Distant Worlds -- A new 4x space strategy game

[Martok]

The game is purchased directly from Matrix's website. Here's the link.

[Martok]

Here's an update on the next patch (note: Erik Rutins is one of the head honchos over at Matrix, the game's publisher):

Hi Everyone,

Here's the latest news - we are making steady progress on the next update, but it will take 2-3 days longer than we had planned, as we want to make sure that in addition to fixing serious bugs we finish some interface enhancements and address some issues in the areas of ship design and fleet management.

Elliot has spent a lot of time focusing on the memory and load save issues as well. Turns out there are several factors involved here - he has optimized the graphic loading and reviewed how DW is using graphic memory when drawing the screen and we've saved a lot of memory in those areas. There's more work he can do here, so he'll continue with this area, as well as fixing other issues.

In addition to memory optimization, these are some of the other issues fixed so far:

* Fixed Trade negative money with another empire (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2418787)
* Fixed crash when attack abandoned ship (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2418633)
* Fixed drawing crash (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm...1&key=�)
* Fixed Design values for Recreation center and Medical center components (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2417704)
* Fixed bug where could build advanced designs without proper tech (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2419094)
* Ships evaluate space monsters as stronger threats, keeping their distance from them when attacking (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2420346)
* Fixed UI issues after history events from Zenox (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2419586)
* Fixed exploration ships sometimes getting stuck
* Fixed Design screen issues (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2420971)
* Fixed refueling issues (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2422103)

So at this point I expect we'll have a beta by Tuesday, with an official release shortly thereafter.

In addition, Erik and Elliot have indicated that work will begin on patch/update #4 almost as soon as this next one is out. The support Distant Worlds is receiving is nothing short of outstanding!

[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?

[seireikhaan]

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.

Excellent, that's been a big problem.

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?

Might be having set it to automatic, I'm not sure. I'll probably just wait for 1.03, since that's streamlining things a bit, and then figure it out. I'm too busy to play until the weekend anyways.

[Madoushi]

Game looks kind of interesting. Reminds me more of the Sins of a Solar Empire model than the old Stars!/Master of Orion/GalCiv model (which is a shame).
Might look into it a bit more..

[Martok]

Incidentally, Distant Worlds has scored an 8/8 at Out of Eight. Not bad for a game made by what is essentially a one-man, indie developer.

Game looks kind of interesting. Reminds me more of the Sins of a Solar Empire model than the old Stars!/Master of Orion/GalCiv model (which is a shame).

While I understand why you'd say that -- numerous others have made similar comments -- that would be a major misconception. In reality, the game is *much* closer to classic 4x titles like GalCiv, MOO, etc., than to SoaSE.

The only thing Distant Worlds and Sins have in common is that they're both real-time as opposed to turn-based. In most other respects, however, DW is completely different. Sins is a fairly shallow (if still fun) space strategy title -- I've heard it described as "4x lite", a description I find to be apt -- whereas Distant Worlds is much deeper, and is a true 4x title like MOO2, GalCiv2, etc. To say Distant Worlds and Sins are alike would be like saying Stronghold and Medieval Total War are alike -- they may appear similar at first glance, but in actuality they're very different games.

[Subotan]

Oh man, this looks cool, I'll probably get it in the summer. Can we have some screens, pretty please?

[Madoushi]

Thanks Martok, I'll keep that in mind.

Maybe I'll see if I can find some gameplay videos and such. :Smile:

[Martok]

Am continuing to have a grand time playing this game. The latest patch does indeed seem to have fixed the vast majority of the remaining bugs (at least the most egregious ones), and the game is definitely running a bit more smoothly now.

Better yet, Matrix has announced their plans for the next update already, and that the public beta for it should be available in just over a week! Here's what's on the menu:

Hi everyone,

Time for another preview of what's on the way. I just synced up with Elliot to make sure we were on the same page and I think you will be happy with the upcoming improvements and fixes.

Below are the items that will be in the next patch. Because of the rebalancing, we will have this in testing a bit longer, so we expect it to go to a public beta around the 19th.

