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I just came across this thread and thought I'd add a few things.
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1 |
I just came across this thread and thought I'd add a few things.
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| 2 |
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2 |
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| 3 |
2010
(
just
to
add
to
what
@Sprung
wrote)
:
The
tech
tree
was
already
flat
in
CA.
The
switch
to
ZK
was
less
a
redesign
and
more
a
way
to
remove
the
last
of
the
OTA
models
inherited
from
BA.
The
bot
factories
had
already
been
diversified
and
were
reasonably
well
covered
by
models
in
CA,
but
the
vehicle
and
aircraft
factories
had
a
lot
of
double
up
and
old
models.
The
1faction
fork
started
off
as
a
crazy
idea
to
skip
all
this
work
but
then
gained
traction.
ZK
started
with:
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3 |
[b]2010[/b]
(
just
to
add
to
what
@Sprung
wrote)
:
The
tech
tree
was
already
flat
in
CA.
The
switch
to
ZK
was
less
a
redesign
and
more
a
way
to
remove
the
last
of
the
OTA
models
inherited
from
BA.
The
bot
factories
had
already
been
diversified
and
were
reasonably
well
covered
by
models
in
CA,
but
the
vehicle
and
aircraft
factories
had
a
lot
of
double
up
and
old
models.
The
1faction
fork
started
off
as
a
crazy
idea
to
skip
all
this
work
but
then
gained
traction.
ZK
started
with:
|
| 4 |
* Four bot factories, shuffled around from CA to lean into the cloak/shield/spider/jump differentiation that was already being developed. There were many proposals and deciding on the best was tricky.
|
4 |
* Four bot factories, shuffled around from CA to lean into the cloak/shield/spider/jump differentiation that was already being developed. There were many proposals and deciding on the best was tricky.
|
| 5 |
* Three vehicle factories, which were relatively straightforward to create. The handful of interesting Arm units were made into hovercraft (kitbashes by @Saktoth of Scifi's hovers), while the Mr. D models carried on as Tank and Rover (previously just called Light Vehicles).
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5 |
* Three vehicle factories, which were relatively straightforward to create. The handful of interesting Arm units were made into hovercraft (kitbashes by @Saktoth of Scifi's hovers), while the Mr. D models carried on as Tank and Rover (previously just called Light Vehicles).
|
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* Two air factories, which were just a rotation and merge of the unique units from the mixed CA air factories.
|
6 |
* Two air factories, which were just a rotation and merge of the unique units from the mixed CA air factories.
|
| 7 |
* A ship factory, made up of the models that existed and left to be dealt with later.
|
7 |
* A ship factory, made up of the models that existed and left to be dealt with later.
|
| 8 |
* Most of the Striders we have today. There were more, but they tended to be duplicates and lacked models. I recall there being a laser+emg strider very similar to Dante, and long ranged tacnuke nuke artillery for the corresponding role of Merlin. These units can probably be found in BAR.
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8 |
* Most of the Striders we have today. There were more, but they tended to be duplicates and lacked models. I recall there being a laser+emg strider very similar to Dante, and long ranged tacnuke nuke artillery for the corresponding role of Merlin. These units can probably be found in BAR.
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Amphbots were added around 2011-2012.
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9 |
Amphbots were added around 2011-2012.
|
| 10 |
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10 |
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| 11 |
I think the initial motivation was inclusion in linux distros (there were more linux people around back then). This was also about the time we switched from caspring hosted svn to google code svn. The switch to ZK and google code lost us a fair number of contributors (some hated google), but we had previously lost people who couldn't see CA removing the OTA content any time soon, so there was a tradeoff.
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11 |
I think the initial motivation was inclusion in linux distros (there were more linux people around back then). This was also about the time we switched from caspring hosted svn to google code svn. The switch to ZK and google code lost us a fair number of contributors (some hated google), but we had previously lost people who couldn't see CA removing the OTA content any time soon, so there was a tradeoff.
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12 |
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| 13 |
2012(
ish)
:
Zero-K
splits
off
to
its
own
infrastructure
after
disagreement
with
infrastructure
developers.
From
my
perspective
they
were
very
stubborn
regarding
extending
the
protocol
to
allow
for
new
stuff
(
Eg
matchmacking,
more
advanced
planetwars)
and
would
make
sudden
changes
that
broke
our
autohosts.
|
13 |
[b]2012[/b](
ish)
:
Zero-K
splits
off
to
its
own
infrastructure
after
disagreement
with
infrastructure
developers.
From
my
perspective
they
were
very
stubborn
regarding
extending
the
protocol
to
allow
for
new
stuff
(
Eg
matchmacking,
more
advanced
planetwars)
and
would
make
sudden
changes
that
broke
our
autohosts.
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14 |
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| 15 |
2013-2014:
Evolution
RTS
is
greenlit
on
Steam
and
released
in
2014.
I
don't
think
Steam
was
on
my
radar
at
the
time,
but
now
it
looked
like
a
possibility.
Looking
back
at
the
dates
we
actually
put
up
a
greenlight
campaign
five
days
after
the
Evolution
RTS
release.
