Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Well, I may as well add this point as the press event is over but it does not seem to have appeared yet. Yes, we are working on a new expansion for Distant Worlds, which we expect to release by Q4 of this year. No details available yet, but we will provide more info once we are further along.

Regards,

- Erik

Holy Moley!! What else can you put into DW that isn't already in there? Maybe an Easter egg called "kitchen sink" [X(]

This news is just : Fantastic!

Sweet, in other news I just made a mod for this game (Shakturi & Legends) this weekend. I'll release after some polishing.

ORIGINAL: mbar

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Well, I may as well add this point as the press event is over but it does not seem to have appeared yet. Yes, we are working on a new expansion for Distant Worlds, which we expect to release by Q4 of this year. No details available yet, but we will provide more info once we are further along.

Regards,

- Erik

Holy Moley!! What else can you put into DW that isn't already in there? Maybe an Easter egg called "kitchen sink" [X(]

I would looooooove a Diplomacy-centered expansion.

More like a modding and AI centered expansion. Obviously you can't sell it only based on that, but those are the most pressing issues in the game I'd say. Get components and the tech trees out of the code and over to editable text files, give more( preferably text-input instead of sliders) control over game world settings like map size( bigger!), resource prevalence, etc. Improve the AI to the point of it actually being somewhat challenging without changing every game setting in disfavor of the player. That's the kind of stuff that will make the game endure; customization and challenge.

Yeah, would be tough to sell an AI-only expansion. Despite the fact that a good AI is one of the toughest things to implement, customers simply expect it as part of any game.

I knew (or actually - I was thinking) that there for sure will be another expansion for DW. It was inevitable... But so soon? THIS is a real surprise... And very nice surprise

The game has been out for years and even with superficial modding I count two complete gameplay mods that were one man shows..People like to talk about modding this and that but generally fuck off when they see the workload.You need BIG AAA strategy game communitys like CIV or TotalWar or forget about it..

Yeah, to be honest, modding doesn't even register on the list for me. I never played mods, ever, not even the big ones like Fall From Heaven. As far as I'm concerned, dev time spend on improving moddability is lost time.

Obviously not everyone feels the same way, but I'm guessing even with Civ4's massive community, fanbase, and mods, the majority of players have never even installed one.

Good news Erik. Keep up the good work!

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
The game has been out for years and even with superficial modding I count two complete gameplay mods that were one man shows..People like to talk about modding this and that but generally fuck off when they see the workload.You need BIG AAA strategy game communitys like CIV or TotalWar or forget about it..

Here I'd strongly disagree. Space Empires, Mount&Blade, Dominions, etc., none of these would be the same if not for the mod support. And there are no real gameplay mods for DW, since components and tech tree can't be modded.

ORIGINAL: Cauldyth
Yeah, to be honest, modding doesn't even register on the list for me. I never played mods, ever, not even the big ones like Fall From Heaven. As far as I'm concerned, dev time spend on improving moddability is lost time.

Obviously not everyone feels the same way, but I'm guessing even with Civ4's massive community, fanbase, and mods, the majority of players have never even installed one.

You're losing out, I'd say. The reason to mod is to improve upon the game, and very often mods do that. The Half-Life series likely wouldn't be even half as popular today if not for Counter-strike and the other great mods made for it when they released the mod tools. For a game like Distant Worlds, where some minutes/hours spent editing a few components can make huge changes to the balance and fun of the game, it's even more important I think. What's more, it lets players easily fix smaller stuff like balance issues that the developers might not consider patch-worthy.

Now, if making it moddable would end up taking like half the development time of the expansion, I might see your point. But since it's more likely to be just a week or two of effort to have the game get components and tech from files instead of code, I think it's more than worth it. Mods keep a game fresh, and that's something DW is in great need of.

not enjoying mods is not exactly unusual, i know more than a few people IRL that don't use mods because they feel that because its not created by professional game developers it does not usually retain the same level of quality.

i 100% disagree with this sentiment, but i can sorta understand their point of view.

I belong to the small minority who is not throwing money at the screen and breaking out in a pink pony prerelease party. I'm happy that the rest of the community is happy, and I am happy that Matrix will be giving Elliott money to do more stuff, but I am feeling a bit cautious about paying a premium price for another expansion to this game when I think there are 2 or 3 issues that need working on first; I don't want all of the things that need to be done only done in expansions, especially considering the idiosyncratic pricing Matrix has for this series.

ORIGINAL: Raap

ORIGINAL: Cauldyth
Yeah, to be honest, modding doesn't even register on the list for me. I never played mods, ever, not even the big ones like Fall From Heaven. As far as I'm concerned, dev time spend on improving moddability is lost time.

Obviously not everyone feels the same way, but I'm guessing even with Civ4's massive community, fanbase, and mods, the majority of players have never even installed one.

You're losing out, I'd say.

Yeah, I won't claim my aversion to mods is defensible, it's just a quirk of mine. It's also not due to any perception that mods aren't of sufficient quality. I think it has to do with the sporadic nature of my game playing. I never feel I've squeezed enough out of the base game to want to then try out some mods.

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
The game has been out for years and even with superficial modding I count two complete gameplay mods that were one man shows..People like to talk about modding this and that but generally [shy away] when they see the workload.You need BIG AAA strategy game communitys like CIV or TotalWar or forget about it.

For me it is not so much shy away, but it is difficult to push out the door doing a (more than) full time job and this is your hobby. Having said that, there is a lot of work involved, just as you say.
To me that is most of the fun... something for my mind to tinker with...

Maybe the new expansion will add multi-player?

This may resolve a lot problem with AI [:D]

I... I don't know what to say. New expansion... we all knew it was coming. [:D] However, hearing the news is something else, man. I haven't been this happy since I lost me virginity all those years ago...

Maybe some people don't understand what is this new expansion in DW. I will tell you. [;)] Honestly, new expansions in DW are only NEW PATCHES FOR PAID, not less and no more...

ORIGINAL: WiZz

Maybe some people don't understand what is this new expansion in DW. I will tell you. [;)] Honestly, new expansions in DW are only NEW PATCHES FOR PAID, not less and no more...

This is just plain wrong.....sorry been here since before release and the number of patches/fixes and inclusion of player suggestions is far better than i've seen game designers entertain before. Elliot does a very good job of listening and attempting to include good ideas into the game.