Distant Worlds : To be or Not to be

[Martok]

I've started a new campaign in the Extended Mod, this time as the United Shandar Alliance.  I'm playing on a max-size map, normal difficulty with 19 other (randomized) races. 

I'm off to a good start, with a strong economy, sufficient mining bases to supply my needs, and a reasonably strong navy to protect my territory.  I've colonized 3 (volcanic) worlds, and I'm about to grab an independent Shandar colony as well (our original homeworld, in fact!).  I also stumbled across an old (but still functional) colony ship inhabited by a machine race (I forget their name), which will allow me to colonize a desert planet/moon on top of everything else. 

So far, I haven't had to worry too much about my neighbors:  I've run into half a dozen other folks so far (including the Ancient Guardians), but we're all getting along pretty well.  My biggest threat to this point has been pirates, and everyone in the region have been diligent about going after them (with the AG's as usual leading the way).  I accidentally got into a scuffle with our neighbors to the southwest when -- amusingly -- we simultaneously sent a fleet to destroy the same pirate base, but quick apologies were made on both sides, so no worries there (at least for now). 

If anything, my biggest overall concern at the moment is the Ancient Guardians, who seem to establish mining bases all over the damn place.  If I wasn't so hilariously out-teched and out-gunned by them, I'd honestly consider launching a quick-strike assault to take their homeworld.  As it is, however, I'll simply have to live with them; if nothing else, they'll probably prove useful if/when the Shakturi show up... 

[Nefaro]

Hrmm..

Been waiting to see if they're gonna pop a sale on Legends before the new one hits.  *taps foot*

[JasonPratt]

I'm just gonna throw this out there:

Warhammer40K megamod for Distant Legends == something that ought to be done.

[PanzersEast]

I'm just gonna throw this out there:

Warhammer40K megamod for Distant Legends == something that ought to be done.

+1!

PE

[Martok]

Hrmm..

Been waiting to see if they're gonna pop a sale on Legends before the new one hits.  *taps foot*

If there's a sale for DW (including Legends), it'll likely be *when* Shadows gets released.  Matrix likes to do this stuff simultaneously. 

[bbmike]

If you buy Return from Matrix right now you get 20% off of Legends if you buy it at the same time.

[Martok]

Some screenshots from my new Shandar campaign: 







My leader.  He has the "weak" and "pacifist" traits, which negatively impacts my people's war-weariness and troop-recruitment rate, but otherwise he's got decent stats overall (he also has the "organized" and "tolerant" traits, which really helps). 

The Shandar are a new race added in the Extended Mod, and are unusual in that Volcanic planets/moons are their habitat of choice.  This generally translates into more worlds available for colonization -- Continental planets/moons (which the majority of DW races prefer) are the least common type -- and their colonies are also more resistant to disasters. 

Shandar are also natural optimists, giving them a big happiness bonus, which is crucial for one of their race-specific victory conditions: having the happiest population.  They're kind of portrayed as being stupidly over-trusting, yet of a sunny disposition. 





New Shandar, my capital.  In addition to Station McKinley (a large spaceport), it's currently protected by 3 defensive bases and the 3rd Fleet (the ships with a pink circle around them).  Just off-screen, I also have the 5th Fleet assembling, although their duties lay elsewhere and will be departing shortly. 





The diplomacy screen.  I've met a couple new races since I last posted, notably both the Humans and XHumans -- they don't like each other very much (understatement alert!!).  And yes, those are five separate pirate factions, only one of which I know the location to their base.  Grr. 

Fortunately, aside from the two Human facitons (and even that should only be temporary), most folks are cool with me.  My closest pals are -- thank goodness! -- the Ancient Guardians, who think I'm the cat's meow (they like my style of government - Utopian Paradise).  The Lipid Alliance and Riktoh Corporation are also on pretty good terms with me, although I'm concerned about possible border disputes in the future (especially with the latter). 

Interestingly, the Humans and Ancient Guardians are the only races from vanilla Distant Worlds: Legends that I've run into so far.  The other races are all new, courtesy of the Extended Mod.  Kinda cool, especially as I set the other empires to "random". 





The overall situation in my corner of the galaxy. 


The pink folks to the east are the Ancient Guardians.  Because of some of the colonies I've established, a number of their mining & research stations are now in "my" territory, and (in a couple cases) even in systems I've colonized.  The AG's aren't in a snit over this, though, and I'm more than willing to let sleeping dogs lie. 

To the southeast (in the light tan color) is the Lipid Alliance.  I can only see their one world, which is (thus far) their sole colony outside of their capital. 

The purple people in the southwest are the XHumans.  While they don't hint at any real hostile intent, I'm still going to be keeping an eye on them.  They have 10 colonies to my 6, and are close enough to me in military strength that I'm not going to take them lightly. 

The white territory in the north/northwest is the Riktoh.  They're expanding like crazy, having already colonized ten worlds, and they've blocked off any chance for me to expand in that direction.  Could be a problem.  (Their military strength is only around half my own, though...) 

Not pictured is the Ketaros Realm.  Although I haven't actually found their territory yet, I'm pretty sure they're somewhere to the south of me.  These are the guys I had a minor incident with earlier when we both sent fleets to eradicate a pirate's nest. 

Also not pictured:  The Humans and the Visareen, who I believe are both somewhere off to the west. 





A closer look at the east/southeast. 

In between the Ancient Guardians and Lipid sits Heilcet, my lone desert colony; I was able to settle it thanks to that lost colony ship of Ortain (the machine race I mentioned in my earlier post).  That's where the 5th Fleet is being deployed.  Not that I really anticipate problems with the Lipid (and not at all with the AG's), but better safe than sorry.  Also, there's been increased pirate activity along my southern frontier as of late. 





