Commander

From Zero-K
Revision as of 10:38, 1 September 2016 by Shaman (talk | contribs) (→‎Commander intro: fill in missing info + grammar pass)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Warning: portions of this page are out of date

The commander system was substantially revamped in winter 2016. This page has only partially been updated to the new system.

Commander intro

Your commander can be configured with a variety of modules to suit your play-style.

It used to be that modules had to be unlocked with points (awarded at level up) but that's no longer the case. You can add any module you want in-game using the upgrade commander button. To save time in game you can also pre-configure commander loadouts on the this page or the link under Commanders in the home tab of the lobby. At the start of the game you will now be able to choose between your preset commander loadouts. If you do not have any commander loadouts specified you can pick among several default "trainer" loadouts.

To keep the game balanced commander modules cost metal ingame and are not all applied at the start of the game. Commanders start at level 1 with no weapons or modules and can morph an unlimited number of times (but you'll eventually run out of modules after which it is pointless to morph). At level 2, commanders gain a single weapon. At level 4, commanders gain a second weapon which can either be a second regular weapon or a special weapon. If a weapon slot is left empty the commander will be given a free peashooter in its place.

Each morph level gives a commander more health, more modules or weapons. Morphs have a base cost and additional cost based on the value of the modules or weapons that it will gain when the morph is complete. You can pre-configure your commander buildouts only through level 6 but you can upgrade any number of times in-game.

Unlike regular units, your commander is not disabled while morphing.

Modules and weapons

Number of slots per level

Commanders start at level 1. The number of modules and weapons increases with levels.

Commander level 1 2 3 4 5 6
Base Ibeam.png cost -     251 150 500 300 400
Total Weapon slots 0 1 1 2 2 2
Total Module slots 0 1 3 5 8 11

1 Equipping weapons and modules costs additional metal.

Module types

Modules have cyan names in the unlock list, although their icon color depends on their nature. They fall into four categories.

Stackable

module_ablative_armor.png module_autorepair.png module_high_power_servos.png

These modules each give fairly minor and specific bonuses to an attribute with a wide range of modules to choose from. They are the only module that can be placed on the same commander more than once but to do so the module must be unlocked multiple times. They are good for low ingame metal cost and are good for fleshing out a loadout. A single type of this module could be stacked many times to create an extreme commander. These are cyan.

Support

module_fieldradar.png module_areashield.png module_jammer.png

Support modules are not stackable. They can provide large expensive bonuses such as a shield, cloaking, jamming or a cloaker. There are also cheap ones such as resurrect and inbuilt radar. These are cyan as well.

Weapon Boosters

weaponmod_standoff_rocket.png weaponmod_autoflechette.png weaponmod_high_frequency_beam.png

These modules are expensive but give a large bonus to a few specific weapons but can only be applied once. They are a space effective way to spend a module slot but make sure you have the weapon that they affect. They are purple.

Weapon types

There are 2 types of weapon, special and normal. Both weapon types are affected by the stackable range and damage modules. Weapon names are in red.

Normal

commweapon_beamlaser.png commweapon_rocketlauncher.png commweapon_gaussrifle.png

These are auto-targetting normal weapons that behave the same was as any other unit. They can be affected by weapon boosters and weapon converters given that it is the right weapon. They are all affected by stackable modules. They are red.

Name Range Reload time Damage DPS
Beam Laser 330 150
Flame thrower 270 0.16 10 60
Heatray 300 0.1 45 450
Machine Gun 285 0.16 30 180
Light particle beam 310 0.34 55 165
Lightning gun 300 1.834 256+640 139.59+348.96
Missile launcher 415 1 80 80
Riot cannon 275 2 220.2 110.1
Shotgun 290 2 32x12 (384) 192
Rocket launcher 430 3 360 120

Special

commweapon_napalmgrenade.png commweapon_disruptorbomb.png commweapon_sunburst.png

Special weapons have a long reload time and must be manually aimed with the 'D' key. They are only affected by stackable modules. They are orange and can only be put on the level 4 weapon slot.

Name Range Reload time Damage DPS Special Notes
Cluster bomb 360 30 300x8 (2400) 80 Bomblets spread (like a shotgun)
Concussion shell 450 25 750 30 Has Impulse (Tosses some units)
Disintigrator 200 30 1400 46.67 Damage varies on unit size
Disrupter bomb 450 25 350+2100 14+84 Has large AOE (512)
Hellfire grenade 450 25 200 8 Sets an area on fire (45s,40dps+3s burning)
Multistunner 360 25 550/800 x 16 (8800/12800) 352/512 Affected by flux amplifier. Max EMP time: 8s [upgraded: 12s]
SLAM 700 30 1512 50.4 High vertical arc

Key: EMP Damage, Slow Damage

Commander Chassis

There are 4 types of commander chassis to choose for a battle.

Common attributes

The commander you start the game with produces 4 metal and 6 energy per second. Additional commanders produced from the Strider Hub produce 0.4 metal and 0.4 energy per second. They all provide a sight distance of 500 and a sonar of 300. Chassis other than the Engineer Commander have 10 build power and 120 build range and the Engineer commander has 12 build power and 250 build range.

Chassis list

Note that attributes on level 1 and level 2 are equal. Morphing to level 2 provides no bonus other than the weapon and module slot.

Strike Commander

commstrike.png

  • All rounder
  • Decent health and speed
  • Can use the most weapon types
  • Auto-regen bonus
Base Attributes Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
HP: 2500
Speed: 40
Autoheal: 5
HP: 3000
Autoheal: 12.5
HP: 4000
Autoheal: 20
HP: 5000
Autoheal: 27.5
HP: 6000
Autoheal: 35

Guardian Commander

commassault.png

  • Best HP
  • Medium speed
  • Gains more HP from increased levels than other chasis do
  • Able to use most non-exotic weapons
Base Attributes Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
HP: 3000
Speed: 40
HP: 3800
HP: 4900
HP: 6000
HP: 7200

Recon Commander

commrecon.png

  • Lowest HP
  • Highest Speed (for a commander)
  • Jumpjets
  • Uses light weapons
Base Attributes Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
HP: 1600
Speed: 43
Can Jump
HP: 2100 HP: 2600 HP: 3100 HP: 3600

Engineer Commander

commsupport.png

  • Lowest speed
  • Low HP
  • Gains buildpower with levels
  • Increased build range (250 compared to 120 for others)
  • Fewer direct damage weapons
Base Attributes Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
HP: 2000
Speed: 36
Build Power: 12
HP: 2500
Build Power: 14
HP: 3000
Build Power: 16
HP: 3700
Build Power: 18
HP: 4500
Build Power: 20

Exact effects of attribute modifiers

Attribute modifiers are applied in this order:

  • Commander Chassis absolute statistics
  • Percentage modifiers both from modules and chassis
  • Absolute modifiers

Percentage modifiers from commanders and stackable modules are additive, not cumulative. Five +10% speed modules multiply a commander's speed by 1.5 instead of by 1.1^5 = 1.61.

Percentage modifiers from weapon boosters and converters are cumulative and applied before other percentage modifiers. Think of them as changing the intrinsic stats of the weapon, rather than adding a bonus.