1.3.3.6 Public Beta Update Available

[MaximKI]

Hi everyone,

Please try this new beta and let us know if it helps your game. We encourage you to start a new game as there may be changes that only take effect upon starting a new game.

To facilitate frequent beta iterations as needed, this beta is only available for now on Steam and GOG. All Matrix customers also have a free Steam key available (through your My Page) which can be activated if desired to install DW2 via Steam and test this Beta there.

On Steam, you can switch to it by going to Distant Worlds 2 in your Steam Library, right-clicking on it, choosing Properties -> Betas -> then choosing the latest beta branch from the drop-down list and allowing Steam to update your game. If it updates correctly, you should see the latest beta version listed as your version in-game on the bottom right.

On GOG, you can switch to it by going to Distant Worlds 2 in your GOG Library, selecting Distant Worlds 2, then clicking on the button next to "Play" that looks like two horizontal lines with small offset circles, choosing Manage Installation -> Configure then picking the latest Beta from the Beta channels drop-down list and allowing GOG to update.

The Core game engine has been upgraded to use newer versions of Stride and .NET. We now include .NET in the game executable, so no additional external .NET redistributables are required.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you still experience crashes with 1.0.6.4 or later, especially crashes in battle, please try the new DXVK rendering option in the game settings. This can be found under "Rendering Mode", which can be switched from DirectX 11 to DXVK. DXVK is only guaranteed to work with the SDR (Standard Definition Rendering) option in your game settings. It may work with some HDR (High Definition Rendering) settings, but we do not advise trying those at this time. The DXVK option willl likely resolve many issues caused by driver bugs or incompatibilities.

If you try this setting and the game does not launch, please note the command line option in the changes below to switch back to DirectX 11. (To force DirectX on launch, add --use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe)

Changes in 1.3.3.6 (December 3rd, 2025):

INVASION FLEETS
- further improvements to fleet troop loading so that invasion fleets attempt in more cases to select colony with many available troops to fill the fleet while not being too far away. This is a change from previous behavior, where in some of those cases the fleet would default to loading troops from the nearest colony with available troops. This change also honors both garrisoned troops at colony and required defensive troops levels for colony (i.e. do not load troops that are needed at the colony). Also considers Army Template for both fleet and colony (troop type composition) to try to reach the best result.
- Note that you can still manually load troops from a specific colony by selecting your invasion fleet, right-clicking on the colony and selecting the load troops mission from the popup menu

TROOPS
- Selection Panel and Colony Detail screen now indicate which troops are needed to fulfill Army Template requirements at a colony (dotted yellow line under troop unit, similar to Garrison indicator). Troop units that are needed by the colony's Army Template will not be loaded by automated Troop Transports

TEEKAN FACTION REFRESH
- reduced frequency of Teekan Salvage Kings event when salvage debris

SALVAGE TECH BONUSES
- reduced tech bonus from retiring advanced ships

Changes in 1.3.3.5 (December 1st, 2025):

GENERAL PERFORMANCE
- improved general performance

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed fleet ships sometimes not attacking threats when in range
- fixed automated troop transports sometimes getting stuck in a loop of loading and unloading troops at the same colony
- increased default Maximum Auto-Response Range for Manual and Invasion fleets from Nearby to Location (in policy settings)

AUTOMATION AND POLICIES
- added Automation settings for Artifacts and Equipment (send to optimal location)

GRAPHICS
- improved location-level rendering to further minimize planet rendering artifacts when zoomed out at low view angles

Changes in 1.3.3.4 (November 26th, 2025):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when upgrading ships after a research breakthrough
- fixed crash when acquiring debris benefits from Teekan Salvage Kings event
- fixed crash when upgrading design

STORY EVENT LOGIC
These changes together will result in far fewer badly placed or missing story events and should help make the galaxy feel more alive.
- fixed some faction story events occasionally spawning on homeworld when should be elsewhere
- extended various 'EmptySystem' GameEventLocationHint values to ensure that they always find a location for the related event, even with expanded game starts. These hint options now fallback to allow non-empty systems after they have exhausted all options in looking for an empty system. This change affects the following location hints: NearbyEmptySystem, MediumEmptySystem, DistantEmptySystem
- fixed Pirate Ambush ruins event not generating pirate ships
- Pirate Ambush ruins event now generates pirate ships nearer to investigating ship

FLEETS AND FUEL TANKERS
- further improvements to detecting fleet availability so that will start queued missions sooner after completing previous mission
- automated fuel tankers will now avoid attempting to refuel a fleet when the fleet has any queued missions

TEEKAN FACTION REFRESH
- Teekan Salvage Kings event no longer gives full research project breakthroughs when get improved benefits, instead providing partial progress on projects
- added more detailed tooltip description to Teekan Great Bakdur Hunt event
- fixed Teekan Salvage Kings event sometimes incorrectly occurring when no initial benefits from salvaged debris
- changed Teekan policy for preferred Standoff weapon family to Torpedoes (was Missiles) to better match their starting tech

