Matrix Games Forums

Planet management as you have in Stellaris would be a huge mistake, it already is a mistake in that game... both on performance and on the player for micromanagement... it simply don't work unless you only have a couple of planets to deal with. It quickly gets old and the more planets you have the more you need to micro for less return... it is just bad gameplay design in my opinion.

More factions, more diplomacy and internal political mechanics that is what I would like to see in the Distant Worlds franchise as that is what most 4x games lack and Distant Worlds already have everything such as a deep and dynamic economy, logistics and combat systems.

Ground combat in that you have to interact with it in any way shape and form should be a big NO in my opinion, not part of the the epic nature of this game. Setting up a rule system or some similar for ground combat and make the results a bit less obvious would be great. But no ground combat that we need to interact with, that would be too much.

My suggestion when it comes to planetary management is to mimic the role that European home countries played when colonizing the New World in the 1500 to 1800 time period. The governments of home countries organized expeditions to explore and colonize regions (as the player would do with exploration ships, then colony ships). Once a colony was established, governments continued to support the colony with support ships (food/supplies) to get the colony on its feet. It would seem logical that the player should do the same in Distant Worlds 2. However, eventually the colony grew large enough that it no longer needed support. After that, the main way that governments continued to interact with a colony was through governance and infrastructure. It would seem reasonable that the player in Distant Worlds 2 should have to invest in the "in space" version of infrastructure and governance (larger and more elaborate space stations). This should be quite expensive. While I am not a grizzled veteran of Distant Worlds Universe, I have played a few games and I typically would build a space station around a planet, then forget about it. That would seem an area for more involvement/money sink for players.

Anyway, as far as the economy of colonies, I don't think that European governments were terribly involved in that. Places that were good for farming naturally developed farming because that is what made money. The same is true for mining or fishing. Some places became population centers. Those places naturally developed diverse economies with insurance, banking, and shipping industries. I don't think European governments mandated or even particularly influenced any of that.

As such, I think it would make sense if the economic simulation system of Distant Worlds 2 handled that. Planets should make money by doing something (selling food or minerals or through tourism). In each case, the profits that the planet generates would be invested to expand that industry exactly as would have happened during European colonial expansion. Planets that are well suited to populations should build diverse economies. All of that could occur under the hood and be something that the player can observe and perhaps influence, but does not need to directly manage like in Stelleris. The way that the player would interact with all of that is as planets expand, they should need more government/infrastructure investment to continue to grow, which the player would need to provide.

That would be my recommendation.