Zero-K v1.5.2.5 - Techpanel UI Skinning

The main change this version is the new UI skin. It started as an experiment with menu skinning and turned into an overhaul of the skin for both the lobby and game. We've now got a much slicker and consistent skin. Expect a bit of refinement in the future.

Balance

Tremor has needed a change for years and with the recent discussion I decided to do something.

• Increased smoothing significantly.
• Increased edge effectiveness to 0.5. Previously it basically needed a direct hit to do any significant damage.
• Increased damage 135 -> 145.

Cloak now blocks detection by sonar. This removes the unintuative behavior in which shallow water could be used to detect cloaked units. Remember that fully submerged units cannot cloak so there is no need to worry about completely invisible underwater invaders.

Fixes

• Structures placed on in-progress terraform now interact with the terraform correctly.
• Fixed some smoke positions and units that failed to smoke while damaged.
• Made spectator mode switchable with the single button/hotkey. Improved some options menu structure.
• Fixed Jumpjet Factory collision volume and pathing.

Lobby (and Server)

Much work has been done on the lobby and server, apart from skinning.

Parties

Matchmaker now has party support. Queue with friends to play as a team, as is standard with many games. Parties also override your clan membership for the purpose of balancing custom games so you are more likely to be on a team with members of your party.

Links

• The minimap name is now a clickable link to its site page.
• Map votes show a little clickable minimap near the vote buttons.
• Links can now automatically log users onto the site.
• Fixed URL click detection.

Fixes

• Added a scrollbar to chat channels (for users who open too many channels).
• Fixed Join Queue state bug.
• Further reduced idle CPU usage.
• Fixed redraw rate for fading screens.

Changes from Zero-K v1.5.1.6 to Zero-K v1.5.1.11

These were mostly quick fix releases. Here are some highlights:

• Fixed ghost site colour.
• Fixed command insert for blocks of structures.
• Fixed terraform texture visual when zoomed out.
• Improved and simplified commshare UI.
• Added class options for Unit Initial States.
• Fixed capture breaking the cloak effect.
• Fixed some playerlist bugs.
• Improved resource bar display of no storage.
• Added save and load game UI. It's highly experimental so feel free to try it but don't expect everything to work.

Thx for Tremor buff.

Still misses though

Chesti you're looking at the fallback for non-default UIs. If you like the old one change your skin back to Carbon.

Super work guys thx!

"Structures placed on in-progress terraform now interact with the terraform correctly."

Does it mean that DDM will go up along the spire under it?

Will it be possible to increase the height after the building is built?

The fact that we can now see which map is voted upon and the link under the current map are a welcome addition.

quote: to keep penetrators at bay using two tremors, and able to kill two penetrators that tried to go the saturation area

2Tremors is 3000, enough for 4Pillagers, which is more than enough to easily destroy those Penes. (Screen with Kodachis)

For those who have the same problems (probably those who don't want to "stay up to date"), here are some bugs I experienced after this update and how to fix them:
(1) The F10 menu, widget menu and spacebar menus could not be changed in position. Other menus could.
(2) The integral menu tabs (Orders, Econ, Defence,...) were not visible. The rest of the integral menu was visible.
By changing hud skin to evolved, I could solve (1). After that, (2) could be solved by gui reload.

Actually I have always preferred the evolved hud skin. I just didn't use it because it wasn't consistent. But now it is :).

We need a steam release

Wow that's a really neat skin! Makes a ton of difference.

"Please wait, ZK is updating"

Wow this looks so professional now. We are ready for steamrelease!