What I don't have fun with in Distant Worlds

[HsojVvad]

First off, I like the game. I like it alot. There is a big learning curve, but that dosn't bother me. This post is not suppose to be a negative, but to help the developers in making DW better by making changes in the patches like StarDock does with GCII or for an expansion hopefully. There are lots of things posted in the wish thread, but this is not for wish, but what dosn't work for me, and cause me not to have fun in the game.

1) I do not enjoy the research aspect of the game. I am not shure how to say it. I don't really know what is going on. All I see is a whole bunch of techs being researched but I don't know what they really do. Yeah I can click on it, for it to show me in a box in a bigger screen, but then I have to hit it again to bring up the galacticpidea to explain what it does. Then I have to close two screens and then do the double opening and double closing again. This is not fun for me.

Maybe I have been spoiled by Masters of Orion (the first one) by having seperate tech fields. I know what is computers, construction, engines, weapons etc etc. In DW everything is all thrown into the soup sort to speak. I want my weapons seperate, I want my computers seperate. I want my engines seperate. I don't know, it's just boring to look at and dosn't inspire me to become a race with research bonouses so I can research faster.

2) The design ship creation is a let down. This is one of the things I love most about 4X space games. Designing my own ship. I love the complexity that DW has, but the design screen is boring. I don't want WOW state of the art graphics but I don't feel like I am designing a ship. It's hard to explain. Maybe because everything is so small. Small Fonts, Small pics of Icons. Small everything. I don't know, I would like if I pic say an engine, then there would be a pic of a ship with an engine in it. This way I can see the design coming to life, instead of the boring, Red You are missing this.

I guess because DW is so alive while it is playing with ships moving, lights flashing, it is a living world, designing a ship seems dead. Bland. All I think it takes is a ship diagram to bring this to life. I love the charts, when it tells me how much power I have and when ever I add an item, but it dosn't feel like I am making a ship. I really think a diagram of a ship coming together as I put in componets would bring this aspect of the game to life more.

3) Havn't played the game enough yet, but the spy game seems boring as well. Boring spy screen. Not shure what else can be done here since I havn't played it long enough.

4) Space combat is a bit boring. Just click and watch lazers go pwee pwee. I guess we are stuck at the AI level of combat, since issuing orders like tractor beams to slow it down, or just nock out the engines for boarding parties, the AI can't do, so makes it fair that nobody can do it. Hopefully you guys will be able to implement Fighters, Tractor beams, pick out targets of a ship like engines, boarding parties. Boarding parties espically for Star Bases. I would like to control combat just a bit more than say pick target and watch.

Also, you know when the enemy shields are down, but you don't know how much armour is left on the ship before it explodes. Maybe have the armour bar underneath the shield bar, so we can see when a ship is about to explode and then can issue orders to other ships to pick other targets. One game, I had 5 destroyers shooting and one enemy ship and it not dieing yet. Is it because I am missing all the time, or is it because it has good armour?

5) I miss having leaders. People who can give bonuses to say if in a Star Base, construction is 10% faster, but he costs more money to hire. Or in a certain research base you get more % research. Put in a ship, he has a higher % chance to hit, or defence, or speed or repair. Again, they would cost money to be kept hired, but gives you bonuses as well.

6) This is a big one. I don't feel like I am colonizing any worlds. All I feel like is just making star bases. All a planet can really do is just make the ships that starbases can't make. I want to add structures, so my population can grow bigger. I want to add missle defence bases to make conquest harder. I want to add research facilities to help out research espically when playing "Research" very slowly. How about adding buildings that make your spies a bit better? Buildings that add to my commerce. When making a space station and only putting one building in for happiness or extra money is not fun at all.

I want when I colonize a world to have it grow, not just colonize a world so I can make a space station over it. One thing that I loved about MooII, was you got to see your colony grow on the planet level. Someone mentioned Ascendency a while ago. Hell I would like something like that or GCII. At least you feel like you are making that planet grow. Since space is limited on a planet, do I put this in, or should I put that in? See thise really makes you choose and think now.

