The Dhayut Kingdom - A Distant Worlds Dynasty

[Critch]

It’s been a while since I went to the bother of writing a dynasty so, despite the lack of demand for a dynasty forum return, here goes.

Distant Worlds is, I think, widely regarded as the best 4X space strategy game available at the moment. It’s huge, it’s complicated and it’s well thought out, although not being an unfinished buggy mess puts a step ahead of most of the rest of the field. It’s also deep, but allows you to automate pretty much every function if controlling everything is too daunting. Obviously I’m a real man, so I’ll be rejecting all that handholding and playing with total control. Like a real man.

The main hit against the game is that it’s ugly, all pixel-y and old fashioned looking when a lot of the more recent games (like Endless Space) are 3d and lovely, but Distant Worlds has the gameplay right so it wins despite it’s lack of flashy graphics. It’s also pricey, Matrix Games are the publisher and they generally avoid sales and competitive pricing like the plague. For a long time the only option was to buy the original game and the 4(or 5?) expansion packs from Matrix for well over $100, but now there’s a Distant Worlds: Universe complete collection available on Steam for the slightly less frightening price of $59.99. There was a discounted price when it first turned up on Steam, can’t remember how much I paid but it wasn’t 60 bucks. That’s way over the amount I’d spend on a game, which is why I’m writing a dynasty about an old game instead of playing XCOM 2.

So now I’m prepared to go, I’ve read a couple of guides to get ideas, I’ve played a quick “learning” game to get to grips with the basics, and last night I watched Prometheus to get me in a space-ish frame of mind. So it’s time to make it so.

(Full disclosure –I actually started the game over a week ago and I’m quite far into it so I'm not really just starting out. And I watched Prometheus two nights ago, not last night)

[Critch]

Setting Up The Game

First task when setting the game up is setting the galaxy options: size, shape, number of empires, technology level starting point, things like that. I have no idea if that’s correct use of a colon, but it’s in there now.

There’s no point in playing a huge space opera game without a huge map and a huge number of systems, so we’ll be going with the maximum number of stars (1400) and the maximum map size (15 x 15 sectors), map type is Elliptical (or maybe it was Spiral, cant remember, much the same). Technology starting point is “PreWarp”, no empire will have the technology to get out of their own system at the start of the game and we’ll all be starting with a single planet. Everything else is set to default. The huge size may eventually make the game so slow it'll be unplayable, but if that happens I'll declare myself winner and start again.

Next up are Space Pirates and Space Creatures. In my test game I got stuck in a corner surrounded by a huge Space Pirate empire so I couldn't expand plus I’ve also read a few posts that Space Pirates stunt the AI empires so much that they make the game too easy. Eff all that, Space Pirates set to none. Space Creatures are great big creatures that orbit planets and eat space ships. Really it just means there will be a giant space lobster near your first planet waiting to chew on your first space port, bit boring, so Space Creatures are set to none too.

The next non-default setting is “Independent Alien Life”, this sets the number of independent planets spread around the galaxy, single planet nations that generally wont expand into space. Since my game is going to be all about killing alien scum.....umm meeting new alien friends that’ll be set to plentiful.

Next task is to select the dominant race of the empire, so it’s time to introduce the good guys, The Dhayut. (“Good guys” is a stretch, to be honest).

Normally when I play a 4X game, be it space based or Civ or whatever, I play a boring lovable nation. All about building a nice empire, being pacifist and making friends. I’m not sure why, it just ends up that way. I guess I’m boring. Normally I’d also go for Human since I vaguely understand that race being one myself. This time will be all different.

The Dhayut are massive spider bastards from space. Huge, powerful arachnids with large orange-yellow eyes. The Galactopedia says “very aggressive and highly unfriendly”, “treacherous”, “frenzied and temporarily insane”, “no qualms about stealing, cheating or murdering if it furthers their interests”. They sound nice.

Final screen is some Empire settings. Empire name, flag colors, government type, nothing overly important. The Dhayut go for a yellow and orange flag. Is it because they love citrus fruit? Is it because it goes with their eyes? Is it because it makes them easy to spot on the map? Who can say? (It’s because it makes them easy to spot on the map). Government type is Monarchy, which comes with bonuses for troop recruitment and reduces war weariness, which will all come in handy. I let the game choose the empire name, it came up with Dhayut Kingdom. Catchy.

And with the settings all set, it’s time to set off on a crusade to galactic dominance, featuring enslavement and massacres along the way.

[Critch]

One Small Eight-legged Step for Dhayut-Kind.

And so it begins. After a few minutes generating a galaxy, the Dhayut (2.5 billion of them) are plonked onto their single starting planet in the Astra system. The original planet name looks like a Scrabble© rack, so it needed to be changed. I really should have changed it to “Mars” so we’d have the story of the Spiders from Mars, but I wasn’t that creative at the time. The home world is called “Home”. I didn’t mention it in the settings post, but I chose “random” for the starting position and the Astra system is about as central as it could be. In a 15 x 15 sector galaxy labeled A to N on the X-Axis and 1 to 15 on the Y-Axis, the Astra system is in Sector G,7. Pretty central.

The Dhayut are a desert planet race so start on a desert planet and will only be able to colonize desert planets without quite a lot of research. Nothing a big spider likes more than hanging about on a rock taking in the sun. Home itself is pretty meh, all planets are ranked 0-100% quality and Home is 81%. Good but not great for a home world. The real weakness is resources; Home has been shortchanged with only one resource (Silicon) and not a whole lot of it. There are 41 different resources split between strategic (needed to build things) and luxury (keep the people happy), with strategic resources generally being far more common. The early game will revolve around exploring and discovering sources for as many strategic resources as possible and building mining stations. Where Home has been lucky is that it has two moons giving sources of “very common” strategic resources Gold, Iridium, Steel and Lead. First step into space will be setting up mining bases on the two moons.

Distant Worlds has a character system where you’ll get named important characters from the empire who bring bonuses/penalties depending on their traits. Generals, admirals, scientists, governors, the Empire’s leadership and elite. We start with King Nashari Gachuz and a couple of intelligence agents (who are worthless til we find somebody to target). The King is a Dhayut’s Dhayut. He’s xenophobic and disorganized, which brings lowered trade income and slower construction. Really should have dismissed him, but that’s gamey and xenophobic fits the Dhayut theme so long live the King.

There are still two things to take care of before unpausing the game (Distant Worlds is real time, not turn based): Construction Queue and Research. The start of the game is exploration and mining for resources, so to support that we build a Space Port at Home and a couple of Construction ships. The Space Port has construction yards to build other ships, docking bays and cargo holds to collect resources from around the system, and Labs to support the research. Research limits are a complicated thing in Distant Worlds, all math, potential limits and bonuses, but basically the labs in the Home Space Port and a couple of specialized bases at research locations through the galaxy will take us to the limit for most of the game. The Construction ships will be used to build the mining bases to fill the resource needs.

Research its self if pretty standard, the tech tree is split into three chunks (Weapons, Energy/Construction, Hitech/Industry), the research points gained from the labs move us along the research trees. We’ll start off with lasers and armor on the Weapons Tree, Energy Collectors on the Energy Tree, and some Space Port improvements that bring population happiness bonuses on the Hi-tech tree and we’re good to go.

With everything set, it's time to hit unpause and wait as things move super-slowly with pre-warp engines. It takes years (game time, not real time) for a ship to cross the solar system, going to a different system is out the question. Before too long the Space Port is built, and set to work on constructing Scout spaceships. The Construction Ships also complete and are sent off to build mining bases on the moons (Construction Ships are painfully slow pre-Warp, the nearby moons are a real bonus).

The expansion of the Great Dhayut Kingdom is underway, watch out alien scum.

[Tellistto]

Very nice start, Critch. Following along!

Tell

[JonInMiddleGA]

I have a reasonable notion of what's going on in a game that I don't think I'd ever heard of before this thread.

I'd say that's a good start.

[Critch]

Thanks for the positive reviews, this update actually sees the game start. Not just place setting.


A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with Eight Single Steps

Yes, I am going to beat the fact spiders have eight legs to death.

After a bit of clockwatching (I never speed up time, everything is played on slow at all times, full immersion 4 teh win), the Dhayut Kingdom got into space. The Home Space Port was up, the center of the Empire’s economy, ship building, and research capabilities. There were a couple of construction ships launched, one to build a mining station on one of the nearby moons and the other to crawl across the system to an outer planet, a gas giant that will get a gas mining station to provide Hydrogen and Caslon, the fuels used by Dhayut ships. Fuel is important because (obviously) our ships won't go without it, so it’s worth the time sending a lumbering construction ship out to the system’s outer rings.

