Difference between pages "V1.4.12.7" and "V1.4.12.15"

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(Formatting fixes.)
 
(New UI Minimap Right image... who knows how long until imgur stops serving it?)
 
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The main change in this version is Aquanim's sea rework. Sonar ranges are less arbitrary than previously - all sea units have sonar equivalent to their vision radius. Many ships have been changed significantly. Serpent has been removed entirely but there is a new surface ship with a sonic gun and Impaler-like missile (Siren). Amphibious and Hovercraft haven't been changed besides sonar, but the new ships interact with those factories quite differently so you will still need to rethink your strategies.
+
Aquanim continues to balance sea and the codebase has received many background cleanups and small fixes. The new UI is now the default and in terms of land balance Dominatrix may be OP.
  
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== Sonar ==
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== Default UI Enforcement Opt-Out ==
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In short: all sea units and Urchin can see underwater units, underwater units are not detectable by radar and long-range sonar sources do not exist. Being underwater functions like radar jamming does on land, except you can't be seen by economy structures or land units.
 
  
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In principle, being underwater is a lot like radar jamming, except that you are also invisible to non-Urchin structures, non-Vulture planes, and amphibious-pathing units from land factories. Here are the details:
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The UI rework has reached the point where it is enabled by default. To switch to it select "New UI Minimap Right" in "Settings/HUD Presets". It is incomplete but it does as least as much as the previous default. It looks like this:
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* All units produced by the Ship, Amphibious and Hovercraft factories, and the ship Striders, have sonar equal to their sight range.
 
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* Urchin has sonar equal to its sight range.
 
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* Commanders have sonar equal to their sight range.
 
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* Vulture has sonar range equal to its jamming range (700).
 
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* Other units and structures do not have sonar. Notably this includes Gauss, Aspis, Eraser, Ultimatum and Detriment.
 
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* Sonar Station has been removed.
 
  
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We've investigated some preexisting sonar interactions and cleaned up some weirdness. One thing of note is that cloak and jamming on fully submerged units is penetrated by sonar (perhaps a recent engine change). To make this interaction more obvious we've made fully submerged units unable to cloak. This change barely affects game mechanics aide from saving energy and removing the underwater radar dot.
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[[FileNew UI Minimap Right.jpg]]
  
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We also noticed that sufficiently deep units do not have any surface vision. This is an engine change and not part of the current design. However, it probably works so we'll not put effort in to work around it for the time being.
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As always, the default only applies to clean installs. However, this policy has ended up painting us into a corner. The UI used by most players tends to be a snapshot of whatever the default UI was when they first installed ZK. At worst this UI is broken and at best it is not something I want to fully support. The situation I imagine is someone with an eight month old default suddenly having a window overlap issue due to more recent changes. Players with experience modifying their UI can simply remove the widget or move the window. Players that barely modify their UI should not be expect to be able to solve these problems themselves.
  
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== Ships ==
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I would like to apply the new default UI to anyone who is using an old default. Especially since the new window position handler is able to reset the UI to default upon detecting a screen resolution change. Clearly if you have modified your UI this is not something you want. To solve this I implemented an opt-out for default UI updates.
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Ship Factory has been substantially reworked. We've also taken the opportunity to remove a lot of conflicts with TA unit names (though some renames are just for consistency with reroles or for some theme). Overkill prevention and Unit AI has been implemented, but you may find bugs and foibles. Report these so they can be fixed please :)
 
  
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'''Constructor''' - Mariner is a little more expensive and has sonar, but mostly unchanged.
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[b]Important:[/b] there is now an option "Stay up to date" in "Settings/HUD Presets" and it is enabled by default. Currently, this option does nothing. In February this option will set the UI Preset to the default window layout, whatever that may be by February. Other things may be changed as required. If you want to keep your custom UI then you have by February to disable the option.
  
