4X Distant Worlds: Universe help

[Jimmious]

I can't seem to find another fitting thread so I created this one.
Been playing some DW:U recently and I have some questions which I hope some Codexer will be able to answer...

- Can someone explain to me SOMEHOW, what the hell is going on with the resources? I really struggle to understand what my colonies need, what my ships need... Where can I find this information? For example since I have everything on manual with suggestions, I keep getting suggestions to issue smuggling missions for pirates so that they can give me resources because I "lack" them... But I have no idea what I lack and for what.

- Does the auto-upgrading of designs work? It doesn't seem so to me. Especially about hyperdrives, the AI never applies them to ships automatically... at least as far as I can tell. Maybe I'm missing something?

- How do you deal with pirates? Pay them up until you can actually crush them? They can be... pretty annoying.

 

[Raapys]

Resources are used for ship and base construction, both your own and the civilian sector's. In addition, I think some resources are consumed by planets for normal development and growth. Then there are luxury resources which give huge boosts to planets which receive them. Generally, each component type needs some resources to be built. I think you can find it in the in-game wiki. The expansion planner has a more comprehensive overview of which resources you have and which you are lacking.

Anyway, lack of normal resources is very rare unless you screwed up badly. Just make sure you have some automated construction ships that can create mining bases and it should take care of itself. Smuggling missions are proposed for resources you have a low supply of; they might give you a short-term boost, but shouldn't be necessary unless you're lacking sources for the most basic materials. I generally ignore smuggling. It's a much more useful feature when you're actually playing as a pirate faction, since it can be a huge source of income to supply colonies.

I've never used that 'auto upgrade' feature thing, so I'm not sure. I think you have to set the design to auto-upgrade and also enable automatic upgrading in the empire policies thing. There's another button in the design window which will simply replace all components on the selected ship with their latest versions though.

If you're starting at low tech, you'll definitely want to pay the pirates at first. The amount they request is based on current income, so the sooner you get the deal the better. Once you start building an actual military, they stop being a problem and you can cancel the deal. They're sometimes lucky and find a powerful derelict ship to use against you, which can be a hassle.

 

[Jimmious]

Thanks.

Man the game has so many features and so lackluster documentation it's crazy.

The expansion planner has a more comprehensive overview of which resources you have and which you are lacking.

I'll check that out!

Do you manually design everything? It's...quite some work, isn't it?
Is there any conceivable reason to not have hyperdrives in any kind of spaceship?

 

[tindrli]

i usually dont.. only when i notice that AI is fuckin it big time

 

[Raapys]

I generally look through all the designs at the start of the game and then just use the upgrade button after that. Exception is military ships, which need to grow bigger whenever you make progress in construction tech. Also, depending on starting tech level, you eventually get access to solar collectors and some new components which need to be placed manually on all designs that should have them. E.g. every ship and base needs enough solar collectors to make up for 'static energy usage', or they'll spend fuel even when sitting still in space.

Some of the things I like to do in design is to remove defense bases(I never use them), design the general space bases for more construction slots, have a look at mining and gas mining bases(especially the latter needs to be 'bigger', since gas/fuel supply becomes a problem with big fleets), etc. There's a lot of things to consider for this aspect, but it's mostly min-maxing and you'll discover the nuances as you play. There's no reason for ships not to have hyperdrives.

But yeah, the documentation is awful and hasn't really been updated regularly as expansions and new features made it in.

I think the most important piece of gameplay advice is in terms of colonies. Each planet has a happiness level that's decreased by taxes and increased by having an orbiting space port with recreation/medical components(and luxury resources if you have any). The higher happiness, the more population growth and the bigger tax potential. But, taxes lower happiness and thus pop growth. The penalty is so big that it's actually greatly advantageous to set 0-5% tax rate for as long as you can afford it. Then, when the colony has reached maximum population, you turn the tax rate up as high as happiness allows(you want it above 0) and start raking in the cash.

Another confusing area is research. Essentially, make sure your research capacity in each school is >= research potential for that school. Capacity comes from research bases, potential comes from population. Being higher won't give you more research output, but being lower means you're losing out.

