[MOD] Distant Worlds Universe Refreshed (Expanded Mod and and non-EM Version) Released

[salemonz]

/========== DWUR-EM (Expansion Mod Version!) ==========\

I use Alvek's Expanded Mod for Distant Worlds Universe. It fixes many memory issues and low-resolution options that DWU suffers from as an aging title. In fact, vanilla DWU doesn't load for me any longer WITHOUT Alvek's Expanded Mod.

You can get the most up-to-date version of the Expanded Mod here: https://github.com/DW-UX/DistantWorldsExpanded

I am shifting my continued DWUR development and support toward this new DWUR-EM (Expanded Mod version). https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR-EM. This version of DWUR REQUIRES the Expanded Mod. The game will crash without Alvek's mod installed.

The "old" version of DWUR (non-expanded mod version) will stay up. I consider it feature complete at this point (v1.2.1) https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR.

But all the new goodies and changes will be for the DWUR-EM version.

DWUR-EM adds new race type (featured as the Dessen race in this version...they adapt their traits based on the other races who live with them). It also features "outposts" as a small/cheap/fast buildable base. It also also features a new Diplomatic Training Facility that increases the chances of ambassadors spawning in your empire.

/========== Expansion Mod Version Log ==========\

v0.9.5 -- 18 March 2026 -- Refreshed all 194 components. New images (many pulled from my DW2 mods)
v0.9.4 -- 16 March 2026 -- Refreshed flags. 75 new empire flags. 75 new pirate flags.
v0.9.3 -- 15 March 2026 -- Balance pass incorporated. 2K files edited/changed. Race stats, AI policies, design templates, pirate behavior...even dialog during diplomacy have all been refreshed. 46 races in DWUR should all behave and play very differently.
v0.9.2 -- 14 March 2026 -- Updated pirate portraits (included legendary option for EM)
v0.9.1 -- 12 March 2026 -- Updated engine exhaust graphics
v0.9.0 -- 04 March 2026 -- Updated portraits for 25 races. Updated alert sound due to user request. Updated hyperdeny graphic for better visibility. Updated UI character icons for better visibility. Renamed/changed several races to help them fit in with the overall spread. REMOVED MUSIC (reduced download size by ~300MB)

GitHub: https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR-EM

/========== Regular (Non-Expansion Mod) Version Log ==========\

v1.2.1 -- 12 March 2026 -- Updated engine exhaust graphics
v1.2.0 -- 04 March 2026 -- Updated portraits for 25 races. Updated alert sound due to user request. Updated hyperdeny graphic for better visibility. Updated UI character icons for better visibility. Renamed/changed several races to help them fit in with the overall spread. REMOVED MUSIC (reduced download size by ~300MB)
v1.1.2 -- 16 April 2025 -- Fixed "spinning missile" situation. Added in fighter/bomber combo hangars for the AI.
v1.1.1 -- 29 March 2025 -- Updated blank pirate policy files that were causing errors with Alvek's Expanded Mod
v1.1.0 -- 16 April 2024 -- A few UI icon tweaks/replacements.
v1.0.1 -- 25 February 2024 -- New in-game Race Help files with edited backstories for each race.
v1.0.0 -- 17 February 2024 -- 1354 new ship graphics. 150 new planet landscapes. 31 new message images. 17 refreshed cursors. New engine effects. New beam weapon effects. NEW EVERYTHING!!! (well...not really but it seems like it)
v0.9.8 -- 06 December 2023 -- Fixed race misspellings. Fixed ship scaling. Fixed ship family mix-ups.
v0.9.7a -- 29 August 2023 -- Updated files for RetreatUE incorporated mod.
v0.9.7 -- 24 August 2023 -- Added balancing tweaks from Xilot
v0.9.6 -- 16 July 2023 -- Removed some ship sets at artists requests.
v0.9.5a -- 24 June 2023 -- Adjusting sound effect levels based on feedback.
v0.9.5 -- 22 June 2023 -- Normalized effect audio levels. Lowered gas giants image resolutions to avoid ring clipping.
v0.9.4 -- 02 June 2023 -- Reduced image file sizes on many characters and stations.
v0.9.3 -- 31 May 2023 -- Fixed wrong component pics for research. Fixed Terraforming Facility values.
v0.9.2 -- 30 May 2023 -- Fixed the planet "bad shadows" issue. Added some additional music tracks.
v0.9.0 -- 18 May 2023 -- Initial release

GitHub: https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR

/========== Introduction ==========\

With the release of Distant Worlds 2 some years ago, I thought it was high time to put out a mod compilation for Distant Worlds 1!

