ZEPHON News

The fifth playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from February 12th (@ 12 pm CEST) to February 19th (@ 12 pm CEST) on Steam.

The biggest changes in this demo are the additions of the multiplayer mode, Furtive Tribunal leader, Anchorite NPC faction and tier 4 technologies. See the full changes below.

Come join us in celebration and let us know what you think of 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 includes single player and multiplayer, but is limited to up to four player on a medium-sized map. 4 different leaders are available for selection and 3 NPC factions are present. Research progress is limited to the first 4 tech tiers.

The full version will contain larger maps, advanced game setup options, 8 leaders, 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.

[h3]Changes in Demo 5[/h3]
## New
* Leaders now have a path affinity which determines their starting units and research tree.
* Added Furtive Tribunal leader: *“Bright stars shine so sweet—but bright stars die first. In the long tomb, blinded, we felt the aria of the dark stars, who live forever. Now our only taste is for their harmonies.”*
* Added Anchorite NPC: *“To travel three millennia. To see Kin as horrors. To drink poison from your hands. Yet cannot but love you.”*
* Added tier 4 technologies.
* Added new technologies to tiers 1 through 3.
* Added multiplayer mode.
* Added The Dream and The Sky, Fallen quests.
* Added new unbranched research complete illustration.
* Vegetation shadows now move with the wind.
* Overhauled save and load game screens to be easier to use and show more information.
* Added Mute In Background audio setting.
* Added network stats to the performance display.

## General
* Medium map size can now be selected in the demo.
* Up to 3 AI leaders can now be added in the demo.
* Teams and colors can now be selected in the demo.
* Expedition Outfitter effect now shows on tiles where it would trigger.
* Buying and selling resources is now done in stacks of 5 instead of 10.
* Unit overlay health bars are now fully transparent again below maximum.
* Rewritten many diplomacy dialogue lines.
* AI now buys and sells resources.
* Improved AI item usage.
* Improved random number generation.
* Improved performance.

## Balance
* Flying units now affect and are affected only by other flying units' zone of control.
* Non-flying units can now pass through enemy flying units.
* Increased starting algae and chips from 10 to 20.
* Reduced Speciment Containment research per kill from experience from 4 to 2.
* Increased Abkhan respawn from 10 to 20 turns.
* Increased Survival Training experience from 6 to 9.
* Removed hero production level scaling.

## Bug Fixes
* Fixed being able to communicate with defeated players.
* Fixed not getting rewards from killing Abkhan when using Erelim Assassin's Assassinate ability.
* Fixed Expedition Outfitter not working.
* Fixed being able to use Data Hack on non-enemies.

The fourth playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from October 25th (@ 12 pm CEST) to November 22nd (@ 12 pm CEST) on Steam.

The biggest changes in this demo are the additions of the ZEPHON NPC faction, 2 new neutral units and 3 new quests. See the full changes below.

Come join us in celebration and let us know what you think of 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 two opponents on a small map. 3 leaders are available for selection and 2 NPC factions are present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers.

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.

[h3]Changes in Demo 4[/h3]
## New
* Added ZEPHON NPC faction: *“Communication channel established to ZEPHON-3. How may I help you?”*
* Added Dreameater neutral unit: Large hovering creature that reduces enemy morale and takes control of low morale enemies.
* Added Shoch'itris Lair neutral unit: Large biological structure that breeds Deformities.
* Added The Great Hunt, Black Site and Who Was Thursday quests.
* Show attack area when holding shift with unit selected, or when hovering over a weapon or weapon ability. Enable in settings to always show without holding shift.
* Unit overlays now show darkened out bars for missing health and morale.
* Added additional liked and disliked diplomacy dialogue.

