New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (Full Version)

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Erik Rutins -> New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/5/2011 10:40:32 PM)

Hello all,

We have a new update for you to look over. It includes bug fixes and balance changes as well as some improvements to how the AI handles fleets, invasions and space port construction. I'd like to also apologize for the delay in getting this out to you. We've been working on various plans to expand the market for Distant Worlds and one of these required us to build in support for localization (i.e. different languages). We had hoped 1.5.0.4 would be ready to go official while Elliot worked on the localization support, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. The good news is that adding in the localization support also makes it easier for us to externalize more of the game in the future, which is potentially good news for modders. We also think that expanding the audience for Distant Worlds will end up being a good thing for everyone in the long run, but apologies again for the delay this caused.

We plan on making 1.5.0.5 official next week if there are no serious issues, but we want to give our Members a look. It can be found in the Members Club, under Registered downloads. You will need to have registered your game to download it. Remember this is a beta, and any feedback is appreciated.

v1.5.0.5 Beta – March 5, 2011


  • Fleets and Invasions
    • Unoccupied automated fleets are now more responsive to intercepting enemy attacks
    • Automated troop transports will now automatically reinforce nearby colonies under invasion (drop their troops at the colony)
    • AI empires more likely to build Troop Cloning Facilities, especially when their native troops are strong

  • Colonization
    • Starting colonies no longer ever have ruins
    • AI colonization now gives higher priority to independent colonies
    • Colony ships now take 3 times longer to build, slowing colonization slightly

  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed crash when rebelling militia are defeated at a colony
    • Fixed crash when receive tech bonus from ruins after researching all tech
    • Fixed occasional crash when eliminate an empire
    • Fixed bug where assigning some mission types to fleets (Load Troops, Refuel, Repair) would cause any ships in the fleet that were still under construction to prematurely leave their construction yard
    • Fixed bug where game sometimes no longer shows income or cashflow and other game tasks stop
    • Fixed crash when you have explored the entire galaxy
    • Fixed occasional crash when you recruit new troops at a colony
    • Fixed various GxBO crashes
    • Fixed rare crash in scrolling message list
    • Added extra fixes for ships jumping to galaxy corners
    • Fixed issue on Turkish Windows where could not save new designs
    • Fixed rare crashes in Empire Navigation Tool

  • Others
    • Improved performance in late game when there are many civilian ships
    • Improved amount of space ports AI builds
    • Slightly increased colony income and lowered ship maintenance costs
    • Special racial techs now always show in 'Latest Components' list in Designs screen



v1.5.0.4 Beta – January 28, 2011


  • Balance and Gameplay

    • Further refined number of colonizable planets and moons in galaxies based on Colony Prevalence setting in game startup. By default, there are now less colonies available in galaxies, slowing expansion a bit
    • Ancient Guardians no longer take ownership of lost colonies
    • limit resources (cargo) at new colonies to small amount of Caslon and Hydrogen fuel
    • fixed problem where AI empires sometimes not researching construction tech enough to build larger ships
    • fixed exploit where you could right-click on an unexplored system and get “Colonize” command in right-click pop-up menu

  • Bug fixes

    • fixed bug where fleets sometimes move to top-left corner of galaxy when assign queued missions
    • fixed rare crash when colonize planet
    • fixed crash when edit planet with ruins for super weapons tech bonus
    • fixed bug where can obtain multiple bonuses from destroying pirate bases
    • fixed issue with incomplete message when offering info on story location
    • fixed rare crash in Empire Navigation Tool when viewing enemy targets

  • Others

    • Allow scrapping of privately-owned bases in the Ships and Bases screen
    • Altered colony rebellions so that do not begin during invasions. Also ensure that colony will join empire of invaders if present instead of becoming independent or joining another empire

v1.5.0.3 Beta – January 17, 2011


  • Colonization and Balance

    • balance of colonizable planets - now more colonizable high-quality ice and volcanic planets (with appropriate tech)
    • more independent colonies than previously
    • greatly increased capacity of passenger transport components
    • increased number of passenger ships and freighters
    • improved how passenger ships respond to migration needs

  • Bug fixes

    • fixed rare crash at colonies when population drops due to invasion
    • removed duplicated components in 'Latest Components' list in Design screen
    • fixed crash when remove planets in game editor
    • fixed crash when switch themes (to a theme with less ship-sets than the previous one)
    • fixed bug in Start New Game screen when start game after switching back from theme with races not in current theme (if missing races set in Other Empires grid)
    • fixed bug where AI fleet formation would often disband and reform fleets

  • Other

    • in nebula clouds movement speed is now 75% of normal (from 50%)
    • automated fleets now do not auto-respond to attacks if more than a sector away and another fleet is closer
    • space creatures are now shown in mini-map as dark red diagonal crosses
    • can now have more starting empires (Start New Game screen) when have more than 20 races for galaxies with 700 stars or more
    • now always reset research slider to "Starting" in Edit Empire screen of game editor
    • special super-weapon techs set for a race in races.txt file now apply for the race at game start




WoodMan -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/5/2011 10:44:44 PM)

Thx very much Eliott and Matrix [;)]

Good job as usual!

