Season 0 is the first test season of DeadMTL. It is a setup phase, not a full launch. The map is being built. The server infrastructure is being prepared. The rules are being finalized. The modlist has not been locked.

The first playable philosophy is containment. One sector. One enclave. Saint-Paul-Émard. The game does not start with the whole city. It starts with the piece of the city that is still manageable. Everything else is pressure from outside.

Season 0 players are early participants in a test run. Expect configuration changes, possible wipes, rule revisions, and map updates during this phase. Stability comes later. Season 0 is proof-of-concept, not the finished product.

When Season 0 opens, it will be announced on this site and through the dispatch channel. Until that announcement appears here, the server is not accepting connections. There are no valid server addresses being shared anywhere.

DeadMTL is not a server for grinding resources in safety. The design intent is a world where survival choices have real cost.

Movement matters.

Where you go, how fast you move, whether you run or walk — these are decisions with consequences. Noise draws attention. Speed sacrifices situational awareness. Every route through the enclave has known and unknown risks.

Scarcity matters.

Resources in a post-collapse Montréal neighbourhood are finite. Early access to a location does not guarantee it stays useful. Carrying everything you find is not a strategy.

Information matters.

The dispatch channel, zone dossiers, and knowledge center exist because information about the enclave has value. A player who reads the network before entering a sector makes better decisions.

Noise matters.

Project Zomboid's noise and attention mechanics are the backbone of this server's survival style. Generators are a liability as much as an asset. Loud entry techniques have persistent consequences.

Weather and darkness matter.

Montréal winter conditions affect movement, visibility, and resource access. Cold, snow, darkness, and fog are not atmosphere. They are environmental pressure.

Small group trust matters.

DeadMTL is planned as an open server. Anyone can connect when it launches. Trust is still earned by behaviour, not by default. Communication and honesty about resource locations are survival layers no rule can fully enforce.

Saint-Paul-Émard is the first active sector. It is not a safe zone. It is the sector that is still manageable enough to be the starting point.

The enclave combines Ville-Émard and Côte-Saint-Paul into a single DeadMTL sector identity. Enclosed by the canal to the north and the pressure fronts to the south and west.

Canal edge pressure.

The Canal de Lachine forms the northern boundary. The canal edge is an industrial route — workshops, waterline fog, uneven movement risk. Active but not safe.

LaSalle pressure front.

LaSalle is the primary threat source from the south and west. The Pont Mercier barricade failure is the origin of the largest horde pressure in the southwest. LaSalle is not a playable zone.

No fake total-city claim.

DeadMTL is not claiming to map all of Montréal. Season 0 covers one sector. The map section lists planning labels for future expansion, not promises. The enclave is the game.

Project Zomboid is played by a character. The character survives or does not. But the human behind the character exists outside the game, and that human has access to the DeadMTL network.

The Knowledge Center, dispatch channel, map section, and rules are not in-game resources. They exist for the human reading the screen. The player navigates the enclave. The human reads the context.

Operator notes explain what is happening with the project. Server notices explain what is happening with the server. Field reports and network dispatches are in-world fiction. The dispatch taxonomy page explains which is which.

DeadMTL is in setup. These are the current limits, stated plainly.