USER INTERFACE
- ensure Messages remain closed when exit Ship Design screen (if messages were previously turned off)
- fixed 'Distance from Item' sorting in Monitoring Stations list
- added Size value to Troop summary popup
- improved display of fleet characters (Admirals and Generals) in both the Selection Panel and Fleets list. Fleets with many characters now compress layout so that do not obscure other information

ECONOMY
- fixed cash value sometimes becoming NaN

COLONIZATION
- automated colonization will no longer suggest colonizing locations that are currently considered dangerous (e.g. known threats present)

GRAPHICS
- slightly tweaked city night light shader for colonies to moderate color variation and improve pixel stability

DATA AND MODDING
- increased Design component cache to allow new maximum ComponentId of 4095 (was 2047)
- changed Teekan tech tree to allow carriers to properly deal with ZimZip shuttles
- Reduced starting populations on Bartuc and Horazon, part of the Teekan storyline and fixed one issue with those events


Changes in 1.3.3.3 (November 21st, 2025)

CRASH FIXES
• fixed crash when attempt to change Retrofit Path for some ships in Ship Design screen

HAAKONISH FACTION REFRESH
• included new loading screen images for both Teekans and Haakonish (one more each)
• fixed additional Haakonish starting Mining Ship being too advanced (Hyperdrive, etc) when PreWarp start. This additional Mining Ship now only appears when Haakonish starting tech level is PreWarp or Level 0

TEEKAN FACTION REFRESH
• corrected race of pirate faction 'The Nameless Teekans' (was Haakonish)
• fixed Lost Teekan Colony event so that Terraforming facility is properly acquired by your empire (thus paying maintenance for it)
• additional population from Lost Teekan Colony event now properly integrated together (no longer two different Teekan populations)
• improved images for Teekan Salvage Kings event outcome messages

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
• further improved ship and fleet evaluation to break off attacks against fleeing targets that go beyond their engagement range
• automated fuel tankers that are not in a fleet will no longer auto-refuel manual fleets when 'Automatically Refuel Manual Fleets' is off in empire policy settings (avoid interrupting manual fleets and making them wait for refuelling)
• fixed manually-assigned mining missions so that properly includes offload location
• fixed some ships improperly auto-offloading cargo when use Dock mission

BOMBARDMENT
• modified how Bombardment Resistance bonus is applied to bombardment damage against planetary facilities so that they are never invulnerable

DIPLOMACY
• fixed diplomatic relation incident values sometimes not updating

USER INTERFACE
• fixed Victory Conditions screen slightly offset rendering for hovered faction
• ensure message dialog is closed when exit to main menu

GAME EDITOR
• changing the name of a star or planet in the Game Editor now also changes the related location name

Changes in 1.3.3.2 (November 18th, 2025)

This update marks the second to last (only the Ackdarians remain) free update focused on bringing the base game factions to a similar gameplay level as the new factions added in the post-release DLCs. This update is similar to a Free DLC in that it includes a refresh of the Teekan and Haakonish factions as well as many other changes focused on making manual play and general quality of life better, with a focus on the resource/trade economy and fleet and ship behavior.
Please note that data and game event fixes will only apply when starting a new game.

GENERAL
- fixed a variety of crashes
- fixed incorrect game date in preview window of Load Game screen
- small performance improvement when starting a new game

AUTOMATION INTERFACE
- added message near game start summarizing current Automation settings and explaining their usage to the player
- added automation settings directly to advisor suggestion messages to improve player awareness

TEEKAN AND HAAKONISH FACTION REFRESH
This update includes a refresh of the Teekan and Haakonish base game factions. A summary of changes is below, but for the full information, please read through the updated in-game faction descriptions carefully. There are also new event illustrations and loading screens to go along with these changes.

TEEKANS
- Improved starting access to civilian ships
- Teekan Military ships are smaller in hull size compared to other military ships but can fit just as many components, so are a bit more fragile
- Teekan ships, stations and facilities build 30% faster thanks to their mastery of quick modular construction
- Teekans are more willing to initiate Trade Agreements
- Teekans gain resistance to bombardment and ground combat damage due to their semi-nomadic nature resulting in fewer high population concentrations on their planets
- Teekan militia and troops gain a major boost to attack and defense strength on Desert sub-type planets
- If they have only 1 colony, Teekans can now choose to become Galactic Nomads, load their entire population onto one colony ships and abandon that colony, becoming a Refugee Fleet looking for a new start elsewhere
- Colonizing a new planet gives that planet a migration draw bonus due to the Teekan wanderlust
- Teekans can now choose to have a Great Bakdur Hunt on any Desert sub-type planets!
- New character traits and updated Victory Conditions
- Some updated and expanded tech tree changes
- All Teekan ships and stations have had a texture refresh and additional event illustrations and loading art have been added.

