Distant Worlds and Sins of Solar Empire

[mightili]

Of course Sins and DW ARE a comparable games. DW is only much deeper as far as micromanagement goes. Like you said yourselves devs gave us an opportunity to make it as deep as we want by adjusting what happens automatically and what we do ourselves. You do the same stuff in Sin, you expand your colony, you build your economy, you strategize, you conquer, you trade, you explore. Except that DW is a much bigger game overall with a lot more options to customize. As bigger game is as more important it becomes to give a player necessary tools to manage the game and make those tools as player friendly as possible. I was never afraid of complex games and its very possible that as soon as I get into owning a few solar systems I may get sucked in. But its a big minus for me when I have to dig in some "spreadsheets" for some crazy information.

I wish game interface was more intuitive. You know what this word means, right? Yes I accept the game the way it is, but I also express my opinion that they could make it all so much friendlier for us players. I've used to play these kinds of games since Imperium Galactica, but man I wish that people actually learned on the examples of previous games and that games improved along the time...

I wish that DW with all it's complexity and depth was as polished as Sins. I mean even the game engine is weird. Fonts are all disfigured. Independent developer, yeah I understand that, but whats with this game engine that I can't actually adjust ANYTHING except Nebulae depth which is as ugly as it can be either you add depth or not... They gonna make the game smoother with some patches I know, but the main concept will still be there. Ugly spreadsheets of information. I feel like I am working with some inventory database interface from 1990.

[Kamonrius]

[:D] oh by no means do not think we do not understand were your coming from its the turn of the century and spreadsheets are of the 90's and back yes the interface could be more polished and if ever DW gets the quality visual rep to that of sins, mixed with its already impresive depth (that can still be expanded upon) we can see a decent 4x game running for quite some time just have faith in the Devs they are very attentative me thinks

[mightili]

ORIGINAL: Davor

ORIGINAL: mightili

I wish there were more professional developers in this area of game market with a bigger budget... [:(] Everyone seems to be interested in making "Gods of War" and "Worlds of Rat killing". Sarcastically it would be - "Just give me violence and rolling heads and I'll be happy". I guess the times of "Imperium Galactica" are long gone... All we have these days are raising skeletons from a rotting remains of the great games of those times. [8|]

Yes sadly the days of Imerium Galactica and MOO games are gone. I was surprised that DW was even made. We are a very niche market, and I believe only small developers will make these games now. The bigger companies like EA and 2K etc, just want to make the huges game that bring in the money. They are not happy with 5 000 copies sold while a smaller indy company would be happy with these numbers. That is why we will never see these games again. This is why we will never see another MOO game unless Atari sells the rights. It's just not worth it for the big companies to make anymore. They put the moeny else where, where it will make more money, like Guitar Hero, or Gods of War or Call of Duty for examples.

Yeah which is actually pretty sad. I think games have become more dumb lately. If you compare 10 last years of gaming history you see that today action games are #1 on the market. Shooters, God of War violent type of games, those are on top and almost no games that require some kind of thinking. Violence and half naked body today is like a must in games. Selling point. Even though these independent games kinda suck comparing to more polished product but better this than nothing at all. Impulse (Star Dock) is one of those nice places where you still can buy those games of "old" standard.

[Grotius]

I played Sins and liked it OK, but I've spent far more time with DW, even though I recognize it's less polished. For whatever reason, I find DW more interesting.

[XoX]

I found sins to be pretty unplayable. The 3D map was just impossible to use, I couldn't keep track of anything. Thank god I never bought it and only tried out a friend's version.

[Tycow]

The way I see it is Sins is the (and I hate the phrase) stereotypical prom queen, and DW the slightly nerdy, quiet girl.

Sins is very pretty and very polished, appeals to the masses, but is very repetitive, gets boring quickly and is as generally as shallow as a puddle. It's had two paid for expansions that have added things to the game that should have been there from the start. Admittedly, Brad and co were active on the forums taking input and putting it into the game, but still... I think I count the number of hours I've put into Sins on two hands (and possibly one foot).

DW has hidden depths, no two games have been the same and keeps on surprising. The dev support has been second to none, with two patches adding functionality and fixing problems within two weeks of release. Sure, it's not as pretty as Sins, but I can tell you which one I'd rather take on a desert island to have as an only game for the rest of time. [:)]

I'll have the nerdy girl every time! [:D]

[Erik Rutins]

Tycow, one minor quibble - we're not quite _two_ weeks from the release date now (this Thursday will be two weeks). [8D]

[Tycow]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Tycow, one minor quibble - we're not quite _two_ weeks from the release date now (this Thursday will be two weeks). [8D]

Noted and fixed, couldn't remember how long ago it was [;)]

[mightili]

What throws me off of DW at this point:

- Messed up interface fonts which can be fixed I think by fixing the following:

- Nonadjustable, unknown resolution that game configures itself automatically based on your system specs.
Let me explain this one a bit better. If you are using a good old CRT monitor (I think most of the people switched to LCDs long time ago but there are some old hogs that still like their CRT monsters, or just decide not to upgrade) then there is probably no problem, since CRT monitors convert the picture a bit differently, especially fonts. You can have sharp straight fonts almost at any resolution.

The problem with LCDs is that they are only perfect at their OPTIMAL resolution. So if my optimal is 1920x1200 wide screen and if I'll be playing a game at some none-standard resolution fonts on my monitor lose the focus in some places and will be disfigured roughly speaking. What the game engine does I think it configures itself based on some predefined settings which is not optimal for my monitor. And its very possible that game engine doesn't have support for higher resolutions. I've seen this happening before with old games, but I expect from DW better. And in many games higher resolution support comes later on. I don't know if I want to wait very long time for this though.

