Distant Worlds 2 Christmas 2019 Sneak Peek!

[xan2622]

I second the idea to have a dedicated Discord server to discuss about the game.

To begin with, why not using the official Matrix Games Discord server ? https://discord.gg/dpyxJx

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[garion333]

Fwiw, I think it looks miles better than DW1. I'm surprised to see anyone complain about the look considering DW1 was functional at best, graphically.

Thanks for the info! Been waiting and waiting for this!

[OnePercent]

About the discussion on Nebula;

If you really think about it, DW1 and 2 are set in top down views of spiral arms, or slice of pies zoomed in on galaxies for irregular maps or clusters.

If we talk about the point of view that our camera is zooming in on a slice of a galaxy, or just a really really small spiral galaxy, wouldn't that mean that, from completely zoomed out state the nebula be basically tiny points on the map? AKA, the nebula now becomes PART of the playable area of the 3D galaxy in the case of DW2. I think the nebula system should be implemented in a way to dynamically change based on where the camera is, zoomed out all the way, it should appear as tiny points of interest (and depending on exposure settings, they can be vibrantly colored from afar, similar to supernova remnants and clouds in DW1) but when you zoom in on nearby systems right down into interplanetary space the texture of these nebula can then be baked into the background view as a diffuse and, subtle gas clouds which would then look like the examples of subtle nebula posted by forum posters in this thread.

As for the views when fully panned out of the galaxy? remember that your camera is now 'outside' of the galaxy, other galaxies should then, come into view from afar similar to the game spore. I know it's asking a lot but the whole thing would look like a scene out of space engine as you zoom out.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: btd64

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Thrake
What is the difference beetween components and design bays?

A design bay is effectively a "slot" in the ship that accepts a component. Each Design bay has a type and a maximum size. Some design bays are also external, meaning they have a 3D Mesh associated with them and when a component is placed in that design bay, it actually appears on the ship (the ship's 3D model changes to show it). External bays thus also have a specific position. In some cases, such as weapons, these external design bays also have an arc within which they can fire and when that weapon fires, you will see it actually firing from that particular place on the ship where you put it.

Design bays (I also call them component slots) are divided into the following general categories.

Weapons (pretty much everything from point defense to long range heavy weapons)
Defenses (shields, armor and other handy defensive components)
Engines (engines and maneuvering thrusters)
Sensors (small and large and of various kinds)
Hangars (from docking bays to starfighter hangars)
General (pretty much everything else, including your reactors, life support, crew quarters, cargo bays, fuel cells, etc.)

Regards,

- Erik

Erik, Sounds like it will be easier to mod with. Excellent....GP

Well GP, looks like we'll be getting the band back together! [:D]

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1

ORIGINAL: btd64

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins




A design bay is effectively a "slot" in the ship that accepts a component. Each Design bay has a type and a maximum size. Some design bays are also external, meaning they have a 3D Mesh associated with them and when a component is placed in that design bay, it actually appears on the ship (the ship's 3D model changes to show it). External bays thus also have a specific position. In some cases, such as weapons, these external design bays also have an arc within which they can fire and when that weapon fires, you will see it actually firing from that particular place on the ship where you put it.

Design bays (I also call them component slots) are divided into the following general categories.

Weapons (pretty much everything from point defense to long range heavy weapons)
Defenses (shields, armor and other handy defensive components)
Engines (engines and maneuvering thrusters)
Sensors (small and large and of various kinds)
Hangars (from docking bays to starfighter hangars)
General (pretty much everything else, including your reactors, life support, crew quarters, cargo bays, fuel cells, etc.)

Regards,

- Erik

Erik, Sounds like it will be easier to mod with. Excellent....GP

Well GP, looks like we'll be getting the band back together! [:D]

Yes we will[8D]....GP

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[OnePercent]

Finally, I have a question;

The designs I've currently seen are nice, are all the 3D designs inspired by the 2D art from DW:U of the specific race designs for stations and starships, in order to keep with the DW aesthetic? I'm not familiar with Mortalan or Akdarian 2D designs so maybe other posters could weigh in on what we've aready seen. [8D]

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: OnePercent

Finally, I have a question;

The designs I've currently seen are nice, are all the 3D designs inspired by the 2D art from DW:U of the specific race designs for stations and starships, in order to keep with the DW aesthetic? I'm not familiar with Mortalan or Akdarian 2D designs so maybe other posters could weigh in on what we've aready seen. [8D]

It appears that the images are using updated designs for the graphics for DW2. You can look at the 2D designs for the Akdarian ships and bases at images/units/ships/family0 and the Mortalan ships/bases at images/units/ships/family18

[Yoda3131]

Hello Erik and everyone,

Thanks a lot for the work and the dream: DWU is the best game I've ever played. Ever. (Despite the interface...)

