Game controls[]
Distant Worlds - Game Controls
Official Game Control Video
Mini-map[]
The minimap is placed in the bottom right of the screen, this functions like a regular minimap (an observative view of the area around your focus). To assist the player the minimap scales relative to the main view (if zoomed in on planets it will detail part of the solar system, while if zoomed out it will displaye a section of the galaxy) and buttons situated on it's left side allow for quick swapping of zoom levels (Galactic, sector, solar system, planet)
Selection Panel[]
The selection panel is placed in the bottom left and lists information about the selected item, this includes System, Empire, Populace, Resources, Value, GDP, Tax, Troops, Building and docked for planets and Type, Empire, Design (and component status), onboard passengers, Fuel, Energy, shields, speed and weapons for ships.
If you hover a mouse over a unit a summery of this information will be displayed above the selection panel, and a list of buttons to the left and right that allow quick swapping between certain types of objects (planets, bases etc etc) and two arrow buttons on the top of the selection panel allow you to swap between things you have selected recently.
Message list[]
Centered in the top middle this section displays a list of events that have occurred recently, by clicking on a message you will be taken to the event or a relative menu.
Ship movement[]
Ship movement is a simple right click after selection, if there is more that one option for the area (like selecting another system to move to) a small menu will appear with the various options.
identity shapes[]
All ships/bases will have a shape around them to help identify their type
A list spoken by a dev team member includes
- Military - Triangular
- Bases - Hexagon
- Freighters - Circular
The colour will help identify the ownership of the item.
Empire details[]
This menu details the current state of your empire, it is divided into three different sections, including Colony, ships and bases and financial status.
There is also a drop-down menu allowing you to start a revolution to change goverment type as well as a button to open the expansion planner.
Here is a list of details contained within each section:
- Colony Information
- Capital ( and amount of colonies)
- Population
- Strategic Value
- Reputation
- At war with <X> Empires
- War Weariness
- Goverment type
- War weariness, Maintanece cost, approcal, growth rate, research speed, troop recruitment, corruption and colony income bonus/penalties
- Troop/Agent amount
- Ship and bases
- Economy (Seperated into State and private (red and blue respectivly))
- Income
- Annual colony Tax
- Foreign Trade Bonuses
- Annual Tribute
- Space port Income
- Resort Income
- Expenses
- Annual ship/base maintanence
- Year fuel cost
- Annual Troop Maintenance
- Annual Agent Maintenance
- Annual Subjugation Tribute
- Total cashflow (seperated again into State/Private)
Automation controls[]
located within the main options, this meny allows you to adjust the level of game automation and your advisors
some are simple on/off while others have 3 settings No automation, fully automated and give advice, where pop up messages will advise the player on what they could do.
Colony Screen[]
This page gives a list of colonys and displays details for the one selected from said list.
The details inlude things like population and type, cargo and resources, what is docked and under construction and what the colonys current relationship with you is.
Ship and Bases screen[]
Similar to the Colony screen this page gives a list of all ships and bases in your empire. This can be filtered by ship type and sorted by column
this page also has controls for ship construction
Galactopedia[]
This menu is a gigantic encyclopedia of information about the game world, empires, ships, menus and events it is available from a button connected to the minimap or via the F1 key.
it is context sensitive and will jump to the relative page for whatever you have selected.
Expansion Planner[]
The Expansion planner allows the player to filter through potential mining and colony sights. A small galactic map details it's location while a menu list details it's name,resources, planet size & type, as well as the name of any aliens already present on the planet and their population.
from this screen you can send already constructed colony ships to a selected planet or set a space port to construct one and automatically send it to the selected planet.
Unknown screens[]
These are screens noted in the game, but no details have yet to be seen
- Design screen
- Fleet Screen
- Agent Screen
- Troop Screen
- Change theme screen