Important [FAQ] Gateway and Build 41

[Pika]

Gateway Roleplay's Build 41 FAQ
Edited: September 3, 2022​

Just like everyone else, we're incredibly excited that B41 has finally been released after years and years of waiting! It makes Project Zomboid feel like an entirely new game and I'm sure that our lores going forward will be more immersive than ever.

However, with the release of B41 MP, we've been receiving the same questions over and over again. Some of these were briefly covered in Envy's initial announcement, others were not. I decided that it would be best to compile the answers in one comprehensive announcement!

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"When will Gateway Roleplay's B41 Lore launch?"
Short Answer: The date is TBD, we won't give any ETA's for now.

Long Answer: Our main priority at the moment is finishing our current lore, What We Become Part II: What Remains. We started this lore on August 8, 2020. While there are only a handful of players remaining, we feel it would be unfair to them to simply cut the lore off where it's at. On top of all that, there's still a large amount of prep work that needs to be done. This includes but is not limited it:

• Finishing our custom maps
• Finishing drafting the overall lore
• Updating Pika's Gateway Roleplay Props Mod for B41 (Create NPC sprites, add relevant items, create fast travel points, etc.)
• Re-designing the forums to be themed for our upcoming lore
• Re-writing Gateway Roleplay's rules
• Re-structuring the admin team

You should also take into account the current state B41 MP is in. As of the time I'm writing this post, the initial public test build was released just last week. Yes, the player limit was upped to 32 very quickly, but the build isn't stable. There's a reason it's on the beta branch. Jumping right into a lore and expecting to run it for a long period of time without any major issues simply isn't realistic. By the time What We Become Part II: What Remains is complete, B41 MP may be in the stable branch. Even if it is not, it will be far more stable than it is now.

UPDATE 12/20/21: B41 is now in the stable branch! But our main point still stands: we need more time to make our next lore into what we aspire for it to be, and a player limit of 64 would be much more ideal for us. We are not cutting What We Become Part II: What Remains short. We will continue to run it in the Build 40 Legacy branch until the lore concludes.

We're not only wanting to take our current long-time players into account but also run a smooth lore launch that will convince new and returning players alike to stick around.

UPDATE 08/10/2022: We've decided to make the jump and finish out What We Become Part II: What Remains in Build 41! The build's stability far surpasses Build 40's now, and it's a great way for us to playtest the server with some actual roleplay in the lead-up to our next lore. All other aspects of our timeline remain the same. Though, we've made major progress on building our next lore's map, writing the lore and NPCs, and rebuilding my server props mod for Build 41.

UPDATE 09/03/2022: Yesterday, we officially announced our next main lore and its accompanying mini lore: Ties That Bind: City of Angels and Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath. We still don't have an ETA for its release, but information is now publicly available in our newest newsletter here. Leave any questions, comments, or concerns in the newsletter's replies.

"When will applications open again?"
Short Answer: Applications will open again once we conclude our current lore, What We Become Part II: What Remains.

Long Answer: After we conclude What We Become Part II: What Remains, we'll announce our next lore (in B41) and its accompanying mini lore. Applications will open up immediately thereafter. Applications for our main and mini lores will be open at the same time.

Please note that we will be reverting to a similar format to the one used in 2015-2018 or so. That is to say, all players will be required to write a recap of our rules and lore to ensure that they have actually read them. This decision was made mostly due in part to the fact that we'll be re-writing our rules entirely, but also because it's all too obvious when someone doesn't read the rules. The safety net is worth the brief frustration. You will only need to do this once, and after a certain period of time, we will make this optional for returning players.

Other application changes include reinstating the three-paragraph biography minimum and upping the minimum character age to 18.

"What is the next lore about?"
Short Answer: The mini lore centers on a group of researchers and their team at Research Outpost Hadley in Antarctica, 1999. The main lore will take place in Los Angeles, California, 2000.

Long Answer: We've now officially announced our next main lore and its accompanying mini lore. The TL;DR is:

• We will run a mini lore (a prequel to the main lore) first as a test to see how our systems run in B41
• Both our mini and main lores will have entirely custom maps built by our admin team, with the project being led by our Senior Admin @EnvyDemon !
  • We may or may not keep the vanilla map to use for event locations in the future
• Our mini lore is named Ties That Bind: What Lies Beneath and will take place at Research Outpost Hadley, Antarctica, in the year 1999. (Pre-Apocalypse)
• Our main lore is named Ties That Bind: City of Angels and will take place in Los Angeles, California, in the year 2000. (Post-Apocalypse, Day One)

UPDATE 09/03/2022: Since more details about our next lore were revealed in our newest newsletter, I have updated this section. You can read more about them in our newsletter, here.

"What mods will you be using next lore?"
Short Answer: Our mod list is located here!

Long Answer: Since B41 MP is so unstable, each update will inevitably continue to break mods. We do have an ongoing list of mods we're interested in using, but we can't be sure they'll all work when we go to launch our next lore. We plan on testing each mod we've picked as well as the server's overall stability before launching anything to ensure that nothing catastrophic happens.

UPDATE 12/20/2021: B41 has been pushed to the stable branch! While this does speak volumes for MP's stability, we're still hesitant to go finalizing our list of mods. We will also still be testing our setup prior to the lore to ensure it's able to run.

UPDATE 08/10/2022: Since we've decided to finish up What We Become Part II: What Remains in B41, our mod list for next lore has been made public! Do note that it is a WIP, and the list will be constantly changing in the lead-up to our next lore.

If you'd like to recommend a mod, drop it in the Discord or here in the comments! We're open to suggestions.

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And that's a wrap!
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Have any lingering questions or feel I may have missed something? Don't hesitate to ask in the comments! If the question is asked enough times or enough people react to it to let us know they were wondering the same thing, I'll add it to this post!

If you want to quickly access this post through our Discord, use the command !b41faq, and our friendly bot Sam will send you a link!