Balance

Metal Extractor is slightly more vulnerable to light raids.[list]

• Health 700 -> 640

Factory switching can afford to be easier now that air is less dominant in 1v1.[list]

• Cost 800 -> 700

Outlaw is worse against units that keep their distance.[list]

• Cost 250 -> 260
• Further increased AoE damage falloff.

Knight is also worse against units that keep their distance.[list]

• Range 350 -> 340

Pyro is slightly weaker because it is dominant in some matchups and we are not ready to look at Jumpbots. This is a partial revert of a buff from February, in which it gained 80 health and 8% DPS.[list]

• Health 700 -> 670
• DPS reduced by 4%

Jack and Dirtbag deal extra damage due to a bugfix.[list]

• No longer deal ‘around’ 25% less than their stated damage against targets ‘near’ max range.

Tarantula is better at hitting planes.[list]

• Missile turn rate increased by 17%.

Swift is less able to dodge missiles.[list]

• Thickened by 37.5%.

Raven swarms are slightly easier to rearm.[list]

• Rearm time 10s -> 8s
• Rearm cost 100 -> 80 energy

Likho has more downtime between bombing runs.[list]

• Rearm time 20s -> 25s
• Rearm cost 200 -> 250 energy

Ultimatum is more specialised against striders.[list]

• Cost 2000 -> 2500
• Decloak Radius 100 -> 120
• Reload 1.5s -> 2s

Funnelweb loses the ability to outrun many armies.[list]

• Cost 3500 -> 4000
• Speed 54 -> 40

Rover Assembly has a slightly smaller collision volume.

Airplane Plant no longer covers its construction and rearm pads with its collision volume.

Mechanics Fixes

• Lobster-bestowed fall damage immunity prevents cloak for its duration.
• Fixed a bug where burrowing units (Snitch, Imp and Flea) sometimes remaining cloaked when launched into the air.
• Fixed units sometimes retaining their full LOS when launched high into the air.
• Raven and Impaler overkill prevention is more lenient against targets that they do not kill in one shot.
• Overkill prevention for many burst weapons has been improved and some failure cases have been patched. In particular, burst anti-air should be a little better at finishing off damaged bombers.

Main Menu

• Clicking on a player and selecting ‘Report’ is now done entirely in-lobby.
• Decluttered the Community tab by removing the profile and ladder subwindows. Renamed to ‘Welcome’.
• Added profile and profile links (such as commander editing and ladder ratings) to the Friends tab. Renamed to ‘Profile’.
• Moved the first-launch tutorial prompt popup into the top of the news section of the new Welcome tab. Since a new entry is significantly less intrusive than a popup, it only disappears after completing the the tutorial or by toggling Settings -> Lobby -> ‘Hide welcome tutorial prompt’.
• Tweaked the button alignment and skinning of the main menu and top right status buttons.
• Reskinned the top bar to make it clear that the lobby can be toggled while ingame.
• Fixed a bug with updating subheadings of the main logo.
• Reduced the default command opacity in Settings -> Game.

Interface

• State toggles now react to commands instantly rather than waiting for the changed state to reach the server.
• Replaced the kick button in the Tab Playerlist with a report button, that brings up an in-lobby report form. The form has a kick option, but it should be used sparringly.
• Added a smarter Caretaker widget called ‘Auto Patrol Nanos v2’. It is not enabled by default as it requires more testing and fixes.
• Closing the mission objectives panel no longer unpauses the game if the game was already paused when it was opened.
• Space+Click can now be used on the factory queue, the selection panel, the mission objectives panel and morph commands.

Terraforming presets now come with some default hotkeys. These keys allow you to terraform areas with a set height, skipping the height selection step, and can be configured under Hotkeys/Construction. If you already created hotkeys then you may need to check your settings.[list]

• Alt+V makes the smallest wall that Vehicles cannot pass.
• Alt+B makes the smallest wall that Bots cannot pass.
• Alt+N makes a wall units such as Rogue can use to hide from Stinger.
• Alt+G levels the terrain to the height of the ground where the cursor was initially clicked.
• Alt+H is useful for putting a Crab high on a spire.
• Alt+J just makes a deep hole. This was more useful back when enemies could be burried.

