My Suggestions

Feature requests or ideas
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Flinx
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My Suggestions

Post by Flinx »

In random order:

TFs undergoing refit should have a corresponding 'refit' 'action' - it is frustrating when these 'busy' TFs are included in the list of TFs 'awaiting orders'

I always thought missiles moved faster than any ship. I seems wrong that a ship can outrun it's own missiles.

The auto action is for ships to fire their missiles and then move closer to the enemy. Combined with the point above, I have seen enemy ships destroyed before missiles fired during round 1 have a chance to cover the distance.

Starbases should be bigger than a 'mothership' class ship with auxiliary pods. Currently, with equal technology, 1 'mothership' class ship can always destroy a starbase.

Question: Do planetary missile and beam bases auto-upgrade to fire your current best technology? It seems like it becomes easier and easier to invade a planet as the game progresses when I would expect it to become more and more difficult.
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Zaimat
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Flinx wrote:TFs undergoing refit should have a corresponding 'refit' 'action' - it is frustrating when these 'busy' TFs are included in the list of TFs 'awaiting orders'
I have made this change, it should be in the next update.
Flinx wrote:I always thought missiles moved faster than any ship. I seems wrong that a ship can outrun it's own missiles.
This is necessary because we want to give a turn for the target to be able to shoot down incoming missiles.
Flinx wrote:The auto action is for ships to fire their missiles and then move closer to the enemy. Combined with the point above, I have seen enemy ships destroyed before missiles fired during round 1 have a chance to cover the distance.
Agreed, the AI controlled ships could be better here as to hang back to fire missiles when it makes more sense.
Flinx wrote:Starbases should be bigger than a 'mothership' class ship with auxiliary pods. Currently, with equal technology, 1 'mothership' class ship can always destroy a starbase.

Question: Do planetary missile and beam bases auto-upgrade to fire your current best technology? It seems like it becomes easier and easier to invade a planet as the game progresses when I would expect it to become more and more difficult.
They do get the highest level available weapons/missiles. Starbases are bigger than motherships but we wanted moterships to be just as powerful (or more) when fully equipped. If we had different Starbase levels, I see this being the case.
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If we had different Starbase levels, I see this being the case.
Would this possibly be something that you will add in the future ?
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keller wrote:Would this possibly be something that you will add in the future ?
More colony building options has been suggested by several people and we have thought about it. Realistically though only if we do a dlc/expansion or a sequel.
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how about multiple starbase sizes ?
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It would fall in the same category from implementation point of view, having different build options/levels or sizes for starbases. I would like to do much more though so we are considering the best course.
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Post by keller »

Thanks for your response. I appreciate that you have worked so hard on this game and look forward to any future updates / expansions.
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Re: My Suggestions

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Zaimat wrote:If we had different Starbase levels, I see this being the case.
You could add a 'starbase auxiliary pods' technology and related pods (different from the ship ones); level 1 = 10% more space, level 10 = 100% more space.



Another idea for starbases is that they should rotate every turn; say something like 45 degrees or 15 degrees
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Re: My Suggestions

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Flinx wrote:You could add a 'starbase auxiliary pods' technology and related pods (different from the ship ones); level 1 = 10% more space, level 10 = 100% more space.
Oh! Could I do that myself with a mod? Oh, but the AI problem would still be there... :(
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Zaimat wrote:They do get the highest level available weapons/missiles. Starbases are bigger than motherships but we wanted moterships to be just as powerful (or more) when fully equipped. If we had different Starbase levels, I see this being the case.
Actually, there are two Achilesses heels with starbases in my opinion:

1. Missiles are too obsolete in game after last modifications (and I will cover it with my next "complaining" post).

2. Unlike mothership, starbase cannot use _all_ it's weapons, as most powerful ones are zoned, so starbase can use only quarter of them.

While there is nothing can be done with the p.1, second can be treated two ways:

a) Give to starbase "extra heavy" modification of the weapon, that can fire to the any direction, retaining heavy benefits.
b) Allow for starbase "turn" in the any direction, just as ships does it, only free of charge. Station supposedly spin naturally anyway! :)

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Post by Bansheedragon »

Master Of Orion had the star bases turn 1/4 rotation every turn.
I think that would be the best compromise.

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Bansheedragon wrote:Master Of Orion had the star bases turn 1/4 rotation every turn.
I think that would be the best compromise.
The layout for MOO had top view and perfectly circular stations which did allow for that. This isn't easily doable in Horizon in it's current format, the starbase assets don't support it.

