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Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 2:55:56 PM

dwawilson

Posts: 6
Joined: 12/28/2011
Status: offline

I bought Didstant Worlds, Return of the Shakturi, and Legends a couple of years ago. I have several times tried to get into the game and failed to get engaged. I decided to cut my losses and did not buy Shadows. Now that Universe is about to be released I am considering trying again. There were basically 3 things that I could never get a handle on.

1. Pirates. I realize that you can turn pirates off or lower the frequency. I really don't mind fighting pirates. There just seemed to be no way to eventually control them. I tried stationing fleets in all my colonies and mining bases (expensive). I tried running patrols on all the nearby systems (micromanagement hell). There just seems to be no way to protect yourself from constant harassment. Please tell me how you handle pirates.

2. Colony growth. In most space 4x games you have the ability to colonize. You then have some method to help your colony grow and benefit your empire. In Distant Worlds you colonize but the colony never grows enough to help your empire. After 20 years the colony might have 5% of it maximum population. Maybe if you played 100 years a colony might start to approch the productivity of your homeworld. There is only a minimal benefit to creating colonies. Is this the way it is supposed to work or did I miss something. Please tell me how you handle colony growth.

3. Invasions. I had no problem invading another empires colonies. However the home planet usually had 50 - 100 troops and was almost impossible to take. You can build 150 - 300 troops (expensive). You can build bombers. However bombers destroy population as well as troops. By the time you destroy enough troops to launch a successful invasion the planet has about the same population as a colony. Please tell me how to launch an invasion so I can expoit an alien empire.

In the end the game feels like pirate hunting game. There is no point in colonizing or fighting wars of expansion. If this is true, then this is probably not the game for me. If there is more to it, please enlighten me.

Post #: 1

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 3:09:07 PM

joeyeti

Posts: 329
Joined: 2/28/2012
Status: offline

2. Do you tax new colonies? Maybe you should not... Do you check race policies in there?

3. Large capitals can have many troops, yes. But I wonder if that was true after you "strip" that empire of all other planets but the homeworld and constantly harass their fleets?

Maybe all in all, you just approach the game from the wrong angle and maybe also in a too fast a pace...

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Joe

(in reply to dwawilson)

Post #: 2

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 3:23:08 PM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

Hi dwawilson,

quote:

ORIGINAL: dwawilson
1. Pirates. I realize that you can turn pirates off or lower the frequency. I really don't mind fighting pirates. There just seemed to be no way to eventually control them. I tried stationing fleets in all my colonies and mining bases (expensive). I tried running patrols on all the nearby systems (micromanagement hell). There just seems to be no way to protect yourself from constant harassment. Please tell me how you handle pirates.

Turn off "pirates regenerate"
Have plenty of exploration ships to find their hideouts.
Use espionage and sabotage missions to find their hideouts and ships and destroy them.
Steal their tech if they are more advanced than you.
Pay other pirates to attack them and/or defend you as a temporary measure.
Use exploration ships to scout and determine when their bases are least defended. Park a fleet with a resupply ship at a nearby gas giant or gas cloud and send it in.
Expand your own colonies and make sure you have a fleet to protect them as you expand. Build defensive bases as soon as feasible. As your territory expands, it becomes harder for pirates to thrive.

quote:

2. Colony growth. In most space 4x games you have the ability to colonize. You then have some method to help your colony grow and benefit your empire. In Distant Worlds you colonize but the colony never grows enough to help your empire. After 20 years the colony might have 5% of it maximum population. Maybe if you played 100 years a colony might start to approch the productivity of your homeworld. There is only a minimal benefit to creating colonies. Is this the way it is supposed to work or did I miss something. Please tell me how you handle colony growth.

Colonies did grow very slowly in the first game, but this was adjusted up later on. I find it very useful to create colonies (as long as I can defend them) and they allow my economy and territory to expand much more quickly. I'd suggest just giving this another try. Are you providing them without enough luxury and strategic resources for optimal growth and development? Spaceports? Safe space lanes for passenger ships carrying additional immigrants?

quote:

3. Invasions. I had no problem invading another empires colonies. However the home planet usually had 50 - 100 troops and was almost impossible to take. You can build 150 - 300 troops (expensive). You can build bombers. However bombers destroy population as well as troops. By the time you destroy enough troops to launch a successful invasion the planet has about the same population as a colony. Please tell me how to launch an invasion so I can expoit an alien empire.

Shadows greatly expanded on ground combat, so this is a different game in that area now, but home worlds are definitely possible to take. You need to scout them out, have the right mix of troops, have superiority in each of the combined arms and space control and potentially use a preliminary bombardment to weaken the defenders.

quote:

In the end the game feels like pirate hunting game. There is no point in colonizing or fighting wars of expansion. If this is true, then this is probably not the game for me. If there is more to it, please enlighten me.

