Distant Worlds 2 Christmas 2019 Sneak Peek!

[elvendeathknight]

Awesome, looking forward to it !

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[KingHalford]

Amazing stuff! So excited for this!

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: larrybush
I think by your post above there is no way to ask questions about the mod ability of the game at this point?
Like galaxy map editor and stuff like that.

It is too early to really discuss moddability, other than that it remains a priority for us, but I would welcome questions on the screenshots and content above. If you look through the ship design and main interface sneak peeks carefully, there's a lot that you may find to ask about.

[Sparviero]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: ArchMike
I understand that we have to research different kind of hulls. Are they named "Destroyer" and such ?
In the screenshot, there is a destroyer. Is it associated with a specific hull or linked to a role (like in DW1) ?

Yes, on the construction part of the tech tree, you research hulls as part of your research projects. These effectively allow you to build larger ships, but they also unlock particular hulls with somewhat different sizes and maximum component slot arrangements. For example, you can can research a basic Destroyer Hull at Tech Level 2, but at the next Tech Level in the Construction tree, you could research Heavy Destroyers, Fleet Destroyers and Fast Destroyers, each of which is a more advanced and larger destroyer hull, focused and balanced in a somewhat different way. The size matters the most if you are looking for a balanced design. The particular hull matters more if you are looking to focus your design in a particular direction, such as weapons, defenses, speed and maneuverability, sensors, etc.

Hi Erik!
Great Work! Amazing news! Just give as a alpha with a preordered

I have a couple of questions about what we are seeing...

1) are sensors a only stations feature? If I'm correct they are present only in the screenshot about a station.

2) The fact we will be able to adjust the scale of things sounds incredible! How do you archive this kind o feature?

3) The down corner left hexagon in the ship/station summary for example in the last screenshot....is it about shields?

4) This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.

[Bleek]

I like the energy UI, no longer do we have to do quick maths to understand if we're over, short or about to plunge in to darkness because engines have fired up.

The colour-coding on the components too, is a simple but solid move towards a more meaningful UI and ease of build.

Not a major departure from the original, perhaps - but it didn't really need to be.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Sparviero
Hi Erik!
Great Work! Amazing news!

Thank you. [:)]

1) are sensors a only stations feature? If I'm correct they are present only in the screenshot about a station.

No, they exist on all ships and stations, but the slots can vary in number and size. For example, a small freighter will just support one small sensor, enough for it to navigate and see what's in its vicinity, whereas a Space Port or something like a Fleet Carrier will support many more sensor slots, some of them capable of support larger (like Long Range Sensors that can see across multiple systems or even an entire sector) and more specialized sensor components. Let's say you have a military ship with three sensor slots. Now it can have a short range sensor array, a targeting sensor array and a countermeasures array. Give it another sensor slot, perhaps it could now add on a trace scanner or a trace jammer. Give it a larger sensor slot and now you might add Fleet Targeting or Countermeasures Arrays. Typically the larger the ship or station, the more it can do sensor-wise to not only help itself but help those in its area.

2) The fact we will be able to adjust the scale of things sounds incredible! How do you archive this kind o feature?

Elliot is very good at his job. [8D] I should note the system for this is already in, we just need to fine tune it once we get into beta testing to make sure it accomodates the preferences of as many players as possible.

3) The down corner left hexagon in the ship/station summary for example in the last screenshot....is it about shields?

Good question! The center is the remaining hull strength. The first hexagon around it is the remaining armor strength. The outermost hexagon is the remaining shield strength. These act as defense layers, similar to DW1, except that both shields and armor can have resistance now (a flat reduction like reactive armor rating in DW1) and shields can also "leak" meaning some damage may get through even when the shield is still "up". The hull now also has its own reactive armor rating and the components are summarized separately, something easily accessible at the top level from this selection dialog but which we haven't shown yet.

4) This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.

Yes. [8D]

[Sparviero]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

No, they exist on all ships and stations, but the slots can vary in number and size. For example, a small freighter will just support one small sensor, enough for it to navigate and see what's in its vicinity, whereas a Space Port or something like a Fleet Carrier will support many more sensor slots, some of them capable of support larger (like Long Range Sensors that can see across multiple systems or even an entire sector) and more specialized sensor components. Let's say you have a military ship with three sensor slots. Now it can have a short range sensor array, a targeting sensor array and a countermeasures array. Give it another sensor slot, perhaps it could now add on a trace scanner or a trace jammer. Give it a larger sensor slot and now you might add Fleet Targeting or Countermeasures Arrays. Typically the larger the ship or station, the more it can do sensor-wise to not only help itself but help those in its area.

