Category: News

As many of the players have noticed, round 10 of PlanetWars…did not go quite as anticipated. Besides the persistent difficulty in creating balanced teams, the rule setup also resulted in the Synthetic Front achieving a runaway economic victory.

As such, we’ve ended the round and will be going back to the drawing board for the round 11 design for a while. The SynthFront victory will probably be recorded in the Hall of Fame, but not incorporated into the running story. It’s not yet clear whether the two-faction system can be salvaged, or written off and PlanetWars restored to five factions.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope to see you again in the next round!

We’ve revamped PlanetWars for season 10. Most notably, there are now only two factions, in order to correct several long-standing issues with previous rounds. The factions are:
* The Empire Reborn, formed by the integration of the True Born into the reforged Empire of Old Earth.
* The Synthetic Front, formed by the Ascended and the Free Machines setting aside their differences to fight a common enemy.
The Unaligned clans have each been assimilated into one of the two new powers.

Other changes are as follows:

Homeworlds
* Only top 20 clans from the previous round may have homeworlds. They can pick a homeworld with 501 IP for free at any time.
* Only homeworlds may be renamed.
* Removed consolidation

Victory conditions
* Economic victory: Value needed increased to 80%

Zero-K v0.8.13.4 has also been out for a day or so, be sure to update. Changes include:

Gameplay (general)
* Fixed some bomber behaviour issues.
* Fixed Scorpion not being radar invisible when cloaked.
* Dominatrix has more speed; turret turns faster.
* Scout boat cheaper.

Modules
* Assault Cannon and Missile Launcher do more damage and have more range.
* Gauss Rifle reloads faster.
* Slasher unpacks 20% faster.
* Slow Beam and High Power Servos a bit cheaper.

GUI
* Player list should work properly now (minimum width, aligns to bottom properly).

Visuals
* A VR grid is drawn around the map.
* “Night” effect: Start at dawn instead of midnight (configurable).

A lot of little things have been improved. A few bugs fixed, a new mech and superweapon. Reserve metal is now properly implemented as a slider on the resource bars and mobile AA should be a bit better against Shadow.

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GUI
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Decoupled reserve metal from storage structures, reserve is now controllable with a slider bar on the resource bar. Energy is also reserved at the metal reserve level, does not affect non-constructor energy drain.

* Healtbars in unit selection and tooltip are now colored.
* Added minimisation buttons to Minimap, Chat and Playerlist.

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New Units
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Scorpion, a cloaking all terrain mech with a deadly stinger. Slow and expensive for it’s combat power this unit is best used stealthily to pick off unaware opponents.

The Zenith is a superweapon on the scale of the Planetary Energy Chisel. It calls numerous meteors from the sky to rain death upon your enemies, as an added bonus the meteors have some metal which can be reclaimed.

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Balance
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EMP missile
* Removed unintentional homing

Jethro
* Speed 3 -> 3.5

Archangel
* Health 1050 -> 1500 (now in line with Tarantula)
* Removed jump charge time.
* Increased aim speed dramatically (4.5x) because it could aim much slower than turn. This was annoying to use and unrequired.
* Made bullets fire properly on fixedwing (engine brokenness)

Copperhead:
* Fires properly on fixedwing (engine brokenness)

Shadow:
* HP: 1250 -> 1200
* Speed: 10 -> 8.8

Snake (light sub)
* HP:1100 -> 1250 (2 shots from prec bomber and sniper sub)

Serpent (sniper sub)
* Damage 1200->1100
* HP:2600 -> 2300 (So that its HP can be cut while still 3-shooting other sniper subs).

Torpedo Frigate
* HP: 1750->1800

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Bugfixes
—–

Fixed patrol orders in gunship factory queue

Overdrive behaviour improvement (may fix a bug that occurs at high energy).

Congratulations to Empire of the Old Earth led by Saktoth and his Imperial Vanguard Legion for surprisingly winning season 8 using cunning diplomacy and efficient warfare.

For more information check hall of fame: http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/314

We are also releasing new version of Zero-K and lobby:

Changes:

* storages now reserve the metal stored. To use it you need to set construction to high priority. Morphing or weapon reload (nuke) automatically taps from reserve.

