Apocalypse

Remarks

Initially, as I was still working on what was supposed to be 0.7.6, the answer to the question of how much progress has been made for Apocalypse overall has been somewhat set aside to a slower pace as I was still busy tickering the spawn system and how dense should Zombies spawn be. While spawns from here on out will be a lot denser whilst still preserving as much performance as possibly can, it was only one of the many integral factors in progress being made towards bring Apocalypse into full release, which I wasn't too happy about and why I didn't want to release new versions on a regular basis.

Among the things that I wasn't too excited about was the general atmosphere of the game. More precisely, what makes Apocalypse apocalyptic? Just as, for instance, what separated the feel of early Minecraft from post-1.14 Minecraft. Part of making it more apocalyptic is there ought to be something which makes the nature of the gameplay feel abandoned and eerie, and the Zombies are just part of the equation. Sure, humanity is gone for the most part, but they didn't just leave behind cities, which is why I decided in favor of a major update with a strong focus on structures and consequently, exploring and scavenging. On top of that, further refining the progression is something also to be taken care of.

General Changes

Added Axes are Weapons. While I wouldn't recommend axes for killing Zombies, at the very least Axes will maintain a degree of usefulness when going against players.

Added Valhelsia Structures. Originally I hesitated on whether should Valhelsia make a return, but Valhelsia simply does an amazing job combined with Structurify, which allows me to filter the more unneccesary buildings from ones that fit.

Added Structory. Structory will add a lot of buildings that lean towards the abandoned side, making the world a bit more desolate.

Added Stamina. Given that skill trees, both before and with the current rework, players will quickly accelerate their movement speed without much concern and can outrun zombies with ease, thereby rendering the need for mobs like Donkeys less useful for long-distance travelling and Speed Potions less useful, which is not fitting for a modpack that demands resourcefulness from the players.

Added Fog. Gives the overall environment a more eerie feel with light impact on performance at worst.

Added Create: Easy Structures.

Added 3D Ladders, Motschen's Round Logs, Better Lanterns.

Partially disabled natural healing. From now on, the only sources of healing comes from either eating meals that grants the Hearty effect, drinking Potions or eating Golden Apples.

Removed William Wythers' Overhauled Overworld. There were two major problems with William Wythers' Overhauled Overworld, first being that the mod attempted to replicate biomes that were already made present by Biomes O' Plenty, and second being that it did not have good compatibility with Dynamic Trees. It certainly is good on its own, but only if it wasn't paired with terrain generation mods that introduce new biomes or overhaul trees like Dynamic Trees.

Removed Barbeque's Delight. The ability of certain skewers to grant players powerful potion effects at a random chance is unfitting for a modpack that should be keeping players on their toes.

Removed Snowy Tents, Old Fisherman's Swamp House, Desert House, and Sawmill. With the introduction of Easy Structures, and an aim for an overall more desolate, more modern and most importantly, abandoned atmosphere, having Villagers populating non-Cities structures at a disporportionate level is counter-intuitive to the apocalyptic feel of the game.

The skill tree no longer features any upgrades which increases your maximum health and instead focuses more on increasing your overall mobility.

Removed Crabber's Delight. Aside from growing crops, I don't think there should be a passive way to gather food, especially when chums (bait) for crustations and clams can generate a quick and steady food source. On top of that, items such as the Kelp Shake can be easily made in bulk number and can be abused as quick transporation tool through rivers and oceans.

Removed Abandoned. The main reason behind the removal is because despite attempts to introduce custom loot for Abandoned structures via LootJS, it cannot be done.

Zombie Changes

After some additional tweakings and establishing some additional rules to prevent lag as much as possible, Zombies will now spawn with a significantly higher amount. Keep in mind, however, that Zombies can still lag, albeit with less intensity than post-0.6.8 versions, should they have pathfinding issues (usually when not being able to climb hills and instead congregate into dense numbers) or getting stuck in bodies of water.

Implemented a semi-progressive spawn increase system for Zombies. Basically, during the first 20 days, Zombie spawns will be slightly less dense than after Day 20, which will be extremely dense.

After some deliberations about general progression, and with greater structure generations and consequently loot changes in Cities, Zombies spawned in Cities will start with buffs that would otherwise be applied to non-Cities Zombies between Day 11 and 20 before both Cities and non-Cities become stronger with a unified progressive stats improvement system.

Patched several issues with the implementations concerning Brainiac spawns in Bunkers. Brainiacs should no longer spawn randomly on the surface.

Stucture Changes

Cities will now generate in a slightly altered way for better terrain generation, i.e. better roads inside the cities. Cities will also be relatively rarer to find.

Villages will now spawn less frequently, and for the most part buildings throughout the world will feature vacated factories, railways, stations, watchtowers and houses.

Taverns will spawn in most biomes, and can be set up as a Village. However, unlike naturally generated Villages, Zombies can spawn here and the only way to prevent Zombie spawns is with Diamond Torches.

With the implementation of Valhelsia Structures and Structory, several structures from Nova Structures have been retired. For the most part, you'll commonly encounter Fire Lookout Towers and abandoned houses.

Firearm Balance Changes

Now that I've figured out how to configure Iron Sights zoom and ADS FOV value, all iron sights no longer zoom your vision, and the iron sights will now occupy a significantly less portion of your FOV.

