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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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:21

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

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

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Wednesday, 23 November slated as the release date.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2011 01:13

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

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

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Played a bit over the weekend:

pros

- Best new feature are the vectors for all your ships. Makes seeing where shipping lanes are and what everything is doing instantaneous and easy.

- Automation seems to have been improved. Especially construction which I used to handle manually. Now I find it is building what I would have done anyway, without the fiddling around.

- Seeing borders and empire positions work well.

cons

- Characters are neat, but they are sterile. The game has gone part way to a Crusader King model, but what it needs are events.

- Game engine is still choppy (especially on menus/zooming) on my high end machine (though less than before).

# ¿ Nov 27, 2011 22:47

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Griz posted:

Did you do a quickstart game? Non-quickstart lets you enable/disable "disasters and other events" and "race-specific events"

I did, but all I got was an annual Todash competition for my Space T-REXES. Maybe there are more, but not much was happening in the few hours I played so far.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2011 04:37

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Are you running vanilla or the expansions? The vanilla engine had some optimisation problems. These have been reduced (not eliminated) in the two expansions. I still get a slight lag on closing windows, but the game runs pretty smoothly otherwise.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2012 06:53

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

PUKED posted:

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.

I don't think there is a 'way' to play this game. Sometimes I just start up a game with a fully formed empire and advanced tech, build a hardcore dreadnought and then put everything else on automatic while I travel around blowing up pirates and space monsters.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2012 02:28

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Grey Hunter is now doing an LP of the game. If you're a fan of unsubtle goon innuendo, head on over.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2012 07:41

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Sky Shadowing posted:

I wish this game would go on sale... ... money is a little tight right now.

Is the original game by itself worth it, or is this the kind of game that DESPERATELY needs the expansions to make it fun? I've noticed if you buy them all together you save 10 dollars ().

Would buying the original game now and picking up the expansions later be worth it, or should I wait until I can afford all three together and seize them all at once?

The original is playable and will give you a good feel for the game. If you enjoy that, then the expansions will just give you more of what you already like. If you don't like the base game, then the expansions will not make it better for you.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2012 07:29

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Pick up the vanilla version for $40 on gamersgate. That gives you a great taste of the game.

In December when the Matrix sales roll around, you'll be amped for the expansions at $15 a pop. (Plus the new expansion for $30. Oh man, who am I kidding :negative:

)

# ¿ Aug 22, 2012 07:55

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

It takes a long time to fix them up though, so best to build new constructors.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2012 04:31

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Hav posted:

Dammit, I managed to miss the sale on this.

How often does it go on sale? Do they promote around the usual holiday periods (for the US)?

Matrix have a yearly Christmas sale.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2012 22:21

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

New Expansion! Distant Worlds: Shadows

quote:

The title comes from the "Age of Shadows".

<WARNING: SOME ORIGINAL DISTANT WORLDS STORY SPOILERS AHEAD>

In the original Distant Worlds, you play in a galaxy where civilizations have recently rebuilt themselves and returned to space in a galaxy that was nearly destroyed at the end of the last war against a great intergalactic foe. The time immediately after that great was was known as the Age of Darkness. During this time, there was very little left of the previous galactic civilizations. In addition to a few survivors on planets and colonies here and there, a very few survived on ships and remote stations. Many who survived the end of the war did not survive long into the future, but others managed to find a way. Generation after generation passed, even among the long-lived species.

In these early days, the survivors who had escaped the near-extermination of galactic life with some technology intact, especially those who still had working stations or ships and knowledge from the old empires, were in a better position than most on the planets, where the devastation and regression to a near-primitive state had been nearly complete and in many cases the plagues of the past war still periodically returned. Space seemed a much safer place to many.

During the Age of Darkness, these space-based survivors who still had the means (although in many cases limited and often decreasing with each generation) to travel space searched the galaxy for other remnants of civilization and the means to keep their technology working. In some cases, they formed beneficial relationship with those who were left here and there on the planets, even helping them to develop and rebuild. In other cases, they raided the planets and their remaining populations and took what they needed as plunder. Often, it was a bit of both.