Haha, but seriously...

While I do very much enjoy the combat and quality-of-life changes of DW2, Distant Worlds 1 (Distant Worlds Universe) is still more fleshed out IMO, having the benefit of several expansions and years of refined gameplay that has kept me hooked. ...Aaaand it is in greater need of some new shiny graphics. ...AND AND I'm a 2D art hobbyist, so all the 3D modeling of the ships and whatnot of DW2 is just too much for me.

So I present: Distant Worlds Universe Refreshed ... or DWUR if acronyms do it for ya (no kink shame) ... a compilation of original and procured mod content from around the Distant Worlds community (and beyond!).

AI Trigger Warning: I use generative AI for portions of my workflow and to outright create parts of this compilation. I know some folks feel very strongly about AI art, so wanted to put it up front. I’m not an artist. I’m a dad and a spouse with limited time and money to commission the thousands of art assets in this compilation from actual artists for a free mod compilation for a 14-year-old game If it makes anyone feel better, it still takes a long damn time to arrive at what you see in the 4000+ images in the compilation.

/========== Feature summary ==========\

*Rebalanced 13 races to fix stat outliers, races that simply copied another's stats and created 4 new government types (Warrior Meritocracy, Theocratic Oligarchy, Arena Republic, Cybernetic Collective).
*Overhauled all 46 empire policy files to differentiate AI behavior — war willingness, trade priority, diplomacy, colonization preferences, and fleet composition now vary meaningfully by race instead of sharing near-identical values.
*Pirate policies: Rebuilt 9 broken/empty pirate policy files, corrected 11 tech focus mismatches, and assigned all 46 pirate factions to one of four behavioral archetypes (Raider, Mercenary, Smuggler, Scavenger). Three apex races (Boskara, Keskudon, Mortalen) designated as Legendary pirates. Aligned all PirateDefaultPlaystyle values in race files with their policy archetypes.
*Updated 33 empire ship templates across 14 races and overhauled all 493 pirate ship templates across 46 races — creating 12 missing pirate template folders, adding secondary weapons and fighter bays where lore specified them, and ensuring weapon loadouts match each race's stated preferences.
*Race lore: Rewrote all 46 race Help files entries with standardized formatting, gameplay summaries and revised lore incorporating the balance changes.
*New race and character art for all species (22 original species PLUS the 24 additional ones from Haree78's Distant World Extended Mod aaaaaaaand some tweaks I have made to the races)
*New shipsets (44 playable races, 2 NPC races and 3 Pirate sets)
*New art for planets (no AI (finally) ... created by me in Blender ... all but gas giants and frozen gas giants...I'm still terrible at those)
*Scaled down ships and weapon effects for better immersion
*New space stations for all races
*Refreshed engine and weapon effects (hand picked and modified from various sources)
*Refreshed galaxy symbol overlays (decluttered and more specific)
*Refreshed UI (new role graphics and some old DWU UI mod assets)
*Refreshed sounds (mix of old/new/tweaked)




/========== Installation Instructions ==========\

Step 1: Install the Expansion Mod by Alvek. https://github.com/DW-UX/DistantWorldsExpanded

Step 2: Download DWUR-EM. https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR-EM

Download the DWUR-EM zipped archive from the link at the top of the post. Create a folder called "DWUR" within the CUSTOMIZATION folder in your Distant Worlds Universe game folder. Extract the files from the DWUR-EM archive into your created DWUR folder.

Step 2: Start Distant Worlds Universe. Go to "Change Theme" in the main menu. Select and activate the DWUR-EM theme (this might take 20-30 seconds to fully activate)

Step 3: Exit DWU and restart. (Yes, this is necessary). If you don't exit and restart, not all of the theme assets will be loaded. Just a quirk of DWU.

