Matrix Games Forums

Thanks for the time you take in answering our barrage of questions Erik!

some, unrelated to each other and not answered before, probably (I read all the thread)


1. Solar systems. Can binary stars system (or tertiary, quaternary) exist? The most recent data indicate that at least half of the systems in the Milky way have 2+ suns.

2. Stealth. You spoke of various levels of intel on ships, depending of sensor coverage. It reminds me a bit of Stars!, a nerdy 4x game running in WEGO. Actual question now [:D] Do you get any feedback, as the stealth ship, to your stealth status?
In the real world you either detect objects with passive or active sensors. Active ones are much more powerful, and passive are limited to the speed of light. IRL, active too, but in a sci-fi game you usually ping a target with tachyon (FTL particles) to identify them.
Anyway, what I mean is that there is some ground on a feature where the target can know if it is detected or not... I guess DW2 provides no feedback on that, as I see it as a rather grognard feature. Yes/No?

3. What about resources reserved by other empires you go to war with? Are they still gently kept on your planets or can you impound them? This was quite infuriating (yes, to this level [:)] ) in DW1 to see 40k steel units reserved by a nation you were at war with.

4. How do you handle a ship stranded in space with destroyed (not damaged) engines? Can a construction ship tows the ship? Repair it? But you said only damaged components were repaired.

5. I'm a bit worried about the lack of 'banned to travel' systems for the civilian sectors. I fear they will be destroyed regularly by some menaces in systems where you would prefer they don't transit into. And this can also works against the AI, where the player setup ambushes in barren systems which are used as a waypoint by enemy civilian ships.

6. Privateers? Is there a way to hide your nationality to raid on civilian shipping?

How many people are working on the game and what are their roles?

Love additions you made to game. Really see how they can enrich strategies. Looking forward to my beta invite *wink* *wink* [:D]

Question:
Do you keep race groups?

I think this was one of most innovative (I think. Never saw this in other 4X) things in DW:U. It added extra diplomatic layer. And made possible to balance OP races indirectly (everyone hate bugs >:D)
I know that at start few races will be there, but modders and later expansions probably will drastically increase that. So having support for race groups is handy from start.

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Dagfinn
Is the Galaxy Map 2D or 3D?

It's 3D in terms of the graphics, but effectively on a 2D plane in that you're not traveling up and down between star systems.

I think what he means is that can the view be rotated and tilted so you can view an object from any angle or is it stuck in an isometric or top down position?

No, Erik answered my question as it was intended [:)]

Hey, long time player of Stellaris and i just found out about DW. Feel like i ve been living under a rock !
I really love the concept and i am hyped for that second iteration i ll buy for sure.
And i don’t want to transpose some mechanics of another game here, but is there some form of galactic threat appearing in DW at some point (like crisis)?
Now it s Time for me to sink my head in DWU. Can t believe i missed it...

And btw, this place was pretty hard to find. Either lost in the many sections of the forum or i am blind.
For ease of access, might want to put a link on the steam page. To get some exposure

ORIGINAL: Oneil19

Hey, long time player of Stellaris and i just found out about DW. Feel like i ve been living under a rock !

Embrace the Light, brother [:'(]

Whoa, there's a questions squall it seems; Let me add some

1. I'm curious about the soundtrack - would it switch tracks randomly (as in the first part) or there's some kind of built-in music player to switch tracks manually if desired?
2. Not sure if it was asked before, but would it be possible to have different ship types within the same class? I.e. Missile Frigate, Torpedo Frigate, Boarding Frigate (all available to upgrade and build) and so on?
3. Would there be random disasters (i.e. sinkholes, huge sandstorms, plagues, economic crises)?
4. Would there be a way to peacefully integrate vassalized empire?

Not in this release, but allowing ships to gain experience like troops makes sense as something to do in the future. We nearly did that in DW1, but ended up going with Ship Captains instead (which did not make the cut for DW2)

I actually like you didn't put captains in since there were never enough captains for all those ships! Are Admirals still in? Characters at the higher levels of empire bureaucracy seem more fit for DW. Intelligence Agents, Governors, Ambassadors, Scientists. Any new additions?

You can board them and take them as well as their cargo. You can also raid for resources and money.

Would those freighters just switch to your empire's private sector and head to a port? Or does the state take control?

ORIGINAL: Oneil19

Hey, long time player of Stellaris and i just found out about DW. Feel like i ve been living under a rock !
I really love the concept and i am hyped for that second iteration i ll buy for sure.
And i don’t want to transpose some mechanics of another game here, but is there some form of galactic threat appearing in DW at some point (like crisis)?