7) This just pisses me off, and makes me want to shut the game off some times. I can understand that constructions is stalled. But why is it stalled? Why can't the resources be listed to tell us what we are short of? This also brings up, why can't we say as an empire we want more of this resource. Since we can't pick and choose what resource the private sectors gives us, at least let us prioritize what we want first.

8) I can understand about having mines already in place at the begining of the game, but I don't like having 2 stars already discovered. I want to make them all myself. Nothing major but it takes the exploration fun a bit away from me.

9) Have an eta calculator when sending ships. I had a whole bunch of ships not in a fleet so when I sent them to attack pirates in another system, they arrived at different times. I like how in HoI or EU it tells me how long it will take to get to the destination. I don't find it fun that I can't automate when the units attack. Like in HoI 2, you can tell someone to attack only as support until the main attacking force comes in. Not shure if this can be implemented here since the combat system are totally differnt, but maybe this gives you a new idea to impliment.

10) This is minor but took my enjoyment away from the game. Since 4x space games have been around for a long time now, why can't we make our own races? I felt a little bummed out I couldn't make my own race.

11) Wich leads me to uncolonizable worlds. Why can't we research tech so we can colnize volcanic planets? Espically water world planets. Look what they did in Japan. They made a freaking airport on water since there was no land to build it on. I think in the future we should be able to build on oceanic planets and have submerciable cities. I guess this would let playing different races a different feel to the game. Again, I guess I am spoiled from MooII and MooIII race creation.

There will be more things I will not have fun with and I will post them when I play the game. Again this is not a wish thread, but things that I just don't enjoy or have fun playing with.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game alot. I just want to see it improved more via patches, or expansion packs. I can say more to what I love about this game, instead of the 11 things that I don't have fun with. But that will not make DW a better game.

So please list your vices that you do not have fun with in Distant Worlds. Let us know complain but say what you don't have fun with. Hopefull CodeForce will be able to rectify this in futur patches or in expansions.

I love this game. I just want it to be better.

[DiggyDad]

I'm really with you on a number of things.

2) I hate to admit it but I really don't understand what I'm doing here.  Ship design should be more streamlined or intuitive I think.

6) It would definitely add another level if we could develop colonies.

7) Definitely this one.  There needs to be some kind of way to figure out where resources are going, why they are going there, and to entice the AI to send them where you need them.

I too don't want to give the impression I don't like it because I really do.  I've never played anything like it before and am looking forward to it getting better.

[siRkid]

ORIGINAL: Davor

1) I do not enjoy the research aspect of the game. I am not shure how to say it. I don't really know what is going on. All I see is a whole bunch of techs being researched but I don't know what they really do. Yeah I can click on it, for it to show me in a box in a bigger screen, but then I have to hit it again to bring up the galacticpidea to explain what it does. Then I have to close two screens and then do the double opening and double closing again. This is not fun for me.

Maybe I have been spoiled by Masters of Orion (the first one) by having seperate tech fields. I know what is computers, construction, engines, weapons etc etc. In DW everything is all thrown into the soup sort to speak. I want my weapons seperate, I want my computers seperate. I want my engines seperate. I don't know, it's just boring to look at and dosn't inspire me to become a race with research bonouses so I can research faster.

I was just about to post the same thing. In fact, its why I logged on. I agree 100%. I do not get that feeling of getting excited that I'm about to complet a project. Its more like oh thast good I wonder how that will play out? Do I need to upgrade or what?

[Cheet4h]

7) This just pisses me off, and makes me want to shut the game off some times. I can understand that constructions is stalled. But why is it stalled? Why can't the resources be listed to tell us what we are short of? This also brings up, why can't we say as an empire we want more of this resource. Since we can't pick and choose what resource the private sectors gives us, at least let us prioritize what we want first.

I think this is already in.
When opening the constructing window, choose the stalled constructor and switch to the tab 'Cargo'. There you can see which ressources are on board and which not. Also the Rsvd probably means "reserved". So when Rsvd is not 0 and Amount is 0, these ressources are probably missing.
The only problem is: This information is useless, since you can't transport ressources yourself. Only thing you could do would be to build more mining bases.


