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Is this worth it?

 
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Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 7:59:24 PM   
IDontThinkSo


Posts: 45
Joined: 5/28/2010
Status: offline 		So I've been eyeing Distant Worlds, along with its expansions, for quite some time and I'm now considering making a purchase. There are a few things that worry me, however, and I would very much appreciate if existing owners could chime in and provide some valuable input.

1) As I understand it, the game is buggy and has been throughout its entire existence. How severe are the bugs? Anything game breaking?
2) What is the real world performance of DW on recommended HW? I have a 3.5 year old laptop - dual core 2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 256 MB ATI card - will this be fine?
3) How much time-consuming is the game? I really can't afford to get addicted (and spend horrenduos amounts of time with the game as a result) - so little time and so much to do!

Thanks!
Post #: 1
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 8:09:16 PM   
Igard


Posts: 2194
Joined: 3/29/2010
From: Scotland
Status: online 		Hey, IDontThinkSo!

1)I've never experienced a game breaking bug, and I've been playing since release. Others have had problems, but I think it's pretty rare these days. Remember that the beta patches are just that, Betas. Alot of bug reports are made, but that's the whole point. If you want bug free, stick with the offical patches.

2)That'll be just fine. You might have to switch off nebulas in the settings, but I think you'll handle a full size galaxy.

3)Very time consuming to begin with when you're learning stuff. Once you've settled into the game, you'll find that it's pretty easy to come and go. It doesn't have that, 'just one more turn' feel to it. It's more like, 'Just take one more planet, then I can switch off'. I like to play epic games, but I play in small stints and draw it out as long as possible. There are lots of settings, so you can play some pretty short games if you want.

Hope that helps with your decision.

Iain.

_____________________________

The Picard Era for Distant Worlds

Igard's Romulan Stormbird

(in reply to IDontThinkSo)
Post #: 2
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 8:57:48 PM   
WoodMan


Posts: 1329
Joined: 6/2/2010
From: Ol' Blighty
Status: offline 		1). Actually, since the final patch of Vanilla DW I've never had a single crash. It was bad before that, in-fact I still keep autosave on 15 mins (it used to be 10) because of fear of crashes, but in all honesty, vanilla DW final patch was over a year ago and I've never got a crash since then. I hardly ever see a bug either, the only serious bug I have experienced was in the last beta patch for Legends, which has been fixed in the current one. There have been many issues that are not bugs that have caused concern (like area weapon friendly fire, fuel range of freighters, population growth of independent planets for example), but not many actual technical bugs. Most issues and bugs are addressed by Eliott quickly, he's good!

2). The game is not demanding on graphics card at all, so it really doesn't matter. 4GB of RAM should be fine to run the large galaxys too. Game relies on processor, yours will probably be okay, this isn't a demanding game. However, I overclocked my i5 the other day and saw a massive performance improvement. Framerate generally won't be an issue, the expansion planner and shiplists can take a few seconds to load up in longer games where there is a lot of info to load. But, your rig should be totally fine for DW, also, performance has improved since its original release.

3). Say goodbye to your loved ones, give your boss the finger and prepare to launch!!!!!!

_____________________________

"My body may be confined to this chair, but my mind is free to explore the universe" - Stephen Hawking

(in reply to Igard)
Post #: 3
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 9:06:55 PM   
tjhkkr


Posts: 1606
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline 		I tend to agree.
Most of the problems that I have had have been with my own game added ships, and not with the vanilla game itself...

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Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love -- Olga Romanov.

(in reply to WoodMan)
Post #: 4
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 9:08:55 PM   
Morelyn

 

Posts: 55
Joined: 1/29/2012
Status: offline 		This Legends expansion has made all the difference for me. Originally I thought the game was a neat idea with not a very good implementation, but after this second expansion I've been unable to stop playing.

So as far as 3)....what WoodMan said.


< Message edited by Morelyn -- 2/6/2012 9:10:24 PM >

(in reply to WoodMan)
Post #: 5
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 9:20:20 PM   
Das123

 

Posts: 543
Joined: 10/10/2005
Status: offline 		1 and 2 covered above.

3. It is a game that does take a while to play but it is also one that you can largely set-and-forget for periods of time. It is my favourite 4X game because it draws you in to its universe. It's like having a thousand little stories playing out all at once and you can pick and choose which stories you are going to monitor or impact. You can micromanage as much or as little as you want. From what you're saying though it sounds as though you are wanting a game that plays out in a couple of hours rather than about a day. While you can change settings and victory conditions to get a game that will play out in a couple of hours I tend to find such settings in Distant Worlds a little disappointing. Perhaps Sword of the Stars (the first collection as they are still fixing version 2) might be a better option. SWOTS is designed for multiplayer so is designed to be reasonably fast.

