Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (Full Version)

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Erik Rutins -> Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 5:53:47 PM)

Hello Everyone,

The Distant Worlds 1.9.5.5 Beta Update is now available for testing. You may download it from Here.

This build will hopefully be available an official update next Tuesday.

This build has the following changes from 1.9.5.4:

CRASH FIXES
- added extra safeguards to help prevent crashes when using faulty themes

BUG FIXES
- now cancel intelligence missions when target colony or base conquered, destroyed, etc
- fixed bug where sometimes getting tech bonuses from disassembling ships without advanced tech
- Ion Defense and Tractor Beams no longer counted as weapons when checking civilian designs in Ship Design editor
- ensure never load pirate raider troops when loading troops onto transports (e.g. loading troops from own colony while attacking pirate base)
- ensure custom planetmaps getting loaded ('other' folder)
- ensure mouse scroll wheel retains focus when Character and Empire Policy screens are closed
- ensure colonies only appear once in Top Colonies screen, even when controlled by pirates

MODDING
- NEW MODDING FEATURE: defined Research path. Optionally allow specifying project order for a race for each tech tree (see new entries in race files: WeaponsResearchProjectOrder, EnergyResearchProjectOrder, HighTechResearchProjectOrder)
- reverted file loading for certain files to be encoding neutral, i.e. does not matter whether ANSI or UTF-8 (resources.txt, components.txt, research.txt)
- increased maximum government amount to 60 (governments.txt)
- increased maximum planetary facility amount to 100 (facilities.txt)
- increased maximum fighter amount to 50 (fighters.txt)

USER INTERFACE
- increased font sizes for main menu items when screen resolution is greater than 1920x1080
- increased font size for Galactopedia topic index
- increased font size of hover panel at bottom-middle of screen
- increased font size in Game Options screens
- slightly increased font size in main view for system names, nebula names, etc
- increased font size of tradeable items in Diplomacy trade screen
- increased font size in hover tech descriptions in Diplomacy trade screen
- increased font size in Component Guide screen (Design Detail screen and Research screen)
- ensure correct empire remains selected in Diplomacy screen when conclude trade deal

GAME BALANCE AND AI
- further improved AI ship design: no longer add too many extra reactors, nor remove too many shield components, when attempting to shrink a new design to fit within construction size limits
- increased chance of counterintelligence missions successfully intercepting enemy intelligence missions, especially for agents with high counterintelligence skill levels
- random government selection more balanced (no longer frequently choosing Military Dictatorship)
- initial home system ruins (Age of Shadows) now never contain system map bonuses
- reduced number of spaceports empire builds when has low population
- increased maximum fleet count. Now relates to overall number of ships and bases, up to maximum of 100 fleets
- AI empires now check whether colony is safe to build at prior to initiating research station construction (e.g. check for nearby pirates)

PIRATES
- ensure pirate smuggling freighters repair at pirate base when damaged
- ensure pirate smuggling freighters retrofit when necessary and able
- empire will not detect and attack pirate smugglers when they are smuggling resources for that empire
- ensure that pirate-owned colonies are included when checking for wonder completion
- pirate factions now get research bonuses from scientists at their bases
- pirate factions can now change their home base to any space port in their empire by selecting new option in right-click pop-up menu

OTHER
- ensure that new settings and savegame folder locations are properly created (My Documents\My Games\Distant Worlds Universe)



Franky007 -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 6:17:20 PM)

i don't see the WeaponsResearchProjectOrder in the races.txt file!

Silly me, they are in each of the races files...



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 6:42:46 PM)

Ah, cool. Font improvements! [&o]



Efaferal -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 7:05:43 PM)

5o fighter types! Bless you. Now racially specific fighters!



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 7:17:52 PM)

I notice the steam overlay still doesn't work. Any chance that will ever change, or is it just one of those things?



Tcby -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 8:01:48 PM)

Holy moly, another great list of changes.



Buio -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 8:22:20 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gelatinous Cube
I notice the steam overlay still doesn't work. Any chance that will ever change, or is it just one of those things?


I can get it to appear, but it goes below DW UI parts. What hotkey do you use? Seems to be sensitive of that. Doesn't like modkey + key that DW uses, like f.e. Ctrl+F10.



spiralaxis -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 8:31:44 PM)

Wait, wait, does this mean each race can now have a unique research tree?