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'''Scout (Disarming)''' - Skeeter is renamed to Cutter and has increased range to be able to destroy any land mex reachable by Mariner. Be aware that the Scout Boat's overkill prevention defaults to disabled, because it also tries not to hit disarmed targets. Under some circumstances you may wish to enable it.
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== Balance ==
  
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'''Raider (Torpedo-Boat)''' - Hunter is now a torpedo-boat raider; it is much cheaper, smaller and faster, but is individually weaker in combat and no longer has a large area-of-effect.
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Siren:
 +
* Cost 560 → 600
 +
* HP 4200 → 4000
 +
* Missile reload time 10s → 16s (40 → 25 DPS)
  
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'''Skirmisher Frigate (Missile)''' - Enforcer is renamed to Mistral and completely reworked. It is much cheaper and functions like a mobile Slasher. It fires weak guided missiles from long range (in particular it outranges Urchin, Scalpel, Defender and Stinger).
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Ronin:
 +
* Projectile speed 330 → 400 elmo/s
  
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'''Riot/Raider Corvette (Shotgun)''' - Typhoon is renamed to Corsair; it is a little cheaper and faster, and armed with shotguns instead of machineguns. The shotguns make it effective against large targets at short range, however, its toughness has been reduced.
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Mistral:
 +
* Speed 2.5 → 2.3 (75 → 69 elmo/s)
 +
* Slasher missile weapon replaced with Recluse-Rogue: a burst of four wobbly Rogue missiles with 8s reload.
  
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'''Riot/Assault Destroyer (Sonic Gun)''' - Siren (a new unit based on the old Daimyo model) has a sonic gun with some area-of-effect which is effective against lighter-weight surface and underwater targets. It also has a mini-Impaler missile for attacking statics. It is quite slow.
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Dominatrix:
 +
* Capture decay now applies 5s after taking capture damage instead of instantly. This means that one Dominatrix can capture anything if it waits for long enough.
 +
This behaviour was always the intention, however, it was not (probably never) functional. This is mainly a buff against large units because removing their 4% capture decay while actively being captured is a larger change for expensive units. This change is in a good direction because Dominatrix is meant to be anti-heavy.
  
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'''Artillery Cruiser''' - Crusader is renamed to Ronin; it is more expensive, more resilient, has slightly improved range and has more area-of-effect. It no longer has a depth charge sidearm.
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Screamer now explodes like a Annihilator instead of a Defender.
  
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'''Submarine Raider''' - Snake is renamed to Seawolf; it fills the same role as before, with a few numbers tweaks. The changes to how sonar works have affected its best use somewhat.
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Removed Surfboard. Something like Surfboard can be re-added but the current implementation was too broken.
  
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'''Anti-Air''' - Shredder is renamed to Zephyr and now has sonar but is otherwise unchanged.
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== Unit AI ==
  
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'''Transport''' - Surfboard is unchanged, besides new sonar. Some bugs with transporting cloakers and jammers have been fixed.
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Wolverine tactical AI is now better at staying out of Grizzly range. It is still not great at this though, since Wolverine has a large turning circle.
  
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'''Submarine Artillery''' - Serpent has been removed.
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Improved Raven overkill prevention. Now it removes its attack order immediately upon realizing that its first target is doomed.
  
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== Strider Ships ==
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Global build command:
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The large ships have recieved some changes. Reef has some role issues which require improved drone control to fix.
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* Added an auto-retreat option.
 +
* Added worker update rate option (for poor CPU/internet).
 +
* Fixed some performance and stuck unit issues.
  
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Battleship - Renamed to Shogun and has a little more range and sonar. Otherwise unchanged for now; this needs some teams game testing but its overall role seems okay.
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Fixed Scorchers not diving Windgens and Mexes.
  
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Carrier - Instead of its previous cruise missile, the Carrier stockpiles tactical missiles in 60s at 10 m/s, and fires them like a D-gun. This change is largely to avoid the current overload of weapon and drone controls. The Carrier currently retains the name Reef but this may be subject to change, as are the other properties of the unit. If and when the drone controls are improved there is some potential for adding a light carrier to the Ship factory. Something interesting and large (think Crabe or Grizzly) should go in the remaining build slot for the Shipyard and that could possibly be a miniature carrier.
+
== Interface/Graphics ==
 +
* Added "Stay up to date" option to "Settings/HUD Presets".
 +
* Set "minimapRight" as the default HUD panel layout.
 +
* Vote widget remembers its position.
 +
* Moved vote widget to the left side of the screen for the new default UI layout.
 +
* Moved chicken panel default position to the top right of the screen (previously bottom right).
 +
* Powerplant descriptions are more descriptive.
 +
* Improved Strike Commander animation. Fixed Guardian Commander and Dante animation.
 +
* Improved capture controller visuals.
 +
* Improved Djinn Lamp placement. Placement is now cancellable and has better command queue interaction.
 +
* Mex placement now works with command insert.
 +
* Mex placement now works (consistently) with persistent build height.
 +
* Persistent build height now works with command insert.
 +
* Mex placement now works with both persistent build height and command insert at the same time.
 +
* Terraform construction updates more smoothly (technically, this affects balance).
  
