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Qrow Esoterica

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JPrankQrow
2 hours ago
I will post random findings here, along with other things.
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JPrankQrow
2 hours ago
(edited 2 hours ago)
MONOSPAM TIER LIST PART ONE

This is not a guide, read at your own risk, hot opinions abound

1. Cloakbot Factory
  • Conjurer
It could be funny, potentially sees use in a sneaky oops all builder type of deal. Same concept with Athena, but no flying and worse because it can't build units directly. 3/5
  • Glaive
UBER good monospam in 1v1, probably not so great but still good in early game TAW. 5/5
  • Scythe
Good in TAW, unfeasible in 1v1 probably. Likely quite strong and very annoying, Shaman used to be known for mono Scythe. 4/5
  • Ronin
Good in TAW, likely not as great in 1v1. Very annoying en masse but absolutely get trounced by phoenix or firewalkers. 3/5
  • Reaver
Reaver doesn't have any real approach options or the health to walk up in fights, so despite having good regen this one ain't gonna work. 1/5
  • Knight
Might be really good, I haven't tested this - but it's more expensive than hermit, and has no regen. 3?/5
  • Sling
Really annoying to fight in team games, but also gets trounced by fire. 2/ 5
  • Phantom
Really annoying in TAW, probably very strong against certain factories. 4/5
  • Imp / Iris
Monospam Imp/Iris could be extremely strong with the right TAW environment, especially if shieldballs pick back up again. 4/5


2. Shieldbot Factory
  • Convict
Mono-builder king. 5/5
  • Dirtbag
99% autoretreat DB can be really annoying, in the right situation. Generally bad. 2/5
  • Bandit
Maybe it's okay, but it doesn't have the same punch as Glaive. 2/5
  • Rogue
REALLY good if you have someone to set up some assaults in front of you. 4/5
  • Thug
99% autoretreat Thug is the only strategy that I personally believe may have the capability to dethrone hermit in the long run. 5/5
  • Outlaw
BAD 0/5
  • Felon
Could be okay, but I think it likely burns through its shield too fast or gets farmed by bombers. 2/5
  • Racketeer
Really annoying to fight but literally does no damage. People will hate you for this one. 3/5
  • Snitch
Good for the same reasons in monospam as imp, 4/5
  • Aspis
Oops all support…? 2/5

3. Rover Assembly
  • Mason
Ain't great for mono builder, 1/5
  • Dart
It has no HP and no way to be spammed effectively. 1/5
  • Scorcher
Good for monospam to take out cons and such, does a ton of damage up close. 4/5
  • Fencer
MUFFA 5/5
  • Ripper
Not as good as rav. 2/5
  • Ravager
REALLY good in a big ball. 4/5
  • Dominatrix
jh_dreemurr strat. You need shields to make this work, so technically it's not really monospam. 4/5
  • Badger
Can be annoying, but often doesn't do a whole lot. 3/5
  • Impaler
Really good when the enemy has a billion porc, but not much in terms of use cases otherwise. 2/5

4. Hovercraft Platform
  • Quill
Ok for mono builder but not great. 3/5
  • Dagger
Excellent monospam, does everything as alpha so you just hit and run 5/5
  • Scalpel
Also great monospam, even kills stuff it's not supposed to. 4/5
  • Halberd
Probably not horrible, but generally you don't have these live to get back to base so it's kind of a throwaway. 3/5
  • Claymore
Why would you do this? 1/5
  • Mace
Maybe not that bad in terms of DPS, but super flimsy. 2/5
  • Lance
Elite level TAW strat, not good in much else. 3/5
  • Bolas
Actually pretty good. In taw this is probably better than dagger monospam. 4/5

5. Gunship Plant
  • Wasp
Bad. 1/5
  • Blastwing
Good! But becomes irrelevant very quickly. 2/5
  • Gnat
Only useful for certain other strategies, monospam doesn't work when you can't convert off of it. 1/5
  • Locust
Maybe good if locust ever gets buffed, but Locust is not in a good place right now. 2/5
  • Harpy
I actually like this, but harpy sucks a lot right now and there's too much strong AA. 2/5
  • Nimbus
Good! Definitely very strong in TAW, probably impossible for 1v1 monospam. 3/5
  • Revenant
If we call Rev rush monospam, I guess 4/5
  • Krow
If we call Krow rush monospam, I guess 5/5
  • Charon
Have you ever wanted to own a taxi company? With the power of ferry routes and communication with your teammates, now you can! 10000/NYC taxi driver