Eventually, the balance of power began to shift. The space-based survivors had developed their own empires of sorts, usually as traders, warlords or pirates. Despite their access to some of the old technologies, their numbers remained few and the planets began to exert greater control over their own destinies. Some had even developed populations and civilization to the point where they were able to contest control over their local space. This is the Age of Shadows, in between the Age of Darkness and the Distant Worlds galaxy as you have known it to date.

What were previously "pirates" are now independent space-based factions that can pursue a variety of playstyles, ranging from trade, war and espionage to pure chaos and plunder.

</END STORY SPOILERS>

Note, I still can't tell you _everything_ but here are some substantive highlights:

- 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

Setting up my own ship, putting everything else on automatic, and blasting around the galaxy was one of my favourite things to do in DW. Haven't played for a while, but I like where this is going.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 05:49

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

From what I can tell Codeforce is pretty much one guy in New Zealand, Eliot, who must spend all his time making content. If sales are enough for him to keep knocking out an expansion each year then that sounds good to me.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2012 06:22

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

A lot of info up on the Matrix thread with more details - space-based factions sound really cool.

But the release date will miss 2012 and is going to be Q1 2013 :negative:

# ¿ Nov 21, 2012 07:56

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Erik on the Matrix forums did hint at 'bundling' the older titles.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2012 09:38

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

You can turn off the Shakturi storyline when starting a game. That's about it.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2012 21:28

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

It's not that bad. All those round dots are just private cargo vessels you have no control over.

edit: for those interested, test team spots are being taken over on the matrix forum

V for Vegas fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jan 31, 2013

# ¿ Jan 31, 2013 07:07

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

You don't need to worry about trying to min/max your economy, you'll be swimming in money soon enough. Look for planets with rare resources, but don't expand too quickly or colonise planets three sectors away from any of your other planets.

Buddy up with a friendly race, but if there is a bug race near you then get ready for war. Make sure you have some spies out and generally keep your ships up to date and you should be OK.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2013 09:15

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Bouchacha posted:

This game rules, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around a few things. I've colonized a few planets and then set about building orbital platforms for defense but nothing seems to happen even though I have the funds. Relatedly I suppose, my ship building speed has slowed down to a crawl even though I have plenty of money. What exactly dictates building speeds for ships and bases? I'm assuming it has something to do with insufficient resources?

Do you have constructors working on them? That should speed it up.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2013 09:33

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Demiurge4 posted:

Research is really easy to abuse in this game, there really should be some kind of limit. Essentially if you're feeling gamey you can just re-design your starting star base and refit it with 24 (or more) of each lab and watch your tech fly ahead of everyone else.

You don't even need to do that, you can tweak the empire options in the game setup phase to simply give yourself a tech lead, or every tech if you want. The game is more about self-imposed limits.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 00:13

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Looks like Shadows has been pushed back to April because the developer is moving house.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 01:26

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

DW Infodump incoming

quote:

Hi Erik, how is Distant Worlds doing?

Very well, thank you for your interest! We�re very excited about the future of Distant Worlds. We�re working on the Shadows expansion right now, but that is just the beginning of what we have in store in the next year or two.

A quick question about the selling: why is the game not available on Steam? It sure deserves to be on this platform.

Our audience knows where to come for good quality strategy games of this sort and building and supporting that community is a strategy that's important to us. We greatly admire what Steam does but it's not a one size fits all world. That is not to say we would never look at this platform, but for us this is a case by case issue and to date we have not seen this case made out. Their business model very much favours mass market products and deep discounting. This is not necessarily the correct business model for our titles or our audience. The truth is that there is not much real data among other distributors for our sorts of products or our audience and to be frank we are arguably the best source of this data.

Additionally, we provide much greater support to our developers and where appropriate this can include financial support. In essence we enter into a full partnership with them and whilst increasing the number of units sold at extremely low prices might not affect us greatly it can often damage our developers and that would be a betrayal of their trust. Of course there are some "Angry Birds" ( ) phenomena's out there where low pricing can work and on occasion a title might break through into this mass market, but for our sorts of products the reality is, this is a roll of a dice. Not necessarily sound business? We had a 67% growth last year so we must be doing something right.