HAAKONISH
- Due to their Pretentious Design (and advanced gravitic tech), Haakonish ships, stations and facilities cost 20% more resource and take about 10% longer to build
- Start with an additional Mining Ship
- Haakonish trade treaties now have a variety of advantages.
o Binding Contracts mean that hey tend to cause factions to weight their trade towards the Haakonish.
o If a faction with a trade treaty goes to war with the Haakonish, they get a reputation penalty and any independents who also have a trade treaty with them and the Haakonish break their treaty with that faction due to Penalty Clauses.
o Account Confiscation means that going to war with a Haakonish faction you trade with gives them an immediate boost to income at your expense, equivalent to their last year’s trade income with you.
o The Haakonish player may at any point choose to Exploit Loopholes in the trade treaty, which gives the Haakonish player an instant income boost, at the cost of some Reputation and breaking the treaty.
- Completing any Haakonish-specific tech now gives a boost to happiness for the Haakonish due to their sense of their Superior Destiny
- The Haakonish player may choose to use creative accounting on any of their planets to boost their empire’s income in the short-term, at the cost of more corruption in the medium-term.
- The Haakonish player may choose to initiate Xenophobic Riots on any of their planets with non-Haakonish population. This immediately reduces the non-Haakonish population by 25% at the cost of a reputation and migration draw penalty.
- New Character Traits
- Some updated and expanded tech tree changes, including the new Haakonish-exclusive early Gravitic Area weapon, the Vortex Bomb
- Some Haakonish ships and stations have had texture improvements to avoid some previous texture distortions. Additional event illustrations and loading art have been added.

RESOURCE ECONOMY
- Improved resource delivery logic and handling of freighters
- fixed manually-controlled freighters sometimes being auto-assigned transport cargo missions
TOURISM
- passenger ships are now more cautious when checking whether private economy has enough money for a tourism mission
- soft-capped scenery bonus amounts used to calculate tourism income (decreasing benefits when over 25%)

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
A large number of improvements have been made in this area since the last official update. The highlights are summarized below, but you should find that many remaining corner case issues have been addressed, especially related to manual play.

- manually-controlled fleet ships will no longer auto-move back to the main body of the fleet
- ensure that formation setting from fleet template is properly applied to new fleets based on the template
- Defend fleets no longer auto-attack outside current system in any situation when at war
- improved fleet retreat evaluation to more accurately calculate fleet strength in some situations, thus being less likely to retreat prematurely
- when fleet ships are dispersed (far apart) then Refuel and Repair missions change to allow individual fleet ships to refuel or repair at the nearest location to them (instead of closest location to fleet lead ship), thus accelerating refuel or repair operations
- fixed fleets sometimes being slow to progress to subsequent queued missions
- improved fleet availability by considering fleet ships escorting core ships as available in all circumstances (fleet is thus more quickly available after a mission)
- improved fleet willingness to attack threats in same system, even when some ships are low on fuel. Especially improved manual fleets when policy setting 'Auto Refuel Manual Fleets' is off (default setting)
- fixed fleets sometimes investigating known dangerous locations when have inadequate strength to prevail
- improved display of dangerous locations to indicate when threats no longer detected (queued dangerous locations may thus no longer be valid)
- improved ship and fleet evaluation to break off attacks against fleeing targets that go beyond their engagement range (e.g. when engagement range is Same System and target jumps away)
- changed ship and fleet behavior when pursuing jumping targets: when close in on target while in hyperspace, will now update jump coordinates on the fly to continue pursuit until one of the following occurs: target exits jump (attacker also exits jump at target location) or target moves out of range
- fixed disabled ships attempting to retrofit while still in damaging nebula storm (and repeatedly failing due to storm damage)
- fixed carriers with fighters sometimes showing negative attack strength

FUEL TANKERS
- Changed behavior of manual Fuel Tankers in fleets: manually controlled Fuel Tankers will now follow fleet mission assignment, thus moving with fleet. However this also means that player must manually mine/load fuel with them and manually direct them to refuel fleet. Automated Fuel Tankers in fleets operate as previously, working independent of fleet to keep fleet ships refuelled.
- improved fleet Fuel Tanker behavior so that able to move to system near fleet even when fleet is pursuing jumping target and thus has constantly changing location, in other words fleet Fuel Tankers now better able to return to distant fleet after picking up fuel, even when fleet has no fixed location
- updated Galactopedia article on Ship Types with improved explanation of how Fuel Tankers operate in fleets (to automatically refuel fleet, keep Fuel Tankers automated)
- added new Hint explaining how Fuel Tankers operate in fleets
- now immediately clear "Waiting for Fuel Tankers" message for fleets when last Fuel Tanker cancels transfer fuel mission (previously had delay)

TROOPS
- automated troop loading now focuses completely on ungarrisoned troops at colonies that are available for pickup, instead of attempting to also separately preserve a minimum colony garrison level based on colony size and colony army template. This makes it simpler for player to see and control which troops are picked up (garrison troops to always exclude them from pickup).