Long term stellaris player here as well. After finally having started to play DW seriously the similarties and very noticeable. Stellaris has the much better UI, but then the UI is DW1's biggest issue
The Stellaris dev-team was definitely inspired by DW1 and it's mods. Time for the DW2 team to be inspired in return

As for a crisis: They kinda already had thsoe in DW1:
- there was a "legendary band of pirates" reappearing. It's power however can be pretty poorly adjusted to the galaxy they spawn into
- the return of the "Shaktur". Even with their own little sort-off Fallen Empire and some ruins to warn you about them. Of course I never actually played a game for long enough for them to appear (usually win on racial conditions before that)

War is more of a "thing" in DW2, but not to the degree of something like in EUIV. We track a lot more about a lot of things under the hood and war is one of them. That is used to inform both the player and the AI of how a war is going and war weariness. Wars are still in effect 1:1, meaning that your ally may still decide to pursue a separate peace, but it's unlikely unless they either start losing badly (which you can help to prevent) or their war weariness gets very high (which can have lots of bad effects).

One and only actual question - Is there a way to track not just how a war is going, but the impact of War Weariness on your empire? Either a general "level" or the exact effects? It'd be nice to know to help in the decision making for example in how far you want to push things, what you may or may not need to do elsewhere to cope with it currently etc. Instead of just say happening to have lower colony happiness than usual. I'm guessing so but i just wanted to double check, also because:

It'd be great if you could also track your allies War Weariness too, to know where they're at at all times: if they need help, if they recently took a big hit, if they're about to peace out etc. Adding more depth to having friends and working and coordinating with them.

-Pre-warp and starting in general sounds much more improved. Brief sublight, homesystem skipdrive, small radius warp around your system to more opened up radius, with it starting to expand the more refuelling places you have. Nicely done.

-It's great that colonisation/expansion has been made more meaningful along with everything else. The economy, combat, racial identity, exploration, the "world" terrain. Some great design coming, i can't wait to see how all this theory plays out.

What you describe in terms of possibly not seeing a ship within the same solar system is mainly an early game thing. Once your sensors get a bit better, you will pretty much see everything within a system as in DW1 and the visibility question becomes more about how far outside your system you can see and where there are gaps in your long-range sensor coverage, or how good it is at identifying what it sees.

A lot of work went into making this less of a binary "you see it and know everything about it" vs. "you see and know nothing" to adding more levels of knowledge. You could know that something is there, or know that it's there and who it belongs to, or even its role, or even be able to see its exact design, etc. The interaction of other components such as stealth components, trace jammers, etc. play into this and the power of sensors to detect may vary from their power to unmask empire or role.

Good long range sensors can also give you some information on even previously unexplored systems within their range. Larger ships and stations are also easier to detect than smaller ones.

-I like the idea of multiple levels of information outside and around systems you're in, but i'm not sure how i feel about auto being able to see everything inside a system once sensors are a bit better.

On one hand maybe it'd make exploration even more meaningful, on a per system basis if you couldn't automatically see the entire system as soon as you entered it, or if terrain like Asteroid fields, clouds, planets etc kind of disrupted sensor strength - On the other hand it might not be great flying around the corner of an asteroid field straight into an enemy empire/pirate/creature and have your ship destroyed [:'(] Or more so not having info of a system in its entirety at all times which maybe causes games of unwanted hide and seek with random things at random times or something.

Maybe you could build sensor towers in systems for full sensor strength where you'd like to have that vision, especially in systems with structures so they of course can't be ambushed. The more you expand your empire the more full vision you can afford. Otherwise who knows what's lurking in a system with you, right around that planet or inside that gas cloud...

Not in this release, but allowing ships to gain experience like troops makes sense as something to do in the future. We nearly did that in DW1, but ended up going with Ship Captains instead (which did not make the cut for DW2).

-I was actually going to leave a thread saying it'd be cool if Ship Captains were also a little more rare and meaningful, to then give them skills that work temporarily - like an ability to turn sharply, one to boost engines, one to increase firepower and/or shield regen, maybe one to enter complete stealth for a few seconds, one to drop some mines etc.

Either with separate cooldowns and unlocked at different levels/ranks - or a global resource meter that depletes as each is used with the size of the meter increasing with level/rank: So it's dynamic what you use in which situation. Bring some awesome RPG to your biggest most favorite ships, in your biggest fights.

But i guess no Ship Captains at all. (Or hopefully in a later expansion)

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Katarkus87

- In the Bacon Mod, Shipcrews can gain Experience. Are there any Plans to integrate this Mechanic?

Not in this release, but allowing ships to gain experience like troops makes sense as something to do in the future. We nearly did that in DW1, but ended up going with Ship Captains instead (which did not make the cut for DW2).

Well dang this is the only disappointing thing I have heard so far as ship captains were such a cool role playing feature. Are there no longer characters anymore? If so what else character wise is still the same or different?