(in reply to Morelyn)
Post #: 6
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 9:26:09 PM   
onomastikon

 

Posts: 182
Joined: 11/29/2011
Status: offline 		I agree with what the others said. I do not have problems with game-breaking bugs. In fact, this seems pretty high on the scale of buglessness for something as complicated as it is. Most of the bugs I have encountered have been bizarre interactions of subsystem features; certainly nothing gamebreaking.
And in terms of time: let's just say this game sucks and you certainly won't be wasting your time with crap like this when you could be doing just about anything else more worthwhile, such as reading, cooking, playing with your children, making love to your wife, etc. Oh wait, that was a different game.

(in reply to Das123)
Post #: 7
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/6/2012 9:40:00 PM   
IDontThinkSo


Posts: 45
Joined: 5/28/2010
Status: offline 		All great input, and one that arrived surprisingly quickly. Thanks all!

Question #3 really is of great concern to me though - it's not that I would prefer a shorter game (I don't, as a matter of fact), it's the potential addictiveness of the amazing galactic experience that I am seriously afraid of.

Oh well, food for thought.

(in reply to onomastikon)
Post #: 8
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/7/2012 7:31:01 PM   
Fishers of Men


Posts: 203
Joined: 3/27/2010
From: Fishers, IN USA
Status: offline 		As far as the potential "addictiveness" that you seem to feel anxiety about, here is what I say. If I am watching T.V. and I feel this strong feeling, like a magnet pulling me to the room where my computer is located to continue playing the empire I created in DW, then I know I made a good investment in purchasing this game. This is what I am looking for when I am trying to decide how to spend my free time. I desire my games to compel me to play them.

You are wise to see the potential, in anything you do, to cause your life to be out of balance. This part is all up to you. You know yourself the best, so my advise is to stay away from DW if you have any concerns in that direction. But I think you have the disipline to have control over this, so go out and start being part of the Distant Worlds story.

_____________________________

Old............but very fast

(in reply to IDontThinkSo)
Post #: 9
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/7/2012 10:43:32 PM   
Igard


Posts: 2194
Joined: 3/29/2010
From: Scotland
Status: online 		Great post, FoM! I completely understand the trepidation towards getting addicted to a game. It can totally eat into your life, but it's also a sign of something great.

Like I said before, the game will take over at first, but eventually (maybe a few weeks) you'll get control back.

I'd say, if you're working a 9-5 job, Monday to Friday, you should buy on a Thursday evening, try things out. Learn about automation and let the AI control most of the game for you. Go to work on Friday and instead of doing your job, think about your empire, decide where you're empire is going to be in the future and what's best for your citizens. Then go home, and you'll have the entire weekend to tackle the game. Switch your phone off too, that always helps.



_____________________________

The Picard Era for Distant Worlds

Igard's Romulan Stormbird

(in reply to Fishers of Men)
Post #: 10
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/8/2012 3:31:32 AM   
ehsumrell1


Posts: 1535
Joined: 8/17/2010
From: The Briar Patch Nebula
Status: offline 		Spoken like a true Romulan!!!!!

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Shields are useless in "The Briar Patch"...

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Post #: 11
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/8/2012 9:16:29 PM   
IDontThinkSo


Posts: 45
Joined: 5/28/2010
Status: offline 		The threads on imbalanced economy seem to have saved my wallet for the time being.  I am seriously tempted, but since I have other Matrix titles to play at the moment, I think I will wait until that issue is ironed out. At least when it is, I will have only DW to spend my gaming time on.

In the meantime, I'll continue to watch this forum section closely. Once again, thanks for all the input!

(in reply to ehsumrell1)
Post #: 12
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/9/2012 2:03:54 AM   
Chet Guiles

 

Posts: 147
Joined: 6/14/2002
From: Southern CA
Status: offline 		1. I have never had any real problem with bugginess, up to and including the most recent beta patch.

2. I am using a system about the same as yours, play all games with max stars and largest universe and have never crashed due to having too much going on at the same time.

3. It can consume as mkuch time as you'd want to give it. I find it immersive and am always messing with characters, hunting pirates and generally trying to maximize the profitability of my empire. I automate only a few features and play the game by micromanagement. That said, I have the time to do that because I, like many an old car, am RE-TIRED!

This may be the single most fun game I have ever played, and I've tried most of them at one time or another. This beats Master of Orion, and that was a super game.

Splurge. Enjoy. (And no, I am not a shill for Matrix Games!)

(in reply to IDontThinkSo)
Post #: 13
RE: Is this worth it? - 2/9/2012 8:54:56 PM   
Igard


Posts: 2194
Joined: 3/29/2010
From: Scotland
Status: online 		On the topic of economy imbalance, although I do agree that costs should be increased, alot of the issues are found in games running normal settings. There are settings that can make the game alot harder and quite a challenge.

It does take some time to learn the economy and how to look after it. When you do, you'll have the same problems the rest of us have. It's just a symptom of pretty much every computer game, once you get good at it, you need to crank up the difficulty sliders until eventually, you need more sliders.

There's still alot of gaming to be had before you hit 'the wall' so to speak.

_____________________________

The Picard Era for Distant Worlds

Igard's Romulan Stormbird

(in reply to Chet Guiles)
Post #: 14
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