More keybinds and unit behaviours can be set.[list]

• Trajectory mode toggle is bindable under ‘Hotkeys/Commands/State’.
• Unusual keys, such as 2, are now bindable.
• Added Overkill Prevention to ‘Settings/Unit Behaviour/Default States’.

Graphics

• Reduced strength of projectile lights by 13%. This multiplier can be tweaked in Settings/Graphics/Lighting.
• Upgraded the outline shader. The edges of the outlines are now smooth and they make units occluded by water and effects more visible.
• Improved Cerberus weapon effects.
• Improved the water on Folsom Dam.
• Death explosions are slightly less overexposed.
• Fixed missing explosion decal for Jugglenaut jump.
• Fixed missing amphibious sinking bubbles.

Fixes

• Added startboxes for BlackStar v2.
• Limpet now counts towards the kamikaze award.
• Fixed a bug with the factory plate placement visualisation when switching between multiple factory blueprints.
• Fixed right clicking on units with a command selected erroneously issuing the default command rather than cancelling the selected command.
• Fixed unit failing to reply to area reclaim and selection rank commands.
• Fixed a COFC crash caused by unbound hotkeys.

This update addresses the slightly overpowered stats on the reworked Venom. While we’re at it, here are some improvements and fixes for Detriment. There is also a tournament this weekend which is open for anyone to join or watch. Details can be found here.

Balance

Venom no longer two-shot stuns Redback, and is slightly more vulnerable to raiders.

• Range 250 -> 245
• Damage 70 -> 65
• EMP Damage 450 -> 400

Detriment has shorter reload and repair downtimes, as well as better pathfinding.

• Autoheal 20 -> 100
• Jump reload 120 -> 100
• Obliterator reload 45 -> 40
• Obliterator AoE 212 -> 256
• Obliterator no longer smooths terrain under structures (so turrets on spires no longer ‘dodge’).
• Footprint 6×6 -> 4×4 (This lets it move around terrain without issues)
• Hitvolume width reduced by 15.2%
• Hitvolume height reduced by 11.4%
• Fix AA laser only shooting with one barrel.
• Face beam is now unable to fire too far sideways.

Detriment is now a bit more resistant to Ultimatum because the Disingerator deals damage for each frame it is inside the target. In perfect circumstances Ulti removes 20.5% of its health per shot, down from 23.5%, but in reality Ultimatum will often require an extra shot to kill a Detriment.

Tremor is potentially a bit oppressive in dense team games.

• Speed 40.5 -> 37.5
• Range 1220 -> 1160

Gauss turret now has a much larger hitvolume. It was 12.5% thinner than Lotus, which was just silly.

Fixes and Features

• Knight, Thug and Hermit now jink at half the frequency, giving them time to aim.
• Added a Construction Effect graphics setting to the main menu.
• Increase Ultimatum target priority.
• Fix Phoenix effect on sea impact.
• Updated Unit Level Ups custom mode preset.
• Added support for unitdefs_mod.
• Fixed support for modding in extra weapons to units.
• Improved econ hint formatting slightly.
• Added live water configuration under ‘Settings/Graphics/Sun, Fog & Water/Water’ ingame.
• Fixed the sun and water on Skulduggery and Mechadansonia.
• Fixed Dante flamethower aiming visuals.

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.

!minelo
!maxelo
!minlevel
!maxlevel
!minrank
!maxrank

GoogleFrog has provided some new screenshots for the website backgrounds.

Aquanim and @Dregs have put together a mammoth effort and released eight new maps. @Dregs made six maps shown above while Aquanim made Anvilwood and Cobalt Dream. More information can be found in the map release thread.

These maps form the basis of a major matchmaker rotation, but are also suitable for coop, small teams, and possibly even arena-style large games. As always, the update includes a few fixes and UI improvements, the most fitting of which are explosion scars that look good on a wider range of terrain types. Additionally, an experimental new AI version is ready to be tested and mod support was improved.