I haven't played far into a game, but I’ve started a good number of times. From that I know the starting system is pretty standard in every game. There will be the home planet and a few others circling the sun, there will be a collection of moons orbiting the planets, there will be an asteroid field, there will be two abandoned warships orbiting somewhere in the system left over from earlier civilizations, and there will be two planets with artifacts from an earlier civilization. None of the planets or moons will be colonizable without research, none of them Dhayut-friendly desert. Of the two warships, one will be usable and one will need a construction ship repairing it for years to get it going. Of the two artifacts one will give a tech boost and the other will give the starting point for Warp technology. The Warp technology branch is closed on the tech tree until the starting point is found. Every game seems to start the same.

Astra follows that template. There are 10 planets circling Astra's sun, close to the sun are barren rock planets that are good for mining but no use for colonizing, out at the edges are gas giants and frozen gas giants that are the same. The interesting planets are Home (3rd planet), Astra 5(an ocean planet) and Astra 7 (an earth-like continental planet). Three potentially use-able planets in the one system is fairly high for the game, so Astra seems like a good starting point. Astra 5 is fairly low quality (61%) and would take a lot of research to get a colony on it, so it’s for the future, but Astra 7 (80% quality and lots of resources) looks like it’ll be the first Dhayut colony. Once the science bods work out the Colonization tech, they’re set to work on the Continental Planet tech. Colonizing Continental Planets is easier for the Dhayut than Ocean planets.

Once the Space Port is active, its construction yards come on line. They’re immediately set to work on a couple of exploration ships. Pre-Warp they wont be able to leave the system but until then they’ll buzz around Astra discovering which resources are on each planet, investigating artifacts, and investigating the remnant warships. It’s all very slow to start with, the explorations ships have a top speed of 40, that'll go up to 13500 when we get to warp engines. So my exploration ships and construction ships (top speed 14) crawl around Astra. If you’re a spider construction worker who wants to sign up to work on a new gas mining station out on Astra 9, it’ll be 10+ years before you’re home to the wife and eggs.

Thanks to some bad luck with the exploration ships and planet orbits, it takes the Dhayut longer than necessary to find the artifacts that kick starts warp research. By then the working abandoned warship has been investigated and boarded. It’s nothing special so it’s sent to the Home shipyards to be taken apart and the tech investigated by Dhayut scientists, resulting in a gain in reactor technology research.

By the time the Dhayut kingdom gets to warp technology, Astra is a busy industrial center. The construction ships have built 4 or 5 mining stations around the system kicking off the unusual Direct Worlds financial system. The empire is split into two sectors, State (military, space ports, construction ships, colony ships) and Private Sector (freighters, mining bases, traders, passenger ships). State is controlled by the player, Private Sector is AI controlled. The player influences the Private Sector, you design their ships and bases so you can control what tech they have access too, but other than that there’s not much control. The moment the State builds a mining base on another planet, the Private Sector realize they can make money in space and start ordering freighters to ship the resources back to Home. The construction yards on Home Space Port are suddenly overloaded with orders from the Private sector, bringing in more money to the State coffers. The new revenue stream means the State can cut back on its other stream, taxes. We’re not going to take over the galaxy with 2.5 billion spiders, we need more. As everybody knows, a happy spider is a horny spider so lower tax rates increase population growth. Breed, my little low-taxed beauties.

So there we are, the Dhayut Kingdom has developed the Astra system into a minor industrial center and is ready to expand out into the universe under the enlightened leadership of the beloved leader, good King Nashari.

[Critch]

The King is Dead, Long Live the King.

Well so much for good King Nashari. The Dhayut description did say “no qualms about stealing, cheating or murdering if it furthers their interests”.

First nail in his coffin was a new governor character arrived at Home, Oro Yatsin. Where King Nashari was xenophobic and unfriendly to trade, Oro had a “Free Trader” trait that brought trade bonuses. Second nail in his coffin was that when the Dhayut tested the first step of warp technology, Independent trader ships started turning up at the Space Port bringing goods from nearby (but undiscovered) independent alien colonies. The Private Sector could put up with King Nashari’s trade inhibiting, and his disorganization leading to longer wait times for new freighters, when they had no contacts, but the moment he was costing them money there was a coup d’état. King Nashari was overthrown and executed (legs pulled off and thrown down a well, in the traditional Dhayut style), and King Oro was on the throne. The Private Sector rejoiced as they saw their trade income go up 25%.

(I don’t know if this was a random triggered event or if the game is sophisticated enough to overthrow unpopular leaders, but the coup made sense at the time it happened. So either “well done, game” or “happy coincidence”)

The change of leader resulted in very little upheaval (King Oro also has a “Popular” trait, the Proles love him), some tax wasn’t paid but no rebellion and within a couple of weeks the Dhayut Kingdom was back to normal and looking to space.

As mentioned, Scientists had made the first break through in warp technology, a massive Warp Bubble Generator that works but is too energy inefficient to put into our ships. Only a stepping stone to usable tech. Research goes onto the next upgrade on the tech tree, Hyperdrive Technology. It’s not quick research, but the Hyperdrive engines are worth the wait. In preparation for this upgrade all the Dhayut construction and exploration ships are ordered to drop what they’re doing and head for Home so they’re at the Space Port and ready for retrofit when the Hyperdrive research is finished.

The other main news events were some technology advances brought upgrades to the Home Space Port. Medical labs and Space Port recreational advances (the Dhayut version of DirecTV, I guess) increased the happiness levels on Home, Solar Energy Collectors meant that Home Space Port could generate it's own fuel rather than needing regular fuel deliveries.

Last event of this period was that the Dhayut went through their cycle, a 5 yearly event where their aggression and reproduction spike. It’s passed without comment a few times, but this cycle got a little out of hand and hundreds of thousands of Dhayut were eaten in a cannibalistic frenzy. This is definitely a culture worth spreading across the galaxy.

[Critch]

There’s No Place Like Home

Once all the King killing and comrade eating shenanigans were out the way, it was time for the Dhayut to concentrate on their destiny. Crushing empires, enslaving the weak, subjugating independents and generally killing non-Dhayuts. It’s good to have a plan.

Colonization technology was finally completed which allowed the Dhayut to colonize desert planets. Unfortunately we hadn't found any, but it's a good thing to know. Other planet types wouldn't be colonizable until further research was complete. For the Dhayut, Continental and Marshy planets require a reasonable amount of research, volcanic and ocean a good deal more. As there’s a single Continental planet within the home system, that technology was next for research, once it was discovered the Dhayut were ready to take the big step and spread out from Home.

In Distant Worlds ship designing is quite in-depth, you choose the type of ship (mainly so the AI knows how to use it if you automate) and then add the required individual components to build it up. With research more components and improved variations on the ones you have become available, so designing a ship normally means updating the design as new technologies become available and retrofitting your existing ships to the upgraded version.

With Continental planet colonization fully researched, the Dhayut colony ship design was created. Engines (both thrust and vectoring), habitat modules, life support, colony pods, reactors, cargo holds, fuel tanks, all the basics. No warp engines were needed because this one was staying in system, going to Astra 7. The first colony ship, Dhayut Egg Pod v1, was built at Home, 30 million “volunteers” loaded and off it set on its slow non-warp engined crawl across the system to Astra 7.

Unfortunately for these brave colonists they may have been the first to set off but they were not the first to actually found a colony. They’d been away for a couple of months before the Hyperdrive Engine technology became usable. There was enough time to upgrade the exploration ships to have hyperdrives, build a new exploration ship, send the three out to map systems in opposite directions, find a desert planet in the first system south of Astra, upgrade the Colony Ship design to Egg Pod v2 (now with Hyperdrive), build a v2 colony ship, load it with colonists, send it to the new world and colonize it. The second bunch got to their target a couple of days before the Astra 7 colonists, so the Dhayut Kingdom went from one planet to three in a week. Hyperdrive engines speed things up a great deal.

Four billion-ish on Home, thirty million on Astra 7 (renamed to Oro in honor of the glorious leader, may change when he ends up legless and at the bottom of a well) and 30 million on Newhome (imaginatively named by me) in the Darimur system just to the south. Both the new colonies have 0% tax, got to attract colonists some how, and a passenger ship design was released for the Private Sector to order and make money shipping around colonists and tourists.

Since the Dhayut are finally expanding out of their system, it’s time for a quick galaxy geography lesson. Astra is near the end of a spiral arm leading from South to North. To the North there’s the end of the arm, to the south more arm, to the west there are sparce systems, to the east a few systems then a huge gas cloud. So north and south seem the ways to expand as that's where systems are densest.

Exploration ships with the new hyperdrive were now zipping around searching for resources to fill in our gaps, strategic resources that we have no sources for, and looking for other colonies.There was no luck on the colonies after about 20 systems, so much for plentiful alien life.

