New Player Questions

[itisme]

Hi, I picked up the game in a recent steam sale and have been enjoying it over the last few days. Anyway, I have a few questions if anyone on the board has time.

1) When I design my ships, is there anyway to name them?

2) If you colonize a system, dose that "lock out" all the planets in that system, or can other races still colonize a planet on the same system you have a colony?

3) When you design a ship you can select a weapon, as well as its mount. Light, R(?) and Heavy, each with as different arc of fire. What exactly dose "emplacements" mean? If I change the value from 1 to 2, dose that just mean I have now got 2 guns? If so dose it have the same weight as adding the same gun in a different spot?

4) When you colonize a planet just before you select the name you get to see the survey screen, a planet view with all this info like bonuses and resource quality/quantity etc. One you have the colony how do I get back to that screen? I often for get if the planet is mineral rich or better for farming.

5) While I enjoy the innovative way Horizon handles the tech tree, I am also a little confused as I can not really work out what to research.

* How do I increase research speed?
* How do I increase population growth?
* How do I increase communication range?

6) Also the colonies seam to only have so few build options. Should I just build them all every time. Maybe get level 1on everything before specializing?

7) If you do not have a trade agreement with other Aliens, is there any point in upgrading or building the trade or entertainment structures?

Thanks in advance
--ItIsMe

[Wenla]

Hi, I picked up the game in a recent steam sale and have been enjoying it over the last few days. Anyway, I have a few questions if anyone on the board has time.

1) When I design my ships, is there anyway to name them?

Yes, just click design name top left and write new

2) If you colonize a system, dose that "lock out" all the planets in that system, or can other races still colonize a planet on the same system you have a colony?

Second choise = yes. System's colour is white if there are more than one race in one system.

3) When you design a ship you can select a weapon, as well as its mount. Light, R(?) and Heavy, each with as different arc of fire. What exactly dose "emplacements" mean? If I change the value from 1 to 2, dose that just mean I have now got 2 guns? If so dose it have the same weight as adding the same gun in a different spot?

Some one else, please.

4) When you colonize a planet just before you select the name you get to see the survey screen, a planet view with all this info like bonuses and resource quality/quantity etc. One you have the colony how do I get back to that screen? I often for get if the planet is mineral rich or better for farming.

Beside of planet name is small, blue icon (I think it some kind of satellite). Press it and you are at survey screen. Press planet and you are back at planet view.

5) While I enjoy the innovative way Horizon handles the tech tree, I am also a little confused as I can not really work out what to research.

* How do I increase research speed?
- more researh points (=more and/or better research buildings)
* How do I increase population growth?
- more food production
- terraforming planet (if possible, needs researching that technic)
* How do I increase communication range?
- research that technic more

6) Also the colonies seam to only have so few build options. Should I just build them all every time. Maybe get level 1on everything before specializing?

That's up to you and your strategy, can't give good advice for that

7) If you do not have a trade agreement with other Aliens, is there any point in upgrading or building the trade or entertainment structures?

Yes, because you make trade also with your own planets, and tourists may also be your race. Personally I don't have quite often trade agreements with other races because they usually DOW me before I get good enough relations wit them...

Thanks in advance
--ItIsMe

You are welcome.

[Jynks]

Interesting, how about when you make a fleet with ctrl+click... how do you name that fleet?

[Bansheedragon]

3) Ship design.

There are 3 sizes of weapons, Light(L), Regular(R), Heavy(H)
The size determines the damage you do with that weapon
The light weapons have a 360 degree arc, so they can always fire when in range of a target, but they cannot fire at planets and they do the least amount of damage of the 3 types.

The Regular and heavy Mounts have a limited arc(not sure but I think 90 degree), and their firing direction depends on where you mount them.
If you mount a heavy and regular on either of the left side of the ship, they can fire at targets only on the left side.
Personally I use Regular or Heavy in from and then light for the rest

If you change the value from 1 to 2 It would be the same as adding another weapon of the same type in a different slot, and increasing the number increases the damage you do to a target.

5) Research
I can confirm that terraforming is possible and its a researchable tech, you need that to colonize planets that are otherwise uninhabitable.

6) Colony development
Having higher tires(levels) of buildings in one field will increase the benefit from that type of building.
If you have a mineral rich planet, then I recommend building high tier industry as it will give you an increase to production compared to mineral poor or average planet.
So a mineral rich planet would be ideal for industry while a mineral poor one might be better suited for farming or entertainment.

But as already said, its up t you how you want to develop your planets.
You can always change it if you want to, in each of the 5 types of production windows is a small X, click on that to remove one tier of that production and you can build something else.

Hope this helps you better understand.

[Zaimat]

Interesting, how about when you make a fleet with ctrl+click... how do you name that fleet?

On the order list there is a rename option, you can then rename the task force (fleet).

[Zaimat]

2) If you colonize a system, dose that "lock out" all the planets in that system, or can other races still colonize a planet on the same system you have a colony?

The AI will not colonize a planet if it knows the system belongs to another race. Sometimes it will happen though because of that lack of knowledge as one race beats another by a few turns.

5) While I enjoy the innovative way Horizon handles the tech tree, I am also a little confused as I can not really work out what to research.

