Distant Worlds Extended Universe 1.0.3 released 40 races

[Bingeling]

Having played the opening stages in my AAR, I really enjoy the mod. Meeting the new races makes things less predictable, especially since I have no clue what they are about.

I doubt I will disable the mod any time soon.

[Haree78]

Thanks Bingeling, still following your AAR, keep it up, I'm enjoying your struggle [:D]

[Baleur]

Slight problem, the new races dont have any dialogue in diplomacy? I just get "..." for everything except very basic things like "We accept."

[Haree78]

Nope, that's just the Lemeresh, they sometimes don't even speak to you

[Baleur]

Ah! That was their name!
I must say this mod is astonighingly well put together. But due to personal preference i removed the sluken, boskara and (that other insectoid that isnt gizureans) race pictures.
I found them to be of as high quality as the other race pictures and they fit very well, but they sort of remove the entire "zerg" feeling from the insectoid races.
There are already so many humanoid race pictures, i prefer to keep the insectoids as insectoid as possible, instead of just humans with funny faces (the star trek syndrome).
Are they set in stone or is there a chance you'd eventually come across more "insecty-disgusting-spidery" artwork that better reflects their race in terms of lore?

[Haree78]

Thanks Baleur.
Yes I know what you mean some lost their very insecty looking nature. But I figured something that evolved to our level of intelligence and ability to use tools from much closer Insect origins might not look quite so insecty
If I find some artwork that fits the rest of the art well and looks better then yes I'm likely to change them or to at least provide an optional part of the mod for more disgusting insectoids. Finding good art that matches the theme is difficult though.

[Bingeling]

Could the mod be to blame for poor AI management of ship design sizes?

Numbers from memory. 400 size is max.

Destroyers are around 330.
Cruisers around 450-460.

Carriers are just above the 600 size max.

I seem to remember the AI creating small cruisers in previous games (quite some time ago). With 330 size destroyers, there is a room for a 400 size cruiser with for instance hyper deny or fleet tools. Or with just a few more blasters and maybe a reactor (not sure what the reactor size is).

And running carrier designs at 602 and 626 (or thereabouts) is just silly.

So, is the problem in the Yor policy files, or is the problem in the current Distant Worlds? I am way less annoyed by missing cruisers, than missing carriers after researching the tech

I think you might know if the mod is possibly to blame or not without checking too much.

[Haree78]

There is nothing about the mod that should cause it. The Yor even use standard ship sizes in their race file, not that that should affect anything.
It's possible that the fix for ship sizes doesn't work for modded races? It's not something I've been looking out for. I would have to test whether this is a problem for all races first to try and put my finger on it.

[Bingeling]

It cleared itself before I got larger size. I am not sure if it needed a kick redesigning once carrier tech was available, or if there was smaller tech incoming that solved it. For instance, switching to a smaller reactor works a charm.

I remember before the size fitting were introduced... The Cruiser design being buildable once in a while, like quite early before gadgets were researched and such.

[Haree78]

Yeah I've experienced the same thing, I'm pretty sure it doesn't instantly redesign as soon as new tech is available, it will do it fairly often though.

[Baleur]

I also noticed iffy ship designs and "broken" empire policies when using this race mod (didnt notice it before i started using this though, but it might have been a bug introduced in the latest patch instead, i don't know).

All ships had no armor, no shields, and even no weapons upon starting a new game.. No joke. (Gizureans)
Furthermore, in the empire policy screen, all the ship design emphasis was set to "NONE".

[Haree78]

Have you tried to replicate this?
What version of Distant Worlds are you using?
This isn't an issue with this mod, I have just created a new game as Gizzies and all is fine.

[Baleur]

Nope it's the same without the mod. Must be some issue with my installation =/

Edit: nevermind, it was this issue related to non-uk keyboards: tm.asp?m=3230362&mpage=1&key=&#3231799

[Suikostinger]

Weird question......

Is there a spreadsheet out there of all the races, their characteristics and bonuses so that it will be easier to pick exactly what race I want to play as and against? That includes the races that came with the game and the ones you made? I've looked and can't seem to find any. Also didn't mean for that to be a replay to Baleur.

[Haree78]

What would the spreadsheet show?
Simply selecting them in the race selection part of the game shows everything you talk about.

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: Baleur

I also noticed iffy ship designs and "broken" empire policies when using this race mod (didnt notice it before i started using this though, but it might have been a bug introduced in the latest patch instead, i don't know).

All ships had no armor, no shields, and even no weapons upon starting a new game.. No joke. (Gizureans)
Furthermore, in the empire policy screen, all the ship design emphasis was set to "NONE".

This is a 1.7.16 critical bug of DW that for some reason is not fixed.

The problem is in policy file (either race or policy folder), a text file containing numbers.

Those numbers are given as 2.0.
In many countries (even England it may seem), Windows thinks that is a string of text, and that a number is typed as 2,0.

What you have to do is one of two:

1: Replace ass . with , in those files (Notepad++ query/replace "only" require 20 repetitions).
2: Go into windows regional settings, and in a subwindows change the decimal separator from , to .

It is an issue with no weapons on anything. Which makes wars rather troop focused, and space monsters a massive pest. Maybe carriers works, and ion weapons are mounted, though.

[Baleur]

Yeah had to do exactly that.
And to think all these issues could be resolved if the standard text file coding was Unicode.

[Haree78]

I've uploaded a small patch to fix the Lemeresh behaviour. There is a problem with the AI with the way it was handling this race which has been reported. This update will change their behaviour to work around the AI issue.

The patch will only work with new games.

[Bingeling]

Haree, do you control the two colors used for empires on the galaxy map? I have no complete listing of all races, but from my AAR game:



For most empires the colonies are clearly visible.

For the Yor (purple) it requires good imagination to see them on my screen.
For the Mortalen (dark red), it is hard, but possible to see the colonies.
For the Whatevers (Dark blues), it is also hard.
For the Dark Greens (visera?), it is a tad easier, but quite hard.
For the red-purple-whatever (Naxilians) it is also quite hard to see.
For most others it is easy to see colonies and trade lines.

Do you control this "second" color? It would help to brighten the galaxy map secondary a bit to have colonies and trade lines step forward a bit. But only for those that are unclear today, of course.

[Haree78]

I give each race a unique primary and secondary colour combination. Unfortunately there is only about as many colours as the original races and the game assigns unique primary colours to each. When several races use the same primary the game really starts mixing up who uses what in an almost random fashion. When it changes Gizzureans to blue it doesn't check if Securans are in the game so it should choose a different colour for example, it will just change Securans to a different colour as well.
The secondary colour's only effect is the colour of the icon on the flag, it doesn't affect the Galaxy map.

The only thing I have real control of is the flag image which I have given uniquely to each race.