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

[jayman]

Oh, ok, so that makes sense for the filesize. Don't know why it should be showing different installation problems for different users then.

If you don't use EM mod, DWUR for EM version can cause error in facility.txt in original game due to new facility type.

I was using the latest EM mod, 2.1.1.2 beta. I just installed over an old version though, 1.10.01. Should I re-install Distant Worlds from scratch before adding the new EM mod?

[Alvek]

I was using the latest EM mod, 2.1.1.2 beta. I just installed over an old version though, 1.10.01. Should I re-install Distant Worlds from scratch before adding the new EM mod?

I don't think that old version would cause errors. Probably error in DWUR, rollback on previous version of DWUR if you have it.
I will check new DWUR version tomorrow, if I have time.

[Shadowtrailz]

I saw I could download the 1.1.2 version. It also said it couldn't load an image file, but it kept giving me random ones. After a couple of tries, it loaded in. So I restarted the game and started playing. I could not get 1.2.0 to work for me. I tried multiple times, thinking it might go through. It always says it can't load the same race46png file.

[Alvek]

Checked DWUR for EM, only largefreighter.png in family 45 is corrupted, everything else works. Theme changed and new game started after replacing corrupted file.
Gitlub displays corrupted image without errors, so I assume that it's is release zip corrupted during packing.

Will check 1.2.0 version tomorrow.

[Alvek]

DWUR 1.2.0 for vanila have duplicate race file, some left over race files after cnahges, etc. It have 51 races instead of 46, if you reduce race count to 46 this version should work, but I haven't tested that.
Salemonz is on vacation and should be back in few days. He will probably fix it then.

[CaesarAug]

But there seems to be a problem with the new Diplomacy Academy facility. There are seemingly only 16 types of facilities, yet the Diplomacy Academy facility has an ID of 17. In addition to the corrected largefreighter.png for ship family 45, the only way I’ve managed to get the Expansion Mod DWUR v0.9.0 working is by changing that Diplomacy Academy facility ID to 12 (SpyAcademy), which seemed the most appropriate.

[Alvek]

But there seems to be a problem with the new Diplomacy Academy facility. There are seemingly only 16 types of facilities, yet the Diplomacy Academy facility has an ID of 17. In addition to the corrected largefreighter.png for ship family 45, the only way I’ve managed to get the Expansion Mod DWUR v0.9.0 working is by changing that Diplomacy Academy facility ID to 12 (SpyAcademy), which seemed the most appropriate.

If 1.2.0 contains dip academy then it error too. But 0.9 for EM support id 17, that's new stuff for EM

[CaesarAug]

Actually, v1.2.0 does not include the Diplomatic Academy, only the EM v0.9.0 does. What is Facility ID 17 then? 17 DiplomaticAcademy? I’ll have to try running v0.9.0 again with a restored ID 17.

[Alvek]

Actually, v1.2.0 does not include the Diplomatic Academy, only the EM v0.9.0 does. What is Facility ID 17 then? 17 DiplomaticAcademy? I’ll have to try running v0.9.0 again with a restored ID 17.

Yes, 17 is new id for DiplomaticAcademy in EM

[CaesarAug]

Actually, v1.2.0 does not include the Diplomatic Academy, only the EM v0.9.0 does. What is Facility ID 17 then? 17 DiplomaticAcademy? I’ll have to try running v0.9.0 again with a restored ID 17.

Yes, 17 is new id for DiplomaticAcademy in EM

With ID 17 the game still crashes at startup. If fact, it does not start at all. What could be the problem?

[Alvek]

Actually, v1.2.0 does not include the Diplomatic Academy, only the EM v0.9.0 does. What is Facility ID 17 then? 17 DiplomaticAcademy? I’ll have to try running v0.9.0 again with a restored ID 17.

Yes, 17 is new id for DiplomaticAcademy in EM

With ID 17 the game still crashes at startup. If fact, it does not start at all. What could be the problem?

Use latest alpha version, iirc latest beta don't support it.
I suppose i need to publish it as DWUR mow use this stuff.

[CaesarAug]

Yes, 17 is new id for DiplomaticAcademy in EM

With ID 17 the game still crashes at startup. If fact, it does not start at all. What could be the problem?

