Distant Worlds: Now on Steam!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Distant Worlds: Now on Steam!

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

After 5 years, and 4 expansions, Distant Worlds is coming to Steam!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/261470/

quote:

Distant Worlds: Universe will release through our Online Store as well as, for the first time, through Steam. As this includes both the new Universe expansion with greatly expanded modding support and the Ancient Galaxy storyline plus all previous releases, it will give new customers and existing customers a unified installation for future support and modding.

The base price of Distant Worlds: Universe will be $59.99 Download / $69.99 Physical. The Physical version is only available through our store and includes an updated and full color printed Distant Worlds series game manual.

For the release, it will be available at a pre-order price of $49.99 Download / $59.99 physical. This will be the pre-order price through Steam. As we don't do pre-orders through our own store, this will be our release price as well, with a post-release promotional period as with past Distant Worlds releases that allows early adopters to get the game for a lower price, after which it will revert to the permanent $59.99 / $69.99 price level.

We will also be offering existing customers a discount based on what parts of the series they own. It's a $10 discount per release, so if you own everything that's been released so far (Distant Worlds + Return of the Shakturi + Legends + Shadows) then during the post-release promotion period, your price to upgrade to Universe would be $9.99 Download or $19.99 Physical ($49.99 or $59.99 - $40 discount for four previous releases). There will be a page on our site where you can get the upgrade discount coupon. This upgrade will be available through our store only, we don't have a way of doing this through Steam. All you will need to get the upgrade coupon is the serial number for each release.

The release will be on May 23rd.

We plan for there to be one more Shadows update, but all future modding/feature/performance improvements will be based on the Universe level.

Distant Worlds

Distant Worlds is a 4X game from Codeforce, a New Zealand based developer. The twist is the game is set in a universe where you only control the public sector (i.e military) of your empire. There is also a private sector which goes about its own business, sending space freighters between your planets and building its own mining facilities. Your job is to protect the space lanes that your private shipping uses. Both from pirates and other space empires.

Basically there is just a shitload to do in this world. Design ships, conduct espionage, fight pirates or pay them protection money, explore black holes and build luxury resorts on the event horizon, research an enormous tech tree, fight space monsters, build planet eaters, corner the market in goods and lots more.

:siren:

FAQ

Holy shitballs, this game has like, a thousand different things going on. What do I do?

Let's look at some wisdom from the thread:

nutranurse posted:

Try letting the AI do everything except research, ship design on military ships (defensive bases, escorts, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, capital ships, carriers, troop transport), colonization (set it to 'suggest new projects), diplomacy (also set it to 'suggest), and espionage (also set to 'suggest').

The game will be a lot easier to deal with. Don't feel like you need to update your designs after every new tech (unless it's something major like hyperdrive), accumulate like 3 to 5 new components, then go into design, select the ships you manually control, hit 'auto-upgrade design' (this just replaces old components with new ones) then manually go into the designs and make sure things are working/efficient.

On the economy:

Cantorsdust posted:

1. Don't expand so quickly. Your colonies start out making 0 taxes, basically, and you suddenly have to put more money into them in bases, ships to defend them, private economy ships to move goods to them, etc.

2. Resort bases. Make sure you're taking advantage of the serious cash you can make from tourism. Look for areas with scenery bonuses relatively near a populated planet. Design a base with medical, passenger, and entertainment modules and have a constructor ship build it. Your private vessels will ferry tourists to and from it.

3. Trade. If you're not actively planning to go to war with someone, you should try to get a trade agreement with them. The longer a trade agreement lasts, the better the bonus to income both parties get.

4. Strategic resources. I'm not 100% on this, but I think that ship costs/maintenance vary depending on the costs of the resources needed to build them. If you keep supplies of basic shipbuilding resources and fuels low by aggressively establishing mining bases where appropriate, you'll see an across the board decrease in costs.

General Tips

PittTheElder posted:

For a good general guide, read this, it basically taught me how to play this game (and now it seems too easy really): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3508583

e: some notes about that guide.

