Zero-K v0.9.7

Yep, another fast update - this time with a new feature, voice commands. This one also contains a gameplay change though, so those who use ships or striders should take note.

General

• Added a voice command widget (Windows only)
• Implemented the Strider hub. This builds all the units previously exclusive to the Athena (from which they have been removed), as well as the missile sub, battleship and carrier (no longer buildable at the shipyard).
• (Re)added the Surfboard, a transport from which land units can fire
• Fixed Missile Silo not working properly

Modules

• Fixed aiming/firing issues with torpedo module

Chicken

• Fixed excessively fast teching in chicken
• Fixed chickens inappropriately going after human/CAI players on their team
• Chicken/burrow count rises less dramatically with playercount in large games
• Speed Queen has more health

Interface

• Playerlist is much slimmer now; uses icons instead of text for ping/CPU indicators. A numerical reading is still available from the mouseover tooltip. Also fixed some bugs with player display.
• Core Selector: default number of buttons reduced from 8 to 6 (can be changed in settings). Comm selection hotkey more responsive.

Wtf are you serious? It's too early for an April fools' hoax. Strider hub? We removed that shit years ago for good. It's cool how ZK is becoming more and more like any other *A game just cause some people played them too much.

@skasi
No like making striders with athena was good....

Strider Hub is *A now? The old Strider Factory was removed a while ago and replaced with Athena to reduce Strider production vulnerability. As far as I know the nano-turret hub idea has been around for almost as long and Athena was mostly a placeholder.

Anyway, I'd like someone to name a problem with Strider Hub.

No, it turns out they are too large.

I can guarantee that this will break sea balance a lot, cloaker shields slow beamer skutles just everything we can find on land now can go on sea too, now sea will be ten times more complex as it is.

I bet Skuttles can't jump onto Surfboats, but that's fine. Can Skuttles jump off surfboats?

GoogleFrog: Strider specialized buildings are silly because Striders are meant to be support units - something you can produce when needed. A unit that's only able to build striders means waste of metal as soon as it idles. This means that the hubs price and existence decide whether players build one or not, which is not as big a problem with units you or your team can use for different tasks.

An even bigger concern (albeit probably only for me) is the number of units. The more units there are the less unique each one is, the more crowded every build menu is and the more (tech/..)trees you have to remember. That's boring. Mixing and creating strategies with a few units with a wide variety each is much more interesting than using a dozen very incompetent units.

Can blastwings ride the Surfboats? <8}

Just a hover chassis for a com would have been enough. Surf chassis can be used in too many ways....

And compare BA almost each unit has clone. Zero-k well of course there is similar units but they also differs greatly. While yes glaive and bandit is quite similar, but still differs greatly. Does bandit has "aim" time like glaive never noticed...?

And here it ends llt and defender differs greatly! of course you can dumb down game a lot if you want merge and kick same role units from cloaky jumps shields into one fac, all vehs into one also ships/hovers air/gunship and so on. But I wouldnt like such changes at all.