Understanding Cashflow

[HerpInYourDerp]

It's also that aspect of anticipation. You're limited with what you can do during this time as far as affecting the large-scale, so you innately become more focused and more involved on the things you can do.

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22

I didn't even need to say anything... there it is... If WCG likes "dead boring" build up games..

Heh, heh. Well, it wasn't actually me who called it "dead boring," you know. But I have no doubt that I enjoy games that others would think boring, and vice versa. It's all subjective.

Have you ever played Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead? It's a different kind of game entirely, but when you start, you have to avoid almost every enemy, as you struggle to survive with no skills and no equipment.

Or Kenshi, maybe? When you start, the weakest bandit in the world can kick your butt. There is nothing you can beat in a fight, as you've got no skills, terrible stats, and almost no equipment. I love it! [:)]

That's what I love about pre-warp in Distant Worlds - well, one of the things, at least. I love that I have to pay extortion money to bandits. I love that it's a struggle just to explore my starting solar system, at first.

That slow advance from a weak start, struggling just to survive, might seem boring to other people (and your feelings about it are just as valid as mine, of course), but I love it!

[Bingeling]

What I dislike about it is that if you min-max, there is no reason to not just wait for hyperdrive. All you achieve by fighting in the long term, is to reduce the stores on the capital.

And even if I am not a min-maxer, plodding around fighting pirates with no hyperdrive is not my idea of fun. And I refuse to pay protection money after getting my spaceport "up, armed, and shielded"

[BlueTemplar]

No-one tried tweaking pre-warp to make pirates weaker during that time?

[Blabsawaw22]

Spore is the only game I think I've played where it was fun to "built" up from nothing.. You were a cell that had to build by eating small tiny things and could be eating by everything else until you were big enough. I know the drill, as I've played many other games similar, (aren't most all games building up anyway from essentially nothing?)

the thing is, Games like Spore did it within reasonable time. You were just about to get bored with it and then you move on to the next stage of the game..

I suppose you can 4x the speed of Distant Worlds the entire prewarp.. I haven't done Pre-Warp in awhile.. so I don't remember if that helps or not.. but I already know there will be problems missing fights and/or things you need to be at a slower speed for..

Look if you like Pre-Warp. no problem.. they did make it in the game.. I just wonder why they were trying to add a another long "stage" to an already long-termed staged game.. that's the confusing part..

meanwhile you guys talking about resources being put in the right places.. they should have worked on strong Automation instead of deciding to work on Pre-Warp Gameplay!!

ha.

[Hattori Hanzo]

That's what I love about pre-warp in Distant Worlds - well, one of the things, at least. I love that I have to pay extortion money to bandits. I love that it's a struggle just to explore my starting solar system, at first.

That slow advance from a weak start, struggling just to survive, might seem boring to other people (and your feelings about it are just as valid as mine, of course), but I love it!

me too: in 4x space strategy games I love to start from the very beginning pre-warp stages if possible - this give me that GREAT sense of achievement as my little Empire slowly grow-up that I love the much.. [8D]

this way early game is for me entertaining just as middle and late game.

to be more precise, my trend is to have the greater percentage of game satisfaction in early and middle game, losing somewhat interest in late game.

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22

meanwhile you guys talking about resources being put in the right places.. they should have worked on strong Automation instead of deciding to work on Pre-Warp Gameplay!!

The thing is, there have been expansion, and expansions need a feature. Pre-warp was a quite good idea, and a nice Feature for Shadows. You can't release a paid expansion that is just a glorified patch.

Legends was somewhat close to that, it lacked the big ticket item, but at least it added lots of smaller nice things (borders, characters).

[Blabsawaw22]

Look, Shadows was great in the idea behind it, It did add a major "feature" to play as a Pirate.. That is genius.




This Other "feature" you mention, is :

Start a new empire before the discovery of hyperspace travel and try to expand into the stars,

- Taken from the Shadows official Matrix page.


So... taking away Hyperspace drive and forcing you to find it in one of the planets that is always in your home system is a "major expansion feature?"

couldn't they have just done that in the first game and made it so you had to send an explorer to a planet to get hyperdrive tech..??

How is not having a hyperdrive when starting a game, a major expansion feature?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just really want to know..

[Bingeling]

From the start, why make Distant Worlds. He could just make a clone of pacman. The options were all there.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

From the start, why make Distant Worlds. He could just make a clone of pacman. The options were all there.

not sure to having understand what you mean [&:]

[Blabsawaw22]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

From the start, why make Distant Worlds. He could just make a clone of pacman. The options were all there.

what have you done with him?

and where is Bingeling? haha.