BALANCE FACTORS

* Rebalance number of colonizable planets and abundance of resources
* Racial bonuses apply in more gradual manner for multi-racial empires
* Trade valuations for colonies, bases and tech rebalanced
* Decrease likelihood of empires colonizing in other empires systems
* Reasonable limits on arming civilian ships. AI allows for defensive weapons, with no negative impact on relationships
* Enforce size limits on Resupply Ship. Also enforce minimum percentage of space as cargo storage, etc to limit how many weapons can be on board
* Limit negative effects of poor reputation on your empire's colonies, i.e. citizens less concerned about your reputation, especially for certain races


NEW FEATURES

* Add auto-refuel option for all ships, even when manually-controlled
* Manually-controlled military ships automatically engage enemies, no need to manually select targets
* Add mass-retrofit option from Ships and Bases screen
* Allow turning off display of ships at galaxy- and sector-zoom level (fleets, bases, military ships, civilian ships, etc)


BUGS

* Fix bugs where fleets may have missions cancelled
* Fix bug with 'ghost ships' and defeated empires
* Fix other minor bugs


There may also be other items included in the patch, but this is the minimum list.

Personally, the new features that I highlighted in bold are the changes I'm looking forward to the most. However, the rebalancing work will be very welcome as well. (The abundance of colonizable worlds and resources does seem to be a bit....overly generous, for example.)

Now I just hope I can get at least one whole game in before then....

Oh man, this looks cool, I'll probably get it in the summer. Can we have some screens, pretty please?

Sadly, I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to capturing screenshots and posting them. Rest assured, I would do so if I knew how.

That being said, there's some screenshots over at Matrix. Check 'em out!

Thanks Martok, I'll keep that in mind.

Maybe I'll see if I can find some gameplay videos and such. :Smile:

There's certainly no shortage of gameplay videos, all of which can be found on Youtube under Codeforce.

[Martok]

Eurogamer Denmark rates Distant Worlds 9/10 (Google translation here). Sounds like I'm not the only one losing sleep over this game.

[Subotan]

Judging by the support this is getting, by the summer when I get it it looks like it will be fully patched

[Martok]

The official 1.04 update is now available! It includes a massive list of bug fixes, gameplay improvements, UI additions, and other changes:

Hi everyone,

Just a quick heads up that the 1.0.4 official update is now available. Here's the change list:

Change History:

v1.0.4 – May 5, 2010

Fourth Official Update

Please Note – This update does create a new save folder, although it will work with previous saves. You need to navigate to the previous version save folder to open your older saves. We recommend starting a new game in order to get the full effect of the changes and improvements, as some will not apply to older save files.

Also, this update may reset the automation settings in your Options screen. Please open the Options screen again to adjust them to your preference. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Suggestions on Game Difficulty Settings: It has come to our attention that some of the sliders intended to control difficulty may not be as intuitive as we had hoped. If you want an easier or harder game, please consider adjusting the Expansion, Aggressiveness and Home System sliders in your galaxy settings when you start a new game. Expansion controls the level of development the other AI empires start with, Aggressiveness controls how likely they are to forego diplomacy and provoke or declare war, Home System plays a huge role in how wealthy your economy is to begin with. For a harder game, try increasing Expansion a step or two (to Young or Expanding) and increasing Aggression to Unstable or Chaos, along with decreasing your Home System to Trying. For an easier game, move each of these in the other direction. We recommend trying these out in different combinations to determine what works best for you.

Bug Fixes:

1. Races with special tech now have requisite resources at startup to build ships using the special tech
2. Medical and Recreation center components now work at bases other than space ports
3. Fixed crash with defeated 'ghost' empires reappearing and 'ghost' ships visible in the mini-map
4. Fixed crash that sometimes occurred when viewing a Construction yard list sorted by some columns
5. Fixed various other minor crashes
6. Designs for Resupply ships, Colony ships and Construction ships now have size limits, even though built at colony. Size limit is current maximum base construction size. These civilian ship designs also have some minimum requirements for the number of certain component types that must be present.
7. Fixed issues with super-luxury resource distribution in small galaxies
8. Can no longer retrofit to designs that are bigger than your current construction tech allows
9. Fixed bug where freighters sometime stack up waiting to dock at a space port
10. Fixed 'GxBO' crash reported by some players
11. Fixed detached mining station bug
12. Games will no longer start with ships that you cannot build (i.e. too big)
13. Fixed a crash that could be caused when ships reverted to an invalid mission
14. AI-generated designs now always use the latest technology
15. Default colony ship designs now come with more engines, making them faster and better able to “meet” the planets they are heading to colonize
16. Retrofits are now always charged for, regardless of the method used to order them
17. The automation AI will no longer cancel retrofit missions
18. Fixed a crash when a single ship was sent to patrol a system
19. Fixed a bug that could cause invisible space monsters
20. Fixed a bug that caused the AI Empires to sometimes not build military ships
21. Fixed occasional game freezes during space battles and planetary invasions
22. Fixed a bug that could cause two ships in the same location to merge
23. Fixed a bug that would not cancel an alliance agreement with a pirate faction when you attack their ships or stations
24. Fixed retrofitting for construction, resupply and colony ships
25. Disabled command and selection popup menus when autosaving
26. The Ship Designer now properly resets values for targeting and countermeasures when the relevant components are removed
27. Fixed a crash that could happen when editing some planets in the game editor
28. Automatically designed Resort Bases no longer include bombard weapons
29. The Quameno now properly use their special tech (NovaCore reactor) in their designs
30. Government attributes are now properly updated when the government type is changed in the game editor
31. Manually recruited intelligence agents now properly use racial espionage bonuses (reflected in their starting skill levels)
32. Fixed messages explaining new racial bonuses when colonizing a new planet. These now only display when a new race has joined your empire as a result of the colonization.
33. When retrofitting space ports to larger or smaller sizes, the role now properly changes after retrofit (e.g. from medium to large space port)
34. Mining stations no longer start right next to pirate bases
35. Improved the placement of defensive bases around colonies, they should no longer be built right next to each other.

