Distant Worlds: Shadows

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn
I hope they will also incorporate economy tweaks so its less hard to make insane amounts of money.

Yes, that's part of the balance we've been working on as well. Lots of economic and resource balancing so far during Shadows development.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Igard
I really hope the tractor beams aren't purely an offensive weapon. I'd like a way to passively deal with space creatures.

They can pull in or push away and yes they can work on space creatures as well.

Shark, I still haven't got my mods updated for Legends! Modding characters was just too time consuming. We had the chance to add hundreds of characters to our mods, but that was a serious amount of data entry, typing in every single attribute.

I hope this is sorted for Shadows and we can generate random stats for our custom characters.

This is on our internal mod improvements wish list for Shadows as well (generating random stats for custom characters).

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

Will post more at a later date, out of time for now. [8D]

Regards,

- Erik

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Modest
Now, while changes to the ground combat are great, and I am very happy about it, thing which mostly took my attention are space based factions For a very long time I wanted to be able to build "secret" empire in dead space, far from any solar system (with exeption of mining stations that is). Now maybe I will be able to! Also boarding actions sounds very interesting

Yes, that's the idea. The new "pirates" are not the old pirates and can become quite powerful as well as harder to find and eliminate.
Regards,
- Erik

My AWACs ships will be all the more important in a battle like that...

Cool Stuff!
Thank you Erik. [8D]

[Kruos]

They can pull in or push away and yes they can work on space creatures as well.

This.. is very exciting! And could mean some new interaction with space creatures... for example, something like being able to launch a group of tractored kaltors on an ennemy fleet... huge!

[Bingeling]

I like the sound of the news Erik.

I hope you have in mind that loading up an invasion fleet should not be a pain in the ass, as a mix of unit types is probably desired. It is also beneficial if this mix does not lead to AI led transports flying all over the place to try collect its missing pieces.¨

I hope the reputation raising feature of pirates is reworked alongside the rest of them. Fleshing out this part of the game sounds really interesting. And I assume that resources brokered by independents are not summoned out of thin vacuum.

[Cauldyth]

Thanks for the info, Erik, it's all sounding pretty damn good. (And another expansion to follow this one!)

[hewwo]

Epic! All of it! Biggest on my wishlist is to have resources be really important to you economy, so you actually have to plan around it etc! Just imagine being able to cripple an enemy empire by surgically taking out one of its most important resources (and have the AI do that to me)

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Shark7
1. How will this affect our current mods? IE will they still work?

To the best of my knowledge right now, all Legends mods should work with Shadows without any changes. Our goal is to make sure that remains that way for release.

4. Will there be new research techs given the new ground forces?

Yes, first there is a new "Level 0" on the tech tree for the pre-hyperspace techs, then there is the new Ground Combat tech tree and the new Gravitic Weapons tech tree, as well as some modifications to others.

5. Will any additional areas of the game be open to modding?

Not in the major areas, the amount of work those require makes opening them up a lot of work. However, all new work keeps modding in mind and we currently plan to make a modder-focused release after Shadows that should make some major strides forward on the modding side rather than incremental ones.

Regards,

- Erik

Good to hear the part about current mods still working. I know the guys that have released mods put a lot of work into them and wouldn't look forward to redoing them again, and those that play those mods don't want to wait 6-9 months to be able to play the mods again. [;)]

I will always look forward to the ability to mod other parts of the game, like the resources and how they work. Then again, if I got the game exactly the way I want it, most people would hate it...most people don't want a full production based industrial model (IE resources make widgets that are used to make gadgets, etc). Yes I am a WiTP: AE JFB...which really means I like overcomplicated production systems and logistical nightmares. [:D]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Igard
I really hope the tractor beams aren't purely an offensive weapon. I'd like a way to passively deal with space creatures.

They can pull in or push away and yes they can work on space creatures as well.

Shark, I still haven't got my mods updated for Legends! Modding characters was just too time consuming. We had the chance to add hundreds of characters to our mods, but that was a serious amount of data entry, typing in every single attribute.

I hope this is sorted for Shadows and we can generate random stats for our custom characters.

This is on our internal mod improvements wish list for Shadows as well (generating random stats for custom characters).

Regards,

- Erik

The random stats for custom characters will help a lot, though for some characters in some mods you need to set them manually. IE a Star Wars mod must always have an Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader with certain skills and stats (the 'Corrupt' trait comes to mind).

[Simulation01]

I'm done.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Simulation01
"pre-hyperspace"
Does this mean that you will introduce alternative faster than light travel modes for the different races....like wormholes, jumpgates, and jumplanes?

Not yet, but it does mean that you will be able to start with a planet, with no stations or ships or the tech to build all those possible types, no hyperspace drive and start exploring your own system, building your first space port, mining stations, etc. and trying to defend those and keep growing until you can start to explore the galaxy beyond your own system.

