Zero-K News

There was an engine update for Zero-K this weekend. There are a few lingering bugs as we don't have the coverage in focused testing, which are being patched as we go. The main feature is improved performance, especially for newer graphics cards, and the general promise of more performance once we use more of the capabilities of the engine. Being up-to-date with the engine is also of great benefit to other parts of development.

Unfortunately, while we're trying to support as much as we can, graphics cards older than about a decade, or old laptops with integrated graphics, may run into trouble. Players with graphics bugs and performance issues should first try updating their graphics drivers, and then ask for help in #support on the server or on Discord.

This is a balance patch on three fronts. On the ground, hovercraft have worse movement and nerfs to their most generic units, while spiders have cheaper early game units. In the air, light gunships receive some much needed attention and Raven no longer dives. Superweapons now require an energy grid, are much more vulnerable to being stunned, and Zenith swapped its cost with Disco Rave Party again. Other features include more options for line formations, better unit tracking and first person control, APM stats at the end of the game, and some fixes to do with saving campaign missions.



Hovercraft movement was buffed in v.1.9.11.0. This patch partially walks back the changes.

• Speed maintenance while turning reduced from 85% to 80%. Other vehicles are still at 60%.
  
• Slowdown while climbing hills is now halfway between the pre- and post-v.1.9.11.0 values.
  

Bolas is still a bit too much of a generalist so has minor nerfs to health and damage.

• Health 720 -> 680
  
• Reload time 0.333 -> 0.367
  
• Slow damage reduced by 1/6.
  

Scalpel gained a lot of power from improved movement and overkill prevention, so has similar nerfs.

• Health 680 -> 650
  
• Damage 660 -> 620
  

Ronin is a bit smarter.

• Now steps back while reloading (with Attack Move or or idle without Hold Position).
  

Flea is harder to spot.

• Decloak range 160 -> 130.
  

Venom is cheaper to help spiders expand safely.

• Cost 200 -> 190
  

Redback is cheaper to help spiders field armies early.

• Cost 240 -> 230
  
• Speed 1.8 -> 1.85
  

Pyro deals slightly more damage because some people just want to watch the world burn.

• Main DPS increased 3.3% (lingering damage unchanged)
  

Wasp is now only slightly less efficient than the average constructor.

• Buildpower 7.5 -> 10
  

Blastwing now deals enough damage to kill a Metal Extractor.

• Explosion damage 80 -> 40
  
• Ground fire initial damage per second 18 -> 25
  
• Ground fire duration 20 -> 25
  

Locust has more raiding uptime.

• Idle regeneration 5/s -> 10/s
  

Harpy has noticeable buffs as it been outclassed for a while.

• Health 1100 -> 1200
  
• Improved brake rate by 20%.
  
• Damage 200 -> 220.
  
• Improved unit AI with preemptive breaking and better riot avoidance.
  

Raven no longer dives. Instead it has a guided bomb that glides downwards, homing onto targets in a cone below it. Raiders are fast enough to dodge by leaving the area before the bomb hits.

• No longer dives.
  
• Cruise altitude 330 -> 270 to fit under area shields.
  
• Bomb speed reduced by 32.5%.
  
• The bomb now has significant homing, but it cannot fly more than about 45 degrees off vertical.
  

Phoenix bombs hit slightly sooner and in a larger area, increasing its reliability.

• Cruise altitude 270 -> 240.
  
• Increased spread slightly.
  

Disco Rave Party must spin up to fire at full speed and swaps its cost with Zenith.

• Requires a connection to a grid with 400 energy.
  
• Cost 36k -> 40k
  
• Initially spins 20% speed, reaching a maximum of 100% after about a minute of firing.
  
• Maintains speed without firing, unless it is stunned or loses power.
  
• Buffed the smoothing of Green Stomper slightly.
  

Zenith is less accurate when fired continuously and swaps its cost with DRP

• Requires a connection to a grid with 400 energy.
  
• Cost 40k -> 36k
  
• Range 9000 -> 8400
  
• Increased the effect of launch distance on meteor spread. A meteor launched while it is still high in the sky is significantly less accurate than one floating in the swarm.
  
• Meteors wander down from space to the swarm faster, and are generally more energetic.
  
• AoE 240 -> 256
  
• Added smoothing. The radius is small but it can move structures.
  
• Meteors are visually 40% larger.
  
• Meteor reclaim increased 10 -> 20.
  

Starlight requires a large grid and resets its aim when stunned.

• Requires a connection to a grid with 600 energy.
  
• Glint falls and docks whenever the laser is not firing. This includes disarm, emp and low power.
  
• Aim speed is now reduced by slow damage.
  

Chickens now regenerate at 20 hp/s after 10s of idle time.

Adjusted some campaign missions for the superweapon changes.

• Added enough energy to reliably power the enemy Zeniths on planets Caderical and Pendust.
  
• Added barely enough energy to power the player Zenith and Disco Rave Party on planets Caderical and Zhurou.
  