Game Balance Changes

1. The economy has been overhauled in several respects. It should now scale better and work better than in previous versions. Colony development level now comes half from population (0 at 0 population up to 50 at 500 million) and half from access to luxury resources (50 for 10 luxury resources). Colony income is reduced by local corruption, global empire corruption and corruption caused by distance from the capitol system. The larger and more populated an empire becomes, the greater the overall corruption will be, though larger empires should still be more economically powerful than smaller ones. Please also see the notes at the top of this readme for suggestions on how to make the game easier or harder, depending on your preference.
2. Racial bonuses apply in more gradual manner for multi-racial empires - will only get full bonuses if a race comprises at least half your empire's population
3. Rebalanced trade offers so that valuations for tech, bases and colonies much higher. Valuations now also scale quite dramatically based on how much the other empire likes or dislikes you
4. Research speed has been halved
5. Empires now much less likely to colonize in another empire's system
6. Your empire's reputation now has less impact on your colonies if the population at the colony is aggressive and unfriendly. In other words, citizens of war-like races aren't so concerned about you having a poor reputation.
7. Positive reputation impact from destroying pirate ships has been lowered, but positive reputation impact from destroying pirate bases has been increased.
8. Ending a war no longer completely resets attitudes, there may be some lingering animosity
9. Other empires much less likely to accept unfavourable trade offers
10. Private ships can now only be armed with a single weapon - this armament will not cause any offense when they enter other empire's systems
11. Government types have been rebalanced, resulting in less extreme values for corruption and approval
12. The AI for other empires and for your own automation is now much more careful about what ships and bases it builds, resulting in much better automated management without overspending.
13. War weariness now starts lower and increases more gradually

Fleet and Ship Management Improvements

1. Holding down the Ctrl key while right-clicking to assign a mission now overrides the default mission for the selected ship. This allows you to override the default right-click behaviour and gain access to a comprehensive pop-up menu to select the mission you want, e.g. military ships can refuel at a space port instead of patrolling it, troop transports can refuel at a colony instead of loading troops at it
2. Added filtering for ship and base icons at galaxy zoom level - can selectively enable/disable ship types displayed at galaxy level. By default civilian ships are turned off at Galaxy zoom level. Please see the Options screen, Advanced Display Options to change this to suit your exact preferences.
3. Manually controlled ships will now automatically refuel when low on fuel, and then return to their previous mission
4. Manually controlled ships will now automatically repair when damaged, and then return to their previous mission.
5. Manually controlled ships will now automatically engage enemy targets without needing to be manually directed to each target. They will then return to their previous mission, e.g. patrol, escort, etc
6. Patrol missions now automatically reset, i.e. a manually-controlled ship will stay at a patrol target until you tell it to stop
7. Fleets should stay together better than previously
8. Fleets should not cancel their missions when advisors suggest other uses for them
9. Fleet system patrolling: select a fleet and right-click a system or star to patrol all of your colonies and bases in the system
10. Fleets are now more responsive and their automatic handing of refuel and repair has been improved
11. It is now possible to assign construction ships to build mining stations at gas clouds from the sector and galaxy-level zoom.


