Matrix Games Forums

I've been away from Distant Worlds for some time now. Never updated to DW:Shadows since the idea of a pirate infested game did not appeal to me. But the Universe expansion seemed interesting and the price was right.

There has been some considerable improvement in fleet automation behaviour that was badly needed from Legends. Right now I am in the late stages of a 700 star game and have the following comments and questions:

Once all systems had been explored my exploration ships just hung around the nearest refuel point, racking up maintenance costs and doing nothing. I started retiring them but then my ship building advisors began badgering me to build more. For what purpose?

After a fleet has dumped its troops at a planet I am invading I give it orders to re-load troops. So it promptly flies off to the nearest colony to do that...even if that colony has no troops at all to load. So the fleet has to be microed to an appropriate colony with excess troops.

Right now all my construction ships (all 20) are sitting idle for some reason even though there are things listed in the colony resource priority list and all of them are automated. I thought perhaps there was a resource shortage so none were building (all 20?) but after giving some of them manual build orders they promptly build what they were instructed to with no delays...and then went back to being idle after hitting the "automate" button. As well, none of them show up when cycling through the "show idle ships".

Finally, I was surprised to see resources for other empires in cargo of one of my stations. Does this represent goods mined by my ships, sold to other empires and waiting for pick-up? I would hope that if war were to break out with those empires, my station would confiscate those resources for my use!

As I said, Distant Worlds has improved to a point where I find it compelling to play again and hopefully the improvements continue.

Regards

1. I think the game just want to keep X number of explorers just because of it. They're *mostly* use less at later stages of the game, unless you want to scout out enemy systems before you attack. Then again, in late game, you should have no problem affording a bunch of explorers. They're pretty cheap.
 
2. There are two "load troops" order, "load at nearest", and "load at specific colony". I think you want to use the latter (select the fleet, right click / ctrl-right click on the colony, and say load troop.) Otherwise, "nearest" is probably determined by the lead ship of the fleet, which could be stranded somewhere on the othersie of the galaxy.
 
3. The construction ships do work on automated. Maybe you already have lots of resources? They might not build anymore if you already have lots of resources and there is no demand for them. The expansion planner will list all your resources and how much demands there are for them.

4. Yes, those are resources you have sold but they have not yet picked up. I have no idea what happen to them when you go to war, but I know they will shoot at the enemy's cargo ships when they try to dock.

1. Explorers are now used as scouts during wars when not out exploring. So they still maintain some usefulness as opposed to previous versions of the game that did not. Due to this, I tend to design mine with long range scanners and some weapons in the late stages of the game. Basically I turn them into an AWACS platform.

2. I personally set a home colony for my fleets where I will keep a lot troops recruited and on hand. If you simply return the fleet to automated control after your invasion, the ships should go back home and reload troops. Although sometimes the AI will find a target to use them on. Some micro-management may remain necessary if you want to run a series of quick attacks.

3. If you are in the late game, it might just be there is nothing left to build in uncontrolled or your own territory. Construction ships on automated will not build in other empires' territories if you do not have a mining treaty with them.

4. Those are just trade goods, they get the resources you get money. Money is good, right? [;)]

The improvements are continuing at a pleasingly rapid pace.

Thanks Johanwanderer and Shark7 for your informative replies.

There are many useful commands on the ctl-right click menus that I need to remind myself to check. But it sounds like this "load at specific colony" command needs extra clicks that don't show up in a menu? I'll give it a try.

There are too many things in this game left undocumented. Thank goodness for this forum.

Regards