Distant Worlds or Armada 2526?

[Bradley7735]

Hi Everyone,

I hope someone (or several someones) here have played both these games. I'm looking for a new space game and am trying to decide which of these two to try out.

First, I love, and still play Master of Orion 2. I haven't had much experience with other games of this genre, though.

What I love about MOO2: Customizable races. Customizable ships (although not as important as races), Colonizing just about anything (making planets from gas giants and asteroid fields), Destroying planets (stellar converter anyone?), and eliminating enemies you hate (wiping clean their colony or annihilating them after conquest)

What I don't like about MOO2 is the click fest when you have many colonies that are building and terraforming. I wish that could be automated a lot more (a queue of 7 is just not nearly big enough.), and having more options when customizing the race would be nice. I like the idea of pirates in DW, and MOO2 doesn't have much other than the number of races (Antarans attack makes a nice variation, but not much variation.)

The games in question cost the same, so that's not a factor. My system is XP, 2.0g ram, 2600 mhz, video is NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

If anyone has any great advice, please let me know. I've been reading the forums (DW mostly), and I'm getting a small picture of the game. I have noticed that you need to worry about diplomatic stuff in DW, so maybe a genocidal play style might not be possible.?

Thanks, Brad

[tgb]

Distant Worlds, definitely.

[EagleMountainDK]

+1 for Distant Worlds...

[EisenHammer]

Distant Worlds

[lordxorn]

Distant Worlds,

Someone else has aptly commented that Distant Worlds gives you a "living" feel, and that is a real good description. You mention MOO2 did that for you, then you will be happy with DW.

However, keep in mind that you do not directly control the civilian side, like MOO2 or GalCiv2, where you pick what buildings to build.

Armada does allow that.

[RavenX]

As a owner of both, I say get Distant Worlds. I was somewhat dissapointed in Armada, sadly.

[Korvus77]

I wanted to like Armada but it just seems clunky compared to this game. I will try it again after the next patch. I want both games to succeed because this genre seems starved to death. Still waiting for a 4x game to use Home World as the tactical battle engine though. [:D]

[licker]

ORIGINAL: Korvus77

I wanted to like Armada but it just seems clunky compared to this game. I will try it again after the next patch. I want both games to succeed because this genre seems starved to death. Still waiting for a 4x game to use Home World as the tactical battle engine though. [:D]

Well your wait was over several years ago then.

Sword of the Stars.

[thiosk]

Ok, I got armada. It came out first and I hadn't heard of DW.

Armada is a wonderful game. They got the correct FORMULA for 4x turn based strategy-- but it is a fairly unsophisticated update of MOO. I bought it and played it, and modability makes it really impressive, but without some more work, an expansion, and some more modding, i wasn't going back for more again and again. It REALLY needs the different types of interstellar travel per race; a la sots.

I have not been able to tear myself away from DW.

They really hit the nail on the head with some aspects of 4x space-- why do I have to manually ship imperial citizens around the galaxy? it makes no sense. It is so gratifying to zoom out and just watch the private sector do the things private sectors are supposed to do.

Its also SLOW and moves at a much more leisurely pace, which I love... I like to fine tune my empire's economy and THEN worry about invading and invaders.

[BigWolfChris]

There are ONLY 2 things I personally don't like about DW

1 - Due to the method of travel between stars, there is no longer any real concept of Empire Borders, your systems can be scattered all over the galaxy and so can the AI's.  It also removes other aspects as well

2 - Practically no modding abilities... sure you can changed graphics and alter a couple of names here and there, but for the most part there is very little moddability, which I find quite disappointing with a 4x Game

Sure there are many things that could be better, but besides these two I can live with everything else because they may be made better with patches.  Whereas these two will take alot more work to change, and personally, I don't see the first being altered anyway

[JonathanStrange]

Armada for old-style familiar 4X play. Easier to "get into."

DW for novel, new ambitious play. Requires more dedication and beating the "learning curve".

I think, hope, expect, want more living sandbox games like DW.

[HsojVvad]

ORIGINAL: BigWolf

There are ONLY 2 things I personally don't like about DW

1 - Due to the method of travel between stars, there is no longer any real concept of Empire Borders, your systems can be scattered all over the galaxy and so can the AI's.  It also removes other aspects as well

See I disagree here. I love how you can move where ever you want. If there were borders here, then most likely this would have to be a star lane type game, wich I am bored of. While it would be nice to see our borders, this is not a Civ Game, I don't have to see how our country looks like I think having the colour of stars is adequate enough.

While I havn't played Armada 2526, I was thinking of getting this game, when I couldn't get DW. But I wasn't happy what I was reading about Armada. IT was a negative that I can't make my own ships. I love making my own ships. But I played one game Star Trek The Birth of the Federation, (the real MOO3 game) where you can't make your own ships. This was ok, because you played what ST ships are suppose to be. But any other game, I want to make my own ships, espically if I didn't agree with what the developer decided on how a ship should be.

Also kept reading that the game is incomplete and needs one or two more patches, wich dosn't look like will be happening. I could be wrong here though. But I don't want to buy a game that people say is incomplete and dosn't look like its being supported no more.

