Ladder play has been so popular that we’ve decided to run a short 1v1 tournament this weekend, just to get into the swing of things. The format is single elimination within pools stratified by rank. Everyone should be able to sign up and have a decent chance within their pool.

Sign up in this thread: http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/25212

The release has far exceeded our expectations and we’ve gained a lot of new players for the community who, overall, seem pretty nice. The servers have held up and, apart from a crash on Friday, everything has gone really smoothly. The campaign and matchmaker are really paying dividends. Currently there are 800 people playing Zero-K and 500 in the lobby and we’re excited to see how far we can go.

We would really appreciate help so spread videos, tell your friends, and leave reviews. With no marketing budget (or really any budget) this is our best way to spread Zero-K and to ensure that Steam shows it to many potential players. It really helps and a big thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to review thus far!

We would also like to clarify some issues and common questions.

• It is normal to see empty or near-empty rooms in the battlelist tooltips. We intentionally avoid sending the status of everyone to everyone else in order to save on server load.
• There is currently a bug with matchmaking that bans both players in the “found match” popup if one rejects before the other accepts. We will fix or workaround this on our next server deployment. Luckily the ban time is 30 seconds.
• To play coop Skirmish or Campaign with many players it is important that a single person invites everyone else, as they are the host.
• There is a lot of scope for modding but we have not yet set up the steam workshop. There is a lot of detail to cover so, if you’re interested, ask anyone in the modding channel on our Discord server.

We have been monitoring issues and are taking a cautious approach to changes, lest we break anything, as the issues are generally minor. We plan to run server maintenance for about 10 minutes sometime during the week to improve stability and solve the matchmaking issue. We also have some UI improvements for the main menu and fixes to rare bugs ingame. We have a beta branch and testers would be much appreciated.

Finally, here are some standout videos or reviews.

• Timely release article by Rock Paper Shotgun
• Hilarious quick review by FishFishBlub
• Four player coop mayhem by FallenShogun
• Review and start of the campaign by eNtaK
• Excellent overview of hotkeys by Shadowfury333
• Extreme Jugglenaut Ramping by Icedmetal57

PS. If you haven’t heard of Zero-K before, here is the store page.

Zero-K is out on Steam in less than a day. Here is what you can do to help:

• Ask friends (acquaintances, passers-by) to get Zero-K on Steam, after all, it’s free!
• Get Steam Zero-K and write a review. This tells Steam to tell more people about Zero-K.
• Be as nice possible to new players and help them out. They will appreciate it will help set up a good community standard.

Store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/334920/ZeroK/

Here are a bunch of useful link: http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/25145

Thanks everyone for supporting us this far!

With the Steam release fast approaching we have launched another test Planetwars to fix any lingering issues and ensure that it all works. For stability there are few new features however we have found the time to do some balance changes on the structures. The largest change is that victory points decay at 1/turn if at least two factions have VP, this is similar to the influence decay mechanic for planets.

It would be foolish to run Planetwars over the release as it is not the best place for brand new players and there are potential server load issues. We’ve been running these tests to let us run a full lore-and-all round shortly after the release. Exactly when will depend on circumstances.

Planetwars is now online for testing, with plans to run a full round within the next two months. We encourage you to join a faction and conquer some planets, with the caveat that this is just a testing round. Bugs and unexpected changes are likely and …

The most noticeable features of this versions is a balance pass for sea and a fix for the Rogue buff. The projectile speed buff for Rogue was accidentally not applied due to a bug. This has been fixed. We’ve also made other fixes and balance changes, including engine stability fixes that are not listed here.

Balance

Shogun:

• Cost 4K -> 5K
• HP 12K -> 8K
• Reload time 10s -> 15s (DPS 450 -> 300)

Corsair:

• Cost 220 -> 240
• Speed 3.2 -> 2.7
• Damage 512 -> 234
• Reduced spray angle and projectiles per shot.
• Reload time (for each shotgun) 2.4s -> 2.0s

The weapon changes make its shotgun the same as that of a Scallop.

Cutter:

• Slightly increased size.
• Reload time 1.5s -> 2.0s
• Range 330 -> 260
• Damage 34 -> 35

Hunter:

• Increased model and collision size by a bit less than 50%.

Mistral:

• Damage 280 -> 200 per rocket.

Siren:

• Health 4000 -> 3750

Envoy:

• Health 2500 -> 2000

Rogue:

• Fixed the bug that prevented the projectile speed buff from 170 -> 200 taking effect.
• Health 570 -> 580

Glaive:

• Speed 3.9 -> 3.85

Note that Glaive had 3.8 speed and cost 65 metal this time last year.

Increased Gremlin DPS by 5.4%.

Tarantula buff:

• Cost 400 -> 380.
• Damage 220 -> 260.
• Projectile velocity increased 22%.

It has much less DPS/cost than Vandal so the change is probably safe.

Phoenix:

• Health 650 -> 720
• Possibly increased the spray angle of its bombs.

Early Engineer commander nerfs:

• Level 1 buildpower 12 -> 10. Other levels are unchanged so you now consistently gain 2 BP per level up to 20.
• Build range 250 -> 220 but with a bonus of +12 per level up to a maximum of 280.

Other commanders:

• Build range 128 -> 144

Sight range buffs:

• Dirtbag 300 -> 350
• Mason 255 -> 273
• Welder 280 -> 300

Added overkill prevention for Stinger and Grizzly.