So in the current state of the game, what do you think needs to be improved the most? And what do players want to be improved?

We have a very active player base and we read their input regularly to help guide us on the areas of the game we should focus on.

Because Distant Worlds is played against the AI and also has many options to automate and delegate tasks to your own AI �viceroys�, the AI is always at or near the top of the list. Improvements in this area tend to have a lot of leverage on improving gameplay overall.
We also get a lot of requests for additional mod support � we have added a great deal over the past two expansions, but this is an area where Distant Worlds can still improve a great deal. As usual, we�re making sure that the new features and gameplay we add are open to modders and that previous mods will work well with Shadows without requiring an overhaul. We�re also planning to do a modder-focused expansion after Shadows to incorporate as many of the mod community�s requests for customizability as possible.

Because Distant Worlds can be played in many different styles and at many different levels, we also get a lot of interface and information management suggestions. We spend a fair amount of time improving the interface with each expansion to make sure that the new features are well presented and add fun rather than work for the player.

As the in-game galaxies can also get fairly huge, performance also gets a frequent mention and we�ve been improving that with each Distant Worlds release. Legends and now Shadows both made significant improvements to performance. In Legends we used some of the extra room those performance improvements gave us to implement more features. In Shadows we�ve made the most significant improvements to the performance of the graphics and memory management in Distant Worlds since the original release.

Finally, there�s always interest in new gameplay and new stories to tell. In eachj of those areas, each expansion has tried to outdo the previous one.

In the next add-on, Shadows, gameplay will offer a new experience. Can you tell us about this new experience?

Absolutely. In terms of the storyline, Distant Worlds: Shadows takes the player to the time before the original Distant Worlds. I don�t want to spoil the original story for those who have not played it, but this earlier starting point means that the events of Distant Worlds, Return of the SHakturi and Legends have not yet happened and the various empires are just leaving their planets and reaching out into space. In Shadows we�ve added the option of playing as a pre-hyperspace planetary civilization that starts with just a single planet and nothing else or as a completely new playstyle, a space-based faction that starts with no planets, but with unique new gameplay options and victory conditions. This means you can also play as a pirate, mercenary or smuggler rather than just a planetary empire.

In addition, we�ve added many other new features.

- New Pirate Leader and Pirate Captain characters
- 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 new difficulty options along with the two Age of Shadows pre-hyperspace empires and space-based factions should make for a challenging game for players of all levels. Even the most experienced Distant Worlds players can now configure the game so that their skills will be tested.

If you don�t mind some storyline spoilers, I�ll add the following:

In the original Distant Worlds, civilizations have recently rebuilt themselves and returned to space in a galaxy that was nearly destroyed at the end of the last war against a great intergalactic foe. The time immediately after that great war was known as the Age of Darkness. During this time, there was very little left of the previous galactic civilizations. In addition to a few survivors on planets and colonies here and there, a very few survived on ships and remote stations. Many who survived the end of the war did not survive long into the future, but others managed to find a way. Generation after generation passed, even among the long-lived species.

In these early days, the survivors who had escaped the near-extermination of galactic life with some technology intact, especially those who still had working stations or ships and knowledge from the old empires, were in a better position than most on the planets, where the devastation and regression to a near-primitive state had been nearly complete and in many cases the plagues of the past war still periodically returned. Space seemed a much safer place to many.

During the Age of Darkness, these space-based survivors who still had the means (although in many cases limited and often decreasing with each generation) to travel space searched the galaxy for other remnants of civilization and the means to keep their technology working. In some cases, they formed beneficial relationship with those who were left here and there on the planets, even helping them to develop and rebuild. In other cases, they raided the planets and their remaining populations and took what they needed as plunder. Often, it was a bit of both.
Eventually, the balance of power began to shift. The space-based survivors had developed their own empires of sorts, usually as traders, warlords or pirates. Despite their access to some of the old technologies, their numbers remained few and the planets began to exert greater control over their own destinies. Some had even developed populations and civilization to the point where they were able to contest control over their local space. This is the Age of Shadows, in between the Age of Darkness and the Distant Worlds galaxy as you have known it to date.

