Considering getting AI war. Couple questions.

[J HG T]

Thanks again for all the comments. Went and bough it last evening and played it for around 3 hours. Sure feels like money well spent.

Those asking about DW:
DW is definetly a 4X compared to AI war which I think as Grand scale RTS with 4X elements (makes me think of supreme commander in space). Which means there's more diplomacy and exploration. Also the game has some nice innovations like splitting the empires to private and state, and reduction of micromanagement by allowing you to automate certain areas of your empire (like the always "interesting" taxes for every planet). I've had empires that had around 100 planets and still could easily control it. That was epic.

It takes some time to get used to UI and the mechanics but it's quite enjoyable even during this learning phase. DWs community is also very helpful and dedicated.
The Demo question is also been asked at DW forums. Currently, there's, unfortunately, no demo. All I can say is that if you like 4X strategy and grand scale RTS, but don't like excessive micromanagement, DWs probably a great choice. Many veterans on the DW forums have played Sword of the Stars, MOO1, 2 & 3, Sins of a Solar Empire, GalCivs and many others and still stated that DW is their reigning champion.
One other think: If you have spare time, I'd recommend that you check some After Action Reports at DW forums War-room section. Those give quite good overview of the game and its mechanics. And many of those are also fun to read too.

DW is currently patched to 1.0.6.0 version which has fixed all the major bugs that riddled it when it was launched. It still has some minor issues but those haven't bothered me or many others. Also the Code Force seems to want make expansion or several to DW due to it's popularity. First one may be released before december.

Sorry for mods for derailing this thread. Just wanted to answer peoples questions.

[Lancefighter]

DW just seemed to me like some very overly complex economic simulation or something, as if it was meant to be 'played' with complete autonomy, perhaps not even observed, and just see what the outcome is....

Also, i was rather dissapointed at the modding support - are you able to change around the components attributes yet? I noted that you could install different icons for ships, but  imean, graphical tweaks are hardly real modifications...

[J HG T]

I've never gotten to modding of DW that much. Only think I've modded are the musics and backgrounds. Changed both to my own liking (Star Control 2 ST FTW). What I'ves seen, the Code Force opens up modding possibilities with every major patch. Expansion should be major step forwards in modding what I have read.

DW have never felt like pure economic simulation to me. The economics are actually quite simple when you understand how it all works. Your comment reminds me of myself trying X3 for the first time. Now that's a economic simulator righ there! Didn't like it very much. Great visuals though. Sounds to me that you put too many automation settings on. You can basically automate everything and just watch how CPU controls everything in your empire. That's not the way DW is meant to play. Only thing I have automated are colony colony tax rates. Everything else I do myself.
 
 

[licker]

I tried DW through the 1st couple patches, but it just didn't hold my interest.  SotS is still the champion of space4x in my opinion, though it does focus much more on the tactical battles and fleet compositions than on the economic side.  Still there's enough economy to make you have to think how you prioritize your research vs. exploration vs. colonization vs. conquest.

That and the different mechanics for each race just make it feel so much more interesting to me.  Production values and dev/community support are also very high, though most of these games do have excellent dev/communities supporting them.

[J HG T]

Apples and oranges as they sey. I love both DW and AI war and I don't like to fight over personal tastes. Everybody like what they like.

BTW. One question regarding starting parameters. Is it safer to pick just one homeplanet or is there any tactical advantages (apart from bonus ships) having 2-3 homeplanets? Having fun so far in my first game but having been thinking about forementioned small thing.

[keith.lamothe]

Multiple homeworlds is an advanced starting option, and tends to be fairly challenging.  But your ship caps scale up quite a bit (not quite multiplied by the number of homeworlds, but in that ballpark).  But the AI gets a lot more waves against you, etc, as if it were multiple players.

[J HG T]

That's what I thougth. Seems to be best sticking with one homeworld. At least for now.

[Ozymandiaz]

So, I found AI war through Distant Worlds (Which I just love) forums where one guy mentioned it. It sounded quite great and I went and watched some videos and trailers which got me even more excited. I downloaded the demo and been positively surprised. Great Neo-retro graphs, easy to play once learned, needs genuine thinking and tactics, extremely diverse and hefty arsenal of things to play with. Now I'm thinking about buying it from impulse.

So, my only consern here is that can the AI war be fully enjoyed in single-player? I've always been more single-player type of gamer who want's to enjoy games in their own pace. AI war seems to put great emphasis to its multiplayer co-op so this makes me think. I hope to get some advices from everybody who has been playing AI war. Although I have a feeling that I won't be disappointed with AI war I still wants some honest opinions from veterans.

I have clocked inn nearly 300 hours in single player.

Its is awesome

[NickAragua]

I'll be the lone dissenting voice and say that I enjoy multi-player far more than the single player. In fact, the main reason I bought AI Wars was because of the awesome combination of strategy/tactics and coop play. Having a buddy (or two!) around means you can execute much more complex tactics, and it's just much more fun to bounce strategic/tactical ideas off each other. Two heads are better than one and all that. My buddy and I almost managed to finish our first (and only so far) game that we started around September of last year (we're literally about to start grinding on the AI homeworld), with a total of about 30-40 hours of game clock time (and since the game often runs at about 1/4 speed during a large battle, it's probably much more). Meanwhile, any time I start a single player game, I completely lose interest after taking the first five-six planets.