Ship Design and Retrofitting Improvements

1. Added mass retrofit option in Ships and Bases screen. Multi-select ships and bases from the list and click the retrofit button to select the design to retrofit to. The mass retrofit cost for all selected ships and bases is shown and if you cannot afford it you will not be allowed to retrofit.
2. Upgrading designs now names them as "Old Design Name Mk2", etc
3. Added new design subroles: energy research station, weapons research station, industrial research station, high-tech research station, monitoring station, defensive base. These types of bases are no longer AI-designed if you turn off automation for ship design
4. Design screen now shows all latest designs (when Show Latest Designs selected), regardless of whether you can build them or not.
5. Added maximum weapons energy use to Design screen (top of Weapons panel) so that you can compare reactor power output to optimize military designs
6. Added energy collector to default military ship designs
7. The AI will no longer build ships of a particular type if all designs of that type are marked as obsolete
8. The AI will try to keep design sizes for destroyers and troop transports under the maximum size of your current construction tech
9. The AI will now add extra reactors to its designs to make sure the ship has enough energy for maximum effectiveness in combat and movement.

Other Improvements:

1. Expansion Planner now always shows colonization and mining targets, even when they are considered unimportant
2. Expansion Planner now uses the best location to build queued colony ships, which is not necessarily the closest colony
3. Expansion Planner now uses the best construction ship to build queued mining stations, which is not necessarily the closest construction ship
4. Slightly fewer surprise attack suggestions from advisors
5. Message added in research progress bar to indicate when you have completed all research in an area
6. Newly-recruited intelligence agents should automatically start off assigned to counter-intelligence
7. The multiple race ability popup messages will now only show a new race becoming part of your empire once
8. The Cash flow number showed at the top right of the screen now has the variable elements smoothed out (i.e. Space Port and Resort income) which should allow the income trend to match the cash flow trend more closely and with less volatility

I'd been taking a break from DW, partially because I was waiting for this update. The economy has been tightened up a bit (previously, it had admittedly been a bit too "Monty Haul"), but not as tight as in the first couple updates. Also, the additions of the auto-refuel and auto-engage options for your ships are much to be desired! I'll definitely be playing this on my day off tomorrow....

[Subotan]

Very nice. I'll certainly buy this once the exams are over in June.

[Meneldil]

I'm thinking about buying a game, and I'm willing to go either for Distant World or Hegemon. Any advice? Distant world seems to have more potential, but a step learning curve, as any 4x game. Hegemon seems funny, but not really extraordinary.

[Azathoth]

I dun liek Rutins he shuld fokus on TOAW morr...

[Jolt]

I'm thinking about buying a game, and I'm willing to go either for Distant World or Hegemon. Any advice? Distant world seems to have more potential, but a step learning curve, as any 4x game. Hegemon seems funny, but not really extraordinary.

I'd say Distant Worlds is no doubt more complete, but also much more complex. That in itself lends to its repetitive value, while in Hegemon you are always playing the same scenarion (Phillip taking over Greece), while that may be cool several times over, it should get repetitive after a handful of times. But then again, I haven't played Distant Worlds.

[Martok]

I'm thinking about buying a game, and I'm willing to go either for Distant World or Hegemon. Any advice? Distant world seems to have more potential, but a step learning curve, as any 4x game. Hegemon seems funny, but not really extraordinary.

While I've not played Hegemony yet, I can say that Distant Worlds has a great deal of replay value. There are 20 different alien races to choose from, and an almost ridiculous number of set-up options available when starting a new game. Seriously, I suspect there's as many -- or more -- choices in the setup screen as/than in GalCiv 2, which is saying a lot.




With that being said, a new update beta has been released! Here's the info on v1.0.5.7:

Thanks again for your patience and support while we continue to improve Distant Worlds. This is a MASSIVE update, so please read through the change list very carefully. The v1.0.5.7 Beta includes many changes just since the v1.0.5.6 Beta, in almost every section of the change list.

We recommend that if you are experiencing any serious issues with the 1.0.4.9 official update, that you give this beta update a try. This update will NOT work with existing saved games (including saved games from 1.0.5.6 Beta), so please be sure to finish any games you have in progress before giving this a try.

Here's how to download this update - because it's a public beta, you need to get it from our Members Club. Click on the Members Link in the top nav bar. If you haven't created an account there yet or registered your copy of Distant Worlds, please do so. Once logged in and registered, click on "My Games" then click on the "Private Downloads" link next to Distant Worlds and you will see a link to download the public beta update.

