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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGamesZero-K: excellent indie RTS -free though better than ANY SC
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Author Topic: Zero-K: excellent indie RTS -free though better than ANY SC  (Read 7719 times)
archl
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« on: May 13, 2011, 04:28:13 PM »

Zero-K is the current best Real-time Strategy game, IMO.


And it is "Free as in Beer& Freedom".

I was chatting and playing with devs and other players as a player only. BTW: I have the worst English skills among all active players. For a year, Zero-K took me 300+hours in-game.

Visit http://zero-K.info and give it a try.

There is an estimated Project Cost in developement site:

This calculator estimates how much it would cost to hire a team to write this project from scratch.
Include    
Codebase    472,613 LOC
Effort (est.)    126 Person Years
Avg. Salary    $5,5000/year
$6,946,418

I donated $20, OK, I only donate money for games, never buy - I count those to humble bundle as donation though, I paid $3 for those 16 games, none of them comparable to Zero-K, and being able to prevent me from Zero-K if there is zero-k game.

I want more players come around!


No wonder Zero-K is completely not in media's radar as it is from SpringRTS, as a heavily modified game with many new features from developers thought fun. This project might worth at least $65,000 or more because it is reusable, its a FOSS.

Its amazing game gathered a group of developers, around 30(including commiters); update frequently with both content and balance changes.

Beside, the Zero-K team run SpringRTS server and collect all game units performance statistics.

The game was known to SpringRTS player for it is strange: cut in short, it still have too many features not often see in most RTS.


What is Zero-K doing good?


It is a simplified Real-Time-Strategy Robotic Warfare Game from design.

Total Annihilation -> Balanced Annihilation -> Complete Annihilation -> Complete Annihilation- 1 Faction -> Zero-K.

It have many similar units and similar concept, and similar Eco, and similar scale to Total Annihilation.

With greater graphics, I never care though, I suppose its comparable to Supreme Commander -

STILL: What make it different?


 ONE: Simplified Economy
TA have 2 type of resources Energy(E) and Metal(M) , and extra hidden one is build power - define how fast you can build. Maximum SHARED Team resources! All constant metal income are shared, and excess resources go to teammates. Besides, it have special economy system: Energy grid overdrive, with a formula, all excess energy produced from powerplanet linked with metal extractors will increase metal extraction efficiency. No Metal Maker then.

All units have build-time bond with cost, ALL cost M also consume same cost of E.

1 Build Power = 1 E = 1 M

Zero-K use "Area Mex" script to order constructors to build Metal Extractors in certain Area.


 TWO: Unit AI
with a fight order, units fight on their own will do good enough, they dodge and kite, moving in curve to try to avoid fire.
This give you more concern on strategy/tactics


 THREE: Flat Technology Tree
NO ELSE compare to this! You can build ANYTHING from start, ask and tell your team to support your plan! To make very specific strategy each game.

 FOUR: Custom Commander
Game always start with a commander unit, it can mount many modules with some special weapon and functionality( radar, jammer, cloak, shield, etc.) It is fun also within a smaller map, people fight with commander - for small, you build units to kill commander. But Zero-K, commander is not everything, to lose it like losing a unit.

 FIVE: Start with 11 factories!
A gift give at game start

 INSTANT-BUILD FACTORY of 11 choices, from cloakybot, shieldbot, vehicle, heavytanks, hover, spider, advanced/jumpjet bot, plane, gunship, shipyard, airborne engineer.

They are all cost same, you can build another just after that.

 SIX: Heavy cannot fight same cost Small units.
In this game you swarm! Small Kills Large. Heavy is for fighting then retreat or anti-porc.



See more:

http://licho.eu/alba/Zero-K/screen00065.sized.png

Or visit http://zero-k.info now
« Last Edit: May 14, 2011, 12:24:43 AM by archl » Logged
FARTRON
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« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2011, 05:50:01 PM »

welcome to tigsource and i hope you find more players to play with
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Core Xii
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« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2011, 03:16:01 AM »

The visuals are godawful.

How does this compare to Spring?
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Dacke
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« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2011, 03:27:57 AM »

If I'm not mistaken, Spring is a RTS engine which Zero-K is built upon.

I'm installing the game now and will give it a spin later.
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Core Xii
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« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2011, 05:46:10 AM »

I thought it looked similar. Spring wasn't very good last time I checked. Which, admittedly, was a fair while back.
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