https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=SpeedofDeath118&feedformat=atomZero-K - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T08:20:36ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.34.1https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Economy_Guide&diff=5728Economy Guide2019-11-12T16:38:29Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Fixed red link</p>
<hr />
<div>== Basic Economic Management ==<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/ibeam.png<br />
<br />
'''Metal''' is the most important resource. It is limited by your territory, obtained from metal extractors on metal spots, but is relatively cheap to get. You should always acquire it ruthlessly and spend it as soon as possible - your metal bar should always be empty.<br />
<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/energy.png<br />
<br />
'''Energy''' can be made anywhere and there is no limit to the amount you can have, though it takes an investment. It is used for tasks other than construction, so you should always have more energy than you do metal. Excess energy is automatically used to [[Overdrive]] your metal extractors.<br />
<br />
'''Build Power''' is the ability of your constructors to build locally at a fixed rate. Having too much of the other resources just means you don't have enough constructors. Some excess buildpower is good, so that you can move it around or perform other tasks.<br />
<br />
In order to build anything, you need all three resources in equal quantities (an exact 1-1-1 ratio). Constructors drain the same amount of resources at a fixed rate no matter what they are building. In your resource bars, income of each is shown in the small green number, and drain in red. The balance of these numbers is the larger number, added or subtracted from your storage. Unlike some other RTS's, the goal is to balance your income vs your expenditure- storage exists only to give you a buffer. If your storage is full and the green number is larger than the red, you're excessing, and wasting the resource. If your storage is empty and the red number is larger than the green, you're stalling, and production involving the resource is slowed.<br />
<br />
===Guard/Repeat Method to a Smooth Economy===<br />
One of the keys to running a smooth economy is to automate it. Here is one method:<br />
# Click the ''factory guard'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_on.png This will make all constructors guard (and assist) your factory.<br />
# Press the ''repeat'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_on.png Your factory should almost never be idle, and repeat greatly reduces the amount of micro you need to manage your factory. It also allows you to mix units more easily. (Alternately [as tip via Steel_Blue "Default unit states are amazing and you should configure them how you like when you want them a certain way"]: F10/Setttings/Unit Behavior/Default States. You'll see a list of every factory and hub. You're gonna have to do this one by one for every factory, set the checkbox next to repeat and auto assist to a check then every factory will be on repeat and auto assist and it will do this for you every game unless you have overridden the orders manually.)<br />
# Queue up offensive units and constructors. Constructors should generally comprise around 1/4th of all your spending, but this varies by map and situation. Lots of constructors allows you to react to a varying and slowly expanding economy.<br />
# Expand with your constructors, guarding them with units and building defences as you go, gradually and smoothly increasing your metal income. Make energy constantly, non-stop over the course of the game, and in pace with your metal production. Making a Solar Collector next to every Metal Extractor is a good practice.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself in a crisis and need to rebalance your economy, remember these tips:<br />
<br />
* If you stall energy, build energy structures and set them on [[Economy_Guide#Priority| high priority]]. Always watch out if your energy storage starts to dip. Turn off any cloaking units, cloak generators or shields until out of the stall.<br />
* When you have too many constructors working on your factory and you are stalling heavily, send some out to expand, reclaim, make defenses, and repair.<br />
* If you ever find yourself heading towards an excess of metal due to a sudden glut, make [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]] in your base or construct a new factory on the frontline if you have your commander or some idle constructors there.<br />
*Swim in energy and be short of metal, '''never the reverse.'''<br />
<br />
That's the practical advice. Now, some theory and specific data:<br />
<br />
== Metal ==<br />
Metal is directly tied to territorial acquisition and military conquest.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cormex.png <br />
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'''[[Metal Extractor|Metal Extractors]]''' (mexes) are the most efficient way to get metal, and can only be placed on metal spots. As such, you should expand quickly and rapidly get as many metal spots under your control as possible. Metal extractors are cheap, and pay themselves back quickly. Remember that any metal spot that doesn't have an extractor on it is just wasted metal. If you ever lose territory or get raided, quickly re-expand into the area with extractors again.<br />
<br />
'''Reclamation''' can make up a significant portion of your metal income. For everything that dies, a corpse is left behind with up to 40% of the metal it took to produce the unit. Securing an area after an assault and getting the reclaim from both your units and the enemies (an 80% payback on your investment) can decide the outcome of a game. Since it takes a constructor to reclaim things, you can think of reclamation as a way of turning buildpower directly into metal - reclaiming is a very good use of an excess of buildpower.<br />
Also note that unlike mex income, reclaimed metal is not shared.<br />
<br />
'''[[Overdrive]]''' makes your mexes produce more metal, with diminishing returns as you pump more and more energy into them. Due to this, the more mexes the energy is spread over, the more efficiently you can overdrive them, and the more metal you get for invested energy - so always try and take territory. Overdrive requires an energy structure near the extractor to work, but as long as the colour of your overdrive circles are the same, the efficiency is the same - don't worry about linking your whole grid together (but that would still be good). Rather, make a solar panel next to each extractor for maximum returns.<br />
<br />
'''Communism mode''' distributes all metal from mexes - basic output and overdrive - at equal quantities to all members of your team. This is the default mode for all team games.<br />
<br />
== Energy ==<br />
Energy can be made anywhere. It is generally built in your base, and having energy is required for a number of things, including making all units and structures and running some special units (jammers, shields, etc). Since it is such an investment, losing your energy can cripple your whole economy, so always try to protect your energy and hit the enemy's when possible. If you stall energy for any reason, get it back up again as quickly as possible by making small energy structures (solars, winds - not fusions).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armsolar.png <br />
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'''[[Solar Collector]]s''' (Solars) give a fixed income and are well armoured, closing up when under attack for a defensive bonus. They are the least efficient energy structure in terms of investment, but they are cheap, have good HP and don't rely on the varying winds and geothermal vents of the map.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armwin.png <br />
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'''[[Wind/Tidal Generator|Wind Generators]]''' are fragile and have a variable output. By default, the wind average on all maps is 1.25, so wind is discretionary. Building wind on higher altitudes raises the minimum that they produce. A tall, flat mountain can be of great economic value. The wind min/max values and altitude bonus are shown in your console at the start of the game and when you build a wind generator it will show you the altitude bonus to its generation in the tooltip.<br />
<br />
Wind is very fragile, so its best to space it out rather than build it in tight blocks - it will chain explode. Refer to the [[Wind Farm Guide]] to find out how to do this.<br />
<br />
Even when wind is more efficient, you might wish to also have some Solars as backup, due to the fragility and unpredictability of wind.<br />
<br />
When placed in water, wind generators become the sturdier tidal generators, with a high cost efficiency.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/geo.png <br />
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'''[[Geothermal Generator]]s''' are almost always the most efficient source of energy (more so than even Fusions), but they are not very cheap and can only be placed on geothermal vents. They are volatile, detonating in a moderate explosion.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/amgeo.png<br />
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Morphing a Geothermal Generator creates an '''[[Advanced Geothermal]]''', an even more efficient energy structure. These are very volatile and explode like a nuke when destroyed. Still, it is almost always worthwhile to take the risk of building them - just keep other buildings and units away from it.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armfus.png <br />
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'''[[Fusion Reactor]]s''' (Fusions) are efficient but expensive. They tend to explode in a small radius when killed, so don't put them directly right next to anything (especially not each other).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cafus.png<br />
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'''[[Singularity Reactor]]s''' (Singularities) are even more expensive and efficient than Fusions, but are extremely volatile. When destroyed, they implode, dealing massive damage in a wide radius and pulling in any surviving units.<br />
<br />
== Buildpower == <br />
Buildpower is mostly used for spending metal and energy, but it can also be used to reclaim, which gives you metal (reclaiming for energy is usually inefficient but good in desperation) and to repair, which costs energy equal to the constructors buildpower. You can also think of moving buildpower around as a way of 'using' it that doesn't require you to spend other resources. You should always have extra buildpower around, as it regulates the rest of your economy. Metal gluts can quickly be turned into energy with buildpower, and metal stalls can be alleviated through reclaim or mex expansion with buildpower, but getting more buildpower requires a factory or a constructor, and all three resources. Remember though that you cannot spend more resources than you actually have. Don't go crazy with the Nanotowers until you have the economy to actually run them.<br />
<br />
Build power is shown in the units tooltip.<br />
* [[Conjurer|Cloakbot]], [[Convict|Shieldbot]], [[Constable|Jumpbot]], [[Quill|Hovercraft]] and [[Mason|Rover]] Constructors drain -5 (e and m).<br />
* [[Welder|Tank]], [[Mariner|Ship]], [[Wasp|Gunship]], [[Weaver|Spider]] and [[Conch|Amphbot]] Constructors drain -7.5.<br />
* [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]], [[Commander|Commanders]] (unupgraded), and Factories drain -10.<br />
* [[Crane|Airplane]] constructors drain - 4.<br />
* [[Athena|Athenas]] drain - 15.<br />
<br />
This means you can very easily look at your income and expenditure numbers and know just how many constructors or nanotowers you need to bring your economy back into equilibrium.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Another way to explain it is that buildpower is the amount of metal and energy your builders allow you to spend per second. For example, a Caretaker spends at 10 m/s meaning its buildpower is 10.<br />
<br />
Since all builders have limited range, it is possible to talk about local buildpower as part of logistics. For example, if you have 10 Caretakers at home but only a few mobile builders, it may be more practical to make a few Fusions or even a Singularity rather than walk a long distance with builders you still have to make. <br />
<br />
This is also why at least in small density games such as 1v1, a builder is worth more the further from base it is (unless it's so far that it's in enemy territory and dead).<br />
<br />
== Priority ==<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_low.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_med.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_high.png<br />
<br />
All constructors and partially built structures have a button called '''Priority''' that can be set to low, medium or high. Constructors that are currently building a non-normal priority structure inherit its priority. Constructors set to high priority will receive resources before those with normal priority and those with normal receive before those with low. Assuming you are stalling metal (as you should be, explained above), high priority build projects will build faster than normal priority projects, and so on. This feature will save you the time of pausing all less important construction when you need to build something more quickly than others.<br />
<br />
Below is a table detailing priority inheritance. The builder and structure priority result in the builder receiving resources with the priority shown in the main body of the table.<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | !! colspan="4" | Builder<br />
|-<br />
| '''High''' || '''Normal''' || '''Low'''<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="3" | Struct <br />
| '''High''' || High || High || High<br />
|-<br />
| '''Normal''' || High ||Normal ||Low<br />
|-<br />
| '''Low''' ||Low || Low || Low<br />
|}<br />
<br />
== Team income distribution ==<br />
<br />
Commanders and innate income are split evenly.<br />
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Reclaim is gained by the reclaiming player.<br />
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Mexes produces base metal. The metal is split almost evenly, with more going to players who recently built a mex until 50% of that cost is paid off.<br />
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Overdrive produces some amount of metal. The metal is split almost evenly, with more going to players who recently built energy until 50% of that cost is paid off. There is no concept of personal overdrive.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_game_progression&diff=5727Typical game progression2019-11-10T14:40:23Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: 'Organically'? We could use more common vocab here. Just saying</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a guide explaining how a typical game progresses, after a [[typical opening]].<br />
<br />
The game can be thought of as being split into a few phases, each with a characteristic set of units and tactical goals - the overall goal of crushing your opponent while remaining (relatively) uncrushed never changes. <br />
<br />
This is a general guide. Depending on the factory match-up and the players involved, things could turn out very differently.<br />
<br />
This is from a 1v1 perspective - two players against each other.<br />
<br />
==Raider phase==<br />
The raider phase is the first phase in a typical game. It is defined by a few characteristics:<br />
*Most of the map is unoccupied by either player.<br />
*No defences covering most areas.<br />
Due to this, the mobility that raiders have tends to make them the dominant unit class. When the map is fortified with light defences, raiders are much less useful and it will be time to switch to something else.<br />
<br />
===Expansion===<br />
You will want to expand as fast as possible here, and try to grab at least half of the map. Try to have two groups of constructors moving around the map taking mexes. Near each mex cluster you can put some light defences, but do not overbuild defences early game, and in non-critical locations (i.e. not a choke point or the centre of the map). Run around the map with your raiders, keeping track of where your opponent's raiders are as well.<br />
<br />
You should be able to defend your expansion from enemy raiders with some light defences and some of your own raiders. Since raiding properly is considerably more difficult than expanding, you should be encouraged to expand as fast as possible.<br />
<br />
Try to expand much faster and in a more risky manner than you think is possible for a few games. You might be surprised at how much greed you get away with! It is much harder to punish greed than it is to be greedy. Doing this will also help you learn the safe maximum limits for expansion.<br />
<br />
If you succeed in this phase of the game, you will have a massive economic advantage and will be able to build more units.<br />
<br />
====Energy production====<br />
A very common mistake players make is that they don't build enough energy structures. This leads to a situation in which your metal income exceeds your energy income and you are unable to spend all your metal (called "e-stalling"). Having a constructor dedicated to only building energy structures can solve this issue.<br />
<br />
===Raider Usage===<br />
You want to have good radar coverage of your side of the map and keep your raiders as close to the enemy as possible. This puts pressure on them, and also forces them to keep their raiders near their base, away from your expansion. Against good players you will not be able to do much damage with raiders, but that does not mean you have accomplished nothing by keeping your raiders near them. The benefits are three-fold:<br />
*Because of the threat of your raiders, they are not able to "naked expand" (expanding with minimal defence). If you allow your opponent to naked expand, they will have a massive economic advantage.<br />
*Your opponent is forced to keep their own raiders near their own base to defend from yours. It can also force them to build more defences, slowing down their expansion and reducing the amount of pressure they can put on your own expansion.<br />
*Your raiders are also scouting. By running around at the edges of your opponent's base you will be able to see what they are up to. If they are trying to [[Cheese|rush a heavy unit or do something silly]] you will often just be able to overrun them and win.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself on being the one that has raiders at their front door, things are a little more challenging, but don't panic.<br />
*Try to expand where your enemies raiders are not (with that other group of builders on the other side of the map that you have...right?).<br />
*You can slowly creep forward with LLTs and the protection of your own raiders.<br />
<br />
Note that you do not need to kill anything to have a successful raider phase. Your primary goals are to expand and grab territory while slowing your opponents expansion to a reasonable pace, and also have the energy to use all the metal you took control of. Your raiders will be useful later, so try to keep them alive. There is a "reasonable maximum speed" at which players can safely expand, and as long as you make sure your opponent doesn't exceed this and you are close to it, you will probably enter the later stages of the game on equal footing. Few games are won in the raider phase, but the tone of the rest of the game is set by it.<br />
<br />
==== Fortified areas====<br />
You may see a location that is lightly defended with towers, and you will correctly assume that you can run into it with your raiders and kill everything. However, this is a risky (and often unnecessary) thing to do.<br />
*There might be some defences you don't see, like nearby units lying in wait.<br />
*Killing towers with raiders is not cost efficient, so the payoff might not be that good.<br />
**This could lead to your opponent taking a temporary raider number advantage, which could put you on the defensive and actually put you behind from where you were before, as you are no longer able to exert as much map pressure.<br />
*Committing your raiders to an attack like this open you up for the possibility of a counter-attack, and since your raiders are somewhere else, you might not be able to defend well.<br />
<br />
====Finding a lone commander====<br />
Sometimes your opponent may be too greedy and have their commander out alone. Likely it is low level, and a moderate amount of raiders is enough to kill it. A fallen commander is a crippling blow to the victim's economy. Some raiders are better than others at this job.<br />
<br />
Spread your units out right before it dies, as they have a death explosion which could wipe out your raiders if they are really close to the commander.<br />
<br />
===Why not other unit classes?===<br />
====Riots====<br />
It may seem intuitive to make riot units in this phase of the game. "They're good against raiders, aren't they?" you may say (correctly). However, there are multiple downsides to using them.<br />
*They are very slow. This makes them unusable for attacks, as your opponent will see them coming and be able to easily respond. They also cannot respond to attacks.<br />
*Early game, lone riot units can be overwhelmed by raiders.<br />
**For this, a concave line formation is highly effective, to minimise AoE damage from the riot unit.<br />
*Light defences are effective against riots, as riots are DPS, not HP focused. Light defences will take a significant portion of the riot's HP away before the riot is close enough to fire. What usually happens is that the riot kills one or two defensive towers and then dies, which is cost-inefficient.<br />
*Riots can be outmanoeuvred and ignored. Because of this, players tend to spread out their riots to try to cover every location so you can't run past them, which also makes them easier to destroy piecemeal as above. <br />
<br />
Because of the above reasons, they do not pose much of a threat, except in circumstances such as a [[Cheese|riot rush]], but you should've scouted that.<br />
<br />
The correct way to deal with an opponent making riots is to just expand faster than they do - they won't be able to punish this. When you inevitably get a superior economy, you can just overwhelm them.<br />
<br />
====Any other class====<br />
Skirmishers, artillery, assaults - all of these do very badly against raiders, so are not worth building at this point.<br />
<br />
===Importance of radar===<br />
Radar coverage is very important to get in this phase. If you do not have it, you have to play defensively in case your opponents tries to raid some of your expansions. The alternative is building lots of defences everywhere, but this is a losing strategy, as it leaves you unable to punish your opponent for expanding. If they expand they will just overrun you with units.<br />
<br />
By building radar you can reduce the amount you spend on defence, and can use it on offensive units instead. In the worst case scenario, you prevent greedy expansion from your opponent. In the best case, you just win because they were too greedy and have no units.<br />
<br />
===Dealing with defensive players===<br />
A strategy that many encounter is when your opponent just builds lots of defences at every expansion site. These people many have a bit too much faith in static defences and their "higher value vs. units", or may be newcomers from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_(video_game) Supreme Commander] who liked to watch endless hordes of units being ground up under a hailstorm of gunfire.<br />
<br />
The best way to deal with this is to just ignore them and focus on expanding yourself. If they want to sit in the corner building defences, that is fine for you. This is essentially saying that they are too lazy to do anything and want you to come to them. Eventually you will.<br />
<br />
Since they have spent so much metal on building defences, they won't be able to prevent you from expanding, and they can't expand themselves. Take the whole map and build your economy. Only then will you come to their base and crush them with artillery, heavy units... probably a strider or two.<br />
<br />
Defensive players out there, there is no way to win in this position. Zero-K's mechanics essentially tell you to expand or die. The metal advantage of the attacker is such that the value of your defences will be outweighed by the value of your opponent's units. The only possible way you could win like this is by boring the enemy to death, and there are a lot of patient gamers out there.<br />
<br />
Remember Sun Tzu - "A general who attempts to bolster his defences everywhere will quickly find he has no defences anywhere." No one can build a line the enemy cannot pass.<br />
<br />
===End of raider phase===<br />
Eventually, the map will become covered with a line of defences from both players, partitioning the map roughly in half. This limits the mobility advantage that raider have, and it becomes time to switch to something else. Some areas might be lightly defended, and if you know the enemy's raiders are not close, you can punish this. However, by this point people often have full radar coverage and they will be prepared.<br />
<br />
==Midgame phase==<br />
In this phase, strategic diversity opens up significantly. Players typically transition out of raiders into some of the following:<br />
<br />
===Skirmishers===<br />
A common strategic switch people make is a shift to building skirmishers rather than raiders. These units are capable of killing light defences fairly well, so you can start pushing back your opponent and try to grab more territory. Use your raiders (which are hopefully still alive) to protect your skirmishers from harm.<br />
<br />
===Riots===<br />
Riot units are a good choice to slaughter an enemy raider ball, and have roughly the same speed as skirmishers. They make good escorting units.<br />
<br />
===Assaults===<br />
For some factories, it is possible to switch to assault units. These units will be able to punch through light defences (unlike raiders) and do some economic damage to your opponent. <br />
Some examples:<br />
*"Thuglaw" - [[Outlaw]]s and [[Thug]]s. This combination from the [[Shieldbot Factory]] is a very potent assault force. It is good against raiders and light defences, giving it the potential to do lots of damage to an unprepared opponent.<br />
*Ravagers - The [[Rover Assembly]]'s assault unit. These units are fast for assaults, and can be used for raiding. They are able to eat through light defences, and due to their speed it is harder to position raiders to defend against them.<br />
<br />
===Air units===<br />
One area people often neglect is the sky above them. Air units are typically quite a bit faster than ground units, and bypass difficult terrain. There are many advantages to air units, with each type of air force having their own.<br />
<br />
There are two air factories, which play very differently from each other.<br />
<br />
====[[Airplane Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Airplanes are fast and focus on alpha-striking the enemy. The [[Swift]] and [[Raptor]] are interceptors, able to defeat other air units. The four bombers, the [[Raven]] (precision dive bomber), the [[Phoenix]] (napalm bomber), the [[Thunderbird]] (disarming lightning bomber), and the [[Likho]] (high-damage AoE bomber) are in-and-out units, striking fast and hard.<br />
<br />
The [[Owl]] and [[Sparrow]] are spy planes, able to scout the enemy quickly. The former can patch up any radar coverage holes, and the latter is an early scout which can be morphed from a [[Radar Tower]]. The Swift can double as a base scout, using its speed boost to quickly pass over an enemy base.<br />
<br />
====[[Gunship Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Gunship units are slower than their air counterparts, and they also are DPS focused, instead of alpha-strike focused like planes. They are mostly close air support, with the [[Nimbus]] being typical - delivering fire support from a distance.<br />
<br />
The [[Charon]] and [[Hercules]] are notable as they are not gunships at all, with the former not even being armed. Rather, they are transports, boosting your units' mobility and taking them over any terrain. With an [[Iris]], they can also be used for stealth infiltration.<br />
<br />
====Playing against air====<br />
<br />
First things first - radar coverage. [[Radar Tower]]s, [[Advanced Radar]]s, all that good stuff. Can't fight what you can't see.<br />
<br />
Get some dedicated anti-air units and buildings. Each factory has a dedicated anti-air unit - the Airplane Plant has two. There are also five anti-air buildings, which are also highly effective.<br />
<br />
===Fortification===<br />
In the midgame, players will sometimes fortify certain locations on the map with heavier defences such as [[Stinger|Stingers]] or [[Stardust|Stardusts]]. This happens at central locations of the map as it gives you a sort of staging point that you can keep your units at safely. Heavier defences generally require a response from artillery or heavy units, so by building some, you can buy yourself some time as your opponent is figuring out a way to deal with the heavy defences.<br />
<br />
Stingers are especially tricky at this part of the game, as they are the first type of tower that can fight skirmishers well. If you find yourself losing ground to skirmishers or expect them soon, it may be a good idea to put up a Stinger. Stingers do not do that well against lots of light units, so make sure to keep building lots of LLTs (or even add a Stardust).<br />
<br />
==Lategame==<br />
Both players with have built up sizeable armies of skirmishers/riots/assaults and will probably have some air presence. The map will be more fortified, and it will be difficult to make progress with light units.<br />
<br />
===Eco===<br />
If things have stabilised in the midgame, it may be time to build your economy. <br />
*Build on all the available [[Geothermal Generator]] spots. If you feel that some are very safely located, upgrade them into [[Advanced Geothermal]]s. <br />
**Advanced Geothermals will often pay for themselves within just 3-4 minutes. As a bonus, they explode violently on death. If the area is clear of allies, they can make for a nasty surprise to nearby enemies. When followed by a quick reclaim and rebuild, this will give a slight loss to your economy to harm your opponent's military capability.<br />
*Connect your mexes into the Overdrive grid. The more mexes you connect, the more efficiently energy will be distributed, and you will end up with more metal. Overdrive is very efficient at low levels of energy, but suffers diminishing returns. <br />
*Build [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]. Make sure to scout before starting, as it can stop your unit production for a minute or so. If for example you scout your opponent switching to air or preparing a massive raid, it may be better to make sure you can counter their strategy before building it, as otherwise your efforts may be in vain.<br />
<br />
As with expansion, it is much harder to punish greedy economy building than it is to do it yourself. Try to be a greedy as possible and learn what the safe limits are.<br />
<br />
===Heavies===<br />
At this stage in the game you will start to see heavies coming out. "Heavies" are units that are generally 1500+ cost. Most of them massacre the lighter skirmisher/assault/riot balls that are predominant in the midgame, and they also can stand up the to defences built in the midgame such as Stingers and Stardusts. These heavies are usually in the form of [[Tank Foundry|Tanks]], but the [[Amphbot Factory|Amphbots]] have the [[Grizzly]] and the [[Spider Factory|Spiders]] have the [[Crab]].<br />
<br />
===Bot specialist units===<br />
The bot factories do not really have "heavies", but they do have more expensive upper tier units that can be used to fight heavies of other factories. <br />
*[[Cloakbot Factory|Cloakbot Factories]] can build [[Phantom|snipers]] and [[Iris|area-cloakers]].<br />
*[[Shieldbot Factory|Shieldbot Factories]] can build [[Aspis|mobile shield generators]].<br />
*[[Rover Assembly|Rover Assemblies]] can build [[Dominatrix|a rover that captures enemy units]].<br />
<br />
===Light striders===<br />
Someone putting down a [[Strider Hub]] and making either a Scorpion or Dante is quite common.<br />
*The [[Dante]] is very good against skirmisher balls as its incendiary missile ability (the "D-gun") is highly damaging and deals AoE napalm damage. It is also one of the faster striders so it can get into action quickly. Due to all its AoE damage, it massacres riots and raiders as well. It fights assaults decently, but it actually loses to most of them by cost. You need to retreat and repair it to get full value out of it.<br />
**Be careful with your own units around the Dante. Dantes can deal friendly fire, and burning your own army to a crisp is not a good thing.<br />
*[[Scorpion|Scorpions]] can turn invisible and have an EMP ability. This can be used to sneak up on valuable targets like Commanders or a bunched up set of units, stun them, and then kill them. Scorpions are a support/assassination unit, as their DPS is much lower than a Dante, and they also get kited by skirmishers easily.<br />
**Scorpions beat Dantes quite easily, especially if the Scorpion can stunlock the Dante.<br />
<br />
==Late-Lategame==<br />
In this phase you will see heavy Striders and some of the more exotic tools available to the player.<br />
*[[Big Bertha]], the biggest conventional artillery gun in the game.<br />
*[[Trinity]], a strategic nuke silo.<br />
*Ultra-heavy defences:<br />
**[[Desolator]], a small fortress in the form of one building. Often put on a terraformed tower.<br />
**[[Lucifer]], a heavy sniper tower. Effective against large units.<br />
**[[Cerberus]], a triple-barrelled mid-range artillery emplacement. Used as counter-artillery or as area-denial.<br />
*[[Paladin]]/[[Detriment]], the two biggest striders in the game.<br />
*[[Starlight]], a constant satellite beam of death that deals massive damage to heavies and enemy bases.<br />
*[[Zenith]], a superweapon which controls meteorites to throw at the enemy, annihilating targets and the area around them.<br />
*[[Disco Rave Party]], an artillery weapon which fire six different shots at the enemy in sequence, with different but equally devastating effects.<br />
*[[Singularity Reactor]], the biggest energy generator available, worth around 6.5 Fusions and 2.25 Advanced Geothermals.<br />
<br />
Most games do not actually get this far, but the objectives remain the same, even if the whole battlefield is a smoking crater.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
