Addon for DW

[Seath]

Hi,
I bought DW just a couple of days ago and i have some questions to the Addon for the game, because i want to know if it makes the game even more better.
I played only 7 games until now... the first of them just to learn the game but in my last game as human it was kinda easy to overrun the galaxy by invading the homeworlds of 2 other nations just 10 years after starting and then lay back and whatch how faster my population growing owned all other nations... and while playing i noticed that there were a lot of KI bugs -.- and to much micro managment... i mean i hate if things are automatical so i do send colony ships, build ships, build all ressorce stations, leading my fleets, contact all other nations for diplomatical options, send spies and recruit troops by my own because i noticed that the KI is to stupid to do this thinks like i want it to.

So my problem is that i am asking myself if the game gets even more fun that it does now, if i would by the addon (but in germany its impossible to get the addon in a shop. I noticed that its possible to order the addon here on the page) I hope so because DW reminds me playing MOO2 (played the game something like 6 years ago and i still think that this is the best PC game i ever played) and i love 4X games a lot but there really are no good games out there that are like MOO2... besides DW of course ;D
And CalCivII which i really dislike...


here are the exact points what i dont like in DW and from which i hope that the addon will fix them:
-some control panels to make it easyer to control fleets and KI improvements that the fleet really does what i am telling it to do
- unique races in the game ...i think the race bonus are all the same (it doesnt matter which one u play because the race stats are all over the same... i want races like in MOO2 because here every race needed there own playstyle
-no good describtion for technologies and no ****ing techtree, wtf?!
-too less diplomatic options like an option if u really beat the crap out of an other nation and they have no military levt an option to annex the rest of there colonies. I think if a nation only has 200m People, 5 colonies and much lesser Firepower they should capitulate.
-KI reacts stupid like hell ... for example got 200 from those little ships which should secure my stations.... but if pirates attack they just fly away sometimes or do nothing
-no buildings on planets (cant be so difficult to do it... those foolish newbie programmers just have to copy MOO2 with and planet screen on which u can build funny stuff to improve your colonies)
-low number of shipstypes... i mean common only 6 or 7 types of starships for attacking functions.
-hard to control fleets because they allways do stupid things like i tell a fleet to refill with fuel all ships do so besides one [:@]

so and if anyone really reads this i am glad ;D and have to say thanks for your coming answers

(sorry for my bad english)

[cookie monster]

I never played base DW just ROTS so I can't comment.

However they are making a German version, so maybe you will want to buy that when it comes out.

[Seath]

i have a german version of the game is the addon only in english?

[Data]

It shouldn't be

[cookie monster]

ORIGINAL: Seath

i have a german version of the game is the addon only in english?

When I checked I could only find English versions. Perhaps the website only allows me to see what is available for the United Kingdom.

I couldn't find a German version of any kind, even though you've bought it.

[Data]

this can be cleared by Matrix but once the vanilla has a german version I think every subsequent expansion will have it as well.

[Locarnus]

ORIGINAL: Seath

here are the exact points what i dont like in DW and from which i hope that the addon will fix them:
-some control panels to make it easyer to control fleets and KI improvements that the fleet really does what i am telling it to do
fleet control is somewhat easier imho, but leaves a lot open for improvement

- unique races in the game ...i think the race bonus are all the same (it doesnt matter which one u play because the race stats are all over the same... i want races like in MOO2 because here every race needed there own playstyle
you dont need different playstyle

-no good describtion for technologies and no ****ing techtree, wtf?!
at least it now has a techtree

-too less diplomatic options like an option if u really beat the crap out of an other nation and they have no military levt an option to annex the rest of there colonies. I think if a nation only has 200m People, 5 colonies and much lesser Firepower they should capitulate.
diplomacy still very poor, minor improvements

-KI reacts stupid like hell ... for example got 200 from those little ships which should secure my stations.... but if pirates attack they just fly away sometimes or do nothing
and stayed stupid

-no buildings on planets (cant be so difficult to do it... those foolish newbie programmers just have to copy MOO2 with and planet screen on which u can build funny stuff to improve your colonies)
some minor buildings, not much, missed that as well, but got used to it and saves micromanagement, is partly compensated by ability to refit spaceport to your desire (which was not possible in moo2)

-low number of shipstypes... i mean common only 6 or 7 types of starships for attacking functions.
ship design is still bad, because totally imbalanced, the ai doesnt know how to do it effectively and no modding support to get rid of it manually... [8|]

-hard to control fleets because they allways do stupid things like i tell a fleet to refill with fuel all ships do so besides one [:@]
yeah

so and if anyone really reads this i am glad ;D and have to say thanks for your coming answers

(sorry for my bad english)

in summary the expansion addresses some issues, but generally more stuff was added (like expanded storyline [8|] ) instead of making the original stuff more fun/challenging/balanced to play

the usual bad choice
but i guess its easier to promote new stuff and so on than something like
"we improved the ai and balanced the weapons/designs"

the first brings fun for 1 or 2 months,
the latter would have brought fun for 5 years (taking my experience with moo2 in account)

[Seath]

Thx 4 ur answers,
and big thx to u Locarnus for some infos to the game itself

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Locarnus,

Feeling a bit negative today? We actually spent quite a bit of time improving the interface and the core gameplay and AI in the Return of the Shakturi expansion. The expanded storyline took a very small percentage of development time. IMHO, Return of the Shakturi is a pretty big improvement over the base Distant Worlds.

However, note that the 1.07 version of Distant Worlds, which is the basis for the German release as well, has many of the bug fixes and AI improvements from Return of the Shakturi, but none of the interface, gameplay and storyline improvements (basically, the new features).

