Planetary Characteristics

[MTGian]

Hello,

My apologies. It has been ages since I played Distant Worlds Universe and I could not recall whether this was already a thing. I did a quick google search and skimmed the manual, but I could not find anything.

Will planets in Distant Worlds 2 have any special planetary characteristics beyond quality? I find that it gives planets a bit more character in Stellaris (where they are called anomalies). Maybe the gravity is funky, which gives bonuses and maluses to production, or the plant life has come special qualities, which affects the population living there. Maybe there are underground caves, which could allow for colonization of otherwise barren planets. There are endless options for characteristics that might make a planet more interesting. One idea that stuck in my head while reading a forum ages ago was a Avatar type planet with floating islands. Oh, so cool! I have no idea what type of bonuses/maluses that would cause, but it would be extremely memorable in your empire.

This may be straight out of the crazy bin, but I think it would be amazing if planets actually had a handful of characteristics so that no two planets were alike. Thanks for reading!

[elliotg]

Yes, there are a number of bonuses like that, depending on the planet or star type. These have textual flavor descriptions similar to what you describe. These are often used for the various type of research bonuses or scenery bonuses.

[MTGian]

Elliotg,

Excellent! Thank you so much.

[AKicebear]

Keep in mind research bonuses may matter more now, too - they've mentioned certain techs may require such geographic bonuses to completed.

[MTGian]

ORIGINAL: AKicebear

Keep in mind research bonuses may matter more now, too - they've mentioned certain techs may require such geographic bonuses to completed.

AKicebear,

Yeah, I recall that they said that. Also, that you will discover more about places over time, which is a very cool idea.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: AKicebear

Keep in mind research bonuses may matter more now, too - they've mentioned certain techs may require such geographic bonuses to completed.

This is true, the higher levels of various research areas are often 'gated' by needing a particular level of research bonuses for that area. In other words, you can't progress down the tech tree without obtaining enough research locations. So the research locations matter more than in DW1.