/========== Major Balance Overhaul ==========\

In addition to all the art assets, DWUR-EM also went through a major balance pass.

The goal of this was to make every race in DWU Refreshed feel like they actually played differently — both when under player control and as AI opponents. In the base game and prior versions of the mod, most races shared near-identical AI policies, ship designs, and pirate configurations — despite having very different lore. A peaceful trading race and a warlike slaver empire would build the same fleets, research the same weapons, and behave almost identically in diplomacy. Races that were described as having unique technologies or cultural traits often had no mechanical backing for those descriptions.

This pass touched every moddable system that affects how races behave: stats, components, research, governments, empire policies, pirate policies, ship design templates and pirate design templates. The guiding principle I tried to maintain throughout was that if the lore said something about a race, the game files should reflect it. If a race is described as the galaxy's best fighters, their troop strength should be the highest. If a race specializes in electronic warfare, their ships should carry extra countermeasures. If a race's lore says they're peaceful traders, their AI shouldn't be declaring wars at the same rate as an aggressive conqueror.

Empty and broken files were rebuilt, cookie-cutter templates were differentiated, and pirate factions received a full behavioral overhaul so that encountering a Boskara pirate fleet feels fundamentally different from running into Teekan smugglers.

The full changelog can be read at https://github.com/salemonz/DWUR-EM/blo ... ngelog.txt.

/========== New Race and Ship Sets ==========\

When making the new species assets, I kept the original images and descriptions in mind, and at times tried to stay true to the original intent of each species, but at times I took some creative liberties to give as many species as much uniqueness and character as possible.

Each ship set has been re-done. Yes this took a long time. Hope you enjoy! Here are a couple of samples:







/========== New Planet Art ==========\



DWU original and modded planets were…okay…but I wanted to see if I could create my own. I taught myself a bit about Blender and followed some detailed tutorials to dive into planet creation.

/========== Scaled Down Ships and Weapon Effects ==========\



Original ships and stations were okay…but you ended up with moon-sized escorts and moon-sized battleships. I put ship scaling into every design template to give a default sizing for each ship class.

Ship class sizes:
Capital Ships - 0.950
Carriers - 0.950
Large Freighter - 0.950
Medium Freighter - 0.750
Small Freighter - 0.500
Cruisers - 0.750
Construction Ship - 0.750
Destroyers - 0.650
Frigates - 0.500
Escorts - 0.500

/========== Refreshed Engine and Weapon Effects ==========\



Many of these were already modded into DWU by others. I just hand-picked my favorites and included them in DWUR.

/========== Refreshed Ship Symbols ==========\



Galaxy view in DWU gets cluttered. I edited the ship symbols to be more subdued.



I decided to add special symbols to exploration and construction ships.

As you zoom out, these symbols will help you see where your intrepid explorers and builders are off to. Little easier to distinguish at distance than diamonds vs squares vs circles, IMO.

Similarly, I swapped out the military and fleet icons. Old ones were okay, but again...they've been "refreshed".

/========== Refreshed Sounds ==========\

Most sounds were fine. Most notably, I swapped out a lot of weapon effects from some other games (Stellaris...some from vanilla Starsector).

The sound you’ll probably hear the most are the hyperdrive enter/exit sounds. Grabbed some from Stardrive 1.

/========== Credits ==========\

Thanks to Code Force for the amazing DW series--my absolute favorite Space 4X games.

Thanks to Alvek for the wonderful Expansion Mod!

Incorporated DWU mods:
-- DasTactic's DasChrome Mod
-- Kebw1144's Stuff&Bits Mod
-- Haree78's Distant Worlds Extended Mod

###

[Retreat1970]

To have someone put so much effort into this dinosaur is wonderful.

[salemonz]

Thank you @Retreat1970! Means so much! Your mods have had a permanent place in my Themes for a LONG time

[salemonz]

Alright...received a couple of pieces of feedback that I'll start working on...

1. Need to see if I can fix the planet/shadow situation. I'm using the "fixed" shading graphic, but it's still giving weird halos around gas giants and extra darkened areas around normal planets...seems like a size-mismatch. Going to play around with the shading graphic's size to see if I can make any headway.

