Distant Worlds : Shadows . . . (4x Space Game) - Released

[Agent11]

I think its the best 4x game on the market atm.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

1) Distant Worlds lets play video casters are like watching paint dry.

2) The game is kind of just a big graphical spreadsheet to a point.

I understand why this can be a huge bore to people. I really love the economy though and I love designing ships so it fills a 4x space game need nothing else has really been ever to touch.

 

[aigomorla]

thanks for all your imput wanderer...

i may possibly give the game a try if it goes on sale.
I am just having a hard time accepting the big price tag for exactly what goodrevrnd states.

It feels like a big graphical spreadsheet to a point..

But as i said i love the customization.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I'm pretty sure right now is an sale as it will ever go (until a possible sequel anyway).

 

[wanderer27]

Yeah, this is the biggest sale you're going to see on this - it's 40% off right now.


But like I said, if you want to take a small bite start with the original to get a fair idea.


EDIT:

Actually it looks like DW + Return of the Shakturi bundled are 50% off right now.


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[Craig234]

Not quite grabbing me yet - not big on 'hardcore sims' and price of entry is high for the complete series. But sounds like those who like that genre are liking this.

 

[wanderer27]

1.9.0.2 Patch is out, here's the fix log for 1.9.0.1 as well:

Available by clicking "Check for Updates" on your game menu and also here:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/466/downloads/

Please unzip it and run the included file to install it.


Full Change List for 1.9.0.2 from 1.9.0.1:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when start new prewarp game with very few pirates
- fixed crash when last ship in fleet is destroyed while fleet selected, and then click next fleet button
- fixed various other crashes

GENERAL BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where private sector ships would sometimes stop working
- Improved bug (work in progress) where Build Order screen has zero values for ship construction amounts
- fixed bug where construction ship repairing a damaged ship at a planet would separate from damaged ship being repaired
- pirate faction manually scrapping ships and bases now properly earns looting income
- ensure money obtained as loot from raid is never negative

PIRATES, CONTROLLED COLONIES, FACILITIES AND RAIDS
- fixed bug where sometimes could not build Criminal Network except via advisor suggestion
- pirate facilities are now much less likely to be destroyed in raids
- destroying pirate facilities at colonies of normal empires is now harder, as more pirate raider troops are generated to defend pirate bases at colony. Pirates also receive a combat bonus when defending their controlled colony with a Pirate Base or Fortress
- enemy raids against colonies with pirate facilities will usually only damage the facilities instead of completely destroying them
- pirate control level at colonies now does not drop below thresholds when have pirate base or fortress present (50% or 100%), even when planet population passes cap where pirate control would normally decrease
- pirate military ships do not raid own controlled colonies when control level is above 50%
- raids against controlled colonies where you have own pirate facilities will not destroy these facilities
- pirate factions will now defend against enemy raids on their controlled colonies with pirate facilities
- pirate facilities are now faster to build at controlled colonies
- colony corruption level is now higher when pirates control the colony, and especially when pirate facilities are present

OTHER
- Gizurean alien race now has lower population growth from periodic race change event
- bombardment can now sometimes destroy planetary facilities
- construction ships no longer incorrectly load retrofit resource cargo when repairing damaged ships
- added message to player when foreign intelligence agent successfully sabotages construction at a base, colony or construction ship
- patrolling fleets now more likely to engage enemy targets in same system
- colony ships now always check whether colonization target is within range


Full Change List for 1.9.0.1 from 1.9.0.0:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash at game startup on some PCs (ManagementObject)
- fixed another rare crash

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where could have two smuggling missions for a colony if both manually request and then also accept advisor suggestion
- fixed problem where certain races do not start with Resupply Ship when playing as pirate
- fixed colors of pirate bonuses (Empire Summary screen) so that penalties are red and bonuses are green

FREIGHTERS AND RESOURCES
- Construction Ships now also deliver initial retrofit resource cargo to bases they build, thus mining stations have retrofit resources without freighters needing to deliver them afterwards
- bases present at game startup (e.g. mining stations, etc) now have retrofit resource cargo presupplied
- now have less freighters built by private economy, especially in large empires
- now use less Carbon Fibre in components

USER INTERFACE
- Mining Station list in Empire Navigation Tool now shows resources mined instead of cargo
- remapped Screenshot key to "/" key on numeric keypad (instead of "0")
- added hotkey for opening/closing Ground Report screen ("[", open bracket)
- added pirate stats to *own empire* when selected in Diplomacy screen
- now properly adjust size of Ground Report screen so that edges are not off-screen when enlarged
- altered default values for scroll and zoom speed in Game Options so that zooming and scrolling is slower and smoother

OTHER
- AI is now properly sending advisor suggestion to player before sending a pirate fleet to carry out an assigned Defend mission - i.e. not overriding manual control of fleets

.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Is there a demo?

