Distant Worlds Catch All

Tagging out of possible interest.

Grubber788 wrote:

Tagging out of possible interest.

Buy it.

garion333 wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

Tagging out of possible interest.

Buy it.

Need to be budget conscious. That's money I could spend on the Witcher 2!

Grubber788 wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

Tagging out of possible interest.

Buy it.

Need to be budget conscious. That's money I could spend on the Witcher 2!

Here's the thing. I don't know how hyped you are for the Witcher 2, though I can certainly understand it if you are super hyped, but the Witcher 2 will go on sale for a good price sooner rather than later. Distant Worlds will go on sale maybe once a year and you won't save that much money. Since Matrix published it, you will have to carve a place in your budget for it because you can't wait around for a $5 sale. It's never gonna happen.

So, I'm not saying buy it today, or in the next 6 weeks (as there are a lot of interesting games coming out), but you will need to find a time to buy it. It's not going to come to you at any point, you have to come to it. Sad fact, but that's the reality of it.

Does that make sense? I'm running on very little sleep right now.

Yeah, it was a combination of the z-axis issue and the suggested scope of the game. The discussion and descriptions of the game seemed to be selling me a far-reaching yet scalable 4x game where I could watch fleets converge to determine the fate of star systems, knowing that it had taken decades to set the stage. But when I started looking at the screenshots and considered what they were trying to do, it felt like they let it down somewhat.

The game is, how to put it, broad instead of deep in it's systems. With ships, you can design your own after researching components (which will differ each game), or trading for their designs, or finding them derelict in space. Units have finite fuel and so there's a strategy to creating refueling stations to keep your scouts and military ships supplied way out on the frontiers. You will need to send them in to better equipped systems if they take enough damage, or to refit them to a higher tech. Transit time also matters; reach too far out and you won't be able to defend your outlying mines and gas harvesters, or that tourist station that was built near a big gas giant. And then you've got to consider the cost of your fleet; you can't afford to put ships everywhere, so purpose-built fleets evolve and you have to decide where your military hubs will be, which in turn influences your expansion, and how you defend against attacks.

And most of that can be automated if you like, or parts of it, while you simply tell the fleets where to go and when. And that's just one aspect of the game among many.

In light of all that, when fleets come together they tend to be a handful of ships banging away at each other, viewed from above kind of like a tabletop game. It really makes no difference in the flow of the game that it's 2D. The mistake, I think, is to consider that it's a tactical sim buried inside a strategic one, like Space Empires or some of the other games that have taken a similar topic. It's not. It's solidly strategic, and from that perspective, it's nice to be able to see individual ships at all.

If you're looking for a more tactical game, try SOTS. Or GSB. DW is strategic, and is in a niche all alone, in my opinion, because of all the things the AI can do. Not perfectly, mind you, but well enough to enjoy the game as a fleet leader, or spy master, or economic manager, while the rest of the game does creditably on autopilot. A good first attempt at a new mode for the genre.

Robear wrote:

In light of all that, when fleets come together they tend to be a handful of ships banging away at each other, viewed from above kind of like a tabletop game. It really makes no difference in the flow of the game that it's 2D. The mistake, I think, is to consider that it's a tactical sim buried inside a strategic one, like Space Empires or some of the other games that have taken a similar topic. It's not. It's solidly strategic, and from that perspective, it's nice to be able to see individual ships at all. :-)

Thanks for the explanation. That's a pretty convincing description, and I might reconsider my decision.

In anticipation of the forthcoming expansion "Legends", this gent was kind enough to do a Let's Play series of Distant Worlds: Return of the Shakturi. Currently it's at 13 parts, and I'm uncertain if there will be more. If, like me, you feel intimidated by DW and are unsure about the nuances of the game, it might be worth a watch.

Regarding the "Legends" expansion, Matrix Games has released a trailer here, although it's kind of hard to hear the narration over the crazy loud music.

As part of Matrix Games' Holiday Sale, Distant Worlds and the expansion, Return of the Shaturi, are both 1/3 off at $27 and $17 respectively. Also, the next expansion, Legends, is officially to be released on Wednesday, just in time for the holiday weekend!

There are hints at a bundle price for the game plus both expansions. I guess we'll find out tomorrow!

