Zero-K v1.8.4.5 - Lobster, Storage and Saves

Lobster has been the focus of much experimentation in the past few days so it is time for some changes. The biggest issue is the lack of counterplay against units that spend all their time in the sky. To address this Lobster can no longer fire mid-air, removing self-sufficient clouds and flying Lobster abduction. They can still steal enemy units when on the ground, and have received a few more tweaks and consistency improvements. Related to the rise of Lobster is Scallop, which has been nerfed a little while its intended counters have received tweaks.

This patch also include a fix for campaign savegames and a tweak to energy distribution that makes make storages less bad in large teamgames. There are small nerfs for the Hover and Gunship raiders, Raptor is a bit more responsive, and land units are less slow in shallow water.

Engine

• Further improved terrain rendering performance.
• Fixed a save/load bug that is especially relevant for campaign missions.
• Fixed starting construction inside unseen enemy units and structures.

Balance

Storages no longer preferentially 'drain' energy shared from other players. The energy redistribution system treats everyone as having at most 300 free energy storage, provided that no energy would be excessed under this assumption.

Scallop:

• Range 285 -> 270
• Shotgun damage reduced by 11.5%

Lobster

• Only able to fire when on the ground or in water.
• Reload Time 8.5s -> 9s
• Increased aim speed.
• Simplified some flight logic.

Dagger

• Cost 75 -> 80

Bolas

• Slow damage 140 -> 105

Claymore

• Health 1320 -> 1260
• Damage 600 -> 620
• Speed 2.5 -> 2.35
• Range 280 -> 300
• Fixed tactical AI.

Siren

• Health 3750 -> 4000
• Range 355 -> 360
• Fixed tactical AI.

Locust

• Health 860 -> 800
• Range 270 -> 260
• Aim Tolerance 180 -> 150
• DPS reduced by 2.5%

Raptor

• Combat speed 50% -> 35%
• Combat turn speed 200% -> 286%
• Slowdown restore delay 250ms -> 150ms
• Acceleration increased 10%

Land units are faster in shallow water:

• Depth 3, 0.82 -> 0.92
• Depth 6, 0.70 -> 0.82
• Depth 9, 0.61 -> 0.71
• Depth 15, 0.49 -> 0.52
• Depth 21, 0.40 -> 0.38

Fixes

• Cerberus no longer fires through terrain.
• Cockatrice spores no longer ignore shields.
• Fixed the values in the space+click information for shield damage boosters.
• Fixed Z-fighting on Gunship Plant.
• Moved the rotation-centre of most models to make them rotate around their centre of mass (instead of their feet) when flying through the air.
• Fixed Ripper suspension becoming confused while flying through the air.
• Fixed units repairing launched Missile Silo missiles.
• Fixed the sun on SailAway. Added support for overriding sun direction.

The units aren't disabled because the main purpose of Lobster is to assault enemy positionn, not grab enemy units with ball of lobsters.

noooo, my lobsters and storage farms!!!!

how will i toss my storage's at the enemy team to show them that i am mighty and that my lobsters claws are strong

quote: the main purpose of Lobster is to assault enemy positionn

My impression was that it's main purpose is to make high and inaccessible map places easier to access (source: https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Lobster - quotes: "allowing for both fast terrain traversal and access to otherwise unreachable terrain" and "being the fastest of transport methods for the latter").

Maybe the intention should be discussed and clarified (by a developer), as it can help with arguments one way or another (ex: if purpose is to transport units then not disabling them sounds strange as other transports do disable them, but if purpose is to assault then maybe multiple jumps could be restricted somehow as they don't help assault).

wait, cockatrices has spores?

That is the Quant's Rule violation approach, and it could work. I have just been trying everything else first since making all the units more like each other is usually something to avoid.

I approve of Manored's post. SupCom2 has Noah Cannon, and its pretty cool. We could have same thing... although it would totally ruin the balance.

Imagine a pack of 20 Jacks flying through map straight at your DRP.

As far as I understand we've already violated Quant's rule for Kodachi, which has become quite boring. So I appreciate trying to avoid that.

Sorry I'm unfamiliar with Quant's rule, is it to do with the uniqueness of a unit? If so, the dagger will still have it's ability to instagib stuff, just that the number needed to do so would increase slightly. Increasing cost is similar as you need more metals worth of daggers to get that same instagib power.