He recommends you run down the Impact Assault Blaster and Shockwave torpedo line, but I think this is actually a bad choice. Experience has taught me that it's better to invest in Velocity Shards and Phaser Lances, because they're effective at range. If you set your designs to use standoff against stronger foes, and give them mad engines (:Crying Ackdarian: and :Crying Sluken:) they'll kite like motherfuckers. There is nothing funnier than having a fleet of 10 destroyers cruise up to a pirate base, and just blast away at it from just outside the range of the base weapons.

He points out that on armed designs, they should have enough Unused Reactor Output to fire the maximum energy per second of the weapons. But I think you actually want the surplus to equal EPS of the weapons plus the energy usage of your ship in cruise mode, because they will move and shoot at the same time, and you don't want to run down their energy doing that.
I put all my researchers on a Large Space Port rather than a Research Base because it's more defensible, and enemy spies really seem to enjoy blowing up research stations and the scientists that live on them. They never seem to target space ports, not sure why.

The automated designs seem to put lots of Weapons/Energy/HighTech Plants on spaceports, but people all over the Matrix Games website suggest you really only need one each for anything up to like 30 Construction Yards. I've been rolling with one each and it seems to work fine.

ALWAYS SET YOUR STARTING WORLD TAX RATE TO ZERO. Combined with the Recreation and Medical facilities you'll put on your spaceport, your homeworld will grow really fast. Don't raise taxes until you absolutely need to, let Bonus Income tide you over. Once your world hits Max Pop (it'll say MAX in red letters when it gets there, probably right around when you're going to start colonizing other worlds) jack up the tax rate pretty much as high as you need to rake in the mad cash. By letting your initial world balloon in population you will blow the AI out of the water.

Omniblivion posted:

GENERAL NEWBIE TIPS and a few responses to some of the questions over the last page:

1) Resource Shortage doesn't necessarily mean you are "out" of a resource, it could mean that your private sector just hasn't moved the appropriate amount of resources to the places that need them. Try not to use the automated "build ships" window. If you do, it spreads the orders out to all available construction yards, meaning that your newest bases will be given a queue and probably not have resources on hand to build them... as opposed to your large spaceport at your home world.

2) Definitely hand-design a set of starting ships and bases and save those designs for all future games. At the beginning of each subsequent game- pause, go to the design menu, load up your custom starting designs.

3) Design a research station that has all of your labs at the one station. In your custom designs above, strip off all research labs from every small/medium/large space ports. I modified my energy research station to have just 4 energy labs in the initial design so that it's built quickly, and I always build that first. Once it's built, I queue a small space station at my home world, then modify the Energy Research Station to have 12 energy labs, 4 weapons labs and 4 high tech labs, and retrofit the station immediately. Once you are established and can afford specific research stations on research bonuses, go for it. I generally keep that one research base throughout every game, as it can basically never be destroyed by anyone (if they can kill it at my home world, I'm probably hosed already). I do adjust the number of labs on it as needed throughout the game- usually switching from 4/12/4 to 4/4/12 once I get Gerax and the first couple size upgrades.

4) Storage Matters. You do want to research/upgrade storage on Mining Ships, Mining Bases, and all Private Ships as early as feasible. The private sector is what moves your goods around, so you want to make sure they are able to mine/carry a lot and be able to move large volumes of resources quickly.

5) Custom design an explorer with as much speed as possible when starting (PreWarp). Your primary objective in any pre-warp start is to discover warp precursors as well as collect that free frigate. I build two of those custom explorers and book it towards the ruins and the frigate in my system. Do not bother with trying to build mining bases/military ships until you research warp precursors. The exception is at the moons/gas planet immediately next to your home system.

6) Once you hit warp precursors, send out explorers to all of the nearby systems. Yes, the warp bubble hyperdrive sucks balls, but build a custom explorer design with a LOT of fuel, hyperdrive, enough power to go max speed on the hyperdrive, and limited engines/thrusters (since it will be mostly in warp). I usually send out about 5 explorers in this phase, while I wait for Gerax. Once I hit Gerax hyperdrives, I refit those 5 and build 15-25 more explorers with Gerax hyperdrives to go explore the rest of the galaxy (on automated).

