The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play - Distant Worlds, The Manly Man Way to P

[Gamewize]

Heyas. First off, Timotheus, thank you a ton for making this guide. You may or may not be reading these forums anymore, but I just wanted to say that this guide really made me love this game again. What BlackSoulReaper said rung very true for me, as I got consistently frustrated with the game because I was letting it 'play itself' and thought I had little control over things.

Thanks to this I have a much better understanding of how things work, and it's making my games much more fun.

A few things I wanted to add here, for anyone whose curious: Using the Extended Enhanced mod, this guide works fine and well as is, with the following changes I've noticed:

- The Predator design outlined in the guide will take up around 330 Size. However, the first Size Enhancement research gives you 400 instead of 300 size, so there's nothing to worry about.
- The Gerax Hyperdrive will only give you up to about 6800 speed on the Predator design, and not 15000.
- Automated explorers are much smarter, and will intelligently scan ruins as of this writing.
- You may have to add another reactor or two to some designs. The rule of thumb I have read is that your Excess Energy Output should equal or slightly exceed your Weapon Energy Consumption + Shield Recharge Time + Sprint Speed Energy Usage.

[Badbonez]

Thanks for the guide! It was pretty useful for a new user who had been struggling trying to make sense of all the components to the game. Going manual, although counter-intuitive, does make sure that you learn all the different concepts. But who wrote this? George RR Martin? It sure is taking a long time for the next chapter! [:D]

Waiting to see how to deal with pirates...

Cheers!

[Timotheus]

Wow, so happy that people still find this guide useful.
At least I accomplished one GOOD thing in my life...

I think I should enlist in the Mobile Infantry - after all, service guarantees citizenship, and all the cool kids are doing it...

[Retreat1970]

I think I should enlist in the Mobile Infantry - after all, service guarantees citizenship, and all the cool kids are doing it...

I'll sign up if Dina Meyer and Denise Richards are still there.

[Timotheus]

Whelp, it is 2017, wonder if people are still getting some benefit from this guide?

I made a guide for another game, Advanced Tactics Gold, in which I show step by step how to create your own WW2 historical scenario, including creating your own map and units. It's in my siggy.

Cheers everyone.


PS
Those chix are not that hawt anymore.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

Whelp, it is 2017, wonder if people are still getting some benefit from this guide?

YES, we are.. !!!!! [&o]

[Rhinozherous]

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

Whelp, it is 2017, wonder if people are still getting some benefit from this guide?

I made a guide for another game, Advanced Tactics Gold, in which I show step by step how to create your own WW2 historical scenario, including creating your own map and units. It's in my siggy.

Cheers everyone.


PS
Those chix are not that hawt anymore.

I was really close to go back to Civilization, but then I read your guide and now I am out of both civs (sid's civ and the other one with the weird graphics... and other people and so on...) Thank you very much [:)]

[Galahad78]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

Whelp, it is 2017, wonder if people are still getting some benefit from this guide?

YES, we are.. !!!!! [&o]

Indeed!!!

[Rumpelstiltskin]

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

Whelp, it is 2017, wonder if people are still getting some benefit from this guide?

I'm at the top of the Empire Comparison graph deep into my very first game of Distant Worlds after following your guide (also having done the tutorials and read most of the manual), so I'd say I got some benefit from it.

The guide could use a bit of updating, if you (or anyone, really) are ever of a mind. It starts to go off the rails in terms of certain ship designs; the part about swampy planets is also a bit wonky. The first dozen or so systems I explored had, at best, a small handful desert and ocean planets. I was probably unlucky, although it may have helped me in the end by preventing me from trying to expand too quickly.

[Hattori Hanzo]

With which races do you have played your first DWU game?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

With which races do you have played your first DWU game?

It was me playing humans with Ackdarian, Atuuk, Boskara, Dhayut, Gizurean, Haakonish, Kiadien, Mortalen, Naxxilian, Quameno, Securan, Wekkaru, and eventually a couple of human-dominant minor factions who became major players.

The Gizureans were by far the biggest threat, going neck-and-neck with me into the late game and surpassing me at times, not surprising since they're almost entirely geared for war.

