Zero-K FAQ

I could not find a Zero-K FAQ for advertisement purposes, so I started this one. Please provide feedback on how I answered the questions, as well as other questions that people might have about Zero-K.

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Table of Contents

- Where does Zero-K fall within the RTS genre? What other games is it like?
- What makes Zero-K stand out among other RTS games?
- I am familiar with StarCraft. How is the game flow different in Zero-K?
- I am familiar with Supreme Commander. How is Zero-K different?
- How many factions are there?
- What are these factories and what makes them unique?
- 12 different factories? Over 100 unique units? That sounds like a balance nightmare!
- What is Zero-K's biggest strength?
- What is Zero-K's biggest weakness?
- How big/active is the playerbase?[/

Where does Zero-K fall within the RTS genre? What other games is it like?

Zero-K’s gameplay is similar to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, two of the most renowned games in the genre. This includes having the following features:

- A powerful starting commander
- Massive battles with huge armies
- Rate-based economy with two resources
- Strategic zoom over the whole battlefield
- Real-time projectile simulation

What makes Zero-K stand out among other RTS games?

Zero-K has a number of unique features including:

- Flat technology tree. All units and buildings are available to build from the beginning of the game.
- Terrain significance. Terrain height and steepness can affect resource collection, unit speed and range, LoS, radar coverage, etc. Further, players can alter the terrain with terraforming commands, as well as deform the map with explosives.
- Incredibly powerful control interface, allowing extensive automation

I am familiar with StarCraft. How is the game flow different in Zero-K?

- Shorter game length – 1v1 games last about 10-30 minutes as opposed to 15-45 minutes.
- Different Economy – Resources are collected by buildings, not units. Resources do not run out. Resources are spread out instead of packed into “expansion” areas.
- Slower unit movement, zoom-out amplifies this feeling
- No unit upgrades, much fewer activated abilities for units/buildings
- Significantly less required APM
- More frequent and longer army engagements
- No duplicate unit-producing structures built (e.g. 2+ barracks)
- Water units
- More “factions,” though not as unique as Terran/Zerg/Protoss

I am familiar with Supreme Commander. How is Zero-K different?

- Shorter game length (1v1)
- Smaller scale
- Unit micro more important
- Gameplay feels faster
- Commander not as powerful
- No duplicate unit-producing structures built (e.g. 2+ land factories)
- No tiers, flat technology tree
- More factories

How many factions are there?

There is technically only one faction. However, diversity comes from the starting factories. The first factory is free and built instantly. Subsequent factories costly and time-consuming to build, and won't be seen until the midgame. There are 12 factories. Each factory can produce about 10 unique units.

What are these factories and what makes them unique?

Cloaky Bot Factory – Produces cheap robots, many of which can turn invisible
Shield Bot Factory – Produces robust robots, many of which have shields
Jump/Specialist Plant – Produces robots with jumpjets
Spider Factory – Produces all-terrain spider bots
Light Vehicle Factory – Produces cheap, quick vehicles (cars)
Heavy Vehicle Factory – Produces hard-hitting, damage-taking vehicles (tanks)
Hovercraft Platform – Produces units that can traverse land and water
Amphibious Bot Plant – Produces units that travel under the water instead of over
Airplane Plant – Produces speedy aircraft
Gunship Plant – Produces aircraft that can hold their position in the air
Shipyard – Produces ships
Strider Hub – Produces the biggest, baddest units in the game

12 different factories? Over 100 unique units? That sounds like a balance nightmare!

Correct, it is an extremely difficult task to properly balance over 100 different units. Fortunately, the developers have been working on perfecting balance for 7 years, and they currently have the game in a steady state. Also, updates come frequently to fix any imbalances that are found.

What is Zero-K's biggest strength?

It's command interface. Zero-K grants incredible power the player while being simple to utilize. After getting used to the command interface, many players find it difficult to go back to other RTS games. Here are some examples:

- Select some units and draw a line. All of the selected units will form up on the line.
- Select one unit and draw a line. The unit will follow the path of the line.
- You can draw these lines on the minimap too, and the units will behave appropriately.
- Give your units a Fight command. They will actively kite/avoid enemy fire while attacking enemies in their path.
- Order your units to retreat to a specified location at 30%/60%/90% health.
- Give your units a Circle Guard command. They will then walk around their target in a circle.
- Add a single unit to a factory infinite queue. The factory will build this one unit, and then remove it from the queue.
- Easily add additional buildings in the middle of a constructor's build queue.

What is Zero-K's biggest weakness?

Probably the size of its playerbase. Speaking of which...