[Critch]

Hello Dhayuts My Old Friends

A not insignificant amount of time passed after the Dhayut Kingdom’s expansion to three colonies with absolutely nothing of note happening. The construction fleet was expanded to allow faster mining expansion, up to 5 ships, and the Private Sector’s Freighters and Passenger ship designs were updated to include Hyperdrive engines allowing them to get back and forward to the new colony outside the Astra system, but no contact with outsiders. I was nearly at the point of thinking I’d messed up something in the game setup, maybe playing in an empty galaxy, because by now I’d have expected to have bumped into a couple of independent colonies and/or exploration ships from other empires, but nothing. The Dhayuts did find and take over an abandoned space station to the east of Home, a monitoring station with scanners that would warn of any approach through the gas cloud, but nothing populated.

Contact was finally made in a system at the very north of the sector directly north of Home’s sector. The galaxy is 15 x 15 sectors and the Dhayut Kingdom was still exploring within a sector of home, it’s a big old galaxy out there. Our exploration ship warped into the Khulum system and found a single inhabited planet, an independent colony with no space technology. The good news was that this wasn’t a collection of nasty squishy humans or any other galactic vermin; this was a lost colony of Dhayut. Five hundred million of them, their desert planet slightly more hospitable than Home, but with no resources. No resources other than 500 million fellow Dhayuts anyway.

And now a little of the lore behind the Distant Worlds galaxy. Once upon a time, thousands and thousands of years ago, the galaxy was full of space-faring empires. But then something happened, something from a different galaxy that was big and nasty and had much better weapons than the locals, something that knocked the crap out of all the empires and pushed them back to Stone Age levels with no contact with other planets and then moved on. All that was left were legends of a glorious past, a few abandoned warships floating about, and buildings on uninhabited worlds. Also left over were other colonies isolated from their neighbors, since Home was probably once part of a pre-historic Dhayut empire any isolated colonies near by will probably be Dhayut too. And that’s why Home’s neighbors were Dhayut too.

When finding an independent colony the options are to either send a colony ship, or invade. If you send a colony ship the locals may accept the newcomers and join the empire, or if they’re in anyway hostile they’ll kill off the 30 million newcomers. Invade means troopships in place of colony ships and full on hostilities, but since this was a friendly Dhayut colony that didn't seem to be necessary. You don’t know for sure until the colony ship actually lands, but it seemed a good bet, especially since Dhayut don’t have troop ship technology yet.

A colony ship was built at Home and filled with 30 million newcomers/potential victims to be sent to Khulum, that’s when I discover the new place was too far away from Home to colonize. Luckily there was a desert planet about half way, poor quality and no resources, but a colony there allowed a second colony ship to be sent to Khulum where they were accepted as long lost brothers by the locals. And that’s how the colony at Khulum 2 (renamed Prodigal Son) and the midway point Junction became part of the great Dhayut Kingdom.

I hope it’s not a spoiler, but next episode is when we finally meet alien scum

[Brian Swartz]

You meet alien scum ... or the aliens meet Dhayut scum?!?

[Simbo Klice]

Sounds like a very cool game I'll have to check out, loving this dynasty so far, keep it up!

[Critch]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I plan on keeping this going for a while, game is far forward of here but still going. And Dhayut scum? Our reputation is spotless so far.

We Have Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself. And Alien Space Sheep.

A few more years went by with the Dhayut Kingdom slowly expanding. A new colony was founded by colonists from Home, Kurdas in the Kurdassea system directly east of Home. It’s the last system before a huge gas cloud (The Troxean Arm), the planet was nothing special but hopefully means any attackers coming through the gas cloud would stop off to attack Kurdas instead of falling unannounced on Home.

The kingdom expanded further when another lost Dhayut colony was found to the west of the Prodigal Sons colony. Strangely for a Dhayut colony, they were on a Marshy planet. 120 million Dhayut, planet quality 60% (fairly poor, anything less than 50% comes with negative population growth so 60% isnt a nice place to live). The one thing they did have in their favor was that they were a source of a very rare luxury item, Ekarus meat. Ekarus are huge marsh-dwelling predators, but their meat is apparently valued so having a source bumped happiness all over the Dhayut Kingdom. They were slightly too far from the Prodigal Sons colony to just send a colony ship, so another half-way colony was founded (poor quality desert planet Urd Pardrun, no resources), the Ekarus meat farmers were welcomed in to the kingdom, their colony renamed to “New Prodigal”, and the Dhayut Kingdom was up to just over 8 billion Dhayut on 8 planets in 7 different systems.

The expansion south was stalled as we still didnt have the technology required to colonize marshy planets (despite the colony on marshy New Prodigal) so North was the way to explore. And that’s where we met our first aliens. It was all very low key, a Dhayut exploration ship turned up in an uninhabited system and there was an alien exploration ship exploring, they met, they exchanged details, they went on their way. No killing, no enslaving, no bad feelings, but that contact meant that we now knew the Ketarov Republic was out there somewhere.

In Distant Worlds a number of the default races are based on species you’ll find on earth, I havent used any of the expanded mods so that’s whats in the galaxy. The Ketarov are space sheep. Short, white fur, intelligent and passive but paranoid, they live on continental worlds in large groups grazing on plains. They are not going to be friends to the Dhayut, pretty much everybody will take an instant dislike to us other than other insect races, but they were not an instant threat either.

Not an instant threat, but they did spark a Dhayut arms race. When you meet a galactic empire, they turn up on the diplomacy screen, from that I could see the Ketarov Republic was exclusively Ketarov, had 2 colonies, they were a republic, they had about half our population and about a quarter our economy, but it was their Military Strength rating that caused panic. Dhayut Kingdom had a rating of 400-ish (a couple of scavenged warships and weapons on the star ports), Ketarov Republic had 2200. In my test game I had a large peaceful empire that met smaller alien empires and mistakenly thought “we’re too big for them to mess with” even though they had larger militaries. That ended up with things being shot out the sky and colonies reduced to rubble, so not making that mistake this time. It was time for the great Dhayut Kingdom to have a great Dhayut military.

There was plenty of excess income coming from the economy, so the Dhayut could afford to go on a serious building rush. The plan was every system with a colony gets a System Defence Fleet (SDF), and then a large Home Fleet would be built that could rush to any conflict. A destroyer class design was created, hyperdrive, engines and a bank of our latest laser cannons (Maxos Blasters) and 7 SDF fleets, each with 4 destroyers, were built at Home and sent out across the Kingdom. When they arrived at their new home they were set to consider their new colony home and set to AI control with the instruction that they were to defend anything within their system. The Home Fleet was a different setup, two Carriers loaded with fighters and missiles to hang back, with 6 escort ships (lighter armored, faster versions of the destroyers) set to rush enemies, fire their Maxos Blasters, and draw fire til the Carrier fighters and missiles arrived. I had no idea how any of these designs would work, but they seemed to make sense. That took Dhayut Kingdom’s military rating up to 2400, larger than Ketarov so hopefully enough of a deterrent. A tech advance soon after allowed all the ships to be retrofited with much improved Titan Blasters in place of the Maxos blasters and our strength went over 4000, so that should safeguard the colonies from opportunist attacks.

So another episode goes by and we may be well armed but we havent killed anybody. A total failure for an evil empire.

[Critch]

The Ackdarian Wars (AKA the Wars of Dhayut Aggression)

The military having been taken care of, it was time for a push on construction ships to drive the economy. More systems inhabited by Dhayut meant more potential in-system mining targets, so a huge chunk of the reserves were spent expanding the construction fleet from 3 to 9 ships. With that we could mine everywhere, and each colony having a Space Port with a commerce center would mean money flooding in, hopefully. It would be needed to support the military without raising taxes.

With the expansion to the south waiting on Marsh planet technology (and no great need to rush to go for that anyway, nothing great in the south so far), the exploration ships from the south were pointed west instead. There’s a lot of empty space to the west before another band of systems, and fuel technology advances now meant that the Dhayut ships could get there, look around, and make it back easily.

One of the first systems to be visited by an exploration ship was Ackdar, which turned out to be the Ackdarian home system. There were two inhabited planets, both ocean worlds, and both home to 1.2 billion Ackdarians. Despite being so close to each other they were both independent colonies with no space defenses. Sitting ducks really.

As mentioned above a lot of the races are similar to earth animal species, and the Ackdarian fit in with that. They’re space seals. Mammals, semi-Aquatic, industrious, intelligent, peaceful and friendly. If the Ackdarian are seals, they’re about to be introduced to the Dhayut club. (Actually they’re not seals, I’ve just realized while reading their description that they’re space otters but I liked my sophisticated sealclubbing related humor, so it’s staying.)

Troop ship technology had recently been achieved, so the first Dhayut invasion force was put together at Home. The Spider Space Marine Delivery System (SSMDSv1) ships were constructed, loaded with 5 battalions of Dhayut Infantry recruited at Home. The Escort ship design used in the Home Fleet was updated with more fuel tanks to extend range and four built to escort the troop ships and fill out the 1st Dhayut Subjugation Fleet and sent off to Ackdar. This was a one-way trip unless they won, because they’d need to refuel to come home.

