Distant Worlds 2 Sneak Peek #1 – Ship Design

[Unforeseen]

Off key as far as ship design goes do we know anything about how race policy is going to be handled? I never got over that I couldn't single out specific races when determining who to enslave/exterminate etc. Had to go by either my racial group, or everyone else. Makes it tough to run an empire of Humans and Teekans trying to eradicate insectoids from the galaxy. You end up exterminating people that you want to keep.

I'm concerned about so many comments about Stellaris. Two very differant games, finite computing capability for average player. Combining Distant Worlds with some of those other games like Stellaris would be quite something, but not everyone has a PC that can handle that, and that's what Devs tend to look at when building these games. Short of targeting high end PC users, I don't think you are going to see too much of Stellaris concepts in DW2. Probably don't wanna get your hopes up. All we should 'expect' is to take what we already have, work out some kinks, improve the GFX a little bit, run it on 64bit, and improve AI. Anything beyond that is extra in my opinion.

[Rising-Sun]

Hope this is still in progress, been silent for some time now. Looking forward to get this too.

[Unforeseen]

ORIGINAL: Rising-Sun

Hope this is still in progress, been silent for some time now. Looking forward to get this too.

They started alpha testing last month.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: Unforeseen

ORIGINAL: Rising-Sun

Hope this is still in progress, been silent for some time now. Looking forward to get this too.

They started alpha testing last month.

That good to hear, hope things goes well then move on to beta stage.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Distant Worlds 2, I cannot wait for the sequel. DW1 ate soo much of my life. [:D]
Looking good so far.

[OnePercent]

DW2 is an even bigger hype for me then cyberpunk honestly. Maybe it's an unhealthy level of hype.

[ElanaAhova_slith]

Loving what I've seen so far. Played DW from first iteration all the way to Universe. Awesome. 3D concerns not important to me as I play on small maps. But for big maps, definitely an issue. 40 years ago I tried to create a 3d chess game, played in an 8x8x8 cube. Way to open. Same, I expect, for a 3d dw:universe 2. Elliot, et el, keep at it!

[OnePercent]

based on images it looks like the game is 3D in assets and visuals, but all the ships are stuck on a 2 dimensional plane.

Imo, I'd much prefer the way Sword of the Stars handled things, especially the 2nd game (ignoring the broken release) in Sword of the Stars II, ships were able to move freely in a 3 Dimensional way but were limited to 3 'default' planes of movement, so when you ordered a fleet to move they would naturally stay in 'layer' and can be ordered to stay in the middle, low or high 'layer'.

But when the ships entered combat, and ships went around each other each individual ship could freely move within this allotted space in 3D movement.

This brings the best of both worlds, allowing volumetric combat that every homeworld fan enjoys, but with ease and simplicity of commanding lots of individual units, and being able to see represented information easily.

[OnePercent]

duplicate**

[ElanaAhova_slith]

@OnePercent: I agree wholeheartedly. Sword and the Stars, with 'Murder of Crows' addon, a fantastic game. Different FTL drive types per species. DWU, on a small map, maybe 3d work. But on a mega map... lol. Like my 3d chess experiment -- too much...Hybrid would be nice, just not sure it could be implemented? EDIT. I play with mod 'Bastard SofS.'

[Theotenai]

I wish I didn't know a second one was planned... Waiting can be frustrating !

[diji]

I think the new UI alone has got a day one buy from me.

[popgea]

Sounds like DW2 enters beta in January. Where can I sign up?

wont let me post a link but its on the Wargamer site.

[Amalek28]

Will there be a scalable UI in DW2? DW 1 is not playable with a 3440 X 1440 monitor.

[popgea]

ORIGINAL: Amalek28

Will there be a scalable UI in DW2? DW 1 is not playable with a 3440 X 1440 monitor.

Read the 4k thread , i can play on my 3840x1600 by controlling the scaling (It won't let me post links or I would link to it). Also make use of the scaling buttons on the overlays on the map.

To answer your question yes I think it will.

