Event Horizon kind of needs a more robust information system. I feel like there's more to it that isn't immediately obvious, but I can't quite dig my way to it.
God yes. But where to begin. I'd say "check the wiki", but I don't think that really explains a lot either, it just kind of tells you the stats of parts. I'll write a proper guide one day, but it'll be LONG.
Here's the wiki:
https://event-horizon.wikia.com/wiki/Event_Horizon_WikiSo where to begin? Ummm....
This can be the "making your first ship, with starting bits" guide.
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The first thing you do is go to Settings on the main menu, and click on the New Game icon. This unlocks all the starting bits of your initial ships (don't ask me why).
Then start a new game.
Don't worry about the initial training. It teaches you nothing, gives you nothing.
Your Scout ship at the beginning is your best ship. It has a built in Autotargeter, which makes hitting stuff easier.
The game is fairly slow at the beginning, but like many collect-athons, it ramps up in interest once you've got lots of bits and ships.
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Hit the "starmap" icon at the bottom. Then hit the "four little ships" icon. This will bring you to your fleet screen.
Select the red "spectrum" ship. Then the "wrench" icon. This will bring you to the ship loadout screen.
Blue squares are for armour/energy storage/drone carriers. Green is for reactors/miscellaneous bits/other stuff. Red is for weapons. Yellow is for engines.
Press the icon that is a "circle with a line through it". Select "yes". This will strip all the bits from that ship (you'll want that green thing, a frontal shield).
Hit the box with an arrow on it at bottom/left. This will take you back to your fleet screen.
Select the first ship, your Scout. Hit the wrench icon.
Move the middle "nuclear" symbol (a small reactor) to a different green square. Then click on the "shield with a plus icon" (defensive bits), and drag that frontal energy shield onto the space you created by moving the reactor.
Click on the frontal energy shield. Over to the right, there will be a little row of numbers, with the shield currently on "2". Change it to "1". This is how you select fire weapon groups (it also works for lots of other stuff). Now when you fire your guns, your shield will also work.
Move the middle blue container thing from the bottom red square to a blue square. Hey, an extra weapon slot!
Click on the red targeting reticule at the top/left to bring up weapons. Drag a small plasma cannon onto that red square. Click on it and set it to "1" as well. Now everything will fire off one button. Yay.
Fiddle around a bit on the screen if you want, maybe adding a few more energy cells to blue squares (they're under the "power" icon on the left). You've also got two satellites, a Dart and a Pot. You can add these if you want, for future expansion of your little Scout. Just remember, parts add weight, which lowers speed, and ship speed is one of the most important stats in the game.
Hit the square with an arrow icon (exit screen), hit close, and pinch/unzoom the starmap a bit. Select the nearest star, and do your first fight. Your ship is now a lot better than before. So you should win.
There's heaps more stuff to learn than this, but that will get the ball rolling, so you can get loots and figure out what all the icons and stuff do. More levels in your ships gives you more HP and damage, so you'll eventually just be able to grind out any early battle if you get screwed on cash and bits. But buying/finding/researching ships and parts is a big bit of the game. Nearly any ship you can buy is better than your starting ships, so don't be afraid to buy/use nearly anything.
I'll go over weapon slots/character levelling options/starbases next time, this is just a step-by-step starter guide. You learnt a tiny bit from this, none of which was previously explained. Hurrah!
(you can make better starting ships than this, especially if you buy that small torpedo launcher at the starting starbase and adding it to your Scout in place of the pulse cannon, but that would take more steps. Just make sure you occasionally hit the "." icon in the weapons screen at the bottom right sometimes. These are universal weapons and will fit in any weapon slot. This is very useful at the beginning, so you can add a bit of firepower to any early ship. Small torpedoes and small plasma cannons are great, even into the late-game, so never feel bad in filling any unused weapon slots/satellites with them. Torpedoes are your best weapon early on, and having a universal slot one is amazing)
((this is one of those games where buying the lowest tier option is actually very good for you. You'll keep the twenty stars in every new game after it as well, so it lets you try out heaps of stuff as soon as you find a smugglers base or two, and isn't bad at about $2-3. Cloud save before you spend your stars, and cloud load if you don't like what you bought. So you won't waste them that way. Even the "support the developer" highest paid option is good, because you get a ship that has plenty of mid-game gubbins, universal weapon slots to try out new finds, and plenty of stars, all of which you keep in all new games. So while neither option is necessary, it really takes the grind out of learning and trying new stuff. If you min/max your beginning, you can get a good start without a cent spent though. The "lazy" option is actually quite fun in this one, without it breaking mid/lategame content at all. It's a jump-start, not a game winner, and is one of the few games I've found where such things actually make the game more satisfying, not less))