I'm glad with everything I've just read. The size of the ships' hull is the only thing I'm disappointed with. For example, the idea that my own imagination was the only limit to the size development of my stellar bases was so tremendous and exceptional in a video game. I understood why you decided to develop this new game option, but I have two questions about the size of the hulls:
- Will the updates allow us to upgrade the size of the last ships' hulls we will have researched?
- Will there be some megastructures ready for the players to obtain as soon as the game is released ("deathstar", "armed moon", etc.)?

Thanks again for everything and Merry Christmas!

[OnePercent]

ORIGINAL: rjord1

Yep, seems to be the case, the Ackdarian designs seem to be the only correlation in design philosophy that seems to transfer over from the 2D sprite to something reminiscent in design in full 3D. For the Mortalan however, it's completely changed if your quote of ships/bases at images/units/ships/family18 is correct, they've changed from spheroidal, asymmetrical look to a more symmetrical and angular space station.

[Cauldyth]

Keep in mind that DW2 will almost certainly be quite moddable, so for those of you who prefer fewer restrictions on ship size, I'm sure a mod for that will quickly appear.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Cauldyth
Gameplay first, graphics second. [:)]

We agree with that too, but hopefully the nicer graphics and interface will help lessen frustration and increase immersion for new and old players alike.

That being said, whoever designed that Ackdarian space port, give them a Christmas bonus!

The 3D models are a collaboration. The initial concepts are done by our Art Director, Richard Evans. I've attached the original concept to this post. We then have several dedicated 3D modelers for DW2 who work to take these concepts and turn them into a nice model with all the gameplay necessities (like support for all those external components).

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: stuart3
I get that we have to research hull sizes and that's good, but are ship hulls still infinitely expandable via retrofitting? That was always one of the most "gamey" aspects of DW1. In real life once a vessel's hull has been built then it's fixed. Retrofitting can cram it with advanced weaponry and other technology until it becomes inconveniently overfull, but eventually you have to build a bigger new vessel and relegate the obsolescent one to a secondary theatre and eventually scrap it. Triremes didn't morph into Napoleonic ships of the line and on into Dreadnoughts while remaining the same original ships. It would be nice if DW2 recognised this reality.

At present, retrofits are by role, so if you start with say the base hull for that role and then research some larger specialized hulls you can retrofit to those, but you can't retrofit to a completely different "family" of hulls, so in effect no infinite retrofits. With that said, it is our hope that all roles will be useful throughout the game in DW2, so that given a progression of research, you may still have retrofitted versions of your early small ships in service alongside your newer bigger ships in the mid to late game.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
Are there any plans for Megastructures? With the scale of the galaxy being what it is for DW2, Megastructures would be truly impressive to see/build. I know DWU had the Mega Shipyards buildable on planet but would be really cool to have it be an actual build-able project in space. Would introduce more interesting tactical/strategic value to these objects that could make for interesting scenarios

Sorry, but our plans for mega-structures are outside of what I can discuss at this point.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: darkriot
That’s awesome! Another question will we be able to customize the ships any other way besides components? To be able to tweak colors or such?

Color tweaking is not a thing at present, but it may be something we can look into if there is a demand for it. There is currently a huge amount of gameplay customization available for each ship and through the external components system, ships can also look different based on the components you choose for them.

And will the weapons look differently the ship depending on the types of weapon in the slot?

Yes indeed.

These very early concept sketches may help explain what we are trying to achieve with external components:

[Erik Rutins]

Here's a somewhat closer look at the external components:

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: WinzLer

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: 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?

In DW1 you could build stations out in space, could you please elaborate on your question a bit?

Yes you could build star bases out in space but, if I wanted to build a star base out close to resources and have the private sector ships use that star base to drop those resources off they would ignore my star base and still transport those resources to the planet trade ports. Will D2 have the ability to use star bases in this way?

Aha, understood. I can't discuss that now but will when we get to talking about the economy, resource and trade and such.