How big/active is the playerbase?

The playerbase is currently not very large. Peak times tend to be during European evenings. During this time, there are usually about 50-100 players online. However, this playerbase is active. You should be able to get into a 1v1 or team game within 5 minutes.

For your first point, I would rather rephrase the question than change the answer. I want to give the reader an idea of what kind of RTS Zero-K is, and then tell them what makes it different from the rest.

I don't directly mention the automation, but I do list the UI as a unique characteristic, including some examples of it. Do you think it I should expand on that?

With the factories, the point I was trying to make was that there kind of are factions. RTS players like diversity in their games, and different factions are attractive (see Planetary Annihilation's criticism of including only one faction).

This looks pretty good, pretty much what I would have written. The only thing I would have mentioned is that the game feels a lot like classic C&C games due to the pace and type-counter-oriented design. Granted ZK is much less type-counter focused than the old C&C games. Frankly I'd be willing to describe ZK as a cross between Go, Supreme Commander, and Skullgirls (or I guess Marvel vs Capcom games)

My only issues are:
1. Please clarify what you mean by slower than SC? Okay, the APM requirement is lower – though Glaives, Bandits, and Fleas scale well with APM – the game takes about half the time on the same maps. An LotV game on Xel'Naga Caverns (I know, old map, not in ranked pool, AFAIK no LotV ladder maps are yet ported to Spring) would probably take about 15-45 minutes after spending 90-120 seconds on buildup (even worse before LotV), while the 1v1 ZK game on Ravaged will take 10-30 minutes with 20-30 seconds of buildup.

Speaking just as a commentator I've had to adjust my style a lot to work with the pacing of ZK, since there generally isn't time for play-by-play nor are there many minutes long buildups to a strategy. I'm often having to just let the action speak for itself while discussing, and as a result partially ignoring, what's going on.

2. I'd recommend using "strong command interface" rather than "good/strong UI". ZK's command interface is undeniably powerful and flexible, so calling it that is accurate, precise, and doesn't fall into any fights over quality or polish. "UI" is a broad term covering both the interface's power as well as its presentation, and UI presentation is more obvious than power. It's also a rope to hang yourself with given the sheer amount of buttons and parts to ZK's UI that SC doesn't have and which can be overwhelming and disorienting to new players. That less minimal approach ZK takes will easily be thrown in our faces if we draw attention to "UI" as a whole rather than "command interface" in particular, especially if we say "good UI" to people used to one specific UI from which ZK's differs on many points. It's too easy for that difference and the associated learning curve to be seen as bad UI rather than good UI if we don't carefully and specifically define the terms.

Sprung we're trying to advertise, not to tell the truth.

Reading Sortale's post, I'm thinking that's a good part of a selling point, but I've often found this game does reward APM and quick tactical thinking as well as broad strategic thinking (and thus both at high level). I suppose this could be another selling point: Flexibility in playstyle (at least at low-mid level).

What is the planned use of these texts and where should they appear?

On zero-k.info? On steam/indiedb/facebook? Posted in foreign forums?

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/games/311406-zero-k-free-open-source-rts-game

Yeah, the planned use of the FAQ is anywhere that can promote the game. I will update the Zero-K thread on the TeamLiquid forums with this FAQ, and also on the main Zero-K site. Perhaps it could also be used somewhere on the Steam page, possibly the Facebook page, any place where Zero-K has a presence to attract new players.

Regarding the TeamLiquid forums, I would like to revive the thread sometime since it has been buried for over a year. However, the mods don't like pointless thread necros, so it would have to be a substantial post. A Steam release announcement would be ideal, but that is too far out. I'm not aware of anything else of significance at the moment.

knorke you poor soul. I'd assume that you have never try to promote zero-k anywhere.

on my experience, 54 post including our own is a great success. and it was not over 3 years. the thread last about 1 year I think [another success], then inactive till now


in all of my thread about zero-k [in bundle with other open source game]. generally 100-200 view 3-5 non-me post. 1 got 1.5k view 24 replies half was mine. all got inactive within 1-2 months.

People in general are not that psy-up about open source game.

Granted each player have a different preference, therefore, isn't it best to tell them what should be expected? What zero-k is good at?

so yeah unless you have better posting or format or etc, I suggest you take your grievances else where, preferably productive places.

The problem (again) is that nothing in the post makes someone want to try the game.
This is advertisement, don't tell things, show them, don't convince people rationally, approach their emotions.
That means gifs/videos, that means screenshots, that means stories/quotes.

Your post is informative and good, but is it appealing?