Reduced weight and ADS time for the M700, as well as increased the effective range and toned down the damage-per-shot.

Massively increased the muzzle velocity of the AWM, making sure it rivals high-end 5.56x45mm Assault Rifles.

Several drastic changes have been made to how AR-15 rifles recoil. AR-15 rifles (M16A1, M16A4, M4A1, HK416D) now have a snappier recoil profile to demonstrate that they perform best as accurate Assault Rifles with a relatively spammable semi-auto or quick tapfiring, in contrast to the slower impulse of non-AR platform rifles (except the AKM and QBZ-95) which have a preference for more sustained, prone automatic firing.

Stocks, Handgrips, and Muzzle devices will reduce recoil at a decently lower level than before. While still essential for mitigating recoil, the changes are done to ensure that automatic cheesing with powerful recoil reduction setups are less useful, and could grant additional negatives. Suppressors will reduce your recoil at a lesser degree, and Muzzle Brakes/Compensators retains better efficiency at reducing recoil but could lower bullet velocity and/or decrease ADS accuracy.

The M16A4 now has a faster and higher recoil pulse, making burst-firing more unreliable at distance. Likewise, the RPK now has higher recoil, making it more of a more portable and lighter machine gun than an assault rifle.

Increased the weight of the HK416D, SCAR-L, and RPK.

Increased the ADS time of the M870 from 0.15ms to 0.20ms.

Significantly increased recoil reduction for the M249 when firing prone, ensuring its parity with the RPK in terms of sustained fire capability, whilst maintaining the lack of mobility and poor on-the-move firing characteristics.

The M320 now can destroy blocks.

RPG rockets and 40mm Grenades are no longer craftable. The only source for RPG rockets and 40mm Grenades are chests and barrels in Underground Bunkers.

Loot Changes

With the introduction of new structures from mods listed above, generally speaking, there are three types of loot, divided by their classifications, utilizing several tables. Buildings that are abandoned or ruined will typically carry the least amount of loot, but nonetheless they still carry important items. Places that are still inhabited or had only recently been abandoned carry larger amounts and more important loot. Finally, areas that were of industrial importance (e.x. Train Stations or Factories) carry loot that are somewhere in between the two, and can be separated into two categories: one carrying immediately useable goods, and the other raw materials that are crucial for building materials or tools.

Barbed Wire Fences can only be found in Cities or Bunkers. Structures outside of Lost Cities or Bunkers no longer carry them.

Increased the odds of Weapons chest generations in Lost Cities. Overall, you should come across these chests containing different guns, ammunitions, attachment, and soforth in Cities.

Removed Leather from loot tables. Leather should only be obtainable by herding cows or rabbits (if you're willing to breed that many rabbits).

M1911 Pistols can be obtainable from most Loot Tables, with the exception of Bunkers'.

Food from chests and barrels are now significantly rarer, in order to balance out the stronger presence of structures. Generally speaking, more recently abandoned buildings like houses and castles carry the most food. Cities, on the other hand, typically do not generate food aside from the seldom-founded Sweet Roll.

Bread is no longer craftable by simply placing wheat onto the Crafting Table. Instead, you'll have to turn the wheat into flour, combine it with eggs or water, then bake the dough. Similarly, Pie Crusts require a similar process.

Drastically reduced the chances of getting Golden Apples from Loot Chests.

Loot tables carrying lanterns (with the exception of ones from Fire Lookouts) will carry unlit lanterns instead. Additionally, you could find sleeping bags there.

Lowered the chance of finding 5.56x45mm rounds in non-Bunker chests as chests containing loot are relatively more common. The only exception to this rule aside from non-Bunker chests are those of Fire Lookouts, which could also carry an M16A1 at a higher rate.

Complete Blaze Burners are no longer craftable. Instead, use the regular burner and figure out how to synthesize an easy and plentiful source of fuel for it and engines.

Reduced the amount of Brass required for fabricating 7.62x39mm, 5.56x45mm, and 5.8x42mm rounds.

Trade Balancing Changes

Made a temporary rework of trades offered by Fisherman Villagers, as Crabber's Delight has been removed. Parts of the new (perhaps temporary) trades are transferred from Cartographers.

Temporarily (again, perhaps) removed some Cartographer trades that relates to items from Abyssal Chasms.

Butchers will no longer offer any trades that involves Barbeque's Delight, and Farmers will sell seeds instead of any of the spices and sauces of Barbeque's Delight.

Farmers will no longer ask for Flax Cheese Wheels at Level 5, and they will instead sell tree-growth related potions.

Overhauled Toolsmiths' offerings at a significant level. In line with the current direction in favor of "soft removal" via uncraftability of multitools like the Paxel, Mattock or special ones like Hammers from Create: Ironworks, Toolsmiths will no longer offer them.

Remarks

After the introduction of beta-0.7.1, substantial changes in how Zombies spawn were made and I was quite estatic about the increased level of difficulty, without being too overbearing at the very start. Nonetheless, given the nature of the changes, it's still very new and concerning the new anti-despawning conditions implemented for Zombies, this meant a level of balance between performance and gameplay had to be achieved, which is tough to say the least. In general, I think before we get to 0.8.0, the main goal for now is to recalibrate the progression before any discussion of more content are to be had.

