[HN Gopher] Zero-k: A libre sci-fi RTS game, with an economy bas... ___________________________________________________________________ Zero-k: A libre sci-fi RTS game, with an economy based on metal and energy Author : azalemeth Score : 272 points Date : 2023-11-19 10:43 UTC (12 hours ago) (HTM) web link (zero-k.info) (TXT) w3m dump (zero-k.info) | JCharante wrote: | linux support but no macos support? Aww | v3ss0n wrote: | Can you build from scratch? | palmfacehn wrote: | I didn't see a source link on the download page. | fao_ wrote: | > https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Zero-K:Deve | lop... | badosu wrote: | Games have their own distribution method, but you can | download the source and the engine will handle it. In ZeroKs | case (https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/). | | The most straightforward method to compile the engine | reliably I'd say is with the docker container: | https://github.com/beyond-all- | reason/spring/wiki/SpringRTS-B... | | Edit: spelling,links | _flux wrote: | Seems the support would be a realistic feature, though, because | it's based on https://springrts.com/ that does support MacOS X. | white_dragon88 wrote: | Noise about macOS died down back in 2018, and seems the linux | port is riddled with bugs. This project is basically dead in | the water. | badosu wrote: | macOS dropped when Apple stopped supporting more advanced | OpenGL features. | | > linux port is riddled with bugs | | That's... interesting... as many of the engine and game | devs also play on linux (and a considerable part of the | playerbase) | | If you're looking for the codebase Zero-K and most | previously spring mods are based upon you should look at: | https://github.com/beyond-all-reason/spring | TheHumanist wrote: | I'm 41, gamed since all the way back... but feel silly for | asking... what sort of macros would you use in games like this? | moribvndvs wrote: | MacOS not macros | LordShredda wrote: | You can program your own widgets and have them run commands | client side | BlueTemplar wrote: | They said Macintosh Operating System, not macRos, but in | Spring-Recoil games like these, you _can_ basically program | whatever you want using Lua widgets, and there 's a fairly | easy scripting for commands allowing for things like <<when I | press button X select half of the currently selected units, | in a radius of Y around my mouse cursor, picking only the | ground combat ones with more than Z% health>>. | fodkodrasz wrote: | In Supreme Commander you could have build templates for | building layouts, eg. fortifications (point defence, shields, | artillery, properly aligned, rotatable, etc), I relied on it | extensively in multiplayer to quickly get foothold. (SC was | successor of TA, these games started as clones of TA). | | Just tried BAR, and the build templates would be really | handy. | badosu wrote: | The engine heavily relies on OpenGL features Apple dropped | support for. The best bet would be to await for a decent | translation layer (Zink, MoltenVK, idk). | | Edit: clarity | liotier wrote: | Is Zero-k still popular now that its cousin | https://www.beyondallreason.info has matured ? | dmos62 wrote: | Wasn't aware there's a successor. Screenshots make it seem very | similar. Anyone played it? | jadbox wrote: | They are similar but different. BAR is more of a unique game | (for better or worse), while ZeroK is much closer to an HD | remake of Total Annihilation. | killerstorm wrote: | Are you sure? | | BAR units are generally similar to TA units. It captures | the feel of "what TA would be if it was full 3D and high | resolution". Of course, balance is different, but TA | balance was very odd. | | ZeroK seems to have terrain modification mechanics which is | not present in TA. | | In BAR terrain can be damaged by big explosions, but it's | very limited. | | FWIW I never played ZeroK but based on their intro video | BAR seems to be closer to TA visually. | BlueTemplar wrote: | It's pretty much the inverse : | http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/29067 | | BAR used to stand for "Balanced Annihilation Reloaded" - so | it's sticking very close to TA, while Zero-K has been | experimenting much more freely with what is possible in the | Spring/Recoil engine. | | It's also probably a factor that BAR has spent a decade in | development hell (under a different team than now ?), so it | just didn't have the velocity to fork away sufficiently, | even if it wanted to. | DayDollar wrote: | Eh, no? Zero-k was there first, and gathered vital info. | The original setup for spring rollout of games was | thoroughly inadequat to supporting large number of | gamers. Fuck, the first lobby server wrote match infos | into a freaking textfile. | | The first indicator of that popped up, when valve ended | greenlight, and just greenlit all the things. Which | propped Evolution RTS upon the steam front page for half | a day, flooding the original lobby system and showing how | inadequat the whole ecosystem was for that. The original | Evo dev Forb learned from the whole mess after he | returned from his day job. | | Zero-k then learned the lessons, developed a ingui lobby, | started the whole matchmaking and better server | deployment, detached from the whole "one central server" | thing of the spring eco system. | | BAR did some graphical overhaul, with Floris, Beherith, | Sprung and the whole original crew supported by new faces | like Teifion and on and on. They optimized the Spring | engine into a new version- more tailored to BARs needs | and reworked alot of the stuff. | | Its gpl open source, so the project order and who | invented what is pretty flowy.. everybody copies from | everybody, one progress is everyones progress.. | badosu wrote: | I don't think it's much about the timeline but more about | the feel of being close to TA. In which case BAR indeed | is closest to a some sort of TA-sense while Zero-K is | more unique (and that's great!). | BlueTemplar wrote: | How does it contradict what I said ? | | I disagreed about <<BAR is more of a unique game (for | better or worse), while ZeroK is much closer to an HD | remake of Total Annihilation.>> | | P.S.: You might also be mistaken about EvoRTS' Steam | release being specifically behind the motivation of | Zero-K splitting up, since according to lead ZK dev the | second at least partially predates the first ? | | http://zero-k.info/Forum/Post/236480#236480 | | > 2012(ish): Zero-K splits off to its own infrastructure | after disagreement with infrastructure developers. From | my perspective they were very stubborn regarding | extending the protocol to allow for new stuff (Eg | matchmacking, more advanced planetwars) and would make | sudden changes that broke our autohosts. | | > 2013-2014: Evolution RTS is greenlit on Steam and | released in 2014. I don't think Steam was on my radar at | the time, but now it looked like a possibility. Looking | back at the dates we actually put up a greenlight | campaign five days after the Evolution RTS release. | | (Lobby interface issues being another thing, but then | IIRC EvoRTS had already tried to improve on this before | release, though not successfully enough ?) | killerstorm wrote: | Yes, Beyond All Reason is a great RTS. Most people seem to be | interested in 8 vs 8 team mode, but there's a plenty of other | options, including FFA. | | I don't know how it compares to Zero-K. | | But it perfectly captures the spirit of the original Total | Annihilation. | Tuna-Fish wrote: | Not really a successor, but as the poster above said, a | cousin. | | This lineage of open-source games started from Total | Annihilation, which had a lot of mods that ran into engine | limitations. This resulted in a bunch of enterprising open- | sourced devs to develop a compatible engine, without those | limitations. This engine (Spring Engine) has then evolved | into something much more impressive and capable. Zero-K was | implemented on this engine. Beyond All Reason uses the Recoil | engine, which is a fairly recent for of Spring. | DayDollar wrote: | Eh, the engine was a accident. It started out as a | 3d-viewer, capable of replaying ta games by the svedish | yankspankers (clan sy). | | What started out as a viewer, escalated into a 106.0 | version long engine, providing a war that consumes planets, | each side with only one final wish - Total Annhilation at | Zero-k, beyond all reason. | | Naw, the community comes and goes ebbs and flows. Its | mostly on recoil discord, some are still on the irc server, | the rest is on the BAR discord. | vanderZwan wrote: | > _svedish yankspankers_ | | Presuming that the main code contributions also come from | the Swedish scene I'm not entirely surprised that this | happened. It sort of fits my impression of the | gamer/programmer culture here (although I can't quite | express why) | 3seashells wrote: | 3 months of night, either tinker, drinker or metal guy | torching towns church(thinker). | pashsoft wrote: | BAR has a small but active community, they also run | tournaments. In terms of gameplay, it is superficially | similar to Total Annihilation