It's easy enough to increase the size of starbases to allow for more weapons etc. but it changes the game balance in early-to-mid game making it next to impossible to defeat a starbase defended colony. So in it's current state Starbases are adequate to defend colonies until late game when motherships are much more powerful.
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Post by Bansheedragon »

Thats a shame, but understandable.

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Zaimat wrote:This isn't easily doable in Horizon in it's current format, the starbase assets don't support it.
Tsk. Too bad.

Is it hard to implement? I imagined that it not required any changes in the base - it's supposed to be symmetrical, no? So after 90 degrees turn it will be exactly the same station - only with rotated guns and shields. :)

Ah, wait, not all stations have 4-sides symmetry. Tsk. :/ It's worse. Forget it then.

Ok, what about my second proposal about the "extra heavy" guns with the somewhat increased size and the same power as heavy - retaining the same free station space? (So if you'll install it, it will be less in the amount - so less in raw power - but 360 degrees, that quadruple potential attack?).

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Ok, what about my second proposal about the "extra heavy" guns with the somewhat increased size and the same power as heavy - retaining the same free station space? (So if you'll install it, it will be less in the amount - so less in raw power - but 360 degrees, that quadruple potential attack?).
It's something we can consider in the future but not for an immediate change as it has other ramifications like balance/AI use so it can have big impact which requires time play testing. I think for now the other options from using a combination of torpedoes/missiles which are 360 degrees is a viable option for heavier or burst damage in late games. As for effectiveness of missiles it's something I'll pay closer attention in my late games if they are underwhelming, not to say that we want every weapon to have the same effectiveness at every stage/every combination of defense.
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Zaimat wrote:As for effectiveness of missiles it's something I'll pay closer attention in my late games if they are underwhelming, not to say that we want every weapon to have the same effectiveness at every stage/every combination of defense.
Well, I have nothing against specific uses of weapons. But missiles and torpedoes are a)one-shot weapon (that can be justified by it's raw power), b) not effective at all against shields and c) Have the big error price with the any anti-hit measures - you'll have no second chance. I think, it's too much. As I said, it could be allright, if I could recharge torpedoes/missiles in the same battle (time for the recharge is arguable and need to be tested, of course). But in the current stage, I feel as I'll simply waste my space for both, because every other weapon have specific use against shields, or armor, or internal systems, while torpedoes and missiles are simple "raw power destruction" - and even if everything is triple less effective, it's became absolutely better after 3 turns in any case, even if you'll hit with one-shot weapons every time. Only exclusion is if I can totally destroy opponent with torpedoes/missiles in the one turn, and cannot do that with the other weapons - but with the price of mistake, even this case became very problematic to make this weapon any useful, as for me.

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Re: My Suggestions

Post by Flinx »

Hijacking my own thread to add a new suggestion for the "Planets" window that lists all of the planets in the known universe.

1) Could you give this a hotkey. Currently I hit F9/F10 and then select the planets button. I know I can use the button at the top of the screen, but my brain thinks I should use a hotkey to open this window.

2) Have 3 checkboxes to filter the list of planets: 'Mine', 'Others', and 'Empty'. Checked, that group appearss in the list; unchecked that group is excluded from the list of planets. I think there should be space to put them at the top right of the window.

And thanks for all of the many recent updates!
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I'll add a HotKey for the planets button. The checkboxes idea is a good one but not something I can do quickly at this time.
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Flinx wrote:1) Could you give this a hotkey. Currently I hit F9/F10 and then select the planets button. I know I can use the button at the top of the screen, but my brain thinks I should use a hotkey to open this window
Any suggestions which HotKey to bind it? My first thought is to put it for F12 but this is also the default screenshot hotkey in Steam (although that can be disabled from the client). All other function keys are taken unless we use shift/alt/ctrl.
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Post by Flinx »

Zaimat wrote:
Flinx wrote:1) Could you give this a hotkey. Currently I hit F9/F10 and then select the planets button. I know I can use the button at the top of the screen, but my brain thinks I should use a hotkey to open this window
Any suggestions which HotKey to bind it? My first thought is to put it for F12 but this is also the default screenshot hotkey in Steam (although that can be disabled from the client). All other function keys are taken unless we use shift/alt/ctrl.
Alt-F9? Colonies and Planets are related so that could make sense.

What does F6 do?
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