Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Zero-K
Zero-K v1.6.11.3
The bulk of this update consists of technical changes required to make Zero-K compatible with the latest engine version. We aim to update the engine version shortly, if everything goes to plan.
The benchmarking from last week successfully found an effect and we'd like to thank everyone (around 100 people) who submitted a benchmark. The one-click benchmark has been changed to compare the old and new engine versions.
Balance and Behaviour
Lobster now adjusts its trajectory against particularly high or low targets for more consistent lobbing.
Commander heatray no longer fails to gain damage with range modules.
Bandit unit AI now skirmishes against more targets.
Artemis missiles now cost 80 metal each (up from being free).
Widow no longer fires at radar dots by default.
Fixes
Fixed small hovercraft sometimes failing to leave their factory automatically.
Blocked gunship direct control exploit.
Fixed dive bomber performance impact when diving many shields.
Fixed Mearth.
Fixed occasional random reordering of matchmaker queues.
Benchmarking Required
It is nearing time to update the engine that runs Zero-K (the Spring Engine), but first we need to pin down the performance issues that affected many users when such an update was last attempted. To facilitate this we have created an easy to use automatic benchmarker. It currently contains benchmarks for our most pressing issue, but more are likely to be added in the future.
If you are the kind of person who does not use their computer while sleeping then consider running a benchmark and submitting the results to help us out.
Zero-K v1.6.10.0 - Kodachi rework and miscellaneous buffs
It has been a few months, time for some balance changes. The largest change is a reworked Kodachi which is more focused on harassment and impinges less on the role of Blitz. Cyclops has been re-nerfed, and Emissary has had its stop-to-fire mechanic fixed and extended.
A miscellaneous assortment of lackluster units from other factories have received buffs, to compensate for all this attention on Tanks. On the more technical side of things, we have made changes to the handling of dropped players. As always, there are many minor bug fixes, and this time, two major ones relating to Puppy and Widow.
Balance
Kodachi:
Health 750 -> 860
Speed 3.65 -> 4
Turn rate 750 -> 880
Autoheal 15 -> 12
Reload time 6s -> 4.2s
Main gun damage 150 -> 70
Afterburn time 5s -> 2s
Ground fire DPS 25 -> 36
Ground fire Duration 13.3s -> 16s
Range 225 -> 175
AoE 192 -> 216
Weapon velocity 700 -> 800
Weapon gravity 1.5 -> 0.1
Turret yaw rate 500 -> 900 rad/s
Turret pitch rate 150 -> 400 rad/2
Added overkill prevention of 125 damage.
This is a significant rework, and makes Kodachi one of the fastest raiders. Its increased speed and health is offset by its lower range and significantly reduced damage against fast targets, which is about only 130 against a moving raider. It still one-shots metal extractors, but not Lotus. Kodachi should now be much worse against raiders, but much more able to pick its battles.
Cyclops:
Reverted to the slowbeam version
Main gun rotates at 2/3 speed
Slowbeam rotates at 1/2 speed
Weapon velocity 310 -> 270
Slowbeam damage 600 -> 1500
Slowbeam reload time 1s -> 2.5s
Speed 2.05 -> 1.9
The single-weapon Cyclops was insufficiently awesome. This is the previous Cyclops with a higher alpha slowbeam and worse movement and aiming speeds.
Lobster:
Cost 340 -> 320
Health 840 -> 1040
Range 660 -> 680
Flight time 4.5s -> 4s
Improved its ability to shoot up cliffs.
People are using Lobsters to attack from sea cliffs, but are they using Lobster enough?
Locust:
Speed 6.5 -> 6.9
DPS increased 9.8%
Fire arc 135 -> 160 degrees
Locust generally feels terrible to use, because it has very little DPS and most AA has a lot of range. The increased speed should make it better at raiding, but even with increased DPS a single Locust still loses to a Lotus.
Other changes:
Emissary is supposed to not be able to move while firing, this has been fixed. When moving shortly after firing it takes a 75% speed penalty until its gun is stowed.
Sling cost 130 -> 110.
Likho rearm time 30s -> 20s.
Crab armour bonus 66% -> 75%. This is consistent with all other armoured units.
Artemis Health 1570 -> 3200.
Dominatrix no longer loses speed while turning.
Apart from the Emissary nerf, these are buffs to units which have felt lackluster for a while.
Minor changes:
Claymore projectiles no longer overshoots. This affects two cases; force fire, and cases in which the target dies before impact.
Gauss now floats when resurrected in the sea.
Nuke silos now prepare themselves for launch whenever at least one missile is stockpiled. This makes for greater responses, and allows opponents to scout whether a nuke is stocked.
Chickens
Chickens now have sonar and can see underwater
Chickens no longer have speed penalties on sea
Melee chickens now move on the ocean floor.
Greater Spire is now even greater.
Added infinite mode as an Adv. Option. The queen never spawns and waves come forever.
Interface
Ripper, Ogre and Cyclops now ignore terrain when told to Force Fire the ground. This makes it easier to use their smoothing effects to level the ground.
