Discord, YT, and other sources, yet can't find 60% of the information I would like to have.

I tried that but I think there are other files that look for the original name and it did not work. I will try again. Thanks

I need about 10 or more additional toolbelt slots when I am in the editor, how can I mod this and what file dictates this?

I made a custom POI but want to change the name, or even make a backup with a different name. I do not see a "save as" option. How can I do this? Thank you for the answers and I have confirmed for anyone that also would like to know: Copy all the files that belong to the custom POI and put into another folder, re-name all of them the new name you would like. Move them into your original prefab folder and now you have two of the same POI with different names.

I was kinda joking. This is a hardish game about survival and maybe certain death. If you are getting hit that often you are doing it wrong. This game has 100 ways to loot, fight, and stay safe.

Hmmm.... No offense, but you sound kinda fragile. Maybe try Mario Kart first?

I will edit this post as I find or think of more important issues that may make the game better. Hopefully some of you will join in with some great ideas. 1. There has always been a bad balancing factor between playing solo or multiplayer. This game's crafting is completely balanced for a solo player, but are not adjusted for multiplayer. This means that if 3-4 players organize their crafting points, they could be getting and making end game items in less than the first week. It may be worse now, as you can give away your magazines for the right teammate to read. I suggest making it an OPTION so that ONLY the player that looted the magazine can read or use it. This way, the crafting progression can remain balanced for everyone and the team in question, so the game keeps its challenge. And I said OPTION, so players that do not want this don't have to use it. 2. PLEASE, for the love of god, remove the main loot off the roofs, especially tier 4s and 5s. I will use the T5 shotgun factory and hospital as an example. TFP have spent countless hours making these grand buildings with many zombies, rooms, furnishings, atmosphere, etc.... Why would you at TFP think it is reasonable to put the main loot on the roof of these POIs? You can skip 95% of each POI and go right to the main loot. Not "cheesing" is not an excuse for bad choices or design. Put the loot either together, or broken up, IN the POIs, making the player search for and fight for it. A much, much, more interesting visit to the large POIs.

OMG release the update already!

Need a much better release date than just saying 2023, since we waited over a year already. I am waiting to finish my mods so I can play with my family and friends. But waiting until the patch. Are you talking 2-4 months or 5-8 months?

Actually, my complaint with these A21 specific changes were that, one, they took way too long, two, the current skill system should have NEVER been put into the game as it is horrible.

Bring something to the discussion or don't say anything at all. We don't need a keyboard warrior or a useless troll on the forum. Quit personally attacking me while hiding behind your screen. Also, some of my complaints are being addressed in Alpha 21, so I guess some of my complaints are legit huh? It is good that you don't decide where this game goes, and your opinion of my complaints are also worth ZERO.

Or i dunno, maybe your toxic spew is empty of any substance to the discussion of improving the game.

No, the problem is bad design. If they were smarter devs they would have made multiple versions of the exact same POI that had the loot in different areas, or even better, random areas each time. Like the shotgun factory that looked exactly the same, but the loot could be in a dozen different areas and you would have to search. Cheeseing is also a term sometimes used when design sucks or the devs are lazy. "Hey, lets put a lot of the main loot all together on the roof of these huge buildings, EVERY TIME". Ya, cheesing is the problem, haahahahahah Excuses for bad design..........

How do POI spawns change when solo or in 3 man multiplayer? Can you load a POI in the editor, and then "save as" so you can make some tweeks and place it? When I load it into a new POI area the spawn zones go away.

