Getting Started - Need some good tips

Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time, 4X space strategy game which models a "living galaxy" with incredible options for replayability and customizability. Experience the full depth and detail of large turn-based strategy games, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game. Now greatly enhanced with the new Universe release, which includes all four previous releases as well as the new Universe expansion!

Moderators: elliotg, Icemania

Tane
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:25 pm

Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Tane »

I recently bought Distant Worlds. I am a long time sci-fi 4x fan, starting with the old Reach For the Stars game.

Frankly, I am hard pressed to understand how to get into this game. I went through the tutorials and t h e launched the starter intro game.

However, it feels like I am just watching the AI play itself.Every once in a while it pops up a question as to whether I'd like to spend most of my treasury on building warships, occasionally something else.

So I really would like some help.

Thanks in advance.
Tane
Aeson
Posts: 786
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 7:36 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Aeson »

I would suggest that you open up the Empire Policies menu (the button in the top center of the screen that has a clipboard icon) and set everything in there to "control manually" or "suggest." Manage everything for a while, get a feel for what you do and don't like managing within the game, then go back and set up your empire automation based on that. You may also want to check out this thread, which is a guide meant to help new players get into the game.
User avatar
RemoteLeg
Posts: 153
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:57 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by RemoteLeg »

I had the same problem when I started Distant Worlds - I suspect many people do.
I don't want to blow my own horn (much [;)] ), but I created a group of videos to help new players so please take a look.
The link is below, I hope they make things easier.
See my Distant Worlds tutorial videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VfLtaT9Y81
JWW
Posts: 1682
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Louisiana, USA

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by JWW »

ORIGINAL: Aeson

I would suggest that you open up the Empire Policies menu (the button in the top center of the screen that has a clipboard icon) and set everything in there to "control manually" or "suggest." Manage everything for a while, get a feel for what you do and don't like managing within the game, then go back and set up your empire automation based on that. You may also want to check out this thread, which is a guide meant to help new players get into the game.

Yes. Please, please, please read that guide. But don't just read it; try it. It made all the difference to me. You will learn how the game works on full manual, you will have much more confidence in your abilities, and the game most definitely won't be playing itself if you try this guide.
stuart3
Posts: 199
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 5:09 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by stuart3 »

I had the same problem when I started Distant Worlds - I suspect many people do.

Me too.

My suggestion is to start a custom game as standard empire. On the first page of the set up, set Expansion to PreWarp and set as many settings in the Empires Policies screen to offer suggestions (If you haven't changed the Empire Policies settings yet then the default ones will be OK. That will start you with one planet and enough money to get your empire started, Everything else will have to be built and introduced in manageably small quantities. Begin by following the suggestions offered in game, but change things to suit your own preferences as you gain understanding of the game.
User avatar
RemoteLeg
Posts: 153
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:57 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by RemoteLeg »

Starting pre-warp certainly simplifies things.
I'd also recommend getting rid of the pirates, or at least making them weak and spawning far away - they can be a real pain in the early game.

Why not start with just one or two features you're interested in an automate everything else?
At the microscopic level you could automate everything and just take control of one constructor ship and fly around building stuff. Or you could take a single scout ship and explore. When you're bored with that, you can move up to fleets and then higher-level empire functions.

I recommend you just explore and build mining stations at first to get a good feel for ship control. After that you might want to take manual control of ship design, but it's up to you.
Automation helps reduce the workload (this game lets you automate *everything*), but automation won't teach you what you can do and, more importantly, why you should do one thing and not another. The beauty of this game is that you can take full control of the bits that you like and automate the rest, but first you'll want to understand what's available.

