Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Distant Worlds is great but we all have our dreams for what the greatest game in Space 4X would look like. Hopefully that will be Distant Worlds 2!
If you were to put past games in the melting pot ... what would your perfect mix be?
For me: Take what Erik and Elliott probably already have in mind for Distant Worlds 2, add some Star Trek Armada 3 graphics / sounds, the AI of Galactic Civilisations and the ship design in Stardrive. I doubt that I would play anything else!
If you were to put past games in the melting pot ... what would your perfect mix be?
For me: Take what Erik and Elliott probably already have in mind for Distant Worlds 2, add some Star Trek Armada 3 graphics / sounds, the AI of Galactic Civilisations and the ship design in Stardrive. I doubt that I would play anything else!
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
For me, it's probably something like:
Perfect DW2 = (DW:U) + (Developer Experience from making DW:U) + (Intelligent feedback from users)*
For me, there's no need to draw upon anything from other games, except in a very generic sense.
Osito
* Including larger fonts, of course
Perfect DW2 = (DW:U) + (Developer Experience from making DW:U) + (Intelligent feedback from users)*
For me, there's no need to draw upon anything from other games, except in a very generic sense.
Osito
* Including larger fonts, of course

Osito
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
The politics,lore and victory conditions of a Emperor of the fading suns.
The randomised research, ship design and weapon variations of a Sword of the stars.
The art design and visuals of a endless space/legends.
A diplomatic system like EuropaUniversalis.
The randomised research, ship design and weapon variations of a Sword of the stars.
The art design and visuals of a endless space/legends.
A diplomatic system like EuropaUniversalis.
- JiminyJickers
- Posts: 290
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:21 am
- Location: New Zealand
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
The politics,lore and victory conditions of a Emperor of the fading suns.
...
Yes, I loved the politics from Emporer of the fading suns. I remember manoeuvring myself into being put in charge of the fleet that is intended to stop the alien threat, then promptly using that fleet for destroying my enemies.
Actually, now that I think about it, Wanting a modern Emperor of the Fading Suns is the way I first heard about Distant Worlds, so adding more elements of that in would be great.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
I want what I have plus more planetary facilities so that even lousy planets can be developed into utopian quality powerhouses...
I want ringworlds and sphereworlds that can hold trillions of population like in Space Empires IV.
I want components to be ongoing in their capabilities, shrinking in size and increasing in effectiveness like in space empires IV and MOO2.
I want boundless galaxies that can have many thousands more stars as I explore at the boundaries. I never have reached the limits of number crunching capability on my machine.
I want unlimited numbers of specialist characters as my empire grows, not just the current limit of 20, especially for governors.
I want a better way to fight corruption, perhaps planetary capital facilities...
I want economists to increase the revenue income from my colonies per population unit and improved distribution of luxuries for full development in less than 5-10 years.
I want more money, not less so that I don't have to abuse the AI empires trading tech to fund my expansion and war efforts!
I want system defense networks and missile base facilities on my colonies to fight off invasions.
Lonnie Courtney Clay
I want ringworlds and sphereworlds that can hold trillions of population like in Space Empires IV.
I want components to be ongoing in their capabilities, shrinking in size and increasing in effectiveness like in space empires IV and MOO2.
I want boundless galaxies that can have many thousands more stars as I explore at the boundaries. I never have reached the limits of number crunching capability on my machine.
I want unlimited numbers of specialist characters as my empire grows, not just the current limit of 20, especially for governors.
I want a better way to fight corruption, perhaps planetary capital facilities...
I want economists to increase the revenue income from my colonies per population unit and improved distribution of luxuries for full development in less than 5-10 years.
I want more money, not less so that I don't have to abuse the AI empires trading tech to fund my expansion and war efforts!
I want system defense networks and missile base facilities on my colonies to fight off invasions.
Lonnie Courtney Clay
Live long and prosper!
Lonnie Courtney Clay
Lonnie Courtney Clay
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
- Keep the same 2D approach of the current game, but make it a little prettier (and the fonts, man, the fonts!)
