Suggestions for Distant Worlds 2...

[aaatoysandmore]

If there ever is one.

1. Have the ships window "stay" at the last ship looked at instead of always going back to the top of the list and having to scroll back down to it.

2. Put in player input feature instead of having to click the numbers up and down when designing a ship. I don't even do Large star port upgrades because I ain't clicking 90 times down and then 90 times back up just to replace armor. This is one of the worst features of the game having to click to change something. Just give us a blank box to fill in like you do in the "policy" screen.

3. Same as above only in the diplomacy screen when trading techs. Just let me put in a number don't make me click a million times getting there.

4. Make a hot button fleet or ship button on the main screen to get back to a ship we are doing something with and don't want to have to go click on ships icon and then scroll the dam page till we find it every dam time. Streamline the dam game why don't you?

5. Military Strength is a deceiving number on screen. You need to also add at least the defensive effects into it as well. A 1000pt firepower ship is no match for a 500pt ship with twice the defense or more. Add in things like armor and shields when calculating Military Strength. I don't know how many times I creamed an empire with twice the Military Strength than I have. It has lots of firepower but no defense. It's just a raw power number not taking into consideration other things that make up Military Strength.

6. a ship search feature on the ship in game itself. In other words I click on a ship and to see it's build design or upgrade it a button is right there in that little box to go ahead and upgrade it even a retrofit button there as well. mini buttons.

7. And for the love of god a financial readout like Sid Meier's Railroad tycoon. I want to know how the economy works. I'm totally blind in this game. So a ship carries 10 tons of whatchamacallit. I want to know how much its getting for it. What happens if I put a "commerce" feature on it? How does income work? What and how is making me my income the most? Do I get reimbursed for the purchase of a mineral mine or gas mine? Does the private sector buy a completely new ship every time it retrofits or just the components in the old ship? If so there should be upgrades to the ship itself to get them to buy whole new ships. I could go on forever about this economy in this game and what it needs.

Also, let me get this straight. If I place a gas mine and pay for it I still have to pay a dam fee to get fuel from it? No oil barron in this world pays for his gas at the gas pump he owns.

These are just a "few" of the things I'd like to see changed. If I really took my time I could think of a lot more that could really streamline this game.

8. Oh I thought of one. Either take it out of the game as it's really just silly as it is or redesign it. Giving gifts of money is just silly ridiculous both in the AI giving me money and me give it back to them. It's just redundant bull crap. I make so much money from the AI giving me gifts I don't really need an economy well that's exaggerating but I think you know what I mean. I get 20,000 credit gifts all the time.

Also, if you're going to leave it in then at least make it auto collect. Who in their right mind wouldn't accept free money? Even at war I would take my enemies gold.

[Bingeling]

4: You have 10 shortcuts to anything on the number buttons. Select something, press ctrl-1. And it will get selected when you press 1. I use them for my main fleets, you can use one or more of them for whatever you need to get back to.

8: The money collects just fine, you don't have to click on the messages. I am sure you won't hurt their feelings if you ignore them and just take the money.

And yes, there are lots of nice feature that could be added to the game. But it is still a very nice game

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

4: You have 10 shortcuts to anything on the number buttons. Select something, press ctrl-1. And it will get selected when you press 1. I use them for my main fleets, you can use one or more of them for whatever you need to get back to.

8: The money collects just fine, you don't have to click on the messages. I am sure you won't hurt their feelings if you ignore them and just take the money.

And yes, there are lots of nice feature that could be added to the game. But it is still a very nice game

I don't want to have to press TWO buttons. I only want one on the featured items screen. That's the whole point of streamlining is to make it a lot faster to get somewhere. One click maybe two at the most and that is it. No extra button like CTRL remember One ring that binds them all. [:D]

Good to know about the money thing I wasn't sure if it collected automatically or not if I didn't press the boxes that scroll on the side of the screen. Now, I'll just ignore them. Free money Yay just what I want in a game. Not![:@]

[Noble713]

Linux compatibility please. I no longer run Windows but still love 4X games. For now I'm stuck playing FreeOrion. I'd pre-order/Early Access DW2 on Steam if Linux is supported.

[Retreat1970]

Multiplayer

/endthread

[Guardian54]

Also important is to have Resupply ships able to be AGGRESSIVE like regular ships!

Otherwise we can't cheese the 3x ship size non-planetary base ability to use them for dreadnoughts anymore.

Because I swear if I don't have an equalizer against harder AI settings I simply won't buy DW 2 if it comes out [:'(]

[Ranbir]

I think multiplayer would ruin the simulation aspect. Paradox made their games a lot more gamey for a competitive multiplayer possibility.

[Blabsawaw22]

You're out of you mind if anybody thinks Multiplayer wouldn't bring oooodles of fun and a much more broad spectrum of gamers to this game..


hands down multiplayer will make this game rise on the charts..

[Bingeling]

It should probably help me lose interest in the game, though.

[Ralzakark]

Same here. I have little time to play and when I do it isn't in any regular pattern, so a long multi-player game isn't for me. I micro-manage a lot in DW so am endlessly pausing the game to see what is going on in remote corners of my empire, which is ok for me but would drive an opponent to distraction (and me when they did it).

