The fourth playable demo of ZEPHON will be available from October 25th (@ 12 pm CEST) to November 22nd (@ 12 pm CEST) on Steam.
The biggest changes in this demo are the additions of the ZEPHON NPC faction, 2 new neutral units and 3 new quests. See the full changes below.
Come join us in celebration and let us know what you think of ZEPHON.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/
This is an early look at an in-development alpha version of the game. As such, there will be bugs, imbalances and missing assets.
The demo is limited to single player against two opponents on a small map. 3 leaders are available for selection and 2 NPC factions are present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers.
The full version will contain co-op and pvp multiplayer, larger maps, advanced world generation parameters, 8 leaders, 3 NPC factions, over 50 units spread across 10 tiers of research, more terrain features and quests, an end-game grand finale, unlockable game modifiers, achievements, multiple languages as well as full workshop support.
Changes in Demo 4
## New
* Added ZEPHON NPC faction: *“Communication channel established to ZEPHON-3. How may I help you?”*
* Added Dreameater neutral unit: Large hovering creature that reduces enemy morale and takes control of low morale enemies.
* Added Shoch'itris Lair neutral unit: Large biological structure that breeds Deformities.
* Added The Great Hunt, Black Site and Who Was Thursday quests.
* Show attack area when holding shift with unit selected, or when hovering over a weapon or weapon ability. Enable in settings to always show without holding shift.
* Unit overlays now show darkened out bars for missing health and morale.
* Added additional liked and disliked diplomacy dialogue.
## General
* Units in transports are now cycled to like all other units.
* Volcanos now block vision.
* Reduced forest growth chance in swamp from 5% to 3%.
* The tile acquisition radius of native cities now grows with their population.
* Reduced AI attack score against summons.
* Heartless Artificer AI now uses Foundation of Blood and Quench Resistance.
* Improved diplomacy behavior for accepting gifts, paying tribute and paying for deals.
* Diplomacy actions now show when instigated by a third party.
* Unit groups with appear animations now no longer appear fully simultaneously.
* Left click in empty space or right click anywhere to deselect player in the communications screen.
* Researching technology can now be right clicked to show details in compendium.
* Silence Between Tracks setting now goes in steps of 10 seconds from 0 to 240, defaulting to 120.
* Moved Show Cliff Highlights and Show Grid to general settings.
* Renamed Housing to Habitat.
* Pathfinder performance improvements.
* Minor GUI tweaks.
## Balance
* Reduced Deformities group size from 6 to 5.
* Increased Abkhan Bite damage from 8 to 12.
* Increased Frost Breath damage from 2 to 3.
* Increased Malakim Destroyers hitpoints from 12 to 18.
* Changed Cicadas from +50% healing rate to max 0% healing rate.
## Bug Fixes
* Fixed Undying healing the transport instead of the unit that has the trait.
* Fixed Distorted Lens not working.
* Fixed diplomacy deals not showing result when demanding payment for deal.
* Fixed regen showing over units even when they are at full hitpoints.
* Fixed building effects like smoke to not be removed instantly upon city destruction.
* Fixed hero overlay being prevented from refresh when leveling up an ability (after getting a level from nearby enemy death) due to superfluous attribute updated messages.
* Fixed an error in the calculation of light volumes.
* Fixed dust not showing when units are moving.
* Fixed dust showing when Aegyllan Worms are tunneling.
* Fixed Chieftess headquarters having no lights.