Use latest alpha version, iirc latest beta don't support it.
I suppose i need to publish it as DWUR mow use this stuff.

Ah, I was on 2.1.1.2 Beta. I hadn't updated to the latest 2.2.1.3 Alpha. Now it starts up. Thanks.

[jayman]

With ID 17 the game still crashes at startup. If fact, it does not start at all. What could be the problem?

Use latest alpha version, iirc latest beta don't support it.
I suppose i need to publish it as DWUR mow use this stuff.

Ah, I was on 2.2.1.2 Beta. I hadn't updated to the latest 2.2.1.3 Alpha. Now it starts up. Thanks.

That explains why I was getting a failure to load with the facilities.txt when I tried to change the theme to the new 0.9.0 DWUR EM then. I'll DL the alpha mentioned and give it another go.

Such an old game, but these bug-reporting posts prove it's still alive. Good to see!

[CaesarAug]

Use latest alpha version, iirc latest beta don't support it.
I suppose i need to publish it as DWUR mow use this stuff.

Ah, I was on 2.2.1.2 Beta. I hadn't updated to the latest 2.2.1.3 Alpha. Now it starts up. Thanks.

That explains why I was getting a failure to load with the facilities.txt when I tried to change the theme to the new 0.9.0 DWUR EM then. I'll DL the alpha mentioned and give it another go.

Such an old game, but these bug-reporting posts prove it's still alive. Good to see!

Yes, DWU is an absolute gem of a game! And with the Expansion Mod complemented with other mods, it is superior! Taking from other modders and my own tweaks, I’ve developed a Star Trek Kirk-era mod and a Star Wars mod… I really like the aesthetics. The ideal thing would be to adapt the UI to modern high screen resolutions, but as it is, it’s a great game.

[salemonz]

Hey all! Thanks to Alvek for keeping the lights on in this thread. I often forget to log in and see what's going on.

Yes, sorry @jayman and @CaesarAug about the latest errors. I was using Alvek's newest EM version alpha and put in that new facility. Hopefully using his latest EM version clears things up on the DWUR EM version.

The DWUR (non EM version) should be pretty stable/complete. Strangely enough I can't get DWU to load by itself on my computer. I need EM to even start the game (even without mods). But I'll try and run down issues people might be having with the non-EM version of DWUR as well.

But moving forward, my main emphasis will be on DWUR-EM Version.

I'm about to start a big balance pass for all 46 races. I'm looking to establish a bit of a "strength tier" system for all the races...some latently powerful races...some 'underdog' races...most average/capable. Trying to lean into the lore as much as possible and bring in all the Extended Races from Haree's old mod and give them their places in the DWU universe.

That said, there are some races you've noticed I've renamed (avoiding the direct Homeworld nod with the Hiigarans...avoiding the old Total Annihilation nod with the Core/Arm). After renaming/re-portrait-ing (new word!), I still felt many races were blah or needed tweaking.

This balance pass will try and align races along these general strength tiers. Mechanoid/Shakturi at the tippy top, of course. Not trying to make everything blended/homogenized. Some races will be "better"/easier than others...within reason. The balance pass will also hit components and facilities to try and make sure each race has some distinctiveness and flavor. Again...not trying to swing a sledge hammer here, but I want to see if I can smooth out any rough edges with upgrades and race-specific components.

Balance pass will be an optional download once finished (it's all just text files that will overwrite the standard DWUR races/policy/template/etc files). I'll list it as another gitlab project and link it. I'll also publish the change notes in the OP so folks can see what has changed.

More to come

[CaesarAug]

Hey all! Thanks to Alvek for keeping the lights on in this thread. I often forget to log in and see what's going on.

Yes, sorry @jayman and @CaesarAug about the latest errors. I was using Alvek's newest EM version alpha and put in that new facility. Hopefully using his latest EM version clears things up on the DWUR EM version.

The DWUR (non EM version) should be pretty stable/complete. Strangely enough I can't get DWU to load by itself on my computer. I need EM to even start the game (even without mods). But I'll try and run down issues people might be having with the non-EM version of DWUR as well.

But moving forward, my main emphasis will be on DWUR-EM Version.

