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I'm looking through Steam & Youtubes of DWU. I have DW up to Shadows. I don't see a difference. Obviously there is. What would that be?

Below are the 3 groups of what Universe brings to Distant Worlds
My reasons for getting Universe was section 2 for improvements in the modding which added new modding abilities I needed.

New to Universe!

The entire Distant Worlds series in one package!
Universe includes the Original Distant Worlds, Return of the Shakturi, Legends, Shadows and the new Universe expansion!


Comprehensive Modding and Customization Support:
Allows adding/removing/changing most items: resources (including new colony-manufactured resources), ship components, planetary facilities and wonders, fighter designs, alien races and race families, diplomatic dialog, empire policy, custom characters, ship and base design templates, governments, plagues, research tech trees and more
Can customize most of the images used in the game: ships and bases, fighters, alien races, planetary facilities and wonders, characters, troops, components, resources, ancient ruins, planets, stars, asteroids, animated in-game effects and more
Use a previously saved and editor-customized game as a map for a new game (instead of generating a new galaxy)
Powerful new event system accessible from a considerably-upgraded Game Editor. Set up your own storyline in a custom map with triggered events and custom victory conditions
Add story triggers on specific in-game objects or events, executing one or more actions on other in-game objects (either immediately or delayed)
Can replace most of the user interface icons and sound effects
Add your own custom help files to the in-game Galactopedia
Switch between different customization sets with a couple of mouse clicks from the main game menu
Comprehensive 99-page Modding Guide that outlines how to make Mods and explains all of the settings in detail


A new official storyline
built using the new modding capabilities, covering the first war between the Freedom Alliance and the Shaktur Axis, in which you have access to the tech required to build your own planet destroyers, establish the Ancient Guardians and research and deploy the Xaraktor virus.

So, the biggest advancement is the ability to mod?

It is probably the major thing added. Then there was a lot of minor fixes in the patches after Universe release, some of which were added in a Shadows patch as well.

I'd say that one of the biggest draws would indeed be to have access to some of the new Universe mods (AI improvement and a few others). Alongside the fixes in the AI mod were added mod support making it possible.

Cool, thanks for the tips [;)]

Actually, it's worth noting that Universe also adds a big performance improvement to the engine (I believe we also added some of that into the last Shadows update after Universe was released) and a lot of AI improvements, as well as many additional bug fixes.

As noted above though, the enhanced modding is not to be underestimated. The modders have released some superb mods, improving the game in many areas.

I know it was almost a month ago Eric, but since you responded to this thread, is there any chance of one last bug fix pass? This game is so close to perfection, I know it would make a lot of people happy if some of the more annoying bugs were dealt with.