Zero-K v1.1.9.0

In this version we've accumulated more changes than would be expected for 3 weeks work. On the visuals front we have a new Chainsaw model by aiphee and many new wreckages by Kerr. The Improved Newton widget by Wolas has been modified and added. There are some small tweaks to balance as well as more major changes to mechanics.

Balance Tweaks

The raiders for the Tank and Amphibious factories are now slightly more powerful although Duck lost it's homing. Archer has much better accuracy and reliability. Phoenix and Shadow have been buffed as part of the ongoing bomber rebalance. Krow is 10% cheaper.

Commanders

The Shock Rifle, Disintegrator and Torpedo Launcher have been tweaked. SLAM Rocket has been reworked into a vertical launch weapon.

Scouting

Scouting should be more 'interesting' now that we've blocked or nerfed some of the most powerful ways to scout. Athena has an increase decloak radius, Fighters have reduced sight range and Newton launched units cannot see the ground because they are too high up. Vulture can see further in an attempt to promote 'conventional' scouting.

Disarm

Stiletto and Racketeer now deal their own kind of disable damage called Disarm. It acts exactly like EMP with two exceptions: affected units are able to move and flash yellow. If you're on the receiving end of a disarm attack you can choose to retreat or push onwards. This is much better for gameplay than a long EMP time Stiletto, if you're hit by one of those you can just sit back and watch your units die with no chance for interaction.

Detriment

After being deemed detrimental for FFA play, Detriment now moves slower and hits softer. Additionally air transports slow down when transporting very heavy units. A Vindicator transporting a Detriment moves at about 25% speed.


A full changelog is available here: http://zero-k.info/Wiki/ReleaseNotes2

Really, really nice job. Good thing with this Disarm, finnaly Silettos will be not that anyoing. Also I allways loved scouting with vulture but fighters were just too good for it. Now my "Avatar" finnaly will see day light.

Archer <3

Yea I worried about that but the mechanic sounds like it would work too well for these units. So we're trying it out.

Venom deals damage - YES!
Reef wreck fixed - FINALLY!
Disarm sounds great, can't wait to try it.

free radars and 2000 hp metal extractors would have been a good improvement.

disarm sounds great!

remove all emp!

just slow and disarm ingame!

Now that I have played this a bit, the new racketeer is awful. It is now by far the most overpowered unit in the game. It stops entire advances of pretty much anything by stunning the big ones and killing it all with glaives. It can go burn in hell for being so OP. It is truly game breaking. It needs its AoE removing.

Colour scheme could use some adjustments, yeah. Though lightning causes emp, and is blueish, just like paralyze.

Racketeer could use a minor accuracy reduction imo. Hitting commanders and zeuses is fine, but running glaives much less so.

Reading up on commit log, it seems this is exactly what's happening soon :)

IMHO, good changes are:

- changes done to Panther, Kodachi, Duck, Archer (very welcome!!), all those made on air units (including Athena, but it could use some armor upgrade too), and the needed Detriment nerf.

And I've considered bad changes:

- Disarm damage. It is somewhat confusing, and only two units sport it. I think that we would be better with EMP only. The Stilleto problem could be solved by reducing stun duration or Stilleto's AoE. Rackeeter was somewhat useless against a horde of units, but that was ok, since it was the Felon's job to deal with massive armies. Now it is too overpowered, since it can tackle both static defenses and armies.

- Damage for Venom: now Venow doubles as both a raiding unit and a support unit. It is way better now to just make venoms for raiding, since three or four of them will stun everything that moves with utter precision, slowly tearing both units and static defenses apart with no retribution.