ZEPHON News

This patch focuses on balance as well as minor fixes and UI improvements.

[h5]General[/h5]

• Traits are now sorted (first by color: white, blue, green, red; then by rank: higher rank first; then by duration: longer duration first; then alphabetically).
  
• Quest objectives hint now mentions cycling between highlighted tiles.
  

[h5]Balance[/h5]

• Hijack no longer works on Hero units.
  
• Increased Outrider cargo slots from 1 to 2.
  
• Increased Commander Orbital Bombardment damage from 8 to 12.
  
• Increased Commander Orbital Bombardment armor penetration from 6 to 7.
  
• Increased Ithuriel Harbinger Plasma Cannon damage from 6 to 8.
  
• Increased Ithuriel Harbinger Plasma Cannon armor penetration from 5 to 6.
  
• Increased Elohim Maelstrom Judgement From Above damage from +10% to +17%.
  
• Reduced Elohim Maelstrom Elysian Battery damage from 8 to 6.
  
• Reduced Elohim Maelstrom Elysian Battery armor penetration from 6 to 5.
  
• Reduced House on the Borderland algae from 2 to 1.5.
  
• Reduced Cysilical Growths chips from 2 to 1.5.
  
• Reduced Bio-Acid Spray armor penetration from 3 to 2.
  
• Reduced Something Wicked cooldown from 10 to 5.
  
• Neutral Abkluths are now more likely to spawn.
  

Rogue Operative

• Increased Independent population loyalty upkeep from +25% to +50%.
  
• Small Scale Op now gives +0.5 loyalty per population (only affects population 1 to 6).
  
• Comprehensive Connexion now gives +0.5 loyalty per population (only affects population 7 to 12).
  
• Increased Icarus Satellite damage from 8 to 12.
  
• Increased Icarus Satellite armor penetration from 6 to 7.
  
• Increased Trash Camo cover damage reduction from 5% to 8%.
  
• Increased Ghost Corps damage from 5% to 10%.
  
• Changed ICAR Blueprints from -25% influence cost for augments to "Allows applying other augments on already augmented units".
  

Furtive Tribunal

• Increased The Outsider duration from 5 to 10.
  
• Increased Comprador Science research from +1 to +2.
  
• Increased Scimystic Scismatics influence from +1 to +2.
  

Fallen Soldier

• Reduced Parthian Equilibrium evasion damage reduction from 25% to 17%.
  
• Changed Parthian Equilibrium +2 accuracy to +17% attacks.
  

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed Storm of Storms not applying to the center tile.
  
• Fixed crash after a player is defeated and Stormheart Facility is taken over by an AI player.
  
• Fixed Something Wicked not showing damage preview.
  
• Fixed English language always being set when the game is first started, even if Steam is set to a different language.
  

[h5]Modding[/h5]

• Faction xmls can now specify `headquartersUnit=""`.
  
• Fixed issues using the `removeBuilding` effect.
  
• Fixed crash that would occur because of missing patch notes translations for custom languages; now English patch notes are shown instead.
  

This patch adds quest objectives to the introduction game, fixes a crash when hovering over resources, and rebalances several outposts.

[h5]New[/h5]

• Introduction game now has guiding quest objectives.
  

[h5]Balance[/h5]

• Changed Crystal Basin 17% invulnerable damage reduction to 33% cover damage reduction.
  
• Increased Phase Generator damage reflection from 33% to 50%.
  
• Increased Microchip Fabricator heal from 2 to 4.
  
• Increased Recycling Tanks heal from 2 to 4.
  

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed a crash that could occur when hovering over resources.
  

[h5]New[/h5]

• AI now uses transports.
  
• New and improved tutorial tips.
  

[h5]General[/h5]

• Mass unit order key shortcuts now work even with a unit selected.
  
• Mark tile and mass unit orders now trigger on key press instead of key release to be more reactive.
  
• Notification list now scrolls to the bottom when a new notification is added.
  
• Left-clicking on a notification no longer removes it (right-clicking still does).
  
• In The Last Days of Earth, it is now possible to diplomatically interact with Anchorite and ZEPHON during the five preparation turns in order to improve relations with them.
  
• Added hint to duplicate items that they do not stack.
  
• The in-game pause menu no longer has a button to copy the world seed; both the world seed and world parameters string can be copied from the in-game game lobby.
  
• Improved overwatch action hint.
  
• Tweaked outpost text to say "+X% for controlling city" instead of "+X% inside city".
  
• Show attack area and show cliff highlights are now on by default.
  
• Introduction game difficulty is now set to easy instead of very easy, but only requires defeating the Heartless Artificer.
  
• Slightly tweaked the gameplay language across the game to be clearer where possible.
  

[h5]Balance[/h5]

• Increased Ark of Goldrauch range from 1 to 2.
  
