This patch has a slew of balance changes and a new game mode. Shieldball and Phoenix are the focus of the nerfs, but there are many more tweaks that ended up touching most of the factories. Some more notable ones are Bulkhead being worse at short range, and some cost reductions for the surface-only short-ranged ships.

The new game mode is called Tech-K, and it is a look at what Zero-K might have looked like with tech levels. There are infinite tech levels, because anything else would be arbitrary, with each level doubling the cost of units while slightly-more-than-doubling their power. Feedback during testing ranged from "Works surprisingly well" to "Not what Zero-K is about", so give it a try. It could be fun to run it as a tournament or other event.

Tech-K can be enabled in any game type via the Experimental tab in battle options, and more information is available on the wiki. The mode was partially created to motivate improvements to the dynamic unit attributes system, so there are API changes and extensions that mods will want to take into account.

Balance

Thug and personal commander shield offers more protection from area damage.

• Shield radius 80 -> 90

Felon is slower and less efficient.

• Speed 45 -> 42 elmo/s
• Reload time 0.133s -> 0.166s
• Shield drain per shot 75 -> 78

Aspis mobile shields are significantly more expensive (no change to Aegis).

• Cost 600 -> 700

Bulkhead has more downtime while being swarmed by raiders and assaults.

• Cost 230 -> 240
• Turret turn rate 180 -> 120 degrees/s
• Reduced targeting priority against gunships.

Magpie enjoys round numbers.

• Rearm time 13s -> 12s

Phoenix is more expensive and takes much longer to fire twice.

• Cost 460 -> 520
• Rearm time 13s -> 18s

Locust exploits its unenviable balance position to experiment with speed.

• Speed 212 -> 250 elmo/s

Nimbus can see as far as it can shoot.

• Sight range 600 -> 660

Mason gains a unique power among the cheap constructors.

• Build range 180 -> 210

Ripper should fare better against heavy raiders.

• Range 280 -> 290

Bolas is slightly faster.

• Speed 96 -> 97.5 elmo/s

Flail kills Magpie, Phoenix and Thunderbird in one fewer shots.

• Damage 375 -> 475

Kodachi is slightly slower.

• Speed 108 -> 106.5 elmo/s

Cyclops is harder to manoeuvre, as befits its weight.

• Turn rate 82 -> 74 degrees/s

Cutter is swarmier.

• Cost 65 -> 55

Corsair hopefully still has a counter from the Hovercraft Platform.

• Cost 240 -> 220

Reef repairs aircraft much faster than land-based airpads.

• Repair buildpower 2.5 -> 10

Hacksaw responds to a bit of power creep.

• Cost 220 -> 210

Wind Generators can be built diagonally with slightly larger gaps.

• Grid range 60 -> 63

Features

• Added the Tech-K game mode.
• Manually shared units now clear their command queues.
• Chainsaw no longer avoids small targets by default.
• Players can now define multiple albums adding war, peace, victory and defeat folders to sounds/music/<your album name>(thanks Helwor).
• Increased the maximum configurable fade height for healthbars (thanks amnykon).
• Added an option to reduce the selection rank of rearming units (thanks amnykon).
• Added build range to space+click stats.
• Added units to buildpower in space+click stats.

Fixes

• Fixed playerlist lag indicator (thanks Shaman).
• Workaround jumping units sometimes moonwalking when they land.
• Fixed minimap mex drawing when flipping the camera (thanks christianweinz)
• Mitigate a playerlist error caused by the host of an AI leaving (thanks Shaman).
• Fixed non-default music album selection (thanks Helwor).
• Fixed Nimbus gun flare (thanks XNTEABDSC).
• Fixed Bulkhead sometimes being unable to deploy when slowed (thanks XNTEABDSC).
• Fixed the default position of replay controls on large monitors (thanks ThingsWillCalmUp).
• Fixed bad socket error handling in the lobby (thanks saurtron).

Modding

Reworked the application of dynamic attribute modifiers.