• Added radar to assist the Disco Rave Party on planet Cipher, for difficulties Hard and Brutal.
  

Taught AIs about superweapon grids and updated the lower difficulty levels.

• AIs can now build Starlight.
  
• AIs know how to place Pylons around their superweapons.
  
• Updated beginner and novice AI to use the latest build.
  
• Added AI builds that are compatible with the latest engine, which is still being tested.
  

• Moved line formation settings to 'Settings/Interface/Line Formations'.
  
• Added an option that turns right-click drag for selected commands (as opposed to context commands) into a line formation, rather than deselecting the command. Disabled by default.
  
• Added an option to evenly distribute different unit types along line formations. Enabled by default.
  
• Added an option to merge small categories of units for the purpose of evenly spreading unit types along line formations. Defaults to 1.
  
• The previously hardcoded behaviour in COFC that disables unit tracking mode when the camera is rotated can be disabled under 'Settings/Camera/COFC Following'.
  
• Icons that smoothly draw over models as you zoom out, rather than suddenly switching, can now be enabled under 'Settings/Graphics/Unit Visibility/Icon Zoom Transition'.
  
• Added keep target command for Raven, since it now makes sense with its guided bomb.
  
• Bombers can be now be set to retain the target of cancelled attack commands in 'Settings/Unit Behaviour'. This is how other units behave, but it was disabled for bombers to reduce accidents.
  
• Starlight stops moving its beam when given a Stop command, rather than continuing on to its most recent target location.
  
• Added direct unit control support (FPS mode). It can be enabled in the lobby in game options under 'Silly'. To enable in the campaign do /cheat, open the cheat sheet on the top left bar, tick the appropriate option, and do /cheat again (to reenable victory conditions).
  
• Added a tab to the game over screen with command speed summaries, such as APM.
  
• Added splashes for units entering or exiting water at speed.
  

• Fixed complete mission objectives being broken by save/load.
  
• Workaround for the ramps on Lovaza Jira disappearing when the game is saved and loaded.
  
• Fixed some bugs and jitters with COFC unit tracking mode.
  
• Fixed icon distance and volumes not being carried over to externally launched games.
  
• Fixed an issue with connecting to the lobby for a few players.
  
• Improved unit movement for reclaim, attack move and repair commands.
  
• Fixed some typos in the space+click unit guides.
  
• Fixed Zenith space+click guide reporting incorrect reload time.
  
• Fixed incorrectly reported cruise altitude in the space+click unit guides.
  
• Fixed units with free cloak not listing cloak as an ability in the space+click unit guides.
  
• Added translation for 'shields'.
  
• Added startboxes for Coast To Coast Remake.
  

This is a small update with some AI fixes, just in time to take a break over the holidays to wander through the campaign. Perhaps even invite some friends.

• Fixed Strider Hub eventually not working. The AI forgot that striders can move, so was not able to reuse open space to place additional strider nanoframes.
  
• Increased the placement distance between Solar and Wind Generators. This makes the AI much less likely to block its base on maps with narrow passes.
  
• Construction delays for Easy, Normal and Hard now reduce to about 75% their maximum after about 20 minutes. This causes the AI to ramp up slightly in the lategame.
  
• Reduced initial construction delay for Hard, to make it slightly harder early on.
  
• Fixed an inverted comparator which was causing AIs to make Solars (rather than Singus) in the late game.
  

The previous patch had a few changes to bring Hovercraft more into the game. It was so successful that we felt the need to make this small followup update. The reduction in while turning seemed to particularly boost Bolas as it likes to dance around at max range, so it has lost some range to compensate. Minimum turn speed was also walked back from 100% to 85% for all hovercraft (other vehicles still turn at 60% speed).

Bolas is less adept at poking other raiders.

• Reduced turn rate by 5.4% (now lower than Dagger).
  
• Range 232 -> 225
  
• Damage reduced by 3%.
  

A few other changes snuck in.

• Paladin gains 20 hp/s combat regeneration.
  
• Tweaked Kodachi overkill prevention to hold fire less frequently.
  
• Fix the Dvorak key layout.
  

The November patch is a large one, with four new maps added to the matchmaker pool, numerous balance tweaks, and many other improvements and fixes.

The most notable balance changes are:

• Armour now reduces damage by a factor of 3 rather than 4. This is to increase counters to armoured turrets and Crab, and to give Halberd space to be tankier while firing.
  
• Hovercraft have their uniquely terrible slope climbing replaced with uniquely fast speed while turning. A bonus feels better than a penalty, and the old penalty was pretty obscure as well as limiting for map diversity.
  
• Limpet received its prophesied nerf now its power and general utility has been discovered.
  
• The ongoing small tweaks to vehicle raiders continue in an attempt to share some of the success of Rover with Hover and Tank.
  
• Swift no longer fires while landing. Its weapon maybe have to be buffed in the future to compensate.
  

New features include a command for easier factory plate placement and improved effects for Halberd and Buoy. Modding for many niche special abilities is much easier and a few edge case bugs have been fixed.



