Hostile Invasion despite Transport destruction?

[chrisfirefox]

Hello there!

I recently aquired Horizon as part of the Iceberg Humble Bundle, and I like it a lot, good work L3o . After starting several times over, I finally found a playstyle, and I'm slowly understanding how everything works together. But just now I encountered a quite strange behaviour.

I play humans, and the Tantik are (surprise!) at war with me. They (supposedly) sent a single invasion transport with two cloaked scouts to invade my planet, while I have three transports (couldn't you have named it "destroyer" or some such? ) and a scout for defense. I easily shot all of them down, also destroyed their colony in the process in "normal" combat (not autoresolve, and with "destroy colony" checked). After destroying the ships, i pressed escape.

Imagine my surprise when suddenly the "Invasion" screen pops up, claiming they were able to land their troops before getting destroyed. Is this an intended behaviour? Because IMHO if I destroy all the troop transports within 3 combat turns, an invasion should be prevented. I have put the Autosave of the turn right before the "incident" up on filebin here: http://filebin.ca/1km6PTNp1BKP/Slot_000.zip

I have also made a backup of my Horizon Game folder in my Documents, if you need any logs or other saves (e.g. right after it).

To reproduce:
1) Load the save game provided
2) Press "turn"
3) When the Battle in "Harztav, Sector 6,21" happens, either engage or autoresolve, either check or don't check "destroy colony" - the invasion happens no matter what

For the record, I play vanilla without any modifications to the game.

[Wenla]

Seen it also. Destroy transporter(s) but invasion still happens.

[Zaimat]

Hello there!

I recently aquired Horizon as part of the Iceberg Humble Bundle, and I like it a lot, good work L3o . After starting several times over, I finally found a playstyle, and I'm slowly understanding how everything works together.

Welcome and thanks! Happy to hear you are having fun.

But just now I encountered a quite strange behaviour.
...
When the Battle in "Harztav, Sector 6,21" happens, either engage or autoresolve, either check or don't check "destroy colony" - the invasion happens no matter what

I took a look at the saved game and in this case what happened was their ships arrive before yours so they landed their troops before the combat happened during the same turn.

Horizon actually uses an initiative/rounds system for movement just as in combat. So although it shows 1 turn for both fleets on the map, the faster ships (or the closest ships) will arrive sooner and that's what happened here. I think it would have been better in retrospect to show more precise eta with decimals.

Just as a side note, if a colony is considered defended (shows on the planet list) invasions are not possible until the defenses have been cleared.

[chrisfirefox]

Thanks for looking into it, and thanks for the clarification . Some kind of feedback would be nice there indeed, but I doubt that comma-turn-display would be very intuitive or easy to understand. Maybe rather a short information in form of a popup message before space combat starts, to communicate the exact sequence of events. Comma-turn-display would IMHO create more confusion than it solves.

[Mandragoron]

Hi,

i have also such an bug.

I was defending one of my system with 3 Motherships (terran). 3 Planets all colonized but still building defense struktures. I tought 3 Motherships would be enough for defense.

1 Invansiontransports (Harkan) arrives some turn. Combats starts - i get ini 1 shot from 1 ship transport destroyed. Combat over, next Invasion Screen... wtf ?

So ships are usless for defending planets?

[Zaimat]

As it stands, your ships need to be near orbit of the colony (the colony will show defended on the planet list on galaxy map). Otherwise the colony is not defended and hostiles can drop their troops if they arrive before the engagement happens during the same turn. See also my previous post above for more details.

[Mandragoron]

But my ships didnt arrived in that turn, they standed in the system 10+ turns already?

[Zaimat]

What must have happened is they were not near the planet / or in orbit. So the planet was not considered defended.

With the original combat system this was not a likely event (since travel and combat were not separate phases) but with instanced combat you have to take that additional step of making sure they are near orbit to defend a colony without other defenses.

I've noted to review this for future updates since it's not as transparent to players. Making all planets defended if any ships are in the same system may well be better in this way.

[Bansheedragon]

This is why I always build a missile base as a minimum on my planets.
It allows you to at least defend against attack, and might give you the time you need to get ships to get your ships into position to help with defence.

[Wenla]

This is why I always build a missile base as a minimum on my planets.
It allows you to at least defend against attack, and might give you the time you need to get ships to get your ships into position to help with defence.

Me too. Either Starbase or Missile Defence.

A question: why Beam Defence is so rare? I don't know how many games I have played, but I have seen Beam Defence only once?

[StoneCold822]

So...this begs the question: What good is the 'Patrol' stance/order for ship movement? Are you saying that we should limit ourselves to 'Orbit' in order to ensure enemy doesn't sneak in and deposit their troops? Just askin'

[Mandragoron]

I've noted to review this for future updates since it's not as transparent to players. Making all planets defended if any ships are in the same system may well be better in this way.

Thank you! I think this would help a lot. You could let ships intercept fleets wich are on the sensors turns ahead. But couldnt intercept stealth fleets to improve this feature mabye?

[Zaimat]

With today's update any ship with weapons will be able to prevent invasion troops from landing provided they are (or arrive) in the same system before the enemy troop ships are in orbit. This should address the issue.

A question: why Beam Defence is so rare? I don't know how many games I have played, but I have seen Beam Defence only once?

The AI might be getting them before you but otherwise there is a good chance for it to be on some dig site. A little while ago we added a chance to gain knowledge of them by invading a race that has the technology.

So...this begs the question: What good is the 'Patrol' stance/order for ship movement? Are you saying that we should limit ourselves to 'Orbit' in order to ensure enemy doesn't sneak in and deposit their troops? Just askin'

With instanced mode, patrol mainly helps with detecting cloaked ships. Without instanced mode, patrol is also more important to intercept.

[Wenla]

A question: why Beam Defence is so rare? I don't know how many games I have played, but I have seen Beam Defence only once?

The AI might be getting them before you but otherwise there is a good chance for it to be on some dig site. A little while ago we added a chance to gain knowledge of them by invading a race that has the technology.

I see now why have got it only once. I dig all the time but I don't invade my enemies, I vanish them...