What is it with 4X games at the moment - they seem to be coming out of the woodwork! Not that I'm complaining...Galciv 2 is one of my treasured gaming experiences!

This looks very interesting - particularly with such vast galaxies to explore and conquer! I wonder what their previous game, Smugglers IV - Doomsday, is like...

Hehe I have noticed that to because the 4x/rpg/strategy games in the link area is the biggest of them all. These videos are pretty good at showing some of the features.

God I hate when ppl removethe videos so we can't watch them 🙁

Fixed the vids 🙂 Strange they went down since they were the ones linked from their website?

They just posted the 4th vid to youtube, expansion.

I hope this game isnt like Smuggles IV. While Smugglers iv is good. It has a very short time limit, like its meant to be played fast and repeatedly for different results, not my type of game, and it got annoying real fast. If this game has no time limit, then it could make up for that and be a pretty good game from the looks of them screenshots.

Just to point out something 1. The developer behind Distant Worlds is CodeForce, http://codeforce.co.nz/

They have NOTHING to do with the developer of Smugglers 4, Niels Bauer Games, http://www.nielsbauergames.com/ .

The only thing the two titles have in common is that they both use MatrixGames as a publisher.

So once again, the developers of Distant Worlds are in no way connected to the devs of Smugglers 4.

End of story.

Also, I'm very excited for Distant Worlds, for example, new empires can ALWAYS form from old in the game, meaning a game can always be fresh and not become stale with massive empires(because smaller empires will form from them via rebellion, revolution etc.)

Yeah just saw this released, anyone play this yet can give any thoughts? It's a bit too in-depth for my taste. I just don't think I have the patience for a game of this scope right now.

Maybe we could get some SSC AAR's (After Action Reports) on here, they are on the Matrix Games forum and make interesting reading. It's one way to learn more about the vast 'living universe' that is Distant Worlds 😉

From what I can see DW has it all, a real time complex involved space sim with a vast universe to explore plus empire building, combat and more. Looks like it will take some time to take it all in and get to grips with the game! 😯

Started playing DW and really like the depth of this game.

You can automate just about anything or nothing at all depending on your play style.

It takes a while to get used to the way the game plays and the interface isn't really that intuitive, but with the amount of info and control you use it's worth having a go and sticking to it and you can get some great enjoyment out of it.

Traker is there a demo for Distant Worlds? I haven't been able to find one yet. With a game like this there should always been a small demo showing off the gameplay. I think that is what is holding DW back from doing well.

Havn't seen a demo for the game.

And as you say, that does make people wary to hand over the money for a game they canot roadtest.

Although the videos of the game give a general idea but this is nowhere as good as a play.

There has been a major update patch 1.0.5.6, a public beta for the game already. And this is after about 3 or 4 minor fixes already.

You gota love the developers for their commitment to fixing any problems that crop up, and in their next major patch they say they are going to open up the game to be more accessible to modding

I really like this game. It got the makings of a classic.

It seems interesting... Just getting the game now... From what it looks like in the videos it seems like Lost Empire :Immortals...

I still cannot believe that there is no demo for the game. Unless there is some great videos for a game that shows off everything a game offers I don't buy anything without a demo. I am pretty sure their sales would pickup with a release of a demo.

I do agreewith you Darkzone.

It is strange they are not bring out a demo, but all i can say it is a great Grand strategy 4X game with more focus on macro-managment rather than the fine detail of micro-managment which actually works in this game. But does take a little bit of getting used too, as this game can also take weeks if not months to play out.

Anyway they have bought out another Beta patch 1.0.5.7 today, so they are listening to the community and constantly improving the game which a think is great for the future of this possible classic in the making.

opps Darkone not Darkzone

Sorry mate!

I thought Id bite after seeing the videos and buy this game. Its only going to take half an hour for the digital download of nearly 600 megabytes. Very good download service I must say. Plus their online store has a very nice layout and is easy to use. Once Ive played about with it Ill add more.

Hows the game going Lexx ❓ .

DarkOne... I have been a space sim/strategy fanatic ever since StarFlight days. After seeing each of the

four instructional/example videos for DW on YouTube that Matrix games provided I was "almost" sold. But

like you, I was wary due to the lack of a demo. But "unfortunately" 😥 , after acquiring information

everywhere on the net about the game...I made a HUGE mistake in finding out that DW had a full blown,

total conversion Star Trek mod and other "accessory" ST mods for it. Being the "Trekkie" I am ,

after recovering from the shakes and chills of my discovery, I immediately grabbed my credit card and purchased

the game. As mentioned in a previous post, I'm still immersed in not only the vast learning stages and tutorial

of the game, but also anticipating the immense enjoyment ( and countless hours/days/weeks ) of running the

soon to be vast empire of the United Federation of Planets. Whew....sorry about the ranting! I got bored of

GalCiv2, and although i was about to go the way of Sins of a Solar Empire, I believe I have made an excellent

choice. I'll report back to you guys here in the Forum with some of my after action reports..... In the meantime,

I'm off to Starfleet Academy to learn how to kick Cardassian butt and drink Romulan Ale at the diplomacy table!

BTW DarkOne...... You are doing a FANTASTIC job here at SSC

ehsumrell1

Thanks ehsumrell1 and welcome to SSC.

