The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play - Distant Worlds, The Manly Man Way to P

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!

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Raap
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RE: Thanks

Post by Raap »

1. You don't need to have a colony in systems with mining bases. All your ships should have warp drives in them as soon as it becomes available.

2. Not sure there's anything you can do about this except waiting for an independent trader to come deliver it. You could also try posting a smuggling mission for the colony, which will lead pirates to deliver the resource to you for some extra cost. This assumes you have discovered a pirate faction, I guess. Haven't actually needed to use it myself yet. Should be in the lower left toolbar when you select your colony.
EvilMonk3y
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Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 2:03 pm

RE: Thanks

Post by EvilMonk3y »

[:)] Thanks a lot.
Gregorovitch55
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RE: Thanks

Post by Gregorovitch55 »

This guide tells me to delete weapons and energy research station and to upgrade high tech research station, which it sort of describes as "universal research station. Then it says when you find a planet with say, weapons research bonus, "build a research station of that type on it". But I only have high tech research station now - does it mean one of those, or do i have to design a new weapons research station? This is ambiguous and confusing.
georgioz
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RE: Thanks

Post by georgioz »

First I have to say right of the bat that this is a great guide. I basically followed your step-by-step and it was awesome. However I have something to say and this place is as good as any to do that, so sorry for a little bit of

<rant>

I do not know if it is such a good idea to have fully manual design of ships and bases. For instance I already found a new colony and in your guide you mentioned that for some reason passenger ships are needed when you have colonies. I don't know why but I take you for it. So I went to design it. Only I don't know what to do. How many cargo modules should I put there? Is one enough. Should I go with 10? What about fuel cells - how do these things behave when automated. Do they go from one colony to another like buses meaning they need cells just to make jump to the nearest one or do they jump all over the place? And if we are at it what do they bring to the colony. Is it revenue - if so how much is it actually worth?

Similar thing goes when designing private freighters or mining/gas extraction ships. Lets talk about the latter - how do they work? Do they move around using standard engines or do they jump a lot? How much cargo space should be there? If designing spaceport how many manufacturers should I put there? How do commerce centers work, why should I have them? There is so many things not covered that I think if it is not better approach to turn automate design on but study what AI does with it and possibly improve on it when needed (mabye removing troop module from my Cruiser? And BTW should I have one there?).

I think this is a great game but for something that is out there for years there is surprisingly little information out there. For instance let's say that I am designing a station and I stopped at "commerce center" component. Galactopedia is useless as for what role it has other than that it supposedly does not stack. Your guide says that "ou only need ONE commerce center ... in a ship or base." Oh, does it make sense to put it on a ship? I do not think so, it was probably related to some other component. So what purpose does commerce center it have? Where should I put it? Is it good idea to put it on mining stations or should I put them only on colony spaceports?

Or let's say that I am designing a mining station for private sector. What is the thing that I should aim for? Logically I would say that the basic purpose of the station is to mine minerals that are then hauled off by private freighter to be sold (maybe in a spaceporte via commerce center?). I also want the mining station to be protected by shields, weapons against space vermin. So now how do I come about this? Where can I find how much does a regular mining station mine? Where can I find how much cargo, mining equipment and docks should such a mine have to work best? Is there some limit on how many resources can a station mine of the resource - maybe related to % concentration of resource? I don't know and there does not seems to be a good source of information anywhere. Just random snippets of information here and there in the forum. Distant Worlds wiki has just one page on resources with general information without going any deeper - not even to a point what the "%" means.

</rant>

So to conclude if you guys know any good place where I can get some information that would be awesome. At best my rant is misguided and I am just stupid not to look for information in a correct way. I am one of the newcommers who bought the game recently in Steam Sale and I definitelly see its potential. Thanks.
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Icemania
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Location: Australia

RE: Thanks

Post by Icemania »

ORIGINAL: Gareth_Bryne
This can be stickied, in my opinion! If not here, then in the War room.
FYI it is already sticked both here and at the Steam Forums via the Guide to Guides Mk II.
mdbeebz
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 2:54 pm

Awesome guide!

Post by mdbeebz »

This really helped me a lot getting into this game. I love games like this, but this is unique. It seemed daunting for sure, but this approach really appealed to me as i followed it step by step to learn the ropes. now i feel almost able to go off on my own.

