I've decided to write up a small guide on setting up Project Zomboid with RC2.5 to be as bug free and as playable as possible. I'm doing this because I know a lot of people out there are really looking forward to the next update as well as getting anxious to play the game with all the new features.
Indiestone is hard at work on the next update which is adding a completely revamped world. A ton of new features, a new interface plus way to many other things to list. Basically they are completely reworking the game from the ground up to make it as fun and as smooth as they possibly can. This is taking a lot of time but it is very much going to be worth it. Until then though, in order for us fellow PZ fans to get their fix and have fun with the game we currently have a few options.
First option is playing the latest stable version of the game which is 1.5d. This version is really smooth and stable but it is missing so many fun and exciting features that the newer versions of the game have. The second option is playing RC2.5 which was the last test release update of the game. This version has the new animation system and the better graphics and the larger city and a few other great features but sadly has lot of stability and bug issues that crop up. After quite some time and a lot of forum reading later. The fellow PZ modding community and a few other fans have figured out work arounds and bug fixes of their own to make RC2.5 quite a lot more stable and a lot less buggy and generally the most fun version of the game to date to play while we wait for the very awesome rework update. Following this small guide will show you how to setup the newest version with the most features while squishing a lot of the bugs that make RC2.5 unplayable for most. Anyways on to the guide.
Project Zomboid Bug Squishing Guide Rc2.5 (For windows systems)
First Obviously is to buy the game here
http://www.desura.com/games/project-zomboid
The 7.99 Project Zomboid Alpha Version is fine. The 49.99 version is for people that wish to help further support the development of PZ. Both Versions will give you the same game.
Second, once you officially own the game follow the below link and download the latest test release of the game.
http://theindiestone.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=9404
Download RC2.5 for windows and install it. This is going to be the main game we use to play and the base of everything else we are going to fix. Also make sure your java is the correct version needed to play the game. We need to make sure RC2.5 is installed and working first before we can go about fixing the bugs in it to make it as stable as we can.
It is also common knowledge from the community that starting the game with the EXE file also casues issues and problems for quite a few people. Delete the Shortcut that was created when you installed the game and navigate to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Zomboid (or just program files without the (x86) part for those without 64bit Operating systems) and locate Project Zomboid.bat The icon should show little gears on it and it should be very small in size and it should say windows batch file under the type section. Right click that file and make it a shortcut on your desktop. This is what you should use to start the game up and to play it. Double click that now and start it up and make sure the game starts and works correctly (also if you just purchased the game you will need to enter your Desura key in at this time which can be found on your dersura account)
If your having trouble starting RC2.5 or other minor issues follow this link
http://theindiestone.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7376 and see if any of those common issues and fixes help.
Ok so we got RC2.5 installed now and we have the shortcut on desktop to start it from the Bat file instead of the exe. That's a great start. Now we need to go about adding bug fixes to this version of the game to make it playable and stable enough to enjoy.
There is currently an issue with the handguns and reloading in the RC2.5 version of the game. We will fix this issue first.
Go to
http://theindiestone.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8991 and download RC2.0 (the Rar version NOT the EXE. The rar version says Windows Batch in front of it. We are not going to play this version we are simply taking the working files we need out of it to fix RC2.5.
We need two files out of this version of project zomboid to fix the handgun issues that are in RC2.5 What we need are stormysReload.lua and LuaJavaInvoker.class
Unrar the rar file and navigate to the folder
C:\Users\Zargo\Downloads\pz_020r_rc2\Project Zomboid\media\lua (obviously replace Zargo with your own PC's user name and also replace downloads if you downloaded and extracted it to a different location.) and grab stormysReload.lua and just drag it to your desktop for now temporarily. We will come back to it in a second.
Now navigate to
C:\Users\Zargo\Downloads\pz_020r_rc2\Project Zomboid\se\krka\kahlua\integration\expose (obviously again replace Zargo with your pc's username and replace downloads if you downloaded and extracted to a different location) and look for the file LuaJavaInvoker.class grab that file and drag it also to your desktop like you did with the previous file.
Now that we have both the files needed to fix handguns we are ready to place them where they belong to get handguns working in the version we are going to play. Navigate to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Zomboid\media\lua and drag and drop stormysReload.lua from your desktop into this folder. If it is the correct location it will ask you if you wish to replace the file with the other one. Say yes to replace it.
Now navigate to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Zomboid\se\krka\kahlua\integration\expose
and Drag and drop the file LuaJavaInvoker.class from your desktop into this folder. If it is the correct location it will ask you if you want to replace the current file. Say yes to this to replace it.
There we go Handguns are now fixed in the game and will work and reload properly when we play it. You may now delete the RC2.0 stuff that you downloaded and unrar'd because we no longer need it.
We are almost done here. Thankfully the Wonderful modding community of Project Zomboid has made the rest of the bug fixes rather easy for the rest of us. I like to give credit where credit is due and would like to thank
Erasmus Crowley , Lukaloginska , Spaz , Jrave5000 , and InnocentSam for their help and contributions.
Go to this link http://theindiestone.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9127 and download Crowley's Crafting mod under the download v1.5 section. and extract it. Go inside the file you extracted and grab the media and zombie folders inside there and paste them inside C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Zomboid if you have pasted them in the right location it will ask you if you wish to combine folders and replace certain files. say yes to both. and that's it! You can view all the bug fixes that Crowley's Crafting mod fixes on his post on the forums where the download is located.
Your now done with fixing up RC2.5 to make it the most newest and stable version of the game you can play. Just play the game with the bat file shortcut that should be on your desktop and have yourself a wonderful zombie killing surviving time while we await the next most awesome update from Indiestone. I hope you found this guide useful and I hope it helps give you a wonderful zomboid experince. Now if you will excuse me, I've got some surviving to do!
