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A-A
Posts: 3156
Location: New york
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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 Posted: Thu, 25th Mar 2010 22:56 Post subject: |
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| A-A wrote: | | Big_Gun wrote: | | Epsilon wrote: | | The game was just released for purchase on matrixgames.com |
Are you buying?
If so, i hope you post some initial impressions.
I hold your opinion on these type games highly. |
Hmmm well i got that other 4x strategy game that Epsilon raved about and well it was pretty damn average  |
Yeah armada? I'm afraid I let the novelty value get the best of me.
Thus I'm not posting what I think just yet. |
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| Posted: Thu, 25th Mar 2010 23:13 Post subject: |
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Sword of the Stars 2 is pretty much my most anticipated game right now. I love me some large scale 4X empire building.
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A-A
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Big_Gun
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Location: My mother's womb originally. . .
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 00:06 Post subject: |
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| Big_Gun wrote: | | Epsilon wrote: | | A-A wrote: |
Hmmm well i got that other 4x strategy game that Epsilon raved about and well it was pretty damn average |
Yeah armada? I'm afraid I let the novelty value get the best of me.
Thus I'm not posting what I think just yet. |
Oh come on.
Give us a first impression.
Give us a disclaimer at the beginning and update it later. |
First the bad, I really dislike brass and iron music in a game like this, sure in the big hollywood productions thats what you've come to expect, but I like to listen to music I actually like when playing a game.
The music in Ai War for instance really fitted that specific setting. So I had to create a music mod to replace the music with a more electronic part instead of the brass that was in there.
The fonts can seem a little too small on some monitors, if you have an LCD with a resolution of 1920x1200 and upwards you will likely think so too, a fix is coming the devs say.
Now on to the good stuff.
It's an interesting and complex game, the kind where you will constantly discover and figure out new ways to play the game.
The ability to setup the galaxy and empires exactly how you want will make for many possible replays.
Time passes realistically in the game, since it's real time I feared that it would become a click fest, but it most certainly does not. It will take several days of game time for a ship to fly to the nearest star system at sub light speed, fleet engagements and skirmishes also takes quite a long time.
I can't say much about research yet, only that you research many things at once the same way you did in Space Empires, only it seems more vast here.
The diplomacy, trade agreements etc system leaves nothing to be desired, it's as complex as the system in Alpha Centauri.
The galaxy seems truly vast and exploration is a huge part of the game, you can really find some neat stuff by looking around. Like 2 government civics that can only be found through exploration.
The sounds of the weapons and explosions are quite neat, not weak pew pew lasers at all, and the explosions fit as well, not overdone and doesn't sound like farting in a bottle - like in Armada.
Theres a plethora of varying races in here, although sadly no cyborg races or ai races, but they're quite easy to mod in, almost any kind of race you might be able to conjure up you can mod in.
An interesting thing is when some of your colonies rebel and start a new empire on their own, similarly an independent colony can decide that it's ready to take to the stars and start an empire on their own. The maximum amount of start empires is 20, but once you get going this amount will increase from splinter factions etc.
I was being harassed by some pirates all the time, so I went exploring trying to figure out where they were hiding, eventually I found their base and took it out with some destroyers of my own design, immediately afterwards a nearby pirate faction contacted me and said they wanted to join my empire because they feared they were next on my hit list - a nice touch. So I got a nice little base there and quite a few readily fitted warships.
You might think it would be a daunting task managing where to colonize next or getting the resources you need, but you have a galaxy management screen abstraction, through which you get an overview of all the systems and planets you've explored, through the same screen you can order construction of mining bases on rich planets or the colonization of planets fitting of your race.
There's a lot of possible automation in here and the ai does a good job of it, you can set it to automate everything if you wish, but what would be the fun of that?, but if you don't feel like constantly updating your ship designs or designing new ships, then have the ai do it for you and it will constantly optimize the designs.
