A beautifil new ocean to explore.

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Okim
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A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

Hi.

I decided to share my first impressions of DW.

I started DW 4 times and each time i felt too overwhelmed with extremely self-aware activity in my empire. I though that automation should help me focus on learning the game, but in fact it turned out to be much easier to learn DW while keeping everything under mine control. I replaced all automation to suggestions and turned off ship designs and etc. This way it was more obvious what decisions and in what circumstances should be taken.

I started my fourth game as Weekarus - a very funny crustaceans race - in a small galaxy (100 stars) with 5 players and pirates set to 'rare'. I tend to role-play in most of my games so i planned my race to be a bit slow, but well-protected and cautious. This resulted in major redesign of all my civilian vessels and bases to be armed and have some extra protection (mostly armor), military ships were set to retreat at 50% of shields to represent lobsters 'jumping' away from danger.

I was quite lucky to start in an extremely habitable system Maelstrum with 2 continental and one ocean planets + my homeworld. The abundance of resources of all kinds at first made me happy. Imagine that the majority of your upstart civilisation`s resource base is situated in one system. However i soon recognised that my system had less than 10 resources of available 40t.

First thing that i`ve order was construction of a small fleet of my slow juggernauts (4 escorts, 3 frigates, 3 destroyers with torpedoes). Homeworld was set to colony ship production - my crab-like fellas impatiently awaited a moment when they dip their 'ironclad' bodies into fresh waters of neighbouring planets.

Construction ships were send to expand mining operations on a neighbouring huge gas giant with 4 barren moons.

I noticed that my freighters were drifting around HW with no mission. I thought that resource transportation consists of constant inter-base/colony resource exchange. It seems to be more transport-on-demand like than i expected.

While my crabbies were slowly awakening from their pre-warp slumber i decided to leave them to their orders and focus on exploration. I`ve send my exploration ship to travel to a nearby star and noticed that i started game with several neighbour starts already discovered. I was quite rejoiced to see that my mining vessel was already pumping resources from one of these star`s planets. Actually i was so interested in this kind of activity that i wanted to order more mining vessels, BUT (!) civies didn`t allow me to construct any of their ships.. Well, let`s hope they better know how to do these kind of things. BTW i wonder how do i refit civilian ships and what exactly does 'upgrade' button in ship designs do?

While my explorer was quite slowly traversing to its destination i was looking at one of my mining stations that was pumping some resources from a planet furiously scattering clouds of dust and ramble into space. Suddenly an unknown vessel emerged not far from it and turned towards it with obviously unfriendly intentions. A pop-up window emerged telling me what i already was observing - a PIRATE destroyer was after my base in my home system! And this was happening near my HW, what an insolense! I reacted with sending everything i was able to scramble - two escorts, frigate and destroyer answered the call of their dirt-prospector fellows. Pirate managed to 'unseal' two of my crab-like escorts that did not have any armor at all and were easily damaged beyond ability to counter-attack. I was glad to see how battle in DW looks like and how badly-damaged ships are shown. However i noticed a small glitch when one of my escorts was blown to bits - one (or several) of the explosion frames had white corners that made an explosion end in a square-like image. It seems that there is some problem with alpha in these frames (if they use alpha channel at all).

While i was trying to figure out how to refit my ships and bases an explorer ship reported finding nothing at its destination. What a pity, i hoped to find something interesting in my first exploration expeditions.[:(] There were some other stars in the vicinity and i ordered my explorer to travel to a nearest unexplored.

The design flaw of default ships not having armor is a tough one, so i ordered more of my armor-clad military ships to be build to counter future pirate activities. Newly constructed vessels were set to automation and they instantly picked their escort/patrol targets. A very useful feature when you have multiple freighters/stations that are endangered by these dare and greedy pirates.

Some time has passed and my empire now had all 4 habitable planets in my home system under my control. I imagine the joy that my crabbies take crawling in fresh yet-unpolluted waters of these new worlds. Let`s hope they will remain joyful and obedient for a long time.