- Don't you dare compromise the depth of the resources/fuel/ship design aspects of DW [:-]
- Add in the best of Europa Universalis 4's and Victoria 2's diplomatic bits [&o]
- Make the tech trees a little more race-specific and maybe a little random
Do that, and I'll happily pay $100 for the base game. [;)]
- Simulation01
- Posts: 540
- Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 8:10 pm
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Distant Worlds 2 = Spaz2 graphics + Endless Legends Art + Multi-nation diplomacy...negotiate with multiple nations at the same time conference style, NATO like alliances, Unit/fleet gifting/loaning, in-depth diplomatic options like sphere of influence and dmz negotiations, intelligent briefings from advisers that's as in-depth as you make it with your own questions, The ability to sub divide my empire into states and military districts that I could assign fleets to patrol and defend, fleet formations, the ability to subvert my neighbors with partisans/terrorism and to be able to negotiate over such a thing. A procedural tech tree that could potentially go on for as long as you wanted the game to, the ability to build Dyson Sphere's and Ring Worlds, actual star destroying, wormholes and jump gates in addition to ftl, ground battles that are just as intense and in-depth as the space arena...in fact depending on the engine some sort of seemless transition from space to ground would be cool or at least to view the ground battle real-time from orbit...this would change the relationship between planet and space drastically and would move from simply being a static non-changing factor to a 'real' piece of the environment of space, more ship classes...fighters, corvettes, frigates, fast frigates, destroyers, light cruiser, cruisers, battle cruisers, light battleship, battleship, heavy battleship etc...etc...etc... Biological, chemical, nuclear warfare... Essentially I want a lot of what the real world offers in this game...I want it to be more of a simulation of civilization and empire building that approaches the depth of real life within the confines of ability and enjoyability.
This has all been talked to death on these forums and I'm probably wasting my time but, it's what I'd like to see.
This has all been talked to death on these forums and I'm probably wasting my time but, it's what I'd like to see.
"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will." -Tennyson
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
This is a winner. Ringworlds are badass but a sphereworld? That's just insanely awesome. Though it doesn't really fit with DW's time scale, since even a warp speed race would have to spend decades building the damn things. I mean, if a planet buster the size of a moon is a big project then imagine what it's going to be to build a structure surrounding a freaking sun at a distance far enough away not to melt.I want ringworlds and sphereworlds that can hold trillions of population like in Space Empires IV.
Even so, it's still an awesome concept and it would be immense to crown an empire off by building one. But come to think of it, I'm a bit worried how the very generic corruption system would abuse a sphereworld. With 200 billion people on them, the GDP would be huge but then the corruption jumps in and just eats a flat mega-percentage off that? Sort of spoils some of the awesomeness, I suppose.
- Jim D Burns
- Posts: 3989
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:00 pm
- Location: Salida, CA.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
The politics,lore and victory conditions of a Emperor of the fading suns.
The randomised research, ship design and weapon variations of a Sword of the stars.
The art design and visuals of a endless space/legends.
A diplomatic system like EuropaUniversalis.
I would add to this list:
The detailed Ship boarding combats and planetary invasion mechanics of Star Fleet II Krellan Commander
Jim
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
I've got lots and lots of ideas, and I will probably take to putting them into a word document and post them some day.
Safe to say though that my idea of the perfect game will likely not match any one else's idea.
The simple fact that I play in sandbox mode so my game never officially has to end should tell you a little about where I would go with it. [;)]
Safe to say though that my idea of the perfect game will likely not match any one else's idea.
The simple fact that I play in sandbox mode so my game never officially has to end should tell you a little about where I would go with it. [;)]
Distant Worlds Fan
'When in doubt...attack!'
'When in doubt...attack!'
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
To be honest I really have no idea on this one. I think the problem is DW has managed to successfully cover quite a number of bases in the genre that it pleases a large mix of players. For me what is great about DW is the depth to it, I am a huge fan of the game Aurora for the same reason, however Aurora is all about the depth and throws away any fancy bells or whistles. This obviously will put off many players who enjoy the looks and sound of a game more than depth. DW has straddled the fence on providing just enough depth to cater for this end of the pool, but also giving us just enough flash to cater for the other end. Along with everyone in between too.
This is a credit to the developer in both their vision and skill to have a game that balances the plates so well. For me I would say "give us MOAR depth" but I fully understand that would drive away some of the existing player base as such it would be a bad move, likewise for visa versa.
