Zero-K v1.9.4.1 - Shield, Spider, Hover and Tank

This is the first big balance patch of the year, just in time for the second tournament series of the year. Shieldbots are better early and have more tools in their arsenal, but the standard shieldball is less powerful. Hover and Tank have buffs for improved unit variety and to bring them up to the power level of Rover. Spider has a few small tweaks to make them less reliant on Venom.

Lobster Roll Series Two

Lobster Roll series two will start on the 17th of April and is open to everyone. There is a round robin warm-up tournament this coming weekend, on the 10th of April. Sign up to the round robin here. Join the Discord server for announcements about the upcoming series.

Map Rotation

The following changes have been applied to the matchmaking pool. The full pool can be viewed here.

Added - Crubick Plains, Aurelian, Calayo, Red Comet Remake, Fairyland, Sertaleina.
Removed - Sparkles Reef, Prestige, Otago, Iced Coffee, Ravaged, Mechadansonia.
Updated - Cobalt Dream, Dune Patrol Redux, Fallendell.

Bot Balance

Shieldbots are the main issue among the bot factories, and it was not just an issue of overall power. Players in the middle of the ladder were having trouble against the Shield midgame, while those at the top found Shield to be at too much of an early disadvantage. To solve this we buffed their early game while nerfing the standard shieldball. We have also tweaked Spiders to make them less reliant on Venom. Bandit is a bit better to help Shieldbots through the early game.

Health 330 -> 340
DPS increased by 2.5%

Convict is faster to assist early expansion.

Speed 60 -> 61.5

Rogue has a nerf to save some matchups from mass Rogue supported by the buffed Bandit.

Health 580 -> 540
Turn rate reduced by 10%.
Projectile velocity 192 -> 185
Damage 350 -> 340

Thug regenerates slower to make shield charge more valuable.

Speed 57.75 -> 57 (what a weird number, now same as Outlaw)
Shield capacity 1250 -> 1200
Shield regen 16/s -> 14/s

Felon has 18.8% less DPS and charges slower.

Shield regen 18/s -> 16/s
Aim time 0.3s -> 0.166s
Reload 0.13s -> 0.16s
Charge per shot 75 -> 80
Damage 108.4 -> 110

Outlaw takes on more responsibility for riot power from Felon.

Cost 260 -> 250
Health 1050 -> 1100
DPS increased by 13%

Vandal takes on more responsibility for anti-air power from Felon.

Range 880 -> 900

Racketeer is slightly easier to field.

Cost 350 -> 340
Speed 51 -> 52.5

Snitch is slightly harder to position.

Speed 120 -> 117

Dirtbag is better at spotting and harassing.

Speed 78 -> 84
Sight range 560 -> 600
Reload 2s -> 1.9s
Damage 45 -> 55

Reaver has a buff to help Glaive deal with Bandit.

Cost 220 -> 210
Speed 1.71 -> 1.75
Reload 0.5s -> 0.466s

Flea is harder to spot when burrowed.

Decloak Radius 200 -> 160

Venom has less stun uptime, as well as slightly less DPS.

Reload time 1.1s -> 1.133s.

Hermit is one of the more maligned assaults, so gains some assault power.

Cost 160 -> 150
Health 1400 -> 1500

Widow drains more energy to make it harder to field early on.

Cloak cost 12/4 -> 15/5 (Moving/Static)

Vehicle Balance

Rover is dominating the vehicle matchups, yet there were few complaints about Rover itself. We took this to mean that Rovers feel fun and well balanced, even when losing to them, so opted mostly leave the factory alone. Instead, we took a look at Hover and Tank. Hover has a decent earlygame but a lack of transitions, so we buffed some of their more niche units, while Tank has the opposite problem, so we buffed Tank earlygame. Fencer is more vulnerable.

Health 560 -> 530
Setup time is 6.6% longer

Quill is now only slightly more expensive than a standard constructor.

Cost 130 -> 125

Halberd can be unleashed now that Anti-Bait makes it less annoying to fight.

Cost 240 -> 210

Mace is a better riot at the expense of a little range.

Health 1300 -> 1400
Range 345 -> 340
Aims 20% faster
DPS increased by 10%

Kodachi feels fairer to fight so can afford a buff.

Cost 180 -> 175
Health 670 -> 680

Welder is cheaper but also more vulnerable to raiders.

Cost 200 -> 185
Health 1800 -> 1700
DPS reduced by 4%

Ogre needs a buff to fight Mace 1v1 and win.

