Looks like Distant Worlds: Shadows will release on Thursday.... no pricing or promotional details as of yet, but Erik said we would be happy with it.
There are several things I am looking forward to..... mainly the Pre-Hyperspace start option! Also playing as the pirates and new UI improvements.
Complete list:
Features:
- Play as an Empire or a Pirate in the Age of Shadows
- Start as a pre-Hyperspace Empire
- Start as a Raider, Pirate, Mercenary or Smuggler and play with an entirely space-based faction that can if successful become a planetary empire as well
- New Pirate Leader and Pirate Captain characters
- Assault pods and ship to ship or base boarding actions, including ship and base capture
- Gravitic Weapons and Tractor Beams
- New expanded Ground Combat with new troop types and an animated ground battle resolution screen
- Infantry, Armor/Mech, Special Forces, Planetary Defense Units
- Resolution of the multiple stages of a planetary assault
- New Ground Combat technology tree
- Expanded and improved Area Weapons
- New planetary facilities
- Improved AI and new comprehensive difficulty settings
- New and Improved higher performance Graphics Engine
PE
If only they could make the UI more viewing/reading friendly. :( It's the game's greatest detraction IMO.
I have been in the beta and yes! Yes! I think everyone who liked DW will be VERY happy with Shadows!!
Quote from: Bison on May 20, 2013, 08:50:39 PM
If only they could make the UI more viewing/reading friendly. :( It's the game's greatest detraction IMO.
I, too, would like a font size slider.
Quote from: son_of_montfort on May 20, 2013, 11:24:42 PM
Quote from: Bison on May 20, 2013, 08:50:39 PM
If only they could make the UI more viewing/reading friendly. :( It's the game's greatest detraction IMO.
I, too, would like a font size slider.
I also would like a better UI
Very excited to toy with the new planetary assault and ground combat options.
I thought I heard mention of a "sale" on the 2 previous/required DLCs with the release of Shadows. Anyone know if that will still happen? I'd really like to pick up Shadows, but I just can't see paying $75-80+ for 3 add-ons... :-\
Pirate faction might be kind of cool... Especially of you can eventually colonize a planet
The two things I really want to see is performance increases (the game is nearly unplayable late game even on my monster PC) and balance change to the economy. In most of my games, around mid game money starts to not matter and you can pretty much build what ever you want with no consequences. When I have a couple million+ credits and the AI is broke, I think there's a problem.
Quote from: steve58 on May 21, 2013, 07:01:17 AM
I thought I heard mention of a "sale" on the 2 previous/required DLCs with the release of Shadows. Anyone know if that will still happen? I'd really like to pick up Shadows, but I just can't see paying $75-80+ for 3 add-ons... :-\
There is going to be one, but they haven't announced the specifics yet.
Without breaking the NDA I can tell you that there is a scaling option implemented to enlarge the lower left selection box. All fonts will enlarge with it when pressing the button.
The economy has seen a pretty great amount of work and tweaks and should give a much more challenging game now.
I have no input regarding performance. There is a new render engine which trows certain things to the videocard instead of the CPU but I don't know how this will affect anyone's performance.
I can't wait...best space 4x gets better
Thanks Ysk! Great news!
Yes, I'm stoked for this. I've been playing DW the past few evenings in anticipation and to reacquaint myself with the game mechanics.
I'm definitely looking forward to the improved ground combat and the improved engine performance. With the promised improvements in Shadows I'm afraid I'm really going to be spoiled for any other 4X games.
I don't find the UI to be *that* bad. It's no Endless Space to be sure, but it is playable. I do wish though that they'd rework the fleet management UI. Right now if you want to shift large amounts of ships around it can be done, but it's tedious. Overall I find that I can keep a good handle on what's going on in my Empire, even if the reports aren't as easy to view as those in Endless Space.
Well once you are used to the spreadsheet style of the menus and found out that certain columns have toggle options, I've found the UI to be pretty efficient.
