Distant Worlds: Universe annouced!

[bbmike]

...so $10 to upgrade during the post-release promotion period if you have the base game and all the addons then. :D  (just noticed the new emoticons).   I'll probably do it for $10...

There's new emoticons? Finally!  But it looks like only just a few were added.  :-\
That said, I guess it's time to get re-acquainted with this title. 

[Darkspire]

The NDA has been lifted so if anyone has any questions related to modding I will do my best to answer them.

Darkspire

[Kushan]

The NDA has been lifted so if anyone has any questions related to modding I will do my best to answer them.

Darkspire

Universe is a day one buy for me but I'd like to hear your general thoughts on expansion and modding? I haven't read through the entire modding guide myself, and from what I have read there is a lot more open to us, but from watching DAS's videos I got the impression there where still some limitations.

[Darkspire]

First off you have to understand that DW was never intended to be opened in this manner regards modding, every expansion has added a little more to the mix.

Universe has turned DW into a 4x engine as best it can within the confines of the first point. The base dynamics are not open, like the AI but if you want make a theme that covers a particular setting, Star Trak, Stargate etc or just change things to just make your own version of how things should be you can more than do that, for example, one of the main things that has often been mentioned was the fact that once a Gerax Drive was researched the Galaxy, even on a 15x15, was completely open and any sector could be reached, any drives after that were just faster / use less energy, that was one of the first things I changed, now the drives for me are scaled so the range also gets better as you progress. This was accomplished by altering the new components.txt.

You can create your own resource types now, so if you added a Naquadah reactor (Stargate) in the components.txt you could then create your own fuel type, Naquadah, in the resources.txt for it to run on.

Colonies can now produce manufactured goods, a special resource that is only available at colonies, these appear when a colony reachs a certain development level and population, hence you now have the possibility of creating hi-tech colonies, they can also be used in the makeup for a component, by setting them to be a strategic resource, manufactured goods can also be set as a luxury good, these in turn will help the development level of a colony which in turn will help cash flow, which should help on the higher difficulty settings. For example, I created a warp drive that amongst the resources needed were manufactured goods, namely, Warp Core, Matrix Node etc,  these were added to the resources.txt and then the drive was added to the research tree in research.txt. I have always wanted to get a 4x time with these added, with much juggling from Elliot after the idea was presented these are now a reality and are a first for 4x games and add a new layer of depth for the colonies.

I could go on for hours on what has been opened, if you are familiar with modding in Shadows you will be more than happy with what you can do now, have a look at the index for Shadows and compare it to Universe. I am really impressed with it, I actually feel like DW has more or less become clay and can be sculpted how you want, all the files work off each other more or less, like the ones I have mentioned, raceBiases, now also works in conjunction with raceFamilies and raceFamilyBiases which allows a much tighter control of how the races interact, add that to fact you can now create governments, which also has a bias file you can really make races work more how you want them to in relations with others.

Most of the GFX have been opened up and that is reflected in the new theme structure, no longer do you have to write over the master files, a theme in Universe really is a theme now.

I am none to hot on writing this sort of thing, I can explain the how to mod just not the what you can mod, but I have tried to give you a good feel for what can be accomplished.

Darkspire

[tgb]

I haven't played DW since the expansion before last - Heroes, I think - was released, what, 2 years ago?  I'm really looking forward to getting this and jumping back in the saddle agian.

[Jarhead0331]

I'm not a modder. So other than modding, what new material does this release offer?

[Nefaro]

I'm not a modder. So other than modding, what new material does this release offer?

This.

While being a much easier purchase at $10, I'm still wondering what other changes have been made besides the modding structure.

[FlickJax]

I'm not a modder. So other than modding, what new material does this release offer?

This.

While being a much easier purchase at $10, I'm still wondering what other changes have been made besides the modding structure.

Plus 1

[jomni]

Well I guess you will be able to "consume" the mods that are manufactured by the modders.

[Darkspire]

Well I guess you will be able to "consume" the mods that are manufactured by the modders.

There is a new theme 'The Ancient Galaxy' that deals with the DW storyline before all the others, many tweaks to the game engine to improve performance and many new features in the modding, so if you are not a modder then the themes created by others will contain them.

Darkspire

[Jarhead0331]

Well I guess you will be able to "consume" the mods that are manufactured by the modders.

There is a new theme 'The Ancient Galaxy' that deals with the DW storyline before all the others, many tweaks to the game engine to improve performance and many new features in the modding, so if you are not a modder then the themes created by others will contain them.

Darkspire

Sounds a little lack luster to someone like me. Did they even add anything new to show what the modding suite is capable of?

[mikeck]

Well I guess you will be able to "consume" the mods that are manufactured by the modders.

There is a new theme 'The Ancient Galaxy' that deals with the DW storyline before all the others, many tweaks to the game engine to improve performance and many new features in the modding, so if you are not a modder then the themes created by others will contain them.

Darkspire

Isn't there a patch coming out at the same time that would presumably include all of the engine upgrades? I'm not into the storylines nor the mods so will I get these updates with just the patch?

[Darkspire]

Sounds a little lack luster to someone like me. Did they even add anything new to show what the modding suite is capable of?

The new theme contains some of the new features.

I do apologize, I am a modder / coder not a sales person, I did say I could help with questions on the new modding capabilities not sell the new features, I did the best I could with the post a few up to explain about things. I would go and have a look at the new Universe page over at Matrix to get a better view of things, that has a full list of features and new content.

Darkspire

[Jarhead0331]

Sounds a little lack luster to someone like me. Did they even add anything new to show what the modding suite is capable of?

The new theme contains some of the new features.

I do apologize, I am a modder / coder not a sales person, I did say I could help with questions on the new modding capabilities not sell the new features, I did the best I could with the post a few up to explain about things. I would go and have a look at the new Universe page over at Matrix to get a better view of things, that has a full list of features and new content.

Darkspire

You don't have to be a sales person to speak freely about a game that you beta tested and have knowledge about. Nobody is asking you to sell the game, we're just looking for information...you know, that is kind of what a forum is for. What's with the attitude?

[Boggit]

Universe draws all the expansions together, and adds the Ancient Galaxy as a new expansion. There's lots of other stuff too, but that's probably the most significant bit. I heard that there are discounts for people owning the base game, and expansions, but the level of discount will relate to how much of the franchise you already have. I thought it a pretty fair way to go, so veteran players don't feel they've ended up paying twice over if they stick with the franchise.