Distant Worlds v1.9.5.6 Public Beta - 2 Update Available!

[Erik Rutins]

Hello Everyone,

The Distant Worlds 1.9.5.6 Beta - 2 Update is now available for testing. You may download it from Here.

This build will hopefully be available an official update next Tuesday.

This build has the following changes from 1.9.5.6 beta:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when evaluating designs

BUG FIXES
- character energy savings bonuses now properly reduce energy consumption instead of increasing it

GAME BALANCE
- counterespionage strength adjusted - slightly less chance of intercepting enemy intelligence missions
- reduced chance of empires switching to Corporate Nationalism government type when available
- altered empire military strength measurement to better account for fighters (affects diplomacy and AI empire evaluations)
- independent colonies now recruit more defending militia troops

PIRATES
- pirate factions now pay maintenance for any non-pirate raider troops (once have proper colonies)
- pirate faction flags retain pirate symbol in top-left corner when edited in game editor
- pirate faction flags propery update in galaxy view when edited in game editor
- pirate factions can now build normal planetary facilities and wonders at fully owned colonies using right-click pop-up menu and action buttons

MODDING
- now allow per-race modding for user interface in a theme (add subfolders named by race under images\ui\chrome folder to mod most chrome images, e.g. customization\THEMENAME\images\ui\chrome\human)
- custom characters with '?' appearance order now never appear at game start


This build has the following changes from 1.9.5.5:


CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when drawing ships
- fixed crash when giving monetary gifts to other empires
- fixed crash when sorting ships in fleets

MODDING
- allow including GameText.txt from a custom mod (i.e. read from theme folder)
- altered images\units\creatures folder to be read from the mod (if present) instead of the root game folder
- allow modding MP3 files in sounds\EFFECTS (not just WAV files)
- fighters now properly use WeaponImageIndex value in fighters.txt to allow customization of fighter weapon effects

SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship design now properly adds damage control components when repair bots are unavailable
- further optimized AI ship design process to allow shrinking designs with maximum construction size while still ensuring critical components are present (e.g. weapons on military ships)
- Fighter Bay components now considered as weapons in military ship designs (i.e. can have military ship designs with no weapons except for Fighter Bays)

GAME BALANCE
- AI now gives higher preference to mining station build locations that are closer to space ports, colonies, etc
- strategic resources used in construction (for components) now weighted slightly higher when considering stockpiles at spaceports and elsewhere

OTHER
- slightly improved game performance
- can now build bases in disputed systems if your empire has a colony in the system

[fierceking]

I'm getting this after I install this new update

[Fishers of Men]

These are very nice improvements, especially the modding section(GameText file).

[lurchi]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

- allow including GameText.txt from a custom mod (i.e. read from theme folder)

Nice improvements, but this one especially caught my eye. Does this mean I can add descriptions for new tech to be shown in the research screen? Would be great as I was about to ask for that feature.

[JamesM]

It would be good to be able to download this beta. It seems that the old bugbear is back, being a chore to download the betas. It would not allow me to use Internet Download Manager through Cyberfox. I then tired a direct download through IE 11 then I get asked to log into the ftp server, I put my username and password that I use for the members area, no success there and then I try to log on anonymously and no success again. Please fix this.

[TheSAguy]

I'm getting this error after installing the beta update. What am I doing wrong?

Steam just did the beta update and that worked.

[tjhkkr]

Yes, thank you very much on the gametext.txt file.

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
- allow modding MP3 files in sounds\EFFECTS (not just WAV files)

Does this mean that files that were formerly only .wav files allow BOTH .wav AND .mp3 files?
Again thank you!

[badken]

- further optimized AI ship design process to allow shrinking designs with maximum construction size while still ensuring critical components are present (e.g. weapons on military ships)

This intrigues me - does this mean that military ships limited by construction size can have a better variety of goodies on them? Thus making it more feasible to use AI ship design without having to research down the construction tree for years before researching anything else?