* clan icons and avatars are visible in lobby and ingame. New playerlist shows rank icons and clan icons too (only works 100% for people who use Zero-K lobby).

* ingame GUI streamlined – playerlist, console with chat history and epic menu can be all displayed/hidden by pressing escape. Console appears when you start typing text. Important ally and enemy chat messages appear in bubbles.

* text to speach is silent for spectators

* various lobby tweaks in tooltips and player lists. Its possible to filter people by clan shortcut. Settings of lobby now contain frequently used engine settings like windowed mode or hw cursor.

* various minor planetwars tweaks – ships that cannot reach planet (broken wormholes) return home. Also ships orbiting allied planets return home.

Nothing fancy in this version, just a generally improved experience.

Design:
* Made some tweaks that should hopefully improve vehicle movement
* Commanders of disconnected people spawn at 30s instead of 2 minutes
* Bad target category improvements for Dominatrix and Reaper
* Fixed shipyard footprint etc. issues
* Chicken: changed some tooltips; added a new supporter chicken; made queen health scale with arrival time; added tech time floor
* Removed reload bonus with xp.
* Double commander recipient in planetwars now also has double storage. This is to prevent excess at the start of the game.
* Added target setting on the move functionality. It can be completely controlled with hotkeys but by default it will keep a unit’s target when an explicit attack command is cancelled by a move command.

Simplified armour system:
* Razor’s Kiss damage reduction 0.2 -> 0.25
* Pitbull damage reduction 0.15 -> 0.25
* Pitbull health 2250 -> 3000 to compensate
All armoured units now have 0.25 damage reduction. Crabe is the exception with 0.33.

Interface:
* Nano turret added to Unit AI -> Initial States menu under Static.
* Changed style of terraform icons.

Balance:
* Krow bomb reload time 20s -> 30s
* Hammer projectile even slower
* Napalm missile and Firewalker:Ground fire duration increased 1.5x, DPS halved
* Slight tracking added to prec bomber, it can hit subs that jitter out of the way
* Venom damage 800 -> 600
* Bantha cost 12000 -> 10500

Graphics:
* New Shield texture, small jitter effect for large shields.
* Added some pointless flashing lights to things

Congratulations to all Ascended and especially clan Valhalla led by ConTrust for winning PlanetWars season 8 – almost total victory this time despite heroic efforts of other factions. Details in http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/314

PlanetWars season 9 starts now! Can Ascended do it again or will they be stopped now?

= ChangeList =
* new galaxy
* improved trading and diplomacy interfaces
* trade with enemies is impossible
* local now buy influence at $15 instead of $10
* ships cannot engage other ships in orbit anymore
* you can only store ships up to fleet size (but you can have several fleets orbiting distant planets)
* shipyards produce 1/4 of ship per turn played only
* jumpgates only transport 1 ship and can be blocked by planetary defense grid (which is 1000 credits more expensive now)
* all structures except mines and wormhole cost 2% of their cost per turn as upkeep – lack of credits results in destruction of the most upkeep hungry structure
* influence of unclanned people is given to same faction clanned people on the planet after battle
* same faction clans share research by default
* repair only costs 50% of original structure cost
* ships only start ground combat if faction members of owner are present
* insurgents target all planets of strongest faction present (weighted by their influence – low influence more likely) and all empty planets linked to planets of faction present – weighted by influence (higher more likely)
* homeworlds can only be created on planets without artefacts where only your faction holds influence
* you can give influence to other faction clans and system tracks how much you transferred – and your ratio with them
* after battle, if your ally or ceasefire partner owns the planet where you fought, you give all your influence there to him – for ceasefire it happens only if balance of influence swapped this way does not exceed 150%

We’ve introduced some new models, and implemented a brand new (experimental) faction system for PlanetWars. Lots of other changes too, be sure to read the whole changelog!