7) Space Debris fields are the poo poo, send constructors there immediately. Your empire gets an ongoing research bonus while repairing space debris ships. You get up to capital sized ships for free (minus maintenance costs). Retire all sub-capital ships not fitting your current tech because they give you free research, which is always the best thing to have.

8) If you find ultra-rare resources or a Space Debris field, build a space port or star base as close as you can to them. This will help you immensely, both for defense and for retiring ships/mobile refueling platform for any nearby defense forces. It is absolutely worthwhile to build a specific fleet just for defending ultra-rares (duh). Try to prioritize colonization as close as you can to these resources unless they're literally on the opposite side of the universe.

9) Intelligence agents/missions are currently broken. I have sent multiple "perfect" Intelligence agents on easy missions (steal territory map) and they are captured. There is talk on the Matrix games forum about how there is something wrong with the current intelligence missions, and I agree completely after my basic observation over 20+ games. So, it's not just you.

At first, I hated the ship design screen. Once you figure out how to save some key designs that you always use, get used to your "normal" research order, and figure out what types of weapons/equipment you like best (torpedooooooos), you learn to love it. I quickly pop in and mess with some designs here and there depending on what I need at that time. I prioritize updating the private sector because I can't loving control them and I want to make sure that they mine/move as much poo poo as possible, quickly.

What are some good mods?

PUKED posted:

If anyone hasn't checked out mods in a while the Graphics Enhancement Mod is amazing, I've been using it + the Gloom Mod + Explosion Mod + Tampa Sound Mod and it makes a massive difference.

There's also Distant Worlds Extended, which I haven't tried but it looks solid.

Is there a demo?

Nope. Unlikely there will be given the dev is now going to work on DW2.

Is there an AAR?

Check out Grey Hunter's LP here

Will this ever be cheaper or go on sale?

Matrix have a sale around Christmas every year. But don't expect ~*crazy*~ Steam type discounts. Usually 30% - 40% off is what you will get.

Steam might have some ~*crazy*~ Steam type discounts!

Is this the new MOO2?

Not really. But it is about as good as we're likely to get for some time.

There is a great review over on Out of Eight. (This is a review of the base game. Many of the complaints in the review have been addressed in the expansion).

Out of Eight posted:

What saves Distant Worlds from being completely unmanageable is the optional automation the game features. This allows you to focus on the parts of the game that interests you the most, whether it be the military, ship design, diplomacy, colonization, exploration, economy, or intelligence. Of course, this may left you feeling like your empire is being run without your input, but you can always intervene in any aspect of the game that is being directed by the AI and disable it if you want more direct control. Honestly, running an empire spanning hundreds of star systems and thousands of planets would be too daunting and frustrating otherwise. It seems better to automate most things and intervene when necessary (move troops, build a new ship design, conduct diplomacy).

Distant Worlds features very nice game customization options that are beyond the one-colony norm for the genre: you can start out with a fully colonized system and concentrate on military and economic conflict, rather than wasting your time exploring if you wish. You can also customize the behavior, proximity, and strength of all the alien races, or leave it up to chance. Distant Worlds even lets you edit the galaxy during the game.

The interface gives easy access to all of your assets, from the useful expansion planner that makes colonization a breeze to the selection panel where you can cycle through specific ship types easily.

The universe of Distant Worlds is alive with activity, with NPC merchants and miners going about their business automatically, leaving you to worry about the big picture: a very nice change of pace from the usually micro-intensive offerings of the 4X genre.

You own fleets and bases can be custom designed, choosing from an extensive array of components including weapons, construction yards, fuel storage, life support, research labs, and stealth. Or you can leave the design up to the AI, who tends to produce more scripted but usable offerings and upgrades them as better components become available. The AI puts up a decent fight, invading with force at vulnerable locations when appropriate. People might be miffed that economy and research are both automated, but you can still influence the direction of each by protecting trade routes from pirates and constructing research labs to guide technological advances.

It takes some time to learn the game, but this is simply because it is different (in a good way) from other 4X titles. Distant Worlds features uninspired diplomatic options and lacks multiplayer, but these are insignificant complaints in what otherwise is a hallmark 4X strategy title.