Zombie Changes

Zombie spawn rate will be reduced by a decent amount, but this will only balance out performance and not hinder the difficulty in any way.

Zombies will now deal even more damage per attack. Initially, the game would slowly increase the damage done by Zombies from a doubled damage per attack until it quintupled. Now, Zombies will start with their damage tripled, only stopping once their damage has been magnified by eight times. This is done, alongside with the above change, because of a need to maintain the difficulty while not being taxing towards the game performance.

Additionally, Zombies can spot Players and Villagers from farther away, as the minimum spotting range has been increased from 40 blocks to 48.

After day 20, Zombies will spawn with Jump Boost. This is done to further prevent players from simply cheesing the Zombies by building 3 block tall towers to kill zombies.

Implemented a separate spawn system for Running Zombies. This is done in order to replace the much more annoying and out of place Leaper Zombies.

Zombies will start spawning in Villages starting from Day 7.

Zombies will spawn with equipment regularly. Some will carry Iron Swords, Shields, Spyglasses or potentially two of the former and an Iron Pickaxe.

Zombies will no longer spawn inside Bunkers and instead Husks and Brainiacs (from Toxic Caves) will be spawned. This is done because the given tools of In Control is more of that of blunt hammers, and not surgical tools as they mainly affect the overall system, and more precise implementations can be contradicted by others. As such, I'd rather take advantage of the already existing Husk spawns in caves and devise a more particular system from there for Bunker spawns.

Firearm Balance Changes

Reduced the ADS time for the holographic sights (EXP3, 553, and UH-1) and the Aimpoint T2. For unmagnified sights, all were basically put out of work by the Coyote Sight because of the clearer, unobstructive frame whilst retaining the same ADS time reduction. Holographic sights will aim faster than the Coyote by 0.01 second, while the T2 by 0.02.

Handgrips will no longer decrease ADS inaccuracy, and most will only increase Hipfire accuracy. In particular, decreased ADS time for the Talon and AFG Grip, while the Koch Ranger Grip now increases your ADS time even further.

Factory-issued Stocks will, from now on, provide better Hipfire accuracy, with the exception of the Heavy Factory-issued Stock, which provides the best recoil reduction and increased accuracy at the expense of ADS speed. The C5 Carbon and the Magpul CTR provides better ADS stats, particularly in reducing ADS time.

Ammunition types/modifications now do not weigh more than regular rounds, no longer provides extra magazine size, and no longer increases ADS time.

Extended Magazine modifications will no longer increase ADS time for the M870.

Implemented a major damage and penetration buff for the M700. For a while, the damage on the newly-added Sniper Rifle was quite pitiful, but the buff is meant to signify that even though it is one, it is a cheaper option that has more to do with scouting than a traditional sniper role.

Loot Changes

Loot from Lost Cities will now be a lot more scarce and sparsed out. This is done particularly because looting Cities was basically almost a cheat code for early game survival. More specifically, foodstuffs and water are rarer and they are of a lesser quantity and quality (for water this means they might need cleaning), ammunition is more scarse, barbed wire fencing a lot rarer.

This change, however, will not affect non-simple dungeon chests' table. Most chests in Lost Cities utilize the aforementioned table, but there are, every now and again, chests that use different tables, which is unaffected by this change. Keep in mind that only several of the many non-simple dungeon tables are exempt from this change.

Removed the possibility of obtaining an M4A1 Carbine from Factory Chests. While the specific table for spawning an M4A1 and the chance of obtaining the carbine itself are rare, an M4A1 Carbine is rather inappropriate for progression as the weapon can kill Zombies (other than Brutes, Mutants, or special spawns) with a single headshot at all distances until day 50 while retaining massive customizability. Instead, Factory Chests/Barrels might grant M16A1s, MP5A5s, M870s, and P320s instead.

Replaced the SKS and 7.62x39mm rounds from non-Fletcher/Weaponsmith tables. From a balance perspective, the SKS retains its usefulness up until late game as a low recoil, spammable DMR, which is unfitting for a relatively easy to find weapon. In their place, however, will be the M16A1 and 5.56 rounds, as the M16A1 is only useful until mid-game due to the lack of customizability and relatively low damage compared to other assault rifles.

Reduced the amount of loot generated in Bunkers. However, Bunker loots will generally be more plentiful than Cities as Bunkers are harder to come by, and as a rule much more difficult to tackle.

The UMP45 can now be found in Bunkers.

Recreated the recipe for the Scout set, increasing the amount of Polymer Plates needed.

Brainiacs killed now might drop rifle ammunition.

Increased the chances of Zombies dropping handgun ammunition upon being killed.

Iron and Copper Ores no longer grant the possibility of dropping an extra chunk of raw Iron/Copper anymore, as Fortune books in Lost Cities have been patched.

General Changes

Villages will no longer spawn on Windswept Hills and Fields.

Bunkers will now spawn more rarely, requiring a lot more exploration.

Reduced armor and toughness bonus granted by all armor sets and removed all custom bonuses granted by the Attacker Set (only retaining its toughness increase).

Trade Balancing Changes

Increased prices on potions offered by Cartographers and Clerics. This is done because some potions can be easily cheesed and rendering effort cheesy instead of rewarding.

Librarians will no longer offer Sweeping Edge books once mastered.