There are four basic types of ground military units in Distant Worlds: Infantry (grunts, the standard), Armor (better than infantry but expensive to build and maintain), Special Forces (used to land first and destroy defenses), Militia (citizens with guns, cheap and basic). Since the targets are just independent colonies defended by garrisoned militia units and no space defenses, Infantry was all that was needed. Armor gets all kinds of penalties on ocean worlds anyway. Tanks sink.

The plan was warp into Ackdar pretty much on top of the first planet (Ayens), the escorts control the area round the planet (the invasion will get a large bonus since the space above the planet is controlled) and the troop ships land all five battalions of infantry to destroy the one battalion of Ackdarian militia defending. Once the planet is controlled, load the Infantry back into the troop ships and onto the second colony (Ackdar 1) to repeat the plan there.

Everything went ok until the halfway point, the invasion force was back on the troop ships and ready to head on leaving hastily recruited Ackdarian Militia to hold the planet when Ayens rebelled. The Dhayut infantry was then landed back onto the planet to support the Ackdarian Militia, the rebellion crushed, and one Dhayut infantry battalion left garrisoned to keep them down. The time it had all taken meant the second target (Ackdar 1) had time to recruit more militia so the invasion was much closer than the first planet, and was immediately followed by a huge rebellion, hundreds of thousands of Ackdarian taking up arms. It eventually took the Subjugation Fleet troop ships returning to Home and picking up 5 more battalions of Dhayut infantry and a second troop fleet (The Western Legion) built, loaded with troops, and sent off to Ackdar.

It took years and tens of thousands of dead Dhayut troops (and millions of Ackdarian) to put down all the rebellions, but by the end both Ackdar colonies, plus a third, larger Ackdarian colony found nearby (Gamma, 2.6 billion) were enslaved and made part of the Dhayut Kingdom. It would need battalions of Dhayut troops occupying the colonies for years but there are a few resources that are only available on Ocean worlds, so the three new colonies would earn their keep, especially since enslaved populations work cheaper so there was a large revenue bonus from each colony.

To the west of all these wars we found our first empire, the Iskabar Territory, an Ackdarian Military Dictatorship. To start with I was a bit surprised the AI hadn’t expanded this empire into the independent colonies we’d just taken over, but it looks like the Iskabar Territory has its own problems, namely an Ackdarian civil war with systems to their south that broke away and formed their own democratic empire, the Windus Confederacy.

The Iskabar Territory is a long term target. Their two planets are too well defended for right now.

[Brian Swartz]

Like I said, the Dhayut scum. Also, well done so far.

[Critch]

Yeah, the Dhayut have taken a turn to evil and things are going to get worse eventually.

Meanwhile, Years Earlier

In the west the invasions, rebellions and wars in Ackdar and surrounding system dragged on for years. There would be periods of quiet and calm, periods where the Dhayut troop ships returned to Home to pick up volunteers to throw into the grinder, or advances stalled while waiting for reinforcements, but while it was dragging on the rest of the kingdom didn’t grind to a halt.

(One thing I’ve been pretty vague about is the passage of time, and that’s because I don’t like the clock on the game. Everything is so rushed, I prefer to think of this as a huge epic covering centuries but the time ticks by in the game too slowly. In my test game a human colony of 2.5 billion became a 12 planet empire with 30 billion inhabitants in 22 years, way too quick. So in my mind, I think of 1 “Dhayut Year” game time being about 5 years real time. That gets me to the century spanning epic. On that scale, the Ackdarian wars have been dragging on nearly 20 years).

While the west was in upheaval, the rest of the Kingdom was going through a golden period. The Dhayut were secure, rich, and breeding like rabbits on viagra. Being warlike and unquestioning of the Dhayut royals, the population was suffering from no war weariness, the wars in the west could drag on for ever and they’d be happy, just so long as the news coverage mentioned lots of victories. Population on the main planets was increasing at about 20% a year (Dhayut year) rate, turning small colonies into major centers and the main planets (Home and Prodigal Sons) into huge, multi-billion population powerhouses. The construction ships were busy putting mining stations on anything not populated, the scientists were making advances in the Home Space station and a couple of dedicated research stations built around the Kingdom . It was a good time to be a space spider.

One space spider not having a good time was King Oro, he went the way of his predecessor, legs pulled off and thrown down a well. King Oro was a trader, the new King (King Sawa Uktab) is Courageous and Expansionist, a wartime King really. Once more the Dhayut elite seem to have chosen a king who fits the time. So well done AI, again. The Prodigal Sons colony didn’t take it well, they rebelled for a month or two refusing to pay taxes, but everything soon returned to normal.

The expansion south had stalled due to Dhayut not having the technology required to colonize Marshy planets, and there was nothing worth the research effort to expand that direction. That changed when the exploration ships found the planet Loros. Earlier I mentioned the colony that was worth having because it had a very rare luxury resource, Ekarus meat; Loros had an even rarer resource, an extremely rare resource. Extremely rare means only 1 to 3 planets in the galaxy will have it, the kind of commodity that’s in demand so much trading it to another empire can make a friend out of an enemy. Or at least stop them attacking. The planet Loros is the galaxy’s source of Loros Fruit, a fruit containing chemicals that can increase lifespan and brings development bonuses to any colony with a supply route to it. With that as the prize the Dhayut had the incentive to research Marshy planet colonization and expand into the south. Loros was far enough away it would take a couple of colonies built along the way to reach it, so colony ships were built at Home and Dhayut expanded into the South with the colonies Keelemaar, Nispes and finally Loros.

In the North there was a new colony at Calipsa, a high quality (90%) continental planet, and another planet discovered with lots of aliens hiding in underground stasis pods from the ancient alien invasion. We let them be for the moment, but the admiral of the Dhayut Subjugation Fleet had their coordinates on his “to-do” list for after Ackdar. They’re Shandar, easy going, not very intelligent, lizard people. They could probably do with enslavement so the Dhayut can look after them.

[Critch]

Four Conflicts and a Mass Funeral - Part One

Over the years the Dhayut Kingdom had contact with a number of rival empires, I haven't mentioned many of them as they didn't amount to much more than exploration ships meeting each other, or one of them turning up in a inhabited system. The number met being 16 was a surprise as I’d set it to 12 in the game setup, but I also selected the “Allow Independent Colonies to develop into Empires” option, and I think a couple of empires have split during a civil war so I assume that accounts for the increase. The Dhayut still had no knowledge of between a third and half of the galaxy so there may be more out there. No humans so far, nobody from the humanoid family of species at all. A lot of the rival empires are small, 1 or 2 colonies, so far the Dhayut Kingdom are the largest and strongest appearing on the diplomacy screen, approximately 30% bigger than the second largest.

During the Ackdarian Wars a number of rivals had annoyed the great Dhayut Kingdom, either by their actions or just by being there, so now the western rebellions had calmed down it was time to strike out and throw some spider weight about.

1 – Invasion of Dintaal – The Iskabar Territory (the Ackdarian military dictatorship to the west) hated the Dhayut Kingdom, the whole invading their neighbors, enslaving their fellow Ackdarians thing, plus there may have been a couple of their freighters accidentally blown up during the invasions. A few reasons, really. They were a threat to our new colonies, so it was time to knock them down a little. At the edge of their territory was an independent colony called Dintaal, 2.6 billion Ackdarians just waiting to become part of Iskabar, so the Dhayut Subjugation Fleet was gathered and sent to snag it first. The invasion passed with no problems, Ackdarian militia were no match for Veteran Dhayut troops, so they were soon enslaved as part of the Kingdom. As part of the Dhayut policy of System Defence Fleets at each colony and carrier fleets in reserve, a new carrier fleet had been built at Home for the Ackdarian front (the imaginatively named Ackdarian Front Fleet), it was sent to sit at Dintaal ready to pounce on the Iskabar Territory if provoked. Taking the colony pinned the Iskabar empire at the edge of the galaxy with almost no systems to expand into.

2 – The Omgal Incident – To the west of Dhayut space, just south of Ackdar, was another empire, the Virgissu Nation. Another Military Dictatorship, 7 billion beings spread over 9 colonies, they’re a mixture of races. Dominant race was Naxxilian, a large stupid aggressive dinosaur race kind of thing, but a mixture of lots of races. Even some Dhayut, must make a note to liberate them some day. I noticed that their freighters were flying through Dhayut Kingdom territory going to an empty system called Omgal deep in Dhayut space. Scout ships were sent to Omgal to see what was going on and it turned out Virgissu had mining stations. Obviously Virgissu mining in our system couldn't be allowed to stand. I couldn't find a way of demanding they hand over the stations, but we had just built another new Fleet (The Great Southern Fleet) so they went to Omgal and destroyed everything. Two mining bases, any freighter that didn't hyperspace out of the system quick enough, all destroyed. The Virgissu Nation complained but didn't do anything, their military is tiny compared to the Dhayut Kingdom. It’s good being a bully.