Yes, it is a very bewildering game when first encountered.
Many people, myself included, would say that's it's well worth the effort.
See my Distant Worlds tutorial videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VfLtaT9Y81
User avatar
BlueTemplar
Posts: 1064
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 12:07 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by BlueTemplar »

Oh yeah, I'm bewildered as to deal with pirates...
I progressed on my first post-vanilla game, got most of the tier 2 (generally 120K) techs.
By this point there were 19 pirate factions roaming about (that's on the smallest sized map!). (I don't think that I set up the game with pirates higher than normal, did I?)
I'm paying them 33K per year while my private income (all from colony revenue) is 72K/year.
But they're all under 1k firepower, many under 250.
So I upgraded all my bases, built a 481 military strength navy : 3 fleets of ships... and I'm now sitting at 24+50=74K/year in maintenance costs!
(I see that Silicon, Aculon, and Carbon fiber are at 1.8 price (that's per unit?) - might be that's why my maintenance costs are so high?)
So I tried to break protection with all the pirates with less firepower than I have military strength (that's the same thing, right?), and promptly got my ass kicked as I wasn't able to defend every station (in 3 systems), repairing, and defending again, at least not on WarpBubble engines...

I think I'll try next to get resort bases working properly - recreation centers on mining bases don't seem to work - maybe the opposite will? Maybe wait to research hyperdrive first, and also colonize the 3 nearby 50%+ quality desert moons first?
Open additional Silicon, Aculon, and Carbon fiber mines...
Meanwhile keep paying that protection money...
User avatar
RemoteLeg
Posts: 153
Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2015 12:57 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by RemoteLeg »

Oh yeah, I'm bewildered as to deal with pirates...
Pirates can be a real pain at the beginning, but they don't advance in tech very quickly so you quickly catch up and they become less of a problem in the mid-late game.
But 19 pirate factions before you get full warp drive? That sounds excessive.

I recommend you start a custom game and set the Pirates to be weak and start far away from your home world. Also, check the checkbox that says they do not re-spawn when you kill off a faction.

Pirates tend to use guerilla tactics (small skirmishing fleets), so you're better off fighting them with small, fast fleets rather than big slow ones.

Here's two videos I did on fighting Pirates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JHDxbj ... VfLtaT9Y81
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9H2DL ... VfLtaT9Y81

Paying them off at the beginning is a sound strategy, but the goal should be to give them a bloody nose as soon as possible so you can and stop paying protection.
I'd ignore tourism until you get rid of pirates, otherwise they will just destroy your resort bases as fast as you can build them.
See my Distant Worlds tutorial videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... VfLtaT9Y81
stuart3
Posts: 199
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 5:09 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by stuart3 »

I think that the pirates involvement in the game got a little bit broken when prewarp was introduced in the Shadows DLC. Until then, players and NPC factions started with a small, but viable military force and several explorers that could operate in competition to the pirates from the start of the game. But in a game starting in prewarp, those same pirates effectively have the freedom of the universe for a lengthy period at the start of the game, building up their strength and finding and recruiting abandoned ships that in a different era would have been claimed by the conventional space empires.

For me, "normal" settings for pirates don't work in prewarp. The answer is to set pirates to few or very few and and pirate strength to weak or very weak.

Tane
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:25 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Tane »

Thank you for the good tips. The newbie guide to full manual was excellent and really helped me to get into it.

Speaking of pirates, on my second game I was paying pirate protection and got up to over 20 pirate empires extorting me.When I built up my fleet to deal with them, my economy went into the red and I just couldn't recover. Decided on a restart, it was a learning experience!

Now I am very pleased with this game and look forward to many, many fun hours withit.

Tane
User avatar
BlueTemplar
Posts: 1064
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 12:07 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by BlueTemplar »

Why would the pirates be more aggressive against resort bases than other bases?
User avatar
btd64
Posts: 12738
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:48 am
Location: Lancaster, OHIO

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by btd64 »

There not. Mining stations, that's what they go for in my games. Then colonies....GP
Intel i7 4.3GHz 10th Gen,16GB Ram,Nvidia GeForce MX330

AKA General Patton

DWU-Beta Tester
TOAW4-Alpha/Beta Tester
DW2-Alpha/Beta Tester
New Game Development Team

"Do everything you ask of those you command"....Gen. George S. Patton
Serenitis
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2015 3:16 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Serenitis »

ORIGINAL: stuart3
For me, "normal" settings for pirates don't work in prewarp. The answer is to set pirates to few or very few and and pirate strength to weak or very weak.