Significantly reworked offers by Fletchers to improve consistency and utility when levelling up. By default, Fletchers will offer 3 trades per level compared to the default 2. A fully mastered Fletcher may offer the G3 rifle instead of an M4A1, M16A4, SKS, AKM, and all now are offered with more attachments on them.

Armorers will no longer grant their special Steel Boots trade.

Remarks

As stated before, after beta-0.6.8-hotfix, the next stage would be releasing the previews of 0.7.0. But after some serious considerations about the progress being made, I think Apocalypse is definitely ready for 0.7.0. All things considered, all Apocalypse needs is polishing via replacing specific (generally structure related mods) with more fitting ones, as the room for more content which fits the theme of a Zombie Apocalypse has significantly dwindled, though there's still the possibility of more depending on how they can fit. Naturally, the only changes to 0.7.1 are the ones that have been laid out or hinted in 0.6.8-hotfix.

(Post-Release) I'm also aware of the newest TaCZ version which has been released hours before Apocalypse 0.7.1. Like the previous transition from 1.0.3 to 1.1.4 for Apocalypse, this will take them as the formatting of TaCZ's configuration files mean that it's difficult to update to the newest version when it includes new content. I'd like the new attachments included in 1.1.5, but as for the new Guns, I'm not sure how to juggle the newly added G36K and the Springfield 1871 Trapdoor.

Zombie Changes

Continuing from the changes made in 0.6.8-hotfix, the total number of Zombies throughout the world is uncapped, while in a specified radius they're capped. Moreover, Zombies will now not despawn, as the prior spawning system meant that Zombies can appear and soon disappear, reducing the danger of horde attacks.

Zombies spawned in cities, however, are exempt from this rule. This is because of the large presence of zombie spawners throughout cities.

Zombies should now no longer sprint at players. This is done precisely because such sprints, even when slowed by In Control, aggravates the difficulty, especially during early game.

Some fundamental changes have been made to the conditions necessary for Zombies to spawn. In pre-0.7.1 Apocalypse, Zombies (aside from Husks, which are intented) can spawn in caves, even though this should not happen, as this was an issue with how Minecraft defines as being inside a cave or seeing the sky. Zombies will only be able to spawn inside the entrance of a Cave, though every now and again they might appear deep inside caves due to their AI, not the spawn system.

Progressive Zombie spawn increases will no longer occur. This is because the new system is quite heavy as Zombies no longer despawns and already spawns in high numbers in a reduced radius (i.e. dense spawns).

Shortened the "Grace" Period when Zombies are much slower, down from an 8 day period to a 5 day one. Zombies before day 3 will retain halved movement speed, before only being reduced by 30% between day 3 and 5.

Firearm Balance Changes

All guns now possess more consistent and better non-ADS accuracy. On top of that, all guns now have massively improved muzzle velocity, closing the gap between the guns in TaCZ and their IRL muzzle velocity.

Roughly doubled the effective range of Rifles, meaning damage falloff will occur at longer distances compared to pre-0.7.1. This change does not impact Sniper Rifles.

Increased the damage-per-shot of the MP5A5 at close range, from a 7 to 8.5 up to ~20 blocks with slightly increased damage at longer distance.

Increased vertical recoil for the KRISS Vector. This is done because the high damage output of the Vector should be further challenged than being faced only with high ammunition consumption.

Reduced the damage-per-shot of the M16A1 and increased the penetration level up to 2.

Most Firearms, save the Double Barreled Shotguns, now have a max durability of 3000. All guns now jam at a much lower rate and will break like traditional tools when the durability hits zero.

Loot Changes

Implemented a more thorough loot table system for most Lost Cities, Village (keep note of this later on), and other structures. Lost Cities loot are now divided into multiple separate tables, several of which share commonality with chests found in Villages and other Structures. The others are exclusive to Factory Buildings, Abandoned Military Bunkers and Metro Stations in Lost Cities. 99% of Lost Cities chests should contain the modified loot, apart from Chests which did not generate with loot inside of them.

Converted sculk blocks, particularly the Shrieker, Sensor, and Catalyst into Iron, Gold, and Diamond Ores, respectively.

All Diesel Engines and the Steam Engine are no longer craftable. This will not change, and to obtain a regular Diesel Engine or a Modular one either trade with a Level 5 Mason Villager or loot Factory Chests in Cities.

Replaced the P320 with the Glock 17 for starter kits, with the exception of the one below.

Replaced the Reservist starter kit with a new one called Policeman. The Policeman starter kit is essentially a Civilian one with better starting armor, a P320 instead of a Glock 17, and double the reserve ammo (120 compared to 60).

General Changes

Removed Integrated Villages. While I'd recommend Integrated Villages for its quality, it better fits a more Steampunk pack than one focused more on hardcore Zombie Apocalypse survival.

Removed Alex's Mobs. Upon some thinking I don't think any wildlife mod is necessary.

Removed Better Combat. This is because I personally think that the difficulty of melee combat need not to be increased further as guns already are the default method of killing zombies. On top of that, some melee weapons such as the Pike and Scythe became overpowered due to their increased range and the built-in sweeping mechanic of Better Combat.

Added You Thief: Remastered Edition. Even though Village chests contain the same modified loot as Lost Cities, do not steal from the Villagers as trade prices will dramatically increase if you do so.