 

[wanderer27]

Is there a demo?

Unfortunately no.

There are many different videos overviews of the game, which can be boring, but they give a look at things.

Best thing right now is a giveaway going on:

http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/05/distant-worlds-giveaway-contest-open/


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[wanderer27]

For anyone still sitting on the fence on this one, I believe this is the last week for the Promo pricing (ends July 4 or 5 I think).


Here's an update on the Patching status (getting about one a week for fixes/additions):

V1.9.0.8 – June 28th, 2013

• Eighth Update

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when select colony
- fixed rare crash with fleets

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where AI ship design process was still creating unbuildable new designs (too large) for a ship subrole when there was an existing buildable design for the same subrole
- automation setting for Research now properly honored - will not auto-select new research projects when Research automation is disabled
- fixed filters in Pirate Missions panel in Empire Navigation Tool when playing as normal empire

OTHER
- disabled auto-self-destruct for hopelessly damaged ships when empire is player
- pirate factions no longer offer to sell tech when recipient empire has nearly researched the tech themselves
- improved drawing of Long Range Scanner visibility for Resupply Ships
- characters at ships or bases are now immediately auto-transferred to empire capital (or pirate home base) when manually scrapped (when not damaged and in battle)
- AI no longer auto-researches super weapon techs once all other research completed
- ensure that ship missions are cleared when pirate faction joins another empire
- double-clicking on selected fleet in Selection Panel now opens Fleets screen
- improved freighter fulfillment for construction ships with resource shortages


This build has the following changes from version 1.9.0.6 to 1.9.0.7:

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where mining stations marked to not auto-retrofit were still retrofitting
- fixed bug where assigning fleet retrofit would sometimes not work (fleet would simply refuel)
- fixed bug where fleets would sometimes not attack space creatures

BUILD ORDER SCREEN
- added civilian ships (freighters, mining ships, passenger ships) to Build Order screen when playing as a pirate faction
- fixed bug where Build Order screen was building new pirate construction ships at controlled (but unowned) colonies

PIRATES
- pirate factions now build more freighters and less military ships
- pirates now more likely to build new mining stations
- slightly reduced pirate income from controlled colonies
- improved willingness of pirate fleets to engage enemies near controlled colonies

MINING AND RESOURCES
- improved distribution of mining station build locations for AI controlled construction ships
- slightly decreased Steel usage in components

COLONY RAIDS AND INVASIONS
- fixed problems with battles at colonies with pirate raiders and standard troops (invasions sometimes being mistaken for raids, etc)
- reduced population losses during colony invasions, especially at smaller colonies

GRAPHICS
- fixed bug where ringed planets and stars would sometimes not be drawn when near edge of screen

OTHER
- improved damage from Ion Weapons against Bombard weapons and Vectoring engines
- captured ships now consider whether hyperdrive is merely disabled (instead of destroyed) before scrapping at capture point (instead of sending to disassemble at yard)
- slightly increased difficulty of 'Destroy Base' intelligence missions

Full Change List for 1.9.0.6 from 1.9.0.5:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed various crashes

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where some pirate games would often 'stall' on some hardware configurations
- fixed bug where pirate relations would sometimes get mixed up
- corrected bug where pirates were offering negative pirate protection amount when normal empire cashflow was negative
- fixed bug where pirates could not manually change tax rate at colonies where they build Criminal Network
- fixed bug where pirate colonizing planet where already have spaceport would cause spaceport to be removed
- fixed bug where a pirate faction raiding a colony where they already have a pirate base or fortress resulted in them battling against their own troops who defend the base
- fixed bug where galactic storms would often get 'lost' when reload game

WEAPONS AND ARMOR
- fixed Ion Pulse weapons to properly disable weapons and engines
- fixed bug where normal components were getting damaged before Armor was completely destroyed

RETROFITTING
- when retrofitting damaged ships or bases, damaged components are now first repaired
- Troop loadouts for ships are now reviewed when the ships is retrofitted to a new design
- pirate construction ships no longer retrofit or repair at controlled (but unowned) colonies
- fleets will no longer go to retrofit when no ships in the fleet have newer designs available

SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship design process no longer creates unbuildable new designs (too large) for a ship subrole when there is an existing buildable design for the same subrole

USER INTERFACE
- added some filters at the top of the Pirate Missions panel in the Empire Navigation Tool at screen left: attack/defense/smuggling mission types, accepted/open missions
- fixed Design Detail screen warnings panel so that text wraps and scrolls
- increased text size in Research screen