It takes a bit of time to get to know *where* to find what you're looking for, though. Which is a pain for newcomers obviously.
Dast has made an authorized preview let's play series which might hold you over until expected release tomorrow:
Check out Episode One here! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-1fKmz4MdY)
Now if you excuse me. I will go back to my empire in DW: Shadows! *evil grin*
I wonder how long sales on the previous expansions will last, when this is released?
I may have to wait a couple-three weeks before getting this and the previous DLC. ???
There has always been a discount on DW if you purchase them at the same time. Not sure how it will compare to the actual promoted sale however.
Distant Worlds: Legends has been updated
Matrix Games is proud to announce the release of a new update for Distant Worlds: Legends, the second expansion for the critically acclaimed 4X space strategy game series Distant Worlds, in preparation for the imminent release of the third expansion, Distant Worlds: Shadows.
The v1.7.0.20a update optimizes list screen performance in very large galaxies, fixes some issues with large games on multi-threaded computers, corrects some bugs, improves AI weapon selection in ship design and adds .Net Framework 4.0, which Distant Worlds: Legends now requires.
Below is the full changelog:
v1.7.0.20a – May 22nd, 2013
o Several in-game screens open much faster now. Optimized screens include: Construction Yards, Ships and Bases, Colonies, Troops, Expansion Planner.
o Fixed threading-related issues that happen while playing a very big game on a very fast machine.
o Fixed crash that was found in German DW ROTS.
o Fixed problems with saving and loading Empire Policy files on PCs with some non-English regional settings. To test this fix: change the regional settings to a language that uses different decimal format (e.g. French) and test saving altered Empire Policy files from the Empire Policy screen. Check that altered policy files correctly reload the changed values.
o Some missing Empire Policy settings are now properly saved: Allow sabotage mission: Destroy base, Allow sabotage mission: Assassinate character, Never recruit troops until colony population reaches X threshold.
o Added comprehensive fallback options for weapons selection in AI ship designs (as per DW Shadows). This will ensure that AI military ships always have weapons, even when preferred weapon type has not yet been researched.
o Added .Net Framework 4.0, which DW: Legends now requires, to the update installer.
Final Preview/teaser video released (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=3330103)
Quick link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW-SZh3akew&feature=youtu.be
Thanks to that smexy man Panzerde, looks like I'll be getting my DW collection up-to-date tomorrow (when the newest releases). ;D
For those who are not buying shadows, they also released a patch for Legends that adds the new engine optimizations coming with Shadows.
And its OUT!
Quote from Erik:
QuotePlease wait until I post here, especially if you want the promotional bundle pricing. It's about to all go live and I don't want anyone caught in the middle as setting it live tends to be spread out over 15 minutes with pieces going live here and there.
Shadows is live though on its own and $19.99 is the correct promotional pricing for that, so if all you want is Shadows you should be fine now.
Regards,
- Erik
So far, from my hour or so in, I think this one is going to be a winner!
Can you scale the ui?
Quote from: Bison on May 23, 2013, 12:29:33 PM
Can you scale the ui?
Not the entire thing, but you can definitely scale the lower left box with all the planetary and ship information. That helps tremendously. Also, and I could be completely crazy, but it looks like the font is bigger and clearer than before.
This alone tempts me more than the new content honestly.
Can't wait til payday tomorrow!
Started as a pre warp empire. I've explored my entire home system. I've got 2 construction ships, slowly, building mining stations around the system. Just sent my 2 exploration ships to the nearest star system using only normal drive systems.
Did they add binary star system in Shadows? The star on the right is a lot closer then I've ever seen before.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1076.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw458%2FKushan04%2F2013-05-23_160749.jpg&hash=a1668e02be93923ef8d37bd3fff73a0dfef6dbea) (http://s1076.photobucket.com/user/Kushan04/media/2013-05-23_160749.jpg.html)