...to be continued

[Critch]

Four Conflicts and a Mass Funeral - Part Two

3. The Horgilleom Invasion – An exploration ship boldly going where no Dhayut had gone before stumbled on an abandoned capitol ship (The Fury of Undirun), boarded it and brought it back to Home. This thing was massive, much larger than any ship the Dhayut could build. It had firepower equal to about 16 Dhayut destroyers and could carry troops too, a single ship invasion force. It seemed a shame to leave all that power unused, so it was loaded with troops at Home, given a few escort ships, renamed as The Fury Fleet, and sent off to invade the Shandar colony we found earlier in the north, the ones who had bravely hibernated underground for thousands of years. The invasion went smoothly; the Shandar took it in good spirits and got on with their new lives of being slaves with no complaints. Their description did say “laid back”.

4. The Southern Crusade of Dhayut Liberation - Heading south from Loros (the extremely rare commodity planet) the Dhayut discovered a top quality continental planet. Rated at 99%, it was loaded with resources, including a very rare luxury resource, a plant used in brewing. Cridie in the Thela System was colonized quickly and the exploration ships moved further south and found two Dhayut lost colonies. The first (Ryluth) was the pick of the two, 4 billion Dhayut and luxury resources. The second (Rauto) was the problem, 2 billion Dhayut but despite being independent, they were in a system claimed as part of a rival empire. The Quameno Technocracy is a Quameno empire, highly intelligent but placid frog people, and they’d recently colonized the system next door to Rauto. You can’t colonize a planet in another empire’s territory, but this was a planet of Dhayut brothers so had to be liberated from the frogs. Obviously the solution was to capture the Quameno colony then colonize Rauto since it would now be in Dhayut territory. Once the Dhayut colonies were safely in the Dhayut Kingdom, we'd negotiate a peace with the Quameno and give them their colony back since we didn't really need 33 million rebellious frog people. Hopefully that would leave no lasting hard feelings and it wouldn't damage the Dhayut reputation too much.

Two colony ships were built, sent to wait nearby, the Great Southern Fleet was moved into the area to control the system, and a new invasion force raised at Home invaded the Quameno colony (Redil 6). The first Dhayut invasion of a rival empire’s colony, probably not the last. Everything went smoothly, the two Dhayut colonies welcomed their colonizers and joined the kingdom, and it was time to negotiate a peace with the Quameno. It seemed a good idea to mess up their colony before handing it back, so the Dhayut troopers on the Redil 6 were ordered to massacre the 33 million Quameno colonists and then we’d hand back an empty colony. Something clearly went wrong with the plan, maybe the Dhayut troopers went into a killing frenzy, but when the smoke cleared there were no Quameno left but there were also no surviving Dhayut soldiers and the colony was back to being an uncolonized planet.

As Ridel 6 was no longer a colony, we couldnt negotiate the return of it to the Quameno.The Dhayut got another colony ship down to Redil quickly and claimed it for themselves, renaming it “Memorial” in tribute to the brave Dhayut soldiers who gave their lives massacring Quameno civilians.

The Ackdarian may think they hate the Dhayut Kingdom, but the Quameno Technocracy really, really hate the Dhayut Kingdom. Going to have to watch out for them.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Critch

a number of rivals had annoyed the great Dhayut Kingdom, either by their actions or just by being there

Doesn't take much, does it?

The Virgissu Nation complained but didn't do anything, their military is tiny compared to the Dhayut Kingdom. It’s good being a bully.

Erm ...

renaming it “Memorial” in tribute to the brave Dhayut soldiers who gave their lives massacring Quameno civilians.

The Ackdarian may think they hate the Dhayut Kingdom, but the Quameno Technocracy really, really hate the Dhayut Kingdom. Going to have to watch out for them.

I can't imagine why. I halfway hate the Dhayut Kingdom, by reading their 'exploits' alone. The first sentence here was pure gold btw.

[chesapeake]

As I'm enjoying reading through this, I realize that I actually bought this game some time ago but never ended up playing it. Some new shiny must have caught my eye instead. You've inspired me to try and figure out how to play it.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I can't imagine why. I halfway hate the Dhayut Kingdom, by reading their 'exploits' alone.

Coming up soon is the next Dhayut atrocity, I'm past halfway hating them and up to a good 75% and I'm the one who told them to do it.

Originally Posted by chesapeake

As I'm enjoying reading through this, I realize that I actually bought this game some time ago but never ended up playing it. Some new shiny must have caught my eye instead. You've inspired me to try and figure out how to play it.

This is the thread that got me to grips with the basics:

The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play - Distant Worlds, The Manly Man Way to P

Until then it sat in my steam library looking to daunting too try.

[Critch]

The Needs of the Dhayut Outweigh the Needs of the Few

The new strident Dhayut Kingdom was popular with the Dhayut citizens, nothing gets young Dhayut fired up like the news of from the front, particularly victories. A spontaneous Dhayut Swarm happened, troop ships turned up at Home loaded with young xenophobic warriors from the edges of the Kingdom desperate to do their part. Luckily we’d just discovered the Zhar system to the North West containing an independent colony of 3 billion Ikkuro, large big eared monkey people. The young warriors of the Righteous Swarm soon crushed them and the Ikkuro were kissing the multiple jackboots of their spider overlords as an enslaved colony.

A few years ago the Dhayut discovered a planet full of hibernating Shandar who’d avoided the ancient upheaval by hiding and sleeping through it, this must have been a common Shandar response as nearby we found another planet (Horgilleom) with “Silent Chambers of the Shandar” artifacts. This bunch weren’t even given time to wake up and collect their thoughts before being invaded, and becoming another slave colony for the glory of the Dhayut Kingdom.

It wasn’t just the Shandar who hid from the invaders though, to the south of Ackdar space a group of abandoned ships were found. On closer inspection it turned out the ships were not abandoned, they were Sluken colony ships in hibernation. When they were revived they requested refuge in the Dhayut Kingdom, a request that was approved as there was a planet in Ackdar space they could have as it blocked all expansion for one of our enemies (the Ackdarian Iskabar Empire). The Sluken ships were treated differently from the other conquered species as they had requested to join the Dhayut, and the Sluken are a comrade insect race (they’re aggresive, short, ant-like creatures), so they were given their planet to colonize (renamed Dhayut Mercy) and allowed to live free with no enslavement, the only non-Dhayut citizens of the Kingdom. They also brought a couple of cruisers with them, so they didn’t even need a System Defense Force. Separate and equal, you could say.

While small conflicts were breaking out on the edges of the Dhayut Kingdom, the heart was still peaceful and prosperous. The Private Sector had built hundreds of freighters; every colony was part of a Kingdom-wide trading network and served by a Space Port with commerce centers. Money was flowing into the Kingdom’s coffers, although tax had crept up in the main colonies to pay for the ever-expanding military. Years of prosperity and high population growth had led to a population explosion in the Dhayut Kingdom (Dhayut only, enslaved populations don’t increase)and some of the main planets were full, no room for new births. Home was up to 15 billion Dhayut, Prodigal Son (slightly larger and more hospitable than home) was now the largest colony at just over 20 billion, a few others topped out in the 5-6 billion range. The Dhayut Kingdom boasted around 80 billion Dhayut, and about 10 billion from lesser races (all enslaved except for the 200 million Sluken on Dhayut Mercy).

The population boom plus the discovery of the technology for Marshy planet colonization led to another round of expansion , five colony ships setting out from Home carrying Dhayut who were prepared to swap overcrowded Home for a new life on a squishy marsh planet. There were also some planets at the heart of the Kingdom that were good quality but not amenable to Dhayut colonization. Races in colony ships can always colonize planets of the type they are native to, so colony ships were built and loaded with Ackdarians to colonize Ocean planets at the center of the Kingdom, and Shandar used to colonize Volcanic planets.

Enslavement in the game comes with positive and negative points. Negatives are colony unhappiness (I guess from the enslaved, I doubt the Dhayut care much about the suffering) and negative diplomacy (empires don’t like you enslaving their cousins), the positive is increased revenue from colonies with slaves. It’s a sliding scale, an enslaved colony gets a 50% revenue bonus, and one that has a smaller percentage of slaves will have less.

This caused problems in the middle sized Dhayut colonies; colonies like Newhome and Junction were 90-95% Dhayut and 5-10% slaves. This was enough to bring the enslavement unhappiness hit but not enough for a revenue bonus. As unhappiness affects the colony’s economy, slavery was costing money on these colonies. (Home and Prodigal Sons were not affected as they were Dhayut-only).