• Decreased Atmospheric Anchor chips from 1 to 0.5.
  

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed a crash that could occur when canceling a building order.
  
• Fixed spacebar key closing tip panel.
  
• Fixed fly movement action validation.
  

[h5]Tutorial Tips[/h5]
New

• Affinities: Explains affinity benefits and researching outside your affinity.
  
• Area Order Units: Explains how to order all units in an area (Ctrl+Click).
  
• Caches: Explains collecting resource caches.
  
• Communications: Explains diplomacy and the communications screen.
  
• Damage Cap: Explains that damage is capped by a single group member's hitpoints.
  
• Debuff: Explains when a unit is suffering from a debuff.
  
• Engineers: Explains using Engineers to found new cities.
  
• Enter City: Explains how to enter a city by clicking its headquarters.
  
• Fallen Soldier: Explains the unique mechanics of the Fallen Soldier faction.
  
• Leader Abilities: Explains using leader abilities and their influence cost.
  
• Mass Order Units: Explains how to order all units or all idle units.
  
• Next Task: Explains the task button and interface hints.
  
• Operations: Explains map-wide operations, charges, and dismantling.
  
• Outposts: Explains capturing outposts and their bonuses.
  
• Overwatch: Explains overwatch mechanics and attack areas.
  
• Research Laboratory: Recommends building Research Laboratories for faster research.
  
• Tile Effect: Explains when a unit is standing on a tile with a status effect.
  
• Unit Levels: Explains unit experience and hero leveling.
  

Updated

• Acquire Tile: Clarified text and mentioned it takes turns.
  
• Alliance Victory: Clarified that NPCs will never agree to ally with one another.
  
• Close-Quarters Fire: Added Militant icon and improved clarity.
  
• Construct Barracks: Mentioned construction takes turns.
  
• Equip Item: Instruction to use Left Mouse Button.
  
• Found City: Mentioned that Engineers found cities.
  
• Movement: Added explanation of the green movement area and orange cliff lines.
  
• Recon: Specifically mentions Outriders and Sharpshooters and the 3-tile radius.
  
• Transports: Simplified text and added the Transport trait icon.
  
• Bleed, Enemy In City, Healing, Housing, Loyalty, NPCs, Population, Produce Units and Research: Improved clarity and consistency.
  

Removed

• Combat: Replaced by Damage Cap.
  
• Combat (Advanced): Renamed to Damage Calculation.
  

[h5]New[/h5]

• Patch notes are now also translated.
  
• Hovering over resources while in a city now highlights all tile icons of buildings that affect that resource.
  
• Hovering over a construct building action now highlights all tile icons of buildings of that type.
  
• Hovering over a building in the city building list now highlights all tile icons of buildings of that type.
  
• Hovering over a building order with a target tile now highlights the target tile.
  

[h5]General[/h5]

• Use the word "resulting" instead of "estimated" for casualties to make it clearer that there are no random factors.
  
• Items can now be equipped with both left and right mouse clicks.
  
• Tweaked Recon tip to also mention Sharpshooters.
  
• Improved hints of a few technologies / traits more clearly mentioning what they are for.
  
• Renamed Sluggish Aim to Sluggish Attacks to be clearer that it affects the amount of attacks rather than accuracy.
  

[h5]Balance[/h5]

• Reduced Anashim Enforcer's Move Function movement from 2 to 1.
  
• Mobile Hardpoints now only works on Human units.
  
• Reduced Chieftess (Wastelander quest unit) armor from 8 to 6.
  

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed The Informant diplomatic results affecting more than one other player.
  
• Fixed found city tip tile highlight recommending founding cities on invalid tiles.
  
• Fixed being able to sell items for more influence than spending to buy under some circumstances.
  
• Fixed research screen hints sometimes not showing traits on weapons.
  
• Fixed research screen go to compendium sometimes going to the unit instead of the weapon for weapon unlocks.
  
• Fixed Relics of Eld reducing the sell price of items.
  
• Fixed Relics of Eld showing on items it does not affect.
  
• Fixed Anashim Enforcer's Move Function not reducing movement when switching out of it.
  
• Fixed Holo Decoy missing Relics of Eld.
  
• Fixed Caitiffs and Devotees of Throkos having non-applicable Interpolated Production.
  
• Fixed Holopatter not working.
  
• Fixed Holopatter, Mobile Hardpoints and Surthodai's Kiss AI scoring.
  

## Bug Fixes
* Fixed Market Defluctuation and Concordat Sanctions applying to selling items.
* Fixed being able to identify enemy Nightmare versions of Phenaris Hunters by checking their death experience value.
* Fixed wrong illustration being used for Form, Function quest.
* Fixed Klot Hadal wrong spear visuals.