Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: SelinaWebber
Will it be possible to design a constructor as a player controlled miner to boost a system with fuel? (repeat orders)
Or are we generally allowed to do such things?

Hm, I can't really get into the resource or economy system yet, but there are new ways to help prioritize and encourage development of certain resources.

ORIGINAL: Webbco
Will ships and bases interact with planets? If so, how?

With the new 3D engine will planetary interaction be dynamic or abstracted, as with DW1?

There are interactions between ships and bases and planets, but I'll have to wait until we're ready to talk about colonies, planets, economics, trade, invasions, ground combat, interception, etc. before I can really get into that unfortunately.

I'm not sure I entirely understood your second question, but if you mean will ships fly down to planets or such - that is abstracted and beyond our current scope.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: swappan
But about ship UI:
Will there be an easy way to see the amount of stuff that is inside the cargo of a transportship? Preferably on the selected ship UI.

Besides going into the shipslist as it is in DW1, which is annoying. I know it says the name of the cargo but not the amount.

Yes! Actually one of our goals with the UI was to bring as much useful information as we could up to the top level, or at most one level down and try to eliminate the situations we had in DW1 where some useful and frequently accessed information was buried 2-3 levels into the interface and required an experienced player to find.

You can very easily from the top level now determine what each of your freighters is carrying. [8D]

ORIGINAL: Thrake
What is the difference beetween components and design bays?

A design bay is effectively a "slot" in the ship that accepts a component. Each Design bay has a type and a maximum size. Some design bays are also external, meaning they have a 3D Mesh associated with them and when a component is placed in that design bay, it actually appears on the ship (the ship's 3D model changes to show it). External bays thus also have a specific position. In some cases, such as weapons, these external design bays also have an arc within which they can fire and when that weapon fires, you will see it actually firing from that particular place on the ship where you put it.

Design bays (I also call them component slots) are divided into the following general categories.

Weapons (pretty much everything from point defense to long range heavy weapons)
Defenses (shields, armor and other handy defensive components)
Engines (engines and maneuvering thrusters)
Sensors (small and large and of various kinds)
Hangars (from docking bays to starfighter hangars)
General (pretty much everything else, including your reactors, life support, crew quarters, cargo bays, fuel cells, etc.)

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Webbco
Will ships and bases interact with planets? If so, how?

With the new 3D engine will planetary interaction be dynamic or abstracted, as with DW1?

There are interactions between ships and bases and planets, but I'll have to wait until we're ready to talk about colonies, planets, economics, trade, invasions, ground combat, interception, etc. before I can really get into that unfortunately.

I'm not sure I entirely understood your second question, but if you mean will ships fly down to planets or such - that is abstracted and beyond our current scope.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks Erik, looking forward to hearing more!

ORIGINAL: OJsDad
LOL. Which do you suggest I quit playing to make time for DW1; SC:WWI, CMO, Warplan, FoG:E.

No, no, you just need to spend more time gaming! [;)]

ORIGINAL: larrybush
With a 64 bit full 3D engine I suppose that infers the star maps are full 3D the tactical combat area are full 3D. This could be truly immersive.

I can't discuss combat yet, but we tried to strike a balance between allowing ships to move in 3D without causing too much confusion for the player.

I see the interface screen shown with the solar system, is this full 3D and scalable too?

The entire interface is scalable. The game will start out with a scale that it thinks suits your resolution, but you can scale it up and down from there. The interface scales as a whole.

Regards,

- Erik

I'll mention one other thing as a bonus for you all. Most ship components now also have a fighter/bomber-sized version and in DW2, you not only can design your own ships and stations, but also your own fighters and bombers based on the technologies you have researched. Similar to ships, there are upgradable hulls and in some cases faction-unique hulls for fighters and bombers as well. [8D]

Incredible.

Also, I'm happy to hear that the whole process has been less burdensome so far for you and Elliot compared with DW1 development.

ORIGINAL: Webbco
Also, I'm happy to hear that the whole process has been less burdensome so far for you and Elliot compared with DW1 development.

In many ways, it has actually been harder but the results should be better in a comparative amount of time. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

In many ways, it has actually been harder but the results should be better in a comparative amount of time. [:)]

Well I hope you have a good well-deserved break.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Thrake
What is the difference beetween components and design bays?

A design bay is effectively a "slot" in the ship that accepts a component. Each Design bay has a type and a maximum size. Some design bays are also external, meaning they have a 3D Mesh associated with them and when a component is placed in that design bay, it actually appears on the ship (the ship's 3D model changes to show it). External bays thus also have a specific position. In some cases, such as weapons, these external design bays also have an arc within which they can fire and when that weapon fires, you will see it actually firing from that particular place on the ship where you put it.

Design bays (I also call them component slots) are divided into the following general categories.

Weapons (pretty much everything from point defense to long range heavy weapons)
Defenses (shields, armor and other handy defensive components)
Engines (engines and maneuvering thrusters)
Sensors (small and large and of various kinds)
Hangars (from docking bays to starfighter hangars)
General (pretty much everything else, including your reactors, life support, crew quarters, cargo bays, fuel cells, etc.)