I was prompted to construct a new exploration ship and decided to build 2 extra ships in addition to it. There were many alluring stars nearby that were crying to explore them ASAP. In a few following minutes i would regret not ordering these ships at the very beginning... My only explorer discovered ruins in one of the systems and harried to it just to find it empty. A few moments later an exploration ship of another race was found stalking nearby. The new race turned out to be a group of insectiod-like creatures calling themselves 'Dhauyt Territories'. Man i was so afraid of the new neighbour that i did not know what to do for the first few moments. I opened 'introduction of alien races' thread and found out that these buggies are quite aggressive and probably will not be so friendly towards me. I wonder why i actually referred to that thread and not to galactopedia that also had that info :)

I decided that i need to focus on defending my territories from these buggies. As time passed i was able to scramble a little fleet and found out that i can`t give it multiple patrol orders (i see patrol as a set of waypoints where each waypoint is a planet or a base). While trying to uncover the secret lore of how to set waypoints and whether they actually exist in DW i was contacted by my 'friends'. As i expected they were not playing friendly. The first message that i received from my rival player in DW was a demand of some money for the protection of my ships on their territories from their ships. Lucky me.. This message actually brought a lot of new excitement rather than disappointment - in such a bad manner was i introduced to a diplomacy screen where two contacts were shown - the one that mistakenly thinks that i cannot protect myself in his territories [8D] and the second is a group of Slukan pirates!

I enjoyed communicating with these buggy criminals as they provided me with coordinates of a ruin in a previously overloked star system. It is needless to say that for this kind of info these greedy bastards demanded 10k of credits! I wonder if the money i gave them will actually result in an increased pirate activities in the future.

Another explorer made contact with a new race - Securans. Man i was so rejoiced to find a 'sane' and peaceful neighbour in this dangerous space that i even ordered my construction ships to move out of my system to the vicinity of my space and construct a mining outpost in a large asteroid cloud orbiting one of the stars and a recreation base at a beautiful planet with a spectacular ring over it. I wonder does mining station have any kind of 'mining range'? Do i need to build multiple bases in that asteroid field - it seems to be composed of numerous asteroids (or fields) that have different resources. Also how can i figure out how attractive the planet with rings is?

This is an end of the first part of my AAR. Hope you`ll find some useful info here. I`ll try to post some new info in a day or two )
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EisenHammer
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by EisenHammer »

Nice... this is closer to what I was looking for in an AAR. way to go Okim[:)]
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Sarissofoi
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Sarissofoi »

Good writing Okim.

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Wade1000
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Wade1000 »

Well done, Okim.
Wish list:population centers beyond planetary(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture):Ships,Ring Orbitals,Sphere Orbitals,Ringworlds,Sphereworlds;ability to create & destroy planets,population centers,stars;AI competently using all advances & features.
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

It lacks images and i`ll try to fix this issue when i come back home. Reading an ARR that has some shots showing dispositions, a pirate attack and other things that are present in it is much more easy and interesting )

BTW it seems that in other AAR there is a shot that shows a scenery percentage for a black hole. It is a good answer to my question about tourism. I must have missed that line in planet descriptions or perhaps it appears only at places of real interest )
Vlad77
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Vlad77 »

Okim,

Excellent writing. I was drawn in to your report as if it was a short story. Had you given planet names and characters' personalities, I would have thought I was reading the first draft of a fun short story. I will remember to beware out there of the dreaded crabbies. (Okay, that didn't QUITE sound right, did it?)

:)

Vlad
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

I played about an hour in DW, so i haven`t learn much about it. For example i didn`t know that we can rename planets :)
Vlad77
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Vlad77 »

And we can rename stars, and well, virtually anything except the name of the game itself. I love the fact that the editor is in game.

Again, splendid AAR Okim!

Vlad
Antonov
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Antonov »

Okim, great AAR. Thank you for pointing me in the direction of Distant Worlds. Been looking for a SoTS replacement like this for a long time. Looking forward to your mods already ;)

~Antonov
Darthcaboose
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Darthcaboose »

ORIGINAL: Okim

I wonder does mining station have any kind of 'mining range'? Do i need to build multiple bases in that asteroid field - it seems to be composed of numerous asteroids (or fields) that have different resources. Also how can i figure out how attractive the planet with rings is?

This is an end of the first part of my AAR. Hope you`ll find some useful info here. I`ll try to post some new info in a day or two )

I've noticed that with a constructor selected you cannot build another mining station in an asteroid field when one already exists there; so the mining station probably can reach all the resources in that field.