Interface

• Reduced Grizzly laser brightness.
• Reduced some spider reply volumes.
• Fixed some burst damage displays on the UI.
• Moved HUD skin options to advanced options.
• Selection rank now only inherits through commander morph.
• Updated old avatars.
• Fixed some units failing to fire at wrecks (such as Tremor).

Previous Versions

• Locust fire angle 90 -> 135
• Optimized Tremor.
• Fixed Adv. Radar animation.
• Fixed the double cloak cost bug.
• Fixed Solar AI.
• Fixed overhead icons for captured units.

The smooth aiming update from early February is paying dividends in balance disruption. Units with high turn rate (ie Reaver) and high fire rate (ie Reaver) gained the ability to jink while constantly firing at their target, effectively increasing their DPS. We’re working to address this, as well as to make Tank and Jumpbot back into real factories.

Balance

Units can now be force fired at trees, rocks and wrecks to clear paths and deny reclaim.

Reaver:

• Auto regen +30 -> +20
• DPS reduced by 7.2%

Kodachi:

• Auto regen +10 -> +15
• Burn time lots -> 5s.
• Damage 120 -> 150.
• Ground fire DPS increased by 25%.

Blitz:

• Removed unique EMP explosion as it is often detrimental.
• Normal damge 170 -> 200
• Reload time 2.6 -> 2.7 (old value was 3)

Ogre:

• Health 1650 -> 1850

Pyro:

• Increased burn chance from 10% to 40%.

For the mathematically disinclined this corresponds to a 95% chance to set units on fire after a second of continuous fire. Previously the burn chance after a second was 47%.

Made puppies not terrible:

• Removed goo inefficiency (goo cost 75m -> 50m).

Grizzly:

• Health 9000 -> 8400

Siren:

• Now hits, even if it misses (like Ripper).

Dante

• Increased Flamethrower burn chance to 40%.

Commanders:

• Build power module nerfed from 5bp to 4bp.
• Increased Flamethrower burn chance to 40%.
• Engineer commander now aims prior to firing, resulting in a slightly longer effective unpack time.

Faraday:

• Reload time 2.4 -> 2.6 (pre-buff was 2.8)

Personal shields now start at 100% charge. This affects some shieldbots and commanders.

Unit AI:

• Fencer now uses its limited AI to keep away from Ogre (default off).
• Units no longer try to jink around Kodachi.
• Kodachi tries to keep at maximum range against more types of unit.

Interface

• Added ‘Edit Behaviour’ to space+click menu opens the initial unit states menu entry for the unit.

Fixes

• Fixed random startboxes.
• Fixed Welder firing jerkyness.
• Fixed enemy cloak visual error.
• Fixed projectile lights stacking issue.
• Fixed pause button issue.
• Fixed rare Raven issue that could cause it to be stuck low.
• Fixed Cutter Debris size.

There will be a 2v2 tournament held on Saturday 3rd March at 19:00 UTC. Learn more and sign up here: http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/24838

In Zero-K v1.6.2.14 we address the rocky Tank earlygame. Welder should now live up the the name ‘Armed Constructor’ and their raiders should be a bit better at contesting the map. Thunderbirds are also slightly nerfed and there are many fixes.

Balance

Welder:

• Cost 250 -> 220
• Health 1900 -> 2000 (nice round numbers)
• DPS 42.8 -> 90
• Range 220 -> 240

Tanks seemed really hurt by the expense of their constructor and it could not even fight many raiders. This Welder can beat a lone Scorcher and, surprisingly, does not completely dominate other raiders (except for Dagger).

Kodachi:

• Cost 180 -> 160
• Increased accuracy.
• Increased weapon velocity and arc slightly, probably cancels out.

Blitz:

• Damage 190 -> 170
• Reload time 3s -> 2.6s

The damage nerf has no effect on most raider matchups so, against, raiders this is mostly a buff.

Ettin:

• Cost 550 -> 500
• Damage 81.5 -> 90

Tank AA seems terrible compared to other AA so here is a small buff.

Thresher:

• Cost 500 -> 450

Static flak is also a bit terrible.

Thunderbird:

• Rearm time 5s -> 15s

Subsequent Thunderbird strikes after a surprise switch seemed too closely spaced. The switcher could often get multiple good disarm runs in quick succession. Happily, this change should have little effect on teamgames where Thunderbirds tend to be less reusable.

Commanders:

• Level 4 morph cost 400 -> 600.
• High Powered Servos effect 10% -> 8%.

Some buffs for later level commanders would be nice but little can be done without art.

Fixed an interaction between EMP+damage weapons and disarm. Disarm is intended to be pushed up by EMP, or, equivalently, every EMP weapon is supposed to behave as if it also deals disarm damage. This was working as intended for pure EMP weapons but not for weapons which also deal a bit of normal damage.

Graphics

• Fixed Fencer missile smoke.
• Decloak is now drawn faster.
• Enemy units fade away on cloak instead of suddenly disappearing.
• Improved Kodachi ground fire effect. Increased the size of the effect to more accurately portray the danger zone.

Fixes

• Grizzly can no longer walk backwards.
• CAI no longer produces gravity gun units (to ‘fix’ overzealous recursion detection).
• Fixed Raven dive against speed module commanders.
• Fixed AI names in endgame graphs.
• Endgame graph no longer appears in coop campaign when the host leaves (for SP consistency).
• Fixed some rare bugs related to orphaning of Missile Silo and Starlight children.
• Fixed Jack and Scythe(and Dirtbag) attack range movement behaviour.
• Fixed units getting stuck on poorly shaped factories, such as the Rover factory.
• Fixed the weird decloak behaviour seen over the past few days. This was due to engine changes.