Time to buy?

[David Hansen]

Well...I've been waiting on the latest patch before buying...have been lurking around here for 60 days or so.

Does this patch now put DW over the top as a "polished product?.. not perfect as I realize no software is.

Any hesitation in recommending the sim to a long time strategy guy? (GC, MOO, CIV)

Strong, competent AI?

What are the best mods to use?

TXS for any assistance!

[tornnight]

yes

[DasTactic]

Without a doubt. This is a great game.

At this stage I'm still playing the vanilla version.

[rk0123msp@mindspring]

ORIGINAL: David Hansen

Well...I've been waiting on the latest patch before buying...have been lurking around here for 60 days or so.

Does this patch now put DW over the top as a "polished product?.. not perfect as I realize no software is.

Any hesitation in recommending the sim to a long time strategy guy? (GC, MOO, CIV)

Strong, competent AI?

What are the best mods to use?

TXS for any assistance!

If you like 4x you'll definitely like this; I'm a long term strategy player too .. all the way back to AH boardgames [:D] .

AI seems to be good, but I havent' played enough times to gauge it 100% yet. I've only had the game about 2weeks now, but I'd recommend it to any strategy game aficionado at this point. 

[Bartje]

It's getting better and better, even though it was fun to begin with [:)]

[Baleur]

I regretted buying it at release, but with the latest patch it's every bit as fun and epic as i always wished it would be. [:D]
A huge number of tiny bugfixes and major revamps really turned the gameplay around, and the AI at least makes playing possible, as opposed to at release where your own ships would get stranded with no rescue in sight, all the time.

Short answer, yes! Its playable, its fun. Im enjoying it way more than Galciv2 or Sins (or the interface horror that was Space Empires V, lets never speak of it again).
Which i suppose makes it the best 4x space game i've played so far. Well, AI War is the exception, if i didnt feel so lonely when playing that, lol. [:D]
For some reason Distant Worlds feels like an mmo, with all the independent ships flying around, think X3 but as a strategy game, thats what it feels like, a living world.
As for best mods, not really any mods per say out [:(] Mostly just graphics replacements and such, it's no civilization 4 in terms of mods, yet. [:(]

[jalapen0]

ORIGINAL: Baleur

I regretted buying it at release, but with the latest patch it's every bit as fun and epic as i always wished it would be. [:D]
A huge number of tiny bugfixes and major revamps really turned the gameplay around, and the AI at least makes playing possible, as opposed to at release where your own ships would get stranded with no rescue in sight, all the time.

Short answer, yes! Its playable, its fun. Im enjoying it way more than Galciv2 or Sins (or the interface horror that was Space Empires V, lets never speak of it again).
Which i suppose makes it the best 4x space game i've played so far. Well, AI War is the exception, if i didnt feel so lonely when playing that, lol. [:D]
For some reason Distant Worlds feels like an mmo, with all the independent ships flying around, think X3 but as a strategy game, thats what it feels like, a living world.
As for best mods, not really any mods per say out [:(] Mostly just graphics replacements and such, it's no civilization 4 in terms of mods, yet. [:(]

This.

Exactly how I feel as well. It's not as good as MOO2...yet but I have a feeling it will be, maybe with the expansion or with mods. It needs some variety. The AI is awesome, it does not mess around.

Supposedly the game will be alot more moddable after the next patch. Just enjoy vanilla for now. There is alot in it. My only problem with it is it's not practacle to have multiple types of destroyers or cruisers (it's a big pain in otherwords) and there isn't much variety of weapons. Not a big deal for now.

[Equendil]

In my opinion, nothing beats Civ IV in terms of strategy and variety. On the higher difficulty levels, you *need* to pick an objective, define a clear strategy towards that objective, and carefully use your resources to support that strategy and not get distracted over expanding before your economy can support it, building everything everywhere, researching every tech, waging pointless wars, etc. You will have to carefully plan your research path, specialize your cities, trade techs you'd rather keep for yourself, give away settlements to convince an AI to end a war or start one, defend your one source of iron or whatever to the death, the AI will strike you hard at the worst time, and playing conquest on an archipelago map is definitively a very different game from trying to score a cultural win on a "pangea" one. There isn't a one-size-fits-all military unit, techs bring widely different advantages, as do buildings, wonders, government types, etc.

