Horizon 4x Gets Another Patch!

[bbmike]

Horizon is still getting some love:

Monday November 17, 2014

We are excited to announce that Horizon's 3rd major post-launch update is now available! Many thanks goes to our community for providing so much great feedback and your continued support. We have implemented as many of your suggestions as we could fit in this update and we hope you will enjoy the game with these new changes and additions!

This update introduces Command Points (a game option enabled by default for new games, existing games can be continued but won't have this feature enabled). We have also added more random events to spice things up and opened the game to Modding. There are also many optimizations for speedier turns and various other improvements noted below in the changelog.

- Raf / Horizon Team

New Features
* A Command Points system has been added to the game which affects fleet sizes based on empire logistical capability. The option is enabled by default for new games, old games will have it turned off.
* Full modding support has been added including the ability to create quests via script. Documentation and more info is available on the Horizon wiki/forums
* 8 new random events have been added from the original contest selections
* A configurable Governor system has been added to easily manage the development of planets (automation) for late stages of a game
* A sample mod has been added which enables playing the 3 ancient races in the game previously locked
* A convenient user interface has been added for mass refitting ships and Starbases to a new design
* Players now have the ability to continue playing the game (as an option) even after winning the game

Enhancements
* Many optimizations for super-fast turns in late games on very large galaxies

* Management Lists (colonies/fleet/planets) have been reworked for performance and should be a lot more convenient to use, sorting has been improved. Usability improvements such as keyboard shortcuts for scrolling, list size and colonize buttons. The colony list will now highlight the selected colony in colony view

* Added a button to cycle through Idle ships on galaxy view and a button to open the planets management list directly
* Added a next colony button in colony view to cycle through colonies quickly
* The Journal will now distinguish unread entries in a different color and the button will blink until all entries have been viewed
* Added a random events icon and a tooltip on the planets panel and screen
* Added a treasury warning icon on planet view when expenses are greater than the empire treasury

* Tactical combat Camera zoom level increased by popular request
* The camera can now be moved during auto mode and during other ships turn with mouse dragging

* The Council view will now visibly cycle through the candidates to better distinguish each voting option to the player (including nominating themselves)

* Task forces that have completed their Invade orders will now display 'awaiting orders' on their info panel
* Task force Patrol orders will now display a movement vector and their destination when ordered to patrol other systems

* Additional Autosaves are now available from the load menu by toggling the autosave button
* Many other improvements to various parts of the game including the AI and nice-to-haves requested by players

Balance and other changes
* Torpedoes and Missiles space use has been adjusted to bring it more in line with other types of weapons
* Missiles fuel range will now last for an extra turn before expiring
* Races now start with one or more scouts and colonizers based on galaxy size settings
* Ships with no combat capabilities are considered non-combatant and won't use command points
* Homeworld planets now have a much higher civilian buildings cap and start with higher building levels and a Starbase
* Terraforming planets now have a cost/turn based on the planet size, also the bonus per level of the tech has been reduced*
* Planet special bonuses will now apply once the appropriate building (shown on tooltip) has been built regardless of workforce distribution
* Tribute effect on refusal or cancellation will now incur a much higher tolerance penalty
* Diplomatic threats now have a hit on race tolerance

Fixes
* Several improvements to how the AI manages it's fleets for attacks and defense

* The shortcut key 'A' for the optional Attack button during combat has been restored
* Fixed a loophole where during instanced combat mode the player could attack other colonies in the system
* The Fleet score will now exclude stationary defenses (planetary defenses and orbitals)

* Fixed a bug that occasionally could cause a diplomacy event dialogue which happened many turns ago to repeat after saving/loading a game
* Techfield ratio/research distribution is now transferred to the other techfields when all techs in that category have reached their maximum level
* Barsig Junkyards bonus will now provide a larger boost for research breakthrough chance
* Creative race trait will now work correctly and apply the displayed bonus