I think it will be a tall task to make DW2 anywhere near as good as DW simply because of the standard of the DW game at present. The only thing I can think of is simply just give us more DW that takes advantage in the progress of computing power and software developments. So we could have bigger maps, better graphics, more stories etc. However it would essentially be the same game 2.0, sadly there are so many sequels that get based terribly by reviews simply by virtue of giving us more of the same when the original had a great design in the first place.
I hope there will be a DW2 and hope that the developer tries not to innovate it too much as it only takes one dropped plate for the entire show to crash down. I would be more interested to see how this developer could turn their hand to a different genre and see what their skill and creativity could do in other waters.
This is a credit to the developer in both their vision and skill to have a game that balances the plates so well. For me I would say "give us MOAR depth" but I fully understand that would drive away some of the existing player base as such it would be a bad move, likewise for visa versa.
I think it will be a tall task to make DW2 anywhere near as good as DW simply because of the standard of the DW game at present. The only thing I can think of is simply just give us more DW that takes advantage in the progress of computing power and software developments. So we could have bigger maps, better graphics, more stories etc. However it would essentially be the same game 2.0, sadly there are so many sequels that get based terribly by reviews simply by virtue of giving us more of the same when the original had a great design in the first place.
I hope there will be a DW2 and hope that the developer tries not to innovate it too much as it only takes one dropped plate for the entire show to crash down. I would be more interested to see how this developer could turn their hand to a different genre and see what their skill and creativity could do in other waters.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Well I had to go and look up Star Fleet II Krellan Commander and Emperor of the Fading Suns, never heard of them!
To those saying don't mess too much with the best parts of DW, I agree, although we all might disagree on exactly which components. I certainly agree with diplomacy being on the list that needs work as several people have mentioned but I'm surprised no-one else mentioned the AI so far.
It's a real pity this forum does not allow polls or community feedback mechanisms like Endless Space.
To those saying don't mess too much with the best parts of DW, I agree, although we all might disagree on exactly which components. I certainly agree with diplomacy being on the list that needs work as several people have mentioned but I'm surprised no-one else mentioned the AI so far.
It's a real pity this forum does not allow polls or community feedback mechanisms like Endless Space.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
ORIGINAL: Icemania
Well I had to go and look up Star Fleet II Krellan Commander and Emperor of the Fading Suns, never heard of them!
To those saying don't mess too much with the best parts of DW, I agree, although we all might disagree on exactly which components. I certainly agree with diplomacy being on the list that needs work as several people have mentioned but I'm surprised no-one else mentioned the AI so far.
It's a real pity this forum does not allow polls or community feedback mechanisms like Endless Space.
Funnily enough, the AI doesn't bother me too much, except in the sense I'd like the private sector to do a better job of getting the resources to the right places. Never really played computer games for 'challenge'. But I accept it matters to a lot of people. Agree about diplomacy.
Osito
- Jim D Burns
- Posts: 3989
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:00 pm
- Location: Salida, CA.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
ORIGINAL: Icemania
Well I had to go and look up Star Fleet II Krellan Commander and Emperor of the Fading Suns, never heard of them!
Both games are outstanding games and well worth the time investment to play them today. While the graphics for both games are very dated, the underlying game play is second to none.
As an example of what I was referring to in my recommendation, here’s a couple images from the Moby Games site. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/star- ... creenshots
The top part is the side cut ship display and the dark areas are critical ship systems. The troops are defending squads. You plot where to beam your raiding troops aboard and then they move and fight to try and capture the critical areas (all AI controlled once you beam over), it is also possible to just do a raid to knock out one or two areas and return without going for capture. If enough critical systems are captured the ship will surrender, it’s a simple yet entertaining concept and given today’s technology you could really add a lot to a game with a concept like this for ship boarding actions.
The bottom area is a planetary scan. If it were an inhabited planet, any known cities would be displayed. To invade you pick 8 of the cities at a time to put into your invasion planner and go through a very detailed process of invading the planet, far too detailed to explain it here, but it was very fun and really made for some epic struggles to try and take high tech worlds that had both UGA troops and planetary militia defending.
Most cities on reasonably high tech worlds had city defense shields protecting planetary lasers that could shoot down your drop ships, so you needed to beam down shock troops on the fringes around the edge of the protected area covered by the city shields to go underneath and try and knock out the shields and lasers. Then you could build landing pods to use to bring down drop ships to land your heavier assault troops.