Matchmaker Pool

New maps:

• Desert Rumble
• Prestige Arena
• Mechadansonia
• Jurassic Sands
• Sparkles Reef
• Scaryland
• Anvilwood
• Cobalt Dream

These maps were added or re-added last month:

• Fallendell
• Otago
• Iced Coffee
• Intersection

The following maps remain in the map pool:

• DunePatrolRedux
• FrostyCove
• Ravaged
• TitanDuel
• Vantage
• Wanderlust

You might be worried to see a few classics missing from this list; don’t worry, they’re just taking a bit of a break and will be back later.

Notable Fixes

• Updated the Myanmar flag.
• Fixed downloading mods that are uploaded via the map upload page.
• Fixed coop saves being able to override singleplayer saves.
• Fixed a bug that caused raiders to be baited early when temporarily fleeing.
• Applied more stringent checks for shader support, in an attempt to track down the integrated GPU UI disappearing bug (even though integrated graphics is technically not supported).

Other Changes

• Added a dvorak keyboard grid option.
• Added an experimental new version of the AI. It can be selected separately and is called ‘AI: Bleeding edge test’.
• Added a bindable button for a quick level terraform command that uses the height of the clicked location. The hotkey can be set in Hotkeys/Construction/Level.
• Improved the build spacing UI, fixed the build spacing hotkeys in pregame placement, and added more options for displaying build spacing.
• Improved the visuals of explosion scars, mostly by removing the brown circle around the edges of the crater, to make them fit a wider range of maps.
• Pressing escape while in the main menu and ingame returns you to the game.
• Surface weapons no longer fire at deep Amphbot Factories.
• Fixed the default settings for tactical AI under Interface/Unit Behaviour.
• Fixed a mex visualiser error on maps with no metal spots.
• Tweaked Badger sound.

Hotfixes don’t usually warrant a full set of notes, but this one contains a few things that were being worked on in the meantime and fixes a noticeable idle behaviour bug. We’re preparing to take a look at some of the less well-rounded factories, and part of that is making their unique aspects feel better to use. A few improvements to Lobster and Djinn made it into this update. Most notable is Djinn’s less restrictive requirement for teleport, which has some interesting implications.

Balance

Lobster affects units in a larger radius.

• Gather range 112 -> 160

Djinn is more powerful and convenient.

• Lamp deployment time 9s -> 8s
• Self deployment time 3.33s -> 1.11s
• Increased throughput 120 mass/s -> 150 mass/s
• Teleportation is much less picky about the destination being free of units.
• Units with subsequent orders exit the Djinn in the appropriate direction.

Fixes

• Fixed an idle-return bug that affected a few units (eg Halberd and Locust) due to their their lack of more elaborate unit AI.
• Fixed some situations where drones could gain a target then return because the target is too far away.
• Fixed terraform on flat plains not updating the map mesh until the camera moves.
• Fixed the hollow rectangle terraform (hold ctrl+shift+alt) UI not matching the result and added an interior rectangle to the UI.
• Force unhide default chassis if there are only four commanders to select.
• Made camera save/recall save the whole state rather than just the position (this was in v1.8.9.3 a few days ago).

In other news I (GoogleFrog, writing this) have a Patreon. It is new, since the last release, and the aim is to free up a bit more time to support Zero-K.

The map above is a new version of Twin Lakes Park by TheMooseIsLoose.

Idle Behaviour

Idle units now give up and return to their old location if they move too far while chasing enemies (previously they could be baited across the whole map). This can be disabled by setting a unit to Roam. Raiders and riots are also a bit smarter about how they react to enemies while idle.

• Idle raiders move to stay out of range when approached by riots or most other raiders.
• Idle riots perform similar behaviour against skirmishers and against riots with greater range.
• Units that have been pushed back in this manner only move a short distance. When pushed too far they will turn and attack.

