Abbreviations

A

• AA — Anti Air.
• Anni — Lucifer (anni is from Annihilator, the old name) — heavy tachyon tower.
• AoE — Area of Effect (splash damage).
• Avenger — old name for Swift — multirole fighter.
• Amph — Amphibious bots [1].
• Air — typically indicates plane factory [2] units; rarely gunships [3].

B

• Bantha — old name for Paladin.
• BB — Big Bertha [4] — the long range cannon.
• BD — Revenant, comes from old name Black Dawn — heavy raider/assault gunship.
• behe — Cerberus, from old name Behemoth.
• BP — buildpower — the speed at which constructors/factories convert resources to units.
• BW — BlastWing [5] — flying bomb unit.

C

• CA — Complete Annihilation — ZK's direct ancestor game. Also the Complete Annihilation award [6] (for dealing the most damage).
• cata — Merlin. From the old name, Catapult — artillery strider.
• CCR — Comet Catcher Redux [7] — the flat vehicle map.
• Chix — Chicken Defense, a Tower Defense style game mode.
• Com(m) — Commander [8] — the starting unit.
• Con — Constructor [9] — any mobile unit with ability to build stuff.
• Cooked — destroyed, usually about players (but sometimes also individual units). See also: lobster.
• CS — ChainSaw [10] — long range anti-air.
• Crow — mispronounced Krow.

D

• Det — (also detri) — Detriment — the largest strider.
• DDM — Desolator, formerly known as the Doomsday Machine — heavy defensive structure.
• DF — DeinFreund — one of the developers.
• Dgun — Disintegrator Gun — class of special weapons that need manual activation using "D" key — for example Dante's missile volley or special commander weapons.
• Domi — Dominatrix — capture vehicle.
• DPS — Damage Per Second.
• DRP — Disco Rave Party [11] — the superweapon.
• Drop — a "drop" happens when units are loaded into transports and then "dropped" somewhere, like the enemy base.
• DSD — Delta Siege Dry [12] — a popular teams map.

E

• E — Energy [13] — the resource.
• Eco — Economy — all resource-producing units and buildings.
• Elo — a rating system used for balancing games basing on estimated players skill (on which ZK's ladder ratings used to be based on).
• EMP — ElectroMagnetic Pulse — paralyzer weapons, can also be used to mean an air player using Thunderbird.

F

• FFA — Free for All — a match with 3+ teams.
• Fac — Factory [14] — building that produces mobile units.
• FW — Firewalker — artillery bot.
• Fus — Fusion Reactor.
• Firepluk award — named after the player Firepluk; When a player resigns very early into the game but ends up winning anyways.

G

• Gaetor — Scorcher, formerly known as Instigator.
• Geo — Geothermal Powerplant [15] or the spot where it can be built (also geospot).
• GF — GoogleFrog — one of the lead developers.
• GS — Gunships [16].
• Golly or Goli — Cyclops, formerly known as Goliath — heavy tank.
• Grid — energy grid — system of connected energy sources, part of overdrive [17]. Structures are in the same grid if their "circles" touch.

H

• HLT — Heavy Laser Tower — Stinger.
• Hawk — old name for Raptor — air superiority fighter.

I

• Icy — Icy Run v2 [18], a popular map for (very) high density casual teamgames.
• IoG — Isle of Grief, a map [19].

J

• JJ — JumpJet Factory, now Jumpbot Factory.

K

• KR — KingRaptor — one of the core developers (currently known as Histidine).

L

• Licho — old name for Likho — heavy bomber plane. Also one of the core developers.
• Link — to link disconnected parts of energy grid together OR to link shields together.
• LLT — Light Laser Tower — the Lotus turret.
• Lobster — a taunt for a player who hasn't performed well in ongoing or previous battle(s).
• LoS — line of sight.
• LV — Light Vehicles (Factory) — LV got renamed to Rover Assembly.

M

• M — Metal [20] — the resource.
• Merl — old name for Impaler.
• Mex — Metal Extractor, to mex [21] - the action of constructing extractors on untapped metal spots.
• Morph — to upgrade a Commander or a Geothermal Generator.
• Moho — old name for Advanced Geothermal.
• MT — Missile Tower — the Picket turret.

N

• Nano — Caretaker nanolathe tower — static constructor.
• Nap — to kidnap - usually "comnap" — capture enemy commander with air transport [22].
• NullAI — a "sandbox" skirmish opponent which does nothing, sometimes used as an insult.

O

• OD — OverDrive — overdrive pumps spare energy to metal extractors to improve their output, see economic section of the manual.
• OP — OverPowered — something is considered too good for its cost (e.g. a unit/module/ability). Also forum abbreviation for original poster, the person who started the current thread.
• OTA — (Original) Total Annihilation — a 1997 RTS game which ZK started out as a mod of (where "original" is to refer to the retail game as opposed to the collection of the various other mods it spawned).
• Owled — weak enough it might as well not be in the game.

P

• Pene — Lance. From old name "Penetrator".
• Porc — from porcupine — heavy defenses, usually useless.
• Porcing — playing too defensively, not taking enough land.
• PW — PlanetWars [23] — the online multiplayer campaign.
• Plop (fac) — deploying your first factory, which is free and builds instantly.

R

• Rec — Reclaim [24] — command to recycle units, wreckages and map features.
• Ress/rez — Ressurection [25] (common misspelled version of resurrection) — ability to recreate a unit from its wreckage.

S

• SD — Stardust [26].
• Singu — Singularity Reactor [27] — most powerful, and most dangerous energy-producing structure.
• Shadow — old name for Raven — bomber plane.
• Shiny — huge explosion caused either by nuke, advanced geothermal or destruction of Singularity Reactor. Can also be used when a lot of bombs chain explode.
• Skydust — Stardust on a terraformed [28] spire.
• Starlulz — Starlight.
• Stiletto — old name for Thunderbird.
• Sumo — old name for Jugglenaut.
• SSB — Small Supreme Battlefield [29] — a remake of Seton's Clutch, the iconic map from Supreme Commander.
• Selfd — Self Destruct — usually meant as an encouragement to self destruct all your things using CTRL+A, CTRL+D keys to end the game; sometimes to self destruct a single unit for its powerful death explosion.
• Shield-ball — a group of units that have shields, usually containing Thugs, Felons, and possibly an Aspis.

T

• TB — Thunderbird [30] — area disable bomber plane.
• Terra — Terraform [31] — a way to modify map's landscape.
• Tit d — Titan Duel [32], a popular map.
• Trollcom — a frontline commander with a lot of investment, typically a disintegrator gun commander with high movement speed.

U

• Ubermex — a Metal Extractor spot with much more yield than usual (4+ while typical mex is 2).
• UP — UnderPowered — something is considered too weak for its cost (e.g. a unit/module/ability).
• Ulti — Ultimatum [33] — cloaked anti-heavy strider.

V

• Vamp — old name for Raptor — air superiority fighter.
• Vindi — Hercules. From the old name Vindicator.

W

• Warrior — old name for Reaver.
• WHR — Whole History Rating — the rating system used for the ZK ladder. See also: Elo.
• Wubbernaut — a new player. Comes from wub (similar to nub) + naut (to explore).

Z

• ZK — Zero Kelvin — the name of this game.