Note that this is a general overview. Sometimes people may try to rush with heavies in the midgame, or try building their economy during the raider phase (the operative word in both cases being 'try'). Zero-k is a very flexible game, and there is no set meta-game like in [https://starcraft2.com Starcraft 2]. Lots of game play is map-dependent or match-up dependent.<br />
<br />
But as always, remember that this is a game, so have fun and get out there!<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_game_progression&diff=5726Typical game progression2019-11-10T14:35:45Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Additions, corrections, and editing. The SupCom player was me, btw</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a guide explaining how a typical game progresses, after a [[typical opening]].<br />
The game can be thought of as being organically split up into a few phases, each with a characteristic set of units and tactical goals - the overall goal of crushing your opponent while remaining (relatively) uncrushed never changes. <br />
<br />
This is a general guide. Depending on the factory matchup and the players involved, things could turn out very differently.<br />
<br />
This is from a 1v1 perspective - two players duking it out on one map.<br />
<br />
==Raider phase==<br />
The raider phase is the first phase in a typical game. It is defined by a few characteristics:<br />
*Most of the map is unoccupied by either player.<br />
*No defences covering most areas.<br />
Due to this, the mobility that raiders have tends to make them the dominant unit class. When the map is fortified with light defences, raiders are much less useful and it will be time to switch to something else. <br />
===Expansion===<br />
You will want to expand as fast as possible here, and try to grab at least half of the map. Try to have two groups of constructors moving around the map taking mexes. Near each mex cluster you can put some light defences, but do not overbuild defences early game, and in non-critical locations (i.e. not a choke point or the centre of the map). Run around the map with your raiders, keeping track of where your opponents raiders are as well.<br />
<br />
You should be able to defend your expansion from enemy raiders with some light defences and some of your own raiders. Since raiding properly is considerably more difficult than expanding, you should be encouraged to expand as fast as possible.<br />
*Try to expand much faster and in a more risky manner than you think is possible for a few games. You might be surprised at how much greed you get away with! It is much harder to punish greed than it is to be greedy. Doing this will also help you learn the safe maximum limits for expansion.<br />
If you succeed in this phase of the game, you will have a massive economic advantage and will be able to build more units.<br />
====Energy production====<br />
A very common mistake players make is that they don't build enough energy structures. This leads to a situation in which your metal income exceeds your energy income and you are unable to spend all your metal (called "e-stalling"). Having 1 constructor dedicated to only building energy structures can solve this issue.<br />
<br />
===Raider Usage===<br />
You want to have good radar coverage of your side of the map and keep your raiders as close to the enemy as possible. This puts pressure on them, and also forces them to keep their raiders near their base, away from your expansion. Against good players you will not be able to do much damage with raiders, but that does not mean you have accomplished nothing by keeping your raiders near them.<br />
*Because of the threat of your raiders, they are not able to "naked expand" (expanding with minimal defence). If you allow your opponent to naked expand, they will have a massive economic advantage.<br />
*Your opponent is forced to keep their own raiders near their own base to defend from yours. It can also force them to build more defences, slowing down their expansion and reducing the amount of pressure they can put on your own expansion.<br />
*Your raiders are also scouting. By running around at the edges of your opponent's base you will be able to see what they are up to. If they are trying to [[Cheese|rush a heavy unit or do something silly]] you will often just be able to overrun them and win.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself on being the one that has raiders at their front door, things are a little more challenging, but don't panic.<br />
*Try to expand where your enemies raiders are not (with that other group of builders on the other side of the map that you have...right?).<br />
*You can slowly creep forward with LLTs and the protection of your own raiders.<br />
<br />
Note that you do not need to kill anything to have a successful raider phase. Your primary goals are to expand and grab territory while slowing your opponents expansion to a reasonable pace, and also have the energy to use all the metal you took control of. Your raiders will be useful later, so try to keep them alive. There is a "reasonable maximum speed" at which players can safely expand, and as long as you make sure your opponent doesn't exceed this and you are close to it, you will probably enter the later stages of the game on equal footing. Few games are won in the raider phase, but the tone of the rest of the game is set by it.<br />
<br />
==== Fortified areas====<br />
You may see a location that is lightly defended with towers, and you will correctly assume that you can run into it with your raiders and kill everything. However, this is a risky (and often unnecessary) thing to do.<br />
*There might be some defences you don't see, like nearby units lying in wait.<br />
*Killing towers with raiders is not cost efficient, so the payoff might not be that good.<br />
**This could lead to your opponent taking a temporary raider number advantage, which could put you on the defensive and actually put you behind from where you were before, as you are no longer able to exert as much map pressure.<br />
*Committing your raiders to an attack like this open you up for the possibility of a counter-attack, and since your raiders are somewhere else, you might not be able to defend well.<br />
<br />
====Finding a lone commander====<br />
Sometimes your opponent may be too greedy and have their commander out alone. Likely it is low level, and a moderate amount of raiders is enough to kill it. A fallen commander is a crippling blow to the victim's economy. Some raiders are better than others at this job.<br />
*Spread your units out right before it dies, as they have a death explosion which could wipe out your raiders if they are really close to the commander.<br />
<br />
===Why not other unit classes?===<br />
====Riots====<br />
It may seem intuitive to make riot units in this phase of the game. "They're good against raiders, aren't they?" you may say (correctly). However, there are multiple downsides to using them.<br />
*They are very slow. This makes them unusable for attacks, as your opponent will see them coming and be able to easily respond. They also cannot respond to attacks.<br />
*Early game, lone riot units can be overwhelmed by raiders.<br />
**For this, a concave line formation is highly effective, to minimise AoE damage from the riot unit.<br />
*Light defences are effective against riots, as riots are DPS, not HP focused. Light defences will take a significant portion of the riot's HP away before the riot is close enough to fire. What usually happens is that the riot kills one or two defensive towers and then dies, which is cost-inefficient.<br />
*Riots can be outmanoeuvred and ignored. Because of this, players tend to spread out their riots to try to cover every location so you can't run past them, which also makes them easier to destroy piecemeal as above. <br />
<br />
Because of the above reasons, they do not pose much of a threat, except in circumstances such as a [[Cheese|riot rush]], but you should've scouted that.<br />
<br />
The correct way to deal with an opponent making riots is to just expand faster than they do - they won't be able to punish this. When you inevitably get a superior economy, you can just overwhelm them.<br />
<br />
====Any other class====<br />
Skirmishers, artillery, assaults - all of these do very badly against raiders, so are not worth building at this point.<br />
<br />
===Importance of radar===<br />
Radar coverage is very important to get in this phase. If you do not have it, you have to play defensively in case your opponents tries to raid some of your expansions. The alternative is building lots of defences everywhere, but this is a losing strategy, as it leaves you unable to punish your opponent for expanding. If they expand they will just overrun you with units.<br />
<br />
By building radar you can reduce the amount you spend on defence, and can use it on offensive units instead. In the worst case scenario, you prevent greedy expansion from your opponent. In the best case, you just win because they were too greedy and have no units.<br />
<br />
===Dealing with defensive players===<br />
A strategy that many encounter is when your opponent just builds lots of defences at every expansion site. These people many have a bit too much faith in static defences and their "higher value vs. units", or may be newcomers from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_(video_game) Supreme Commander] who liked to watch endless hordes of units being ground up under a hailstorm of gunfire.<br />
<br />
The best way to deal with this is to just ignore them and focus on expanding yourself. If they want to sit in the corner building defences, that is fine for you. This is essentially saying that they are too lazy to do anything and want you to come to them. Eventually you will.<br />
<br />
Since they have spent so much metal on building defences, they won't be able to prevent you from expanding, and they can't expand themselves. Take the whole map and build your economy. Only then will you come to their base and crush them with artillery, heavy units... probably a strider or two.<br />
<br />
Defensive players out there, there is no way to win in this position. Zero-K's mechanics essentially tell you to expand or die. The metal advantage of the attacker is such that the value of your defences will be outweighed by the value of your opponent's units. The only possible way you could win like this is by boring the enemy to death, and there are a lot of patient gamers out there.<br />
<br />
Remember Sun Tzu - "A general who attempts to bolster his defences everywhere will quickly find he has no defences anywhere." No one can build a line the enemy cannot pass.<br />
<br />
===End of raider phase===<br />
Eventually, the map will become covered with a line of defences from both players, partitioning the map roughly in half. This limits the mobility advantage that raider have, and it becomes time to switch to something else. Some areas might be lightly defended, and if you know the enemy's raiders are not close, you can punish this. However, by this point people often have full radar coverage and they will be prepared.<br />
<br />
==Midgame phase==<br />
In this phase, strategic diversity opens up significantly. Players typically transition out of raiders into some of the following:<br />
<br />
===Skirmishers===<br />
A common strategic switch people make is a shift to building skirmishers rather than raiders. These units are capable of killing light defences fairly well, so you can start pushing back your opponent and try to grab more territory. Use your raiders (which are hopefully still alive) to protect your skirmishers from harm.<br />
<br />
===Riots===<br />
Riot units are a good choice to slaughter an enemy raider ball, and have roughly the same speed as skirmishers. They make good escorting units.<br />
<br />
===Assaults===<br />
For some factories, it is possible to switch to assault units. These units will be able to punch through light defences (unlike raiders) and do some economic damage to your opponent. <br />
Some examples:<br />
*Thuglaw - Outlaws and Thugs. This combination from the [[Shieldbot Factory]] is a very potent assault force. It is good against raiders and light defences, giving it the potential to do lots of damage to an unprepared opponent.<br />
*Ravagers - The [[Rover Assembly]]'s assault unit. These units are fast for assaults, and can be used for raiding. They are able to eat through light defences, and due to their speed it is harder to position raiders to defend against them.<br />
<br />
===Air units===<br />
One area people often neglect is the sky above them. Air units are typically quite a bit faster than ground units, and bypass difficult terrain. There are many advantages to air units, with each type of air force having their own.<br />
<br />
There are two air factories, which play very differently from each other.<br />
<br />
====[[Airplane Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Airplanes are fast and focus on alpha-striking the enemy. The [[Swift]] and [[Raptor]] are interceptors, able to defeat other air units. The four bombers, the [[Raven]] (precision dive bomber), the [[Phoenix]] (napalm bomber), the [[Thunderbird]] (disarming lightning bomber), and the [[Likho]] (high-damage AoE bomber) are in-and-out units, striking fast and hard.<br />
<br />
The [[Owl]] and [[Sparrow]] are spy planes, able to scout the enemy quickly. The former can patch up any radar coverage holes, and the latter is an early scout which can be morphed from a [[Radar Tower]]. The Swift can double as a base scout, using its speed boost to quickly pass over an enemy base.<br />
<br />
====[[Gunship Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Gunship units are slower than their air counterparts, and they also are DPS focused, instead of alpha-strike focused like planes. They are mostly close air support, with the [[Nimbus]] being typical - delivering fire support from a distance.<br />
<br />
The [[Charon]] and [[Hercules]] are notable as they are not gunships at all, with the former not even being armed. Rather, they are transports, boosting your units' mobility and taking them over any terrain. With an [[Iris]], they can also be used for stealth infiltration.<br />
<br />
====Playing against air====<br />
<br />
First things first - radar coverage. [[Radar Tower]]s, [[Advanced Radar]]s, all that good stuff. Can't fight what you can't see.<br />
<br />
Get some dedicated anti-air units and buildings. Each factory has a dedicated anti-air unit - the Airplane Plant has two. There are also five anti-air buildings, which are also highly effective.<br />
<br />
===Fortification===<br />
In the midgame, players will sometimes fortify certain locations on the map with heavier defences such as [[Stinger|Stingers]] or [[Stardust|Stardusts]]. This happens at central locations of the map as it gives you a sort of staging point that you can keep your units at safely. Heavier defences generally require a response from artillery or heavy units, so by building some, you can buy yourself some time as your opponent is figuring out a way to deal with the heavy defences.<br />
<br />
Stingers are especially tricky at this part of the game, as they are the first type of tower that can fight skirmishers well. If you find yourself losing ground to skirmishers or expect them soon, it may be a good idea to put up a Stinger. Stingers do not do that well against lots of light units, so make sure to keep building lots of LLTs (or even add a Stardust).<br />
<br />
==Lategame==<br />
Both players with have built up sizeable armies of skirmishers/riots/assaults and will probably have some air presence. The map will be more fortified, and it will be difficult to make progress with light units.<br />
<br />
===Eco===<br />
If things have stabilised in the midgame, it may be time to build your economy. <br />
*Build on all the available [[Geothermal Generator]] spots. If you feel that some are very safely located, upgrade them into [[Advanced Geothermal]]s. <br />
**Advanced Geothermals will often pay for themselves within just 3-4 minutes. As a bonus, they explode violently on death. If the area is clear of allies, they can make for a nasty surprise to nearby enemies. When followed by a quick reclaim and rebuild, this will give a slight loss to your economy to harm your opponent's military capability.<br />
*Connect your mexes into the Overdrive grid. The more mexes you connect, the more efficiently energy will be distributed, and you will end up with more metal. Overdrive is very efficient at low levels of energy, but suffers diminishing returns. <br />
*Build [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]. Make sure to scout before starting, as it can stop your unit production for a minute or so. If for example you scout your opponent switching to air or preparing a massive raid, it may be better to make sure you can counter their strategy before building it, as otherwise your efforts may be in vain.<br />
<br />
As with expansion, it is much harder to punish greedy economy building than it is to do it yourself. Try to be a greedy as possible and learn what the safe limits are.<br />
<br />
===Heavies===<br />
At this stage in the game you will start to see heavies coming out. "Heavies" are units that are generally 1500+ cost. Most of them massacre the lighter skirmisher/assault/riot balls that are predominant in the midgame, and they also can stand up the to defences built in the midgame such as Stingers and Stardusts. These heavies are usually in the form of [[Tank Foundry|Tanks]], but the [[Amphbot Factory|Amphbots]] have the [[Grizzly]] and the [[Spider Factory|Spiders]] have the [[Crab]].<br />
<br />
===Bot specialist units===<br />
The bot factories do not really have "heavies", but they do have more expensive upper tier units that can be used to fight heavies of other factories. <br />
*[[Cloakbot Factory|Cloakbot Factories]] can build [[Phantom|snipers]] and [[Iris|area-cloakers]].<br />
*[[Shieldbot Factory|Shieldbot Factories]] can build [[Aspis|mobile shield generators]].<br />
*[[Rover Assembly|Rover Assemblies]] can build [[Dominatrix|a rover that captures enemy units]].<br />
<br />
===Light striders===<br />
Someone putting down a [[Strider Hub]] and making either a Scorpion or Dante is quite common.<br />
*The [[Dante]] is very good against skirmisher balls as its incendiary missile ability (the "D-gun") is highly damaging and deals AoE napalm damage. It is also one of the faster striders so it can get into action quickly. Due to all its AoE damage, it massacres riots and raiders as well. It fights assaults decently, but it actually loses to most of them by cost. You need to retreat and repair it to get full value out of it.<br />
**Be careful with your own units around the Dante. Dantes can deal friendly fire, and burning your own army to a crisp is not a good thing.<br />
*[[Scorpion|Scorpions]] can turn invisible and have an EMP ability. This can be used to sneak up on valuable targets like Commanders or a bunched up set of units, stun them, and then kill them. Scorpions are a support/assassination unit, as their DPS is much lower than a Dante, and they also get kited by skirmishers easily.<br />
**Scorpions beat Dantes quite easily, especially if the Scorpion can stunlock the Dante.<br />
<br />
==Late-Lategame==<br />
In this phase you will see heavy Striders and some of the more exotic tools available to the player.<br />
*[[Big Bertha]], the biggest conventional artillery gun in the game.<br />
*[[Trinity]], a strategic nuke silo.<br />
*Ultra-heavy defences:<br />
**[[Desolator]], a small fortress in the form of one building. Often put on a terraformed tower.<br />
**[[Lucifer]], a heavy sniper tower. Effective against large units.<br />
**[[Cerberus]], a triple-barrelled mid-range artillery emplacement. Used as counter-artillery or as area-denial.<br />
*[[Paladin]]/[[Detriment]], the two biggest striders in the game.<br />
*[[Starlight]], a constant satellite beam of death that deals massive damage to heavies and enemy bases.<br />
*[[Zenith]], a superweapon which controls meteorites to throw at the enemy, annihilating targets and the area around them.<br />
*[[Disco Rave Party]], an artillery weapon which fire six different shots at the enemy in sequence, with different but equally devastating effects.<br />
*[[Singularity Reactor]], the biggest energy generator available, worth around 6.5 Fusions and 2.25 Advanced Geothermals.<br />
<br />
Most games do not actually get this far, but the objectives remain the same, even if the whole battlefield is a smoking crater.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
Note that this is a general overview. Sometimes people may try to rush with heavies in the midgame, or try building their economy during the raider phase (the operative word in both cases being 'try'). Zero-k is a very flexible game, and there is no set meta-game like in [https://starcraft2.com Starcraft 2]. Lots of game play is map-dependent or match-up dependent.<br />
<br />
But as always, remember that this is a game, so have fun and get out there!<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_opening&diff=5725Typical opening2019-11-10T14:02:59Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Small additions and changes</p>
<hr />
<div>A guide about how to start a game and what your opening moves would typically be. The specifics could change according to the map and game mode played, but the moves below are generally a good start to any game.<br />
<br />
==Location selection phase==<br />
In this phase you are shown a green box around a part of the map. You can click somewhere in here to choose in which area your [[Commander]] will appear. Once all players choose a location (or time runs out), a 3 second countdown will start. After that, all commanders will be deployed simultaneously.<br />
<br />
===Picking a good spot===<br />
Some maps won't give you much of a choice, but on those that do there are a few general guidelines:<br />
*Pick a location closest to the center of map.<br />
**This allows you to control the map better.<br />
*The spot you pick should have a mex cluster of 3 or 4 [[Metal Extractor|mexes]].<br />
**If you start somewhere without a mex cluster you are slowing yourself down.<br />
<br />
Picking a defensible spot is not very important - your opponent has the same options available as you and isn't going to be able to abuse this. Good radar coverage and some units will sort out anything.<br />
<br />
===Your first buildings===<br />
Before the game starts, you are allowed to queue up to 30 buildings (using shift) that your commander will start to work on when it appears. Most people open with the following:<br />
#A starting factory, placed somewhere close to the starting mex cluster.<br />
#*This is to ensure the Commander has to move around as little as possible for this initial phase - time spent moving is time not spent building.<br />
#All surrounding mexes.<br />
#3 [[Solar Collector]]s or 5-6 [[Wind/Tidal Generator]]s.<br />
#*This should give you enough energy to match the metal you will get from the mexes you just took and the next few mexes you will take as you start to expand.<br />
#A [[Radar Tower]], preferably in an elevated location.<br />
#*Helps to protect against early raids.<br />
#1 or 2 light defensive towers, usually an [[Lotus|LLT]] or [[Picket|MT]].<br />
#The commander, in a location close to all the buildings.<br />
<br />
==After the game has started - initial moves==<br />
===Your first units===<br />
The first thing your Commander should have done is teleported in a factory - the first factory placed is free of charge. It is now sitting idle.<br />
#Queue up a scout unit. This would be something light - a [[Flea]], [[Dart]], [[Glaive]], [[Dirtbag]], etc.<br />
#Set its rally point to somewhere '''near''' where you think your opponents' base will be.<br />
#*The point of doing this is to see if your opponent is up to something [[cheese|cheesy]].<br />
#*The main thing you want to do is check what factory your opponent has, and so what you expect to encounter.<br />
#Build a constructor.<br />
#Queue up 4-5 raiders and another constructor.<br />
<br />
===Starting to expand===<br />
Send your first constructor to a nearby group of mexes and start building them. Use your raiders to either protect this constructor or send them over to your opponents' base to keep them from being too greedy with their expansion.<br />
<br />
On a large map, your Commander is probably best used by staying in base and building lots of energy structures; [[Caretaker]]s when necessary. This is because the Commander is much slower than any constructor and on large maps it is easy to get a decent ball of raiders quickly. These can overwhelm and destroy an unescorted Commander easily, a blow so severe that you might as well resign there and then.<br />
<br />
On small maps, it is generally best to march your Commander towards your opponent's base, taking mexes and building light defences along the way. On smaller maps, the Commander's combat strength is relevant for much longer than on other maps, and you can leverage this to gain map control.<br />
<br />
====What next?====<br />
What happens after this is beyond the scope of this guide. Read about [[typical game progression]] here.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Buildings&diff=5724Buildings2019-11-09T11:21:29Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: You can rotate buildings by pressing R</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Buildings''' of Zero-K are the backbone of your strategy. Build [[Metal Extractor|Metal Extractors]] and [[Energy]] producers to propel your economy, build Factories and Caretakers to produce an army, build defensive and intel structures to protect yourself from your opponents' armies, and build superweapons to end the game in spectacular fashion.<br />
<br />
Properties shared by most or all buildings in Zero-K include:<br />
* They cost the same amount of [[Metal]] and [[Energy]].<br />
* Once a nanoframe is placed, the ground beneath the building cannot be [[terraform]]ed until the building is destroyed.<br />
<br />
== Building placement and construction ==<br />
Unless stated otherwise, the following commands are to be used during building placement. This means, that after selecting a building from the build menu, instead of simply left-clicking to place it these modifiers can be used.<br />
<br />
=== Command queuing ===<br />
The normal command queueing options apply:<br />
* Hold '''Shift''' to append (build) orders to the end of the queue.<br />
* Hold '''Space''' to insert (build) orders at the front of the queue. This will come before the current task if there is one.<br />
* Hold '''Shift+Space''' to insert (build) orders between existing orders. The order will try to be inserted between two nearby orders such that the constructor will minimize the added movement distance.<br />
<br />
=== Build Facing ===<br />
When placing factories (or other structures), their orientation can be selected by clicking and dragging, rotated in 90 degree steps using '''[''' and ''']''', or rotated clockwise in 90 degree steps by pressing the R key.<br />
<br />
=== Terraforming ===<br />
[[Terraform#terraform_types|Terraforming]] can easily be queued before construction to put a structure on a spire or in a hole. There are various ways to issue this command.<br />
<br />
Height selection mode can be entered as follows:<br />
* By holding '''Alt''' and using the mouse wheel during structure placement.<br />
* By pressing '''B''' during structure placement. Press '''C''' and '''V''' to adjust the height.<br />
* By holding down the '''left mouse button''' during placement (keeping the cursor stationary). Once the terraform mode has been entered, the mouse can be moved up and down to adjust the elevation. Another left click finalizes the command.<br />
<br />
After choosing the terraform height, click to place the structure as usual to issue the terraform and construction command. Structure terraform does not support multiple structure placement but it does support queuing and insertion with '''SPACE''' and '''SHIFT'''.<br />
<br />
See the [[Terraform#Level|Level Command]] for details on the available modifiers.<br />
<br />
An existing building can be surrounded by a terraformed wall by selecting the terraform command from the special tab (Hotkeys '''V''', then '''X'''), then holding down '''Ctrl''' and clicking on the building. Release '''Ctrl''' and move the mouse upwards to set the height of the wall.<br />
<br />
=== Line and Rectangular Grid ===<br />
* Hold '''Shift''' while dragging the mouse to place a line of structures. <br />
* Hold '''Shift+Ctrl''' to drag a line of structures in the 4 cardinal directions. If holding the mouse over a building, it will surround that building with the selected structure.<br />
* Hold '''Shift+Alt''' to drag a rectangular grid of structures.<br />
* Hold '''Shift+Ctrl+Alt''' to drag a hollow box of structures.<br />
<br />
The spacing between the individual buildings can be adjusted by pressing '''x''' and '''z'''<br />
<br />
=== Surrounding an existing building ===<br />
By holding '''Ctrl+Shift''' during placement, an existing building can be surrounded with the selected building. For example, a fragile and expensive [[Fusion Reactor]] can be surrounded by sturdy and cheap [[Solar Collector|Solar Collectors]] by first building the Fusion Reactor, then selecting the Solar Collector from the build menu, holding down '''Ctrl+Shift''' and clicking on the Fusion Reactor.<br />
<br />
=== Placing Nanoframes ===<br />
Holding Q while placing structures will only place the framework (nanoframe), which will let the structure be completed later. This is often used when there are [[Caretaker|Caretakers]] nearby that can finish the construction on their own.<br />
<br />
=== Metal Extractors ===<br />
There is a specialized [[Area Mex Command]] to place Metal Extractors in an area and optionally surround them with power generators at the same time.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox buildings}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Gameplay_dos_and_don%27ts&diff=5723Gameplay dos and don'ts2019-11-09T11:18:53Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: A few edits here and there, as well as correcting "defenses" to "defences". Know your homophones, guys.</p>
<hr />
<div>== Do ==<br />
=== Do get all the metal you can ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Zero-K_Manual/metal.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
[[File:Ibeam.png|32px|frameless]]<br />
<br />
'''Metal''' is needed to get just about anything done in the game, and you want as much of it as you can get. Build [[Metal Extractor]]s and reclaim wreckage from the battlefield like your life depends on it (because it does), and do your best to keep your enemy from doing the same.<br />
<br />
=== Do use your units ===<br />
If a combat unit isn't shooting, it isn't paying for itself. If an opportunity to profitably deal damage to the enemy arises, take it. If your team is engaged in combat somewhere, send your units to help out, but '''don't''' throw your units away needlessly.<br />
<br />
===Do use multiple unit types===<br />
Using only a single type of unit can result in your opponent replying with a countering unit type. A swarm of raiders could be met with riots, or a lot of assaults could be beaten with a raider force.<br />
<br />
Having only one type of unit also restricts your options in battle, and can make some other options unprofitable. For example, using raiders to attack fortified areas will get them all destroyed, and dump a large amount of metal at your opponent's doorstep.<br />
<br />
=== Do build energy resources ===<br />
Unlike metal, energy is consumed a lot more, especially if you have shields/cloaking units, so the best thing to do is to make a lot of energy structures, next to [[Metal Extractor]]s or linked into your [[Overdrive]] grid. You should always have more energy than metal, or more than you can spend. Excess energy is used to [[Overdrive]] metal extractors. Because Overdrive loses efficiency as more power is pumped into a Metal Extractor, it is best to have more mexes on Overdrive than to have few mexes with more Overdrive.<br />
<br />
=== Do have mobile defences ===<br />
Despite towers being cost efficient and powerful, they can't move, so they can't attack or move to a different location - artillery will make quick work of them. Make some units as a dedicated defence force, so any force entering your territory will be opposed quickly. Raiders are a good choice for response forces as their speed enables a fast response to an attack, as well as being strong against heavier enemy units.<br />
<br />
=== Do use unique unit abilities ===<br />
Some units have special abilities and weapons, activated with the D key. [[Swift]]s have a fast burst of speed, useful for scouting or rapid interception of enemy air units. The [[Dante]] has an incendiary missile barrage, good for attacking a shielded and clustered enemy. [[Scorpion]]s have multi-stunner, good for usage against an opposing heavy unit. Some others units have these "D-guns", so find them all!<br />
<br />
== Don't ==<br />
=== Don't make lots of defences in one place ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Zero-K_Manual/bypassenemies.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
The enemy will simply go around to where the defences aren't (like where your allies are), and to fortify all possible attack points simply isn't economically feasible. Seed moderate defences where necessary (e.g. at chokepoints), sprinkle light defences elsewhere for defence in depth, and use mobile units for the rest of your defensive needs (or better yet, use them to be the one doing the attacking). <br />
<br />
=== Don't send your units in one by one ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Zero-K_Manual/piecemeal.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
They'll just die one by one. You want to concentrate your forces wherever possible; see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanchester%27s_laws Lanchester's laws] for why.<br />
<br />
===Don't overconcentrate your units===<br />
Concentrating your forces in one place means that an attacking enemy can bypass them at a different place and wreak havoc in your territory.<br />
<br />
===Don't build volatile energy structures in a large cluster===<br />
Building explosive energy structures such as [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]] too close together makes them more likely to chain explode when attacked. Half of your economy could be instantly destroyed (as well as anything nearby) by a few bombers if your energy buildings are too closely packed.<br />
<br />
===Don't build volatile energy structures next to anything important===<br />
An explosion from a large energy building could severely damage anything nearby. Having, for example, a Strider next to an energy building cluster could be a disaster in the making.<br />
<br />
=== Don't make lots of storages ===<br />
You want to be spending your metal and energy as fast as you can, not stockpiling them. [[Storage]]s should only be made under very specific circumstances, usually in FFA matches. <br />
