Category: Uncategorized

Today we throw off the shackles of broken metalmap layouts and confusing extractor incomes. No more will otherwise good maps be unplayable and no one can miss the clearly displayed power of super mexes. Mex placement now has a UI, is limited to specific spots and is entirely configurable game side on a per-map basis.

As far as balance goes Gunship roles have been extremified and Tremor has received quite a buff.

== Mex Placement ==

Mex placement is now limited to specific locations on the map.

Interface:
* Mex placement snaps to mex spots.
* Spot line width and I-Beam count indicates income.
* Spot colour indicates whether the spot is under allied control.

Mechanic Changes:
* Mex constructor no longer receives 5% extra base income.
* Metalmap view cannot be used to increase scout view range.
* Mexes now start as soon as they are built (previously there was a 3s delay to gather resource data).

Compatibility:
* Cloud metal maps with large extractor radius are not supported. Examples are Bazillion Battlefield and Castles.
* Those with small extractor radius still work. For example Duck and Speedmetal.
* Game-side configs can be added to completely replace a metalmap. This can be used to fix the few liked cloud metalmaps and to fix maps that look good but have broken metalmaps.

Widgets:
* Area Mex, Mex Snap and Prospector have been removed and partially merged into a single widget.
* If you disable this widget you’re stuffed.

== Communism/economy change ==

Base income of metal extractors is now 50% private and 50% shared when mex is built.
This ratio falls down to 0% private and 100% shared over 5 minutes.

== Ready behaviour change ==

Start location can now be chosen at any time and there is no ready button. The game with start 4s after every player has chosen a start location.

== Balance ==

Tremor:
* AOE increased 11%
* DPS increased 23%
* Impacts smooths terrain.

Weapononised terrain smoothing is reduced for mid air explosions (as in when projectiles impact a shield high above the ground).

Seismic missile can shoot underwater.

Brawler. It should emphasise range and not being hit by most land units.
* Speed 4.7 -> 4
* Uses more of it’s range while strafing.

Blackdawn. Should be hit and run with ground interaction.
* Speed 4.65 -> 4.5
* Health 2900 -> 3400
* Cruise Altitude 210 -> 150 (to compare Banshee is at 100)
* Range 450 -> 300

Rapier. If it is going to defend other gunships it needs to be able to keep up
with them and deal reasonable damage.
* Speed 3.8 -> 4
* Health 1300 -> 1100
* Damage 150 -> 200 (1 shot better vs Vamp)
* Range 300 -> 340

Banshee. This just needs to be a bit better.
* DPS increased 5%
* Range increased by 20

Gnat. Needs to be less extreme “completely win or die”.
* Health 90 -> 120 (This is over the Defender boundary, am I mad????)
* Range increased by 20

Strider Hub:
* Costs 550 -> 600m (for consistency)

Bantha:
* Added laser overcharge special weapon.

== GUI ==

Structures in the build menu are ordered by cost.

Geo hightlight activates when build geo is selected. Geos are now drawn on the minimap with a big X.

Bombers now require repeat enabled to retain an attack command.

Lobby now contains “safe mode” switch that should be ultra safe even for ultra crappy video cards.

== Fixed ==

* Rector repair speed was too high.
* Mex, wind, carrier, HLT, defender, LLT aimvolume tweaks. Allied units are better at shooting past them.
* Fix Dante script error.
* Initial state “hold position” preset should work reliably. * Fixed Archangel DPS

= v1.0.4.9 =

== GUI improvements: ==

* new keyboard controlled main menu
* new button under minimap to turn on simplified color scheme (all alies blue, all enemies red)
* default interface skin is now carbon (you can change that in settings)
* game treats placing start position as ready -> its enough if people place start position, no need to click ready. When all people place position, game starts.

Minor GUI changes:
* removed “gesture menu” interference – added option to enable it for groups of units – default off
* scrolling with smoothscroll off is “apple style”
* there is now option to remember minimap mode (LOS/radar views etc)

== Gameplay: ==

* all “teams” hosts now balance clan-mates together. Join same planetwars clan to play with your friend there.

== Balance: ==

* Tremor has extra 100 range

== Fixes: ==

* default LOS/radar display has nicer colors
* units no longer fire at targets they cannot see

Happy belated Easter! There are lots of gameplay adjustments in this one, but the most notable change is the new and improved™ Quickmatch system. As always, refer to the changelog for details.

