Zero-K v1.2.12.0

Reef arguably had the worst model in ZK and in this version it has finally received a remodel. This comes with some gameplay changes and an impressive hanger construction system. RyMarq continues to refine sea balance and Hovercraft have received some small nerfs after a long period of feedback. Sumo now has gravity guns because it was insufficiently awesome.

In other news; work on the lobby is ongoing and benchmarks have helped create some improvements to performance on the new engine. We may be ready for another community benchmark in a few weeks in order to test the effectiveness of the changes.

Gameplay

Reef:

• New model by lordmuffe and Anarchid.
• Has less airpads, 9 -> 2.
• Has more hangers to build 4 drones simultaneously.

Mace less maneuverable:

• Range: 355 -> 345
• 25% less acceleration.
• 35% less brake rate.
• 35% less turn rate.

Dagger:

• Range: 220 -> 205

Sumo:

• Disruptor beams replaced with standard Newton gravity guns.

Surfboard:

• HP: 1100 -> 1200
• Speed: 3 -> 3.3
• Turn rate: 540 -> 590

Enforcer:

• Turn rate: 210 -> 230
• Weapon homing: 2000 -> 2100

Serpent:

• Turn rate: 220 -> 250.

Sonar Station is now long-ranged and heavier:

• Cost: 40 -> 450
• LoS: 500 -> 640
• Sonar: 600 -> 1800
• HP: 300 -> 800
• Upkeep: 0.5 -> 1.5

* Shield link transfer and Puppy goo obey Slow.
* Removed sonar from Scalpel and Advanced Radar Tower.
* Slasher is skirmished by artillery.
* Slasher has skirmish behaviour (disabled by default).

UI

* Minimap fades on zoomout with COFC.
* Added neutral unit display toggle for show all commands.
* Map Extension default texture brightness lowered, makes identifying what the extension is easier.
* Removed the redundant "unit unlocks" modoption.
* Widgets now have access to a few more unit parameters; jump, dynamic damage, morph, capture, area cloak, unit rank, teleporters, goo, missile flight time, explosion spawning, being a drone, combat slowdown, shield gun, speed boost.
* Context Menu now shows LoS.
* Improved the COFC bounds issues, especially for low FOV
* Deluxe player list: Elo rounding 50 -> 10. Fixed padding.
* Configuration of the Fog of War colour is now more sensible.
* Selection menu opacity is now configurable.
* Added a new potential resource display widget; Chili Economy Panel v2.

Bugfixes

* Skuttle, Strider Hub and Caretaker now leave wreckage.
* Fixed jumping units' wreckage receiving excessive momentum on death.
* Fixed LUPS thrusters bug.
* Fixed context menu crash.

Misc

* Plopped factories and commanders make a teleporting sound.
* Metalmap fix for RustyDelta_Final.

It is not meant to be assaulty, that is the role of Jack. Sumo has always had problems with being a bigger Jack which prevented a proper role. It also costs a lot which means it does not need a role so much. The aim of gravity guns is to accentuate the stomp as its source of damage.

quote: 450 cost 0.o

Remember that the old Sonar Station had hardly more range than Urchins, so there wasn't really a need for it. Also remember that 3x range means 9x the area. Theres another bonus in that the structure can now also provide sonar where the old structure could not - in enemy territory.

the problem wit the very old sonar station for 120 metal had been that it was much too expensive. now with all the changes, particularly torpedo units having their own sonar, you dont need a sonar in base that early - but the price of 450 for only a slight bit more range than we were used to from before this whole rebalance, is quite odd. dont see why it needs to be that expensive.

If people are worried about Sumo, just give the model spikes and give enemy units 3X collision damage against it :D. Could then use a bonus 1000HP for self damage.

quote: * Removed sonar from Scalpel and Advanced Radar Tower.

quote: An apparently undocumented change is that Advanced radar no longer gives sonar.

You need to work on your apparention ;)

If it's not working out as it is I wouldn't mind seeing the price of the current sonar drop to somewhere around 300. By comparison with the old advanced radar (which was quite good in sea, but hardly something rushed very early) 300 seems like a fair price (since you're losing the radar and the ability to build out of range of ducks with a spot of terraforming).

EDIT: Could you build a sonar and then surround it with a terraformed wall, like people do with their shiny moho geos? Would it still give sonar? I guess the way to find out is to try.

EDIT 2: Well, I can't test it on my own easily since to set up enemy units to be seen by sonar I have to be able to see them which defeats the entire purpose of the exercise. Maybe there's some way to set it up properly but I don't know it. I feel like it ought to work, though.

450 might well be fine though, since at the stage you're building them it's probably just to cover a large area and (on Inculta at least) you would likely have plenty of metal to throw at the problem.

and like radar, it would not cost upkeep in operational reclaimed state.

Sumo with disruptors was meant to be geared towards countering Zeus-level units, the problem unit for the factory. All midgame units that are too heavy to Firewalker but too light to Skuttle: Ravager through Reaper. Moderator probably, hopefully, takes over this role and is at a better cost point to do so: But it would be nice to have a viable late game comp that includes but is not solely consistent of Sumo's. It would be nice if Sumo/Firewalker were a thing and they covered eachothers arses. The idea behind the disruptor is it lets you use Jacks with Sumo and it slows units travelling through firewalker flames: IE all the synergies Moderator is meant to have too. This never wholly worked but it got away from the heat rays, which were a crazy point-blank monster.

Jugglenaut is cool though, we need more things like jugglenaut, but I can definitely see where it actually conflicts with the jump weapon. Maybe a kind of very short duration (prettymuch instantaneous), AoE black hole gun instead that just causes units to cluster a little more? This actually adds synergy with the current black hole gun, which is more of a long duration disable with low AoE (Would catch more units if they're clustered together).

That removes the damage entirely from everything except the sumo jump (unless the black hole does damage, but that sounds like a lot of AoE) and makes it kind of a utility unit. Problem is that the current crazy, doubled, unaimable, swingy-about weapons don't really work with it: I'd expect people to holdfire it and it to be much more like a d-gun weapon (Which makes it a very high micro unit with that and jump, but eh, it's 2k..?).

I don't really think that sea is so finely tuned that a change of 5% to the weapon homing of the enforcer and 10% to it's turn rate is going to be balance critical here....

Sonar is owled out the game and has been since Rymarq took over. That's fine. Everything else that can hit underwater has sonar to about it's own range and I think that's what he wants from the game.

How abaut giving it a veeeeeeeery slow relead d gun, wich would make it roll like a ball crushing most things on its path. It would bump off the factories, striders and goliath though and ofc terrain would allso affect the speed of death ball.