No Tourism + Resort Base?

[swappan]

In the stream there was a overview of the Ackdarian ships and stations.
I saw no resort base in there. Does that mean there is no tourism anymore?

[SirHoraceHarkness]

The stream only touched on the major game features and he said there is more to come. Plus its just getting into beta so expect far more features to be discussed as the testers add their input.

[Erik Rutins]

There are resort bases and tourism, they just share a model with the research station.

[swappan]

nice! Great to hear.

[Drumline2]

Will resort bases and defense bases eventually get their own graphic? Or will the resorts just share the research model and the defense bases share with small stations

[Erik Rutins]

Not for this release, but quite possibly in the future. Also, nothing is preventing modders from differentiating them with unique models even in this release.

[Drumline2]

Awesome! Very true. Oh also, speaking of modding, are how many weapon slots on ships mod-able?

Also noticed during the stream that armies have the Nato symbols for representing units, was wondering if they will have unit graphics for release?

Loving all the new info Erik! Game looks incredible

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
Awesome! Very true. Oh also, speaking of modding, are how many weapon slots on ships mod-able?

Yes, though they can't really be more than what the model supports.

Also noticed during the stream that armies have the Nato symbols for representing units, was wondering if they will have unit graphics for release?

We decided to go with symbols for the initial release for the best clarity. Will likely add alternate art in the future as an option.

Regards,

- Erik

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Not for this release, but quite possibly in the future. Also, nothing is preventing modders from differentiating them with unique models even in this release.

Speaking of modders helping with fleshing out the game hopefully you guys are taking into account the major mods out there for the various strategy games with 3d combat in your modding access. Getting those guys on board would cause sales strictly from someone wanting to play star wars or star trek in your engine. Sins got a nice boost to sales from the major trek releases recently and star wars empire at war just got a huge update for modders as the major mod releases there have boosted sales and those sales are all pure profit at this point.

[Erik Rutins]

I hope some of those teams will notice DW2 and indeed give it a try, but it's ultimately up to them whether this is their cup of tea or not. We'll be doing everything we can, albeit as a small team, to document and support modding DW2.

[Drumline2]

Absolutely hoping for a Star Wars mod for sure, I may even get into the mod space and try to figure out how to just for DW2.

Appreciate all the answered questions Erik! Was also wondering about buildings for planets, has what we can build been expanded at all? Did notice the airforce related building in one of the slides. Im assuming we still have access to things like Ion cannons and such that can be built on the planets surface to fire at orbiting ships?

[Drumline2]

Was also really interested in how trade would work in DW2. Seems we have much more control over where our resources go. Im interested in how trade will work between empires

[Drumline2]

Is it also still possible to right-click and choose where, in relation to the celestial body, a station is built?

[Drumline2]

Sorry for all the questions but ive spent a lot of time daydreaming over this game xD

There was an issue I had in DWU I was wondering if it was still present in DW2. If I had built a Starbase out in the middle of nowhere, or even over a planet/by a fuel mining station, I couldnt find a way to offload ground troops onto the station for boarding defense. Will that be possible in DW2?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
Appreciate all the answered questions Erik! Was also wondering about buildings for planets, has what we can build been expanded at all? Did notice the airforce related building in one of the slides. Im assuming we still have access to things like Ion cannons and such that can be built on the planets surface to fire at orbiting ships?

Yes, I believe we have something like 2.5x the planetary facilities as in DW1. The choice of defense facilities and government/anti-corruption facilities in particular have been expanded. Also, facilities can be upgraded through multiple levels. The planet-based Ion Cannon is still one of the possible defense facilities, if you research down the Ion weapons tree.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
Was also really interested in how trade would work in DW2. Seems we have much more control over where our resources go. Im interested in how trade will work between empires

First, you don't automatically start with some free trade. You have to get treaties to enable trade, starting with Restricted, then Limited and finally Free Trade. The level affects both what resources your trade partner is willing to trade/sell to you and also what tariffs are charged. With Free Trade, all resources are available to each partner as if it were their own economy and no tariffs are charged.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
Is it also still possible to right-click and choose where, in relation to the celestial body, a station is built?

Yes, absolutely.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Drumline2
There was an issue I had in DWU I was wondering if it was still present in DW2. If I had built a Starbase out in the middle of nowhere, or even over a planet/by a fuel mining station, I couldnt find a way to offload ground troops onto the station for boarding defense. Will that be possible in DW2?

Troops I believe are either on a planet or a troop transport, rather than on bases, but there are other components you can now add to stations (Star Marine Barracks) as well as other improvements to ship and station boarding defenses that let you harden your designs significantly more against boarding at the cost of space for other components.

[Drumline2]

Fantastic! Thanks for answering all those Erik!

Do mining stations also have upgrades to their hulls? So they can have some limited defenses in terms of shields, weapon hardpoints and such.

In DWU, the different upgrades to engines would change the exhaust color so you could see at a glance what level of engines a ship was using. Is this still present in DW2 and do shields, now that shields when hit have a color, also have color differences? (Btw, a while back I had asked about the visual gfx for shields and the system in place is gorgeous and so pleasing to watch!)

Is Terraforming still in the game and, if so, is the planetary percentage scale still in place. Can we Terraform planets into our races preferred type or does it stay the same type and only heal the percentage as in DWU. If I remember right, planets had a hard cap I think? Like you couldnt terraform all the planets up to 100% quality if im remembering that right.

Do planets have planetary shields available as a building to help defend against bombardment? If the building is available, can you see a gfx projected around the planet to know at a glance whether a planet is protected or not?

Ok last question for now and I have an inkling that you wont answer this one as in depth haha
Are there massive construction projects in the game or possible for a future DLC? Things like a massive class ship above the Battleships or shipyard rings around planets that increase ship construction speed and have a lot of construction slots but take massive resource investment.

Thank you for all your time on the forums answering our questions Erik!

[Drumline2]

Oh actually have one for the fleet combat. Is it possible to set distance engagement for the ships so that they keep a certain distance from whatever they are engaging? In the fleet battle video, they all just seemed to rush in at each other. With the Ackdarians having superiority at range, would be helpful to set the ships to want to keep their distance, even if its just getting in range and then stopping to allow faster ships to close the gap but let the bigger ships sit at a distance and blast away