Distant Worlds: Universe annouced!

[jomni]

You should have made them your friends at the start.

[Kushan]

FWIW...game 1, terran, republican, early technology.  A Dark Moon Pirate shows up on my doorstep and blasts my two construction platforms into nothingness.  I try building a defense platform, and they make short work of that.  I am now in debt to the tune of 2000, and the Dark Moon Pirates have landed an invasion force.
Sigh...

Jack Nastyface

In the pre-warp game your supposed to pay them protection (extortion) money if you encounter them before you have a military capable of defending. Even early defensive bases won't stand a chance against them. If your playing with the shadows story line turned on its supposed to automatically pop up the diplomacy box when the first pirate enters your star system.

[Yskonyn]

Sure thing ! Always pay off the first Pirates you encounter in PreWarp until you have a proper military.

[Rayfer]

Sure thing ! Always pay off the first Pirates you encounter in PreWarp until you have a proper military.

+1....I've never been to survive a prewar start without accepting the protection deal offered by the pirates in the first few minutes of gameplay.  After you build your first fleet, which doesn't take long and happens while still in prewar time, you can cancel it and then the fighting begins, but you have a good chance to survive. Finding and taking out their base can be a very difficult undertaking.

[Yskonyn]

Yeah finding their base of operations can be a pain in the butt.
Researching long range scanners and proximity arrays early on can help. But then again, there are other priorities you might want to focus on first. :) Choices, choices...

[Kushan]

v1.9.5.3 is now official

This build has the following changes from 1.9.5.2:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when drawing long range scanners in galaxy view
- fixed crash when drawing planet in hover panel
- fixed crash when auto-saving game
- fixed crash when loading game with custom theme from main menu
- fixed crash when drawing Empire Navigation Tool
- fixed crash with advisor message when invading independent colonies
- fixed crash when investigating ruins
- fixed crash when calculating troop strength
- fixed crash when editing ship design
- fixed crash when edit very large stars in game editor
- fixed crash when AI assigns new mining mission

BUG FIXES
- altered Windows API used for checking mouse location to fix screen scrolling to top-left (thus avoiding bug in Windows Vista 64-bit)
- fixed bases detaching from their parent planet/moon/asteroid when initiate retrofit before they are finished their previous retrofit
- sound volume now properly remembered when load games
- Unload Troops missions are now cancelled when target colony changes ownership (thus avoid unloading troops at enemy colony)
- fixed misleading message when your special forces troops destroy hidden pirate base facility at one of your own colonies
- main view now properly regains focus for mouse scroll-wheel when close Build Order screen
- fixed rare bug with pirate colonies over-ordering construction resources
- fixed display problems with main menu screen in Windows XP

USER INTERFACE
- enabled scaling of Empire Navigation Tool at screen left - use new size button next to close button in each panel to cycle 3 sizes: normal, large, extra large

OTHER
- improved how Action buttons (under Selection Panel) determine which mining station design to show (gas vs mineral) when building mining stations at planets/moons/asteroids (better support for custom themes with unusual resource distributions)

[Jack Nastyface]

Gentles all,
A few things, in no particular order.
1) In space as in the Gulf of Aden...I don't negotiate with Pirates. >8-(
2) Wow...this game is huge.  I am a having a few frustrations, but if you leave the game on "automation" mode stuff just starts happening by itself!
3) How to I repair and refuel ships that are out cruisin' the system?  Do I build a docking station and then send it out?  All my ships are coming back to the home planet for repairs / refuel after their scraps with space slugs.
4) I don't see a dedicated refueling ship...do they ever show up?
5) I couldn't resist naming my Empire "Trigan".  Do I need to pay royalties to Look and Learn magazine?

I will start posting on a more appropriate forum after this first round.