<br />
Also, relying on storages gives your enemy a place to directly destroy your resources and hamper your economy. A cluster of storages could be wiped out by a bomber strike.<br />
<br />
=== Don't make more Caretakers than you need ===<br />
[[Caretaker]]s can help your factories and constructors build faster, but only if there's metal that's actually available to spend. If you only have enough ingredients for three cakes, having ten ovens won't make them bake any faster than three.<br />
<br />
As a rule, you shouldn't build new Caretakers if your current expenditure already exceeds your income. Each caretakers spends 10 metal per second at full speed, so you can easily determine how many you need.<br />
<br />
=== Don't make heavy defences behind the front line ===<br />
Building a [[Desolator]] where it will never encounter an enemy unit is not an effective use of your metal. Try to put heavy defences directly on the frontline or near the frontline where they can fire on enemy units. It is okay if you build heavy defences further from the frontline if the front is starting to fail as a means of stopping a complete collapse. <br />
<br />
=== Don't use terraforming more than necessary ===<br />
Terraforming isn't cheap. Try to be as stingy as possible with it. Don't terraform a huge plateau just for one [[Big Bertha]]. If you need to terraform a platform for something, hold click when placing it and use that tool to help you.<br />
<br />
=== Don't stall the game after you can't win ===<br />
That's just impolite, so resign like any other decent player.<br />
<br />
''DO have fun, respect your teammates, and enjoy all that the game has to offer.''<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Economy_Guide&diff=5713Economy Guide2019-10-18T10:47:14Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Minor edits</p>
<hr />
<div>== Basic Economic Management ==<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/ibeam.png<br />
<br />
'''Metal''' is the most important resource. It is limited by your territory, obtained from metal extractors on metal spots, but is relatively cheap to get. You should always acquire it ruthlessly and spend it as soon as possible - your metal bar should always be empty.<br />
<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/energy.png<br />
<br />
'''Energy''' can be made anywhere and there is no limit to the amount you can have, though it takes an investment. It is used for tasks other than construction, so you should always have more energy than you do metal. Excess energy is automatically used to [[Overdrive]] your metal extractors.<br />
<br />
'''Build Power''' is the ability of your constructors to build locally at a fixed rate. Having too much of the other resources just means you don't have enough constructors. Some excess buildpower is good, so that you can move it around or perform other tasks.<br />
<br />
In order to build anything, you need all three resources in equal quantities (an exact 1-1-1 ratio). Constructors drain the same amount of resources at a fixed rate no matter what they are building. In your resource bars, income of each is shown in the small green number, and drain in red. The balance of these numbers is the larger number, added or subtracted from your storage. Unlike some other RTS's, the goal is to balance your income vs your expenditure- storage exists only to give you a buffer. If your storage is full and the green number is larger than the red, you're excessing, and wasting the resource. If your storage is empty and the red number is larger than the green, you're stalling, and production involving the resource is slowed.<br />
<br />
===Guard/Repeat Method to a Smooth Economy===<br />
One of the keys to running a smooth economy is to automate it. Here is one method:<br />
# Click the ''factory guard'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_on.png This will make all constructors guard (and assist) your factory.<br />
# Press the ''repeat'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_on.png Your factory should almost never be idle, and repeat greatly reduces the amount of micro you need to manage your factory. It also allows you to mix units more easily. (Alternately, you can press F11 and enable the ''Factory Autorepeat'' widget and it will do this for you every game.)<br />
# Queue up offensive units and constructors. Constructors should generally comprise around 1/4th of all your spending, but this varies by map and situation. Lots of constructors allows you to react to a varying and slowly expanding economy.<br />
# Expand with your constructors, guarding them with units and building defences as you go, gradually and smoothly increasing your metal income. Make energy constantly, non-stop over the course of the game, and in pace with your metal production. Making a Solar Collector next to every Metal Extractor is a good practice.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself in a crisis and need to rebalance your economy, remember these tips:<br />
<br />
* If you stall energy, build energy structures and set them on [[Economy_Guide#Priority| high priority]]. Always watch out if your energy storage starts to dip. Turn off any cloaking units, cloak generators or shields until out of the stall.<br />
* When you have too many constructors working on your factory and you are stalling heavily, send some out to expand, reclaim, make defenses, and repair.<br />
* If you ever find yourself heading towards an excess of metal due to a sudden glut, make [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]] in your base or construct a new factory on the frontline if you have your commander or some idle constructors there.<br />
*Swim in energy and be short of metal, '''never the reverse.'''<br />
<br />
That's the practical advice. Now, some theory and specific data:<br />
<br />
== Metal ==<br />
Metal is directly tied to territorial acquisition and military conquest.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cormex.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Metal Extractor|Metal Extractors]]''' (mexes) are the most efficient way to get metal, and can only be placed on metal spots. As such, you should expand quickly and rapidly get as many metal spots under your control as possible. Metal extractors are cheap, and pay themselves back quickly. Remember that any metal spot that doesn't have an extractor on it is just wasted metal. If you ever lose territory or get raided, quickly re-expand into the area with extractors again.<br />
<br />
'''Reclamation''' can make up a significant portion of your metal income. For everything that dies, a corpse is left behind with up to 40% of the metal it took to produce the unit. Securing an area after an assault and getting the reclaim from both your units and the enemies (an 80% payback on your investment) can decide the outcome of a game. Since it takes a constructor to reclaim things, you can think of reclamation as a way of turning buildpower directly into metal - reclaiming is a very good use of an excess of buildpower.<br />
Also note that unlike mex income, reclaimed metal is not shared.<br />
<br />
'''[[Overdrive]]''' makes your mexes produce more metal, with diminishing returns as you pump more and more energy into them. Due to this, the more mexes the energy is spread over, the more efficiently you can overdrive them, and the more metal you get for invested energy - so always try and take territory. Overdrive requires an energy structure near the extractor to work, but as long as the colour of your overdrive circles are the same, the efficiency is the same - don't worry about linking your whole grid together (but that would still be good). Rather, make a solar panel next to each extractor for maximum returns.<br />
<br />
'''Communism mode''' distributes all metal from mexes - basic output and overdrive - at equal quantities to all members of your team. This is the default mode for all team games.<br />
<br />
== Energy ==<br />
Energy can be made anywhere. It is generally built in your base, and having energy is required for a number of things, including making all units and structures and running some special units (jammers, shields, etc). Since it is such an investment, losing your energy can cripple your whole economy, so always try to protect your energy and hit the enemy's when possible. If you stall energy for any reason, get it back up again as quickly as possible by making small energy structures (solars, winds - not fusions).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armsolar.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Solar Collector]]s''' (Solars) give a fixed income and are well armoured, closing up when under attack for a defensive bonus. They are the least efficient energy structure in terms of investment, but they are cheap, have good HP and don't rely on the varying winds and geothermal vents of the map.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armwin.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Wind/Tidal Generator|Wind Generators]]''' are fragile and have a variable output. By default, the wind average on all maps is 1.25, so wind is discretionary. Building wind on higher altitudes raises the minimum that they produce. A tall, flat mountain can be of great economic value. The wind min/max values and altitude bonus are shown in your console at the start of the game and when you build a wind generator it will show you the altitude bonus to its generation in the tooltip.<br />
<br />
Wind is very fragile, so its best to space it out rather than build it in tight blocks - it will chain explode. Refer to the [[Wind Farm Guide]] to find out how to do this.<br />
<br />
Even when wind is more efficient, you might wish to also have some Solars as backup, due to the fragility and unpredictability of wind.<br />
<br />
When placed in water, wind generators become the sturdier tidal generators, with a high cost efficiency.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/geo.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Geothermal Generator]]s''' are almost always the most efficient source of energy (more so than even Fusions), but they are not very cheap and can only be placed on geothermal vents. They are volatile, detonating in a moderate explosion.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/amgeo.png<br />
<br />
Morphing a Geothermal Generator creates an '''[[Advanced Geothermal]]''', an even more efficient energy structure. These are very volatile and explode like a nuke when destroyed. Still, it is almost always worthwhile to take the risk of building them - just keep other buildings and units away from it.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armfus.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Fusion Reactor]]s''' (Fusions) are efficient but expensive. They tend to explode in a small radius when killed, so don't put them directly right next to anything (especially not each other).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cafus.png<br />
<br />
'''[[Singularity Reactor]]s''' (Singularities) are even more expensive and efficient than Fusions, but are extremely volatile. When destroyed, they implode, dealing massive damage in a wide radius and pulling in any surviving units.<br />
<br />
== Buildpower == <br />
Buildpower is mostly used for spending metal and energy, but it can also be used to reclaim, which gives you metal (reclaiming for energy is usually inefficient but good in desperation) and to repair, which costs energy equal to the constructors buildpower. You can also think of moving buildpower around as a way of 'using' it that doesn't require you to spend other resources. You should always have extra buildpower around, as it regulates the rest of your economy. Metal gluts can quickly be turned into energy with buildpower, and metal stalls can be alleviated through reclaim or mex expansion with buildpower, but getting more buildpower requires a factory or a constructor, and all three resources. Remember though that you cannot spend more resources than you actually have. Don't go crazy with the Nanotowers until you have the economy to actually run them.<br />
<br />
Build power is shown in the units tooltip.<br />
* [[Conjuror|Cloakbot]], [[Convict|Shieldbot]], [[Constable|Jumpbot]], [[Quill|Hovercraft]] and [[Mason|Rover]] Constructors drain -5 (e and m).<br />
* [[Welder|Tank]], [[Mariner|Ship]], [[Wasp|Gunship]], [[Weaver|Spider]] and [[Conch|Amphbot]] Constructors drain -7.5.<br />
* [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]], [[Commander|Commanders]] (unupgraded), and Factories drain -10.<br />
* [[Crane|Airplane]] constructors drain - 4.<br />
* [[Athena|Athenas]] drain - 15.<br />
<br />
This means you can very easily look at your income and expenditure numbers and know just how many constructors or nanotowers you need to bring your economy back into equilibrium.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Another way to explain it is that buildpower is the amount of metal and energy your builders allow you to spend per second. For example, a Caretaker spends at 10 m/s meaning its buildpower is 10.<br />
<br />
Since all builders have limited range, it is possible to talk about local buildpower as part of logistics. For example, if you have 10 Caretakers at home but only a few mobile builders, it may be more practical to make a few Fusions or even a Singularity rather than walk a long distance with builders you still have to make. <br />
<br />
This is also why at least in small density games such as 1v1, a builder is worth more the further from base it is (unless it's so far that it's in enemy territory and dead).<br />
<br />
== Priority ==<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_low.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_med.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_high.png<br />
<br />
All constructors and partially built structures have a button called '''Priority''' that can be set to low, medium or high. Constructors that are currently building a non-normal priority structure inherit its priority. Constructors set to high priority will receive resources before those with normal priority and those with normal receive before those with low. Assuming you are stalling metal (as you should be, explained above), high priority build projects will build faster than normal priority projects, and so on. This feature will save you the time of pausing all less important construction when you need to build something more quickly than others.<br />
<br />
Below is a table detailing priority inheritance. The builder and structure priority result in the builder receiving resources with the priority shown in the main body of the table.<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | !! colspan="4" | Builder<br />
|-<br />
| '''High''' || '''Normal''' || '''Low'''<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="3" | Struct <br />
| '''High''' || High || High || High<br />
|-<br />
| '''Normal''' || High ||Normal ||Low<br />
|-<br />
| '''Low''' ||Low || Low || Low<br />
|}<br />
<br />
== Team income distribution ==<br />
<br />
Commanders and innate income are split evenly.<br />
<br />
Reclaim is gained by the reclaiming player.<br />
<br />
Mexes produces base metal. The metal is split almost evenly, with more going to players who recently built a mex until 50% of that cost is paid off.<br />
<br />
Overdrive produces some amount of metal. The metal is split almost evenly, with more going to players who recently built energy until 50% of that cost is paid off. There is no concept of personal overdrive.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Big_Bertha&diff=5709Big Bertha2019-10-14T16:11:52Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Changed T&S section</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a strategic plasma cannon.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Big Bertha<br />
| defname = staticheavyarty<br />
| description = Strategic Plasma Cannon<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/staticheavyarty.png<br />
| icontype = lrpc<br />
| cost = 5000<br />
| hitpoints = 4800<br />
| sight = 660<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Very Heavy Plasma Cannon<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 2002<br />
| reloadtime = 7<br />
| dps = 286<br />
| range = 6200<br />
| aoe = 96<br />
| projectilespeed = 1100<br />
| special1 = Smooths ground<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Bertha is a massive cannon that fires high-energy plasmoids across the map. Used appropriately, it can effectively suppress enemy operations from the safety of your base. Do not expect it to win battles alone for you, however.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
Big Bertha lives up to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bertha_(howitzer) its ancestor's] name. It is used similarly to its ancestor too - bombarding the enemy base from a safe, distant location. After a while of shelling an enemy defensive line, you can send in the infantry to mop up what's left. Alternately, you can shell the enemy base directly and reduce it to rubble.<br />
<br />
Be careful, as the enemy may made a push with all their available units to destroy Big Bertha. Have some defences ready, especially around the gun itself.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox buildings}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Cyclops&diff=5708Cyclops2019-10-14T16:05:15Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Fixed red link</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a very heavy tank buster from the [[Tank Foundry]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Cyclops<br />
| defname = tankheavyassault<br />
| description = Very Heavy Tank Buster<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/tankheavyassault.png<br />
| icontype = tankskirm<br />
| cost = 2200<br />
| hitpoints = 12000<br />
| movespeed = 57<br />
| turnrate = 51<br />
| sight = 540<br />
| transportable = Heavy<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Tankbuster Cannon<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 1000<br />
| reloadtime = 3.5<br />
| dps = 286<br />
| range = 450<br />
| aoe = 16<br />
| projectilespeed = 270<br />
| special1 = Smooths ground<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Slowing Beam<br />
| type = BeamLaser<br />
| damage = 0<br />
| reloadtime = 2.5<br />
| slowdamage = 2000<br />
| slowdps = 800<br />
| range = 440<br />
| special1 = Instantly hits<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Cyclops is the heaviest tank on the field. Its Tankbuster Cannon smashes lesser tanks into oblivion, and can shake walls down, allowing it to spearhead assaults against terraformed fortifications. Its preferred target is other heavy units, enemies are slowed significantly upon hit, making escape all but impossible. However, it turns like a tub of water, its short range makes it easy prey for massed raiders, advanced skirmishers or air attacks.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
If you need a tank to go first unto the breach, this is it. It can soak up plenty of damage and can deal plenty of damage in return. A charge made up of purely Cyclopses can only be stopped by the heaviest defences, other tanks, and Strider forces.<br />
<br />
[[Airplane Plant]] bombers are a good counter to these. They can evade the Tankbuster Cannon fire and deliver their payload with relative ease, though [[Raven]]s may take casualties due to their dive-bombing. You can generally tell Ravens to not dive-bomb - the Cyclopses are too slow to evade the bombs.<br />
<br />
The [[Nimbus]] gunship can also fight well against Cyclopses - they're too slow to evade the gunfire or close in on the distant gunship.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Cyclops&diff=5707Cyclops2019-10-14T16:04:48Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: T&S section added</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a very heavy tank buster from the [[Tank Foundry]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Cyclops<br />
| defname = tankheavyassault<br />
| description = Very Heavy Tank Buster<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/tankheavyassault.png<br />
| icontype = tankskirm<br />
| cost = 2200<br />
| hitpoints = 12000<br />
| movespeed = 57<br />
| turnrate = 51<br />
| sight = 540<br />
| transportable = Heavy<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Tankbuster Cannon<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 1000<br />
| reloadtime = 3.5<br />
| dps = 286<br />
| range = 450<br />
| aoe = 16<br />
| projectilespeed = 270<br />
| special1 = Smooths ground<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Slowing Beam<br />
| type = BeamLaser<br />
| damage = 0<br />
| reloadtime = 2.5<br />
| slowdamage = 2000<br />
| slowdps = 800<br />
| range = 440<br />
| special1 = Instantly hits<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Cyclops is the heaviest tank on the field. Its Tankbuster Cannon smashes lesser tanks into oblivion, and can shake walls down, allowing it to spearhead assaults against terraformed fortifications. Its preferred target is other heavy units, enemies are slowed significantly upon hit, making escape all but impossible. However, it turns like a tub of water, its short range makes it easy prey for massed raiders, advanced skirmishers or air attacks.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
If you need a tank to go first unto the breach, this is it. It can soak up plenty of damage and can deal plenty of damage in return. A charge made up of purely Cyclopses can only be stopped by the heaviest defences, other tanks, and Strider forces.<br />
<br />
[[Airplane Factory]] bombers are a good counter to these. They can evade the Tankbuster Cannon fire and deliver their payload with relative ease, though [[Raven]]s may take casualties due to their dive-bombing. You can generally tell Ravens to not dive-bomb - the Cyclopses are too slow to evade the bombs.<br />
<br />
The [[Nimbus]] gunship can also fight well against Cyclopses - they're too slow to evade the gunfire or close in on the distant gunship.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Ogre&diff=5706Ogre2019-10-14T15:56:15Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: T&S section added</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a heavy riot support tank from the [[Tank Foundry]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Ogre<br />
| defname = tankriot<br />
| description = Heavy Riot Support Tank<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/tankriot.png<br />
| icontype = tankriot<br />
| cost = 520<br />
| hitpoints = 1850<br />
| movespeed = 69<br />
| turnrate = 59<br />
| sight = 400<br />
| transportable = Light<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Heavy Missile<br />
| type = MissileLauncher<br />
| damage = 441<br />
| reloadtime = 2.1<br />
| dps = 206<br />
| range = 340<br />
| aoe = 80<br />
| homing = 121<br />
| arcing = 24<br />
| projectilespeed = 400<br />
| special1 = Smooths ground<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
Remarkably mobile for a riot platform, the Ogre packs twin high-velocity fragmentation missiles that are devastating to light units and aircraft alike, although they have limited range. Like other riot units, the Ogre does not have the range and speed to hold its own against most skirmishers. The missile is quite effective at flattening terrain so it is particularly useful at knocking down walls that Welders cannot reach.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
A decent early-game tank. It's useful for light combat and as support, just behind the [[Minotaur]]s and [[Cyclops|Cyclopses]].<br />
<br />
Use its missiles against terraformed walls. Ogres can counter overenthusiastic terraformers.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Chicken&diff=5705Chicken2019-10-14T15:51:59Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: </p>
<hr />
<div>:''This page is about the unit. For the game mode, see [[Chicken Defense]].''<br />
<br />
The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a swarmer chicken.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Chicken<br />
| defname = chicken<br />
| description = Swarmer<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken.png<br />
| icontype = chicken<br />
| cost = 25<br />
| hitpoints = 270<br />
| movespeed = 87<br />
| turnrate = 133<br />
| sight = 256<br />
| sonar = 256<br />
| transportable = Light<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Claws<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 80<br />
| reloadtime = 1.20<br />
| dps = 67<br />
| range = 80<br />
| projectilespeed = 500<br />
| special1 = Ignores shields<br />
| special2 = Water capable<br />
}}<br />
| abilities = <br />
{{ Infobox zkability regen<br />
| idleregen = 20<br />
| timetoenable = 10.0<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The footsoldier of the Thunderbirds is an aggressive zergling-type unit. What it lacks in individual strength, it compensates for with its sheer numbers, overwhelming enemies with floods and floods of little chickens. A good riot unit is recommended for stopping them.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
Use something that can kite it reliably or kill them in huge numbers. Raiders and riots are a good counter.<br />
<br />
[[Stardust]]s are able to hold off many Chickens. Use them in large numbers.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Chicken&diff=5704Chicken2019-10-14T15:51:49Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: T&S section added</p>
<hr />
<div>:''This page is about the unit. For the game mode, see [[Chicken Defense]].''<br />
<br />
The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a swarmer chicken.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Chicken<br />
| defname = chicken<br />
| description = Swarmer<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken.png<br />
| icontype = chicken<br />
| cost = 25<br />
| hitpoints = 270<br />
| movespeed = 87<br />
| turnrate = 133<br />
| sight = 256<br />
| sonar = 256<br />
| transportable = Light<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Claws<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 80<br />
| reloadtime = 1.20<br />
| dps = 67<br />
| range = 80<br />
| projectilespeed = 500<br />
| special1 = Ignores shields<br />
| special2 = Water capable<br />
}}<br />
| abilities = <br />
{{ Infobox zkability regen<br />
| idleregen = 20<br />
| timetoenable = 10.0<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The footsoldier of the Thunderbirds is an aggressive zergling-type unit. What it lacks in individual strength, it compensates for with its sheer numbers, overwhelming enemies with floods and floods of little chickens. A good riot unit is recommended for stopping them.<br />
<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
Use something that can kite it reliably or kill them in huge numbers. Raiders and riots are a good counter.<br />
<br />
[[Stardust]]s are able to hold off many Chickens. Use them in large numbers.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Funnelweb&diff=5703Funnelweb2019-10-14T15:49:06Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: T&S section added</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a shield support strider from the [[Strider Hub]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Funnelweb<br />
| defname = striderfunnelweb<br />
| description = Shield Support Strider<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/striderfunnelweb.png<br />
| icontype = t3special<br />
| cost = 3000<br />
| hitpoints = 6500<br />
| movespeed = 54<br />
| sight = 650<br />
| transportable = Heavy<br />
| abilities = <br />
{{ Infobox zkability construction<br />
| buildpower = 40<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkability shield<br />
| name = Energy Shield<br />
| strength = 23000<br />
| regen = 300<br />
| regencost = 48<br />
| radius = 550<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkability intel<br />
| radar = 1400<br />
}}<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Description==<br />
The slow all-terrain Funnelweb features an extremely powerful wide-area shield and high nano power for post-battle utility. It is otherwise unarmed.<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
Use the Funnelweb as combat support. The shield and buildpower it offers is a force multiplier. Putting a solid force within its shield is a recipe for a base killing army.<br />
<br />
Always, always, always give it an escort. It is not armed, and in cannot defend itself against anything. Seriously, a lone raider could destroy it. A mixed bag of riots, skirmishers, and raiders is usually a good idea.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Ultimatum&diff=5702Ultimatum2019-10-14T15:43:30Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: T&S section added</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a cloaked anti-heavy/anti-strider walker built from the [[Strider Hub]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Ultimatum<br />
| defname = striderantiheavy<br />
| description = Cloaked Anti-Heavy/Anti-Strider Walker<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/striderantiheavy.png<br />
| icontype = corcommander<br />
| cost = 2000<br />
| hitpoints = 2000<br />
| movespeed = 47<br />
| turnrate = 189<br />
| sight = 500<br />
| sonar = 500<br />
| transportable = Heavy<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Disintegrator<br />
| type = DGun<br />
| damage = 2000<br />
| reloadtime = 1.50<br />
| dps = 1333<br />
| range = 250<br />
| aoe = 24<br />
| projectilespeed = 300<br />
| special1 = Ignores shields<br />
| special2 = Water capable<br />
| special3 = Piercing<br />
| special4 = Damage increase vs large units<br />
}}<br />
| abilities = <br />
{{ Infobox zkability cloak<br />
| upkeepidle = 8<br />
| upkeepmobile = 24<br />
| decloakradius = 100<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkability regen<br />
| combatregen = 5<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Ultimatum packs only one weapon: a disintegrator gun that can vaporize a heavy tank in one blast. It is best used for sneaking up to enemy heavy striders and inflicting serious damage or destruction with a few shots. Defense against it is achieved by screening your heavyweights with lighter units.<br />
<br />
<br />
= Tactics and Strategy =<br />
The Ultimatum is best used for assassinating important, heavy targets. [[Commander]]? Done. [[Cyclops]] or [[Minotaur]]? Easy meat. Light Strider ([[Dante]], [[Scorpion]] or [[Funnelweb]])? Check, check, and check.<br />
<br />
The Ultimatum should not be used on escorted targets, unless you are willing to lose it. It's slow and weak in open combat. Use it to pick off lone enemies.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Template_talk:Navbox_buildings&diff=5701Template talk:Navbox buildings2019-10-14T15:37:17Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Blanked the page. What did that even mean?</p>
<hr />
<div></div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Firefly&diff=5688Firefly2019-09-22T11:33:14Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Funnelwebs can no longer create drones</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is an attack drone.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Firefly<br />
| defname = dronelight<br />
| description = Attack Drone<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/dronelight.png<br />
| icontype = fighter<br />
| cost = 20<br />
| hitpoints = 180<br />
| movespeed = 210<br />
| turnrate = 131<br />
| sight = 500<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Light Particle Beam<br />
| type = BeamLaser<br />
| damage = 32<br />
| reloadtime = 0.80<br />
| dps = 40<br />
| range = 250<br />
| special1 = Instantly hits<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Firefly is an attack drone with a weak high precision pulse laser. They can protect their parent unit from light enemy units. They do not share stealth with it though, so they can also betray the presence of a cloaked commander.<br />
<br />
A Firefly can be created by adding the Companion Drone module to a [[Commander]].<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:SpeedofDeath118&diff=5676User:SpeedofDeath1182019-09-06T18:59:51Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Hi!</p>
<hr />
<div>Morning and welcome! <br />
<br />
Relatively new player.</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Chicken_Defense&diff=5675Chicken Defense2019-09-06T18:21:46Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Chicken Defense''' is an alternative gamemode where players and their robot armies attempt to fend off increasingly stronger waves of aliens known as "Chickens" spawning from burrows scattered across the map. When the time comes, they must confront and defeat the [[Chicken Queen]] in order to win the game.<br />
<br />
== Introduction ==<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
The Chickens, a ravenous semi-sapient species of organics that devour all in their path... Their origins are uncertain, but it is already clear that these monstrosities are not the product of natural evolution. Nor would any machine intelligence be utterly insane enough to create such an abomination. Whatever their roots, though, there are more important questions: Do these chicken hives have any ulterior goals? <br />
<br />
And if so, how do we stop them?<br />
<br />
== Playing Chicken Defense ==<br />
<br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_pigeon.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickens.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickena.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenr.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenwurm.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_roc.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_sporeshooter.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenf.png"><br />
<br />
=== Setting up a game ===<br />
Chicken Defense can be played by adding a chicken bot of the desired difficulty to the room. There are seven different difficulties:<br />
<br />
<ul><br />
<li>'''Beginner''': For absolute strategy game newbies</li><br />
<li>'''Very Easy''': For new Zero-K players or when playing PvP</li><br />
<li>'''Easy''': Good for less-experienced players</li><br />
<li>'''Normal''': A fairly average difficulty</li><br />
<li>'''Hard''': Presents a greater challenge; for experienced players</li><br />
<li>'''Suicidal''': Exactly what it says on the tin</li><br />
<li>'''Custom''': Controlled using the mod options</li><br />
</ul><br />
All difficulties also come in Eggs variants, where there are no mexes and chickens drop twice as many eggs (more on that later). You can set the game to Eggs mode in the Adv Options menu.<br />
<br />
=== The Basics ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_attack.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
At the start of the game you are given a short time to build, but you will soon be attacked by wave after wave of Chickens. <br />
