This update improves the command menu by adding larger build icons at a higher resolution. The bottom of the UI also has a scale setting as we move towards better support for increasingly large screens. There are also a few fixes and a setting that automatically disables cables for Linux users with ATI graphics. Anyone coming forward to reproduce, and potentially even fix, the cable bugs would be appreciated.

The main balance change is a slight Magpie rework, and it is probably the last rework before we attempt to do something else with the unit. The main goal is to give it a proper set of counters, which in this case are fighters and dedicated anti-air. Magpie is now slower and has a lot less health to give anti-air more of a chance to retaliate. It also has a slower missile, which makes it worse against fighters and speedy units. The numbers here are a bit conservative, but hopefully they give us a sense of whether the approach works.

Balance

Magpie is worse against dedicated anti-air and has trouble hitting fast units. To compensate it has more range and is slightly cheaper.

• Cost 210 -> 200
• Health 740 -> 440
• Speed 252 -> 234
• Rearm time 12s -> 10s
• Range 550 -> 660
• Fire tolerance 45 degrees -> 60 degrees
• Missile average speed 400 -> 180
• Missile starts slow then accelerates.

Ettin receives the Thresher buffs from the previous patch to make it better at shooting while clumped.

• Changed the collision volume from a cylinder to an ellipsoid.
• It is now better at aiming when one of its guns is blocked.

Tarantula is also better at shooting while clumped.

• Flattened its collision volume by 25%.
• It now shoots in a slight arc, which also helps when behind hills.

Interface

• There is now a unified scale setting for the bottom of the UI. It is ingame under Settings/Interface (Settings/HUD Presets with simple settings disabled).
• Increased unit icon resolution from 64x64 to 96x96 to support larger UI sizes. This applies to the command menu, unit selections, and wherever else unit icon appear.
• Construction icons are now square and take up the whole button. This can be toggled with Small construction icons under Settings/HUD Panels/Command Panel if you prefer the old look.
• Added an Autodetect setting for energy grid cables. They are now disabled by default for Linux users with ATI cards.
• Iris and Aspis on Attack Move now try to prevent every non-air unit and structure from entering their bubble.
• Disabled the shield guard widget now that the default engine behaviour has improved.
• Unit marker timestamps now include hours in hour-long games (thanks SteelBlue).

Fixes

• Probably fixed black lines around radar icons on some ATI cards (engine update).
• Fixed overkill prevention unit behaviour customisation not being applied.
• Level 1 campaign commander now uses the correct death clone (thanks SteelBlue).
• Fixed a crash mods could cause by checking whether a not-existent unit type is a commander (thanks SteelBlue).
• Removed a large meaningless circle drawn around Odin when Show selected unit range is enabled.

Zero-K uses automation to empower players to engage with the strategy instead of drowning in micromanagement. But automation can be bad and even reduce strategic choice if misused.

Read it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/334920/view/679630151248512264

This update polishes a few mechanics and includes quite a few fixes. Singularity Reactors get their wobbly balls back and the guard command should be much more useful. Disarm no longer hard-disables jumpers while winding up and some pathfinding problems with cheap nanoframe spam have been resolved. Some of the changes are due to an engine update, which should stick as the engine is close to the end of a stable release cycle.

Features

• Enabled fancy guard handling. This is an engine change that causes guards to maintain their relative position, rather than just trail behind.
• Disarming a unit during jump windup now cancels the jump, rather than freezing the unit as long as it is disarmed.
• Added quaternion scaling to reinstate the functionality of the previous matrix manipulation system.
• Reinstated Likho and Singularity Reactor ball pulsing.
• Singularity Reactor ball and light disappears when disarmed (thanks SteelBlueZK).
• Thresher has a smaller collision volume and is smaller when not extended.
• Overdrive cables handle cliffs less jankily (thanks Anarchid).
• Improved gesture menu reactivity (thanks Helwor).
• Anti-bait tooltip mentions that the lowest level avoids cheap nanoframes.
• Improve sun on Otago 1.4 and Rainbow Comet v1.25.
• Enable shaders on all-but the most extreme compatibility mode settings.
• Added FeatureDamaged and FeaturePreDamaged for modding (thanks Stiofan-K).

Fixes

• Fixed pathfinding around previously non-blocking nanoframes.
• Facplop no longer causes subsequent nanoframes to be non-blocking.
• Stardust nanoframes no longer decloak enemy units.
• Thresher no longer gets stuck aiming in nearby allied structures.
• Fixed lingering AMD unit icon drawing bug (engine fix).
• Made an attempt at the Linux AMD overdrive issue (thanks Qrow).
• Update Gull description.
• Fixed unit portrait stretching when displaying extreme stats.
• Fixed a typo in com counter widget and Newton firezone.
• Fixed a rare Desolator bug which let it fire while closed.
• Fix brackets breaking chat nick highlight.
• Fixed a headless LuaShader error (thanks danfireman).

Zero-K has almost too much customisation. So much that we had to organise it into seven levels to keep track of it and make the game work well across all of them.

Read it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/334920/view/683005949807428679