Added Better Villages. With Structify, the reworked Plains Village now spawn in more biomes as this is the most fitting Village design out of all I've seen.

Added Abridged.

Added Entity Sound Feature.

Added Snowy Tents.

Added Cut Through. This is done because Better Combat has a built-in mechanic that ignores grass, crops, and cobwebs, and its removal meant a replacement was necessary.

Hoglins will only spawn in Wastelands. Furthermore, Hoglins now possess similar spawn conditions to Zombies, albeit adapted to their aforementioned exclusivity to Wastelands.

Trade Balancing Changes

Aside from the addition of You Thief: Remastered Edition, two major changes have been made to the Cartographer and Mason. Masons now sell items relating to Create machinery more prominently, and are also a source of Diesel Engines. Cartographers can also sell Waterskins at Level 3.

Remarks

While intention-wise this is classified as a hotfix, technically this is a preview of what would be the 0.7.0-previews as this update contains more than a bug fix.

Bug Fix

Added Level 1 trades for Farmers. This is a massive oversight from the initial 0.6.8 release, and apologies for the major inconvenience.

Zombie Changes

A slight spawn rate increases for the zombies, though this is subject to even more changes depending on whether the difficulty is appropriate or not.

Made some technical changes to how zombies spawn, though this is in testing as to see whether spawns are more efficient or not.

Loot Changes

With KubeJS and LootJS, I have made some major loot changes for Lost Cities and Watchtowers' Chests. In Lost Cities, chests may contain the newly implemented loot. As this is still a very early development, the amount of Chests that contain the new loots are relatively slim, though the quantity they provide each is large.

The newly-implemented loot in question may come in the form of ammunition, food and water, Golden Apples, and perhaps firearms. This is still being worked on as for now the affected loot tables share one singular custom loot table.

Armor Changes

Iron, Copper, Bronze, Golden, Brass, Sturdy-plated Armor are no longer craftable. Additionally, Steel and Rose Quartz Leggings and Boots are uncraftable.

Civilian Armor Chestplates (DEA and FBI) now require a Steel Chestplate instead of an Iron one.

Start Kit Changes

Replaced Spelunkies from the Civilan Starter Kit with Golden Apples.

Implemented a new Starter Kit called the Reservist. You'll spawn with better Armor and an M16A1, though this is still under significant testing.

Remarks

From this point onwards, update pacing for Apocalypse will take a slightly longer period as I think the core gameplay overall only needs several more major changes and additions while requiring massive trimmings of redundant mods.

As I have stated in the change log for beta-0.6.4, at the moment the need for quality control for performance and progression is paramount until the clutter is cleared and enough room is made for more content. During the previews for beta-0.6.0, I've stated that changes particularly for Lost Cities loot and others are scheduled for 0.7.0, which may happen depending on the performance and progression.

Nonetheless, as far as progress is concerned, we're getting close to full release, and the only visible obstacle remaining left is the implementation of custom Lost Cities loot.

I'm also planning another Modpack, though it is still preliminary as it depends on permissions as it utilizes a custom TaCZ pack. For clarity's sake, I don't plan on adding a custom TaCZ pack into Apocalypse.

General Changes

Removed Burnt Basic. While Burnt Basic (and even the full version) were great contenders, the performance drops are so significant because of the continuously spreading Burnt blocks, especially given that priority should be given to zombie spawns.

Removed Fixed Anvil Repair Cost. This is because Easy Anvils is now installed, keeping both the repair cost fix and ability to fix a damaged Anvil with an Iron Block.

Removed Xenon. This is because robin, the modpack which Apocalypse is built on, has replaced Xenon with Embeddium and Rubidium (Embeddium) Extras, both of which are now implemented into Apocalypse.

Removed Dense Ores. This is because increased ore drops are now managed by configuring In Control's break events and for greater drop parity with Zinc and Tin Ores.

Removed Xaero's Minimap. While Xaero's World Map will remain for the indefinite future, I don't like Xaero's Minimap as it essentially acts as a mild version of ESP, thus rendering awareness a bit pointless.

Removed Ben's Sharks. I really don't like the idea of sharks spawning in rivers, and a mob devoted to a family of species is overly large without much devoted to the general atmosphere and immersion.

Added Alex's Mobs. This shall be the replacement for Ben's Sharks, though there are some other animal mods out there that are under consideration.

Added Oculus. Now you can have some fun with shaders! Though I won't recommend it unless you're using them purely for screenshots or have a beefy computer.

Added Combat Roll. Default Roll Key is set to Mouse Button 4, and some of the enchants provided by Combat Roll are likely to be changed for the sake of balancing.

Added Nature's Compass. However, for the sake of balancing, the Nature's Compass can only be obtained via trading with a fully leveled-up Cartographer villager.

Added Lost Cities Modern Tweaks.

Added Ore Highlighter. This is a resource pack, and it certainly will help you find ores by highlighting them, though non-vanilla ores won't be affected.

Added Presence Footsteps, Fancy Crops, Enchantment Level Language Patch, and Complementary Shaders - Reimagined.

