Scott's Guide to DW2 available to download (version 3.2)

[duzzud]

Thank you! Huge help. I like the focus on early economic development first. My cashflow allows me to crash all research...

[Gilmer]

Thank you for this guide. It supercharged my economy. Whereas before I was just hoping I could get to 100K credits barely struggling along, I now have 350K and a lot of ships and the civilians keep building more freighters. I rarely have less than 20 civilian ships building.

And it was basically just the resort base thing. I don't remember it being this much of a game changer in DWU. But, I could be wrong.

[JWW]

Thanks so much for your guide. It has been very helpful to me, even as a DWU player with hundreds of hours. I wrote a post a couple of days ago hoping someone would step up with a guide to play on fully manual equivalent to the one Timotheus did for DWU. This is what I wrote about yours in case you missed it.

"Scott2993 has already made a good start at it with his very detailed guide, which incorporates ideas on how to set up the game to play with large parts of it on manual or suggest. It is very, very good and very, very helpful with some really good explanations of how things work. I highly recommend it and thank Scott2993 for his work."

In playing DW2 a little more and thinking about it more, it may be that something along the lines of your guide, with some parts automated, might actually work better for those of us who like to control all or most things in the game than going fully manual.

[Scott2933]

Thanks for much for your guide. It has been very helpful to me, even as a DWU player with hundreds of hours. I wrote a post a couple of days ago hoping someone would step up with a guide to play on fully manual equivalent to the one Timotheus did for DWU. This is what I wrote about yours in case you missed it.

"Scott2993 has already made a good start at it with his very detailed guide, which incorporates ideas on how to set up the game to play with large parts of it on manual or suggest. It is very, very good and very, very helpful with some really good explanations of how things work. I highly recommend it and thank Scott2993 for his work."

In playing DW2 a little more and thinking about it more, it may be that something along the lines of your guide, with some parts automated, might actually work better for those of us who like to control all or most things in the game than going fully manual.

First, thanks for the kind words and write up! So glad you enjoyed it.

Next, I think that's a great idea. I do leave some stuff automated like spies, ship design (with override as I need it), taxes/finances, etc. My only goal was to show how flexible it is and leave it to each to decide of course. I know some people love spies (I don't) and so they may want to make that manual. All good. I hope brand new players who read the guide feel comfortable setting more to auto - and I tried to explain what it would do and which ones work best on auto (even when I chose manual). But there is always more to explain.

I have a section for alternative strategies by other players if anyone is interested in contributing to. And of course, any suggestions (like some I've gotten here already which were very helpful) to the current guide are welcome. Again, thanks for the note! - S -

[Scott2933]

Thank you for this guide. It supercharged my economy. Whereas before I was just hoping I could get to 100K credits barely struggling along, I now have 350K and a lot of ships and the civilians keep building more freighters. I rarely have less than 20 civilian ships building.

And it was basically just the resort base thing. I don't remember it being this much of a game changer in DWU. But, I could be wrong.

Awesome. Glad you liked it! Thanks for the kind words. I have to give full credit to that particular tip to BTAxis who showed me! It's slightly OP imho.

[Buio]

I really like the Automation settings, they give control to the important things, and minimises adviser spam.

It would be great if they were added as a new preset in a future update. ; )

[Philoponus]

Thanks for this.

Am I the only one with a somehow "broken" layout of the guide (I use Googe Docs)?

[BTAxis]

It looked okay in Edge, for me.

[Gilmer]

Thanks for this.

Am I the only one with a somehow "broken" layout of the guide (I use Googe Docs)?

I downloaded the free Acrobat reader for it.

[Miletkir]

Splendid work!

[StormingKiwi]

Why bombard the planet and murder the population living on it? If you aren't going to use them, what was the point?

[Scott2933]

Why bombard the planet and murder the population living on it? If you aren't going to use them, what was the point?

Great question:

It uses a lot less troops - particularly early game when you don't have enough to take a home colony (or couldn't afford to build enough). You need at least 2:1 to win if you don't bombard.

