drillerman
Posts: 455
Joined: 2/11/2010
From: Blighty
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Below is a list of facts collated from this forum including questions the Devs have answered. Just thought I'd put them in one place to make it easier to read them all:
WHAT WE KNOW
I have played a lot in sandbox mode while testing things, I did very little for increasing the economics of my empire. This game has automatic settings for everything if you choose so. There are three settings for managing things:
Manual; you make the decisions for expansion (ship building, colonization, etc.
Suggest; advisers suggest what they think you need to do.
Fully Automate; advisers make and do the decisions.
I used "Suggest" most of the time and my economy was always keeping me well within the black. You can spread out from the start, or you can build upon your home system first. However, the alien races will expand regardless.
I tended to explore and play sandbox, rather than play ruthlessly efficient. Both methods can work, it all depends on your goals, really. The size of the universe is just plain huge... btw, and each system has planetary bodies and its own entities (asteroids, gas giants, etc). I think people are going to be really surprised at the detail level here.
There are about 40 different resources in the game. They are divided between strategic resources which you use to build stuff (ships and bases), and luxury resources which raise the development of your colonies. So ensuring a free flow of resources to your colonies is critical so that they grow and thus earn more tax income for your empire.
Each resource is found at particular types of planets, e.g. gases at gas giants, metals at asteroids and rocky planets, etc. Seeking out rare, valuable resources is a good strategy to pursue in the game.
The game has built-in, context-sensitive help in the form of the "Galactopedia". You can press F1 at any time to launch this help and can browse between hundreds of inter-linked topics. The game will also ship with a more traditional Matrix-style manual.
There is no PBEM feature in the game.
Minimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768. The game scales up to any resolution your system supports - the bigger the better actually for gameplay.
The game has been tested to run and is supported on Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
This game relies heavily on the exploration part of 4x.
There are no plans for a demo at this point
The major focus with colonies is to keep them supplied with a steady stream of luxury resources which are delivered by your freighters. You can also construct bases at your colonies (e.g. space ports) which can also help improve them.
Mining stations and other bases are constructed at planets that are not your colonies (i.e. uninhabited) to exploit their resources. These resources are then shipped off to your nearest space port by freighters. All of the resource exploitation and transport takes place using actual ships and bases - there is no abstracted trade system, shipments of resources literally move from their source to your colonies. This makes it possible to disrupt your economy/supply chain, i.e. you really have to protect all of this. It also provides a lot of interesting background activity in the game.
In regards to planetary management, I think that there might be some slight confusion regarding the scope of the game (understandable, as information is just now leaking out). I've been telling people on various forums - think big. To quote a famous author - "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is." I think Elliot has gone a long way in properly simulating this. If you play your cards right, your empire can extend over several solar systems, each containing a number of planets that have detailed levels of different resources in addition to non-planetary bodies. Some even have special "points of interest." There is a certain "laissez faire" aspect to colonial control - and you really wouldn't want it any other way - granted the scope of the game. In some ways - and I may get lambasted for this statement - Distant Worlds succeeds in the original vision set out for Master of Orion 3 - a game of macro-management in a giant universe teeming with surprises and an underlying story.
You can build specialized "scouting vessels" that will go out (on their own, if you chose to automate) and search strange new worlds. Many times, you'll find simply an empty system with planets to mine or colonize. However... sometimes you'll find something interesting... and I'm not going to elaborate.
There is some unique alien tech, but the tech tree is largely the same for each race.
When performing research, each race will emphasize different areas that match their personality, i.e. aggressive races research specific types of weapons, cautious races research powerful shields, etc. So the end result is that each race will end up having different tech advances from other races.
You can trade or steal tech from other empires, but the few unique alien techs are extremely expensive and difficult to obtain if you are not of that race. Obtaining them is doable, but very difficult.
Usually the best way to trade for these unique techs would be to offer to help an alien race when they are in deep strife, e.g. if they are at war with a larger empire and you offer to help them fight that empire, in exchange for their special tech.
DW is not a clickfest, but there can be an influx of decisions to be made when things get hot, and that requires clicking.
I will try and explain a little about the system and maybe that will answer your questions. These are the options for a new game concerning the system:
Shape: Elliptical - Spiral - Ring - Irregular
Size: Galaxy sizes 100, 250, 400, 700, 1000, 1400 stars
Galaxy starting location: Deep Core - Outer Core - Inner Rim - Outer Rim
I need to add one other thing, the zooming in and out in this game is phenomenal! I mean it's really impressive. I zoom out, and put my mouse over where I want to zoom in and I zoom right into where the cursor was set to. I have zoomed in and out all over the system for long periods of time and every time I am in awe at how well Elliot set this up. It is pretty!
The planet names are fictitious. You do not start off on earth and the other planets are not named like our system. Where Elliot gets the naming from I have no idea.
The star system names are sourced from a text file which you can easily mod to have whatever names you like.
