New Restricted Room TEAM Ground only

Sounds like Anni, Behe and Bertha spam...

For new players not having to worry about air is probally more helpful than unlocks on some rarely used units.
Depending on map & number of players it will not be Berha spam.

Zero-K has a steep learning curve for nubs, especially those who haven't played any TA/Spring games. I like this idea, but do we have enough new players at a given time for it to work? Teams works well and is nearly always running because it doesn't exclude more experienced players, but players who've been around for a while probably aren't as interested in ground only games.

Not a fan of the idea generally (splitting the game like this seems dangerous to the health of the community), however:

If there was to be a 'simplified' loadout then we should keep most of the game fundamentals and remove the more specialised or micro heavy plants. The idea should be to present a taste of the game with a genuinely simpler experience, but preserving the main game dynamics and enticing the user to move up to experience all the awesomeness that the full ZK offers.

I think the above suggestion fails to do that - it's more like a 'fun' play style for experienced players who prefer not to play with certain units, rather than something to actually help introduce newbs to the game.

So, I'd suggest the following:

Shield bots, Light Vehicles and Planes only.
No strider hub or supers, but retain nukes.
No energy-powered defences (Behe, Anni).

Some notes:

"Air" as a dynamic is pretty easy to grasp, and central to the wider game, so removing it entirely is unhelpful to newbies. Removing gunships makes sense - they're more like normal units that fly and require heavier AA. That leaves planes that have more natural counters.

Heavy and jumpies requires micro to play effectively, similarly cloakies and hovers rely a bit more on good unit knowledge and using their abilities effectively.

When it comes to supers, nukes are the most straight-forward, and there needs to be some sort of end-game option. Nukes are by far the best option to introduce newbs to supers.

Leaving out the energy-powered defences stops things getting porcy, as well as cutting out the learning curve of connecting the energy grid and building sufficient power.

quote: Anarchid You seem to have put the gunships on the wrong side of equation.

How so? You generally pay 2x per HP for planes over gunships.

This isn't really the point though. The goal is to introduce the basic concepts without overwhelming newbs. Keeping planes isn't a big ask, and it makes the jump to the full game a matter of expanding and specialising, rather than whole new attack/refuel dynamics.

I tell you why land wars, when 30 lvl build up anni, 6-7 dont remeber corectly lvl
start bulding detri.... And stop expanding and trying to overtake that hill with anni... So yes , new players need to learn and old player need to remeber that eco and army is the most needed.
That anni can be destroyed by scutle jump or drop from transport, artlery, bombers or emp for shield factory. But no , he need strong experimental unit.
GG

My last game was like this, i build eco, army and deff rest was fighting for survival. I dont get it how some ppl get that idea that when have income 10m/s they build 4-6 carters... Its like Europa and USA they spend more than they earn. Now i get why Poland throughout the period of economic crisis, we have a positive economic all time.

Now i get why most of old players stoped helping new or unexperienced players, how long you can do it if they dont get the basics

I had an idea about teaching 1v1 a while ago.

If you want to teach someone 1v1 with no distractions try limiting both sides to these units:

• Baseline Commander
• Defender
• LLT
• Mex
• Solar
• Fusion
• Vehicle Factory
• Mason
• Dart
• Scorcher
• Leveler
• Ravager

Probably works best on a large map. Learning these units is a lot faster than learning everything. The game would be focused mainly on expanding and raiding until you have the economic advantage to roll over your opposition. You can't do this to everyone though, the player you are teaching has to want to learn how to place a decent 1v1.

definitly, flashes wouldnt counter stumpies when there is big enough stumpy army.

quote: I'd worry about such a game devolving into ravager spam after the initial raiding was over.

That's fine. The ravager spam is to decide who did the initial raiding the best. Remember that this would be a high elo player teaching them so if the ravager spam is fairly even and silly then the other player has successfully learnt raiding.