<br />
Two types of chickens will usually appear in each wave, although the hive may simply send a single type. <br />
<br />
Initially, you will only be attacked by basic [[Chicken|Chickens]], which are fairly easy to defeat. As the game progresses, the hive will send increasingly powerful forms, often with unique abilities, to defeat you.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_burrow.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
Chickens originate from [[Roost|Burrows]], which spawn within a certain distance from player units. At the start of a wave, each burrow sends its chickens at a random unit belonging to the closest human player. When in danger, Burrows can also spawn defensive [[Chicken Tube|Chicken Tubes]] to protect themselves.<br />
<br />
The more players there are and the fewer burrows alive, the faster burrows will spawn. <br />
<br />
The Hive Anger meter increases continuously over the course of the game. <br />
<br />
Chicken Defense has a final boss. When the Hive Anger reaches 100%, burrows stop spawning and the Queen appears. The players must work together to kill her before she flattens everything in her path.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_eggs.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
Chickens drop eggs when killed, which can be reclaimed for metal. Burrows also drop multiple eggs when killed.<br />
<br />
=== Hive Tech and Anger ===<br />
Chickens will gradually upgrade to more advanced forms with the game timer. If the players are not aggressive, the chickens will "tech up" faster.<br />
Conversely, killing a burrow will cause the tech meter to regress by a large amount. This means that you can literally bomb the chickens back into the Stone Age (or the Triassic).<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_burrowbomb.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
On the flip side, however, killing too many burrows will also cause the hive to perceive you as a greater threat (Hive Anger), increasing the number of chickens spawning and causing the Queen to appear earlier. More defensive Tubes will also be spawned by burrows. It may be necessary to strike a balance between tech and anger.<br />
<br />
Note that the chicken tech time modifier cannot be less than -50% of the current gametime.<br />
<br />
=== Player Aggression Rating ===<br />
The PAR (sometimes referred to as "aggro") is an indicator of how aggressively the humans are playing, and controls a lot of the chicken behavior. Specifically:<br />
<ul><br />
<li>The PAR goes up by (1/playercount) when a burrow is killed.</li><br />
<li>The PAR goes down by 0.25 every wave.</li><br />
<li>Positive values will increase the number of chickens and defensive tubes spawned (to drive back the enemy).</li><br />
<li>Negative values will cause the chickens to increment their tech timer.</li><br />
<li>Killing a burrow while the PAR is positive will make the queen appear sooner (proportional to the current value of the PAR).</li><br />
<li>At sufficiently low PAR values, the chickens will use special "plots" to inflict damage on the enemy base. These range from spawning small digger chickens in the back of the enemy base, to deploying Chicken Spires, to spawning even the vaunted White Dragons.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
Generally, it's best to keep PAR at an neutral-ish value (slightly negative to slightly positive).<br />
<br />
=== [[White Dragon]]s ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_dragon.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
The White Dragons, gatekeepers of the Hive, are deployed when the chickens are sufficiently threatened by their robot enemies. When the Hive Anger reaches a specific point (varies with difficulty level), these dragons will appear at random locations on the map and make a beeline for enemy forces.<br />
<br />
Dragons are extremely fearsome close up, but enough sustained fire will take them down. Don't take too long though; while they all spawn at different random locations on the map, things could turn out very badly for you if they link up.<br />
<br />
At sufficiently low PAR values, Dragons can also spawn next to a random player structure every few waves.<br />
<br />
=== The [[Chicken Queen]] ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_queen.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
The matriarch of the Chickens, the queen only appears on the battlefield when all else fails. She is an extremely fearsome beast, with jaws of iron, devastating acid bile, and the ability to fire lethal "spores" at land and air targets alike. An extremely tough hide, multiple organ redundancy and rapid cellular regeneration enable her to survive seemingly impossible amounts of enemy fire.<br />
<br />
Like the Dragons, the Queen appears at a random place on the map, at a minimum distance from player units. In addition to attacking the enemy, she also functions as multiple mobile burrows in one, spawning chickens during waves.<br />
<br />
The queen becomes progressively more resistant to damage with an increasing number of players. Additionally, as she takes damage, she gains new attacks including another spore spray, dropping [[Dodo]]s, and even [[Basilisk]]s or [[Tiamats]] (in addition to any chickens spawned during waves).<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_landqueen.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
Oh, did we forget to brief you? After a certain amount of time in the air, the Queen can land. She has a slightly different suite of attacks here, and can take quite a bit more punishment.<br />
She doesn't stay on the ground though, after a similar period of time she'll take to the sky again.<br />
<br />
=== The Chicken Panel ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_panel.png <br />
<br />
The Chicken Panel gives you all relevant information on your current Chicken game. <br />
<br />
The main display shows you the current Hive anger and projected time to queen arrival, the number of chickens and burrows alive at present and total kills, the tech time reduction from burrows, and the difficulty.<br />
Mousing over each entry (except difficulty) gives you additional information:<br />
* Hive anger increase from each burrow kill; projected White Dragon arrival time<br />
* Chicken wave frequency; breakdown of live/killed chickens by type<br />
* Frequency of burrow spawns under current conditions; burrow respawn chance<br />
* Tech time increase per wave per burrow; reduction thereof from kill<br />
<br />
=== PvP Mode ===<br />
PvP mode (where chickens are added to a normal player vs. player game) works slightly differently. The queen does not attack at 100% Hive Anger; instead, regular waves of White Dragons will appear and pummel the players until all burrows on the map are removed.<br />
<br />
No reduction occurs in either chicken or burrow counts compared to regular mode, so this can be much harder than normal mode!<br />
<br />
== Tips and tricks ==<br />
Take as many mexes as possible at the start of the game. Dedicated Chicken maps tend to have all the mexes on one side, which is helpful.<br />
<br />
Have a lot of buildpower handy to deal with the excess of metal you should have.<br />
<br />
Always be building better defences.<br />
<br />
This is not a tower defence game - have a mobile force ready to fight artillery and destroy burrows.<br />
<br />
Don't forget light superweapons. [[Disco Rave Party]]'s high angle setting can deny huge areas to the Chicken onslaught, and [[Big Bertha]] can blow holes in high Chicken density areas.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Chicken_Defense&diff=5674Chicken Defense2019-09-06T18:19:24Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Added some tips and links</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Chicken Defense''' is a gamemode where the players and their robot armies attempt to fend off increasingly strong waves of chickens spawning from burrows scattered across the map. When the time comes, they must confront and defeat the chicken queen in order to win the game.<br />
<br />
== Introduction ==<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
The Chickens, a ravenous semi-sapient species of organics that devour all in their path... Their origins are uncertain, but it is already clear that these monstrosities are not the product of natural evolution. Nor would any machine intelligence be utterly insane enough to create such an abomination. Whatever their roots, though, there are more important questions: Do these chicken hives have any ulterior goals? <br />
<br />
And if so, how do we stop them?<br />
<br />
== Playing Chicken Defense ==<br />
<br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_pigeon.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickens.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickena.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenr.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenwurm.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_roc.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chicken_sporeshooter.png"><br />
<img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/chickenf.png"><br />
<br />
=== Setting up a game ===<br />
Chicken Defense can be played by adding a chicken bot of the desired difficulty to the room. There are seven different difficulties:<br />
<br />
<ul><br />
<li>'''Beginner''': For absolute strategy game newbies</li><br />
<li>'''Very Easy''': For new Zero-K players or when playing PvP</li><br />
<li>'''Easy''': Good for less-experienced players</li><br />
<li>'''Normal''': A fairly average difficulty</li><br />
<li>'''Hard''': Presents a greater challenge; for experienced players</li><br />
<li>'''Suicidal''': Exactly what it says on the tin</li><br />
<li>'''Custom''': Controlled using the mod options</li><br />
</ul><br />
All difficulties also come in Eggs variants, where there are no mexes and chickens drop twice as many eggs (more on that later). You can set the game to Eggs mode in the Adv Options menu.<br />
<br />
=== The Basics ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_attack.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
At the start of the game you are given a short time to build, but you will soon be attacked by wave after wave of Chickens. <br />
<br />
Two types of chickens will usually appear in each wave, although the hive may simply send a single type. <br />
<br />
Initially, you will only be attacked by basic [[Chicken|Chickens]], which are fairly easy to defeat. As the game progresses, the hive will send increasingly powerful forms, often with unique abilities, to defeat you.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_burrow.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
Chickens originate from [[Roost|Burrows]], which spawn within a certain distance from player units. At the start of a wave, each burrow sends its chickens at a random unit belonging to the closest human player. When in danger, Burrows can also spawn defensive [[Chicken Tube|Chicken Tubes]] to protect themselves.<br />
<br />
The more players there are and the fewer burrows alive, the faster burrows will spawn. <br />
<br />
The Hive Anger meter increases continuously over the course of the game. <br />
<br />
Chicken Defense has a final boss. When the Hive Anger reaches 100%, burrows stop spawning and the Queen appears. The players must work together to kill her before she flattens everything in her path.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_eggs.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
Chickens drop eggs when killed, which can be reclaimed for metal. Burrows also drop multiple eggs when killed.<br />
<br />
=== Hive Tech and Anger ===<br />
Chickens will gradually upgrade to more advanced forms with the game timer. If the players are not aggressive, the chickens will "tech up" faster.<br />
Conversely, killing a burrow will cause the tech meter to regress by a large amount. This means that you can literally bomb the chickens back into the Stone Age (or the Triassic).<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_burrowbomb.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
On the flip side, however, killing too many burrows will also cause the hive to perceive you as a greater threat (Hive Anger), increasing the number of chickens spawning and causing the Queen to appear earlier. More defensive Tubes will also be spawned by burrows. It may be necessary to strike a balance between tech and anger.<br />
<br />
Note that the chicken tech time modifier cannot be less than -50% of the current gametime.<br />
<br />
=== Player Aggression Rating ===<br />
The PAR (sometimes referred to as "aggro") is an indicator of how aggressively the humans are playing, and controls a lot of the chicken behavior. Specifically:<br />
<ul><br />
<li>The PAR goes up by (1/playercount) when a burrow is killed.</li><br />
<li>The PAR goes down by 0.25 every wave.</li><br />
<li>Positive values will increase the number of chickens and defensive tubes spawned (to drive back the enemy).</li><br />
<li>Negative values will cause the chickens to increment their tech timer.</li><br />
<li>Killing a burrow while the PAR is positive will make the queen appear sooner (proportional to the current value of the PAR).</li><br />
<li>At sufficiently low PAR values, the chickens will use special "plots" to inflict damage on the enemy base. These range from spawning small digger chickens in the back of the enemy base, to deploying Chicken Spires, to spawning even the vaunted White Dragons.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
Generally, it's best to keep PAR at an neutral-ish value (slightly negative to slightly positive).<br />
<br />
=== [[White Dragon]]s ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_dragon.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
The White Dragons, gatekeepers of the Hive, are deployed when the chickens are sufficiently threatened by their robot enemies. When the Hive Anger reaches a specific point (varies with difficulty level), these dragons will appear at random locations on the map and make a beeline for enemy forces.<br />
<br />
Dragons are extremely fearsome close up, but enough sustained fire will take them down. Don't take too long though; while they all spawn at different random locations on the map, things could turn out very badly for you if they link up.<br />
<br />
At sufficiently low PAR values, Dragons can also spawn next to a random player structure every few waves.<br />
<br />
=== The [[Chicken Queen]] ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_queen.sized.jpg <br />
<br />
The matriarch of the Chickens, the queen only appears on the battlefield when all else fails. She is an extremely fearsome beast, with jaws of iron, devastating acid bile, and the ability to fire lethal "spores" at land and air targets alike. An extremely tough hide, multiple organ redundancy and rapid cellular regeneration enable her to survive seemingly impossible amounts of enemy fire.<br />
<br />
Like the Dragons, the Queen appears at a random place on the map, at a minimum distance from player units. In addition to attacking the enemy, she also functions as multiple mobile burrows in one, spawning chickens during waves.<br />
<br />
The queen becomes progressively more resistant to damage with an increasing number of players. Additionally, as she takes damage, she gains new attacks including another spore spray, dropping [[Dodo]]s, and even [[Basilisk]]s or [[Tiamats]] (in addition to any chickens spawned during waves).<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_landqueen.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
Oh, did we forget to brief you? After a certain amount of time in the air, the Queen can land. She has a slightly different suite of attacks here, and can take quite a bit more punishment.<br />
She doesn't stay on the ground though, after a similar period of time she'll take to the sky again.<br />
<br />
=== The Chicken Panel ===<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/Chicken/chicken_panel.png <br />
<br />
The Chicken Panel gives you all relevant information on your current Chicken game. <br />
<br />
The main display shows you the current Hive anger and projected time to queen arrival, the number of chickens and burrows alive at present and total kills, the tech time reduction from burrows, and the difficulty.<br />
Mousing over each entry (except difficulty) gives you additional information:<br />
* Hive anger increase from each burrow kill; projected White Dragon arrival time<br />
* Chicken wave frequency; breakdown of live/killed chickens by type<br />
* Frequency of burrow spawns under current conditions; burrow respawn chance<br />
* Tech time increase per wave per burrow; reduction thereof from kill<br />
<br />
=== PvP Mode ===<br />
PvP mode (where chickens are added to a normal player vs. player game) works slightly differently. The queen does not attack at 100% Hive Anger; instead, regular waves of White Dragons will appear and pummel the players until all burrows on the map are removed.<br />
<br />
No reduction occurs in either chicken or burrow counts compared to regular mode, so this can be much harder than normal mode!<br />
<br />
== Tips and tricks ==<br />
Take as many mexes as possible at the start of the game. Dedicated Chicken maps tend to have all the mexes on one side, which is helpful.<br />
<br />
Have a lot of buildpower handy to deal with the excess of metal you should have.<br />
<br />
Always be building better defences.<br />
<br />
This is not a tower defence game - have a mobile force ready to fight artillery and destroy burrows.<br />
<br />
Don't forget light superweapons. [[Disco Rave Party]]'s high angle setting can deny huge areas to the Chicken onslaught, and [[Big Bertha]] can blow holes in high Chicken density areas.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_opening&diff=5673Typical opening2019-09-06T17:26:25Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Lots of improvements and changes</p>
<hr />
<div>A guide about how to start a game and what your opening moves would typically be.<br />
<br />
==Location selection phase==<br />
In this phase you are shown a green box around a part of the map. You can click somewhere in here to choose in which area your [[Commander]] will appear. Once all players choose a location (or time runs out), a 3 second countdown will start. After that, all commanders will be deployed simultaneously.<br />
<br />
===Picking a good spot===<br />
Some maps won't give you much of a choice, but on those that do there are a few general guidelines:<br />
*Pick a location closest to the center of map.<br />
**This allows you to control the map better.<br />
*The spot you pick should have a mex cluster of 3 or 4 [[Metal Extractor|mexes]].<br />
**If you start somewhere without a mex cluster you are slowing yourself down.<br />
<br />
Picking a defensible spot is not very important - your opponent has the same options available as you and isn't going to be able to abuse this. Good radar coverage and some units will sort out anything.<br />
<br />
===Your first buildings===<br />
Before the game starts, you are allowed to queue up to 30 buildings (using shift) that your commander will start to work on when it appears. Most people open with the following:<br />
#Choose a factory and place it somewhere close to your starting mexes.<br />
#*You want your Commander to move around as little as possible for this initial phase - time spent moving is time not spent building.<br />
#Queue up all your surrounding mexes.<br />
#Build 3 [[Solar Collector]]s or 5-6 [[Wind/Tidal Generator]]s.<br />
#*This should give you enough energy to match the metal you will get from the mexes you just took and the next few mexes you will take as you start to expand.<br />
#Build a [[Radar Tower]], preferably in an elevated location.<br />
#*Helps you protect against raids.<br />
#Build 1 or 2 defensive towers, usually an [[Lotus|LLT]] or [[Picket|MT]].<br />
#Finally, place your commander, and wait for the game to start.<br />
<br />
==After the game has started - initial moves==<br />
===Your first units===<br />
The first thing your Commander should have done is plopped a factory. It is now sitting idle.<br />
#Queue up a scout unit. This would be a [[Flea]], [[Dart]], [[Glaive]], [[Dirtbag]], etc.<br />
#Set its rally point to somewhere '''near''' where you think your opponents' base will be.<br />
#*The point of doing this is to see if your opponent is up to something [[cheese|cheesy]].<br />
#*The main thing you want to do is check what factory your opponent has, and so what you expect to encounter.<br />
#Build a constructor.<br />
#Queue up 4-5 raiders and another constructor.<br />
<br />
===Starting to expand===<br />
Send your first constructor to a nearby group of mexes and start building them. Use your raiders to either protect this constructor or send them over to your opponents' base to keep them from being too greedy with their expansion.<br />
<br />
On a large map, your Commander is probably best used by staying in base and building lots of energy structures; [[Caretaker]]s when necessary. This is because the Commander is much slower than any constructor and on large maps it is easy to get a big ball of raiders quickly. These can overwhelm the Commander easily, putting it at much risk.<br />
<br />
On small maps, it is generally best to march your Commander towards your opponent's base, taking mexes and building defences along the way. On smaller maps, the Commander's combat strength is relevant for much longer than on other maps, and you can leverage this to gain map control.<br />
<br />
<br />
====What next?====<br />
Read about [[typical game progression]] here.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Cloak&diff=5672Cloak2019-09-06T17:09:36Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Some links added</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Cloaking''' makes your units immune to detection by sight and radar, which amounts to near perfect invisibility when dry; however, submerged and swimming units can still be detected by sonar even if cloaked.<br />
<br />
Cloaking will fail to work in the following conditions:<br />
* The unit takes damage. After a few seconds of taking no damage, the cloak will reactivate again. Damage-over-time effects (like being on fire or in acidic water) will prevent cloak from reactivating for an extended period of time.<br />
* An enemy unit comes within proximity of the cloak. After a few seconds of no proximate enemies, the cloak will reactivate again.<br />
* Insufficient energy to power the cloak.<br />
* The unit is attacking or using buildpower. This includes reclaiming and repairing<br />
. An exception to this rule is the [[Phantom]], which is the only unit that can remain cloaked while attacking, and the resurrecting process, which can be carried out while cloaked by both the [[Athena]] and [[Commander]]s equipped with the Lazarus Device resurrection module.<br />
* The unit is stunned or disarmed.<br />
* The unit walks into range of a sonar-equipped enemy while being in water. This does not decloak the unit but it will be visible as a radar dot.<br />
<br />
== Personal Cloakers ==<br />
<br />
Some units come equipped with a personal cloak. Their cloak costs a small amount of energy to maintain while stationary, and a greater amount of energy while moving. These units are good for sneaking past heavy defenses to reach valuable economic targets at the back of the enemy base. They are also great for spying on enemy positions without being seen.<br />
<br />
[[File:Cloak.jpg]]<br />
<br />
== Area Cloakers ==<br />
<br />
Area Cloakers ([[Cornea]], [[Iris]], [[Commander]]s with Area Cloak module) will render most units inside the cloaking radius invisible. Any other cloak-capable units that have their personal cloak on while inside the radius will ''' not cost any energy to power their personal cloaks, ''' and there is no additional cloak cost for moving, either. This can lead to a potent boost to your economy if you use this feature to negate the cloaking cost of several high-maintenance units, like [[Skuttle]]s or an [[Ultimatum]].<br />
<br />
Units receive a standardized decloak radius when affected by area cloak. This is most useful for Skuttles as they can sneak much closer to enemies without their usual massive decloak radius. Of course this combination has other vulnerabilities as an area cloaker must be nearby. The decloak radius change is not applied to units which are actively area cloaking, the large decloak radius of Iris cannot be mitigated.<br />
<br />
All structures aside from Cornea (the Area Cloaker building) are not affected by area cloak. It is also impossible to cloak any shield-projecting unit such as [[Thug]], [[Felon]], [[Convict]] and [[Aspis]]. Note that a personal cloak module has no effect on a shield projecting commander.<br />
<br />
Area cloakers come with a jammer, this can be useful to conceal bases from radar even though they cannot be cloaked. The mobile version can help to hide and reposition armies stealthily.<br />
<br />
== Stats/Specifications ==<br />
<br />
=== Energy Usage chart ===<br />
<br />
All cloak-capable units (save [[Flea]]s, [[Blastwing]]s and crawling bombs) require a nominal energy upkeep to maintain their cloak.<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! Unit !! Stationary cost !! Moving cost !! Unit !! Stationary cost !! Moving cost<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloakcon.png [[Conjurer]] ||0.1||0.5<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloakaa.png [[Gremlin]] ||0.1||0.5<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloakheavyraid.png [[Scythe]] ||0.2||1<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloaksnipe.png [[Phantom]] ||1||5<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/athena.png [[Athena]] ||2||5<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/striderscorpion.png [[Scorpion]] ||2||10<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/spiderantiheavy.png [[Widow]] ||4||12<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/jumpbomb.png [[Skuttle]] ||5||15<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armcomdgun.png [[Ultimatum]] ||8||24<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! Unit !! Jammer cost !! Self-cloak cost !! Field cost<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/staticjammer.png [[Cornea]] ||1.5||1||12<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/spherecloaker.png [[Iris]] ||1.5||1||15<br />
|}<br />
<br />
Commanders are also able to cloak and jam by installing relevant modules.<br />
{|<br />
! Unit !! Stationary cost !! Moving cost<br />
|-<br />
|http://zero-k.info/img/avatars/module_personal_cloak.png Personal Cloak Module ||5||10<br />
|-<br />
|http://zero-k.info/img/avatars/module_cloak_field.png Area Cloak Module ||colspan="2"|15<br />
|}<br />
<br />
== Decloak Radius chart ==<br />
<br />
Any units not listed here are assumed to have a decloak radius of exactly 75 elmos (unit of distance in ZK). Remember that radii larger than 75 will be set to 75 when affected by an area cloaker.<br />
{|<br />
! Unit !! Radius !! Unit !! Radius<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloaksnipe.png Phantom ||155|| http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/athena.png Athena ||125<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/spiderantiheavy.png Widow ||60||http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/striderscorpion.png Scorpion ||150<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/jumpbomb.png Skuttle ||180||http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/spherecloaker.png Iris ||180<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armcomdgun.png Ultimatum ||100 ||http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/staticjammer.png Cornea ||100<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/wolverine_mine.png [[Claw]] ||50 ||http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armflea.png [[Flea]] ||120<br />
|-<br />
|http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cloakaa.png Gremlin ||140 ||http://zero-k.info/img/avatars/module_personal_cloak.png Commanders ||150<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Venom&diff=5671Venom2019-09-06T17:03:53Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a lightning riot spider from the [[Spider Factory]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Venom<br />
| defname = spideremp<br />
| description = Lightning Riot Spider<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/spideremp.png<br />
| icontype = spiderriotspecial<br />
| cost = 200<br />
| hitpoints = 750<br />
| movespeed = 81<br />
| turnrate = 264<br />
| sight = 440<br />
| transportable = Light<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Electro-Stunner<br />
| type = LightningCannon<br />
| damage = 18<br />
| reloadtime = 1.73<br />
| dps = 10.4<br />
| empdamage = 600<br />
| empdps = 346<br />
| stuntime = 3<br />
| range = 240<br />
| aoe = 80<br />
| special1 = Instantly hits<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Venom is an all-terrain unit designed to paralyze enemies so other units can easily destroy them. It moves particularly fast for a riot unit and in addition to the paralysis from its [[Weapon_classes#EMP|EMP]] weapon it does a small amount of damage. Works well in tandem with the Recluse to keep enemies from closing range with the fragile skirmisher.<br />
<br />
==Strategy and Tactics==<br />
The Venom's stun is very powerful, and can keep units stunlocked very effectively, which makes it a powerful addition to any spiderball. Because of the stun, a few Venoms can leave many enemy units defenseless against any attacks. Hard-hitting assaults like the [[Hermit]] or skirmishers like the [[Recluse]], which fire projectiles that move too slowly to reliably hit agile enemies, can benefit greatly from the Venom's ability to stunlock enemies.<br />
<br />
Aim for clusters of enemies, as the small splash radius can be exploited better, stunning many enemy units. Ensure that you don't stun your own Venoms.<br />
<br />
The Venom is fast enough to close range on skirmishers.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Terraform&diff=5670Terraform2019-09-06T17:00:10Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: </p>
<hr />
<div>http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/intro.png <div style="float:right;">__TOC__</div><br />
<br />
All construction units and Nano Turrets can modify the terrain in Zero-K. '''Terraforming''' costs energy, metal and time.<br />
<br />
== Terraform Types ==<br />
<br />
The simplest way to use terraform is to '''hold left mouse''' while placing a structure.<br />
This allows you to place the structure higher or lower.<br />
<br />
See [[Structure Placement]] for more information on structure terraforming.<br />
<br />
Structure terrforming controls can be changed in the menu: Settings > Interface > Building placement.<br />
<br />
[[File:terraform_structure.gif]]<br />
<br />
<br />
There are also 5 terraform commands found under the 'Special' tab in the menu:<br />
<br />
[[File:Terraform_buttons.png]]<br />
<br />
* Ramp <br />
* Level<br />
* Raise<br />
* Smooth<br />
* Restore<br />
<br />
Note: ''Right Click'' at any time during the terraform will cancel the command (so will mousewheel movement, that's a bug though).<br />
<br />
== Interface: Lasso Selection == <br />
<br />
Level, Raise, Smooth and Restore have the same interface for selecting the effected area. They differ in what they do to the terrain.<br />
<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/level.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/raise.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/smooth.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/restore.png<br />
<br />
''Left click'' on the ground and hold the mouse to start drawing a line. Drawing the area selects the area to be terraformed. If the end of the line is close to the start when the left mouse button is released the area inside the loop will be terraformed (like lasso selection), if the ends are far away the drawn line will be terraformed (good for making walls).<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/lasso.jpg<br />
<br />
If you are using Smooth or Restore the command will be given when you release the mouse. If you are using Level or Raise you will have to chose either which height to level to or how much to raise the land. This is done by moving the mouse up/down then clicking when it looks like it is at the desired height.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/setheight.jpg<br />
<br />
== Effects of Terraform and Modifiers ==<br />
<br />
Here are the effects of Level, Raise, Smooth and Restore. The modifiers ''Alt'' and ''Ctrl'' can be held during the Height Choosing phase of the Level and Raise commands for more height choosing control.<br />
<br />
=== Level ===<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/level.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
'''Level''' will move the terrain in the area to exactly the same height, the result terrain will be flat. For example a hill could be flattened.<br />
<br />
Hold ''Alt'' to snap to either the starting height, just below water level (so that ships can't pass) or the level just below water level that land units cannot pass (23 deep).<br />
<br />
Hold ''Ctrl'' and move the mouse to select the height to be levelled to from terrain by mousing over the terrain.<br />
<br />
Tap ''Space'' to cycle through only raise or only level. This limits the terraform to either take away or add terrain instead of a mix of both. Can be toggled during lasso stage.<br />
<br />
=== Raise ===<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/raise.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
'''Raise''' raises or lowers the terrain in the area by the same amount, the relative height of the terrain within the area is not changed.<br />
<br />
Hold ''Alt'' to snap to heights by steps of 15. A 15 high (or deep) wall (or trench) will be impassable to vehicles but passable to bots. A 18 high wall will be impassable to most common bots. A 30 high wall will be impassable to everything except spiders.<br />
<br />
Press ''Ctrl'' to reset the height to 0.<br />
<br />
=== Smooth ===<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/smooth1.sized.jpg" width="360"/><img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/smooth2.sized.jpg" width="360"/><br />
<br />
'''Smooth''' smooths the terrain, cliffs become less sharp.<br />
<br />
=== Restore ===<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/restore1.sized.jpg" width="360"/><img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/restore2.sized.jpg" width="360"/><br />
<br />
'''Restore''' reverts the height of the terrain to what it was at the start of the game.<br />
<br />
Tap ''Space'' to cycle through only raise or only level. This limits the terraform to either take away or add terrain instead of a mix of both. Toggle during lasso stage.<br />