You can also set the historical home system name of any race, though this is not necessarily the system where you start the game, for reasons made clear in the backstory.
Tech is focussed around researching new components that you can then use in your ship designs. There are 17 different research areas that you progress your research in to unlock new components. These research areas are categories like various types of weapons, engines, shields, reactors, etc. There are about 200 components spread across these research areas.
Each race has a distinct personality based on attributes like aggressiveness, intelligence, friendliness, caution, etc. Also each race may have various bonuses like producing more income, being better spies, lower maintenance costs, etc. So each race has advantages and disadvantages.
If anything, Humans probably have a slight overall advantage in the game. But each race is different - they have strengths in different areas.
There isn't a single setting for difficulty level. Instead there's a number of different settings that can increase the difficulty.
There is a private sector of civilians that manage trade routes and other items. However, you set up the trade with other civilizations. You just don't micromanage it. Buildings, no, you build from the planet outward. Mining stations, military ships and bases, etc.. Economy is managed through your decisions of spending, taxation (separate for each planet), research, and deals.
Conquer planets by military force or\and trade deals. There is not any micromanaged warfare other than directing your military ships.
There is a nebulae density setting that you can turn up or down that greatly affects clipping, depending on your system of course. There is also a frame per second (fps) setting that also governs the heat your PC will generate(my laptop for instance), and also clipping. These two items work excellent in controlling how your monitor will display the end result. That along with zoom will allow any machine within reason to work well with great graphics.
I play this game on XP and Vista. XP machine has one 3.6 gig processor, GeForce 8800 GTS video card, 2 gigs of RAM. The Vista is a laptop with a 2.6 gig dual core, ATI Radeon 4400 or 4500 (can't remember now) video card, 4 gigs of RAM. I have to turn down nebulae on both machines below full to avoid some clipping when things get real busy, but the detail is awesome that the game offers. There are storms and lightening in the nebulae, besides a lot of space traffic. This all gets more intense if you are zoomed in all the way and that's another setting that controls how things will work, where you are zoomed to.
The game also has a speed setting that goes up two notches and down two notches from normal. -2 -1 0 +1 +2, 0 being normal speed. This also affects the graphics handling. So there are four items that affect graphics handling: 1) Nebulae density (slider adjustment). 2) FPS 3) Zoom
4) Speed of game (5 settings)
I have a slightly more modest system than Larry and, with Nebula turned a bit down, I get pretty decent FPS and not so much clipping. IIRC you get a more "strategic overlook" like in Supreme Commander when you zoom out enough. That can have a decent effect on your performance at higher zoom levels - it takes the load off.
The planetary invasions are largely out of your control. However the timing of your troop transport ships dropping troops into the action can make a big difference to the outcome. If you can coordinate your ships to deploy your troops together they'll have a much bigger impact than if you deliver them piecemeal.
A large galaxy with lots of colonies and ships will be a bit slower than a smaller one. It's not a linear drop in performance - i.e. galaxies twice as big are NOT half the speed. Large, well-developed galaxies are quite playable.
For general performance improvement there are a number of game settings you can adjust.
Your ships don't bombard enemy troops or population.
When attacking/invading a colony your ships are focussed on clearing defensive forces present in orbit, i.e. they take out defensive bases or space ports and any defending military ships. Your troop transport ships then drop off your troops onto the planet to battle it out with the defenders.
You also get bonuses from having other races in your empire. Once you reach certain population thresholds for a race, you get some of their racial bonuses for your empire.
You might also be able to build colony ships at a planet with another race and thus be able to colonize a new type of planet - some races can colonize inhospitable planet types, which is extremely useful.
By the timing of putting your military ships at the points where they are needed. A lot of things can happen in this game that catch you by surprise, at least it did me. Not so much now because I learned early to have military support at each planet. Pirates, alien races, and space scum (Giant Kaltors and Slugs) can hit you suddenly and your planetary control is gone if you are not supportive. It's a lot cheaper to build protective ships than it is to try and get a planet back.
By design, once you colonize a planet, all the races there respond the same to your efforts to keep them happy. I thought it would make things too difficult to manage otherwise.
When you are at war with an empire of their race then those colonies (with the same dominant race as your enemy) will get upset. You can usually still keep them happy by lowering taxes and so forth, but they won't like you warring with their race.
You can edit all of the races in a simple text file. You can change their personality and bonuses to completely alter how they play, even setting all races to the same basic personality if you prefer.
Distant Worlds has a pause feature that allows you to do almost everything while stationary. It also has a speed control and you can slow the game down to a crawl. I have played DW at full speed (+4) and it still was not a clickfest for me. There were times that messages came in back to back at full speed, but other than that it was easily manageable.
Another item that allows for ease of management are the auto manage controls for several tasks. This lessens the micromanagement considerably, especially while learning the game. You can actually have everything set to auto and watch the game play itself pretty much, except when you need to answer alien races propositions of trade, threats, and deals.