Setting pirates to weak is good advice if you're struggling.
Setting them to few can give you mixed results. Sometimes you'll be more-or-less left alone until you wander into them, while other times the lack of competition from other pirates will allow one faction to snowball like a mofo.

Same with pre-warp vs. normal starts.

A normal start will give you the "basic" tech for one or two equipment branches, plus all the basic ship support techs, AND 2nd gen drives so you can start doing whatever you want right from the moment you start.
However, your start system is 100% randomised so the resources you have access to will be highly variable. You will also have a few stations in (for now) remote places, in particular a science station usually somewhere inconvenient and exposed.

A pre-warp start gives you a planet, a small resource stockpile and some pop. That's it.
All "basic" tech has to be researched, leaving you to fumble around with pre-warp tech for a long time. Which is not ideal given that it is rather inferior.
In particular there are three techs which will effectively bottleneck your efforts for a LONG time as they have vastly inflated costs.
These are:

The first warp bubble precursor tech.
The first upgrade to the 2nd gen "Gerax" drive.
Basic colonisation.

However, the starting system for a pre-warp empire is guaranteed to have most of the resouces you will ever need present. You will be missing 2 or 3 resources, usually carbon fibre, krypton, argon or helium, which you will have to find yourself.
It is also very likley you will have another habitable planet in your home system, and if you're lucky more than one.
You are also guaranteed AT LEAST 2 sites capable of hosting resort bases. One ruin for the warp precursor tech, one "library" ruin, and one scenic location. The latter two are sometimes combined on the same planet.

Pre-warp starts are often quite tight for money because you want to grow your pop so you need a low tax rate to encourage that, but that means less (or no) tax income to support your empire.
Rushing to tech and build resort bases and passenger ships is a very good idea.

Being pre-warp also potentially puts you at the mercy of any pirates that show up.
But you don't have to always submit to them.
A small flotilla of 4-5 pre-warp missile boats with explicit orders to attack only from maximum range, along with an armed starport will give a pirate gang a bloody enough nose to mark you as "too much trouble" for a long time.
Pirate ships will run as soon as you kick their shields in, and missiles are very good against shields.

Personally, I find pre-warp starts much easier due to the easy access to resources and resort sites. The only real downside to them is the amount of time you have to spend doing little other than watch freighters crawl across a system.
That being said, I rather like that because it is a very comfy experience.
YMMV.
stuart3
Posts: 199
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 5:09 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by stuart3 »

All very true, but to be honest, I'm not sure that it's really that important to warn new players about the pirates. When they discover that pirates are too strong for them they can restart the game with different settings and/or try different strategies. It's all part of the learning process and pirates are far from the only things they will find themselves learning about the hard way. At least in prewarp they will get the chance to learn rather than being overwhelmed by finding the game playing their ready made space empire all by itself in a regular start.

This thread originally started with yet another new player asking for advice because he was overwhelmed by the fact that the regular start throws players in at the deep end. We all know about that because we have all been there.

My essential point is that newbies don't have to start at the deep end. Prewarp is very much the shallow end.
Aeson
Posts: 786
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 7:36 pm

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Aeson »

missiles are very good against shields.
I would say that this is a somewhat questionable assertion. Shield regeneration is more effective against low-DPS weapons as it negates a more significant fraction of the incoming DPS, and missile DPS is rather poor for the size invested into the weapon components.

