Machiavelli24
Mod creator
- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 818
New Horizons is total conversion for Beyond Earth that will eventually change nearly every mechanic that makes up the Beyond Earth experience. New Horizon is not a mere "balance patch" that tries tweak a few things around the edges while keeping the body the same. With a holistic eye New Horizon makes changes that combine to be more than the sum of their parts. Old heuristics will need to be replaced, new strategies will need to be learned, get ready to experience a new Beyond Earth.
What to expect in the first version:
1) A complete redone Virtue tree.
2) Radical changes to tile improvements.
3) Alterations to basic tile and resource yields.
4) Changes to orbital coverage.
5) Changes to early game expeditions.
The new virtue trees:
One major change to the Virtue trees is that no Virtue within the trees provides Health. Instead Health comes from the synergy Virtues. Every depth-based synergy Virtues provides Health as does the all the level 1 synergy Virtues. Players can combine various Virtues and experiment with different paths through the Virtue trees without gimping their Health.
The Virtue trees themselves have also changed.
Security: focus on military strength and orbital development. While this tree contains many Virtues that provide a military edge it includes just as many Virtues that support a strong economy. It includes bonuses for Arrays and Nodes.
Expansion: focuses on settling a large number of cities and exploiting large swaths of land. It includes bonuses for Biowells, Terrascapes and Domes.
Development: focuses on growth and leveraging high population cities. It rewards Wonder spammers, Culture generation and keeping lots of positive Health. It includes bonuses for Manufactories and Academies.
Commerce: focuses on trade routes, covert ops and specialists. It encourages fostering positive relations with stations and trading with other major colonies.
Change to tile improvements:
Many improvements now have restrictions on them that make it harder to coat every hex with the same improvement. Farms can only be built next to rivers, manufactories and academies compete for limit flat ground. Arrays and Domes can only be built on hills. Biowells require forests, marshes or floodplains.
Academies have also been changed to generate unhealth, while manufactories no longer provide unhealth.
Big picture design:
Food and Health vs Science
Various parts of New Horizon will emphasis a trade off between growth and Health vs raw Science. Everyone requires Science in Beyond Earth, the question becomes how to get it? Growth and Health, to maximize the science each population automatically provides, or a smaller population working Academies, building Science buildings?
Production economy vs Energy economy
In Beyond Earth energy is much weaker than other yields and is often only good for paying maintenance or activating the beacon. New Horizon will try to make it possible to create an energy based economy that purchases the majority of its units and buildings. The current changes are not yet enough for this to be true, but they are laying the groundwork for later versions of the mod which will reward energy generation.
Changes to orbital coverage
Cities now start with only 1 hex in coverage. If colonial leaders want to make extensive use of orbital units they will need to build their orbital infrastructure and supplement it with Array improvements in cities with hills.
Early game expedition changes
It requires 2 expedition charges to salvage a location. You'll need to acquire a source of additional expeditions before you can start salvaging what your explorers uncover. Currently extra expeditions can be acquired from the Lab quest, Supremacy 1 and the opening Virtue in Security.
When will the first version be done?
Potentially as soon as sometime between January 23 and January 25. Most of the above stuff is implemented and tested.
Long term features
The new Virtues will only be the beginning for New Horizons. Over time it will expand to encompass nearly every part of the Beyond Earth experience. Here is an outline of my current plans after the first version is complete:
Version 2: Redone military units and orbital units.
Version 3: Redone buildings, building quests, tech tree. (large)
Version 4: Redone affinity bonuses
Version 5: Redesigned victory conditions
What to expect in the first version:
1) A complete redone Virtue tree.
2) Radical changes to tile improvements.
3) Alterations to basic tile and resource yields.
4) Changes to orbital coverage.
5) Changes to early game expeditions.
The new virtue trees:
One major change to the Virtue trees is that no Virtue within the trees provides Health. Instead Health comes from the synergy Virtues. Every depth-based synergy Virtues provides Health as does the all the level 1 synergy Virtues. Players can combine various Virtues and experiment with different paths through the Virtue trees without gimping their Health.
The Virtue trees themselves have also changed.
Security: focus on military strength and orbital development. While this tree contains many Virtues that provide a military edge it includes just as many Virtues that support a strong economy. It includes bonuses for Arrays and Nodes.
Expansion: focuses on settling a large number of cities and exploiting large swaths of land. It includes bonuses for Biowells, Terrascapes and Domes.
Development: focuses on growth and leveraging high population cities. It rewards Wonder spammers, Culture generation and keeping lots of positive Health. It includes bonuses for Manufactories and Academies.
Commerce: focuses on trade routes, covert ops and specialists. It encourages fostering positive relations with stations and trading with other major colonies.
Change to tile improvements:
Many improvements now have restrictions on them that make it harder to coat every hex with the same improvement. Farms can only be built next to rivers, manufactories and academies compete for limit flat ground. Arrays and Domes can only be built on hills. Biowells require forests, marshes or floodplains.
Academies have also been changed to generate unhealth, while manufactories no longer provide unhealth.
Big picture design:
Food and Health vs Science
Various parts of New Horizon will emphasis a trade off between growth and Health vs raw Science. Everyone requires Science in Beyond Earth, the question becomes how to get it? Growth and Health, to maximize the science each population automatically provides, or a smaller population working Academies, building Science buildings?
Production economy vs Energy economy
In Beyond Earth energy is much weaker than other yields and is often only good for paying maintenance or activating the beacon. New Horizon will try to make it possible to create an energy based economy that purchases the majority of its units and buildings. The current changes are not yet enough for this to be true, but they are laying the groundwork for later versions of the mod which will reward energy generation.
Changes to orbital coverage
Cities now start with only 1 hex in coverage. If colonial leaders want to make extensive use of orbital units they will need to build their orbital infrastructure and supplement it with Array improvements in cities with hills.
Early game expedition changes
It requires 2 expedition charges to salvage a location. You'll need to acquire a source of additional expeditions before you can start salvaging what your explorers uncover. Currently extra expeditions can be acquired from the Lab quest, Supremacy 1 and the opening Virtue in Security.
When will the first version be done?
Potentially as soon as sometime between January 23 and January 25. Most of the above stuff is implemented and tested.
Long term features
The new Virtues will only be the beginning for New Horizons. Over time it will expand to encompass nearly every part of the Beyond Earth experience. Here is an outline of my current plans after the first version is complete:
Version 2: Redone military units and orbital units.
Version 3: Redone buildings, building quests, tech tree. (large)
Version 4: Redone affinity bonuses
Version 5: Redesigned victory conditions
