Micromanagers Intro to Distant Worlds: Return of the Shakturi

[Igard]

Very informative AAR. Thank you for taking the time to bring this to us. [:)]

I can't wait to explore that tech tree now.

[Fideach]

Thanks for the AAR!  Was indeed very informative.. I am now sure I want to get this expansion.. yet, I also curse you a bit, cause this makes me impatient to get to play it myself lol. 

[robske]

Very intresting! Thanks!

[gmot]

Very nice looking. Like the research and toolbar thingie on the left. I'm looking forward to this expansion - have to admit I've stopped playing DW until then.

[Grotius]

Thanks for doing this AAR! I look forward to more installments. The expansion looks great.

[s20dan]

Excellent stuff.... I have a question I hope you can answer it.    Whats the highest level of technology?
 Cheers.

[Justascratch]

The highest level is seven. Here is a shot of a level seven Plasma Weapon

[Justascratch]

One final Research Screen. We now have a very nice summary screen listing active labs, total research capacity in each field and the total research potential of the empire.

[Shark7]

Looks like us old-timers are going to have to relearn to play the game...hope we can break our old habits quickly. [;)]

[Justascratch]

The game offeres some very nice default designs for ships. On occassion I have played games just using the default designs and was able to get along pretty well. Still, there is no doubt that players who design ships to specifically leverage advantages of race, research, playing style, government variables and so on will have a powerful edge when negotiations break down.

Since my race was made to fight it's a good idea to put their inherent advantages to use as quickly as possible.

So I'm going to tweak a few of the key designs.

I'll start wih a small upgrade for my medium space port.

[Justascratch]

As you can see the design screen has been . . . well - redesigned.

It provides more information and also organizes it in a much more accessible fashion.

For this space station upgrade I want to achieve two very easy and inexpensive objectives. I have plenty of excess energy available (192 units as shown in the top right panel). So I'm going to add 1 more research lab of each type. Each lab will give me an additional 20 points of research as you can deduce from the data in the Industry panel.

Additionally, I will add another construction yard to boost the number of ships I can build simultaneously.

[Justascratch]

Here is the new design. The new labs should come on line very quickly since the base is already fully operational. I am cutting the Energy level a bit close since it takes 174 energy units per second to keep the stations weapons firing at top speed as shown on the Weapons Panel and I only have 175 excess power available. Still I will have a little more of a margin since the Maxos Blasters have a 1.24 second recharge rate.

I have also renamed the station to MSP II and saved the new design via the Save button (top right).

[Justascratch]

Before leaving this screen I want to take a quick look at the Construction Summary via the button just above the Weapons panel.

Just as I suspected. The station requires Aculon and Nekros Stone to build. I will need to keep this in mind when deciding where to send my construction ships. More on that later.

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: s20dan

Excellent stuff.... I have a question I hope you can answer it.    Whats the highest level of technology?
Cheers.

As Justascratch mentioned there are seven levels of Tech.

If you look back at post #2 on the first page where you have "Tech Level" - each level corresponds to a column of Technology in the Research Tree.

For example at Level 2 you would have the left two columns (Starting, Level 1, & Level 2) completed in your Research tree for all three disciplines (Weapon, Energy, High Tech) - excluding other Race specific Techs of course.


EDIT:

Starting & Level 1 are the same column, but Starting is not the full column.

[Justascratch]

I like to run a tidy empire so returning to the Designs screen and using the "Show Non-Obsolete Design" filter (Top left). I can see that the old and new designs for my medium space station are listed. Cicking in the far right colum of this chart sets the original station to obsolete and will prevent it from appearing on the build and upgrade lists that appear when you right click on a colony or current station in orbit.

You can also to this by clicking on the check box in the top center of the Edit Design screen.

[Justascratch]

By now you probably have a handle on these newly designed screens so let me just quickly update a few ship designs so we can start exploring.

I'll start with my escort ship by giving it a new name worthy of a Sluken warship.

I generally try to keep my escort ships to a max size of 125. I don't usually send them into engagements intentionally, but want them strong, fast, and limber enough to kill space monsters and any enemy ships of the same class.

Since I have plenty of extra energy and my current weapons on use 19 units, I will double the firepower.

Also, the Movement Panel shows that the default turn rate is terrible for this small ship. She can't kill a Kaltor if she can't turn quick enough to dodge the first charge of the beast.

Two more thrust vectors nearly double her manuverability!

Slap on an additional shield and an additional layer of armour and she's more than able to meet the demands of her mission.

[s20dan]

As Justascratch mentioned there are seven levels of Tech.  If you look back at post #2 on the first page where you have "Tech Level" - each level corresponds to a column of Technology in the Research Tree.

 Thanks, I must have jumped ahead of the text in my eagerness to look at the nice new pics [;)]

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: s20dan

As Justascratch mentioned there are seven levels of Tech.  If you look back at post #2 on the first page where you have "Tech Level" - each level corresponds to a column of Technology in the Research Tree.

Thanks, I must have jumped ahead of the text in my eagerness to look at the nice new pics [;)]

I don't think it was brought up, that's why I mentioned it.

There are a lot of new changes and it's easy to miss some of them [:)]

[Justascratch]

I want my frigates size to stay under 200.

These ships will be the most expendable units in my attack fleets so I want to keep an eye on their overall cost. Like all my ships, they need to leverage the advantages of our very fast engines by adding high maneuverability so they can use hit and run tactics in close combat. I want them slightly better armed that the escorts but also equipped with more shields and armour to go toe to toe when called upon.

[Justascratch]

Just a quick note to brag on these new screens. Players know that every design choice is a compromise. Some serious effort went into the ship design screens so you can see the key effect of each choice as you make it.

For example my default frigate had 112 extra energy units, so I took out a reactor to lighten the load and make room for other equipment. My excess enegy dropped to 52, just slightly above the 48 units this ship needs to maintain a full rate of fire.

The loss of the reactor dropped my weight thus improving my acceleration rate from 9.2 to 7.6 (Movement Panel)

I added another shield generator raising my shield power from 200 to 300, but lower energy and additional power consumption slowed my shield recharge rate by 1/3 from .6 seconds to .9

Overall this ship will do well in a light skirmish, but the loss of the gererator may be her death in a longer engagement.