You can right-click on techs or the little button to the right as you hover on a tech for more detailed information. What to research really depends on your strategy. If you focus on diplomacy universal translator and interstellar communications are very important in Electronics for example. Logistics is also very important for exploration and having a large fleet size. You can set a focus in each tech field.

6) Also the colonies seam to only have so few build options. Should I just build them all every time. Maybe get level 1on everything before specializing?

It's often a good idea to build level ones early in game where you don't have a lot of money.

[Jynks]

Can you rename a ship once it is built?

[Zaimat]

Can you rename a ship once it is built?

Not directly but if you refit a ship it will take the name of the updated or selected design.

[itisme]

Thanks for all the replies... Here are some more questions!

8) What dose "engage sector" do?

9) What dose "Patrol" do?

10) What is "instanced" and "non-instanced" game mode mean? I prefer to auto resolve combat, which should I use?

[Wenla]

Can you rename a ship once it is built?

Not directly but if you refit a ship it will take the name of the updated or selected design.

Are you sure (at least you should...)? When this has changed?

[Jynks]

you can rename the fleet, but not the ships themselves. I haven't tried the refit thing.

[Bansheedragon]

Thanks for all the replies... Here are some more questions!

What dose "engage sector" do?

9) What dose "Patrol" do?

10) What is "instanced" and "non-instanced" game mode mean? I prefer to auto resolve combat, which should I use?

Engage sector means you go into combat mode for that sector.
If you play the mission mode you need to use this to be able to get to and board the probe at the start.
You can say its way to force combat if there are others there, even if they are not hostile

Patrol is as the word says Patrol.
Your ships will fly around and patrol(or guard if you prefer) the designated sector, and intercept hostiles.

As for instanced vs non-instanced combat, I'm not quite sure how to describe how that works.
It has to do with how you manage combat if you have 2 or more battles happening in the same turn.
Maybe someone else can explain it better than I can.

[Jynks]

Patrol is as the word says Patrol.
Your ships will fly around and patrol(or guard if you prefer) the designated sector, and intercept hostiles.

Patrolling doesn't seam to do that though. I have searched and there seams to be a lot of contradictory information floating around.

When you click "Patrol System" they automatically intercept people trying to attack one of my planets, right? I've been playing that I have to have the fleet orbiting the planet I want to protect.

Also, isn't there some kind of fleet minimum for patrolling / orbeting? Like you need 3 scout sized ships with weapons in a single fleet or at least one transport size ship in a fleet. Otherwise they do not intercept.

[Zaimat]

Instanced combat is like MOO/MOO2 where each system is processed one at a time for combat. This has been the default since the 2nd major update last year due to popular demand. This marked the split of the non-combat and combat phases. It makes it much easier to manage each battle one at a time.

In Non-instanced mode all battles happen simultaneously across the galaxy. In this mode your sector/system focus will dictate which battles you control, although you can switch back and forth between combat in different systems at will (by clicking on the notifications or using the com button in tactical view). Like many other parts of Horizon we tried a different and unique approach, one that I have not seen attempted before in TBS games.

It allows for more organic battles (Fleets are not setup like a chess match across each other) among other advantages like reinforcement fleets can arrive in mid-battle, combat may continue for multiple turns, attack multiple planets or multiple battles in the same system. The combat phase itself is not separate from any other actions (movement/survey/dig/colonize/refit) and thus possible at all times etc. But it's not as streamlined or as simple to manage and also increases the focus on combat which is the reason why we added the instanced combat mode.

[Zaimat]

Patrolling will plot a course inside the system, move there, wait some rounds then move to another point in the system. This can increase the detection of any hostile ships out of sensor range including stealthed/cloaked ships (as they get nearer).

Patrolling also acts as a method of interception in non-instanced mode.

I've been playing that I have to have the fleet orbiting the planet I want to protect.

Some updates ago we changed it so planets are always defended if any of your or allied ships are in the same system. It used to require a certain amount of ships but now just a single with weapons is adequate and they have to be defeated before they can invade/blockade etc.

[Jynks]

In Non-instanced mode all battles happen simultaneously across the galaxy. In this mode your sector/system focus will dictate which battles you control, although you can switch back and forth between combat in different systems at will (by clicking on the notifications or using the com button in tactical view). Like many other parts of Horizon we tried a different and unique approach, one that I have not seen attempted before in TBS games.

It allows for more organic battles (Fleets are not setup like a chess match across each other) among other advantages like reinforcement fleets can arrive in mid-battle, combat may continue for multiple turns, attack multiple planets or multiple battles in the same system. The combat phase itself is not separate from any other actions (movement/survey/dig/colonize/refit) and thus possible at all times etc. But it's not as streamlined or as simple to manage and also increases the focus on combat which is the reason why we added the instanced combat mode.

Interesting. I usually just auto resolve in 4x stuff. Guess I will leave it on instanced. Though I'm still confused about all this. You should do a video tutorial on how instanced mode works. Sounds cool and it makes some of the communication technology I didn't get the point of make sense.

[Wenla]

you can rename the fleet, but not the ships themselves. I haven't tried the refit thing.

If the ship you like to rename is 'inside' (connected) to the fleet, you have to remove it first from fleet, rename it and put it back to fleet.