There's a lot more to it, but I guess this answer is best left to others. It's quite possible to severely diminish the role of pirates using the galaxy settings if you prefer to have as few as possible and make them as weak as possible.

Regards,

- Erik

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CEO, Matrix Games LLC

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(in reply to dwawilson)

Post #: 3

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 5:24:38 PM

Shark7

Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline

Personally I use the Many Pirates, Strong Pirates, and Pirates do not respond options to keep the pirates both fun and limited.

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Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

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Post #: 4

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 5:38:02 PM

ASHBERY76

Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline

Pirates are annoying.That is the point of them.You are not supposed to have easy control of the pirate situation unless you secure the whole region late game kinda like the British did in 1730.

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Post #: 5

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 6:40:21 PM

Osito

Posts: 875
Joined: 5/9/2013
Status: offline

Regarding point 1, in the first of the game set up screens you can make pirates less frequent, less strong, more remote from you, and stop them from respawning after you wiped them out. It ought to be possible to find a setting that suits you. Having said that, it's possible some of these settings didn't exist prior to Shadows (I can't remember).

Regarding point 2, colonies can certainly be made to grow faster than you described.

- Keep them happy (low taxes)
- Place new colonies reasonably close to established colonies, so that:
(1) your private fleet can quickly transport luxury and strategic goods to the new colony, and
(2) your private fleet can quickly transport new colonists from the older colonies to the newer ones
- Research techs which increase population growth rate
- Try starting off with a race which has one of the higher growth rates
- Make sure planet size and quality are not too low, as these both affect your ultimate max population size - for example a size 10.0k planet with 50% quality would have a max pop of under 700 million.

In my own experience, I can certainly get planets up to 10 billion pop in fewer than 20 years of game time. I have a game with several planets at maximum population within 50 years of game time.

Regarding point 3, yes it can be tough to take capital planets, but if you think that's tough wait till you try taking the Shakturi homeworld! And if the capital has shields, you can't even bomb them. It may take a while and a lot of troops, but it's doable. Also, it does depend on the civilisation you're up against: some are stronger than others. I believe Universe is also adding another mechanism to attack planets (i.e. plagues), although I have no idea how this will work.

I think there was a lot added to Shadows compared with Legends, and I personally believe the issues you mentioned ought not to be a problem in Shadows (and therefore should not be a problem in Universe either, hopefully).

Osito

< Message edited by Osito -- 5/20/2014 9:47:08 AM >

(in reply to dwawilson)

Post #: 6

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 7:24:22 PM

garfield666

Posts: 32
Joined: 4/18/2013
Status: offline

1. build lots of cheap escorts and leave them on auto (that works very well for legends). in shadows pirates got totally reworked and operate quite like empires, so destroying their bases works even better (unlike legends if i recall correctly)
2. set your policies right and bait potential settlers with no taxes (i usually don't tax planet until it gets like 5+ bil population, or even better max population cap). by setting your taxes to unreasonably high levels on developed planets you may trick some more guys to move.
3. it's supposed to be hard. joeyeti is right though, troops in large numbers are very expensive, so trimming enemy empire down before taking homeworld should help.

(in reply to Osito)

Post #: 7

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 7:56:18 PM

KroganElite

Posts: 2
Joined: 5/19/2014
Status: offline

1. Pirates - They're really not that bad once you know how they work. I pay off the first few pirates as it will cost you more to defend yourself than pay them off, both time and credit-wise (opportunity cost). I spend that time and credits saved on economic pursuits. First off, I lower my taxes since I won't need much of a fleet or defensive bases. This helps grow your homeworld population faster and gives you much more income in the long run(set taxes up when planet populations are maxed though). I say economic pursuits but if I see an opportune homeworld near me I beeline armor troops and invade them. It's a huge boost to your economy. Next I prioritize friendly independent planets to colonize. They already have much more population than any empty newly colonized planet. Go for high quality or far away planets so you can colonize/conquer much further and serves as a forward operating base. Near the end of this, you will want to start sending intelligence agents to "steal territory map" from the pirate factions.

You can tell when you're rolling in credits and you don't know what to do with it. Start making defensive bases in all your colonies. It just needs enough power to defend against 2 or so frigates so it will be cheap. Start making ships as your economy allows. This is the time to strike back at the pirates. Check each pirate faction's firepower, number of bases, number of controlled colonies, and how much you pay them. You prioritize firepower first, if their firepower is much larger than yours, they're off limits for now. Next you want proximity. The closer you are, the quicker your strikes/reaction and the closer your refueling stations. If those criteria are still even at this point, you want to take out the one you pay the most to. You systematically take them out 1 by 1.

