Distant Worlds -- A new 4x space strategy game

[seireikhaan]

Well, I ended up getting it. First try pretty much involved me trying to figure things out on my own. Quickly abandoned and I took a gander at the tutorials.

Second try- a fairly poor start, got attacked by three different groups of pirates within 5 minutes.

Third try- Was doing pretty well, made an alliance with one group of pirates while I kicked the others out of town, while expanding at what I thought was a gradual pace. However, I fell behind on tech(apparently), as when I met my first true neighbor, they were pretty well ahead of me. Still, though, things seemed to be going well, and since I was a technocratic gov't, I figured I could catch up. Then my economy crashed in a brilliant flash of armageddon. Shortly after, my pirate allies got restless and massacred a system of mines and other stuff of mine with a 20 ship fleet. Promptly thereafter, the other guy I met found out about my "alliance" with the pirates and used it as casus belli. All followed by a prompt rage quit.

Fourth try- going well thus far. I got off to a more balanced start, my economy has kept solid, my expansion has been at a decent pace, although my population isn't going all that high. Plenty of black holes and novas for a research lab per category, on top of my regular star bases. Pirates weren't a bother at all thus far, and I didn't meet anyone for a good while, and managed a free trade agreement pretty quickly with them. Looking like a pretty winnable game, depending on what happens in the next stages. I may just sit back, however, to see how the game plays out.

[Jolt]

Well, I ended up getting it. First try pretty much involved me trying to figure things out on my own. Quickly abandoned and I took a gander at the tutorials.

Second try- a fairly poor start, got attacked by three different groups of pirates within 5 minutes.

Third try- Was doing pretty well, made an alliance with one group of pirates while I kicked the others out of town, while expanding at what I thought was a gradual pace. However, I fell behind on tech(apparently), as when I met my first true neighbor, they were pretty well ahead of me. Still, though, things seemed to be going well, and since I was a technocratic gov't, I figured I could catch up. Then my economy crashed in a brilliant flash of armageddon. Shortly after, my pirate allies got restless and massacred a system of mines and other stuff of mine with a 20 ship fleet. Promptly thereafter, the other guy I met found out about my "alliance" with the pirates and used it as casus belli. All followed by a prompt rage quit.

Fourth try- going well thus far. I got off to a more balanced start, my economy has kept solid, my expansion has been at a decent pace, although my population isn't going all that high. Plenty of black holes and novas for a research lab per category, on top of my regular star bases. Pirates weren't a bother at all thus far, and I didn't meet anyone for a good while, and managed a free trade agreement pretty quickly with them. Looking like a pretty winnable game, depending on what happens in the next stages. I may just sit back, however, to see how the game plays out.

Pics or ain't happenning!

[Martok]

Sorry 'khaan, I meant to mention that I ended up turning down the pirates (from "Normal" to "Few) after a couple false starts. Otherwise, they admittedly can be a bit much in the beginning.

Which race are you playing, by the way? My current campaign is as the Kiadans -- I do like my research-heavy factions.



One thing I've discovered that bothers me: Unless a base/station is at a colony, they currently cannot upgrade/retrofit to a newer design. Sounds like this will likely be addressed -- not in the pending 1.03 patch due next week, but in the 1.04 patch due after that -- but until then, any type of space station located away from a colony (i.e. mining stations, research stations, tourist stations, etc.) cannot be retrofitted/upgraded.

[seireikhaan]

Sorry 'khaan, I meant to mention that I ended up turning down the pirates (from "Normal" to "Few) after a couple false starts. Otherwise, they admittedly can be a bit much in the beginning.

Which race are you playing, by the way? My current campaign is as the Kiadans -- I do like my research-heavy factions.



One thing I've discovered that bothers me: Unless a base/station is at a colony, they currently cannot upgrade/retrofit to a newer design. Sounds like this will likely be addressed -- not in the pending 1.03 patch due next week, but in the 1.04 patch due after that -- but until then, any type of space station located away from a colony (i.e. mining stations, research stations, tourist stations, etc.) cannot be retrofitted/upgraded.

Same thought process. I picked the Zenox so I could have Technocracy- +60% research and no downsides? Sign me up! Granted, the other race that gets Technocracy has another large research bonus, but I felt that the Zenox were more balanced out.

[Reverend Joe]

Damn, this might be the first game I buy since I bought Mount & Blade years ago.

But has anybody noticed the names of ships in the screens? Call me picky, but really, what kind of pirate, let alone anybody, gives their ships names like "lamented vindication" and "invincible fireclaw?" Are all the ship namers ten years old or what?

[seireikhaan]

Couple of reviewer notes:

1) On the comparison to EU III(in space). This is kinda correct. Yes, the time system, the pause button, the natives, and all that are pretty similar. However, there's some marked differences in structure, one that's particularly giant. In EUIII, there's NO private sector. You control everything, with the exception of random results when you shift sliders. However, in DW, there's very much a lot that's not in your control. The private sector does what it wills. It mines for minerals and gases, it transports cargo between planets, it trades resources and luxuries to other private sectors on its own volition, occasionally will buy their own military vessels(for kicks?), and migrants wander from planets in search of better opportunities. You basically run the military, negotiate with other peoples, and set up infrastructure. You also can pick places to go colonize, but I've also had people pick up and colonize on their own, although I don't know if that's from some semi-automation that I don't know is on.

2) The game's a fair bit difficult to figure out. The UI is not a mess, but its not a great help either. I'm definitely picking it up better the more I play. The real test will be how well I can run things during a war.

3) I can't tell how to customize ships yet for building. The game seems to be doing it kinda on its own, but I'd like to take over and can't figure it out. Any help, Martok? I'm also a bit confused still on how, if possible, to queue ship building at planets/stations.

[Martok]

Have downloaded & installed the 1.03 beta. I'm starting a new game -- not that it's strictly necessary (since it's supposed to be compatible with current saved games), but it is recommended. Besides which, I want to experience the new changes right from the beginning.



By the by, here's a list of all the changes coming in the next patch/update. It looks to be a pretty extensive list:

Items fixed/added in v1.0.3:

1. Memory usage extensively optimized and reduced. Large games now consume much less memory. Should resolve the crashes related to Out of Memory and crashes during save/load.
2. Added AutoSave feature - turn on in Game Options screen (O key), can set variable interval between saves from 10-60 minutes
3. Fleets now respond properly to manual control - will not automatically disband
4. Added new buttons in Fleets screen: Repair and Refuel selected fleet, Retrofit selected fleet
5. Names of damaged ships display as red in Ships and Bases screen
6. Added new button to Ships and Bases screen: Repair Selected Ship
7. Fixed Design screen issues (http://www.matrixgames....orums/tm.asp?m=2420971). Also reworked Designs screen as follows:
- Can filter designs to show: All, Non-Obsolete, Latest of each type
- Can toggle designs as obsolete/not obsolete directly from designs list
- Can mass upgrade designs from Designs Screen - multi-select designs and click Upgrade button
- Allow retrofit to any non-obsolete design for a given ship type (right-click menu)
- AI ship design will no longer auto-obsolete manually created designs
8. Fixed Trade negative money with another empire (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2418787)
9. Fixed crash when attack abandoned ship (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2418633)
10. Fixed drawing crash (http://www.matrixgames....321&mpage=1&key=�)
11. Fixed Design values for Recreation center and Medical center components (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2417704)
12. Fixed bug where could build advanced designs without proper tech (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2419094)
13. Ships evaluate space monsters as stronger threats, keeping their distance from them when attacking (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2420346)
14. Fixed UI issues after history events from Zenox (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2419586)
15. Fixed exploration ships sometimes getting stuck, especially when manually assigned to explore a system
16. Refueling bug fixed where ships prefer not to refuel at colonies with incomplete space ports (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2422103)
17. Can now continue playing after you lose a game, but only if you have not been completely conquered (no colonies left) (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp? m=2420055)
18. Fixed crash research program sometimes not stopping (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2419493)
19. Ensure Resupply Ships properly deploy and refuel themselves from own supply (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2420208)
20. Fixed stalled construction problems - construction now much less likely to stall
21. Added Resort Bases to build menu (were missing previously) (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2418554)
22. Bombard weapons and Torpedo weapons now properly used in designs when upgrading (http://www.matrixgames....page=1&key=#2420919)
23. Fixed positioning of information in Selection Panel (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2419234)
24. Canceling a retrofit mission for a ship no longer prevents reassigning another retrofit mission (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2424223)
25. Fixed retrofitting issues (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2424082)
26. Fixed crash in Trade screen (http://www.matrixgames....forums/tm.asp?m=2426018)
27. Rebalanced and reduced colony income for large empires - corruption stronger when grow very large

Also, while this patch contains a lot of stuff, there's still more that we haven't got to yet. So we'll be continuing to work on the remaining issues and improvement areas. But we though it best to get this update released as soon as possible, especially with the important memory fixes.

Some features we're planning to add soon:

- support for mass retrofitting from Ships and Bases screen
- allow toggling which ship and base icons are displayed when zoomed out to sector/galaxy view (especially useful late game when want to focus on war and fleets)
- tweaks for fleet AI to help them stay together better and be even more relentless as they pursue you

I'm especially looking forward to the fleet management and ship design changes/fixes they've implemented. Also, I very much welcome the addition of auto-save; that's a big one, and a missing feature I (along with many others) were pining away for!

3) I can't tell how to customize ships yet for building. The game seems to be doing it kinda on its own, but I'd like to take over and can't figure it out. Any help, Martok? I'm also a bit confused still on how, if possible, to queue ship building at planets/stations.

Sorry 'khaan, I'm not sure I'm fully understanding what you're getting at. Perhaps you have ship designs set to "automatic" under the Options menu (instead of being set to "manual" or "suggest")? Or is that not what you're referring to?