I never have felt overwhelmed with DW at all. It is a well balanced game I believe for RTS and TBS players alike. With proper adjustment of the managing controls, a player can get whatever they want.
I have the game paused right now and I went back into it after reading your post, and the only thing that doesn't happen is animation of movement (planet animation ring continues) and of course the flow of messages and any combat. As far as not being able to do anything? I'm able to manage everything and make all decisions as long as they don't require any interaction from other races.
Playing DW is smoother than Europa Universalis...
Some of the tech you research is related to your economy. E.g. better research laboratories, better command centers that lower maintenance costs, better commerce centers that increase trade revenue at your space ports, better mining components that allow faster mining, etc.
But these economy-related components still end up being built into your bases. E.g. there are dedicated research stations built at special locations in the galaxy, commerce centers built into your space ports, dedicated monitoring stations that give you scanner coverage of enemy systems, etc.
So these economy-related improvements that you gain through research are realized in-game by building bases that use the new tech.
Maintenance costs are dynamic based on the price of the required resources. I've not seen any direct way to mod the maintenance costs, but you can add extra mining stations with the in-game editor. The more mining stations producing resources the cheaper that resource will be. This would lower maintenance and ship building costs over time.
There are maintenance costs for ships, bases, troops and spies. For ships and bases the maintenance costs are partially based on fluctuating resource prices, as indicated by hadberz. There's also a constant factor that determines the maintenance cost in relation to the ship purchase price.
This constant ship maintenance value is not currently moddable. However I'm very happy to open up this value and many others to modding in the future. After release all of you keen players can get a good idea of exactly which values you want to change and once we have some kind of list I'll extract those values into a text file so that they're moddable.
Fleets typically consist of around 15-25 ships of various types and sizes. Of course you can decide exactly which and how many ships you want in your fleets, but that's the typical size.
It's usually better to have more fleets, rather than one big uber-fleet. That way you can defend/attack a wider area.
You can also use more than one fleet to attack or defend a target, so battles can still get quite big, with 100 or more ships engaged.
Is there a time limit? If so, how much (and can it be changed/edited)?
No time limit.
Can multiple battles occur at the same time? If so, how does that work?
Yes. This is real-time, remember . You can jump between battle locations by clicking on the event messages at the top of the screen. Or use hotkeys. Or cycle your fleets, etc...
You can pause at any time and still issue ship commands or command an entire fleet as a single unit. You can also slow the game speed right down if you prefer.
Is retreat a viable option, or do two fleets just pretty much fight to the death when they meet?
Yes, you can choose to retreat. However once a fleet gets engaged in battle, retreat is often easier said than done... Individual ships will auto-retreat when they near defeat, according to tactical conditions that you can set.
Can allied fleets fight on the same side in a battle? Or is it only 1 faction per side per battle?
Yes.
Can reinforcements arrive in the middle of a battle (assuming there's friendly ships close enough that can reach the battle in time)?
Yes.
Does combat automatically occur when vessels from two different empires meet, or is there a peaceful [choose not to engage] option?
No. Unless the two empires are at war, they usually won't engage. Empires will make surprise attacks and raids though. And when you're at war it can get pretty intense.
What about when two ships from allied empires are in the same space?
The game isn't grid-based like Civ, it's open space - your ships can be at any set of coordinates. So there's not really a concept of ships being "in the same space" (i.e. same grid square). But ships can be very close together, even overlapping. And that's ok in the game.
What about when two ships from friendly (but not yet allied) empires meet each other?
No combat by default in this situation either. Some empires are less friendlier than others though. So they might decide to send you packing...
The key factors in a ships survivability when retreating are: how fast it can move and turn, how quickly it can hyperjump, and the strength of its shields and armor. All of these factors are determined by how you design the ship (which components you put into it).
You can also set tactical conditions that determine when ships will automatically attempt to retreat. This can be things like 'retreat when shields at 50%', 'retreat when shields at 15%', etc.
Retreat is often viable, but it depends on lots of factors. If a ship is fast and maneuverable it has a good chance of escaping. For example, pirates can sometimes be difficult to finish off, because they usually use small, fast ships.
There's currently no dramatic changes in the galaxy itself during the game - at least, not naturally caused changes...
Supernovas are in the game, but as the remnants of a star that's already gone nova. They're modelled as dense radiation fields with fields of metallic asteroids. Good for mining or research stations.
The game has extensive built-in support for modding. You can customize artwork, settings in text files, etc.
It's not open-source however.
Long distance travel uses hyperjumps where the ship accelerates to very high speed to cross these distances. So the jump still takes time to cover the distance - it's not instantaneous - but much faster than standard sub-light travel. Pretty much the Star Wars model.
There is no limit on the range of a hyperjump. However the practical constraint on jump distance is fuel capacity. So realistically you can't just jump to any point in the galaxy. Logistics around fuel is a big consideration, especially with your fleets in war-time. Establishing strategic refueling points is important.