If it's not already in i would propose a new feature:
The player can choose to raise the worth of a ressource, so the privates could try to get more of this. Same for planets, so some ressources get to the selected planet faster.
Automatically it could be done via the Stock/Demand-list. The bigger difference between these two, the higher the prices. Maybe set an extra option to favor strategic ressources over luxury goods for times such as wars etc. where you need to build and maintain a big fleet....

[HsojVvad]

Yes I looked at this cargo tab. Wasn't shure what it really ment. It would be good that what was needed was in Red for none avaliable, Yellow for have some but running out, Green we have plenty of. Also since the icons are so small, it's hard to read, espically when there is lots of resources in the cargo tab.

[freeboy]

I think you should decide if you are pissed of? aor you like the game? Seems like you are liking, thus enjoying the game but perhaps you are frustrated with teh learning curve? Is the manual detailed?

[lordxorn]

ORIGINAL: Kid

ORIGINAL: Davor

1) I do not enjoy the research aspect of the game. I am not shure how to say it. I don't really know what is going on. All I see is a whole bunch of techs being researched but I don't know what they really do. Yeah I can click on it, for it to show me in a box in a bigger screen, but then I have to hit it again to bring up the galacticpidea to explain what it does. Then I have to close two screens and then do the double opening and double closing again. This is not fun for me.

Maybe I have been spoiled by Masters of Orion (the first one) by having seperate tech fields. I know what is computers, construction, engines, weapons etc etc. In DW everything is all thrown into the soup sort to speak. I want my weapons seperate, I want my computers seperate. I want my engines seperate. I don't know, it's just boring to look at and dosn't inspire me to become a race with research bonouses so I can research faster.

I was just about to post the same thing. In fact, its why I logged on. I agree 100%. I do not get that feeling of getting excited that I'm about to complet a project. Its more like oh thast good I wonder how that will play out? Do I need to upgrade or what?

I agree, I think we all feel like we lost one of the most important aspects of 4x games, micromanaging our research projects and reaping immediate benefits of the finished project.

Like getting Stellar Converter in MOO2, it is a game changer. Distant Worlds takes a more macro approach to the tech issue. While I miss the direct control I have in other games, I have learned to enjoy DW version.

Davor the way to look at tech in DW, is that every new tech will improve a certain aspect of your empire. Let's look at Hyper Drive engines, when starting with starter tech, your fleets are painfully slow. However once you hit Hyperdrive speed 32000 they start to zoom. Once I reach a level of techs combined, I will initiate an upgrade of my civilian and military forces.
This is a combination of fuel storage, hyperdrive, and weapons. When I upgrade civilian designs I notice the AI will scrap these ships and order new ones.

Davor I don't think you are getting that everything is not thrown into a soup. There are 4 general subjects, but then at the bottom there are specific fields, like torpedos, hyperdrive, shields, etc. You can crash research any field with enough funds. So I disagree that all fields are souped in together and you just randomly get techs finished. You can see the progress in any field and know that once say hyperdrive is done your ships will warp that much faster.

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: freeboy

I think you should decide if you are pissed of? aor you like the game? Seems like you are liking, thus enjoying the game but perhaps you are frustrated with teh learning curve? Is the manual detailed?

I love this game. Ever since playing EU and HoI I always wanted a Moo game like this. The manual isn't that detailed. The learning curve is huge though. I keep restarting all the time learning new things as I go on.

By pissed I mean, getting upset not knowing why something is working the way it is. With all this automation that DW does for you, I would want better explantion as to why something is stalled. Seeing how many Private ships the AI makes for you, and you want to make your own Capital ship and it can't be made, you shouldn't have to go through so many screens to find out why. Remeber everything is suppose to be automated so you don't have to do the work. So you shouldn't have to work just to find out why something is not working or being made.

I guess automation is a double edge sword. It does everything for us, so we don't have to work and struggle. But we have to work and struggle to find out why something dosen't work.

If you look at F12, the Empire summery, you have things listed in green or red to show you what is good or bad. Why can't this be done to show what resources we don't have then? It comes down to the pics and fonts being so small it's a bit hard to read. Being so hard to read at least for me, it's hard to take all the info into my brain of mine. [:'(]

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: Davor
I don't know, it's just boring to look at and dosn't inspire me to become a race with research bonouses so I can research faster.