If so, I'm not sure if this will make Locarnus dance or despair....



Bingeling -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 8:54:42 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: spiralaxis

Wait, wait, does this mean each race can now have a unique research tree?

If so, I'm not sure if this will make Locarnus dance or despair....

I don't see anything about that in the patch notes. But races can have a specified order of research.



Osito -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 9:05:18 PM)

What happens when the research orders for a tree are complete? Does the race start to research any techs that weren't in the research orders? If not, then I guess you could have a unique tree for a race.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 10:01:46 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: spiralaxis
Wait, wait, does this mean each race can now have a unique research tree?


The changes in 1954 and 1955 should allow this in theory.

Regards,

- Erik



DeadlyShoe -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/27/2014 11:23:36 PM)

Very cool, guys!

Research project order makes modding some races way easier.




Burocktr -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 1:04:55 AM)

Very nice update,erik hope your team can help also about it on this threat and others in tech section also thanks.
Regards.



pkoko -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 2:18:45 AM)

Just another quick and easy UI improvement. In the selection panel, can you possibly add the selected ship location? I mean add the name of the system if the ship is stationed there.



Unforeseen -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 1:04:46 PM)

Can we please have an option to turn independent races completely off?



neem693 -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 2:22:24 PM)

it's cool. apply this patch at tommorow.



Franky007 -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 4:20:42 PM)

And please make the UI remember the choice we made for each filter...

[:)]



BigWolfChris -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 7:32:55 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Unforeseen

Can we please have an option to turn independent races completely off?


Yes please
And possibly something in the race files to prevent certain races being independant



PsyKoSnake -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 11:52:20 PM)

Counter intel seem to work, 1st game in 1.9.5 and lost my 2 agent on there first mission with 92% chance of succes.
Maybe it was realy bad luck.



Tcby -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/28/2014 11:56:20 PM)

Yep, I just lost my agent with 102% espionage skill, performing a 91% chance mission. Made me very, very sad [:'(]



Nanaki -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/29/2014 12:32:30 AM)

It is odd that counterespionage was buffed against espionage, considering that only sabotage was consistantly getting through high counterespionage.



Unforeseen -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/29/2014 2:24:11 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: BigWolf


quote:

ORIGINAL: Unforeseen

Can we please have an option to turn independent races completely off?


Yes please
And possibly something in the race files to prevent certain races being independant

That would be fantastic! I could actually make the races I don't think should be empires at the same time as everyone else be independent, and prevent all the other races from being so. That might actually let us go over the race cap...which would be pretty cool though the AI probably isn't designed to manage that many races.



deathnoise -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/29/2014 3:09:44 AM)

It would be great to have some degree of control on how the planets are being generated in each and every kind of solar system (galaxy.txt?) with a format similar to what we've already got when it comes to resources.txt, that describes how the resources are being generated when a player chooses to play a new game

Something like:
1. solar system (Main sequence, red giant, super giant star, black hole, etc),
2. Type (0=Planet, 1=Asteroid, 2=GasCloud)
3. SubType: 0=Continental, 1=MarshySwamp, 2=Ocean, 3=Desert, 4=Ice, 5=Volcanic, 6=BarrenRock, 7=GasGiant, 8=FrozenGasGiant, 9=Metal (asteroid), 10=Ammonia, 11=Argon, 12=CarbonDioxide, 13=Chlorine, 14=Helium, 15=Hydrogen, 16=NitrogenOxygen, 17=Oxygen
4. Chance to appear in the specific (1) solar system, min/max amount, min/max quality
5. If the type in (2) is a planet, you can set one or more, multiple entries that will set up: min/max amount of moons of the specific type for the specific subtype of the planet in the chosen solar system (subtype of moon, min/max amount for the specific planet, min/max chance of of each and one of them to appear, min/max quality)
etc etc

And another important thing:

Allow us to set if the empire-wide bonus effect of the specific facility (in facilities.txt file) should stack up (or - not) with the effect of other facilities and/or ruins that are giving the same kind of bonus



Tcby -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 9:50:26 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tcby

Yep, I just lost my agent with 102% espionage skill, performing a 91% chance mission. Made me very, very sad [:'(]


So, I've been testing this some more...all espionage has definitely been substantially weakened against counter intelligence as well. To the point where you might as well forget about ever succeeding on multiple missions. I'm testing with Tek Ixito, the Ugnari starting intelligence agent. Current skills are:
Espionage: +92
Sabotage: +38
Counter Intelligence: -10%
Concealment: +10%

Out of 10 steal technology missions I'm failing about 80%. Each one has a success rating of at least 90%. Every failed mission, except once, also resulted in Tek being captured. The most recent 4 failures were on a 95% success chance mission, against a race with below average intelligence (haree's Napour, ~96 intelligence IIRC). All resulted in capture!