When you pick missiles over other weapon types, you should normally be picking them because you've prioritized range over everything else, not because you want a good anti-shield weapon. If you wanted a good anti-shield weapon, you'd be far better served by blasters, especially at close range, than by missiles.
However, the starting system for a pre-warp empire is guaranteed to have most of the resouces you will ever need present. You will be missing 2 or 3 resources, usually carbon fibre, krypton, argon or helium, which you will have to find yourself.
Chromium is another important resource which is frequently missing from the home system, especially if the species you're playing isn't native to Continental or Marshy Swamp worlds.
Rushing to tech and build resort bases and passenger ships is a very good idea.
I'd be rather cautious about doing this without at least Warp Bubble Generators, unless there is a resort location which will always going to be close to the homeworld. Prewarp travel times can really hurt the profitability of a resort base, and if it's ever attacked by pirates when military assets are not nearby it's as good as dead unless you put so many defenses on it that it at best barely pays for itself.
User avatar
jamesbaxter
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 4:08 am

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by jamesbaxter »

There seems to be a lot of recommendations to pay the pirates up front at first AS WELL AS keep my taxes at 0 until I max out my initial colony.

Just started playing this way but i seem to be digging myself a pretty big hole. How far into the red should I go before I should become concerned?
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by Bingeling »

For real advice, give a screenshot of your economy screen.

The benefit of zero tax is that population (on high quality worlds) is a key for good revenue and thus high tax income. Having 0 tax improves population growth. So you sacrifice early game money for more income in a period later in the game.

Keep in mind, it is not required to do this. If you increase taxes for at time and put them back to zero after sorting out short term economic issues, all you "lose" is delaying the population growth curve a tiny bit.

Unless you compete for "world records" in this game, it is not necessary to use zero tax, but you gain a bit from doing so.

As for pirates, they take your economy into consideration, so getting the deals while still "poor" at the very start makes the deals cheaper. Not making deals with the pirates in the early game, makes it harder. And it would match the zero tax strategy very badly. The idea with zero tax from the start would be to run the bare minimum of expenses, paying off the pirates so that you do not need any defenses. Then the bonus money from civilians building ships should keep you afloat.

Personally I have never run zero tax on the homeworld, and I do not know how "hard" that would be at the very start. What I do know that for me, it is more fun to run automatic taxes, and fight, rather than bribe, pirates :)
User avatar
btd64
Posts: 12738
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:48 am
Location: Lancaster, OHIO

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by btd64 »

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

What I do know that for me, it is more fun to run automatic taxes, and fight, rather than bribe, pirates :)

Plus one.[;)]....GP
Intel i7 4.3GHz 10th Gen,16GB Ram,Nvidia GeForce MX330

AKA General Patton

DWU-Beta Tester
TOAW4-Alpha/Beta Tester
DW2-Alpha/Beta Tester
New Game Development Team

"Do everything you ask of those you command"....Gen. George S. Patton
User avatar
jamesbaxter
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 4:08 am

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by jamesbaxter »

For real advice, give a screenshot of your economy screen.

The image is attached :)

The age of shadows seems full of pirates, so even if I manage to whittle down how much they are charging, the amount of pirates ends up eating a huge chunk of money. Because I'm allied with so many different pirates, is there any way to pit them against each other?
What I do know that for me, it is more fun to run automatic taxes, and fight, rather than bribe, pirates :)

I'd love to get to that point, but i haven't really invested into anything military, might be worth trying - but I really don't want to tip the scales too far in any direction. What would be good start for a push against the pirates in terms of fleet size/ship size?

Image
Attachments
j4Hgp1X.jpg
j4Hgp1X.jpg (317.02 KiB) Viewed 758 times
User avatar
btd64
Posts: 12738
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:48 am
Location: Lancaster, OHIO

RE: Getting Started - Need some good tips

Post by btd64 »

Drop the pirate protection 1st. When you're in the green build a pair of frigates. Keep an eye on your cash flow and income. If the pirates show up, buy protection if needed. Otherwise kick butt....GP
Intel i7 4.3GHz 10th Gen,16GB Ram,Nvidia GeForce MX330

AKA General Patton

DWU-Beta Tester
TOAW4-Alpha/Beta Tester
DW2-Alpha/Beta Tester
New Game Development Team

"Do everything you ask of those you command"....Gen. George S. Patton
Post Reply

Return to “Distant Worlds 1 Series”