distant worlds

[razvedchiki]

Never ever forget about the pirates,if left unchecked for too long they will make empires of their own that will rival/surpass race ones.

 

[tindrli]

damn great game!

 

[razvedchiki]

also pirates will make hidden structures on your planets that gradually will criple your planet income through corruption and after they build their last building they will take over the planet!
so once you spot pirate structures immediately attack them with your armies.

 

[tindrli]

i think it is. however you must know that the game is capable of playing itself if you leave it on auto. now, the level of micro is totally at your disposal. you just choose what you want to do and put those things on manual. Once you manage to feel comfortable with it you can try mods.. for start there is no need for them
Enjoy

 

[Nemerra]

Hey, I've been wanting to ask about this for a while, however its hard to find threads here since DU deliberately broke search.

I would like to ask:
- Is Distant Worlds worth playing? I didn't have a computer to play it at the time it was launched or something.
- Which are the best mods to make it even better?

Yes, its definitely worth giving a try. Its one of the best space 4x (my personal favorite 4x).

I'd recommend using this guide and going full manual control right from the start, if you're willing to take your time to learn the game (which seems to be the case, going by your post history in this sub-forum):
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3354680#p3354680

If you go full automatic or semi-automatic control at the start, a lot of the appeal of the game might get lost on you.

There is a definite recommendation in terms of mods as there's a compilation that fixes several game issues:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3491688#p3491688

Its generally recommend by DWs small community to skip vanilla and play straight with the AI improvement mod.

The extended version of the above mod is a compilation of 3 mods:
1) AI improvement Mod by Icemania which makes the AI much smarter on all difficulty levels, which also helps you, since it also buffs the AI that handles the parts of your empire that are set to be automated. Another important change is the fact that it changes all default ship designs to be actually good/useful (which helps both the AI and new players).

2) Extended Universe Mod by Haree78 (another staple) which adds 18 well designed races to bring the race total up to 40. The extended version of the AI improvement mod includes this and includes updated AI for these additional races.

3) Chrome UI Mod (Blue) by DasTactic, one of the better UI mods which upgrades the default UI and resource icons to make them much more readable.


In terms of video tutorials, the best one by far is this one by TortugaPower:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuXzIAdwiCCzPk_REYjI2iVatlXVRD0qZ

That's my suggestion at least.

 

[Serious_Business]

It is considered to be one of the best space strategy games, if not the best strategy game by some aficionados. There's a history behind this of course, namely that it did space grand strategy before Stellaris. It still holds up to that game. The comparisons are always hesitant, as people don't want to compare too much and get into debates, but at any rate no other game comes close. What DW does uniquely is its design system and the management of unique resources. There isn't a very complicated economical or development dynamic, in fact all of it is very simplified, especially compared to Stellaris. It removes a lot of the tedium of having to careful manage your numbers. In general, the game doesn't have this problem of most 4x where you need to manage more and more to the point of it feeling tedious - not only because you can automate a lot of things, but because the development aspects are so simple. What you need to worry about is resource acquirement, and that aspect is more qualitative than quantitative. So there's no numbers game or optimization like in Stellaris, it isn't so much about sheet management and budget balance, it's just about, well strategy and decisions. Which is good, yeah.

DW2 just came out. It really has no new concepts though, so I can't recommend it, especially not in its present state. I guess if you have the money you could get that, but I personally was greatly disappointed as it's the same game with an interface makeover. Good for new players who want to get into it more easily, but not much else.

This game of course has a mountain of a learning curve. To me this is great, as I love learning games, but yeah, you can expect putting 10-20h just figuring out what the fuck you're supposed to be doing. Less if you get into videos perhaps. The game has a lot of elements that might look tedious when you're not used to them - for example the OP was complaining about updating designs. But that's the whole game. Updating designs according to your goals and tech development. When you get into it, it's quite fun, but you need to have a peculiar mindset. It looks like micromanagement hell, but like I said the game has very simplified economics and, sure, you can automate most of these aspects. You can play it as you wish. It has an open type of play, or victory conditions - some of which are unique based off your race. I think that's one of the coolest concept about it, actually. It introduces some asymmetry and different playstyles, compared to the tedious vertical play of Stellaris.

