ZEPHON News

It's always a delight to see a new and interesting looking game world, one you'd really want to play around in, and Proxy Studios' Zephon looks to be set up to deliver just that. It'll be a followup on Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War, a 4X game set in the eponymous grim, dark universe that has gained a very devoted following over its years of development...
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Join our Discord to follow each segment of a reveal as it happens every Monday.

[h3]Missile Team[/h3]

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Anti-armor infantry with a walking missile launcher.

“Plenty of Militants were eager to pilot anti-armor bots far from the battlefield, but resentment grew quickly between the missile operators and front-line grunts. The solution? We docked rations every time the Missile Team pilots tripped their drones or missed a shot. It was better if they hated us—not each other.”

[h3]Mechanics[/h3]



Human Unit

Attributes:
· 3 group members, 12 hitpoints, 4 armor, 6 accuracy, 6 morale, 3 movement.

Traits:
· Biological: Category. “Humans were always good at hurting other humans.”
· Mechanical: Category. “Sometimes you just needed a bigger machine.”

Weapons:
· Missile Launcher: 6 damage, 5 armor penetration, 1 attack, 3 range.
Heavy: -50% accuracy if unit has moved.

“I had a friend who treated the Missile Launcher like a sacred weapon. They waxed poetic about how standing still to properly aim one drew power from the earth itself. They died out in an open field, exposed to a sniper’s bullet.”

Abilities:
· Grounded Fire (Upgrade · Tier 3): Attack with +2 accuracy. 5 turn cooldown.

“Steady hands made for a steady shot. Same was true for the Missile Team’s attack platforms. Digging your heels into the ground… bracing yourself to absorb the shots’ recoil… it was good enough for men and even better for mechs.”

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

Upkeep:
· 0.8 food, 0.8 minerals.

[h3]Voice Over Script[/h3]



Direction: [Masculine, nerdy, like Radar from M*A*S*H.]
· Attack: “Danger close. Get clear!” “Arming munitions.” “You’re just in time for the fireworks.”
· Move: “Inputting coordinates.” “Ah… that’s still in range, right?” “Let’s hoof it.”
· Hold Position: “Fine, but we’re sitting ducks here.”
· Selected: “What do you need scrapped?” “Munitions delivery, at your service.” “Don’t let them get close.”
· Produced: “Portable missile platform ready to deploy.”
· Damaged: [Spoken calmly, like the operator is watching from a distance.] “The bot’s taking fire, requesting backup.”
· Enemy Killed: “Nothing but rubble.”
· Grounded Fire: [Hold the first letter in “and.”] “Hold—and—fire!”
· Poke: “I’m always worried about making this thing trip.”

[h3]Design Commentary[/h3]



Happy Christmas to everyone!

As Command & Conquer made tradition, we think every game needs a rocket soldier. This is ours.

The unique twist is that the soldier isn’t just carrying a rocket launcher on his shoulder—he’s accompanied by a small two-legged mech to fire guided missiles. Have you seen …

A weapons range of 3 tiles with a focus against armored units makes this an early staple in a Human-centric army. The addition of Grounded Fire is especially useful to improve the mech’s accuracy after moving.

It also symbolizes the Human path’s continuous, but not full mechanization. It’s one of only 4 units in ZEPHON to be both Biological and Mechanical.

What do you think? Let us know!

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/

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

[h3]Buildings[/h3]

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“Let’s build something great here.”

Cities in ZEPHON have a radius of control that can be expanded by acquiring tiles. Though not for free. Each tile under the city’s command costs influence upkeep, but on these tiles you can construct buildings—the ever-important backbone of the economy. Your Construction Yard needs several turns to finish construction of each building. Once complete, you’ll pay an energy upkeep to keep the building operational—and of course sacrifice a worker’s time—but only by scaling your war machinery can you stand a chance against the horrors of post-apocalyptic Earth.

Familiar to players of Gladius, your production is split into different parallel queues under corresponding groups of buildings—so your city can create both Human infantry and Voice creatures simultaneously. One change to the formula is in the Construction Yard which can now produce Engineers to found cities; and to the Headquarters which trains heroes of all three branches.

Each building in ZEPHON has an entirely unique model. So you can recognize their branch as well as their function.

Let’s take a look at some human buildings …

(The graphics are still work-in-progress—by release we’ll have city walls, faction flags, dynamic lights, and better illumination and reflections.)

[h3]Barracks[/h3]



“You never won any war without the grunts. Before you cracked open any advanced technology or gave into The Voice, you needed armed bodies primed for death. Great soldiers could come out of the infantry ranks—but they had to survive first.”

The Barracks train Human infantry units and do not need to be researched. As a side-effect they increase the population limit and help keep the population loyal.

It can produce: Militants, Missile Teams, Combat Medics, Assault Troopers and Praetorians.

It can be upgraded with Itinerant Recruiters, boosting production of Militants and Missile Teams.

