Distant Worlds: Universe - space 4x done right - May 23 Release

[Cyborg]

Is this the same old argument about female characters needing to be less attractive? I admit that if it is being implied they are the Real Housewives of the Universe, that's a little bit much, but I never understood the "revealing armor" commentary.


"Fantasy" is fantasy. Last I checked males were a variety of hero stereotypes, too.

[Aklyon]

Most revealing armor complaints I've seen have either been out of nowhere (or relevant to what was going on, but thats rare), or they bring up TERA as as example.

[Coppermantis]

Meh, I've never cared a whole lot about that "revealing "armor trope. I'm not one to indulge in it either--I'd never get those Skyrim mods for that kind of thing, simply because it doesn't fit into what I'm looking for in that game, but if other people want that sort of thing, then I'm not going to complain either.

I mean, like you said, fantasy is fantasy. Everybody is disproportionate and idealized. Some games are a bit more out there or unbalanced than others (using Skyrim again as an example, i've seen tons of screenshots where the women were all scantily-clad barbie doll figures and the men were the same as in vanilla. I mean, if you're going to embrace the fantasy tropes, then why not go all the way, man?)

[chemical_art]

In one week I've dropped almost 20 hours into this game. The scale is high, but game automate a lot of it. I really enjoy having a private economy run along the stAte one, and how pirates are not an extract force but a real one that is both possible to curb but very difficult to eliminate. also, no other 4x lets you play as pirates.

The game runs fairly smooth  given how large it is, but still a whole galaxy is hard to simulate even both some good coding.

[Cyborg]

In one week I've dropped almost 20 hours into this game. The scale is high, but game automate a lot of it. I really enjoy having a private economy run along the stAte one, and how pirates are not an extract force but a real one that is both possible to curb but very difficult to eliminate. also, no other 4x lets you play as pirates.

The game runs fairly smooth  given how large it is, but still a whole galaxy is hard to simulate even both some good coding.

It's amazing, isn't it? I, personally, just like setting a course and letting the computer do the rest. The exploration- alone- is worth the price of admission.

[chemical_art]

It's amazing, isn't it? I, personally, just like setting a course and letting the computer do the rest. The exploration- alone- is worth the price of admission.

It is amazing in many ways.

In my first game, I practically had state run pirates in my outer territories.  Sometimes I would pay them if I needed to protect a major infrastructure project, or hire them for offensive measures, but the real reason I tolerated them is they protected me from other pirates! It is a devious system of carrots and sticks, elimanate some pirates, but tolerate others for their benefits. And why not eliminate them all? There are too many, and you have other "normal" empires you are competeing with, the pirates as a whole occupy lands you can't take anyway. So pay some off, because they protection they provide is cheaper then the costs of having your military protect _everything_.


Which ties in to the private economy. You _can_ make your planets fortresses, but you still need fleets to protect your merchants...unless you have the pirates do it for you (and thus allow your own military to actually conquer desirable lands, not patrol existing ones)

[Ucchedavada]

Is this the same old argument about female characters needing to be less attractive? I admit that if it is being implied they are the Real Housewives of the Universe, that's a little bit much, but I never understood the "revealing armor" commentary.


"Fantasy" is fantasy. Last I checked males were a variety of hero stereotypes, too.

[Shrugging Khan]

Damn you all for turning my complaint about bad characterisation ("It's a race of stereotypical women!") into that same old discussion about semi-naked boobs ("Scantily clad! Scantily clad!"). They can run around naked or dressed in space suits for all that I care, what offends me is the crappy writing.

[Wingflier]

I guess I can't blame them for reaching out to their intended audience instead of staying politically correct. I mean seriously, look at League of Legends.

[Ucchedavada]

Damn you all for turning my complaint about bad characterisation ("It's a race of stereotypical women!") into that same old discussion about semi-naked boobs ("Scantily clad! Scantily clad!"). They can run around naked or dressed in space suits for all that I care, what offends me is the crappy writing.

That trope is just one of many stereotypes invoked for that species (in this context perhaps to invoke associations with the "exotic dancer" hat that this species is wearing). It is just another example of lazy characterisation, so it would be surprising if that angle was not considered in this discussion.

[Billick]

I picked this up the day it came out on Steam and have been enjoying it a lot.  It has all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a 4x game, with everything done with a huge amount of depth.  There are tons of factions, with each one not only having it's own attributes, but it's own victory conditions.  Pirates!  Yarrrrr!  They can be a menace, but you can also hire them to do your dirty work, or to smuggle in needed resources.  Resources!  There are lots of them!  Some are needed to build stuff, some are luxuries.  There are lots of diplomacy and espionage options.  Different characters are generated as you play through the game.  They gain traits as you play.  Like in CK2, they can get positive and negative traits.  You can assign them to various missions.  I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff.   There's a big learning curve, but the game automates most things by default.  This is good an bad.  it's good in that you don't just get punched in the face when you're still learning.  It's bad because it kind of feels like you're not actually playing the game at first.  This felling goes away as you turn off some of the automated stuff though. 

[Mick]

I bought this, and will probably wait a while before really sinking my teeth into it, but I got a bit confused by the first tutorial. Are those steps asking me to do those things (build this, research that), or is the tutorial really just a very high level overview of the game?

[tbrass]

@Mick,

Do the 2nd tutorial first ;-) someone screwed up the tutorial order.

But, yes, eventually you will want to build those things OR to have the AI build 'em for you. Best if you do it, but automation is fairly decent.

@Ucchedavada - hilarious, I hadn't seen that before. Thank you.

[Wingflier]

How is the combat? Are there some incredibly close battles? Does the "balance of power" stay pretty even on the higher difficulties, or are close battles pretty rare where it's more or less just moving your forces from one system to another to get whatever you want?

How long does it take to become combat ready? Can you be a warlike race and succeed? Is there anything to prevent you from just taking over the entire galaxy once you've started steamrolling?

These are all kind of the pitfalls of the average 4X in my experience. The diplomacy, base building, and ship crafting is all okay, but if the battling is lackluster, and if the game is won before the fighting even starts I just consider it a huge waste of time.

[Billick]

How is the combat? Are there some incredibly close battles? Does the "balance of power" stay pretty even on the higher difficulties, or are close battles pretty rare where it's more or less just moving your forces from one system to another to get whatever you want?

How long does it take to become combat ready? Can you be a warlike race and succeed? Is there anything to prevent you from just taking over the entire galaxy once you've started steamrolling?

These are all kind of the pitfalls of the average 4X in my experience. The diplomacy, base building, and ship crafting is all okay, but if the battling is lackluster, and if the game is won before the fighting even starts I just consider it a huge waste of time.

Battles are usually quick and decisive, but they happen frequently (especially if you're at war).  It can be fun to watch two fleets slug it out. 

If you try to take too much territory too fast, your colonies will start to rebel, and it will also be a drain on your coffers.  They did a pretty good job of making it so you can't just run over everybody. 

There are a lot of different game start settings.  You can set yourself up to be combat ready or you can make it so you have to build up your home system first.  Some races are better at war than others.  Each race has different victory conditions, so some will require fighting a lot of wars, while others will concentrate on different areas of the game. 

It's hard to say if you'll like this game Wingflier.  I would say the combat isn't the best part of this game.  It's more about preparing for the fight than the fight itself.  You also don't get the huge epic battles that you get in AI War.  There's usually only a few dozen ships in any battle at most.  If you're looking for a game that's about battles you may want to stick with AI War.