Point is, Tek is crazy good and he is constantly getting captured during 90%+ success chance missions. Possibly not working as intended?



Nanaki -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 10:16:24 AM)

Im thinking that elliot decided to buff counterespionage across the board, but in previous versions counterespionage was only having problems against sabotage, it worked fine vs espionage actions, so im guessing the across-the-board buff fixed the sabotage problem but also made espionage too difficult now.



Tcby -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 10:32:02 AM)

Yeah, looks that way.



spiralaxis -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 10:58:20 AM)

That should be tweaked before 1955 goes live. Some races depend on tech theft thrive.



Locarnus -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 1:58:45 PM)

1. You cant force the large fonts on people who paid 100€ and have low dpi monitors. Those need to be optional.

It is as if I buy a car with bright interior and during the next checkup they just paint the whole interior black without asking, because people in sunny and snowy areas complained...

Or amazon changing books on their kindles without asking.

If I want that behavior, I go to EA. From matrixgames I demand a different approach after spending that kind of money!


2. The way you implemented the specific research order is a major blow to partial mods (eg focused on research only) and a massive step towards only total conversion mods.
You kill interchangeability, now modders have to decide whether to make the most of the options (fixed research path) or stay compatible to eg a research mod. You could have asked the affected modders before. But instead you just implemented it, like with the racial research option from the last update.

The constant undiscussed/top down blows to the basis of my mod (modularity, so my research mod works with other mods, eg racial/themed ones) make partial modding impossible.

I therefore have to cancel my BalanceMod, after putting quite some effort in it, after this was marketed to be the modding friendly expansion.
Instead it feels like a paid modding beta with false advertising.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 2:16:45 PM)

Hi Locarnus,

quote:

ORIGINAL: Locarnus
1. You cant force the large fonts on people who paid 100€ and have low dpi monitors. Those need to be optional.


We've made these changes optional wherever possible. We hope to be able to make them optional in all cases in the future. Making font size changes to DW is not at all easy, which is why we held off as long as we did, but the overwhelming feedback with DWU was that players wanted larger fonts. This takes more time than anyone probably realizes to do, so we cannot easily reverse what we've done, but the end goal is to allow a choice between two sizes if at all possible. We are just over a month from release and have been doing weekly updates, but there is only so much a small team can do quickly.

quote:

2. The way you implemented the specific research order is a major blow to partial mods (eg focused on research only) and a massive step towards only total conversion mods.
You kill interchangeability, now modders have to decide whether to make the most of the options (fixed research path) or stay compatible to eg a research mod. You could have asked the affected modders before. But instead you just implemented it, like with the racial research option from the last update.


We implemented this based on modder requests not least of which your requests. We are always listening though and we've already noted your concern on this as well. We're debating this internally right now.

quote:

The constant undiscussed/top down blows to the basis of my mod (modularity, so my research mod works with other mods, eg racial/themed ones) make partial modding impossible.


I think it's somewhat exaggerated and unfair to say that we are making constant top down "blows" to your mod, when we've actually been trying to implement and have implemented some of the feature requests you have specifically made.

quote:

I therefore have to cancel my BalanceMod, after putting quite some effort in it, after this was marketed to be the modding friendly expansion.
Instead it feels like a paid modding beta with false advertising.


I'm sorry you feel that way. I hope you'll keep checking back - as far as I can tell nothing really prevents you completing your mod and a lot of folks were looking forward to it.

Regards,

- Erik




vmxa_slith -> RE: Distant Worlds v1.9.5.5 Public Beta Update Available! (6/30/2014 4:13:38 PM)

Shocked to hear that people spent 100c on the game and still have a crappy monitor. Glad Matrix is not letting the lowest common denominator determine everything. Fonts size needed all the help that are willing to give it. Far more people prefer an improved font, than another mod to use. Sorry it had to impact you.



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