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[Urist McScoopbeard]

That's a pretty good way to put it, and frankly I do agree that the 60 dollars is prohibitively expensive, indeed most of us would like to see it at 30 I dare say. *sigh* Star Ruler was an epic combination of both these games in the way you describe them and had a real chance to trump both with the sequel, but the devs flubbed it up.

[kulik]

While the GalCiv combat is laughable, the DW battles were also a let down for me. I designed my fleet to contain soft long range supporters, balanced heavy hitters, escorts with point defenses, fast frigates for hunting down retreating ships, but there are no formations and the whole fleet just drops in a clusterfuck around the enemy.  I even tried to jump in an empty space and to organize into formation, then close in with the enemy, but i couldn't do it.

[Tellemurius]

That's a pretty good way to put it, and frankly I do agree that the 60 dollars is prohibitively expensive, indeed most of us would like to see it at 30 I dare say. *sigh* Star Ruler was an epic combination of both these games in the way you describe them and had a real chance to trump both with the sequel, but the devs flubbed it up.

Considering that a couple of years ago getting the game plus expansion was more than $170 bucks download, $60 is a pretty good price for me.

[Zangi]

It is 30 bucks at this moment.

[aristabulus]

It is 30 bucks at this moment.

For about 10 more hours, as of my post time...

[Shadowlord]

I have a bunch of space 4xes that I almost never play anymore, because none of them have PBEM multiplayer and the singleplayer is always less fun than other games.

Distant Worlds doesn't have that, does it?

[forsaken1111]

I have a bunch of space 4xes that I almost never play anymore, because none of them have PBEM multiplayer and the singleplayer is always less fun than other games.

Distant Worlds doesn't have that, does it?

Distant Worlds is singleplayer only, no PBEM

[Mini]

It's also real time, so PBEM wouldn't exactly make sense.

[puke]

I think there is still a fairly strong SE4 PBEM community.  There used to be a web host that automated turn processing that we called "play by web".  Not sure if its still up after all these years, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.  Nothing else has come along to fill that niche.

edit:  here  https://pbw.spaceempires.net/

[Shadowgandor]

I bought this game when it was on sale and I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm not actually sure if I like the game or not, but I'm trying to like it at least
How do you guys play this game? I've been playing this game mostly on automated, but starting to do most of the fleet management manually, because the AI loves using wimpy fleets that barely lose against pirates instead of using double- or triple the size.

[forsaken1111]

I bought this game when it was on sale and I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm not actually sure if I like the game or not, but I'm trying to like it at least
How do you guys play this game? I've been playing this game mostly on automated, but starting to do most of the fleet management manually, because the AI loves using wimpy fleets that barely lose against pirates instead of using double- or triple the size.

You can set the fleet doctrine that the AI will attempt to follow and whether they should overmatch the enemy on attacks. They will attempt to make that happen but if the ships aren't available then they won't be able to. The AI keeps a lot of ships back for patrols and strike teams as well, which humans don't usually do.

Personally I play mostly manual. I automate research only so it will pick something new if I don't notice a research finish, like during a battle. You can still manually change things when automation is on. I automate some ship designs too, because it's a chore to update every design with every new technology every few months/years. Mining bases and colonization I always do manually because the AI makes silly choices based only on distance and resources, not taking into account the proximity of pirates or hostile empires.

[jhxmt]

How do you guys play this game? I've been playing this game mostly on automated, but starting to do most of the fleet management manually, because the AI loves using wimpy fleets that barely lose against pirates instead of using double- or triple the size.

I found this guide really useful (if a bit oddly written) when I started to venture out from under the eaves of DW's automation.  Be warned that while it does increase the level of control and engagement with what's going on, moving towards manual control of everything does (obviously) increase the micromanagement later on in the game!  But hey, that's part of the fun! 

[Retropunch]

How do you guys play this game? I've been playing this game mostly on automated, but starting to do most of the fleet management manually, because the AI loves using wimpy fleets that barely lose against pirates instead of using double- or triple the size.

I found this guide really useful (if a bit oddly written) when I started to venture out from under the eaves of DW's automation.  Be warned that while it does increase the level of control and engagement with what's going on, moving towards manual control of everything does (obviously) increase the micromanagement later on in the game!  But hey, that's part of the fun! 

Interesting, but that many popups/messages becomes incredibly frustrating and frankly, with a large universe it becomes just too overwhelming without pausing all the time.

I literally can't see it being fun that way unless you have a small number of races and endless patience. I automate pretty much everything and just edit the policies to fit exactly what I want. For instance, trying to manually send all my spies off to do stuff when I've got 5 good spies (1-3 month missions) gets incredibly time consuming, so I just set the espionage policy  to a particular mission type and let that go ahead for a while. If you're careful with the policy editing, you can usually get it to do pretty much exactly what you want automatically.

I usually manually control my two or three best fleets and then just spend the rest of the time tweaking things, attacking pirates and planning my next moves.

[Zangi]

Identify what you want to control with an iron fist and what you are willing to delegate away.  Nothing says you can't come in later and unilaterally take control of a delegated aspect.

Recommendation: more dictating = smaller game

Policies, they go a long way in determining how your automation acts.  If you have any questions about the specifics there, feel free to ask. 
Mind you, racial stats and racial victory conditions also have a hand in AI priority/actions.  (At least I'm pretty sure the AI considers the racial victory conditions.)

[Retropunch]

Identify what you want to control with an iron fist and what you are willing to delegate away.  Nothing says you can't come in later and unilaterally take control of a delegated aspect.

Recommendation: more dictating = smaller game

Policies, they go a long way in determining how your automation acts.  If you have any questions about the specifics there, feel free to ask. 
Mind you, racial stats and racial victory conditions also have a hand in AI priority/actions.  (At least I'm pretty sure the AI considers the racial victory conditions.)

Agreed - if you want to micromanage make sure you have a much smaller galaxy with less races. To be honest though, as Automation is pretty much the main selling point of Distant Worlds it seems strange to want to disable it.
If you've got the policies set right you can just leave all the tedious stuff to automation and just concentrate on the 'fun stuff' which is what really sets it apart from other 4Xs in my opinion.