You can figure out how attractive the planet with the rings is by mousing over it and looking in the info box at the lower left. Should be some field called "Scenery" or something like that.
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

I`ve encountered a persistent CTD that ruined my Wekkarus game and this AAR [:@] 
 
I reported this bug and started a new Weekarus game. If you wish i can start AAR anew with this new game :)
 
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Sarissofoi
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Sarissofoi »

Start new AAR. Your writing is good and I will read this with pleasure.
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Erik Rutins
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Erik Rutins »

ORIGINAL: Okim
I`ve encountered a persistent CTD that ruined my Wekkarus game and this AAR [:@] 

Argh! Sorry to hear this, we hope we've fixed the reported crashes for the first update. Did you have a save you could upload? Even the error message would be useful.
Erik Rutins
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

Once again i started to play as Wekkarus - i just fond of any kind of crayfish creatures. In addition i enjoy their income and mining bonuses, both are very helpful in DW. I picked Feudalism as my goverment as it better suits my crabbies way of life.

As before i choosed a small galaxy with minimal threats and troubles. I started to play in sandbox mode since i constantly get crashes when playing with any of the victory conditions. Let`ss hope this game will las longer than the first one. I added humans as i intend to repay them for all their attrocities towards crustaceans of their world :)

Galaxy settings
Starting conditions
Race settings

The game starts and this time i get quite a poor system with three habbital planets (including my homeworld). My wekkarians have overharvested their homeworld and now rely on multiple gas and ore mining station all over the system. The good thing is that i have two ruins in my system and one of them is at my homeworld. Legends says that an ancient advanced civilization inhabbited this system a long long time ago. Where they are now and what was the cuase of them living - is a mystery to me.

System map

My homesystem lacks several important resources (silicon, polymers and acylon), so obtaining these resources is a primary goal of my expansion. Without them my workers will have difficulties with constructing ships.

My biologist have found a good way to make some of the finest alchohol in my empire. They even found a very spicy appetiser for that Vodkol drink - drops of a 4-legged ice-dwelling birds called Terallian. My gourmets have heaped me up with requests of immidiate exploitation of these resources, so i ordered my constructors to establish all necessary farms and hen-houses for producing these luxuries.

Galactic sector

While zooming out to the galactic plan i was once again struck by randomizer`s bad humor... I managed to start the game with a pirate base in a nearby gas cloud, with a blackhole and a system with only one barren planet. Moreover one of my most greedy businessmen even managed to construct a gas mining base in pirates space and ofcause it immidiately came under attack!

Pirates cloud

I`ve send my ships to aid that station, but i feel that they will not arrive in time...

Image

The outcome of this attack as well as further report will be available later ;)
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

To Erik:
 
I already reported that crash and send dxdiag and save to you in tech support forum in 'repeated crash' thread.
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Erik Rutins
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Erik Rutins »

ORIGINAL: Okim
My biologist have found a good way to make some of the finest alchohol in my empire. They even found a very spicy appetiser for that Vodkol drink - drops of a 4-legged ice-dwelling birds called Terallian. My gourmets have heaped me up with requests of immidiate exploitation of these resources, so i ordered my constructors to establish all necessary farms and hen-houses for producing these luxuries.

[:D]


Fantastic AAR so far, you have a talent for writing these. Thanks, I'll be reading along and I hope we'll have all the issues sorted out quickly!
Erik Rutins
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Fishers of Men
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Fishers of Men »

Okim,

I am enjoying your wonderful AAR. I know it is hard to stop playing to take a few notes about what is happening in your game, but please keep up the good work. I have learned a few things about how to play just from reading your story.

FoM
Old............but very fast
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

Thanks )

A bit too late

As i predicted my reckless business owner lost his base at the very moment my fleet arrived at gas cloud. In a brief fight my brave cray-pilots heavily damaged pirate escort, but the lucky bastard managed to get his pitiful life out of the way of my lasers. My ships stayed for sometime near what was left of the mining station looking for survirvors. Unfortunately they found no one. Well, let`s hope that this will be a good lesson for other enterprising businessmen of my empire and will keep their greed and lust-for-money at bay.

While fighting that escort i noticed how long it survived my ships` punishing blows. It seems that it had lots of armor. I ordered my ship engineers to design a ship wholy clad in pretty fat layer of armor - it turned out to be a good strategy when you need to buy some time for your ship`s hyperdrive operators to ready it and allow the ship to get out of trouble.