<br />
== "Advanced" Area Selection ==<br />
<br />
For easier terraforming, alt and/or ctrl can be used to modify the way the lasso command is given.<br />
<br />
Hold ''Alt'' while clicking to terraform a rectangular area.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/square.jpg<br />
<br />
Hold ''Alt'' and click on a building or unit to create a wall around that unit.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/autowall.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
Hold ''Alt'' + ''Ctrl'' while clicking to create a hollow rectangle of terraform.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ring.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
Hold ''Ctrl'' at any time during line drawing to create a straight section of line. Straight and non-straight lines can be mixed by pressing and releasing Ctrl.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/loopy.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
== Ramp ==<br />
<br />
The ramp command interface is different from that of the other terraform commands.<br />
<br />
First select the Ramp command from the command menu.<br />
<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/ramp.png<br />
<br />
=== Simple Ramp ===<br />
This is a simple way to make a ramp between 2 points on the ground. It uses exactly the same interface as advanced ramp but it can be unclear how to make a simple ramp just from the explanation of the full features of advanced ramp.<br />
<br />
In short:<br />
* ''Left Click'' the start of the ramp<br />
* ''Left Click'' the end of the ramp<br />
* ''Left Click'' again<br />
<br />
==== Advanced Ramp ====<br />
Using the full ramp interface you can make a ramp between any 2 arbitrary points above or below the terrain and chose the width of this ramp.<br />
<br />
''Left Click'' on the ground to set the start of the ramp. '''If''' you want to choose the height of the start of the ramp hold the click and move the mouse up or down. A little green line will appear out of the ground to indicate the height. The default height is the ground height, release the mouse to select the height.<br />
<br />
Hold '''Alt''' when choosing the start height to snap to the original ground height or just below water level(helpful for getting hovers out of the water).<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp1.sized.jpg" width="480"/><br />
<br />
Then ''Left Click'' on the ground to set the end of the ramp. As with the start of the ramp, you can hold the mouse and move to choose the height. <br />
<br />
Hold '''Alt''' when choosing the end height to snap the gradient of the ramp to either upwards bot pathable, upwards vehicle pathable, flat, downwards vehicle pathable, downwards bot pathable, the original ground height or just below water level .<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp2.sized.jpg" width="480"/><br />
<br />
Move the mouse up/down (not held down) and click to set the width of the ramp. Then ''Left Click'' to build it.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp3.sized.jpg" width="480"/><br />
<br />
The ramp colour indicates whether all units will be able to use it, if vehicles/tanks will not be able to use it and if only Spiders can use it.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp_green.jpg" width="240"/><img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp_yellow.jpg" width="240"/><img src="http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/ramp_red.jpg" width="240"/><br />
<br />
Optional: Tap ''Space'' to cycle through only raise or only level. This limits the terraform to either take away or add terrain instead of a mix of both. Can be toggled at any stage during the ramp command.<br />
<br />
== Cost ==<br />
<br />
Terraform by default costs 1 metal, energy and build power to raise or lower 1 heightmap grid, each vertex of the blue grid maps onto a point on the heightmap grid. Due to the sloped sides it will be costly to make a very high spire. Equal volumes of terraform will have the same cost regardless of shape. Cost can be changed with the "terraform cost multiplier" ModOption.<br />
<br />
As a general guideline, assuming the base value for terraforming cost, creating a 15 deep wall (or trench) will cost roughly 19 resources per 'segment'.<br />
<br />
Building a "skydust" (i.e. Stardust on a pillar) costs about 50 resources for a 50 height pillar, or 85 resources for 100 height.<br />
<br />
== Tips ==<br />
<br />
You can protect non-combat structures not sensitive to terrain such as cloak/shield generators, [[Caretaker|nanoturrets]], [[Gunship Plant]]s and [[Missile Silo]]s with walls or holes.<br />
<br />
Buildings cannot be moved vertically. If you want to put a Fusion in a hole for safety the hole will have to be built before the Fusion. <br />
<br />
Because buildings cannot move vertically they can be used to stop walls being terraformed by the enemy.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/cappedwall.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
[[Big Bertha]]s, [[Crab]]s and [[Ogre]]s are very good at knocking down walls.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/crabesmooth.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
You can use terraforming to make a trench or wall underwater to stop amphibious bots.<br />
<br />
[[Lobster|Lobsters]] can throw units over low walls.<br />
<br />
Terraform ramp can be used with [[Newton]]s to fire units at the enemy!<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/terraform/newtonramp.sized.jpg<br />
<br />
To set hotkeys for terraform commands, navigate into the game menu and look under hotkeys for ''Levelground, Raiseground, Rampground, Smoothground'' and ''Restoreground.''<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=FAQ&diff=5669FAQ2019-09-06T16:53:38Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Frequently Asked Questions''' - Zero-K<br />
(still under construction)<br />
<br />
==I'm new to Zero-K. Where should I start?==<br />
First you should read the [[Newbie Guide]] and try some practice games against the AI. You should definitely try the tutorial, play some or all of the campaign, and/or the more detailed tutorial set available in the Help menu ingame.<br />
<br />
You can also spectate some online games to see which things are significant.<br />
<br />
==How can I unlock commander modules?==<br />
You have to visit the [https://www.zero-k.info Zero-K Homepage] and log in with your account. You can easily reach this page from the lobby through the "Home" tab. From here, scroll down until you see "You can unlock technology" and click on this link. Alternatively you can [https://zero-k.info/My/UnlockList click here] if you're logged in. Note that you do not have to unlock anything from this page; all modules are currently unlocked in-game for all players. Unlocking these just makes them available for preconfigured commanders.<br />
<br />
==How do I gain rating? ==<br />
You can gain rating if you're winning multiplayer games. Based on you enemies' skill you will gain/lose more or less rating.<br />
<br />
Instead of relying on fixed rating thresholds, rating colors are defined by your gaming skills (calculated by a specific algorithm called WHR, similar to ELO) expressed as a percentiles of the playerbase. Rating colors can only be gained or lost after holding one's position in the new percentile for multiple games.<br />
<br />
Here is a list of the rating colors:<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! Icon !! Color !! Theme !! Percentile<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_7.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_7.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_7.png"/> || Gamma ray || Singularity|| Top 1%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_6.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_6.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_6.png"/> || X ray || Neutron star|| Top 5%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_5.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_5.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_5.png"/> || Blue white || Supergiant|| Top 10%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_4.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_4.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_4.png"/> || Bright yellow || Giant|| Top 20%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_3.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_3.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_3.png"/> || Orange || Subgiant|| Top 40%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_2.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_2.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_2.png"/> || Red|| Red dwarf|| Top 60%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_1.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_1.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_1.png"/> || Dark red|| Brown dwarf|| Top 80%<br />
|-<br />
|<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_0.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_0.png"/> <img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_0.png"/> || Infrared|| Nebula|| Everyone<br />
|}<br />
<br />
The rank level itself is defined by the cumulated total time spent ingame.<br />
<br />
Here is a list of the ranks, with color Infrared:<br />
<br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/0_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/1_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/2_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/3_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/4_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/5_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/6_0.png"/><br />
<img src="https://zero-k.info/img/ranks/7_0.png"/><br />
<br />
The progress bar "Level XXX" shows your rank level (i.e. dependent on total time spent ingame).<br />
<br />
The progress bar below it shows your position in respect to the next cosmic object (in other words, how far you are to the next color, dependent on your gaming skills).<br />
<br />
==How much XP do I need to reach the next level?== <br />
Mouse over the XP bar on the home page; the XP needed is displayed in the tooltip.<br />
<br />
==My FPS is low after some time have passed ingame. What can I do?==<br />
:''See also: [[Performance Optimizations]]''<br />
Try to reduce your graphics settings. To do so, go to the Settings Tab on Zero-K Lobby and click Graphics Settings -> Run SpringSettings. Some system-intensive elements that you could tone down/disable are shadows and water type. Try a new game and probably change some settings again.<br />
<br />
If you're playing on Steam, disable the Steam Overlay as it negatively affects performance:<br />
* Right click on Zero-K in your Steam library.<br />
* Select 'Properties' from the dropdown menu.<br />
* Untick "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game" in General.<br />
<br />
==I'm on Linux and my game hangs/crashes the second time I launch it==<br />
This may be an issue with certain versions of Mono. You might be able to work around it by deleting one or both files in <code>Zero-K/games</code> and letting the game rebuild them.<br />
<br />
==I get ugly bubbles in the minimap/the whole screen flashbangs.==<br />
Do you get bubbles like this?<br />
<br />
https://zero-k.info/img/clans/FAQ_bg.png<br />
<br />
This is a bug somewhere in Lua drawing with ATI/AMD and OpenGL.<br />
Disable widgets that draw via F11 menu to find the problematic widget. <br />
This should largely be fixed, if it still happens make a bugreport please.<br />
<br />
==I have some game ideas. Where can I post them?==<br />
Visit the [https://zero-k.info/Forum Zero-K forum] and pose your ideas in one of the sections.<br />
Furthermore, you can create a new issue on our development site: https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/issues<br />
<br />
==What do all the ingame abbreviations mean?==<br />
You can look up some abbreviations used ingame [[Abbreviations|here in this list]]. Some abbreviations unrelated to the game can be looked up on [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Internet_slang this page]. Another way is to ask players ingame.<br />
<br />
==How can I support the game? Donations?==<br />
On the one hand you can [https://zero-k.info/Contributions donate some coins] so we can pay the server costs. On the other hand you can support us by simply playing the game and spreading the word. Feel free to use our [http://presskit.zero-k.info/ advertisement material] on your site. Thanks a lot! :-)<br />
<br />
==How do I change my password? ==<br />
On your home/account page, click ''Account maintenance'' and enter your new password.<br />
<br />
==I forgot my password / username. Help me pls!==<br />
If you forgot your password / username please contact one of the server admins to receive your password / username. They will reset it to something and pm it to you.<br />
<br />
==My game crashes/has graphical glitches. How do I fix it? ==<br />
First check the [http://springrts.com/wiki/FAQ:trouble troubleshooting FAQ] on the Spring engine wiki and see if your issue is covered there. If you can't find a solution to the problem, you can file a bug report on our forum or [https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS Github development site].<br />
<br />
==I have a bug report!==<br />
You can post in the [https://zero-k.info/Forum?categoryID=3 Help & Bugs subforum] or make an issue report on [https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS Github] (more technical). <br />
<br />
Please include diagnostic logs as appropriate. You can automatically upload the log from ingame through ''Main Menu'' -> ''Help'' -> ''Report a Bug''.<br />
<br />
Otherwise, look for infolog_full.txt in your installation folder. Be sure to [http://www.pastebin.com pastebin] your infolog and give the link instead of posting the whole thing on the forum or github.<br />
<br />
==My question isn't answered here. Where can I ask my question?==<br />
As above you can visit the [https://zero-k.info/Forum forum] and ask your question in one of the listed sections.<br><br />
You can also ask players ingame to get help.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Missile_Silo_Tutorial&diff=5668Missile Silo Tutorial2019-09-06T16:51:48Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: All else fails? My Detriments would like to contest that.</p>
<hr />
<div>Properly used, the [[Missile Silo]] can be detrimental to even the most extreme fortifications. It is not cheap, so it should only be used when conventional weaponry fails.<br />
<br />
== Damage ==<br />
Damage can be dealt to single structures or over large areas. The [[Eos]] does 3500 damage with a small blast radius, aim for points where multiple buildings touch to apply this damage to more than one building. If there are bigger clusters of structures, the [[Inferno]] can be used as it has a much bigger area of effect.<br />
<br />
== Shields and Terraform ==<br />
Every missile except the [[Shockley]] will be stopped by full shields. If the shields are slightly below full charge, the [[Eos]] can pass through them as well. Shields can be circumvented by either stunning or weakening them before firing the remaining missiles. For a successful stun, first scout all aegis and then use Shockleys to stun them, keep the small AOE of the Shockley in mind. Multiple stuns might be needed to deactivate all shields if they are spread out. Alternatively, an Eos can be used to weaken all shields in a shield network. After firing one Eos, any following Eos will pass freely through the shields, as long as the shield get a few seconds to equalize their charges.<br />
<br />
Terraform can be flattened by the use of a [[Quake]] missile. Those have a high trajectory, so you have to target them at the terraform. They don't pass through shields, even at low charge. Alternatively, the AOE of the Eos or Inferno can be used to do damage through terrain.<br />
<br />
== Timing and Trajectories ==<br />
The trajectory of the Shockley and Quake missiles are much higher than those of the Inferno and Eos. Those subsequently have a longer flight time than the latter and can mostly ignore terrain. Make sure to account for the additional flight time of those missiles, firing them at the same time as low trajectory missiles will otherwise result in the latter impacting before the defenses are stunned/the terrain smoothed.<br />
<br />
You should never fire multiple missiles simultaneously, as it only has downsides over firing them in quick succession. Repair is compensated by a small extra damage over the stated values. When the enemy has multiple shields, a small delay between missiles ensures that the damage is spread over all shields. Thus the other shields can't block the remaining missiles as they would if the missiles were fired simultaneously.<br />
<br />
== Examples ==<br />
<br />
=== Shielded Cerberus ===<br />
Fire one Eos, wait 2 seconds, fire other 2 Eos.<br />
<br />
=== Terraformed Shielded Advanced Geothermal ===<br />
Either fire a Shockley at the shields, wait for it to impact and then finish it off with a Quake followed by an Eos, or try to splash damage it by aiming 2 Eos at either the back of the moho or the base of the terraform.<br />
<br />
=== Stationary/Predictable Paladin ===<br />
Fire 2 Shockleys to stun it, finish off with Raiders. Restun with a single Shockley after 40 seconds if needed. The same works for Detriment with 4 Shockleys.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Economy_Guide&diff=5667Economy Guide2019-09-06T16:44:41Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Large amount of small edits</p>
<hr />
<div>== Basic Economic Management ==<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/ibeam.png<br />
<br />
'''Metal''' is the most important resource. It is limited by your territory, obtained from metal extractors on metal spots, but is relatively cheap to get. You should always acquire it ruthlessly and spend it as soon as possible - your metal bar should always be empty.<br />
<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/energy.png<br />
<br />
'''Energy''' can be made anywhere and there is no limit to the amount you can have, though it takes an investment. It is used for tasks other than construction, so you should always have more energy than you do metal. Excess energy is automatically used to [[Overdrive]] your metal extractors.<br />
<br />
'''Build Power''' is the ability of your constructors to build locally at a fixed rate. Having too much of the other resources just means you don't have enough constructors. Some excess buildpower is good, so that you can move it around or perform other tasks.<br />
<br />
In order to build anything, you need all three resources in equal quantities (an exact 1-1-1 ratio). Constructors drain the same amount of resources at a fixed rate no matter what they are building. In your resource bars, income of each is shown in the small green number, and drain in red. The balance of these numbers is the larger number, added or subtracted from your storage. Unlike some other RTS's, the goal is to balance your income vs your expenditure- storage exists only to give you a buffer. If your storage is full and the green number is larger than the red, you're excessing, and wasting the resource. If your storage is empty and the red number is larger than the green, you're stalling, and production involving the resource is slowed.<br />
<br />
===Guard/Repeat Method to a Smooth Economy===<br />
One of the keys to running a smooth economy is to automate it. Here is one method:<br />
# Click the ''factory guard'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_on.png This will make all constructors guard (and assist) your factory.<br />
# Press the ''repeat'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_on.png Your factory should almost never be idle, and repeat greatly reduces the amount of micro you need to manage your factory. It also allows you to mix units more easily. (Alternately, you can press F11 and enable the ''Factory Autorepeat'' widget and it will do this for you every game.)<br />
# Queue up offensive units and constructors. Constructors should generally comprise around 1/4th of all your spending, but this varies by map and situation. Lots of constructors allows you to react to a varying and slowly expanding economy.<br />
# Expand with your constructors, guarding them with units and building defences as you go, gradually and smoothly increasing your metal income. Make energy constantly, non-stop over the course of the game, and in pace with your metal production. Making a Solar Collector next to every Metal Extractor is a good practice.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself in a crisis and need to rebalance your economy, remember these tips:<br />
<br />
* If you stall energy, build energy structures and set them on [[Economy_Guide#Priority| high priority]]. Always watch out if your energy storage starts to dip. Turn off any cloaking units, cloak generators or shields until out of the stall.<br />
* When you have too many constructors working on your factory and you are stalling heavily, send some out to expand, reclaim, make defenses, and repair.<br />
* If you ever find yourself heading towards an excess of metal due to a sudden glut, make [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]] in your base or construct a new factory on the frontline if you have your commander or some idle constructors there.<br />
*Swim in energy and be short of metal, '''never the reverse.'''<br />
<br />
That's the practical advice. Now, some theory and specific data:<br />
<br />
== Metal ==<br />
Metal is directly tied to territorial acquisition and military conquest.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cormex.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Metal Extractor|Metal Extractors]]''' (mexes) are the most efficient way to get metal, and can only be placed on metal spots. As such, you should expand quickly and rapidly get as many metal spots under your control as possible. Metal extractors are cheap, and pay themselves back quickly. Remember that any metal spot that doesn't have an extractor on it is just wasted metal. If you ever lose territory or get raided, quickly re-expand into the area with extractors again.<br />
<br />
'''Reclamation''' can make up a significant portion of your metal income. For everything that dies, a corpse is left behind with up to 40% of the metal it took to produce the unit. Securing an area after an assault and getting the reclaim from both your units and the enemies (an 80% payback on your investment) can decide the outcome of a game. Since it takes a constructor to reclaim things, you can think of reclamation as a way of turning buildpower directly into metal - reclaiming is a very good use of an excess of buildpower.<br />
Also note that unlike mex income, reclaimed metal is not shared.<br />
<br />
'''[[Overdrive]]''' makes your mexes produce more metal, with diminishing returns as you pump more and more energy into them. Due to this, the more mexes the energy is spread over, the more efficiently you can overdrive them, and the more metal you get for invested energy - so always try and take territory. Overdrive requires an energy structure near the extractor to work, but as long as the colour of your overdrive circles are the same, the efficiency is the same - don't worry about linking your whole grid together (but that would still be good). Rather, make a solar panel next to each extractor for maximum returns.<br />
<br />
'''Communism mode''' distributes all metal from mexes - basic output and overdrive - at equal quantities to all members of your team. This is the default mode for all team games.<br />
<br />
== Energy ==<br />
Energy can be made anywhere. It is generally built in your base, and having energy is required for a number of things, including making all units and structures and running some special units (jammers, shields, etc). Since it is such an investment, losing your energy can cripple your whole economy, so always try to protect your energy and hit the enemy's when possible. If you stall energy for any reason, get it back up again as quickly as possible by making small energy structures (solars, winds - not fusions).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armsolar.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Solar Collector|Solar Collectors]]''' (Solars) give a fixed income and are well armoured, closing up when under attack for a defensive bonus. They are the least efficient energy structure in terms of investment, but they are cheap, have good HP and don't rely on the varying winds and geothermal vents of the map.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armwin.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Wind/Tidal Generator|Wind Generators]]''' are fragile and have a variable output. By default, the wind average on all maps is 1.25, so wind is discretionary. Building wind on higher altitudes raises the minimum that they produce. A tall, flat mountain can be of great economic value. The wind min/max values and altitude bonus are shown in your console at the start of the game and when you build a wind generator it will show you the altitude bonus to its generation in the tooltip.<br />
<br />
Wind is very fragile, so its best to space it out rather than build it in tight blocks - it will chain explode. Refer to the [Wind Farm Guide] to find out how to do this.<br />
<br />
Even when wind is more efficient, you might wish to also have some Solars as backup, due to the fragility and unpredictability of wind.<br />
<br />
When placed in water, wind generators become the sturdier tidal generators, with a high cost efficiency.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/geo.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Geothermal Generator|Geothermal Generators]]''' are almost always the most efficient source of energy (more so than even Fusions), but they are not very cheap and can only be placed on geothermal vents. They are volatile, exploding in a moderate explosion.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/amgeo.png<br />
<br />
Morphing a Geothermal Generator creates an'''[[Advanced Geothermal]]''' an even more efficient energy structure. These are very volatile and explode like a nuke when destroyed. Still, it is almost always worthwhile to take the risk of building them - just keep other buildings and units away from it.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armfus.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]''' (Fusions) are efficient but expensive. They tend to explode in a small radius when killed, so don't put them directly right next to anything (especially not each other).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cafus.png<br />
<br />
'''[[Singularity Reactor|Singularity Reactors]]''' (Singularities) are even more expensive and efficient than Fusions, but are extremely volatile. When destroyed, they implode, dealing massive damage in a wide radius and pulling in any surviving units.<br />
<br />
== Buildpower == <br />
Buildpower is mostly used for spending metal and energy, but it can also be used to reclaim, which gives you metal (reclaiming for energy is usually inefficient but good in desperation) and to repair, which costs energy equal to the constructors buildpower. You can also think of moving buildpower around as a way of 'using' it that doesn't require you to spend other resources. You should always have extra buildpower around, as it regulates the rest of your economy. Metal gluts can quickly be turned into energy with buildpower, and metal stalls can be alleviated through reclaim or mex expansion with buildpower, but getting more buildpower requires a factory or a constructor, and all three resources. Remember though that you cannot spend more resources than you actually have. Don't go crazy with the Nanotowers until you have the economy to actually run them.<br />
<br />
Build power is shown in the units tooltip.<br />
* [[Conjuror|Cloakbot]], [[Convict|Shieldbot]], [[Constable|Jumpbot]], [[Quill|Hovercraft]] and [[Mason|Rover]] Constructors drain -5 (e and m).<br />
* [[Welder|Tank]], [[Mariner|Ship]], [[Wasp|Gunship]], [[Weaver|Spider]] and [[Conch|Amphbot]] Constructors drain -7.5.<br />
* [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]], [[Commander|Commanders]] (unupgraded), and Factories drain -10.<br />
* [[Crane|Airplane]] constructors drain - 4.<br />
* [[Athena|Athenas]] drain - 15.<br />
<br />
This means you can very easily look at your income and expenditure numbers and know just how many constructors or nanotowers you need to bring your economy back into equilibrium.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Another way to explain it is that buildpower is the amount of metal and energy your builders allow you to spend per second. For example, a Caretaker spends at 10 m/s meaning its buildpower is 10.<br />
<br />
Since all builders have limited range, it is possible to talk about local buildpower as part of logistics. For example, if you have 10 Caretakers at home but only a few mobile builders, it may be more practical to make a few Fusions or even a Singularity rather than walk a long distance with builders you still have to make. <br />
<br />
This is also why at least in small density games such as 1v1, a builder is worth more the further from base it is (unless it's so far that it's in enemy territory and dead).<br />
<br />
== Priority ==<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_low.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_med.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_high.png<br />
<br />
All constructors and partially built structures have a button called '''Priority''' that can be set to low, medium or high. Constructors that are currently building a non-normal priority structure inherit its priority. Constructors set to high priority will receive resources before those with normal priority and those with normal receive before those with low. Assuming you are stalling metal (as you should be, explained above), high priority build projects will build faster than normal priority projects, and so on. This feature will save you the time of pausing all less important construction when you need to build something more quickly than others.<br />
<br />
Below is a table detailing priority inheritance. The builder and structure priority result in the builder receiving resources with the priority shown in the main body of the table.<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | !! colspan="4" | Builder<br />
|-<br />
| '''High''' || '''Normal''' || '''Low'''<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="3" | Struct <br />
| '''High''' || High || High || High<br />
|-<br />
| '''Normal''' || High ||Normal ||Low<br />
|-<br />
| '''Low''' ||Low || Low || Low<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Economy_Guide&diff=5666Economy Guide2019-09-06T16:41:24Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Large amount of small edits</p>
<hr />
<div>== Basic Economic Management ==<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/ibeam.png<br />
<br />
'''Metal''' is the most important resource. It is limited by your territory, obtained from metal extractors on metal spots, but is relatively cheap to get. You should always acquire it ruthlessly and spend it as soon as possible- your metal bar should always be empty.<br />
<br />
http://zero-k.info/img/luaui/energy.png<br />
<br />
'''Energy''' can be made anywhere and there is no limit to the amount you can have, though it takes an investment. It is used for tasks other than construction, so you should always have more energy than you do metal. Excess energy is automatically used to [[Overdrive]] your metal extractors.<br />
<br />
'''Build Power''' is the ability of your constructors to build locally at a fixed rate. Having too much of the other resources just means you don't have enough constructors. Some excess buildpower is good, so that you can move it around or perform other tasks.<br />
<br />
In order to build anything, you need all three resources in equal quantities (an exact 1-1-1 ratio). Constructors drain the same amount of resources at a fixed rate no matter what they are building. In your resource bars, income of each is shown in the small green number, and drain in red. The balance of these numbers is the larger number, added or subtracted from your storage. Unlike some other RTS's, the goal is to balance your income vs your expenditure- storage exists only to give you a buffer. If your storage is full and the green number is larger than the red, you're excessing, and wasting the resource. If your storage is empty and the red number is larger than the green, you're stalling, and production involving the resource is slowed.<br />
<br />
===Guard/Repeat Method to a Smooth Economy===<br />
One of the keys to running a smooth economy is to automate it. Here is one method:<br />
# Click the ''factory guard'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/autoassist_on.png This will make all constructors guard (and assist) your factory.<br />
# Press the ''repeat'' button on your factory. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_off.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/repeat_on.png Your factory should almost never be idle, and repeat greatly reduces the amount of micro you need to manage your factory. It also allows you to mix units more easily. (Alternately, you can press F11 and enable the ''Factory Autorepeat'' widget and it will do this for you every game.)<br />
# Queue up offensive units and constructors. Constructors should generally comprise around 1/4th of all your spending, but this varies by map and situation. Lots of constructors allows you to react to a varying and slowly expanding economy.<br />
# Expand with your constructors, guarding them with units and building defences as you go, gradually and smoothly increasing your metal income. Make energy constantly, non-stop over the course of the game, and in pace with your metal production. Making a Solar Collector next to every Metal Extractor is a good practice.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself in a crisis and need to rebalance your economy, remember these tips:<br />
<br />
* If you stall energy, build energy structures and set them on [[Economy_Guide#Priority| high priority]]. Always watch out if your energy storage starts to dip. Turn off any cloaking units, cloak generators or shields until out of the stall.<br />
* When you have too many constructors working on your factory and you are stalling heavily, send some out to expand, reclaim, make defenses, and repair.<br />
* If you ever find yourself heading towards an excess of metal due to a sudden glut, make [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]] in your base or construct a new factory on the frontline if you have your commander or some idle constructors there.<br />
*Swim in energy and be short of metal, '''never the reverse.'''<br />
<br />
That's the practical advice. Now, some theory and specific data:<br />
