I'm definitely getting Distant Worlds, and will be posting my impressions once I've had a few days to play it.   

I generally don't like RTS games.  Their website tends to downplay the RTS side of the game (pausable, etc.).

What's the take on the RTS side of the game?

Personally, I've found the game a bit overwhelming so far.  Once I get more used to it, I'll probably be better off, but right now I need to leave a lot of the automation on just because I can't figure out what I'm doing! 

I've played it a bit more now, and think I have a good handle on how all the mechanics work. There's a lot happening in this game. Some quick early impressions for those still deciding:

Overall, I think it's a pretty good game, but I do have some complaints. The UI is alright but not great. There is a lot of information that would be really useful that stays hidden to the player, or is hard to get at.

It can also sometimes be hard to make things do what you want; stalled construction ships are a common problem, and it wasn't until my second game that I figured out that I needed to cancel their construction job and switch it to a repair job to get them going again if they didn't have all the resources they needed at the beginning. This may need to be repeated more than once if they still can't get all the resources they need. The things really shouldbe running off to find resources on their own.

The ship design follows a Space Empires-ish and seems like it might be a bit excessive, but automated design seems to work pretty well and has allowed me to avoid diving too deep into this.

I don't think I've played enough to really judge the AI accurately, but from what I have seen, it seems a bit insufficient. I think I have higher expectations for AIs than most people though, and there's still enough unseen that I may change my judgement. There are things that are definitely off, though - like an empire being forced back into a single system, his planets blockaded, his military non-existant, and still he won't agree to a white peace. Or the AI empire that kept declaring war on me and then immediately agreeing to a white peace and a free trade agreement.

The pacing of the game is great; it's definitely not a click-fest. It feels more like a Paradox Grand Strategy game than a Starcraft-type RTS. There seems to be enough depth here that I'll keep coming back for a while. I imagine there will be complaints about the learning curve, but it hasn't bothered me and I think their automation does a good job at keeping things manageable for newcomers.

In sum, I'm pretty happy with this purchase so far. I was disappointed by Armada 2526, but this game is just fine; worth the cost of entry.

Check out the 'Distant Worlds' ship design, after action report with screen shots.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2411040 ('Shp Design AAR')

alright, i just "finished" with a sandbox game (no victory conditions)...

i did really well, making me rule 60% of the galaxy with a human monarchy... there are about a dozen single planet (or under 5) empires who sprung from independent colonies (I am definitely disabling the option for them to do that next game)... I have never started a war with anyone, I end wars quickly... later i started ending wars with the subjugate result because otherwise they keep on declaring war on me.

as it stands, everyone hates me because "we envy your colossal might and strength" and "we covet your colonies"... as a result pissant 1 colony "empires" keep on declaring war on me... not terrible, i just squash them... Nobody will make a trade agreement with me because they hate me (because they are jelous)... as such my relationship constantly deteriorate.

thing is, i got into a war with one of the two remaining big empires. (each is 1/5th my size and power). Well... they paid off the one empire that had a trade agreement with me to impose sanctions... then several of the empires with 1-5 planets only declared war on me in the space of just a few minutes due to the other big empire paying them, until that moment they kept on pestering me to impose sanctions or go to war with that empire, but now that i am they all side with it... then as a result of that my alignment got shot deep into evil (yes, your empire is judged as good or evil)... when I got judged as evil all the other pissant 1-5 colony empires declared war on me... then all my colonies started rebelling (i have members of every single race and then some special ones that jumped in from another galaxy, etc). So they are all upset i am at war with their race AND upset I am at war at all AND upset that I am "evil" (because other people keep declaring war on me, because they are jealous according to the game)

... no its not over yet... so my planets are rebelling and not paying taxes, i am attacked from every side... still not a big deal, I am still more then twice as big then everyone else in the galaxy combined and my tech is much more advanced... but then "disaster, civil war broke out"... 60 of my colonies break off to form a new empire and are at war with me!

Result? for the first time I am at war with humans so now EVERY planet I have has its morale drop into the crapper because I am not only evil, humans are all upset i am at war with other humans. So almost all my other planets are rebelling.

Yea... might want to fix that.

My solution is:

1. Slaughter small empires ASAP to avoid being labeled evil (your alignment is entirely determined by how many people you are at war with)

2. Form trade agreements EARLY before everyone hates you for being successful.

3. Disable the option in game creation that allows independent populations to ascend into being empires...

Other interesting issues:

1. taking apart captures ships for tech yields practically no tech at all... just a tiny boost to one research field chosen at random... oddly enough, even ships you find which are LOWER tech then your current level.

2. With the exception of the occasional offer to buy it for ~1.5-2.5 million (is it millions already? million x million) in cash (no financing allowed, you must have the cash on hand) races absolutely refuse to sell their starting tech.. no matter how much and what i offer them... even if i give them an awesome deal...