Gas fuels are mined from gas giant planets and gas clouds.
Refueling locations include colonies and various bases: space ports, gas mining stations, specialized military resupply ships
You can travel to any location in the galaxy (bearing in mind the fuel range restrictions mentioned earlier), even any point in deep space. And, yes you can hide stuff in deep space if you like...
There are long range scanners that allow visibility over wide areas, to give you warning of approaching enemies. There are also stealth components that partially defeat long range scanners, allowing a ship or base to only become visible when it gets closer to the target.
The AI can handle all of the strategic elements in the game, including refueling logistics. There are no game features that the AI does not know how to use.
There are vast nebula clouds that have various effects on your ships.
Each type of govt has various strengths and weaknesses. Some govt types dislike empires with other specific govt types, e.g. Military Dictatorships dislike Democracies. Switching govts can have negative effects on your empire.
You can change form of government?
Advisors are built into the game - if you set some of your empire activities to semi-automated advisors will make suggestions to you (e.g. where to establish next colony, what ships to build, etc)
Corruption is represented. The bigger your empire gets, the more tax income is lost due to corruption.
Other faction(s) actions [trade/diplomacy/military] are related to form of government (e.g. empire views democracy as weaklings, republics view empires as barbarians). This is one of many factors that influence other empires actions
Unhappy populations are bad because they won't tolerate very high taxes . If unhappy for along period they may rebel and refuse to pay any tax at all.
Also, very unhappy populations may decide to leave your empire, becoming independent or joining a nearby rival.
No genetic engineering, but there are other mechanisms that have the same effect - i.e. changing racial strengths and weaknesses.
You can be in a Mutual Defense Pact with another empire(s), but only one empire will actually win the game.
It is possible to pay pirates to attack other factions.
The Capital is movable to other planets.
Your capital is just another colony. However it's usually one of your best colonies, so losing it is very bad.
You can see where they're headed if you have long range scanners, but can't really stop them until they exit hyperspace.
There are hyperdeny components that stop a ship from initiating a hyperjump (as long as they're in range)
There are no natural forces that destroy planets
If you are in sandbox mode (open play) then the only way to win is to conquer everyone else. But when you have any of the standard victory conditions (territory, population, economy) then the first player to reach one of these wins. There are currently no 'allied wins'.
Special structures are discovered more than built. So colonies tend to have intrinsic value because they might have ancient ruins, for example. Some ruins are particularly powerful and can lead to intense competition over them.
All the ships in a fleet operate together, they coordinate attacks on targets according to their individual battle tactics.
There is no ship experience - but you can retrofit them to use newer tech.
Ship designs are mainly limited by your current maximum construction size. As your construction tech increases you can build bigger ships and bases. All components have a size - the total size of all the components in a ship design is the size of the ship itself.
There are no artificial numeric limits on resupply (e.g. number of ships it can handle, etc). Resupply Ships mine fuel from the normal sources: gas giant planets and gas clouds. They are basically large mobile military bases that deploy at a fuel source and then become a refueling point for your fleets.
I have one question with regard to galaxy size. OK with huge galaxy space on the screen is taken over by galaxy view. But if you select smallest galaxy possible is it possible to generate more than 1 galaxy at once?
I would love to explore other galaxies and void/matter/space between galaxies. This is the stuff which (I think) should finally be implemented in sci-fi 4x games. It is sci-fi after all. We should experiment here a bit.
No multiple galaxies in DW. There's plenty of space between star systems in DW though, and sometimes you'll find stuff out there 'in the void' too.
You can build bases anywhere: at colonies, at uninhabited planets, asteroid fields, in space in the middle of a star system, at a gas cloud, or even in deep space.
You can design bases of any type the same way you design ships
Bases can be designed just like ships. You can add any of the components you can add to ships, and some components are in fact more suited to bases.
You have state-controlled mobile construction ships that you can send out to build any type of base wherever you want - e.g. mining stations, research stations, refueling outposts, monitoring stations, etc.
Each ship has a limit and it has to refuel after a while. Once the fuel is gone, you can still move but very very slowly.
Now...if you can find and destroy a refueling point of the enemy...
Blockades mean no ships can dock at the target of the blockade (colony or base). So no freighters for trade, no refueling, etc. But blockades must be enforced by one of your fleets, otherwise the target empire may just ignore your blockade. If any ships attempt to run the blockade then your fleet will give them a good blasting . Very easy way for wars to start...
The backstory is completely optional, you don't have to follow it. It simply explains the background of some of the game elements. The replayability of the game is in the uniquely generated galaxies, not the backstory. The backstory does change with each game, in that the location of discoverable items is different in each galaxy.
Each planet and moon has a size, so that is another factor in the maximum population it will hold - larger planets and moons hold more people and thus can produce more tax income for your empire.
Each resource has a typical prevalence - some resources are fairly common, others are rarer. Some resources are extremely rare and can be monopolized, turning trade of these valuable resources on or off for each empire.
