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Sea is generally considered a less fun part of Zero-K, the popular "Sea" maps have it confined to a part of the map as opposed to pure sea dominance. This is not surprising as Sea has less factories, less terrain differences, and less diverse combat in general.
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Sea is generally considered a less fun part of Zero-K, the popular "Sea" maps have it confined to a part of the map as opposed to pure sea dominance. This is not surprising as Sea has less factories, less terrain differences, and less diverse combat in general.
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This can be improved:
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This can be improved:
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1. Unlock the potential of sea terrain (modify maps)
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1. Unlock the potential of sea terrain (modify maps)
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2. Add in Zero-K land combat dynamics to sea, but in a new twist (New factories)
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2. Add in Zero-K land combat dynamics to sea, but in a new twist (New factories)
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3. Add proper escalation/strider for sea to sea combat (new striders)
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3. Add proper escalation/strider for sea to sea combat (new striders)
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1. Sea Terrain:
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1. Sea Terrain:
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Some people think sea as featureless flat terrain. No, this is wrong. The sea is the MOST complex terrain in the game, with characteristics of Terrain Flatness, Water Depth both in play.
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Some people think sea as featureless flat terrain. No, this is wrong. The sea is the MOST complex terrain in the game, with characteristics of Terrain Flatness, Water Depth both in play.
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If one takes seafloor movement seriously, one can have a entire family of factories based on underwater traversal. If one take water depth seriously, it can be a way a map can uniquely define its combat dynamics as sink/float time becomes significantly different.
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If one takes seafloor movement seriously, one can have a entire family of factories based on underwater traversal. If one take water depth seriously, it can be a way a map can uniquely define its combat dynamics as sink/float time becomes significantly different.
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2. Added Combat Dynamics:
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2. Added Combat Dynamics:
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Zero-K land combat has multiple tactics in play that sorta counter each other:
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Zero-K land combat has multiple tactics in play that sorta counter each other:
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i. Riot + Skirm/Super Skrim/Arty
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i. Riot + Skirm/Super Skrim/Arty
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ii. Cloaky bombs
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ii. Cloaky bombs
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iii. Assault overrun
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iii. Assault overrun
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iv. Raider out flank
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iv. Raider out flank
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v. Wall/Tower/Crab
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v. Wall/Tower/Crab
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In the standard sea lane of a map, riotskirm concepts dominates.
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In the standard sea lane of a map, riotskirm concepts dominates.
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3. In land combat, heavy combat striders comes into play at mid game that changes dynamics. For sea, the only striders are artillery and does not change sea combat dynamics, generally only enables bombardment of land. Sea could use striders that change combat dynamics directly.
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3. In land combat, heavy combat striders comes into play at mid game that changes dynamics. For sea, the only striders are artillery and does not change sea combat dynamics, generally only enables bombardment of land. Sea could use striders that change combat dynamics directly.
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Now to achieve most of the above, I propose a new factory, new striders and new buildings:
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Now to achieve most of the above, I propose a new factory, new striders and new buildings:
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AmphTanks. Vehicle hill climb ability on land. Includes both floating and seafloor movement units.
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AmphTanks. Vehicle hill climb ability on land. Includes both floating and seafloor movement units.
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Units:
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Units:
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1. Builder: seafloor movement, high movement speed
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1. Builder: seafloor movement, high movement speed
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2. Raider: A floating vehicle with machinegun surface weapon, torpedo anti-sub weapon. This is a high dps sea raider unlike all the existing high alpha raiders. This should enable damaging flanks against high hp units.
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2. Raider: A floating vehicle with machinegun surface weapon, torpedo anti-sub weapon. This is a high dps sea raider unlike all the existing high alpha raiders. This should enable damaging flanks against high hp units.
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3. Riot-Raider: A seafloor movement short ranged "kodachi" (lingering weapon), but with badger mine mechanic to differentiate it from kodachi in land combat (non cloaked mine). Seafloor combat units are hard to balance and soft counters has to be build in, it can not pursue other raiders but fight a defensive battle effectively.
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3. Riot-Raider: A seafloor movement short ranged "kodachi" (lingering weapon), but with badger mine mechanic to differentiate it from kodachi in land combat (non cloaked mine). Seafloor combat units are hard to balance and soft counters has to be build in, it can not pursue other raiders but fight a defensive battle effectively.
