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ZeroK: Ladder rework

Ladder ratings have been modified to be more intuitive. Now your ladder rating will always increase when you win a game and decrease when a game is lost. The rank brackets are now global and equal for all users. Once you reach a 20% threshold in the next bracket, you will rank up. Once you go more than 20% below your current bracket, you will rank down. Ratings will change less between games.

The way this is implemented is with two major changes. Firstly, ladder rating is only updated playing a game. So there will be no rating changes when you’re not playing and it will never go opposite to whether you won/lost. Additionally, the rating changes use a moving average to smooth out changes. Secondly, the target rating for the ladder rating is now a monthly average. This means that instead of just looking at your most recent rating, your rating over the whole past month will be averaged, weighted by the number of games played each day. This should make for more stable monthly ladders.

There’s also been a fix for people who haven’t played within the last 30 days still being displayed on the ladders. This means that there will be less rated players, and thus less purple ranks (top 1%).

ZeroK: Zero-K v1.7.9.0 A Bunch of Fixes

Policing a list of banned exploits sucks for any competitive game as it is a task rife with ambiguity. Two exploits were revealed quite recently, and while the community has been good enough to avoid breaking the game, it is best to fix them as soon as possible. Hence this update.

Zero-K would not be Zero-K without creative use of physics weapons so only the most broken aspects of the mechanics were patched. The real feature of this release is that players are again free to experiment without constraint. At this point, every trick or tactic that is possible within the game mechanics is allowed. Have fun!

(Note that using mechanics to troll is neither a ‘trick’ or ‘tactic’.)

Large Fixes

Lobstervators and Placestations can no longer be built arbitrarily high in the sky. This is achieved essentially by making Lobster and Placeholder gradually lose impulse power at an altitude of around 600 to 1000 elmos, preventing unbounded expeditions into the sky.

Krow can no longer be made to oscillate to arbitrarily fast speeds.

Claws have been fixed, resulting in a DPS buff for Badger of at least 25%.

  • Fix the 5th Claw missile not appearing. This is effectively a 25% damage buff.
  • Fixed Claw not spawning on direct hits.
  • Claw no longer randomly delays its shot upon spawning.
  • Fixed Claw failing to 1-shot a 200 health target.
  • Fixed some other cases where Claw would randomly fail to spawn.
  • Claws no longer bait enemy fire in the short gap between firing and death.

Chicken have received fixes for sea maps.

  • Chickens now have sonar and can see underwater
  • Removed chicken speed penalties on the sea.
  • Melee chickens now move on the oceanfloor.
  • Chicken projecties can shoot underwater.

Medium-Sized Fixes

  • Flamethrowers no longer occasionally penetrate shields.
  • Fixed Starlight aiming. It can now snipe a Gnat at max range.
  • Fixed Widow occasionally missing.
  • Fixed structures failing to block anything (so they could be stacked) when placed on particular sharp cliffs.
  • Jugglenaut is now able to target Archer.
  • Fixed issuing a duplicate construction order with Shift+Right Click not canceling the order.
  • Unit states are no longer reset to their default upon loading a game.

Small Fixes

  • On/Off state can now be toggled on units that are under construction.
  • Disintegrators now lead moving targets correctly.
  • Fixed units eventually failing to follow patrol orders.
  • Damaged units no longer emit smoke while cloaked.
  • Jumpjets now work on non-amphbious units flying over the sea.
  • Metal spot circles now update with changes to nearby terrain.
  • Glint is invulnerable while its parent Starlight lives.
  • Removed some of the sharp speed and frequency limits that determine whether a Lobster can launch a unit. The limits now consist of a gradual loss of impulse power.
  • Another attempt at metalhead Gauss.
  • Improved hitboxes for Athena and Scorpion.
  • Improved hitboxes for the deathclones of Athena, Scorpion, Phoenix, Wasp, Moderator, Raptor, Owl, Tarantula, Venom, Recluse, Ravager, and Dominatrix.
  • Added a deathclone for Sparrow.
  • Fixed the disruptor bomb sound for Commanders and Disco Rave Party. Toned down the high frequencies.
  • Fixed Zenith with the Fire Once modifier (Ctrl + Force Fire).
  • Zenith is able to damage itself.
  • Removed pulsating teamcolour.

Yorg: Yorg 0.11 has been released!

Yorg 0.11.1 has been released!

Hi! We have released a new version of Yorg! Let’s talk about the new features.

Improved joypad support

0.11 was the first release which provided the joypad support, using the new Panda3D’s input subsystem. In the first implementation, we missed some aspects. Now, the support should be meaningfully improved. First of all, it is far more customizable. Moreover, several issues have been fixed (e.g. braking, respawn, vibrations, …).

Various improvements

The joypad support has received the biggest amount of efforts, but a lot of other improvements have been added. The GUI has been tuned a bit (it should be easier to detect the current selection now). The camera has been improved (now it has more inertia and it should be smoother).

As for the bugfixes, some rare bugs in the AI have been fixed. Several fixes have been implemented (CPU usage, errors in local and online multiplayer, server’s code, audio, GUI, builds).

As for the refactorings, I did several modifications (some updates for the new Panda3D version; improved the networking code).

Finally, some internal code has been improved (now Setuptools is the only tool that builds Yorg; and some dependencies have been removed).

Updated translations

We have received several contributions from very kind people. Specifically, we have updated these translations: French, Galician, German, Scottish Gaelic and Spanish! A lot of thanks go to GunChleoc, Leandro, xin and Wuzzy!

Download

You can find 0.11.1’s download links in Yorg’s page. There, you will find links to our pages on GameJolt, itch.io, IndieDB!

Support us

Finally, we would love if you may consider to support us. As usual, you may consider our campaign on Patreon (minimum pledge: only $1!). Thank you very much!

Changelog

Here is the quick changelog:

  • improved joypad support;
  • translation updates (French, Galician, German, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish);
  • minor improvements (GUI, camera);
  • fixes (CPU usage, AI, local multiplayer, online multiplayer, server, audio, GUI, builds);
  • refactoring (support for new Panda3D’s features, networking);
  • development improvements (building with SetupTools, removed some dependencies).