Edit:

Just out of curiosity I saw some people mention that in RoTS the AI builds the wrong type of research stations at the research locations. Please accept my apologies for being so out of touch, I haven't actually played RoTS really yet at all! I've been working on my mod, so I don't know if this problem really exists or if it was fixed previously, but I can't see it in the change lists.

Anyone got anymore info, does it really exist, was it already fixed, if not, a good suggestion for before this one goes official.

If I'm talking a load of rubbish though, please ignore me, as I haven't played since January [:D]




tjhkkr -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/5/2011 11:07:00 PM)

Thank you for the work and fixes! [:)]




Apheirox -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 12:08:59 AM)

Cheers, Matrix. It is clear you care about your customers.

There are some good changes here; you've closed the door on a few things that made the AI weak. I predict a considerably stronger AI without even have playtested it yet.

I'm loading this up right now, I'm very curious to see how this faster empire spread due to more effective passenger ships works out. Hopefully, you've killed the 'homeworld is only significant planet' gameplay completely.




lancer -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 1:22:01 AM)

G'day,

Thanks to Elliot, once again, for his hard work.

Very impressed by his efforts to solve the issue with the Turkish version of Windows.

That's dedication!

Cheers,
Lancer




Caesar_Augustus -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:54:34 AM)

I am awed... thank you [&o][&o].




Data -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 6:31:49 AM)

quote:

makes it easier for us to externalize more of the game in the future, which is potentially good news for modders


omg, I didn't even read the rest....I'm taking this as sloooowly as possible
you rule all sides of the force [sm=00000436.gif]




J HG T -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 7:22:34 AM)

Sweet! Getting it now.

EDIT: "Starting colonies no longer ever have ruins". Seems like this is bugged. I started new game as Kiadians and had ruins at my home planet. Also, first race I encountered was "Them toads" and they also had ruins in their home planet.
Better check this out. Seems like there's something messed up with this.




Igard -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 3:25:01 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
localization support also makes it easier for us to externalize more of the game in the future, which is potentially good news for modders.


Good news indeed. [:)]

Thank you Elliot, Erik and the rest of the team.




Bingeling -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 3:41:29 PM)

Maybe there is a negation missing, and they now always got ruins [X(]

I have not started a game yet, that is the hardest part of DW. Decide what to start and get going.




Merker -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:13:49 PM)

Indeed Bingeling, it's insanely hard to decide a start. So many possibilities, so many choices....it's mind numbing.....

A lot of thanks for the Matrix crew, good job people, your game, forum and yourselves are awesome[:D]. I'll buy the expansion soon enough, need to get it when I'm in holiday, otherwise I might waste a lot of sleep after I get it.....[8|]

Cheers






Litjan -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:20:37 PM)

Quick test results:

- AI still starts out with way too few research stations - so it can be outteched severely by the human player, if he quickly builds some research to max out his potential.

- Playing as Ugnari the AI fails to add medical and recreational facilities to spaceports

- The AI fails to add ion weapons to ships

Jan





J HG T -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:22:31 PM)

Played little more and it seems that the "no ruins on home planets" just doesn't work. Me and Haakonish had ruins but the rest races I've met haven't got any ruins on their home worlds. Go figure.

EDIT: To answer Litjans points:

- Agreed. The AI needs to build more research stations.

- Feature. "Less intelligent" races don't put useful stuff on their bases/ships. It's RP thing.

- This is random as far as I know. I don't know about this version but I've seen AI ships with ion weapons many times in earlier versions.




Caesar_Augustus -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:45:15 PM)

J HG T: Actually, the patch log states "Starting colonies no longer ever have ruins", which we obviously regard as "home" colonies; but perhaps this refers to AI-controlled colonies that never have ruins, not player-controlled empires?




J HG T -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 5:56:11 PM)

The problem is that in my game both I and Haakonish close to me have Ruins on the "home" colonies.
It feels too random to be working properly. Nobody, not me or other AI empires, should have ruins on the homeworld if the fix is working as I presume it's supposed to work.




tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 7:14:26 PM)

I also started with ruins.

I still see significant slowdowns when compared to 1.5.0.3 running a 1400 star map.

I also see many empires including mine struggling to keep enough fuel around. Civilian ships are constantly running out.
I have to go out of my way to force the constructors to build as many fuel gas mines as possible.

Edit: Actually maybe I'm not seeing any slowdowns. Or it may have just been that one game.




tjhkkr -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 7:58:32 PM)

I also see many empires including mine struggling to keep enough fuel around. Civilian ships are constantly running out.
I have to go out of my way to force the constructors to build as many fuel gas mines as possible.