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4. Assault: A seafloor movement Jack with more speed, and ground smoothing drill attack (and maybe high damage low rof attack). The counter structure here is raider > assault > riot > raider as it can be kite/swarmed to death by sea raiders. The current sea does not have distinct fast assault option due to siren being riot, griz/bulk is sub-crab mobility, halb is raid-assault and lightweight enough to lose to riot-siren. With a proper assault, combos like assault riot, assault raiders are in play. Ground smoothing needed to make usage smoother and give it a different land battle role. Mix with lobster/limpet for more power.
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4. Assault: A seafloor movement Jack with more speed, and ground smoothing drill attack (and maybe high damage low rof attack). The counter structure here is raider > assault > riot > raider as it can be kite/swarmed to death by sea raiders. The current sea does not have distinct fast assault option due to siren being riot, griz/bulk is sub-crab mobility, halb is raid-assault and lightweight enough to lose to riot-siren. With a proper assault, combos like assault riot, assault raiders are in play. Ground smoothing needed to make usage smoother and give it a different land battle role. Mix with lobster/limpet for more power.
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5. Anti-Air: A floating, >4000hp, AA unit. This unit will be attracting all the fire from anti-surface units when factory is solo, and in mix fact situations it can be used like halberd if not facing lances. (you'd normally just angler for pure AA anyways)
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5. Anti-Air: A floating, >4000hp, AA unit. This unit will be attracting all the fire from anti-surface units when factory is solo, and in mix fact situations it can be used like halberd if not facing lances. (you'd normally just angler for pure AA anyways)
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6. Bomb: A floating, cloaked while stationary, "placeholder effects" bomb. This can trap opponent surface units. As far as bombs go it is pretty weak but should be useful enough, especially in mistral wars or securing siren kills and make screening relevant, or as a screen. In land combat, the cheap option when placeholders stop being survivable and as a defensive bomb with with different tactical characteristics, like pwning scorps.
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6. Bomb: A floating, cloaked while stationary, "placeholder effects" bomb. This can trap opponent surface units. As far as bombs go it is pretty weak but should be useful enough, especially in mistral wars or securing siren kills and make screening relevant, or as a screen. In land combat, the cheap option when placeholders stop being survivable and as a defensive bomb with with different tactical characteristics, like pwning scorps.
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7. Skirmisher: A slowish (buoy speed?) seafloor movement, 450 range ballistic non-homing anti-surface (think Scylla, with lower trajectory) low AoE low duration disarm (say slightly less to weapon cooldown). The base weapons concept is not very strong with low accuracy, low effects on target, but you can stack significant damage for shield breaking purposes and underwater makes it survivable enough. In ground combat it has even lower projectile trajectory, 500 range for faster time on target and can be used in disabling assault overruns like rav/ogre/mino/jack, or other clumsy large units and defenses without large numbers like other skirm.
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7. Skirmisher: A slowish (buoy speed?) seafloor movement, 450 range ballistic non-homing anti-surface (think Scylla, with lower trajectory) low AoE low duration disarm (say slightly less to weapon cooldown). The base weapons concept is not very strong with low accuracy, low effects on target, but you can stack significant damage for shield breaking purposes and underwater makes it survivable enough. In ground combat it has even lower projectile trajectory, 500 range for faster time on target and can be used in disabling assault overruns like rav/ogre/mino/jack, or other clumsy large units and defenses without large numbers like other skirm.
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8. Artillery-Special. A floating vehicle that launches moving on seafloor, non-homing suicide drone tanks (explodes on contact) at opponent with 1200 range (think claymore depth charges). Note that the terrain between target must be flat enough to path for it to hit and the projectile moves in a straight line. This enables long range fire in the underwater domain without being overpowered. For ground combat, the fact that the projectile hugs the ground increases hit rate (of random other targets) even without homing giving it unique characteristics.
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8. Artillery-Special. A floating vehicle that launches moving on seafloor, non-homing suicide drone tanks (explodes on contact) at opponent with 1200 range (think claymore depth charges). Note that the terrain between target must be flat enough to path for it to hit and the projectile moves in a straight line. This enables long range fire in the underwater domain without being overpowered. For ground combat, the fact that the projectile hugs the ground increases hit rate (of random other targets) even without homing giving it unique characteristics.