6. Airplane Plant
  • Crane
Laughably bad. 0/5
  • Swift
Good if you're playing against 2 air players in TAW. 2/5
  • Raptor
Good if you're playing against 3 air players in TAW. 2/5
  • Raven
Totally viable. The classic air monobomber strat. 4/5
  • Magpie
The NEW air monobomber strat. Nerfed but still meta. 5/5
  • Phoenix
People who build this basically always monospam it anyways, 4/5
  • Thunderbird
Interesting support potential in TAW. 4/5
  • Likho
Expensive, but good monobomber strat. 4/5
  • Odin
Who would monospam this? 1/5

7. Spider Factory
  • Weaver
Monobuilder for hills, 3/5
  • Flea
Not really viable outside of huge economic leads. 2/5
  • Hermit
The KING of monospam. Regen goes insane, although it's about to be nerfed into the ground. 5/5
  • Venom
If it had more HP this might be really good as an autoretreat unit. 3/5
  • Redback
Suffers from low speed and HP, but maybe has potential in some matchups. 3/5
  • Recluse
Really good monospammed, even takes out raiders. 4/5
  • Crab
Good monospam but expensive, so rarely works. 3/5
  • Widow
This could be a hilariously annoying support strategy. 4/5 testing needed


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JPrankQrow
2 hours ago
(edited 2 hours ago)
Collision Calcs (aka the Code, Math and You: A Beginner’s Guide)

1. Unit-vs-Unit Collision

Handled by the DoCollisionDamage() function, triggered when weaponDefID == -3 and an attackerID is present.

Step 1, Speed check: Collision damage only activates if either unit's speed exceeds UNIT_UNIT_SPEED (5.5 elmos/frame).

Step 2, Relative speed: The relative velocity between the two units is calculated as:

relativeSpeed = sqrt((oVx-myVx)² + (oVy-myVy)² + (oVz-myVz)²)

Step 3, Damage per unit: Each unit's damage is calculated using LocalSpeedToDamage():

if relativeSpeed > velocityDamageThreshold (3):
damage = (relativeSpeed - 3) × (mass × 0.6)

Buildings get a ×10 multiplier on their velocityDamageScale since they're treated as far more massive.

Step 4, Final damage dealt: The game deals the lesser of the two units' computed damages, multiplied by UNIT_UNIT_DAMAGE_FACTOR (0.8) so the smaller/lighter unit sets the damage ceiling. Both units take this same amount.

Step 5, Multipliers & immunity: The final damage is scaled by each unit's collisionDamageMult (set per-unit by other gadgets). Units can be immune (e.g. during jump/teleport), and allied units are protected from "no-ally-damage" flags.

Step 6, Velocity correction: After collision, both units' velocities are blended toward a shared momentum-conserving average (a weighted sum based on their masses), simulating an inelastic collision. GitHub

2. Unit-vs-Ground Collision (Fall Damage)

Triggered when weaponDefID == -2 with no attacker. This is the classic "fall damage."

Step 1, Decompose velocity into normal and tangent: The unit's velocity is split into a component normal to the terrain surface and a tangential component (sliding along it).

Step 2, Bounce physics: The normal component is reflected and scaled by elasticity (default 0.3), and the tangential component is scaled by friction (default 0.8), then an impulse is applied to simulate the bounce.

Step 3, Damage speed calculation:
damageSpeed = magnitude of (normal + tangent × TANGENT_DAMAGE)
where TANGENT_DAMAGE = 0.5, so sliding impacts count for half.

Step 4, Convert speed to damage (same LocalSpeedToDamage() as above):
if damageSpeed > 3:
damage = (damageSpeed - 3) × (mass × 0.6)

Step 5, Out-of-map bonus damage: If the unit is outside the map boundaries, additional damage is added proportional to how far out of bounds the unit is, scaled by unit.health / 800.

Step 6, Multiplier applied: Final damage × collisionDamageMult[unitID] (or 1 if unset).

3. Unit-vs-Wreck/Feature Collision

Triggered when weaponDefID == -3 and
attackerID == nil (no unit attacker — a feature like debris).

The engine's native damage value is taken and multiplied by DEBRIS_SPRING_DAMAGE_MULTIPLIER = 10 (described in the code as "tweaked arbitrarily"), then scaled by collisionDamageMult. The unit also gets a velocity-scaling impulse of 0.3 (i.e. it loses 70% of its speed).

Note: Feature collisions still use the native engine value as a base, unlike unit-unit and ground collisions which are calculated entirely from scratch.
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JPrankQrow
2 hours ago
Rank Formation Move (Hidden Feature)

Buried deep in the ZK settings:

Settings/Unit Behaviour/Default States

There is a hidden feature called rank formation. Utilizing this command, you can set ranks 1/4 for your units and have them arrange while moving into ranks. This can keep your artillery safe or spread out lances so they don't all get bombed at the same time. Also useful for shieldballs.

Give it a try!
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