The idea of doing other methods of FTL is very appealing though and has been on our long-term list for a while. No specific plans for that in this release though.

Also, what about planetary construction, Dyson Sphere's, Ring World's...those are long sought after additions by me and others? Will those be introduced? I think they could really be integral when contemplating space based civilizations?

No artificial planets - we took a good long look at that as it interests us as well, but within the current engine it would mean a huge amount of development work for the benefit. The space-based civilizations do have an eventual path towards planetary population though (if they want to pursue that) but can also remain a lower population space-based faction.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: feelotraveller
So maybe smuggling Natarran Incense is back on the agenda.  [:D]
It all looks very interesting.  [:)]

Well, if you are playing as an independent/smuggler, the increasing planetary populations are the best source of income for you. Meeting their general demands as well as specific requests can give you a good income.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: solops
I think the ground combat complication is a move in the wrong direction. The AI does a poor job now. Adding to the complexity will make it even less competitive as well as increasing player micromanagment. 

Just FYI, we're doing everything we can in development to make sure that the AI can fully handle all the new features and additions. So far it's doing well with the new ground combat in my experience, but a lot more testing and AI work still remains.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Raap
Any hints as to how resource and cash management will be for those factions? I suppose the resource part could be kept mostly the same( with a heavy focus on cargo bays in the ship/base designs to compensate for lack of planetary storage), but unless you now allow ships and bases to have actual populations in them, I'm kinda interested in how you plan to replace tax income and the research aspects.

The economy is quite a bit different for those space-based factions, but there are multiple playstyles you can pursue, from raiding and pillaging planets to taking on mercenary missions to trading peacefully to setting up your own "underworld economy" on a world and gradually taking it over from within.

Research is quite a bit slower for space-based factions, without the planetary populations and their benefits, but they are also quite good at stealing/capturing and reverse engineering tech. Also, if you're playing in the Age of Shadows, the space-based factions start out with a tech advantage.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Kobracan
I have to be honest: independent races don't excite me much but detailed ground combat and AI improvements are exciting. I'll be buying it the day it comes out!

We tried to put something in there for everyone, whether you like "pirates" or don't, whether you want to play in the Age of Shadows or stay in the previous storylines/timelines, etc. Good to hear that from the comments so far, everyone seems to be finding something they will like. The overall continuing improvements to the AI and improvements to automation that we've done in every release are part of the development of each new expansion as well. In this way the expansions help us to continue improving the game as a whole.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Darkspire
A. Is it an expansion needing the others to work, like Legends?

Yes, this will require the previous expansions. We realize the list is getting pretty long, so I expect within the next year we'll consolidate that a bit as well but for now it's sequential.

C. What is the price range, same as Legends? Asking as I would like to get it and would like to start putting pennies aside.

I would expect the same price range as Return of the Shakturi and Legends.

D. Will the race portraits be updated? IMHO they should have been updated in Legends, a variant for each character type of the race, leader, general etc.

There will be some new art for the space-based factions. No plans at present to add unique character art, though we may add some if time allows or in a future release.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: tjhkkr
Will we get a cool contest like last time?
I trully had fun reading all the cool ideas people had?

Hm, I've been thinking about this but hadn't come up with a good one yet. We could do another space monster, or perhaps a unique space-based faction. Any suggestions?

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Rtwfreak
I want to know "exactly" what you did to "improve" the AI. It's all too easy to make a blanket statement like that and no real improvement even exists. So please in "detail" tell us how you improved the AI.

The main improvements have been in the area of how the private sector economy works, how exploration and expansion is planned, how certain threats are responded to and "remembered" and "aged" and how fueling/refueling is handled. In addition, "Pirate" AI is pretty much completely rewritten and they are much "smarter" than they were. Improvements in many areas continue. The AI and automation has improved with each expansion, but in many cases getting down to small details on this is also misleading as the overall effect of all the smaller improvements together matters most. While Distant Worlds: Shadows is still in development, I also don't know yet all the improvements for the final release or how much better the AI will be at that point. We just want to make sure it's significantly improved.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Bebop Cola
Will it be possible for an empire to transition back and forth between these states? For example, could a space-based empire capture a planet to become a traditional empire, then return to being spaced-based if their last planet is captured while they still retain say, a construction ship, in play?

Yes, there is a path that space-based empires can pursue (it's not easy though) that will give them control over a planet and they could also lose that planet and be entirely space-based again. It's difficult to eliminate a space-based faction entirely because as long as they have a space port or a resupply ship or a construction ship somewhere, they are still in the game. With the new ability to board and capture other ships and bases, they are quite resilient.

Regards,

- Erik