DW2 FAQ/QnA megathread - Ask your question here!

[muncuss]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins


Sorry, understood now but I haven't played Aurora and we do not plan to have sub-fleets, which does not mean you can't have smaller fleets, larger ones, fleets with various roles and admirals assigned where you want, it's just not the exact same system you described.

i'm reffering to Hearts of Iron series which there exist different command level, but that Aurora still good example. well if no sub-fleet guess i'll just wait to see if there is more variation of fleet role or more fleet setting

[StormingKiwi]

An Order of Battle feature would be amazing in Distant Worlds (with respect to the sub-fleet idea)

[ElanaAhova_slith]

sorry - repeat -- answered above. Sorry.

[Jorgen_CAB]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Jorgen_CAB
In Aurora 4x you can actually build a more or less infinite number of sub fleets... but that game have both admin, fleet and sub-fleet elements and then admirals assigned to them individually. The Admin command then give military and/or logistical bonuses to its fleet elements based on range.

Sorry, understood now but I haven't played Aurora and we do not plan to have sub-fleets, which does not mean you can't have smaller fleets, larger ones, fleets with various roles and admirals assigned where you want, it's just not the exact same system you described.

I understand that this late i development this would be allot to ask... but can we at least sort fleets by name so we can use a clever naming system to sort fleets by location, area of operation or similar things?

One of my major gripe with the way things worked in DW1 was that it was a horrible way to organise your fleets, task-force and squadrons and forced you to put them in just large fleets when you often wanted a bit more control but manage them in the interface was difficult and time consuming.

At a later date I would very much at least like to have some way to organise fleets and task-forces so they are easy to identify and manage that way. It does not need to have a mechanical impact on the game, just for ordering and structuring fleets and squadrons for the player.

[ElanaAhova_slith]

Question: My experience playing DW to DWU is that most of the time my home system doesn't even have the basic resources to to do much of anything. Hopefully, DW2 will have a better balanced distribution of resources in home systems. Is better balanced distribution implemented, or in the planning stages?

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Jorgen_CAB

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Jorgen_CAB
In Aurora 4x you can actually build a more or less infinite number of sub fleets... but that game have both admin, fleet and sub-fleet elements and then admirals assigned to them individually. The Admin command then give military and/or logistical bonuses to its fleet elements based on range.

Sorry, understood now but I haven't played Aurora and we do not plan to have sub-fleets, which does not mean you can't have smaller fleets, larger ones, fleets with various roles and admirals assigned where you want, it's just not the exact same system you described.

I understand that this late i development this would be allot to ask... but can we at least sort fleets by name so we can use a clever naming system to sort fleets by location, area of operation or similar things?

One of my major gripe with the way things worked in DW1 was that it was a horrible way to organise your fleets, task-force and squadrons and forced you to put them in just large fleets when you often wanted a bit more control but manage them in the interface was difficult and time consuming.

At a later date I would very much at least like to have some way to organise fleets and task-forces so they are easy to identify and manage that way. It does not need to have a mechanical impact on the game, just for ordering and structuring fleets and squadrons for the player.

Sorting options on the Fleet list currently includes:
- Strength, highest first
- Strength, lowest first
- Size, highest first
- Size, lowest first
- Troop Attack Strength
- Name

...and we can add more as needed

There are also defined fleet types: Main Attack fleets, Raiding fleets, Invasion fleets, Defense fleets.

There's also a number of other tactical options that control how fleets work. So in summary, there's a lot more control over fleets in DW2 that didn't exist in DW1.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: ElanaAhova_slith
Question: My experience playing DW to DWU is that most of the time my home system doesn't even have the basic resources to to do much of anything. Hopefully, DW2 will have a better balanced distribution of resources in home systems. Is better balanced distribution implemented, or in the planning stages?

Yes, especially on the PreWarp start your home system has a guaranteed supply of the basic resources you need at the start of the game. There's been a lot of testing and balancing on resource prevalence and abundance. Resources are definitely more meaningful in DW2 - you need to ensure a good supply of them, especially for some of the high-demand resources.

[ElanaAhova_slith]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: ElanaAhova_slith
Question: My experience playing DW to DWU is that most of the time my home system doesn't even have the basic resources to to do much of anything. Hopefully, DW2 will have a better balanced distribution of resources in home systems. Is better balanced distribution implemented, or in the planning stages?