Hi Seath,

I'm happy to hear from you! Thanks for your feedback. It's good to see that the German release is getting out there. The Return of the Shakturi expansion is currently only in English, but if all goes well we will do a German release for that as well.

We are working to continue to improve DW in all areas, the new expansion we are working on now will make further improvements in several of the areas you discussed. If you want more of a challenge, try the different galaxy settings and also customize which races you have in your galaxy and what their level of advancement is. There are a lot of options to make the game as challenging as you want it to be.

Regards,

- Erik

[Seath]

Hi Erik,

I assume that u belong to the production team of DW and i have to say thanks to u guys!
I was looking out for quite a while to find a good 4X game because in the last years the few games that were produced just were not as i would have liked them to be. But i have to say its really quite impossible to get DW in Germany... i mean no big store which sells PC games in my area has it.

And another point that i think is really stupid and takes away the fun of playing is that it takes mothes sometime until a fleet of 20 ships is refilled with fuel. Maybe a good option here would be to add privat ships that are only near stations and there only job is to carry fuel FAST!!!! to ships in the same system. (maybe very small scaled ships with a lot of speed) This way the fleets would get refilled as long as they stay in the system without more management by the player.

and gogo work harder ;-P i want as soon as possible a german ver of the addon! asap! [:D]

greetings from germany ;D

[cookie monster]

ORIGINAL: Seath

Hi Erik,

I assume that u belong to the production team of DW and i have to say thanks to u guys!
I was looking out for quite a while to find a good 4X game because in the last years the few games that were produced just were not as i would have liked them to be. But i have to say its really quite impossible to get DW in Germany... i mean no big store which sells PC games in my area has it.

And another point that i think is really stupid and takes away the fun of playing is that it takes mothes sometime until a fleet of 20 ships is refilled with fuel. Maybe a good option here would be to add private ships that are only near stations and there only job is to carry fuel FAST!!!! to ships in the same system. (maybe very small scaled ships with a lot of speed) This way the fleets would get refilled as long as they stay in the system without more management by the player.

and gogo work harder ;-P i want as soon as possible a german ver of the addon! asap! [:D]

greetings from germany ;D

Erik works for the publishing company Matrix games. You are on the publishers website. A publisher decides whether a game or book etc is worth making and then putting on the market.

CodeForce are the actual people who made the game, but rely on Matrix to produce/market/advertise the game.

Matrix are as far as I know a Digital Download plus posted Box set retailer. The games they sell are not usually suitable for the retail market as they are not high sellers such as Crysis, Medal of Honor, The Sims etc. Understand?

Thats why Distant Worlds wont appear in a retail store such as Kaufhof/Saturn etc.

Fleets should be refuelled from Resupply Ships, they require sooo much fuel a gas mining stations cargo room is full of reserved items for trade and so is unavailable for your militarys use.

Most noob questions have been asked so far, you just need to make a "less precise search" with a good search question.

Good luck however because I have no idea what a Resupply Ship is German!

Tschuss!

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Cookie Monster,

That's basically correct, but I'm also in charge of product development and work with Elliot from the design stage through to the finished product, so we are a "very involved publisher". Also, we negotiated a deal with the German retail publisher DTP and retail copies of Distant Worlds should be showing up in German stores now. Unlike retail in the US, which has largely moved to console games, with PC games mainly sold direct, Germany still has a very strong PC retail market.

Hi Seath,

I assume the copy you purchased is the one published by DTP? I hope you'll see more of them in stores as we printed quite a few for Germany!

You will definitely want to try the Resupply ship. Properly positioned, it can reduce the time to refuel substantially and allow a fleet to remain on station at a distant location or keep up a faster pace when attacking. Also, there will be some further improvements in this are in the second expansion, which we are now working on.

I hope we will be able to bring all the expansions to Germany in fully localized releases. Spread the word where you can among German gamers please, every bit helps.

Regards,

- Erik

[Locarnus]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi Locarnus,

Feeling a bit negative today? We actually spent quite a bit of time improving the interface and the core gameplay and AI in the Return of the Shakturi expansion. The expanded storyline took a very small percentage of development time. IMHO, Return of the Shakturi is a pretty big improvement over the base Distant Worlds.

Yes, wanted to start a new game and took me another hour of retries to create a galaxy, where all ai empires have some room to expand and are not sitting on top of each other, while another quarter of galaxy has only one starting empire...
And even then some races can claim a lot of starsystems because they can colonize some types of worlds and the ones with continental or so get only few systems...

Thats really game breaking

Ok, I agree the expansion improved the gameplay, but it still has the same basic issues it had a year ago when i left it...
The biggest ones are the ones mentioned above. But the basic problem is the missing modding support, where it really matters.

[drillerman]

Yes, wanted to start a new game and took me another hour of retries to create a galaxy, where all ai empires have some room to expand and are not sitting on top of each other

Not sure if my moan is related to the quote above but I do find that in virtually every game I start I seem to discover or come across the guardians and other stuff pretty quickly. I'd also like to see a random option for pirate distance.

Still love the game after nearly 14 months!!! This one is a stayer!!!

[Data]

There is actually an option for pirate distance in ROTS

[drillerman]

Hi Data,
Yes that's right, it was me who convinced Elliot to put it in. What would also be good though, is a truly "random" option for everything. This could be for the player who wants a real feeling or really not knowing whats "out there". At the moment we know when we set up pirates, space creatures etc, that they are there and whether they are going to be near or far and few or many respectively.[:)]

[Data]

It would be cool, yes. Let's put the old lobby boots on then and convince Elliot again. [:)]