That is not the clear, concise, and analytical answers that the "always testing" Bingeling gives.


I don't want to go abstract. I'm just noting that not having a hyperdrive in the begining of a game is not an "expansion major feature"..

They could do that in the very first game. thats all.

Now Pirate play on the other hand, that is a major feature and I really wish they did do it correctly.. It had fun moments but again, automation and all kinds of still not fixed bugs today..

[BlueTemplar]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
You can't release a paid expansion that is just a glorified patch.

Why, have all Distant World expansions been released on CD-ROMs?
http://explorminate.net/2016/02/05/the- ... xposition/

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Why, have all Distant World expansions been released on CD-ROMs?
http://explorminate.net/2016/02/05/the- ... xposition/

They haven't you can download them. If you mean something else please explain.

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

And even if I am not a min-maxer, plodding around fighting pirates with no hyperdrive is not my idea of fun.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'min-max' (as it applies to this game), but are you saying that you fight pirates before you've even researched FTL travel? I can't imagine that! Why?

I mean, sure, you could stop paying extortion money as soon as you get a spaceport, and that will work if you have nothing else in the system to defend. Or if you're lucky, I guess. But that's the thing. You never really know. It's a gamble whenever you do it. And sometimes, you're forced to eat crow and start paying even more money to the pirates. For awhile. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

The thing is, there have been expansion, and expansions need a feature. Pre-warp was a quite good idea, and a nice Feature for Shadows. You can't release a paid expansion that is just a glorified patch.

I didn't buy the game until Shadows was released. And at that point, it was very expensive, since I had to buy the initial game and all the previous expansions, too - just to play Shadows.

But the pre-warp start was just too appealing to resist. I wouldn't have bought Distant Worlds at all without that. Funny, huh? Well, as I say, different tastes...

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: WCG

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

And even if I am not a min-maxer, plodding around fighting pirates with no hyperdrive is not my idea of fun.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'min-max' (as it applies to this game), but are you saying that you fight pirates before you've even researched FTL travel? I can't imagine that! Why?

I mean, sure, you could stop paying extortion money as soon as you get a spaceport, and that will work if you have nothing else in the system to defend. Or if you're lucky, I guess. But that's the thing. You never really know. It's a gamble whenever you do it. And sometimes, you're forced to eat crow and start paying even more money to the pirates. For awhile. [:)]

It is just a style of play, I do not to make deals with pirates. But I do not bother to build structures in pre-warp apart form the spaceport, and it should keep pirates away just fine. Finally beating the pirates that made life miserable at the start is a rather good feeling.

So it is a brief protection deal when they first show up, since the spaceport lacks shields or is not yet even built.

What I meant by 'min - max' is a style of play where one does every choice by carefully selecting the optimal path, and using quite some energy to find it. It would be somewhat opposite to just hanging around in the galaxy, role playing a bit, not really bothering about details.

[Guardian54]

I'm pretty sure min-maxing in early game is to wait until you have Gerax, Velocity Shard or at least Mk 2 Epsilon Torpedo, Shields, and maybe armor if you got most of that tech off of the abandoned frigate in your system, and THEN telling the pirates where they can shove it.

Of course there's also the ever important NEVER TAX HOMEWORLD EARLY ON except in pulses to make sure you don't go negative (just in case some new pirates show up with a considerable amount of firepower). Honestly by the tiem you have 12 colonies like the guy in the screenshot you should have at least 18B on your homeworld if not more, depending on planet quality and initial system quality...

For those who aren't too into PreWarp starts... consider how much of an advantage you can build up over the AI by simply expanding early.

[BlueTemplar]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling
You can't release a paid expansion that is just a glorified patch.

ORIGINAL: Chris H

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Why, have all Distant World expansions been released on CD-ROMs?
http://explorminate.net/2016/02/05/the- ... xposition/

They haven't you can download them. If you mean something else please explain.

Digital distribution can be much cheaper than physical distribution. Therefore you can sell information for much cheaper.

[NephilimNexus]

One colony with 9B people gives far more $ than 3 colonies with 3B people each.

Over expansion can ruin Empires very quickly, as starting colonies have negative cash flow. They only drain money until the population hits at least 1B, and that can take a while.

Also if you are not manually controlling your taxes then you have no real control over immigration & resettlement in your Empire.

As a rule of thumb, the more things you control manually the better you will do. Personally, I have every single possible setting kept on manual by default, with the one exception being exploration ships. Nothing gets built without my approval.