Introducing Season 7: Black Ops to Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours Multiplayer
Hey all, Sabian & Ryley here, the Lead Developer & Community Manager [respectively] of The Phoenix Project Software.
We’re announcing that the ZAMNHLMP Team @ TPPS is continuing the ZAMNHLMP Seasonal Scheme with Season 7: Black Ops. Hence the title, this season is based on the Black Ops team of marines from the Half-Life universe. Thus, you can expect skins, sounds and maps based on the theme.
Season 7 will be included with the next major update, version 2.7. This is the version we’ve been working on the longest, ever since August 2021, when Season 6 (v2.6): HECU was released.
Your mod is called ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBOURS – why are all the seasonal themes seemingly from the HL universe?
The main game, Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours has only just left production. Seasons 8 and 9 will certainly be themed around the ZAMN universe and our expanded version of it.
When you announced Season 6, you said seasons would last 1.5-2.5 months. What happened?
Time happened. We were overambitious.
What new content will we see in Season 7?
- We’ve added all the Further Data models and maps, including TheHill and Team9.
- We’ve added our recreations of Rust and Shipment from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.
- We’ve ported over all the maps from the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life, including Skirmish and Office.
- We added descriptions for every map in the game.
- Added the Displacement game mode. All players spawn with only the Displacer.
What is new with 2.7?
2.7 is our biggest update for ZAMNHLMP, ever. With a 10+ month workspace, there’s bound to be a lot of changes - the 65+ line changelog document speaks for itself.
TPPS continues its support for developers & modders alike with new SDK tools bundled with the main game. These include WAD editors for textures, and Sprite Explorer.
User Experience (UX) continues to improve with an easy-to-use menu and an extensive list of preferences in the VGUI to make the player’s experience better.
Squashing the bugs - once again
A good amount of bugs have been patched to give players a quality experience. Noticeable bug fixes are:
- Fixed certain maps missing their assets, such as skyboxes and/or sounds.
- Fixed broken invisible barriers/kill plains on Crossfire
- Fixed some audio issues, such as the loud DSP on Dyce and Subtransit
- The pre-Season 6 (version 2.5 and earlier) game modes are now fully working, so now you may play these versions of the game modes without the new Opposing Force weapons.
- Fixed performance issues on the Kasino2 map
- Fixed the robo playermodel using an incorrect name in the TDM game modes
- Playermodel previews have been fixed, meaning you can see what colours your model will look like
- Outdated Discord Rich Presence images have been updated to match the new map versions
- Consistency fix for the Opposing Force and spectator mode crosshairs
New goodies
A bunch of new stuff has been added to 2.7. Some notable additions include:
- Added Infinite Ammo option; enable in listen server settings or the command (sv_aura_infinite_ammo) Some game modes may automatically enable this setting.
- Added Theatre and Player List options to the main menu.
- Added more ambience to maps such as Crossfire and Bounce
- Tweaked lighting on maps such as Subtransit
- Added tools for developers (see ‘bin’ folder in archive)
- Added HUD swaying
- The Command Menu has received an overhaul, with categories for voting and changing the gamemode.
- Added option to play a sound when you kill an opponent.
We hope for Season 7 to be released to the public in-between late-June and late-August. If you can’t wait, you can try out work-in-progress Public Playtest (PPT) builds of ZAMNHLMP 2.7 here - Github.com
Until then, we can’t wait to see you at Rust!
-Ry13y04, Community Manager @ The Phoenix Project Software, UX Lead on the ZAMNHLMP Team
-Sabian Roberts, Lead Developer @ The Phoenix Project Software