While some attempt was made to generate good chase and push distances, there are around 1002 unit matchups so the configuration is a little rough. Expect tweaks and improvements in future patches.

Also, drones now return to their host if they stray too far away.

Command Panel

The command panel has a simple mode so as to not overwhelm new players with esoteric commands. I liked it so much that I added configuration options, to give even those that was a few more commands a nice clean panel.

• Replaced the icons for Repeat, Movestate and Firestate.
• Command and state position/ordering is now stable and consistent.
• Simple mode has slightly larger state toggles, large enough to show hotkeys. The old size can be enabled under Settings/HUD Panels/Command Panel (with Simple Settings disabled).
• Dual-toggle Hold Fire and Hold Position states replace Movestate and Firestate by default. Under the hood they toggle Hold Fire/Fire At Will and Hold Position/Maneuver. The full triple-toggle states can be enabled under Settings/Interface/Commands.
• Added the hotkey ‘H’ to toggle movestate.
• Approximately one third of the states and command are now hidden by default. The visibility of each command or state can be toggled under Settings/Interface/Commands.
• The position and order of the commands/states cannot be configured ingame. This requires a local configuration file found here.

Camera Controls

Many games have save/recall camera hotkeys, and it is an easy enough widget to write, so there was no reason not to add it.

• Added bindable camera save/recall position hotkeys, and more control over alerts and transition times. These can be bound under Hotkeys/Camera/Camera Position Hotkeys.
• Added the option to remove most advanced features from Combo Overhead/Free Camera, which can be enabled and configured under Settings/Camera with Simple Settings disabled. It can now be made to ignore shift, ctrl or alt, and can be permanent set to a particular tilt.

First Game Guide

There is now an interactive ingame guide that appears in your first non-campaign game. It is enabled by default to catch those who might need it. Experienced players can simply disable it with the X, and it can be enabled via Help.

Additional Improvements

• Added Scalpel to Fencer unit AI.
• In the lobby, watching a game or playing singleplayer no longer removes you from matchmaking queues.
• Command queue transparency can be configured in the main menu under Settings -> Game.
• The main menu settings menu now informs people that most settings only take effect upon entering the next game.
• Improved metal and energy image extended economy tooltips.
• Area Mex now queues one Solar with ctrl held, two with alt, and four with ctrl+alt. Previously it would queue four with ctrl.
• Missile Silo no longer repeatably fires with repeat enabled. This frees up repeat to be used to loop the build queue. An attack command may be repeated by issuing it with ctrl held.
• Added an experimental overlay that summarises visible reclaim. It can be enabled with ‘Toggle Field Summary’ under Settings/Interface/Reclaim Highlight (with Simple Settings disabled).
• Added selection hotkey settings for Swift, Thunderbird and Athena. They can be set under Hotkeys/Selection.
• Improved a few tooltips so that they are more descriptive. Move suggests line move. Reclaim/Repair suggests area reclaim/repair.
• Added more icons for the menu entries.

Fixes

• Fixed command tooltips defaulting to those set by the engine instead of being overridden.
• Added startboxes for Supreme Crossing.
• Fixed terraform height presets being unable to make walls around structures with ctrl held.
• Terraform structure height no longer lets you try to make land-only structures underwater.
• Fix factory plate UI on unit transfer within team.
• Added Construction Plates to the cheat sheet unit spawner.
• Fixed Merlin firing issues with save/load and improved walk animation.
• Removed Misc Priority from units with shields that do not drain energy.
• Optimised the defence range indicator.
• Optimised the metal spot visualiser.
• Fixed a performance issue in a piece of code that was meant to be disabled.
• Fixed a bug with Zenith.
• Fixed some incorrectly displayed rank icons in the extended player list.
• Removed Dante lookahead as it seems to interact poorly with multiple weapons.
• Dual wielding commanders now prefer to aim with their shorter ranged weapon.
• Fixed a chicken spire error caused by there being no burrows.
• Fixed a minor bug with AFK sharing.
• Fixed Gauss localisation.

Here is the page: https://www.patreon.com/googlefrog