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/ [i]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.[/i] [h3]Changes in Demo 4[/h3] ## 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.