December 19 2013 - Beta-2 version 4.59 - now Live

[Zaimat]

We are very excited to bring you our second major Beta update, live just in time for the Holiday season!

In this version, we have added full Race Customization and the ability to play as 7 other races, adding more options and choices for once you have mastered the Human race!

As always, we continue to listen to your feedback, suggestions and reports, the game would not be what it is without your support and participation. Thank you.

Happy Holidays from all of us!
Raf - L3O Horizon Team

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Beta 2 Changelog:

New major Features:
* Ability to fully customize your race with race templates
* Don't want to play as Humans? Select one of seven additional races for a different experience (includes 84 new ship models and other assets)

Additional features:
* You can now design your Starbase before building it
* Changed Terraforming mechanic to transform planets and make them more hospitable to your race
* Starting planet pollution levels now vary and will affect planet quality
* Toxic planets can now be cleaned up and highly polluted planets can turn toxic, faster with the appropriate Ecological Cleansing technology
* Improved race starting colony placements on galaxy generation and more distinct flag/territory colors
* New Help screens (F1) with markers that display information as tooltips
* New Race stats / mission related bonus screen
* New Options window with additional controls for Video and Audio settings, Game settings to come

Fixes:
* Fixed AI issue where it would not clear previous targets and continue attacking even after an alliance treaty
* Fixed lag when loading video files
* Fixed troop pods not displaying the correct amount of troops in ship design
* Fixed an issue where ambient music kept playing during a video animation with its own audio stream
* Fixed a bug where after an Invasion the losing race would not account for the loss of the colony resulting in unexpected AI behaviour
* Fixed - Picking a previously disabled race or disabling Humans will no longer crash the game
* Fixed - reading race templates could sometimes cause the game to crash when starting
* Fixed - planetary pollution level not displaying properly on survey info
* Fixed - crash related to com button in tactical mode
* Fixed - Anti-matter torpedoes type to enveloping
* Fixed - Population display bug in Invasion view
* Fixed - Immaterial, Quasi-Immortal, Eco-Adaptive abilities will now apply bonuses vs. pollution
* Fixed - At least one missile tech needs to remain in race customization
* Fixed - tooltips not always showing on Orbitals and Defense windows on planet view

Other changes and improvements:
* Planetary building benefits are now affected by the structure condition
* Artifact worlds with ancient cities will now have proper starting resource levels
* Monetary Aid / Supplies Aid pacts duration changed from 5 to 10 turns (unlimited if alliance)
* Intelligence sharing has been added (available when friendly, automatic with alliance). Shares info about other races
* Turn notification that all stars have been explored will only be displayed once per game session

* Mercury and Venus planetary resources changed from poor to abundant
* Planetary special bonuses changed for Gold/Gem Deposits, Vistas and Monuments, tooltips added to show bonuses
* Launch fighter button now checks if fighters are available and toggles to indicate if fighters have been launched
* Cargo Holds renamed to Supply Bays
* ETA of ships in movement now account for JumpDrives

* Supply range calculation improved on galaxy map
* Default display option changed from full-screen exclusive to Borderless Window mode
* Having reached civilian buildings cap will no longer display for orbitals/defense structures
* Planetary building benefits will now scale more appropriately. Also fixed an issue where farming without buildings did not function on terran planets
* Homeworld backgrounds updated, some videos updated

* Text alignment improved on certain screens and other updated visuals
* Added colony view buttons for survey info and colony List
* Added Stations to the design screen
* Adjusted shield effect when hit by weapons
* Eremai device no longer discoverable via research

* Each weapon now has a unique SFX
* Repulsive race diplomatic options have been limited until friendly relations are established
* Options has been added to the main menu, currently only Audio tab is accessible, mute and master volume controls have been added
* Galaxy map star name labels improved. Zoom scroll "steps" doubled for more control
* Changed - Mission related images will no longer show humans when playing other races
* Changed - Text scrolling speed increased on help screens
* Changed - Trait_costs and tech_stats no longer editable in base game (will be available with modding in the future instead, this is necessary for game stability as base files should not be modified)
* Changed - UI buttons graphics to be standard across screens

* Changed - Starting number of colonies for certain races in Scenario mode for balancing
* Changed - Government building maintenance is now affected by population size
* Changed - Population Tax income is no longer linear (at higher population it won’t increase income as much as it used to)
* Pollution increase/clean-up is now a factor of industry and technology and will affect production capacity
* Changed - Advanced waste disposal tech will now increase industrial production capacity by reducing waste
* Changed - Ecological Cleansing tech will now speed up pollution clean-up on planets
* Changed - Anti-Toxins tech will now decrease pollution penalties on population and workforce
* Changed - Reduced Industry cost for building scouts while Cruiser and Mothership classes doubled

[FrozenFallout]

Having a Loading crash on windows 8.1

Report sent

[Madbiologist]

I was able to play it with no difficulties so far (Windows 7).

Quick feedback: the new tax revenue seems to do a lot of good for the economy, I actually ran into the red for once, so I had to check my spending.

However, it seems on e you got a lot of trade coming in and manage to get a few free trade agreements going the economy quickly gets very strong again. I will need to play more and see what happens once I start militarizing more and make more contacts to see how much the economy evolves now. It might still snowball with the trade revenue, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

[FrozenFallout]

Just been messing around with the setup a bit and noticed that if I change the resultion to below 1080p Im able to actually get past the Launcher and into the game. Once at the galaxy view however it crashes. Haven't found a video setting yet that has allowed me to play.

[Zaimat]

Thanks for the reports, we have applied a hotfix (version 4.60) that should resolve the crash issue. more details here...

Regarding the economy changes, yes we wanted to be gradual about it. This also increases the value of trade and tourism buildings to generate revenue. More balancing will be coming after further testing and feedback.

[Madbiologist]

Regarding the economy changes, yes we wanted to be gradual about it. This also increases the value of trade and tourism buildings to generate revenue. More balancing will be coming after further testing and feedback.

Oh I agree, I think it is always best to be gradual and go a step at a time in game balance. "Blizzard Balance" has always been a minor pet peeve of mine.

[Lithari]

So, i was wondering when the whole modding was being put in, cause you removed my only source of modding when you made trait costs un-editable, wouldn't it have been better to make them uneditable when the modding was implemented? I mean saying its for balance issues is not really true, since i was editing the files the moment i found them and it never caused any problems at all.

When it comes to the Repulsive trait, which i need to use now to get the race i want, i can no longer prevent them from declaring war on me, so playing the normal mode (missions enabled) is pretty much impossible as a repulsive race in the current AI relationship balancing, since no matter if i colonize a world near them or they do the same near me, they still hate my guts for being near them, which ultimately results in war being declared, making war being my only alternative because i can not give them gifts to shut them up.

It would be more better if colonizing in their systems caused them to have anger issues.