World Destroyer kills Distant Worlds

[Bandersnatch]

I haven’t been a DW player for very long, and in the course of this game a pop-up informed me that a damaged World Destroyer was at such and such a place, and I should go and repair it. Well, naturally I did just that. I didn’t know what to do with the thing, so I put it in a fleet. It wasn’t long before my fleet was going at it hot and heavy in a big battle. Suddenly this monster thing blasts an unlucky world and it disintegrates before my eyes. Jzzzzz: What the H- - -! A few seconds later the program freezes. Then the dreaded message pops up: “Distant Worlds will now shut down.” WHAT?! Desperately, I went back to the last saved game and replayed a different scenario not having anything to do with the battle, but the battle is destined to happen, and alas, the program shuts down again. Finally I load the autosave and charge over to the fleet, select the WD, tell it to stop, deselect it from the fleet, and tell it to go gas up. So I resume the game, and after a while my advisers suggest I send the WD against an enemy world. I decided to experiment, saved the game, and said yes. A few minutes later the screen freezes for a few seconds, I hold my breath, and then the game continues, barely. I’ve had enough! I told the darn thing to go scrap itself. I’m unhappy because I like big explosions, on the other hand my rep took a blow that may have just brought down my empire. Nonetheless, I’d still like to have this feature.
My computer is new and loaded for bear; anti-virus off; lean on program memory settings, etc. etc.

Anyone else have this happen? Any explanations? Any tips welcome.

[Data]

No, I didn't have it and it also sounds like a new issue afaik. Since you can reproduce it upload the save game to the Matrix ftp site and hopefully Elliot will take a look at it.
At the very least one of us (I can try it) can tell you if it also reproduces on our rigs.

[Caesar_Augustus]

Well, Bandersnatch, I'm sorry to hear you're having problems... blowing up rebellious planets with a World Destroyer (Death Star is a much better term, more in the line of the finest Imperial tradition [:D] ).

Don't know what could be causing this, since I have always "had a blast" and been able to enjoy the nice green laser that does justice to one of my rebellious and ungrateful subjects...

On the other hand, as far as I know, it works as designed that if your Death Star is too close to the planet and fires, the planet and any other ship, base, unit, etc., will likewise be obliterated... the Death Star as well, or if it should survive the blast, may end up heavily damaged. I think this is a very cool feature, so mind your distance...

... and truly "fire when ready..." [:D]

BTW, what most interesting advisers you've got, suggesting you to send a Death Star and use it on some ungracious and deserving world... not bad, not bad at all... with advisers like these, "the Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern..." [8|]

[Erik Rutins]

Hi Bandersnatch,

What version of Distant Worlds was this with? In the original release, there were some issues like this with World Destroyers, but as far as I know those were all fixed in the first few updates. Do you have an autosave file of the game before this happened?

Regards,

- Erik