but much more polished. The UI | and unit control mechanics are a masterpiece in their own | right. A lot of what makes a strategy game "fun" is the | feeling that you are actually in control of your army, and | that your decisions matter. BAR delivers that better than any | other strategy game, in my opinion. You can control large | armies of tiny units without feeling overwhelmed by micro, | and still have the option for individual-unit controls when | you need them. Give it a try! | loufe wrote: | It's THE game with my friend group right now. We play FFA, | team v team, team v bossAI. Great polish, watching playbacks | is sweet, observer seats is great. | | Overall fantastic experience, really impressive for FOSS | BlueTemplar wrote: | Popularity has been waning naturally, just like the popularity | of Spring lobbies before it, with respective peaks around 2017 | and 2010, but AFAIK the newfound popularity of BAR has been | also bringing significant new blood to these other | Spring/Recoil games. | | (Without commercial levels of advertising, a lot of Total | Annihilation / Supreme Commander / RTS fans had never heard of | them, word of mouth can only go so far... at least until Twitch | streamers became super-popular ?) | casablancatoast wrote: | Thanks for the BAR link, I'm going to share that with someone | who'll find it useful. Appreciated! | Buttons840 wrote: | To compare the two: | | Zero-K allows 16 vs 16 battles (and it works!), each player | controls a relatively smaller number of units. In Beyond All | Reason, there are 8 v 8 battles and each player controls a | larger number of units, maybe 200 or so at the peak of battle. | (There are some strong, but predictable AIs for both games.) | | Zero-K has more units that are less realistic and have more | variety. BAR has more realistic units and less variety. BAR has | tanks, Zero-K has flying tanks that can also turn invisible | (this is a made up example, but illustrates the idea). | | Zero-K has a limited economy, you have to control land to to | generate income, and fighting has more influence on who wins. | In BAR, the economy is more exponential, and at high tech | levels controlling land doesn't matter, you can generate a huge | income in a tiny corner of the map and win because your economy | is exponentially stronger than anything your opponents have. | astrobe_ wrote: | To clarify, ZK doesn't population caps like e.g. Starcraft. | The actual limit is actually the CPU/GPU (and maybe your | bandwidth too). ZK's 16vs16 host, the "lobster pot" as they | call it, can barely be playable if your rig is too weak. | rollcat wrote: | > ZK doesn't population caps | | That sounds like poor RTS design. | | Popcap is one of the simplest and most effective "anti- | snowballing" mechanisms. Once you're "maxed out", you | cannot get further ahead - you must attack and trade to | build new stuff. If you can just keep making stuff without | ever being forced to trade, whoever gets ahead first, | eventually wins. | | Supply also serves as a comeback mechanic - you were even, | but took one bad fight, so you can immediately spend all | your money to get a new army. Meanwhile your opponent must | construct additional pylons before they can get much | further ahead - they grow stronger slower than you regrow | the lost limbs. | remram wrote: | BAR is more similar to the original Total Annihilation (and | successors like Supreme Commander). It's a lot of similar units | (e.g. tanks) with subtle variations, multiple tiers, with a | focus on out-numbering your opponent. | | Zero-K went a different route. They simplified the economy | (metal cost = energy cost) but added a whole lot of mechanics | like overdrive grids and made every unit unique. There is a lot | of variety with mind-control, jumpjets, shields, unit-throwers, | self-replicators, teleports, terraforming, etc. | | Zero-K has been on Steam for a few years, I think BAR is | working towards it. They are both good worthwhile games, they | share some common elements, but they are both worth trying in | their own right. | liotier wrote: | > unit-throwers | | Was the BAR peewee-launching gun inspired by Zero-K ? | badosu wrote: | This link might be helpful: | https://www.beyondallreason.info/faq/what-are-the-difference... | concordDance wrote: | Not as much as BAR. I do prefer Zero-K though, it has a much | less degenerate economy (no exponential growth) and actual unit | AI. | ewy1 wrote: | So happy to see this here! I used to play this a lot with my | boyfriend - we were pretty evenly matched, and the