Please note that once this becomes official, it will be available through our normal download and update process (in the Latest Downloads section and through the "Check for Updates" link on your game menu) but we do not like to release public beta updates widely until we are sure they are good to go.

v1.0.5.7 Public Beta – June 29, 2010

Public Beta Update

Please Note – This update does create a new save folder, although it will work with previous saves. You need to navigate to the previous version save folder to open your older saves. We recommend starting a new game in order to get the full effect of the changes and improvements, as some will not apply to older save files.

Also, this update may reset the automation settings in your Options screen. Please open the Options screen again to adjust them to your preference. Please note there are many new settings as well that you should check and set to your preferences. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Note that there is a change to the new fleet behavior from 1.0.5.6, where refueling/gathering automatically kicked in. Now this behavior is opt-in, i.e. you have to specifically request it by selecting these new mission types (from the pop-up menu or by using the ALT key). See the Improved Fleet Operations notes below for more details.

Bug Fixes:

1. Fixed bug where construction ship would occasionally get stuck in loop rebuilding same item at same location
2. Fixed crash that occurred when bombarded the last colony of an empire
3. Fixed crash in new Diplomatic Message Queue (at top-left of screen)
4. Fixed tech bonus received from disassembling advanced ships - now much lower than before and focussed in area where disassembled ship is advanced (e.g. torpedo weapons, shields, etc)
5. Fixed some special cases where military ships may not always attack an enemy in a timely manner
6. Fixed crash that occurred when you colonized a planet that previously had a blockade and was then bombarded to extinction
7. Fixed bug where ships would sometimes not attack targets (engagement range was corrupted)
8. Fixed bug where abandoned ships and bases with RepairBot components were auto-repairing themselves prior to discovery (e.g. in debris fields)
9. Fixed bug where independent colonies were not generating their own defending militia. This makes independent colonies more difficult to invade
10. Long range sensor display is now properly updated in galaxy view when ships/bases retrofitted with better sensors
11. Resupply ship designs now need only 25% of their components to be either cargo/docking bays/gas extractors (previously was 30%). This ensures that default designs are valid
12. Fixed the following bug: 1) discuss negotiating an end to war with a warring empire in diplomacy screen, but do not end the war. 2) then discuss a trade offer with another empire, including a request to "declare war on XXXX" 3) clear the offered items using the button at the bottom of the screen 4) instead of clearing, the offer changes to "end our war with you"
13. Fixed bug where player is sometimes not notified of an end to war with another empire
14. Fixed bug where newly colonized planets sometimes rebel due to high taxes
15. Fixed rare bug where colonized planets will no longer allow investigation of ruins (this could also lead to exploration ships clustering around the planet)
16. Quameno and Zenox no longer repeatedly offer knowledge of the same secret location
17. Scrapped long range sensors no longer leave sensor range on the galaxy map
18. Fixed a bug where crash research was not completing when you traded that tech with another empire
19. Diplomacy messages (top-left of screen) now correctly use custom race images if a theme is in use
20. Fixed a bug where some races and starting locations where swapped in some situations
21. Fixed a bug where you could colonize ice asteroids
22. Fixed a bug where ships and bases would sometimes have more docking bays or construction yards than specified by their design
23. Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when zooming
24. Fixed a display problem (garbled fonts) when viewing information on construction yards in the Component Guide (Design Detail screen)
25. Fixed a bug where investigating an abandoned ship or base sometimes caused an infinite loop of messages
26. Fixed another crash that sometimes occurred after using a planet destroyer
27. Fixed a bug where Galaxy Map screen was no longer showing potential colonies
28. Ensured that empires do not perform spy missions against themselves
29. Fixed another rare GxBO crash
30. Fixed tutorials (were broken in 1.0.5.6 beta)
31. Fixed images for refugee ships (discovered from some ruins)
32. Fixed situations where wars or trade sanctions would sometimes unilaterally end without negotiation

New Feature: Habitat Quality determines colony value (income and max population)

1. Colonies with quality below 50% cost an empire money to maintain, instead of earning income
2. Continental and marshy swamp planets usually have high quality, desert and ocean medium quality, ice and volcanic low quality. But there are occasional exceptions to this, with some high quality ice and volcanic planets
3. Abundance of quality planets can be altered with new slider setting in galaxy settings at game start
4. Home system favorability determines quality of home planet – planet type is now determined by native planet type of race
5. Each race receives a 10% maximum population bonus for their native planet type
6. Independent colonies now always have a quality of at least 50%, making them always worth colonizing.
7. Planets and moons with Quality below 50% are also listed in red in the Expansion Planner (along with those in hostile territory).

