Zero-K v1.8.3.0 - Bolas added, sea rework and balance tweaks

Hovercraft have a new heavy raider - the Bolas - bringing its unit count from a uniquely-low eight to a healthy nine. The question "How can Claymore be less janky when it is required to beat Scallop?" has been answered by reworking the Hover and Amph factories around a Scallop that must float to fire. Alongside this rework are changes for some of the more maligned units of the two factories, including tweaks to Dagger and Duck to bring them closer to other raiders in power.

Apart from tacking the longstanding issue of Claymore, we also tackle the longstanding issue of the general uncatachability of artillery. Additionally there are some small adjustments based on the previous update, a Ripper nerf, a Redback buff, and the matchmaker map pool has been rotated.

Balance

Metal Extractor health 750 -> 700

Hovercraft

Added Bolas, a heavy disruptor raider hovercraft.

• Cost 190
• Health 760
• Speed 94.5 (for comparison, Bandit is 90 and Blitz is 102)
• Disruptor beam with 116 DPS and 4x slow damage (essentially a Dart that shoots 3.33x faster)
• Range 225

Dagger:

• Fixed a longstanding bug that prevented Dagger and Gauss turret projectiles hitting maximum range when elevated.
• Cost 80 -> 75
• Speed 144 -> 147
• Damage 95 -> 100
• Reload 3 -> 2.8
• Range 210 -> 220

Claymore:

• Health 1650 -> 1320
• Speed 99 -> 75
• Brake rate increased by 200%
• Range 270 -> 280
• Damage 900 -> 600
• Reload 8 -> 5.5
• AoE 298 -> 160
• Depthcharges move immediately instead of floating for a few seconds first.
• Removed self-damage (this is consistent with all low-moderate AoE weapons).
• Land depthcharge now rolls along the ground towards targets at a range of 160.
• Removed manual fire ability.

Mace:

• Speed 66 -> 61.5
• Turn rate 560 -> 400 (note that the recent changes are 560 -> 896 -> 640 with the 1.6x multiplier)

Lance collision volume is now smaller and should result in less friendly fire.

Amphibious Bots

Duck:

• Damage 115 -> 130
• Turn rate improved by 75% (still 30% slower than Bandit and Glaive).
• Increased turret turn rate by 58%
• Speed 84 -> 90
• Shoots one projectile every 2s, instead of two every 4s.

Scallop:

• Floats to fire.
• Speed 45 -> 48
• Depth charge range 230 -> 300 (matches shotgun)
• Depth charge AoE 100 -> 128

Buoy:

• Cost 300 -> 280
• Speed 42 -> 51

Lobster:

• Cost 320 -> 230

Land Bots

Glaive:

• Fixed a recent bug that removed Glaive weapon spray. The fix makes Glaive slightly worse against small and distant units, making raider interactions more interesting.

Bandit:

• Health 320 -> 340
• DPS increased by 2.5%

Thug:

• Cost 180 -> 170

Puppy:

• Speed 105 -> 102
• Damage 410 -> 720 (so it can kill a mex)
• Range 170 -> 160
• Reload Time 1s -> 1.5s

Pyro:

• Health 620 -> 700
• DPS increased by 8%

Toad:

• Health 2000 -> 2100 so it unambiguously survives Likho.

Venom:

• Speed 2.7 -> 2.8
• AoE 160 -> 128
• Reload 1.73 -> 1.5
• EMP 600 -> 450
• Real damage 18 -> 40

Redback:

• Turret turn rate buffed by 22%
• Reload time 0.33 -> 0.3

Land Vehicles

Ripper:

• Damage 280 -> 270 (used to be 220)
• Reload 1.6 -> 1.7 (used to be 1.63)
• Range 300 -> 285
• Increased turret turn rate by 75%

Kodachi:

• No change, I'd just like to mention that a Kodachi 1-shot kills mexes with 700 health.

Blitz:

• Cost 285 -> 280

Air

Blastwing:

• Cost 55 -> 45 (it no longer 1-shots mexes, so it is free to find more general use).

Gnat:

• Health 420 -> 370
• Applied -0.8 target priority to shoot at Gnats. Locust is now prioritised after Gnat.

Bomber health buffs:

• Thunderbird 1000 -> 1120
• Phoenix 720 -> 900

Artillery

Most artillery is a bit easier to catch, especially heavy artillery:

• Sling 1.2% slower (for roundness)
• Phantom 3.4% slower
• Racketeer 5.5% slower
• Firewalker 3.4% slower
• Badger 10% slower (increased range 730 -> 750 to compensate)
• Lance 15.9% slower
• Impaler 11.1% slower
• Emissary 16.6% slower
• Tremor 20.5% slower
• Merlin 25% slower
• Shogun 13.6% slower
• Envoy speed unchanged
• Reef speed unchanged

Matchmaker Map Rotation

• Added: Izki Channel (1v1 only), Hourglass, Leyline, Mercurial, Banana Republic.
• Removed: Aurelian (only from 1v1), Fifteen Platforms, Wanderlust, Thornford, Gecko Isle.

Fixes

• Fixed local gesture, teamcolour, and unit marker settings.
• Fixed some aiming and ally avoidance issues for a few multi-barrel units (Gremlin, Harpy, Raptor, Bandit, Rogue and Razor).
• Fixed Mex team RoI.
• Fixed move commands sometimes being drawn on the ocean floor.
• Fixed amph float jittering caused by a hard water boundary.
• Fixed an overshoot gadget crash.
• Fixed Siren failing to fire at very close units.
• Made terraform commands more resilient to malformed input.
• Fixed Buoy (and other floating units) sometimes cancelling move orders while they sink.

Was gnat a problem?

I generally agree with the changes, but that one confuses me a bit.

you said you've been gone for a couple of years. Gnat got buffed 6 months ago along with locusts. They've been quite terrifying

CHEAP LOBSTER YEYYYYY :D

Checking for self-upgrade.. forever =/ linux mono

edit: oh it worked

Rip duck

quote: Puppy: Damage 410 -> 720 (so it can kill a mex)

are you sure?

Does a 50m puppy really need to 1-hit the 90m mex

Yay, new unit! I think almost all the changes here are great, except for the Puppy 1 shotting mexes... Jumpbot is in a weird place but I don't think this is a good solution.

i agree. the changes to artillery and repair are very welcome with me. but zk without glass-cannon-raiders is not zk for me.

bolas seems to be op as well so it feels like an unfinished game.

puppies. puppies.