Villager Balance Changes

In line with changes from 0.6.4, trades are now further balanced, most notably being:

• Farmers will start buying two types of vanilla crops (excluding Melons and Pumpkins) at level 2, two types of Farmer's Delight crops at 3, Melons and Pumpkins can be exchanged at level 4 along with some minor changes.
• Cartographers now demand 30 emeralds instead of 6 for a Diamond Magnum Torch.
• A level 5 Toolsmith can sell Sophisticated Backpacks' Pickup and Compacting upgrades, with some extra tool trades at lower levels to better reflect the Toolsmith's status as a Provider.
• A level 5 Armorer can sell a well-enchanted Diamond Horse Armor.
• Weaponsmiths will no longer sell Diamonds, as this is done to prevent any cheesing, as well as some extra weapon trades.
• Librarians will no longer sell Totems of Undying. Instead, they may offer a Sixth Sense enchanted book trade, which is basically close range ESP when sneaking.

Previously, although this was forgotten, Guard Villagers were implemented in 0.6.4.

Zombie Balance Changes

From here on out, zombie spawns will be incredibly high. This will not change in the future. From the very start, zombie spawns will be as strong as it is in post-Day 70 in pre-0.6.7 and will continue to increase.

Spawn rate improvements will occur in three stages, precisely divided between before Day 30, between Day 30 and 60, and after Day 60. Zombie stat improvements, however, in parallel with 0.6.4, will be staged with subgroups between the First Day and Day 10, after which continuously improve in 10 Day-cycles until Day 80.

Within the first seven days, Zombies will be incredibly slow, with slightly reduced damage dealt. However, the damage increases post-Day 80 have been further increased, until damage dealt have been quadrupled. This may be buffed in the near future.

Nonetheless, zombies will no longer spawn frequently with armor, Shields, Ender Pearls, or Totems of Undying.

Gun Balance Changes

All late-game firearms, namely the HK-416D, SCAR-L, SCAR-H, QBZ-97, AWM, Mk14, AA12, M107, and M95 now require Netherite Ingots to be crafted.

With the zombie stat changes in 0.6.7, the HK-416D, SCAR-L, and QBZ-97 have received increased damage output. In particular, the two former rifles have their damage-per-shot increased so a single headshot at any range will guarantee a kill. The QBZ-97, despite the stronger close-range damage, cannot kill a zombie at long range with a single headshot as it should fit a more mobile and aggressive playstyle, especially in PvP.

Removed automatic fire capability and significantly improved damage-per-shot for the Mk14. The Mk14 should be a DMR and not a highly beefed-up Battle Rifle.

Reduced the amount of Steel needed to craft 7.62x39mm rounds, as 7.62x39mm rounds are only used by mid-game and early-game firearms.

Increased Shotgun ADS accuracy, ensuring their usability during late-game scenarios. This is still being tested out, and changes may be handed out via improved choke spread, while damage may be slightly reduced.

All suppressors now slightly increase your firearms' muzzle velocity, and how much they increase depends on their intended purpose.

Added durability NBT data for traded and starter kit firearms. This is a technical thing as when deployed, they will show a red tint (though this is purely cosmetic) until fired. Keep in mind, however, that guns provided by starter kit firearms need to be put away and redeployed to fire properly as it's an issue between Starter Kits and TaCZ firearms.

Remarks

It wasn't supposed to take this long for a final release of 0.6.0 but upon testing I wasn't entirely happy with the overall quality of Apocalypse and what would have been 0.6.0 so now we're at 0.6.4. With no other way to put it, I apologize for the extremely long delay.

Now back onto the point, I wasn't happy with player progression and the synchronization (or lack thereof) between it and the steadily increasing difficulty, the very taxing memory usage, numerous bugs and overlapping and redundant mods. In other words, 0.6.4 is made in mind for quality control and making progression more sensible, with difficulty increase centerpiece.

General Changes

Removed Lithosphere, this is important as all worlds made prior to 0.6.4 will break regardless. After Lithosphere was implemented, I noticed that oftentimes you'd spawn in rivers or even oceans, though I'm not sure if it's the mod's issue or some compatibility issue.

Removed Paladin's Furniture Mod. This is done mainly to reduce overlap between mods, namely between PFM, Handcrafted and Supplementaries. However, PFM may make a comeback should it be optimized overall, and with a less RAM intensive Furniture Bench.

Removed Cannibal Conundrum. Upon some rethinking, I don't think madman-like mobs are fitting for a Zombie Apocalypse modpack.

Removed HT's Treechops, Better Trees and Panda's Falling Trees. This is done because Dynamic Trees and their add-on mods are now implemented for balancing and immersion.

Reduced the minimum and maximum radius of Lost Cities. This is particularly done to reduce load on CPU and RAM.

Implemented It Takes a Pillage. This is a placeholder mod, and the structures the mod implements can readily serve as bases for other hostile mobs in the near future, namely TaCZ: NPCs (I won't implement it until some of the bugs in TaCZ: NPCs are resolved.).

Implemented Dynamic Trees, DT Biomes O' Plenty and DT+. When Better Trees and Treechops are used together, log farming was exponentially easy as you could just continuously bone meal Oak Saplings for quick and extremely large amounts of Wood. Furthermore, Better Trees do not impact Biomes O' Plenty tree species so it's relatively silly to see a vanilla tree next to a Biomes O' Plenty one.

Implemented William Wyther's Overhauled Overworld.

Implemented Create: Diesel Generators.