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Strider-hub Additions:
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Strider-hub Additions:
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1. Assault battlecruiser: 900 range tremor on water (make it twin cannons for visuals), move and fire, 15k+ hp. By giving up accuracy or range for a artillery ship, one gains sheer constant dps and hp. This is intended to break late game water shield+cloak balls, also flatten terrain on some coasts for assault. Lobster is tactically disadvantageous compared to smooth coasts to attack.
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1. Assault battlecruiser: 900 range tremor on water (make it twin cannons for visuals), move and fire, 15k+ hp. By giving up accuracy or range for a artillery ship, one gains sheer constant dps and hp. This is intended to break late game water shield+cloak balls, also flatten terrain on some coasts for assault. Lobster is tactically disadvantageous compared to smooth coasts to attack.
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2. Submerged Riot Tank: A seafloor moving, slow high damage riot tank with outlaw weapon and torpedoes. This in conjunction with heavy assault tank completes full underwater assault force that is difficult to counter without combining slow and mass antisub-riots or terraform, but given the cost the opponent can be expected to have this. In ground combat this works as a no friendly fire heavy screen, unlike dante that mess up your own cloaky stuff in the ultimatum/scorp/pala snipe duel situations.
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2. Submerged Riot Tank: A seafloor moving, slow high damage riot tank with outlaw weapon and torpedoes. This in conjunction with heavy assault tank completes full underwater assault force that is difficult to counter without combining slow and mass antisub-riots or terraform, but given the cost the opponent can be expected to have this. In ground combat this works as a no friendly fire heavy screen, unlike dante that mess up your own cloaky stuff in the ultimatum/scorp/pala snipe duel situations.
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New defense buildings:
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New defense buildings:
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1.
Underwater
Vertical
missile
launcher:
600
range,
anti-surface
missile,
low
hp
for
defensive
structure.
Being
underwater,
long
range
attacks
(
barring
the
new
arty)
doesn't
work,
and
even
new
arty
doesn't
work
if
it
is
walled
off.
This
demands
direct
assault.
(
or
assault
battlecruiser
above)
This
enables
practical
porcing
when
envoys
and
lances
are
all
over
the
place.
In
land
fights
tall
walls
can
enable
quite
good
procing
to
last
till
superweapon
endgame.
This
structure
works
works
on
land
if
walled
off.
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1.
Underwater
Vertical
missile
launcher:
600
range,
anti-surface
missile,
low
hp
for
defensive
structure.
Being
underwater,
long
range
attacks
(
barring
the
new
arty)
doesn't
work,
and
even
new
arty
doesn't
work
if
it
is
walled
off.
This
demands
direct
assault.
(
or
assault
battlecruiser
above)
This
enables
practical
porcing
when
envoys
and
lances
are
all
over
the
place.
In
land
fights
tall
walls
can
enable
quite
good
procing
to
last
till
superweapon
endgame.
This
structure
also
works
on
land
if
walled
off.
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Conclusion:
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Conclusion:
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With all of the above additions: there be
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With all of the above additions: there be
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1. Sea Terrain that seriously constrains and improves the capability of a factory
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1. Sea Terrain that seriously constrains and improves the capability of a factory
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2. New line of tactics revolving subsurface assault, but without being uncounterable by any of the existing sea facts.
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2. New line of tactics revolving subsurface assault, but without being uncounterable by any of the existing sea facts.
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3. New escalations that changes the game from mid to late game
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3. New escalations that changes the game from mid to late game
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4. New incentives at terraforming in a sea combat context, increasing the diversity of terrain even within the context of a single map.
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4. New incentives at terraforming in a sea combat context, increasing the diversity of terrain even within the context of a single map.
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Now if there is some ideas that I'd like but just doesn't fit, I'd like a "movement underwater, only attack above water and 90 degree climb (terraforming ramps is expensive with water)" unit, but it is probably simpler to just let crab walk underwater but not fire underwater for even more terraform tactics.
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Now if there is some ideas that I'd like but just doesn't fit, I'd like a "movement underwater, only attack above water and 90 degree climb (terraforming ramps is expensive with water)" unit, but it is probably simpler to just let crab walk underwater but not fire underwater for even more terraform tactics.
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Unlock the potential of SEA: a Pitch for new additions