Comparing Distant Worlds to other strategy games

[Vyn]

I am looking to add some more games to my Steam backlog this weekend. Distant Worlds looks like a very interesting strategy game, but the price is really quite steep, and it can be hard to tell if it will be worth the price just from written reviews and Youtube videos that seem to be authored by mostly novice players.

My primary concern with strategy games of this type is that optimal gameplay frequently requires the player to perform very tedious micromanagement. In my very limited investigation into Distant Worlds, it seems like scouting and combat are two such areas that could be troublesome in game, despite the fact that automation is touted as one of the stronger points of the game.

Could any experienced players comment on the micromanagement involved in scouting and combat? Are there any other aspects of the game that demand micromanagement? In particular, it would be much appreciated it if you could break down the issue into the following two parts:

1): How important/rewarding is it to micromanage that aspect of gameplay?
2): How painful/tedious is it to micromanage that aspect of gameplay?

Comparisons to other strategy games would be very helpful to me, and perhaps to others who may be interested in Distant Worlds too. Here are some games I have in my Steam library that bear some resemblance to Distant Worlds and my impressions of them:

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AI War: High rewards for good micro of units, can be tedious due to interface, but maximum pain is limited by AI progress.
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Civilization IV - original series and Colonization: Worker micromanagement and optimizing city build queues is absolutely soul crushing yet essential for gameplay on higher difficulties.
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Crusader Kings II: High rewards for micromanagement of courtier invites, marriages, breeding and education, very tedious due to the interface, but maximum pain is limited by game mechanics that encourage players to divest territories and keep their direct holdings and court sizes small.
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Dominions 3 and 4: Blood slave, gem and unit shuffling is very tedious yet critical to gameplay. Scripting for big battles can also be painful with the primitive interface. Micromanagement grows exponentially with expansion due to continuous additions of thugs, supercombatants and high level gem or slave-using casters to the field on top of regular armies.
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Endless Space: The inability to control multiple battles in a turn when I last played the game was just silly. Interface is generally quite sleek, but limits on fleet size still make end game battles very tedious.
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Europa Universalis III: Micromanagement of army maneuvers to abuse the AI can help turn the tide of close battles. Replacing lost regiments and tracking in game dates for certain actions can be tedious. Nonetheless, this seems like one of the less micro-intensive games but still very fun games.
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Fallen Enchantress: Not much micro due to limited number of cities and units that you can realistically control. Unfortunately, the tactical battles were uninspiring. It seems like the game focused too much on RPG mechanics and forgot about implementing interesting battle mechanics.
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Galactic Civilizations II: Constructor and starbase management can be very tedious. The lack of waypoints for multi-turn unit movement necessitates the manual movement of nearly every unit every turn as well. Not fun at all when you have hundreds of units end game.
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March of the Eagles: Seems to have an appropriate amount of micro for a wargame since it is so combat oriented, but I have yet to put enough time into it. Not getting quite as much support from Paradox unfortunately.
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Sengoku: Essentially CK2-lite. There are some micromanagement problems in regards to having to keep close track of potential spouses and sending marriage proposals on the day they turn into an adult, as well as timing the movement of armies properly, but it is otherwise not very micro-intensive. Has problems with game-ending crashes unfortunately and seems to be no longer supported by Paradox.
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Sins of a Solar Empire - Rebellion: Scouting and fleet reinforcements require quite a bit of micromanagement. Scouting in particular is very demanding since decisive battles can be won or lost based simply on the positioning of your warp-in point. Capital ship abilities are impossible to micromanage in real time without pausing once you have more than a handful of them in combat. Build queues are of limited use in reducing micro since everything has to be paid for upfront.
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Star Ruler: The focus on ship design is both a blessing and curse on this game. Well designed fleets will trounce your opponents and can be a lot of fun to put together, but this also requires the player to constantly update their ships by hand as research progresses.
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Warlock Master of the Arcane: Demand for micromanagement of units tends to grow linearly with the player's expansions. The relatively small scope of the game in terms of map size generally prevents this from getting out of hand however.
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Thank you for your input!