Ships and bases have a purchase cost, but also require specific resources to build the components that make up their design. The purchase cost is basically to buy the resources required to build the ship, and is determined by the current galaxy-wide price of these resources.
You can be peaceful and idealistic, though sometimes (as with the Federation) that doesn't keep you from being attacked. However, this is not a game of non-stop warfare, it's much more like reality in that sense, that if you are not trying to be a warmonger there are usually longer periods of peace interspersed with shorter and intense periods of warfare.
You can be a peaceful builder if you prefer. Some alien races/empires are quite aggressive, others are quite peaceful. So which empires are near you can make quite a difference to whether you face inevitable conflict or not. Even when aggressive empires are nearby, there's still quite a few options to keep the peace.
There are penalties to being constantly at war - war weariness is quite a problem for most races. So wars are best when they're short and decisive with specific objectives in mind. And most alien races will show common sense when they're losing a war - they'll sue for peace.
You build colony ships and send them off to colonize planets or moons. As your empire grows (more colonies) the level of corruption in your empire increases and you lose more tax revenue.
You need to research to colonize progressively less hospitable planet types. Some planet types are only colonizable when there is an existing independent alien race present.
Moons are generally only hospitable types when they are moons of gas giant planets.
You can build any kind of base you can design. You upgrade them by retrofitting them to a new design.
Planets and moons move around in their respective orbits.
You can progressively colonize more planet types as your tech level increases, starting with hospitable types and moving towards less hospitable types. But there are some types that can never be colonized, e.g. barren rock planets and moons.
You can build bases at any location, even in deep space.
Higher tech components require resources that are somewhat rarer than others, but you should usually find those resources ok.
The super-rare resources are actually luxury resources that raise colony development, not strategic resources used for building things. Controlling the supply of these resources is a big bonus.
The independent colonies Can be forcibly colonized and conquered? But, your empire wil take a reputation hit for doing so.
Monsters don't respawn, but they do reproduce slowly. But, trust me, there's plenty of space monsters lurking away in the galaxy...
Q)I saw that if/when you discover abandoned ships, that you have the option of either keeping it or disassembling it for the technology. Is the value of the technology acquired from the ship usually fairly equitable to that one would get out of keeping it part of your navy, or does the amount of technology discovered vary (and therefore there is some risk that in taking apart the ship, as you won't necessarily get the same value as you would've keeping it intact)?
A)Tech levels vary a bit. You can get a good idea by examining the ship design. To be clear, you can't disassemble it until you take ownership anyway. So you can make up your mind later about how to use it.
There are a few special items that cannot be researched, instead they must be discovered through exploration of the galaxy. Some other tech is race-specific, though it can be traded or even researched (very high-level tech though).
When you invade and take over an enemy colony you also get any bases at the colony (e.g. space port)
Q)Are you saying that -- once a player takes possession of an abandoned ship -- they can choose to incorporate it into their navy, plus then later on disassemble it for the technology as well? Or is it an either/or choice to be made immediately upon taking possession?
A)Correct - you can decide to disassemble later. But the tech bonus you receive depends on how advanced the ship is in comparison to your current tech level, so the longer you wait to disassemble, the less bonus you get.
Q)When you come across an abandoned ship/station, abandoned alien ruins, etc., is there ever a chance that there are negative consequences for exploring them? I just have this vision of scenes from Aliens or Event Horizon (or just about any other sci-fi/horror movie you'd care to mention) running through my head....
A)Yes, there are sometimes negative consequences... You can choose not to investigate
Colony ships take about 2-3 mins to build. Colonies with smaller populations build more slowly. If you're near another empire there can be a race for the good colonies.
Colonies can build their own bases and colony ships. Colonies can have more than one base, but for some base types you can only have one, e.g. one space port.
Corruption is actually based on population, not the number of colonies. Because poor planets have lower populations anyway they don't effect your corruption so much.
Poor planet types often have valuable resources so that's one reason to colonize them. When you have a mining station at a planet, another empire can still colonize it, and when they do your mining station disappears.
Poor planets may have an existing independent alien race living on them. If you want to include this race in your empire to obtain their racial bonuses, then you'd need to colonize (or invade) the planet.
Also there's more poor planets than good ones, so you may find a poor planet is more strategically located for your goals.
Your private citizens purchase luxury resources. Your job is to ensure that the resources can reach your colonies by keeping trade open.
Q)Why were there only 5 luxury resources on that screen? is that all you have discovered so far? I thought there were 20. expansion planner at 2:30
A)At the top of the Expansion Planner screen is a scrollable list of all resources - there's about 40. You'd need to scroll down to see the rest of them
For each planet there can be up to 5 different resources - but they vary for each planet. The resources each planet provides is displayed in the resources column of the panel at the bottom.
You only need to colonize a planet once with a colony ship, but there is absolutely migration, and this can even happen across borders.
