Distant Worlds: Universe Announced!

[DevildogFF]

This is fantastic news. I have a real feeling this will open doors for Distant Worlds and create a significant income increase for you all there.

[Zulgaines]

So it's actually going to Steam.

Time for the rest of the world to find out about the best 4x they've never heard of, it's go time.

[DevildogFF]

Where's Kayoz when you want to shove this in his face?

[Erik Rutins]

I'm very glad you are all happy and believe me it was hard to keep this a secret - but please remember the forum rules and keep things civil and not personal. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

[Tom_Holsinger]

Erik,

Will we be able to order the CD/printed manual version prior to May 23 and, if so, when?

[DevildogFF]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'm very glad you are all happy and believe me it was hard to keep this a secret - but please remember the forum rules and keep things civil and not personal. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

Aye, sir. I wish you had been around when it had been Kayoz that was so vitriolic.

I'm ready to move on, though.

Tom has a good question above. I'm ready to send you my $20.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: DevildogFF

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'm very glad you are all happy and believe me it was hard to keep this a secret - but please remember the forum rules and keep things civil and not personal. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

I wish you had been around when it had been Kayoz that was so vitriolic.

As a Moderator myself (outside of the gaming community) I completely agree. An extraordinary volume of personal attacks was allowed before any action was taken. While I have broad shoulders Steam will require prompt Moderation in all cases.

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
With that said, in most games once a player is experienced, beating the AI when all things are equal is very likely.

Most games ... agreed. However, there are some very good games in the 4X genre where this is not the case on the highest difficulties. Despite roughly the same play time as Distant Worlds, I still struggle to defeat the AI on the highest difficulties on Sins of a Solar Empire (particularly with the Star Trek Armada 3 mod) and Civilisations V. I also had a lot of trouble on the highest difficulty with Galactic Civilisations 2.

[Erik Rutins]

Apologies for that, I realize our forum moderation suffers at times - not because our rules change but because we don't have enough staff to read every thread every week. Our intention is always to keep this a civil place where we can all discuss our shared interest in games (and specifically Distant Worlds for this forum).

Regarding the question above, our store does not support pre-orders, but the physical copies will be available as soon as the release goes live in our store and we will have stock ready to ship out immediately. Physical orders also come with a free download, so you'll be able to play while your box and printed manual are en route.

Regards,

- Erik

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Apologies for that, I realize our forum moderation suffers at times - not because our rules change but because we don't have enough staff to read every thread every week. Our intention is always to keep this a civil place where we can all discuss our shared interest in games (and specifically Distant Worlds for this forum).

That is appreciated Erik. As I'm sure you realise Steam is not as friendly as the Matrix community. The Distant Worlds Steam Forums are off to a good start but it's just a matter of time. I know you are busy so I hope you have the support that you will almost certainly need.

[Athelas2211]

Finaly.
I had same thoughts about Kayoz....

He's probably somewhere on an island, drinking cocktails and downloading steam client on his laptop to check out what's the fuss about.

on to the major things.
You really need to be ready for eventual misunderstandings and backlashes: graphics complains, no super DX11 effects complains, price complaints, difficulty complaints, developer-not-fast-enough response complaints, bug complaints (when its probably therir drivers, or antivirus killing the DW exe or something similar), Discount or no discount complaints, no-multiplayer complaints, no-player-editable ship hull color-light-purple-engine-plates complaints, no pilot or crew visible under maximum zoom comaplints, lousy plasma explosion or ship explosion complaints, no Trade Cards complaints, No expansion out of the base game complaints, €/US$/AUS$ conversion complaints, inability to prorder immediately on steam complaints.....


want some more?

[DevildogFF]

Athelas has it covered. While this will generate much more exposure and sales, there is a whole world of idiots just waiting to have their complaints heard....

[YK1993]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

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.

Regards,

- Erik

Where is the site for the discount or will it only starts on 23rd May?
Sry for my English

[Hannable]

I really am glad to see the game go on Steam - hopefully this will broaden the modder community.

Anyhow thanks for giving the discount, too. After spending close to $100 buying each expansion, I'm happy to know that Universe will be easy on the wallet.

[feygan]

I'm curious as to why the steam store option was kept a secret at all?

[CyclopsSlayer]

Any pointers as to how I would access the discounted rate if I were to purchase DW:U via Steam, or better to save the headache and just buy Matrix direct?

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer

Any pointers as to how I would access the discounted rate if I were to purchase DW:U via Steam, or better to save the headache and just buy Matrix direct?

Well, since you'll get a Steam key as well it's probably simplest to just buy it from Matrix.

[grumble314]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

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.

Any idea how long this promotional period is going to be?

[Erik Rutins]

Hello everyone,

I made a mistake in my earlier post. I've updated that post and am adding this one to call attention to it. I had the physical pricing a bit wrong - it was correct in our plan but for some reason I made a mistake when posting it here. For our color printed manuals (the "collector's edition" level of physical boxed copies) the price difference from download was changed some time ago to be $14.99 rather than $9.99 to cover the additional costs. Therefore the base download price has not changed and is correct, but the physical price will be $64.99 (instead of $59.99) during the discount period and $74.99 (instead of $69.99) thereafter.

I'm sorry for the mistake and hope it does not have a significant impact on anyone's plans.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

Hi everyone,

Regarding the pre-orders, Steam was supposed to set those live last week. Obviously that didn't happen and when the mistake was discussed this week they decided it was best given that the release is so close to hold off and have the discount period start with the release and continue afterwards.

We are somewhat at Steam's mercy on this, but we plan to run the discount after release for two weeks if we can (they only guarantee one, but we've requested two).

There will be an announcement tomorrow that provides the details on how and where to get the upgrade coupons.

Regards,

- Erik