=== Quickmatch Improved and Enabled ===

The quick matching system ‘Juggler’ has had improvements and has been re-enabled. Juggler preferences can now be set with Zero-K lobby and defaults to Never. Preferences are used to automatically search/create organise games with people that also want to play that kind of game.

QuickMatch is activated by button in Zero-K lobby multiplayer tab or by joining autohosts with Stars.

People who cannot use Zero-K lobby can set their preferences on their home page – “Game preferences”.

There are now 3 levels of TEAMS host, small medium and large. These hosts will automatically start a game if the number of players is within their desired range. Automatic starting can be postponed with the command ‘!postpone’. Games which are too small can still be manually started and if a game is too large it will be split into two games with players sorted by elo. The game sizes are:
* Small 2v2 – 4v4
* Medium 4v4 – 8v8
* Large 5v5+

Please pay attention to this and configure your preferences based on your likes.

QuickMatch creates games from waiting people according to their preferences to satisfy greatest number of people.

1) It tries to make game of similar ELO skill. For 1v1 max ELO difference is 250 points.

2) It can only move you from your current game to new game if you like the new game type more than current game type, or same as current game type and moving you will allow other game to start, whilenot breaking current game.

3) Games where you are moved are always withing recommended player level for that game type (it will never move you to empty room alone etc).

Zero-K lobby/springies now also allow private hosting of unpassworded games.

=== Balance ===

Factories:
* Cost 550 -> 700
* Build Speed 5 -> 10
With the previous BP change it became a bit hard to spend at game start. This factory change is experimental so feedback would be helpful.

Penetrator, Annihilator and Sharpshooter do not fire at radar dots by default. They completely refuse to fire at a radar dot unless their ‘fire at radar’ state toggle is enabled.

Krow:
* Slows to 75% speed while dropping bombs.

Jugglenaut gets an anti unit special weapon. It can pickup all ground units around it and throw them at anything nearby.

Golliath:
* Cost 1900 -> 2200

Sumo:
* Cost 2200 -> 1900
* Jump range 300 -> 360
* Gun damage up 20%
* Stomp damage up 25%
* Stomp AOE 300 -> 340 (diameter)

Dominatrix can capture Dominatrix. This can form trees of control that completely flip when the head is killed.

Archer:
* 3xish damage
* faster projectile.

Grizzly:
* Range 550 -> 600

Clam:
* 25% faster resurrect speed. This is more of a fix because resurrect should drain 7.5 energy whereas due to an oversight it drained 6.

Commander torpedo DPS increased 50%.

Submerging a units in water puts out fires.

=== Overdrive Distribution ===

More overdrive metal is given to team members who contribute their energy. 50% of the overdrive distribution is weighted by how much energy a player contributes. The other 50% is distributed evenly between all players.

Base metal extraction sharing is unchanged, this is still evenly distributed.

=== Physics ===

In unit-unit collision both units take damage. As an aside they also take the same amount of damage (unless of course one is armoured).

Licho no longer collides with aircraft. This is to prevent mid-air catastrophes. Other aircraft are already set to not collide.

Units skid around a bit more and don’t take so much damage from sliding along the ground. Technically put speed for fall damage only uses 50% of the tangential component of velocity to the ground. The speed reduction vector is also mostly in the direction of the normal.

=== Pathing ===

Units should now stop to turn if given a movement order behind them. Slow turning units can now turn on the spot instead of wandering into turret range.

=== Lag Monitor ===

Units that the taker creates are not given to the afk player when they return. Exceptions are factories to give the afk player back their factory plop.

Afk players do not receive metal income. It is split between their teammates.

Removed sexism.

=== Graphics ===

New explosion effects for Merl and Pillager.

LOS + Radar view has been recoloured. Most importantly areas with LOS and no radar are not dark blue.

=== Sound ===

There are now game Victory and Defeat triggered music tracks.

Changed Buoy and Halberd weapon sound effect.

=== Fixes ===

* Fixed tooltips for BP 5/6 change.
* Fixed game over bug that would cause both teams to win if the last unit that died was a Puppy.
* Puppy should get stuck underground less.
* Puppy now takes 5s to self-d.
* Initial States should now correctly set states when units are received from other teams.
* Added buildpic for Bantha
* Reordered a few build menu items to obey cost ordering.
* Fixed Freaker description. * Pillager can now shoot in all directions because it would not turn itself to shoot.