Or have the AI govern your core planets so that you may concentrate about your current frontline, it's easily done 
I think this game is in spirit a lot like X-Com in that the more you play it the more you realise how good it actually is, but it does take time because it is quite complex and the strategies you need to employ equally so, but you do get a sense of exploring and it's easy to imagine that you're the federation, trying to make sense of the milky way, with all it's weird deity like ancient races and ruins to explore, whilst keeping the peace diplomatically with some races that are everything from quite stupid to very intelligent, welcoming to xenophobic, you never quite know who or what you might run into next
I will no doubt be playing this game for the rest of the week as I took friday off to play this game, already I like it a lot, but it does suffer from some bad design decisions, like the fonts and the bombastic music.
Sadly I tried to fix the fonts but they're hardcoded so I'll have to wait for a fix from the devs as promised, but I did make a music mod Just extract that to the distant worlds folder - if you don't like the brass.
EDIT: New version of music mod, this enables easy selection through ingame theme menu. |
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Big_Gun
Posts: 3017
Location: My mother's womb originally. . .
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 00:32 Post subject: |
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Thank you sir.
At least the "bad" stuff aren't huge game breakers so far so it seems.
Sounds like it has a lot of promise.
Guess I will take the plunge.
EDIT: i guess it is safe to say it is better than Armada at this point?
1 stripe purple belt in JiuJitsu (good grief this takes FOREVER hahah)
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 00:44 Post subject: |
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| Big_Gun wrote: | Thank you sir.
At least the "bad" stuff aren't huge game breakers so far so it seems.
Sounds like it has a lot of promise.
Guess I will take the plunge.
EDIT: i guess it is safe to say it is better than Armada at this point? |
Yeah it's a lot better, the only thing that might keep you liking this when you're used to the traditional 4x games, is that it's not turn based, but as previously stated, it's not a click fest by any means. And the user interface, while nice, easily has as many buttons as the one in Space Empires.
So there's a learning curve, it's not at all like Sword of The Stars which you just pickup and play.
This takes some effort to learn both the UI and the internal systems in the game is done differently than traditional 4x games. But this could turn out to be how it's done in future 4x games. |
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 05:55 Post subject: |
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Epsilon, thanks for this review. I was watching this game with a "wait and see" attitude, but wanted it to be good. I bought Armada 2526(?) and was less than impressed after a few days of playing it, wanted to hear what my fellow NFOhumpers thought of it.
Looks like I'll be buying Distant Worlds. That whole pirate faction asking to join you after you took out their friends is awesome. The diplomatic algorithms sound fantastic. I think the price is a little steep ... but screw it, indie developers need to eat and this game looks stellar.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it, Epsilon.
| Sertorius wrote: | | Just be careful to your ass while surfing on the net and NOTHING will happen to you. |
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 07:26 Post subject: |
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Thanks for the review Epsilon. Due to it, I will certainly be getting this game as soon as I get my hands on some cash. I need a 4X game to keep me busy until Sword of the Stars 2 comes out.
If you can be arsed, please continue posting about the various things that happen in your current game.
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 13:26 Post subject: |
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Well it wasn't much of a review, more like my thoughts and impressions.
They still stand though, even if I managed to enter a conflict that caused me to lose most of my colonies to a far more technologically advanced race
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A-A
Posts: 3156
Location: New york
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 16:42 Post subject: |
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A demo would be nice , too expensive without one
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 16:45 Post subject: |
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C'mon Skidrow were are you??
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 17:08 Post subject: |
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Like the game so far, though I have violated my rule of non-purchasing a game with > $35 price tag by inventing an excuse that it's an indie title   
The concept of living private sector is very fresh idea, makes the galaxy more alive. Beats the abstract trading routes, transportation chains, etc. that are so dominant in 4X games.
With default automation setting, player's role is being a leader by approving or disapproving various decisions your advisors came up with - like millitary chiefs suggest building and military defense base at orbit of <planet here>, it would cost $$$, do you approve ?
Also like how you can mix automated parts with manual interventions ala you can keep the designing and building of ships automated but still create and build your specialized ships.
At the moment game have quite a bit of raw edges, unpolished thingy here and there. You have to change Region format to English (United States) or any other that have dot as decimal separator otherwise it won't start at all.