• Attributes are now added via Attributes.AddEffect(unitID, key, effect) and removed by GG.Attributes.RemoveEffect(unitID, key).
• Effects are tables of attribute types. See the list here.
• Many more types of attribute can be modified, and many edge cases have been cleaned up.
• Spring.Utilities.GetUnitCost now takes GG.att_CostMult into account.
• The old method involved editing extra attributes into the unit_attributes gadget. The old attribute are still collated by this gadget, but all the effects are applied by the new system.

Other changes.

• Added gadget:UnitCreatedByMechanic(unitID, parentID, mechanic, extraData). Other gadgets should do gadgetHandler:NotifyUnitCreatedByMechanic(same signature) shortly after creating a unit. This allows gadgets to handle things like the difference between morph unit creation, and carrier drones.
• Added LuaRules/Configs/ModCommands as a unified place for mods to define commands, rather than via editing tables across a handful of files. See Tech Up for an example.
• Model scale, centre offset, and tint now survive /luarules reload.
• Fixed bugs with Lance and Crab model rescaling.
• The error caused by invalid reload times is now more informative.
• The command-counting use of Spring.GetCommandQueue(unitID, 0) is going to be removed. Use Spring.GetUnitCommandCount(unitID) instead.

Zero-K team games go up to 16v16, which is absurdly large compared to most RTS. That these games work at all is surprising, as is the design behind supporting such large games.

Read it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/334920/view/4518891123292895731

The week's cold take is early, unusual, and short because Ludum Dare is this weekend. How does a game created in three days compare to fifteen years? Try some and see.

Read it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/334920/view/4683271241468857961

The diversification of bombers over the past year has been great, but it also highlighted some problems with a few mobile anti-air units. This patch tries to carefully resolve these deficiencies, and to shift things slightly away from Phoenix and towards Magpie. The two bombers finally agree on rearm time.

This update coincides with an AI update and the addition of around two dozen new maps. Try them out, perhaps against the new AI, and give feedback on your favourites. If instead you prefer 1v1, check out Fight Club later today (Saturday) at 1900 UTC, and on every first and third Saturday for the rest of the year.

Balance

Gremlin creeps back towards its old low price.

• Cost 130 -> 120

Tarantula contributes more to mixed anti-air defenses.

• Damage 260 -> 270

Flail hits sooner.

• Range 800 -> 820
• Missile spends 16.7% less time flying straight up.

Magpie is a bit cheaper to support.

• Rearm time 15s -> 13s

Phoenix takes noticeably longer to shoot twice.

• Rearm time 10s -> 13s

Maps

These maps have been added.

• Wanderlust 2.1
• Rustcrown Canyon 1.3
• The Rock Jungle 2.1
• Crystallized Plains 1.1
• Hide and Seek 2.2.3
• Hellas Basin v1.4
• Flats and Forests v2.2
• Aurelia v4
• Moonshine Run v1.0.1
• The Tartar Steppe v1.1
• Pinch Point 1.03
• Canis River v1.4
• Salt Reef 1.1
• Ancient Bastion Remake 0.5
• World In Flames v1.8
• Kings Assault v1.3
• Great Divide V1
• Sinkhole Network v1.1
• Scylla and Charybdis 1.1
• Tau12
• Crescent_Bay_V2
• Jade Empress 1.41
• Esker Creek 1.3
• Hades Ponds 1.1
• Isidis crack 1.1
• Feast of Hades 1.0.1
• Hera Planum 0.91
• The Ditch Remake 0.5

Features

• Updated the skirmish AI.
• Experiment with new lighting on some energy structures.
• Added focal depth hotkeys for the depth of field widget.
• Added team selection to the cheat sheet (top left with cheats enabled).
• The startbox editor can now apply box transforms and save them directly to files.

Fixes

• The skirmish AI no longer crashes if it somehow gains and then loses a factory plate.
• Minor fixes for French translations.
• Fixed some tips for planet Blackmire.
• Fix tiny movement stutter when line-moving over wreckage.
• Fix a graphs bug that would sometimes overcount army losses.
• Fix spec team change when selecting unseen enemies.
• Fix a rare teleport bug
• Fix (ie remove) fog effect on a few maps.
• Fixed structures with move commands giving up on them before finishing their morph.