GAME SETUP
- altered "Random" proximity setting in Game Startup to distribute starting empires *EVENLY* across the galaxy
- now exclude space creature appearance Shadows events if space creatures are completely disabled in game setup

CHARACTERS
- characters no longer have skill increases until skills and traits are revealed
- fixed bug where Demoralizing and Inspiring character traits were sometimes not working

OTHER
- pirate and diplomatic offers now ensure that offered empire has *excess* money to purchase (not just enough)
- weak pirate factions (no spaceport, weak military, negative cash and cashflow) now join stronger nearby pirate factions
- added new Engagement Stance settings for *manually* controlled ships and fleets (Game Options > Empire Settings). These settings default to 'no change', so that Engagement Stance does not change when a player manually assign missions to ships and fleets. Existing Engagement Stance settings now apply to auto-controlled ships and fleets
- military ships will now 'gang-up' on enemy targets better, assigning many attackers to take on a target

Full Change List for 1.9.0.5 from 1.9.0.4:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed various crashes

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where pirate colonies sometimes showed up twice in Colonies Screen

SMUGGLING AND FREIGHTERS
- improved willingness of pirate freighters to fulfill smuggling missions
- smuggling missions properly expire when resource requirements fulfilled at colony
- slightly lowered number of freighters that AI builds

DEFEND MISSIONS
- increased prices for pirate defend missions
- an empire will assign a maximum of 3 pirate defend missions per system
- raids on a colony that is being protected in a pirate defend mission do not fail the mission unless that raid is successful

PIRATES
- normal planetary empires more willing to form protection agreements with pirate factions, especially when pirates are stronger than them
- pirate protection agreement costs better matched to empire cashflow (i.e. ability to pay)
- pirate factions now better handle tourism, resort bases and passenger ships
- pirates cannot build bases at colonies of other empires (e.g. spaceports)

RAIDS AND INVASIONS
- raids on a colony now inflict less casualties on population at the colony
- troops defending a colony during an invasion regenerate health/readiness at half usual speed, new troops also recruited at half-speed. This makes colony invasions easier to achieve

BOARDING AND CAPTURE
- captured bases at colonies of other empires will now self-destruct
- fighters now better at handling boarding and capture missions

SHIP DESIGNS
- improved function of 'Auto Upgrade' button in Designs screen - now properly preserves weapon types (e.g. phasers, rail guns)
- can now alter 'Auto Retrofit' dropdown setting for Mining Stations in Design Detail screen

OTHER
- tractor beams now push creatures away when they are attacking a ship
- further improved performance, especially in large games

Full Change List for 1.9.0.4 from 1.9.0.3:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed various crashes

BUG FIXES
- further improvements to ensure that civilian ships do not become idle
- fixed bug where design templates that specify phaser weapons would instead sometimes produce designs with pulse blasters or rail guns (even when phasers available)
- fixed bug where Resort Bases could sometimes not be built at scenic locations if already had mining station built there

OTHER
- improved performance, especially for large games
- can now toggle auto/manual retrofit for private base designs (i.e. mining stations) in designs screen
- added troop type labels (Infantry, Armored, etc) to hover message for troop recruitment action buttons when colony selected

Full Change List for 1.9.0.3 from 1.9.0.2:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when edit planet with Warp Field Precursor tech ruins
- fixed various other crashes

GENERAL BUG FIXES
- fixed problem where research progress sometimes stops
- fixed bug where owned pirate colonies would often not earn tax income
- fixed bug where recruited Cloned troops were too strong
- further fixed Build Order advisor suggestions so that the construction price is constantly updated to reflect current economic conditions
- fixed bug with colony upkeep costs, so that this is now properly calculated and displayed
- fixed bug where the ship design AI would not properly obsolete old ship and base designs if they were above the current construction size limit
- Bombard weapons are now properly added to designs when in a design template

PIRATES
- pirates no longer build new spaceports or other bases at a planet where they already have a spaceport
- fixed description of pirate corruption at colonies to show correct value (Colonies screen, Population tab)
- reduced reputation level increases from destroying pirates, destroying pirate spaceports is the most significant factor counting towards reputation
- now properly show extra settings in Empire Policy screen once a pirate faction builds the Criminal Network and has owned colonies
- pirates now cannot raid a colony when the same pirate faction is already invading colony (with standard troops)

OTHER
- fixed Selection Panel so that it properly displays bases and ships with many fighters (200+)
- changed hotkey for taking screenshots to PrntScrn (was "/" on numeric keypad)
- auto-controlled military ships without hyperdrives now do not attempt to escort ships with hyperdrives
- added further improvements to refuelling for independent freighters and civilian pirate ships
- can no longer board and capture abandoned ships or bases (e.g. planet destroyers, debris fields, etc)