The first expansion for the game was Return of the Shakturi:

The second expansion was Distant Worlds: Legends.

quote:

Distant Worlds: Legends is the highly anticipated second expansion to the critically acclaimed 4X space strategy game Distant Worlds. Legends is a huge step forward which brings the Distant Worlds universe to life. A new character system includes Leaders, Admirals, Generals, Governors, Ambassadors, Scientists and Agents, each with defined abilities and traits and opportunities to advance and grow over time. Expanded gameplay for all existing races includes new race-specific events, technologies and victory conditions which create a completely different game depending on your choices. An expanded tech tree also awaits, with dedicated carriers, cutting lasers, rail guns, new planetary facilities and wonders, and much more (including a new hidden faction)!

Distant Worlds: Legends also includes a new model for borders and spheres of influence for each faction, as well as new fleet management and automation commands. The interface has been improved with additional overlays for the main galaxy map, including route indicators for all ships and fleet posture indicators, all to make it easier to keep track of activity and strategy. A new setup option allows galaxies to also be larger in map size as well as number of stars. Empire Policies have been expanded with new options and Diplomacy has been overhauled to be much more intelligent and to include mining and refueling rights. Finally, the AI has been improved in all areas and modding support has been greatly expanded to allow modders to take full advantage of all the new features.

The third expansion was Distant Worlds: Shadows

quote:

- Play as an independent space-based faction, a very different play experience from the existing "Empire" gameplay.
-- Choose from several playstyles, including Smuggler, Pirate and Mercenary.
-- Compete in victory conditions against other space-based factions.
-- New Pirate Leader and Pirate Captain characters
- Choose to play in the existing Distant Worlds timeline or the pre-hyperspace "Age of Shadows"
- Assault pods and ship to ship or base boarding actions, including ship and base capture
- Gravitic Weapons and Tractor Beams
- New expanded Ground Combat with new troop types and an animated ground battle resolution screen
-- Infantry, Armor/Mech, Special Forces, Planetary Defense Units (multi-layered)
-- Resolution of the multiple stages of a planetary assault
-- Expanded troop experience
-- New Ground Combat technology tree
- Expanded and improved Area Weapons
- New planetary facilities
- Improved AI and new comprehensive difficulty settings

The final expansion is Distant Worlds: Universe that combines the original game and all the expansions, plus adding advanced modding tools.

quote:

Emphasis was placed on the community as the game features advanced modding tools to allow you to develop extra content and set up their own galaxies and epic storylines. Thanks to a user-friendly in-game editor and a comprehensive modding guide, even beginners will be able to create unique galaxies with intricate plots.

This collector�s edition also introduces a new scenario covering the ancient galaxy and the first war between the Freedom Alliance and the Shaktur Axis in which you will get access to powerful technologies and new weapons, including the ability to build planet destroyers.

For me this has been my go to space 4X game for some time. The only one which is comparable would be Star Ruler (made by our very own Firgof!). I actually wish there could be some amalgam of Distant Worlds and Star Ruler, maybe Star Ruler's ship creation system with Distant Worlds diplomatic system and public/private divide. At any rate, if you're looking for something to scratch that MOO2 itch, this could the game you're looking for.

edit: How could I forget, this game has MOTHERFUCKING SPACE TYRANNOSAURUSES IN IT!!!!

V for Vegas fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Jul 15, 2014

# ? Sep 27, 2011 13:42

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 19:00

Outer Heaven: Jul 19, 2011

I just spent two hours just watching the game play itself just so that I can learn better how it works. I think I got the hang of it though I haven't really tried playing myself yet. What's puzzling is that the AI is supposed to be decent because managing everything yourself is supposed to be too daunting. So, can the AI also win without any player input?

I really love the in-game wiki. I love complex games but too many complex indie titles fail to come with a manual of the required thickness to explain how their game works.

Anyway, a lot of potential on paper but I still need to see how it actually plays.

# ? Oct 7, 2011 06:34

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

The AI does a decent enough job not to balls things up on you. I wouldn't be confident it could 'win' a game for you. I tend to leave things like colonization, research, fleet maneuver and ship design on manual.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 12:45

tithin: Nov 14, 2003; [Grandmaster Tactician]

Shame this isn't on steam otherwise I'd love to play it.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 03:31

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

Outer Heaven posted:

I just spent two hours just watching the game play itself just so that I can learn better how it works. I think I got the hang of it though I haven't really tried playing myself yet. What's puzzling is that the AI is supposed to be decent because managing everything yourself is supposed to be too daunting. So, can the AI also win without any player input?