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PLANETWARS NEW ROUND!
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New PlanetWars homeworld system:
* each clan can select one empty planet as their home (if they have enough influence spread through galaxy on unocuppied planets). Influence is moved from those spread planets to new home.
* at any point, clan can “consolidate” influence from spread unowned planets back to homeworld
* only clan founder or people with rights can perform this action
* free planets for clans after first battle removed

Factions:
* clans now belong to factions http://zero-k.info/wiki/PlanetWarsFactions
* clans inside factions are allied by default and share victory goal

Introduced taxes:
* influence generates $2 per 100 influence for owner

Introduced corruption:
* corruption reduces planet income (mines and tax). Corruption depend on ratio between first and second clan influence

Introduced decay:
* if there is a corruption on the planet,each clan loses 10 influence every turn

Changed fleet behavior:
* fleet capacity – it does not represent max total ships anymore, but ships you can deploy at one planet. This fixes issue with jumpgates etc
* bombing also reduces influence by 3% and 10% if there are no more structures

tweaks:
* clan domination malus decreased and capped at -70
* max clan size 8, no matter the player skill
* game can be started again even if composition score is not good
* mines nerfed

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GRAPHICS
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New Recluse, Venom, Tarantula and Weaver models. by CaptainBenz.

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GUI:
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* Added widget; Replace Cloak Con Orders (disabled by default). It turns repair and reclaim orders into move orders if given to a cloaked constructor. This is to prevent unfortunate accidental decloak when navigating a wreck field with Rectors or cloaked Commanders.

* Added terraform tooltip that shows hotkeys for each type of command when using that command.

* Tactical AI no longer activates when a unit is set to hold position and an attack command is given by the player (now it required fight to activate).

* Fixed transport AI wait bug (transported units were sometimes kept in “waiting” state)

* Added a new minimap icon for Pylon and adjusted the Geo/Fusion one. Some very small units, mostly mobile bombs, are now displayed as minimap icons at lower than default zoom levels.

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GAME BALANCE:
——

Commander Modules:
* Sheild drain 6 -> 12 (to be equal to mobile shield)
* Energy cell back to correct value (+6e), cost reduced (250 -> 225).
* Removed range bonus from Nanolathe

Commander Weapons:
Dgun:
* 12% more damage
* 33% wider AOE
Gauss Rifle:
* Range 450 -> 415.
Riot Cannon:
* AOE 136 -> 128
* Damage 250 -> 240
* Range 290 -> 270
Shotgun:
* Range 320 -> 300

Almost all death explosions crater 12.5% less to make the terrain a bit more Vehicle friendly.

Faraday:
* Cost 170 -> 200

Hammer:
* Range 860 -> 820
* Speed 1.72 -> 1.62

Thug:
* Shield regen rate 12 -> 14

Dominatrix:
* Cost 420 -> 400
* Capture decay rate 5% -> 4%/s
* Delay before degrade 2 -> 5s

Dante:
* Missile range 520 -> 460
* Cost 3600 -> 3500
* Speed 1.7 -> 1.75

Tacnuke Missile:
* AoE 128 -> 192

Firestorm:
* Cost 350 -> 320

Shadow:
* Cost 500 -> 450

Behemoth:
* New model (Mr Bob)
* Damage 300 -> 600
* Reload 6 -> 10
* Range 1650 -> 1850
* Shot is slower and arcs

Krow:
* Flipped model (flys ‘forwards’), restricted arcs. Can now only fire 2 guns at any point on the ground.
* Damage increase 50% to compensate for arc loss.
* Health 17000 -> 17500
* Can fire missile storm below it every 20 seconds, manual fire.
* Removed gravity beam, missile storm replaces it.

Fixed slow weapon interaction with Stiletto and Krow burst weapons, the burst is now slowed.

Chicken:
* Spires do more damage
* Burrows should no longer spawn in lava

Congratulations to clan NC founded by Omygod for winning this round 🙂

http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/314

After a turbulent start tainted by recreation of Valhalla, Imperium seemed to be firmly on the path to victory.

However Noble Champion’s relentless activity push, paired with higher skill and alliance with reformed Valhalla caused Imperial forces to crumble and lose several key worlds. NC then went for artefacts and achieved swift technologic victory.

Imperium ended second, Valhalla third.

Next season will take some time to prepare due to upcoming faction system and other tweaks. Meanwhile, your feedback and suggestions are welcome!