 

[Jimmious]

For DW2 they need to do 3 simple things to make the best 4X in existence:
- Implement graphics that don't cause depression to the player
- Implement a UI that is more usable and clear than this mess
- Document stuff much much better

That's it. They don't even really need new features. Not that they'd be bad but..

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

It's been a while, designing can help with earlier game, I think I removed weapons from everything and made explorers as fast as possible with little or no armor same for constructors, earlier on weapons are pretty much irrelevant outside focused combat ships to kill the bugs or earlier civilization you may find I also avoided using the earliest jumpdrive and tech rushed for the second and I'd be way faster than the AI.

Any good mods for this?

 

[Jimmious]

DasChrome UI is the one I can say that you need before you even try to play the game. Apart from that, everyone suggests the AI Improvement Mod too

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Weird, couldn't find another thread about DW.

Is it possible to improve perfomance? I'm frequently running into random FPS drops while playing at any stage of the game

 

[Average Manatee]

Random tips:
- Yes, design ships yourself.
- There's really no reason not to cap out every ship on size. Make your freighters big freighters, your transports big transports, etc. Make sure everything has way more fuel storage than you think it needs.
- Mining stations and ships you should add 1 mining component to the default to cap out your mining rate (the cap is never mentioned anywhere but AFAIK this is sufficient).
- For the most part just have your constructors on auto for mines and stuff. They seem to know what to do. Build research stations and similar stuff yourself (take research labs off your spaceports btw).
- Resources are pooled at spaceports (or rather on the planets with spaceports). Try not to make too many of them, or your resources get scattered everywhere. Put non-constructing ship bases at other planets for the bonuses. Make your spaceports bigger if you notice their construction queue being backed up.
- Population tends to be the most important attribute, and pop growth rate the most important part of a race. Growing fast = best. Put your taxes at exactly 0% while growing and only raise them to whatever you happiness caps you at when you cap out. With the best insectoid race race you can get a 60%+ growth rate like this which is just insanely OP.
- Don't really bother building stuff at planets till they have enough population. It's slow as hell and seems to cause most of the resource unavailable problems when your civilian ships go haywire trying to transfer everything around (when they should be concentrating at getting stuff from mining bases and dumping it at your spaceport). It's especially a problem when you are using the expansion planner to build and send colony ships, this will fuck you when it decides the colony ship needs to be built at a 1M pop planet rather than your 10B pop planet. Then after it's 95% done a random pirate runs in and destroys it all.
- Lopside your research and go for the galactic wonders that provide galaxy-wide bonuses.
- In my experience the AI will build way too many defensive troops even if you set it to low, so turn it off.

Is it possible to improve perfomance? I'm frequently running into random FPS drops while playing at any stage of the game

Don't think so. Game is just poorly coded at some parts. Especially when you open up the list of ships in your empire, eventually it just pauses the game for half a minute.

Is there any conceivable reason to not have hyperdrives in any kind of spaceship?

If you play on the lowest tech start it's probably not worth putting in the first shitty hyperdrive you research. Very slow, expensive, lots of redesign work and resources used. Just rush the next one which comes pretty quickly.

 

[Arrowgrab]

I have a question, and I guess this thread is a good place to ask it.

Once you start having a multi-racial empire, you can set "Population Policies", where you can decide that certain races should be allowed to assimilate, others not, yet others enslaved, deported or exterminated.

My question is: where exactly is the f*cking menu for it? The manual tells you what the policies do, but not how to actually find them in the obtuse morass that is the game's UI.

 

[Raapys]

Colonies screen, then select a planet. This screen also allows a neat little exploit where you can set tax rate higher than 50% using manual input. Useful for those high-happiness planets, long as you leave some for the civilian sector.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Thanks very much!

 

[Average Manatee]

Colonies screen, then select a planet. This screen also allows a neat little exploit where you can set tax rate higher than 50% using manual input. Useful for those high-happiness planets, long as you leave some for the civilian sector.

You also want to get happiness low on your filled worlds to encourage emigration. IIRC revolts only happen at -10, ideally you want to keep your happiness on these planets around -1.

 

[Kuattro]

People don't design their own ships in DW? It shouldn't be allowed. And it's the best part of the game.

