Fields of Glory II and Order of Battle are next. Right? :D

Yes, I am on the fence with this one for the same reasons: little time to play nowadays. It is nice to think while playing but much better if the game makes possible learning while playing, as opposite to having to study the manual deeply before you can do anything (like happens with Dominions). Checking the manual is OK for polishing the strategy, though.

This translates to: make games easy to get into while playing, and then let them offer interesting options to develop a strategy (like Sid Meier said).

They used parts of Internet Explorer to implement game's Galactopedia. Windows Media Player is for the intro movie. They probably used some WMP specific calls/functions/libraries to make it only work with WMP.

Game also requires DirectX 9.0c, XNA Framework 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0.

Ever wonder why this game was never ported to any other operating system? ;-p

Still, despite all this game is definitively worth it. Purchased it from Slitherine couple years ago and have spend several hundred hours on it. One of the best space 4X games I've ever played. Just be aware if you get into it it'll eat all your free time for quite a while. :-p

Here's my review for those of you that want some user input.

I used to play this game many years ago on a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 1GB SDRAM and a 128Mb AGP Geforce 5200 with XP SP3, the only problem i encountered was that speeding up the game lagged my computer because my processor wasn't good enough for the extra speed, so anyone with better specs than this(99%) should be able to play without problems.


The start of the game is quite easy, you send out scouts/repairships to find tech/lore and to salvage alien derelicts with advanced tech, at this point you can commission this alien ship into your fleet or scrap/decommission it to get a research boost for the advanced tech in it.

After that you scout the surrounding star systems to find resources and potential expansion spots for new colonies or starbases to camp a good location.

The next step is redesign your ships and bases/hubs so you don't waste resources and upkeep on stuff you don't need on specialized ships, think of it like min-maxing or optimizing your economy.

At this point you gotta make a small swarm fleet of corvettes(i think 5 or 6 was ok so you spread the damage without losing one) because pretty soon you're gonna get attacked by pirates if you don't accept to pay their extortion and you're also gonna need a fleet to clear out some small bands of enemies in some star systems so you can setup research/mining outposts.

Now comes the decision to let the AI handle automation or do it manually, manually of course is for advanced users.

The rest of the game is you exploring and learning to play the game if you're new, or expand and bolster your fleet size and get a good economy going to prepare for the inevitable enemies to come if you're a veteran player.


The extra fun times is learning about the metagame, for example, i liked to build a few ships with boarding pods so i could capture ships...but not just enemy ships, incoming trader civilian freighter ships!
Then i'd gift them to my civilian fleet and see them retrofit them and use them to move goods around and increase my economy.

Or the meta about putting research labs in your star ports because it was more efficient then building research outpost or something like that, i don't exactly remember why.


Anyway, this is the best 4X game i've played and much better then Stellaris for example which i played 5 games of and got annoyed with not just the bugs/unbalance but the gameplay which requires you to blitzkrieg cos otherwise you'd be stuck in a turtling stalemate based on research superiority or fleet cap.

Sent them a mail; explain the situation. Ask if they can deactivate one version and sent you a gog key instead. The worst which could happen is they say "no" which means no change for the worse.

Looks, interesting...how would you rate it compared to MoO2?

Wondering if there is a way to emulate this? The browser I could see being replaced but the other parts like XNA may not be so easy to avoid assuming on the type of API calls made.

Really glad to hear there is a sequal on the way! If possible hopefully it will have multiplayer so I can share DW with others vs video or desktop sharing.

As of late I have been playing Stellaris and did enjoy it but the recent announced changes will send the game development in a direction that I feel is non innovative and far less interesting.

I look forward to the next Distant Worlds sequal to be my replacement go to for 4x large scale Scifi games. Thank you for all your efforts and Happy Holidays!

Thank you for that, very nice "review". You made me anxious to play a game, although i can see i will need time to read the manual first :S

mmm Sid Meier said that a long time ago, right? Because lately... :P

But i'm with you, actually i value having an easy way to get into the game more than ever. That's life, i suppose, i remember a time avidly reading all the manuals before even launching a game, no matter the number of pages written. Good old times :P

Anyway, i am convinced this is a must to have, i love 4x games, fantasy or space ones.

All right it. Also a little game on the side called This Is The Police.

If in doubt, grab the game. I bought it way way back when it was sold individually. Distant Worlds is one of the best space 4X ever! It may be rough around the edges and it isn't as tight and balanced as Stellaris but this is the kind of space game where you can grab it and feel in control and build a huge empire. I love the ship customization. If you do get it, beware! The Shakturis are coming back!! I treasure my physical copy here.

Game is now installed and I am currently reading its 112 page manual. XD

Saw it once for -70%.

Completely different. Distant Worlds is more akin to Dwarf Fortress, in that the AI handles most aspects - you just assign the 'macro' bits, then watch as individual ships carry out your general intent.

If you are looking for something more similar to MOO2, I would recommend Endless Space 2. You can create custom races, terraform planets, and generally do things similar to MOO2. The biggest difference is the battle system, though I am not sure on the details for ES2. The first game used cards to modify the actions of the ships you have designed, and you try to counter whatever the foe puts into play.

Should you want something from the early 90's, you can give Stars! a shot. Once again, you can design races and use them in creative ways to break the game. However, you will need to install Windows 3.11 in DOSBOX. Stars! is a 16-bit game. A example of horrible things you can do: Throw packets of resources at enemy worlds at FTL speeds, and watch them vanish. Alternatively, use a radiation-immune race and turn planets into hellholes that only you can live. Or send automated miners to stripmine planets.

Definitely on my list, though a holiday release always puts a game on delay due to finances, but I've been waiting for this one on GOG for a long time.

Now, if we can just get Sengoku and Warhammer 40k Armageddon here as well...