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15 |
[b]2013-2014[/b]:
Evolution
RTS
is
greenlit
on
Steam
and
released
in
2014.
I
don't
think
Steam
was
on
my
radar
at
the
time,
but
now
it
looked
like
a
possibility.
Looking
back
at
the
dates
we
actually
put
up
a
greenlight
campaign
five
days
after
the
Evolution
RTS
release.
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|
16 |
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|
| 17 |
Zero-K was greenlit, although opinions varied on when or what sort of release we should go for. I thought there was a lot of work to do before ZK looked like a real game, given how poorly the IRC+BattleRoom paradigm of old Spring fared for the initial Evolution RTS release. We were on a bit of a time limit though, since active developers were dwindling to low single-digit numbers, and the playerbase was dropping off with little influx from Spring or advertising.
|
17 |
Zero-K was greenlit, although opinions varied on when or what sort of release we should go for. I thought there was a lot of work to do before ZK looked like a real game, given how poorly the IRC+BattleRoom paradigm of old Spring fared for the initial Evolution RTS release. We were on a bit of a time limit though, since active developers were dwindling to low single-digit numbers, and the playerbase was dropping off with little influx from Spring or advertising.
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18 |
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| 19 |
2015-2017:
A
lot
of
polish
work
that
isn't
necessarily
interesting
for
people
who
started
out
playing
then
contributing
to
a
multiplayer
RTS.
Campaign,
matchmaking,
tutorials,
AI,
UI,
optimisation
etc.
.
.
There
was
still
a
bit
of
time
to
do
easier
and
more
fun
stuff.
@gajop
saved
us
with
the
lua
framework
for
the
lobby,
as
that
let
me
pick
it
up
and
write
most
of
the
lobby
myself,
freeing
up
@Licho's
time.
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19 |
[b]2015-2017[/b]:
A
lot
of
polish
work
that
isn't
necessarily
interesting
for
people
who
started
out
playing
then
contributing
to
a
multiplayer
RTS.
Campaign,
matchmaking,
tutorials,
AI,
UI,
optimisation
etc.
.
.
There
was
still
a
bit
of
time
to
do
easier
and
more
fun
stuff.
@gajop
saved
us
with
the
lua
framework
for
the
lobby,
as
that
let
me
pick
it
up
and
write
most
of
the
lobby
myself,
freeing
up
@Licho's
time.
|
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20 |
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|
| 21 |
2018:
We
seemed
about
ready,
so
we
released
on
Steam
about
four
years
after
greenlight.
Steam
was
a
lot
more
crowded
after
four
years,
but
I
think
we
did
ok
out
of
it.
The
impetus
to
make
ZK
look
like
a
game,
with
polish
and
singleplayer,
was
also
an
important
result
of
Steam.
It
also
provides
an
easy
install
process.
|
21 |
[b]2018[/b]:
We
seemed
about
ready,
so
we
released
on
Steam
about
four
years
after
greenlight.
Steam
was
a
lot
more
crowded
after
four
years,
but
I
think
we
did
ok
out
of
it.
The
impetus
to
make
ZK
look
like
a
game,
with
polish
and
singleplayer,
was
also
an
important
result
of
Steam.
It
also
provides
an
easy
install
process.
|
| 22 |
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22 |
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|
| 23 |
2020(
ish)
:
I
decide
(
or
at
least
decide
to
act
on
the
theory)
that
longevity
comes
from
modding,
restarting
the
process
that
kicked
it
off
(
sort
of)
23
years
ago.
Attempts
are
made
to
efficiently
use
our
limited
manpower
to
better
support
modding.
Luckily
Spring
is
built
on
this
sort
of
stuff,
so
it
just
required
a
bit
of
infrastructure
and
lobby
work.
|
23 |
[b]2020[/b](
ish)
:
I
decide
(
or
at
least
decide
to
act
on
the
theory)
that
longevity
comes
from
modding,
restarting
the
process
that
kicked
it
off
(
sort
of)
23
years
ago.
Attempts
are
made
to
efficiently
use
our
limited
manpower
to
better
support
modding.
Luckily
Spring
is
built
on
this
sort
of
stuff,
so
it
just
required
a
bit
of
infrastructure
and
lobby
work.
|
| 24 |
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|
24 |
\n
|
| 25 |
2021:
Here
is
what
we
look
after
a
decade.
|
25 |
[b]2021[/b]:
Here
is
what
we
look
after
a
decade.
|
| 26 |
https://i.imgur.com/8QJmtDu.png
|
26 |
https://i.imgur.com/8QJmtDu.png
|
| 27 |
"daily unique players" is the number of unique accounts that were a player in a game that ended up generating a replay (ie no spectators, singleplayer, or exited games). Each point is the average of 28 days.
|
27 |
"daily unique players" is the number of unique accounts that were a player in a game that ended up generating a replay (ie no spectators, singleplayer, or exited games). Each point is the average of 28 days.
|
| 28 |
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|
28 |
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|
| 29 |
The bump in March 2020 is an aberration that appeared to affect many games. No need to dwell on it.
|
29 |
The bump in March 2020 is an aberration that appeared to affect many games. No need to dwell on it.
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History of Zero k?