Yes, especially on the PreWarp start your home system has a guaranteed supply of the basic resources you need at the start of the game. There's been a lot of testing and balancing on resource prevalence and abundance. Resources are definitely more meaningful in DW2 - you need to ensure a good supply of them, especially for some of the high-demand resources.

Very glad to hear this. I hated using the editor to make the home system viable. YEA!

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness
This begs the question of will the dw2 AI be significantly upgraded from dw1? If there was a real weakness to the first game then the AI would probably be the most pointed out past some of the UI shenanigans.

We're certainly going to give it our best shot. I know of a lot of specific things the DW2 AI does much better than DW1, but the real question of whether it will give you a more competitive game remains to be seen.

I think a lot of it had to do with simply too much going on for a single thread to keep up with late game. Small maps with few empires typically ran fine but on the big maps with lots of empires you noticed the AI fleets would become confused and wander around or endlessly shift between a series of targets. This is also when you own AI seemed to start to pack it in too. I think much of it will be solved by allowing the game to leverage the power of modern multi core cpu.

Another question. How many cores will the game use if they are available and will it use logical cores in addition to the physical cores?

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness
Another question. How many cores will the game use if they are available and will it use logical cores in addition to the physical cores?

The simple answer is that DW2 will use all the CPU cores, including logical cores (e.g. hyper-threading).

The more complex answer is that it depends on what is happening in the game at the time. There is a natural ebb and flow with the game logic where the load is sometimes higher and sometimes lower. So DW2 will use additional threads/tasks as needed. The game is built to support multi-threading and key parts can be offloaded to other cores.

[Galaxy227]

Quick question! DLC-related.

Erik recently revealed there are new camera angles specifically catered to following individual ships around (similar to the lock function in DW:U). In addition, DW:U was often advertised as a simulation in which the player can control everything from an entire empire to single ships. To me, it's clear the idea of "role-playing" as an admiral, scout, or trader is at least feasible, if not encouraged.

Do you ever plan on expanding the controls of single ships? Perhaps implement a proper "ship mode?"

I'm thinking along the lines of an expanded UI, catered towards refining pre-existing mechanics for this supposed "ship mode." Say being able to pick up a mission as a merchant, running spice across the galaxy. Or be a ship captain within a fleet, perhaps with an interface that displays the current fleet order. Nothing too crazy, just a few QOL enhancements for the already-established mechanics in DW2. It'd be cool to be able to start a war as a leader, then play as a merchant within your empire and see how hectic things get for your average civilian trader.

...Or perhaps I'm reaching way too far, and DW will always remain focused on empire-wide gameplay. Just curious.

[arvcran2]

Do you ever plan on expanding the controls of single ships? Perhaps implement a proper "ship mode?" (I'm thinking along the lines of expanded UI... maybe a few mechanics, say being able to pick up missions as a merchant, nothing too crazy). Or am I reaching too far, and DW will always remain focused on empire-wide control?

I like the concept, that would be interesting; also probably a massive multiplayer game mode could be built upon this concept as well! A fleet mode would also be quite interesting. These of course would only work for established games where wars and diplomatic affairs are already taken place. These could be derived from a pool of pre-saved games where scenarios are documented and folks choose a setting, empire, and ship or fleet to command, for a 40 minute session - that would probably be a 1 v 1 experience for a given participant except for the diplomacy and event notifications. (just a thought)

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness
Another question. How many cores will the game use if they are available and will it use logical cores in addition to the physical cores?

The simple answer is that DW2 will use all the CPU cores, including logical cores (e.g. hyper-threading).

The more complex answer is that it depends on what is happening in the game at the time. There is a natural ebb and flow with the game logic where the load is sometimes higher and sometimes lower. So DW2 will use additional threads/tasks as needed. The game is built to support multi-threading and key parts can be offloaded to other cores.

That's cool.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Galaxy227
Quick question! DLC-related.

Erik recently revealed there are new camera angles specifically catered to following individual ships around (similar to the lock function in DW:U). In addition, DW:U was often advertised as a simulation in which the player can control everything from an entire empire to single ships. To me, it's clear the idea of "role-playing" as an admiral, scout, or trader is at least feasible, if not encouraged.

Do you ever plan on expanding the controls of single ships? Perhaps implement a proper "ship mode?"