2. There are some unintentional ship lights on some ships...probably because the sprite colors are hitting the "pure yellow" color that the game looks for in the graphics (if you're unaware, you use lines of "pure blue" on 2D ship sprites to denote engine exhaust locations...similarly you use "pure yellow" single pixels to denote ship light locations).

That's it so far, from a feedback perspective.

I am still planning on doing more with star animations and gas giants.

Thanks for all the positive feedback (mainly via Reddit). Appreciate you all!

[Retreat1970]

I enjoy the new pictures and effects, but I haven't run your mod as is. I use a heavily modified RetreatUE and I dumped in the new pictures to check them out and I like them all mostly. Well, except the Atuuk picture which I can't bare to change for obvious reasons. I hope you don't mind that I pick it apart.
Quick question: I never figured out why the rings on some gas giants are clipped off. Did you fix this or could you look into it? Just a cosmetic thing that always bugged me, but I was to lazy to investigate.

[salemonz]

I get it on the Atuuk picture. Ha!

I don't mind ppl picking apart the compilation. That's what I did when I was hand-picking various effects and UI elements to swap out.

I will take a look at the clipping rings. I have noticed that too.

[salemonz]

@Retreat1970

I've been looking through the game files. I can't even find where they source the rings to begin with. There doesn't seem to be any discernable art assets. I might try fiddling with the gas giant picture sizes to see if reducing that gives the ring assets more "room" to be fully drawn. But initially I've hit a blocker.

[ChaosRemnant]

I keep getting an error while trying to change themes. Says it can't access a fighter png and that I may have to reinstall the game. Did so, reinstalled bacon and the mod and it keeps happening. Also double checked that the files even existed. They did.

[matrix@blackcompany.]

Now for my first cross-post ever [today is a big day for me!] -->

First post ever!

Could never get the Bacon mod to work under Windows 10--it kept crashing during gameplay.

But I actually tried it again with the new Distant Worlds Universe Refreshed [DWUR] mod [ https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1#p5099711 ] and now using Windows 11 and Retreat1970's working 1.82 Bacon download link [Thanks for posting it!!!] I finally play it with no problem.

Great original game with 2 great mods to give it a nice refresh [pun intended].

Only one small problem I have [and I've checked with just a fresh install of DW with just the Bacon mod installed]: The gas mining ship and gas mining station images are used ONLY and never the mineral mining ship and station images.

This is actually mentioned in an earlier Bacon mod post [4 yrs ago][ https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 7#p4467437 ] but I never saw any response.

Is there a workaround to this? Obviously a minor [no pun intended] issue but was hoping someone may have encountered it and had a fix. Thx!

[Retreat1970]

@salemonz

Can you get the Ketarov shipset to load? Family8?

It could be my build. I've tried many fixes with no luck. It keeps defaulting to the Minor shipsets in other.

[ChaosRemnant]

Fixed the issue on my end. Some of the files were read only for some reason. Undoing that fixed it.

[Alvek]

Now for my first cross-post ever [today is a big day for me!] -->

First post ever!

Could never get the Bacon mod to work under Windows 10--it kept crashing during gameplay.

But I actually tried it again with the new Distant Worlds Universe Refreshed [DWUR] mod [ https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1#p5099711 ] and now using Windows 11 and Retreat1970's working 1.82 Bacon download link [Thanks for posting it!!!] I finally play it with no problem.

Great original game with 2 great mods to give it a nice refresh [pun intended].

Only one small problem I have [and I've checked with just a fresh install of DW with just the Bacon mod installed]: The gas mining ship and gas mining station images are used ONLY and never the mineral mining ship and station images.

This is actually mentioned in an earlier Bacon mod post [4 yrs ago][ https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 7#p4467437 ] but I never saw any response.

Is there a workaround to this? Obviously a minor [no pun intended] issue but was hoping someone may have encountered it and had a fix. Thx!

There is error in code in Bacon mod. Currently, during searching sub role image, the code look through cached path for images and check if path contains a sub role name. As gas ship and station found first in list, they always got assigned to miner ship and station.
I fixed this in ExpansionMod version 1.03 but have not released it yet as I want to finish some things before release.

[salemonz]

@salemonz

Can you get the Ketarov shipset to load? Family8?