Research bonus is nearly completely worthless. Placing a research base or two at good research site pretty much maxes out your researchometer for life, because of the fact that your research ability is capped, so once you hit cap, building more research bases is useless. Tech bonus increases the effectiveness of research bases, but has no effect on the cap, and since I can hit cap with a single research base placed around a research site like a nova or a black hole, that pretty much ends your involvement in research. The game is pretty hellbent on making sure you absolutely cannot get ahead there, so any halfway-interested research effort will cap out fast, rendering a research bonus totally worthless.

[forsaken1111]

ORIGINAL: Fishman

ORIGINAL: Davor
I don't know, it's just boring to look at and dosn't inspire me to become a race with research bonouses so I can research faster.

Research bonus is nearly completely worthless. Placing a research base or two at good research site pretty much maxes out your researchometer for life, because of the fact that your research ability is capped, so once you hit cap, building more research bases is useless. Tech bonus increases the effectiveness of research bases, but has no effect on the cap, and since I can hit cap with a single research base placed around a research site like a nova or a black hole, that pretty much ends your involvement in research. The game is pretty hellbent on making sure you absolutely cannot get ahead there, so any halfway-interested research effort will cap out fast, rendering a research bonus totally worthless.

This is not true. Your maximum research ability represents the maximum amount of resources (people/equipment/etc) that your empire can put into research. This amount scales as your empire population gets bigger and you get wealthier. I can tell you for a fact that it gets a LOT higher than at the beginning, and 'one or two' good research sites will not cut it in the late game. Your research ability scales directly with how well your empire is doing.

[ASHBERY76]

So you want to game to be like all the other 4X games out there? Go play them.

[Wade1000]

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2420181 ('Distant Worlds: Recommendations to new players.')

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: Wade1000

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2420181 ('Distant Worlds: Recommendations to new players.')

We are doing option #4. Exterminating questions by asking on the fourm [:D]

What is your problem Ashbery 76? Ok, I am going to start a new post and tell everyone to play another 4X space game and not bother giving input into what we like or don't like. I don't think CodeForce or Matrix would like this. If you have nothing constructive to say, please don't say anything. It is getting tiring of reading your beligerent posts. A few more like this and I i will have to hit the green button and ignore you, wich I have never done with anyone else. Your if you don't like it, leave attitude gets stale really fast.

We have a right to tell them what we don't like. Because we don't like it means we should play something else? For alot of people, they don't like the current way how research is handled in DW. If it dosn't change it would be a good reason not to buy an expansion pack, and play another 4X game as you said. That takes money away from Matrix and CF. I think they rather listen to what we have to say, so they can either address the situation or change how research is done for an expansion pack, instead of playing another game that is not theres.

[Sarissofoi]

Ad 1.
I agreed. MoO I has suprerior resarch model and nothing after was that good. If you can copy these system into this game and inplement it good nobody will say bad word. If you crew this then it is another story.
Now reasarch sytem is shallow.
AD 2.
I agreed.
Look at old games. MoO I or II or for Space Empire IV. SEIV have easy and simple design system.
Now it is pain.
Ad 3.
I agreed.
Spy are to much micro for macro game. Similar to Imperium Galactica 2 spy system . And IG2 dont have good spy system.
Ad 4.
Agree.
Need more difrent weapons types, components etc. More behaviors for ships, tactics or orders for fleets and many other things.
Ad 5.
Agree.
I think governors for systems and admirals for fleets will be better but leaders and advisors should be inplemented.
Ad 6.
Agree.
More sliders and more caracteristic for colony.
Ad 7.
Agree.
More feedback is nedeed.
Ad 8.
Agree.
I too want to see when you start without nothing - only with mass stack of resources on planet. No tech no stations no ships no civilian ships nothing.
Ad 9.
Agree.
Ad 10.
It is posible but in game editor would be nice. Also many things like spec goverments and some other things cant be changed.
Ad 11.
I dont like colonize and grow fully colony at all worlds. But if some colonies would be more like mining colony that why not.

