Zero-K v1.4.7.0 (and earlier)

Three weeks ago we released several small versions, mostly to keep up with engine fixes. However, some features got into these releases and many of the Interfaces features are from this period and I have not written a complete list. The two balance change are from v1.4.7.0.

Spring 102.0 has been released (sort of) and it is well tested so we should be able to stick with it. This comes with a lobby update which allows Spring 102.0 to be downloaded so make sure to update.

The screenshot is showing off the line of sight and radar improvements since Spring 100.0. The LoS and radar updates faster, has higher resolution and is much better at finding cliffs. The interior colour can be set through Settings/Interface/Map/Radar Color.

Balance

Racketeer is a bit of a problematic unit so we've reduced its ability to keep two units disarmed. Two raiders fighting a Racketeer tended to be ridiculous.

• Rackteer reload time 5s -> 6s

The Plasma Artillery for Battle Commander was not just working out so it has been removed. Massive earlygame health and a Leveler sidearm remove the usual counterplay to artillery.

• Removed Commander plasma artillery weapon.

Interface

Newton launcher widget:

• Increased accuracy of impact location with interpolation between the impact step and previous step.
• Applied impact prediction to all units launched by Newtons. Not just those affected by firezones.
• Added transport drop location prediction.
• Added menu options for controlling when either type of prediction is displayed.

Other features:

• Added a new Skydust UI. Press B to toggle height mode. C and V change height (much like Z and X change spacing in normal mode). The height selected in height mode is persistent per-unit type. Height does not work with line build.
• Zenith now obeys fire stats. Defaults to Hold Fire for new players. Defaults to Fire At Will for current players.
• Added an option to make clicking on construction tabs activate their hotkeys.
• Added an option to disable Ping and CPU display on Deluxe Player List.
• Added an option to show decloak ranges of units. Configure through Settings/Interface/Decloak Ranges.
• Ferry and Set Retreat Zone now appear as a minimap button. Not on the command menu.

Fixes

• Terraform cost tooltip now shows its estimated cost.
• Fixed a Build ETA bug which can appear while spectating and using /specfullview.
• Energy and metal income graphs now include reclaim.
• Fixed Cloak State hotkey and tooltip.
• Restored marker placement hotkey for German keyboards (dev engine).

The map is Isle of Grief 0.2

quote: The LoS and radar updates faster

The LoS view seems as slow as always in my case ;_;

quote: Does anyone think SLAM could be pushed for the same treatment? It's cheaper and one-shots stingers and felons (if you're 420noscope like me) :^)

It one-shots a top-condition Stinger only if the commander has at least 7 Damage Boosters installed since I'm pretty certain the 2475 HP of the unit cannot be overcome otherwise with the 1512 HP unaltered damage value of the S.L.A.M. Rocket.

That is correct as the Stardust cannot sustain more than 1500 HP of damage.

in what games was racketeer abused?
i searched for 'racketeer' in replay comments and only found one match where it was mentioned in reference to the game played. ( http://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/420619#159574 the racketeer was fail)

quote: Will this change to Racketeers fix them on the one target now? No more letting the goli shoot your racketeer because the racketeer was greedy enough to try and disarm the goli and the slasher behind it? This could both be a nerf and a quality of life improvement.

Press the state toggle to disable overkill prevention. Or use set target and hold fire. If overkill prevention were reduced to the point where a unit was constantly disarmed then Racketeers would no longer automatically keep as much disarm on an army as possible.

This is a case where there is a choice between "disarm as many units" and "absolutely keep a particular unit disarmed". Units cannot decide between these cases so you have to set their states based on what you want them to do.

quote: Press the state toggle to disable overkill prevention. Or use set target and hold fire. If overkill prevention were reduced to the point where a unit was constantly disarmed then Racketeers would no longer automatically keep as much disarm on an army as possible.

i think its a bit too complicated. normally, i would use set target, but not change the firestate in addition.

i dont think that "try to disarm as many units as possible" is the optimal behaviour for this type of unit (which is basicaly antiheavy?). considering the relativly high cost and other stats, its pretty clear that stunning out glaives etc would be a waste when there are better targets around.

"make sure that one scary unit never gets to fire" is more like what the unit promises to do. overkill prevention should only then kick in when there is a guaranteed free shot at another unit.

There are two related, however distinct functions wrt overkill prevention:
1) Overkill prevention itself. Basically whenever your your unit is about to shoot the target, you can let it do, so or block this shot on target and then command to find a new one.
2) Targetting priority. After shot gets blocked (or when a unit has no target set), engine runs across all eligible targets and lets you to assign a numeric priority value.

When unit is declared doomed (from conventional always hit weapons) or disarmed (when shot by racketeer) special flags are set in OKP gadget in order to let targetting gadget know what unit is about to die or already disarmed.

That whole thing works ok in OKP department, but fails a bit with targetting priorities:
* Disarming artilery should indeed prefer units around ravager, maybe reaper scale and de-prioritize low health units. Unfortunately, the prioritization is uniform across all damage classes. Special condition clauses try to add specififics in order to reflect the nature of weapon's damage (emp, disarm, capture ray), however it's a hard task to tune priorities in that case. Good solution IMO would be a modular targetting priorities gadget, where every damage type and possibly some special weapons recieve they own specific handling and the priorities are assigned as relative numbers. I even started making such gadget, but then realized it will never get to ZK, so project kinda ran out of steam.
* The set of possible targets is not checked against how disarmed it currently is. So full health 99% disarmed dante and 0% disarmed dante will get around the same priority (the one which is closer will be selected as a target). This one could be fixable, however rigid structure of the priorities gadget (see above) may render this task time consuming.

Klon, "doomed" flag for regular damages (like for scalpel/rapier/defender projectiles) is set when sum of projectile damages, launched towards this unit, is greater or equal to the current health of unit. Basically:

quote: doomed=incomingDamage>=target.health

"Doomed" flag then is taken into account in the target priority evaluation, such as that "doomed" unit is deprioritized.
Similarly, gadget deprioritizes disarmed or EMPed target. The issue is that EMP or disarm doesn't cause target to cease, and partial paralysis or disarm state, which inevitably occurs as unit recovers from EMP/disarm shot, is not handled properly.