ZEPHON News

Get a peek at the story for ZEPHON in this cinematic intro trailer for the upcoming 4X strategy game from the creators of Warhammer 40,000: Gladius.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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4X Game Development, ZEPHON, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius | Proxy AMA #3

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Thanks for everyone that tuned in and asked questions. For everyone else, enjoy the recording.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Stay great!

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

Data Modding
ZEPHON will continue Gladius’ tradition of easy and accessible modding.
All locally installed game files are stored unencrypted so players can inspect the gameplay data, rebalance stats, change graphics and sounds, modify the UI, add new units and much more.
Throughout development we put heavy emphasis on using standard, open file formats. Open formats are easier to inspect, understand and build on top of. Working with them is less expensive than paying for proprietary formats. And best of all, it’s more inclusive for modders, who can use a variety of tools to create or modify assets. Where there are no available open formats, we’ll make sure to supply conversion scripts and tools to interact with our custom formats.
The cornerstone of ZEPHON modding is data-driven XML configuration files. They define gameplay stats, actions, traits, effects and conditions in a way that is easy to understand and change. We’ve seen this being used to great success, and we have a couple of enhancements in store.

AI Modding
In Gladius it was only possible to mod the AI through XML in a few limited ways: faction resource pooling weights, research and production scores, and hero ability level up priorities.

A critical missing ingredient was the capability to change how and when the AI uses leader and unit abilities. This can now be modded in XML by specifying `` inside an action:

```
  
    
      
        
          
            
              
                
              
            
          
        
      
    
  
  
    
      
        
          
        
      
      
        
      
    
  
```

This would make the AI only use the healing action “MendMatter” on units that have less than 50% hitpoints.

We will be using the same system to implement the AI that comes with the game—making the behavior easy to modify and improve. We’re aiming to have as much of the AI be XML data-driven as possible so that it’s available for you to tweak.





Action Blueprints
Modding actions has overall been enhanced, streamlined and simplified.

Previously it was necessary to reuse action tags because they were tightly coupled with the visualization. It wasn’t possible to have a new action and have a new visualization for it. This is possible in ZEPHON by using the new `` or `` actions and specifying the visual blueprints:

```
  
          primaryBlueprint="..."
      primaryEmitterBlueprint="..."
      secondaryBlueprint="..."
      secondaryEmitterBlueprint="..."/>
  
```

Actions can now also be specified in blueprints, so that the same action only has to be written once…

```Data/World/Blueprints/Actions/ClearTile.xml:

  
    
      
        
        
      
    
```

…and reused across many units or buildings.

```Data/World/Buildings/Construction.xml:

  
    
  
```

Faction Modding
To enhance modability and implementation with ZEPHON’s leader-focused mechanics, there are a few improvements to faction modding.

We can now specify `` and `` inside faction XMLs and they will be available to buildings and units that meet the conditions whenever that faction leader is played. This makes it possible for a single leader to have additional production options or unit abilities without having to duplicate buildings or units.

Diplomacy will be covered in greater detail in a subsequent reveal, but specifying which labels a faction leader likes and dislikes will be the primary driver of AI behavior on the diplomatic level. This can be done through `` and `` tags in the faction XMLs.


All of this, and more, will be integrated with Steam Workshop on release.


If you enjoyed reading this, help us out and tell your friends to wishlist ZEPHON—it's the only way we can encourage Steam to show ZEPHON to more people.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular reveals and exclusive closed betas to your inbox: https://newsletter.proxy-studios.com/

February 23rd @ 18:00 CET we will be running a 60 minute live AMA on Discord.

You are very welcome to join us, to hang out and ask any questions you may have. About ZEPHON, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius, game development in general or anything else.

If you can't make it, or would like to ask your question ahead of time, please use the #ama-questions channel.

Please note that the AMA will be recorded. We'll be sending it to our newsletter subscribers after the event, so you’ll be able to listen to it at a later date if you aren't available at the time of the AMA: https://newsletter.proxy-studios.com/.

You can listen to the previous AMA on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79gDK3u9Kqw

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

From the literal use of ‘grimdark’ to the fact that the environments (if not the units) look like they’ve been inspired by the terrain of Gladius, is Zephon some kind of vision of your previous game freed from the shackles of a restrictive license?

While we are big fans of the Warhammer universe, it is definitely refreshing and complementing to work on something in parallel where we have full creative freedom. In Gladius, you build up your war machinery and battle it out with all the amazing units and factions of the 40K universe. ZEPHON is more involved: you will struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, manage a more sophisticated economy, negotiate with others leaders, traverse a vast research tree, make complex ethical choices and, of course, go to war with rivals by utilizing a sophisticated mix of three distinct technological paths (conventional troops, cold-hearted machines, and eldritch horrors). A new IP allows us to express all the ideas that we’ve been accumulating over the last 6 years.



Proxy wants to go it alone with this one—any particular reason? You’ve historically partnered with Slitherine before now but there are plenty of self-publishing successes out there as well.

ZEPHON is co-funded by the Creative Europe MEDIA program of the European Union, so from a financial point of view there is no need for a publisher. We might decide to team up closer to release for marketing purposes, but we want to engage with players directly and react to their feedback with new game versions in a matter of minutes—which people are loving on our Discord.

“Let’s face it, 4X combat is often boring or shallow”—It’d be remiss of me to not want to explore this further—how does Zephon solve this proposed problem with 4X combat?

4X games often give combat the back seat. It’s not necessarily an issue, but it’s a question of focus. We feel that these games, after the economic infrastructure is created, most of the time end up being decided by combat anyway. We can do the whole experience more justice by going beyond simplistic combat. That’s done primarily by giving each unit a very distinct role through unique weapons, skills and upgrades. We’ve been inspired to bring RTS elements into 4X combat and believe it works excellently.



Considering Proxy has spent a lot time recently making a game that’s been famously devoid of any kind of diplomacy (there is only war in the grimdark, after all), how do you plan on shaking up those mechanics specifically with Zephon?

With ZEPHON we really want to emphasize the roleplay aspects when you talk to other leaders. So in order to feel as immersive and interactive as possible, they will react pronouncedly to actions you perform or choices you have made in the past. You will be able to influence leaders to perform any diplomatic action on third parties, and all leaders will have fully unique dialogue lines to bring their respective character traits to life. It’s important to us that none of this detracts from the combat experience, but rather augments it. Being able to decide with who you’re at war will ultimately give you more control over the combat than a free for all.

Your steam page also mentions shaking up other 4X foundations as well—what other innovations are you proud of?

Some are still in the experimental design stage, but two important foundations that we can mention now can be split into gameplay and visual. Gameplay-wise, we’re doing an involved economic model where resources combine to create more powerful resources (think Settlers or a simpler Factorio), but also where you pay for production ahead of time instead of your resources ticking down each turn. That means you’ll have to think about your build orders and resource allocation ahead of time if you want to play optimally. On the visual aspect, we’ve recently been seeing an influx of 4X games that try to appeal to a large mass with casual graphics. We want to go into the other direction, be more realistic and show the gritty and the dark. On top of that we are going to uniquely model every unit upgrade and also every distinct type of building in your city--so you know what kind of city it is just from looking at it.



From Pandora, to Gladius, and now your work on Zephon, what do you think is Proxy’s defining or enduring legacy on 4X strategy games?

The relentless pursuit of creating a great combat experience. And we’re doubling down on it by making it more visceral and immersive.

If you enjoyed reading this, help us out and tell your friends to wishlist ZEPHON—it's the only way we can encourage Steam to show ZEPHON to more people.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular reveals and exclusive closed betas to your inbox: https://newsletter.proxy-studios.com/