Research Stations are based on the general research category, but their effect also depends on where you build them. For example, you can have a basic research capability in a Starbase, but if you build a tooled out High Energy research station and place it on the edge of a Black Hole, you will get WAY more research out of it than from that floating lab over your planet.
A Resort Station is for tourism. The galaxy is also a beautiful place. Some places are more spectacular than others and people do want to travel and see the sights. There is money that can be made from that and resort stations are part of that. I have an old book called "Tour of the Universe" by Malcolm Edwards and Robert Holdstock here and that's pretty much how I imagine tourism in DW to be.
When you invade and take over an enemy colony you also get any bases at the colony (e.g. space port)
The limits to expansion are really whether you can properly defend all of your new colonies. That means building ships, which costs money (both up-front and for maintenance), and because your small, newly-established colonies don't make much money to begin with, you can only expand so far before you need to consolidate. Your larger colonies effectively subsidize your new ones for a while.
You can impose trade sanctions against another empire, and this is when you might want to also blockade some of their key colonies or space ports. Trade sanctions is not the same as war, so there's no shooting until you decide there should be. Because trade and the free flow of resources are so critical in the game, blockades and trade sanctions can be an effective way of hurting a competitor without full-blown war. You don't necessarily need an entire fleet to enforce a blockade - just enough military ships to make the other empire think twice about running the blockade.
Initiating blockades against another empire will definitely make them dislike you.
Each empire has a reputation - your noble and evil actions in the game affect your reputation for better or worse. Other empires view of you is partly influenced by your reputation. So if you do a lot of nasty things other empires will take a dim view of you, and may even gang up against you.
Also, when you appear overstretched in wars or trade sanctions against other empires, your enemies may take advantage of this and declare war on you when you least want it. So you should choose your actions carefully, unless you like full-on chaos of course
The Diplomacy screen provides details on your relations with all other empires and pirate factions. It explains how each empire feels about you, and exactly why, i.e. the specific factors that make them like or dislike you.
Q)And the AI also takes their reputation and their own of others into account when declaring actions?
For example, if they believe that Empire B is not trustworthy and are building up a force close to them they might tolerate Empire A a bit more rather than engage hostilities?
A)Yes, to some extent. But there are a lot of different factors that might influence the actions of each empire. So even though an empire has a poor reputation, there might be some offsetting factor that leads one empire to tolerate them more than another empire.
Large empires that do not have good reputations tend to be envied by smaller empires. So that is one factor that can lead to alliances.
Q)I have looked to see whether there is an answer to this in a different thread, but didn't see one - does the movement of planets, stars and moons have any strategic advantage for fleet movement etc? For example, if planet A is aligned in a certain way with planet B and C, fuel costs will be significantly reduced when travelling from planet A to planet C.
A)Not really - even a lot of in-system movement is done with hyperjumps. So travelling between planets that are a reasonable distance apart (in the same system) will initiate a hyperjump - thus the in-system planet locations don't make much difference in fuel usage.
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MORE FACTS ADDED 2nd MARCH
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Local response fleets combined with decent orbital defenses for key locations and patroling local defense ships for more distant stations/bases is pretty much the defense I use and it seems to work well.
Escorts.... escorts... escorts... You want to have some local defense fleets set with key planets are their "home." The helper AI does a fantastic job of sending ships that are unassigned, or assigned to escort duty, to respond in case of pirate attack on mining stations or mining ships. Squelching an empire's economy is serious, and can really hamper production and colony growth - so having a "home defense fleet" is going to be something many players will actively work toward.
If you leave your ships and/or fleets on "automatic" they will respond to attacks themselves. They'll also choose their own patrol and escort missions, defending your mining stations and civilian ships from attackers.
Q)What kind of defense/fleet organization & setup do you guys tend to have once you've reached the stage where you have a large (or at least large-ish) empire?
A)This is pretty subjective and depends a lot on personal taste, but I often build lots of frigates (they're fast and reasonably well-armed) and automate them, letting them patrol on their own. Pirates can be pretty intense in the early game, so the more ships patrolling your mining stations, the better. In early game I build up one decent fleet, of mostly destroyers, some cruisers (if available) and some frigates, and use this fleet to take out pirates, once I discover their base.
As your empire gets larger you will probably want multiple fleets. Maybe some smaller ones near your key colonies for defense. And possibly one or two big ones for attacking other empires, etc. But I'm sure everyone will have their own personal strategies
Capital Ships work well when assaulting large bases like space ports or defensive bases. So they're probably more useful in attack fleets. But you can use them however you like...
Q)About how close/far away should nodal fleets be to the colonies/stations they're supposed to protect? In other words, how long does it take for them to be mobilized and actually reach the trouble spot they've been dispatched to? (I'm just trying to get an idea of how close/far apart I should station nodal/local defense fleets once I'm in a position where I should start doing so.)
