Best game since 2003

[The_Great_Mustachio]

This is the best game in it's genre that I've played since 2003.

I love the resource system. I think it's brilliant to use materials that seems at least plausible as building blocks for certain items, not to mention the fact that it creates interesting strategic assets, and the need for trade.

I really the visual style of the universe, not quite realistic (which just doesn't work from a practicality point of view), but convincing enough to make you believe you're actually "out there" somewhere, floating around in space.

I had mixed feelings about the private economy because civilians tend to go out and start settling a system when I'm not really ready to settle that system just yet, but then again it adds a nice dynamic component to the game, and I've gotten comfortable with the idea of letting them fend for themselves if they head out and settle somewhere i don't like.

In all in all, DW gives you a fairly "rich" universe to play in, and that's an area where a lot games of this genre fail. They give you a big universe, but everything in it is bland and generic, it's like a huge house with no furniture!

In all the time I've played so far I've found nothing truly "bad" about the game, if anything, the only gripe I have is that there isn't more of it.

[ASHBERY76]

What was the 2003 game?

[Jeeves]

Welcome to the forums!

This is the best strategy game ever IMHO. I am writing a strategy guide to help new players understand the civilian economy, among other things. It should be ready in a few weeks. Until then, you can learn the game interface, especially the expansion planner...

[lordxorn]

I am also interested to know you 2003 game.

If you didn't know, you can turn off Colonization and handle it yourself.

Welcome to the forums, and DW.

You are coming on board at a good time because of the a incoming expansion, so look for it when it comes out.

[The_Great_Mustachio]

homeworld 2 was released in 2003. Not quite the same genre, but an awesome space RTS with rich features.

I have everything turned off (expert), but the ships still come out with automation on. I guess i could turn that off as well, but it's handy to have them build your economy for you, with the slight downside of course that you can't control where they build. Also, civilians buy their equipment from you don't they? Do you still get the money if you order the building of a mining station for ex. ? How about the freighters?

[WoodMan]

I liked how you could target specific ship parts in homeworld, would be great in DW too.  How many times have you had a ship almost dead escape you, I find myself willing my ships on "Hit the engines!!! Hit the engines!!! Doh, they escaped" [:D]

[ehsumrell1]

LOL....Funny Woodman! Too bad you Narn don't have accurate weapons officers
like us Sona have! [:D]

[lordxorn]

I am not quite understanding how you have out of control colonization, unless you are just manually overbuilding colony ships, and once every ship get's built they are on autopilot.

A tip is to never build colony ships manually to have them on standy, because they are VERY high in maintenance.

The best thing for colonization is to use the expansion planner, which you can directly order up a colony ship for each specific planet you want. Which is one the best features I have seen implemented for a 4X game.

Homeworld series was EXCELLENT, you are quite right. I remember after first loading it up and we were presented with a fly by of the mother ship with the Platoon song as a back drop! Sent chills down my spine! [:D]

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

If you didn't know, you can turn off Colonization and handle it yourself.

Take these words of wisdom from lordxorn and use them, Grasshoppa. [:D]

[The_Great_Mustachio]

ORIGINAL: lordxorn

I am not quite understanding how you have out of control colonization, unless you are just manually overbuilding colony ships, and once every ship get's built they are on autopilot.

A tip is to never build colony ships manually to have them on standy, because they are VERY high in maintenance.

The best thing for colonization is to use the expansion planner, which you can directly order up a colony ship for each specific planet you want. Which is one the best features I have seen implemented for a 4X game.

Homeworld series was EXCELLENT, you are quite right. I remember after first loading it up and we were presented with a fly by of the mother ship with the Platoon song as a back drop! Sent chills down my spine! [:D]

Hey,

I don't have out of control colonisation, what I do have is out of control expansion. You see as soon as I explore a system or gas cloud, the constructors tend to start building mining stations there, regardless of whether I "secured" the system yet (usually this means turning a bunch of space monsters into space stew). The result is of course a lot of eaten space stations, and me going "wtf is going on?!" at all the warning messages.

Another annoyance I've found is that AI empires tend to "steal" your systems. Often times I'll be mining a system, and have defence bases and such in place, but no colonies, and then suddenly some empire will colonise a planet there and start griping that I'm "violating their territory"... obviously they've never heard of the concept "finders keepers"... or first come first serve. I once made the mistake of "trading" the entire system to a friendly empire for a bunch of technology, only to realize that a few years later they used it as a staging area to invade my colonies!!