It could be my build. I've tried many fixes with no luck. It keeps defaulting to the Minor shipsets in other.

@Retreat

This was my doing. DWUR reassigned every race's ship family#. Ketarov used to be Family8, in DWUR they are Family28.

As I gathered all shipsets, I used new and old ones. I saw that there were these odd images in many ship families (named MIL1B, MIL1C, etc). I wasn't sure if the game needed those assets to stay put. So I put in new shipsets around where those were to try and not trip up other areas of the game. I also created 3 "pirate" shipsets (family47, 48, 49) and assigned all races to use one of those 3 when they are being played as pirates. I then went through and assigned shipsets to races based on the look/feel and race descriptions. I was very arbitrary in my assignments and renumbering. The # swaps was mainly just to help me organize everything.

But if you're only picking up certain parts of DWUR (and using the txt Races files), you'll probably run into that.

(Race / Old Shipset --> DWUR New Shipset)
Abbidon / 46 --> 37
Ackdarian / 6 --> 31
Amonkrie / 47 --> 27
Arm / 48 --> 7
Atuuk / 1 --> 46
Banoserit / 43 --> 40
Boskara / 2 --> 18
Caleph / 44 --> 12
Core / 48 --> 9
Dhayut / 3 --> 3
Drushocka / 49 --> 19
Enton / 40 --> 23
Gizurean / 4 --> 16
Haakonish / 5 --> 6
Hiigaran / 46 --> 29
Human / 6 --> 32
Ikkuro / 7 --> 24
Jintus / 29 --> 39
Keskudon / 38 --> 42
Ketarov / 8 --> 28
Kiadian / 9 --> 0
Lemeresh / 36 --> 13
Lipid / 41 --> 26
Mechanoid / 10 --> 10
Mortalen / 11 --> 34
Napoar / 30 --> 21
Naxxilian / 12 --> 8
Ortain / 33 --> 22
Paratis / 34 --> 30
Phaerax / 42 --> 38
Quameno / 13 --> 14
Riktoh / 28 --> 25
Securan / 14 --> 11
Shakturi / 15 --> 15
Shandar / 16 --> 4
Sluken / 17 --> 1
Tairoshan / 39 --> 20
Tarapin / 35 --> 35
Teekan / 18 --> 45
Ugnari / 19 --> 5
Visareen / 27 --> 44
Wekkarus / 20 --> 43
XHuman / 32 --> 36
Ylta / 44 --> 41
Yor / 37 --> 2
Zenox / 21 --> 17

[salemonz]

Fixed the issue on my end. Some of the files were read only for some reason. Undoing that fixed it.

Oh good, thanks for posting that you fixed it. I was about to start troubleshooting

[salemonz]

There is error in code in Bacon mod. Currently, during searching sub role image, the code look through cached path for images and check if path contains a sub role name. As gas ship and station found first in list, they always got assigned to miner ship and station.
I fixed this in ExpansionMod version 1.03 but have not released it yet as I want to finish some things before release.

Oooh, nice! Thanks for continuing to tweak things, @Alvek! Looking forward to more ExpansionMod goodness!

[Retreat1970]

My small problem seems to be an issue with the expansion mod 1.01 as described in his thread.

[Alvek]

@salemonz
Check your Bacon mod link, file blocked. Probably because they use virus total or something to check zip file and bacon mod exe recognized as virus. (https://www.mediafire.com/file/rzlxsefn ... e.zip/file)
You can try to set password if you want to use this file share.

[Alvek]

@salemonz
Check Wyvern and Dragoon bombers, they missing description in tech tree.

[salemonz]

@salemonz
Check your Bacon mod link, file blocked. Probably because they use virus total or something to check zip file and bacon mod exe recognized as virus. (https://www.mediafire.com/file/rzlxsefn ... e.zip/file)
You can try to set password if you want to use this file share.

Ah I see that, thanks. Took a few days before they restricted it, I see.

Looks like I'd have to upgrade to Mediafire PRO to password protect the file. Hrmmm...might have to leave that portion off and just have folks install Bacon on their own

[salemonz]

@salemonz
Check Wyvern and Dragoon bombers, they missing description in tech tree.

I will take a look, thank you.

Tracking down a few other random oversights as well.