Zero-K cover
Zero-K screenshot
Linux PC Mac Steam
Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Zero-K

1v1 Tournament 18:00 UTC, Saturday 5th May
Ladder play has been so popular that we've decided to run a short 1v1 tournament this weekend, just to get into the swing of things. The format is single elimination within pools stratified by rank. Everyone should be able to sign up and have a decent chance within their pool.

Sign up in this forum thread: http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/25212. You can log into the Zero-K forum via Steam if you have an account through Steam on the multiplayer server.

Server command buffering

This is a quick patch to fix performance issues related to the way the game manages lobby server messages while ingame. Messages such as chat and battle updates were applied in the menu overlay even while ingame, which caused noticable issues with the high user counts experienced over the weekend. With this update the server commands are buffered, only to be applied when the menu overlay is active.

We've also been working on some quality of life changes. "Manual Fullscreen" has been added as a display option in graphics settings, the battle list is more informative and a skill rating display has been added to the bottom of the community tab.

Thanks for the great release!

The release has far exceeded our expectations and we've gained a lot of new players for the community who, overall, seem pretty nice. The servers have held up and, apart from a crash on Friday, everything has gone really smoothly. The campaign and matchmaker are really paying dividends. Currently there are 800 people playing Zero-K and 500 in the lobby and we're excited to see how far we can go.

We would really appreciate help so spread videos, tell your friends, and leave reviews. With no marketing budget (or really any budget) this is our best way to spread Zero-K and to ensure that we reach as many players as we can. It really helps and a big thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to review and spread the word thus far!

We would also like to clarify some issues and common questions.

  • It is normal to see empty or near-empty rooms in the battlelist tooltips. We intentionally avoid sending the status of everyone to everyone else in order to save on server load.
  • There is currently a bug with matchmaking that bans both players in the "found match" popup if one rejects before the other accepts. We will fix or workaround this on our next server deployment. Luckily the ban time is 30 seconds.
  • To play coop Skirmish or Campaign with many players it is important that a single person invites everyone else, as they are the host.
  • There is a lot of scope for modding but we have not yet set up the steam workshop. There is a lot of detail to cover so, if you're interested, ask anyone in the modding channel on our Discord server.


We have been monitoring issues and are taking a cautious approach to changes, lest we break anything, as the issues are generally minor. We plan to run server maintenance for about 10 minutes sometime during the week to improve stability and solve the matchmaking issue. We also have some UI improvements for the main menu and fixes to rare bugs ingame. We have a beta branch and testers would be much appreciated.

Finally, here are some standout videos or reviews.

Server stability and battle lobby improvements
Hi all. The release went about as smoothly as we had hoped and a ton of people are enjoying the game. The two big issuse were a server crash and the 'invalid steam token' issue, which can be worked around by restarting steam. We've been tracking the issues and have put together a patch to improve stability and make the multiplayer lobbies easier to navigate.

  • Fixed the server crash we experienced yesterday.
  • Hid passworded non-friend battlerooms by default.
  • Put the rooms that are not in-progress at the top of the battlelist.
  • Improved disconnection detection. The lobby now always notices disconnects, before it could sometimes linger in a connected state.
  • Made the 'Invalid Steam token' text more descriptive and recommend restarting Steam.
  • Tweaked command colours.
  • Fixed an issue with displaying Kudos badges.

Remember to tell your friends and write a review to show Steam the interest in Zero-K!

Zero-K is now live!
Zero-K is now live on Steam. Big thanks to everyone who helped on the long journey here.

We want to reach as many people as possible just to have more people having fun. Now is a critical time for this and everyone can help out:

  • Write us a review. Steam really thrives on reviews.
  • Tell all your friends to get ZK. They may as well give it a shot as its free.
  • Spread the word and review on more site such as
    Metacritic and Co-Optimus.
  • Be nice to each other.


Thanks again to everyone! if you're a disoriented new player take a shot as the campaign as it eases you into the features of ZK. Bring a friend and play it coop. Post questions or join our
Discord server.
Newer posts