Regards,

- Erik

Erik, Sounds like it will be easier to mod with. Excellent....GP

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'll mention one other thing as a bonus for you all. Most ship components now also have a fighter/bomber-sized version and in DW2, you not only can design your own ships and stations, but also your own fighters and bombers based on the technologies you have researched. Similar to ships, there are upgradable hulls and in some cases faction-unique hulls for fighters and bombers as well. [8D]

That's sound very cool!
Well...
I will spend my Christmas Holidays trying to find something about complain.

One thing that sort of always was strange with DW1 was that a small ship was not faster or more manoeuvrable as engines and thrusters just assumed you could use thrust versus mass as a means to determine that alone. While it is true that thrust and mass equals acceleration it is far from the only important consideration as mass in and of itself has a huge influence in how much thrust you can apply before things simply break apart.

Basically a small mass object can accept far more thrust than a big mass object even if they have the same dimensions and shapes, lets say a perfect sphere. This means a larger more massive object need to use ALOT more mass for just making sure it does not break apart when thrust is applied.

Will the new hull types sort of reflect this or can we still build escorts or destroyers that are as big as battleships?

It would not be a huge thing for me, just something I would like to be changed in DW2 if possible.

ORIGINAL: Jorgen_CAB
Will the new hull types sort of reflect this or can we still build escorts or destroyers that are as big as battleships?

Yes, I believe this will be better reflected in DW1 and the hulls are part of what allows us to do that. More info on that when we get to talking about ship combat in the future.

Regards,

- Erik

Loving everything so far. Just got one thing that "worries" me.

With the component slots, will it no longer be possible to build completely customized ship.
For example, will I be able to build a station with the bare minimum of components and then fill it with nuclear devastators (just because I can)?




Will infinite sized bases at colonies still be possible?

And now for my big wishlist questions:

Will colonization of barren worlds and asteroids be possible?

Even further, will interplanetary population centers be possible?
Something as simple as a spinning station in orbit around a world.
Or a huge ever expanding habitat-stations in a Caslon Nebula, getting power from mining of the cloud for fuel.


Love your game Elliot! I'm in awe of what one man can do.

ORIGINAL: Kingah
With the component slots, will it no longer be possible to build completely customized ship.
For example, will I be able to build a station with the bare minimum of components and then fill it with nuclear devastators (just because I can)?

You can still do that, but the number of nuclear devastators will be limited by your weapons slots (and your size). With that said, for stations especially there are a lot of design bays and I don't think it's going to realistically limit any design ideas, just perhaps limit the extremes to which you can take it.

Will infinite sized bases at colonies still be possible?

Infinite size, no. Extremely large as long as you've maximized your research tree, yes.

Will colonization of barren worlds and asteroids be possible?
Even further, will interplanetary population centers be possible?
Something as simple as a spinning station in orbit around a world.
Or a huge ever expanding habitat-stations in a Caslon Nebula, getting power from mining of the cloud for fuel.

I can't get into any of this yet, but I will say that some of what you describe was simply impossible in DW1, but is theoretically possible in DW2.

Regards,

- Erik

Hi Erik, great information and very exciting to see.

Thank you for fielding questions on ship design.

In DW1 we put on weapons and they all fired in every direction from ship center (IIRC). With the 3-D layout of design slots, will the placement of a specific component affect its usage? For instance:

1. Will component placement matter with considerations for things like firing arcs?

2. How do the armor components work: will there be strong and weak points to the ship (where armor was/wasn't placed), or does adding any armor effectively act like an armor slider, where more armor slots increase armor everywhere? Or is it an internal slot that still takes damage first?

(Sorry if this treads too much into the combat stuff.)

3. How streamlined is the design process: can you just click to add components with a slot selected and the design interface puts them on sensibly, or do you need to specify a location?


I eagerly await the other topics!

Cheers,
Tortuga

Mind. Officially. Blown.

I'm speechless, distant worlds 2 devs, honestly, I love absolutely everything about this next project you're making...[&o]

ORIGINAL: tortugapower
In DW1 we put on weapons and they all fired in every direction from ship center (IIRC). With the 3-D layout of design slots, will the placement of a specific component affect its usage? For instance:
1. Will component placement matter with considerations for things like firing arcs?

Yes, we wanted to allow you to see your ships up close and far away, as in DW1, so this necessitated a solution that would work design-wise for gameplay and also visually. Weapon bays are at a specific point on the ship and you can see this in the design screen, along with the arc for that weapon bay. The arcs are usually fairly generous, but you do have a choice now when you design a ship based on which weapons bays you use which directions(s) you want to focus that ship's firepower.

2. How do the armor components work: will there be strong and weak points to the ship (where armor was/wasn't placed), or does adding any armor effectively act like an armor slider, where more armor slots increase armor everywhere? Or is it an internal slot that still takes damage first?

Armor goes in your defense bays and each armor component could be considered as the equivalent of many DW1 armor components in terms of its strength. Unless a weapon that hits your ship is capable of bypassing armor, the hit will go on the armor first and only if it blows through the reactive rating and the armor rating (or if you have no armor) will it potentially carry over to an internal component. With that said, final armor balance and function is one of the things we're still tinkering with and will continue to do so during testing. Armor bays do not cover only one portion of the ship. Any armor is considered to protect the entire ship.

3. How streamlined is the design process: can you just click to add components with a slot selected and the design interface puts them on sensibly, or do you need to specify a location?

You can do it either way, or add them to a specific slot on the list of design bays or add the component visually to an external slot you can see on the ship model by clicking there.

Regards,

- Erik