game allowed | for so much freedom which made every game wild. The most | impressive feature is - in my opinion - the wide variety of | commands you can provide to your units and how their AI interacts | with them. For example, if you build a crowd of fast and agile | grunts and make them match speed with a slower tank, they will | still avoid enemy projectiles with their superior speed. | BlueTemplar wrote: | Indeed ! | | https://youtu.be/7qEGJlBLJSg | | (Most, but not all of these are shared with other Spring-Recoil | games.) | fho wrote: | One of the features I used the most was the "distributed | move/fight" command. That just made it so easy to deploy e.g. a | line of heavy tanks in front of a line of artillery. | | Or mines that were actually useful. I played a game were my | opponent got super paranoid after running into the first mine | field. | | Good times :-) | poisonborz wrote: | It's fascinating that this grew out of a project that was | originally a 3D map viewer for Total Annihilation. | emsimot wrote: | Custom games? :D I miss playing "tree tag" on Warcraft3 | Battle.net | BlueTemplar wrote: | Kind of : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr3RVDMJsEY | | Though in WC3 (and SC1/SC2) IMHO this was enabled by a very | easy to use <<map>> editor, combined with a tremendous | popularity of the base game. | | So if even, in theory, you can do even more (libre software), | in practice what you see is not as ebulliently diverse. | | You can also compare it to the Spring lobby games - Zero-K has | improved on the presentation, but something has been lost by | not being able to easily fork the game yourself, build on it, | and then just put up whatever the resulting mess is, start a | game, and it being listed in the list of games : | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8by5C6dJDA | | Including <<Com Shooter>> FPS using the built-in <<possess unit | and use FPS controls>> showcased here : | https://youtu.be/MpKqQxTURik?t=107 | | Which shows another tension in game development : more recent | Spring-Recoil games disable that feature outright, because of | the balance headaches it causes, and potential modders can't | use what they are not aware exists ! | | But modding scene does exist in ZK : http://zero-k.info/Mods | | (In addition to the game setup itself being typically WAY more | open than what you find in other RTS.) | wheelerof4te wrote: | These types of RTSs are way less "arcadey" than Warcraft 3 or | Starcraft, so I don't think supporting custom games is on the | devs radar. | | What you're usually after in these games are huge battles on | massive worlds with thousands of explosions leaving craters and | debris everywhere. | szundi wrote: | Best game ever, other favorite is BA. Nothing to conpare these | to. | EamonnMR wrote: | I wish people were slightly more up front about their games being | Spring Engine mods. | badosu wrote: | From https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/: | | > About > > Open source RTS game running on the Spring engine | | In the place where code is present, things pertaining to code | are present. You don't need to throw technical details to | potential players at your front page. | LordShredda wrote: | Calling this a mod would be like calling Dota a mod. | badosu wrote: | Historically, games made under Spring/Recoil are called mods. | remram wrote: | If Spring is an engine, then this is a game not a mod. What | game does it MODify? | concordDance wrote: | Would you call a game that used Unreal Engine an Unreal Engine | mod? | ekianjo wrote: | that looks like it's heavily inspired by Total Annihilation | LegibleCrimson wrote: | That's an understatement. They're effectively family. | russnewcomer wrote: | Zero-k is based on Spring Engine, that started as a community | project to be a 3D engine for TA. So you are very correct. | wheelerof4te wrote: | Would I need a fairly powerful machine to run this? I can run | Starcraft 2, is that enough? | | I've toyed with Total Annihilation, but the graphics were too | old, even for Brood War fan such as myself. | notahacker wrote: | I always liked the Total Annihilation graphics and think they | passed the test of time quite well for a game that's 25 years | old. A lot of the maps were downright pretty (especially when I | modded them ;-) and the top down perspective was a better "3D" | than isometric (or much of the low poly full 3D of the time). | The lasers and build nanobots and explosions were a bit cheesy | I guess... | wheelerof4te wrote: | Yes, I like the terrain. But the