I have yet to find another 4x game that even come remotely close to it, though some are pretty interesting in other ways (Europa Universalis comes to mind). I tend to quickly lose interest in games like the Total War series, or Galactic Civilization II, where very little actual strategy is involved. Total war because it's mostly about battles (where achieving local superiority and cause the ennemy to rout is generally way too easy for tactics to truly develop), GalCivII because I found there isn't much to it beyond expanding as fast as possible (and luck, planet bonuses can be silly high). That said, they're not bad games at all, well designed and everything.

So anyway, DW belongs to the more "straight-forward" sort of 4X games in my opinion. Entertaining for sure, but not very strategic. A bit like GalCivII, it's mostly about expanding fast and building the most powerful military in the galaxy. Still, because research and to a lesser extend your economy do not directly derive from the size of your empire, because logistic (fuel) can become an issue in the vastness of space, interesting situations can arise (or you can make them arise out of starting parameters). Ship design, just like in GalCiv, is an interesting gimmick as well. If you enjoyed GalCiv, I can see no reason you wouldn't enjoy DW, definitively a nice space themed 4X game.

As for being a polished game... DW is a bit of a resource hog, though that shouldn't be a problem on a modern PC, the patches have definitively improved a lot of things, and the developer(s?) is clearly working on ironing out the remaining issues, so I'd say, go for it.

[Pipewrench]

if you played galactic civ II then you wil love this game. it has some tweeks that still need work but with .5 you wil have a blast.....

[Baleur]

To be honest i havent even used ship design once in this game O_o

[jalapen0]

Civ IV wasn't bad. The units are so damn generic though and the AI wasn't brilliant. It's also not very complex. EU3 is probably my all time most favorite game but it's not a 4x game. It's a complex long term strategy game.

I think there is more strategy in this game than you are giving it credit for. You got to move your fleets like chess peices, each with it's own advantages/disadvantages based on tech and unit design. The possibilities are endless really. And with the fact that this game is real time, you can get surprised regularly by the AI.

I'm extremely happy I found and picked this one up. It's an easy one to miss.

[Baleur]

I wish i could play EU3 and HoI3 and such games, i just sit there, watch my armies invade, the frontline bobbing back and forth. And have no clue when the entertainment is supposed to come
I guess im too dumb to understand strategy, or i'm too cynical about game ai's to even think a strategy is worth thinking about, always suspiciously assuming that dice-rolls decide everything, not your own intelligence.
Maybe the EU3/HoI3 games are different, wish i had the clarity to see it, know where to start, and the patience to figure it out.

[jalapen0]

I can't really speak for HOI3 but HOI2 was a great game. Most of the strategy involved was designing the army from 1936 onwards imo. As for EU3, just building an empire from some little 2 provience minor is the fun part. I usually start over by 1650 because I'm so big, I'm unstoppable. That's when it gets boring. I also like playing a colonizing empire. It reminds me of 7 cities of gold from 20+ years ago.

BUT, space 4X games is what I've always loved. Starting with MOO1 of course with MOO2 being the best. I think this game could beat it with some more work\mods.

[Gertjan]

Buy it. I like the game a lot, especially because there is automation of ship design (which I don't like to do myself).

[Erik Rutins]

I've been away for a week and am catching up here . Thanks for the recommendations guys, much appreciate. We are continuing to work hard to making Distant Worlds better. We aim to be the best 4x Sci-Fi game around and we're already working on the first expansion with lots of good stuff for you all.

[DasTactic]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
We aim to be the best 4x Sci-Fi game around

Already is imho.

[Baleur]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I've been away for a week and am catching up here . Thanks for the recommendations guys, much appreciate. We are continuing to work hard to making Distant Worlds better. We aim to be the best 4x Sci-Fi game around and we're already working on the first expansion with lots of good stuff for you all.

Thats what I want to hear, aspiration! [&o]

[nammafia]

Wow! Already working on expansion! I hope we will get some update soon, in couple months maybe. Thanks for the support.

[AminMaalouf]

ORIGINAL: David Hansen

Well...I've been waiting on the latest patch before buying...have been lurking around here for 60 days or so.

Does this patch now put DW over the top as a "polished product?.. not perfect as I realize no software is.

Any hesitation in recommending the sim to a long time strategy guy? (GC, MOO, CIV)

Strong, competent AI?

What are the best mods to use?

TXS for any assistance!

Buy: Yup.
Patch: It runs reasonably.
Hesitation: No, the cool thing with this game is the entire civilian, trade and resource collecting aspect. The game is gamey.
AI: Yup basically, but that is a tough question. Think eu2 in space.
Mods: I wait for deepgoing mods, too.

[EisenHammer]

Yes... buy now... It's like EU3 in space.