The solution was either to get rid of slavery and free the slaves, or get rid of the slaves. Policies for non-Dhayuts can be set on a planet-by-planet basis, so any Colony that wasn’t benefitting from enslavement updated their policy for non-Dhayut from “enslave” to “exterminate”. As well as removing the enslavement unhappiness it also freed up space for more Dhayut breeding on previously full planets, so it was win-win really. Other than the extermination of 430 million non-Dhayut on 11 planets, I guess.

The Dhayut should really have gone for “relocate” instead of “exterminate”, that would have moved the slaves off the affected colonies to colonies that could still get revenue bonuses from slavery, but you cant make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, i guess.

Once the non-Dhayut were removed, the colonies policies were updated to not accept non-Dhayut. So we can add segregation as well as genocide onto the Dhayut list.

[Critch]

A New, Enlightened Dhayut Kingdom

The “cleansing” of the old Dhayut colonies completed without any problems, no rebellions and the Dhayut on the affected colonies were happy enough with the outcome, revenues increased with the increase in happiness. It didn't do the Dhayut Kingdom any favors on the diplomatic front though, the Kingdom’s reputation took a hit, declaring wars or being generally evil affects the empire reputation. A large kingdom with a feared reputation can lead to other empires forming alliances against them, or can even lead to revolts and civil wars within the kingdom, so it was time to settle down for a few years and take the situation off the boil. A period of calm with the Dhayuts on their best behavior ensued.

The Dhayut then made a desperate move, a move that wouldn't be popular with the Dhayut citizens, and that I dont really like now I think about it. The Dhayut outlawed enslavement for all races, all non-Dhayut were now set to “assimilate” and became equal citizens of the kingdom. It helped with diplomacy, everybody hated us a little less now we weren't enslaving their family, but it’s not really what the Dhayut are all about.

(I didn't realize til after this that the Dhayut victory conditions are tied to enslaving other races, so exterminating slaves then ending enslavement were not good for the Dhayut chances of winning. I’m not really playing for the win anyway, I’m playing to dominate the galaxy then exterminate all non-Dhayut. Or die trying.)

Years of being non-confrontational and quietly living within the Dhayut borders saw a period of expansion from both Dhayut and Non-Dhayut citizens. The Dhayut Kingdom grew to 41 colonies and 112 billion citizens, 98 billion of them Dhayut. It had the highest population in the galaxy (though not the highest number of colonies, the 2nd largest empire the Great Boskara Hive (Space-cockroaches) had 47), the biggest economy, the strongest military and the largest strategic value. Diplomacy was still a problem, we had contact with 19 empires and 18 of them hated the Dhayut Kingdom and/or coveted the Dhayut colonies/resources. The one outlier was the third largest Empire (the Sluken Conformity, friendly but not friendly enough to let us know where they are in the galaxy or sign any treaties).

And that’s where the game was when I started the dynasty.

[Simbo Klice]

This dynasty continues to deliver, keep up the good work! I bought this game and I'm completely lost so far, lol. Trying to read through everything and I'll eventually try the tutorial once I get through that... Still interested to try it, but it's definitely the kind of game you gradually learn in pieces.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Critch

(the Sluken Conformity, friendly but not friendly enough to let us know where they are in the galaxy or sign any treaties).

All things considered, I can't exactly say that I blame them.

[Critch]

The tutorial isnt great but there are a number of good threads out there, step by step for beginner things. Those threads have been my guidance.

I didnt mention it, but the main reason the Slusken like us is that we’re bribing them . They’re the only Empire we trade our extremely rare commodities too. When it became clear the second largest Empire was going to be a problem, Dhayut decided to play nice with the third largest.

Sensible Policies for a Better Tomorrow

By luck it seems like my stopping point in the game is at, or just before, a change in the game. The galaxy is about to switch from empires colonizing planets and snatching independents over to one where empires are facing off with each other. So it’s probably a good time to look at the Kingdom and make some plans.

The economy – everything is ticking along ok. The Dhayut increased tax on the large colonies to make up for the revenue drop from abolishing slavery, and it turned out there was no real revenue drop. All the colonies with slavery bonuses were small and paying little or no tax anyway, so the State wasn't getting any of the bonus. The remaining problem is corruption, the Empire is spread out and corruption is rife far from Home. We have technology to build regional capitals that willl help with tax and corruption, so we’ll make Prodigal Sons capital of the Northern region, Ryleuth capital of Southern, and Gamma capital of Western and that should bring law and order to the outskirts. Wont be cheap to set up though.

Diplomacy – No one likes us, but nobody likes each other either. There appear to be no alliances anywhere.



The map shows only the colonies the Dhayut Kingdom know off, so it’s a little sparse. Dhayut Kingdom is the yellow patch in the middle, the Boskara Hive are the difficult to see purple group all the way down the east side of the Dhayut. They have 47 colonies to the Dhayut Kingdom’s 41, but only about 30% of the total population. They’re pretty much cockroaches in space so they’ll quickly breed to fill their new colonies. The Dhayut Kingdom should probably declare war on them now before they grow, but that’s risky with so many potential enemies.

The diplomacy screen shows lists of bullet points and scores affecting each empires relationship with the Dhayut Kingdom, things like “Instinctively like fellow insects (+7)” or the much more common “have had negative dealings with you in the past (-23)”. There are normally about 5 bullets, some good most bad, and the diplomatic stance is determined by the total score. Of the 19 Empire we know of, 16 are in the roughly -20 to -50 "angry with you" range, the other three being the Slusken Conformity (+12, our bribed BFF), the Virgissu Nation (-92, the Dhayut blew up their mining bases, the nasty brown smear to the west on the map) and the Quameno (-122, the Dhayut massacred one of their colonies, probably in the unmapped south of the map somewhere.) The Ackdarian Iskabar empire is the big blue circle to the west.

On the diplomatic side, there’s not much the Dhayut can do. Surprisingly xenophobic spiders from hell dont really go in for diplomacy much, Dhayut don't produce many diplomats. We have one, but nowhere to send him as we don't know where the Quameno are, or where the Boskara capital is. So the first task for diplomacy is a new batch of long range explorations ships and set out finding where our potential enemies are. And the Dhayut will try and bully some small empires into pacts too, Finlandization worked for the Soviets.

The Military – It’s time to get defensive. Currently the set up is a small System Defense Fleet in each Dhayut system under AI control to defend the system, and larger fleets in reserve. It’s time to add a new level under AI control. 4 or 5 Rapid Response Fleets that will be set to protect the sector, so if an enemy attacks a system, the SDF will hold til the RRF zooms in like the cavalry. I haven't mentioned it before but the Dhayut have an advantage over other races: faster hyperdrives. We’re zooming at 30k speeds, the rest top out at 13k, so we’ll take advantage of that warp speed by having fast reinforcements in reserve. We’ll also be boosting the Star Ports at the main colonies, turn them into well armed defense points. And on the colonies we’ll raise troops to garrison, right now most of the colonies are undefended on the ground. That should keep us safe, although cost a fortune.

The Government – Dhayut will be staying a kingdom. We could kick off a revolution and change to Military Dictatorship to make the coming increases to the military cheaper, but that would risk rebellions and civil war, so King Sawa will be sticking around. When he turned up he was courageous and expansionist, over the years he’s added the trait Corrupt. His family are siphoning off 10% of all trade and tourism income. So hopefully he’ll get overthrown soon.

[Critch]

The Glorious Five Year Plan

Hopeful that a bad plan is better than no plan, the Dhayut leadership scurried off to the four corners of the Kingdom with their sheet of orders, and a hastily printed off addendum stapled to it detailing the things I’d forgotten to mention in the last post. I’d never played this far into a game and the Dhayut Kingdom was not really an example of a controlled expansion, it had got large, wealthy, but disorganized. It was the largest empire in the galaxy, but not far enough ahead to brush aside the rivals, or ignore them as threats. There were a number of unprotected colonies that must have been tempting to surrounding empires, particularly the Boskara Hive who made it known they coveted the Dhayut colonies and resources. The aim of The Glorious Five Year Plan was to make everything a bit more controlled and secure.

The Prodigal Sons colony was promoted to be the Regional Capital for the north of the kingdom, the first step in the drive to crush corruption. It’s an expensive upgrade and I’m not really sure how much corruption is costing, but it’ll bring the north under more control. Apparently without more administration research the Dhayut are limited to only one Regional Capital, so the plan to have a capital in the south and west too was on the shelf until research caught up.

A new long range exploration ship was designed, much like the old one but with more fuel tanks strapped on to expand the range, the exploration fleet was expanded to 12 ships and set off under AI control to map the galaxy and find all the Dhayut’s enemies and potential enemies. (Diplomacy Arithmetic: Enemies + Potential Enemies = Everybody). With the plan to map the galaxy largely completed, most of the exploration fleet was ordered to return to Home to be scrapped. Money’s too tight for extravagance.