<br />
== Metal ==<br />
Metal is directly tied to territorial acquisition and military conquest.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cormex.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Metal Extractor|Metal Extractors]]''' (mexes) are the most efficient way to get metal, and can only be placed on metal spots. As such, you should expand quickly and rapidly get as many metal spots under your control as possible. Metal extractors are cheap, and pay themselves back quickly. Remember that any metal spot that doesn't have an extractor on it is just wasted metal. If you ever lose territory or get raided, quickly re-expand into the area with extractors again.<br />
<br />
'''Reclamation''' can make up a significant portion of your metal income. For everything that dies, a corpse is left behind with up to 40% of the metal it took to produce the unit. Securing an area after an assault and getting the reclaim from both your units and the enemies (an 80% payback on your investment) can decide the outcome of a game. Since it takes a constructor to reclaim things, you can think of reclamation as a way of turning buildpower directly into metal - reclaiming is a very good use of an excess of buildpower.<br />
Also note that unlike mex income, reclaimed metal is not shared.<br />
<br />
'''[[Overdrive]]''' makes your mexes produce more metal, with diminishing returns as you pump more and more energy into them. Due to this, the more mexes the energy is spread over, the more efficiently you can overdrive them, and the more metal you get for invested energy - so always try and take territory. Overdrive requires an energy structure near the extractor to work, but as long as the colour of your overdrive circles are the same, the efficiency is the same - don't worry about linking your whole grid together (but that would still be good). Rather, make a solar panel next to each extractor for maximum returns.<br />
<br />
'''Communism mode''' distributes all metal from mexes - basic output and overdrive - at equal quantities to all members of your team. This is the default mode for all team games.<br />
<br />
== Energy ==<br />
Energy can be made anywhere. It is generally built in your base, and having energy is required for a number of things, including making all units and structures and running some special units (jammers, shields, etc). Since it is such an investment, losing your energy can cripple your whole economy, so always try to protect your energy and hit the enemy's when possible. If you stall energy for any reason, get it back up again as quickly as possible by making small energy structures (solars, winds - not fusions).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armsolar.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Solar Collector|Solar Collectors]]''' (Solars) give a fixed income and are well armoured, closing up when under attack for a defensive bonus. They are the least efficient energy structure in terms of investment, but they are cheap, have good HP and don't rely on the varying winds and geothermal vents of the map.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armwin.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Wind/Tidal Generator|Wind Generators]]''' are fragile and have a variable output. By default, the wind average on all maps is 1.25, so wind is discretionary. Building wind on higher altitudes raises the minimum that they produce. A tall, flat mountain can be of great economic value. The wind min/max values and altitude bonus are shown in your console at the start of the game and when you build a wind generator it will show you the altitude bonus to its generation in the tooltip.<br />
<br />
Wind is very fragile, so its best to space it out rather than build it in tight blocks - it will chain explode. Refer to the [Wind Farm Guide] to find out how to do this.<br />
<br />
Even when wind is more efficient, you might wish to also have some Solars as backup, due to the fragility and unpredictability of wind.<br />
<br />
When placed in water, wind generators become the sturdier tidal generators, with a high cost efficiency.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/geo.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Geothermal Generator|Geothermal Generators]]''' are almost always the most efficient source of energy (more so than even Fusions), but they are not very cheap and can only be placed on geothermal vents. They are volatile, exploding in a moderate explosion.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/amgeo.png<br />
<br />
Morphing a Geothermal Generator creates an'''[[Advanced Geothermal]]''' an even more efficient energy structure. These are very volatile and explode like a nuke when destroyed. Still, it is almost always worthwhile to take the risk of building them - just keep other buildings and units away from it.<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/armfus.png <br />
<br />
'''[[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]''' (Fusions) are efficient but expensive. They tend to explode in a small radius when killed, so don't put them directly right next to anything (especially not each other).<br />
<br />
http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/cafus.png<br />
<br />
'''[[Singularity Reactor|Singularity Reactors]]''' (Singularities) are even more expensive and efficient than Fusions, but are extremely volatile. When destroyed, they implode, dealing massive damage in a wide radius and pulling in any surviving units.<br />
<br />
== Buildpower == <br />
Buildpower is mostly used for spending metal and energy, but it can also be used to reclaim, which gives you metal (reclaiming for energy is usually inefficient but good in desperation) and to repair, which costs energy equal to the constructors buildpower. You can also think of moving buildpower around as a way of 'using' it that doesn't require you to spend other resources. You should always have extra buildpower around, as it regulates the rest of your economy. Metal gluts can quickly be turned into energy with buildpower, and metal stalls can be alleviated through reclaim or mex expansion with buildpower, but getting more buildpower requires a factory or a constructor, and all three resources. Remember though that you cannot spend more resources than you actually have. Don't go crazy with the Nanotowers until you have the economy to actually run them.<br />
<br />
Build power is shown in the units tooltip.<br />
* [[Conjuror|Cloakbot]], [[Convict|Shieldbot]], [[Constable|Jumpbot]], [[Quill|Hovercraft]] and [[Mason|Rover]] Constructors drain -5 (e and m).<br />
* [[Welder|Tank]], [[Mariner|Ship]], [[Wasp|Gunship]], [[Weaver|Spider]] and [[Conch|Amphbot]] Constructors drain -7.5.<br />
* [[Caretaker|Nanotowers]], [[Commander|Commanders]] (unupgraded), and Factories drain -10.<br />
* [[Crane|Airplane]] constructors drain - 4.<br />
* [[Athena|Athenas]] drain - 15.<br />
<br />
This means you can very easily look at your income and expenditure numbers and know just how many constructors or nanotowers you need to bring your economy back into equilibrium.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
Another way to explain it is that buildpower is the amount of metal and energy your builders allow you to spend per second. For example, a Caretaker spends at 10 m/s meaning its buildpower is 10.<br />
<br />
Since all builders have limited range, it is possible to talk about local buildpower as part of logistics. For example, if you have 10 Caretakers at home but only a few mobile builders, it may be more practical to make a few Fusions or even a Singularity rather than walk a long distance with builders you still have to make. <br />
<br />
This is also why at least in small density games such as 1v1, a builder is worth more the further from base it is (unless it's so far that it's in enemy territory and dead).<br />
<br />
== Priority ==<br />
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_low.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_med.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/master/LuaUI/Images/commands/states/wrench_high.png<br />
<br />
All constructors and partially built structures have a button called '''Priority''' that can be set to low, medium or high. Constructors that are currently building a non-normal priority structure inherit its priority. Constructors set to high priority will receive resources before those with normal priority and those with normal receive before those with low. Assuming you are stalling metal (as you should be, explained above), high priority build projects will build faster than normal priority projects, and so on. This feature will save you the time of pausing all less important construction when you need to build something more quickly than others.<br />
<br />
Below is a table detailing priority inheritance. The builder and structure priority result in the builder receiving resources with the priority shown in the main body of the table.<br />
<br />
{|<br />
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | !! colspan="4" | Builder<br />
|-<br />
| '''High''' || '''Normal''' || '''Low'''<br />
|-<br />
! rowspan="3" | Struct <br />
| '''High''' || High || High || High<br />
|-<br />
| '''Normal''' || High ||Normal ||Low<br />
|-<br />
| '''Low''' ||Low || Low || Low<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Strategy_Treatise&diff=5665Strategy Treatise2019-09-06T15:52:53Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Bits and bobs, and a combined arms part</p>
<hr />
<div>== General Tips ==<br />
* '''Greed is good.'''<br/>Always try to get more metal than you currently have (preferably by claiming mexes), and always try to spend your metal as fast as you can. This cannot be overstated: ''maximize your metal throughput.'' Make more units, claim more ground, reclaim and mex more, repeat.<br />
* '''Team games are not a few 1v1s strung together.'''<br/>You have teammates who can help you in your engagements, and whom you can help in theirs. This means you ''don't'' have to attack the guy directly in front of you; it's often more productive to attack the one in front of the ally ''next to you''. This increases your strength as per the Square Law, and can allow for combined arms tactics involving multiple unit types even if either you or your ally have been making only one or two unit types yourselves.<br />
*'''Energy is a good resource'''<br/>Energy should be a very defended building, as they do countless tasks, from overdriving to powering defenses. You should be building energy steadily as the game progresses, and linking the energy to as many mexes as safe as you can.<br />
*'''Have some more buildpower'''<br/>Use caretakers for your factory needs, so other mobile constructors can make other things, and as the caretaker has a high nanopower, it is very good for factories on repeat. This allows you to have spare constructors, so you should make them reclaim,expand,repair, make defenses,create more powerplants, or, simply help the constructor make units.<br />
*'''Scout the enemy'''<br/>Unlike other RTS games, scouting here is very important, as it stops you wasting units and allows you to prepare for a fight, or kill a small enemy group before they are ready. Using advanced radar or simple radar is a way of scouting,but sight via units is more accurate as it doesn't have radar wobble. Those that cloak (Infiltrator/Flea) are better as they are invisible and can close up on an enemy base and not be spotted.<br />
*'''Repair your units'''<br/>While a unit leaves 40% of its metal cost in wreckage for recycling, a unit that is still alive and can fight is infinitely better than a dead one. Repair units when they are damaged, and if the fight is too strong, retreat. There may be honor in sacrifice, but alive units do more damage in the end.<br />
<br />
== Lanchester's Square Law ==<br />
It's no secret that a big army stands a good chance of beating a smaller army. However, the larger force's advantage can be a lot bigger than you think.<br />
<br />
Suppose you have a certain amount of artillery, and your enemy has a different amount of identical artillery, and both are steadily shooting at each other and reducing each other's numbers. If everything else is equal, who's stronger? Obviously, whoever has more guns. How much stronger? Obviously, the proportion between the size of the first army and the size of the second, right? Blue has three times as many field guns as red, so blue is three times as strong.<br />
<br />
"Wrong!" said Frederick William Lanchester, a British engineer and mathematician who lived from the middle 19th century through the end of World War II.<br />
<br />
In 1916, Lanchester devised a series of differential equations to demonstrate the power relationships between opposing forces. Among these were Lanchester's Linear Law (applicable to ancient combat, where engagements on the individual level were purely one-on-one), and Lanchester's Square Law (for modern combat, where multiple individuals can attack a single target). It is the square law that concerns us here in ZK.<br />
<br />
According to the square law, the relative strength of two forces is given by the ratio of the ''squares'' of their relative numbers. Thus, while two Stumpies are four times as strong as one, four Stumpies are sixteen times as strong as one. Note that the Square Law does not apply to multiple weak units against a single strong unit: for a lone tank A to be able to compete with four opposing B-tanks, tank A needs to be qualitatively four times better (four times damage, four times HP) than an individual tank B. <br />
<br />
The Square Law is why ten Minotaurs take a lot less than 50% losses when squaring off against five Minotaurs.<br />
<br />
=== Anti-Square Laws ===<br />
So, if numbers are so important, then why doesn't sheer spam win out every time? There are several reasons for this:<br />
* '''Limitations to simultaneous engagement.''' Due to constraints such as range, there is a limit to how many units in a force can engage the enemy at a given time. While both sides are at this limit, the battle will tend to follow the Linear Law; the attrition rate will be based on the linear ratio of combatants currently engaged (unity if the same number of units on both sides can fire at any given moment). Since more expensive units have longer range and higher density, they have a higher engagement limit (ie. more of your metal goes to shooting rather than sitting around) and can thus gain the upper hand over swarmers in choked conditions.<br />
* '''AoE weapons.''' While the Square Law assumes that any individual unit may only fire upon one target at a time, many riot units in ZK have AoE weapons that allow multiple units to be damaged at once. As a result, they tend to do several times more damage to large groups of small units than to smaller, more dispersed groups, or larger units (where usually only one unit at a time takes significant damage, as opposed to several for the swarm).<br />
* '''Weightclass and attrition.''' Because a ZK unit retains full firepower until the moment of death, a group of small units can lose strength over time due to attrition while a single large unit does not. However, as the number of combatants involved increases, the weightclass advantage diminishes as both sides suffer attrition at increasingly equal rates.<br />
<br />
=== What does all this mean to me? ===<br />
Due to the squaring effect, you should take note of the following:<br />
* '''Focus fire''' - it's how the law works, after all. The more enemy units you destroy, the bigger your advantage gets.<br />
* '''Pool your forces''', including with allies. Even a few extra units can really tilt the battle in your favor. By creating local superiority during battles, you can even overcome an enemy who has more forces on the global level.<br />
* '''Formate your units.''' A good formation allows more of your boys to be shooting theirs at once; even if this advantage lasts for only a few seconds, it can significantly affect the outcome of a battle. Moreover, the less clumped your units are, the less AoE weapons can hurt them. Always try to have a line or encirclement formation when joining battle.<br />
* '''Don't have metal in your storage.''' When even one tank makes a difference, it goes without saying that you want as many units as you can possibly get.<br />
<br />
== Basic Aggression ==<br />
''Why you should be attacking''<br />
<br />
This is more a philosophy of how you should be playing, but if you want to be better at the game, one of the key principles is just to be aggressive. It's a war game, so fight! Put simply, you cannot win by defending. The only way you'll ever win by defending is boring the enemy to death. You'll have to attack eventually, so why not attack now instead of later? Sure, later you'll have more units and economy, but Zero-K's mechanics will put them even further in the lead.<br />
<br />
Attacking is thusly an economic decision. Metal is the most important resource. The only way to get metal is to expand and take Metal Extractors, or to fight the enemy and reclaim their wrecks. Thus, metal represents territory conquered - you must always be trying to gain territory from the enemy to get more metal. This means aggression.<br />
<br />
If you build a lot of energy structures to overdrive your mexes it gives you no advantage - the enemy can do the same thing, and will do so faster if he is more aggressive about taking mexes.<br />
<br />
Take the situation of a 4v4. On one team, 3 players fight, one builds economic structures. On the other, all 4 fight.<br />
<br />
Given equal skill, the 4 fighting players will win - they will take more territory, more metal spots, and when they destroy their enemies they will get to reclaim all the wrecks (both from their own dead units, and the enemy's dead). All it takes is one commander wreck and they have a huge economic lead - probably much more than the player who goes pure economy, while having wiped out all his allies.<br />
<br />
What if all players from team 1 build defences, and on team 2 they attack?<br />
<br />
Even assuming team 1 manage to take at least half the map (which, given a less offensive approach, is unlikely) an intelligent team 2 will see the amount of defenses they have, and know that this means less offensive units. Having the advantage in offensive units mean they need not fear attack from the enemy - they have more mobiles and can thus always beat him even with only token static defense. Team 2 can spend the rest on economy consolidation, much more than the players who are devoting their resources to defenses. Since Zero-K has many, many heavy weapons and units, there is no defence that can hold forever. All Team 1 are doing is delaying the inevitable. <br />
<br />
== Defending vs Attacking ==<br />
<br />
''Security against defeat implies defensive tactics; ability to defeat the enemy means taking the offensive.''<br />
— '''Sun Tzu'''<br />
<br />
Defense structures in Zero-K are generally a match for twice of their cost in mobiles, even more if they are fighting a unit type they counter (Stardust vs Glaives, for example). This, along with the simplicity of managing them (deploy and forget), makes it tempting for some players to use them a lot, or even to the exclusion of all else.<br />
<br />
It goes without saying that this is a Very Bad Ideaâ„¢ indeed.<br />
<br />
Mobile units being, well, mobile, means that they can gather in a single area (namely, where the action is happening), while statics, being rooted to one spot, must be spread evenly across the defensive perimeter. This means that attackers can easily achieve local net superiority over a static-reliant defense, resulting in a line of useless defences and a breach in the line - and that's before we discuss the effects of artillery against statics. In contrast, mobiles can respond to an attack at any point, relying on the few local statics to give them the small but crucial net advantage over the enemy.<br />
<br />
Therefore, a better player will concentrate defense only at key points and sprinkle it over the rest of their perimeter, relying primarily on mobiles for defense. But is there an even more effective way?<br />
<br />
''Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.''<br />
— '''Sun Tzu'''<br />
<br />
Yes, the best way to resolve the problem of static vs mobile defense is to leave the question to your opponent. By attacking, you force the enemy into a defensive posture, forcing them to spend more on defense while you have to spend less. With more resources for mobiles, you can contest mex spots and wrecks more effectively, resulting in an even greater resource advantage. Additionally, the psychological pressure will make your opponent more prone to making mistakes, which you can exploit effectively to create a similarly vicious cycle.<br />
<br />
Be wary of those who do expand, but slowly as they porc and build up mobile defenses, as they can not only outexpand, but they also have defensive installations, making defenses that cannot be breached easily.<br />
<br />
So, again, attack. It's the only way to win.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Combined Arms ==<br />
Relying on a single type of units is fatal, pure and simple. Every type of unit in Zero-K has a hard counter. Here's a reminder:<br />
<br />
*Raiders beat Skirmishers.<br />
*Skirmishers beat Riots. <br />
*Riots beat Raiders.<br />
*Assaults are jack-of-all-trades, masters of none.<br />
*Striders are (usually) bigger Assaults.<br />
<br />
That is Zero-K combat in a nutshell.<br />
<br />
Being in the tutorial, this is common knowledge. However, some unwise Commanders still simply rely on a single units.<br />
<br />
Instead, mix it up! Riots and Skirmishers make a good mix, and Artillery can defeat defences that would annihilate other units. Better still, have all unit types represented in your assault force, so they can defeat anything the enemy can use against them.<br />
<br />
== Manoeuvers ==<br />
=== Crossing the T / Enfilade ===<br />
Most players know that most units (skirmishers in particular) do best in a line or encirclement formation, which allows the maximum amount of forward firepower. The best way to counter this is to run up beside the line, and then down the line (parallel to it). This move, known as crossing the T or enfilade, exploits the weakness of the line formation as units on the far end of the line will often be out of range and/or obstructed by friendly units further up the line. Frontal attacks on a line should be avoided whenever possible.<br />
<br />
http://licho.eu/alba/caguide/misc_enfilade.jpg<br />
<br />
This manoeuver also works on static defenses, although open ends in the line to flank are generally less frequent and it's usually better to ignore the rest of the line and proceed straight to the base once the perimeter is breached.<br />
<br />
=== The Shield and the Rapier ===<br />
When a head-on assault on a defense line is called for, one trick to increasing your firepower is to mix some raiders with assault units. The assault units close in first to draw fire from enemy defenses, then the raiders move in for the kill with their superior DPS. In addition to increasing the odds of a successful breakthrough, this also makes a raider force immediately available to attack the enemy's logistics once the enemy's defense line has been penetrated.<br />
<br />
===The Bow and the Spear===<br />
When you have lots of skirmishers, mix them with riot bots as you attack an enemy group. The skirmishers can handle the other skirmishers and assaults, units riots have problems fighting (The former will kite and the latter can tank and destroy) while the riots kill swarms of raiders and units that are jinking the fire from your skirmishers. This stops fast units breaking through and slaying your skirmishers, or skirmishers outranging your riots and killing them with no attrition. The riots will also kill weakened units fast, so the skirmishers don't need to reload to kill the units that survived the barrage.<br />
<br />
== Aphorisms ==<br />
''Looking for a spiritual successor to the Goatly Maxims.'' - KR<br />
* Speed kills.<br />
* He who defends everything defends nothing.<br />
* When you lose sight of your strategic goal, a thousand tactical victories shall amount to nothing.<br />
* He who plays to achieve victory will accomplish it; he who plays to avoid defeat merely prolongs it.<br />
*Sun Tzu: Know the enemy and know yourself, and you shall not be defeated, not once in a thousand battles.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}<br />
[[Category:Strategy]]</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Tremor&diff=5612Tremor2019-08-24T15:04:25Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Some advice added</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a heavy saturation artillery tank from the [[Tank Foundry]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Tremor<br />
| defname = tankheavyarty<br />
| description = Heavy Saturation Artillery Tank<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/tankheavyarty.png<br />
| icontype = tanklrarty<br />
| cost = 1500<br />
| hitpoints = 2045<br />
| movespeed = 51<br />
| turnrate = 51<br />
| sight = 660<br />
| transportable = Heavy<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Rapid-Fire Plasma Artillery<br />
| type = Cannon<br />
| damage = 145<br />
| reloadtime = 0.33<br />
| dps = 435<br />
| range = 1300<br />
| aoe = 80<br />
| projectilespeed = 420<br />
| special1 = Smooths ground<br />
| special2 = High trajectory<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The principle behind the Tremor is simple: flood an area with enough shots, and you'll hit something at least once. Slow, clumsy, vulnerable and extremely frightening, the Tremor works best against high-density target areas, where its saturation shots are most likely to do damage. It pulverizes shields in seconds and its shells smooth terrain. <br />
<br />
== Tactics and Strategy ==<br />
The effectiveness of artillery units can be greatly hampered by the use of cloak (including [[Iris]] area cloakers) to hide the positions of units, and/or by the use of shields (such as [[Aspis]]) to directly block the damage. However, the Tremor is well-built to counter both of these tactics. Since the Tremor can flood large areas with damage, and since units are revealed when they take damage, hiding is all but useless against a Tremor. Moreover, since shields have large surface areas, they are likely to get hit by many of the Tremor's normally-inaccurate shells, which could easily lead to the shields quickly collapsing. If you besiege a position with a Tremor for long enough, and if the enemy is unable, or unwilling, to launch a counterattack against the Tremor, then the enemy will likely have no choice but to retreat.<br />
<br />
However, the Tremor is not a quick killer by any means (especially since its shells are so inaccurate), and they become a priority target as soon as they start firing. Before employing a Tremor, be prepared to protect it.<br />
<br />
The Tremor is, within about a minute, able to flatten small mountains, and create makeshift ramps out of tall steep cliffs. If you're facing an opponent who [[terraform]]s a lot, and/or is positioned in an area that your tanks can't reach easily (if at all), then try using a Tremor to open up an avenue for your tanks to attack.<br />
<br />
The Tremor is useful when besieging fortified areas, where target density is higher.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Phoenix&diff=5611Phoenix2019-08-24T12:51:57Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Added a tactics and strategy section</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a saturation napalm bomber from the [[Airplane Plant]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Phoenix<br />
| defname = bomberriot<br />
| description = Saturation Napalm Bomber<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/bomberriot.png<br />
| icontype = bomberraider<br />
| cost = 360<br />
| hitpoints = 720<br />
| movespeed = 240<br />
| sight = 660<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Napalm Bombs<br />
| type = AircraftBomb<br />
| damage = 25 × 15<br />
| reloadtime = 1<br />
| dps = 375<br />
| afterburn = 10<br />
| aoe = 108<br />
| inaccuracy = 128<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Phoenix's napalm bombs decimate large clumps of units and light structures.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Tactics and Strategy==<br />
The Phoenix is useful for killing and damaging large clumps of light units, setting them on fire and causing a large amount of damage.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Swift&diff=5610Swift2019-08-24T12:49:52Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Added a tactic for scouting</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a multi-role fighter from the [[Airplane Plant]].{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Swift<br />
| defname = planefighter<br />
| description = Multi-role Fighter<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/planefighter.png<br />
| icontype = fighter<br />
| cost = 150<br />
| hitpoints = 300<br />
| movespeed = 390<br />
| turnrate = 138<br />
| sight = 520<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Mini Laser Blaster<br />
| type = LaserCannon<br />
| damage = 7.1<br />
| reloadtime = 0.20<br />
| dps = 36<br />
| range = 700<br />
| projectilespeed = 2000<br />
}}<br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Guided Missiles<br />
| type = MissileLauncher<br />
| damage = 135<br />
| reloadtime = 5.2<br />
| dps = 26<br />
| range = 530<br />
| aoe = 24<br />
| homing = 220<br />
| antiair = Yes<br />
| projectilespeed = 750<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Swift can hit both land and air. It is effective against air units with its guided missiles and lasers, but enemy AA and air superiority fighters will kill it quickly. <br />
<br />
In numbers, it can harass land units and is suitable for raiding. <br />
<br />
Swifts are equipped with afterburner jets which are activated by pressing '''D''' on the keyboard. These give the Swift a massive speed boost, allowing them to execute incredible combat and evasive maneuvers.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Tactics and Strategy==<br />
The Swift is useful for scouting enemy bases using its speed boost. It can fly over an enemy base and find out what buildings are there, with its speed boost allowing it to outrun missiles and other anti-air weaponry.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox units}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Picket&diff=5609Picket2019-08-24T12:44:12Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Corrections</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a light missile tower.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Picket<br />
| defname = turretmissile<br />
| description = Light Missile Tower<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/turretmissile.png<br />
| icontype = defenseskirm<br />
| cost = 100<br />
| hitpoints = 300<br />
| sight = 660<br />
| weapons = <br />
{{ Infobox zkweapon<br />
| name = Homing Missiles<br />
| type = MissileLauncher<br />
| damage = 104 × 3<br />
| reloadtime = 12.5<br />
| dps = 25<br />
| range = 610<br />
| homing = 330<br />
| projectilespeed = 750<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Picket is a light multi-purpose missile tower. It is good for sniping units from a distance, providing some degree of anti-air protection, and skirmishing enemy LLTs from outside their range. However, it breaks when you sneeze on it.<br />
==Usage==<br />
Most players use this building for early-game area control and to fight off low numbers of skirmishers in the early stages of the game. You might build a few near your front lines as it has a large range and vision. This turret has very front-loaded damage (but low dps), which may make your opponent think twice before committing to entering that area.<br />
{{Navbox buildings}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_game_progression&diff=5607Typical game progression2019-08-23T16:44:52Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Corrected a red link</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a guide explaining how a typical game progresses, after a [[typical opening]].<br />
The game can be thought of as being organically split up into a few phases, each with a characteristic set of units and goals. <br />
*Note that these are general scenarios - depending on the map and factory match-up the game can play very differently!<br />
*From a 1v1 perspective<br />
*(wip)<br />
==Raider phase==<br />
The raider phase is the first phase in a typical game. It is defined by a few characteristics:<br />
*Most of the map is unoccupied by either player.<br />
*No defenses covering most areas.<br />
Due to this, the mobility that raiders have tends to make them the dominant unit class. When the map is fortified with light defenses, raiders are much less useful and it will be time to switch to something else. <br />
===Expansion===<br />
You will want to expand as fast as possible here, and try to grab at least half of the map. Try to have two groups of constructors moving around the map taking mexes. Near each mex cluster you can put some light defences, but do not overbuild defences early game, and in non-critical locations (i.e. not a choke point or the centre of the map). Run around the map with your raiders, keeping track of where your opponents raiders are as well.<br />
<br />
You should be able to defend your expansion from enemy raiders with some light defences and some of your own raiders. Since raiding properly is considerably more difficult than expanding, you should be encouraged to expand as fast as possible.<br />
*Try to expand much faster and in a more risky manner than you think is possible for a few games. You might be surprised at how much greed you get away with! It is much harder to punish greed than it is to be greedy. Doing this will also help you learn the safe maximum limits for expansion.<br />
If you succeed in this phase of the game, you will have a massive economic advantage and will be able to build more units.<br />
====Energy production====<br />
A very common mistake players make is that they don't build enough energy structures. This leads to a situation in which your metal income exceeds your energy income and you are unable to spend all your metal (called "e-stalling"). Having 1 constructor dedicated to only building energy structures can solve this issue.<br />
<br />
===Raider Usage===<br />
You want to have good radar coverage of your side of the map and keep your raiders as close to the enemy as possible. This puts pressure on them, and also forces them to keep their raiders near their base, away from your expansion. Against good players you will not be able to do much damage with raiders, but that does not mean you have accomplished nothing by keeping your raiders near them.<br />