1v1 pool:

• Added Faultline, Doldrums, Random Plateaus, Shimmershore, Trojan Hills, Mecharavaged.
  
• Removed Intersection, Ravaged, Crubick Plains, Frostburn, Izki Channel, Anvilwood.
  

Teams pool:

• Added Faultline, Doldrums, Random Plateaus, Shimmershore, Trojan Hills, Mecharavaged.
  
• Removed Intersection, Ravaged, Crubick Plains, Frostburn, Aurelian.
  

Armour damage reduction reduced 75% -> 66.6%. The following units were partially compensated.

• Halberd health 1250 -> 1600
  
• Crab health 4000 -> 4200
  
• Solar Collector health 500 -> 600
  

Hovercraft have increased mobility.

• Rather than slow to 60% while turning like other vehicles, they keep all their speed.
  
• They climb slopes as quickly as other vehicles, rather than climbing much slower.
  

Quill turns faster because large turning circles are needlessly annoying on constructors.

• Turn rate 920 -> 1100.
  

Dagger deals more damage, but not enough to affect its matchups against most raiders.

• Damage 100 -> 110
  

Scalpel is smarter.

• Overkill prevention fires less often at targets that are probably going to die.
  

Dart swarms are slightly less deadly.

• Damage 35 -> 32
  
• Slow damage 140 -> 128
  

Fencer is the backbone of Rover, which seems particularly powerful, so can afford a small nerf.

• Cost 140 -> 145
  

Kodachi is cheaper but finds it harder to deal free damage.

• Cost 175 -> 170
  
• Range 215 -> 210
  

Limpet took years to be noticed, and it is finally time for its first nerf.

• Cost 150 -> 160
  
• Speed 123 -> 120
  
• Damage 150 -> 120
  
• Slow damage of 1200 unchanged.
  
• Overslow 5s -> 2s (matches Moderator)
  

Cutter should not be outclassed by Hunter so early.

• Cost 70 -> 65
  

Swift is no longer a form of artillery, and boost is consistent with other abilities.

• Can no longer fire while landing.
  
• Boost recharge rate now obeys status effects.
  

Faraday has less damage and stun uptime, on top of the general armour nerf.

• Damage 1200 -> 1100
  
• Reload 2.7s -> 2.9s (stun uptime 74% -> 69%)
  

Faraday and Gauss have more appropriate collision shapes.

• They now have flatter collision volumes when closed.
  
• If they can shoot over a wall, their aim point is now adjusted so that enemies can shoot back.
  

Commander Disruptor Bomb is now consistent with Limpet.

• Damage 350 -> 210
  
• Slow damage of 2100 unchanged.
  
• Added 2s overslow to Violet Slugger for consistency with Limpet.
  

Disco Rave Party is now consistent with Limpet.

• Added 2s overslow to Violet Slugger.
  

All slow pulses, besides the more continual pulse of Outlaw, now have a slow to damage ratio of 10:1, and 2 seconds overslow.



Dagger and Bolas radar icons are now consistent with other light/heavy raider pairs.

• Icon type Raider/Support -> Scout/Raider.
  
• This will be confusing at first, but the consistency should be worth it in the long run.
  

Factory plates are easier to place with the new factory plate command.

• Added a generic factory plate command that turns.
  
• It turns into the factory plate of the nearest factory in range of the mouse.
  
• It exists in the grid construction menu with hotkey BV.
  

Fixed some texts:

• "defense" -> "defence" (rather than a mismash of the two options)
  
• "minimun" -> "minimum"
  
• "stun time" -> "max stun time"
  

Other features.

• Self-destructing a selection of units costing less than 1000 now never triggers autoresign.
  
• Rectangle terraform now turns red when too large.
  
• Added Swift boost and jumpjet cooldown to selections panel.
  
• Landed Swifts refund their boost.
  
• Add Fire Towards Enemies to the hotkey menu.
  

• Improved projectile effect and muzzle flare for Buoy and Halberd.
  

Many previously hardcoded abilities now have customParams or are configurable in LuaRules/Configs. While it was possible for mods to copy gadgets to configure such behaviour, it is now easier to do so in a configurable way. This includes:

• Dirtbag mound.
  
• Full interactions for sonar, radar and radar jamming (eg being disabled when disarmed).
  
• Phantom firing while cloaked.
  
• Air transports.
  
• Teleport beacon.
  
• Overshoot prevention for turrets.
  
• Gravity weapons being allowed to Set Target allies.
  
• Torpedoes not jumping out of the water when they hit the shore.
  

• Fix ward fire error spam on metal maps.
  
• Krow and Thunderbird now decloak during bombing runs. Previously Thunderbird would only decloak when bombing via attack order.
  
• Clean up metal spot detection code.
  
• Improved base64 encoding memory usage.
  
• Fix Scylla firepoint offset/clipping.
  
• Fix special weapons not updating their image and text in some cases (eg select a Swift then a Charon).
  
• Fix SLAM rocket model.
  
• Fix stretched Dart track texture.