Once, or I should say if, you captured enough cities (could take dozens if enough cities were on planet) the planets morale would crash and they would surrender.
It was such a great part of the game, they made a sequel title called Star Legions that was a standalone game using just the invasion mechanics from the game with updated graphics.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/star-legions
Jim

- Attachments
-
- Krellan.jpg (258.48 KiB) Viewed 969 times
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
I'm not sure what sort of games I'd blend together. To be honest, DW is sort of unique to me in what it does and I'd really like to keep it that way. That said...
1) Make the galaxies feel bigger. 1400 systems is, while on the low side for an actual galaxy, plenty of systems, but it's too easy to move between them. A scout ship, even early game, can easily move to a whole bunch of different systems and it can do so within very short in-game time. Late game it makes sense that moving across half a galaxy is piece of cake but early game, the galaxy really should feel a bit bigger.
2) Better AI that can do more things reliably without needing me to babysit it. I'm not asking for a game that plays itself perfectly but at least something that can do what a human player would want it to do in terms of exploration. Human players vary, however, so please also add configuration options instead of just having the choice to enable AI.
3) A better ground facility model. I'd love to have configurable "stereotypes" that you could assign planets to develop towards. That way we could have player focus on different capabilities on different plantes. Some might be population growth centers, some might be mining oriented, some might be industrial powerhouses, and some might be more heavy on commerce or research or "culture".
4) More detailed racial control. I'm fine with having a few Sluken colonies for foot soldier production, which they're really good at, but I don't want them all over the freaking place. I don't want to wipe out those bald monkey thingies from Sol entirely, but I don't want them freaking everywhere. Why can't I assign colonies as "racial resorts" or what have you? Why can't I be open to other aliens without having everybody everywhere?
5) Race-specific morality. As it is, there's a single code of morality across all the galaxy that applies to everybody. No matter tha race, it's bad to invade independent colonies. Why is that? All the insect races see it as the natural order of things that the strong enslave or annihilate the weak. Why are they disappointed when I do just that? Why are Sluken citizens disappointed by poor reputation for doing just that? Why are they happy when their government is doing hippie peacenik things like not wiping out potential enemies? Evil should be "good" for evil races.
6) More detailed economy. Yes, it's already nice but it can be taken even further. Particularly in terms of boosts and limitations. Corruption is a very, very harsh penalty on everything that you practically can't do a thing to fight against. And civilian economy is just there, regardless of what's going on. Are you going to be going on as usual when 25 big capital ships are hovering over your planet and shooting merchant shipping to bits? I know I wouldn't be. I don't want more micro but I would like a more dynamic system that can be manipulated a bit more. I'd like to have more economy boosters than two wonders and three added regional capitals aside from raw population factor.
7) More control over military ship behavior, particularly the AI aspect of it. I don't want ships to flee because an armor plate took a pounding and I don't want the fleet I've positioned over a world I'm invading to scatter away because there are targets elsewhere in the system, causing me to lose that nice +25% space control bonus, and I haven't found any way to absolutely guarantee that no matter what, the ships stay on top of the frapping planet, aside from personally babysitting the invasion.
8) A bigger requirement of ground support for big space fleets. As it is, it's very easy to do a surgical strike deep into enemy space and that detracts a bit from that awesome feeling of having fronts. I'd like to have frontier worlds and core worlds and I'd like to not have to defend everything like it's frontier.
9) Make independent colonies more bashy. Heck, make all colonies more bashy, but mostly the independents. As it is, a pirate surfboard can dominate an entire planet with ease and there's sod all the indie will do about it. It also won't do anything whatsoever to repel the pirates. That gives pirates an enormous lunchbox if independent colonies are abundant in a galaxy. And players must then either take the reputation hit and invade everything or play a never-ending game of wack-a-station as ridiculously well-funded pirates just keep building stuff with barely any end in sight.
10) Modability. Things like presets for galaxy generation (shape, resource availability, planet type frequency, amount of dud systems, size of potential clusters, and so on), dynamic AI build and research priorities, ship type priorities, planet types, facility types, racial behavior... Those are off the top of my head, but they're things I'd really like to play with.
11) Bigger freaking fonts! Please? Or just make the fonts part of point 10? Just do something, because some of us don't have 20/20 eyesight and don't read grey'ish gnarly fonts on a black background all that well.
