Horwasp Alpha 2 Release

The Horwasp have received a major update. This update is based on the past several months of research and analysis on the games which have been played. They attempt to address some of the significant flaws in the current Horwasp design. 

There is a primary balance issue with the Horwasp:

1) Too powerful at the beginning

2) Too weak at the end - against strong opponents they have virtually no chance. 

While it is ok to have a race that is quite strong at the beginning and weaker at the end this imbalance was too pronounced. A well played Horwasp could often take down 2-3 neighbors of equal skill in the beginning but never won against an opponent able to build a large fleet. 

In this update the Horwasp mechanics have been brought more inline with the Standard 11 races enabling the effective game balancing mechanics of diplomacy and the ship limit to even out game play. The Horwasp will still be strong in the beginning, but not AS strong and they will have a legitimate chance in the end game. 

In addition several other modifications have been made to make the race more fun or easier to play as well as improving upon already existing ideas. All of the changes are listed below:

The Horwasp have warmed up very slightly to the Races of the Echo Cluster. 

1) Horwasp can now offer Safe Passage to any race.

2) Horwasp can offer intel or full alliance to other Horwasp. 

1) Jacker and Brood become "fleet" ships that can be flown around. (like the Soldier)

Jacker fuel tank: 400kt - cost increased. Engines = 1, Mass reduced to 200.  

Brood fuel tank: 350kt - cost increased. Engines = 1, mass 145kt.

2) Soldier - cargo decreased to 300kt, mass to 185kt, cost decreased.

3) Accelerators and sentries now act as charging stations using internal liquification/regeneration technologies. Accelerators will add 25 neutronium and Sentries 5 neutronium per turn to any visible ship at their location after movement. A ship can only charge from one Sentry or Accellerator per turn. If both an Accelerator and a Sentry are present the ship will charge at the Accelerator. 

4) All ballistic pods (including Accellerators and Sentries) have a 25ly scan range or a 50ly scan range if they have weapons. All ballistic pods are immune to minefields. 

5) Armoured Nest cargo increased to 1800.

6) Horwasp fleet ships can no longer carry minerals as cargo. Only clans (or natives in a farm). Minerals/supplies must be moved via Rock launches. 

7) Farm cargo increased to 1600.

1) Soldiers, Jackers and Brood are now subject to the standard ship limit. 

Hives are only limited by Planet count. 

Sentries only limited by Planet count. 

Accellerators only limited by Planet count.

Pods - Unlimited.

Priority points will not be "stolen" from the Horwasp for fleet combat in any case except for the destruction of a Hive which will result in 2 priority points being stolen. Destruction of soldiers, broods and jackers will generate PP for the attacker. 

After the ship limit any priority points that the Horwasp have will be used during the second build phase (after combat) for new soldiers, broods or jackers set to build (in random planet order) or saved if nothing is set to build.  

2) Pods which are "lost in space" due to an ion storm or other event will drift toward the nearest planet (star system) or Sentry or Accelerator at a rate of 1ly per turn. They will not drift if being towed.

3) Burrowing rate increased by 100%.

4) Mining rate reduced by 30%. 

6) Protofields do more damage. (Infection * Infection) / Hull Mass per turn.  

7) Cloaked Gravitonic ships travelling at warp 9 can travel through Protofields without picking up an infection.

8) The Privateer Rob mission can not be performed inside of a protofield. If a Rob occurs inside of a protofield the ship is immediately consumed by the proto molecules and is destroyed.

1) Horwasp colonies will always work according to the natural order of the Wasps unless otherwise instructed. Once a player sets an allocation the following natural rules apply:  

  - Harvesting will stop as the balance point between natives and workers is found on the planet so that the natives will always continue to grow a little bit (if possible). 

  - Burrowers will stop burrowing once the burrow is large enough to accomodate the colony. 

  - Miners will stop once all minerals on the planet are mined out. 

  - Terraformers will stop once the planet reaches 50 degrees.

  - Liquifying can only be manually set and will not stop. 

Any allocated workers who stop working due to one of the above conditions will immediately begin work on one of the other tasks in ratio to the allocation supplied.    

If no allocation is set then a colony will automatically work as follows:

1) Harvest until equilibrium

2) Burrow until the colony is protected

3) Mining until minerals are extracted

3) Terraform - Only if enough workers are free from the above tasks to have a planetary impact will they start terraforming.

4) Exterminating - Only if workers are free from the above tasks. 

5) Liquifying - Only if manually allocated.

This system allows simple or complex rules to be defined. For example a player can allocate 90% to harvesting, 9% to mining and 1% to burrowing. When the harvesting reaches balance the workers will reallocate themselves with 90% going to mining and 10% going to burrowing. 

At any time a player may check the "Fixed allocations" box to disable the natural horwasp instincts and lock in an "unnatural" allocation which will be strictly followed - this is how the system functions now. 

Note: All new colonies will immediately start working even before specific allocations are given. This is usually an upside.. but may have the occasional downside. Workers are a ravenous hoard that are barely controllable. 

2) Burrows have been simplified on the UI to just give a relative size. 

VERY IMPORTANT: These changes will affect all in progress Horwasp games in a dramatic way. Due to the changes with the Ship Limit all Horwasp players that are currently playing will recieve a bonus of 100 Priority Points. There was no way to implement such significant changes without affecting games in progress. These Priority Points have been allocated and exist but will not show up on your score boards until host runs for your game.