Zero-K v1.0.9.7

We're steadily climbing higher. Here are the changes since v1.0.8.7. In particular we are using Spring 91.0, unit targeting should be a lot better and there is a texture for terraform.

Balance

Hammer

• Range 820 -> 840

Phoenix, reverted fire burn time nerf. AoE nerf stands.

• Max on fire time 10s -> 15s

Clam

• Can no longer resurrect
• Health 800 -> 1300

Athena

• Can now resurrect
• Health 200 -> 400
• Speed 9.17 -> 7
• Cloak cost (3, 10) -> (2, 5) (moving, static)

Jumpjet units without visible thrusters can no longer jump while flying through the air. This includes Sumo, Skuttle, Dirtbag and Archangel. Pyro, Can, Freaker and Recon Commander can still jump from mid air.

Resurrect cost: 1.5x -> 1.25x energy and time

Graphics

Reduced unit on fire effect particle count and removed smoke.

Terraform textures the map with a metal texture. This looks good, makes terraform more visible and indicates which units can walk on it.

• Sparse squares as passable by everything.
• Steeper slopes have dense squares and are not passable by vehicles.
• Black walls are only passable by spiders.

PlanetWars

* planet is only made neutral if owning faction loses all influence.
* structures that need a planetary target (guerilla jumpgate, string connector, planetbuster) cannot be retargeted during their power-up sequence. If you change target, sequence starts again.
* link connector is now active and can connect anywhere
* planet buster leaves the planet so damaged that it cannot be economically exploited again
* guerilla jumpgate is now active and projects 1.5 influence per turn
* technologies are now active, they unlock units and provide 1 influence bonus per battle per tech
* defensive structures - grid, interception network and bomber defneses - are destroyed after successful invasion

GUI

• Minimap "clear" button removes all drawings.
• Minimap metal map button displays mexes and geos without changing map to black.
• Changed default colors for line of sight view to be much more brighter and bound F4 to new metal map display.

Lobby

• Removed ATI/Intel driver checks and compat. options, most drivers now work fine.
• Added multithreaded engine checkbox.

Engine Fixes

We have been using the new engine Spring 91.0 for a little while. It seems stable enough and comes with new fixes.

• Crashing planes no longer fall through the map if stunned.
• Beam Lasers and Lightning Guns are no longer blocked by stunned shields.
• Lightning Guns can no longer shoot into water.
• Fixed all the strange 'Defender does not fire' type behaviour.
• Fixed rare issue with nanoframes reaching 100% health but not completing.

Fixes

• Weapon targeting should be a lot more intelligent.
• No damage is dealt after an Outlaw dies. This is a workaround for allied units receiving damage from allied outlaws which die.
• Fixed ATI minimap bug.
• Reduced occurrence of bomber and gunship landing bugs.
• Jumpjets no longer act as an impulse capacitor.
• Fixed units sometimes not flashing blue when emped and the UI is disabled.
• Fixed UI keys bug.

Great stuff!

Read whole changelog pls, athena can.

It was a practically unblockable to destroy defences or economy for much less cost than any other way. I did test using Vindicators to hover over your base and decloak the Skuttle but it turns out it takes too long for Skuttle to decloak if the Vindis are reasonably spread. It was sort of a counter but too expensive.

The interesting mechanic was why it was removed in one of the least extreme ways possible. You can still launch Skuttles at your opponent if you have really good aim. Launched Sumos are likely to survive the impact. Launched Jacks and Pyro can still do a similar role but are somewhat more counterable.

nice, keep up the good work gentlemen.

orly? I used athena as covert unit 3x just yesterday with much success ... yeah *NEVER*..

Try it more its fun and pretty strong.

GoogleFrog

a more moderate nerf would have been to just make stuff using jumpjets in air accelerate downwards at a normal rate once the jumpjets have fired, meaning flying skuttles would immediately explode when they hit ground. this would still enable people to snipe off single targets, but requires more prescicion and also more preperational scouting. good scouting was already a requirement to use skuttle ramps properly outside of laboratory conditions (eg sandcastles2).

the argument that you can now still use skuttle ramp is not actually valid. neither thrust nor exact direction are anywhere near predictable enough to make skuttle ramping without jump a valid strategy to use. it can now only make cost in the luckiest of circumstances. you nerfed it too much, now its broken. which is sad for the reason i mentioned above.

also i wonder a little why this strategy gets immediately nerfed once i won a single game with it. there are some really op things that people keep winning games with (that dont have actual counter either, like banshee rush covered by planes) and noone does a shit about it. its not like skuttle ramp was a 100% win strategy, its nowhere near that. in fact in 90% of games it would already been utterly useless. now its useless in 100% of games.

the reason for this is that it is quite unwieldy to pull off. in typical games, neither of the players has time to do all the things to get a working ramp up, and micro every single skuttle. in the game which we are both refering to i was practically doing nothing else. in addition to that, 50% of my skuttles went fail. taking out a factory worth 600 metal with a skuttle worth 550 is NOT insanely effective and op. even if it comes at long range and unprepared, its still barely making cost. also it isnt unblockable, its just difficult to block.
you can surround most important structures with cheaper other stuff, or even nanoframes and make skuttle hit those instead. you can use terra, or you can just destroy the ramp. you might as well argue a big bertha was unblockable while in fact you just have to protect every important structure with one of more shields - which is pretty nasty and expensive. making a skuttle ramp comes a little cheaper than the bertha, but the skuttles are continuous cost that bertha doesnt have.

i may also add that in typical games there is just no reason to do it. most games just dont have so expensive targets to snipe. if you can take out a moho geo youre really lucky and then you only made cost (considering the cost of the ramp, and probably jumper fac too) if enemy was stupid enough to surround his geo with lots of base structures. you could snipe off the occasional fusion or factory, but thats hardly worth investing that much time, a missile silo requires a lot loss micro and is more reliable.

I really want to just say "Nope, I'm balancing this".

With Skuttle jump you can unblockably kill any structure with a little effort. It is much more flexible and less costly than alternative options. It was removed because I think that is a bad thing.

It was known about for years. The recent improved Newton physics made it a lot more predictable. I had used it and was thinking about it a bit for a while.

As much as jumpy-launching is hella cool, it always felt like an exploit of the zk physics system. I'd go so far as to say that the new approach is too inconsistent and all the remaining jumpies should get the same nerd, rocket-propelled or not.

I'm not talking about the physics of it - obviously it makes sense from a physics perspective (although a tumbling unit might not be able to use its jump-jets), just a gameplay-consistency thing. Having a distinct set of rules for a concept as strange as "can jump when impulsed into the air" is a pretty obscure distinction for players. These kind of trivial differences can be counter-intuitive for gameplay.