Matrix Games Forums

Many major issues and bugs have been vaporized by this behemoth of an update

Matrix Games and CodeForce (www.codeforce.co.nz) are pleased to release another update for Distant Worlds. The new comprehensive 1.0.3 update comes with over two dozen fixes for gameplay issues, improved stability and memory usage, and much more. Some of the major issues fixed or improved in this update include:

• Extensive memory usage optimization. Large games now consume much
  less memory which should resolve the crashes related to Out of Memory and crashes during save/load.
• Added an AutoSave feature with a variable save interval between 10 and 60 minutes.
• Fleets now respond properly to manual control and will not automatically disband
• Added new buttons in the Fleets screen: Repair and Refuel selected fleet, Retrofit selected fleet
• Several interface and functionality improvements including how retrofitting and ship design works.

Overall, the most of the critical stability and gameplay issues found at release have been resolved so it his strongly recommended that all customers install this update.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Distant Worlds was released to an enthusiastic community and so we’re elated to provide our customers with solid support like this. Right out the box this game is a blast, but with the continuing dedicated effort from the Code Force team to improve the game we think the future is bright for Distant Worlds!”

Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time, 4X space strategy game. 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. 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!

Get the update here.

what has changed from the 1.03 beta?

ORIGINAL: taltamir

what has changed from the 1.03 beta?

I don't think nothing has. The beta was an unoffical release, this is the official release. Not shure if anything has changed.

I have been using the beta and fleet behavior is so much better. The more I play it the more I find to enjoy. This game is giving a elderly gamer -age 62 - a very youthful excitement for a game. That has not happened in awhile as much of the strat games produced are remakes with better graphics. This game would make Bill Clinton happy---it's the gameplay stupid!!!!

oh cool... well i "upgraded" from the beta to this release already ...

Awesome release, thank you for your hard and good work.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

what has changed from the 1.03 beta?

30. Fixed bug where cancelling an edit of a design still applied changes
(tm.asp?m=2429627)
31. Fixed bug where bombard weapons and standard torpedo weapons were
sometimes not both showing when "Show Latest Components" was enabled in the
design screen (tm.asp?m=2429835)

Those were, I think, not in the beta.

ah, pretty cool. so it was a good idea to update from beta to final.

It's always a good idea to install the offical patch. Some changes could have been made or not. But just in case no changes were made, but when the next patch comes out, it could cause some wierd glitches if the last patch was not the official patch but just a beta.

Do you have to uninstall the beta patch before patching with the official patch?

ORIGINAL: SeanD

Many major issues and bugs have been vaporized by this behemoth of an update

Matrix Games and CodeForce (www.codeforce.co.nz) are pleased to release another update for Distant Worlds. The new comprehensive 1.0.3 update comes with over two dozen fixes for gameplay issues, improved stability and memory usage, and much more. Some of the major issues fixed or improved in this update include:

• Extensive memory usage optimization. Large games now consume much
  less memory which should resolve the crashes related to Out of Memory and crashes during save/load.
• Added an AutoSave feature with a variable save interval between 10 and 60 minutes.
• Fleets now respond properly to manual control and will not automatically disband
• Added new buttons in the Fleets screen: Repair and Refuel selected fleet, Retrofit selected fleet
• Several interface and functionality improvements including how retrofitting and ship design works.

Overall, the most of the critical stability and gameplay issues found at release have been resolved so it his strongly recommended that all customers install this update.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Distant Worlds was released to an enthusiastic community and so we’re elated to provide our customers with solid support like this. Right out the box this game is a blast, but with the continuing dedicated effort from the Code Force team to improve the game we think the future is bright for Distant Worlds!”

Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time, 4X space strategy game. 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. 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!

Get the update here.

Repair and Refuel selected fleet,

Im impressed.

I normally go to those game communities and I spend all my ammo giving them feedback with my positive, yet sharp criticism and normally all my help is wasted and the game keeps with its problems, not here.

In here, our feedback actually reach the developers and they are reasonable and dedicated.

Thanks a lot.

*Satisfied costumer.