Updated galaxy map, a lot of gaps filled in:



Helpfully, a number of empires have very slightly different shades of purple. The Boskara are the difficult-to-see purple in the middle, the Sluken are the very slightly different shade of purple to their east, and the Quameno are the pinkish areas to the south (they're at war with yet another purple empire, the one to their north west).

With the Sluken found, the single Dhayut Kingdom diplomat was sent to set up an embassy in their capital. His previous assignment was with the Ackdarians of Iskabar (big blue circle on the western edge), so he’ll be out of practice with diplomacy. With the Iskabar his job was to let them know whenever the Dhayut had enslaved even more Ackdarians, and say “suck it” if they complained. With the Sluken his job was to make them like us enough to form a mutual defense pact to keep the Boskara in line.

The full military expansion plan was too expensive even with taxation raised as far as it would go without complaints on most colonies. There wasn’t enough coming in to pay for all the ship and troop maintenance that would be required, so only part of the expansion happened. Space ports were beefed up at the main colonies, three new defensive fleets were created instead of five and stationed down the eastern border with the Boskara, and troop recruitment began only on main colonies. The economy will have to grow before more military expansion occurs.

With the borders being more set as the Dhayut Kingdom’s edges came up against other empires, the opportunities to expand out the way were few, but there were still colonizable planets within the Dhayut Kingdom’s borders, either within colonized systems or in systems within Dhayut controlled zones. The Dhayut cartographers sat down with their maps and came up with 12-14 worthwhile targets. Colony ships were built at colonies that had the required colonist races (4 Dhayut, 5 Shandar for volcanic planets, and 2 Ackdarian for oceanic planets) and another round of expansion was underway. The cartographers also found an anomaly, an independent colony of Ackdarians on the edge of Dhayut space. There were only 30mil on the colony so it seemed fairly recently colonized, fairly sure they hadn't been there when the system was first explored. Possibly Ackdarians who escaped Dhayut enslavement and set out on their own, but after a quick introduction to the Dhayut Subjugation Battalions, they decided to join the Dhayut Kingdom after an invasion and a short but decisive conflict.

And with that, the Dhayut Kingdom was up to 53 moderately well defended colonies.

[Critch]

The One Where The Dhayut Get Invited to a War

In Distant Worlds the amount a race dislikes an alien race on first meeting is strongly influenced by racial family groups. Insects hate Humanoids, Humanoids hate Insects and all the other race family groups form a little rainbow of hatred in between. I think the spectrum is Insectoid > Reptile > Amphibian > Rodent > Ursidian > Humanoid. I’m not sure about the exact order, Rodent and Ursidian may be flipped, but Insectoid and Humanoid are extremes. From reading a few posts on the Distant Worlds boards it seems that games normally end up being an Insectoid Alliance facing off against a Humanoid Alliance with the other family groups joining either side.

This galaxy is not like that, there are 4 empires with over 15 colonies: The Dhayut Kingdom (Insect, 55 colonies), The Boskara Hive (Insect, 56 colonies), The Sluken Conformity (Insect, 18 colonies) and the Furmus Sovereignty (Reptile, 24 colonies). Maybe the lack of a Humanoid threat has had an affect as there’s no Insectoid unity: We all hate each other.

To try and form an alliance with the Sluken, we’d sent our one ambassador over to make an embassy with them. That was no help at all; the relationship was slowly getting worse. The Dhayut ambassador isn’t that kind of diplomat, he doesn’t care about diplomacy and alliances, he only cares about trade and tourism bringing a percentage bonus to both. Since the Dhayut don’t have a great deal of trade with the Sluken, the ambassador was wasted on them and was recalled to Home before being sent out to a better match. Just as soon as the Dhayut work out which screen shows who their main trade partner is, he'll be sent there.

There are a number of small wars going on across the galaxy (I've finally noticed the diplomacy screen is color coded to show them), the lack of alliances is keeping these down to small empire against empire deals though. The Sluken are at war with a small empire called Baraluo Territory (and I’d guess using espionage since I got 5 “the Baraluo leader has died” messages in about a month, got to admire the nerve of the next guy who gets the job), the Ikkuro Sovereignty (green at the top of the map) are at war with the Kiadan Supremacy (blue at the top of the map, the only Humanoid (non-Human) empire), and the Quameno are at war with the Furmus Sovereignty (the purple empire to their northwest, mentioned in the last post). It’s the Quameno/Furmus War that the Dhayut get asked to join.

The Quameno hate the Dhayut Kingdom due to the 33 million Quameno massacred incident when the Dhayut invaded Memorial, so things must be going badly for them if they’re looking for Dhayut help. Their offer is that they’ll give the Dhayut Kingdom two disputed mining station, mining stations in Dhayut space, if we declare war on the Furmus Sovereignty. Obviously the other option is that the Dhayut Kingdom joins the war on the Furmus side and just takes the disputed mining stations by boarding them with marines. Option B is the one Dhayut chooses, boarding parties snatch the mining stations and the Dhayut active part of the war is over. The Dhayut Kingdom has two new mining stations, the Furmus like us a little more, the Quamento hate us a whole lot more and a couple of Dhayut fleets move to the south of the Kingdom to defend against counter attacks, but otherwise things return to normal.

The one side effect of the war is that the Boskara start trading with the Dhayut Kingdom again and are a little less aggressive. Perhaps the show of strength has forced them to reassess.

[Brian Swartz]

You know there's nothing but joy and fellowship in the offing when another entire race is referred to as 'the nasty brown smear to the west'.

[Critch]

It'll be a bit of time before the Dhayut Kingdom can think about wiping the brown smear off the map, the Virgissu Nation will have to wait.

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

The Dhayut Kingdom’s plan of capturing the Quameno mining stations then taking a step back from the war was flawless, except for one small detail: the Quameno hadn’t got the memo. If the Dhayut strategists had done a little research before rushing into the Quameno/Furmus War a couple of warning signs may have come to light. 1) The Quameno are tech wizards (much faster research) 2) The Quameno have a colony on a planet with abandoned research from the ancient civilizations (tech bonuses) 3) Despite being a much larger empire than the Quameno, the Furmus military strength rating was much the same (both are just over 8k, Furmus military seemed to be shrinking. For reference, the Dhayut military strength was 31k)

With those three points it would have been not difficult to come to the conclusion that the Quameno were technologically advanced and were winning the war, and the Dhayut had joined the wrong side.

The south of the Dhayut Kingdom is a long line of systems leading from Home in the center of the Kingdom down to Ryleuth at the extreme south, most of it defended by destroyers. About half way up the strand is the Dra Junction system. It wasn't a main system, a bit of a backwater, one colony (Beilme, the most recently added Ackdarian colony), a colony space port, a couple of mining bases and the Western Legion troop ships and escorts left since the Beilme invasion. No defense fleet, though. Dra Junction was the system that the Quameno attack fleet turned up in, 12 warships, much more advanced than anything the Dhayut had. Judging by their 8k military strength, this fleet was around a third to half of the Quameno military. Assuming they have defensive bases and ship, it was probably the only Quameno attack fleet.

The Quameno fleet was way too strong for a single Dhayut fleet to take on, so five fleets were sent to the nearest main Dhayut system (Nispes, one system east of Dra Junction). This would give the Dhayut a fleet of 47 ships, outgunning the Quameno fleet by about 2 to 1. Since the Quameno were more advanced with weapons it’s a good bet they were also more advanced on defenses (armor, shields, point defenses, ECM, etc.) so even the 47 may not have been enough.

We wouldn’t find out if it was enough though. By the time the fleet mustered in Nispes the Quameno fleet had laid waste to the Dra Junction system and warped off to Furmus space to take the war to them. They'd destroyed the Beilme space port and mining stations, some freighters, and the Western Legion troop ships and escorts. They didn't try a ground assault on the Beilme colony; the five battalions of Western Legion infantry on the planet may have put them off.

Since the Dhayut Kingdom had been dragged back into the war, it was time to go on the front foot. Betting that the Quameno fleet was a good proportion of their military and was now in Furmus space, the Great Southern Fleet headed off for hopefully lightly defended Quameno regions. It was too far from Dhayut space to invade and hold colonies; this was to be a pillaging mission, destroy anything poorly defended then flee for Dhayut space.

As the first meeting with a real empire’s warships hadn't gone well, the Dhayut Destroyer design was updated. Weapons were almost doubled, engines were increased and the new version was much stronger, almost as fast, but much more expensive. There are 104 destroyers in the Dhayut navy, so retrofitting to the new design wasn't going to be cheap (219k credits, about 10% of the reserves), and perhaps a bit risky while there was a Quameno fleet rampaging around, but the end result would be more security

The Dhayut Kingdom also met the Anseun Empire south of Quameno space, an empire that’s mostly Zenox. The Zenox are a feline race, cute little smiley cat people in fancy suits. Why am I playing as big nasty spiders when I could be playing as intergalactic space kittehs?