I am one of those picky ones that get frustrated by any kind of anomalies on the computer screen. That's why being unable to adjust resolution when I play DW is one of the big minuses for me. I understand that this game can be using some old arse engine that may not even have a wide-screen support (it seems that it does), but being unable to adjust screen resolution to make my fonts focused and sharp makes it so much worse for me. lack of this option also gives you a feeling of a very unprofessional and cheesy product. If there is a fix for that in some future patch I'd be quite happy, I could actually start playing the game without getting frustrated over little details that are an obvious option in any game.

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: mightili

ORIGINAL: Davor

ORIGINAL: mightili

I wish there were more professional developers in this area of game market with a bigger budget... [:(] Everyone seems to be interested in making "Gods of War" and "Worlds of Rat killing". Sarcastically it would be - "Just give me violence and rolling heads and I'll be happy". I guess the times of "Imperium Galactica" are long gone... All we have these days are raising skeletons from a rotting remains of the great games of those times. [8|]

Yes sadly the days of Imerium Galactica and MOO games are gone. I was surprised that DW was even made. We are a very niche market, and I believe only small developers will make these games now. The bigger companies like EA and 2K etc, just want to make the huges game that bring in the money. They are not happy with 5 000 copies sold while a smaller indy company would be happy with these numbers. That is why we will never see these games again. This is why we will never see another MOO game unless Atari sells the rights. It's just not worth it for the big companies to make anymore. They put the moeny else where, where it will make more money, like Guitar Hero, or Gods of War or Call of Duty for examples.

Yeah which is actually pretty sad. I think games have become more dumb lately. If you compare 10 last years of gaming history you see that today action games are #1 on the market. Shooters, God of War violent type of games, those are on top and almost no games that require some kind of thinking. Violence and half naked body today is like a must in games. Selling point. Even though these independent games kinda suck comparing to more polished product but better this than nothing at all. Impulse (Star Dock) is one of those nice places where you still can buy those games of "old" standard.

Oh this is so true. Even Bethesda says this, but not in a such a negative way. When they made Oblivion, they said they wanted to appeal to the more mainstream casual gamer in order to make more sales. They admit, they made the game easier to play for the people who don't have the attention span or care to play games for 100 or 200+ hours.

I call this dumbing down the game, as do many others, Bethesda calls it appealing to the masses. At least they still havn't forgotten their loyal fan base and still did a good job of making a 200+ hour game. I just hope their next game is not as dumbed down as Oblivion was.

[Kamonrius]

They better not, I understand using it to make revenue but please I wish they did not do it on frequency, the DLC's and fallout 3 and its subseequent DlC's was something for the masses..so I hope the next installment is something greater and more ambitious.
 
DW thank you for not swaying to the masses..let us enjoy and spread the word so that more will come 

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: mightili
- Messed up interface fonts which can be fixed I think by fixing the following:

Do you have Cleartype turned on?

- Nonadjustable, unknown resolution that game configures itself automatically based on your system specs.

DW runs at the same resolution as your desktop resolution. So if you have it set to 1920x1200, DW will run in 1920x1200.

DW fully supports all resolutions, it just sets itself to whatever resolution you are already running Windows at.

It is not an "old-arse" engine and fully supports modern operating systems and wide screen resolutions. I would suggest also checking your display driver settings if you are seeing clarity issues as it looks very clear on my 1680x1050. [;)]

[HsojVvad]

What is clear type?

[Tycow]

It's an option within Windows that smooths onscreen fonts.

[Erik Rutins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Type

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle ... Step1.aspx

I can turn mine on in XP using the Display Properties -> Effects as shown below.

[Webbco]

I just want to add that I also got sins when it came out and bought both expansion packs (I'm a gamer that has gone for more big-budget games in general).

It really didn't do anything for me, battles were proper shallow, expansion was repetitive, exploration was...pretty much non-existent.

DW is, of course, 2D but Elliot really pulled this off really well. For some unexplainable reason, I find it sooo much more satisfying blowing up 2D sprites in DW than 'polished' 3D models in Sins.

Believe it or not, I really think 2D wins over 3D when comparing these games. I just like seeing the ship chassis slowly ripped away, and the sounds of steel being pulverised [8D]

[Warspite3]

ORIGINAL: JonathanStrange

I love SOASE and DW and SOTS and GalCiv2 - they all have strength in different areas. I think SOASE's strength is in its graphics and polished professional design while DW has a stronger atmospheric and simulator feel that isn't highly polished at all but yet it lives. In DW, people get the feeling that the universe has its own life and goals. In SOASE, one has more the sense of "this is a game that responds along a certain path everytime." I like switching between games and these rough around the edges games like DW may not appeal all the time. But then I like Dwarf Fortress too.

Well said [:)]

[Ranbir]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

- Nonadjustable, unknown resolution that game configures itself automatically based on your system specs.

DW runs at the same resolution as your desktop resolution. So if you have it set to 1920x1200, DW will run in 1920x1200.

DW fully supports all resolutions, it just sets itself to whatever resolution you are already running Windows at.

It is not an "old-arse" engine and fully supports modern operating systems and wide screen resolutions. I would suggest also checking your display driver settings if you are seeing clarity issues as it looks very clear on my 1680x1050. [;)]

Not only does it set to my desktop resolution but it almost behaves like a desktop background or a windowed program(since the full screen just integrates into my desktop sort of thing)

So I'm able to alt-tab and multi-task with ease. It is a great piece of work there, Erik!

[TigerTC]

**bumping** this since I stumbled onto it through a Google search.

I'm really looking at getting a good Space 4X game. I remember playing the demo for Sins a few years ago -- I enjoyed it but it didn't grab me. I'm considering DW but am not looking for a huge micro-managing time-suck.

Are there any other new, comparable games out there?

[Gareth_Bryne]

Endless Space, but while under constant improvement, it is rather bland.