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Tactical Missile Sub - Renamed to Scylla. Now stockpiles in 30s at 20 m/s, twice its old rate. Similarly to the Carrier, this unit could potentially see further changes but needs more data from teamgames (and FFA).
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Dante animation comparison:
  
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== Other Sea Units ==
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<youtube>https://youtu.be/KYnXnNGAvuQ</youtube>
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Amphibious and hovercraft units are unchanged except that they all have sonar range equal to their sight range. Sea has changed around these units though so reevaluate their new place in sea. The sea interactions of these factories is open to change in the future, especially Duck torpedo range as well as  everything about Scallop, Archer and Claymore.
 
  
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After some testing we think that more amphibious units are viable than before. Buoy and Archer seem to be decent units to fight the reduced weight Hunter and Scallop is a bit less powerful. Hovercrafts are mostly unchanged except that Dagger is worse against the new raiders. Penetrator and Halberd are still powerful, unique units and Claymore has its uses.  
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== Fixes ==
 +
* Added good start boxes for LLTACompleteV2.
 +
* Fixed unit reclaiming issue, it is now exactly as hard to area reclaim your own units as it should be.
 +
* Melee chicken attacks are no longer blocked by wrecks.
 +
* Fixed Gauss ambient occlusion.
 +
* Fixed Raven overkill prevention bug which caused them to occasionally not fire at static targets.
 +
* Fix Pyro aiming, they now know that they have a spherical weapon.
 +
* Fixed Lamp destruction bug.
 +
* Removed some deprecated modoptions.  
 +
* Lots of definition file cleanup.
  
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Sea is not designed for Hovercrafts and Amphs to be 1v1 viable start factories. It seems that they might be viable on small maps, such as 8x8. However, we've found it useful to switch to these factories and teamgames should see many different factories ploped. This makes sea distinct from land in that there is one main factory and four support factories. We're not too worried about this as the ship factory has a lot of complexity with its dual domain and 3 or 4 raiders. Sea 1v1s feel harder than land 1v1s which is probably a good spot for it.
 
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Urchin range has been reduced a little and has slightly more health.
 
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Ultimatum and Detriment no longer have sonar.
 
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Sonar Station no longer exists.
 
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== Other Changes ==
 
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Tactical AI:
 
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* Improved Penetrator, Pillager and Impaler AI. They are now less prone to wiggling at max range to match the exact wiggling of their opponent.
 
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* Scorchers now hug most unarmed or undodgable enemies instead of runing around them in tight circles.
 
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* Many things now keep their distance from death explosions. Only appies to Fight command.
 
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Morph:
 
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* Morph no longer purges slow damage upon completion.
 
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* Status effects (EMP, disarm, slow) now affect resource drain.
 
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* Commanders can now morph on Surfboards. They need to disembark to complete the morph in case they are no longer transportable.
 
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* Non-commander morph is now cancelled if the unit is loaded into a transport.
 
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Interface:
 
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* New UI chat is wider, backlog automatically toggles when entering chat.
 
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* Area reclaim is now back to reclaiming trees by default. Holding Ctrl while issuing an area reclaim order now ignores trees. The recent new behaviour can be enabled through Game/Unit Behaviour.
 
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Fixes:
 
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* Chicken and player timeout windows no longer persist through different games with Chobby.
 
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* Fixed initial queue structure visualization on some maps.
 
  
 
{{Navbox changelog}}
 
{{Navbox changelog}}

Revision as of 19:24, 16 September 2024

Aquanim continues to balance sea and the codebase has received many background cleanups and small fixes. The new UI is now the default and in terms of land balance Dominatrix may be OP.

