Cralis
Posts: 13
Joined: 4/9/2010
Status: offline
|
I see that there are numerous threads about being new, and what players see, but I don't want to add to an ongoing thread. Before I begin I want to state that, as a VERY experienced 4X gamer, I found this game and could find very little about it - and it turned out to be a diamond in the rough. Very unexpected. Probably 90-95% of 4X games I have tried simply do not measure up.
But on to my observations.
Like some others I have found this game's automation of the civilian economy to be fantastic! I am VERY leery of macro games because they simply don't measure up. Either you end up dealing with the wrong minutia OR you end up being unable to control your empire in areas that you desire. There are a few problems that should be easily fixed, but on the whole DW does it about as right as I've ever seen it.
The graphics in this game are pretty good! While I prefer as much realism as possible, DW has a fairly good mix of realistic elements with some simplifications - and it works. In fact I'd have to say that the universe generation is probably the best mix I've ever seen (not counting games outside of the 4X genre, and not counting board games).
Overall DW is pretty genius. Like any other designer there are some things I'd do differently, but I think that many of the more detailed or more complex elements would have simply lengthened the game time and probably reduced the 'footprint of interest' by the average gamer. I am glad I bought this game, and I hope the developers will be able to stick with adding features/patches long enough to turn this into a game I never put away.
But on to my observations/suggestions:
Observations/Suggestions
1. The biggest annoyance I found in the game was the combat automation/non-automation. If you automate your ships they fly all over creation and attack crap. That is VERY annoying. And worse - if you turn automation off the ships simply don't defend themselves or attack anything. WORSE. This is the biggest complaint I have with the game... I'm hoping I've simply overlooked something in the interface, but either way I have some ideas.
A. There needs to be an option to "go here and attack anything nearby." I don't mean "in the same star system nearby", but perhaps "within 1 screen width nearby." It would be nice to also have a "go here and defend the whole star system" option as well. This way I can turn combat automation off so my ships won't go attack other star systems (grrr) and I don't have to set them on patrol. This is important because I make sure to put energy panels so they can sit in one spot until needed - as sometimes have them on patrol means they are never where you need them most (like defending your world building your fleet).
B. Ships should ALWAYS automatically defend themselves! ALWAYS! Maybe not when an enemy comes near, but the instant something starts shooting them they should always shoot back.
2. Troop ships need a button that says "go pickup troops at the nearest planet with troops" (basically). Sometimes it takes too much effort to find all the troops you need for your troop transports.
3. Sensor ranges are myopic. At some point in late game it would be nice to be able to cover most of your territory with long-range sensors on bases without having to build them into scouts and place them all over the map.
4. On the screen where you can tell it to build and send colony ships to worlds, it would be nice to be able to choose which world builds it. And then to be able to change the priority of which goes where. I thought it really tacky when I tried to queue 5 or 6 colony ships and found out all but 1 was at the same planet. It required much more micro-managing, but building them at slightly further away worlds was faster because I didn't have them all in a single planet's queue and they were completed much faster.
5. I find the fleet right-click menu interface MUCH more useful then the shortcut interface for single ships. Please put the menu for all ships - single or fleeted.
6. About starting games: the story line is awesome. But sometimes I'd like to play a game where you don't get a massive tech jump by finding a few artifacts halfway through the game. It always enables me to win. Having the same types of things as random events with MUCH SMALLER benefits would be very cool, or just being able to turn them off. Sometimes I just want to fight other empires head-to-head without worry about finding the death ray or world annihilator before the computer - whoever finds them first often wins.
7. I wish there was a little more variety in the weapons technologies. Perhaps missiles that don't degrade in damage as they fly, but they don't do as much damage as the torpedoes. Maybe specialized beams that do more damage to shields or armor. Or maybe a special one that bypasses both and has a chance to damage some internal system. There are lots of possibilities.
Anyways, I'm being informed that it is time to go. I will post more later.
_____________________________
- Cralis -
|
Printable Version
New to Distant Worlds - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread