In case you missed it - DW2 coverage

[Erik Rutins]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/distant-worlds-2/release-date

https://multiplayer.it/articoli/distant ... culto.html

https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/distant ... 66309.html

[rollhax]

Guys, this is looking amazing, congrats! I'll be buying it twice and probably taking a week off work.

[Erik Rutins]

I'm incredibly excited to finally be able to show you DW2. [8D]

[RogerBacon]

I read that DW2 will have a setting for a 2000 star galaxy. No word yet if it will be called "Bacon Big".

[Erik Rutins]

https://explorminate.co/distant-worlds- ... -revealed/

[Bleek]

Brilliant stuff, my most anticipated game of the past 5 years.

I know it will be grand and I cannot wait. [:)]

[SirHoraceHarkness]

The stream shows DW2 is going to be more of the same but with some extra shiny trim added in with some expanded features. I am totally ok with that and miss the days when sequels were logical progressions and not outright redesigns. Hell I would be totally happy with DWU if all the annoying stuff was fixed past what the modders were able to do.(and they did a lot!)

[Retreat1970]

Definitely more of the same but in 3D. I desperately want to get excited but I can't yet. I've played 8 years of DWU and it's tired. If your selling point is DWU but 3d I'm not sure I'm ok with that.

[arvcran2]

No need to get excited per se, though you have to admit the interface looks quite efficient and the visual is quite a lot more rewarding. Am quite glad this is real DWU is such a great game, DW2 looks very promising! *fingers crossed*

[Galaxy227]

I believe the overarching goal of the release version of Distant Worlds 2 is to refine the many quirks and kinks that made DW:U so difficult to digest. To provide a more easily-approachable experience, to "drain the swamp," if you will, and turn the muddy waters into an ocean as transparent as glass.

Based on what I can remember from the livestream: It vastly increases the performance of the game by removing its archaic 32-bit system, effectively allowing the application to utilize more than four gigabytes of RAM. It greatly enhances the User Interface, tying in most game mechanics within the actual playing galaxy, rather than spread sheets and windows that covered the screen & force-paused the game. It expanded on mechanics within the game that often felt shallow, such as planetary development and space battles, while also strengthening some of the already-great mechanics, such as ship designing and research. We've got ourselves more impactful galactic geography, new mechanics that affect how ships travel about the galaxy, more control on the tactical level of space battles, an overhaul of map modes that work to present information more comprehensively & visually, better control over the flow of resources, policies for species on planets and new mechanics for characters (I saw a "prisoners" screen in the livestream!).

This was just an hour reveal, and the first of plenty more to come throughout the year. And I haven't even mentioned all of the time that was invested into creating a seamless, three-dimensional space game on a galactic scale. This is seriously impressive, and for you, Retreat1970, to so easily brush it off as "unexciting" and "tiring..." I don't know what could excite you at this point.

I for one am incredibly impressed, ready to support Erik and Elliot financially with my purchase, and cannot wait to get my hands on the final product.

[Retreat1970]

Please don't dismiss my feelings on the matter. I am allowed to have reservations just like you are ready to buy 10 copies.

If 64bit will allow huge galaxies why is 2000 the limit? Bacon does that now.
7 races to start? No pirates? Shakturi?
Ground combat is the same? This is a shame.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE DW, but I'm not going to drink the kool aid just because. I'll see what people say in the beta.

[LordMM]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Please don't dismiss my feelings on the matter. I am allowed to have reservations just like you are ready to buy 10 copies.

If 64bit will allow huge galaxies why is 2000 the limit? Bacon does that now.
7 races to start? No pirates? Shakturi?
Ground combat is the same? This is a shame.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE DW, but I'm not going to drink the kool aid just because. I'll see what people say in the beta.

2000 systems, 100s or possibly 1000nds of 3d modeled ships..probably dozens of space engagements at each point. I don't think it's possible to make it larger beyond this. Stellaris along lags like crazy during mid-game and it's less than half the game this is.

Pirates will be there, just not playable. End game crisis will also be there from the looks of it.

[arvcran2]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

Please don't dismiss my feelings on the matter. I am allowed to have reservations just like you are ready to buy 10 copies.

If 64bit will allow huge galaxies why is 2000 the limit? Bacon does that now.
7 races to start? No pirates? Shakturi?
Ground combat is the same? This is a shame.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE DW, but I'm not going to drink the kool aid just because. I'll see what people say in the beta.

That's fair, I was more inclined on encouraging than ignoring, good points.

[Miletkir]

I see where you're coming from Retreat, but I think they focused here on building a base for a better DW and, like for the first game, expansions are a big part of their long term vision to go beyond that. It seems to me that's what their timeframe and resources allowed for, given the size of the dev team. When you see the list of improvements Erik posted, you can't deny there that a lot has been improved, even if those are generally more adjustments than major additions.

[Galaxy227]

Precisely Miletkir.

Although I can wrap my head around where Retreat is coming from, I still find it distasteful to overshadow the improvements Erik, Elliot, and the rest of the development team have put together over the past couple of years. They are a smaller team with limited resources and time. If anything I'm surprised they've done as much as they have, especially considering all of the hiccups 2020 brought along.

I don't mean to "dismiss" your opinion Retreat, obviously it's just as valid as mine or anyone else's. I just simply don't agree with it. I almost want to call it disrespectful.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970
If 64bit will allow huge galaxies why is 2000 the limit? Bacon does that now.

I didn't realize the Bacon mod did that, but I'll point out he's also been changing the code. I'm also sure that the performance with 2000 stars on DW1 will be much worse than in DW2. Are more than 2000 stars possible? We'll see - 2000 is what we felt comfortable with so far.

7 races to start? No pirates? Shakturi?

7 playable races, with full 3D ship and station sets and animated characters. 13 additional that are non-playable independents. The pirates are in, just not as a playable faction. I don't plan to be discussing the threats or storyline events in detail, I want you all to discover those at release.

Ground combat is the same? This is a shame.

Did you listen to everything I said there? It's the same, except that:
1. We moved the orbital defense phase to the map so you see the planetary defenses shooting the landing pods in space as they approach the planet.
2. We added an entirely new troop type (Titans)
3. We added more data to each troop type to better define their interactions with each other beyond just strength.
4. We added more techs to the ground combat tree.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE DW, but I'm not going to drink the kool aid just because. I'll see what people say in the beta.

I'm not dismissing your opinion at all, but when you talk about the kool aid you do come across as pretty grumpy and frankly after 2020 I guess we're all entitled to be, but I hope your first impression changes over time.

Regards,

- Erik

[MaysaChan]

The pirates are in, just not as a playable faction.

Wait, you can't play as pirate faction anymore??? or will it be playable again after some DLC??

[Erik Rutins]

That's correct, playable pirates were effectively a full year expansion of work for us in DW1 and we just couldn't justify the time with everything else we had to do in the initial release. They're still more fleshed out than the original DW1 pirates pre-Shadows, but they are an early game threat. We expect they'll be made playable again in one of the DW2 expansions.

[arvcran2]

For me playing as Pirates was a way to better understand how to deal with them as an Empire faction. But I have to admit the challenge it presented made it very interesting. Good to know they are in the sights for the future!

[Erik Rutins]

-----

Here are the links to the various videos from the stream:

1. The Ackdarian Faction Trailer: https://youtu.be/NywQ7-4pXAI

2. The initial Galaxy Setup process: https://youtu.be/JcM4Fm6m0R4

3. The early in-system Pre-warp exploration and economy/resource setup: https://youtu.be/OR3qxYpdN2s

4. The mid-game example Fleet Battle: https://youtu.be/B_FOmhIYFyk

5. Zoom-out/Zoom-in with Resource Flow: https://youtu.be/SzjxQ1N6V4o

6. The full entire stream with no breaks: https://youtu.be/OWD5Btwedys