*Because of the threat of your raiders, they are not able to "naked expand" (expanding with minimal defence). If you allow your opponent to naked expand, they will have a massive economic advantage.<br />
*Your opponent is forced to keep their own raiders near their own base to defend from yours. It can also force them to build more defences, slowing down their expansion and reducing the amount of pressure they can put on your own expansion.<br />
*Your raiders are also scouting. By running around at the edges of your opponent's territory you will be able to see what they are up to. If they are trying to [[Cheese|rush a heavy unit or do something silly]] you will often just be able to overrun them and win.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself on being the one that has raiders at their front door, things are a little more challenging, but don't panic.<br />
*Try to expand where your enemies raiders are not (with that other group of builders on the other side of the map that you have...right?).<br />
*You can slowly creep forward with LLTs and the protection of your own raiders.<br />
<br />
Note that you do not need to kill anything to have a successful raider phase. Your primary goals are to expand and grab territory while slowing your opponents expansion to a reasonable pace, and also have the energy to use all the metal you took control of. Your raiders will be useful later, so try to keep them alive. There is a "reasonable maximum speed" at which players can safely expand, and as long as you make sure your opponent doesn't exceed this and you are close to it, you will probably enter the later stages of the game on equal footing. Few games are won in the raider phase, but the tone of the rest of the game is set by it.<br />
<br />
<br />
==== Fortified areas====<br />
You may see a location that is lightly defended with towers, and you will correctly assume that you can run into it with your raiders and kill everything. However, this is a risky (and often unnecessary) thing to do.<br />
*There might be some defences you don't see, like nearby units lying in wait.<br />
*Killing towers with raiders is not cost efficient, so the payoff might not be that good.<br />
**This could lead to your opponent taking a temporary raider number advantage, which could put you on the defensive and actually put you behind from where you were before, as you are no longer able to exert as much map pressure.<br />
*Committing your raiders to an attack like this open you up for the possibility of a counter-attack, and since your raiders are somewhere else, you might not be able to defend well.<br />
<br />
====Finding a lone commander====<br />
Sometimes your opponent may be too greedy and have their commander out alone. Likely it is low level, and a moderate amount of raiders is enough to kill it. A fallen commander is a crippling blow to the victim's economy. Some raiders are better than others at this job.<br />
*Spread your units out right before it dies, as they have a death explosion which could wipe out your raiders if they are really close to the commander.<br />
<br />
===Why not other unit classes?===<br />
====Riots====<br />
It may seem intuitive to make riot units in this phase of the game. "They're good against raiders, aren't they?" you may say (correctly). However, there are multiple downsides to using them.<br />
*They are very slow. This makes them unusable for attacks, as your opponent will see them coming and be able to easily respond. They also cannot respond to attacks.<br />
*Early game, lone riot units can be overwhelmed by raiders.<br />
**For this, a concave line formation is highly effective, to minimise AoE damage from the riot unit.<br />
*Light defences are effective against riots, as riots are DPS, not HP focused. Light defences will take a significant portion of the riot's HP away before the riot is close enough to fire. What usually happens is that the riot kills one or two defensive towers and then dies, which is cost-inefficient.<br />
*Riots can be outmanoeuvred and ignored. Because of this, players tend to spread out their riots to try to cover every location so you can't run past them, which also makes them easier to destroy piecemeal as above. <br />
<br />
Because of the above reasons, they do not pose much of a threat, except in circumstances such as a [[Cheese|riot rush]], but you should've scouted that.<br />
<br />
The correct way to deal with an opponent making riots is to just expand faster than they do - they won't be able to punish this. When you inevitably get a superior economy, you can just overwhelm them.<br />
<br />
====Any other class====<br />
Skirmishers, artillery, assaults - all of these do very badly against raiders, so are not worth building at this point.<br />
===Importance of radar===<br />
Radar coverage is very important to get in this phase. If you do not have it, you have to play defensively in case your opponents tries to raid some of your expansions. The alternative is building lots of defences everywhere, but this is a losing strategy, as it leaves you unable to punish your opponent for expanding. If they expand they will just overrun you with units.<br />
<br />
By building radar you can reduce the amount you spend on defence, and can use it on offensive units instead. In the worst case scenario, you prevent greedy expansion from your opponent. In the best case, you just win because they were too greedy and have no units.<br />
<br />
===Dealing with defensive players===<br />
A strategy that many have trouble dealing with is when your opponent just builds lots of defences at every expansion site. The best way to deal with this is to just ignore them and focus on expanding yourself. If they want to sit in the corner building defences, that is fine for you. This is essentially saying that they want you to come to them. Eventually you will.<br />
<br />
Since they have spent so much metal on building defences, they won't be able to prevent you from expanding, and they can't expand themselves. Take the whole map and build your economy. Only then will you come to their base and crush them with artillery, heavy units... probably a strider or two.<br />
<br />
Remember Sun Tzu - "A general who attempts to bolster his defences everywhere will quickly find he has no defences anywhere." No one can build a line the enemy cannot pass.<br />
<br />
===End of raider phase===<br />
Eventually, the map will become covered with a line of defences from both players, partitioning the map roughly in half. This limits the mobility advantage that raider have, and it becomes time to switch to something else. Some areas might be lightly defended, and if you know the enemy's raiders are not close, you can punish this. However, by this point people often have full radar coverage and they will be prepared.<br />
<br />
==Midgame phase==<br />
In this phase, strategic diversity opens up significantly. Players typically transition out of raiders into some of the following:<br />
===Skirmishers===<br />
A common strategic switch people make is a shift to building skirmishers rather than raiders. These units are capable of killing light defences fairly well, so you can start pushing back your opponent and try to grab more territory. Use your raiders (which are hopefully still alive) to protect your skirmishers from harm. It is also common to see a few riots dedicated to protecting your skirmishers.<br />
<br />
===Assaults===<br />
For some factories, it is possible to switch to assault units. These units will be able to punch through light defenses (unlike raiders) and do some economic damage to your opponent. <br />
Some examples:<br />
*Thuglaw - Outlaws and Thugs - this combination from the shieldbot factory is a very potent assault force. It is good against raiders and light defences, giving it the potential to do lots of damage to an unprepared opponent.<br />
*Ravagers - Fast assault rovers that can be used for raiding. They are able to eat through light defences, and due to their speed it is harder to position raiders to defend against them.<br />
<br />
===Air units===<br />
One area people often neglect is the sky above them. Air units are typically quite a bit faster than ground units, and bypass difficult terrain. There are many advantages to air units, with each type of air force having their own.<br />
<br />
There are two air factories, which play very differently from each other.<br />
<br />
<br />
====[[Airplane Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Airplanes are fast and focus on alpha-striking the enemy. The [[Swift]] and [[Raptor]] are interceptors, able to defeat other air units. The four bombers, the [[Raven]] (precision dive bomber), the [[Phoenix]] (napalm bomber), the [[Thunderbird]] (disarming lightning bomber), and the [[Likho]] (high-damage AoE bomber) are in-and-out units, striking fast and hard.<br />
<br />
The [[Owl]] and [[Sparrow]] are spy planes, able to scout the enemy quickly. The former can patch up any radar coverage holes, and the latter is an early scout which can be morphed from a [[Radar Tower]]. The Swift can double as a base scout, using its speed boost to quickly pass over an enemy base.<br />
<br />
====[[Gunship Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Gunship units are a slower than their air counterparts, and they also are DPS focused, instead of alpha focused like planes. They are mostly close air support, with the [[Nimbus]] being typical - delivering fire support from a distance.<br />
<br />
The [[Charon]] and [[Hercules]] are notable as they are not gunships at all, with the former not even being armed. Rather, they are transports, boosting your units' mobility and taking them over any terrain. With an [[Iris]], they can also be used for stealth infiltration.<br />
<br />
====Playing against air====<br />
<br />
First things first - radar coverage. [[Radar Tower|radar Towers]], [[Advanced Radar]], all that good stuff. Can't fight what you can't see.<br />
<br />
Get some dedicated anti-air units and buildings. Each factory has a dedicated anti-air unit - the Airplane Plant has two. There are also five anti-air buildings, which are also highly effective.<br />
<br />
===Fortification===<br />
In the midgame, players will sometimes fortify certain locations on the map with heavier defences such as [[Stinger|Stingers]] or [[Stardust|Stardusts]]. This happens at central locations of the map as it gives you a sort of staging point that you can keep your units at safely. Heavier defences generally require a response from artillery or heavy units, so by building some, you can buy yourself some time as your opponent is figuring out a way to deal with the heavy defences.<br />
<br />
Stingers are especially tricky at this part of the game, as they are the first type of tower that can fight skirmishers well. If you find yourself losing ground to skirmishers or expect them soon, it may be a good idea to put up a Stinger. Stingers do not do that well against lots of light units, so make sure to keep building lots of LLTs (or even add a Stardust).<br />
<br />
==Lategame==<br />
Both players with have built up sizeable armies of skirmishers/riots/assaults and will probably have some air presence. The map will be more fortified, and it will be difficult to make progress with light units.<br />
<br />
===Eco===<br />
If things have stabilised in the midgame, it may be time to build your economy. <br />
*Build on all the available [[Geothermal Generator]] spots. If you feel that some are very safely located, upgrade them. <br />
**[[Advanced Geothermal|Advanced Geothermals]] will often pay for themselves within just 3-4 minutes. As a bonus, they explode violently on death. If the area is clear of allies, they can make for a nasty surprise to nearby enemies. When followed by a quick reclaim and rebuild, this will give an additional boost to your economy at the cost of your opponent's.<br />
*Connect your mexes into the Overdrive grid. The more mexes you connect, the more efficiently energy will be distributed, and you will end up with more metal. Overdrive is very efficient at low levels of energy, but suffers diminishing returns. <br />
*Build [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]. Make sure to scout before starting, as it can stop your unit production for a minute or so. If for example you scout your opponent switching to air or preparing a massive raid, it may be better to make sure you can counter their strategy before building it, as otherwise your efforts may be in vain.<br />
<br />
As with expansion, it is much harder to punish greedy economy building than it is to do it yourself. Try to be a greedy as possible and learn what the safe limits are.<br />
<br />
===Heavies===<br />
At this stage in the game you will start to see heavies coming out. "Heavies" are units that are generally 1500+ cost. Most of them massacre the lighter skirmisher/assault/riot balls that are predominant in the midgame, and they also can stand up the to defences built in the midgame such as Stingers and Stardusts. These heavies are usually in the form of [[Tank Foundry|Tanks]].<br />
<br />
===Bot specialist units===<br />
The bot factories do not really have "heavies", but they do have more expensive upper tier units that can be used to fight heavies of other factories. <br />
*[[Cloakbot Factory|Cloakbot Factories]] will start to build [[Phantom|snipers]] and [[Iris|area-cloakers]].<br />
*[[Shieldbot Factory|Shieldbot Factories]] can build [[Aspis|mobile shield generators]].<br />
<br />
===Light striders===<br />
Someone putting down a [[Strider Hub]] and making either a scorpion or dante is quite common.<br />
*[[Dante]] is very good against skirmisher balls as its incendiary missile ability (the "D-gun") is highly damaging and deals AoE napalm damage. It is also one of the faster striders so it can get into action quickly. Due to all its AoE damage, it massacres riots and raiders as well. It fights assaults decently, but it actually loses to most of them by cost. You need to retreat and repair it to get full value out of it.<br />
**Be careful with your own units around the Dante. Dantes can deal friendly fire, and burning your own army is not a good thing.<br />
*[[Scorpion|Scorpions]] are invisible and have their EMP ability. This can be used to sneak up on valuable targets like Commanders or a bunched up set of units, stun them, and then kill them. Scorpions are a support/assassination unit, as their DPS is much lower than a Dante, and also get kited by skirmishers easily.<br />
**Scorpions beat Dantes quite easily, especially if the Scorpion can stunlock the Dante.<br />
<br />
==Late-Lategame==<br />
In this phase you will see heavy striders and some of the more exotic tools available to the player.<br />
*[[Big Bertha]], the biggest conventional artillery gun in the game.<br />
*[[Trinity]], a strategic nuke silo.<br />
*Ultra-heavy defences:<br />
**[[Desolator]], a small fortress in the form of one building. Often put on a terraformed tower.<br />
**[[Lucifer]], a sniper tower. Effective against large units.<br />
**[[Cerberus]], a triple-barrelled mid-rage artillery emplacement. Used as counter-artillery or as area-denial.<br />
*[[Paladin]]/[[Detriment]], the two biggest striders in the game.<br />
*[[Starlight]], a constant satellite beam of death.<br />
*[[Zenith]], a superweapon which controls meteorites to throw at the enemy.<br />
*[[Disco Rave Party]], an artillery weapon which fire six different shots at the enemy in sequence, with different effects.<br />
*[[Singularity Reactor]], the biggest energy generator available.<br />
<br />
Most games do not actually get this far, but the objectives remain the same, even if the whole battlefield is a smoking crater.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
Note that this is a general overview. Sometimes people may rush with heavies in the midgame, or try building their economy during the raider phase. Zero-k is a very flexible game, and there is no set meta-game like in [https://starcraft2.com Starcraft 2]. Lots of game play is map-dependent or match-up dependent.<br />
<br />
But as always, remember that this is a game, so have fun and get out there!<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_game_progression&diff=5606Typical game progression2019-08-23T16:41:56Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Corrected a few mistakes. Hey, that last one took an hour, give me a break.</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a guide explaining how a typical game progresses, after a [[typical opening]].<br />
The game can be thought of as being organically split up into a few phases, each with a characteristic set of units and goals. <br />
*Note that these are general scenarios - depending on the map and factory match-up the game can play very differently!<br />
*From a 1v1 perspective<br />
*(wip)<br />
==Raider phase==<br />
The raider phase is the first phase in a typical game. It is defined by a few characteristics:<br />
*Most of the map is unoccupied by either player.<br />
*No defenses covering most areas.<br />
Due to this, the mobility that raiders have tends to make them the dominant unit class. When the map is fortified with light defenses, raiders are much less useful and it will be time to switch to something else. <br />
===Expansion===<br />
You will want to expand as fast as possible here, and try to grab at least half of the map. Try to have two groups of constructors moving around the map taking mexes. Near each mex cluster you can put some light defences, but do not overbuild defences early game, and in non-critical locations (i.e. not a choke point or the centre of the map). Run around the map with your raiders, keeping track of where your opponents raiders are as well.<br />
<br />
You should be able to defend your expansion from enemy raiders with some light defences and some of your own raiders. Since raiding properly is considerably more difficult than expanding, you should be encouraged to expand as fast as possible.<br />
*Try to expand much faster and in a more risky manner than you think is possible for a few games. You might be surprised at how much greed you get away with! It is much harder to punish greed than it is to be greedy. Doing this will also help you learn the safe maximum limits for expansion.<br />
If you succeed in this phase of the game, you will have a massive economic advantage and will be able to build more units.<br />
====Energy production====<br />
A very common mistake players make is that they don't build enough energy structures. This leads to a situation in which your metal income exceeds your energy income and you are unable to spend all your metal (called "e-stalling"). Having 1 constructor dedicated to only building energy structures can solve this issue.<br />
<br />
===Raider Usage===<br />
You want to have good radar coverage of your side of the map and keep your raiders as close to the enemy as possible. This puts pressure on them, and also forces them to keep their raiders near their base, away from your expansion. Against good players you will not be able to do much damage with raiders, but that does not mean you have accomplished nothing by keeping your raiders near them.<br />
*Because of the threat of your raiders, they are not able to "naked expand" (expanding with minimal defence). If you allow your opponent to naked expand, they will have a massive economic advantage.<br />
*Your opponent is forced to keep their own raiders near their own base to defend from yours. It can also force them to build more defences, slowing down their expansion and reducing the amount of pressure they can put on your own expansion.<br />
*Your raiders are also scouting. By running around at the edges of your opponent's territory you will be able to see what they are up to. If they are trying to [[Cheese|rush a heavy unit or do something silly]] you will often just be able to overrun them and win.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself on being the one that has raiders at their front door, things are a little more challenging, but don't panic.<br />
*Try to expand where your enemies raiders are not (with that other group of builders on the other side of the map that you have...right?).<br />
*You can slowly creep forward with LLTs and the protection of your own raiders.<br />
<br />
Note that you do not need to kill anything to have a successful raider phase. Your primary goals are to expand and grab territory while slowing your opponents expansion to a reasonable pace, and also have the energy to use all the metal you took control of. Your raiders will be useful later, so try to keep them alive. There is a "reasonable maximum speed" at which players can safely expand, and as long as you make sure your opponent doesn't exceed this and you are close to it, you will probably enter the later stages of the game on equal footing. Few games are won in the raider phase, but the tone of the rest of the game is set by it.<br />
<br />
<br />
==== Fortified areas====<br />
You may see a location that is lightly defended with towers, and you will correctly assume that you can run into it with your raiders and kill everything. However, this is a risky (and often unnecessary) thing to do.<br />
*There might be some defences you don't see, like nearby units lying in wait.<br />
*Killing towers with raiders is not cost efficient, so the payoff might not be that good.<br />
**This could lead to your opponent taking a temporary raider number advantage, which could put you on the defensive and actually put you behind from where you were before, as you are no longer able to exert as much map pressure.<br />
*Committing your raiders to an attack like this open you up for the possibility of a counter-attack, and since your raiders are somewhere else, you might not be able to defend well.<br />
<br />
====Finding a lone commander====<br />
Sometimes your opponent may be too greedy and have their commander out alone. Likely it is low level, and a moderate amount of raiders is enough to kill it. A fallen commander is a crippling blow to the victim's economy. Some raiders are better than others at this job.<br />
*Spread your units out right before it dies, as they have a death explosion which could wipe out your raiders if they are really close to the commander.<br />
<br />
===Why not other unit classes?===<br />
====Riots====<br />
It may seem intuitive to make riot units in this phase of the game. "They're good against raiders, aren't they?" you may say (correctly). However, there are multiple downsides to using them.<br />
*They are very slow. This makes them unusable for attacks, as your opponent will see them coming and be able to easily respond. They also cannot respond to attacks.<br />
*Early game, lone riot units can be overwhelmed by raiders.<br />
**For this, a concave line formation is highly effective, to minimise AoE damage from the riot unit.<br />
*Light defences are effective against riots, as riots are DPS, not HP focused. Light defences will take a significant portion of the riot's HP away before the riot is close enough to fire. What usually happens is that the riot kills one or two defensive towers and then dies, which is cost-inefficient.<br />
*Riots can be outmanoeuvred and ignored. Because of this, players tend to spread out their riots to try to cover every location so you can't run past them, which also makes them easier to destroy piecemeal as above. <br />
<br />
Because of the above reasons, they do not pose much of a threat, except in circumstances such as a [[Cheese|riot rush]], but you should've scouted that.<br />
<br />
The correct way to deal with an opponent making riots is to just expand faster than they do - they won't be able to punish this. When you inevitably get a superior economy, you can just overwhelm them.<br />
<br />
====Any other class====<br />
Skirmishers, artillery, assaults - all of these do very badly against raiders, so are not worth building at this point.<br />
===Importance of radar===<br />
Radar coverage is very important to get in this phase. If you do not have it, you have to play defensively in case your opponents tries to raid some of your expansions. The alternative is building lots of defences everywhere, but this is a losing strategy, as it leaves you unable to punish your opponent for expanding. If they expand they will just overrun you with units.<br />
<br />
By building radar you can reduce the amount you spend on defence, and can use it on offensive units instead. In the worst case scenario, you prevent greedy expansion from your opponent. In the best case, you just win because they were too greedy and have no units.<br />
<br />
===Dealing with defensive players===<br />
A strategy that many have trouble dealing with is when your opponent just builds lots of defences at every expansion site. The best way to deal with this is to just ignore them and focus on expanding yourself. If they want to sit in the corner building defences, that is fine for you. This is essentially saying that they want you to come to them. Eventually you will.<br />
<br />
Since they have spent so much metal on building defences, they won't be able to prevent you from expanding, and they can't expand themselves. Take the whole map and build your economy. Only then will you come to their base and crush them with artillery, heavy units... probably a strider or two.<br />
<br />
Remember Sun Tzu - "A general who attempts to bolster his defences everywhere will quickly find he has no defences anywhere." No one can build a line the enemy cannot pass.<br />
<br />
===End of raider phase===<br />
Eventually, the map will become covered with a line of defences from both players, partitioning the map roughly in half. This limits the mobility advantage that raider have, and it becomes time to switch to something else. Some areas might be lightly defended, and if you know the enemy's raiders are not close, you can punish this. However, by this point people often have full radar coverage and they will be prepared.<br />
<br />
==Midgame phase==<br />
In this phase, strategic diversity opens up significantly. Players typically transition out of raiders into some of the following:<br />
===Skirmishers===<br />
A common strategic switch people make is a shift to building skirmishers rather than raiders. These units are capable of killing light defences fairly well, so you can start pushing back your opponent and try to grab more territory. Use your raiders (which are hopefully still alive) to protect your skirmishers from harm. It is also common to see a few riots dedicated to protecting your skirmishers.<br />
<br />
===Assaults===<br />
For some factories, it is possible to switch to assault units. These units will be able to punch through light defenses (unlike raiders) and do some economic damage to your opponent. <br />
Some examples:<br />
*Thuglaw - Outlaws and Thugs - this combination from the shieldbot factory is a very potent assault force. It is good against raiders and light defences, giving it the potential to do lots of damage to an unprepared opponent.<br />
*Ravagers - Fast assault rovers that can be used for raiding. They are able to eat through light defences, and due to their speed it is harder to position raiders to defend against them.<br />
<br />
===Air units===<br />
One area people often neglect is the sky above them. Air units are typically quite a bit faster than ground units, and bypass difficult terrain. There are many advantages to air units, with each type of air force having their own.<br />
<br />
There are two air factories, which play very differently from each other.<br />
<br />
<br />
====[[Airplane Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Airplanes are fast and focus on alpha-striking the enemy. The [[Swift]] and [[Raptor]] are interceptors, able to defeat other air units. The four bombers, the [[Raven]] (precision dive bomber), the [[Phoenix]] (napalm bomber), the [[Thunderbird]] (disarming lightning bomber), and the [[Likho]] (high-damage AoE bomber) are in-and-out units, striking fast and hard.<br />
<br />
The [[Owl]] and [[Sparrow]] are spy planes, able to scout the enemy quickly. The former can patch up any radar coverage holes, and the latter is an early scout which can be morphed from a [[Radar Tower]]. The Swift can double as a base scout, using its speed boost to quickly pass over an enemy base.<br />
<br />
====[[Gunship Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Gunship units are a slower than their air counterparts, and they also are DPS focused, instead of alpha focused like planes. They are mostly close air support, with the [[Nimbus]] being typical - delivering fire support from a distance.<br />
<br />
The [[Charon]] and [[Hercules]] are notable as they are not gunships at all, with the former not even being armed. Rather, they are transports, boosting your units' mobility and taking them over any terrain. With an [[Iris]], they can also be used for stealth infiltration.<br />
<br />
====Playing against air====<br />
<br />
First things first - radar coverage. [[Radar Towers]], [[Advanced Radar]], all that good stuff. Can't fight what you can't see.<br />
<br />
Get some dedicated anti-air units and buildings. Each factory has a dedicated anti-air unit - the Airplane Plant has two. There are also five anti-air buildings, which are also highly effective.<br />
<br />
===Fortification===<br />
In the midgame, players will sometimes fortify certain locations on the map with heavier defences such as [[Stinger|Stingers]] or [[Stardust|Stardusts]]. This happens at central locations of the map as it gives you a sort of staging point that you can keep your units at safely. Heavier defences generally require a response from artillery or heavy units, so by building some, you can buy yourself some time as your opponent is figuring out a way to deal with the heavy defences.<br />
<br />
Stingers are especially tricky at this part of the game, as they are the first type of tower that can fight skirmishers well. If you find yourself losing ground to skirmishers or expect them soon, it may be a good idea to put up a Stinger. Stingers do not do that well against lots of light units, so make sure to keep building lots of LLTs (or even add a Stardust).<br />
<br />
==Lategame==<br />
Both players with have built up sizeable armies of skirmishers/riots/assaults and will probably have some air presence. The map will be more fortified, and it will be difficult to make progress with light units.<br />
<br />
===Eco===<br />
If things have stabilised in the midgame, it may be time to build your economy. <br />
*Build on all the available [[Geothermal Generator]] spots. If you feel that some are very safely located, upgrade them. <br />
**[[Advanced Geothermal|Advanced Geothermals]] will often pay for themselves within just 3-4 minutes. As a bonus, they explode violently on death. If the area is clear of allies, they can make for a nasty surprise to nearby enemies. When followed by a quick reclaim and rebuild, this will give an additional boost to your economy at the cost of your opponent's.<br />
*Connect your mexes into the Overdrive grid. The more mexes you connect, the more efficiently energy will be distributed, and you will end up with more metal. Overdrive is very efficient at low levels of energy, but suffers diminishing returns. <br />
*Build [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]. Make sure to scout before starting, as it can stop your unit production for a minute or so. If for example you scout your opponent switching to air or preparing a massive raid, it may be better to make sure you can counter their strategy before building it, as otherwise your efforts may be in vain.<br />
<br />
As with expansion, it is much harder to punish greedy economy building than it is to do it yourself. Try to be a greedy as possible and learn what the safe limits are.<br />
<br />
===Heavies===<br />
At this stage in the game you will start to see heavies coming out. "Heavies" are units that are generally 1500+ cost. Most of them massacre the lighter skirmisher/assault/riot balls that are predominant in the midgame, and they also can stand up the to defences built in the midgame such as Stingers and Stardusts. These heavies are usually in the form of [[Tank Foundry|Tanks]].<br />
<br />
===Bot specialist units===<br />
The bot factories do not really have "heavies", but they do have more expensive upper tier units that can be used to fight heavies of other factories. <br />
*[[Cloakbot Factory|Cloakbot Factories]] will start to build [[Phantom|snipers]] and [[Iris|area-cloakers]].<br />
*[[Shieldbot Factory|Shieldbot Factories]] can build [[Aspis|mobile shield generators]].<br />
<br />
===Light striders===<br />
Someone putting down a [[Strider Hub]] and making either a scorpion or dante is quite common.<br />
*[[Dante]] is very good against skirmisher balls as its incendiary missile ability (the "D-gun") is highly damaging and deals AoE napalm damage. It is also one of the faster striders so it can get into action quickly. Due to all its AoE damage, it massacres riots and raiders as well. It fights assaults decently, but it actually loses to most of them by cost. You need to retreat and repair it to get full value out of it.<br />
**Be careful with your own units around the Dante. Dantes can deal friendly fire, and burning your own army is not a good thing.<br />
*[[Scorpion|Scorpions]] are invisible and have their EMP ability. This can be used to sneak up on valuable targets like Commanders or a bunched up set of units, stun them, and then kill them. Scorpions are a support/assassination unit, as their DPS is much lower than a Dante, and also get kited by skirmishers easily.<br />
**Scorpions beat Dantes quite easily, especially if the Scorpion can stunlock the Dante.<br />
<br />
==Late-Lategame==<br />
In this phase you will see heavy striders and some of the more exotic tools available to the player.<br />
*[[Big Bertha]], the biggest conventional artillery gun in the game.<br />
*[[Trinity]], a strategic nuke silo.<br />
*Ultra-heavy defences:<br />
**[[Desolator]], a small fortress in the form of one building. Often put on a terraformed tower.<br />
**[[Lucifer]], a sniper tower. Effective against large units.<br />
**[[Cerberus]], a triple-barrelled mid-rage artillery emplacement. Used as counter-artillery or as area-denial.<br />
*[[Paladin]]/[[Detriment]], the two biggest striders in the game.<br />
*[[Starlight]], a constant satellite beam of death.<br />
*[[Zenith]], a superweapon which controls meteorites to throw at the enemy.<br />
*[[Disco Rave Party]], an artillery weapon which fire six different shots at the enemy in sequence, with different effects.<br />
*[[Singularity Reactor]], the biggest energy generator available.<br />
<br />
Most games do not actually get this far, but the objectives remain the same, even if the whole battlefield is a smoking crater.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
Note that this is a general overview. Sometimes people may rush with heavies in the midgame, or try building their economy during the raider phase. Zero-k is a very flexible game, and there is no set meta-game like in [https://starcraft2.com Starcraft 2]. Lots of game play is map-dependent or match-up dependent.<br />
<br />