On one hand maybe it'd make exploration even more meaningful, on a per system basis if you couldn't automatically see the entire system as soon as you entered it, or if terrain like Asteroid fields, clouds, planets etc kind of disrupted sensor strength - On the other hand it might not be great flying around the corner of an asteroid field straight into an enemy empire/pirate/creature and have your ship destroyed Or more so not having info of a system in its entirety at all times which maybe causes games of unwanted hide and seek with random things at random times or something.

Maybe you could build sensor towers in systems for full sensor strength where you'd like to have that vision, especially in systems with structures so they of course can't be ambushed. The more you expand your empire the more full vision you can afford. Otherwise who knows what's lurking in a system with you, right around that planet or inside that gas cloud...

Voyager, Episode "Flashbacks":

"It would seem that Captain Sulu decided not to enter that journey into his official log. The day's entry makes some cryptic remark about the ship being damaged in a gaseous anomaly and needing repairs, but… nothing else."
"You mean, he falsified his logs?"
"It was a very different time, Mister Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy. They all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officers. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha Quadrant still largely unexplored… Humanity on the verge of war with the Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields… Their ships were half as fast."
"No replicators. No holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet history at the Academy, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in those days."
"Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."

During my most recent playthrough I been thinking that it would be neat if there way to track major events or stats of named ships, afterall the game goes out of its way to give ships names , some based on where it was built. Would it be possible in DW2 to track stats or major events for characters or ships with long careers, or just event tracking in general like when a game of Civilizations 4 ends you can watch ingame events take place overtime.

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Katarkus87



Not in this release, but allowing ships to gain experience like troops makes sense as something to do in the future. We nearly did that in DW1, but ended up going with Ship Captains instead (which did not make the cut for DW2).

Well dang this is the only disappointing thing I have heard so far as ship captains were such a cool role playing feature. Are there no longer characters anymore? If so what else character wise is still the same or different?

That would be my new favorite First DW2 expansion / patch / DLC [:'(]

Can't believe I actually didn't bring that up earlier, though perhaps I was assuming the presence of ship captains and had also Admirals in mind.

But introducing ship XP would be orgasmic! It's already part of troops (still is, right?) so it would also totally make sense internally.

I'd much prefer a ship veterancy mechanic over ship captains because its a logical buff to performance when ship captains would be all over the place on skills and traits often being detrimental. I can't think of any organized professional military that would allow captains with a bunch of negative modifiers to command a ship. If you want to role play you can stick an admiral into a ship and set it to manual.

ORIGINAL: SilverCitadel

During my most recent playthrough I been thinking that it would be neat if there way to track major events or stats of named ships, afterall the game goes out of its way to give ships names , some based on where it was built. Would it be possible in DW2 to track stats or major events for characters or ships with long careers, or just event tracking in general like when a game of Civilizations 4 ends you can watch ingame events take place overtime.

DW1 already tracks events for Characters. For a fleet admiral it lists Every battle, every skirmish (with casualties), every war start and end.

Wich should not be too hard to keep around in DW2. It is primarily a memory concern, but in that area DW2 will be exponentially better.

ORIGINAL: Katarkus87

I haven't directly tried to fly a ship into a star, but I'm pretty sure the ships will not accept that order and thus not take damage.

In DW1 my Private Sector had build many Tourist Bases very close to a Neutron Star and automated Exploration Ships were flying right past beside a Main Yellow Star, without taking Radiation or Heat Damage. I also never ordered a Ship flying directly in to one.

In a 2-D world, it is easy to asume the ships fly over the sun, not through it.
Same way the Sapce Port is not parked in the molten core of a planet, but in geostationary orbit.

DW2 however will be 3-D, wich does add issues with not flying into/clipping through Stellar objects.

ORIGINAL: Ranbir

You can board them and take them as well as their cargo. You can also raid for resources and money.

Would those freighters just switch to your empire's private sector and head to a port? Or does the state take control?

DW1 had policy settings for this. They were:
- enlisted into the private fleet
- scrapped at a spaceport for technology
- with the same "upgrade to latest design" as the military ships had

ORIGINAL: Miletkir

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Well dang this is the only disappointing thing I have heard so far as ship captains were such a cool role playing feature. Are there no longer characters anymore? If so what else character wise is still the same or different?

That would be my new favorite First DW2 expansion / patch / DLC [:'(]

Can't believe I actually didn't bring that up earlier, though perhaps I was assuming the presence of ship captains and had also Admirals in mind.

But introducing ship XP would be orgasmic! It's already part of troops (still is, right?) so it would also totally make sense internally.

But this is not an option in your poll! [;)]

Yeah, I guess I was too absorbed by others' questions in the FAQ that I didn't take time to think thoroughly about my own desires at heart. Screwed this one up. Although perhaps ship XP would not be exactly considered a full scale expansion with new content, more like a big patch.

[please delete] (sorry)