- There's really no reason not to cap out every ship on size. Make your freighters big freighters, your transports big transports, etc. Make sure everything has way more fuel storage than you think it needs.

Mmmm... I would say: Make your freighters fast, light and cheap, so that they outrun enemies, and if they don't, well, the private sector didn't lose a lot of money. They don't get to carry THAT much in a single trip anyway.

But yeah, watch it for fuel, and start planning the fuel situation for the end game FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Split your fuel usage between military and civilian as soon as possible, too.

- Mining stations and ships you should add 1 mining component to the default to cap out your mining rate (the cap is never mentioned anywhere but AFAIK this is sufficient).

The cap is 10 for materials, 40 for gases. Aim to hit it with your designs.

- For the most part just have your constructors on auto for mines and stuff. They seem to know what to do. Build research stations and similar stuff yourself (take research labs off your spaceports btw).

Absolutely disagree, sorry. Your constructor will build mining stations all over the place, which will make your freighters go from one side of the galaxy to the other, wasting time and running out of fuel, so slowing them down to a crawl; and is also a nightmare to defend. Of course your mining stations should be, again, light and cheap, but still, if you concentrate them, you can easily put your fleets to good use protecting them.

As for not putting research labs in ports, why? Ports are supposed to be big scary things that only multiple heavy fleets are able to take on, and any agent trying to blow them up will more than probably get detected. I can't think of a better place to have all your labs that in your capital port. And then, you can build tiny cheap specialized research stations with just one lab in planets that have bonuses, so that you get said bonuses in full (plus any scientist bonus you deploy in them, except ultrageniuses obviously, those stay at home). And once more, if your High Tech Research Station gets blown up, you just built another one for a pittance.

- Lopside your research and go for the galactic wonders that provide galaxy-wide bonuses.

Specially the Bazaar. That's target number one. You get that, you've already won.

 

[tindrli]

But yeah, watch it for fuel, and start planning the fuel situation for the end game FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Split your fuel usage between military and civilian as soon as possible, too.

THIS!!!

 

[Average Manatee]

People don't design their own ships in DW? It shouldn't be allowed. And it's the best part of the game.

- There's really no reason not to cap out every ship on size. Make your freighters big freighters, your transports big transports, etc. Make sure everything has way more fuel storage than you think it needs.

Mmmm... I would say: Make your freighters fast, light and cheap, so that they outrun enemies, and if they don't, well, the private sector didn't lose a lot of money. They don't get to carry THAT much in a single trip anyway.

But yeah, watch it for fuel, and start planning the fuel situation for the end game FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Split your fuel usage between military and civilian as soon as possible, too.

Ships in DW don't really run away, they hyperdrive out. Hyperdrive warmup time is fixed to whatever your tech is, so the only design factor in whether they can escape is their armor/shielding. Non-combat ships just need to be fast enough that they can easily catch up to planets going the opposite direction (which can be a problem for constructors or colony ships).

I can definitely say that having a dozen transports drop off 20M colonists each on a new planet is way better than having them drop off 2M colonists each. Thanks to the exponential pop growth formula you'll be decades ahead in economic development. For freighters I'm not too sure since I don't really inspect them, but in any case the actual cost increase isn't that big and bigger ships have more component HP to soak damage.

The cap is 10 for materials, 40 for gases. Aim to hit it with your designs.

Thanks, didn't know the exact numbers (and I think its been changed a few times). Is it different for mining ships? I seem to recall that it was halved for them. Or that they only got half as much from each component or something.

Absolutely disagree, sorry. Your constructor will build mining stations all over the place, which will make your freighters go from one side of the galaxy to the other, wasting time and running out of fuel, so slowing them down to a crawl; and is also a nightmare to defend. Of course your mining stations should be, again, light and cheap, but still, if you concentrate them, you can easily put your fleets to good use protecting them.