But as always, remember that this is a game, so have fun and get out there!<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Typical_game_progression&diff=5605Typical game progression2019-08-23T16:40:52Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Very big addition, see for yourself</p>
<hr />
<div>This is a guide explaining how a typical game progresses, after a [[typical opening]].<br />
The game can be thought of as being organically split up into a few phases, each with a characteristic set of units and goals. <br />
*Note that these are general scenarios - depending on the map and factory match-up the game can play very differently!<br />
*From a 1v1 perspective<br />
*(wip)<br />
==Raider phase==<br />
The raider phase is the first phase in a typical game. It is defined by a few characteristics:<br />
*Most of the map is unoccupied by either player.<br />
*No defenses covering most areas.<br />
Due to this, the mobility that raiders have tends to make them the dominant unit class. When the map is fortified with light defenses, raiders are much less useful and it will be time to switch to something else. <br />
===Expansion===<br />
You will want to expand as fast as possible here, and try to grab at least half of the map. Try to have two groups of constructors moving around the map taking mexes. Near each mex cluster you can put some light defences, but do not overbuild defences early game, and in non-critical locations (i.e. not a choke point or the centre of the map). Run around the map with your raiders, keeping track of where your opponents raiders are as well.<br />
<br />
You should be able to defend your expansion from enemy raiders with some light defences and some of your own raiders. Since raiding properly is considerably more difficult than expanding, you should be encouraged to expand as fast as possible.<br />
*Try to expand much faster and in a more risky manner than you think is possible for a few games. You might be surprised at how much greed you get away with! It is much harder to punish greed than it is to be greedy. Doing this will also help you learn the safe maximum limits for expansion.<br />
If you succeed in this phase of the game, you will have a massive economic advantage and will be able to build more units.<br />
====Energy production====<br />
A very common mistake players make is that they don't build enough energy structures. This leads to a situation in which your metal income exceeds your energy income and you are unable to spend all your metal (called "e-stalling"). Having 1 constructor dedicated to only building energy structures can solve this issue.<br />
<br />
===Raider Usage===<br />
You want to have good radar coverage of your side of the map and keep your raiders as close to the enemy as possible. This puts pressure on them, and also forces them to keep their raiders near their base, away from your expansion. Against good players you will not be able to do much damage with raiders, but that does not mean you have accomplished nothing by keeping your raiders near them.<br />
*Because of the threat of your raiders, they are not able to "naked expand" (expanding with minimal defence). If you allow your opponent to naked expand, they will have a massive economic advantage.<br />
*Your opponent is forced to keep their own raiders near their own base to defend from yours. It can also force them to build more defences, slowing down their expansion and reducing the amount of pressure they can put on your own expansion.<br />
*Your raiders are also scouting. By running around at the edges of your opponent's territory you will be able to see what they are up to. If they are trying to [[Cheese|rush a heavy unit or do something silly]] you will often just be able to overrun them and win.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself on being the one that has raiders at their front door, things are a little more challenging, but don't panic.<br />
*Try to expand where your enemies raiders are not (with that other group of builders on the other side of the map that you have...right?).<br />
*You can slowly creep forward with LLTs and the protection of your own raiders.<br />
<br />
Note that you do not need to kill anything to have a successful raider phase. Your primary goals are to expand and grab territory while slowing your opponents expansion to a reasonable pace, and also have the energy to use all the metal you took control of. Your raiders will be useful later, so try to keep them alive. There is a "reasonable maximum speed" at which players can safely expand, and as long as you make sure your opponent doesn't exceed this and you are close to it, you will probably enter the later stages of the game on equal footing. Few games are won in the raider phase, but the tone of the rest of the game is set by it.<br />
<br />
<br />
==== Fortified areas====<br />
You may see a location that is lightly defended with towers, and you will correctly assume that you can run into it with your raiders and kill everything. However, this is a risky (and often unnecessary) thing to do.<br />
*There might be some defences you don't see, like nearby units lying in wait.<br />
*Killing towers with raiders is not cost efficient, so the payoff might not be that good.<br />
**This could lead to your opponent taking a temporary raider number advantage, which could put you on the defensive and actually put you behind from where you were before, as you are no longer able to exert as much map pressure.<br />
*Committing your raiders to an attack like this open you up for the possibility of a counter-attack, and since your raiders are somewhere else, you might not be able to defend well.<br />
<br />
====Finding a lone commander====<br />
Sometimes your opponent may be too greedy and have their commander out alone. Likely it is low level, and a moderate amount of raiders is enough to kill it. A fallen commander is a crippling blow to the victim's economy. Some raiders are better than others at this job.<br />
*Spread your units out right before it dies, as they have a death explosion which could wipe out your raiders if they are really close to the commander.<br />
<br />
===Why not other unit classes?===<br />
====Riots====<br />
It may seem intuitive to make riot units in this phase of the game. "They're good against raiders, aren't they?" you may say (correctly). However, there are multiple downsides to using them.<br />
*They are very slow. This makes them unusable for attacks, as your opponent will see them coming and be able to easily respond. They also cannot respond to attacks.<br />
*Early game, lone riot units can be overwhelmed by raiders.<br />
**For this, a concave line formation is highly effective, to minimise AoE damage from the riot unit.<br />
*Light defences are effective against riots, as riots are DPS, not HP focused. Light defences will take a significant portion of the riot's HP away before the riot is close enough to fire. What usually happens is that the riot kills one or two defensive towers and then dies, which is cost-inefficient.<br />
*Riots can be outmanoeuvred and ignored. Because of this, players tend to spread out their riots to try to cover every location so you can't run past them, which also makes them easier to destroy piecemeal as above. <br />
<br />
Because of the above reasons, they do not pose much of a threat, except in circumstances such as a [[Cheese|riot rush]], but you should've scouted that.<br />
<br />
The correct way to deal with an opponent making riots is to just expand faster than they do - they won't be able to punish this. When you inevitably get a superior economy, you can just overwhelm them.<br />
<br />
====Any other class====<br />
Skirmishers, artillery, assaults - all of these do very badly against raiders, so are not worth building at this point.<br />
===Importance of radar===<br />
Radar coverage is very important to get in this phase. If you do not have it, you have to play defensively in case your opponents tries to raid some of your expansions. The alternative is building lots of defences everywhere, but this is a losing strategy, as it leaves you unable to punish your opponent for expanding. If they expand they will just overrun you with units.<br />
<br />
By building radar you can reduce the amount you spend on defence, and can use it on offensive units instead. In the worst case scenario, you prevent greedy expansion from your opponent. In the best case, you just win because they were too greedy and have no units.<br />
<br />
===Dealing with defensive players===<br />
A strategy that many have trouble dealing with is when your opponent just builds lots of defences at every expansion site. The best way to deal with this is to just ignore them and focus on expanding yourself. If they want to sit in the corner building defences, that is fine for you. This is essentially saying that they want you to come to them. Eventually you will.<br />
<br />
Since they have spent so much metal on building defences, they won't be able to prevent you from expanding, and they can't expand themselves. Take the whole map and build your economy. Only then will you come to their base and crush them with artillery, heavy units... probably a strider or two.<br />
<br />
Remember Sun Tzu - "A general who attempts to bolster his defences everywhere will quickly find he has no defences anywhere." No one can build a line the enemy cannot pass.<br />
<br />
===End of raider phase===<br />
Eventually, the map will become covered with a line of defences from both players, partitioning the map roughly in half. This limits the mobility advantage that raider have, and it becomes time to switch to something else. Some areas might be lightly defended, and if you know the enemy's raiders are not close, you can punish this. However, by this point people often have full radar coverage and they will be prepared.<br />
<br />
==Midgame phase==<br />
In this phase, strategic diversity opens up significantly. Players typically transition out of raiders into some of the following:<br />
===Skirmishers===<br />
A common strategic switch people make is a shift to building skirmishers rather than raiders. These units are capable of killing light defences fairly well, so you can start pushing back your opponent and try to grab more territory. Use your raiders (which are hopefully still alive) to protect your skirmishers from harm. It is also common to see a few riots dedicated to protecting your skirmishers.<br />
<br />
===Assaults===<br />
For some factories, it is possible to switch to assault units. These units will be able to punch through light defenses (unlike raiders) and do some economic damage to your opponent. <br />
Some examples:<br />
*Thuglaw - Outlaws and Thugs - this combination from the shieldbot factory is a very potent assault force. It is good against raiders and light defences, giving it the potential to do lots of damage to an unprepared opponent.<br />
*Ravagers - Fast assault rovers that can be used for raiding. They are able to eat through light defences, and due to their speed it is harder to position raiders to defend against them.<br />
<br />
===Air units===<br />
One area people often neglect is the sky above them. Air units are typically quite a bit faster than ground units, and bypass difficult terrain. There are many advantages to air units, with each type of air force having their own.<br />
<br />
There are two air factories, which play very differently from each other.<br />
<br />
<br />
====[[Airplane Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Airplanes are fast and focus on alpha-striking the enemy. The [[Swift]] and [[Raptor]] are interceptors, able to defeat other air units. The four bombers, the [[Raven]] (precision dive bomber), the [[Phoenix]] (napalm bomber), the [[Thunderbird]] (disarming lightning bomber), and the [[Likho]] (high-damage AoE bomber) are in-and-out units, striking fast and hard.<br />
<br />
The [[Owl]] and [[Sparrow]] are spy planes, able to scout the enemy quickly. The former can patch up any radar coverage holes, and the latter is an early scout which can be morphed from a [[Radar Tower]]. The Swift can double as a base scout, using its speed boost to quickly pass over an enemy base.<br />
<br />
====[[Gunship Plant]]====<br />
<br />
Gunship units are a slower than their air counterparts, and they also are DPS focused, instead of alpha focused like planes. They are mostly close air support, with the [[Nimbus]] being typical - delivering fire support from a distance.<br />
<br />
The [[Charon]] and [[Hercules]] are notable as they are not gunships at all, with the former not even being armed. Rather, they are transports, boosting your units' mobility and taking them over any terrain. With an [[Iris]], they can also be used for stealth infiltration.<br />
<br />
====Playing against air====<br />
<br />
First things first - radar coverage. [[Radar Towers]], [[Advanced Radar]], all that good stuff. Can't fight what you can't see.<br />
<br />
Get some dedicated anti-air units and buildings. Each factory has a dedicated anti-air unit - the Airplane Plant has two. There are also five anti-air buildings, which are also highly effective.<br />
<br />
===Fortification===<br />
In the midgame, players will sometimes fortify certain locations on the map with heavier defences such as [[Stinger|Stingers]] or [[Stardust|Stardusts]]. This happens at central locations of the map as it gives you a sort of staging point that you can keep your units at safely. Heavier defences generally require a response from artillery or heavy units, so by building some, you can buy yourself some time as your opponent is figuring out a way to deal with the heavy defences.<br />
<br />
Stingers are especially tricky at this part of the game, as they are the first type of tower that can fight skirmishers well. If you find yourself losing ground to skirmishers or expect them soon, it may be a good idea to put up a Stinger. Stingers do not do that well against lots of light units, so make sure to keep building lots of LLTs (or even add a Stardust).<br />
<br />
==Lategame==<br />
Both players with have built up sizeable armies of skirmishers/riots/assaults and will probably have some air presence. The map will be more fortified, and it will be difficult to make progress with light units.<br />
<br />
===Eco===<br />
If things have stabilised in the midgame, it may be time to build your economy. <br />
*Build on all the available [[Geothermal Generator]] spots. If you feel that some are very safely located, upgrade them. <br />
**[[Advanced Geothermal|Advanced Geothermals]] will often pay for themselves within just 3-4 minutes. As a bonus, they explode violently on death. If the area is clear of allies, they can make for a nasty surprise to nearby enemies. When followed by a quick reclaim and rebuild, this will give an additional boost to your economy at the cost of your opponent's.<br />
*Connect your mexes into the Overdrive grid. The more mexes you connect, the more efficiently energy will be distributed, and you will end up with more metal. Overdrive is very efficient at low levels of energy, but suffers diminishing returns. <br />
*Build [[Fusion Reactor|Fusion Reactors]]. Make sure to scout before starting, as it can stop your unit production for a minute or so. If for example you scout your opponent switching to air or preparing a massive raid, it may be better to make sure you can counter their strategy before building it, as otherwise your efforts may be in vain.<br />
<br />
As with expansion, it is much harder to punish greedy economy building than it is to do it yourself. Try to be a greedy as possible and learn what the safe limits are.<br />
<br />
===Heavies===<br />
At this stage in the game you will start to see heavies coming out. "Heavies" are units that are generally 1500+ cost. Most of them massacre the lighter skirmisher/assault/riot balls that are predominant in the midgame, and they also can stand up the to defences built in the midgame such as Stingers and Stardusts. These heavies are usually in the form of [[Tank Foundry|Tanks]].<br />
<br />
===Bot specialist units===<br />
The bot factories do not really have "heavies", but they do have more expensive upper tier units that can be used to fight heavies of other factories. <br />
*[[Cloakbot Factory|Cloakbot Factories]] will start to build [[Phantom|snipers]] and [[Iris|area-cloakers]].<br />
*[[Shieldbot Factory|Shieldbot Factories]] can build [[Aspis|mobile shield generators]].<br />
<br />
===Light striders===<br />
Someone putting down a [[Strider hub]] and making either a scorpion or dante is quite common.<br />
*[[Dante]] is very good against skirmisher balls as its incendiary missile ability (the "D-gun") is highly damaging and deals AoE napalm damage. It is also one of the faster striders so it can get into action quickly. Due to all its AoE damage, it massacres riots and raiders as well. It fights assaults decently, but it actually loses to most of them by cost. You need to retreat and repair it to get full value out of it.<br />
**Be careful with your own units around the Dante. Dantes can deal friendly fire, and burning your own army is not a good thing.<br />
*[[Scorpions]] are invisible and have their EMP ability. This can be used to sneak up on valuable targets like Commanders or a bunched up set of units, stun them, and then kill them. Scorpions are a support/assassination unit, as their DPS is much lower than a Dante, and also get kited by skirmishers easily.<br />
**Scorpions beat Dantes quite easily, especially if the Scorpion can stunlock the Dante.<br />
<br />
==Late-Lategame==<br />
In this phase you will see heavy striders and some of the more exotic tools available to the player.<br />
*[[Big Bertha]], the biggest conventional artillery gun in the game.<br />
*[[Trinity]], a strategic nuke silo.<br />
*Ultra-heavy defences:<br />
**[[Desolator]], a small fortress in the form of one building. Often put on a terraformed tower.<br />
**[[Lucifer]], a sniper tower. Effective against large units.<br />
**[[Cerberus]], a triple-barrelled mid-rage artillery emplacement. Used as counter-artillery or as area-denial.<br />
*[[Paladin]]/[[Detriment]], the two biggest striders in the game.<br />
*[[Starlight]], a constant satellite beam of death.<br />
*[[Zenith]], a superweapon which controls meteorites to throw at the enemy.<br />
*[[Disco Rave Party]], an artillery weapon which fire six different shots at the enemy in sequence, with different effects.<br />
*[[Singularity Reactor]], the biggest energy generator available.<br />
<br />
Most games do not actually get this far, but the objectives remain the same, even if the whole battlefield is a smoking crater.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
Note that this is a general overview. Sometimes people may rush with heavies in the midgame, or try building their economy during the raider phase. Zero-k is a very flexible game, and there is no set meta-game like in [https://starcraft2.com Starcraft 2]. Lots of game play is map-dependent or match-up dependent.<br />
<br />
But as always, remember that this is a game, so have fun and get out there!<br />
<br />
{{Navbox manual}}</div>SpeedofDeath118https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Airplane_Plant&diff=5604Airplane Plant2019-08-23T16:12:12Z<p>SpeedofDeath118: Added the Sparrow</p>
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<div>The '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is a factory that produces airplanes.{{ Infobox zkunit<br />
| name = Airplane Plant<br />
| defname = factoryplane<br />
| description = Produces Airplanes, Builds at 10 m/s<br />
| image = http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/factoryplane.png<br />
| icontype = facair<br />
| cost = 800<br />
| hitpoints = 4000<br />
| sight = 273<br />
| abilities = <br />
{{ Infobox zkability construction<br />
| buildpower = 10<br />
}}<br />
}}==Description==<br />
The Airplane Plant offers a variety of fixed-wing aircraft to suit your needs. Choose between multirole fighters that can double as light attackers or specialized interceptors, and between precision bombers for taking down specific targets or their saturation counterparts for destroying swarms. The plant also comes bundled with one rearm pad.<br />
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The Airplane Plant builds:<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/planecon.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Crane]] &nbsp; Construction Aircraft<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/fighter.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Swift]] &nbsp; Multi-role Fighter<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/planeheavyfighter.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Raptor]] &nbsp; Air Superiority Fighter<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/bomberprec.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Raven]] &nbsp; Precision Bomber<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/bomberriot.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Phoenix]] &nbsp; Saturation Napalm Bomber <br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/bomberdisarm.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Thunderbird]] &nbsp; Disarming Lightning Bomber<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/bomberheavy.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Likho]] &nbsp; Singularity Bomber<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/planescout.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Owl]] &nbsp; Radar/Sonar Plane<br />
* <img src="http://manual.zero-k.info/unitpics/planelightscout.png" height='64' align="center"/> [[Sparrow]] &nbsp; Light Scout Plane<br />
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==Tactics and Strategy==<br />
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The Airplane Plant provides the most unique array of units of any factory in Zero-K; the Planes are more like a support force, as opposed to combat units. Both the speed of the Planes and their first-strike capability is unparalleled. The Swift is the Planes' main air-to-air option, while the Raven, Thunderbird and Likho bombers punish any poorly-covered ground forces.<br />
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In contrast to the Gunships, the Airplane bombers deliver their damage in a very short period of time, so anti-air which relies on prolonged engagements is less effective against them. On the other hand, the bombers have to return to base and rearm before making another run. The Swift fighter relies on similar hit-and-run tactics against enemy air forces.<br />
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=== Example Unit Combinations ===<br />
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Once your fleet of Swifts is large enough, add a few Raptors for more sustained damage. Make sure your Swifts are in position to protect the Raptors' flank and rear.<br />
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Fly a Swift or two over enemy territory before a bombing run to soak up a few missiles and scout for an unexpected concentration of anti-air. Losing a Swift or two is far less painful than losing a Likho.<br />
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Follow up a Thunderbird strike with swift ground units such as the [[Glaive]] or [[Scorcher]] to capitalise while the enemy is disarmed. <br />
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Use Owls to scout for your artillery pieces like the [[Sling]], [[Emissary]] or [[Lance]].<br />
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Owls jam enemy radar in an area around and below them. Order a line of Owls to fly circles behind your team's front lines to provide radar, line of sight, and to hide your allies from enemy radar.<br />
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=== Bombing Mechanics ===<br />
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The Airplane Plant provides its owner with access to four bombers, being the [[Raven]], [[Phoenix]], [[Thunderbird]], and [[Likho]]. Upon attacking they will drop their payload, which differs between the different types of bomber.<br />
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*The [[Raven]] will drop a single bomb almost straight down, dealing 800 damage. <br />
*The [[Phoenix]] will drop 15 napalm bomblets, each doing 25 damage on impact and another 150 damage per unit hit as it burns. The bomblets are dropped over a wide area, which means small units may dodge the majority of bomblets, whereas large groups may be hit multiple times.<br />
*The [[Thunderbird]] releases disarming lightning from its belly towards the ground in a line, with the center of the line at the ordered point of attack or target unit. The Thunderbird is free to change direction while firing, and can be manually fired (default 'D').<br />
*The [[Likho]] drops a single homing implosion bomb dealing approximately 2000 damage. <br />
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The four different bombers will move differently during their payload release. As mentioned above, [[Thunderbird]]s will happily continue flying in a straight line unless ordered not to. The [[Phoenix]] is the exact opposite, and will prefer to drop its payload in a J-shape unless given a move order to continue on in the direction it came from. The [[Likho]] launches its bomb at 500 range before turning around immediately. <br />
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The [[Raven]] has the most complex behaviour of all four bombers. By default, it will dive down to the ground for mobile units to make it hard for them to dodge the slowly falling bomb. They will also dive underneath shields. The lower a Raven flies, the slower it becomes and the longer it will spend in range of enemy weapons. When attacking immobile targets like buildings or stunned units, the Ravens will remain at their maximum altitude and speed. This behaviour can be modified for individual Ravens with a switch on the command panel. The states are as follows:<br />
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*Green: Default, Ravens dive low against mobile units and shields.<br />
*Yellow: Ravens will dive low against mobile units but not shields.<br />
*Red: Ravens will always dive low and will fly at low altitude even when not on an attack run. (Can be utilized to decloak most units)<br />
*Grey: Ravens will always fly high.<br />
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After releasing their payload, bombers will seek out the closest [[Airpad]], Airplane Plant, or [[Reef]] aircraft carrier to rearm. If they are given a move order after attacking, either by putting a move order into their command queue or by manually ordering them to move, they will first complete their move order before proceeding to a repair pad. If they are instead given a second attack order, they will first return to a repair pad to rearm before executing this attack. <br />
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=== Bombing Strategy and Tactics ===<br />
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====General tips:====<br />
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*When selecting Ravens and Likhos, a line on the right of the selection panel will inform you about how much damage your total selection can perform in one run (Burst Damage). Use this to gauge whether your currently selected bomber wing can destroy the high value target of your choosing (A default strike commander, for example, takes 4 Ravens). <br />
*Use move orders after bombing to make your bombers take the shortest way out of enemy anti-air coverage. Often it is safer to make a 90 degree turn and fly out to the side than to turn the full 180 degrees inside enemy anti-air cover.<br />
*Raven bombs will pass through water surfaces, allowing you to bomb submerged units. Phoenix bomblets explode on the surface.<br />
*Owls provide sonar coverage as well as radar, making them invaluable for spotting submerged units.<br />
*Be careful bombing around EMP units such as [[Venom]]s or [[Faraday]]s! Stunned planes will slowly drift down to the ground, where they can be shot to pieces by any old unit that happens by.<br />
*Using the 'Force fire' command (Default 'F'), and holding down the left mouse button allows you to draw a circle. Release to order your bombers to attack enemy units inside this circle in turn.<br />
*Hold down Ctrl while issuing the above command to tell your bombers to pick a unit inside the circle to bomb. This distributes your bombers between units. It is especially useful against [[Lotus]]es, [[Picket]]s, or light mobile units which all do not warrant multiple [[Raven]] bombs. Consider using this with [[Phoenix]]es to spread them over a larger mass of enemy units.<br />
*Use the Area Attack command (Default 'Alt+A') to designate an area in which to bomb. When enemy units enter this area, they will be bombed by your bombers. When there are no enemy units to be found, your bombers will bomb random points of terrain in the area. Consider combining with [[Phoenix]]es to hunt down suspected cloaked units.<br />
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==== Raven tips: ====<br />
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[[Raven]]s are the workhorse of the Airplane Plant. They're the cheapest bombers, they deal a lot of damage, and have the most hitpoints for their cost. <br />
*Sometimes it's worth it to channel your inner World War 2 British bomber command officer and sacrifice some of your Ravens to take out an important enemy target. With five ravens you can bomb a [[Razor]] anti air turret to pave the way for more bombers to follow them. Or you can strike at a [[Singularity Reactor]] deep within enemy territory. If five of your bombers make it through, you will cripple your enemy's economy and perhaps take out a large portion of their base. Or if your allies are facing a particularly deadly unit, like a [[Dante]], you could turn the tide in favour of your allies with a well-timed bomb run. <br />
*If your enemy pushes out from under their AA cover, a quick wing of Ravens using the spread attack command (Default 'Ctrl+A') can quickly soften the enemy units up for a follow-up by ground forces, or take care of the units on their own if used in sufficient numbers.<br />
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==== Phoenix tips: ====<br />
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[[Phoenix]]es are more vulnerable than other bombers, with only 720 hitpoints. They are also more dangerous to vulnerable units.<br />
*While the low initial damage of the Phoenix is underwhelming, the 10-second burn can make quick work of lighter units like [[Dart]]s even when they dodge most initial damage.<br />
*Burn damage will reset the countdown for units with regenerative abilities like [[Glaive]]s or [[Reaver]]s, as well as keep units with a cloak from disappearing from sight. <br />
*Be careful when using Phoenixes around allied units, as the same properties that make them useful against enemy hordes make them a liability in a chaotic front line.<br />
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==== Thunderbird tips: ====<br />
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[[Thunderbird]]s do not deal damage themselves, but provide utility on the battlefield that can make the difference between a successful assault or a complete catastrophe.<br />
* If you can spare the time to micro, it is often much more effective to manually give your Thunderbird move orders and to deploy its lightning attack (Default 'D') when it is going to be most effective. <br />
* Do not hesitate to inform your team that you're about to disarm the units they're fighting, so they can rush them just as you finish your attack run.<br />
* Be careful not to fly over allied units on your attack run. There's not much point to disarming your enemies if your allies are also disarmed. Though sometimes it can be worth it just to buy your team some time to react.<br />
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==== Likho tips: ==== <br />
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The [[Likho]] is your heavy-duty end-game bomber. It can survive enemy fire that would destroy two [[Raven]]s, but costs as much as 6.5 of them. Depending on what you find yourself having to deal with, you may be better off with more Ravens!<br />
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*The Likho is especially useful against units that like to clump together into balls, like units from the [[Shieldbot Factory]], [[Ravager]]s, and [[Blitz]]es.<br />
*The Likho's large cost means that it's a prime target for reclamation if you do lose it. Try not to lose it over enemy territory! If possible, lose it as close to your own front lines as you can! Better still, do not lose it at all.<br />
*The homing bomb of the Likho means it's much less likely to miss moving targets than the bombs the Raven drops. This also means it doesn't have to get so close to the enemy and can be more safely used against units with low range but high damage like [[Reaver]]s, [[Mace]]s, or [[Ogre]]s.<br />
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=== Beating Airplanes ===<br />
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Anti-air units or structures which deliver high burst damage are generally more effective against Planes than those with sustained damage. The [[Picket]] is generally preferred over the [[Hacksaw]] due to its larger range and flexibility to engage ground targets. The range of the [[Chainsaw]] and [[Artemis]] makes them effective against any air threat, though they are more expensive. <br />
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You'll generally need a few mobile anti-air units to shoot down bombers, although the [[Flail]], [[Crasher]], [[Vandal]] and [[Angler]]'s high burst damage is helpful here.<br />
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The most important thing to keep in mind when playing against Planes is not to over-extend. Valuable units may be sniped by Ravens, and if you move a large raiding group or army beyond the range of your antiair it will likely be disarmed by a Thunderbird and destroyed. Don't stick anything outside anti-air range unless you're prepared to lose it. The best defence against bombers is to have your own Swift planes, since they are fast enough to defend you anywhere on the map.<br />
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If you are using Gunships against a player with Planes, don't move your anti-ground gunships away from anti-air protection unless you're prepared to lose them. Try to make the Airplane player engage you in a direct fight, since your air-to-air units are tougher than theirs.<br />
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If you are playing the Airplane mirror matchup, try to have more Swifts than they do, while still making things happen in the ground war using the cheaper bombers if you can (Raven, Phoenix and Thunderbird). Hold your Swift boost in reserve as long as possible to counter enemy bombing runs or to escape from a losing figher battle.<br />
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{{Navbox buildings}}</div>SpeedofDeath118