Game News

This is an archive of all major changes to the game in its history, chiefly those which would leave players at a significant disadvantage if they weren't aware of the change in game behaviour. Minor changes are not listed.

30th October 2012

• It's the time of year for zombies to thump at safehouse doors in the fog. Perhaps they'll get some extremely stale pre-apocalypse confectionery, perhaps they'll just smash the carved pumpkins of the living and cover the place with gore.
• Full-face masks worn during halloween will be displayed in place of the character's name for any action they take, but other players can click through to see who's behind it.

21st December 2011

• With only a few looting days until Christmas, the weather turns colder. Those wandering the streets of Malton will leave footprint trails and/or bloodstains in the snow as they go about their business.
• Dwindling mall backrooms still seem to have enough decorations for safehouses, for a few days.

22nd December 2010

• As the year ends, survivors take up their seasonal traditions of dragging pine trees through the cold streets, and leaving footprints and blood in the snow as the undead trail them to their decorated safehouses.
• Although it's freezing in Monroeville and Borehamwood, the snow isn't heavy enough to leave footprints there.

29th October 2010

• Halloween just doesn't have that old pre-apocalypse atmosphere, in a city of walking corpses, but survivors continue to harvest and carve pumpkins, and wear unconvincing plastic masks.
• If zombies knock at your safehouse door over the weekend and you don't give them any stale candy, they might use their advancing memories of life to defile any graffiti you've written outside.

16th August 2010

• Survivors and zombies alike are finding it easier to navigate the familiar wreckage of the city streets. Survivors can get directions to a nominated safehouse; zombies automatically focus on the most recent groan or scent trail.
• Settling in for the long haul, some survivors have been modifying and memorising their safehouses. Those able to scout a safehouse can spend 30AP to survey the building, giving them approximately 5 extra AP per day within their nominated safehouse, until they die or the safehouse is ruined.
• A few zombies have been heard bellowing with rage when faced with large numbers of survivors, issuing a louder feeding groan which attracts the dead from further afield.
• Zombies are lurching into the deepest shadows of dark buildings, making it harder to escape their tangling grasp in the dark.

3rd July 2010

• Five full years of quarantine since the first outbreak in 2005, and the world still ends. New game mechanics are coming later this month in early August, but for today, and today only, zombies and survivors can scavenge cardboard crowns from the floors of the city's nightclubs.

22nd December 2009

• Another cold winter in the quarantine zone, and snow is falling. Walking or lurching at street level will leave a temporary trail of footprints right to the door of any building you enter, so watch your step.
• Survivors are once again hauling festive decorations out of the back storerooms of the city's shopping malls, to brighten safehouses through the depths of winter.

31st October 2009

• It's that time of year again. Survivors and zombies alike begin the ritual of wearing strange masks, knocking or smashing at safehouse doors, and handing around best-before-2005 confectionery. This year, some enterprising gardeners have planted pumpkins in the city's overgrown parks, which can be harvested and carved.
• Murder weapons are now visible to others when a player is killed, along with the smashing of safehouse decorations.

3rd July 2009

• Hungry for convenience food, zombies have begun to distinguish feeding groans made inside secured buildings from those echoing through open doors.
• Survivors with medical diagnosis training can now spot wounded members of a crowd more easily. However, dark buildings are now too dark for medical staff to assess other survivors at a distance.
• Binoculars can now be used to scout for nearby landmarks on the skyline, when outdoors.
• The military have lifted the block on secure radio transmissions from the city's two forts (25.97MHz and 25.98MHz). There are also rumours of an old emergency broadcast system hidden in an office building in Malton, broadcasting on 25.92MHz; searching the correct building will reveal it.
• Urban Dead is four years old today. Zombies and survivors can salvage paper crowns from the city's nightclubs, for the day.

17th December 2008

• Survivors are once again looting the long-abandoned seasonal storerooms of the city's shopping malls, to find lights and trees for their safehouses. Lights are now clearly visible from neighbouring blocks; while this may attract unwanted attention, it could also catch the eye of military air traffic, over the next few weeks.

31st October 2008

• Limited edition halloween masks are back in the mall costume stores, and there's enough stale candy for twenty-four hours of trick or treating, for anyone or anything that wants to thump on safehouse doors today.

28th October 2008

• With the launch of Charlie Brooker's Dead Set on E4 and 4DVD, the Borehamwood outbreak is now open to Urban Dead players, with permanent zombification, fast zombies and a battle for the Big Brother house. The map will remain open for four weeks.

14th October 2008

• A disturbing Flesh Rot is creeping across the bone and muscle of the older, decaying zombies, making them more resilient to attack. (This is the equivalent of having died with the Body Building skill and a flak jacket, and doesn't stack.)
• Zombies able to digest raw meat have been seen picking at the fresh bodies that litter the city, to recover strength.
• With survivors on edge for the slightest sound or disturbance, the crash of a transmitter being destroyed can now be picked out on a radio channel, and a building restoring or losing power will be noticed from adjacent blocks.
• The scenes of battles and murders are looking a lot bloodier than they used to.
• Mall drug stores are beginning to run low on useful pharmaceutical supplies.

6th August 2008

• With Monroeville in ruins and the zombie hordes unstoppable, the military will be initiating a permanent quarantine on Friday the 15th, closing the borders and leaving the city for the dead. Monroeville characters can transfer their donation flags to characters in Malton via their settings page.

13th June 2008

• The quarantine in Monroeville has been lifted for another four weeks, to coincide with the DVD release of Romero's Diary of the Dead on June 30th. The dead are rising again, even the long-headshot zombies out in the streets and fields, and new military units are being dropped in to stem the tide. You can create a new character there, and meet or eat the survivors who made it through the lockdown.

28th May 2008

• Decay spreads through the ruined buildings of the city. The longer that a building stands ruined, from today onwards, the harder it will be to repair. And as the moss and lichens spread across the final few skylights, several types of buildings are now dark without a generator hooked up, reducing search and attack rates until power can be restored.
• A few existing household items now double as impromptu weapons.
• Monroeville will be reopening its borders for a short while during June. Any survivors and zombies that make it as far as the end of May will have the fact noted in their profile.

28th March 2008

• Monroeville is now locked down in full quarantine - no new characters can be created there, characters will no longer idle out, all idle characters have been reactivated, and zombies in the city can now be killed permanently by removing the head or destroying the brain using the "Headshot" skill.

25th March 2008

• The quarantine is tightening around Monroeville. From Friday the 28th, new account creation will be disabled for Monroeville, the city's inhabitants will no longer idle out after five days, and they'll be left to fend for themselves. If you want to get in before the border closes, create a Monroeville character now.
• The game's main city of Malton will be unaffected, and will continue to operate as usual.

25th February 2008

• To celebrate the launch of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, we've opened a temporary second map in the city of Monroeville. Create a new character there and you can loot a video camera to edit together your own video diary of the zombie apocalypse, with Romero box-set prizes available for UK players.

23rd January 2008

• The dead are learning the priorities of besieged survivors, and are keeping near the doorways once inside a safehouse. While zombies are inside a building, they will lurchingly attempt to block anyone dragging barricade materials to its entrance, with variable success.
• Survivors should watch their step when free running across the icy rubble of the city - falling from a ruined building now carries a risk of injury.
• In the thin, cold air, the drifting miasma of rot and decay grows sharper and clearer. Zombies taking the deep breath of scent death are now given a visual representation of the surrounding city.

(News from 2005-2007 has been archived.)