Joram
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Joined: 7/15/2005
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Armada 2526 is a good game. DW is also a good game. To recommend one over the other is hard in my opinion though I guess I too would lean towards DW though there are definitely aspects of it that I don't care for as well.
Armada obviously turn-based compared to DW's real-time. Though DW is easily pausible and you can slow it down to a crawl as well if you won't want to pause completely.
Armada gives you more control over research. In DW, you essentially direct research by building bases that give you research points in one of four areas. But the specific technologies can't be controlled other than the crash research option which puts all other technologies on hold. It's very hands-off. In Armada, you start with with general research buildings but can then specialize them if you wish. I particularly like the skunkworks option in Armada. At this point, I don't think I particularly care for the DW approach but it's not a deal-breaker for me. I am giving myself more time to get used to it.
Lordxorn is correct though on the ships in Armada. Everyone essentially researches the same tech and gets the same ships. This is about the only thing in Armada I actually don't care for but it's a biggie for me. I don't think it's fair to say though it's simply a matter of who has the most missile ships. I don't personally find that at all but each to their own. And Armada has carriers for those that care. In DW, while you can design your own ship, I have two issues with it. First, you apparently can only design one of each kind of ship. One escort, one destroyer, one defensive starbase, so on and so forth. I would prefer to be able to do multiple types. Second, if you don't automate ship design, then I think you are forced to design small freighters, medium freighters, large freighters, small passengers ships, medium passenger ships, etc... all these other civ ships that you probably don't really care about. I am unsure of the overall implications though of never upgrading them. If it actually puts your empire at a disadvantage, then I can see this part getting a bit tedious.
Armada's races truely play differently than the ones in DW in my admittedly limited experience here (who has had time to play them all?! Not me!). In Armada races have different strengths and weaknesses just like they do in DW however in Armada, how they collect victory points is very race specific. This makes the different races truely play differently in order to win. I'm not sure if everyone really appreciates this fact. I'm not finding this true yet in DW. There's three ways to win of course but it all seems to be based on forced expansion. How much you have to expand may depend on your race such that natural merchants may not need to expand as much to get the GDP goal but all races would need to own the same number of planets to own x% of the galaxy. Some races just are better at it. But in the hands of a human, not sure how much differentiation here there really is.
Armada gives more flavor on planet building while in DW that is completely abstract. I don't think either method is good or bad, just different so it's up to your personal preference. If you don't want to have to build a luxury center on a planet to make it happy, then you may not like Armada but if you like that level of planet detail, then you may not like DW.
Combat is completely different of course. DW plays more like your typical RTS game in this respect. It's not immediately obvious to me the effect of things like thrusters and combat computers but probably because in the games I've played, all races have been close enough for me not to notice the differences. In Armada, it's more of a fire and forget combat (think Legion or other Slitherine games) but you do have a bit more control if you choose to. It's no Sword of the Stars though, that's for sure. Both games kind of leave me a bit flat here though at this point I probably like Armada a bit better. Perhaps if I got into a longer game and really had all the bells and whistles in DW I may think different though.
Where DW really shines though and from what I gather is one of the design points of DW is to really reflect a 'living, breathing' galaxy. No turn-based game will probably accomplish this as well as a RTS game though some can come close (GalCiv2 and the Civ games come to mind). Armada doesn't really give you this feel in that regard while in DW it does. In fact, it can almost be a bit overwhelming in DW but once you learn what you can and can't control, you can really appreciate the system. While you don't control the civilian aspect of it, there are still nice little touches you can add to it by building a resort around a moon with ice-rings or a neutron star or a research center around a neutron star or black hole. There are ruins to find and explore, space monsters to hunt or avoid (some people find it corny but I don't), pirates to deal with or destroy. Sometimes I just like to sit back and watch where all my civilian ships are going off to to get a sense of what I need to help out with with mining or resupply points. Armada just doesn't quite give you as much a sense of a living universe and in this respect is the only place in my mind where DW clearly is better than Armada.
Now I think it's unfair to say the DW developers are more responsive than the Armada one(s). Armada didn't have near the issues DW has (and still has) at launch. The whole corruption thing wasn't even an issue, it was just something people didn't get how to manage it very well. It was never an issue for me but nevertheless, the developer listened to people's complaints and changed the system. DW had at least two severe bugs at launch (two races not playable, economy not working correctly, not to mention crashing issues) so they HAD to fix things quickly as initial impressions can quickly sink a game. Yes, you can and should applaud them for being very swift even especially over a weekend, but you should also applaud Armada for releasing a largely bug-free game.
< Message edited by Joram -- 3/29/2010 4:13:41 PM >
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comparison with Armada - 
It's a fine game but definitely different from Distant Worlds. I think a typical 4x gamer would enjoy both.
RE: comparison with Armada - 
In a distant future expansion or version 2 perhaps? We can dream.
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