Distant Worlds v1.0.2 Public Beta Now Available

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks for your patience with these issues, we regret that they slipped through to release but we have tried to fix the critical issues as quickly as possible. If that goes well, this will become an official release by tomorrow.

We strongly recommend that if you are experiencing any crash or economy issues that you give this update a try. This update will work fine with existing saved games.

For the economy fix, also be aware that it's not an "instant fix". Once you load your saved game, you will need to let it run for a bit while the economy sorts itself out but it will improve and get back to a better condition.

Here's how to download this update - because it's a public beta, you need to get it from our Members Club. Click on the Members Link in the top nav bar. If you haven't created an account there yet or registered your copy of Distant Worlds, please do so. Once logged in and registered, click on "My Games" then click on the "Private Downloads" link next to Distant Worlds and you will see a link to download the public beta update.

Please note that once this becomes official, it will be available through our normal download and update process (in the Latest Downloads section and through the "Check for Updates" link on your game menu) but we do not like to release public beta updates widely until we are sure they are good to go.

Items fixed/added in this patch:

1 - Fixed overall Economy issues. A bug was introduced to order fulfillment that prevented freighters from distributing resources properly, thus tanking the development level of your colonies over time. This has been fixed and tested against multiple customer savegames.
2 - Fixed crash at startup when Windows language settings are Polish or other languages that use commas as decimal separators (tm.asp?m=2413949)
3 - Fixed crashes when zoom in/out at edge of galaxy (tm.asp?m=2414140)
4 - Fixed crash that occasionally occurs when opening Expansion Planner screen (tm.asp?m=2414116)
5 - Fixed crash that sometimes occurs when you sort items in Construction Yards screen by the Maintenance column (tm.asp?m=2414115)
6 - Fixed crash that occasionally occurs when explore ruins (AndrewL encountered this)
7 - Fixed crashes when game ends. This problem was frequently showing up as repeatable crashes when victory conditions set (fb.asp?m=2415200)
8 - Fixed bug that caused various crashes related to attempt to finish construction of planet destroyer. This bug manifested itself in a variety of unusual crashes, but the underlying cause was any empire attempting to build the planet destroyer (fb.asp?m=2414757)
9 - Fixed crash caused by defeated empires sometimes still being referenced by other empires (AndrewL encountered this)
10 - Fixed bug where could not retrofit to designs generated by "Upgrade" button in Designs screen (fb.asp?m=241623)
11 - Fixed bug where player giving gift to other empires had no effect (tm.asp?m=2416641)
12 - Fixed crash when press Alt-F4 to exit Distant Worlds - this key combination is now disabled while in the main game
13 - Added quick-save key shortcut: Ctrl-S, saves current game, or prompts for file name if no current save

The bugs in items 7 and 8 were causing most of the mysterious "Distant Worlds has stopped working" crashes that have been reported. Looking forward to not seeing those again...

[Tycow]

Quick question regarding this beta and future updates. Can save game compatibility be guaranteed when moving to a newer version of DW?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Tycow
Quick question regarding this beta and future updates. Can save game compatibility be guaranteed when moving to a newer version of DW?

Can't necessarily guarantee that for the future, but this one is compatible with previous saves. We do not want to break save compatibility, but if it's required for a serious issue to be fixed, we will do so.

[Tycow]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Tycow
Quick question regarding this beta and future updates. Can save game compatibility be guaranteed when moving to a newer version of DW?

Can't necessarily guarantee that for the future, but this one is compatible with previous saves. We do not want to break save compatibility, but if it's required for a serious issue to be fixed, we will do so.

Coolio, that's a good stance to take. I assume you guys would announce that new games would be required on application of a non-compatible game patch. [:)]

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, and we'll try to avoid that unless really necessary.

[DivePac88]

Thank you Erik, and team for all the hard work that went into this patch, your support is first rate (as usual). But I must admit that I've been lucky, I've been playing Distant Worlds now for two days, and have not had one problem or glitch!

[HsojVvad]

WOW I am impressed. 2 days after release and a patch to fix something that people were complaining about. Codeforce does really listen to it's customers. Well I hope this is the case because that would mean CodeForce knew about this and releaseed the game anyways and was close to completion to fix. I hate the buy now patch later approach. But I understand CodeForce can't find all the bugs, (just wundering how many beta testers were there but understand this question can't be answered) but it does seem that Codeforce is listening to us, and even implimneted a quick save option, wich I will love greatly.

I am glad I bought this game, no I know for shure if there is any problems, CF will try and fix the problems right away.

[Tycow]

Downloaded - testing now

[HsojVvad]

So if we download this beta, and when the official one comes out, will it over write the beta one? In other games when there was a beta patch, the beta patch had to be deleted first before the offical patch can be applied. How does it work for you guys?

[Erik Rutins]

The official update will overwrite the beta, no problem.

[EisenHammer]

Outstanding... And time for me to get DW.
The support for this game is just awesome.[:)]

[Kumppi]

My freighters are zipping all over the place and my homeworld is getting the goods it needs. Great job [&o]

[lordxorn]

I am having a problem downloading it, it ask for a login request, tried using my member info and it still doesn't work. The anonymous login doesn't work either.

[Erik Rutins]

Just tested it, working fine here - do you have anything running that might interfere with a FTP transfer, be it security software or some kind of browser add-on? No login required, just a download link you click in your browser.

[lordxorn]

maybe DAP, let me uninstall that crap. =-P

[Wade1000]

Here's how to download this update - because it's a public beta, you need to get it from our Members Club. Click on the Members Link in the top nav bar. If you haven't created an account there yet or registered your copy of Distant Worlds, please do so. Once logged in and registered, click on "My Games" then click on the "Private Downloads" link next to Distant Worlds and you will see a link to download the public beta update.

 
Could you elaborate on "Members Club" with a slight overview of what it is? Will you supply a link to "Members Club"?
-----

I think I found it.
http://www.matrixgames.com/community/login.asp

[Hyfrydle]

Just downloaded and installed ready to see this helps with my first game save where the economy really went downhill.

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, that's the place Wade. The Members Club serves two purposes: First, it's for game registration. Once you register, your serial number is stored there and you can retrieve it at any time. Second, you can get access to extra stuff, including signing up for the mailing list for a particular game and getting access to public betas and occasionally some additional bonus content.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Hyfrydle
Just downloaded and installed ready to see this helps with my first game save where the economy really went downhill.

FYI we tested it with every economy save we received and in all cases it did turn things around (though it won't fix over-building, but it will fix the underlying cause which was lowering the homeworld development and causing income problems).

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Yes, that's the place Wade. The Members Club serves two purposes: First, it's for game registration. Once you register, your serial number is stored there and you can retrieve it at any time. Second, you can get access to extra stuff, including signing up for the mailing list for a particular game and getting access to public betas and occasionally some additional bonus content.

you know, I check that box every time I register a game and don't think I have ever gotten any thing (don't think it is going to the junk mail folder, I got to clean that almost every day