unit designs really show | their age. | notahacker wrote: | Tbf the unit designs (those solar panels!) were pretty | weird at the time, looks like this has a similarly odd- | looking ships and factories and the same penchant for big | coloured panels on everything | | Looks like the big advantage of this is that the unit AI is | supposed to be quite clever rather than _really stupid_ at | how it carries out the tasks you give it... | wheelerof4te wrote: | They are bragging about having a challenging AI. | | We will see, I've just downloaded the game. Hopefully, | the AI is better than Blizzard's 98's Brood War brain- | dead computer :) | BlueTemplar wrote: | Projects like these tend to attract AI programmers, | compare SC1's native AI with what Brood War API users | came up with : | | https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/01/skynet-meets-the- | swar... | | Speaking of which, you might be in luck, this just | happened this weekend, and in my on-and-off experience | with Spring games, I don't remember seeing AI exhibition | matches very often compared to regular human competitions | : | | https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1981220857 | | http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/36943 | | P.S.: Don't confuse unit AI (that even players have | direct access to) with general AI. | LegibleCrimson wrote: | Note that the parent poster was referring to unit AI, not | enemy AI. Units can do a lot more with a single command | compared to something like StarCraft and StarCraft II, | which forces you to do much more heavy micro (because | your units will pretty much walk in a straight line to | their goal, not attack unless they're A-walking, and then | stand in a single place without moving as they attack). | APM is not as important a factor in TA-heritage games, | and many Spring games go to great lengths to reduce APM | as much as possible, by doing things like automating | "dancing". | badosu wrote: | I didn't have direct experience with the AI on ZeroK, but | if it uses some variation of BarbarianAI that is | available on BAR (cousin project mentioned in other posts | here) it's as impressive as being a decent benchmark for | beating a human that has a borderline decent grasp on the | game (which makes it an actually good challenge). | BlueTemplar wrote: | It basically came out a few years before SC2, being even less | graphically demanding. (At which point my own PC with a GeForce | 4 which, for comparison to today, had either 0.064 or 0.128 Go | of VRAM, would struggle to run it.) Some graphic improvements | have happened since then of course, and the requirements are | now somewhat higher. | | Now the issue is that it doesn't have the unit caps that SC2 | does, and the number of players (now up to 16vs16 in a normal | game, sometimes even 32vs32, while in 2009 8vs8 would have been | the max), map sizes, and number of units (typically up to ~0.5k | in 2006 compared to topping up at ~5k-10k today) only kept | growing. | | So if you want to play big team games, and have a much worse | CPU than the average player, you might not have the best time | in the endgame. | wheelerof4te wrote: | Are there any popular 4vs4 games? | | I will first start versus AI, then take it from there. Not | really a competitive player anymore. Playing Brood War kinda | makes you dislike multiplayer RTS after a while, haha. | BlueTemplar wrote: | You might have to advertise for them in chat / forums. | | All games : http://zero-k.info/Battles | | All games with 8 players (though not only 4vs4) : http://ze | ro-k.info/Battles?Title=&Map=&PlayersFrom=8&Players... | jandrese wrote: | According to the Steam page: Processor: 2.0 | GHz dual core CPU with SSE (Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent) | Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512 MB graphics card with | OpenGL 3 support (GeForce 8800 or equivalent) Storage: | 6 GB available space | | I would guess that you can run this game. | astrobe_ wrote: | If you can run SC2 you prolly can run ZK. It does uses nearly | all of the 4 Gb specified in the minimal requirements, though. | But if you are at minimal specs, don't think about engaging | into the popular 16vs16 battles. | wheelerof4te wrote: | A fair bit above them, only graphics are a problem. | | Intel i5 11th gen, Intel Iris UHD graphics, 16GB RAM. | white_dragon88 wrote: | Still no Mac support... I know the technical reason why so not | upset, just sad. | shoggouth wrote: | Does Zero-k or another SpringRTS game support "strategic zoom" or | building structures/units with real-time debt (as in you can | construct a unit that requires 10000 mineral when you are only | making 600 a minute) such as Supreme Commander? | Pet_Ant wrote: | I mean Total Annihilation pioneered that concept and Spring RTS | started as an open source clone of Total Annihilation so | definitely some Spring RTS mods do, and Zero-K almost certainly | does. | remram wrote: | They all do (Zero-K, BAR, and most of the games built on the | engine). | | You can also reclaim metal from dead units and structures. | fho wrote: | I feel old now :-) | | SpringRTS is actually older than the first Supreme Commander | game. | tomca32 wrote: | I think pretty much all Spring games support that. Zero-K and | BAR both do anyway. Both strategic zoom and real time | "streaming" building came from Total Annihilation and Spring | games are TA based. | LordShredda wrote: | This game is absolutely insane. There's so many tricks and plays | possible with the selection of units available. Ever seen a | commander rocket jump and shoot down a bomber plane mid air? | BlueTemplar wrote: | Zero-K = Noita RTS : | | https://imgur.com/iCUnQy6 | fergal_reid wrote: | I used to play Total Annihilation online back when I was in | secondary school in the late 90s | | We'd hang out on IRC, and people would host a game on their IP. | | Eventually I got into creating new units for the game. You had to | animate them with a C-like language, and I was trying to teach | myself C at the time so that was part of my programming journey. | | The 'Swedish Yankspankers' were a clan that had a channel on the | IRC server, and my recollection, which may be wrong, is that they | started building an app, 'TAreplay' that we could use to record | and rewatch tournament games. People used to pass the exe around | - not very secure, but those were the times! | | It's amazing to me that those players hacking little apps | together for themselves, have spawned a lineage of RTS engines | and games that are still going all this time later. | | A small but incredible example of hacker culture. | russnewcomer wrote: | It's still some of the same folks - SJ and some of the other | SYs wrote the Spring Engine that Zero-K uses. | | I myself learned how to code writing .bos scripts and hanging | out at Annihilated, TAU, and #gnug | | If you want to see some of the stuff still possible and being | done in the TA engine, check out TAUniverse.com | jhoho wrote: | You'll love what the community did with Supreme Commander, | Chris Taylor's spiritual successor to Total Annihilation: | https://www.faforever.com/ | | They even created a Coop-Campaign and a completely new faction. | willis936 wrote: | I put a lot of hours into SupCom. It was always a buggy mess, | but I do remember it quite fondly. Planetary Annihilation has | felt like the right progression in the spiritual series. It | was always a very smooth experience and fixed the technical | issues with scaling up to massive scale combat while fixing | the balance issues of turtling. The skill ceiling is immense | and I could never beat high level bots. The nature of having | one to many planets also means you can play cooperatively | with up to several friends. It's a good time. | jader201 wrote: | I hadn't heard of this before, and was excited that a new RTS was | being announced, given that RTSes seem like a fading genre. | | Of course it's just a link to an older game. I guess the days of | the RTS really are behind us. :( | BlueTemplar wrote: | It's a bit like calling Magic the Gathering <<just>> an older | game. (<<It came out in 1993, how old, must be bad !>>) | | Your complaint would have more merit if the _many_ innovations | of Spring-Recoil engine games had been adopted more widely in | the genre, but even Supreme Commander 1 came short (except for | polish maybe). | | You cannot expect RTS to become one of the biggest genres | again, but it's still quite lively (yes, even outside of SC2 | and AoE2) : | | _RTS is fun, actually (and you can learn it): a video essay - | CloudCuckooCountry_ : | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl4myN8q_KM | | A list of upcoming(ish) RTSes : | | _The Most Anticipated RTS Games in 2023 & 2024... SO MANY! - | GamerZakh_ : | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKujSK4FRWk | | (Notably, including BAR, another Spring-Recoil game.) | | (Yes, most of them will suck and fail, such is life.) | brucethemoose2 wrote: | The Planetary Annihilation devs are coming out with a factory- | rts hybrid game akin to Mindustry. | | That seems the direction RTS is heading in general, hybridizing | with other genres. | olavgg wrote: | link? | wheelerof4te wrote: | Stormgate is one of the recent promising titles. | concordDance wrote: | I'd still recommend it though, it's very fun. | thinkingtoilet wrote: | As someone who still watches the Korean Broodwar scene, how are | the mechanics in this game? Is there micro? Or is it more sc2 | style where you put all your units in a single control group and | then death ball them into the other death ball? | Pannoniae wrote: | The game is much less click-intensive, but you need _really_ | good situational awareness for it. It doesn 't have | "traditional" micro, you don't need to manually queue units or | babysit every single unit so it doesn't die immediately, but to | win, you need to micro in key areas and most importantly, | manage your economy well. | thinkingtoilet wrote: | Interesting. Does managing your economy mean being efficient | and keeping resources low or are there more complex elements | to it? | BlueTemplar wrote: | More like SC1. | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0lYXap5rbM | | Still, there are just too many differences from both SC1 and 2. | Starting with a higher importance being placed on team games. | | For a similar, yet different gameplay, see Beyond All Reason. | concordDance wrote: | Not heavy micro I'd say, but death balls won't work very well | normally, the composition of your ball matters a lot, as does | how you position it. | ordu wrote: | The strange thing I cannot play war games any more. Not after | Russia invaded Ukraine. War now seems Really Evil and playing | with it doesn't seem appropriate. I wonder does anyone else feel | like that? | Arech wrote: | same. | astrobe_ wrote: | I am OK with war games as long as there's no humans or human- | likes in the game. ZK's sentient robots are fine for me, | contrary to something like 0 A.D. (which even has female | workers - maybe I'm old school, but that's even more a no-go | for me). | mock-possum wrote: | Nah it's still 'just' a game for me. It would have to be | exceptionally immersive to trigger that response - the Walking | Dead games by TellTale for instance, caught me off guard. I | remember there was one big moral choice that I kind of just say | and stared at the screen for what seemed like half an hour | before I could finally make a decision for my character. | | But a birds' eye view of a somewhat sci fi RTS? So far removed | from real life and practical considerations that it doesn't | even blip the radar for me. | wheelerof4te wrote: | Such a strange thing to say. Are you saying war did not exist | before Russia-Ukraine war? | | Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria...US instigated wars aren't | evil enough for you? | ordu wrote: | No, they were far away and not my problem. It is silly from a | rational standpoint, it is probably unjust from a Universal | Justice standpoint, but I'm not talking about rationality or | justice right now, I'm talking about emotions. | wheelerof4te wrote: | Understandable. | | Sorry, let's hope for a quick and just peace then. | eric_cc wrote: | Why Russia / Ukraine? There is nothing particularly notable | about this conflict compared to others. War has always been | war. | ordu wrote: | Yeah, I think you are right. But I didn't feel it before it | hit me into the face. Me personally. Wars seemed too far away | to feel real. | Centigonal wrote: | Lovely to see Zero-K on the HN front page. | nottorp wrote: | It's multiplayer only right? | BlueTemplar wrote: | Nope, even has a campaign that can be played in coop (coop | through Steam only) : | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfVdH02RUQ8&list=PLi9_tXwdXO... | | Don't expect an extraordinary story though, it's much more | focused on being a series of puzzles showcasing various game | features. | astrobe_ wrote: | Nope. There are various levels of AI that can serve as | opponents, including an AI and game mode that sends waves after | waves of enemies until you kill enough of its stuff that it | sends the final boss you must defeat to win the game. | | There's also a _campaign_ that introduces units progressively. | I 'd recommend to start there. | aspyct wrote: | This has a very strong Warzone 2100 vibe to it, I like it :) | internetguy wrote: | WOAH! Did NOT expect to be here. I've been playing Zero-k for | over a year and it is so. much. fun. I play BAR (Beyond All | Reason) and Zero-k with some of my friends. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-11-19 23:00 UTC)