The way i colonize worlds is very easy, I explore till i find a suitable one, then zoom to the planet and right click "colonize this planet"... and voila, that's it.

Homeworld was excellent because the story was excellent, and of course, the unit design and detail was amazing for the time.

I also think DW could use a page out of the HW book and implement subsystem targeting, although I'm not sure how that would work in the game because the ships are essentially just bitmaps and not actual models.

[arrozal]

Those mining bases are private ventures, those folks are driven by gold fever or whatever so they're more than happy to take their chances out on the frontier. It's up to you whether you bother to defend them though. [;)]

DW is one of my all time favourites, not only because it reminds me of TW games in space, but also because of the automation. It leaves me free to concentrate on whichever aspect of the game I like, something rare in a strategy game. Can be following a large freighter about its business, or passenger ships transporting migrants to new colonies in addition to the usual staples of hunting pirates and smashing fleets together. Infantry landings etc. I look for a peculiar type of realism in the games that I play, I don't know why but it greatly enhances my gaming experience, and DW has it by the bucketload. It's also made by a New Zealander, which is pretty sweet. [:D]

Now if it had EVE/HW2 graphics, I don't think anybody would ever see me again..

[RooksBailey]

ORIGINAL: arrozal

DW is one of my all time favourites, not only because it reminds me of TW games in space, but also because of the automation. It leaves me free to concentrate on whichever aspect of the game I like, something rare in a strategy game. Can be following a large freighter about its business, or passenger ships transporting migrants to new colonies in addition to the usual staples of hunting pirates and smashing fleets together. Infantry landings etc. I look for a peculiar type of realism in the games that I play, I don't know why but it greatly enhances my gaming experience, and DW has it by the bucketload. It's also made by a New Zealander, which is pretty sweet. [:D]

Now if it had EVE/HW2 graphics, I don't think anybody would ever see me again..

I agree! My one big gripe with most 4X games is that even though you are supposedly managing an empire of billions, the galaxy always feels deserted but for a bunch of warships. I always wanted a game that simulated an active galaxy that was populated and vibrant, where you got a sense of ordinary people going about their ordinary lives - basically, like EvE or X3TC. DW is the first 4X game to really strike close to the mark in this regard.

The only thing I would like to see added one day are some random news announcements. They don't even have to be game changing (like the random events in GalCiv 2 - not that I would mind that!), but just the type of day-to-day news you would expect in such a busy galaxy; something that might just make the player laugh or something (sort of like EvE's random news stories). Of course, REAL news, like reports of in-game fleet battles and what have you would be awesome, too!

[Way2co0l]

Just came across this game and it looks exactly like what my brother and I are looking for for quite awhile. The only real disappointment from what I'm reading about it is that there's no multiplayer for us to play together. It looks very promising otherwise and I intend to keep looking into it.

[The_Great_Mustachio]

This game comes closest to the type of 4x game I have been looking for for a very long time.

Like i said, my only gripe is that there isn't more of it, more features, more depth, etc. Dw is like my favourite type of cake, but it could use more dressing. I'm thinking fleet tactics and colony development could use some love... there's also room for a lot more technology.

I prefer 3d gfx to 2d. That being said, the DW 2d gfx are actually a lot better than most 3d games in this genre! If i have to choose between crappy 3d gfx and good 2d gfx i choose 2d every time.

The best thing about DW is that everything "works". Lots of games claim to offer the features that DW does, but once you get to playing with them, you find out they don't really work, or they work unreliably, etc. SO many games have a subpar diplomacy system that it's a rare pleasure to find one that actually works as well as DW diplomacy works.

[RooksBailey]

I agree with planetary development.  I love that aspect of GalCiv II.  I hope at some point we get greater control over developing our planets. 

The good thing with DW is that the basic structure of the game can support a lot more chrome (as we're seeing with what we have learned about the upcoming expansion).

[Wade1000]

I just hope that Distant Worlds does not become too over burden with complexity...even with automation options. Very successful games are showing to be those that have a very low learning curve and very user friendly with user interface, charts, design screens, information on pre requisites to items, etcetera.