Yours in SPACE (typed with deep echo) gaming,

Jack Nastyface

[Darkspire]

1. Depends on the pirate settings and game difficulty as to whether you pay them.
2. Welcome to the wonder that is Distant Worlds  :)
3. Ships will repair at the nearest spaceport and refuel at the nearest refueling point to their location.
4. Research the Energy tab, near the bottom of the items are the construction techs, look for the shipyard, once that is researched you will have access to the resupply ship.
5. Pass.

Darkspire

[Nefaro]

  I am now in debt to the tune of 2000, and the Dark Moon Pirates have landed an invasion force.
Sigh...

Don't you mean, "YARR..."?

Would be cool if you could turn into a Pirate faction if you get sizzled down to nothing, in the same game.

[Jarhead0331]

So are there any good mods released with the new tools yet?

[Ian C]

So are there any good mods released with the new tools yet?

I made a simple mod for playing human empires with a bit of variety for characters. They have random traits and skills each time you start a new game so replay value is high. I'll update and expand it as I go along.

The mod can be safely incorporated into the Extended Universe and Das Chrome UI Mods. Just paste both the folders into the mod folder for each mod, over-writing.


DOWNLOAD LINK:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3635862&mpage=1&key=&#3635862

[Nefaro]

That sounds pretty cool Ian!

I've not played DW for awhile, despite buying the Universe upgrade not long ago.  But I will get behind anything that adds some more variety such as this.  O0

[Kushan]

So are there any good mods released with the new tools yet?

Distant Worlds Extended is about the only major overhaul type mod out right now. It adds 18 new races that fit right into the exist DW universe. On the rare games I don't play using it, the galaxy actually feels a bit empty.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3141149

There was a Star Trek overhaul mod out, but the author took it down upon the request of another modder whose work he used without permission. It sounds like Igard (the modder who made the request) is close to releasing his updated Picard Era ST mod. From what little has been said, it sounds like he will also be updating his Archer, Kirk, and Spock era mods as well.

My most anticipated mod is eva lilith's EVE mod. But she has been working on it for a few years now and still hasn't released it.  The ship images are some of the best I have seen for DW.

I'd love to see an Honor Harrington mod, too bad Weber's lawyers would shut it down like they have previous mod projects. Maybe someone could do an Honor Harrington inspired mod.

Edit:

Screenshot of what I've been working on tonight. Two ships using the same image. Scaling is a little off. I know the ability to force image scaling was added in Universe, but I need to look into if there is a way to force AI designs to scale before I do this for all the default images.

[Jarhead0331]

Have a really large intergalactic empire going now. Its called the "Intergalactic Imperium of Man." I usually play elliptical or spiral galaxies, but this time I went for irregular and I happened to be placed near the galactic core. There seemed to be a lot more colonizable planets nearby than my typical games and this helped me expand pretty quickly. There are three or four other empires that rival mine in size and tech, two of which are pretty good allies.  Should be interesting.  Its around this time where things start happening too fast to keep up with at normal speed and I have to start slowing down time regularly. This is usually the point at which I get frustrated and lose interest...I'd like to keep going this time, though, if I can.

[Martok]

By the by, Elliot was able to help me with my problem of not getting the music to play on my copy of the game installed on the XP half of my hard drive.  Turns out all I had to do was upgrade Windows Media Player to v11; simple!  :) 

Have a really large intergalactic empire going now. Its called the "Intergalactic Imperium of Man." I usually play elliptical or spiral galaxies, but this time I went for irregular and I happened to be placed near the galactic core. There seemed to be a lot more colonizable planets nearby than my typical games and this helped me expand pretty quickly. There are three or four other empires that rival mine in size and tech, two of which are pretty good allies.  Should be interesting.  Its around this time where things start happening too fast to keep up with at normal speed and I have to start slowing down time regularly. This is usually the point at which I get frustrated and lose interest...I'd like to keep going this time, though, if I can.

I know the feeling.  I play the game with a fairly high degree of automation/adviser suggestions, and it can still be a bit much sometimes when your empire gets large. 

That being said, I don't think there's another 4x title out there that could make things manageable at all, at least not on the scale typical for DW galaxies.