Infection Free Zone News

[h2]Greetings, Survivors![/h2]

Preparations for the upcoming release of Infection Free Zone in Early Access are underway! We've just uploaded a new build to Steam and wanted to share with you the latest changelog before the game's launch.

[h2]Changelog:[/h2]

• The project's Unity version has been updated,
  
• New translations have been added. Some follow-up translations are to be added,
  
• Swarms and hordes spawning system has been rebalanced,
  
• Unit pathing has been updated,
  
• Several optimization changes for bigger numbers of hordes and workers have been introduced,
  
• Number of new SFX have been added,
  
• "Highlight playable tiles" option has been added to the Tile Selector,
  
• New military events have been added, while previous military events have been updated,
  
• New side events have been added,
  
• Several new tooltips have been added,
  
• The wall spawning system at the beginning of the game has been updated,
  
• Healing, food, and drug production have been rebalanced,
  
• Towers have been updated to allow for the usage of the shotgun and sniper rifle weapons,
  
• Vehicle repair functionality has been added,
  
• Tank trucks and other new vehicles are now spawning on the map,
  
• Several new environment models have been added,
  
• Objects generated in the background during the Loading Screen are now displayed with their current percentage
  
• Settings Menu has been updated,
  
• An option to limit the number of auto-save slots to two has been added,
  
• Road Map window has been added to the Main Manu,
  
• Worker logic has been updated. Workers won't go to work now during the Megastorm event when at risk.
  
• New recommended maps have been added - Guangzhou and Ruciane,
  
• New voiceovers have been added to the number of transmissions that previously used placeholder sounds.
  

[h2]Feedback needed![/h2]

If you have previously supported us on Kickstarter, Backerkit, or Xsolla, your feedback is needed! We will be thankful for playing through the game and reporting all the encountered issues via the in-game Bug Reporter. The more issues we can fix before the launch, the better the start of the Early Access! Thank you!

Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team

[h2]Greetings, Survivors! [/h2]

It's only 3 weeks left until we release Infection Free Zone in Early Access! The whole team is working hard to ensure the launch is as smooth as possible. We hope you're looking forward to it as much as we are! To make this anticipation more pleasant, we want to announce that Infection Free Zone will be available with a 10% launch discount. We hope that will encourage you to join us from the very first day!

[h2]Recommended Cities[/h2]

Right now we have the following list of recommended cities in the game:

1. Crofton, USA
   
2. Dijon, France
   
3. Cambridge, UK
   
4. Templin, Germany
   
5. Jinhua, China
   
6. Tazihou, China
   
7. Peschiera, Italy
   
8. Atlanta, USA
   
9. Oakland, USA
   
10. Ruciane, Poland
    
11. Guangzhou, China
    

The list of these places has been carefully selected. Not only all those locations should provide you with interesting gameplay, but they also significantly differ from each other. For example, Peschiera is surrounded by water and walls, which allows for effective defense against enemy hordes. But playing in Oakland will require a more strategic approach - there are not many buildings for scavenging close to the HQ and the development of the Zone needs to be carefully planned.

[h2]What's your suggestion?[/h2]

Do you think the list above is missing some great places that should be added for everyone to see? Feel free to write down the suggestions for us in the comments! Below you can find an example of another nice city that recently caught our attention when looking at different places across the world.

London
[h2]New languages[/h2]

We are also having a nice little surprise for all the people asking about the list of languages the game is getting translated to. Infection Free Zone will be available in Italian and Turkish upon launch! In total, the game will be available in 12 different languages. We will update the Steam Page with this information once we have the translations of the Steam Page ready.

Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team

[h2]Greetings, Survivors![/h2]

The long-awaited day has finally come! We are pleased to announce that the release date of Infection Free Zone in Early Access is finally known! Mark April 11, 2024 in your calendars, because that's when Infection Free Zone will start its grand adventure on Steam! We are extremely excited about this and we hope you are too!

[h2]Date Reveal Teaser[/h2]

A new Date Reveal Teaser for Infection Free Zone has just launched on YouTube. Let us know in the comments what you think about it!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]What to expect?[/h2]

We know that most of you have been waiting for this announcement for many months. So, before we launch into Early Access, we'd like to give you some clear information about what you can expect when the game becomes available on Steam. The list below focuses on the main changes compared to the Infection Free Zone's Prologue.

Early Access includes:

• Unlimited gameplay - play for as many days as you want,
  
• Any city available - play on real-world cities using OpenStreetMap data,
  
• Save system,
  
• Raider and Military story events,
  
• Alpha Infected - a new type of enemy,
  
• Biome system overhaul,
  
• Weather system overhaul,
  
• New weapons, buildings, and research options,
  
• Mood System,
  
• Many, many more...
  