I dunno, I've never had problems. But again for most of the game I pretty much just have 1 large spaceport on my home planet that has most of my empire's resources with a few scattered smalls on the fringes. This way my civilian economy normally has more freighters than it needs and several sit at home doing nothing. If you spread lots of spaceports out and create more work for freighters it might be better to take control and ensure no mining bases are built in far off places, but past the early game the only resource you're likely to have problems with is the fuel types (and even then its only a localized problem, where your empire has tons but the fringe spaceport hasn't stockpiled enough to refill your entire doomstack).

As for not putting research labs in ports, why? Ports are supposed to be big scary things that only multiple heavy fleets are able to take on, and any agent trying to blow them up will more than probably get detected. I can't think of a better place to have all your labs that in your capital port. And then, you can build tiny cheap specialized research stations with just one lab in planets that have bonuses, so that you get said bonuses in full (plus any scientist bonus you deploy in them, except ultrageniuses obviously, those stay at home). And once more, if your High Tech Research Station gets blown up, you just built another one for a pittance.

Build 1 super lab on your home planet that you use to control the research rate distribution and 1 heavily-defended lab with 1/1/1 research around the best research location that you put all your scientists on. Labs on the ports are a waste.

Of course if you are fully committed to building only 1 large spaceport then you can just dump the labs there, just don't put the labs across 20 planets because that's a waste of resources and prevents you from easily altering your research priorities.

Generally I don't go for the super-fortress strategy and prefer to keep larger fleets, I only make defensive bases to keep away pirates and small forces of raiders. But that's for higher difficulties, on lower difficulties you can probably afford super-fortresses in every system.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

holy shit its 74 NZ dollars for 2014 Game on staem

 

[Kuattro]

Ships in DW don't really run away, they hyperdrive out. Hyperdrive warmup time is fixed to whatever your tech is, so the only design factor in whether they can escape is their armor/shielding. Non-combat ships just need to be fast enough that they can easily catch up to planets going the opposite direction (which can be a problem for constructors or colony ships).

But they do run away. When an enemy battleship with 18 maximum speed is trying to catch your 29 maximum speed freighter, the seconds it buys itself by running away might be the difference between being able to jump away or getting their hyperdrive destroyed and being fucked.

It's a bit moot anyway, I normally max my freighters too, only that I give them all the engines they can fit without reducing their speed

I can definitely say that having a dozen transports drop off 20M colonists each on a new planet is way better than having them drop off 2M colonists each. Thanks to the exponential pop growth formula you'll be decades ahead in economic development. For freighters I'm not too sure since I don't really inspect them, but in any case the actual cost increase isn't that big and bigger ships have more component HP to soak damage.

Yeah, okay, transporting migrants does get better with bigger transports (not tourists, mind you).

The cap is 10 for materials, 40 for gases. Aim to hit it with your designs.

Thanks, didn't know the exact numbers (and I think its been changed a few times). Is it different for mining ships? I seem to recall that it was halved for them. Or that they only got half as much from each component or something.

I don't think so, the mining components are the same, so the cap is too. Maybe you're remembering there's a difference in gas STORAGE between ships and bases, where a base can store roughly 4x the gas a ship can.

Build 1 super lab on your home planet that you use to control the research rate distribution and 1 heavily-defended lab with 1/1/1 research around the best research location that you put all your scientists on. Labs on the ports are a waste.

It seems to me like building a big super lab at home and just sticking all the labs in the port is more or less the same (there might be a small difference in maintenance, but I don't think it's going to be that significant).

I must again disagree with the 1/1/1 lab though. The research bonuses in planets only apply to one specialization, so either you are only building one, losing two different bonuses for the other research branches, or you are building three 1/1/1 research stations, which is not necessary since you only need a lab of the applicable research branch to recieve the bonus. You could think that it would help when you have scientist with multiple specializations, but since only the highest single bonus applies (if your station is giving you 29% High Tech bonus, and a scientist on ANOTHER research station gives you 15%, your scientist bonus doesn't apply, you need to put him in the High Tech research station), it really doesn't. Having a big superlab with all three branches does though, which is why I concentrate them in my home port and only build single lab research stations for the bonuses (and again, only when they are bigger that what the scientists at home give me already).

Generally I don't go for the super-fortress strategy and prefer to keep larger fleets, I only make defensive bases to keep away pirates and small forces of raiders. But that's for higher difficulties, on lower difficulties you can probably afford super-fortresses in every system.

