Zero-K v1.3.1.17

Today we erode away a bit of Total Annihilation legacy with the removal of easy nano-shielding. While it was arguably ok at the small scale we are sure everyone would agree that blocking tacnukes with Zeniths was pretty stupid.

Also a reminder; the tourney is in a few days so don't forget to Sign Up.

Removed Nano-shielding

Nanoframe hitvolumes now grow from ground level to full height during the first 40% of construction. This makes it much harder (and possibly pointless) to block small shots and fixes the Zenith nanoframe tactical missile defense.

Targeting

Vandal now has overkill prevention. There have also been some improvements in damage tracking.

Dominatrix now really likes to target things which are partially captured. Other units have a mild aversion against targeting such units.

The aimpoints (spots that are aimed at when trying to shoot at something) of commanders are slightly higher, especially for Support Comm. This is because their weapons could be much higher than their old aimpoints which would let them shoot over walls with no retaliation.

Fixed Penetrator aimpoint and hitvolume as well.

Fixes

• Attempt to fix rare music pitch bug.
• Nuclear missile launches are now always audible.
• Fixed a rare case where undead aircraft would take up repair pad spots for eternity.
• Some sort of Central Build AI fix.

Basically in TA, your nano frames started as a skeletal frame slowly filled in. Thus a tacitcal(and somewhat annoying way) to block shots for a little metal was to queue up tall structures that would take a hit then dissapear. My guess with the Zenith case it was the same idea only supersized due to the size of the struture, which likely could block the path of a Tac Nuke.

quote: Can someone explain that nano thing? Why does nano buildpower blocks / blocked something from zenith? And tactical zenith defense?

Units used to start with their full collision volume, which could be used to block projectiles. Now it grows as they are built.

Spoofing still works i presume.

The other day I said this game needs more programmers.. But I take it back.. Its being updated waaaaayyy faster then BA and is coming along nice.. Great work! =) Though I guess more programmers isn’t always a bad thing =P

I’m wondering how painless is it to contribute code. I hear say its open source.. Ill try find a list of issues.. Maybe if its appreciated I might try to fix one.. But I’m a very green programmer.

You're very welcome to try!

ZK game issues tracker
ZK infrastructure issues tracker

You should be able to fork the respective repository easily enough and then do a pull request when/if you've anything you think would be nice having in the main repo. Some git know-how might be required but evidence shows even non-programmers can learn that pretty quickly.

If you have more questions, join the #zkdev channel in lobby.