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"What sold you on ZK?" Discussion

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I went through the comments in Ikinz's thread and counted the number of times people mentioned a given reason.



I considered Zero-K and Spring as one entity for this count since it's hard to tell which factor is for which.

Supcom and TA

We should definitely mention those games in our steam description!

Flat Tech Tree

This is pretty cool! The flat tech tree is our n.1 unique feature. How can we show visitors that it's a good thing?

Unit Variety

Tough to sell! We can't just claim our units are unique. Everyone claims the same.

Community/Active Playerbase

We could place a status panel image in the steam description, with the number of games running. I'll have to check whether it's technically feasible.

Development/Open Source

We can place a Github button in the steam description.

Physics

Easy to show in trailers.

Terraforming

Easy to show in trailers and screenshots.

Lots of Units

Easy to show in trailers and screenshots.

Damage Model

Hard to tell the benefits without a lengthy explanation.

Planetwars

Easy to describe and likely impressive in screenshots!

Nice Explosions

Hard to make a trailer without one!
+8 / -0
quote:
Flat Tech Tree

This is pretty cool! The flat tech tree is our n.1 unique feature. How can we show visitors that it's a good thing?

This is a bit tricky, since having a tech tree is something seen as required in RTS for long-term strategy. That being said, Zero-K is much more about the ability to change course with a relatively low metal/energy cost, while also using the time cost and reality of unit counts to make it trickier than it looks.

For instance, switching from Glaives to Rockos reactively when you see Warriors is a smart move, but if you did that predictively, you'd have twice as many Rockos from that extra minute or so of production (likely 14 or so rather than ~6), which with those numbers is the difference between them missing and doing nothing (because atm they seem to just barely overshoot targets), and enough scattered fire to deal with the Warriors.

Basically, you can switch between any unit in a factory anytime, but it's stronger if you scout well (which is really tricky once defense are set up) or make good reads on your opponent's composition.

quote:
Unit Variety

Tough to sell! We can't just claim our units are unique. Everyone claims the same.

It's not so much "uniqueness" as the way that every unit has a different standard weapon, which in quite a few cases operate like selectable unit abilities in other RTS games. Granted, this is kindof a holdover from TA, the difference being that Zero-K operates at StarCraft scales (i.e. armies of 30-80 units rather than 150+).
+0 / -0
I replied to last topic more in terms of "what brought me to ZK" than of "what sold me on it".

So what sold me on ZK is, to pick the reasons you have listed:

- terraform
- flat tech tree
- commanders
- community!
- tons of mechanics (not listed)
- maps variety (not listed)
+1 / -0
7 years ago
Dawrf Fortress didn't sold me on ZK. Its forums informed me that it exists.
+0 / -0
The games in the list are really a combination of "I was looking for something like X" and "I came from X's community". I'll remove Dwarf Fortress at the next iteration, if you feel like it doesn't belong there.
+0 / -0

7 years ago
quote:
This is a bit tricky, since having a tech tree is something seen as required in RTS for long-term strategy. That being said, Zero-K is much more about the ability to change course with a relatively low metal/energy cost, while also using the time cost and reality of unit counts to make it trickier than it looks.


I think if we called it a "cost-based tech tree" it would be more accurate and less misleading. We still have a tech tree but it isn't unlock-based like most games.
+3 / -0


7 years ago
Oh you actually went and counted these things! That thread is a bit of a trawl net fishing for anecdata. It's been quite successful at getting anecdata from people who like writing essays on the forums. Failure at catching anyone else, though.

If you aren't lazy like me, you can go fish anecdata out of people! You sit a chap down over a nice cup of tea, maybe a game of Zero-K or two, get him all relaxed and he'll tell you everything. Many such cases! If you are lazy like me you can go yell at people to post in the thread.
+0 / -0