[Veloxi]

I don't think these guys were trying to make a game exactly like MoO1 or 2 or SE4, they're trying to make their own vision. Comparing this game to those games is unfair, I think.

[Sarissofoi]

You get bad impressions. This is now problem what they done only how.
I dont have problem with Real Time or scale but some mechanism are to crude, heavy shallow or add any word you find neccesary.
I try to give this game best aproach but it is most time very tiring.
This is something like using wood whels in new car model. Or better using hexagonal wheels instead round one.

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: Veloxi

I don't think these guys were trying to make a game exactly like MoO1 or 2 or SE4, they're trying to make their own vision. Comparing this game to those games is unfair, I think.

We have to compare it to something else. Just like when Activision made Call 2 Power it was compared to Civilization. Just like when Brian Rynolds (sorry I think I spelt it wrong) left and made his own game, it was compared to Civilization and it was done in real time as well.

So yes that they made a game in their own vision, but what if we do not like thier vision? What is the chances of us buying an expansion or sequal to the game then? We are not asking for an exact game like Moo or SE, but showing what we liked about them. This is a 4X strategy game. We can compare them to ther strategy games. Yes it's their vision, but if thier vision dosn't apply to the masses, either they accept lesser sales, or try and change thier vision a bit to get more sales, or keep the sales what they have when an expansion or sequal comes out.

If thier version of DW had pink teadybears and glitter all over the place would you buy the game? Most likely not. That is too chidlish. You would then be saying games like MOO or SE don't have this childish stuff why would DW then. So you see, all games get compared to each other. For good or for bad.

Again, if I am not having fun in what matters to me, then why would I buy an expansion pack with new races, new ship weapons or shields, but same way to research them. I wouldn't bother. Look at GCII. Look how that game has changed with patches from peoples input. That is all we are doing. We are giving input from what we have fun with, what we don't have fun with. This thread is for what we don't have fun with so it dosn't get mixed up with what we do have fun with stuff.

Right now, I love this game very much, but if some of the stuff dosn't change, why should I bother with an expansion pack then? I don't want to be paying more money for something that I don't have fun with. Just having more alien races or having new technologies, is just paying for something with what we already have but with a different name. That I do not want.

Their vision show so much promise. The did alot of good things, don't get me wrong, but they did get a few things wrong though in my opnion. That is what these forums are for. I am not bitching or complaining, just letting them know. So far, everyone here is not bitching or complaining, just stating their opnion and hoping that things will change in either a patch, or an upcoming expansion.

[Veloxi]

Fair enough.

[ASHBERY76]

In my view that it is like calling EuropeUniversalis shallow because it does not have TotalWar tactical battle or CIV4 research.The game design is not suited to building farms on every colony or having a 30 minute tactical battles mini game.It is a different design goal.

[JosEPhII]

There is one aspect that is hard to do, deleting Obsolete ships.

You can't do it from the Ship Designs list. You can Obsolete that early Escort design by using the Upgrade button. But then you have to Manually find every one of those early Escorts (for ex.) and then either "Scrap Immediately", "Retire at nearest Starbase" or "Retrofit at nearest Base". One at a time! This takes too long.

I would like to see an Option that says either "Scrap ALL Escort Model (insert name here) ships immediately", or "Send ALL Escort Model (X) to nearest Base for refit". NOT have to search the entire galaxy for each one. I used Escorts as an example for All ship designs/makes.

I also would like for the Ship Design screen to be more friendly in deleting Old designs. If you Un-check the Box in the Upper left corner you can see all ship/base designs. BUT as soon as you "Delete" a design the little box rechecks itself. So you have to Uncheck it each and every time you want to remove old Obsolete designs. This gets extremely repetitious and tiring. Can't we have a choice that says Delete ALL Obsolete Designs? Or at least make that little box stay Unchecked till I'm finished deleting old designs that I want gone? That Obsolete Design list gets very long and hard to sort out later in the game when you've had multiple Updates. Otherwise why even have the Obsolete List stay around? I'm not sure of the purpose for having the Obsolete List at all?

And Yes I AM Enjoying the Game! Thank You Code Force!

JosEPh [:)]