[Critch]

Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Dhayut Mori

Latin heading for an update. Pretentious? Moi? “It is sweet and right to die for Dhayut” or something like that. At school we were forced to read First World War poets and it’s the only one I remember. “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen.

The Great Southern Fleet’s raid into Quameno space didn’t go as planned. There was only one Quameno system within “there and back again” fuel range so that narrowed down the possible targets. Geibrero is north of the rest of the Quameno Empire, closer to Furmus regions than their own and still a long hike from the south of the Dhayut Kingdom. The Dhayut fleet warped in ready to rampage and there was nothing to destroy. One low population colony, but no ships, no space ports and no mining bases. Since the Dhayut fleet had no troops to land and no bombardment weapons, there was not a lot it could do. A bit of a damp squib of a raid.

Rather than admitting defeat and heading home, the fleet blockaded the colony and the Righteous Swarm troop ships were called from Home to invade. Nobody came to break the blockade (and they had plenty of time, Home is halfway across the galaxy). It was part of the Quameno Empire but was not Quameno colonists, 30 million Ketarov (goat people) they didn’t defend at all against the invasion, they didn’t seem to care much whether they were subjugated by the Quameno or the Dhayut. The Dhayut would soon change their minds; have the survivors (if any) thinking back to the good old days of Quameno subjugation.

Taking Geibrero was the last action for the Dhayut Kingdom in the Quameno/Furmus War, The Quameno sued for peace, offered some cash reparations, and they were freed to go back to just fighting the Furmus. It was probably a mistake for the Dhayut Kingdom to not press on, they could have used Geibrero as a base to refuel before heading into a probably poorly defended and war-weary Quameno heartland, they’d been at war with the Furmus for a long time so they wouldn't have been doing well. War weariness grows over time and can lead to low morale and rebellions, the Quameno not being warlike would be a hindrance in long wars.

The war was over so the Dhayut had a new problem: an unwanted colony full of aliens on the enemy’s borders. Geibrero is a long way from the rest of the Kingdom and was running at a loss, and was not Dhayut. Colonies can only be gifted if they are disputed, and nobody else wanted Geibrero so the Dhayut were stuck with it. The two options were raise taxes until the Ketarov rebelled and tried to become independent, or wipe out the population. A colony ship from Furmus turned up and orbited the planet, dropping “we’d colonize this planet if only it was empty” hints. The Dhayut took the hint, refueled on the planet, emptied the planet, then headed for home. Dhayut lost a colony they didn’t want, Furmus got an empty planet to colonize. It’s win-win.

With the 30 million Ketarov massacred on Geibrero, the Dhayut Kingdom are on the verge of breaking through the 500 million civilians massacred. 30 million on Geibrero, 33 million Quameno on Memorial, and 430 in the Slave Purges on Dhayut planets. Even with all that the Dhayut Empire’s reputation is “Satisfactory”, Boskara’s reputation is “Evil” and the Sluken is “Diabolical”. They must be raping captives and/or/while eating them.

I had an epiphany during this round. The Dhayut have just had a long war that ended with one system changing hands, and there are 1400 systems in the galaxy. This thing is going to take friggin forever to finish. And the dynasty would be longer than the Bible (including all the bits that were cut out by the Council of Nicea).

[Critch]

Incompetence Runs Wild in the Dhayut Kingdom

A quick audit of the Dhayut Navy revealed huge incompetence. The kind of incompetence that, knowing the Dhayut Kingdom, would lead to mass executions. (Really it’s down to me not really knowing all the twists of the game, but I’m blaming the Dhayut).

As mentioned way far back, the ship design screens in Distant Worlds if fairly in-depth, as an example here’s the latest Dhayut Destroyer design:



The Defender has been part of the Dhayut military since the early days of the empire, as engines, weapons, etc. improving as technology advanced, the design was updated. V1 had no shields, total firepower of 30, and cruise speed of 23. Now we’re up to v8, shields, total firepower 356 and cruising speed of 44. When there’s an upgrade I select all the destroyers and click on them to retrofit to the newest version at the nearest space port. The problem is that the destroyers are all in AI controlled fleets, they get the retrofit order and go to the nearest spaceport to upgrade, if there isn’t a docking bay available straight away they decide the order is complete and go back to AI control , rather than waiting for one to open up. So the Dhayut are at the point where about 70% of the destroyers are old, obsolete versions, some as old as version 2. AI control was turned off and all the destroyers set to retrofit, this time they all wait their turn and the Dhayut Kingdom’s total military strength went from around 34k to a smidgeon over 50k. Cost a small fortune, but money well spent.

The Dhayut science-types made a breakthrough on scanner technology, a scanner that allows them to scan enemy ships and get an idea of the components. Using that they should be able to avoid surprises like the Quameno fleet. A new scout ship was made with the new scanner and sent to park beside the Iskabar fleets; turned out they’re decent but not frightening although their colonies are heavily defended. Dhayut espionage teams are on their colonies trying to trigger revolutions, so Iskabar’s days are hopefully numbered.

Elsewhere the Sluken wiped out an entire civilization, somebody the Dhayut dont know. That’s why they’re "diabolic" and we're only "satisfactory".

The next move throws a spanner in Dhayut planning; the Furmus (who are still at war with the Quameno) declare war on the Ackdarians of Iskabar. Do the Dhayut take this as a chance to also join in against Iskabar? Or do they make diplomatic advances to Iskabar and Quameno and see what they’ll give up if we join them in their wars with Furmus, then hit Furmus like the fist of the gods? Decisions, decisions.

[Critch]

Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They Aren't Out To Get You

In the distant future when Dhayut historian look at the period between the end of the last update and now they’ll refer to is as “the period when bugger all happened”. Because bugger all happened. (Not the reason it’s taken so long for an update, I had laptop issues)

The Great Dhayut Crusade against the Furmus didn’t happen. The fleets and troop ships were moved into position on the western fringes of Dhayut space ready to attack, but the Dhayut diplomats came back empty handed from both the Iskabar and Quameno when they suggested payment to join them in the war with the Furmus, so that cooled Dhayut fervor. Then it turned out the Furmus were allied with the Sluken Conformity. Despite having the largest military in the Galaxy, the Dhayut Kingdom didn’t want to risk a two front war stuck between the 4th largest military (Furmus) to the West, and the 2nd largest (Sluken) to the East. The Dhayut Kingdom still had too many lightly defended colonies and stations.

The Dhayut also didn’t jump into the Furmus war with Iskabar on the other side as they’d already made that mistake in the Quameno War. They’d joined in with the Furmus, they’d distracted the enemy, and then the Furmus took the spoils. The Furmus were obviously on an expansionist route, so no reason for the Dhayut to help them out again. So the Dhayut Kingdom sat the war out, the sensor ships in Iskabar territory watched most of their ships head south to meet the Furmus, but didn’t assist either side. For a race of evil spider warriors, the Dhayut were really a bit crap and pacifist.

The Dhayut did make a few discoveries during the period though, both of the technological and of the “boy, I’ve really messed up a good position in this game” kind. First the technological advance, the Dhayut scientist produced robotic infantry. Not as effective as real live spider infantry but cheaper, a battalion of robotic troops costs only about 25% to maintain. Battalions of robotic infantry would be created to garrison the more minor colonies.

The first piece of bad news discovered was that the Dhayut had really missed the boat in diplomacy. Checking the diplomacy screens there are alliances popping up, the Boskara Hive are allied with a couple of minors (who happen to be the same race as them), the Sluken are allied with the Furmus and the Virgissu (the brown smear empire), the Quameno with a couple of Ackdarian minors. And the Dhayut sit unloved, every other empires attitude rated either “Angry” or “Annoyed”. Currently the Dhayut are large enough that the developing alliances leave them alone, but it might not stay that way. The Dhayut don't really do diplomacy, but a couple of trade agreements and friendly minor empires would be helpful.

The second piece of bad news was that the Dhayut have been acting differently from the other major empires. When the colony-grab was over and empire borders started closing on each other, the Dhayut looked inwards for expansion, colonizing less desirable planets within the Dhayut Kingdom’s boundaries. It appears as if the other major empires have continued expanding out the way by aggressively bullying and invading the smaller empires. The result being that the other larger empires are closing the gap on the Dhayut Kingdom, while the small empires are shrinking from 5-10 colonies to 2-5 on average.

I guess that’s why the Dhayut reputation is “Satisfactory” while some others are “Diabolical”. They’re evil but isolationist.

[dubb93]

The guide you posted here is awesome. I finally understand parts of this I couldn't ever figure out and I caused me to give up the game.

In two test games up to the point of the great warp drive jump I had much better results. In game 1 with default AI ships a group of three giant kaltors and 2 space slugs took out 9 of my empire's 10 warships. In game two with custom ships my empire's 3 warships were able to wipe the map with 2 giant kaltors and 2 space slugs without a ship taking more than 12% damage. I now understand how to play this game!