You don't have to wipe out all of the enemy troops, just most of them. The population bounces back (you only lose somewhere between 20% - 50% I'd say). If it's their last or only colony, you also get all of their stations (big resource and research boost).

Mid/Late game when they have PD (Planetary defense) units and other defensive building, bombardment is almost a requirement to win. Almost.

[StormingKiwi]

Great thank you, that makes sense.

Follow up questions - how long does it take to assimilate a home colony? It was -50,000 pa in support costs my last game.

[Scott2933]

Great thank you, that makes sense.

Follow up questions - how long does it take to assimilate a home colony? It was -50,000 pa in support costs my last game.

So it depends. In my "Turn it up to 11" video I made the wrong call and took the Boskara Empire first (which took forever to become profitable and was a huge money sink for a long long time) instead of the Ackdarian (which I assimilated quickly in comparison after I took them). I believe the more friendlier the race (in my case to humans) the less time. The Galactopedia has a chart for each race to see their natural affinity toward your race.

[Erik Rutins]

Great thank you, that makes sense.

Follow up questions - how long does it take to assimilate a home colony? It was -50,000 pa in support costs my last game.

So it depends. In my "Turn it up to 11" video I made the wrong call and took the Boskara Empire first (which took forever to become profitable and was a huge money sink for a long long time) instead of the Ackdarian (which I assimilated quickly in comparison after I took them). I believe the more friendlier the race (in my case to humans) the less time. The Galactopedia has a chart for each race to see their natural affinity toward your race.

Each race has a certain resistance to assimilation. If you look at the stats in the race selection you can see the differences.

[Scott2933]

Great thank you, that makes sense.

Follow up questions - how long does it take to assimilate a home colony? It was -50,000 pa in support costs my last game.

So it depends. In my "Turn it up to 11" video I made the wrong call and took the Boskara Empire first (which took forever to become profitable and was a huge money sink for a long long time) instead of the Ackdarian (which I assimilated quickly in comparison after I took them). I believe the more friendlier the race (in my case to humans) the less time. The Galactopedia has a chart for each race to see their natural affinity toward your race.

Each race has a certain resistance to assimilation. If you look at the stats in the race selection you can see the differences.

Awesome! Did not realize it was per race independent of conquering race. I'll update guide and answer that going forward. Thanks!!

[Chewystl]

Scott,

I'm a 57 year old USMC vet who enjoys strategy games and I'm a newbie to the Distant Worlds genre. I have found your guide extremely helpful to getting me acclimated to the basics of the game and I'm thoroughly enjoying playing it. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with the community, I personally greatly appreciate it.

Chewystl
Semper Fi

[Scott2933]

Scott,

I'm a 57 year old USMC vet who enjoys strategy games and I'm a newbie to the Distant Worlds genre. I have found your guide extremely helpful to getting me acclimated to the basics of the game and I'm thoroughly enjoying playing it. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with the community, I personally greatly appreciate it.

Chewystl
Semper Fi

Thanks so much for your kind words - so glad you enjoyed it! It's nothing compared to what you and others like you have done for all of us. It's the least I can do. Please note I just uploaded a new version (v1.9) with an important correction and 2 new charts that I think you'll find helpful. Btw - I'm right around your age so glad to have other young lads of my generation here!

- S -

[StormingKiwi]

I think there's a lot to be said for the player to learn to manage funding levels manually.

My rule of thumb is to set the reserved income to 0, then skew excess towards growth and gradually increase research as I can afford to.

e.g. right at the beginning, it doesn't matter what your research is because you have no research stations, so it should all be invested into growth as far as I can tell.

[Scott2933]

I think there's a lot to be said for the player to learn to manage funding levels manually.

My rule of thumb is to set the reserved income to 0, then skew excess towards growth and gradually increase research as I can afford to.

e.g. right at the beginning, it doesn't matter what your research is because you have no research stations, so it should all be invested into growth as far as I can tell.

I'm all for manual funding - but once you've gotten the rest of the game down. Of course advanced or DWU (DW1) experienced players probably don't need my walk-thru.

The first spaceport generates research and your first (or close second) planetary body you scan will have a research location too. So there is some (though minimal) research early game.