I'm about to start a big balance pass for all 46 races. I'm looking to establish a bit of a "strength tier" system for all the races...some latently powerful races...some 'underdog' races...most average/capable. Trying to lean into the lore as much as possible and bring in all the Extended Races from Haree's old mod and give them their places in the DWU universe.

That said, there are some races you've noticed I've renamed (avoiding the direct Homeworld nod with the Hiigarans...avoiding the old Total Annihilation nod with the Core/Arm). After renaming/re-portrait-ing (new word!), I still felt many races were blah or needed tweaking.

This balance pass will try and align races along these general strength tiers. Mechanoid/Shakturi at the tippy top, of course. Not trying to make everything blended/homogenized. Some races will be "better"/easier than others...within reason. The balance pass will also hit components and facilities to try and make sure each race has some distinctiveness and flavor. Again...not trying to swing a sledge hammer here, but I want to see if I can smooth out any rough edges with upgrades and race-specific components.

Balance pass will be an optional download once finished (it's all just text files that will overwrite the standard DWUR races/policy/template/etc files). I'll list it as another gitlab project and link it. I'll also publish the change notes in the OP so folks can see what has changed.

More to come

Oooh, excellent news!

[By the way, though it isn’t crucial, the DWUR Help files aren’t working for some odd reason.]

[salemonz]

[By the way, though it isn’t crucial, the DWUR Help files aren’t working for some odd reason.]

Hrmm, that's odd. I just re-did all the race ones. They don't show up in-game? (or is it the non-EM version that's not working?)

Screenshot 2026-03-13 091553.png (1.23 MiB) Viewed 179 times

Unfortunately, DWU help files are .mht format, which are unreadable in almost every tool except Microsoft Word.

I hate working with .mht files--wish the game just used text files. Let me know if they're broken in game and I'll try and find out what's going on.

[jayman]

I finally got the DWUR EM version working with the latest EM-alpha, after changing the largefreigter pic in family49 which was causing problems with changing the theme (corrupted pic in the DL, I used one from DWUR 1.1.0). I've noticed other problems now however and I don't know which one of them has messed up.

Some of the check-boxes and fonts on the custom-game set-up thingys are messed up, such as too big a box in some places like in the 'pirates respawn' box or too small a font in other places so it's unreadable even though other fonts on the same screen are the 'normal' size. The hot-keys aren't working either so space-bar no longer pauses the game for example. Just little annoyances really, but they impact on the enjoyment of the game so I went back to an older version until the new bugs are ironed out.

Besides, I'm already many game years into a long campaign with DWUR 1.1.0 and it's not compatible with the new version of EM, which causes it to crash!

[Alvek]

Some of the check-boxes and fonts on the custom-game set-up thingys are messed up, such as too big a box in some places like in the 'pirates respawn' box or too small a font in other places so it's unreadable even though other fonts on the same screen are the 'normal' size. The hot-keys aren't working either so space-bar no longer pauses the game for example. Just little annoyances really, but they impact on the enjoyment of the game so I went back to an older version until the new bugs are ironed out.

Weird checkboxes are part of changes for UI, not finished as it takes too much time. Fonts probably too, depends on where.
No idea why hot-keys do not work. There is known bug that after alt+tab first hotkey is ignored by game, but after that they work.

Besides, I'm already many game years into a long campaign with DWUR 1.1.0 and it's not compatible with the new version of EM, which causes it to crash!

That is probably due to changes in DWUR than EM, game doesn't store images in save files and always use current images even if save file reference path or image that are currently is missing.

[CaesarAug]

[By the way, though it isn’t crucial, the DWUR Help files aren’t working for some odd reason.]

Hrmm, that's odd. I just re-did all the race ones. They don't show up in-game? (or is it the non-EM version that's not working?)

Screenshot 2026-03-13 091553.png

Unfortunately, DWU help files are .mht format, which are unreadable in almost every tool except Microsoft Word.

I hate working with .mht files--wish the game just used text files. Let me know if they're broken in game and I'll try and find out what's going on.

Will get back to you on this… I mentioned it because as I wanted to use one of the race descriptions of your mod in order to edit (with MS Word) a race for my Star Trek mod, I noticed it was blank. I naturally assumed it was across the board.