Matrix Games Forums

Hello. After some advice. I have Distant Worlds and all the DLC...except Universe. I very much enjoyed its scope and strategic size but have not played for a while. Since then, Universe came out. I foolishly bought the latest Homeworld: Deserts and the strategic limits just gives me the irrits. It is soooo small and basically a clickfest. No chance to work out a strategy and deploy and all that. Foolish. Got me yearning for a big, 4x space sim like Distant Worlds. BUT if I already have all the DLC, is it worth getting Universe, which just seems to have all the DLC and a new Universe scenario? Are there improvements associated with Universe that I won't have? Grateful advice.

Thank you.

Apoll

Are there improvements? Yes.
Are they worth the money? That is impossible to answer.

The big thing is the mod support. If you want to play a universe mod, you need universe. There are many smaller fixes, quite a lot arrived in the patches after launch. Some of these have been added to shadows, I believe.

What universe is, is an improved "Shadows" with quite a bit extra mod support. And a scenario that is included (which is created the same way as an advanced mod).

Be aware that there have been Steam Sales, Matrix Sales and such. There does not appear to be one now. I see that for me it appears it is quite a bit cheaper on Steam right now (~20%).

Ok Bingaling, thanks for that. So there are improvements that come with Universe? Any real war winners? Or just small culmative improvements?

Apoll

Universe brings all the other versions together and some of the mods out there really add more depth and game play options. So for me it is absolutely worth it

Ok, can you suggest some of those 'must have' mods?

Thanks.

Apoll

I am poor at remembering the changes. There are some AI improvements and some old annoyances are gone. I believe quite a lot was added after launch to give some options used for Icemania's AI improvement mod. If you feel the game is easy, that one is a "must have". It updated ship designs, AI empire policy, and give a fixed research order to them. To reduce the advantage you got in areas where the default AI is less than optimal in its choices.

There are mods with modified tech trees, but I have not played them (apart from maybe some special stuff added for certain races in the extended pack).

I would suggest to have a look in the mods forum. Popular mods will have long threads, and look at the last page or three to see the general feedback on the mod.

in my opinion Universe is worth every cent of its price also if you had the original game and all the previous DLC.

I started my journey in distant worlds with the universe release so I can't compare them but I do know that without icemania's ai mod it's not nearly as fun to play as the ai is weaksauce on all levels.

Best 3 mods for me are DW Starfall by Fierceking (New races and bigger tech tree), Beyond Extended Universe (Various contributors, new races and Alien immersion mod plus loads of other bits) and Unleashed Extended v2 which gives you a huge tech tree to research and some different ship classes and new races

I should check out the cool latest mods.. I never really played with any mods at all..

here is the screen of games you can play with Universe..

Starfall is a must have, as well as Star Trek (if you're into that) and Unleashed Extended.

Thank you to all who have commented. I think I'll shell out and use the suggested mods.

Apoll

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Starfall is a must have, as well as Star Trek (if you're into that) and Unleashed Extended.

where I can get the Star Trek mod ?

Star Trek

tm.asp?m=3794736

Ok i'll try these starfall and unleash extended,

For the Unleash Extended, I only see the 1 version.. I would like to try version 2. but there is only 1 download link for 890megabytes.. Are both included maybe?

For the Unleash Extended, I only see the 1 version.. I would like to try version 2. but there is only 1 download link for 890megabytes..

Scroll down, middle of 1st page.

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Star Trek

tm.asp?m=3794736

impressive work.. [X(]

thank you Retreat1970 [:)]