I could only ever manage to get the Securans and Kiadians to form Mutual Defense Pacts, and boy did I pay for those, since they both pulled me into wars with the Boskara and Gizurean that I had to finish. I ended up subjugating the Boskara after the first war, then was forced to declare war on them again even though they were subjugated because the Kiadians declared war on them, yet again.

To be fair, both the Securans and the Kiadians agreed to declare war on the Gizureans when I decided it was Starship Troopers time, although I don't think they added a whole lot to the effort.

[rlm60]

Thank you for the great guide, is it more or less still up to date?
I am asking because I am thinking of buying this game and will be using your guide to get going.
Thanks again

[Bingeling]

Yes, it should be more or less up to date. There has been no fundamental changes to the game.

[Timotheus]

Aaaaand it is 2018.

Still going strong.

Bought Stellaris.

That... that was a mistake. DWU is such a superior game, it is not even funny.

Only area where Stellaris has DWU beat? Graphics.

Which... since I play on the zoomed out strategic map.... doesn't matter much, does it.

[Worldtraveller]

Loved the guide. Between this, and the youtube tutorials (several good ones now), it's really helped.

I do wonder of anyone's made a recommended tech tree guide? I like to queue up a lot of my research ahead of time, but it seems I wind up having to cancel and redo it. It would be nice if you could just move something up in priority without having to redo the whole lot. Or, I suppose, don't queue up more than one or two things at a time, I guess.

[Eambar]

Thanks for the guide, really useful. Just made my first jumps with the hyperdrive, quite exciting to see the explorers twinkling out and then re-appearing, looking at the new planets they've found. Now really getting into the design aspect of the various classes of ships..it's a game unto itself!

Cheers,

[OJsDad]

ORIGINAL: Timotheus

Only area where Stellaris has DWU beat? Graphics.

And ship combat.
And research.

[MaGicBush]

Great guide! I am on my second attempt at getting into this game as I didn't have time when I bought it like I thought I would. I did have to restart once because on your settings the pirates kept attacking my homeworlds starport and destroyed it along with my leader even though I was paying them(why?). I restarted and lowered the pirate settings and it worked out much better this time . I also noticed at one part when designing the construction ship the numbers do not match up with what your explaining at all. You say,

"Add Ion Thrusters. At 17 Cruise speed, red warnings of habs and life needed will come on. Add one Hab and one Life.

Keep adding Ion thrusters until you get the now familiar red Hab and Life warnings again.

Ok, if you were paying attention to the speed, you have noticed that adding an extra Ion Thrust engine at 24 Cruise Speed and doing it again kept the Cruise speed stuck at 25. I.e. it had no effect on speed!

So 21 Ion thrusters results in 25 Cruise speed, and 22 Ion Thrusters results in... 25 Cruise speed (and more energy - gasoline - cost!).

So lets stick with 21 Ion Thrusters on this bad boy and hit "SAVE".

However in my game at 11 ion thrusters the cruise speed maxes at 14, and starts to lower as I add more Ion thrusters past 11 of them. Some of the other designs matched up with your numbers, but others didn't either like when making the military vehicle the max hyper speed is capped at 12,500 on my game but you say it should be 18,150. I am guessing it is just a bit out dated or am I doing something wrong? I was a bit confused and just left it at 11 thrusters and 14 cruise speed on the construction ship and compromised on other stuff. I will await Part 3(though at this point I doubt it will come seeing when this guide was made lol).

You also mentioned at one point to add labs to the cruise ship, but I am thinking that is a typo? You add research labs to your military ships? Sorry if any of this has been talked about I have not read through any of the 5 pages.

[Bingeling]

The size of the ship influences speed, so if you have some component more or less, you will have somewhat different results.

If you look at the hyperdrive component, you see its max speed. It also has a power requirement, and if you lack power, you will get less max speed. In the early game, you will typically need two reactors to get max hyperdrive speed. And adding another reactor will make the ship larger/heaver, so you lose some speed overall...

Labs only make sense on stations.

[MaGicBush]

Thanks Bingeling. I realized after finishing part two he explains the two power reactors needed to max out warp speed so I spoke a bit soon on that one. The lab thing I found weird though, and figured they don't belong on ships so I am guessing he misspoke.