The southwest. 

My main concern in this area is -- again, and at least for the moment -- pirates.  However, the XHumans' expansion makes me mildly anxious.  I *was* going to withdraw & redeploy 1st Fleet (upper-right of the screen) after they were done refueling, but I think I'm going to have them stick around for a while... 





The northern marches. 

More than anywhere else in the Alliance, it's here where things are most likely to get...sporty.  ;)  This region has it all: 

1.)  Encroachment by a rapidly-expanding neighbor (the Riktoh).

2.)  Pirates (see their base south of Perec Major, the Riktohs' eastern-most colony).

3.)  My 4th Fleet (based at Brintaal Junction at bottom of screen) preparing to take out said pirate base.

4.)  In the Dirra system, a newly-discovered independent Shandur world I'm about to colonize (see yellow circle in upper-right)...just outside of current Riktoh territory. 

5.)  More pirates -- "guarding" said Shandur world (in the Dirra system). 



After 4th Fleet takes out the pirate base, they're moving to Dirra -- to deal with the pirates there, and (if necessary) to deal with the Riktoh.  We'll see what happens... 

[bbmike]

I finally got a chance to play my first game ever of DW (I have Legends). I like it so far. Very different from previous 4x space games I've played. I feel like I'm playing Europa Universalis 3 in space.  8)

[PanzersEast]

@Martok
Looks like you are getting squeezed on each side.... don't trust those xHumans!  You may have to wedge yourself in the West.

@bbmike
That is the feeling I got when I started playing.... very deep political options (one of the best I have seen in a game).  There are so many things going on in the galaxy that you feel like you are the head of a race that is depended on your decisions.. and the automation never makes me feel like I am not in control, on the contrary it makes me feel like I am making vital decisions.  I find DW to be EU3 +++++  ;)

PE

[Martok]

A French site called Net4War did an interview  with Erik Rutins regarding the upcoming Shadows expansion.  (To read the English version, scroll about 3/5 of the way down the screen.) 


It's a veritable info dump, especially with regards to planetary invasions and the new space-based factions.  Of the latter, there are four main types you can choose to play as: Raider, Smuggler, Mercenary, and Balanced.  Regarding the former, here's a big chunk of what Erik had to say about it: 

The ground combat screen has two main parts. The first is the planet surface and the second is the space/orbit section. At any time, players can click on the troops area on a planet that is under attack to watch the combat unfold.

Each new unit type plays a role and you can watch the invading forces move from space to the planet surface, while being engaged by the planetary defenses. Once on the surface, special forces may go after the planetary defenses, while armor, mech and infantry troops fight it out. You can watch each unit and see which enemy it is engaging while also monitoring their strength and casualties.

As with Legends, characters can have a big impact (in the form of Generals, who also gains some new abilities), as can various new combined arms and attack/counter-attack bonuses for the right combination of troop types relative to the enemy forces.

On paper, at least, this sounds quite promising.  I especially like that Generals will be more important now and receive additional abilities, as they admittedly feel somewhat underutilized in Legends. 

I finally got a chance to play my first game ever of DW (I have Legends). I like it so far. Very different from previous 4x space games I've played. I feel like I'm playing Europa Universalis 3 in space.  8)

Awesome, bbmike!  You still enjoying the game, then? 

[Kushan]

For example, you can now set a garrison level on each planet to make sure you keep a minimum level of troops there even when loading transports.

This should make managing invasion forces easier. Leave a small garrison on newly conquered planets and pick up the rest with out having to tell individual transports to load. I just want to AI to be smart enough to load a balanced ground force mix when I tell transports to load from the nearest colonies.

In Shadows we've made the most significant improvements to the performance of the graphics and memory management in Distant Worlds since the original release.

Wonder if this means they are moving the rendering of graphics from the CPU to the GPU.

[republic]

Wonder if this means they are moving the rendering of graphics from the CPU to the GPU.

I really hope so.  Even on a very fast machine huge battles can turn into a slideshow.

[FlickJax]

OK so having my first game of Legends. Enjoyable but does get busy once you start expanding, finding getting around screens not too easy.

Have a question though - Planet Invasions.

Having a war with my nearest neighbour, I attacked his home system and one of my fleets took his second colony. We battled over his main colony to a stalemate and so I signed a peace treaty that stated I would gain the colony I took plus 2 others. However once signed the one I took reverted to the old ruler and his ships were still attacking my shipping. Annoyed now I declared war and sent the bulk of my fleets to his home planet and the one I took before. According to fleet screen I have plenty of troops on my ships but no invasion. Meanwhile his fleets take 2 of my outer colonies!!

So how do you complete a successful invasion?

[bbmike]

Awesome, bbmike!  You still enjoying the game, then?

I was, but then I became distracted by Armada 2526 Supernova. I've had that game for a while but just gave it a try about a week ago. I think it's my favorite 4x turn based space game for now.
I plan to start a new game of Distant Worlds soon. I'm going to try a larger map with more opponents. I might even turn on pirates this time.  ;D

[Kushan]

Eric posted some high res screenshot from the interview.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3206160&mpage=17&key=

Awesome, bbmike!  You still enjoying the game, then?

I was, but then I became distracted by Armada 2526 Supernova. I've had that game for a while but just gave it a try about a week ago. I think it's my favorite 4x turn based space game for now.
I plan to start a new game of Distant Worlds soon. I'm going to try a larger map with more opponents. I might even turn on pirates this time.  ;D

The games no fun if you don't play with pirates turned on.