Multiplayer is great fun, but not for me with DW.

[Blabsawaw22]

well then they need to look into how to allow players to play on same team then and also have jump in and jump out multiplayer..

it's very possible.. it would solve both of the problems you mentioned..

Ofcourse DW2 won't take this on but it would be amazing..

A good example would be the late Beyond Sol game - that allows multiplayer to join and quit as they feel.. whenever.. It somehow saves so if you come back and join a multiplayer game it throws you back into wherever the city was left off and whatever the AI did.. it works amazingly..

and then the other aspect is playing on the same team - I think it's from older Command and Conquer games or any of those games that allowed 2 team members to control same units (starcraft maybe or Tzar or I can't remember darnit..) etc.. (can't remember the specific games right now but they are out there..)


Edit**

Oh I think I remembered one, Total Annihilation or Dawn of war maybe.. I know Savage does, it allows a human to control the resources and command of things while other players are the units themselves and the human commander can give orders and perks and gold to the other human players if they actually follow orders given..

[Ranbir]

Most things casualised rise up, yeah. But a lot of depth will be lost if it has to be balanced for multiplayer, a lot of the little parts that form a greater sum. I like that this is more of a galactic simulator and not a galactic strategy game. I'm sure Stellaris will fix that mp itch, but I really want DW to stay as the king of deep living galaxy simu-feels.

[Retreat1970]

It needs the option for multiplayer. If you don't want to play multiplayer then don't, but don't deny it from others just because you don't like it.

[Bingeling]

The game that I want won't work in multiplayer apart from some really special cases of players. And really special cases of players is not a huge audience for a game. Distant worlds is real time with flexible speed and lots of menu clicking if you do the slow and steady pace. That won't work with multiplayer. Sure, you can make it work by not pausing on menus, or limiting pauses, but then it is an entirely different game.

I lack the imagination to see how multiplayer could work in this game as it is now. Of course they could make it. They could possibly also draw players due to the multiplayer tag. But this forum and that on steam won't be prettier places if they release a mulitplayer that don't work well at all.

[Retreat1970]

DW2 better not be DWU with a big patch. That would be upsetting. Regardless I'm not going to argue about multiplayer. The point is moot since I have no say anyways. I would love to pit myself against another human mind. That would be a challenge. Right now DWU is no challenge. Unless I'm extremely handicapped, which is no fun.

[Guardian54]

Problem with MP: You need to have preset design palettes since designing takes a LOT of time in DW, and the AI designs are HORRID. Also tech tree research setups before everyone has to un-pause the game.
You even need race-specific palettes for many races e.g. Quameno with their massive homeworld starport lab count and insanely OP Mk 1 NovaCore Reactor.

You also NEED mobile starbases to be aggressive, or dreadnought warfare will be micro hell (as it is now).

[btd64]

DW2 as mentioned is a pausible game. If it was a igougo it would work. But it's not....GP

[Bingeling]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

DW2 better not be DWU with a big patch. That would be upsetting. Regardless I'm not going to argue about multiplayer. The point is moot since I have no say anyways. I would love to pit myself against another human mind. That would be a challenge. Right now DWU is no challenge. Unless I'm extremely handicapped, which is no fun.

If DW2 is built on a modern engine with overall improvements to DWU, I will be more than happy. An engine that runs out of the box and looks somewhat modern, one that does need windows media player or other oddities.

Add search options for the galaxy. Easy to access information of the state of resources in the empire, for instance the caslon situation at colonies. Which have enough, which are short?

Improved diplomacy with more meaningful alliances. Improved AI in many ways, including fleet management.

Keep the galaxy simulation aspect, keep and maybe improve the civilian sector that helps keep the galaxy alive. And maybe make at a 2d map in a 3d engine, that allows to pan an zoom a bit to watch the battles as they unfold. If DWU has been a decent economic hit, hiring some 3d graphics people to make it a bit nice and shiny should be an easy thing to do.

There are lots of things that can be done within modest distances of the current product that would modernize and improve the game quite a lot.

[Blabsawaw22]

Distant Worlds would rock Multiplayer.. don't deny it. ha.

Retreat1970 is absolutely correct, They already made DW1 such an in-depth game..so DW2 can only bring new to the plate (while ofcourse hopefully staying true to what the Original game idea was- a real-living space simulation where the private sector / background npc's work to make like a real world universe..

I guess if you just pause and everybody paused in multiplayer oh well, you could enforce time-limit pauses like 2 minutes or etc.. or just don't pause and you have to choose your research in realtime..

in anycase, yes it's not under any of our control but it's fun to speculate..

and there are games that do this concept very well.. like I was saying, Beyond Sol is one of them.. Imagine when X-Rebirth will come out having Multiplayer.. actually they kinda have it I guess now that I think about it, -Eve Online and Star Citizen etc.. of course imagine those in 2d world.. ha.

[Retreat1970]

There are lots of things that can be done within modest distances of the current product that would modernize and improve the game quite a lot.

That's what patches are for. I don't want to pay 50 bucks for a big patch disguised as DW2. Dw2 has to be more than tweaks and AI improvement. They can do that now.

As far as multiplayer goes, you're all just scared to play me lol. Actually I'd be scared to play you too lol. Games would be intense. You have to admit that.