CONSTRUCTION
- right-click popup menu for colonies now shows all non-obsolete buildable bases for the colony (e.g. all spaceports), not just latest for largest hull for role. Note that this excludes any designs that are not buildable, e.g. cannot afford or do not have all resources required to build
- fixed construction advisor sometimes suggesting to build blank base

[thegreybetween]

Yes!

I've been looking forward to the Teekan refresh since refreshes were announced, and this looks like a nice sweep. Haakonish now feature some wonderfully thematic and unique options. Loads of other goodies in the update as well. Well done!


EDIT: I noticed on the Discord that Erik mentioned there was an additional Teekan ability not mentioned here:

Salvage Masters: Teekans will occasionally receive a pop-up when collecting space debris that somehow allows them to get additional special loot

[Parrius]

Hello, I just wanted to make the devs aware that I am unable to launch the game with the new Beta patch installed. If I go back to the anniversary update the game works fine. For some reason, the game will not launch when I use GogGalaxy.

[UncleGivi]

The diplomatic penalty for a short time of acquaintance is not reduced. Inadequately strong pirates with 3000+ strength at the very beginning of the game.

[MaximKI]

Hello, I just wanted to make the devs aware that I am unable to launch the game with the new Beta patch installed. If I go back to the anniversary update the game works fine. For some reason, the game will not launch when I use GogGalaxy.

There was an issue with the GOG public beta. This should now be resolved.

[Parrius]

Hello again, I tried to launch the game again using goggalaxy and nothing. For some reason, this Beta update will not launch. I've made no changes to my game, no changes to the settings on my PC. The anniversary update launches just fine, I even did a clean install of the game, installed the anniversary update and then updated to the latest Beta. Nothing. Still does not work. None of the other beta updates have ever done this, everything has always worked fine since release. Was there anything changed for this particular beta that would make it incompatible with my system?

Your help is appreciated.

[Bock55]

Unable to launch on GOG. Downloaded beta, crashed on start each time, uninstalled, re-installed, no dice. Crash on start. Removed beta (return to 1.3.1.1) and works fine. Another time i wished i got a game on Steam vice GOG.....

[MaximKI]

A new public beta is live now! See OP for details.

[MaximKI]

@Bock55, @Parrius - we released a new public beta today. Could you please try this new version and see if it resolves your issue? If not, have you tried any of the items in our FAQ here: https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=380844.

Finally, please share with us your SessionLog and any crash logs. You can find the sessionlog and the crashdump in the Logs folder found here: \Distant Worlds 2\data\Logs.

If you don't see crashdumps, please look into Windows Event Viewer -> click on Applications in the left column under the Windows Logs tab -> see if there are any entries for .NETRuntime around the same time as your crashes -> paste what you find here.

[Parrius]

Thank you, whatever the issue was, has been resolved with the newest beta patch. Everything runs smoothly, I have not experienced any crashes and the game launches just fine.

Thank you again for your help.

[Erik Rutins]

Please note, the 1.3.3.4 public beta update has been released today on Steam and GOG. The updated change list is in the first post in this thread.

[UncleGivi]

A fleet with half-empty tanks is at a station with a lot of fuel. Despite the presence of a large amount of fuel in the immediate vicinity, it is waiting for tankers. This logic leads to unnecessary waste of time and greatly reduces efficiency.
This situation happens all the time in the latest beta versions.

[UncleGivi]

Hi again!

I am attaching a link to the save file. Please pay attention to the strange behavior of the fleet and fuel tankers. Thank you.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MsfIFw ... drive_link

[Mathalamus]

I just registered to point out a bug.

when an independent colony turns into a full nation, its stored resources vanishes. this can be reproduced by playing as the boskara (or any race with a similar event)

check the colony before it becomes a full nation and you will see that it has many resources. but after they become a full nation, it loses all of them.

essentially, it makes them useless as factions, and unable to do anything.

[MaximKI]

A new public beta is now live! See OP for details.

[MaximKI]

I just registered to point out a bug.

when an independent colony turns into a full nation, its stored resources vanishes. this can be reproduced by playing as the boskara (or any race with a similar event)

check the colony before it becomes a full nation and you will see that it has many resources. but after they become a full nation, it loses all of them.

essentially, it makes them useless as factions, and unable to do anything.

Do you have a save from before this happens that reproduces the issue?

[MaximKI]

A new public beta is live now! See OP for details. We're hoping this is the last public beta before next week's official release.

[Mathalamus]

Do you have a save from before this happens that reproduces the issue?

i do not. sorry...