What were previously just "pirates" are now independent space-based factions that can pursue a variety of playstyles, ranging from trade, war and espionage to pure chaos and plunder.

What is the difference between playing as a smuggler, pirate or mercenary?

When you play as a space-based faction, you compete with the other space-based factions. Each playstyle (smuggler, raider, mercenary or pirate) has its own different victory conditions and has a different starting situation.

For example, if you prefer to explore and trade, playing as a Smuggler will give you advantages in those areas and also give you a starting position and victory conditions that reward that kind of play. This includes special smuggling missions that can be requested by the planetary empires, which give a bonus for the transport of certain resources.
Similarly, a Raider will want to gain income, technology and victory points by attacking, raiding those resources he can find. The new �Raid� order is a type of attack that uses boarding or raiding parties to attack bases and planets, not to conquer, but to loot and pillage.

Space-based civilizations research fairly slowly as they have very little population relative to the planetary civilizations, but they have other options ranging from trade to ship and base capture, to technology raids for gaining what they need.

Mercenaries can similarly accept military missions set by the planetary civilizations to attack or defend certain targets, earning rewards and reputation through success.
The balanced Pirate playstyle includes a bit of everything.

And the difference between current timeline and the Age of Shadows?

Please see the long answer above. It�s older, more primitive, more chaotic and more dangerous in its own way. Players will be challenged in new ways and at smaller scales, where a single mining or research station will be much more critical than in the large empires of the previous releases. Of course, if you wish you can start in the Age of Shadows and play through the original Distant Worlds storyline as well as continue on through Return of the Shakturi and Legends to have the full Distant Worlds experience.

At PC4WAR, we love tactic, and it seems that you will implement a new ground battle screen? How is it going to work?

The ground combat screen has two main parts. The first is the planet surface and the second is the space/orbit section. At any time, players can click on the troops area on a planet that is under attack to watch the combat unfold.

Each new unit type plays a role and you can watch the invading forces move from space to the planet surface, while being engaged by the planetary defenses. Once on the surface, special forces may go after the planetary defenses, while armor, mech and infantry troops fight it out. You can watch each unit and see which enemy it is engaging while also monitoring their strength and casualties.

As with Legends, characters can have a big impact (in the form of Generals, who also gains some new abilities), as can various new combined arms and attack/counter-attack bonuses for the right combination of troop types relative to the enemy forces.

Are you going to change graphics and UI, add new factions, custom options, automation parameters, � ?

We are always making improvements in these areas and Shadows will be no exception, though many are there to support the new features, but also add a lot of nice new options for the player. For example, you can now set a garrison level on each planet to make sure you keep a minimum level of troops there even when loading transports. Troop and Fleet management has been improved and we�ve added a better view of resource demand to the expansion planner. The new factions take the form of the new space-based factions and every significant new feature we add as always has automation options and policy settings.

We also spent a fair amount of time improving the AI � it needed to become smarter to survive in the Age of Shadows, both as a space-based faction and as a pre-hyperspace planetary civilization. In every area from exploration and expansion to resource exploitation, economic planning and warfare it is better.

Can you tell us something exclusive on this already exciting new extension?

Sure, I�ll give you more than one.

As a space-based faction, you can gain influence over planetary civilizations. The exact method depends on your playstyle, but the net result is an increase in income for you and an increase in planetary corruption for the owner of the planet. Over time, if your influence is high enough, you can build a secret base or even a secret fortress there, which locks in your influence and gives you other advantages (for example, while smugglers normally have a small chance of being detected and turned away if the planet is unfriendly to you, if you have a secret base there, they are no longer distinguishable from normal traders as far as the planet is concerned). In time, if your influence is strong enough you can even get to the point that your space-based civilization may in fact bring the planet completely under your control. This means that while you start as a space-based faction, if you are very successful and you wish to focus on that path, you can transition to a planetary empire as well.

Also, Gravitic Weapons are the first weapon in the game that can ignore both shields and armor. Fortunately, they have a relatively short range and are less effective against larger targets, but if you pursue the entire tech tree the results can be extremely impressive, including the gravitic wave weapons and to create something similar to a short duration small black hole.