I really love the in-game wiki. I love complex games but too many complex indie titles fail to come with a manual of the required thickness to explain how their game works.

Anyway, a lot of potential on paper but I still need to see how it actually plays.

I still own the base game, though I need to redownload, and maybe get those expansions.

The AI can manage well enough, but it's not exactly aggressive enough to win for you.

Wonder if they sorted out pirates stealing your(Likely superior) designs even before you've deployed any(thus making them probably the biggest potential threat in the game)?

They stopped most of the ways to make a true 'super ship' as I recall, and rightly so. Still, it was good making a 'refinery' that was capable of tearing up fleets and worlds.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 03:43

Captain Beans: Aug 5, 2004; Whar be the beans?; Hair Elf

I really love the idea of having your faction include a civilian component that goes around and does its own thing without regard for your master plan. That new expansion looks like it adds some cool stuff and I think it's gonna be time to pick this up when it comes out.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 03:57

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Captain Beans posted:

I really love the idea of having your faction include a civilian component that goes around and does its own thing without regard for your master plan. That new expansion looks like it adds some cool stuff and I think it's gonna be time to pick this up when it comes out.

Thats my favorite part about the game. It makes your empire feel alive. The game is still just too rough around the edges for me to enjoy consistently.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 04:00

Captain Beans: Aug 5, 2004; Whar be the beans?; Hair Elf

Node posted:

Thats my favorite part about the game. It makes your empire feel alive. The game is still just too rough around the edges for me to enjoy consistently.

Hmmm. I've been following Distant Worlds for a while now, could you expand on what you mean?

(They really should have a demo

)

# ? Oct 30, 2011 04:03

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Captain Beans posted:

Hmmm. I've been following Distant Worlds for a while now, could you expand on what you mean?

(They really should have a demo )

I'm not very good at articulating why in this case. It just feels like there isn't much gameplay. I haven't dedicated hundreds of hours to it like Civ 4, for instance, but every game feels the same and the few decisions you make don't seem to make a noticeable difference.

Maybe someone else who has the same feelings as me can explain it better.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 04:09

Bruxism: Apr 29, 2009; Absolutely not anxious about anything.; Bleak Gremlin

I'm pretty intrigued; this game looks deep and complicated. I watched a short video on exploration which showed the player exploring not only each start system, but each planet in each system. Is this a beast of micromanagement or does it flow pretty smoothly? Is the learning curve as steep as dwarf fortress?

# ? Oct 30, 2011 04:13

The Chad Jihad: Feb 24, 2007

Kazmirski posted:

I'm pretty intrigued; this game looks deep and complicated. I watched a short video on exploration which showed the player exploring not only each start system, but each planet in each system. Is this a beast of micromanagement or does it flow pretty smoothly? Is the learning curve as steep as dwarf fortress?

It can be pure micromanagement hell if you're insane, but it's incredibly simple just to automate anything that doesn't interest you and only mess with the stuff you want to. The learning curve isn't nearly as steep as dwarf fortress due to this.

I haven't played since a few weeks after the initial release, is there still heavy rubber-banding? I get wanting a challenge but if I set the starting conditions so I'm a space-hegemon it kinda kills it to see everyone catch up after a year

# ? Oct 30, 2011 04:26

nessin: Feb 7, 2010

Node posted:

I'm not very good at articulating why in this case. It just feels like there isn't much gameplay. I haven't dedicated hundreds of hours to it like Civ 4, for instance, but every game feels the same and the few decisions you make don't seem to make a noticeable difference.

Maybe someone else who has the same feelings as me can explain it better.

Like any grand strategy game, every instance of it will feel the same if you don't develop your own twists. Hell, its a staple of most games, you just don't realize it when the an instance of game is only an hour or two.

