ZEPHON News

The first playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from August 3rd (@ 6 pm WEST) to August 10th (@ 6 pm WEST) on Steam as part of the Tiny Teams Festival.

Come join us in celebration of incredible small development teams and let us know your thoughts about ZEPHON.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/

This is an early look at an in-development alpha version of the game. As such, there will be bugs, imbalances and missing assets.

The demo is limited to single player against one opponent on a tiny map. 2 leaders are available for selection and 1 NPC faction is present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers and the game ends at turn 50.

The full version will contain co-op and pvp multiplayer, larger maps, advanced world generation parameters, 8 leaders, 3 NPC factions, over 50 units spread across 10 tiers of research, more terrain features and quests, an end-game grand finale, unlockable game modifiers, achievements, multiple languages as well as full workshop support.

The first playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from August 3rd (@ 6 pm WEST) to August 10th (@ 6 pm WEST) on Steam as part of the Tiny Teams Festival.

Come join us in celebration of incredible small development teams and let us know your thoughts about ZEPHON.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/

This is an early look at an in-development alpha version of the game. As such, there will be bugs, imbalances and missing assets.

The demo is limited to single player against one opponent on a tiny map. 2 leaders are available for selection and 1 NPC faction is present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers and the game ends at turn 50.

The full version will contain co-op and pvp multiplayer, larger maps, advanced world generation parameters, 8 leaders, 3 NPC factions, over 50 units spread across 10 tiers of research, more terrain features and quests, an end-game grand finale, unlockable game modifiers, achievements, multiple languages as well as full workshop support.

Get your first look at gameplay from Zephon, the upcoming 4X strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world from Proxy Studios, the developers of Warhammer 40K: Gladius.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The release date has been pushed back to 2024 to allow us to release a full version and give you the best experience possible.

In the meantime, we'll have a public demo coming in August. Wishlist and follow on Steam so you stay up to date!

Join our Discord to follow each segment of a reveal as it happens every Monday.

[h3]Battleground After The Apocalypse[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
In this video, Abkluth Dragoons are coming out of a sandstorm to surprise and kill a missile team.

The map in ZEPHON is split into 6 different climate types.

Each climate has unique visuals, ambient sounds, gameplay boni and special phenomena.

The permanent climate-wide terrain bonus is economically focused—incentivizing specialized build strategies—while the phenomena are dynamic and shake up gameplay on the tactical level.

To mark each climate, region names will appear prominently on the map—alongside messages that someone is leaving for you …

This month we’ll be showing 3 of our 6 climates.

[h3]Desert[/h3]



Open plains and stable weather made the desert a remarkably stable environment for generating electricity. But it gave our workers one hell of a hostile environment to work in. Dehydration could take down humans and aliens alike, and sandstorms did particularly nasty work to machines.


Properties:
· +20% energy output
· Sandstorms appear and travel across the region
· +33% ranged damage reduction
· +1 movement cost
· Blocks line of sight

Region name examples: Maldean Wastes, Slumbering Sandridge, The Scoripus Ridgebacks.

[h3]Construct[/h3]



ZEPHON must have needed an inconceivable amount of power to wage its war against the Acrin. The techs guessed that if fossil fuels or renewables were being quickly taken online, it would react by building zones like these to generate a new, power-efficient resource. If you got far enough into one of these zones, you'd start to think the planet was now one giant machine.


Properties:
· +20% chips output
· A segment of tiles have Arc Discharge on them
· +10% damage output
· 5% self damage on attack

Region name examples: Point Upsilon, Elseif Assembly, Cerebumcore.

[h3]Swamp[/h3]



All kinds of life made its home in the Swamps—if you could handle the humidity, you'd be able to find plenty of food to keep your army on its feet. Experienced trackers knew to watch for muddy terrain—if your feet sunk in too far, you were easy picking for any hunters on your trail.

Properties:
· +20% food output
· Chance for forest-adjacent tile to become forest
· Cicadas appear for a limited time every 10 turns on all forest and adjacent tiles
· +20% food output
· -10% healing rate

Region name examples: Crookkiller Swamp, Falaya Basin, Siren Marsh.

What do you think? Let us know!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/

Join our Discord to follow each segment of a reveal as it happens every Monday.

[h3]Sentries[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Guard bot.

ZEPHON wanted nothing to do with us. It could have just told us that directly. Instead it posted up Sentries that looked to be guarding something. We learned really quickly that they could hold a grudge. If you were the kind of grunt who liked to stomp ants because they couldn’t hit back, boy were these things a pain in the ass. More like an ant that would chew through your boot and try to take a few toes out before you put it down.

[h3]Mechanics[/h3]



ZEPHON Unit · Tier 2

Attributes:
· 3 group members, 5 armor, 18 hitpoints, 4 accuracy, 8 morale, 2 movement

Traits:
· Mechanical: Classification
· Sentry Protocols: Always attacks if neutral (not ZEPHON-controlled)

Machines that wandered the wasteland didn’t care whose flag you marched under. They did care if you entered their line of sight and, if they were programmed to do so, they’d open fire without hesitation. You couldn’t even squeeze in a friendly “hello.”

Weapons:
· Armor-Piercing Minigun: 1.5 damage, 2 armor penetration, 3 attacks, 2 range
· Crippling
· Applies Crippled to non-Large units for 1 turn
· -67% movement

Spraying a hailstorm of armor-piercing bullets was bad enough, but this piece of hardware crippled infantry and recon. Once your prey slowed down, you could just chew them up until there was nothing left.

Abilities:
· Combat Routine: Usable if below 100% hitpoints, +2 accuracy for 3 turns, 10 turn cooldown.

The first machines we encountered weren’t always fully ready for combat—but they would be once the shooting started. It was eerie how they’d become better shots once they took a hit. Some kind of triangulation subroutine or something.

Cost:
· 30 production (5 turns), 16 minerals, 16 chips

Upkeep:
· 0.75 minerals, 0.75 chips

[h3]Design Commentary[/h3]



The Sentry is a smaller cousin to ZEPHON’s fearsome Warden.

Sentry Protocols is an in-setting way for us to imbue neutral units with special AI behavior. Designed to protect key infrastructure, the Sentry’s default behavior is to relentlessly shoot on sight—which it will unless it’s synced to ZEPHON’s main control shard.

For contrast and to make this AI behavior less punishing, Combat Routine means the Sentry won’t be able to dish out its full damage potential unless attacked first.

Nonetheless, due to the Sentry's weapon possessing additional armor piercing capabilities, it is wise to exercise caution when deploying swift scouts on exploration missions.


What do you think? Let us know!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/