Finally, I will also mention that we plan to do one more expansion after Shadows, in which we expect to open the game up more than ever to the modding community. After that, we�re planning something even more exciting�

Thank you!

# ¿ Apr 2, 2013 05:53

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

From the 'financial support' line, I would say Matrix requires devs to pay a fixed $ amount from sales. With high prices, you need a lower amount of sales to reach the figure. Matrix no doubt has data showing what the 'hardcore' audience is and likely sales targets. With high volume low price sales, you have to make a lot more sales before the Matrix payment is met, if ever.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2013 07:20

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

May 21 is the release date.

e: The new ground combat mechanics are very granular. You actually build lots of different troop types (armour, infantry, special ops) which seem to work in a rock paper scissors configuration. Seems like a lot more micro for little gain.

V for Vegas fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Apr 28, 2013

# ¿ Apr 28, 2013 13:35

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Preview up http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/05/distant-worlds-shadows-preview/

This pirate stuff sounds kick-rear end.

quote:

The Life of a Pirate

These new pirate factions expand their influence and wealth very differently from traditional empires. While the empires economy is based mostly on taxing the population, and from revenue obtained from trading and tourism, pirates gain their wealth by very different means. And, Shadows lets you play three distinct types of pirating experiences.

You can decide to be a Raider leader and expand your wealth and influence as a looter and as a terrorizer and controller of worlds. And to do that, you take advantage of Shadows� new raid system which lets you attack, sack and plunder bases and planets for loot. But, when you play as a Raider you not only go after easy prey but also try to establish control of planets by having war ships nearby, and fiercely compete with other pirate factions for control of such planets. The more you control a planet, and the more developed it is, the more wealth you can extract from it. To extend your control further you can build pirate bases and pirate fortresses on planets. Ultimately, you can even deploy a very special facility that will allow you to have full control of a planet like normal empires do. If you end up controlling a notable amount of colonies, you eliminate the most rival pirate factions and conduct the most successful raids in the galaxy, you win as a Raider pirate. Sounds fun to you?

But, if you find the need to control independent, or other empires� colonies boring, and the business of other pirate factions, or anybody else for that matter, don�t interest you that much, you can decide to go full rogue and go all guns for hire. You�re a Mercenary pirate, and your business is to take advantage of the new pirate attack and defense mission mechanics, which are missions requested by other factions for a price. But, while you find the Raider�s need to control others people�s lives boring, you still find a lot of fun on rising havoc and plunder on those poor innocents who just want to run an honest life. Bah, where�s the fun on that anyway?

So, if you play as a Mercenary pirate, you will want to not only complete the most pirate attack and defense missions, but also undertake the most raids in the galaxy. In between, and as stealing can be much easier and more fun than building stuff, you will want to capture what you don�t destroy, and so, you should try your best to use Shadows new boarding and capture mechanics to achieve just that.

Alternatively, if you find all that aggression unnecessary and just an inefficient use of resources, you can always decide to take a more reserved and low-profile pirate posture and act as the Galaxy�s supplier and protector. The kind of people who can get you anything and whom you can �trust�. Are you in need of a particular supply of resources? Don�t despair. We are here all day to help you out in your needs and ventures, but not without asking you for an outrageous lump of money for the trouble. After all, these fresh supplies, which were exactly what you needed, were very hard to come by, and so, all we ask is a �small� compensation for our efforts.

This is the life of a smuggler pirate, and when you choose to be a smuggler lord, that means you�re an information trafficker and you�re also extremely resourceful. You prefer to avoid conflict if possible, but not without a price. So, you�ll want to establish as many pirate fee, I mean, protection arrangements with other empires as possible, and you�ll want to expand your influence by carrying out the most intelligence missions as well. Of course, knowledge is power, so you should also do your best to accomplish the most research in the galaxy.

But, Shadows offers you a fourth pirate style option: a balanced approach. So, if you don�t want to specialize and just want to experience a bit of everything the new pirate gameplay has to offer, you can decide to go with a �balanced� pirate style which combines all the other three pirate-style�s victory conditions into a balanced mix.