A)Depends on the components in the ship design: the reactor(s), hyperdrive and engines will determine its speed. You'll really have to try this out for yourself. But it pays to have fleets spread at strategic locations throughout your empire. Knowing where enemy forces are is key of course, and that means relying on your long range scanners, scouting enemy systems, etc.
Weapons accuracy is affected by both countermeasures components of the target and targetting component of the attacker. Other factors that affect accuracy include: speed of target (slower targets easier to hit), size of target (bigger targets easier to hit), distance to target (easier to hit when closer). So bases are pretty easy to hit (big and stationary), but small fast ships like escorts and frigates are harder to hit.
Shots can miss. Or if they hit they strike shields first. When shields have been lowered they then strike armor. Then when armor is penetrated they strike the ships components, disabling specific functionality. When all components have been damaged the ship is destroyed.
There are beam weapons (shorter-range laser blasts), torpedo weapons (long-range, homing, missile-like energy bolts) and area weapons (omni-directional blast waves)
Shields take time to lower, then armor is struck. Armor has a reactive rating - weapon damage below this value usually cannot penetrate the armor. This means that an attacker either needs more powerful weapons (more raw damage) or needs to close-in to deliver the full power of their weapons to punch through the armor. Weapons have more power when they are at close range. As they travel further, their damage level drops off.
The computer empires will evaluate each situation and decide whether they'll attempt anything in your systems - they won't blindly do this. Each race roleplays their personality too, so more aggressive, less cautious races will be more willing to try it.
Establishing colonies in other empire's systems is a high-risk action: you could lose your new colony to the better-established empire (defects), and the other empire will take offense and may attack you. So computer players consider these factors. But if your empire has just established a new colony in a system, other empires won't feel so concerned about honoring your territory. Whereas they are quite unlikely to attempt colonization in your well-established home system.
Okay. Well that makes me feel a little better. I would definitely not have been happy about someone establishing a colony in my home system; anyone who did so would receive a very sharp "lesson", current treaties be damned. 
If a player finds a planet rich in resources during an exploration mission, they might want to conquer it immediately despite it possibly being quite a distance away from the main growth of the empire . This of course could have a major strategic influence.
The AI will consider any defenses at a colony before deciding to invade (as long as it knows about them). Of course, they might decide they just need to send a bigger fleet and invade anyway...
Each race has their own troop unit - it's some of their citizens recruited as soldiers. So the troop unit shares the characteristics of its race. When a colony is attacked its population will also rise up as a militia to defend the colony. Each 1 billion citizens of population is roughly equal to one troop.
Some rare planets have special ruins that provide defensive bonuses for troops.
Technology does not directly affect how strong ground troops are but medical center components on a troop transport or at a space port can recover injured troops readiness faster.
Troop transport components can be built into any military ship. Typically dedicated Troop Transport ships carry 4-7 troop units. Large military ships like Capital Ships, Cruisers and Destroyers also usually carry some troops. But you can design your ships however you like for this.
Troops are not the crew of a ship. Their purpose is to attack or defend colonies.
Veteran units battle strength is higher, so they have greater success in battle, and last longer in combat.
You can name each troop unit if you wish.
There is some random factor in the outcome of Ground battles, but the primary determining factors are the strength of the opposing forces, the timing/spacing of the invasion forces, and the size of the defending militia (population).
You get warnings about incoming fleets if your sensors can see them. So I guess you could decide to abandon a targetted colony and load the troops onto transports. But often attacks can come very quickly, so you may not have time for evacuation.
It is not possible to evacuate or force civilian resettlement.
You cannot target a civilian population at a colony. However any ground combat at a colony will always cause some of the population to die in the fighting.
Ground battles are an area we may expand on post-release or in an expansion. Right now though, they do work well in my experience but there's definitely room to add detail.
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MORE FACTS ADDED 3rd MARCH
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There can be quite a few - I've seen new empires forming from independent worlds as well as "splinter factions" of existing empires. In my last test game, after I put a lot of military and other kinds pressure on an enemy faction, some of their systems split off into a new empire and quit the conflict (though they still didn't like me much). Destroying an existing economic and trade network combined with espionage and blockades can create a lot of disruption and unhappiness among outlying systems.
Similarly, I had colonized a new world towards the tail end of that conflict, out on the fringes of my empire. They decided that all in all they were tired of the wars I was getting into (testing a lot of combat as a Human Republic) and shortly after colonization, rebelled against me and formed their own independent government. This happened with two other recently colonized systems as the war dragged on and the burden became larger, so I have my own separate "outer rim colonies" to deal with now.
Finally, as you explore the galaxy you'll find independent worlds that are already populated. Some will want to join you, others will not. Some will stay independent and neutral but never rise to the level of their own "faction" while others will decide that it's time to take their place among the big empires and see what they can do.
The AI for other empires does not cheat. They play under the same restrictions/limitations that you do with no extra bonuses.