No Tree Punching knives are no longer craftable, as Farmer's Delight knives share an NBT data with the former's knives that allows them to collect Plant Fiber. This is also done because Better Combat essentially treats No Tree Punching knives as purely weapons, at least from my personal testing, so you can now harvest Plant Fibers without issues.

Both the Civilian and Lumberjack starter kits now features the P320 pistol (and its ammunition).

Implemented a new skill tree for Pufferfish's Skills.

Added a crafting recipe for the Enigmatic Engine, allowing players to build a Submarine for better traveling. This is done because initially I wanted to implement Small Ships, but the terms of usage apparently doesn't allow you to profit off of modpacks using it, and Aleki's Nifty Ships (namely the larger boat) controls can be too difficult.

Removed the Beginner's Tutorial as post-0.4.4 updates have rendered it obsolete.

Zombie Changes

Removed Improved Mobs. This is due to the progressive difficulty system has instead been redone with implementations via In Control and implementing Zombies Reworked. Zombies will not spawn within the radius of Diamond Magnum Torches as the pre-Alpha Apocalypse implementation of an In Control-lead progressive difficulty had configuration issues (In other words, it was on my end). Zombie stats will improve every 10 days until the daycount is over 80, and stats improvements will focus on damage done, with speed and health taking a nearby secondary focus. They will also sometimes spawn with either Shields, Ender Pearls, or Totems of Undying.

Separated Crawler Zombie spawns from the regular (vanilla and Vile) Zombies and granting them a specific spawning condition in In Control. This is done because Crawler Zombies have hitbox issues that allow them to attack through fences and even blocks.

Villager Trade Changes

Aside from Zombie spawns, this is where I wasn't the most happy about as oftentimes the trades felt a bit random and some professions just simply felt as if they were there for purely immersion or aesthetic purposes without any real utility or difficulty behind them. On top of that, important trades (such as for firearms or Mending books) can be easily farmed, which I would like to change.

With 0.6.4, Villager professions can be divided into two categories (or perhaps an axiom between): The Providers and the Provided. Providers are the ones who will provide the tools and items needed, such as potions, armor, Diamond Magnum Torches, and firearms, and they can let you trade in items for Emeralds, albeit less desirable as the profit margins are lower than the Provided or the items needed are of great importance to the players themselves or not easy to obtain.

Professions categorized as Providers: Armorer, Toolsmith, Weaponsmith, Cartographer, Fletcher, Cleric, and Librarian.

The Provided Professions are: Fisherman, Butcher, Farmer, Leatherworker, Shepherd. Eventually I would like to add the Carpenter, but I haven't figured out proper trades for Carpenters yet.

In between the two is the Mason.

Fletchers will no longer sell Mk14, HK-416D, or SCAR-L as their Level 5 trades; they will sell M4A1, M16A4, or SKS instead, with some attachments on them. Fletchers now will only accept rifle ammunition trade-ins, while only selling 12 Gauge, 9mm or .45 rounds. They will also sell some repair tools for firearms when at Level 4 and 5 (see the Firearm Balance Changes for more information).

Librarians will not sell Bookshelves, and a fully-leveled up Librarian can now sell Totems of Undying at 64 Emeralds. Mending Books are now far more expensive.

This is a non-exhaustive list of trade changes as there are many more.

Firearm Balance Changes

Updated TaCZ from 1.0.3 to 1.1.4-hotfix, thereby introducing several firearms, most notably the M870 pump-action shotgun and the M1911 handgun.

Reverted all firearms' reload time back to their specified TaCZ default (except for Sniper Rifles, as most possess an easy instant kill capability against a fully skilled-up player with late-game armor, namely with the Attacker Set).

All non-handgun firearms now have better default ADS accuracy and, for rifles, improved damage per shot and armor penetration. This is important later on.

Shotguns now have significantly improved damage and accuracy to further improve their usability, especially in late game scenarios.

Late-game firearms, namely the HK-416D, SCAR-L, SCAR-H, Mk14, AWM, M107 (new), QBZ-95 (new), M95, AA-12, M249, RPG-7, are now significantly more expensive, requiring much more Steel (and Steel sheets), with Sturdy Sheets now being necessary for fabrication.

Implemented TaCZ: Durability. Every firearm now have a durability of 2000. The more you use them, the less accurate they shall be as the threshold eventually reaches zero, where the weapon will jam every time you fire. To clear a jam, you have to inspect your weapon for 5 seconds (default key: H). All TaCZ: Durability, except for the Repair Bench, recipes have been changed for both balancing and immersion purposes.

Implemented TaCZ Tweaks. You can now reload while sprinting!

Remarks

Even though I would like to implement a custom loot table for Lost Cities to make them more worthwhile to explore, this will be delayed for a while as I have a bit of trouble trying to customize the loot. If the issue can't be resolved relatively quickly then I'll have to postpone the Lost Cities loot changes till perhaps 0.7.0.

As this is a preview of an upcoming update, there will be bugs and issues; nevertheless things should be much smoother than the initial preview.

Progression Changes

Replaced Simply Steel and Exline's Copper Tools with Create: Ironworks. This is done primarily to significantly stretch game progression by increasing the effort it takes to forge Steel Ingots.

The Double Barrel shotguns (DB-4, DB-2) and the UZI now requires Iron Ingots instead of Steel ones, making them better as early game weapons as Steel Ingots require a lot more effort to acquire now.