12) In-game support for note-taking. There are already 1000-1400 systems. I noticed a pirate presence in one but the game gives me zero ways of putting a note on that specific system so that I can remember that I need to send the navy in. Same thing with kaltor-infested systems. Sword of the Stars has system notes though of course they went ahead and overdid things by also causing an exclation mark to flash if there's a note, which gets really headache-inducing if you've got notes in 25 different systems. Somewhere between those two would be nice.
13) How about an option for scouting systems out a bit ahead of time? I mean, if we can see the star in those systems and we've developed warp drives then surely we have some knowledge about those systems without having to move right into the center of those systems? Shouldn't we at least be able to see some indication of the number of planets from beyond the solar system? And speaking of scouting, how about making the exploration a more emergent thing rather than a simple race to get a ship into as many systems as quickly as possible? That would also detract from the current micro nightmare we have if we want to optimize.
14) Please do allow us facilities that actually modify systems. Okay, so at first glace there wasn't a whole lot of iridium in this planet but it turns out, after a few years of mining, that there's a crapton of it a long way into the core of the planet. Turns out that there are also volcanic regions of the planet rich on certain crystals.
15) Please make planets less binary and more graduated. A planet isn't just a big volcano or a big desert or a big bowl of water, it's likely a mixture of these things. Here on Earth, we've got continental parts in Europe and the Americas, we've got icy areas in the arctic areas, we've got desert areas here and there, and some 70% of the surface is covered in water. So there's a little bit of room for an ice planet race, a bit more room for a desert planet race, very little room for volcanic races, lots of room for continentals, and freaking oceans of space for full-blown aquatic races. SotS does it by assigning each race a planet rating and then displaying planet quality as an offset of this planet rating.
What I'd like is if planets had a rating for each type of setting so that a planet could be awesome for volcanics and marshies at the same time, instead of being one or the other. And since there wouldn't be set planet types anymore, this would go a long, long way in making it harder to quickly finding and claiming the super luxuries.
1) Make the galaxies feel bigger. 1400 systems is, while on the low side for an actual galaxy, plenty of systems, but it's too easy to move between them. A scout ship, even early game, can easily move to a whole bunch of different systems and it can do so within very short in-game time. Late game it makes sense that moving across half a galaxy is piece of cake but early game, the galaxy really should feel a bit bigger.
2) Better AI that can do more things reliably without needing me to babysit it. I'm not asking for a game that plays itself perfectly but at least something that can do what a human player would want it to do in terms of exploration. Human players vary, however, so please also add configuration options instead of just having the choice to enable AI.
3) A better ground facility model. I'd love to have configurable "stereotypes" that you could assign planets to develop towards. That way we could have player focus on different capabilities on different plantes. Some might be population growth centers, some might be mining oriented, some might be industrial powerhouses, and some might be more heavy on commerce or research or "culture".
4) More detailed racial control. I'm fine with having a few Sluken colonies for foot soldier production, which they're really good at, but I don't want them all over the freaking place. I don't want to wipe out those bald monkey thingies from Sol entirely, but I don't want them freaking everywhere. Why can't I assign colonies as "racial resorts" or what have you? Why can't I be open to other aliens without having everybody everywhere?
5) Race-specific morality. As it is, there's a single code of morality across all the galaxy that applies to everybody. No matter tha race, it's bad to invade independent colonies. Why is that? All the insect races see it as the natural order of things that the strong enslave or annihilate the weak. Why are they disappointed when I do just that? Why are Sluken citizens disappointed by poor reputation for doing just that? Why are they happy when their government is doing hippie peacenik things like not wiping out potential enemies? Evil should be "good" for evil races.
6) More detailed economy. Yes, it's already nice but it can be taken even further. Particularly in terms of boosts and limitations. Corruption is a very, very harsh penalty on everything that you practically can't do a thing to fight against. And civilian economy is just there, regardless of what's going on. Are you going to be going on as usual when 25 big capital ships are hovering over your planet and shooting merchant shipping to bits? I know I wouldn't be. I don't want more micro but I would like a more dynamic system that can be manipulated a bit more. I'd like to have more economy boosters than two wonders and three added regional capitals aside from raw population factor.
