Zero-K v1.8.11.1 - Bulkhead, Balancing and Mod Hosting

The Amphibious Factory now has a full roster with the addition of Bulkhead - a deployable fire support unit with impressive health and range. This update also includes a wide range of balance changes, from 3% more DPS for Glaive to 200% more awesomeness for Detriment. Additionally, hosting mods is now easier than ever and there are a few other fixes and features.

The balance changes focus on improving the specialist factories (as was decided by a poll on Patreon). Apart from Bulkhead solving Amph's pre-Grizzly lack of range, Venom is more reliable and a bug that makes jumpjets hard to tune was fixed. Other factories were also tweaked and Amph received a few extra changes to accommodate Bulkhead and the Archer rework.

Modding

Custom modes are now much easier to find. A few presets can be selected from the 'Game Type' menu while hosting a game, or under 'Select Custom Mode' in the Adv Options of a battleroom.
Arena Mod, Unit Level Ups and Zero Wars are available at the moment.
A custom mode can be a map, mod or just a set of game options.
Custom modes can be added and edited in Zero-K/CustomModes under steamapps. The parameters are listed here.
A bug that caused inconsistent mod downloads was fixed.

Balance

Added Bulkhead, a tough deployable amphibious fire support.

Cost 230
Health 1720
Water regen 15 hp/s
Speed 48
Armed with a 600 range, 87 DPS, Plasma Cannon.
Stops to fire.

Archer was a little too cheap after its rework.

Cost 180 -> 200
Water regen 25 -> 15

Scallop was somewhat replaced by Archer so needs help finding its niche.

Depth charge damage 52 -> 48
Cost 280 -> 260

Buoy is no longer as good against raiders or in skirmisher standoffs.

Turnrate reduced by 8.3%
Weapon velocity reduced by 12%
Skirmishes Thug and Felon from greater range, and shoots at the edge of their shields.

Conch is possibly now as wacky as other bot constructors.

Can morph to Djinn in 20 seconds (drains 30/s).

Scorcher has decent matchups but loses slightly on efficiency, so this might work.

Cost 130 -> 125

Fencer is no longer interrupted by impulse that is insufficient to move it.

Ravager had been left behind by Fencer/Ripper and other assaults.

Health 1850 -> 1920

Glaive being slightly bad could be holding Cloaky back.

DPS increased by 3%.

Ronin now drains shields from a safe range.

Aim speed increased by 30%.
Skirmishes Thug and Felon from greater range, and shoots at the edge of their shields.

Reaver AI is now wary of chasing Archer.

Outlaw is less effective at range, to make shieldballs more approachable by assaults and riots.

DPS reduced by 8% (slow and normal damage).
AoE damage falloff increased slightly.

Thug, Felon, Convict and commanders with personal shields are now fully drained by being stunned or disarmed. Not doing so was a bug.

Units now correctly lead jumping units with their weapons. Previously they would aim where the jumper was rather than of where it was going to be. This is the first step in tuning the Jumpbots, as Pyro gaining immunity to projectiles slower than gauss is undesirable and tricky to balance.

Venom by itself no longer stuns permanently, but has more damage to compensate.

Range 240 -> 250
Aim speed increased by 33%
Paralysis time 3s -> 1s
Reload 1.5 -> 1.1
Normal damage 40 -> 70

Wasp is heavier to dissuade air plops in 1v1, to relieve factories with expensive AA.

Cost 240 -> 300
Health 850 -> 1500
Speed 3.2 -> 2.4
Build range 160 -> 180

Claymore is more reliable.

No longer shoots its ground projectile at airborne units.
Cost 320 -> 300
Ground-range 220 -> 300 (matches sea range)
Reload 5.5 -> 2.8
Damage 620 -> 400
(DPS 112 -> 142)

Seawolf now poses more of a threat to units that cannot fire back.

Health 600 -> 650
Turn rate improved by 10%
Torpedos turn 40% faster.
Reload 3 -> 2.4

Hunter is better as a general raider and at defending against submerged units.

Health 310 -> 360
Range 230 -> 240
Reload 2.5 -> 2.6
Damage 200 -> 220
(DPS 80 -> 85)

Cutter needs a bit more health to keep up with Hunter.

Health 240 -> 260

Mistral fires rapidly enough to damage sinking amphs.

Cost 240 -> 220
Speed 2.3 -> 2.1
Turn rate improved by 15%
Aim speed doubled
Reload 8 -> 7.5
Burst rate increased by 50%
Projectile speed increased by 13%

Siren is now both able and required to hold its own at short range.

Health 4000 -> 5200
Turn rate reduced by 25%
Range 360 -> 270
Damage 260 -> 280
Reload 3 -> 1.7
(DPS 86 -> 164)

Zephyr is now as accurate as Razor.

Accuracy spread 128 -> 50

Detriment has more damage and abilities, but costs more.

Cost 20k -> 24k
Gauss reload time 2.4 -> 2
Face Laser damage 1800 -> 2400
Missile Launcher replaced with Obliteration Blaster, a manual fire weapon with 45s cooldown.
Obliteration Blaster fires a spread of projectiles, dealing up to 12k damage, and smooths terrain.
Can jump 950 elmos with 120s cooldown. The landing is not gentle.

Companion Drone and Battle Drone are more vulnerable to raiders.

Reduced weapon ranges by 28%.

Increased the minimum size of ramps so they play nice with the pathfinder. This also makes walling with ramps more expensive.

Min width 24 -> 48
Min length 40 -> 64

Other Changes and Fixes

Fixed non-commander morph not decloaking units (units are meant to be disabled during morph).
Remodelled the Airpad.
Rebalanced unit reply sound volumes.
Aircraft now have an advanced command that allows them to ignore a set of airpads. It must first be enabled in 'Settings/Interface/Commands'.
Jump reload flashes orange when jump is the active command. This can be toggled under 'Settings/Interface/Healthbars/Jump reload flash'
Fixed tactical AI not reacting well when many Attack Move commands are issued in a short period of time.
Gunship strafe toggle is shown in the default UI.
Fix alt/ctrl area mex sometimes acting as if shift is held.
Fixed commshare again (probably).
Added specialised callins for widget:PlayerResigned and widget:PlayerChangedTeam.
Added more arguments to widget:UnitDestroyed.