If I'm correct. We will have some sensors about fog of war that will let us see what is happening in their range, but ships/stations can also have components to hide from these sensors.
And another kind of sensors more battle related about targetting ?

Elliot is very good at his job. [8D]

[&o]

Good question! The center is the remaining hull strength. The first hexagon around it is the remaining armor strength. The outermost hexagon is the remaining shield strength. These act as defense layers, similar to DW1, except that both shields and armor can have resistance now (a flat reduction like reactive armor rating in DW1) and shields can also "leak" meaning some damage may get through even when the shield is still "up". The hull now also has its own reactive armor rating and the components are summarized separately, something easily accessible at the top level from this selection dialog but which we haven't shown yet.

This sound very cool!

Question: This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.

Answer: Yes. [8D]

[&o]
[&o][&o]

More questions!

1) Actually I wanted to ask this in my previus post, but I lost my mind XD
I understood there is a lot of customization about ships design, but i'm still confused about the sized. Fixed hulls size sounds like a bit less freedom than in Distan Worlds. Or you can still have ships of every size and ship hulls are more about the new size and components limit tech? So we will probably still have ships of all kind of size becouse we will not use all the slots of a specific hull? I also didn't understand if there is some kind customization about slots number and type beside the ship hull.


2) Second screenshot, downside....what is "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet" ? Some kind of way to have a preview about the performance of the selected design?

3) In the weapons summary there is a graphic. It looks like power of the weapons according to distance. Is this correct?

4) Boarding graphic show actually boarding defense and max boarding defence?

5) Sensors info makes think that they will play a mayor role in this game. Stealth/surprising attack will be a important aspect of the game?

6) Looks like we can resize every info tab of the UI ( the grey corner thing )


Thank you very much for your time!

[Webbco]

My question is: How often will you be showing us other aspects of the game and when will you start?

I'm really curious about the colony development in DW2 but appreciate you cannot show us that yet!!

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Sparviero
If I'm correct. We will have some sensors about fog of war that will let us see what is happening in their range, but ships/stations can also have components to hide from these sensors.
And another kind of sensors more battle related about targetting ?

I can't give much more detail about this at this point as far as going into more specifics about the fog of war system, but in general, every sensor has a counter and some sensor components are very much battle-related.

1) Actually I wanted to ask this in my previus post, but I lost my mind XD
I understood there is a lot of customization about ships design, but i'm still confused about the sized. Fixed hulls size sounds like a bit less freedom than in Distant Worlds. Or you can still have ships of every size and ship hulls are more about the new size and components limit tech? So we will probably still have ships of all kind of size becouse we will not use all the slots of a specific hull? I also didn't understand if there is some kind customization about slots number and type beside the ship hull.

The hull effectively defines the size limit and the characteristics of the hull. In DW1, you just increased your size limit and your components wffectively were your hull. In DW2 your hull is a separate idea which still increases your size limit but also has some characteristics of its own, including what number and size of each component category it can support.

Because ships have external components now and they are also 3D models, some components like engines and weapons are fully external and thus limited to those slots. This is somewhat limiting in that you can't have an unlimited number of weapons or engines, but at the same time these slot limits are typically on the generous side of realistic compared to DW1 designs so you typically won't be limited by them unless you are really trying to focus a ship in one particular area. That's where the more specialized and larger hulls come in handy, but you need to research those separately.

2) Second screenshot, downside....what is "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet" ? Some kind of way to have a preview about the performance of the selected design?

That is purely for testing in our development build and will not be there in the final release.

3) In the weapons summary there is a graphic. It looks like power of the weapons according to distance. Is this correct?

That's correct. The width indicates the amount of firepower for that weapon category, the length is the range.

4) Boarding graphic show actually boarding defense and max boarding defence?

The two colors are the combination of Crew Strength and Boarding Assault Defense.

5) Sensors info makes think that they will play a mayor role in this game. Stealth/surprising attack will be a important aspect of the game?

Hopefully more so than in DW1. [8D]

The UI first scales fully to your resolution, then is also scalable by the player, but it scales as a whole rather than by individual elements.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Webbco
My question is: How often will you be showing us other aspects of the game and when will you start?