 

[Alter Sack]

So I have a distant world itch again.

I have the old game.

Is it worth buying the new one or should I play the old one with mods?

According to Serious_Business it seems not worth buying the new game.

 

[Nemerra]

So I have a distant world itch again.

I have the old game.

Is it worth buying the new one or should I play the old one with mods?

According to Serious_Business it seems not worth buying the new game.

Imho, Distant Worlds: Universe is the better game currently, due to much more content/races, more freeform ship designer and mods (DW:U with AI mod is more satisfying than DW2).

You can also get it very cheap.

DW2 has a lot of potential but needs 6-12 more months to iron out bugs and crashes, as well as 1 or 2 expansions to catch up to DW:U in content.

I bought DW2 to support the devs but I'm sticking to DW:U until 2 is more fleshed out. Consider it early access. That also seems to be the general consensus on forums.

 

[BATTLEMODE]

I'm was an early beta tester for DW2. I like the game BUT it's currently undergoing some frantic work to try to iron out the last of the performance bugs that are plaguing people. It's still getting the occasional frame rate drop for me even a couple of months after launch, where others have had no problems at all.

Don't expect the same amount of content as in DW:U yet, it's not quite there. There are small improvements across the board, but also some questionable design choices. Fortunately the developer seems to be taking criticism seriously and the most annoying issues (for me) are on their immediate "to-do" list once the performance stuff is ironed out.

From speaking to the 4X community at large, I see the most complaints about the game coming from players returning from DW:U, unhappy with this or that change. People who never played the first game seem to like it, for the most part.

I agree that the consensus seems to be that the game needs more development time. I know Erik Rutins a little from my interviews/interactions with him for eXplorminate and he seems to be a genuinely nice guy, so I'm confident that the game will be in good shape with some more work. But I do think that potential buyers should probably watch some Let's Plays, like DasTactic, TortugaPower or someone else who was on the beta team as you'll probably get the best criticism from them as they know the game very well, and see if it's something you will like. It's definitely not for everybody.

 

[tindrli]

I'm was an early beta tester for DW2. I like the game BUT it's currently undergoing some frantic work to try to iron out the last of the performance bugs that are plaguing people. It's still getting the occasional frame rate drop for me even a couple of months after launch, where others have had no problems at all.

Don't expect the same amount of content as in DW:U yet, it's not quite there. There are small improvements across the board, but also some questionable design choices. Fortunately the developer seems to be taking criticism seriously and the most annoying issues (for me) are on their immediate "to-do" list once the performance stuff is ironed out.

From speaking to the 4X community at large, I see the most complaints about the game coming from players returning from DW:U, unhappy with this or that change. People who never played the first game seem to like it, for the most part.

I agree that the consensus seems to be that the game needs more development time. I know Erik Rutins a little from my interviews/interactions with him for eXplorminate and he seems to be a genuinely nice guy, so I'm confident that the game will be in good shape with some more work. But I do think that potential buyers should probably watch some Let's Plays, like DasTactic, TortugaPower or someone else who was on the beta team as you'll probably get the best criticism from them as they know the game very well, and see if it's something you will like. It's definitely not for everybody.

WELL WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU!!!! DON'T FUCK THINGS UP!!!!

 

[madbringer]

I'm very much looking forward to DW2 getting fixed, because certainly the game has potential. BATTLEMODE were they under pressure to release early or something?

 

[BATTLEMODE]

Erik said that they were aware of some performance issues on some of the tester's computers but that they were unable to replicate them on their own computers, and then drastically underestimated the scale of the problem. I believe him when he says that, it was consistent with the communications we were getting from CodeForce during the last month or so. I saw that Marco from Slitherine put something up on his little blog saying that they've learned some lessons about bigger testing groups with a wider variety of PCs.

An expensive lesson to learn, if you ask me. This was a bad launch in my opinion, it needed longer in beta, maybe another three or four months even.

