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

[salemonz]

These correct a “data not found" error in the Colonies - Facility Building section of the Empire Policy in-game screen.

Oooh thank you, I'll add this to my next release for EM-version

[salemonz]

Updated to DWUR 1.5.3 and DWUR-EM to 1.0.3

I was noticing AI empires stalling out and often not performing well. I wondered if it might be some bad behaviors in the AI. I wanted to confirm galaxy resources were distributed well enough to let AI empires have a chance. They were not.

Resource Balance Changelog
===============================================================

I looked at resource distribution and availability issues that could leave AI empires starved of critical construction materials or colony growth inputs, particularly in smaller galaxies or unlucky star configurations. The changes focus on three areas: ensuring key strategic resources are flagged for pre-warp home system placement, adding secondary source locations to eliminate single-point-of-failure bottlenecks, and gently increasing the prevalence of the rarest late-game minerals so they are scarce but not absent.

DILITHIUM CRYSTAL
-----------------
Used in 29 components with heavy per-unit demand (1,118 total units across the component catalog), yet only spawned on Ocean planets with no pre-warp guarantee. Empires without an Ocean world nearby could be locked out of major portions of their tech tree.
- IsImportantPreWarpResource: N → Y
- Added secondary source: Barren Rock planets (prevalence 0.10, abundance 0.3–0.8)
- Note: Ice was originally considered but conflicts with Tyderios (gas)
on the same subtype, which the engine disallows

TYDERIOS
--------
Feeds 31 components — the 4th most-used construction gas — but was not flagged for pre-warp placement. Its overall galaxy supply is healthy thanks to Ice planets and Chlorine gas clouds, so only the pre-warp flag was missing.
- IsImportantPreWarpResource: N → Y

SILICON
-------
A colony growth resource (0.3) used in 28 components, but only spawned on Desert planets. A single bad neighborhood could choke both construction and development. Added a low-prevalence fallback source.
- Added secondary source: Barren Rock planets (prevalence 0.10, abundance 0.3–0.8)

ACULON
------
The 7th most-demanded construction mineral (43 components), yet only available on Volcanic worlds with no pre-warp flag. Empires in regions without volcanic activity had no path to nearly a quarter of their component catalog.
- IsImportantPreWarpResource: N → Y
- Added secondary source: Desert planets (prevalence 0.15, abundance 0.3–0.8)

GOLD
----
Used in 50 components — the 5th highest demand — with relatively thin galaxy-wide supply. Already pre-warp flagged, so the fix is a modest prevalence bump at its most common habitable source.
- Continental planet prevalence: 0.10 → 0.15

IRIDIUM
-------
The single biggest supply-demand mismatch in the file: 53 components and 919 total units of demand against the lowest supply score of any high-demand resource, and no pre-warp flag. This was the resource most likely to cripple an AI empire's mid-game construction.
- IsImportantPreWarpResource: N → Y
- Continental planet prevalence: 0.05 → 0.10

URANIUM
-------
A maximum-demand colony growth resource (Growth=1.0) with the lowest supply score of any growth input — less than a tenth of Hydrogen's. The pre-warp flag ensured starting systems had some, but expansion colonies would frequently starve. Supply more than doubled with these changes while keeping the resource meaningfully scarce.
- Barren Rock planet prevalence: 0.07 → 0.13
- Metal asteroid prevalence: 0.05 → 0.09
- Added tertiary source: Volcanic planets (prevalence 0.06, abundance 0.4–0.8)

ADAMANTIUM
----------
Intentionally rare late-game mineral used in 7 advanced components. At 0.04 prevalence on a single source type, some galaxies could generate zero deposits. A small bump preserves the strategic value while preventing total absence.
- Metal asteroid prevalence: 0.04 → 0.07

DENEBA CRYSTAL
--------------
Rare advanced mineral used in 16 components across two source types. Similar to Adamantium, the concern was not scarcity but potential absence in smaller galaxies.
- Barren Rock planet prevalence: 0.04 → 0.06
- Volcanic planet prevalence: 0.04 → 0.06

[CaesarAug]

Resource availability to help the AI. Very interesting!

[salemonz]

Resource availability to help the AI. Very interesting!

Yeah I'm interested to see how it goes, from an overall game-quality standpoint.

I've already established certain "tiers" when it comes to races...some races have better bonuses, some are more/less aggressive in general. Policies in game already establish varied research orders across races. So...already we've done a lot to make sure that races will act in various ways and toward various aims--especially if players use "random" tech levels for AI empires. Some opponents will be ahead/behind at the start, regardless, giving more room for the specific races to play out their plans.

Resources just seem like a way to ensure the flavor of an AI's behavior can be fully realized (and the player, for that matter, to a lesser extent). Nobody likes a bad spawn, where RNG has kept critical resources out of reach, meanwhile pirates and AI empires at higher tech starts just stomp everybody. Some might say that a race being stuck, critically short of certain resources, is still compelling--and I would agree. An underdog story of fighting back against a lack of resources, or choosing a path around the shortage and persevering through the drought; those are great stories, yes. However, I can't give AIs in DWU those sort of responses

And I tried to make it that the resources weren't just everywhere like some AI cheat code But I also wanted to make sure players (human and AI) at least had a chance to do well in a game, versus what I was often noticing where an empire is just sitting idle, no resources to do anything, waiting to be conquered.

[salemonz]

I'm noticing I've buffed sub-light engines too much (not accounting for both the component value increases and the "improvement" research increases coming together).

As a result, my balance work has increased sub-light speeds by 3-4x of vanilla.

That in and of itself isn't terrible, but two main things that take the fun out of the game (for me):
1. High-tech ships zip around like lunatics. I feel their sub-light speeds are too much.
2. Carriers, even when self-slowing down to pick up fighters, still outrun their own fighters. This means Mechanoid carriers end up trying to crawl across the galaxy at sub-light speeds, forever waiting for fighters to dock who themselves are too slow.

So...I'm testing some fixes.

Leaning toward a general nerf to sub-light speeds to bring the actual values more in line with vanilla.

My balance changes will still be in there...namely me trying to make the different engines/thruster distinct. But, I'm reining in my values so they aren't too much.

Should be rolling out a new patch within a couple of days.

[CaesarAug]

Yes, sublight speeds do seem a bit too fast, fun though it is, it takes getting used to. In my mods, I think I’ve managed a suitable balance: ships a bit faster than vanilla sublight speeds but not overly so. And also some moderate adjustments to fighter speeds. Seems to work out well enough. I think your upcoming adjustments will be great.

[salemonz]

Tweaking the component engine values, I didn't account for the additional boost from improvement research. With these two levers of modification, the prior movement pass increased main-thrust engine output to roughly 3x vanilla levels while fighter speeds remained near vanilla.

At high tech this left carriers travelling at nearly double the speed of the fighters they carry. Because a carrier must recall and dock all of its fighters before it can jump to hyperspace, a carrier that permanently outran its own squadrons could never complete a jump — it crept across the map at sublight speed indefinitely, escorting fighters that could never close the distance to dock. In the game UI the affected carrier displayed a reduced "(slowed)" travel speed: the carrier was throttling down to recover its fighters, but even its reduced speed outpaced them.

This was most visible on the Mechanoid and Shakturi, who spawn at maximum technology and therefore field the fastest possible engines immediately, but it affected every race's carriers at high tech.

But it wasn't enough to just nerf everything, I needed to take engine component performance, research improvement bonuses and design templates into consideration. It ended up being a pretty involved re-rebalancing.

Should be better now, though. I've updated DWUR and DWUR-EM with the same changes. Check out the github links in the OP