Didn't like the music, like the Epsilon mentioned it's a chain of march music. I only kept Striving track and added it into a compilation of AI WAR sound track and full version of Epsilon's Alien Hand mod from DW forum. BTW, Epsilon thanks for the music mod
Last edited by WhiteBarbarian on Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:38; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:14 Post subject: |
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speaking about it - what protection game have ?
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:25 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:35 Post subject: |
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| Overlord123 wrote: | | Probably serial. |
Yep, this one. |
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:41 Post subject: |
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so good c'mon where is skidrow
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 18:44 Post subject: |
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They cracked Armada so hopefully they crack this on too and I don't have to buy it. It's really hard to resist, maybe when it's cheaper.
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:15 Post subject: |
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| Epsilon wrote: | Your welcome whitebarbarian. Who are you on the forum?
Having been playing the game yesterday and seen some interesting stuff and experienced some cool things, while the game takes quite a while to get into and learn, after you get past the steep learning curve and set a level of automation you're comfortable with the game really begins.
It's like eve, with patience comes reward, instant gratification people stay clear.
I dare say this is the best space 4x I've ever played, and I do not say that lightly, I've played most 4x games from MoO to Stars! to Sword of The Stars.
This game takes everything that was good and cool from other games
of the genre, mixes it with Europa Universalis and creates something new.
I really love this game.
open to read about a thing I found
 Spoiler: | Thats no moon... |
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I'm sold. Definitely buying this once I scrape together enough money.
Steam - The Poopflinger
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:16 Post subject: |
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:24 Post subject: |
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| dezztroy wrote: | | This game is 2D, right? |
Yes it is. |
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A-A
Posts: 3156
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:33 Post subject: |
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What's the POV in the game? Are you zoomed out viewing the whole galaxy, or do you watch systems/planets one at a time?
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:44 Post subject: |
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This is the current state of affairs in my 5 hour old game, the first game I'm playing where I actually know what I'm doing
I am the red "The Demarchists" the purple systems are owned by the Paikean Minor Commonwealth and our two races hate eachother.
But while they have vastly more firepower than I do, I have a couple of friends that I have mutal defence pacts with.
The blue guys at the top I don't know who are yet and where they stand, but I have sent a diplomatic mission there to find out.
Due to the current state of affairs I'm locked in a cold war with the Paikean Minor Commonwealth, each of us spying on the other, sabotaging colonies, stealing research, contra espionage, deep cover etc.
I fear he has placed a spy high within the ranks of my military infrastructure, so I have done the same to him.
At the same time both of us are building up our arsenals of ships and weapons, but they do require maintenance, so they don't come cheap you do need the colonies to be able to field a large military infrastructure.
Here you can see that I representing The Demarchists finding myself slightly... err outgunned.
Not to worry though as I have the strongest known economy, and will be able to develop crash research projects faster and pay for military material in the long run.
Also I have a bigger population, this means I'm able to field more troops during a planetary invasion of an enemy planet or in defense of one of my own planets.
During the routine exploration of a volcanic planet looking for resources I came upon the wreck of a very old capital ship from the last galactic war, it's unknown on who's side it fought, but through a little bit of engineering inginuity we managed to make it operational again, it has sense become our primary flagship and one of the most powerfull ships we know of.
The Demarchists are certainly living in interesting times right now |
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A-A
Posts: 3156
Location: New york
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:46 Post subject: |
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What sort of personal ships do you have? , from the videos they all look too similar
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:53 Post subject: |
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@Epsilon: I don't have an account at DW forums, just lurking as Guest ATM
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Epsilon
Dr. Strangelove
Posts: 9240
Location: War Room
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 19:58 Post subject: |
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| A-A wrote: | | What sort of personal ships do you have? , from the videos they all look too similar |
There's a plethora of different graphics that varies in style, theres 9 families of graphics which are different to one another.
I'll show you some here
This is a cruiser ship in 9 different families.
        
Also remember that it's very easy to import 2d graphics from games like Ai war and Gratuitous Space Battles if you like those designs, and since it's 2d it's "fairly" easy for the artsy types to create some new out of 3d models. |
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| Posted: Fri, 26th Mar 2010 20:01 Post subject: |
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This game sounds all kinds of awesome.
How are battles handled? Traditional RTS style, where you control your ships in realtime? Auto-resolving only?
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