I will grant that Distant Worlds is a bit more restrictive than most since you'll usually automate a lot of the micro-management. The first expansion adds quite a few options, especially when it comes to tech progression.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 05:30

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

...gently caress, I hope they don't charge $40 for this one like they did the first expansion, though I'm sure they will. I'll probably end up buying it anyway.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 05:39

Beefeater1980: Sep 12, 2008; My God, it's full of Horatios!

Welp, bought this to keep me occupied while waiting for SOTS to be patched, and the first thing I see is this: 'Distant Worlds has stopped working.' When I click on the 'play' button for the first time.

Edit: Reinstalling to C: drive cleared the problem. Odd.

Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Oct 30, 2011

# ? Oct 30, 2011 13:57

Kippling: Jun 24, 2005; And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

I really like this game - it's awesome they're doing another expansion. For me, it's the automation that gives the game the edge, although I understand why some people won't like it. Perhaps they feel like they're delegating away some of the gameplay. In some ways it's a bit like Sim City or (going back some way) Sim Earth - you define the boundary conditions (e.g. Assign planets to colonise), make some key choices and interventions, then you let your creation grow. As another poster said, the civilian side is great. Seeing the number of freighters being built increasing and watching them move ever more resources all over your empire makes it feel much more alive than a regular 4x. When the expansion comes out I'm going to mash the buy button sooooooo hard.

So much cool stuff coming out in November. So little time.

# ? Oct 30, 2011 17:48

Rob Rockley: Feb 23, 2009

I really liked this game. Yeah, it's a bit rough, but it really does a fantastic job of balancing the scale of enormous, galaxy-spanning empires with a reasonable amount of management. The civilian economy aspect is such a massive improvement to the genre, it should really be a standard feature of modern 4X games.

I always had a hard time of getting my economy up and running and getting research done in a timely fashion, though. The AI is okay but last I played it tended to overspend and build stations in not ideal locations. Is there a good guide for handling this stuff?

Edit: Also, troops were a huge drain unless you manually slashed your army. That gave me trouble, hopefully they've fixed the AI for that, because that was one of the more tedious things. Managing a force of troop ships was pretty awesome and essential for diplomacy and war, though. Oh, you won't stop pirating my ships and claim jumping my miners? Maybe if can have a strike force with a dozen divisions of troops hovering over that nice planet of yours five seconds from the word go that will change your mind.

Rob Rockley fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Oct 30, 2011

# ? Oct 30, 2011 21:18

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Node posted:

I'm not very good at articulating why in this case. It just feels like there isn't much gameplay. I haven't dedicated hundreds of hours to it like Civ 4, for instance, but every game feels the same and the few decisions you make don't seem to make a noticeable difference.

Maybe someone else who has the same feelings as me can explain it better.

Depends, if you play as those rat things you can just sit back, econ up and fall asleep, it's pretty boring. I like playing as SPACE TREXES or some other race without an econ or science boost since you have to constantly invade to keep up. You pretty much play the bad guy and are always biting off as much as you can without having the whole galaxy turn on you, and maybe bribing a few of the bigger players with your plunder. Pretty fun.

Maybe try a more warlike race? The fish bastards are pretty fun, they have a good combination of powerful ships and econ. You can pretty much be a total dick to everyone.

I think some things like shipbuilding could use more depth, I mean it looks pretty complicated but it's all about finding out what works and just using that over and over. I hope all the weapons they're adding in the expansion adds a lot more strategy to it. But mostly I think it's pretty solid, if it had better AI or a MP mode it would be one of my favorites easily.

# ? Oct 31, 2011 04:56

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAaiwwpZ-WY

AAR: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2952844&mpage=1&key=

Loving the personality the game has now. Should be released in about a week!

# ? Nov 17, 2011 02:16

Axegrinder: Jul 26, 2004; Sometimes sarcasm can help us think more clearly.

Node posted:

I'm not very good at articulating why in this case. It just feels like there isn't much gameplay. I haven't dedicated hundreds of hours to it like Civ 4, for instance, but every game feels the same and the few decisions you make don't seem to make a noticeable difference.

Maybe someone else who has the same feelings as me can explain it better.

I tried the game with the last expansion, and was disappointed. It's a sim with 4X stylings, and not a actual 4X. Trouble is, it's not much of a sim. It's feature-rich but not playability-rich.