So thanks again Tim for this. Look forward to more.
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vmxa_slith
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RE: Awesome guide!

Post by vmxa_slith »

Was phase 3 even posted?
Zilkin
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RE: Thanks

Post by Zilkin »

Fleet Attack Settings - 30 sounds good to me for refuel. For assemble a fleet before accomplishing a task, I go as high as 50 or more (after all, why have a big kickazz fleet when only 30% of them choose to attack and the rest are spread out goodness knows where).

Isn't that exactly the other way around. By settings it to 50 the fleet won't reasemmeble until half of the fleet are "missing", instead of just 30%.
xatharas
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:23 am

RE: Thanks

Post by xatharas »

First of all: Great Guide!

Second, maybe too great? [&:]
I followed the guide to a tee (except the tax, I lowered that beyond 10% to where I was just in the black 5%) and all went well and I thought I was getting somewhere. Then, my homeworld hit max pop (22B) and I cranked up the tax to 25%, noticed they were still very happy and eventually I made it 35% and got a cashflow of 200k+! After that no empire came close as I could rush a lot of research just from one colony. I now have eight colonies which bring in no money (0% tax), a huge fleet of cruisers and destroyers), once those other colonies hit max (sooner as I plan on collecting 10% tax on 10B) my cashflow will skyrocket! [:D]

This is a testament to how great this guide is, I usually play these games on easy or very easy, now i'll have to crank it up to hard [&o]

So thank you Tim!
Timotheus
Posts: 485
Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:13 am

RE: Thanks

Post by Timotheus »

ORIGINAL: Gregorovitch55

This guide tells me to delete weapons and energy research station and to upgrade high tech research station, which it sort of describes as "universal research station. Then it says when you find a planet with say, weapons research bonus, "build a research station of that type on it". But I only have high tech research station now - does it mean one of those, or do i have to design a new weapons research station? This is ambiguous and confusing.

Sorry bout that, I tried to be as clear as possible.

I make one research station, stick all three kinds (5 of each) of labs on it, call it "Universal Lab" and then use that on any tech enhancing location. So I pick one station, for example the high-tech one, and stick 5 high-tech, 5 weapons and 5 energy labs on it. And then when I tell a constructor to go build a station it builds one, no matter what the tech enhancement is on a location.

The advantage of this is that an idiot like myself (heh) will not mess up and put up a high-tech lab on a weapons tech resource, as one size fits all! See - idiot proof, the Timo way!

Also, I believe that you need 5 labs to get the scientists benefit, unless I am misremembering - anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller?

That is the way *I* play - and it is not necessarily best nor most efficient way. Feel free to build lab stations for each tech separately, it is probably better, but me, I am not that smart, and after a 5 hour marathon I may yet again put in a weapons lab on an energy tech planet...


In your example, even though the station is called "High Tech Research" - GO CHECK ITS COMPONENTS.

If all three kinds of labs are present, it is a Timo patented universal lab, no matter its name. You just picked the high-tech name, but the station researches ALL the labs that are present on it, no matter the game's silly classification.


@ xatharas:
Both a praise and damnation, dayumn, brah!

I have a sneaking suspicion that the game was developed to be played with design automation turned on, as the player designed ships and bases blow anything AI designed out of the wate....errr... space.

The problem is that the AI does NOT optimize its designs, which is silly.

Looking forward to mods which will fix that issue.

Right now if you REALLY want a challenge play with design automation turned on, and you will see how good the game's AI really is (it is REALLY good, it's just its designs let it down).
NEWBIE GUIDE Distant Worlds Universe
http://tinyurl.com/k3frrle

War in the Pacific Poradnik po Polsku
http://tinyurl.com/nxd4cesh

INSTALL WITPAE on modern PC
https://tinyurl.com/l5kr6rl
fenrislokison
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:50 am

RE: Thanks

Post by fenrislokison »

hello

i use the same kind of universal research station trick than you, Timothy, but more because i want to be sure to always have a 33% research distribution.

However, i'm not sure about one thing: are you sure you get the science bonus of a location if the type of your research station doesn't match the bonus type?
I mean, does it really work if you put a high tech station on a energy location for example?