[font="times new roman"][left]Change History:[/left][left]v1.0.3 – April 8, 2010[/left][/font][font=timesnewromanpsmt][left]Please note – this update does create a new save folder, although it will work with[/left][left]previous saves. You need to navigate to the previous version save folder to open your[/left][left]older saves. Also, this update resets the automation settings in your Options. Please[/left][left]open the Options screen again to adjust them to your preference. Apologies for any[/left][left]inconvenience.[/left][/font][font="times new roman"][left]Third Official Update[/left][left]Fixes and Additions:[/left][/font][font=timesnewromanpsmt][left]1. Memory usage extensively optimized and reduced. Large games now consume[/left][left]much less memory. Should resolve the crashes related to Out of Memory and[/left][left]crashes during save/load.[/left][left]2. Added AutoSave feature - turn on in Game Options screen (O key), can set[/left][left]variable interval between saves from 10-60 minutes[/left][left]3. Fleets now respond properly to manual control - will not automatically disband[/left][left]4. Added new buttons in Fleets screen: Repair and Refuel selected fleet, Retrofit[/left][left]selected fleet[/left][left]5. In Ships and Bases screen, names of damaged ships display as red, and ships[/left][left]under construction display as orange[/left][left]6. Added new button to Ships and Bases screen: Repair ship[/left][left]7. Fixed Design screen issues (tm.asp?[/left][left]m=2420971). Also reworked Designs screen as follows:[/left][left]1. Can filter designs to show: All, Non-Obsolete, Latest of each type[/left][left]2. Can toggle designs as obsolete/not obsolete directly from designs list[/left][left]3. Can mass upgrade designs from Designs Screen - multi-select designs and[/left][left]click Upgrade button[/left][left]4. Allow retrofit to any non-obsolete design for a given ship type (right-click[/left][left]menu)[/left][left]5. AI ship design will no longer auto-obsolete manually created designs[/left][left]8. Fixed Trade negative money with another empire[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2418787)[/left][left]9. Fixed crash when attack abandoned ship[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2418633)[/left][left]10. Fixed drawing crash (tm.asp?[/left][left]m=2419321&mpage=1&key=)[/left][left]11. Fixed Design values for Recreation center and Medical center components[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2417704)[/left][left]12. Fixed bug where could build advanced designs without proper tech[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2419094)[/left][left]13. Ships evaluate space monsters as stronger threats, keeping their distance from[/left][left]them when attacking (tm.asp?m=2420346)[/left][left]14. Fixed UI issues after history events from Zenox[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2419586)[/left][left]15. Fixed exploration ships sometimes getting stuck, especially when manually[/left][left]assigned to explore a system[/left][left]16. Refueling bug fixed where ships prefer not to refuel at colonies with incomplete[/left][left]space ports (tm.asp?m=2422103)[/left][left]17. Can now continue playing after you lose a game, but only if you have not been[/left][left]completely conquered (no colonies left)[/left][left](tm.asp? m=2420055)[/left][left]18. Fixed crash research program sometimes not stopping[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2419493)[/left][left]19. Ensure Resupply Ships properly deploy and refuel themselves from own supply[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2420208)[/left][left]20. Fixed stalled construction problems - construction now much less likely to stall[/left][left]21. Added Resort Bases to build menu (were missing previously)[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2418554)[/left][left]22. Bombard weapons and Torpedo weapons now properly used in designs when[/left][left]upgrading (tm.asp?[/left][left]m=2420919&mpage=1&key=#2420919)[/left][left]23. Fixed positioning of information in Selection Panel[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2419234)[/left][left]24. Canceling a retrofit mission for a ship no longer prevents reassigning another[/left][left]retrofit mission (tm.asp?m=2424223)[/left][left]25. Fixed retrofitting issues (tm.asp?[/left][left]m=2424082)[/left][left]26. Fixed crash in Trade screen (tm.asp?[/left][left]m=2426018)[/left][left]27. Rebalanced and reduced colony income for large empires - corruption stronger[/left][left]when grow very large[/left][left]28. Ensure that retrofitting always works - ships no longer need free slots at a[/left][left]construction yard, they will simply queue up for retrofit[/left][left]29. Resupply Ships finally working properly all of the time - will not head off to[/left][left]refuel when deployed or deploying[/left][left]30. Fixed bug where cancelling an edit of a design still applied changes[/left][left](tm.asp?m=2429627)[/left][left]31. Fixed bug where bombard weapons and standard torpedo weapons were[/left][left]sometimes not both showing when "Show Latest Components" was enabled in the[/left]design screen (tm.asp?m=2429835)[/font]

ORIGINAL: Pappy

Do you have to uninstall the beta patch before patching with the official patch?

I don't think so.

Hi guys,

You can absolutely install the official update over the beta, and you should!

We worked on these additional areas between the beta and the official release:

* Resupply Ships finally working properly all of the time - will not head off to refuel when deployed or deploying
* Fixed bug where cancelling an edit of a design still applied changes (tm.asp?m=2429627)
* Fixed bug where bombard weapons and standard torpedo weapons were sometimes not both showing when "Show Latest Components" was enabled in the design screen (tm.asp?m=2429835)

I love the resupply attention. I'd been reading a good AAR at Octopus forum wherein a player's three resupply ships had gone awry in comical fashion. He'll love the patch.

ORIGINAL: JonathanStrange
I love the resupply attention. I'd been reading a good AAR at Octopus forum wherein a player's three resupply ships had gone awry in comical fashion. He'll love the patch.

Aha, please do let him know about it, thanks!