Blue Libra sounded great actually until you said I couldnt go back to previous missions mainly because I love open endeness on games but hell, im still intrigued maybe ill take the plunge on that one too, thanks man! Yeah skirmish mode its great on strategy games, much important for me than a half assed campaign on any day! Kinda like LASW, man that game with all the tweaks you can choose for every match is a wet dream for me!
Hey Ariton, I just wanted to say that I love Spaceward Ho! and played the sh*t out of it back in the 90s over Mac networks with my mates. It's blatantly the best 4x game out there as it's so simple and yet has great depth... It's like chess. I've tried many other 4x games, but their need to add a million possible parameters totally destroys the gameplay in my opinion. I don't actually own an iPad. You say that you are working on an iPhone version that will include multiplayer capabilities. Could I ask what sort of timeframe you're looking at to finish this? I'm itching to play it!!! Also I watched the Beginning Tutorial YouTube clip on your website and couldn't help noticing something. It may not be in the actual game as I have not played your release yet... I noticed that the menu to Abandon Planet was called "Evacuate Planet" unlike in the original game. Don't forget that there were some amusing little gimmicks in the original, such as in the swearing dialogue from computer AI players when you started beating them. One of these was a warning dialogue that came up when you went to "Abandon Planet" if you had a colony on the planet Hope. It said "Are you sure you wish to abandon Hope?". I know I sound like a geek, but I'm a massive Spaceward Ho! fan. I can't wait to play your version and I hope old school users can continue to help you get it as close to, and as playable as the original version. Cheers, Dights
Ship types and ship assignments I started playing spaceward ho! In college back in 1992. I remember the engineering labs where half the mac's were filled with students playing Ho instead of working. I definitely burned many hours playing. In later years I bought and played the PC version. Then I played the palm version. I have had an iPad since they came out and I have eagerly awaited the day when Ho would make it to this awesome platform. I even kept buggin DeltaJoe about the progress. I have now burned many hours playing again and have also addicted my two sons to the game. We are eagerly awaiting multiplayer so we can go against each other. Well Done! Questions, comments, and gripes? 1. I would love to see the ability to name planets after you win a game or perhaps build a certain amount of master points. It was always cool in the old version to see planets that you named showing up in your next universe. 2. The latest update is great but I struggle with the ship assignments. When I build a bunch of scouts to send out from one planet I have a hard time seeing what is going on. First, the list overshadows the planets underneath so it is hard to tell where you are sending ships. Second, the arrow direction of the ship starts at the ship instead of the planet like in the old games. If you have a long list of ships then it appears like the arrow starts a very different position then the actual planet where it is located. I can live with the interface as it is and I don't have any ideas how to improve it since I don't understand the programming. I just know that I liked the old version interface better when assigning ships. I think an improvement there would help new users. 3. Special ship types. One of the cool things about Ho is the special ship types. At certain blends of speed, range, weapons, and shields you get a cool graphic ship. For example, the dog, the wolf, the shark, and red skeleton. I have not found the shark or the skeleton yet. Anyone have any tips on what the blend is for those? It would be cool to start a log here of special ship types that people have found. Does anyone know if those special ship types have any advantage other than looking better than others? 4. I would like to see the organize fleets/ships function improved. The old versions of the game allowed for drag and dropping of ships back and forth between fleets. In the iPad version you can only combine or split in half. Which can be frustrating when preparing multiple fleets at one time. 5. I like some other the other suggestions made here. I like the player comparison chart idea and the idea to improve player to player communication. 6. How can we help promote the game more to others? I have left reviews for each version. Considering the trash that usually clogs the top 100 on the app store, I am shocked that Ho is not rising to the top. It the best game written so far for the iPad!
iPhone version in progress I posted a teaser screen shot of Spaceward Ho! on the iPhone. http://ariton.com/post/22842637090/a-preview-of-spaceward-ho-running-on-the-iphone More updates to follow!
Glad you love the game! We don't have a specified timeframe for the iPhone version, except we are actively working on it. We have it to almost playable, and then we need to really fix some of the UI elements for it to work better from the iPhone version. For the game, in the Mac Version, the menu item is called "Evacuate Planet". You can see in the screenshot And if you happen to find the Planet Hope. You will still get the same message We added in all the easter eggs that were in original game.
I was one of those college students playing then, though we played in one person's room. Yes, we are planning on adding that in to the game. We have some other options we are trying out for assigning ships. Since it is one of the problems many people have, especially when you have lots of ships. The ship types do not have any special advantage, they just look cool. I'll give you a hint for the skeleton, you need to level up your weapons. You can just try different combinations to find out the others, or I'm sure someone has posted it for the Mac version too. The organize fleets is my bad. We are working on trying out some different options to see what will be easier. Adding in drag/drop for the ships is one thing we will do. But hopefully in a future version the organize ships will be much much improved.
I wanted to make this one a separate post. Leaving comments is WAY WAY awesome. It sucks every time that we release an update, that the great comments get pushed back. So doing a new review and ranking each time helps quite a bit. Suggesting the game to any review sites, or letting us know anyone who we should contact is also great. And, especially to keep suggesting to TouchArcade that they cover the game as a review on the front page would help.
Yes, it does support the new iPad retina display. You can see how the text renders so much better at: http://ariton.com/post/19841883926/now-that-i-have-my-the-new-ipad-aka-ipad-3 Also, the graphics when you shrink down the galaxy look great. It is amazing how even at the smallest area you can still read the text and see the graphics.
Excellent! Also, one thing we have also been working on is finding some artists to help with a new set of graphics. It will be a free update once it comes out. But right now, we are working on finishing the iPhone version.
Name a Star When you win a game and rank-up, you'll be offered a chance to name a star. http://ariton.com/post/23732410664/weve-added-the-ability-to-name-a-star-when-you