7) More control over military ship behavior, particularly the AI aspect of it. I don't want ships to flee because an armor plate took a pounding and I don't want the fleet I've positioned over a world I'm invading to scatter away because there are targets elsewhere in the system, causing me to lose that nice +25% space control bonus, and I haven't found any way to absolutely guarantee that no matter what, the ships stay on top of the frapping planet, aside from personally babysitting the invasion.
8) A bigger requirement of ground support for big space fleets. As it is, it's very easy to do a surgical strike deep into enemy space and that detracts a bit from that awesome feeling of having fronts. I'd like to have frontier worlds and core worlds and I'd like to not have to defend everything like it's frontier.
9) Make independent colonies more bashy. Heck, make all colonies more bashy, but mostly the independents. As it is, a pirate surfboard can dominate an entire planet with ease and there's sod all the indie will do about it. It also won't do anything whatsoever to repel the pirates. That gives pirates an enormous lunchbox if independent colonies are abundant in a galaxy. And players must then either take the reputation hit and invade everything or play a never-ending game of wack-a-station as ridiculously well-funded pirates just keep building stuff with barely any end in sight.
10) Modability. Things like presets for galaxy generation (shape, resource availability, planet type frequency, amount of dud systems, size of potential clusters, and so on), dynamic AI build and research priorities, ship type priorities, planet types, facility types, racial behavior... Those are off the top of my head, but they're things I'd really like to play with.
11) Bigger freaking fonts! Please? Or just make the fonts part of point 10? Just do something, because some of us don't have 20/20 eyesight and don't read grey'ish gnarly fonts on a black background all that well.
12) In-game support for note-taking. There are already 1000-1400 systems. I noticed a pirate presence in one but the game gives me zero ways of putting a note on that specific system so that I can remember that I need to send the navy in. Same thing with kaltor-infested systems. Sword of the Stars has system notes though of course they went ahead and overdid things by also causing an exclation mark to flash if there's a note, which gets really headache-inducing if you've got notes in 25 different systems. Somewhere between those two would be nice.
13) How about an option for scouting systems out a bit ahead of time? I mean, if we can see the star in those systems and we've developed warp drives then surely we have some knowledge about those systems without having to move right into the center of those systems? Shouldn't we at least be able to see some indication of the number of planets from beyond the solar system? And speaking of scouting, how about making the exploration a more emergent thing rather than a simple race to get a ship into as many systems as quickly as possible? That would also detract from the current micro nightmare we have if we want to optimize.
14) Please do allow us facilities that actually modify systems. Okay, so at first glace there wasn't a whole lot of iridium in this planet but it turns out, after a few years of mining, that there's a crapton of it a long way into the core of the planet. Turns out that there are also volcanic regions of the planet rich on certain crystals.
15) Please make planets less binary and more graduated. A planet isn't just a big volcano or a big desert or a big bowl of water, it's likely a mixture of these things. Here on Earth, we've got continental parts in Europe and the Americas, we've got icy areas in the arctic areas, we've got desert areas here and there, and some 70% of the surface is covered in water. So there's a little bit of room for an ice planet race, a bit more room for a desert planet race, very little room for volcanic races, lots of room for continentals, and freaking oceans of space for full-blown aquatic races. SotS does it by assigning each race a planet rating and then displaying planet quality as an offset of this planet rating.
What I'd like is if planets had a rating for each type of setting so that a planet could be awesome for volcanics and marshies at the same time, instead of being one or the other. And since there wouldn't be set planet types anymore, this would go a long, long way in making it harder to quickly finding and claiming the super luxuries.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Oh, and an addition. Stuff in a system tends to move around in a fixed orbit. Planets, moons, and stations. And anything in a fixed orbit is going to have a very hard time dodging incoming space rocks, which means an attacking fleet can simply launch a volley of ballistic projectiles on a pre-calculated collision course and blammo, all those fancy things turn into wreckage. It makes zero sense whatsoever to pretend that anything in a fixed orbit without the ability to dodge isn't simply lunch for anyone with the technology to fling reasonably large chunks of rock through space at a reasonable velocity.
In other words, if a race has railguns available then it's probably also quite capable of sending stuff to bust any kind of fixed orbit installation from well outside the range of even very large planet-based particle and laser weapons. That little nod to reality would be a nice touch, wouldn't it?
In other words, if a race has railguns available then it's probably also quite capable of sending stuff to bust any kind of fixed orbit installation from well outside the range of even very large planet-based particle and laser weapons. That little nod to reality would be a nice touch, wouldn't it?