I'm thinking along the lines of an expanded UI, catered towards refining pre-existing mechanics for this supposed "ship mode." Say being able to pick up a mission as a merchant, running spice across the galaxy. Or be a ship captain within a fleet, perhaps with an interface that displays the current fleet order. Nothing too crazy, just a few QOL enhancements for the already-established mechanics in DW2. It'd be cool to be able to start a war as a leader, then play as a merchant within your empire and see how hectic things get for your average civilian trader.

...Or perhaps I'm reaching way too far, and DW will always remain focused on empire-wide gameplay. Just curious.

Yes, some of the camera modes are from the view of a single ship or base. Those views can be very pretty and allow you to experience the game in a different way. We could certainly go further with this in the future - who knows...

[Galaxy227]

Another question... I promise, no more!

When showing off the ship designer, there was a button called "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet." I'm sure this button was a development tool, and I assume it was for testing ship combat. Would you be willing to implement this feature into the base game, allowing players to test their designs against other ships? And if not (I understand how that could feel like cheating), would you ever consider releasing it as a tool for modders? Being able to quickly test ship builds could go a long way with helping modders balance their modded ship components.

[elliotg]

ORIGINAL: Galaxy227
Another question... I promise, no more!

When showing off the ship designer, there was a button called "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet." I'm sure this button was a development tool, and I assume it was for testing ship combat. Would you be willing to implement this feature into the base game, allowing players to test their designs against other ships? And if not (I understand how that could feel like cheating), would you ever consider releasing it as a tool for modders? Being able to quickly test ship builds could go a long way with helping modders balance their modded ship components.

You're right, this is a development tool for us to test balance of various components and ship hulls in battle.

We had intended to remove this for release. But Erik and I have discussed this, noting that players might also find it useful.

The thing with this tool is that it generates the scene inside the game itself - there's no separate 'arena' for this test battle. This can actually be very handy if you also want to include lots of other elements in your test, because you can then also use the Game Editor to add other stuff.

So if we left it in, the player would have to understand that they are effectively 'polluting' their current game with this extra scene. I guess the process would be for the player to save their current game, generate the scene, do their testing, then reload their previous savegame to get back to their starting state.

Anyway, we'll see where we end up on this. I understand the desire to use it. The battles look pretty sweet too

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

So if we left it in, the player would have to understand that they are effectively 'polluting' their current game with this extra scene. I guess the process would be for the player to save their current game, generate the scene, do their testing, then reload their previous savegame to get back to their starting state.

Anyway, we'll see where we end up on this. I understand the desire to use it. The battles look pretty sweet too

I would assume modders are already 'polluting' their game in their efforts to develop their mod. But for normal players this could also be useful to start up a small galaxy and play around with ship designs they can then save and use for a 'real' game.

[Galaxy227]

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

For normal players this could also be useful to start up a small galaxy and play around with ship designs they can then save and use for a 'real' game.

In addition, I'm just a huge nerd when it comes to designing ships in Distant Worlds. One of my favorite parts about the game is perfecting different designs for different roles & situations. I remember I had one war with another empire, and after the war was over, pretended to be a "historian" in the galaxy and talk about the effectiveness of each ship type on either side in the war (for example, "X ship was great for Y scenario, but when put up against Z, didn't do well"). I knew so much about each design in that war, of both my own ships and my enemy's, and to this day could tell you precisely the weaknesses and strengths of each navy...

Point being, I love playing around with fleets. I think a "sandbox mode" for ships could add so much to Distant Worlds. I could test out all sorts of different scenarios after wars in-game, and could also use it to learn more about ships in general. Also, as previously mentioned, it would be an extremely powerful tool for modders to have.

Rant over.

[Jorgen_CAB]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

Sorting options on the Fleet list currently includes:
- Strength, highest first
- Strength, lowest first
- Size, highest first
- Size, lowest first
- Troop Attack Strength
- Name

...and we can add more as needed

There are also defined fleet types: Main Attack fleets, Raiding fleets, Invasion fleets, Defense fleets.

There's also a number of other tactical options that control how fleets work. So in summary, there's a lot more control over fleets in DW2 that didn't exist in DW1.

Great to hear... thanks!!

[Hanekem]

You know, it is a shame this is happening in game, because having a separate simulated battle could be useful, as a test for the design.
If you can create a virtual scenario to have that happen "elsewhere" it would be kinda awesome.

Think the old Space Empires series had something like that and I used it a lot