KiloOhm
1963
Nice ! Just in time for my Christmas break game!
jpinard
1964
Nice patch update Erik. Any chance to make the interface more readable?
What resolution again, Jeff? I just got a widescreen 1920x1080 monitor and the game is perfectly readable here.
It’s the kind of thing that really needs to be planned from the start, and is difficult to retrofit … especially after a bunch of expansions where you’ve added more and more stuff to the UI while hoping the issue would go away.
There was a small move in the direction of usability a while back with the zoom levels for the selection info box, with hints of more to come, but nothing else eventuated. I’ve given up waiting - it’s been more than 3.5 years now after all.
Hopefully they plan a proper scalable UI for DW2, since these kinds of games could really benefit from higher resolutions. But thanks for the patch. :)
Slim news of the next standalone expansion is out: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2014/01/distant-worlds-universe-more-modding-and-wrap-up-pack/
This essentially sounds like a Gold version but the expansion itself is focused on modding.
awesome, now that sounds like the version i’ve been waiting for. I didn’t see any mention on price though?
Nothing on price. Knowing Matrix…$65.
jpinard
1970
2560x1600. Problem is going non-native on this (most) monitors makes things really blurry and yucky looking. Adjusting sharpness on the monitor itself helps a little but not much.
Aha, so there hasn’t been a gold version yet. If reasonably priced I might dip in. How does it compare to recent releases like Endless Space?
Don’t make me come over there and smack you.
The general feeling around these here parts is that Endless Space is kinda average, and Distant Worlds is a landmark. Of course this is the DW thread… :)
DW is a different kind of game to ES. It’s real-time pausable, like a Paradox title rather than something like ES’s Civ. There are no separate battle screens (except for planetary invasions), everything plays out on the galaxy map. It has a massive scale, a huge amount of stars where you can zoom out to the galaxy level, zoom in to a planet, and the presence of an AI-controlled civilian sector gives you a great feeling of being in a functioning space empire. I find it has a certain charm and atmosphere about it, in the same way the Dominions series does.
Whew, the explanation beats a smackdown from Brian any day!
The hero system shown in the trailer for Distant Worlds: Legends looks too cool! Are these heroes generated on the fly with abilities based somewhat on how they’re being used or are they just being taken from a list of known heroes? Like, “even though the game isn’t telling me his second hidden ability, having seen this guy in my last game, I already know what to expect”?
The characters are all random/procedural as far as I know. Which types you get are influenced by the actions of the player, eg. build lots of military ships and you are more likely to get Admirals.
Mark_L
1976
Is there a babby’s first tutorial for this game anywhere? I loaded it up and felt like that dog in the “I have no idea what I’m doing” meme.
I haven’t shopped around for tutes for a while, so I’m not sure if there is one up-to-date basic beginner guide to the game. It does have a bit of an initial curve to it. :)
Normally you see ‘do the in-game tutorials/read the manual’ which I guess familiarises you somewhat with the UI and some concepts, then you may see ‘watch/read stuff by Das123’. Watch his vids on Youtube, read his posts on the Matrix forums. There’s a lot, and much is dated but still (mostly) relevant. Not exactly the concise guide you are after…
Then it’s either ‘start a fully automated game and just control one ship, let the AI do everything else. Turn on bits that you are interested in til you’ve learned them all’, or ‘just jump in the deep end and do everything manually, and set AI to only offer advice’.
You can do the automated thing and have a play around, get a feel for it but then I’d say go the latter - Timotheus’ post on Matrix Forums is very instructive and as good a starting point as any. It’s recent (requires Shadows as it starts off pre-warp) and walks you through a lot of early stuff and gets you touching a lot of important elements, all under manual control. I’m not a huge fan of the way it’s written, and unfortunately it is not finished, but it’s really good stuff and should get you going in the right direction.
Matrix forum has a list of (again mostly dated) guides that are worth a glance, and there is a guide on some recommended game settings for newer players (again Shadows). So yeah the game does take work to play but it’s a good kind of work.
robc04
1978
I read the manual and actually turned off automation when I was learning the game to review it. I felt it would help me understand the game better. Once you get over the initial feeling of that there is just so much, it really isn’t that bad. Just taking the first step is hard, but there isn’t anything inherently complicated about the mechanics. The most confusing thins is why isn’t the private sector doing what I think they are supposed to be doing.
Once you get a lot of area under your control, it can be difficult keeping track of where you have your ships stationed and staying organized. Start small and at least in the beginning it isn’t overwhelming.
So that option to start pre-warp might be a nice ramp up for newbies?
robc04
1980
I didn’t have that expansion at the time, but I think it would be a good start.