I never tried before and i can't right now since i'm at work but i will asap :p
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towerbooks3192
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RE: Thanks

Post by towerbooks3192 »

Hey Timotheus, I was wondering if you will be covering a guide to transition from full manual to partial auto for the mid-game?
et ignobiles oblivio
Gregorovitch55
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:36 am

RE: Thanks

Post by Gregorovitch55 »

Thanks for the clarification on the universal lab, Timotheus. I get it now.

On the subject of a move to semi-automation towards middle game, I would vote for how to go about automating part of your fleet to protect your assets and do a few raids.
Billick
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Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 3:55 pm

RE: Thanks

Post by Billick »

Thanks for writing up this guide Timotheus! I played 2 full games to start, one with almost all automation on, and one with some automation turned off. Now I'm wishing that I had played the game this way from the start. Those first two games were fun, but it's even more fun when you understand everything that's going on in your empire!

Also, thanks for the explanation on the labs. That was confusing me as well. It got me to thinking though: would it be more efficient to specialize research stations and then place them at locations that have a specific bonus for that type?
Timotheus
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RE: Thanks

Post by Timotheus »

ORIGINAL: towerbooks3192

Hey Timotheus, I was wondering if you will be covering a guide to transition from full manual to partial auto for the mid-game?

[font="Verdana"]Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?[/font]

Don't make me lose my temper, it is bad for my health. I also start screaming on the street at lampposts which can annoy my neighbors; also, those lampposts are innocent (...mostly).

The title says it all: The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play - Distant Worlds, The Manly Man Way to Play (tm).

[font="Verdana"]THERE IS NO TRANSITION TO AUTOMATION, FULL OR OTHERWISE!!! EVAAAR!!!111[/font]

It is full manual, all the time - neckbeard!

Otherwise you don't get the Timo achievement on Steam.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!111
NEWBIE GUIDE Distant Worlds Universe
http://tinyurl.com/k3frrle

War in the Pacific Poradnik po Polsku
http://tinyurl.com/nxd4cesh

INSTALL WITPAE on modern PC
https://tinyurl.com/l5kr6rl
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Spidey
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RE: Thanks

Post by Spidey »

My only problem with pure full manual is that I play 1400 system games and I really, really, really don't want to manually explore 1400 systems. Also, once I've got a ton of colonies, it's just too easy to designate system sentry fleets and automate them, which by and large means you don't have to do anything if some random fool with suicidal tendencies decides to cause trouble.

But let me clarify that at no point is advisor automation on anything but manual. I just occasionally order ships to do stuff on auto.

Edit: But I'm forgetting myself. It's nice to see you back, Tim. [:)]
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FingNewGuy
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RE: Thanks

Post by FingNewGuy »

The title says it all: The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play - Distant Worlds, The Manly Man Way to Play (tm).

THERE IS NO TRANSITION TO AUTOMATION, FULL OR OTHERWISE!!! EVAAAR!!!

It is full manual, all the time - neckbeard!

ldog
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:30 pm

RE: Thanks

Post by ldog »

Great guide. Good stuff plus an entertaining writing style.
As an old player who hasn't played since Legends I found it useful.

Sarkas
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Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2014 11:38 am

RE: Thanks

Post by Sarkas »

I really love this guide, I think it's a better way to learn the game with manual than auto would ever teach you, problem is that you need some nudging to start in the right direction and I had a few leftover questions as colonizing seemed straightforward enough

With warships, I noticed the other categories, is it better to stick with Cruiser and then just stuff it to the gills with guns, armor, and shields, until you reach the maximum ship size for your current research? And then the same with defense platforms and keep those starbases simple?

Also, since one of my neighbors seems to be having a bad day and hates me for merely existing and I’m having all sorts of trouble with planet defense, particularly when they swoop in, drop off a troop transport or two, and boom the planet is theirs. How does that whole troop recruitment thing work? I never seem to have enough to stuff into my troop transport to go get planets back.

(Also will that Part 3 ever be posted? Nevermind, found it on the steam forums http ://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=266988099)
Numdydar
Posts: 3271
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:56 pm

RE: Thanks

Post by Numdydar »

What I want to know is where the hell is part III [:@]
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