The automation handles peaceful expansion very well, but is very absent-minded when it comes to warfare. Even when I'm facing a hostile empire one-tenth my size, the automation won't simply crush them, but sends my fleets off to patrol perfectly quiet space lanes elsewhere and then asks me if I want to press for peace. Meanwhile my enemy is having a great time and expanding fast.

Fleet management is poorly done. There's no easy way to track multiple ships in different locations, and you can't rely on the automation. It won't even tell you when your World Killer gets destroyed.

Also, the need to continually refuel your fleets is painful, as it results in too much downtime. They could have handled that better by simply enforcing ranges, rather than micromanaging fuel.

There's too much to micromanage, but using the automation too much turns the game into a morass of poor decisions and detachment where every playthrough feels the same. This, I feel, is why there's no demo.

# ? Nov 17, 2011 03:09

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Wednesday, 23 November slated as the release date.

# ? Nov 20, 2011 01:13

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

V for Vegas posted:

Wednesday, 23 November slated as the release date.

Any information on pricing? I really hope it's cheaper than RotS was :ohdear:

Edit: Looked back at my receipt for RotS, and apparently I only paid $20 for it, not $40 like I was thinking :downs:

That's reasonable.

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Nov 20, 2011

# ? Nov 20, 2011 06:27

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

It looks like there is going to be a similar deal to the one for the last expansion which was this:

quote:

To mark the release of Distant Worlds � Return of the Shakturi we will be offering the expansion at $19.99 (digital) and $29.99 (physical) until January 4, 2011 � a discount of $5 off the regular price! This gives existing owners of Distant Worlds a chance to purchase at the bundle price. Also, right now and throughout the duration of our holiday sale, Distant Worlds will remain at its discounted price of $26.99 (digital) and $36.99 (physical).

But even if they bundle the game and first expansion for say, $40, plus $20 for the 2nd expansion, that's still $60 for what is really a niche game developed by one guy.

# ? Nov 21, 2011 13:37

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

quote:

With our massive holiday sale currently going strong, now has never been a better time to jump in a starship and head to Distant Worlds. The base game is now on sale for $26.99 and its expansion Return of the Shakturi is $16.99 (both prices are for the digital download) � that means both titles are selling for 33% off until January 8th!

As an added bonus to existing Distant Worlds fans, through the duration of the holiday sale Distant Worlds � Legends will be priced at $5 off the regular price, or the same discount given to newcomers to the series who take advantage of our bundle discount. That means that anyone can receive the price reduction and buy Legends for $19.99 without having to purchase another Distant Worlds title along with it to activate the bundle discount. Note that Distant Worlds � Legends REQUIRES the full Distant Worlds game and the Return of the Shakturi expansion.

After the holiday sale and discounted pricing ends, Distant Worlds will return to its price of $39.99 Download / $49.99 Physical and Return of the Shakturi and Legends will return to their normal price of $24.99, but both expansions will also be available for $19.99 if purchased together with another Distant Worlds title as a bundle.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:26

PrettyhateM: Apr 17, 2002

Jesus I really wanted to get this game as it sounds right up my alley, but Christ $63.97 for all the expansions and the game itself is a bit steep for me.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:32

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Too bad I'm broke

# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:38

nessin: Feb 7, 2010

Can anyone confirm whether Legends was released? Work decides to block the Matrix Games site but not SomethingAwful, as if that makes perfect sense.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:59

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

nessin posted:

Can anyone confirm whether Legends was released? Work decides to block the Matrix Games site but not SomethingAwful, as if that makes perfect sense.

Yes.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 22:05

Bhodi: Dec 9, 2007; Oh, it's just a cat.; Pillbug

Yeah, sadly this is priced out of what I'm willing to go for. You're indie in a niche market, why don't you make it half the price. Star Ruler got my money, but you won't!

# ? Nov 23, 2011 22:17

DatonKallandor: Aug 21, 2009; "I can no longer sit back and allow nationalist shitposting, nationalist indoctrination, nationalist subversion, and the German nationalist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious game balance."