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
I think Icemania was completely right when he said we might disagree on the components. And as evidence of that, I've going to bite on Spidey's suggestions.
1. Actually, I strongly agree with this one, although I think it should be possible to achieve it in DW:U. I'm certainly hoping so.
2. Ok, I don't have any disagreement about this one either, but that's only 2 in a row.
3. Hmmm, don't know. What you're proposing is classic 4x, but would colonies really specialise like this? I guess different colonies would be better adapted for different functions - I'd give you that much.
4. Now here, I think I disagree. I see this as part of the private sector, and therefore uncontrollable. BUT: I really would like to see an option for a totally authoritarian state, with no private sector, where everything is controllable.
5. Agreed.
6. I don't really disagree in principle, but is corruption specifically a problem? Surely you can set this to a level that is comfortable. Even if it is, with DW:U, it should be possible to mod government types to deal with it (although we await further details on that).
7. Agreed.
8. I don't know about this. Defending a star system is a different matter from defending a country on Earth. And you can put up very strong defenses for core worlds if you want to. Also, when attacking planets, I suspect space superiority is likely to be a big part of it, perhaps even bigger than DW allows. In DW, if the planet has shields, it's impregnable without troops, which I find slightly unsatisfactory.
9. Don't have a strong view either way on this one.
10. Definitely, a lot of which will happen in DW:U, but there could be so much more. In fact, I think they're delivering most of the mods asked for in the front page post:
tm.asp?m=2440865
so in a sense, we're getting what we asked for.
11. Yeah, well everyone says the fonts, apart from the youngsters (whose eyes will be toast after 20-30 years in front of a monitor).
12. Would be nice. Slightly OT, is there a "find star system" function in DW?
13. Got to be right. Already, we have a pretty good idea about many 'nearby' planetary systems.
14. Agreed.
15. Don't mind, but don't feel strongly.
Ok, well, in fact I guess we agree on most of your suggestions, Spidey.
Finally, one thing I do feel strongly about is that there's become a bit of a paradigm about what a 4x should be:
- you gotta have ship design
- you gotta have spies
- you gotta have diplomacy
- blah, blah, blah.
and so on.
I wish DW2 (if it happens) would try to break out of some of these constraints. For example, some races may not have diplomacy. Some may not have spies or ship design. I'd like a designer to think about what it would be like to create a space faring race and come into contact with others, and maybe not just regurgitate the examples from the last 40-50 years of computer gaming. I think Elliot and Matrix have done a pretty good job on that so far, but they could go much further
2c over.
1. Actually, I strongly agree with this one, although I think it should be possible to achieve it in DW:U. I'm certainly hoping so.
2. Ok, I don't have any disagreement about this one either, but that's only 2 in a row.
3. Hmmm, don't know. What you're proposing is classic 4x, but would colonies really specialise like this? I guess different colonies would be better adapted for different functions - I'd give you that much.
4. Now here, I think I disagree. I see this as part of the private sector, and therefore uncontrollable. BUT: I really would like to see an option for a totally authoritarian state, with no private sector, where everything is controllable.
5. Agreed.
6. I don't really disagree in principle, but is corruption specifically a problem? Surely you can set this to a level that is comfortable. Even if it is, with DW:U, it should be possible to mod government types to deal with it (although we await further details on that).
7. Agreed.
8. I don't know about this. Defending a star system is a different matter from defending a country on Earth. And you can put up very strong defenses for core worlds if you want to. Also, when attacking planets, I suspect space superiority is likely to be a big part of it, perhaps even bigger than DW allows. In DW, if the planet has shields, it's impregnable without troops, which I find slightly unsatisfactory.
9. Don't have a strong view either way on this one.
10. Definitely, a lot of which will happen in DW:U, but there could be so much more. In fact, I think they're delivering most of the mods asked for in the front page post:
tm.asp?m=2440865
so in a sense, we're getting what we asked for.
11. Yeah, well everyone says the fonts, apart from the youngsters (whose eyes will be toast after 20-30 years in front of a monitor).
12. Would be nice. Slightly OT, is there a "find star system" function in DW?
13. Got to be right. Already, we have a pretty good idea about many 'nearby' planetary systems.
14. Agreed.
15. Don't mind, but don't feel strongly.
Ok, well, in fact I guess we agree on most of your suggestions, Spidey.