If you're at all interested in grand-scale, 4x space games, you really should watch the Let's Play series posted above and pick this up during this rare Matrix sale.

Cross-posting from the Space Sims thread for all you taggy people:

Distant Worlds: Legends is out. It's $20. That link says that there's a 20% off sale but Matrix's medieval web site won't tell me if it's $20 before or after the discount.

Note: You need Distant Worlds and Return of the Shakturi (both of which are on sale )

Nightmare wrote:

Cross-posting from the Space Sims thread for all you taggy people:

Distant Worlds: Legends is out. It's $20. That link says that there's a 20% off sale but Matrix's medieval web site won't tell me if it's $20 before or after the discount.

Note: You need Distant Worlds and Return of the Shakturi (both of which are on sale )

$20 is the discounted price (regularly $25). I picked it up earlier today.

Also, Das from the Distant Worlds forum has begun his new, collaborative Let's Play series with the Legends expansion. He's started in a pretty rough situation though (no fuel, pacifist race, besieged by pirates) so I'm not sure how long this first series might last.

This game or Star Ruler? I needs to know things.

Whoops. Never mind. Just got gifted Star Ruler from Michael.

You should get Distant Worlds anyway. It's a cool "Sea Monkeys" kind of game. If you had spacefaring sea monkeys. For all I know, Sea Monkeys are one of the races available. Distant Worlds has quite a selection of sentient races.

Here's a Legends preview from Space Sector.

I really want to upgrade, but can't decide if I can justify the $36 to get both expansions when I'm already spending all my time in other games. I played a bunch of vanilla and enjoyed it. That and the frequency of sales on Matrix games makes me want to buy it and not worry if I let it sit for the time being.

I guess I'll watch those Let's Play vids.

At the very least I'd probably jump on the Shakturi expansion. It's cheaper and you get the UI improvements.

I am in love with this game. I just picked it up in the Matrix sale and it has pulled me away from Skyrim and BF3 for the past few nights. The level of abstraction feels perfect to me and I like being able to turn over the tedious aspects of the empire to an AI that isn't going to make a complete mess of things.

What is the correct procedure for taking over a colony from an enemy race? It seems like bombardment followed by attacking with ships carrying troops would be the right process, but I am attacking an enemy homeworld right now and it has not gone as planned. I get the feeling I need many more troops than I initially thought. Any recipes for carrying out an invasion?

New patch incoming:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm...

v1.0.7.2 Beta - November 29, 2011

CRASH FIXES

- fixed occasional crashes when click on some options in diplomacy screen
- fixed crash when load game with independent colony added via game editor
- fixed bug where loading a savegame with different galaxy dimensions while in another game would sometimes crash
- fixed rare crash when fleet loads troops
- fixed various other rare crashes

GAME BALANCE AND RESOURCES

- fixed problem where restricted resources were sometimes not being distributed properly
- improved resource transport and distribution by freighters
- rebalanced weapons damage to armor, especially when very high-tech armor
- reduced number and tech level of ships in debris fields
- increased minimum time between disaster events from 2 years to 4 years
- empire policy setting ImplementEnslavementWithPenalColonies always off by default for player empire

DIPLOMACY AND TERRITORY

- fixed Mining Rights so that no longer cause offense when building mining stations in same system as other empire's colonies
- fixed pirate alliances so that allied pirates do not attack your ships
- when attack pirates with an alliance, the alliance is automatically cancelled, allowing the pirates to attack you
- fixed slavery offense not being reset when no longer enslaving foreign race

MILITARY SHIPS AND FLEETS

- fixed occasional situations where unbuilt fleet ships were leaving construction yard before construction complete
- fixed issue where automated military ships were not checking whether within fuel range when moving to a system in response to threats
- fixed bug where fleets would occasionally head to top-left corner of galaxy when assign refuel mission using Action button
- fleets now exclude tiny star bases (e.g. former pirate bases) when considering where to retrofit or repair

RESEARCH AND SHIP DESIGN

- improved AI ship design to attempt to design cruisers and capital ships within current construction size limits
- fixed bug where critical research successes or failures would sometimes happen to queued research projects (i.e. not current project)
- fixed bug where AI would sometimes design monitoring stations without long range scanners

CHARACTERS

- cancel transfer of characters to a colony when it changes ownership - prevents your characters from becoming stranded at enemy colonies when they are taken over