Health 1850 -> 1950

Interface

There are now some optional resource panels to enable under 'Settings/HUD Panels/Economy Panel' with Simple Settings disabled. They need to be positioned with Ctrl+F11. There are two panels to track constructor activity, a panel for overdrive, and a panel for wind speed. Other Changes:

Added Shield Charge/Maximum to aggregate selection stats and switched some rows to improve order stability.
Added Avoid Bad Targets toggle for Claw, Ultimatum, Scorpion and Nimbus.
Nimbus flies a little closer to make it reliably fire at tall turrets.
Artemis overkill prevention is more careful about wasting missiles.
Mace skirms more unit types.

Fixes

Fixed two bugs that caused some terraform shapes to stall at 99% completion.
Fixed commander drone duplication upon morph.
Crab is better at uncurling.
Clear Factory Queue now works with factories set to Wait.
Fixed Artemis not firing when on land of height zero.
Landbound Urchins are better at firing into the deep ocean.
Fixed transports having trouble unloading tall units.
Fixed some edge cases with antinukes.
Fixed Ravager suspension.
Tacnuke sounds now play at higher priority.

[ 2021-04-06 08:40:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Zero-K
Zero-K Team

Developer

Zero-K Team

Publisher

2018-04-27

Release

Indie Strategy Simulation Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop

Fully Utilized Physics

Simulated unit and projectile physics is used to a level rarely found in a strategy game.

Use small nimble units to dodge slow moving projectiles.
Hide behind hills that block weapon fire, line of sight and radar.
Toss units across the map with gravity guns.
Transport a battleship to a hilltop - for greater views and gun range.

Manipulate the Terrain

The terrain itself is an ever-changing part of the battlefield.

Wreck the battlefield with craters that bog down enemy tanks.
Dig canals to bring your navy inland for a submarine-in-a-desert strike.
Build ramps, bridges, entire fortress if you wish.
Burn your portrait into continental crust using the planetary energy chisel.

Singleplayer Campaign and Challenging AI

Enjoy many hours of single player and coop fun with our campaign, wide selection of non-cheating AIs and a survival mode against an alien horde.

Explore the galaxy and discover technologies in our singleplayer campaign.
Face a challenging AI that is neither brain-dead nor a clairvoyant cheater.
Have some coop fun with friends, surviving waves of chicken-monsters.
Cloaking? Resurrection? Tough choices customizing your commander.

Casual and Competitive Multiplayer

Zero-K was built for multiplayer from the start, this is where you can end up being hooked for a decade.

Enjoying epic scale combat? Join our 16v16 team battles!
Looking for a common goal? Fight AIs or waves of chicken-monsters.
Prefer dancing on a razor's edge? Play 1v1 in ladder and tournaments.
Comebacks, betrayals, emotions always running high in FFA.
Want to fight for a bigger cause? Join PlanetWars, a competitive online campaign with web-game strategic elements, diplomacy and backstabbing (currently on hiatus pending an overhaul).

Power to the People

We are RTS players at heart, we work for nobody. We gave ourselves the tools we always wanted to have in a game.

Do what you want. No limits to camera, queue or level of control.
Paint a shape, any shape, and units will move to assume your formation.
Construction priorities let your builders work more efficiently.
Don't want to be tied down managing every unit movement? Order units to smartly kite, strafe or zig zag bullets.

Plenty of Stuff to Explore (and Explode)

Zero-K is a long term project and it shows, millions hours of proper multiplayer testing and dozens of people contributing ever expanding content.

Learn to use all of our 100+ units and play on hundreds of maps.
Invent the next mad team-tactics to shock enemies and make allies laugh.
Combine cloaking, teleports, shields, jumpjets, EMP, napalm, gravity guns, black hole launchers, mind control and self-replication.
Tiny flea swarm that clings to walls?
Jumping "cans" with steam-spike?
Buoys that hide under water to ambush ships?
Mechs that spew fire and enjoy being tossed from air transports?
Carrier with cute helicopters?
Jumping Jugglenaut with dual wielding gravity guns?
Meet them in Zero-K!

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 13.04 or equivalent
Processor: 2.0 GHz dual core CPU with SSE (Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent)Memory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 512 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (GeForce 8800 or equivalent)
Storage: 6 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: 64bit only. Big Picture mode is not supported
RECOMMENDED SETUPOS: Ubuntu 17.10 or equivalent
Processor: 3.0 GHz quad core CPU (Intel Core i5 or equivalent)Memory: 8 GB RAM
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: 2048 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (high GT 500 series or equivalent)Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 8 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: 64bit only. Big Picture mode is not supported

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