That is really true; I have had so many fuel problems, I feel like a German tank commander in World War II; I cannot concentrate on fighting because I am fighting with fuel. I like the challenge to be sure.
I did not know I could force Construction Ships to do that. I have forced them to do other things; I will have to try that. Thanks tornnight




Bingeling -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 8:20:59 PM)

Either take manual control over a constructor and give it a manual order to build. Set it on auto afterwards to have it do its usual stuff once done (if you want that to happen).

Or you can select the location (gas planet, for instance) or queue some nearby constructor to build gas mine from the buttons under the info panel (lower left).

If you really have issues with fuel, make some custom star bases with multiple gas extractors and huge storage tank and enough docking bays, and hope that they gather gas faster that way. You can also arm them to fend off pirates and pay for this over your own budget unlike cheesy armed mining bases...




shinobu -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 8:42:35 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: tornnight

I also see many empires including mine struggling to keep enough fuel around. Civilian ships are constantly running out.
I have to go out of my way to force the constructors to build as many fuel gas mines as possible.


I frequently hit a point in the game where I am starving for fuel at my homeworld, where most of the traffic is. At this point, I have my constructors (which I always control manually anyway) start building gas mines at every possible gas giant in systems anywhere near my home system. It usually eases the problem within a reasonable time. And, if I'm lucky enough to have a good gas giant in my home system, I also sometimes custom design an extra-large gas mine to be constructed there...




tjhkkr -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 9:27:46 PM)

All of these are excellent ideas.
Thank you! [:)]




hewwo -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/6/2011 11:47:27 PM)

Nice patch overall, but I'm a tad disappointed that there still aren't any extra modding options.

Also, eventually the fuel system will need a bit of an overhaul (not dumbing down though!), I'm really not enjoying it right now...





Zilas00 -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 1:52:52 AM)

After some horse play Id have to say that the AI definatly colonizes more effectively now and they seem to research better too. I also have to say that I am a fan of having more scarce resources as it tends to add more depth to your strategy of what resource you need to be looking for (althought I have not gone into a late game stage yet so I have yet to see if its a problem in the later stages) The only bad thing I have noticed so far is there seem to be random temporary freezes every so often (not often enough to irritate me personally) that did not happen before but...I also have yet to crash to the desktop like I was before! [:D] Great patch, game just gets better and better.




tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 3:57:39 AM)

Not sure if this is new, but I was retrofitting from a small to medium space port and it suddenly was gone.

I'm guessing it was a sabatoge mission that completely destroyed it?!?

It also left all the ships that were being built just partially constructed floating in space. I can't seem to get rid of them either.

Edit: Ok I was able to find them and scrap them in the ships and bases screen.




tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 4:18:54 AM)

Somewhat silly diplomatic request.

I was at war with the Dhayut and they requested that I impose trade sanctions on another empire. They didn't make it a condition of ending the war or something like that.




Litjan -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 4:23:11 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: tornnight

Not sure if this is new, but I was retrofitting from a small to medium space port and it suddenly was gone.

I'm guessing it was a sabatoge mission that completely destroyed it?!?

It also left all the ships that were being built just partially constructed floating in space. I can't seem to get rid of them either.

Edit: Ok I was able to find them and scrap them in the ships and bases screen.


Had something similiar happen - I added ships that were still under construction to an existing fleet. The fleet was automated, and when it decided to go kill some space-slug, the partly constructed ships decided to go along! Well, they undocked and then just floated in space. I tried to get a constructor to finish them, but no go. Had to scrap them and loose the money [:@]

Jan




unclean -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 2:20:59 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

  • Fixed bug where assigning some mission types to fleets (Load Troops, Refuel, Repair) would cause any ships in the fleet that were still under construction to prematurely leave their construction yard


  • Haha, this was my favorite. Always imagined my army had a few Major Kongs who just bolted a blaster to a hyperdrive and called it good. [sm=sterb020.gif]




    J HG T -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/7/2011 4:24:40 PM)


    I don't see any problems with that.
    Jim had a friggin' jet engine in his backpocket!

    [image]http://nicknitro.tripod.com/ewj/ewj6.gif[/image]

    GROOVY!






    tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/8/2011 12:30:18 AM)

    Queue construction of bases to nearest constructor doesn't seem to work anymore. All construction is queued to only 1 particular constructor. Quite sure it isn't the nearest either.

    Edit: Ok things got much better as the game progressed. Maybe it did simply think that one particular constructor was closer for some reason?!?




    tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/8/2011 3:02:39 AM)

    As I see it, the fuel system is broken right now.

    It's one thing for the player to have to work for the fuel, but the current state is that the AI can't cope with it either.

    I'm rolling over any other empire simply because their ships don't have fuel.




    tornnight -> RE: New Return of the Shakturi 1.5.0.5 Public Beta Available! (3/8/2011 3:14:56 AM)

    I don't really know what's going on but I keep seeing constructors start building stations then the stations just disappear. The constructors then go on their merry way as if nothing happened.

    I've seen this a few times now, and many more hints of it when I wasn't looking closely.

    Very strange.




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