You may notice they haven't fully been destroyed yet. They may have or are starting to set up new bases and still have a steady income. Steal operations map - it will show you everything they own for a few days. Note where their constructors and starbases are and destroy them all. To cut of their income, gather your fleets+troop transports+troops and destroy each hidden pirate base in your colonies. Station 2-3 normal troops in each colony and send them to attack the hidden bases as they are being built.

With this strategy pirates are a non-factor in my games. This is with all pirate settings normal. They may launch a few punitive attacks on bases or raids at my colonies, but it will be the last death throes of their dying breed.

2. Colony growth/economy - I lower taxes in my homeworld to just get enough income to get by. Lower taxes = more population = better economy in the long run. Take homeworlds first if one is nearby with armor troops. Next colonize friendly independents. Next invade hostile independents. Only when the above 3 are unavailable or too far is it time to colonize empty high quality planets. Build a small spaceport for every planet above 6m pop and add a recreation centre and a med bay. When population is maxed out increase taxes to +16 happiness. Keep up to date passenger ships as they will move population from your high pop worlds to low pop worlds. I always have more than enough credits than I know what to do with by doing this. I believe even if tax is set to 0% the colony screen will show that some worlds are still generating income. Also don't settle on less than 65% quality worlds. Only as a last resort or you need it for the colony range.

edit: if you can try, to build +% colony development or +% income wonders on your biggest planets also. More colony development = more income.

3. Invasions - I almost always rush armor troops. They are just too good giving +25% armor bonus. Early game you need maybe 9 armor troops to take a homeworld. Relocate good troop generals to your troop transport fleet as they will help in the battles and bonuses stack(not sure if additive,multiplicative,or diminishing). Always move your fleets above the target planet, this gives +25% space control. After your normal weapons tech, rush the armor tech that gives +25% attack. Again this makes invasion much easier(you will have to train new armor troops to get the bonus though). The next tech for power increase is too expensive at this point, so research -10% and -30% upkeep as you will need to make more. If you've gotten this far you should be rolling in credits and can field a large army.

< Message edited by KroganElite -- 5/19/2014 8:58:23 PM >

(in reply to dwawilson)

Post #: 8

RE: Distant Worlds Problems - 5/19/2014 9:50:11 PM

FingNewGuy

Posts: 183
Joined: 4/11/2014
From: Boulder, CO
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: dwawilson

I bought Didstant Worlds, Return of the Shakturi, and Legends a couple of years ago. I have several times tried to get into the game and failed to get engaged. I decided to cut my losses and did not buy Shadows. Now that Universe is about to be released I am considering trying again. There were basically 3 things that I could never get a handle on.

1. Pirates. I realize that you can turn pirates off or lower the frequency. I really don't mind fighting pirates. There just seemed to be no way to eventually control them. I tried stationing fleets in all my colonies and mining bases (expensive). I tried running patrols on all the nearby systems (micromanagement hell). There just seems to be no way to protect yourself from constant harassment. Please tell me how you handle pirates.

2. Colony growth. In most space 4x games you have the ability to colonize. You then have some method to help your colony grow and benefit your empire. In Distant Worlds you colonize but the colony never grows enough to help your empire. After 20 years the colony might have 5% of it maximum population. Maybe if you played 100 years a colony might start to approch the productivity of your homeworld. There is only a minimal benefit to creating colonies. Is this the way it is supposed to work or did I miss something. Please tell me how you handle colony growth.

3. Invasions. I had no problem invading another empires colonies. However the home planet usually had 50 - 100 troops and was almost impossible to take. You can build 150 - 300 troops (expensive). You can build bombers. However bombers destroy population as well as troops. By the time you destroy enough troops to launch a successful invasion the planet has about the same population as a colony. Please tell me how to launch an invasion so I can expoit an alien empire.

In the end the game feels like pirate hunting game. There is no point in colonizing or fighting wars of expansion. If this is true, then this is probably not the game for me. If there is more to it, please enlighten me.

1) The customization options of this game give you the ability to tailor what kind of pirate threat you face; that said, how to tactically deal with pirates is covered above and elsewhere on the Forum.

2)As above, probably more so due to resource scarcity in Universe.

3) I like epic, big games and role-play the races (mods can be- and are- important here). I am currently having the most fun I have ever had in a space 4X game with an epic huge war.

P.S. If I want 3D space 4X graphics, I go to SoaSE (and mods)hands down. If I want to use total imagination, I go to Aurora. ANYTHING in between, its Distant Worlds. This from a long-time GalCiv franchise player- and I don't do console games or first-person shooters.