sillynanny wrote:Because I honestly think grinding is the worst thing that ever happened to computer games.
Well, that's, like, your opinion, man.
Grinding may be unpopular with a few players, but there's no mistaking the numbers: games with unlock mechanics retain more players. We want to gain more new players, so ZK's integrated an unlock mechanic that's been designed to be:
1: A way to prevent new players from falling into "noobtraps," eg. building a Detriment as their first unit because "It looks big and string!!!"
2: As accommodating for our pro players as possible. If units like the Singularity Reactor are a big part of your strategies, I'm seriously going to have to ask how you play. Most units unlock fairly quickly.
And because this project has a lot of value that I think is hindered by the grinding. And there are other good things about this, personal preferences like my love of open-source, passionate volunteer work, that kind of thing. I hate that it is, in my view, wasted.
We're flattered that you think the project has value, but ZK wasn't custom-made specifically for you. We need new players, badly, and it seems fair to say that features like unlocks do wonders for that. While some of us feel like unlocks take away from the traditional RTS experience of the game, we believe that it's better to sacrifice a little bit of that to ease the learning curve and get some fresh blood, because, to be perfectly honest, even the most awesome RTS is no fun if there isn't anybody to play with.
I hope that answered some of your questions. If you still have a problem with Zero-K's grinding mechanic, then you can (as Smoth suggested) either disable it in the modoptions or fork your own version with no unlocks.