Spaceward Ho! (4x Strategy by Ariton Games/Delta Tao) [Now Universal!]

[dead jawa]

I'm an old Master Of Orion player, so I'm expecting things to work a certain way, so some of this is coming off as confusing.
1. Ships take no time to build? So long as you have the money and metal it's built instantly?
2. Top part of the slider, bottom part of the slider: So if I want more more metal, do I have the slider lower so the top bar is larger, or do I have the slider higher so the bottom bar is larger?
3. My colony ship set up a new colony, but the colony ship still exists. It isn't used up? It can be used over and over to build new colonies? And each colony construction is free?
4. I sent a scout to a new world. It couldn't get back home. I get that's because of how fuel works. I colonized the planet but neither the scout nor the colony ship can get back home. Am I missing something?
5. Supposedly, the tanker ship would allow me to refuel a stranded ship. However, it can only move six too. Where's the fuel it's transporting? What's it doing if it's not actually carrying extra fuel?
6. I'm guessing the numbers in parenthesis (2/2) refer to an attack/defense rating. Is that correct?
7. Dip into savings? I don't get this. Isn't this just the money I have available to spend, or is it invested in some way?

[christophercotton]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

Yes in virtually all games.

Sadly, if you jailbreak your phone there are ways of cheating and just posting a score. Though I think some of those high scores might be people who just play constantly. You can see how many games they have played since we released the new iPhone version by looking at the Galaxies Leaderboard. You can watch the number of games go up slowly day by day. So as crazy as it might seem. Some of those scores I think are real. If it doesn't change day by day, then it probably is fake.

We have had emails about people who have upwards of 10 million points on the Mac version, though that is over many years. But still, the iPad version has been out for almost a year.

[ArtNJ]

I enjoyed this on the ipad. On the iphone, it just feels like too much work to actually figure out the controls. This is not a game that I want to have to sit through tutorials to figure out.

Sorry, just being honest. Ipad = excellent port, iphone = not so much.

[christophercotton]

Originally Posted by dead jawa

I'm an old Master Of Orion player, so I'm expecting things to work a certain way, so some of this is coming off as confusing.
1. Ships take no time to build? So long as you have the money and metal it's built instantly?

Yes, the ships are built instantly as long as you have metal and money. Metal is the one resource that is very limited in the galaxy.

2. Top part of the slider, bottom part of the slider: So if I want more more metal, do I have the slider lower so the top bar is larger, or do I have the slider higher so the bottom bar is larger?

Hmm... I guess we didn't explain that one very well. I will add a note for us to fix that in some way. Blue is Metal, Green is Terraform (making the planet green to live on) Thanks for the feedback, helps to know that it is confusing.

3. My colony ship set up a new colony, but the colony ship still exists. It isn't used up? It can be used over and over to build new colonies? And each colony construction is free?

Yes, the colony ship can just keep moving around and colonize planets.

4. I sent a scout to a new world. It couldn't get back home. I get that's because of how fuel works. I colonized the planet but neither the scout nor the colony ship can get back home. Am I missing something?

If you just colonized the planet, the colony ship won't be able to move as you need at least a turn to refuel. The colony doesn't fully come into existence until the next turn, and then the Colony Ship should get refueled. Does that seem like what happened?

5. Supposedly, the tanker ship would allow me to refuel a stranded ship. However, it can only move six too. Where's the fuel it's transporting? What's it doing if it's not actually carrying extra fuel?

Think of it more as the range the ship can go without hitting a planet somewhere. I don't know what the original concept was. But I know the tankers are meant to be limited by your range technology at least in their single jump. You can move the tanker again after you hit the next planet.

6. I'm guessing the numbers in parenthesis (2/2) refer to an attack/defense rating. Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

7. Dip into savings? I don't get this. Isn't this just the money I have available to spend, or is it invested in some way?

You can spend savings on building ships. The dip into savings is meant for when you are spending money on Technology advances or planets. Your income is split using the TechBars. Part of this goes into savings, part just goes away each turn into the techs and planets. If you decided you really wanted to spend all your money on terraforming or mining a planet, you can do that.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions. Thanks for the questions, it is helpful to know what concepts are not straightforward. We are working on adding a tutorial mode to help out new players. Any other suggestions are more than welcome.

[christophercotton]

Originally Posted by ArtNJ

I enjoyed this on the ipad. On the iphone, it just feels like too much work to actually figure out the controls. This is not a game that I want to have to sit through tutorials to figure out.

Sorry, just being honest. Ipad = excellent port, iphone = not so much.

Thanks for the feedback. The controls are almost the same, just with the screen real estate you can't show all the information on the sidebar at once.

The game definitely is great on the iPad. All the screen space is just awesome.

[Mythbuster]

One small thing: I really love the new version ... but ...

The way of moving the fleets was better (for iPad Users) ... if you want to move to a planet near the starting point the new fleet panel lays sometimes over the target planet ... so I would prefer to have the fleet panel on the right side as it was before ... or (I know it is much more work) please give the user the choice in the options what the User prefers ...

I have still two wishes: The ability to communicate to other players (also the AI players) like it is on the PC / Mac ...

And: Please build in a way to allow save games in the iCloud ... I would love to play games on all my three devices: iPad, iPad Mini & iPhone ...

Thanks a lot for the great support ...

[Beamjockey]

I've been enjoying Spaceward Ho! since version 3 running on System 7 Macs. Revisiting it on the Ipad has given me a great deal of pleasure.

I've spotted Easter eggs on three different holidays!

My question: Sometimes the cowboy hat on an adversary's planet turns a darker shade of color. I have no idea why. So, why?

[Beamjockey]

Originally Posted by Beamjockey

I've spotted Easter eggs on three different holidays!

Make that FOUR different holidays.

Oh, and happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!