## General
* Units in transports are now cycled to like all other units.
* Volcanos now block vision.
* Reduced forest growth chance in swamp from 5% to 3%.
* The tile acquisition radius of native cities now grows with their population.
* Reduced AI attack score against summons.
* Heartless Artificer AI now uses Foundation of Blood and Quench Resistance.
* Improved diplomacy behavior for accepting gifts, paying tribute and paying for deals.
* Diplomacy actions now show when instigated by a third party.
* Unit groups with appear animations now no longer appear fully simultaneously.
* Left click in empty space or right click anywhere to deselect player in the communications screen.
* Researching technology can now be right clicked to show details in compendium.
* Silence Between Tracks setting now goes in steps of 10 seconds from 0 to 240, defaulting to 120.
* Moved Show Cliff Highlights and Show Grid to general settings.
* Renamed Housing to Habitat.
* Pathfinder performance improvements.
* Minor GUI tweaks.

## Balance
* Reduced Deformities group size from 6 to 5.
* Increased Abkhan Bite damage from 8 to 12.
* Increased Frost Breath damage from 2 to 3.
* Increased Malakim Destroyers hitpoints from 12 to 18.
* Changed Cicadas from +50% healing rate to max 0% healing rate.

## Bug Fixes
* Fixed Undying healing the transport instead of the unit that has the trait.
* Fixed Distorted Lens not working.
* Fixed diplomacy deals not showing result when demanding payment for deal.
* Fixed regen showing over units even when they are at full hitpoints.
* Fixed building effects like smoke to not be removed instantly upon city destruction.
* Fixed hero overlay being prevented from refresh when leveling up an ability (after getting a level from nearby enemy death) due to superfluous attribute updated messages.
* Fixed an error in the calculation of light volumes.
* Fixed dust not showing when units are moving.
* Fixed dust showing when Aegyllan Worms are tunneling.
* Fixed Chieftess headquarters having no lights.

The third playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from September 13th (@ 7 pm CEST) to September 16th (@ 6 pm CEST) on Steam as part of WASD x IGN.

The biggest changes in this demo are the addition of the Emulated Mind leader and the Abkhan Drey arctic feature. We've also increased the map size and player limit for the demo. See the full changes below.

Come join us in celebration and let us know what you think of 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 two opponents on a small map. 3 leaders are available for selection and 1 NPC faction is present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers.

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.

[h3]Changes in Demo 3[/h3]
## New
* Added Emulated Mind leader: *“Don’t KNOCK. Solitude. Until you’ve-been-DRAGGED. In. To. Existence by in-vasive d-i-g-i-t-a-l. Mind. Worms. All s-cream-ing their. Own. Tedious. Name... No, IT’S. Not a-metaphor.”*
* Added Abkhan Drey to the arctic terrain; killing the respawning Abkhan creature gives a reward.
* Added Incendiary Grenades to Busters.
* Added Undersupplied trait that decreases the accuracy of units for which there are not enough resources to meet their upkeep. The accuracy decreases by 10% each turn, down to -50%.

## General
* Small map size can now be selected in the demo.
* Up to 2 AI leaders can now be added in the demo.
* Reaver Immigration is now a player trait that results in continuous praise from the Chieftess.
* Engineer's construct road, remove road and clear tile actions are now in the terraform submenu.
* Unit abilities that require close contact (like the Engineer's Repair or Tune) now have the unit move into the tile.
* Can now trade energy at the Concordat.
* Renamed population limit to housing.
* Neutral units now show a leashed or unleashed trait.
* Reduced Volcano and Sandstorm density by 20%.
* AI leaders no longer offer gifts to leaders they are at war with.
* Economic Bubble quest now can only start after turn 50.
* Reduced Splenetics level from 6 to 5.
* The player changed effect on units no longer renders over any ability effects.
* NPCs no longer show in the lobby.
* Made timing tweaks to units dying in combat.
* GUI visual tweaks.

## Balance
* Reduced city penalties for The Plague.
* Doubled Concordat price for algae and chips.

## Bug Fixes
* Fixed Fire feature not stopping movement.
* Fixed old floating text showing over the unit after they move from the fog of war.
* Fixed Outrider minelayer animation not being played.
* Fixed hint of researching technology.
* Fixed diplomacy language missing descriptions for responses to actions on third parties.
* Fixed a pathing issue related to unseen units blocking a unit's path.
* Fixed no standing being displayed when relationship is at max.
* Roads do not provide movement cost reduction on tiles with fire.
* Roads can't be built on tiles with fire.
* Units no longer rotate to the bottom right when using a targetable ability on themselves.