Distant Worlds: Now on Steam!

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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

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 15:39

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Man, I just picked up Legends to get my strategy fix until Warlock gets patched some more, and I forgot just how crazy this game is.

What are some good settings for a new game? I started a medium galaxy with 8 opponents and micromanaged everything just to get a grip on things, but I played for a couple hours without anything really interesting happening, so I'm not sure that's the way to do things. Is this different from other 4x games and you're supposed to start with a decently developed empire or something?

Honestly in ROTS I just picked the space dinosaurs and my diplomacy amounted to blowing up anything I came across and blitzkrieging homeworlds with troop ships, so I'm not sure I've ever really played the game how it's supposed to be played.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2012 02:15

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Also there's a new expansion happening apparently.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2012 02:17

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Thanks, I'm getting the hang of it again. Big problem was I thought I'd just skip the tutorials, but I forgot just how... unique the UI in this game is. Seriously like playing Civilization using Microsoft Excel as a controller.

Actually been playing the hell out it. ROTS was too cumbersome and had too many problems for me to really get into for long, but Legends seems good so far, really liking the changes.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 06:18

tips: Feb 16, 2011

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.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2013 18:46

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Bad WolfZxc posted:

Can anyone tell me if I get tourism from other empires populous? There is a resort location in my influence near the home system of a friendly empire.

Yep, and if you can get a resort base closer to their homeworld than their own you can steal all of their traffic too.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2013 01:41

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Malcolm posted:

I would buy DW and all its content on Steam for about $50, there should be plenty of room there for everyone to get fat and happy.

Considering that this is the first expansion to really take a hard look at problems that have been around since launch (infinite resources, shortage indicators, AI, terrible GDI game engine etc) now would be a great time for it, but :matrix:

For what it's worth though they don't make you pay to redownload the game any more. When my hard drive crashed last year they just sent me new download links.

# ¿ May 23, 2013 01:55

tips: Feb 16, 2011

Demiurge4 posted:

So basically for a long time you'll be an underdog, your home system sucks, your ships suck, your weapons suck and your ftl drive sucks (tech costs are massive to break out, warp bubble is 240k research but the first level proper drive is 960k with the upgrade being 240k). Pirates will be very strong so you need to build platforms and decent fleets to stay competetive.

Yeah, I'm really liking the Shadows start. Except for the boring first year having to fight tooth and nail for everything is a really nice change from the infinite resources you had in Legends, and the moment you cancel your agreements and try to defend against the pirates with your scrappy garbage fleet is intense.

In my game right now I'm barely past the Age of Shadows and just took over my first homeworld, and I'm probably hosed. I figured the pirates would be falling off pretty hard, but what I didn't see coming at all is that having such a head start on hyperdrives means pirates get first crack at all the derelict ships and ship graveyards for miles, so right now I'm hemorrhaging cash and still trying to pay off some terrifying Genghis Khan level pirates with a couple of unkillable capitals while a bunch of lesser pirates that were being held off by the empire I took over run around raiding everything.

Considering that taking over a homeworld in Legends was gg it's pretty loving cool.

# ¿ May 25, 2013 02:39

tips: Feb 16, 2011

EchoBase posted:

I just picked up the full game (base + all expansions) seeing as it's on sale. I started it up and tinkered around a bit and it seems slow/unresponsive. It takes like a second for anything to respond to an input (scrolling, zooming, selections). Is this normal?

Turn off nebulas in the options menu. I don't know why it's always defaulted to on, the engine could never handle them.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 21:52

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 15:39

tips: Feb 16, 2011

PittTheElder posted:

So I just bought this game, and it's pretty awesome, but I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing with my economy. Playing from the Age of Shadows, I've just researched my first hyper drive, and have discovered a world nearby that I could colonize after one more tech, but I think I should figure out my finances first. Some questions:

I've been letting the AI run basically everything, while I just order mining stations and tell exploration ships around. Any serious traps I should be watching out for?

So far pirates haven't been such a big deal. I had to pay off like 4 different factions at one point, but I've since cancelled the protection agreements and they've done nothing, but I don't know if I'm really safe or not. Is the Firepower shown under the pirate section of the diplomacy screen supposed to be compared to my Military Strength shown in the same screen?

My private economy seems to be making GBS threads the bed and I don't understand why. Their income seems high, and they have a strongly net positive cash flow, but their cash on hand is plummeting into the deep red and I don't understand why.

My state finances are awful, I've started hitting a -10k cashflow, but that had been propped up by bonus income from the private sector for a long time. That seems to have vanished now though. My maintenance costs are mostly for my Large Spaceport, while a little bit of it is my ~8 military ships. Even those don't seem like enough, because various pirates nearby (but not in system, I don't know where they're based) have much higher Firepower than I do Military Strength (~1200 vs. 700). I clearly can't afford to keep buying stuff though.

Even though my cash on hand is positive, I apparently can't build more mining stations. The button is disabled because it says I don't have enough money, even though I do have the cash. Is this because my cashflow is so negative?

I'll post proper screenshots of my finances later, but it'd be really nice to see some sort of guide as to how much stuff I should be building in the beginning.

It's not from a Shadows start but this guide is really good: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3621385

The economy seems weird because the game is bad at explaining things. Bonus income like resorts or the private sector buying ships gets added in after cashflow, leading to weird things like constantly being in the red and still making money.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 01:48

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