ZEPHON News

[p]In the spirit of keeping you up to date with development, we've got a bit of a report for you.[/p][p]Last time we talked about a DLC in Q2 and the possibility of adding some new features for free. Here's where we are at the moment.[/p][p][/p][h3]Free Update (9th April)[/h3][p]While we get the next DLC ready, we're planning to finish a larger free update to address some low-hanging fruit. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Fragments of the Fulcrum (Implemented): The Fulcrum's pieces have crashed across Earth. These are giant blocking tiles that provide advanced resources to adjacent city tiles. We've heard you--ZEPHON is lacking points of interest to fight over--this should address it. The Fragments will spawn away from player starting locations so that they're places of contention for second and third cities. [/p][p]Outpost bonus rework (Implemented): So far, outposts gave a % bonus across the whole city. This made it bad to acquire them early on. We've always felt that was quite awkward. Instead of the % bonus, outpost now give an increased per-turn gain while inside the city. The decision of when to acquire the outpost tile will now be relevant from the start.[/p][p]Larger maps (Implemented): Increase space available per player on all map sizes and add 2 larger sizes. It's been feeling a bit more crammed than we liked. Also increase max players from 12 to 16 to prepare for upcoming DLC, including new colors.[/p][p] New:[/p]

• [p]2p — 30×30 (area 900) → 450.00 / player[/p]
• [p]3p — 37×37 (area 1369) → 456.33 / player[/p]
• [p]4p — 42×42 (area 1764) → 441.00 / player[/p]
• [p]6p — 52×52 (area 2704) → 450.67 / player[/p]
• [p]8p — 60×60 (area 3600) → 450.00 / player[/p]
• [p]10p — 67×67 (area 4489) → 448.90 / player[/p]
• [p]12p — 73×73 (area 5329) → 444.08 / player[/p]

[p] Old:[/p]

• [p]2p — 27×27 (area 729) → 364.50 per player[/p]
• [p]3p — 33×33 (area 1089) → 363.00 per player[/p]
• [p]4p — 38×38 (area 1444) → 361.00 per player[/p]
• [p]6p — 46×46 (area 2116) → 352.67 per player[/p]
• [p]8p — 53×53 (area 2809) → 351.13 per player[/p]

[p]The Last Days of Earth improvements (Designed): Two parts-[/p]

1. [p]A Scintialla of Hope and Portents of Despair notifications will allow spending influence to slow down or speed up how fast the Last Days of Earth occurs. The goal is to encourage less players to change the Escalation speed on game setup and rather dynamically play inside the bounds of the intended experience.[/p]
2. [p]Joining ZEPHON or Anchorite's side while at Generous standing with them will give you control over the titan that spawns at your city. Adding a bit of variety and a fun payoff.[/p]

[p]City caches (Planning): City destruction currently spawns advanced branched caches; instead spawn unique city caches that offer larger rewards.[/p][p]Synergy technologies (Planning): Research options that boost the viability of multi-affinity builds. Or even options that boost single-affinity builds.[/p][p]We have more ideas, including NPC-related quests that would dramatically affect The Last Days of Earth, but they require more work to do properly, so we're looking at releasing them with a second larger update in Q3.[/p][p][/p][h3]The Syncretic & The Imperious DLC (May)[/h3][p]As a recap, this DLC we're adding:[/p]

• [p]2 new leaders[/p]
• [p]6 new units (tier 5 and 6)[/p]
• [p]1 new advanced zephon unit[/p]
• [p]3 new operations[/p]
• [p]3 new rare items[/p]
• [p]2 new outposts[/p]
• [p]5 new quests[/p]
• [p]4 new mutators[/p]
• [p]4 new music tracks[/p]

[p][/p][p]We don't have illustrations for the new leaders ready yet, but let's take a look at the new Cyber leader's properties.[/p][p][/p][p]Syncretic Deva[/p][p]“Death is so final. I have not yet found a cause worth killing for.”[/p][p]Cyber Affinity: The Deva’s rebuilt body and technical prowess naturally bias him towards the machines. Start with Cyber units and gain earlier and cheaper access to Cyber technologies, including exclusive access to the highest tier of Cyber research.[/p][p]Hidden Wisdom: The Deva’s knowledge of pre-collapse technologies is unparalleled—if his followers can winkle it out of him. Start with free research points.[/p][p]For the Few: Everyone is welcome in the Deva’s city, though he fears the tyranny of the majority. Each new type of building in a city increases loyalty, each duplicate building decreases loyalty.[/p][p]Idol Worship: The Deva’s followers upgrade their bodies to be mechanised like his, ignoring his indifference to their efforts. Population also has energy upkeep, but production buildings can produce loyalty.[/p][p]Duty of Care (Elite): Though pacifist himself, the Deva will intervene to save the life of his faithful. Spend influence to fully heal a unit, but decrease their maximum hitpoints.[/p][p][/p][p]And let's not forget about the units. We can show off a few.[/p][p][/p][p]Paytanim Prowler[/p][p]Tier 5 Cyber infantry with gravity-based weapons and damage reductions based on the attack's distance. Ignores enemy zone of control, but also doesn't cause it itself. Upgrade allows it to teleport across the map.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Abanim Catalyst[/p][p]Tier 6 Cyber large unit with an AoE self-sacrificing damage ability and chance-based damage reflection and attack boni. Upgrade increases it's healing effects.[/p][p][/p][p]Helios Missile Tank[/p][p]Tier 6 Human missile tank. Long range antimatter missiles and plethora of tank upgrades. What more could you want?[/p][p][/p][p]Provocator[/p][p]Tier 5 Human infantry with a heavy Einheri Autocannon. Heavily armored and slow, but packing a punch at range 3. Upgrade allows them to cripple the target with suppressive fire. [/p][p][/p][p]Cavaedium Odai[/p][p]Tier 6 Voice large unit. Creature? Building? Unsure. But it spawns suiciding mind bombs into our dimension.[/p][p][/p][p]Eradicator[/p][p]Advanced ZEPHON unit. Guns, guns and more guns. Also napalm.[/p][p][/p][p]Until later,[/p][p]Survive. [/p]

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed a crash that could occur when the Platinum Scion produces a unit with all nearby tiles already taken.
  

[h5]Modding[/h5]

• Icons defined in upgrade xmls now override any icons deduced otherwise.
  

This patch fixes a multiplayer crash.

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed multiplayer crash when a unit is created.
  

This patch improves a few engine capabilities.

[h5]General[/h5]

• Improved VRAM management.
  
• Improved logging to be able to track some outstanding crashes.
  

This patch focuses on fixing some outstanding crashes.

[h5]Bug Fixes[/h5]

• Fixed game potentially not starting due to incorrect IGD initialization handling.
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent an ironman game from saving properly when quitting to desktop.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when AI Reaming Crodeus uses Swallow.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur during turn processing.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur during GUI recreation.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when recreating the Vulkan swap chain.
  
• Disable some Vulkan layers that may cause issues.