Default UI Enforcement Opt-Out

The UI rework has reached the point where it is enabled by default. To switch to it select "New UI Minimap Right" in "Settings/HUD Presets". It is incomplete but it does as least as much as the previous default. It looks like this:

FileNew UI Minimap Right.jpg

As always, the default only applies to clean installs. However, this policy has ended up painting us into a corner. The UI used by most players tends to be a snapshot of whatever the default UI was when they first installed ZK. At worst this UI is broken and at best it is not something I want to fully support. The situation I imagine is someone with an eight month old default suddenly having a window overlap issue due to more recent changes. Players with experience modifying their UI can simply remove the widget or move the window. Players that barely modify their UI should not be expect to be able to solve these problems themselves.

I would like to apply the new default UI to anyone who is using an old default. Especially since the new window position handler is able to reset the UI to default upon detecting a screen resolution change. Clearly if you have modified your UI this is not something you want. To solve this I implemented an opt-out for default UI updates.

[b]Important:[/b] there is now an option "Stay up to date" in "Settings/HUD Presets" and it is enabled by default. Currently, this option does nothing. In February this option will set the UI Preset to the default window layout, whatever that may be by February. Other things may be changed as required. If you want to keep your custom UI then you have by February to disable the option.

Balance

Siren:

  • Cost 560 → 600
  • HP 4200 → 4000
  • Missile reload time 10s → 16s (40 → 25 DPS)

Ronin:

  • Projectile speed 330 → 400 elmo/s

Mistral:

  • Speed 2.5 → 2.3 (75 → 69 elmo/s)
  • Slasher missile weapon replaced with Recluse-Rogue: a burst of four wobbly Rogue missiles with 8s reload.

Dominatrix:

  • Capture decay now applies 5s after taking capture damage instead of instantly. This means that one Dominatrix can capture anything if it waits for long enough.

This behaviour was always the intention, however, it was not (probably never) functional. This is mainly a buff against large units because removing their 4% capture decay while actively being captured is a larger change for expensive units. This change is in a good direction because Dominatrix is meant to be anti-heavy.

Screamer now explodes like a Annihilator instead of a Defender.

Removed Surfboard. Something like Surfboard can be re-added but the current implementation was too broken.

Unit AI

Wolverine tactical AI is now better at staying out of Grizzly range. It is still not great at this though, since Wolverine has a large turning circle.

Improved Raven overkill prevention. Now it removes its attack order immediately upon realizing that its first target is doomed.

Global build command:

  • Added an auto-retreat option.
  • Added worker update rate option (for poor CPU/internet).
  • Fixed some performance and stuck unit issues.

Fixed Scorchers not diving Windgens and Mexes.

Interface/Graphics

  • Added "Stay up to date" option to "Settings/HUD Presets".
  • Set "minimapRight" as the default HUD panel layout.
  • Vote widget remembers its position.
  • Moved vote widget to the left side of the screen for the new default UI layout.
  • Moved chicken panel default position to the top right of the screen (previously bottom right).
  • Powerplant descriptions are more descriptive.
  • Improved Strike Commander animation. Fixed Guardian Commander and Dante animation.
  • Improved capture controller visuals.
  • Improved Djinn Lamp placement. Placement is now cancellable and has better command queue interaction.
  • Mex placement now works with command insert.
  • Mex placement now works (consistently) with persistent build height.
  • Persistent build height now works with command insert.
  • Mex placement now works with both persistent build height and command insert at the same time.
  • Terraform construction updates more smoothly (technically, this affects balance).

Dante animation comparison:

Fixes

  • Added good start boxes for LLTACompleteV2.
  • Fixed unit reclaiming issue, it is now exactly as hard to area reclaim your own units as it should be.
  • Melee chicken attacks are no longer blocked by wrecks.
  • Fixed Gauss ambient occlusion.
  • Fixed Raven overkill prevention bug which caused them to occasionally not fire at static targets.
  • Fix Pyro aiming, they now know that they have a spherical weapon.
  • Fixed Lamp destruction bug.
  • Removed some deprecated modoptions.
  • Lots of definition file cleanup.


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