[The Gnome]

While we're on the subject of UI/scaling: please, please, please use a good, solid readable font. I love buying games from smaller dev shops and publishers, but they usually have the least friendly fonts for the eyes. Typeface is so often overlooked, and can solve a lot of issues on the UI side.

[Geckomeister]

Beta access please [&o] [&o] [&o]

[rxnnxs]

I have three wishes for the game when it is done,

1. A Font that is scalable and readable
2. Escape closes the open window(s) and does not open the options Menue (Behavior switchable).
3. An additional Zooming OUT option: Zoom in AND out from cursor.

Thank you. For the rest, I am sure everything will be addressed and just as awesome as in the first DW.

P.S.: Thank you very much for the Video (Zoom in and out) and the Pictures. This is really the direction I hoped it would head to.
Looks very promising!

[Whiskiz]

Am conflicted about component slots and associated ship restrictions.

As long as it helps the AI build smart, challenging loadouts then i'm all for it and if it really is hard to reach the limits unless wanting to go overboard, then it could actually be an amazing concept.

If it works as advertised.

It also sounds awesome that there's variations on the same hulls to unlock - instead of just unlocking the cruiser hull, destroyer hull, etc.

For further guidance on how to make ship variation, general ship building and rock/paper/scissor equipment and combat more amazing - look to Eve Online. (Especially for other systems like the sensor and other electronic warfare and fleet support.)

EDIT: Also I hope the AI is not only smart and challenging but more dynamic between playthroughs. It'd be great if for example you weren't 43min into a game looking at your watch and going "ok the Mortalen have been doing good they should be ready to unlock ___ hull in another couple minutes and have ___ firepower and defences." but also not going the other end of the spectrum and being completely random each playthrough. Some sort of identity of course but with room for variety.

So i mean not just building their unique race specific stuff but different designs and loadouts with that stuff. Would cool if each Race had a personality (with a pre-disposition to certain parameters) that would slightly modify how they act diplomatically, militarily, ship design...arily.

Maybe one playthrough an aggressive race has a higher Cunning personality stat and so adds ships to their fleet specializing in sensors/electronic warfare, or just places a little more priority on sensors in general. Little likelier to betray any diplomatic pacts and turn pirates against nations it's targeting etc.

Another playthrough it has a higher Temper, so prioritizes more firepower in more of the slots than what you might normally see. Negative diplomatic actions have a bigger effect.

A higher Intellect personality might see more variation and interesting meta combos in its fleet loadout, prioritizes tech/research a little more, sees the wisdom and virtues in diplomatic actions more by making sure it has allies and is harder to bargain with (will want a little more for tech trade, etc.)

[Galaxy227]

ORIGINAL: Whiskiz

EDIT: Also I hope the AI is not only smart and challenging but more dynamic between playthroughs. It'd be great if for example you weren't 43min into a game looking at your watch and going "ok the Mortalen have been doing good they should be ready to unlock ___ hull in another couple minutes and have ___ firepower and defences." but also not going the other end of the spectrum and being completely random each playthrough. Some sort of identity of course but with room for variety.

This is arguably the hardest part about designing artificial intelligence in 4X/strategy games, second only to the actual competency of the AI itself. Although more variation between DW games would be interesting, I'd first argue it's an insurmountable task for the size and scope of a series as niche as Distant Worlds, and second argue the sprinkles of variation (races, governments, pirates, etc.) all already work to keep variety within the playing experience fresh, while simultaneously preventing the simulation from being too unpredictable (for instance, imagine if "X" race preferred shields in one game, and then firepower in the next... such unpredictability!).

There is already enough variation in Distant Worlds. Could there be more? Sure. Will there be more in Distant Worlds 2? Perhaps. But certainly not in the way you're suggesting, Whiskiz. It would eat up far too much development time for far too little pay-off. I'd much prefer a more streamlined, predictable AI—competent in its ability to challenge the player—rather than one with oodles of unpredictability at the expense of its own intelligence. After all, its artificial intelligence, not artificial RNG.