Does it mean that we are done with the Infection Free Zone's development? Quite the opposite! Infection Free Zone will be an actively developed game, that will change from update to update until the game's full release (and long after). We still plan to add several new story events and communicate with our community to ensure that we are working on the features that you care the most about.

[h2]What not to expect?[/h2]

To be transparent with you, we also want to inform you about the things that won't be ready upon the Early Access launch.

Early Access does not include:

• Full story and all the faction events,
  
• Map elevation,
  
• Explosives and demolish feature,
  
• Infected animals (other than dogs),
  
• Laws System.
  

Mind you, all those elements from the list are not canceled. Those systems and features are already in advanced development and working on our internal branches. But due to balancing issues we have decided to prioritize other systems and focus on the list above once the game is released in Early Access.

[h2]Request from our Friends[/h2]



Our friends at King's Orders have 48 hours until their Kickstarter Campaign ends. If you are a fan of gameplay on real maps (although in this case in a historical version), we encourage you to check out their fundraising. The Campaign is 77% funded and we still need one final push to succeed.

Thank you for following Infection Free Zone. We are extremely happy that the wait is almost over. Get ready to build your Infection Free Zone.

Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team

[h2]Greetings, Survivors! [/h2]

It's 2024 and we are back and working on the game in full swing! We are happy to let you know about the first development update this year. Several things are changing and we are eager to know your feedback on them.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

List of changes in the recent update:

• The horde spawner has been reworked. Now, the player should encounter a higher number of hordes on average. This number will also adjust to some extent, depending on how well is the player doing overall.
  
• The range of pistol weapons has been slightly reduced.
  
• Fighting the hordes in the buildings has been rebalanced. The hordes will now start dealing damage faster, preventing the "bouncing" strategy, where some players leave the buildings and enter repeatedly to avoid receiving damage.
  
• An issue with horde swarms not appearing for players at night has been fixed. This fix won't work for previous saves and will require the players to start a new gameplay.
  
• "Fire at will" and "Move at will" Squad Stances have been added. Disabling them should help prevent situations where squads partake in risky actions like leaving the buildings at night.
  
• An option to disable the "Tutorial" events has been added.
  
• Atlanta - a new recommended map has been added.
  
• New sound effects and a new battle theme have been added during the night.
  
• New Chinese maps have been generated with the help of image recognition technology for places that had missing data in OpenStreetMap database.
  
• Number of small bug fixes and optimization changes.
  

[h2]Balancing Continues[/h2]

With this update, we wanted to address the issue of the game getting stagnant for some testers and early backers, who were able to develop their Zones well enough. The game should now impose a bigger threat on the player while taking into account several factors, like the number of resources the player currently has.

We plan to observe the results of those changes and react accordingly. Our main goal here is to ensure that the player can continue playing after the initial events for many days and still have fun, encountering new challenges and overcoming them. While this task might require many iterations on our side, we hope that this will be a good starting point.

Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team

[h2]Greetings, Survivors! [/h2]

Supporter Packs have been distributed to all the backers. Thank you for joining us during this last round of crowdfunding for the Infection Free Zone! We are happy to have everyone on board. Next stop - official Early Access Launch on Steam somewhere in the next year.

[h2]Map Editor[/h2]

As most of you know, Infection Free Zone is using the Open Street Map database to generate real-world locations. In some places around the world, the data can be missing or outdated. For the past few months, we have been working on an alternate solution to this problem. Our own Map Editor will allow users to open any map in the world and modify it to their liking.



[h2]Map Editor - Features[/h2]

Map Editor will allow you to:

• Create, remove, update, and delete buildings,
  
• Edit the building's parameters - height, color, vertices, roof type and all other "tags"
  
• Rotate the structures,
  
• Add more trees to your map,
  
• Edit and add paths or roads on the map
  
• Add Point of Interest to buildings (which means more resources of your desired type),
  
• Quickly save all the changes and play on the edited map right after.
  

You can also find a Guide to Map Editor here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3119950466

The first iteration of the Tool is already available to testers and early backers. If you have early access to the game, please visit your Steam Library and:

1. Ensure that "Tools" visibility is enabled in your Library.


2. Install the Infection Free Zone - Map Editor.




[h2]Show us your maps![/h2]

We're very curious to see what you can do with Map Editor. Send us links to screenshots on Steam showing the edits of your cities in the comments. Maybe you managed to fill in the missing buildings in a city? Or maybe you are recreating some amazing, completely fictional settlement? We are interested to see it all!

This is the last update in 2023. That's why we also want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for being with us and we hope that you will have a great time playing Infection Free Zone in 2024!

Best regards,
Jutsu Games Team