Full Change List for 1.9.0.2 from 1.9.0.1:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when start new prewarp game with very few pirates
- fixed crash when last ship in fleet is destroyed while fleet selected, and then click next fleet button
- fixed various other crashes

GENERAL BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where private sector ships would sometimes stop working
- Improved bug (work in progress) where Build Order screen has zero values for ship construction amounts
- fixed bug where construction ship repairing a damaged ship at a planet would separate from damaged ship being repaired
- pirate faction manually scrapping ships and bases now properly earns looting income
- ensure money obtained as loot from raid is never negative

PIRATES, CONTROLLED COLONIES, FACILITIES AND RAIDS
- fixed bug where sometimes could not build Criminal Network except via advisor suggestion
- pirate facilities are now much less likely to be destroyed in raids
- destroying pirate facilities at colonies of normal empires is now harder, as more pirate raider troops are generated to defend pirate bases at colony. Pirates also receive a combat bonus when defending their controlled colony with a Pirate Base or Fortress
- enemy raids against colonies with pirate facilities will usually only damage the facilities instead of completely destroying them
- pirate control level at colonies now does not drop below thresholds when have pirate base or fortress present (50% or 100%), even when planet population passes cap where pirate control would normally decrease
- pirate military ships do not raid own controlled colonies when control level is above 50%
- raids against controlled colonies where you have own pirate facilities will not destroy these facilities
- pirate factions will now defend against enemy raids on their controlled colonies with pirate facilities
- pirate facilities are now faster to build at controlled colonies
- colony corruption level is now higher when pirates control the colony, and especially when pirate facilities are present

OTHER
- Gizurean alien race now has lower population growth from periodic race change event
- bombardment can now sometimes destroy planetary facilities
- construction ships no longer incorrectly load retrofit resource cargo when repairing damaged ships
- added message to player when foreign intelligence agent successfully sabotages construction at a base, colony or construction ship
- patrolling fleets now more likely to engage enemy targets in same system
- colony ships now always check whether colonization target is within range


Full Change List for 1.9.0.1 from 1.9.0.0:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash at game startup on some PCs (ManagementObject)
- fixed another rare crash

BUG FIXES
- fixed bug where could have two smuggling missions for a colony if both manually request and then also accept advisor suggestion
- fixed problem where certain races do not start with Resupply Ship when playing as pirate
- fixed colors of pirate bonuses (Empire Summary screen) so that penalties are red and bonuses are green

FREIGHTERS AND RESOURCES
- Construction Ships now also deliver initial retrofit resource cargo to bases they build, thus mining stations have retrofit resources without freighters needing to deliver them afterwards
- bases present at game startup (e.g. mining stations, etc) now have retrofit resource cargo presupplied
- now have less freighters built by private economy, especially in large empires
- now use less Carbon Fibre in components

USER INTERFACE
- Mining Station list in Empire Navigation Tool now shows resources mined instead of cargo
- remapped Screenshot key to "/" key on numeric keypad (instead of "0")
- added hotkey for opening/closing Ground Report screen ("[", open bracket)
- added pirate stats to *own empire* when selected in Diplomacy screen
- now properly adjust size of Ground Report screen so that edges are not off-screen when enlarged
- altered default values for scroll and zoom speed in Game Options so that zooming and scrolling is slower and smoother

OTHER
- AI is now properly sending advisor suggestion to player before sending a pirate fleet to carry out an assigned Defend mission - i.e. not overriding manual control of fleets

This is one of the few games that has really excellent Developer support, so as items come up (bugs or feature additions) you can expect improvements for quite some time to come.



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[KaOTiK]

Is it ever coming to Steam?

 

[wanderer27]

Is it ever coming to Steam?

From what it sounds like the terms Steam wants/requires, it's not likely to happen.


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[KaOTiK]

From what it sounds like the terms Steam wants/requires, it's not likely to happen.


.

bah, any chance of GOG I wonder then. Thanks for answering.

 

[wanderer27]

bah, any chance of GOG I wonder then. Thanks for answering.

GOG would be more likely, but since DW uses a Serial Number key it's probably not likely as that's basically DRM (though pretty trivial).


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[PlasmaBomb]

It's now on Steam

 

[wanderer27]

It's now on Steam

Actually, it's all the versions are wrapped up into one now as DW: Universe :


http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2383076


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[Anteaus]

bah, any chance of GOG I wonder then. Thanks for answering.

Just buy it direct from Matrix Games. There is no DRM. It's just like GOG in the sense that you get a DRM free installer to stash away. You do have to put in a serial number, but it is passive and there is no activation. The internet is not required to install or play the game. It might even be cheaper.

I wish more publishers were like Matrix. While the quality of the products they publish might vary, they treat their customers well and fairly.