A true Crayfishy design

I ordered my fleet to assault the pirate base that was located few clicks away from their current possition and in a brutal fight i managed to score a victory losing only one escort (once again a lack of armor and shield on escort did not give it any chances of surviving an assault on a well-armed base). One of the ships reported intercepting a distress call right after my ships made a final blow to the pirate base. Not long after that signal was transmitted i was contacted by another Pirate faction that asked me to join my ranks. A nice addition to my expanding empire :)

Pirate surrender

Pirates were inhabiting a nice starbase orbiting a huge gas giant in a distant star Anzat. Both pirate groups actually we not pirates as we thought at the first time. They are indeed murderous scum and pillagers, but the whole bat-like species were acting like that, not just a group of their civilisation. It seems that other pirate parties of the same species are likely to be encountered at this sector of the galaxy.

While checking pirate archives at their base we found out that they were constantly harrasing a colony of some aquatic race in Anzat system. Achive stated that raids were constant, but they never ended up in massive violence. The last entry reported that a raiding party found the colony abandoned. No bodies or any leads of what has happened to the inhabitants were found. People just dissapeared.

Pirate leader confessed that after that colony was abandoned pirate`s situation became dare - nobody to raid, nothing to pillage. No wonder why they joined our ranks )

While my agents were analysing any piece of info that pirate cap and his base`s archive gave us i was contacted by another pirate group. As i foresaw - this were also the same species. They also received the distress call of their fellas at gas cloud and were quite angry and wished me a long and painful death. Nice! Things are getting even more interesting :)

I received a report that my colonisation efforts at homesystem are going well and both designated planets are now swarming with my life-loving people. My constructor was delayed while on the way for building drop-refinary, this resulted in a wave of protests all over the new colonies. Constructor pilot said that his 'fuel' reserves were low and he desided to restock at a nearest spaceport. I wonder why he was so 'in-spirits' after visiting the hydrogen-processing station...

A high-priority message came from one of the ships stationed at my 'pirate' base at Anzat. Message said that they found an abandoned ship drifting in the rings of a gas giant in that system. No wonder that pirates overlooked it - their primitive sensors are nothing compared to our highly-sensetive antennaes!

The ship turned out to have a 10 million of Quameno cittizens. Unfortunately navigational systems were too badly damaged and we were unable to find any maps or other useful information in ship`s systems. While interrogating the awakened citisents we learned that a ship was send to the colony, not from it as we expected, so it wasn`t an exodus. As i predicted these fellas did not know where their civilisation is located. After some time i decided to complete their journey and recolonise the lost planet they were travelling to. A mysterious dissappearance of its former inhabitants remains a mystery, and quite a disturbing one.

Quameno joining our ranks

Quamenos were rejoiced by my generocity and offered their intellect as a payment for my protection. Good, their abilities will compensate my people`s lazyness and uncreativeness. While reestablishing the colony quamenos found a documentation of hyperdeny device and willingly shared it with us. Thats was quite rejoicing as my slow ships will no longer loose their coward preys!

A brief period of time passed without any significant events. My explorer discovered several rich systems full of common and uncommon resources. Some of the resources even turned out to be very rare. My private mining ships flocked to the new systems as soon as they were declared secured - good, it seems that recent events made some people think twice before doing anything stupid.

Another explorer found a new ruined site at one of the stars nearby. These turned out to be of the same origin that ruins at my homeworld. They even had some kind of a diary that said smth about a strange visitor race that entered our galaxy long time ago. After reading this report i began to feel a strange uneasiness - what if this race did not leave their homes voluntarely, what if someone, perhaps even these mysterious visitors, 'helped' them to 'evict'?

While trying to fight these troubling thoughts i was contacted by my expansion adviser. He reported that our scouts have found and boarded a station that was a long-abandoned monitoring outpost. In its systems they found coordinates that might be of some interest. No further info on what might be waiting for us there was found.

As soon as its sensors were turned active they detected an unknown ship moving fast towards it... Mom is that you [&:]

Galaxy map

Gertjan
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Gertjan »

Thanks for the AAR. Well written and funny. How do you upload the images in the posts?
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Okim
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RE: A beautifil new ocean to explore.

Post by Okim »

I use my ftp server and post links to images here.
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