New Distant Worlds video: Game Controls

[elliotg]

A video describing the game controls for Distant Worlds is now available at the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ghpK7gBSY

[kafka]

I'm really impressed with this fantastic peace of software. Superb interface design. Considering thats its mostly the product of a single person, its really impressive work. Congrats. Btw how long has it been in development? [&o]

[lordxorn]

Elliot,

I have a couple questions about the controls,

First one is,
I noticed the narrator having to constantly pan the view to manually track the object he selected. This can be one of the drawbacks of modeling orbits. So can you set the view to lock on a selected object?

Second,
Map overlays, is there a way to enable a overlay of your empire's territory?

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: kafka
Btw how long has it been in development? [&o]

Too long... [:D]

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn
I noticed the narrator having to constantly pan the view to manually track the object he selected. This can be one of the drawbacks of modeling orbits. So can you set the view to lock on a selected object?

Yes

Map overlays, is there a way to enable a overlay of your empire's territory?

Your empire's systems, popular routes and scanner ranges are always visible in the main view. There's also a Galaxy Map tool that provides many different views of the galaxy.

[martok]

Very cool. Thanks for putting this up, elliot!


Of course, I have a few questions:

1.) Does the dotted line that circles your homeworld several light years out denote your current ship range?

2.) Can your planets build any sort of fixed/stationary defenses, or are ships the only real way to protect your colonies?

3.) Do you actually have any control over civilian vessels, or are they completely automated?

4.) Are there any hot-keys to augment the mouse controls?

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: martok
1.) Does the dotted line that circles your homeworld several light years out denote your current ship range?

Correct - estimated fuel range.

2.) Can your planets build any sort of fixed/stationary defenses, or are ships the only real way to protect your colonies?

You can also build defensive bases (usually space ports) at your colonies. These can be pretty strong, and even a full fleet might struggle to defeat them.

3.) Do you actually have any control over civilian vessels, or are they completely automated?

Private ships (freighters, mobile mining ships and passenger ships) are completely automated. However you can still get a taste of resource-gathering by using mobile construction ships to build mining stations. In fact you can build lots of different types of bases using these construction ships.

4.) Are there any hot-keys to augment the mouse controls?

Yes, all buttons have keyboard equivalents. And keys 0-9 are assigned as hot keys to quickly select any item you store in them (e.g. ships, bases, colonies, fleets, etc)

[Baleur]

How come a 1-man (programming wise) game can have a ten times better interface than a small development studio that has released 5 games (Space Empires V, i'm looking at you and your horrible horrible horrible interface that disgusts me to the point of always uninstalling you after an hour)?

I guess, some devs are just incompetent, i'm glad you're not, because this game is looking better and better! [&o]
I just have to ask, is the framerate in the video as smoothly as the game ever runs?

[ASHBERY76]

How big do late game fleets get.I just wonder about how easy it is to manage mega empire wars with a 1000 star galaxy.With no way to bombard alien scum it also means you have to land transport at each planet too.

[ypsylon]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: kafka
Btw how long has it been in development? [&o]

Too long... [:D]

Oh wow, World in Flames Devs are not alone! [:D]

Sorry just couldn't stop laughing when I read 'too long'. He, he

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Baleur
I just have to ask, is the framerate in the video as smoothly as the game ever runs?

No, it's much better in game. The videos don't really do justice to the game play. I'll have to tweak my video capture settings for the next videos to show the smoother game play.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
How big do late game fleets get.I just wonder about how easy it is to manage mega empire wars with a 1000 star galaxy.With no way to bombard alien scum it also means you have to land transport at each planet too.

You can choose the size of your fleets by simply adding more ships. But typically fleets are around 15-25 ships of various sizes and types.

Late game/larger empires simply tend to have more fleets, instead of bigger ones. The strategy is a lot about having your forces in the right place at the right time, so having more fleets to spread around helps with this.

Requiring invasion forces of troops is a good thing - it slows wars down a bit. As it is, you'll find that things happen fast enough. If you lose a couple of critical colonies you can suddenly be in deep trouble.

[Xenoform21]

ORIGINAL: martok
1.) Does the dotted line that circles your homeworld several light years out denote your current ship range?

Correct - estimated fuel range.

So when the ships run out of fuel, are they just dead in water? Or is the dotted line a representation of the point of no return to nearest fueling?

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Xenoform21

ORIGINAL: martok
1.) Does the dotted line that circles your homeworld several light years out denote your current ship range?

Correct - estimated fuel range.

So when the ships run out of fuel, are they just dead in water? Or is the dotted line a representation of the point of no return to nearest fueling?

When ships run out of fuel they they can still move, but at greatly reduced speed. Also their weapons and other equipment is inoperable. So they can still limp back to a refuelling point, but can't do much else.

[bullproof]

This game looks great. When is it due to come out? Sorry if you have already answered this somewhere.

[tgb]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: Xenoform21

Correct - estimated fuel range.

So when the ships run out of fuel, are they just dead in water? Or is the dotted line a representation of the point of no return to nearest fueling?

When ships run out of fuel they they can still move, but at greatly reduced speed. Also their weapons and other equipment is inoperable. So they can still limp back to a refuelling point, but can't do much else.

I'm hoping (assuming) ships autmoatically re-fuel, and this doesn't ave to be micromanaged.

[JosEPhII]

From elliotg's responses so far I'd be surprised if you had to micro ship re-fueling. Especially with this being an RTS game.

JosEPh [;)]

[Baleur]

Probably automated fuel ships like the other automated ships in the game
Oh and yeah, release the game already! At least online

[Zenra]

ORIGINAL: bullproof

This game looks great. When is it due to come out? Sorry if you have already answered this somewhere.

I love questions like this - look here

[Data]

old times, more than a year ago we had only those youtube videos [:)]