[Icemania]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
SHIP DESIGN
- AI ship design now properly adds damage control components when repair bots are unavailable
- further optimized AI ship design process to allow shrinking designs with maximum construction size while still ensuring critical components are present (e.g. weapons on military ships)
- Fighter Bay components now considered as weapons in military ship designs (i.e. can have military ship designs with no weapons except for Fighter Bays)

I've just tested the Patch 1.9.5.6 Beta using the Haakonish and Securan in the AI Improvement Mod and can report significant improvements.

I changed the Securan Cruiser design template (post Alpha release) to remove the torpedo (so Fighter Bays only) to verify the Fighter Bay change which worked.

Military Ships were all built with weapons except in one case ... the Securan Cruiser (again Fighter Bays only) which was built at Size 300 with no Fighter Bays. The AI built 6 of these with zero weapons in the test.

[Cauldyth]

ORIGINAL: badken

- further optimized AI ship design process to allow shrinking designs with maximum construction size while still ensuring critical components are present (e.g. weapons on military ships)

This intrigues me - does this mean that military ships limited by construction size can have a better variety of goodies on them? Thus making it more feasible to use AI ship design without having to research down the construction tree for years before researching anything else?

In my first game with the patch, after researching only the first construction tech (Space Construction, Size: 230) I am able to build the AI-designed capital ships. That definitely didn't use to be the case!

[hewwo]

great list! And please please pretty please make the ships/bases screen remember the last used filter and sorting. Absence thereof is so annoying!

[Keston]

Nice changes, but the GxBO errors (reported as related to save games) are scaring me away.

ORIGINAL: hewwo

great list! And please please pretty please make the ships/bases screen remember the last used filter and sorting. Absence thereof is so annoying!

+1. Players have been asking for years, so there must be some problem involved, though it might just be that having it work in a "smart" fashion acceptable to all is hard.

Much of my back and forth with ships has been because the mouseover id info for ships when a fleet is selected in the lower left panel doesn't work when the ships/bases screen is open and I am trying to sort some ships into a new "fleet" using the screen. "Smart" behavior might look at whether any substantive commands/keystrokes were issued or what is the currently selected item. Or maybe a "last session" button (or hotkey) when it opens could take it back?

[impi07]

ORIGINAL: Keston

Nice changes, but the GxBO errors (reported as related to save games) are scaring me away.

ORIGINAL: hewwo

great list! And please please pretty please make the ships/bases screen remember the last used filter and sorting. Absence thereof is so annoying!

+1. Players have been asking for years, so there must be some problem involved, though it might just be that having it work in a "smart" fashion acceptable to all is hard.

Much of my back and forth with ships has been because the mouseover id info for ships when a fleet is selected in the lower left panel doesn't work when the ships/bases screen is open and I am trying to sort some ships into a new "fleet" using the screen. "Smart" behavior might look at whether any substantive commands/keystrokes were issued or what is the currently selected item. Or maybe a "last session" button (or hotkey) when it opens could take it back?

+1. I'm thinking of creating some autohotkey scripts to show military ships only and jumping to the end of the list so see the newly created ships.

[hewwo]

ORIGINAL: impi07
+1. I'm thinking of creating some autohotkey scripts to show military ships only and jumping to the end of the list so see the newly created ships.

Please share if you make this:) Would make life infinitely better #firstworldproblems

[TheSAguy]

Any update on release of the patch?

[gormack82]

You are not allowed to post links for 7 days from the date of your tenth post.

LOL how the f am i supposed to show my bug now?

Anyway it crashes to desktop and say error code GxBO

[AstroCat]

ORIGINAL: gormack82

You are not allowed to post links for 7 days from the date of your tenth post.

LOL how the f am i supposed to show my bug now?

Anyway it crashes to desktop and say error code GxBO

Yeah seems like this is an issue, reported over in the Tech sub forum. I've stopped playing till this is fixed actually.

[Erik Rutins]

Hi everyone,

We're working on a new update for tomorrow, which should resolve the crash issues and have some more improvements.

Regards,

- Erik

[Icemania]

Great! I can't wait to see the Tech Support Forum filled with Elliot's humble responses! [:)]