Nothing more until 2020, but I expect we'll do at least some kind of sneak peek each month until the big reveal with the product page and such. As we get closer to release, we'll provide more details as well.

[Sparviero]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Thank you very much!
Now I have to find a reason for my life untill the release date ( probably beer ).

[Jorgen_CAB]

I just wanted to say that everything shown so far looks really fantastic... all the changes from DW1 seems really good and well thought out from what I can tell. I really love DW1 but the lack of characteristics of different hulls could sometimes make ship design a bit not so fun as you for the most part just made every ship at max size. It is often restrictions that produce character and interesting ship designs.

I think it is good that some hull types are built for manoeuvrability while others are built for maximum power and combat ability for example. That makes those hull types useful in so many more ways. You are probably no able to build a battleship that spin around as fast as a fast Destroyer or Frigate.

Keep up the good work...

[Uncle Lumpy]

Too many questions to ask!! Too much to take in!! Looks great so far!! Didn't realize just how badly I was waiting for DW-2 until now!!

[OJsDad]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Yes, on the construction part of the tech tree, you research hulls as part of your research projects. These effectively allow you to build larger ships, but they also unlock particular hulls with somewhat different sizes and maximum component slot arrangements. For example, you can can research a basic Destroyer Hull at Tech Level 2, but at the next Tech Level in the Construction tree, you could research Heavy Destroyers, Fleet Destroyers and Fast Destroyers, each of which is a more advanced and larger destroyer hull, focused and balanced in a somewhat different way. The size matters the most if you are looking for a balanced design. The particular hull matters more if you are looking to focus your design in a particular direction, such as weapons, defenses, speed and maneuverability, sensors, etc.

Hmm, if I'm understanding you, then it's a little disappointing. One of the things I really liked about DW1 was that you could build ships to any size and didn't have to research ship hull size tech first.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: OJsDad
Hmm, if I'm understanding you, then it's a little disappointing. One of the things I really liked about DW1 was that you could build ships to any size and didn't have to research ship hull size tech first.

In practice, it's not as limiting as you may be thinking. Keep in mind that in Distant Worlds 1, you could not build ships to any size. You started out with size limitations (for example, Size 160 for ships initially) and you had to research to increase your maximum buildable size. The roles were mostly just ways to organize your designs and to set certain component minimums, the size was the real limitation.

In Distant Worlds 2, the ship hulls are effectively the research projects that unlock greater sizes as well as different component limits. Within each ship hull, there is still a lot of design flexibility and I haven't had any trouble duplicating my designs from DW1 so far. Roles still establish certain component minimums, but hulls also establish certain realistic maximums. However, the roles are now also much more meaningful in an absolute sense and not just as an organizational tool. This will become even more apparent when we get to the point of discussing fleets.

Regards,

- Erik

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Imrryran]

Thanks Erik for the screens and the answers! [&o]

What about the empire internal policies, factions, etc. Will it be more complex than in the first game?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Imrryran
What about the empire internal policies, factions, etc. Will it be more complex than in the first game?

Personally I like the new Empire Policy interface much more, but I can't share it with you just yet. As with DW1, there are quite a few policy settings and the policies allow you a finer level of control over the automation of your empire and allow you to set bounds or influence the decision-making of your automated advisors.

One thing I will mention is that when it comes to your automation, the top level settings are no longer just manual/automated/advise. There is now a fourth setting, which effectively means you have two different options on the advise side. These are called Suggest and Suggest & Execute. The first means they will suggest, but if you ignore the suggestion (these suggestions decay over time) they will not implement it. In effect, they will only do it if you intervene to grant permission. The second means they will suggest, but if you don't intervene to either approve it or cancel it, they will go ahead and do it once enough time has passed for you to review it. I find these to be a useful addition that allows one more level between "I'll do it all myself" and "Just do it, I don't want to hear about it."

Regards,

- Erik

[Cauldyth]

I've spent the last 4 years imagining all the ways you could screw up my beloved Distant Worlds, but even this little bit of information shows you haven't. I still see all the micro-details that I love so much, while the new sense of scale is just fantastic. [:)]

And yes, this new ship hull system sounds much better. In DW1, the various categories of ships meant absolutely nothing (except for Carrier). You could build an escort that's bigger and more powerful than a cruiser. The game needed some sort of enforcement of roles, and it looks like that's exactly what it's getting.