As I said, if you build the bazaar, you can afford anything a couple of big fortresses. Hell, you can afford big fortresses in every planet if you so wish.

 

[Jimmious]

I so much wish all of these things were a bit better communicated. It's really frustrating going in blind in this game. I got the grips after 2-3 tries but got a bit burned out for the moment. I'll give it another go soon

 

[Average Manatee]

But they do run away. When an enemy battleship with 18 maximum speed is trying to catch your 29 maximum speed freighter, the seconds it buys itself by running away might be the difference between being able to jump away or getting their hyperdrive destroyed and being fucked.

Single ships tend to never be deadly enough to kill freighters before they retreat, and enemy fleets that warp ontop your freighters will auto-surround the target so you really can't get away. But it's not a huge cost either way.

The cap is 10 for materials, 40 for gases. Aim to hit it with your designs.

Thanks, didn't know the exact numbers (and I think its been changed a few times). Is it different for mining ships? I seem to recall that it was halved for them. Or that they only got half as much from each component or something.

I don't think so, the mining components are the same, so the cap is too. Maybe you're remembering there's a difference in gas STORAGE between ships and bases, where a base can store roughly 4x the gas a ship can.

I recall that at some point the exact same component on a mining ship would mine half as much as a mining station or something. Maybe it was changed in expansions since it was one of those things that made exactly zero sense and you had to read one of the economy guides to find out.

I must again disagree with the 1/1/1 lab though. The research bonuses in planets only apply to one specialization, so either you are only building one, losing two different bonuses for the other research branches, or you are building three 1/1/1 research stations, which is not necessary since you only need a lab of the applicable research branch to recieve the bonus. You could think that it would help when you have scientist with multiple specializations, but since only the highest single bonus applies (if your station is giving you 29% High Tech bonus, and a scientist on ANOTHER research station gives you 15%, your scientist bonus doesn't apply, you need to put him in the High Tech research station), it really doesn't. Having a big superlab with all three branches does though, which is why I concentrate them in my home port and only build single lab research stations for the bonuses (and again, only when they are bigger that what the scientists at home give me already).

I'm pretty sure it worked so that having more than 1 lab on a bonus is useless. If you have a lab on a +20/0/0 and another lab on a 0/+20/0, and your scientists add up to +30/+30/+30, you only build the one lab whose research type you want and stick all your scientists there, because one lab with +50/+30/+30 will override another lab with 0/+20/0. In the very early game your scientists might not stack to be stronger than the individual bonus a location can provide, but that usually changes pretty quickly when you get multiple scientists.

Generally I don't go for the super-fortress strategy and prefer to keep larger fleets, I only make defensive bases to keep away pirates and small forces of raiders. But that's for higher difficulties, on lower difficulties you can probably afford super-fortresses in every system.

As I said, if you build the bazaar, you can afford anything a couple of big fortresses. Hell, you can afford big fortresses in every planet if you so wish.

Have you played on the highest difficulty? Enjoy virtually every planet outside your capital having max corruption and only giving 5-10k in taxes. Maintenance costs for a station able to fight off a medium size fleet can be more than the planet itself.

Keep in mind that components have the same maintenance cost whether they are on a ship or a station. The only "advantage" of stations is that they don't need engines and have their solar collectors on 24/7, but there's no real reason to make a base that requires, say, 7.5k maintenance when you could make a slightly more expensive fleet that spends most of the time hanging out around a major planet being solar-powered with the ability to react to invaders anywhere nearby.

 

[Arrowgrab]

But yeah, watch it for fuel, and start planning the fuel situation for the end game FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Split your fuel usage between military and civilian as soon as possible, too.

Wait, you can do that? Is there a way to reserve some of your fuel reserves for military use or something?

 

[Average Manatee]

There's two fuel sources. Build civilian ships with one type of reactor, military with the other.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

ill tell you where there ISNT fuel sources; in my fuckin wallet to pay for this game thats what

 

[tindrli]

ill tell you where there ISNT fuel sources; in my fuckin wallet to pay for this game thats what

well you can always borrow it ffs