As you can see, I let myself carry away pretty easily while describing the different types of Shadows pirate experiences, and the new mechanics that come along with them. And, I think that�s proof that, while I�m still scratching the surface here, I think CodeForce has a done a great job on designing the different pirate gameplay styles. Time will tell how balanced and fun playing as the pirates really is, but in the period of time I played this beta preview build I did enjoy these different experiences. And, I don�t usually fancy pirate stuff that much.

# ¿ May 11, 2013 23:58

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

But Distant worlds, Shakturi and Legends will be 'discounted' to only $20 each, making the whole package a reasonable $100.

# ¿ May 20, 2013 23:45

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

If $70 is stretching it, then $50 for the base game and first 2 expansions is a pretty good deal.

# ¿ May 24, 2013 05:33

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

An onscreen option in the game? :lol:

This is a matrix game. You have to edit startup.ini and delete the following.

Distant Worlds startup settings

screenwidth 1024
screenheight 768

# ¿ May 28, 2013 23:26

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Best way to get into it is just buy the base game. If you enjoy that, then get the first two expansions as they add a lot of UI and engine refinements. If you're still enjoying it (highly likely) then get Shadows.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2013 23:24

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Yeah basically everything Frog Assassin said. I'd add that DW really gives you the flexibility to play any kind of 4X game you could possibly want. With Shadows you can now even create a replica of the Solar System c. 2013 and spend a good part of the early game sending ships to the Moon and Mars, before expanding out to Alpha Centauri etc. Or you can start off a game with a large, galaxy spanning empire that is slowly being carved up. Or you can start off as a entity from another plane of existence with a small but insanely advanced and powerful fleet. Really it's only restricted by what you can dream up.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2013 00:22

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Matrix will have a Christmas sale if you can wait a couple of months. They usually give 30% discounts.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2013 22:40

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

They have said they were planning on another expansion with a focus on modding.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2013 22:21

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

From here

quote:

Distant Worlds: �4th Expansion� (modder-focused, no official title available yet)
CodeForce / Matrix Games / Slitherine
Release Date: Late Q1 2014

Distant Worlds is a space 4X game that matured a lot through each expansion released. It all started with a lackluster release in 2010, but after a host of patches and three expansions (Return of the Shakturi, Legends and then Shadows) the game�s quality and overall experience were raised to an incredible level. Complex, deep, alive, that�s what I think best defines this real-time space 4X strategy game. But above all, it offers an insane amount of replayability. There�s always something new to try in this game, and that�s why I recommend it any day to any space 4X fan. Distant Worlds: Legends and then Shadows is one of the games I played the most in recent years. It�s also the most complex, replayable and fun space 4X game available today.

But, CodeForce and Matrix Games never stop and now prepare to release their 4th expansion to Distant Worlds in late Q1 2014. This will be a modder-focused expansion, as Erik Rutins (Matrix Games� Director of Product Development) told us on an interview last summer. As for content this is as much as we have at the moment:�We want it to be something that when the modders read the list, they will hopefully faint and enjoy. That�s always our goal, to really get people to look at the next expansion and go: �Holy cow! This is what I�ve been waiting for, I really want this!�. Work on Distant Worlds 2 should kick-off after this 4th expansion, but there could be even another expansion before major work starts on the sequel.

Just let me change the start date!

# ¿ Jan 12, 2014 23:41

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Yeah it definitely needs more than just 'the most comprehensive list of TNG Era Startrek shipsets' as a talking point.

V for Vegas fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jan 13, 2014

# ¿ Jan 13, 2014 00:24

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:21

V for Vegas: Sep 1, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Shyrka posted:

How do you actually play it though? Won't the AI develop hyperdrive and dance rings around you? Or if they don't get hyperdrive are they smart enough to build ships with massive amounts of fuel storage to slowboat it to the next system?

At the beginning only pirates have FTL. You can turn them off and set research to very expensive so it will be some time until FTL turns up.

I made an Earth solar system and spent a lot of time just puttering around sending impulse engine ships to different planets, it was pretty cool.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2014 21:28

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

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