Fletcher Villagers now only sells custom trades related to firearms.

Added Integrated Villages. By default these villages are quite rare, but you could definitely set up your base there are most are relatively compact and Zombies won't spawn on the village chunks.

Reverted day speed back to the pre-Alpha days, extending the duration of a whole day from 60 minutes to 80.

Zombies have a rare chance to drop ammunition (only 9mm, 12 Gauge, 5.56, and .308 rounds at the moment) upon being killed.

Encased Fans are now craftable, as balancing issues surrounding them are (at least partially) dealt with thanks to the removal of Simply Steel and Steel Ingots now being made with a superheated Basin Mixer.

Weapon Balance Changes

Increased the UZI's ADS accuracy from .78 to .84.

Spawn Changes

With the introduction of Zombies+ in the initial preview for beta-0.6.0, Strays and Skeletons are no longer needed and will not spawn. In their places are Zombies that carry bows or crossbows.

Some minor revisions to the spawning system intended to alleviate performance issues.

Remarks

After some considerations over the state of a full beta-0.5.0 and whether it would fill it's intended role of being a full-on radical revision of Apocalypse, it would be better to not work on a full release of beta-0.5.0 in favor of even further changes and additions to truly transition from the overall general apocalyptic feel of pre-0.4.4 to a more dedicated zombie apocalypse survival through beta-0.6.0.

From beta-0.6.0 onwards, the intention of the path forward for the near future of Apocalypse is determined by three main objectives:

• Improving the pacing of progression to smoothen out any "upgrade spikes".
• Drastically increase the difficulty and intensity via buffing zombie spawns and stats, while forcing players to not play it safe during early game; otherwise progression will slow down significantly.
• Acquired loot, regardless of how common or rare they are for their respective game stages, shouldn't be thrown away but utilized as they were during early game or in new ways as difficulty continues progressing.

Given that beta-0.5.0 has only officially been released as two previews with many bugs, I'd say it's only right for me to apologize especially given the hype over it that's now completely killed off. It's been pretty rough overall as at the time I was very sick. Now that everything is fine, I could patch things relatively faster.

Again, with the usual disclaimer: previews are likely to contain many bugs. While beta-0.6.0 is likely to fully release quite early on, previews are likely to be buggy and the final release may add or remove things that were or weren't in the preview. I'll probably have a Github already set up by the second preview or final release of beta-0.6.0.

Starting kits

All starting kits, except the Hardcore one, now grants the player firearms and a small amount of ammunition.

The Lumberjack set gives a Double Barrel shotgun (will be changed to a pump-action shotgun should beta-0.6.0 release with the latest version of TACZ), leather armor (as shall be explained later), an axe, potions, and some food and water.

The Survivalist set has been renamed to Ranger, provides a rifle and knife instead of the shotgun and axe.

Added the Civilian set, a semi-Hardcore set that only provides a handgun with a small amount of ammunition, less water than the two former sets.

Zombie Balance Changes

Implemented Zombies+, a mod that introduces many zombie variants with differing stats and abilities.

Default zombies now have a much tighter spawn radius, and they will spawn alongside crawlers, weaker ones (early game only), Brutes and vile ones.

Running and Leaper zombies introduced by Zombies+ now have their own spawn system. These guys should be dealt with quickly and carefully.

Progression Balance Changes

Implemented Pufferfish's Skills and a custom skill tree. Default skill tree hotkey is 'K' and the skill tree allows you to improve your movement speed, toughness, health and many more.

The Civilian Armor Set (officially known by the mod names as the DEA Armored Set and FBI Armored Set) now only requires the helmet and chestplate to provide bonuses and will no longer provide passive Resistance.

The Attacker Set will no longer provide passive Speed.

The Armored Chemical Set will no longer provide passive Resistance.

Steel Armor is now craftable.

Reverted Villager trades back to accepting Emeralds as currency instead of Gold Ingots.

Replaced Tough As Nails with Cold Sweat and Thirst Was Taken to smoothen out progression. This is done specifically to combat "upgrade spikes" that made spawning in certain biomes or failure to obtain Thermal Tuning during midgame a liability for armor protection while increasing the effort it takes to acquire a good generalized, but not perfect, insulation for armor. As such, starting kits now provide leather armor to help deal with temperature, albeit it being a mediocre way to do so.

Added crafting recipes for Glowstone and Crying Obsidian. You can use a deployer with a Block of Netherite (won't be consumed) for the former and Amethyst Shard for the latter (will be consumed).

Increased the frequency of Farmsteads inhabited by a single Villager.

Miscellaneous Additions

Added Brewin' And Chewin', Old Fisherman Swamp House, and Sawmill House.

Added Right-Click Harvest. Any planted crops (including Sugar Canes) can be harvested by simply right-clicking them. Wild Crops, however, will still have to be harvested the old way by digging the dirt beneath them.

Bug Fixes

Armorer Villagers should now only provide custom trade as this was an issue with a duplicate file.

Farmer Villagers should now give you Emeralds in return for selling your crops as this was an oversight error.

Minor alterations to how Lost Cities generate in the defaultconfig JSON file to prevent ticking issues upon generation. However, as Lost Cities and C2ME may have some compatibility issues, this is just to smoothen out generation issues not fully fix it.