USER INTERFACE

- add extra cycle option for D key: turn off shield bars
- fixed mouse cursor to make consistent and not revert to other cursors
- fixed inconsistent maintenance costs displayed in Designs screen, Design Detail screen and Ships and Bases screen
- fixed inconsistent values shown in diplomacy screen for attitude (factors did not always add up)
- fixed tooltips sometimes not appearing in Characters screen (Character skills and traits)
- updated system influence image to be properly centered
- updated some ship images to eliminate unwanted extra engine thrusters

MODDING

- fixed crash when have more than 22 ship sets in theme
- removed limits to design name families in designs.txt file (no longer 14)

OTHER

- tweaked undocking after refueling so that military ships will attack nearby threats sooner
- added logging to game startup to help diagnose startup crashes/problems, missing components, etc
- AI will now never disband troops on ships that are manually controlled
- fixed bug with calculations for race victory conditions of Oldest Mutual Defense Pact and Oldest Free Trade Agreement

Tom Chick talks Legends: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/201...

Picked this up tonight, will play it tomorrow, Skyrim permitting.

How awesome is legends, more info, more info!

Hockosi wrote:

How awesome is legends, more info, more info!

Generally, I'm quite pleased with it. I think it's probably a better improvement over RotS than RotS was over vanilla Distant Worlds. The new interface improvements are fantastic (highlighting potential colonies, unit flight paths, etc.), several new game setup/victory options, balance improvements, characters, and more promised in upcoming patches. If you like the current game, get this while it's on sale.

Space Sector review (9.4)

Gamesquad Review (9.0)

I have this and been playing it for a little while now. So far just like before every addition and patch to the game has made the game a lot better. Adding characters to it really helps flesh it out. Also I love the interface improvements, and influence system. The new way race specific goal system is a nice touch and make the game play a lot different. Also there is a ton of new ship models now, like 600 or so. All the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. I wish they would sell the game on steam and have better pricing but I doubt they will. Really fantastic game, wish more games messed around with macro management like this.

Yep, it's quite solid now. Let's see if SotS 2 can say the same in a year...

*arise once more*

Well, late to the party on this one. So help a helpless Space 4x junkie out on this ... get the base game or base plus the two expansions or is there a combo that works out better?

The more you get the better it is. Each addition has added a whole lot to the game, I would totally recommend all three. Of course if money is a concern then the base game plus one is pretty good to. I think the third expansion requires the previous expansion as well as the base game. If they didn't have their stupid pricing system and were willing to sell at other download services this game would be so much more popular. But they seem to love to shoot themselves in the foot.

Base plus both expansions is definitely the way to go, but as master0 said, you can get away with base game + first expansion if money is tight. The first expansion (Return of the Shakturi) really addresses a lot of the problems that the base game had (fixed UI quirks, better automation options, *much* better tech tree navigation, etc. etc.) - basically a lot of nits and niggles that kept the original game from being a really good game. The second expansion (Legends) really kicks the game up a notch though by adding leaders, borders, better AI and fleet management.

Edit: looking on the Matrix site, it looks like you can get either expansion as long as you have the base game (both just say "Requires owndership of full DW game). I think I still would get them in order, Return of the Shakturi really fixes a lot of stuff in the base game and I am not sure how DW + Legends would play. Probably fine. Probably.

If you absolutely have to have a discount then Matrix has the occasional sale and Distant worlds gets included in it. It's not like you'll be bored in the meantime (I'm thinking of you Diablo 3). Anyways the game is great fun. There's a lot of depth to understand, but you can dive right in and still manage to play successfully. I think one of the most interesting things is that you can't colonize every planet right away so you have to fight to make sure you can scout or take habitable planets. My last game I ended up paying off every pirate alliance I ran across while I nuked my warlike neighbors out of existence. In my defense they declared war on me.

Das is doing a set of LP's featuring a Star Trek mod for Distant Worlds. I thought you guys might enjoy it.

IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/-Lone_wolf-/house-do-want.jpg)

Edit - I do love watching these play videos, except they make me feel inadequate when I think about how I actually play the game.

I also noted the existence of a Kirk-era mod...I'd actually prefer that, so I need to check that out as well.

Tagging for future sale watch...