* Civilian Buildings cap is now affected by condition of building
* Independent faction and mission mobs will now regenerate health between turns
* Fixed a bug where AI races colonies would have no pollution

* Fixed orbitals displaying the wrong estimate for completion once shipyards were built
* Industry capacity (cap) will no longer show shipyards bonus (which only apply to ship building)
* Fixed galaxy background not updating when loading or creating a game after the first time it's loaded

* Gold and Gem deposit bonuses will no longer be affected by other factors and will always provide the stated bonus
* Intelligent life forms bonus will now require the world to be a research colony

Achievements
* Tech research related achievements are now active on Steam and can be achieved

[Martok]

Great news!  I've been hearing rumors about this new update for some time now, and have been wanting to take the game out for another spin once it was released.  Thanks for the heads-up bbmike.  :) 

[Anguille]

Ah...i've been ninja'd!

This is a great patch....looks like i am going to play some Horizon next weekend

Here's the picture coming with the message...

[Boggit]

What do you think of Horizon? How does it compare say to Endless Space, Sword of the Stars, Distant Worlds etc?

[Rayfer]

What do you think of Horizon? How does it compare say to Endless Space, Sword of the Stars, Distant Worlds etc?

Good questions....looking forward to the answers, noticed Horizon on sale this week on Steam for $10.19.

[Anguille]

What do you think of Horizon? How does it compare say to Endless Space, Sword of the Stars, Distant Worlds etc?

Hi,

I've spent about 40 hours playing the game and like it. It's not the greatest game ever but it's solid.

From a technical point of view, i've had no ctd or seen any bugs.

It's fairly close to Master of Orion 2 (maps, senate, battles etc) i'd say with bits of Space Empires IV...battle and strategy map are turn-based. I'd go for it for 10$... ;)

Endless space has better graphics but smaller maps...and wormholes/starlanes which i don't like that much.
Sword of the stars has better battles (though battles in Horizon can be really challenging) but i am not convinced by the strategy map.
Distant Worls is full real-time so i find it hard to compare. There's less "life" in the strategy map of Horizon.

[Ian C]

I've spent about 40 hours playing the game and like it. It's not the greatest game ever but it's solid.

From a technical point of view, i've had no ctd or seen any bugs.

It's fairly close to Master of Orion 2 (maps, senate, battles etc) i'd say with bits of Space Empires IV...battle and strategy map are turn-based. I'd go for it for 10$... ;)

Endless space has better graphics but smaller maps...and wormholes/starlanes which i don't like that much.
Sword of the stars has better battles (though battles in Horizon can be really challenging) but i am not convinced by the strategy map.
Distant Worls is full real-time so i find it hard to compare. There's less "life" in the strategy map of Horizon.

Spent 49 hours here. I agree with all of the above. Taking all of that into account, it's fun. Also, you get to play as Earth with the whole Solar System included (which is something I don't see much in 4x games) so as you play the campaign, it lends immersion to the whole experience.  It's a fun solid game that's unpretentious but does it's job well.

[bbmike]

I'll also agree with what's above. The technologies are very bland, you just keep leveling them up numerically but it is a fun game. And at $10 it's a steal. Also, the developers are opening more of the game to modding which is good.

[steve58]

Just a heads up that Horizon is part of the Humble Bundle Weekly sale.  You can currently pick it up less than $4.

[Martok]

I fired this up for a little while earlier today.  It'd been so long, I had to go through the tutorials again.   

[bbmike]

I love that the developers are still patching. I hope it continues.

[Anguille]

Yes...the support has been excellent... O0

[Jarhead0331]

I can't get past the race art in the game. Every time I reinstall, I look at the races and pretty much uninstall right away. They are just too corny.

[Anguille]

I can't get past the race art in the game. Every time I reinstall, I look at the races and pretty much uninstall right away. They are just too corny.

They can all be modded now... ;)

For example: http://forum.l3o.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1337

[Jarhead0331]

^Sweet! Thanks for the heads up!