For this update we looked through the new maps from the wider Spring (now Recoil) community and featured a bunch of them. Some will play better than others, but that's what feedback is for! The update also adds translations for Chinese and Italian, and includes an engine update that was benchmarked to improve framerate by 9%. In terms of balance there are nerfs for Reaver and Lance and a cost reduction for Krow. The unit reply sounds have also been rebalanced.
New Maps
We have featured 67 new maps, with many from BAR or raaar. Some are makeovers of classics, others are new takes on a theme, and many are completely new.
There are many large maps suited to
big team games or
comp stomps: Alpha Siege Dry, Ancient Vault, Bismuth Valley , Carrot Mountains, Darkside (v3.0), Eight Horses, Fool's mate, Entrenched Plains, Heartbreak Hill, Highway 95 East, Highway 95 West, High Noon Remake, Ice Scream (v1.1), Ice Scream (v2.4), Omega Valley, Pawn Retreat, Red River Remake, Red Triangle Remake, Riverrun, Silveridge, Sphagnum Bog, Starwatcher, Taldarim, Two Continents Dry, Two Continents.
These maps are a bit smaller, good for
1v1 or
small team games: Callisto, Death Valley, Desert (3.25), Desolation, Ditched, Dockside, Hades Ponds, Hexian Arena, Lake Carne, Mithril Mountain, Scorched Crossing, Theta Crystals, The Halite Maze.
Some particularly experimental maps are: Crucible, High Forts, Hooked, Sky Fortress Sigma.
The maps Point of No Return and Timna Island are designed for
chicken or
coop games as they are asymmetric, with one side starting in a fortress.
The following maps are updated versions of classics, although many will feel new as there are a lot of maps to play through: Altored Divide Bar Remake, Coastlines Dry, Comet Catcher Remake, Copper Hill, EmainMacha Remake, Incandescence Remake, Highway 95, Hotlips Remake, Icy Crater, Into Battle Redux, MoonQ20XR2, Nuclear Winter Bar, Ravaged Remake, Seths Ravine Remake, Supreme_Crossing, Tabula Remake, Tangerine Remake, The Cold Place BAR, The Hole, The Rock, Tumult Remake, Valles Marineris, Zed Remake.
Predicting which maps will or won't work is tricky, so send feedback. Old versions of revamped maps were left up as they may be distinct enough to coexist or there could be a problem with a new map.
Balance
Live unit reclaim yields 80% of the cost of the unit in metal, up from 50%.
Reaver is 7% worse both at firing and turning.
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Turn rate 1850 -> 1710
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Reload time 0.467s -> 0.5s
Conjurer is slower to nerf cloakbot expansion rate.
Thug is better at hitting things.
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Weapon velocity increased 200 -> 210
Rogue is also better at hitting things.
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Weapon velocity 185 -> 190
Ravager is also also better at hitting things.
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Weapon velocity 238 -> 245
Lance is probably due a nerf of some sort and cost is simple.
Krow needs a buff to make it relevant to modern Zero-K.
Superweapons have 25% less health to make them easier to snipe.
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Starlight health 10k -> 7.5k
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Disco Rave Party health 16k -> 12k
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Zenith health 12k -> 9k
Added an experimental game option that reveals superweapons that exceed 5% build progress. It isn't on by default, but could be interesting to test.
Interface
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Added Chinese and Italian translations (click the flag in the top right of the screen ingame).
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Cleaned up a few unit reply sounds and rebalanced them relative to each other. Most replies are a bit quieter.
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The tab playerlist share resource buttons now take your storage into account to display how much will actually be shared.
Mapping
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Added a game-side lava gadget so that mappers can create lava maps without copying code into the map file. Maps can add lava by including the file "mapconfig/lava_config.lua". See here for the parameters and here for an example. It even supports tides.
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The startbox editing tool can now be toggled under Settings/Toolbox. This makes it hotkeyable provides space for a hotkey explaining how it works.
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Added vertex-wise undo, snap to cardinal direction, and snap to map edge to the startbox editing tool.
Fixes
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Fixed UI scale detection for screen resolutions in the 2000s (ie 2560x1440).
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Reset everyone's UI scale settings to catch people who where affected by the issue above. Set Lobby or Game Interface Scale in the main menu under Settings/Lobby and Settings/Game.
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Fixed menu volume resetting when the track changes.
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Fixed and reset the non-functional Unit Reply Volume slider.
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Improved the performance of the map list.
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Toggling "Only Featured Maps" in the lobby updates a previously opened map list correctly.