Matrix Games. They only price gorgnardy, which is about 50% more than the price that would make them a shitload of money.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 22:19

nessin: Feb 7, 2010

Bhodi posted:

Yeah, sadly this is priced out of what I'm willing to go for. You're indie in a niche market, why don't you make it half the price. Star Ruler got my money, but you won't!

They're hardly indie. Matrix/Slitherine are somewhere in the realm of 75% of the video wargaming market.

And they've had some games get put out to Steam/GamersGate/what not with the occasional sale, but I'm not sure if that is a publisher decision or individual developers.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 22:27

Pharnakes: Aug 14, 2009

I think he meant the people that made the game, not matrix who are presumably just the publisher.

# ? Nov 23, 2011 23:33

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

This game looks so good and exactly what I'm looking for.

How competent is the AI. Can it be trusted to not gently caress everything up if decide to let it run everything while I play with a single fleet?

# ? Nov 24, 2011 02:41

Demiurge4: Aug 10, 2011

I really like this game but the pacing of it is awful. You can beat everyone in tech by just upgrading your starting starbase with more tech labs. I increased mine from 10 of each to 25 of each and it barely costs anything and the homeworld retrofits fairly quickly. You'll be researching so fast you can't keep up with the upgrades and you can just tramble any opposition with long range lasers.

Still, if you start a game as a starting empire in a mature galaxy the AI will have advantages that will keep you on your toes. But its still way too rough for me to enjoy it thoroughly, why does one goddamn pirate frigate cause every single civillian vessel in the system to jump 10 lightyears in a random direction?

# ? Nov 24, 2011 02:49

Griz: May 21, 2001

part of the manual's section on "population policies":

Has any 4x game ever had such a detailed implementation of racial enslavement and genocide?

# ? Nov 24, 2011 03:46

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

Ok, bit the bullet and bought all 3 games. Hopefully it's going to be the best 70 bucks I've ever spent

# ? Nov 24, 2011 08:36

Demiurge4: Aug 10, 2011

I've had a chance to play a bit with legends.

Things I like:

The territory system is well done, it makes systems near your colonies your territory, and prevents nearby AI from taking YOUR goddamn planets.

Leaders are dumb though, they give flat bonuses but they don't have any core values. A govoner won't reduce corruption or give any inherent bonuses unless it's one of his attributes. So because of this I had a fleet admiral who reduced maneuvering and speed by 10% and did nothing else. I loaded his dumb rear end on a frigate and send him at 3 space lobsters.

The game is more balanced though. Techs cost more and the events can really change up the game. I had swamp colonies get a critical breakthrough and then
It proceeded at 3x speed so I managed to expand early.

# ? Nov 24, 2011 19:42

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Demiurge4 posted:

Leaders are dumb though, they give flat bonuses but they don't have any core values. A govoner won't reduce corruption or give any inherent bonuses unless it's one of his attributes. So because of this I had a fleet admiral who reduced maneuvering and speed by 10% and did nothing else. I loaded his dumb rear end on a frigate and send him at 3 space lobsters.

Characters will pick up traits though. If you have an admiral who is in a bunch of battles with fighters, he gets a fighters bonus.

Characters are meant to be rare, so it's better to stick with a bad one and have them improve gradually than have none at all.

# ? Nov 24, 2011 23:41

Outer Heaven: Jul 19, 2011

Demiurge4 posted:

The game is more balanced though.

That is what most interests me most about the expansion. The game already has a ton of features, it's just needs to make them all interesting and playable in a real game, not only on paper.

# ? Nov 25, 2011 12:21

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

My empire at the moment seems to be doing pretty good. My personal construction ship basically spends all day building resorts over interesting features as my carrier kills bugs. Admittedly I'm not doing anything and the ai is but I'm going to take the credit

Can u personalize the fighters at all? I can't see anyway of doing it and I want to make wildly inappropriate versions of them for my new super carrier

# ? Nov 25, 2011 13:53

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 19:00

Knightsoul: Dec 19, 2008

I'm really impressed by this Legends expansion: my favourite improvement is the "spheres of influence".
Thank you CodeForce, Distant Worlds is the best 4X game in the world!!!

# ? Nov 25, 2011 18:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Distant Worlds: Now on Steam!

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