Game questions.

[Hade]

I have Distant Worlds and the 1st expansion. I know the game just basically plays itself. So I do have some questions about Universe.

Is there a 64 bit version of this game, I remember that 32 bit would get bogged down tremedously and eventually become unplayable due to all the ships.

I remember that my ships/fleets would often forget to refuel and I'd have to constantly hunt down the ones that did. Is this still the case? I don't remember the exact circumstances anymore.

In designing your own ships, I remember the ai would ignore your designs, you were never able to upgrade them unless you redesigned them over and over. So basically if you didn't use the defaults, you were screwed. Has this been fixed? For example, I created a mining station with weapons, but automated ships never build them and you could never really delete the defaults, so eventually I just gave up on designing anything.

I haven't played the game in atleast a year if not more.

Thanks.

[Ri0Rdian]

The game only play itself if you wish so, and I believe most people don't play this way.

No 64bit version, but the expansions improved the performance considerably compared to what it once was. Late game 15x15 sectors, max stars and lots of empires you can get into some issues but that is rarely the case imho.

No refuelling problems afaik.

Automated constructor ships are generally a bad idea, they build too much, too far. It is better just to select your targets, order a station to get built and use manual constructors. Whenever a constructor is free it will go for your orders and you get best of both worlds = very little constructor management and you pick what you wish and want atm.
However AI will build your designs and upgrade them no problem. Lots of people use the Improved Ai mod, that enhances and tailors the designs to the specific empires. Makes Ai more competent, more dangerous and thus increases the difficulty.

[Xerberus86]

a) the game, like the poster above said, only plays itself if you leave all / too many automation settings on. i play almost completely manual and ist not just feastable but a lot of fun (later on you can still turn on some automations if u wish so).

b) no 64 bit version, you can't just switch from 32bit to 64 bit, they would need a completely different engine lol (kinda obsolete quesiton tbh). although performance has been drastically improved in the 3rd and 4th expansion pack (i don't mean 10% but more like 100%+).

c) no refueling problems anymore, IF you have enough fuel in the empire and you didn't drain it empty or your mining bases & starships are just plainly bad placed / too many starbases.

d) you have more buttons & options for upgrading your designs, you can there are several ways to upgrade now. it mostly will just replace the old modules with better ones and not remove your custom modules (like weapons on mining bases). there are also "upgrade" or "update" buttons for your manually controlled designs which do just that (upgrade to the newest modules if available, but NOT remove anything).

ALSO: if you only have the base game + 1st expansion pack (return of the shakturi) then THIS version (distant worlds universe) will be quite meaty for you! the 2nd expansion added for example (!) fleet stances, better overlays (like flight paths / ship trajectories), silvermist cloud (bad as s nanomachine monster) and characters which gain traits (fleet commanders, colony commander, leaders, scientiests etc.). the 3rd expansion added pirate FACTIONS (not just some randomly spawning pirates who are an annoyance but real factions which have their own goals and might even become a full empire). pirate factions can also be used to smuggle some resources for you, to destroy some enemy starbases or mining stations, etc. .... there are many uses for them. you can also play as a pirate faction.

bottom line: if you just remotely liked the base game + 1st expansion then get Distant Worlds Universe, it contains base game + 4 expansion packs which will add an tremendous amount of new content for you (and your stated concerns have been dealt with).

[Hade]

Thanks for the infos!

[Ri0Rdian]

Also, you get to play in a Pre-warp era if you wish, which is really cool and I and a lot of others too only start a game this way! No jump drives or anything, limited to your own systems (and maybe one or two other if they happen to be close enough, although only for constructors, colonizers or explorers designed specially for this) with very basic technology.

Pre-warp + everything manual is a great (probably the best!) way for new or returning players to get into the game imho.
Automation can be easily avoided, only very late game and huge maps/empires might be easier to turn fleets on some form of automation, since it is not feasible to have tens of various fleets with hundreds of ships be commanded by you, you cannot be in 2+ places at once anyway.