More Realistic Colonization and Migration:

1. Cannot build colony ships at a colony until population reaches a threshold of 100 million
2. Colony ships take population from the colony they are built at (e.g. 10 million people)
3. Some new colonization tech increases population growth rate for colonies (as well as unlocking new colonization components)
4. When planet type is not native type for a race, then population growth rate is slower, BUT colonization research progressively improves the growth rate for these non-native planet types
5. Passenger ships now carry less people when migrating

Planetary Combat and Rebellion Changes:

1. Troops now receive a 10% bonus when fighting on their native planet type (for either attack or defense)
2. Troops now have higher deterrence of rebellion/defection at colonies
3. Rebelling colonies may raise militia forces (their own troops) to battle garrisoned empire troops
4. Independent colonies recruit their own troops to deter invasion
5. When conquered colonies rebel against their new owners, they are likely to return to their previous empire instead of simply becoming independent, but if a rebelling colony with quality below 50% leaves an empire, it will generally become independent instead of joining another empire (because it is a net drain on an empire)

Automation and AI Improvements:

1. Empires are now more likely to invade independent colonies that are likely to resist colonization (due to racial animosity)
2. AI colony tax rate setting is now more accurate and less prone to 'jumping around'
3. Target prioritization altered so that distance is more important, i.e. closer targets more preferred - thus in wars, AI empires much more likely to attack border colonies, thus maintaining more coherent empire borders
4. Improved AI colonization logic so that AI empires expand better
5. Increased targeting priority for enemy colonies so that they are more likely to be invaded when at war
6. Construction ships and colony ships now remember dangerous areas (pirates and space creatures) and attempt to avoid them. This information is also reflected in the warnings in the Expansion Planner screen for colonization and mining targets
7. Automated ships in a fleet will make a better effort to keep themselves loaded with troops

Improved Fleet Operations:

1. New fleet mission types: Prepare and Attack, Prepare and Bombard: if the fleet requires refueling or is dispersed then the fleet will first refuel or gather prior to attacking/bombarding the assigned target. To assign these new mission types either select them from the right-click pop-up menu (when zoomed out to sector or galaxy level), or hold down the ALT key when right-clicking a hovered target (i.e. attack or bombard).
You can fine-tune how this behavior works in the new "Fleet Attack Settings" section of the Empire Settings screen (from Game Options). This allows you to specify when fleets will refuel or gather before engaging in attack/bombard missions.
2. Changed behaviour of fleets when attacking or bombarding planets: will not complete their mission until all ships in the fleet have arrived at the target planet (even when the fleet cannot otherwise carry out the mission, e.g. no troops to invade)
3. Fleet load troops command - right click fleet for pop-up menu item, or use new button in Fleets screen (F8)
4. Ships in fleets will make a better effort to remain together, new ships assigned to fleets will travel to the fleet location after completing their current mission
5. Troop loading for individual ships and fleets will now pick up more troops from each colony

New Target Engagement Stances and Improved Ship Behavior:

1. New Auto-Engagement Stance: engage targets when attacked, engage nearby targets, engage system targets
2. New default Empire-level engagement stances for mission types: patrol, escort, attack/bombard, other (See Game Options screen, Empire Settings sub-screen)
3. New Empire overkill factor, determines firepower (and thus number of ships) auto-assigned to targets within engagement range: 1:1, 1.5:1, 2:1, 3:1, 5:1 (see Game Options screen, Empire Settings sub-screen)
4. Set engagement stance for an individual ship or an entire fleet: use the comma key to cycle settings when an individual ship is selected
5. More careful evaluation of targets – ships do not auto-attack bases (e.g. pirate bases) stronger than self unless other nearby forces available
6. Manual attack mission assignment always sticks with assigned target until complete
7. Auto-refuel refinements – ships do not auto-refuel when colonizing or invading a colony
8. Fine-tuned ship maneuvering when firing weapons at moving targets so that target movement is better accounted for when attempting to maintain ideal firing range
9. Ships will no longer continue an escape mission if all of their attackers are destroyed (i.e. they will stop fleeing)
10. Troop Transport ships now engage enemies more aggressively

Interface Improvements:

