PC: Distant Worlds (Space 4X from Matrix)

[Alcibiades]

Is it enjoyable?  Too much micromanaging?  Great amount of options?  Good flow and immersion? 

[Tamas]

Is it enjoyable?  Too much micromanaging?  Great amount of options?  Good flow and immersion?

Almost no micro compared to what is going on. There are like at least 20 resources, the bigger portion of them is used in ship components and (I think) fuel, plus maybe running your economy, not sure. The rest are luxury goods which are used to raise and maintain culture on your colonies which in turn determines how much tax you gain which in turn pays for your ships and bases.

But speaking of ships and bases, there is the private sector. Most of your industry is being run by them. They have mining ships, freighters and passenger ships (the latter for immigration and tourism).

Also due to pirates and space monsters there is a sort of minor rotation of your ships, not to mention the need for constantly expanding your defense forces. But that can be taken care of by having the AI recommend shipbuilding orders for you. The only part where you need to step in I think is if you want yourself a big invasion fleet or something.

And all of that goes with you being only an executive leader stearing it that way or the other if you feel like it. Very cool sometimes.

There are various stuff to be found by exploration ships alá Galciv (minus the alignment choices), 20 races (with independent colonies scattered around) lots of customization for a new game, etc.

I dont have a good idea about mid- and late game yet, but I love the concept and it seems they pulled it off. The RTS nature actually helps  this concept, I dare to say, due to the macro nature of things.

[Zanza]

My impression so far is that there is not enough micro. Everything seems to just run along. E.g. I don't really need to care for resources as my private citizens will build mining ships and mine those resources. In my games so far, I have not yet found game mechanics where I can actually influence the course of my empire a lot. I mean, I get events sometime (why would I ever not investigate something? Losing an exploration ship seems to be completely insubstantial) and I pick new colonies (even that can be automated), but other than that, I don't do very much... 

[Alcibiades]

Uhh ohhh....

[Tamas]

I havent had a big war yet but from the forums its appear you will have your hands full with warfare by mid and late game. 

Fuel is a major issue (and I like that). Basically it looks like they have aimed for a pacific naval war feel for the space wars. You either go planet-hopping to have refuel stations, or you need to have resupply ships, and station them at various gas giants or gas clouds and use them as refuel points.

Apparently though, there are multiple type of gases required as fuel depending on what kind of engines you have, so for an invasion fleet, it is probably wise to design ships with the same kind of engine, and then have a resupply ship design specialized for those.

All in all, right now I welcome the lack of micro because it was micro which killed all the other 4X games for me.

[Tamas]

this post on that topic from the forums, especially the last part of it, showcases the "under the hood" complexity of the game very well:

You know, after a couple of days of playing i was able to adapt to manual fleet control and manual refuelling. While i do not use resupply ships at all (they behave strange and always disobey my strict manual orders to deploy preferring to return to the nearest gas station instead) - i use a small support fleet of 3 constructors that travels alongside my fleets and establishes 1 gas mine and some times defence stations once the systems is cleared of all enemy presence. The spare constructors provide a in-field repair support to those ships that were badly damaged.

This is a complex tactic and it only works well when you carefully plan your invasion (picking systems with carson gas as high-priority targets). After such a resupply point is created it is much easier to conduct further invasions into enemy territories as you have already established a good base of operations within his empire.

The only thing that you should take into account is that you need to position your constructors close to your colonies and give constructor orders while remaining there. Your constructors might need to load required materials for your bases and will travel to the nearest space port even if they are already in their construction site`s system.

[Berkut]

Sounds like it showcasess how you can exploit an idiot AI that would never work against a human player (they would of course target your refueling points, and would be smart enough to recognize that you MUST take systems with the proper kind of gas giant to continue your invasion, and hence defend those).

Which is always the problem with a game of any complexity - if it is complex enough to warrant complex tactics, there is no way the designers will be able to predict all the little things evil humans will figure out, and somehow manage to counter them in a rational manner.

[Tamas]

lol I did not know there is a version of Death Star here. Topic was titled "world annihilator stuck at 43%"

My constructor seems to have been stuck at 43.68% finished for quite a while now. Should I try canceling and give it the order to build again? Is it waiting for more resources? The constructor has already converted all the resources it was carrying into components it looks like. It was pretty cool to watch how the supply chain worked with this. My constructor loaded up all the resources it needed, except for dilithium, which my empire didn't have at the time and went off to build. I tracked down a freighter that was set to transport dilithium and watched it as it flew off to buy some in another empire's system then fly back to dock with the constructor and offload the dilithium. Neat!

BTW, this seems like it might blow up into a full interstellar incident. I first noticed some explorer ships snooping around and thought about blasting them before they got to close but decided against to not inflame things. However, a big fleet from another empire just park themselves right next to my escort fleet, so of course I had to send it more forces. I now have about half my fleets guarding the thing! Both fleets are just sitting there staring at each other. I wonder if they'll attack when it's finished.

[Tamas]

As a negative thing, I am starting to think I liked the "bugged" economy better. Clearly the freshly fixed one is not as balanced. Since the fix I have to care MUCH less about the pace of my expansion, and in fact it is just the classic colony rush.

[Cecil]

Starting my first game I felt like this game was a ball of yarn the size of my house and I couldnt find a loose thread. Where to start....

[Josquius]

How is it graphically? Flashy and high spec or EU2?
I'm still on my laptop right now, computer of the future isn't coming for 2 or 3 months so....

[Tamas]

I will have to read the manual / encyclopedia. What are the reqs for building bigger ships than destroyers, and to build troop transports? I had them in one game at a somewhat later stage than I am now with my humans but I would badly need them.

I am neighboring the T-Rex race and since I am in a corner of the galaxy I colonized a planet in one of their systems, our fleets were eyeing one another near it. Luckily, one of them insects who has been technically encircled by T-Rex systems declared war on them, so I am having a window of opportunity to backstab, but I dont have the ships to do it with.  The T-Rex dudes worked hard to improve our relations since they are bogged down in that war, even agreed to sell me their planet in that shared system, for some money and a tech.

[Jaron]

the t rex chases cheetos

[Grallon]

So is this another GalCivII - i was bored by that hence I don't want to shell 60$ for a duplicate.  A sure sign of a poorly designed space 4X game is when the first phase is nothing but a colonization rush.




G.

[Tamas]

So is this another GalCivII - i was bored by that hence I don't want to shell 60$ for a duplicate.  A sure sign of a poorly designed space 4X game is when the first phase is nothing but a colonization rush.




G.

Right now the pace of the initial rush is still slower than galciv's but as I said it is a bit too fast for my taste. When the luxury distribution was off it required much more attention to expand I liked that better.