[h3]Transuranium Stabilizer[/h3]



“Now, this, I won't pretend to understand. I know the transuranic elements are unstable. I know that in that instability, there's huge amounts of latent energy. I don't know how the machines worked that stopped it escaping—that made those elements into something dense and unearthly strong. I don't know if there's anyone alive who understands, to be fair.”

Resources extracted from the ground aren’t enough for advanced units. The Transuranium Stabilizer converts minerals into transuranium—one requirement for high-end Human units.

[h3]Orbital Uplink[/h3]



“The ground part of this system was familiar enough—a set of high-powered transmitters and dishes. But what it was communicating with wasn't—the wreck of the human satellite network mingled with the destroyed alien fleet. The clever bit was using the former to manipulate the latter for benefit on the ground. It mostly worked.”

Here operations for the Human path are constructed. Think of operations as stored-up abilities that can be used globally. As a side-effect the Orbital Uplink also increases research and influence for the player.

As an example, it can produce Orbital Scans, allowing you to reveal when and which enemy troops are moving under the fog of war.

Later on you’ll be able to create connections to Orbital Missile Silos floating since before the apocalypse and launch nuclear weapons. Maybe one apocalypse wasn’t enough for us.

What do you think? Let us know!

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/

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

[h3]City Headquarters[/h3]

“Defending the heart of a city took a certain kind of grit. If you saw action while stationed here, there’d be no running. This job was for the stubborn and the stupid—those who’d rather die than lose pride in defeat.”

The centers of economy and human life—cities. And towering at their core is a defensive structure, canonically dubbed Headquarters.

Each emplacement is generally equipped with 9 machine gun turrets and 3 missile launchers and looks unique to each leader.

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[h3]Heartless Artificer[/h3]



“Man can be more again. Become more by becoming less.”

Everyone was changed by survival. Some found themselves changed in their beliefs, others re-affirmed.

This one entered as an architect—and exited the same. But in the process, other things were stripped away—nation, family, love.



[h3]Honorable Aristocrat[/h3]



“Oh, you simply must try one of these. Deviled Abkluth eyeggs, my chef pulled the spines by hand. Eine Delikatesse, I won’t take no for an answer!”

The Aristocrat was young when the sky fell—but his parents were connected globally and he was taken into a government bunker with them at the first sign.

He sat out the rapture, the war, the fallout, the starvation. His only complaint was that the preserved food was appalling and that no-one had thought to bring herbs or spices.



[h3]Fallen Soldier[/h3]



“I know death. I’ve survived it—and I’ll train you to do the same.”

The Fallen Soldier never made it to a bunker. He was already dead. For cowardice in the face of the enemy—or rather, for desertion in the face of his elite platoon being crisped from space and the sky being on fire and the world ending—he was made an example of. Tried, convicted, executed as the world burned around them.

It kept him occupied, at least.



[h3]Hesitant Chieftess (NPC)[/h3]



“D’yer mind if we skip the chit chat and go straight to stabbin’? I’m a bit fucked off from killing all yer mates.”

The Raider and her people survived the end of the world on the planet’s surface. To emphasize how rare that is, this is when nuclear blasts were scattered in the sky and the sea was evaporated.

Somehow the Raider’s crew lived through both the short war and the long fallout and thrived. No-one else who encountered them at that time did, though.



What do you think of the city headquarters?

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/

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

[h3]Sound Effects[/h3]

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This time we’re putting extra effort into creating custom sound effects for every ability.
But aural enhancements don’t end there.

[h3]Weapon Sounds[/h3]

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In Gladius we only used single-shot weapon sounds—even for automatic weapons. This often decreased fidelity, overburdened the audio mix and decreased performance.

ZEPHON not only utilizes continuous-fire sounds where appropriate, but also supports wind-up/down sounds and delay firing of individual weapons.

The additional sounds let us create things like realistic whirring-up and cooling-down of machine cannons. Staggering when weapons fire adds drama and distinction to the attacks. The resulting experience is much more pleasant.

[h3]Algorithmic Variation[/h3]

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We also have a new computational technique: algorithmic sound variation.

It’s common to vary the pitch of a sound effect each time it’s played—you see this in sound effect tutorials all over the internet. We go a few steps further.

On top of randomizing the pitch and volume over the whole sound, we’re also using digital signal processing to take several randomized portions of the frequency spectrum and attenuating or amplifying them to varying amounts.

For looping sounds (like continuous weapon fire, movement and ambient), we’re additionally randomizing the offset at which point the sound starts playing.

All of this is to prevent listener fatigue—to try to keep the feeling fresh, but familiar.

[h3]UI Ambiance[/h3]

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Immersion is of critical importance for us with ZEPHON. That’s why we’re creating unique ambiance clips for each different screen, leader and quest.

This is it for audio for the moment; we’ll have more, exciting reveals about voice-overs later down the line.

What do you think of the improved audio systems?

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/