[Sarissofoi]

Distant World.
Why?
Because Armada 2526 is crap. Compared to all other classic 4x game like MoO, MoO II, Galactic Civ or even old Armada 2525.
On  the other hand Distant World. It give feelings that it is alive. Yeah this game have serius issues and bugs but with few patches this can be fixed. I see like devs work and relese new patches and that is good thing.
If you arent in haste you can wait - DW should be better game soon, if you serius bored or want see something new you can check DW. But for any reason dont touch Armada 2526- this game is a bad word for his ancestor.

[Edited - you are free to express your opinions, but we don't like bashing here. If you don't like Armada 2526, say so and offer constructive criticisms as to why. Do not encourage others to pirate it.]

[Korvus77]

edit: oops quoted wrong post. Response was for SotS

Doesn't have the proper feel for a 4x and the battle engine does not hold a candle to HW.

[marc420]

As of right now, Armada works as a game.  DW seems to be in what's basically a public beta test.

Armada seems to be more of a general game where you build some pre-defined ship types, then send them off to fight.  The more 'shallow' style of 4x games that seem to be the norm of late.  Since I love the super detailed games, I haven't been real fond of this trend of simple ships and simple planets and lots of attention to a 3d battle display that doesn't really work very well.  Armada seems another step down that line.

DW, I love the detail.  Or at least I think I will once the developers get it all working together as a game.  But, its got most of the flaws of any RTS game.  They claim they are getting rid of the micromanagement that ruins any RTS game larger than a firefight.  But, that's part of what they are still working out as they do what's basically a public (paying) beta test of their game as they try to finalize it.

If you want to play a finished working balanced game in the next couple of months, DW isn't ready for that yet.  They have their 3rd patch in beta, and they obviously need more patches after that.  They don't have basic game play working yet, so they are just barely starting to work on 'balance' issues.  You can see a few references to these in the release notes for the patches, but its a given that they've got to get all their basic game mechanics working well enough for people to play out some long campaigns before they'll even start to see issues that can fundamentally unbalance a game.

And, since they are doing such work to just get the game going, then the 'extras' like trying to make a RTS style game that lets one focus on strategy instead of micromanagement tend to get put by the wayside.  So, what it seems to be so far is a very big and very detailed RTS game where you constantly have to be going all over the place telling your ships to refuel so they don't run out of gas.  I haven't gotten past the first few star systems yet, but it looks like this game could rapidly become very unplayable with size.

Me, I love the detail in DW.  But I suspect the basic design decision to make it a RTS might doom it.  But its very hard to tell now because the game simply isn't really ready for release yet.

[ASHBERY76]

ORIGINAL: Korvus77

edit: oops quoted wrong post. Response was for SotS

Doesn't have the proper feel for a 4x and the battle engine does not hold a candle to HW.

Horse<bleep> on both counts.

[Edited: Family forum, please keep it clean. For what it's worth, I think SOTS is a great game.]

[JosEPhII]

I have both and have played both.
Armada while a TBS game is shallow on the 1st 2X's of any 4X space game. It's focus is the 2nd 2 X's Exploit and Exterminate.
Pluses Turn based, Stable, Moddable.
Minuses Shallow game play and only meant for short games (long games reveals the lack/neutering of the 1st 2X's). Humans are over penalized vs any Alien AI. Diplomacy seems backwards (especially who is asking for what). Space Combat (2D) the ships literally bounce off each other like bumper cars at the amusement park, most disconcerting. DEV slow to react with community. Pretty much set in stone what will be looked at.

DW
Pluses It has some depth. It uses all 4X's. While it is a RTS it is a Very manageable RTS. Responsive DEV.
Minuses Not TBS (but this is only a small minus). Still has a few bugs(although IMHO nothing grossly out of line).

This is just a very basic overview.

Personal preference: I prefer DW. Armada is ok, but for me lacks replayability.

JosEPh

[Gerth]

I own both. Have played DW for about eight hours and find it vastly superior to Armada thus far, although in fairness the design goals seem polarized. Armada is aimed at a quicker, more combat-oriented style, while DW is a much slower, political/economical model. I own and enjoy shallow end, high production value 4X games such as Sins and SotS, but DW holds much more appeal due to its dynamic and evolving universe. No rails=good thing.

DW is smoother, deeper and more complex and the scaling automation is a fantastic device. If DW bugs and UI issues are ironed out, it will be a classic. Add a few features via expansion and Katy Bar the Door.

ETA I'm thrilled by the customer support. Reminds me of why I love Stardock products, also. No offense to Armada, but DW developer response seems quicker and more open. That developer connection convinced me to drop the cash on a game with no demo...[8|]

[martok]

At the moment, I'd lean more towards Distant Worlds over Armada 2526.


Don't get me wrong -- I enjoy Armada. It's a fairly easy game to get into but still has some depth. I also like that it's turn-based; similarly, I enjoy the game's pace. I find the music and visuals to be aesthetically pleasing as well (especially in terms of atmosphere). Overall, it's a decent take on the 4x genre.


All that being said, though, Armada doesn't grab me the way Distant Worlds has. Despite DW being in real-time, despite its incredibly irritating soundtrack (I confess the game's music is like nails on a chalkboard sometimes), despite a sometimes-difficult UI, despite the numerous bugs & imbalances that have cropped up....I get sucked in.

Distant Worlds has an immersion factor that I haven't seen in a long time. For the first time in I-don't-even-remember-how-long, I find it genuinely difficult to put the game down and step away from the computer. If all strategy games had this kind of time-suckage factor, I'd be in serious trouble! [;)]

[Rebel Yell]

Armada is checkers, DW is chess.