Pirates are a bit different, they do some cheating - but only a little They're pirates after all
There are a lot of little touches in DW. The other factions communicate quite often, whether to ask for a negotiation which are many, or to declare war. It is a very busy game with messages from the pirates, other races, your own citizens ticked off at high taxes, your advisers, and general information. Of course, you can filter which messages you want to view or not, but regardless, they all go through the message display at the top of the screen so you can always work with them.
That makes for a personable game, more so than any other I have played. Getting a game to have personality is hard, but this game has one. If I did not like this game, I would simply not post about it. However, the more I play it, the more I am impressed and I have played it since June of 2009. And I am still learning more every time I play.
Yes, the AI will take out your mining stations and do hit and run tactics. I've lost more mining stations then I care to admit because of poor planning on my part. It takes time for a fleet to arrive to defend your station, when I don't manage my defense very well the AI will destroy the station and be long gone before the fleet arrives.
Corruption is represented. The bigger your empire gets, the more tax income is lost due to corruption.
Other faction(s) actions [trade/diplomacy/military] are related to form of government (e.g. empire views democracy as weaklings, republics view empires as barbarians). This is one of many factors that influence other empires actions
Unhappy populations are bad because they won't tolerate very high taxes . If unhappy for along period they may rebel and refuse to pay any tax at all.
Also, very unhappy populations may decide to leave your empire, becoming independent or joining a nearby rival
Independent planets can already "ascend" to full-fledged empires over time. You can toggle this on or off on the game start dialogue.
When you declare war on a race, you better had taken defensive measures for your planets beforehand. They come at you thorough and hard. They also unite against you at times so keeping a good name really matters if you want to be liked by some. When I have declared war on a race with no good reason to, other races get mad and join in the fray. The AI keeps a good watch on your manners.
The AI is no sissy. It's smart. The races have distinct personalities too which really adds to the likability of this game.
Early expansion certainly helps. But there's lots of strategic options within expansion: selecting planets for colonization based on resources, other alien races present, ruins with bonuses, etc. Exploration is actually a very important aspect of the game, probably much more prominent than other 4x games. So expansion is important, but expanding to the *right locations* is even more important.
You can expand too fast, of course. You need ships and bases to support and defend all of those colonies. So if you have lots of new, undeveloped colonies, then you probably cannot afford enough ships and troops to defend your empire. You have to balance it out.
Making diplomatic alliances is another way to offset any advantage an early-expansion empire might have. Other empires will tend to be a bit envious of larger ones, especially if the larger empire has a poor reputation, because of their under-handed actions.
You also can set up the starting conditions for the game to have some empires larger, and others smaller, if you want. Thus you can select different challenges, e.g. small, high-tech empire vs large, low-tech empire.
Yes, you can certainly overstretch your bounds. Building an efficient infrastructure is a part of this game, and supporting that infrastructure is also a part. The more you have, the more dangers you open yourself up to - pirates, rivals, space monsters, etc. With a smaller empire, you might be able to hyperwarp a fleet to deal with that one pirate ship sniping your gas mine. With a large empire, you may be spread to thin and that one tiny pirate succeeds in destroying an expensive and important resource gather site. Further, you always have to make sure you can support, via taxes and income, the maintenance costs of your fleets.
If you enable allowing new empires to form at game setup (which is the default) then you can end up competing against empires you did not setup at game start - these other empires form out of independent colonies.
The factors that affect corruption and the resulting loss of tax revenue are government type and some racial characteristics. IIRC there's some bonus ruins that affect this too.
Revolutions and civil wars sometimes happen - especially when your reputation is poor. In this case part of your empire will split off and form a new empire.
Are there any other types of political events that you were thinking of? Not promising we can put them all in, but it's good to get ideas on the table.
I've seen new empires forming from independent worlds as well as "splinter factions" of existing empires. In my last test game, after I put a lot of military and other kinds pressure on an enemy faction, some of their systems split off into a new empire and quit the conflict (though they still didn't like me much). Destroying an existing economic and trade network combined with espionage and blockades can create a lot of disruption and unhappiness among outlying systems.
Independent worlds are "splinter worlds," as Erik stated, from races within the game. You encounter them, sometimes, when exploring - some of them haven't broken off from an empire, but exist on a planet as part of some colony from your race's ancient past (part of the game's backstory) or perhaps as... hmm... transplants. These planets can, if allowed by your game setup, leave their planets eventually and colonize.
Similarly, I had colonized a new world towards the tail end of that conflict, out on the fringes of my empire. They decided that all in all they were tired of the wars I was getting into (testing a lot of combat as a Human Republic) and shortly after colonization, rebelled against me and formed their own independent government. This happened with two other recently colonized systems as the war dragged on and the burden became larger, so I have my own separate "outer rim colonies" to deal with now.
Finally, as you explore the galaxy you'll find independent worlds that are already populated. Some will want to join you, others will not. Some will stay independent and neutral but never rise to the level of their own "faction" while others will decide that it's time to take their place among the big empires and see what they can do.
< Message edited by drillerman -- 3/3/2010 10:45:32 PM >
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