I am a huge trekkie myself and have been wanting to try nexus with that nice Star Trek mod. but haven't found the time to. I will probably leap into Distant Worlds when the price comes down a bit more. Since there is no demo and i have viewed most of the videos and there does seem to be a learning curve, i'm not too old yet that I cannot learn new things its just sometimes the attention span gets the best of me 😀

Most of the reviews that I have read on Distant Worlds have been above average. I am interested in the automation feature and how that works and can we automate many of the little things so you can do less management and more playing of the game. Guess I just don't want to spend most of my time managing the game, I like to play and have fun.

So far...it seems that one has a myriad of choices that dictates whether you macro or micro manage the game (as set initially in the game options at the onset). Similar to using "Govenors". What yet remains to be seen is how adept the

AI will be as one grows their empire. Will get back to you on that one also. In addition...the games' forum users so far

have been providing a plethora of tips and info on how to set up the game for the best enjoyment and easiest learning

curve. I'm so far very pleased with this product.

I just started playing the game and its pretty awesome so far. Alot to learn but I like that.

I'll post a better review once I've played it some more.

Greetings all! I've been a lurker here at SSC for awhile now but I was reading this thread and thought I'd register finally to chime in.

I was in the same boat as many; disappointed that Distant Worlds did not have a demo. I am always wary of buying a game without a demo because it makes me feel like the developers are trying a bait and switch, promising awesome features and not delivering. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been burned by this behavior in the past.

Having said that, I took a risk and went ahead and picked up Distant Worlds. After playing it, it made me even more disappointed there was no demo....but it had nothing to do with a bait and switch. This game is very, very good in my opinion and the fact that there is no demo is going to dissuade potential customers from buying it and giving it the success it deserves.

I won't lie, before the latest patch, 1.0.6.0, the game was almost unplayable and there are still some irritating bugs.

For example, construction ships can be used to repair ships which are badly damaged/stranded in space. However, if two automated construction ships are tasked to repair the same ship, and one arrives first and repairs the ship completely, the second construction ship will forever chase the previously damaged ship trying to catch up to it to provide repairs it no longer needs. This can be reversed by simply giving the second construction ship override orders and then setting it back to automated, but it can still be irritating.

Also, there are some glaring holes in the diplomacy mechanics. For example, your relationship with another empire is rated between -100 (arch enemy) to +100 (best friend). I'll be at more than +70 with an empire and my "diplomats" (automated treaty feature) will suggest I prepare and deliver a pre-emptive strike on my "enemies" (my +70 friend).

Those are two examples of bugs I consider minor. They can and will (I'm sure) be easily fixed in the near future. The gameplay it self is a blast though. At first, figuring out where the game places menus options, etc. can be odd because as mentioned before the UI isn't always intuitive. But once you've got the UI down (specifically in my case the "expansion planner" which helps determine where you're going to colonize) the game becomes a lot more manageable.

You can send out exploration ships and colony ships that will eventually stumble onto planets that contain artifacts (structures) of lost civilizations that impart bonuses to your empire (think villages from Civilization). Also, you can find abandoned ships adrift in space that you can either add to your fleet and use or take back to a shipyard and and tear apart to reap technology bonuses from.

That brings up what is, unfortunately, the most awful part of the game. The R&D design is utterly confounding to me. From what I understand of it, you basically build stations that have "labs" on them. There are 4 different types of labs (high tech, energy, weapons, industrial) that each contribute points towards several "subfields" in their area. For example, under energy is (shields, engines, hyperdrive, reactors, energy collectors ). The more "energy labs" you have the more points are contributed to those sub-fields, however, you don't get to choose where the points go, its random so you can only have a macro level influence on research. That in itself seems like an "okay" concept, but your rate of R&D is limited (apparently) by your population so that a really small empire can't build a bunch of labs and research rapidly. The mechanic is sound in theory, but there is no real way to tell (from my experience) how many more people I need to fully realize my R&D potential. Finally, the points are distributed at seemingly random intervals as well. This may seem realistic, but I can have an item sit at "99% researched for 2-3 game years and not complete which can be frustrating. And one more thing, the R&D trees are extremely linear. So much so that if you manage to use diplomacy to purchase/steal/threaten an advanced technology from another empire....you gain that technology and all preceding technologies in that area's tree as well even if they have nothing to do with the technology you gained from the empire. (I can gain a repair bot component from another empire, and I'll also gain a colonization module because it is between my current technology level and the repair bot's level I just gained).

This may sound like a negative review of the game, however, I want to be sure I state the issues I perceive so its not an biased review either. I love the game to be honest. I'll be playing it a lot. There's an underlying (albeit thin) storyline you can discover as you find old, abandoned space stations that explains what happened to all the civilizations that came before yours. My most awesome time in the game so far is when I followed the storyline to a point that I found an old, abandoned, top secret space station that contained a precursor's money, technology, culture, and knowledge and overnight I went from the #3 empire to the #1 empire in my game, all because I took the time to explore and follow the clues the game gave.

Anyhow, I'll end up summarizing a bit. This game is great. I've had a ton of fun with it and will undoubtedly be playing it for a long time to come. I wish it had multiplayer because that would have made it even better, but the single player game is plenty of fun to be a part of my game's library.