On the plus side, CodeForce have been working like Japanese prisoners of war to get it all working again. None of this Creative Assembly "you'll get a patch in two months, maybe" bullshit, they've been putting out regular updates. I ain't tried it for a few weeks actually, burned out on it during the beta.

 

[Serious_Business]

I didn't mind the bugs, although amusingly enough I crashed after 30 seconds in my first time playing. I have high endurance to bugs, anyone that has a minor understanding to how these games are made should and anyone that is playing this doesn't have impatient "I don't have a lot of time for gaming" AAA expectations. Still the game is dissapointing to me because it doesn't produce any new ideas. It's not so much dumbed down, although the modular aspects of the ship design make it a bit boring (perhaps less tedious for some), but again it has no new ideas. I said this in the eXplorminate forum already, I can't get over that impression. To me this isn't a great event for strategy gaming, it just is recyling. Shadow Empire was a great event, not this. I'm sure the dev is a good guy and is efforts are surely tremendous and impressive, but he really is out of ideas.

One of the central systems at the time was the private economy model ; they really should have added more variety on that front, in so far as the dualistic state-private dynamic is too one dimensional, especially for a science fiction setting. There is a race that can control mining ships I believe, but that's minor stuff. I can't really think what they should have done exactly, but I'm not a designer either.

And yeah, Ben : this place is a real shithole, better not stick around for too long... if you do, always act harsher than the other guy. Prison rule number one.

 

[BATTLEMODE]

To be charitable, I think it's a good foundation to build something new from, but I completely agree that it's not doing anything new.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Hey, I've been wanting to ask about this for a while, however its hard to find threads here since DU deliberately broke search.

I would like to ask:
- Is Distant Worlds worth playing? I didn't have a computer to play it at the time it was launched or something.
- Which are the best mods to make it even better?

Yes, its definitely worth giving a try. Its one of the best space 4x (my personal favorite).

I'd recommend using this guide and going full manual from the start if you're willing to take your time to learn the game (which seems to be the case, going by your post history in this sub-forum):
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3354680#p3354680

If you go full auto or semi auto at the start, a lot of the appeal of the game might get lost on you.

There is a definite recommendation in terms of mods as there's a compilation that fixes several game issues:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3491688#p3491688

Its generally recommend by DWs small community to skip vanilla and play straight with the AI improvement mod.

The extended version of the above mod is a compilation of 3 mods:
1) AI improvement Mod by Icemania which makes the AI much smarter on all difficulty levels, which also helps you, since it also buffs the AI that handles the parts of your empire that are set to be automated. Another important change is the fact that it changes all default ship designs to be actually good/useful (which helps both the AI and new players).

2) Extended Universe Mod by Haree78 (another staple) which adds 18 well designed races to bring the race total up to 40. The extended version of the AI improvement mod includes this and includes updated AI for these additional races.

3) Chrome UI Mod (Blue) by DasTactic, one of the better UI mods which upgrades the default UI and resource icons to make them much more readable.


In terms of video tutorials, the best one by far is this one by TortugaPower:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuXzIAdwiCCzPk_REYjI2iVatlXVRD0qZ

That's my suggestion at least.

Hell yeah, now THIS is what I have been waiting: Quality post!

Thank you, Nemerra!

I just installed the Extended Version. Going to give some reading to that manual and play.

Awwww you pay attention to my posts in this section, I am flattered!

I'm taking that manual and playing the game the mainly way for sure. Automation is for wimps! MINE IS THE HAND THAT GUIDES THE COSMOS!

Time to go on adventure through the Distant Worlds!

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Question: Got the Extended Version installed. I just noticed the Securans don't show up on the race selection, at least not in the Age of Shadows. What's up with that?

 

[Nemerra]

Question: Got the Extended Version installed. I just noticed the Securans don't show up on the race selection, at least not in the Age of Shadows. What's up with that?

They do show up. You can select all races in all scenarios (except Ancient Galaxy) and in custom games. That includes Securan in "Pirate Faction in the Age of Shadows" or "Standard Empires in the Age of Shadows". In the race drop-down menu they're listed between Riktoh and Shandar.