Half-Life: Zombies Ate My Neighbours Multiplayer mod

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?

1. We’ve added all the Further Data models and maps, including TheHill and Team9.
2. We’ve added our recreations of Rust and Shipment from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.
3. We’ve ported over all the maps from the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life, including Skirmish and Office.
4. We added descriptions for every map in the game.
5. 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:

1. Fixed certain maps missing their assets, such as skyboxes and/or sounds.
2. Fixed broken invisible barriers/kill plains on Crossfire
3. Fixed some audio issues, such as the loud DSP on Dyce and Subtransit
4. 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.
5. Fixed performance issues on the Kasino2 map
6. Fixed the robo playermodel using an incorrect name in the TDM game modes
7. Playermodel previews have been fixed, meaning you can see what colours your model will look like
8. Outdated Discord Rich Presence images have been updated to match the new map versions
9. 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:

1. Added Infinite Ammo option; enable in listen server settings or the command (sv_aura_infinite_ammo) Some game modes may automatically enable this setting.
2. Added Theatre and Player List options to the main menu.
3. Added more ambience to maps such as Crossfire and Bounce
4. Tweaked lighting on maps such as Subtransit
5. Added tools for developers (see ‘bin’ folder in archive)
6. Added HUD swaying
7. The Command Menu has received an overhaul, with categories for voting and changing the gamemode.
8. 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