[θάνατος]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg9_wWR8LOk&list=UUbx1TZgxfIauUZyPuBzEwZg
make the call for yourself

[Rakilonn]

For scouting you can still do -> Scout this entire sector.

For fleets you can define their stances (defencive/aggressive + a range system/sector/anywhere), so it's not that hard to define automated defence.

As I said it in others threads, you can still watch Das. I have not watched him but a lot of people recommend him.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJM-Vd74Egk1xvGp4BHWBA

There is also Larry Monte :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2elZa2o4sNFv5Xqa7t2IQ

[profanicus]

The game will play itself if you let it - zero micromanagement! But that's not much fun. ;)

[The Dude]

I think we share a taste in games Vyn, have played all the ones you mention except March of the Eagles.

Personally I do minimal micro on the exploration/scouting side of things. I give an exploration ship a manual order now and then and then leave them on their merry automated way. I also find the scouting of enemy/friendly empires fairly low stress and rewarding, since there are multiple ways (ships and listening posts of different configurations as well as intelligence missions) you can accomplish it.

When it comes to combat I very, very rarely micromanage individual ships. Usually just when a ship is stranded or in risk of going down. On the defence I use automated fleets with stances, although I do order other fleets to help if necessary. When it comes to sending attack fleets I always do that myself and occasionally pick high value targets like strong capital ships or space ports/defence bases, otherwise I just let a fleet or two maintain space superiority over the planet or system I'm invading.

That's my playstyle, though it might be a bit moot for you since I am not much of a min-maxer.

[Vyn]

Thank you for the suggestions! Quill's video is very much like the others I have already seen. It is a very good introduction to the game, but does not show the mid/late game or other game systems in depth.

I have already seen a couple of Das's videos as well. These are probably very useful, but the information density is a bit too low for me.

Larry Monte's videos seem to suit my needs better, especially the extreme survival series. He provides more insight and analysis, and it looks like the higher difficulty level also makes him focus more on the important aspects of gameplay. I will have to schedule some time to go through his playlist; hopefully I can get that done before this sale ends. Are there any other video's similar to Larry Monte's?

I would still love to hear any comparisons between Distant Worlds and other strategy games as well. Please do share your experience!

[Phase]

I never micromanage scouting or combat and they work well for me. I might take one or two explorers under manual control for special missions, but otherwise the automation works fine. For combat, I set the orders for fleets and strike forces, then let my admirals and captains handle the fighting. Works well. I'm sure you can do more with micro-management if you want to, but it's not necessary. Mid to late game with automation is no harder to keep up with than the early game, you're just focused on a different scale.

[Vyn]

Oops... forgot to refresh the page before my last post.

Originally posted by The Dude:

That's my playstyle, though it might be a bit moot for you since I am not much of a min-maxer.

Unfortunately, I can be quite the min-maxer when it comes to strategy games. Even though I prefer to play strategy games for fun, it can frequently be stress inducing due to the tension between my compulsion to optimize gameplay and the pain of micromanagement, and that is the one thing I really hope to avoid.

Distant Worlds' price point could complicate things even more in this regard. Will I regret my purchase? Will I be compelled to play more despite the pain of micromanagement because I want to get my money's worth? It seems like a tough call.

[AdmiralChong]

I just purchased last night based on gameplay alone for the type of game it is and what it offers I would say it is worth the cost although the company would make substantially more money offering there products at a more affordable price.

Not all gamers have large enough wallets for big spenditures but in this game if you can afford it, well worth the amount in my oppinion.

The only thing I do not like is there is no military victory condition I can set after disabling the rest and war weariness I do not believe can be turned off which given the level of customization for me is disapointing.

But if anyone knows a way to make this happen either by in game or mod feel free to let us know.

[Hermundure]

Vyn no one here can tell if you will like this game or if you feel comfortable in your min-max-avoid-micro dilemma.

Your best bet is to watch lets plays as Rakilonn already mentioned.
Dont trust the opinion of others when it comes to matters of personal taste ;-)