During the highest part of my Zero-K career,
I used a specific strategy. I believe I could have gone further if I played it more, if I got to know the enemy more, and if I honed it more.
The strategy was:
Open up with 3 kodachis & 2 blitz tanks & 1 welder. Keep the factory on repeat.
Set kodachis & blitz tanks on repeat. Send them everywhere where eyes can see.
Keep building up economy.
At a certain point, overwhelm the enemy with 5 minotaurs + cyclops + 5 minotaurs & iris.
Keep vision high at all times.
This strategy easily got me to top 10%, with some grindset.
Now, I dropped that strategy, and I got myself to top 40% at best. Why am I fine with this?
Because rank does not show how much fun a player has.
A person can grind a single strategy all the time again, over, over again, using what works and what is easy.
But playing tanks over and over again would not have taught me how to position volatile scorchers well, it would not have taught me how fun it is to spam solar panel walls, it would not have taught me how hard it is to destroy an enemy who wishes not to fight. I knew this well, so I ignored rank altogether, and focused on what seems interesting instead.
Fun Fact: I discovered the strength of kodachis Because I did something silly and unconventional. If I stuck with it, I assume I would have faced the same end and the demise as Rovio's Angry Birds, Microsoft's Minecraft, and many other games that could not quit for reputation.
This begs the next question:
What do you yearn for?