Bound Missile Silo "Select Missiles" command to D.
Resign vote button is now only clickable by voting players.
Added an option to colour label text green in the chat console.
Recieving units from dropped or AFK allies is now opt-in. A window prompting players to take control of the units appears on the edge of the screen when required.
Put a bound on the size of the metal icons for ludicruisly high income metal spots.
Fixes
Improved win by default (due to disconnection) system.
Consider players with a ping > 10 seconds as disconnected.
Pause the game when the entire enemy team disconnects.
Quit to menu no longer resigns.
Ensure that the Wait-or-Win window stays in front of the rest of the UI.
Other fixes:
<*>Fixed short ranged weapons being unable to hit a few structures from certain angles. The notable case is Widow vs. Anti-nuke.
<*>Fixed an exploit with Puppy that let it fire multiple times.
<*>Fixed collision detection, units that collide with wrecks or other units now do a proper amount of damage. However, collision velocities are a bit jankier.
<*>Fixed a terraform crash in large games.
<*>Fixed a Djinn crash.
<*>Fixed some shader errors.
<*>Fixed a case in which economy panel could misattribute wasted resources while spectating.
<*>Fixed a bug with key modifiers and selecting units in the Strider Hub.
<*>Fixed a rare error with manual fire weapons.
<*>Fixed some wonky interactions with selection modifiers for spectators when selecting units from multiple teams.
<*>Fixed disruptor bomb friendly fire when the thrower dies before impact.
<*>Fixed a rare shield error.
<*>Fixed Swift blocking plane factories.
<*>Fixed Mearth.
<*>Fixed a legacy AI issue.
3v3 Tournament October 27th 2018
After the successful Renegade 3v3 tournament in August, loyal fan Shaman is bringing us yet another installment of the 3v3 series. This time in a spooky Halloween theme. The tourney will take place on Saturday, October 27 at 18:00 UTC.
You can find more information and sign up on the dedicated forum thread. Good luck and have fun!
Client/server maintenance update 10 Oct 2018
We've applied some updates to the client and server software. This included an update to the Steamworks libraries, which may be followed by the Steam Overlay being restored in the near future.
Other fixes and new features:
Players can receive more than one extra commander if team player counts are sufficiently lopsided
Fixed Steam popup for non-Steam players sometimes being partly offscreen
Added/updated some help menu links
Don't prompt for crash report after killing game's process
Steam Overlay disabled
Hi everyone,
Due to the UI freezes associated with Steam Overlay mentioned in this thread, you may have noticed that we've disabled overlay for everyone for the time being. We hope to have it back soon, although depending on the exact nature of the underlying issue this may take a while. Sorry!
As a side effect of this change, the "Invite Friends" button in the menu no longer does anything. To invite a friend to your game, you can Alt+Tab out of Zero-K and use the drop-down/right-click options on their name in Steam's friends list.
— Histidine
Zero-K v1.6.9.0
With this update, the Cyclops will hopefully no longer dominate the 1v1 scene. We also have a sizable number of fixes and other improvements to go with it.
Balance
Replaced Cyclops' combination cannon/slow beam with a single disruptor cannon
This is intended to enforce its role as an anti-heavy unit, reducing its effectiveness against small units
Graphics
Added new Strike Commander skins: Chitin, Renegade
Sounds
New sounds for various weapons
Zombie mode sounds are back
GUI
Missile silo has a "select missiles" button
Fixes
Fixed units sometimes being permanently disabled by lightning
Save/load now handles morph properly
Fixed Outlaw (and similar) sphere GFX not appearing underwater
Fixed lights being cut off when slightly offscreen
Fixed gaps in blocks of nanoframes started with Q
Athena no longer appears in gesture menu
Workaround campaign disappearing terraform bug: restore effects of initial non-building terraform on game load
Smarter parsing of disabled units string
Fixed various Lua errors appearing ingame
Misc.
Mex placement widget can no longer be disabled (accidentally or otherwise)
Zero-K v1.6.7.3 - Fixes
Recent work has been mostly focused on fixes, the most important one being the mex stacking bug that would allow players to extract infinite income from a single metal spot. We've nevertheless managed to introduce some minor features as well.
Features
Bugfixes
1v1 Tournament June 30th 2018
A 1v1 tournament will be held at 19:00 UTC on Saturday, June 30th. The format is Swiss followed by playoffs among the top four. Sign up here: https://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/25776
War Sweeps the Galaxy
Planetwars begun recently between the Empire, Dynasty and Federation. Having gobbled up most neutral planets, the three sides now struggle for control of ancient artifacts with which to dominate the galaxy. Join a side and watch the progress here: https://zero-k.info/Planetwars
It has been a few months, time for some balance changes. The largest change is a reworked Kodachi which is more focused on harassment and impinges less on the role of Blitz. Cyclops has been re-nerfed, and Emissary has had its stop-to-fire mechanic fixed and extended.