Finally, one thing I do feel strongly about is that there's become a bit of a paradigm about what a 4x should be:
- you gotta have ship design
- you gotta have spies
- you gotta have diplomacy
- blah, blah, blah.
and so on.
I wish DW2 (if it happens) would try to break out of some of these constraints. For example, some races may not have diplomacy. Some may not have spies or ship design. I'd like a designer to think about what it would be like to create a space faring race and come into contact with others, and maybe not just regurgitate the examples from the last 40-50 years of computer gaming. I think Elliot and Matrix have done a pretty good job on that so far, but they could go much further
2c over.
Osito
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
Cheers Jim! I'll have a look around for some Let's Plays to see those mechanics in action.ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
Both games are outstanding games and well worth the time investment to play them today. While the graphics for both games are very dated, the underlying game play is second to none.
RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
I love Osito's final suggestion. Sword of the Stars peeked under the covers at the possibility of breaking the traditional 4x roles, with races developing different FTL styles. I would love to see it taken further. Just started rereading Brin's Uplift saga - what about a hydrogen-based species. Totally different resource requirements. No ability to communicate with most O2 species, something completely alien to our experience. What about a species that evolved from bacteria on asteroids, now has no need to build ships, but actually digests planets, asteroids, etc. as it goes.
The big thing? I want everything to be moddable. Even if modding something might break the game, I want the option. Unhappy with galaxy size? Here, try to compute a billion star galaxy. . . Mount & Blade Warband level of modding at a minimum.
New tech trees: check
Unlimited new resources: check
A new font: maybe I can draw the line here. If and only if there is a good font in the original.
I think that some very cool things may be done in Universe, but it still feels somewhat cosmetic. I'm hoping that some obscure modder hears about Universe and comes up with an amazing total conversion. This is, of course, predicated on the idea of marketing Universe to people who don't already have DW
The big thing? I want everything to be moddable. Even if modding something might break the game, I want the option. Unhappy with galaxy size? Here, try to compute a billion star galaxy. . . Mount & Blade Warband level of modding at a minimum.
New tech trees: check
Unlimited new resources: check
A new font: maybe I can draw the line here. If and only if there is a good font in the original.
I think that some very cool things may be done in Universe, but it still feels somewhat cosmetic. I'm hoping that some obscure modder hears about Universe and comes up with an amazing total conversion. This is, of course, predicated on the idea of marketing Universe to people who don't already have DW

RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot
ORIGINAL: tbrass
I love Osito's final suggestion. Sword of the Stars peeked under the covers at the possibility of breaking the traditional 4x roles, with races developing different FTL styles. I would love to see it taken further. Just started rereading Brin's Uplift saga - what about a hydrogen-based species. Totally different resource requirements. No ability to communicate with most O2 species, something completely alien to our experience. What about a species that evolved from bacteria on asteroids, now has no need to build ships, but actually digests planets, asteroids, etc. as it goes.
The big thing? I want everything to be moddable. Even if modding something might break the game, I want the option. Unhappy with galaxy size? Here, try to compute a billion star galaxy. . . Mount & Blade Warband level of modding at a minimum.
New tech trees: check
Unlimited new resources: check
A new font: maybe I can draw the line here. If and only if there is a good font in the original.
I think that some very cool things may be done in Universe, but it still feels somewhat cosmetic. I'm hoping that some obscure modder hears about Universe and comes up with an amazing total conversion. This is, of course, predicated on the idea of marketing Universe to people who don't already have DW![]()
After seeing the previews bits and excerpts from DW:U I doubt you will get this level of modding support for a DW2 title. Most of DW modding seems to be of a more cosmetic nature than letting you drill down deep and change the fundamentals. I guess the developer had a vision in mind of what DW is meant to be and did not want to give up too much of that to modding, while I wish it had more I can respect the creativity side of things and understand them not wanting their dream project pulled apart.
From what you have said though it sounds like perhaps Star Ruler would better fit your desires. That was built from the ground up with total openness towards modding, and they are currently working on the sequel with the same thinking.
I'll still be happy if DW2 just pushes things forwards a few years with regard to computing power and such. It's a gem of a game already and would easily do well with just upgrading everything to let you have more.