The 3v3 tournament finished earlier today with an excellent turnout of 19 teams. The results and videos will be posted in this thread in the coming days. The upshot for this patch is that we are free to make a few balance changes. The aim of these changes is to work on a few of the more maligned units, while nerfing some of the most prevalent strategies. This mostly means buffs for Gunships and nerfs for Lance and cloaked Snitch.

The update also has some exciting features. A big one for team games is that allied nukes and missiles now automatically show where they were aimed, which should halve the number of people that panic when a nuke is fired. Another is the ability to watch any game while waiting for a different one to start without missing out on the chat, as chat from non-started lobbies is now sent ingame. Superintendent has also added a few more tracks to his alternate soundtrack.

Balance

Snitch is slower to nerf its use with cloaker, without making it worse as a pure ambusher.

• Speed 117 -> 108

Iris is a bit easier to find and its area cloak radius now matches area shield radius.

• Speed 57 -> 54
• Decloak range 180 -> 210
• Cloaker radius 360 -> 350

Lance is less effective when set to fire at will.

• Reload time 20s -> 23s

Scallop is still the slowest riot but is a bit tankier than average.

• Health 1100 -> 1200
• Speed 48 -> 51

Emissary can afford to be fast since it takes so long to pack up.

• Speed 60 -> 63
• Range 1120 -> 1150

Blastwing takes less time to deal its damage and deals slightly more.

• AoE 128 -> 144
• Fire DPS 25 -> 32
• Fire linger 25s -> 20s

Gnat needs more health to survive long enough to stun the juiciest target.

• Cost 90 -> 85
• Health 370 -> 440

Revenant can be brought back now that commanders are more resilient.

• Health 3600 -> 4200
• Missiles 8 -> 9
• Reduced missile wobble by 6.7%

Stardust has a small buff to its damage output but might still need a larger change later.

• Heat per shot 3.8 -> 3.5

Lucifer can see as far as it can shoot (thanks Majo).

• Sight range 780 -> 1280

Game Features

• Added predicted impact time and location for allied nukes and stockpiled missiles (thanks esainane).
• Added a new Superintendent music track.
• Hovering a unit with the mouse now highlights it slightly. This can be configured under 'Settings/Graphics/Unit Visibility'.
• Alt+N terraform preset is slightly higher to block Phantoms firing at Engineer Commander.
• Added Set Target (instead of Force Fire) on Right Click option under 'Settings/Unit Behaviour'.
• Added time and space leeway settings to make selection easier, under 'Settings/Interface/Selection'.
• Added an explanation of selection rank to 'Settings/Interface/Selection' as people find fiddling with it surprisingly useful.
• Embiggened cursor hitboxes of Grizzly, Jugglenaut, Cyclops, Shield Factory and Cloak Factory.
• Singularity Reactor size now fluctuates.
• Impaler fire sound is slightly fainter and only five can play at once.
• Added Base Extraction graph to the endgame stats that tracks cumulative metal from extractors before overdrive.
• Moved projectile retarget configuration into its own file to aid modding. See here (thanks Mach56).

Lobby Features

• Battles can now be watched by right clicking on them in the battle list and selecting 'Watch'.
• Chat from any lobby you are in is sent ingame if the lobby is not running.
• Added a new Superintendent track that plays when the lobby opens.
• Mention Imp burrow in the tips for the Imp campaign mission.
• Added a game option to override the names of teams for tournaments.
• Added a game option (under Experimental) called Notes that just writes text to a window at the start of the game. Use it to explain unit tweaks or other complicated set of options.

Fixes

• Preselection highlight (when hovering over units) now highlights units correctly in edge cases.
• Fixed the player count in the battle lobby status box updating slowly.
• Fixed units set to avoid radar wobble not firing at identified structure dots that left radar.
• Fixed Advanced Geo aim point (thanks dyth68).
• Fixed Mariner special build icon size.
• Healthbars and Build ETA now draw in front of unit outlines.
• Fixed an error that could occur when destroying all the units of the losing team.
• Phoenix gibs no longer include a near-complete copy of its fuselage.

really nifty QoL feature and probably the best update image yet! :P
I wonder if the blue circle could be more visible, brighter/stronger color? Might be fine

I guess we can just rename Lucifer to Sauron now.

Do I detect also a new game statistic graph called Base Extraction? What is that?

It means the orb grows once built instead of appearing, no change in energy generation.

quote: The only downside I see is (imho) the continued nerfing of cloak snitch. On the one hand it's the only easy answer to when shielded mobs get out of hand. On the other hand, my shielded mobs will be stronger :D

It's a worry but ideally a temporary one. It is better to balance cloak and shield than have them be necessary counters to each other.

Zero-K v1.11.6.3

Fixed Lance nerf not being applied and area guard not working.

I think the utility of Lucifer's new line of sight is, in practice, limited to situations where you cannot use an Owl. Which is a real usecase. But Owl should remain the go-to for vision in any situation where it is practical to keep one alive.

quote: closed Lucifer as unassailable vision giver

Does vision work from buried and walled too?

thanks!

since this update, i have strong lags. did something change in settings/engine? (playing always on lowest graphical settings)

quote: since this update, i have strong lags. did something change in settings/engine? (playing always on lowest graphical settings)

forget it. somehow the intel GPU took over by an automated update of the drivers. back to nvidia and it spins fine.