Zero-K v1.6.5.1 - Balance update

I think i would have preferred a small (up to 7%) dps or hp nerf for the Glaive.

Nice changes overall.

I'm not a fan of massive swings in unit behaviour :)

Thanks for Pyro :D I'll be using JJ more methinks, from now on out.

Small changes are good, but I was fighting round numbers and surprises all the way.

• Costs have to be at least be multiples of 5, lest we descend into madness. Multiplies of 10 are much preferred.
• Crane already has 4 BP so it is a good template for 'abnormally low'.
• When I got into testing Welder I was very surprised at how much damage it dealt. As I wrote, when I buffed its damage it could only just kill a Scorcher. Something drastically changed between then and now, as with 45 DPS it still only just kills a Scorcher (with some micro).

Pyro change super welcome~~!

This is a big quality of life improvement, and should help their scaling a bit better without breaking early game. Approval >9000.

Constable being lighter is interesting. It's a slight nerf to BP/cost efficiency, but IMO that's pretty over-rated as a predictor of worker strength.

It builds slower so a mex that would normally be built in 15 seconds will now be built in 18.75. Considering the worker will be there 3 seconds earlier due to 30 less cost, the first mex is coming up .75 seconds later, costing 1.5 metal (assuming mex is worth 2m/s). So you're up 28.5 metal at first mex. However, the second mex will be up 4.5 seconds later, costing 9 metal, bringing you down to 19.5 metal up. Your third mex will be 8.25 seconds late, losing a further 16.5 metal, bringing your saving down to 3. Everything past that goes into loss territory, and it costs extra if you stop to make energy or lotuses.

1 mex - 28.5 metal up
2 mex - 19.5 metal up
3 mex - 3 metal up

So economically it's going to do worse than before if your are immediately slamming four or more mex with it. There will be a short window where you have a small increase in map pressure as a result (+3-30 metal, +1m/s while building) however, and as a support unit it is superior in stats/cost.

Good changes.

quote: Costs have to be at least be multiples of 5, lest we descend into madness. Multiplies of 10 are much preferred.

I thought you didn't want to ruin balance for the sake of pretty numbers :P

I dont see why the constable has to pay for its abilities when convicts and conurers don't pay anything for their arguably better abilities.

Constable maybe made sense at 150 for its ability suite, but people really buy heavily into the slow-beam being good in a way I never did.

Pyro friendly fire did kinda suck, because the things you nicked would burn. Mattered less for pyro swarms, ironically. Not sure this will matter a ton for a few reasons, part of which is that they might just do it anyway almost as often because the fire is AoE.

Pyro generally did not really want to be shooting through each-other, but it was also usually a mixed bag when it came up. Occasionally it was an actually bad idea. It will probably be a pretty mixed bag but ultimately a minor change.

I like the glaive and pyro changes.

the current slow beam on constable is excellent against riots with relatively low hp, not raiders, it allows lotuses to kill reavers easily, for example.

jump is an ability that requires micro, I think it'd work better on a higher weight builder, equivalent to the welder, but with jump and bot slope tolerance instead of relatively high HP, and could also have a normal damage or mixed damage weapon with shorter range.

the simple weight change that could be done would be to scale the 3d model 1.3x-1.5x and double the cost and attributes. maybe replace the 200 slow dps for 70 normal dps beam for better sinergy with moderators and jugglenauts.