EDIT: I had posted my earlier content while frustrated and angry after trying to experience multiplayer with my friends and family. I wanted to articulate my thoughts without those feelings, so I will try again. After getting to know the game, I started checking out mods, and thinking about things in the game that made no sense to me. I could not enjoy the game at this point knowing what I had concluded to be major problems or missing features. I stopped all of us from playing until I could mod it, including making my own mods. And since I had no experience modding this game, I had to reverse engineer established mods first before making my own, which took about 2-3 weeks before I could start making multiple mods and changes with no errors, and were balanced within the game. This also included making my own custom map and using the world editor, along with third party software to make it more realistic. The offered default maps are a horrible example of what this game could actually be. This all took me about 2 1/2 months of research, time, trial and error, and hunting down mistakes. And what got me the most frustrated and angry was the fact that after 10 years, this game has very little info or help to make mods or use the editors that is easy to find or access. On YouTube, most of the vids cover the same crap, and none of them are very detailed. Those creators could not even answer some of the more basic world editor questions. Now there are sources for info, do not get me wrong, but when you are looking for detailed or advanced info, it is very hard to find. I have had some luck on a Discord I was pointed to, but the process of gaining a lot of knowledge to modify this game is a long frustrating road. And some of the changes I needed to make before enjoying the game again, I think should have been addressed long ago, so I would not have to use my own time working on it instead of playing it with my friends and family. Another thing that was really frustrating was trying to add finished community mods to the game. Almost all of them had to be customized as they were completely unbalanced, included features that made vanilla features useless, mixed quality content with crap content, had errors, were not really finished, were not thought out, ruined the survival aspect, etc... One vehicle mod was missing sounds, some vehicles drove like crap, some had the avatar in the wrong place etc... More work for me again. 1. Nothing is more frustrating than watching your nephew just climb up to a tier 5 POI roof, grab all the best loot and come back down. But wait, I thought this was a semi hard core survival game? Food is scarce, you start on foot, what is this? "Don't Cheeze", is a poor excuse for bad design. I know TFP have purposely patched out exploits in the past, so why not this? They could have easily just taken the 50 or so tier 4s and 5s, removed the main loot from the roof, broken it up, and scattered it in 3-5 areas of each POI depending on size. This would at the least make players search or fight through the POI to grab all the loot. Even better if possible, make the loot respawn randomly around a POI. Something similar to this or better should have been a priority. I had to do this myself, and it works great. 2. The skill system. Who at FTP thought is was good to have only 5 crafting levels and immediately be able to craft stone, iron, steel, etc, at the same level that you have reached once the item was unlocked? This takes a "semi hard core survival game" and turns it into a basic, easy mode crafting game. You are telling me that once I am at level 5, get lucky and find the right schematic, I can now craft end game items at tier 5 within 30-60 days or even sooner? You also can skip an entire crafting element like iron tools if you get lucky enough for example. The real problem here is single player vs. multiplayer. Since skill costs do not change from SP to MP, now all your team has to do is min-max diff skills your team needs, making the skill system a joke. My job was to build vehicles. Needless to say I was making the 4x4 in a few weeks of game time. Not very fun, not challenging at all. In single player, your skill choices matter much more as you advance much slower as you have to cover the entire skill system yourself, but multiplayer completely destroys this. The next patch will address this, but after 10 years, and the latest horrible system that should have never been part of the game in the first place. You should never be able to make iron tools if you can't at least make tier 3-5 stone tools. 3. The game feels kind of empty and lonely. Not many zombies around outside of POI's. No civilians or survivors running from zombies. One type of car to litter the world. No roaming zombies in a POI that you have entered, you need to wake them all up, but can shoot most of them first. Where is everyone? Screamers and hordes are not much of a challenge. And I was told that the POI spawns do not change with MP? This can not be correct. I get the same amount of spawns in a POI no matter SP or MP? Please tell me this is not the case. I had to combine and customize mods to make an occasional civilian/survivor either running from or fighting zombies to liven up the world. I did the same to add a half dozen different vehicles that could spawn along with the default cars, giving more variety and life to the world. I changed the skill system and spread it out to make more sense, while adding more content to fill it out better. Why has FTP not put more effort into optimizing this game? They said because it is not finished, but 10 years and probably 5+ to go, this game and its players need more effort to optimize this as we go, not 5 more years from now, or even longer? Why can't we zoom out to see more of the world map? Why can't we share our explored parts of the map with the team in MP? Why can't we craft a lower tier of an item if we don't have the parts to make a higher tier, or just don't need the higher tier item? Why is it taking 12-24 months to get an update that should only take half as long? Why can't I change the terrain in world editor mode and save it? Why are most POI zombies set to active instead of attack, making them too vulnerable? Why has it taken so long to fix water in the world? Many other questions I forgot. I actually like the idea of the game, and I see it has come a long ways from where it started. But I still get frustrated at how far it is from the potential it has.