Replays

You can search for replays here: http://zero-k.info/Battles

(which is also in the menu at the top under Play > Replays)

The search capability isn't terribly sophisticated (for instance, I don't think you can search for games which contain a particular pair of players) but it should be adequate for your purposes.

(If you want to know who to search, look under Community > Ladder here.)

Another place to look for games is recent tourneys; those games won't always be between tip-top players but the games are reliably taken seriously. The most recent 1v1 tournament thread is here.

As for the design question, I will defer to somebody more involved than I.

Thank you :)

IMO the best name to search if you're new is [Fx]Drone. He is the most pure source of consistently 'proper' play. There are plenty of players worth watching, but to naive eyes their experimentation and mistakes make it more difficult to get a lock on the core principles of the game. Drone makes few mistakes, usually identifies them immediately to anyone who'll listen, and his experimentation is more conservative.

I also recommend all the casters mentioned above as a more accessible means of grappling with the overall game concept. Beware however, that the casters are only human and do make mistakes. FPVods are very difficult to communicate properly through, and if they're not actually playing they don't know the intentions of the players. If you believe everything that is said you could find yourself stuck, but if you are critical they will accelerate your learning enormously. If ever you are confused there are many people here willing to help <3

Good luck!

quote: Also, just to note, I'm a 2D/3D designer by trade. I haven't contributed to an open source project like this before, and I'm not sure where to jump in.

Type "/j #zkdev" in lobby, and see where it gets you.

Frankly, the best games tend to be Winner's Finals and Loser's Finals. The big 1v1 runback was an exceptionally entertaining Grand Finals, but I always get the impression that the players are quite tired by that stage.

I guess you're already familiar with the concept of heightmaps, diffuse maps and so on. This should tell you how to use them in Spring after rendering them out in maya: https://springrts.com/wiki/Mapdev:Main

Ofc there's a channel for this as well*: /j #zkmap

Looking forward to your creations!

[Spoiler]