1. New display of diplomacy messages at left of screen - click a message to discuss with sending empire. Some important message types still popup a window as previously: declarations of war, ending wars, threats of war or trade sanctions, requests to honor mutual defense pact
2. New Slider settings in game startup to alter level of Corruption for player empire and galactic Habitat Quality
3. Design Detail screen updated - design components consolidated so that multiple components of same type are now listed as a single entry (e.g. 5x)
4. Can now select special government types for other empires in Start a New Game screen (when their race allows them)
5. Extra command buttons in Ships and Bases screen: Refuel selected ships, Retire selected ships, Scrap Selected Ships
6. Added explanation of racial bonuses at colonies in the Colonies screen (Population tab). If dominant race at one of your colonies provides a bonus (lower war weariness or higher happiness) it will be explained directly underneath overall colony happiness ("The inhabitants of XXXX are happy with you (+20)")
7. Grid row selection in expansion planner screen properly reverts to previously selected row after assign colony ship or construction ship to a target
8. Grid row selection in ships and bases screen properly reverts to row above when ships or bases are scrapped using the 'Scrap' button
9. Double-clicking a column heading in any sortable grid (e.g. expansion planner targets, colonies screen, ships and bases screen, etc) will 'forget' any sorting
10. If a planet/moon can or can’t be colonized, the details for that planet/moon will now tell you why.
11. Expanded the maximum number of colonization targets displayed in the Expansion Planner screen from 100 to 500
12. For retrofit missions, selection of the retrofit location now pays more attention to travel distance to the location, as well as retrofit time at the location
13. Galaxy backdrop no longer 'bounces' when move to galaxy edge (galaxy zoom level)

Game Balance Changes:

1. Weapon components rebalanced: Beam Weapons should now be more viable in comparison to Torpedos
2. Invading independent colonies now has less negative reputation impact than before
3. Lower reputation hit from using planet destroyer and bombarding colonies - more viable option, especially against other empires with low reputations
4. Some racial bonuses now apply to individual colonies instead of your entire empire: war weariness, mining and happiness bonuses
5. Changed threshold for full empire-wide racial bonuses to 20% (from 10%)
6. Espionage mission to change another empire's government type is now more difficult, especially against large empires
7. Player empire will no longer be offered gifts unless the other empire likes them a lot
8. Slightly expanded the spread in component tech levels in Habitation category
9. Colonies that leave an empire and become independent now lose any bases at the colony
10. In game setup, the "(Random)" setting for other empire proximity to your empire now excludes "same system" - i.e. other empires will not start in the same system as you when you select random proximity
11. Attacking non-allied military ships in your empire's systems will no longer cause any drop in your empire's reputation, though it will still negatively impact your relations with the attacked empire

Performance Improvements:

1. Improved game Save/Load performance: saving approx 2-3 times faster, loading approx 50% faster, savegame files smaller
2. Large Address Aware flag set on executable - on 64-bit Windows more memory is now available for use, eliminating any lingering out-of-memory errors. 32-bit Windows users can also configure their PC to make use of this setting
3. Improved performance when zooming
4. Added smooth keyboard scrolling and zooming: arrow keys and PageUp/Down keys now work more smoothly than before

[Subotan]

So is it worth playing/buying for a 13 week long summer?

[Martok]

If you like 4x games, then yes, absolutely!

I've enjoyed DW since it came out back in late March....and it's been vastly improved upon [its original release state] over the last 3+ months with frequent patches/updates (especially if you opt in on the "beta" patches). The general consensus seems to be that the game has been especially solid -- and fun -- since the 1.04 update. With the official 1.05 update due to be released in the next week or two, the game is only going to get even better. It truly is a "must-buy" if you play space strategy games.

[Subotan]

I played Gal Civ 2, and although there were some aspects I enjoyed (Diplomacy, the whole "Civ in Space thing", ship design), other bits (i.e. COMBAT) I enjoyed less so. What the Hell, I'll buy it

[Subotan]

Hmm, it appears that the the website where I am supposed to buy it is currently down. Rats.

[Martok]

It's possible they were undergoing maintenance; they seem to do that once or twice month.

In any case, it's back up now.

[Subotan]

I got it, and my first impressions are....good. Combat is far superior to GalCiv2, and I like the variety of races. Espionage seems to work better too, and the automation system is great. However, fleet management is somewhat annoying, and the music is quite repetitive. I think I aso overplayed it recently, so I'm slightly burned out :P