ZEPHON News

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[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!

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[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?

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[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/

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


[h3]Research[/h3]
ZEPHON’s research continues the tradition of a tiered progression system. It will feature over 150 technologies across 10 tiers. To advance from one tier to the next, 3 technologies are required.

That may sound like a lot compared to Gladius, but we’re reducing research costs by 33% to compensate. Instead of a baseline of 6 turns to unlock a new technology, it will now only take 4 turns.

If that’s not to your taste for any reason, research cost and unlocks per tier will be customizable per game as a world setting.

Players begin by attempting to recover from a primitive and scrappy level of technology in the first third of the game (post-apocalyptic, think Mad Max), followed by a more advanced second third (Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell paired with magic), to a highly advanced last third (Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe or Dan Simmons’ Hyperion).

Each leader will also have 5 special technologies to enhance their unique properties—spread evenly through the research tiers.

We are pushing the boundaries of modifiers to new degrees. It’s very exciting to see conditional building bonuses in action—scaling building output depending on terrain features or even synergizing with other buildings to create combat effects in a radius.

To make all of this clear, we’re adding an often-requested Gladius feature: showing exact modifier numbers in technology hints. No need to search through the compendium for the information anymore.



[h3]Specimen Containment[/h3]



Many of our early learnings were rediscovering what went before. In time, though, we realised how much the familiar had shifted—how far man had killed off Earth’s species before the Acrin even arrived and how much new life the aliens had brought with them across the stars, life that filled out the world’s emptied niches. Capturing and studying that new life proved to be inspirational for our eventual victory…

Tier 1 : Human : Player Upgrade

Gain research from killing unaligned neutral units.

[h3]In Death, Life[/h3]



An old flame once told me how the Aztecs or the Mayans—one of those dead empires—how their gods drew power from bloody sacrifice in their city centers. I didn’t understand what she meant until I saw troops mown down on the doorstep of a Voice-corrupted city and heard the unearthly ullulation from within. Whether it was true magic or just motivation, that city grew strong on death.

Tier 3 : Voice : Building Upgrade

Regain production from biological units that die in 6 tile radius from the headquarters in each Canticle of Dusk in the city.

[h3]The Mind's Eye[/h3]



When I was a young fool, gossip went around; of a scientist, a genius, who died attempting to fulfil that old billionaire dream of living forever by uploading herself. It didn’t work, of course-the giant machine was inert, unmotivated, left operating as a curiosity. Until ZEPHON found it and brought that mind to life, focussing its will as a weapon against the invading Acrin. In time, its—I should say, ‘her’—her will could stretch for miles, a thought could snuff out an enemy half a world away. A good reason not to gossip anymore…

Tier 5 : Cyber : Unit Upgrade : Emulated Mind Leader Special

Doubles Oblivion weapon range on headquarters.


What do you think of the new research mechanics? Discuss it below and 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.


Items
Heroes are upgradeable and customizable in more ways than just through leveling up their skills.

Items can be bought from The Concordat and equipped on hero units—up to 6 items at a time. Each item comes from a path and rare items of a path can only be purchased after unlocking the appropriate research.

Unlike in Gladius, items can be bought from anywhere and transferred to a hero on the next turn. One-use items have categorically been replaced with cooldown-based items.


The Concordat



Everyone knew The Concordat. But no-one knew who they were. Maybe survivors on the surface, maybe a ZEPHON-fork, maybe an old Corp reaching outta the 20th century’s grave. They fed the rumor mill, hiding their truth under the chatter. All we did know was that they traded everything to everyone—and that they never made a loss.


Trauma Kit



Our medics… well, they were amateurs. But they’d survived and they patched you up just enough to get back into the field. The Concordat’s kits, though, they were… something else. The best of the old world mixed with whatever the AIs and aliens knew. They called it a “trauma kit”, but the real trauma was seeing that *thing* open you up and put you back together. If you could forget it, worth every cent.

Common item. Restore 33% hitpoints. Free action. Cooldown 10.

Rare Human items are unlocked for purchase from The Concordat by researching The Golden Pass.


Acrin Bone Whistle



“At kirk, or at market, whene'er ye meet me,
Gang by me as tho' that ye car'd na a flie;
But steal me a blink o' your bonie black e'e,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' to me,
Yet look as ye were na lookin' to me.
O whistle an' I'll come, &c.”
— Robert Burns

Uncommon item. Summon a Dark Vassael for 3 turns. Free action. Cooldown 10.

Rare Voice items are unlocked for purchase from The Concordat by researching Amoetia's Embrace.


Pathcutter



A wide-beam AI array, mounted on a prototype drone. Useless for combat, as it takes an hour to warm up. You set it up, point it where you want to go, and flip the safety off. Then cover your ears to its howl and follow. It finds impossibly perfect way through the most tangled jungle, plant or urban, paths you can never find again.

Rare item. Gain +3 movement and ignore movement penalties of forests and ruins for 1 turn. Free action. Cooldown 5.

Rare Cyber items are unlocked for purchase from The Concordat by researching Ha'sharet Exchange.



What do you think of the new item mechanics?


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