3. For some reason, an estranged splinter colony with no tech when it suddenly ascends to empire status will always have their racial tech... but if you colonize it and they join your empire, you don't, and it can NOT steal it with spies (it will not show up as a valid option of tech to steal).

4. laaaaaaag... god the game needs to be multithreaded.

5. RAM... i tried to reload the game, it said "error, not enough memory" and shut down.. I have 4GB of ram.

6. SLoooow... saving and loading takes minutes.

7. make sure you disable nubulae showing up in star systems in the advanced graphic options, it causes the game to stutter when zooming it (stutter is an understatement)

8. ship designs (when automated) are refreshed randomly, there is an "update" button, which requires you to click to select the ship, click it, then click "ok" in a popup box, then select the next ship... it is extremely clumsy...

a. it should automatically update all ships whenever a new tech is acquired in any way shape or form (planetary discovery, research breakthrough, trading tech, etc).

b. there should be an update all button.

c. the popup asking you to click ok is total BS.

9. The music is rather annoying, but i got used to it.

10. you cannot use the "advanced trade" menu to make trade agreements, as a result you cannot ever improve your relationship with other empires once you start dominating (because they are jealous).

11. if someone offers you a trade, you must accept immediately if you are interested, you cannot go into advanced trade and then accept (because they will suddenly not like it)

12. be careful not to accidently choose to leave ruins unexplored, they will be forever unexploreable.

13. it should really have a more serious notification when enemy spies manage to cause a revolution changing your system of government, I didn't even notice for a while that i was turned into fuedalism from way of ancients. (there was actually no harmful effects of switching back because way of ancients is so superior to feudalism).

All that being said, the game is pretty awesome. It definitely lacks polish, but it probably the best implementation of the 4x janre in space right now.

Just an FYI, my machine is an intel C2Q 9400 with 4GB of ram and an nvidia GTX260 in cast anyone wonders.

EDIT: I found a solution of sorts...

1. get lucky and find "way of the ancients"... it is really really good.

2. kill lots of pirates. Every pirate base you destroy gives you a good amount of positive reputation. Morale improves across the empire and other empires ask you for trade agreements etc.

I agree, this is an AAR and suggestion post in one. I like the way your game went, but I can see it was frustrating. I have a similar problem now in which many races start to get jealous on me. However, my power difference is not as big as yours with the other empires. Indeed a good suggestion to improve relations early on in the game. I also have some performance issues. But playing on a "smaller" map (not 500 stars and 5000 planets/moons) helps . I've read somewhere that this game plays better on lower end pcs than on new pcs. But it is quite processor intensive. So make sure you have suffiencent mhz. 

I downloaded this the day it came out but I haven't installed it yet. I made the mistake of re-starting Dragon Age a few days before the expansion came out and I had to catch back up on that which slowed me down on a couple new releases. The Good news though is that I slew the Arch Demon and I'm about 1/3 of the way through Awakenings. After that's done though I plan on giving this a run through. Sounds like it's a good thing I'm waiting while I finish Awakenings so they can put out a bug fix or two for Distant Worlds. It also sounds like Diplomacy in the mid to late game needs some tweaking.

Some accurate descriptions here.

I'm not sure where I will wind up standing on this game.  I tried Armada and really thought it was terrible once I got through the learning curve.

I'm not through the learning curve on DW yet, but don't imagine I will hate it, though I'm skeptical if I will love it either.  I apprecaite the automation, but the UI is really frustrating, and getting in to micro the area(s) you want to (especially ships and fleets) is so underdeveloped right now that it's almost not worth it.

The technology system is nice though, as is the exploration and colonization.  The economy is interesting, but it needs some balancing (first it was too easy to go into a debt death spiral, now money is too easy to come by...), I think they will get this sorted out, or at least provide the ability to mod it to where it suits each player.

I find the AI to be 'poor', not as bad as Armada, but not really very challenging either.  Alot of my opinion on the AI is based off of how the automation runs elements of my empire though, as I assume the AIs are running with the same kind of automation. 

However, I have enjoyed playing it so far, and can see how with some of the upcoming updates some of the frustration can be removed, then it will really be a question of how well the AI can provide a challenge.  Of course there are lots of different starting conditions you can chose to tailor a level of difficulty for yourself which I have not explored very deeply, so it may be able to stick around from that.

The debt spiral was actually the result of a bug, where fully developed worlds wouldn't get 'first call' on luxury resources and would loose all their development as a result.

so... like... i made a post before reply #47 and the forum ATE it... its just gone and I have no idea why.

I don't remember what all i said there but i will try recreating it.

taltamir-

I believe that the rebellion issue you see due to taxes is actually enemy covert ops causing rebellion and not the taxAI randomly screwing with the rate, however, I am not 100% certain of this, it is something I have gleened from reading around about the issue.