RTS

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ZeroK: Zero-K v1.10.4.0 – Backend Backlog

In this update we work through the backlog of graphics and performance improvements made possible by the engine update three months ago. Outlines and reclaim highlighting should run (and look) better, although exact results will depend on hardware. Compatibility fallbacks exist for players with particularly old hardware. Many other bits of code have also been tweaked for performance.

Other fixes and features have been worked on in the meantime, the most notable being formation ranks. It can be enabled through the ingame menu, and it is a bit rough around the edges, so send feedback.

In terms of balance, the 1v1 oriented changes are minimal as the pick- and win-rate stats are looking quite good. Shields have a nerf and Hover have a buff, and both sets of changes are partial reverts of buffs and nerfs from 2021. For dense teamgames, Impaler projectiles are slightly slower to cut down on their effectiveness against mobile units.

Balance

Bandit has half a revert to its recent damage buff.

  • Damage per second 8.35 (pre-August 2021) -> 8.6 (recent) -> 8.48 (new)

Rogue is slower and also has half a revert to some recent buffs.

  • Speed 58.5 -> 57
  • Projectile velocity 185 (pre-August 2021) -> 192 (recent) -> 190 (new)
  • Damage 340 (pre-August 2021) -> 350 (recent) -> 345 (new)

Bolas has its recent health nerf reduced.

  • Health 720 (pre-October 2021) -> 680 (recent) -> 700 (new)

Scalpel has both its recent nerfs reduced.

  • Health 680 (pre-October 2021) -> 650 (recent) -> 660 (new)
  • Damage 660 (pre-October 2021) -> 620 (recent) -> 640 (new)

Impaler has a slower projectile.

  • Projectile acceleration reduced by 11%.

Interface

  • Added optional front-back ordering for line formations. Set it with Formation Rank ingame under Settings/Unit Behaviour/Default States, or set it per-unit with a state toggle that can be enabled ingame under Settings/Interface/Commands.
  • Added a modoption to disable resurrection.
  • Tweaked the tutorial mission to be a bit more informative, and removed the Lance.
  • Added selection filtering for global build command.
  • Added an option to show rating in the Tab Playerlist.
  • Added hardware cursor to main menu Settings/Game.

Graphics

  • Replaced unit outlines with an opengl4 shader (a non-opengl4 fallback exists).
  • Replaced reclaim highlight with an opengl4 shader (a non-opengl4 fallback exists).
  • Improved Rogue walk animation.
  • Added a unique death clone for Imp.

Modding

  • Updated Stinger model, with a small compatibility change required for how it aims.
  • Removed 3do model support and converted existing 3dos to s3o.
  • Unhardcode mex from pregame queue widget. A customParam for this exists.
  • Fixed a potential crash caused by adding morph to a variety of units (mostly cloakbots).
  • Add Spring.Utilities.CMD table for custom command lookup.
  • Added a warning for buildings with brake, acceleration, and turn rate tags set.
  • Remove QueryNanoPiece from LUS.

Fixes

  • Lance avoids hovering downwards while firing, to avoid ‘accidents’.
  • Removed flat rectangles that could sometimes form under killed structures.
  • Commanders with skins no longer leave a ghost behind when they leave line of sight.
  • Removed ‘Dev’ from the name of the in-use AIs.
  • Fixed weird looking impact explosions for Ogre, Behemoth, and Shogun.
  • Settings that exist in the main menu and ingame are now under advanced settings ingame.
  • Fixed an error in the ward fire toggle related to shooting at metal spots.
  • Fixed Gauss turret spamming functions.
  • Automatic guard remover no longer applies to factories.
  • Fixed some minor Legacy AI configuration issues.
  • Fixed feature ghosting not obeying distance fade.
  • Fixed Imp underwater explosion effect.
  • Optimise some code in Gauss turret, units catching on fire, selection shapes, attack AoE, economy overlay, decloak range, reclaim field summary, pause screen, newton firezone, radar dot height, and geothermal highlighter.
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ZeroK: Engine Update

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.
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ZeroK: Zero-K v1.10.1.0 – Ground, Air and Superweapons

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.

Ground

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)

Air

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.

Superweapons

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.

Singleplayer and Coop

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.

Features

  • 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.

Fixes

  • 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.
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