Matrix Games Forums

Ship-to-ship combat, bombarding planets, landing troops and more detailed in the latest video!

Matrix Games and CodeFore (www.codeforce.co.nz) are pleased to release another video for their highly anticipated space 4X game, Distant Worlds! This latest video details all things destructive in Distant Worlds as it shows off some fleet tactics and space battles, the mechanics behind planetary invasion and planetary bombardment, fleet resupply ships, and more!

Check out the video on YouTube.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Rich customization features, near limitless replayability, a very unique and engaging game system – Distant Worlds has so much going for it. There’s no wonder why a vibrant community of fans has been steadily growing from the early stages of development and this video is another preview of one of the most anticipated 4x releases to date!”

Distant Worlds is a vast, real-time, 4X space strategy game. Experience the full depth and detail of large turn-based strategy games, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.

Vast galaxies are made to order: up to 1400 star systems, with up to 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Galaxies are so deep, fun and immersive that you won’t want to finish the game... Build, expand and improve your empire endlessly. The galaxy is packed with life and activity. Encounter other empires, independent alien colonies, traders, pirates and space monsters. Explore star systems, asteroid fields, gas clouds, supernovae, galactic storms and black holes. Discover evidence of civilizations long since past, uncovering secrets about the galaxy's troubled history...

Best of all, you can play the game your way: enjoy a quick, intense game in a crowded galaxy or take your time in an epic game spread across a vast galaxy! You can run the game as slow or as fast as you like, with intelligent advisors and many different settings for warnings and auto-pause triggers to help you manage your empire at your own pace.

Get more information on Distant Worlds from its official product page and check out the video on YouTube.

Thx for new video but quality is crappy compared to the videos whose where uploaded on you tube before.
Seriosly I cant see a thing.

Thats because it takes YouTube like 10 hours to properly encode it into HD

Did you see how many views the previous videos got. 6000+ for the first one and about 2000 for the subsequent ones. But perhaps some of the people here on the forum have seen them numerous times [8|]

When zoomed out to the galaxy map the ship icons seemed to have a jerky,skipping path when moving between planets.Is this how it is in the game?

I wouldn't take that as given. Elliot has said numerous times that his video recording software makes the videos skip.

Thats the thing though, when the developer of the game himself cant record a proper video...
I'm starting to wonder if this game may be utterly bugtastic, as it appears in the videos. Skippy framerate, crackling audio issues, etc.

Dont get me wrong, im dying to get my hands on it, and i have high hopes. But if i'm going purely by the facts (the videos ive seen), it seems very buggy and semi-broken, preformance and audio-wise..
And sure, it may be as he says. But then one has to wonder, why not simply download Fraps and record a proper video?

He can afford to develop a game but he cant afford a Fraps licence?
Or he can afford to develop a game but cant afford a mediocre 3-year old computer that can handle 2d games without running at 10fps during recording?

I'm not trying to be pessimistic, im trying to go by the only facts i have before i get to try the game myself.
Everything we've seen, has been in really bad framerate and crackling audio.. And if the game isnt like that, its bad PR for no reason other than laziness?
I know that if i spent several years working on a project, i'd want to present it as well as i could.

The audio quality issues are solely due to the videos. The game itself is stable and runs smoothly and looks and sounds great. However, when you zoom way out, the "update interval" becomes larger to keep things performing well. So it's like a radar screen that updates every second or so, rather than every micro-second. As you zoom in, everything updates in real-time. The speed you run the game in can also affect this, so things may be a bit less smooth at 4x speed than at 1x speed.

ORIGINAL: Baleur

Thats the thing though, when the developer of the game himself cant record a proper video...
I'm starting to wonder if this game may be utterly bugtastic, as it appears in the videos. Skippy framerate, crackling audio issues, etc.

Dont get me wrong, im dying to get my hands on it, and i have high hopes. But if i'm going purely by the facts (the videos ive seen), it seems very buggy and semi-broken, preformance and audio-wise..
And sure, it may be as he says. But then one has to wonder, why not simply download Fraps and record a proper video?

He can afford to develop a game but he cant afford a Fraps licence?
Or he can afford to develop a game but cant afford a mediocre 3-year old computer that can handle 2d games without running at 10fps during recording?

I'm not trying to be pessimistic, im trying to go by the only facts i have before i get to try the game myself.
Everything we've seen, has been in really bad framerate and crackling audio.. And if the game isnt like that, its bad PR for no reason other than laziness?
I know that if i spent several years working on a project, i'd want to present it as well as i could.

1 - I've used Fraps and it can cause jerkiness when I record in some of my games.
2 - Programming does not equal mad recording skillz.
3 - Bugtastic? You base this on what, exactly? Again, a lot of video capture software can cause these issues.
4 - Purely broken? Heh, jumping the shark does not a good argument make. Fraps is not an infallible recorder, as you've no doubt seem me say...
5 - Your "can't afford" meme is rather, again, baseless.
6 - Do you doubt what the beta testers and the dev have said about the games performance?

Baleur, you were obviously offended by the movies and are thus being pessimistic. Maybe Elliot didn't want to waste money producing perfect quality videos? When watching them, we all get a very good idea as to what the game is like and we must trust the word of the beta testers that the game itself is not stuttery etc. Tensions are so high in this place!

Whose voice is on those videos anyway?

OK.
Quality is better. I had problem with my web browser.

Anyway two things.
1)You cant choose what Ground Units you pack on your ship or you can?
2)Your empire gain instant bonus from conquered race. You dont need to reeducate or assimilate enemy population. Just puff and in magic way your empire gain their raciual bonus.
This is bad. Dont know how much bad but this isnt good for sure.

Ugh. At least wait until the game is released before you decide to berate it. [8|]

I, too, find it odd if the conquered alien race bonus is instantly applied to our entire population/civilization.
It seems that it should only apply:
-to where the alien races are
-and apply only to them and not our other races in our civilization
-or it should apply as a percentage to the applicable game element, according to how many of the alien race you have.

It is rather silly.You conquer one small Bug planet and your whole Empire gets a -40% lower war weariness.I hope it can be changed or modded out.

Exactly. I can only hope that it is made as we think it should be and that maybe they just didn't design very well the explanation on the conquered planet/race bonus popup widow. If so, then they should redo that window explanation.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
The audio quality issues are solely due to the videos. The game itself is stable and runs smoothly and looks and sounds great. However, when you zoom way out, the "update interval" becomes larger to keep things performing well. So it's like a radar screen that updates every second or so, rather than every micro-second. As you zoom in, everything updates in real-time. The speed you run the game in can also affect this, so things may be a bit less smooth at 4x speed than at 1x speed.

Thx for the reply, i dont think you are lying, im just simply stating the only known "facts" about how we've seen the game run.
With so many AAA titles being released at near unplayable states, you cant simply take someones word for it, "even" when its an indie game

I'm just saying, choppy videos with sound issues can put off the majority of costumers who know nothing else of this game (you are sure to get far more sales than there are active members on this forum, thats what i mean). If all they see are some choppy videos, they are gonna think its Space Empires V all over again.

That is so true.
Nothing personal but that is real world.
No more trust for a game producers.

Yeah, I think many of us are tired of totally trusting the quality of new 4X strategy games before they are released.
There seems to be a pattern of history among many of these games: (an example):
-hype
-release
-update for major issues
-update for major issues
-update for major issues
-update
-update
-update
-forums are dying down
-other game forums mention the game's bad state at release and maybe currently
-forums mention more bugs/game errors
-forums mention what other games people are playing and awaiting
-forums are nearly dead

Why are you all so negative all of a sudden?