Distant Worlds 2 Christmas 2019 Sneak Peek!

[rollhax]

The docking bays are very reminiscent of homeworld and X3/X4. Will we be able to see ships flying in and out of them to dock?

[Larsenex]

Erik,

Thank you. Very nice stream! Will the game be 64bit? I believe you answered this but I just wanted to confirm.

Will we be able to zoom 'very far out' to see the entire galaxy and move around as before or limited based on host computer resources?

In some other games you can zoom way way out and conversely zoom way back in such as in these screen shots.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex

Erik,

Thank you. Very nice stream! Will the game be 64bit? I believe you answered this but I just wanted to confirm.

Will we be able to zoom 'very far out' to see the entire galaxy and move around as before or limited based on host computer resources?

In some other games you can zoom way way out and conversely zoom way back in such as in these screen shots.

64 bit engine is confirmed for DW2, Larsenex. [8D]

[Sparviero]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
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

Hype again


Also a really interesting topic the one about internal policy. It's the only aspect that lacks a bit of immersion in DW1 in my opinion. I'd like to see more life into my citizens.
Private Sector of the economy really helps a lot in DW1 to forget about this, but I think it will be amazing to have both feature...I really living universe ( private sector > philosophical/religous currents )

[DasTactic]

Thanks Eric for sharing this information. Distant Worlds 2 is my most anticipated game for 2020, Can't wait.

[OJsDad]

ORIGINAL: 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

Apologies, it has been awhile since I fired up DW1 and I didn't remember it correctly.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: rollhax
The docking bays are very reminiscent of homeworld and X3/X4. Will we be able to see ships flying in and out of them to dock?

Yes, indeed. Though the largest ships will generally stop somewhere near the spaceport and use shuttles, but small to medium ships can fit inside.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex
Thank you. Very nice stream! Will the game be 64bit? I believe you answered this but I just wanted to confirm.

Will we be able to zoom 'very far out' to see the entire galaxy and move around as before or limited based on host computer resources?

In some other games you can zoom way way out and conversely zoom way back in such as in these screen shots.

Yes, 64-bit and yes, you can zoom all the way out. This is not limited by system and there's seamless zoom out, zoom in from the individual ship/fighter level all they way to the full galaxy view.

[Erik Rutins]

Hey Das,

ORIGINAL: Das123
Thanks Eric for sharing this information. Distant Worlds 2 is my most anticipated game for 2020, Can't wait.

Great to hear.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: 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.

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that you are looking forward to it. [8D]

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: OJsDad
Apologies, it has been awhile since I fired up DW1 and I didn't remember it correctly.

No problem, I hope my reply reassured you... and play more DW1! [;)]

[scotten_usa]

Shut up and take my money already!

[BlueTemplar]

Looks great !

I'm assuming that ships will be a single pointlike entity for targeting and damage purposes ?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar
I'm assuming that ships will be a single pointlike entity for targeting and damage purposes ?

That is correct, though certain weapons will cause damage that favors one component type over another. For example, some weapons partially or fully bypass shields or armor, others target components directly (ion weapons of various types).

Regards,

- Erik

[sinbuster]

Thanks Erik. I'm glad you decided not to reinvent the wheel when it came to the sequel. The scale is obviously a great improvement but there are so many familiar elements remaining. My original question about bigger galaxies was already answered so here are a couple more if I may:

Has save game bloat been resolved?

Has the spy system been changed at all? It was micro-heavy even for someone like me that plays with all the automation off.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: sinbuster
Has save game bloat been resolved?

Saves and loads are extremely quick in my experience with this new engine. Until we get through our final testing and optimization, it's hard to say for sure but I expect a major improvement in this area compared to DW1.

Has the spy system been changed at all? It was micro-heavy even for someone like me that plays with all the automation off.

Too early to talk about espionage or characters, sorry. [:)]

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex

Erik,

Thank you. Very nice stream! Will the game be 64bit? I believe you answered this but I just wanted to confirm.

Will we be able to zoom 'very far out' to see the entire galaxy and move around as before or limited based on host computer resources?

In some other games you can zoom way way out and conversely zoom way back in such as in these screen shots.

Hi all

Long time, no speak Glad you like what you've seen so far of DW2.

Thought I'd just add some more points about 64-bit: while the default build will be 64-bit, we'll probably also include a 32-bit version. Memory usage is much-improved over DW1, so 32-bit can actually handle most situations ok. It's just the really big galaxies where 64-bit works better. But if you only have 32-bit Windows, you'll still be able to play DW2.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: sinbuster

Thanks Erik. I'm glad you decided not to reinvent the wheel when it came to the sequel. The scale is obviously a great improvement but there are so many familiar elements remaining. My original question about bigger galaxies was already answered so here are a couple more if I may:

Has save game bloat been resolved?

Has the spy system been changed at all? It was micro-heavy even for someone like me that plays with all the automation off.

Savegames are much smaller and much, much faster. Saving a game often takes less than a second, depending on galaxy size, etc.

One thing I'll say about characters is that we now have per-character automation, i.e. you can automate individual characters (location, missions) or not. Generally-speaking there is more fine-grained control over units with per-unit automation settings (in addition to advisors, etc).

[WinzLer]

This all looks great so far. My one question is about planet population control, in regard to race control can you say you don't want a certain race on your planets from migration rather than a race family only?

[WinzLer]

also I guess I had two questions... Can you finally build star bases that act like trade hubs out in space rather than having to use the planets as the hubs only?